Friday, November 4, 2022
October 2022 Cookbook Reviews
October 2022 Reviews
A Billion Years: my escape from a life in the highest ranks of scientology by Mike Rinder
I discovered Mike Rinder through Leah Remini's show Scientology and the Aftermath and quickly came to love both of them. So, when I saw that Mike had a book coming out I quickly pre-ordered it. And while I knew a lot about his personal story from the TV show, there is a lot more detail in the book. He explains how he grew up in Scientology and then joined the Sea Org and went on to become one of the highest ranking people in the organization. But, all along there were nagging thoughts that troubled him about the religion and if they had all the answers why were the highest people (those in the Sea Org) treated so horribly. But, like any good cult member he pushed those thoughts aside and kept on doing what he was told. Once David Miscavige took control of Scientology it became harder and harder for Mike to continue pushing down his doubts. Even after he finally escaped he still believed in Hubbard and Scientology for awhile, until he started to see the truth that it was all a sham and Hubbard was just as delusional as Miscavige - just not as personally violent. All cults have similar core practices (like isolating people, us vs. them mentality, etc.), but Scientology really goes to extremes more than other cults. This was a fascinating look at Mike Rinder's personal story in Scientology and definitely worth reading.
Some quotes I liked:
"One of the punishments for those who messed up in the RPF [Rehabilitation Project Force] was assignment to the RPF's RPF. You slept and ate separately from and were not allowed to even talk to the other RPFers." (p. 106) [You know things are bad when there are punishments within punishments]
"His [LRH] demise also raised one of the most puzzling inconsistencies: though he'd had the time and foresight to clearly specify he did not want an autopsy done and wished to be cremated immediately, and though his elaborate estate planning had detailed precisely where his money was to go, he had not provided instructions or even a briefing for scientologists on what was to happen to the organization and who was to be his successor. This was the man who wrote millions of words and delivered thousands of lectures explaining everything from how to wash windows to how to cure yourself of cancer...Despite his supposed 'causative departure' from this earth as he 'discarded his body,' he neither spoke nor wrote anything that laid out his plans for the future or who would be in charge after he left or how long he was planning on being gone. To not have anything from Ron was an enormous omission that should have been a signal flare to every scientologist." (p. 117)
"One of the first things on my to-do list as PPRO Int was to get Hubbard a Nobel Prize. In the early 1980s, Hubbard had believed he deserved one for his 'discoveries' of the Purification Rundown, in which he claimed a regimen of saunas, vitamins, ingesting oil, and huge doses of niacin resulted in drug residues being 'sweated out.' This program was the cure for the planet's drug problems...I fairly quickly learned that Nobel Prizes are not awarded posthumously. But that was just a wog rule, according to Miscavige, and I was ordered to figure out how to get the prize committee to change their criteria - a classic example of scientology's 'make it go right' attitude. Everything outside the isolated world of scientology was invalid and could be bent to the will of the 'most ethical beings in the universe.' (p. 130-31)
"At the outset, I was enthusiastic and determined to get the truth out to counteract what I believed were lies about Hubbard perpetuated by those who sought to take him down. Ultimately, however, the task of writing a church-authorized biography of L. Ron Hubbard was a fool's errand. There were too many things that could not be ignored or explained in the man's life. If everything that was a lie, embellishment, or embarrassment was omitted, the biography would be so full of holes that even scientologists wouldn't buy it. Furthermore, if we published a book that full of lies, we opened ourselves up to being dissected by reviewers and critics...So instead of publishing a biography that risked opening scientology up to criticism, we followed the example of the LRH Life Exhibition and published issues of Ron magazine that covered carefully selected stories about Hubbard's life, such as 'Master Mariner' and 'The Humanitarian.' Each included convenient facts but left huge gaps." (p. 136-37)
"Hubbard noted in one of his policy letters that the hardest thing to see is that which is omitted, and this sums up the official scientology 'biography' of Hubbard." (p. 138)
"[David] Miscavige was the best man at Tom and Nicole's wedding on December 24, 1990, in Telluride, Colorado, where Cruise had a home. Though I was not there, my old friend Sinar Parman, Hubbard's personal chef, was flown in to cook for the newlyweds. It was the first time I became aware that Sea Org members were used as personal staff for Cruise. It was indicative of how far Miscavige was willing to go to ally Cruise. Other Sea Org members were sent to help set up the house. This became a standard pattern with Cruise. Miscavige would dispatch Sea Org members to do various tasks to 'help Tom'." (p. 139)
"You could never predict whether you would be in or out with Misavige. I think this was deliberate. It was a tactic famously used by Stalin - keep your subordinates divided, fearful, confused, and off-balance. No cabal to overthrow the king can form if no one at court is certain of their position. One minute I was digging ditches and the next I was heading up external affairs for all of scientology." (p. 147)
"Nobody lasted at the top of the pile before they were relegated to the bottom. It took me a long time to put the pieces together and realize that every single prominent executive of scientology was removed and disgraced on an almost rotational basis. Each individual instance seemed so justified - these people failed to do their jobs, so their punishment was well deserved. It also made my own failings seem less awful if everyone else was just as bad as me. There are many things about life in scientology that fit the old adage of not seeing the forest for the trees." (p. 192)
Some quotes I liked:
"One of the punishments for those who messed up in the RPF [Rehabilitation Project Force] was assignment to the RPF's RPF. You slept and ate separately from and were not allowed to even talk to the other RPFers." (p. 106) [You know things are bad when there are punishments within punishments]
"His [LRH] demise also raised one of the most puzzling inconsistencies: though he'd had the time and foresight to clearly specify he did not want an autopsy done and wished to be cremated immediately, and though his elaborate estate planning had detailed precisely where his money was to go, he had not provided instructions or even a briefing for scientologists on what was to happen to the organization and who was to be his successor. This was the man who wrote millions of words and delivered thousands of lectures explaining everything from how to wash windows to how to cure yourself of cancer...Despite his supposed 'causative departure' from this earth as he 'discarded his body,' he neither spoke nor wrote anything that laid out his plans for the future or who would be in charge after he left or how long he was planning on being gone. To not have anything from Ron was an enormous omission that should have been a signal flare to every scientologist." (p. 117)
"One of the first things on my to-do list as PPRO Int was to get Hubbard a Nobel Prize. In the early 1980s, Hubbard had believed he deserved one for his 'discoveries' of the Purification Rundown, in which he claimed a regimen of saunas, vitamins, ingesting oil, and huge doses of niacin resulted in drug residues being 'sweated out.' This program was the cure for the planet's drug problems...I fairly quickly learned that Nobel Prizes are not awarded posthumously. But that was just a wog rule, according to Miscavige, and I was ordered to figure out how to get the prize committee to change their criteria - a classic example of scientology's 'make it go right' attitude. Everything outside the isolated world of scientology was invalid and could be bent to the will of the 'most ethical beings in the universe.' (p. 130-31)
"At the outset, I was enthusiastic and determined to get the truth out to counteract what I believed were lies about Hubbard perpetuated by those who sought to take him down. Ultimately, however, the task of writing a church-authorized biography of L. Ron Hubbard was a fool's errand. There were too many things that could not be ignored or explained in the man's life. If everything that was a lie, embellishment, or embarrassment was omitted, the biography would be so full of holes that even scientologists wouldn't buy it. Furthermore, if we published a book that full of lies, we opened ourselves up to being dissected by reviewers and critics...So instead of publishing a biography that risked opening scientology up to criticism, we followed the example of the LRH Life Exhibition and published issues of Ron magazine that covered carefully selected stories about Hubbard's life, such as 'Master Mariner' and 'The Humanitarian.' Each included convenient facts but left huge gaps." (p. 136-37)
"Hubbard noted in one of his policy letters that the hardest thing to see is that which is omitted, and this sums up the official scientology 'biography' of Hubbard." (p. 138)
"[David] Miscavige was the best man at Tom and Nicole's wedding on December 24, 1990, in Telluride, Colorado, where Cruise had a home. Though I was not there, my old friend Sinar Parman, Hubbard's personal chef, was flown in to cook for the newlyweds. It was the first time I became aware that Sea Org members were used as personal staff for Cruise. It was indicative of how far Miscavige was willing to go to ally Cruise. Other Sea Org members were sent to help set up the house. This became a standard pattern with Cruise. Miscavige would dispatch Sea Org members to do various tasks to 'help Tom'." (p. 139)
"You could never predict whether you would be in or out with Misavige. I think this was deliberate. It was a tactic famously used by Stalin - keep your subordinates divided, fearful, confused, and off-balance. No cabal to overthrow the king can form if no one at court is certain of their position. One minute I was digging ditches and the next I was heading up external affairs for all of scientology." (p. 147)
"Nobody lasted at the top of the pile before they were relegated to the bottom. It took me a long time to put the pieces together and realize that every single prominent executive of scientology was removed and disgraced on an almost rotational basis. Each individual instance seemed so justified - these people failed to do their jobs, so their punishment was well deserved. It also made my own failings seem less awful if everyone else was just as bad as me. There are many things about life in scientology that fit the old adage of not seeing the forest for the trees." (p. 192)
The Book Woman of Troublesome Creek by Kim Michele Richardson (Evening Edition book club)
I read and LOVED Jojo Moyes' book The Giver of Stars and I had several friends who had also read this one and said they liked The Book Woman better. So, when my book club decided to read this one I was curious to see which one I would like better. I did NOT like this one at all. I would have put it down after the first couple chapters with her forced marriage and the rape scene if not for my book club reading it. Cussy and her father are some of the last "blue people of Kentucky" and face prejudice in their community because they are seen as "colored" and not white. Cussy manages to get a position with the Pack Horse Librarian WPA project and that helps her feel more a part of the community. Cussy has a ton of terrible things happen to her throughout the book but does end up landing the new bachelor in town, Jackson. She also manages to adopt another blue child which seems completely ridiculous. There were so many holes all throughout the story and it really seemed like she was some kind of blue-skinned Kentucky Job with all the over-the-top bad things that happened to her.
In my opinion the Jojo Moyes book is WORLDS better than this one. Richardson was born in Kentucky so she does have that connection and she did include the blue people which was a real, unique part of that time and place. But, overall my first impression of the book was right - a book with a main character named Cussy is not going to be for me. There was also some controversy around The Giver of Stars by Jojo Moyes and this book, but after reading both I could not see any plagiarism. They are two books about a very specific time and place with the Pack Horse Librarians in Kentucky, but the main characters are VERY different and any other similarities seem like a product of the historical time they were trying to convey. Other than both books coming out within a few months of each other, I don't see any major issues. In my opinion Moyes does a much better job with her story and I really had to force myself to get through this one.
In my opinion the Jojo Moyes book is WORLDS better than this one. Richardson was born in Kentucky so she does have that connection and she did include the blue people which was a real, unique part of that time and place. But, overall my first impression of the book was right - a book with a main character named Cussy is not going to be for me. There was also some controversy around The Giver of Stars by Jojo Moyes and this book, but after reading both I could not see any plagiarism. They are two books about a very specific time and place with the Pack Horse Librarians in Kentucky, but the main characters are VERY different and any other similarities seem like a product of the historical time they were trying to convey. Other than both books coming out within a few months of each other, I don't see any major issues. In my opinion Moyes does a much better job with her story and I really had to force myself to get through this one.
Raising Lazarus: hope, justice, and the future of America's overdose crisis by Beth Macy
I read Dopesick in early 2019 and it was an extremely eye-opening look at how the opioid epidemic was created and encouraged by Purdue Pharma and the Sackler family. While Dopesick looks at how this whole thing started, Raising Lazarus is supposed to be about "hope, justice, and the future of America's overdoes crisis" per the subtitle. But, there wasn't much of any of that in Raising Lazarus. Macy covers grassroots "harm reduction" efforts in some of the areas hardest hit by the opioid epidemic, but she also intersperses coverage of a bankruptcy hearing for the Sackler family that would shield several billions of their profits from future lawsuits. While a chapter or two about the bankruptcy would have added to the book, going back and forth between the bankruptcy and the heart-breaking stories of people trying to help addicts just felt very choppy and all over the place. This book didn't feel like it had a clear trajectory - it was just a bunch of random stories about people trying their best to fight this huge epidemic in their small towns with several chapters of VERY specific bankruptcy information.
She was also very political and clearly believes that Republicans are the problem and why this opioid epidemic is still raging. Despite the fact that Obama had two terms during the height of things his lack of effort is barely mentioned, while other Republican leaders are blasted repeatedly. Let me be clear - I am NOT a Republican or a Democrat, but every one of the people in federal government are responsible for taking money from lobbyists and creating laws around their pet issues (or whoever gives them the most money) with zero regard for the public they are supposed to be serving. Her blatant political agenda got old for me really fast. This is an extremely complex issue with no quick or easy answers from politicians or anyone.
Reading this book really reminded me of the beginning of the AIDS epidemic. Most people were afraid and felt like the people who had AIDS (or opioid addiction) did it to themselves and they should suffer the consequences. There were lots of grassroots efforts to help AIDS patients that did eventually help turn the societal tide toward more understanding and less hate and fear. I think this is similar. Many of the people doing this hard, grassroots work with addicts are former addicts or family members who lost someone to overdose. To me this is also a huge missed opportunity for the Church to show people who are hurting the most the love of Christ. I believe Jesus would be helping AIDS patients and addicts (and prostitutes, drug dealers, etc.) if He were around today. This is hard, uncomfortable work and Macy does do a good job of highlighting the people who are really making a difference in their work around this issue. But, it's by no means a hopeful book. Yes, there are a few programs that are really working that could be replicated around the country - will they? I don't know. Again, there are no easy answers to this. And while I didn't love this book I would still recommend it because this is a HUGE issue that is still often swept under the rug.
Some quotes I liked:
"The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention estimates that more than a million Americans have died from drug overdose since 1996, the largest factor by far in decreasing life expectancy for Americans...Within the first pandemic year, the overdoes count was 29 percent higher than the year before, and the numbers kept climbing. By late 2021, it was clear that addiction had become the No. 1 destroyer of families in our time, with almost a third of Americans reporting it as a serious cause of family strife, and drug overdoses claiming the lives of more than 100,000 Americans in a year - more than from car crashes and guns combined." (p. xiii)
[On the inspiration for the title of the book] "As with the disciples who unwrapped a raised-from-the-dead Lazarus at Jesus's command, Rev. [Michelle] Mathis explained, 'it doesn't always smell like flowers, and you might get a little something on you. But the people who are willing to work at the face-to-face level get to see the miracle and look it in the eye.'" (p. xvii)
"Lest you think the two weren't in bed together, Purdue Pharma executives literally rented a suite of hotel rooms down the road from the Rockville, Maryland, FDA headquarters in 1995 - for the express purpose of collaborating with FDA officials to speed up the OxyContin medical review...the drug's FDA approval officer, Dr. Curtis Wright, went to work for Purdue soon after, earning $379,000 a year." (p. 60)
"Insys [the maker of the fentanyl lollipop] was maybe even more brazen in its sales practices than Purdue, though, at one point hiring as a sales rep a stripper who gave the doctor a lap dance as enticement for him to prescribe more of its products." (p. 74)
"...by the time the first cohort of the Courts Addiction & Drug Services (CADS program) graduated, not a single person had overdosed. Thirty-four out of fifty-one had completed the program with no issues; of the third that had relapsed, half reengaged immediately with treatment. When Nikki presented the results to her doctoral dissertation committee, she noted that 97 percent of her patients had co-occurring mental illnesses and 76 percent had documented PTSD. Overprescribed benzos and opioid pills had been by far her patients' biggest gateways to heroin and meth use...When Nikki asked the first CADS cohort to name a short-term goal, one man said he wanted a second pair of pants. Another wished to taste salmon for the first time. She was stunned how common hunger was...'A lot of SUD [Substance Use Disorder] programs just tackle the SUD, but they don't do anything with the underlying trauma and co-occurring mental health disorders. So it becomes, 'Don't do drugs, don't do drugs.' Well, they already know that! Our program's focus is, how do we get you to a place where you can cope with the things in your life?'" (p. 93)
"While [Duane] Slone remained an outlier in rural law enforcement, he was also a powerful reminder of what enlightened elected officials could do when they worried more about doing the right thing than about winning their next reelection campaign." (p. 205)
"It takes time to soften people who are traumatized, the Kentucky activist Robert Gipe said. 'There's still a lot of anger mixed in with the grief when it comes to the SUD sufferers in a family,' he said. 'Yes, SUD is a disease, but those with that disease don't just cough and sneeze and ask you to bring them a glass of water. They steal and lie and fuck up Thanksgiving and break our hearts.'" (p. 274)
She was also very political and clearly believes that Republicans are the problem and why this opioid epidemic is still raging. Despite the fact that Obama had two terms during the height of things his lack of effort is barely mentioned, while other Republican leaders are blasted repeatedly. Let me be clear - I am NOT a Republican or a Democrat, but every one of the people in federal government are responsible for taking money from lobbyists and creating laws around their pet issues (or whoever gives them the most money) with zero regard for the public they are supposed to be serving. Her blatant political agenda got old for me really fast. This is an extremely complex issue with no quick or easy answers from politicians or anyone.
Reading this book really reminded me of the beginning of the AIDS epidemic. Most people were afraid and felt like the people who had AIDS (or opioid addiction) did it to themselves and they should suffer the consequences. There were lots of grassroots efforts to help AIDS patients that did eventually help turn the societal tide toward more understanding and less hate and fear. I think this is similar. Many of the people doing this hard, grassroots work with addicts are former addicts or family members who lost someone to overdose. To me this is also a huge missed opportunity for the Church to show people who are hurting the most the love of Christ. I believe Jesus would be helping AIDS patients and addicts (and prostitutes, drug dealers, etc.) if He were around today. This is hard, uncomfortable work and Macy does do a good job of highlighting the people who are really making a difference in their work around this issue. But, it's by no means a hopeful book. Yes, there are a few programs that are really working that could be replicated around the country - will they? I don't know. Again, there are no easy answers to this. And while I didn't love this book I would still recommend it because this is a HUGE issue that is still often swept under the rug.
Some quotes I liked:
"The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention estimates that more than a million Americans have died from drug overdose since 1996, the largest factor by far in decreasing life expectancy for Americans...Within the first pandemic year, the overdoes count was 29 percent higher than the year before, and the numbers kept climbing. By late 2021, it was clear that addiction had become the No. 1 destroyer of families in our time, with almost a third of Americans reporting it as a serious cause of family strife, and drug overdoses claiming the lives of more than 100,000 Americans in a year - more than from car crashes and guns combined." (p. xiii)
[On the inspiration for the title of the book] "As with the disciples who unwrapped a raised-from-the-dead Lazarus at Jesus's command, Rev. [Michelle] Mathis explained, 'it doesn't always smell like flowers, and you might get a little something on you. But the people who are willing to work at the face-to-face level get to see the miracle and look it in the eye.'" (p. xvii)
"Lest you think the two weren't in bed together, Purdue Pharma executives literally rented a suite of hotel rooms down the road from the Rockville, Maryland, FDA headquarters in 1995 - for the express purpose of collaborating with FDA officials to speed up the OxyContin medical review...the drug's FDA approval officer, Dr. Curtis Wright, went to work for Purdue soon after, earning $379,000 a year." (p. 60)
"Insys [the maker of the fentanyl lollipop] was maybe even more brazen in its sales practices than Purdue, though, at one point hiring as a sales rep a stripper who gave the doctor a lap dance as enticement for him to prescribe more of its products." (p. 74)
"...by the time the first cohort of the Courts Addiction & Drug Services (CADS program) graduated, not a single person had overdosed. Thirty-four out of fifty-one had completed the program with no issues; of the third that had relapsed, half reengaged immediately with treatment. When Nikki presented the results to her doctoral dissertation committee, she noted that 97 percent of her patients had co-occurring mental illnesses and 76 percent had documented PTSD. Overprescribed benzos and opioid pills had been by far her patients' biggest gateways to heroin and meth use...When Nikki asked the first CADS cohort to name a short-term goal, one man said he wanted a second pair of pants. Another wished to taste salmon for the first time. She was stunned how common hunger was...'A lot of SUD [Substance Use Disorder] programs just tackle the SUD, but they don't do anything with the underlying trauma and co-occurring mental health disorders. So it becomes, 'Don't do drugs, don't do drugs.' Well, they already know that! Our program's focus is, how do we get you to a place where you can cope with the things in your life?'" (p. 93)
"While [Duane] Slone remained an outlier in rural law enforcement, he was also a powerful reminder of what enlightened elected officials could do when they worried more about doing the right thing than about winning their next reelection campaign." (p. 205)
"It takes time to soften people who are traumatized, the Kentucky activist Robert Gipe said. 'There's still a lot of anger mixed in with the grief when it comes to the SUD sufferers in a family,' he said. 'Yes, SUD is a disease, but those with that disease don't just cough and sneeze and ask you to bring them a glass of water. They steal and lie and fuck up Thanksgiving and break our hearts.'" (p. 274)
Four Seasons in Rome: on twins, insomnia, and the biggest funeral in the world by Anthony Doerr
The day after Anthony Doerr's twins are born he receives word that he's a recipient of the Rome Prize from the American Academy of Arts and Letters. This gives him a stipend and an apartment in Rome for a year to work on whatever academic project - the book that will eventually skyrocket him into literary fame, All the Light We Cannot See. When his twins, Owen and Henry, are six months old Doerr and his wife move to Rome. This book is his musings on spending four seasons in Rome while also learning to be a parent and struggling with insomnia. While I thought it sounded like an interesting book, it was pretty slow and boring. It's well written and extremely descriptive, but not very interesting in my opinion). I absolutely LOVED All the Light We Cannot See so I was also hopeful that he might write more about how he wrote the book or got his ideas, but it's mentioned very little in this book. Overall, I think he's a great author, but I didn't love this one.
Killers of the Flower Moon: the Osage murders and the birth of the FBI by David Grann (Evening Edition book club, re-reading)
On re-reading October 21-26, 2022:
It had been awhile since I read this book and I wanted to re-read it before my book club discussed it. In reading it a second time I found it a little harder to get into until about halfway through the book when the arrests are finally happening. I had also forgotten all the additional murders the author discovered that weren't tied to Hale - just showing how many people were killing Osage Indians for their money. It really is a mind-boggling and infuriating story. I think even worse than all the murders and fear the Osage must have felt during this time is the helplessness - the government wasn't going to help you, the law wasn't going to help you, and you literally could not trust anyone. Everyone hated them both for being Native Americans and even more so for being rich Native Americans. I'm thankful that this book brought attention to yet another hidden chapter of evilness that most people probably weren't familiar with before now.
Some quotes that stood out to me this time:
"The nature of the murders also gave some insight into the mastermind: the person was not an impulsive killer but a connoisseur of plots who was intelligent enough to understand toxic substances and calculating enough to carry out his diabolical vision over years." (p. 114)
"One government study estimated that before 1925 guardians had pilfered at least $8 million directly from the restricted accounts of their Osage wards. 'The blackest chapter in the history of this State will be the Indian guardianship over these estates,' an Osage leader said, adding, 'There has been millions - not thousands - but millions of dollars of many of the Osages dissipated and spent by the guardians themselves.' This so-called Indian business, as White discovered, was an elaborate criminal operation, in which various sectors of society were complicit. The crooked guardians and administrators of Osage estates were typically among the most prominent white citizens: businessmen and ranchers and lawyers and politicians. So were the lawmen and prosecutors and judges who facilitated and concealed the swindling (and, sometimes, acted as guardians and administrators themselves)." (p. 154)
"The Osage were also able to retrieve at least a portion of the oil funds mismanaged over decades by the U.S. government. In 2011, after an eleven-year legal battle, the government agree to settle a lawsuit brought by the Osage for $380 million." (p. 252)
Breadsong: how baking changed our lives by Kitty and Al Tait
When Kitty Tait was 14 she suddenly fell into a deep depression with extremely high anxiety. Her parents were trying to find anything to help her get outside her own head with little success. Then one day her Dad, Al, decided to make bread from scratch and it got Kitty's attention. Soon she started making bread herself and trying new recipes. Baking bread was the only thing Kitty could do that helped calm the anxiety and gave her enjoyment. But their family could only eat so much bread. So, first they started giving bread to their neighbors, then they started a subscription service and that led to some pop up shops in borrowed spaces, and eventually they opened their own storefront of Orange Bakery. Throughout the two year journey, Kitty found ways to cope with her anxiety and was able to get mostly back to her old self but still credits bread baking with what turned things around for her. This book is half memoir (written by both Kitty and Al) and half cookbook. There are definitely a few recipes I'd like to try out and the book is full of gorgeous photos of all the yummy bread.
In reading the memoir side I did feel a little bad for her older siblings during Kitty's breakdown and the beginning of her bread obsession. Her parents focused almost 100% on trying to help Kitty (which is understandable), but also let Kitty take over the whole kitchen. The family had always made a point of eating dinner together, but they let Kitty get rid of the dining table for more baking room/supplies. And the first Christmas during her bread obsession they basically didn't celebrate much because it was too overwhelming for her. While I can't imagine what that time was like for Kitty or her parents, I still felt bad for the older siblings who just seemed like they were on their own. And while Orange Bakery became a huge success, it was definitely a gamble for her parents to put so much time and money into something like that. It was an interesting story and I'm sure Kitty will go on to do amazing things in the baking world.
In reading the memoir side I did feel a little bad for her older siblings during Kitty's breakdown and the beginning of her bread obsession. Her parents focused almost 100% on trying to help Kitty (which is understandable), but also let Kitty take over the whole kitchen. The family had always made a point of eating dinner together, but they let Kitty get rid of the dining table for more baking room/supplies. And the first Christmas during her bread obsession they basically didn't celebrate much because it was too overwhelming for her. While I can't imagine what that time was like for Kitty or her parents, I still felt bad for the older siblings who just seemed like they were on their own. And while Orange Bakery became a huge success, it was definitely a gamble for her parents to put so much time and money into something like that. It was an interesting story and I'm sure Kitty will go on to do amazing things in the baking world.
Gwelf: the survival guide by Larry MacDougall
This is a unique book that written as a guidebook for the land of Gwelf. The entire book is written as a guide for a visitor and gives information about the types of inhabitants, villages and terrain, where to stay, where to eat, what to bring/pack, and unique landmarks. The land of Gwelf has the good inhabitants - Sparrows, Mice, Otters, Foxes (our narrator), Rabbits, Badgers, and Racoons and the evil inhabitants - Ravens, Ragteeth, and Rats. The inhabitants are locked in a battle of magic so the guide is helpful in how to navigate these types of magic and not be caught off guard.
The illustrations are absolutely stunning. I put this book on hold after I saw the cover because it reminded me of the Mouse Guard graphic novels. While this is definitely not a graphic novel it's a really unique fiction book. It would make a great coffee table book as well with all the great illustrations. I definitely hope there are some sequels or further books about Gwelf.
The illustrations are absolutely stunning. I put this book on hold after I saw the cover because it reminded me of the Mouse Guard graphic novels. While this is definitely not a graphic novel it's a really unique fiction book. It would make a great coffee table book as well with all the great illustrations. I definitely hope there are some sequels or further books about Gwelf.
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