Recipe for a Perfect Wife: A Novel Book Review

For generations, the suburbs has been an ideal place to live. But as perfect as they may appear to be, no one can be predict what happens when the doors to the neighbors houses are closed.

Karma Brown‘s 2018 book, Recipe for a Perfect Wife: A Novel, takes place in the northern suburbs of New York City. The book follows two different women in two different time periods. In our time, Alice Hale worked in public relations before leaving the city and her career for a new life as a home owner and a writer. While her husband is at work, Alice has to get used to her new surroundings. While going down to the basement, she discovers old magazines, recipes, and a series of unsent letters written by a previous owner. In the 1950’s, Nellie Murdoch was a housewife who was living the dream. To the outside world, Nellie’s life is faultless. But if one were to step inside the Murdoch home, they would see that her marriage is not all sunshine and roses.

As she learns about Nellie, Alice begins to explore her own life and question her choices.

Brown is not the first author and will certainly never be the last one who uses this type of narrative. The book is not badly written. Far from it, the narrative is captivating and the characters fit well into the world. But it is missing a certain something that makes it stand out.

Do I recommend it? Maybe.

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Jupiter’s Legacy Review

As children, all we want is to please our parents and make them proud of us. When that wish stays with us as adults, it holds a power over our lives as few things can.

The new Netflix series, Jupiter’s Legacy, is based on the comic book by Mark Millar of the same name. Sheldon Sampson/The Utopian (Josh Duhamel) is not the young man he was once was. Part of a society of superheroes, he has lived by a code of ethics that has been his moral backbone for decades. Married to Grace Kennedy Sampson/Lady Liberty (Leslie Bibb), they have two grown children. Their son Brandon, known as the Paragon (Andrew Horton) is doing everything he can to live up to his father’s expectations. But no matter what he does, nothing feels like it will ever be enough. Their daughter, Chloe (Elena Kampouris) has chosen another life entirely.

It is up to Brandon and Chloe’s generation to continue the legacy of their parents generation going. But as it usually happens between parents and children, that continuation is complicated.

This review is solely based on the series. I had never heard of the comic book until last night, when I sat down to watch the program. What I liked was that the characters are emotionally and physically fallible, and not the images of perfection that other characters in the genre are made out to be. The first two episodes were fine, but I was lost by the third episode. Whatever emotional connections I made with the characters dissapeared.

Do I recommend it? Maybe

Jupiter’s Legacy is available for streaming on Netflix.