December 2015 Cookbooks

Sea Salt Sweet by Heather Baird

I love salty and sweet treats, so I was excited to check out this cookbook. But, I wasn't overly impressed with it. I liked the beginning where she talked about different types of salt and how best to use them in baking. But there weren't many recipes I wanted to try. Not impressed overall.

Simply Scratch: 120 wholesome homemade recipes made easy by Laurie McNamara

This is my kind of cookbook! The author realizes after she has children how much she is relying on processed foods when cooking for them. She decides to go back and do things from scratch the way she grew up eating. I really like that she starts the cookbook with recipes for making scratch condiments and pantry staples then gets into recipes using some of those staples and whole foods. She shows that cooking from scratch is NOT as hard and time consuming and the media would have you believe. There were LOTS of recipes I'd like to try and now I'm interested in checking out her blog of the same name too. I would definitely recommend this one!

Italian Comfort Food by Saveur magazine

I love Italian food and pasta, so I was excited to check this cookbook out. But, there weren't that many recipes I wanted to try. There were lots of beautiful pictures and TONS of recipes, but it just wasn't my thing.

The Urban Homesteading Cookbook by Michelle Nelson

I wish I could give this book negative stars. This is every hipster stereotype of young people farming/gardening/foraging/etc. There are seriously "recipes" for eating bugs and making "insect flour" - um, no thanks! There is also a lot of talk about urban homesteading for the betterment of global warming and our planet. While that should be a concern, that is NOT why I garden and can my own food and support local farmers - I do it because you get BETTER QUALITY FOOD that way. Seriously, don't waste your time with this cookbook. There are MUCH better resources out there if you're interested in being more self-sufficient even in an urban environment.

December 2015 Reviews

Never Broken by Jewel

This is a really unique memoir because Jewel is a really unique person. Some of her family is now featured on the TV show Alaska: the last frontier, but that is only part of the story. In the first two chapters you quickly see that while she was raised on a homestead in Alaska with incredibly beautiful nature, she was also the product of very dysfunctional and often violent parents. She talks about how her unique family taught her ways to cope with stress and she learned to work very hard from a young age. But, she also had to struggle to create new paths for herself because her parents weren't there for her like most people's are. I had no idea that her mother basically inserted herself into Jewel's success and stole most of her money at the beginning of her career. Jewel is really self-made in so many ways and she has overcome a lot to get to where she is today. Overall, an interesting and unique memoir of Jewel's life so far.

Me Before You by Jojo Moyes (Books & Banter book club, re-read)

This book was absolutely AMAZING! I really loved The Last Letter From Your Lover, so I wasn't sure if this one would be as good, but it definitely was. The story follows Louisa Clark who lives with her family in the same house she grew up in. Louisa has never had the desire to leave her small hometown and is happy with her life. When she gets laid off from a job she loved she ends up taking a job as a caretaker for a quadriplegic. Will was in the prime of his life when he was hit by a car and ended up paralyzed. Will is angry, rude, and generally makes Louisa's job as hard as possible. Louisa really needs the money and the job is only for six months so she decides to stick it out. Over time she learns to read Will better and they actually start to become friends. Then Louisa finds out that Will is planning to commit suicide through a euthanasia organization. She makes it her mission to show Will that life is worth living no matter what. During the 6 months Louisa works with Will both of their lives will change in unimaginable ways, but will it be enough to convince Will to change his plans? A unique story of love and friendship with a tear-jerker ending. [original review for when I read it the first time Feb. 5, 2013]

After re-reading this one for book club my original opinion still stands - this is an AMAZING book! There really isn't anything for me to add except that now I'm even more excited to start After You, the sequel! This should make for a really interesting book club discussion too.

After You by Jojo Moyes

So, when one of my book clubs decided to read Me Before YouI decided that after re-reading it I would have After You ready to read. After You picks up with Lou about a year and a half after Will's death. Lou is really struggling with trying to move on after Will. She has bought a house with the money Will left her, but she is still working a dead-end job and feels stuck. After an accident forces her to recover at her parent's home, Lou realizes that she has got to re-start her life. But, when a person from Will's past comes into her life it throws her for a loop. She also meets a man and starts to fall in love, but is fearful of opening herself up again. After You shows Lou's struggle through her grief, but it also shows how she is finally able to start her own adventures like Will wanted for her.

This is really a great sequel and another fantastic book by Jojo Moyes! If you liked Me Before You then After You is a must read!

Wearing God: clothing, laughter, fire, and other overlooked ways of meeting God by Lauren Winner

This is a unique book that explores some of the lesser known qualities or images of God. Winner explains that most churches focus on a few of the more "common" images of God - Father, Great Physician, Shepherd, etc. "'Shepherd' and 'light' are perfectly wonderful images, but in fixing on them - in fixing on any three or four primary metaphors for God - we have truncated our relationship with the divine, and we have cut ourselves off from the more voluble and variable witness of the scriptures, which depict God as clothing. As fire. As comedian. Sleeper. Water. Dog." (p. 6-7) Winner covers God as Clothing, Smell, Bread and Vine, Laboring Woman, Laughter, and Flame. In each chapter she talks about the significance of each of these images and how they are played out in the Bible and how they might be applicable for us today. She reiterates that God who is more than we can ever imagine is also readily present in everyday things like bread and clothes - if we are open to see Him there. She also reiterates that God regularly shows Himself in common, simple things or ways that any poor commoner would understand and relate to. Overall, this is a really unique book and it will definitely encourage you to think about God in more than just the most common ways.

"Lord, to laugh in the midst of trial and to rejoice in the darkest valley is another way of saying, 'Our hope is in you.' Fill us with laughter and joy while we work for peace and strive for justice...Help us to live so foolishly for you that we draw onlookers and those who would deride us. And while they watch and mock, change all our hearts that we might learn to laugh at the foolishness this world calls normal and run away with the circus that is real life. Amen. - Prayers for December 21 and January 27, Common Prayer: a Liturgy for Ordinary Radicals" (p. 202)

"But it is worth noting that fire's very destructiveness is sometimes regenerative. Fires can clear weaker trees from a forest and therefore allow the healthier, larger trees to flourish. Soil nourished by burned vegetation becomes more nutritious for the trees that remain. Some trees require fire to survive: many 'fire-dependent' firs need fire because the pinecones that contain their seeds can only open and let the seeds out if exposed to intense heat. The seeds then find a congenial place to germinate in the beds of ash left after the fires have died down. Could the Bible's fiery imagery suggest that God's destruction is regnerative? That God destroys not me but my sin, my hardness of heart, my fear, precisely so that I might be renewed?" (p. 210-11)

Unbecoming by Rebecca Scherm

Another reviewer compared this book to a mixture of Gone Girl and The Goldfinch, which I can definitely see - although both of those books are much better than this one. Grace grew up knowing she was a "bad apple." There was nothing she could do to change who she really was, but she was determined to try to make herself worthy of her boyfriend Riley's well-heeled family. But, all her plans fell apart after a robbery gone bad. Grace was never fingered as part of it, but she knew it was only a matter of time before Riley and Alls got out of prison and came looking for her. She is now living in Paris as Julie from California who works repairing antiques. When one of the ghosts from her past shows up Grace has to decide which path to take - try to keep starting over fresh, or continue on the "bad apple" path. Told in flash backs between the present day in Paris and what happened back in Garland, Tennessee, this is one of those books that you can't stop reading because you're dying to know what happens next. I like how Grace's character is shown as struggling between who she really is and who she thinks she wants to be. It's really interesting to see how she views herself and her choices - especially at the end. I liked the ending and how she ends up with someone who really knows her and loves her anyway.

As a side bar I just have to say how much I HATED the character of Greg - what an entitled asshole!

Stir: my broken brain and the meals that brought me home by Jessica Fechtor

When Jessica Fechtor was twenty-eight years old she was happily married, running marathons and ready to start trying for a baby. Then suddenly she had an aneurysm burst in her brain and almost died. Over the next 2 years she has 3 brain surgeries, loses the sight in her left eye and loses her sense of smell. After such an active life the recovery is hard - both because she's been so sick and also because it's hard for her to not be doing something all the time. Food was always a focus in her life, but while recovering she becomes even more focused on it. Her friends make lots of food hoping something will taste good to her and as soon as she's physically able, she is back in the kitchen cooking. While recovering from her surgeries, she starts a food blog and that is what helps her get through that time and helped shape this book. Each chapter has a recipe that mentioned in that chapter and all are significant foods from this time in her life. Her story is amazing in that she went from healthy to almost dying back to healthy again. Overall, I a good food memoir.

The Hours Count by Jillian Cantor

On June 19, 1953 Julius and Ethel Rosenberg were executed for conspiring to commit espionage. The day Ethel was arrested she left her two young sons in the care of a neighbor. Jillian Cantor blends fact and fiction together to create a friendship between Ethel and her fictional neighbor Millie Stein. Millie is living with her husband Ed and young son David in New York City. She is struggling to connect with other mothers because her son David at almost 3 years old is still not speaking. When she meets Ethel with her strong-willed son John, they connect. Soon the political climate changes and the FBI is investigating Julius and Ethel. Millie wants to believe they are innocent, but she's not sure. She also realizes she doesn't know her own husband at all. Not knowing who to believe she tries to protect her children, but at what cost? 

This is a brilliantly imagined story and Millie's character is very relatable and well done. Even though this is fiction and we don't know for sure if Julius and Ethel Rosenberg were spies, this is still a stain on American history. Cantor does a great job imagining the Rosenberg's life and how their story may have unfolded.

Growing Tomorrow by Forrest Pritchard

I loved Forrest Pritchard's farm memoir Gaining Ground, so I was very excited to check out this new book by him. In the Introduction to the book Pritchard talks about the overwhelming response to his book - from farmers and non-farmers alike. He thought if his farm could generate so much interest, what if it was multiplied to include many sustainable farms and how they are changing American agriculture? And that's how Growing Tomorrow was born. Pritchard visits 18 sustainable farms across the U.S. and each chapter ends with a few recipes from that farm based on the types of food they grow/raise. All of the farms are inspiring, but I particularly liked the profile of D-Town Farm in Detroit where there are NO grocery stores, so fresh food is incredibly hard to come by, but the people running D-Town are determined to change that for their city. Overall, this is a really inspiring book that shows how all over the country farmers are changing American agriculture for the better - smaller and more sustainable will eventually win the food race.

Some quotes I really liked:

"When you work for yourself, you ruin yourself as an employee for anyone else. You realize how much you're really worth, and that no one can pay you enough." (Matt Romero pg. 116)

"If we could get more farmers' markets to stay open year-round across the country, farmers would figure out a way to supply them. Grocery stores stay open all year, and somebody's providing that food. Farmers can grow food year-round if they're given the right opportunity, and the customers show up to support them." (Matt Romero pg. 118)

Our Endless Numbered Days by Claire Fuller

James, a survivalist, kidnaps his eight-year-old daughter Peggy and takes her to live in a ramshackle cabin deep in the Bavarian woods. He tells her that everyone else in the world is dead and they are the only ones left. After almost starving to death in the first winter, they seem to live a relatively decent life. According to Peggy, the last summer they are there she meets Reuben who is also living in the woods and seems to be a few years older than her. They fall in love and he encourages her to escape from her increasingly-crazy father who wants them to commit suicide together. After her escape she can't find Reuben, but is reunited with her mother and the brother she didn't know existed. As the police investigate her story the truth about what really happened to Peggy while living in the remote cabin comes to light. At first the ending didn't make sense to me, but looking back there were some subtle red flags that only make sense in light of the ending. 

I thought it was an interesting premise for a book, but I was disappointed with the ending. I did want to find out what happened to Peggy, but the ending kind of ruins the whole book in my opinion.

It Was Me All Along by Andie Mitchell

Andie Mitchell grew up in an extremely dysfunctional home with an abusive alcoholic father. Since her father wasn't able to hold down a steady job, her mother often worked 3 or 4 jobs to try to support their family. Andie's mother showed her love through food and Andie grew up with no idea of proper portion sizes or nutrition. By the time she was 20 years old she weighed 268 pounds. She knew then if she didn't make a drastic change that she would die young. She learned through weight watchers about portion control and exercise and in over a year she lost 135 pounds! But, her struggle was not over. After losing so much weigh she felt obsessed with not gaining it back and was so strict with her diet and exercise regime that she couldn't even go out to eat with her boyfriend. Finally, Andie began to realize that in order for the changes to stick she had to relax and she was able to settle into a healthy relationship with food for the first time in her life. This is a really inspiring story. I found out about this book when I heard about a cookbook that she has coming out soon, but I wanted to read her memoir first. Now I can't wait to check out her cookbook when it comes out.

November 2015 Cookbooks

Little House Living by Merissa Alink

This was less cookbook and more how to make homemade house/body products. Based on the cover you would think it was more food and cooking and even that is more creating "mixes" that can then be used to make staples. While in theory I like the idea of homemade detergent and body lotion, I just don't have time for that. Most of that kind of stuff I can save money on with coupons and sales, so that more of my budget can go to quality food. Overall, I wasn't really impressed with this one mainly because food was only about 1/3 of the book.

Fast Food, Good Food by Andrew Weil

Many people think to eat well you have to spend a lot of time in the kitchen, but in this cookbook Andrew Weil shows that you can make good food fast. The cookbook is divided into the "normal" segments - starters, soup, main dishes, sides, desserts, etc. While a lot of the recipes looked good, there were only a few I wanted to try myself. Overall, a middle-of-the-road kind of cookbook - good but not amazing or ground-breaking.

New Southern Table by Whitney Miller

I love Southern cookbooks and this one definitely has some recipes I'd like to try. I also really liked the family photos that Miller has throughout the book to show where her love of food and cooking comes from. The only reason I didn't rate it higher was that there were only a few recipes I want to try. Overall, a good Southern cookbook.

Kombucha Revolution by Stephen Lee and Ken Koopman

Kombucha is one of my food goals. I don't like a lot of fermented and/or pickled foods, so when I tried a friend's homemade kombucha and liked it I really wanted to try to make it at home since fermented foods are so good for you. This book really walks you through the process and gives tons of recipe variations. He also includes ways to use kombucha outside of just drinking it in other recipes. This might be one I end up buying once I get started on my own komucha making at home.

The Southerner's Cookbook by Garden & Gun Magazine

I love Garden & Gun magazine so I was excited to see their cookbook and I was not disappointed! Each section begins with a written introduction and there are so many great sounding recipes. There are tons that I want to try and this might be a cookbook I end up buying. If you are Southern or love Southern food - this is the cookbook for you!

I ended up getting this cookbook as a Christmas gift - yay!

Happy Cooking by Giada De Laurentiis

I love watching Giada's cooking shows on Food Network and whatever she's making looks so good, but usually I'm a little disappointed with her cookbooks. In this one I felt like there were a lot of trendy ingredients which was kind of off putting or in one recipe that looked good you had to special order a specific ingredient which I don't necessarily want to do for one recipe. There were a few recipes I want to try, but overall this is just not my kind of cookbook.

Food Gift Love by Maggie Battista

I was looking forward to this one because I love to give homemade gifts. While there were some new ideas and suggestions for wrapping/presenting gifts, overall it was just OK. There were a lot of "gifts" that were perishable food items that seemed more like something you would bring to share at a party and less like a "gift." The photos in the book are beautiful and it does inspire you to wrap homemade gifts in a prettier way, but I didn't find too many new gift ideas.

The Chef Next Door by Amanda Freitag

I've been watching Amanda Freitag on Chopped and Next Iron Chef competitions for the last few years, so I was excited to check out her new cookbook. I really like the premise of the cookbook too. Instead of dividing it into appetizers, entrees, pasta, etc. She starts with basics, then sauces/marinades/etc. and then organizes the rest of the sections by easiest to harder. I think that is a MUCH better format for the home cook. She also puts together a few sample menus using the recipes in the book at the end. Overall, I liked it especially for a more beginner home cook. There are definitely a few recipes I'd like to try.

November 2015 Reviews

The Oregon Trail: a new American journey by Rinker Buck

One day by chance Rinker Buck finds a marked section of the original Oregon Trail. After he hikes a few miles of the trail he comes to a museum and finds out that there are organizations of "rut nuts" who have meticulously mapped out and maintain the Oregon Trail. This spurs him to dig into reading about the trail and he realizes how much the Oregon Trail shaped our country - not just by bringing people out West, but also our values, ideals, and government were very much shaped by the Oregon Trail. He also finds out that no one has driven the entire Oregon Trail in a covered wagon like the original pioneers - people have done sections of it, but often with large fleets of support vehicles. Rinker decides to do what no one has done since the late 1800's and drive a covered wagon the entire 2,100 mile Oregon Trail with no support vehicles and only his brother Nick and Nick's dog Olive Oyl for company. Their journey takes 4 months and is unforgettable. Rinker tells not only he and Nick's story, but also the story of the Oregon Trail - the pioneers who first used it, how the wagons they used were built, a whole history of mules, famous Trail landmarks, and much more. This is a fascinating story both of Rinker's personal Trail journey and the Oregon Trail's remarkable history. There are also some laugh-out-loud moments like when their mules run off and Rinker is chasing them through sagebrush. They meet lots of "trail family" people who help them out along the way or let them camp on their land - the whole trip they only have 1 bad encounter with a person. This is such a unique book that I would highly recommend to anyone!

Here are some quotes I really liked:

"Today, almost the entire 2,100-mile expanse of the Oregon Trail - even where it has been covered over by modern highways or railroad tracks - has been meticulously charted and marked, with long, undeveloped spaces now preserved as a National Historic Trail. Except for two bad stretches of suburban sprawl around Scottsdale, Nebraska, and Boise, Idaho, most of the rest of the trail is still accessible along remote farm and ranch roads in the West. In western Nebraska and central Wyoming, where the trail runs through relatively undisturbed federal lands or immense private ranches, there are still more than six hundred miles of original wagon ruts, just like the path I had hiked that day. The dreamscape chain of natural landmarks and river views that the pioneers saw - Signal Bluff and Chimney Rock along the Platte, Devil's Gate on the Sweetwater, Rendezvous Point at the Green - is all still there, virtually intact." (p. 5)

"Historian Richard Slotkin has shown how the myth of Indian savagery was required to justify the subjugation of the tribes so that their prairie kingdoms could be seized by Americans crossing the frontier after 1843. But that image, faithfully passed down by purple-sage novels and Hollywood westerns, is wildly inaccurate. The initial encounters between the first covered wagon trains and the tribes were extraordinarily friendly, and the pioneers would have never made it past Kansas without their Pawnee and Shoshone guides." (p. 16)

Pages 246-251 describe in laugh-out-loud detail chasing the mules down through sagebrush desert.

Pages 276-77 describe a hilarious encounter with a dumb park ranger.

Pages 281-286 describe Rinker and Nick "put on their Mormon" to get through Mormon country.

"This model of government support for a major development project became popular and was accepted as the new norm for western growth. Each new phase of frontier growth - the railroads, ranching, mining - was also supported by either outright governmental subsidies, land giveaways, or federally supported irrigation and bridge-building projects. That was the tradition established by the Oregon Trail and it has always amused me that the myth of 'rugged individualism' still plays such a large role in western folklore and American values. In fact, our vaunted rugged individualism was financed by huge government largesse." (p. 314)

Lord of the Flies by William Golding (Books & Banter book club)

Thankfully this is a quick read since it's pretty disturbing. A group of schoolchildren are wrecked on an isolated island. Quickly they elect a leader who tries to organize their group. But, within a short amount of time the children are going wild - they move from killing wild pigs to eat to killing each other. This is an example of how children are not "inherently good," but rather this shows how quickly we would revert to our basest selves when outside of civilization. 

I remembered from reading this in high school that it was violent, but there were a few things I had forgotten. It's a quick, but violent read. It will be interesting to see how the book club discussion goes...

The Children Act by Ian McEwan (Evening Edition book club)

High Court judge Fiona Maye is called on to try an urgent Family Court case involving seventeen-year-old Adam who is refusing life-saving medical treatment on the grounds of religious belief. Just before she got the call about this case Fiona received devastating news from her husband. Her marriage and more come into play with her decision in the case of Adam. Her decision will affect both of them in devastating ways. 

The first two sections of this book were SO SLOW that I would have quit reading it if this wasn't for book club. The last three sections each get better than the last one. Only at the very end of the book do we finally get to see Fiona as a human - not just a meticulous judge. While I didn't really like most of the book Adam's character is done really well and the very end redeems Fiona. But, overall it was a very slow and cold read. It will be interesting to see what the book club discussion is like.

The Art of Neighboring by Jay Pathak and Dave Runyon

I put this book on hold because we've been having problems with one of our neighbors for over a year now. I was interested to see what this book would say about neighbors from a Christian perspective. The book is written by two pastors who were challenged by their community to put into practice Jesus's Great Commandment to "'Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength and with all your mind,' and, 'Love your neighbor as yourself.'" (Luke 10:27) They work with other area churches to coordinate a sermon series about loving your neighbor to encourage their members to be better neighbors. This book in turn encourages the readers to do the same - get to know their neighbors and develop relationships with them. They discuss how seemingly little things can really make a big impact on someone. I agree with them that today many people don't know their neighbors and we didn't in our last neighborhood. Now we live in a small neighborhood with only 8 houses, so we do know each of our neighbors by name and have spent time with all of them at some point. But, that also makes it harder when one of those neighbors becomes a problem. While they do address "problem neighbors" it's kind of cursory and I would have liked to see more examples and help with this, but mainly because that's my own personal issue right now. Overall, a good book with a great message.

Some quotes I really liked:

[an exercise in the book is to fill out a grid with info about your closest 8 neighbors] "About 10 percent of people can fill out the names of all eight of their neighbors, line a. About 3 percent can fill out line b [Some facts that you couldn't see just by standing in your driveway - where they are from, interests, hobbies, etc.] for every home. Less than 1 percent can fill out line c [in-depth info - career plans, goals, spiritual beliefs, etc.] for every home." (p.39)

"Take another look at Mary. In particular, this one sentence is significant: Mary 'sat at the Lord's feet listening to what he said.' In Hebrew culture, to sit at someone's feet indicates a relationship between a disciple and a teacher. In that culture, however, women weren't supposed to be students, much less disciples of a rabbi. They were supposed to be in the kitchen helping fix a meal; a woman's identity was intertwined with her ability to be a good hostess. But Mary defies the cultural norms of her day." (p. 52)

"We don't love our neighbors to convert them; we love our neighbors because we are converted. And the truth is, many Christians have been taught by well-meaning people that they should do nice things solely for an opportunity to have a spiritual conversation...We are called to love people - period. Whether those people ever take any steps toward God is beside the point." (p. 102-3)

"There is a world of difference between forgiveness and reconciliation. Just because we forgive someone doesn't mean we need to be best friends with him. Sometimes a relationship will still be broken, even if forgiveness has been granted. Reconciliation is the hard work of how we go forward together, whereas forgiveness is an attitude of the heart. We should offer everyone forgiveness, but we will not be reconciled with everyone we have wronged or who has wronged us." (p. 163-4)

"Neighboring is not always about being happy and comfortable; it's about allowing God to polish off rough edges. Maturity happens when you put yourself in the place God wants you. Don't run because there's adversity. Maybe God wants to use the adversity to make you more like Jesus." (p. 168)

Whiskey & Charlie by Annabel Smith

Whiskey and Charlie are twins who were inseparable as children, but by the time they are adults they are barely speaking. Whiskey is everything Charlie is not - popular, daring, confident and carefree - and Charlie has always blamed Whiskey for stealing the limelight. When Whiskey is left in a coma after an accident, Charlie realizes that he may never have the chance to make things right with Whiskey. While Charlie waits in the hospital hoping Whiskey wakes up, he contemplates their relationship and starts to realize that maybe he was too hard on Whiskey and is just as much to blame for their strained relationship. Unfortunately it's taken Whiskey being near death for Charlie to even be open to their relationship and now he hopes that he will have the chance to make things right.

While I found the beginning of the book a little depressing as Charlie recounts growing up in Whiskey's shadow, the second half of the book is much better as you see Charlie really reassessing his relationship with not only Whiskey, but other people in his life. I was really impressed with how the story unfolded and the end is really well done. Anyone with difficult or dysfunctional family members (which is pretty much everyone) will appreciate this story and Charlie's struggle.

My Old Dog: rescued pets with remarkable second acts by Laura T. Coffey

Photographer Lori Fusaro was using her photography skills to help animals in high-risk LA animal shelters get adopted. In doing that work she saw how many older dogs often languished in shelters - these were more often than not great dogs who's owner may have passed away or for some reason couldn't keep them. When Laura Coffey wrote a story for TODAY show website about Lori's work and adopting older dogs it turned into this book. These two ladies highlight stories of older dogs who have been rescued and lived great "second" lives. Many of these stories will break your heart thinking about what would have happened to these great dogs if their rescuers hadn't taken the chance on an older pet. Coffey reiterates that older dogs are often MUCH easier pets because they are already housebroken and often don't require "tiring out" to calm down. The obvious downsides are that older dogs often don't have as many years left and some can require costly vet care. But, the benefits outweigh the negatives as these stories show! There are also some great tips and resources if you're considering adopting an older dog in the last section of the book. And as more of a cat person myself, I would say this is the same for cats - consider adopting an older pet cat OR dog! This is a must-read for any animal person!

Inside the O'Briens by Lisa Genova

When Joe O'Brien starts having mood swings and weird physical symptoms he chalks it up to stress. He's a veteran Boston police officer, so every day is often stressful. But, soon other people are noticing and his wife finally makes him go to the doctor. He never expects a diagnosis of Huntington's Disease - a fatal neurological disorder that kills within 10-15 years of exhibiting symptoms. He also finds out that each of his 4 kids have a 50% chance of getting Huntington's too. The book is told from Joe's perspective and also from Katie's perspective, Joe's youngest daughter. Each of his kids reacts differently to the diagnosis and whether or not they will take the genetic test that will determine their fate with Huntington's. This is a unique look at a very rare and deadly disease. Joe's character is immediately likable and parts of the story are laugh-out-loud funny and others will make you tear up and Joe struggles with his diagnosis and how his family is trying to cope. While not a happy ending kind of book it's not a total downer and it does end on a more hopeful note. This is another great novel from Lisa Genova.

October 2015 Cookbooks

The Backyard Homestead Book of Kitchen Know-How by Andrea Chesman

This is not as much a cookbook as a collection of helpful information relating to homesteading/growing and processing your own food. She divides the book into 3 sections - Getting the Most from Fresh Food, Food Preservation, and Homestead Cooking. There were a lot of really helpful information and tips and tricks for growing, processing, and storing food. There are recipes interspersed throughout, but 3rd section is all recipes. Overall, this seems like a really helpful book and there are a few recipes I'd like to try.

Food 52 Baking by Food 52 Editors

Food 52 is an online community for cooks of all levels. This is the second cookbook I've seen that has come from their website and this one is all about baking. What I really liked was that in the introduction the authors note that whether you consider yourself an "experienced" baker or not, you CAN bake yummy desserts and treats. This book provides 60 baking recipes - mostly desserts, but there is a chapter on savory baking - that pretty much anyone can make. There are lots of great pictures and definitely a few recipes I want to try. I'm especially excited about the Overnight Orange Refrigerator Rolls because my husband loves the Pillsbury orange rolls, but I'd rather make something from scratch and not buy stuff like Pillsbury. Definitely a good source for simple, but yummy recipes.

Beans & Field Peas by Sandra Gutierrez

I love the Savor the South cookbooks and this one does not disappoint. There is nothing more Southern than beans and peas - lima beans, green beans, field peas, black-eyed peas, etc. This book explains the differences between the various types of peas and beans and also gives tons of recipes - some traditional and some modern and internationally inspired. Overall, this is another good solid Savor the South cookbook!

Grow. Cook. Preserve. by Helen Lynne Culpepper

My good friend gave me this book for my birthday and it's right up my alley! This book goes through growing, cooking, and preserving your own food. There are whole sections on composting and an entire chapter on building and using a root cellar! There are tons of great gardening tips, recipes, and all types of preserving. I'm glad I own this one because it's definitely one that will be a good reference resource. While there might be better books on each topic - this is a great overall book about how to be more self sustaining and make more homemade food.

The Homemade Kitchen by Alana Chernila

Start where you are. Feed yourself. Do your best, then let go. Be helpful. Do the work. Slow down. Eat outside. Invite people over. Don't be afraid of food. The author has these quotes on her refrigerator to remind herself of what food really means. She organizes this cookbook in the same way with recipes for each category/quote. There are a lot of really great cooking tips and some really yummy sounding recipes complete with beautiful pictures. I especially like that she encourages home cooks to try new things and not be afraid of failing or having a not-so-great result. I also like that this book promotes making most things from scratch and that it's usually MUCH easier than you think. Overall, I liked it and there are definitely some recipes I want to try.

My Kitchen Year by Ruth Reichl

When Gourmet magazine closed in 2010 Ruth Reichl was completely surprised and then unsure what to do with herself. This book documents the year after the magazine closed and how she reconnected with cooking in order to get direction in her life. I wish that it had almost been 2 books - a memoir and a cookbook because it was hard to read with a few pages of her story then a few recipes. You couldn't flip through it like a regular cookbook, but it also wasn't completely readable as a memoir either. That's my main complaint, but there are lots of great recipes and a few I definitely want to try.

The Food Lab by J. Kenji Lopez-Alt

If you love Alton Brown and the science behind food then this is the cook book for you. There are plenty of recipes, but most of the book - and it's HUGE - deals with the science behind cooking. Why adding or taking out one ingredient makes such a huge difference, the timing and temperature of ingredients, etc. While there is a lot of helpful information this book is SO HUGE that it's overwhelming to try to read. It probably weighs 10 pounds! While I love cooking and helpful tips, the science behind everything is just not my thing. But, there is a lot of helpful information and variations of recipes, so it's worth looking through.

The Hands-On Home by Erica Strauss

This is a really unique book. The author goes through various ways to make your home more sustainable and how to do more yourself. She goes over a few basic techniques in the beginning then the book is divided into year-round, spring, summer, fall, and winter. In each section she discusses cooking, preserving, home care, and personal care. Each category has recipes for meals, how to preserve seasonally, and recipes for cleaning and beauty products to make yourself. I really like how the book is organized and I like how she looks at the whole household - not just canning and preserving, but other aspects. She also gives lots of tips on how to clean - from everyday things to annual deep cleaning. This is a book that I might buy because it's just so full of great information and tips. 

Some quotes I really liked:

"We trade our time and our skills for money, and then trade that money for the promise of things that will save us time. It's a vicious circle as we outsource the essentials of life: food, fuel, clothing, entertainment, and comfort, and then work to afford all we've outsourced." (p. xvii)

"Sure, I can get blackberry jam at the store on sale. Unless I go for the very high-end artisan jam, it'll be mostly high fructose corn syrup and added pectin and not much fruit, but it'll be cheap. Or, I can grow or glean or buy fruit in season at rock-bottom prices from farmers I know and spend an afternoon making all the jam I'll need for the whole year. My ingredient cost will probably be less than the crappy jam at the store, and the quality will be better than the best stuff available for sale." (p. 20)

October 2015 Reviews

The Storied Life of A.J. Fikry by Gabrielle Zevin (Books & Banter and Evening Edition book clubs)

This is one of those books that I would not have read if not for book club. My library system selected this book as our Community Read and so I made both of my book clubs read it. If it had not been for these facts I would have stopped reading after the 3rd chapter. The story is so crazy and unlikely that it's just not an enjoyable read. There are a few interesting characters - the least of which is A.J. Fikry. Yet somehow he becomes the hub of this small island community even when he tries so hard not to be. Overall, I didn't really like it, but if you force yourself it is a quick read. I'll be interested to see what my book club members think about it.

Farm Anatomy by Julia Rothman

This is a unique book - part cookbook, part farm dictionary and primer. Rothman basically goes through every possible aspect of life on a farm with beautiful illustrations that identify all the tools, plants, animals, buildings, etc. that you might find on a farm. There are also quite a few recipes throughout, but it's not exclusively a cookbook. If you're unfamiliar with farm life this would be a good introduction. This is a fun and beautifully illustrated book.

Voracious: a hungry reader cooks her way through great books by Cara Nicoletti

I loved this book! It combines two of my passions - reading and cooking. The author always loved both reading and cooking and was inspired as an adult to start a blog about recipes inspired from books she loved. That blog turned into this book and it will make you want to re-read some old favorites and try out some new recipes. She divides the book into three sections - childhood, adolescence and college years, and adulthood - all with recipes she created based on food found in favorite books she read during those years. She has a few pages about a particular book and why she loved it and then a recipe inspired by that book. It's a very quick read and I was definitely inspired to try some of her recipes and I think I'll also be paying closer attention to food scenes in books I read. Overall, a great book for a foodie reader!

Lizzy & Jane by Katherine Reay

Elizabeth left her family's home in Seattle after her mother's death and never looked back. After culinary school she was living her dream as a head chef in New York City. But, when her restaurant starts struggling Elizabeth realizes that she's lost her spark. Her older sister Jane is dealing with breast cancer, so she decides to take a break from her restaurant and help out her sister. Their relationship has been strained since their mother died and they both blame the other. After a few weeks back in Seattle Elizabeth realizes that she finally has the chance to make things right with her family, but does that mean leaving her beloved restaurant or can she have both? 

There were parts of this book that were great, but overall it was a slow read and there were a lot of parts that were terrible and changed the flow of the story. I finished it because I was so far in that I wanted to know what happened, but I always know when it takes me a long time to finish a book it's because it's not great. No matter how long you fly through a great book and wish it was longer. I was glad to be done with this one - OK, but definitely not great.

Life from Scratch: a memoir of food, family, and forgiveness by Sasha Martin

Sasha Martin had fond memories of the first years of her life with her mother and older brother Michael. They didn't have much money, but that didn't stop their mother from showing her love for them through food. Some of Sasha's earliest memories involve cooking with her mother and brother. Then when Sasha was six and Michael eight - social services removed them from their mother's home and life was never the same after that. They lived in a few foster homes before their mother asked a family friend with money to take them in. Nothing was ever explained to the kids and they both suffered emotionally from being taken away from their mother with no explanation. 

Fast forward twenty plus years and Sasha is married with a young daughter. Because food was always connected to happiness for her she decides to cook her way through every country in the world. One country per week with recipes and a write up on her blog Global Table Adventure. This was a way for her to connect food to her new family and also try to open up her husband and young daughter's palates. After a year or so her blog begins to get more media attention and towards the end of the project she ends up hosting a huge feast for her community to celebrate and share all the food she cooked throughout this journey. Sasha shows how food can celebrate and create family. She had a rough childhood, but managed to work through it through her love of cooking and food and learning to share that with both her family and a larger community.

The Secret Chord by Geraldine Brooks

Geraldine Brooks is one of my favorite authors, but I can honestly say I wish I hadn't read this one. Brutal is the word that keeps coming to mind every time I try to describe it. It's a fictionalized account of the life of King David from the Bible, so there were also some things that I didn't appreciate as a Christian - mainly the depiction of David and Jonathan's relationship as homosexual. The book is told from Nathan's perspective as David's prophet and spiritual adviser. But, the whole book was just brutal - war, murder, rapes, incest, betrayals - it was horrific. There really wasn't much redeeming in the storyline at all, it was a hard read.

As a Christian I think we often want to sanitize the Bible, especially the Old Testament. But, these people didn't just live hard lives - their lives were brutal. Women were nothing and were bartered and sold and often raped repeatedly throughout their marriages. Fighting was up close and personal with swords and knives. Wars were constantly being fought and loyalties changed. I will say this book did a good job of describing what the reality of life was in that time - brutal, even for royalty. There was mention of God and how He had chosen David, but a lot of the spiritual aspects of David's life were very toned down. Overall, I really wish I hadn't read this book - there was SO much terrible violence and while I'm sure it accurately reflects the time period, but it was ROUGH.

A Gift from Bob by James Bowen

Another Bob book! James Bowen didn't have a great childhood and most Christmases were spent traveling with his mother, when all he really wanted was to spend quality time with her. When he was an addict he never cared what day it was, but now that he's clean and has Bob he realizes that he does have something to celebrate at Christmas. In this book Bowen recounts his Christmas with Bob in 2010. It was the last Christmas that they would struggle financially, but he didn't know that at the time. While trying to make enough money to pay utilities and food through the holidays with hopefully a little extra for a few gifts, Bowen and Bob have a few true Christmas miracles that really highlight just how much they had to be thankful for. Plus, they get to enjoy celebrating the day together. This is a really quick and heartwarming read. Highly recommended for any cat lovers and Bob fans!

A Fireproof Home for the Bride by Amy Scheibe

Emmy Nelson grew up in small-town Minnesota on a farm in the 1950's. Her life is simple and she works hard and knows what's expected of her. From the age of 12 her family planned for her to marry Ambrose, the older son of a wealthy neighbor. But a chance encounter with Bobby has Emmy reconsidering her plans with Ambrose and when Ambrose shows his true colors to Emmy she breaks all ties with her family and strikes out on her own. Soon Emmy and Bobby are dating and she has an exciting job at a local newspaper. When racial tensions start to rise in her community, Emmy realizes they might be tied to her own family history. Emmy has the face the reality of her family history and decide what course she wants for her own life. This is a classic coming-of-age story with a very relatable and likable heroine in Emmy. The end of the book is pretty dramatic and I didn't see it coming, but in hindsight you can see that the story line is slowly gathering speed toward this crazy end. A quick read that would make a great pick for a book club!