November 2024 Cookbook Reviews

 

Baking in the American South by Anne Byrn

This cookbook is all about Southern baking. After and introduction and chapter on the author's baking pantry staples, the book is divided into chapters about specific types of Southern baking. You can't go wrong in my opinion when the first chapter is all about cornbread and the second is all about biscuits! There are other chapters on quick breads, rolls and yeast-raised cakes, puddings, pies, cakes, cookies, and frostings. Each chapter includes an introduction to that type of baked good and throughout the chapter there are other notes and tips. I was REALLY impressed with how thorough this cookbook is. Anne Byrn really did her homework here and showcases LOTS of classic recipes and variations in each chapter. There were lots of recipes I'd like to try and this is one I would consider purchasing because there is just so much great information and recipes here.

Salty Cheesy Herby Crispy Snackable Bakes by Jessie Sheehan

I was looking forward to this one because I love all things savory and cheesy. Sheehan organizes the recipes by type - muffins, breads, savory cookies and crackers, etc. There is also a chapter at the end called "the essential savory hacks" with tips for savory staple ingredients (dough, caramelized onions, etc.). While I love a good savory baked good, I guess I originally misread the title and thought it would include other savory snacks like dips, cheeseballs, etc. There were a few recipes I'd like to try but I was a little disappointed with this one.

Meateater's Wild & Whole by Danielle Prewett

When Danielle Prewett was in college her boyfriend, now husband, was a hunter and she started learning to cook wild game. Then she moved into hunting herself and started a blog about her wild game cooking that became this book. I really like that she has a few chapters in the beginning about eating consciously and how to source quality food several ways - local farmers/pastured animals, gardening, hunting, foraging, etc. This is REALLY good information. And while I'm a huge proponent of sourcing ethically raised, local meat, I haven't personally gotten into hunting or cooking much wild game. So this is not a cookbook for everyone, but I think it looks like a really good cookbook and I very much appreciate the author's personal food journey and highlighting the importance of sourcing good quality meat.

Southern Get Togethers by Kelsey Barnard Clark

I liked Clark's previous cookbook, Southern Grit, better than this one. I did know by the subtitle, "a guide to hosting unforgettable gatherings," that it was focused on entertaining but I still thought it would be more recipes that entertaining. There were a few recipes I'd like to try but the book was organized by type of entertaining event with menus. I don't have enough friends to have a fraction of the gatherings she has covered in this book. If entertaining is your jam, then this is the book for you. If you just love Southern food, check out her previous cookbook.

November 2024 Reviews

 

The Frozen River by Ariel Lawhon (Books & Banter book club)

Martha Ballard is a midwife in Hallowell, Maine in 1789. On the way home from a birth, she is called to determine the cause of death of a man found frozen in the river. The man is Joshua Burgess and it's obvious he's been murdered and dumped in the river. Burgess is one of two men accused of rape earlier in the year. When a new resident of Hallowell, a Harvard educated doctor, contradicts Martha's cause of death, she is determined to find out what really happened. What ensues uncovers lots of small town drama and gossip, a plot by another resident to cheat people out of their properties, and a little vigilante justice.

This story definitely drew me in from the very beginning. Martha's role as midwife means she knows a LOT about the people in her town and she also has a little more freedom than the average woman. Her adversarial relationship with the new Harvard doctor highlights the beginning of the medicalization of childbirth and downplaying the role of midwives and their herbal remedies in the care of women. I also loved her husband, Ephraim, and their marriage and family life. I also felt like the rape case highlighted that some things don't always get better with history - a lot of the issues brought up in this story are still issues today. Although, today we do have DNA technology which helps, at least when rape kits are actually tested.

There were a few things I didn't love. 1) I hate a book with no chapter numbers. This one was divided in to sections so that did help. 2) Martha's character was overly modern for her time period. Her ideas were very current-day and ultra-modern especially for that time. I think in this book Martha's modern ideas were a little overdone. 3) There was a LOT going on in this book. Beside the main storyline, there were several rabbit trail storylines that at least some could have been cut out for length and just to have a few less characters to keep up with. 4) As the book went on, the storyline got more and more dramatic. It would have been just as powerful of a story without all the extra, over-the-top drama. 5) Finally, the end. Really. I won't give anything away but the ending was very over-the-top and would have NEVER happened. She also just drops one of the other storylines that had been a major part of the book and you get no answer on one major plotline.

Overall, I did like it. I wish it hadn't been as long and detailed and the author had reigned in some of the over-the-top drama. But I know my book club is going to LOVE it. I'll also note that in the Author's Note at the end of the book Lawhon gives a lot of historical information about the real Martha Ballard that the book is based on and that is really interesting to see how much of what was in the book was based on a real woman's life.

A quote I really liked:

"Memory is a wicked thing that warps and twists. But paper and ink receive the truth without emotion, and they read it back without partiality. That, I believe, is why so few women are taught to read and write. God only knows what they would do with the power of pen and ink at their disposal." (p. 39)

The Fury by Alex Michaelides (Evening Edition book club)

Lana Farrar is a reclusive movie star who takes a trip to her private Greek island with her husband, son, housekeeper, and two long-time friends. But at the end of the trip, Lana ends up dead. How and why is explained by Elliot Chase. The Fury comes across as an amalgamation of Agatha Christie, The Guest List, The Woman in the Window, and The Talented Mr. Ripley. But for me it fell flat. Elliot's character is an annoying narrator who speaks directly to the reader (which I don't like). I suspected him immediately, but like The Silent Patient we had to take several VERY odd turns to get to the weird point/finale. I did NOT like The Silent Patient at all, so I didn't have high hopes for this one. It wasn't a terrible read, but just way too many weird turns in the storyline that were just too over the top. I'll be curious to see what my book club thinks of this one.

Life and Death of the American Worker by Alice Driver

Just when you thought you knew how evil Tyson Foods is, you read this book and find out even more reasons to hate them. Alice Driver spent four years interviewing current and former employees of Tyson meatpacking plants, specifically about the impact of COVID on these workers. You probably heard about high COVID rates in meatpacking plants during peak-COVID, and you probably also heard about the Trump administration's executive order to keep meatpacking plants open in spite of any state-level COVID restrictions. What you didn't hear about in the media was for the workers Driver interviewed, many of them had been working in a Tyson plant in 2011 when there was a chemical spill. That spill caused a lot of health issues for the workers most directly exposed, in particular lung issues. So when COVID came around, a lot of these workers who already had compromised health from the chemical spill almost immediately began dying of COVID. And Tyson, like any monopoly dependent on low-paid workers, first tried to ignore COVID, then later decided that every employee would be required to be vaccinated against the illness they had told their employees didn't exist. Many of the employees at these meatpacking plants are immigrants (some legal, some not) and many either don't speak much English and/or are illiterate. Tyson definitely preys on this demographic and preys on the fear of these workers to get them to comply and work in horrible conditions even before COVID came around. The book also covers a class action lawsuit that was brought against a specific plant in Arkansas - unfortunately, the case ends up being dismissed which was a downer of a way to end an already hard book. While this is not an easy read, it's an important read. THIS is the real cost of food. Anyone who buys chicken at the grocery store should be required to read this book. Is Tyson who you want to give your hard-earned money to? My suggestion is to find yourself a local farmer who's doing things on a smaller scale to support.

Some quotes that outraged me:

"Similarly, in addition to employing undocumented workers, Tyson also exploits vulnerable prison populations. For example, some nonviolent criminals facing jail time in Oklahoma are offered an alternative to prison...those who know the programs call them 'the Chicken Farm' as they require people to work at Tyson or other meatpacking companies, where they are paid little or nothing." (p. 13-14) [Maybe this could be a better deterrent than jail time]

"[Tyson] was at a loss for years about what to do with the gizzards since customers weren't fond of them. In the early 1990s, Tyson began to sell gizzard patties to prisons. Don Tyson, the company's chairman at the time, described imprisoned people as a 'captive market' for gizzard burgers." (p. 23) [Another deterrent for jail time]

"On March 3, 2020, Carlos Lynn, thirty-nine, was sanitizing a fifty-foot chicken chiller at a Tyson plant in Baker Hill, Alabama. Lynn, a Black man from Alabama, worked for Packers Sanitation Services, Inc., which paid formerly incarcerated men like him $12-$15/house to do dangerous sanitation work. [While cleaning, the machine was accidentally turned on decapitating Lynn.]...The following day...the plant required all workers to sign a legal document stating that they understood the risks of sanitizing the chicken chiller, and, if they were decapitated, they accepted responsibility for such an accident since they had been warned of the risk beforehand." (p. 29-30)

"'All the waste from the debone area, the skeleton, the skin, the neck, the hip bone - all of that is ground up to make nuggets which have almost no meat in them,' [Victor] said. Nuggets, a product Tyson created for McDonald's, helped transform Tyson from a small-town business into a global empire. The nugget recipe involved forty-pound frozen blocks of chicken parts: three blocks of chicken breast; two of ground skeleton mixed with blood, necks, and other bits; and one of chicken skin and fat." (p. 41) [Doesn't that sound appetizing...]

"In the 1970s, when more women were entering the workforce, and fast-food empires were growing, Don [Tyson] saw an opportunity to sell packaged chicken products. Under his watch, Tyson Foods invented McDonald's Chicken Nuggets and the Burger King chicken sandwich, among thousands of other prepared food items. At that time, chicken was unpopular, so the company had to convince restaurant chains that it could be packaged as a healthier option than hamburgers." (p. 47)

"In 2021, in OSHA needed to inspect all of the meatpacking facilities in the US, it would take them 165 years. And the average fine for a potentially life-threatening hazard that year was $3,700. It was cheaper to pay the occasional fine than to keep machinery, chemicals, and labor conditions safe for workers." (p. 53)

"He mentioned a program Tyson had recently launched called Helping Hands, which encouraged workers to donate part of their paycheck to help other Tyson workers affected by COVID...'It's as if they are making fun of us,' he added, noting that a company that makes billions of dollars should not ask workers to contribute to covering the cost of COVID infections." (p. 118)

"During the pandemic, Arkansas prisons and Tyson facilities shared a unique distinction - they were the sites with the most significant coronavirus outbreaks in the country...Despite the rapid spread of the virus and CDC recommendations, prisons and Tyson facilities lobbied to keep workers in the fields and in the factories. Tyson operates in four states that allow prisoners to be forced to labor without compensation: Arkansas, Georgia, Alabama, and Texas. Tyson employs prisoners via work release programs that place prisoners at various companies." (p. 184)

"While waiting for robotics to catch up with industry needs, Tyson Foods began to diversify, investing in meat products that were less labor intensive. In 2016 and 2017, Tyson Foods invested $34 million in the plant-based meat company, Beyond Meat. In 2022, Tyson announced that it would contribute to a $400 million investment in Upside Foods, a lab-grown meat company. Although many assumed that meatpacking companies would see lab-grown meat as a threat, the same profitable subsidies underpinning the meatpacking industry are flowing into lab-grown meat. The tech industry is selling lab-grown meat as if it were revolutionary, but it is simply an extension of the status quo in which the US continues to subsidize cheap and plentiful meat. Lab-grown meat is also a proprietary product, once again placing the food system in the hands of a few companies." (p. 204)

Long Haul: hunting the highway serial killers by Frank Figliuzzi

In 2004 a crime analyst with the Oklahoma State Bureau of Investigation noticed a pattern of murders taking place along Oklahoma highways. She reached out to the FBI for help and eventually the Highway Serial Killer Initiative (HSK) was created to track both murder victims and serial killers who are using the nation's highways to find and dump victims. Most of these highway murders that have been solved are linked to long haul truck drivers. So, why are there so many truck driver serial killers? Frank Figliuzzi, the former assistant director for counterintelligence with the FBI, sets out to try to answer that question in this book. Figliuzzi looks at both the victims and the perpetrators and what leads both to do what they do.

I was already familiar with HSK thanks to The Killing Season docu-series. Figliuzzi spends time with both a truck driver (riding along with him for a week) and people who are working to help women escape prostitution/human trafficking. While I liked his approach, the book was kind of unorganized and he would often segue into other related stories to the detriment of the initial story in a chapter. It seemed like his focus was much more on current trucking and why that job/life would or wouldn't encourage serial killers. There was not much at all about HSK or much about any of the serial killers caught. I agree with some other reviews that the subtitle (hunting the highway serial killers) is not really what the book is actually about. Overall, I did learn a few things but it wasn't amazing. I learned a lot more about the proliferation of serial killers by watching The Killing Season docu-series.

Figliuzzi did have some good suggestions/ideas in the epilogue - 1) human trafficking education should be a mandatory part of getting a CDL (commercial drivers license), 2) better health care and specifically mental health care for truckers, and 3) better pay and better vetting and hiring of truckers. I thought all those suggestions were very good and would be beneficial overall.

The Chair and the Valley: a memoir of trauma, healing, and the outdoors by Banning Lyon

When Banning Lyon was fifteen he was put into a psychiatric hospital for depression. It was supposed to be for two weeks and ended up being almost a year. The worst part? Banning wasn't clinically depressed or suicidal until AFTER being held in the hospital for a year. Prior to his hospitalization, he was somewhat depressed because he was dealing with the aftermath of his parents very messy divorce. Neither parent seemed to want him and the hospital seemed as good a place as any. If anything I think his mother could have benefited from some psychiatric care - which she never got. A few years after getting out of the hospital, Banning finds out there is a lawsuit with former patients suing the hospital - it was an insurance scam with doctors taking kickbacks for admitting patients who stayed until their insurance coverage ran out. Even after winning the lawsuit, Banning is struggling. Struggling to fit in, struggling with direction in his life, struggling with trusting people and abandonment issues. Eventually after a few more major crises he starts to reconnect with his Dad and also nature. His fondest memories were with his Dad exploring, hiking, and just being outside. Banning eventually starts working as a guide in Yosemite National Park and later working for REI's Outdoor Skills program. This reconnection with nature as a way for healing for himself and also to connect with people again is really what saves Banning's life. Similar to the Netflix series "The Program" this is an eye-opening look at a dark part of our culture that specifically targets teens. Banning is an amazing example of resilience and the power of both the human spirit and nature's healing ability.

*As a side note. Both his parents seemed AWFUL but wow his Mom was something else. I truly think she had some kind of undiagnosed mental illness.

Some quotes I liked:

"I'd been confined to my chair for weeks because I'd forgotten to close the door to my room. After I remembered to close my door, she said I had to keep sitting chair because I'd gotten test marks for slouching or laughing. Then, when I finally started cooperating, she said I was being too compliant and wasn't taking therapy seriously. None of it made any sense. Dr. Fisher said I was depressed, but she made me sit in a chair in the hallway. She said I had a hard time making friends, but she said I couldn't hug anyone or have any private conversations. Staff told us to share our feelings, but they tied kids to beds for raising their voices or getting upset. How was I supposed to take therapy seriously when it looked and felt like abuse?" (p. 53)

"...I came to understand why I'd been sent to Cassidy Place. The outside world wasn't my home anymore. I had been sent away to live with others like me, kids who lived in a strange land on the outskirts of the real world, like the Island of Misfit Toys. We had schools and jobs, but no home. We had no family, but we had one another. The halfway house wasn't meant to reintroduce us to the real world. It was designed to introduce us to a new one." (p. 98-99)

October 2024 Cookbook Reviews

 

Bravetart: iconic American desserts by Stella Parks

I can't remember now how I heard about this cookbook but it seemed really interesting. While there were a few recipes I want to try, a lot of the recipes had tedious amounts of work or odd ingredients. It didn't seem like it was really geared for the home baker, or at least a more advanced home baker. If you want to try to make your own at-home versions of popular snack cakes, cookies, or candy bars then this is definitely the cookbook for you. While I'm all about making things from scratch, sometimes it's OK to just buy a candy bar.

Spend With Pennies Everyday Comfort by Holly Nilsson

Holly Nilsson started her blog, Spend with Pennies, as a way to share her love of cooking with the world. Good, homemade food doesn't have to involve tons of ingredients or rare spices to be good. In this cookbook, Everyday Comfort she shares budget conscious meals that will satisfy your family. There were LOTS of recipes I'd like to try and this is one I might consider buying because there were just SO MANY recipes that looked simple, yet really good. The recipes are divided into several categories like weeknight meals, pasta, sheet pan dinners, etc. and I really liked that she had a separate chapter for recipes with ground beef, and one for chicken. Overall, I was really impressed with this cookbook. This is one I would definitely recommend.

October 2024 Reviews

 At the very beginning of October I REALLY hurt my back - like bedridden, going to the ER, missed 3 weeks of work level hurt. So, I only got 1 book read and that was after I was well enough to go back to work. 

That Librarian: the fight against book banning in America by Amanda Jones

Being a public librarian, I had heard about Amanda Jones and other public and school librarians who were being personally targeted for standing against censorship in libraries. I was excited to read this book and find out more about her story. Her story is pretty crazy in that she was targeted for something she did completely outside her job. She is a school librarian and went and spoke at a public library board meeting when she found out the "book content" was on the agenda. Her speech was not inflammatory in the least, yet the next day she found herself the target of vicious online attacks. After initially being shaken up and crying for an entire weekend, she started to get mad and decided to sue the main two people behind the attack campaign for slander. At the end of the book her case is still pending appeal.

While the description of the book is "part memoir, part manifesto," I could have done with a little less manifesto. I very much enjoyed the first few chapters even while I was enraged with her for what was happening. Then the book started to get pretty repetitive - LOTS of small town drama with local politicians and people who jumped on the bandwagon of defaming her, LOTS of repetition about how important it is for White, straight people to stand up for marginalized communities, and LOTS of repetition about how much this impacted her physical and mental health. I don't want to demean her story AT ALL but there was just a lot of repetition to the point I started skimming those sections.

Let me be 100% clear - as a librarian intellectual freedom is a hill I'm willing to die on. Even if I vehemently disagree with the content, I stand behind public libraries offering any and all viewpoints. If there is something I see that I don't want to read, I don't read it. I don't try to force other people to not read it though. There is definitely a huge rise in book challenges in both school and public libraries and online campaigns have a lot to do with it. This is something EVERYONE should be concerned about. As Jones says, if you have questions about book policies any librarian would be willing to explain their library policies with you. And if you hear about a "concerning" book - check it out from your local library and READ IT before you challenge it or post about it's dangers. While I didn't love every page of this book, it's still an important read. Amanda Jones is a hero and she is standing up to ignorance and censorship.

Some quotes I liked:

"At a recent Livingston Parish Public Library Board of Control meeting in my community, a board member suggested that we should not allow anyone under the age of eighteen in the library without a parent in case they go into the adult system...John Chrastka of EveryLibrary...pointed out that in Louisiana sixteen-year-olds can get married. I hadn't even thought of that. Sixteen-year-olds cna also have jobs. Wanting to ban a sixteen- or seventeen-year-old from entering the library without an adult when they can work and get married at that age is perverse to me." (p. 42-43)

"In 2022, the Office for Intellectual Freedom received a record 1,269 book challenges, the highest number of demands to ban books reported to ALA since the association began compiling data about censorship in libraries." (p. 46)

"When speaking about Utah, Peter Bromberg told Utah's KSL News-Radio, 'It's not school libraries that parents need to be concerned about. It's their phones. If we're really concerned about the deleterious effects of pornography on children's brains, that's where we should be focusing. Not on books or literature.'" (p. 52)

September 2024 Cookbook Reviews

 

Homemade-ish by Lauren McDuffie

I'm a big proponent of making things from scratch - it's often not as time consuming as you think and usually tastes better and is cheaper. That said, sometimes you don't have the time to make something from scratch but still want to eat well. So, I thought this cookbook might have some good recipes to check out. I liked that in the introduction she talks about her food philosophy being in "the middle" between everything from scratch and just buying takeout to eat. I also liked that she made sure all the recipes are made with ingredients that aren't hard to source and without lots of fancy kitchen appliances. But, I personally wasn't impressed with the recipes. There really wasn't much that looked good or that I wanted to try. I do agree with her food philosophy and I wish there were a few recipes I wanted to try. I wouldn't recommend this one.

The Weekday Vegetarians Get Simple by Jenny Rosenstrach

I always liked Jenny Rosenstrach's blog, Dinner, a Love Story and have read two of her other cookbooks. I didn't realize that she had decided to be a "weekday vegetarian" but decided to still check out this cookbook. I'm definitely NOT a vegetarian but I do love vegetables and finding more vegetable forward meals isn't a bad thing. There were a few recipes I want to try but overall I felt like the majority of the recipes in here weren't enough food or protein to be the main course.

September 2024 Reviews

 

Lady Tan's Circle of Women by Lisa See (Books & Banter book club)

Tan Yunxian was born into an elite family of scholars. Her paternal grandparents are both doctors which was rare in that they worked together and that her grandmother was also a doctor from a family of generations of doctors. When Yunxian's mother dies when she is eight-years-old she goes to live with her grandparents because of her father's work travel. Her grandmother recognizes her sharp mind and starts to train her as a doctor. But when she is married off at fifteen, her mother-in-law forbids her to continue her training and also forbids her friendship with Meiling, the daughter of a local midwife. Yunxian's transition into her husband's family home is turbulent, yet Yunxian perseveres and is eventually able to resume her medical studies and even practice on the women in her husband's extended family. Based on a real female doctor in China during the 15th and 16th centuries, Lady Tan's Circle of Women imagines this trailblazer's story.

This is the fourth Lisa See book that I've read and I did not like it at all. If not for my book club reading it I would have quit. The writing was good and she obviously did a TON of research and while Tan Yunxian's story is amazing, the book was so overly detailed and there were SO MANY tangential characters that it bogged the whole book down. There was violence in all the books by See that I've read, but there was just SO MUCH graphic medical stuff in this book that I could have done without - the eunuchs and tapeworm especially. But there was also a LOT of detail about clothing, ceremonies, medical remedies, etc. I also hate in historical fiction books when so much of the storyline is about the petty dramas and backbiting of women - not to say it wasn't true but does it have to be so much of the focus. Especially when the title suggests that Yunxian will have a "circle of women" around her helping/supporting her. Also, for some reason in this book the focus on footbinding just made me angry. It was patriarchal torture that was framed as bettering the woman and a physical manifestation of class. And in this book she talked about another sexual component of it that was even more disgusting. I was hoping that the "woman doctor" would see how destructive the footbinding culture was and try to end it but that wasn't the case. It was also odd how often Yunxian referred to people with "big feet." This whole book's focus on footbinding just made me angry. Overall, I did like the character of Yunxian (less so when she insisted on purchasing concubines for her husband) but did not care for this book. I'll be curious to see what my book club members think of this one.

A Call to Farms by Jennifer Grayson

The average age of a farmer in the US is 58 and rising. While the cost of farmland (and housing in general) has skyrocketed. This situation makes it hard for older farmers to get out and young people interested in farming to get in. In A Call to Farms Jennifer Grayson looks at several different small farms that are finding ways to grow food and create business ventures for young farmers. While she doesn't directly address the issue of how current farmers could partner with young, hopeful farmers to preserve farm land, this book explores several very unique farms that show what you can do on a smaller property and/or with a unique business idea. She tends to throw in personal opinions quite a bit but it's not so much that it gets in the way of the farm stories. A few times she's a little disparaging to farmers who either "ghosted" her or canceled at the last minute. But it's not clear did they have a genuine emergency or were too busy to fit in an interview or if she jumped the gun by flying across the country too quickly. Other than that she does showcase some unique situations and I like her overall message that many smaller farms could definitely replace our current monoculture "go big or go home" agriculture. She also does a good job of highlighting more diverse farmers - women, people of color, and even an indigenous tribe working to grow food for their tribal community. These people are often left out of the current monoculture/big ag as well. Overall I liked it and I really liked the focus on smaller, regenerative farming as being the solution to our food systems failures.

Some quotes I liked:

"What we have right now is a precious spark of enthusiasm for reclaiming gardening wisdom. The National Gardening Association reported that more than 18.3 million Americans started gardening in 2021 alone. 'There's a huge resurgence of people who are really excited to provide for their needs and to feel empowered,' Natalie [Bogwalker of Wild Abundance] said. 'People are starving for it, and for good reason. I think COVID really allowed for that to blossom.' In other words, the pandemic was a collective initiatory experience - one that prompted so many of us to consider alternative paths for our very precious lives." (p. 53)

"What's also seldom noted is what really led to the rationing and food shortages that prompted the US government to propagandize World War II's Victory Gardens: the incarceration of 120,000 Japanese Americans, who until that moment constituted two-thirds of the West Coast's farmers (growing 40 percent of California's vegetables alone). This chapter in our nation's history was shameful even before the evidence emerged that internment was orchestrated by the US government as an agricultural land grab for corporate agribusiness. Victory Gardens were the decoy." (footnote on p. 54)

"But there was a more insidious reason it was easy to find farmland to rent in Connecticut, a state with some of the highest property taxes in the country. '[Property owners] want a tax break,' said Jonathan [Kirschner of Ambler Farm], glossing over a fact understood by every farmer and wealthy investor but unperceived by a general public that has romanticized the profession of farming: Farmland owners are privy not only to numerous tax exemptions and deductions but also a sizeable property tax discount in most states. In Connecticut, $15,000 in farm sales or expenses wins you a property tax abatement of up to 50 percent. Not surprisingly, Jonathan had recently been approached by folks in town who wanted their land farmed, with no lease payment necessary." (p. 73)

"If you, too, are an introvert, I think it's important to know: Yes, humans evolved for social connectivity; yes, many ancestral societies farmed communally, and that model has tremendous potential in the modern agricultural world. But if you're drawn to the happy hermit path of regenerative farming, Alex and Yoko [of Assawaga Farm] are a great example of how to be successful." (footnote on p. 103)

[On intentional farming communities that sound amazing but are VERY pricey] "Serenbe (i.e., the Nygren family) owns the land. The farm manager may be well compensated, but it's a hired position, one that changed hands several times even before I arrived. The farm's interns receive a $1,000 monthly stipend and free housing, but I'm guessing when their internship is over they won't stay in a community where a one-bedroom condo lists for $500,000 and most houses are over $1 million. Even Serenbe's farm animals, I realized, are superficial, reserved for a petting zoo while the farm grows only vegetables. This despite the fact that livestock integration would not only build soil but also a more diversified local diet for residents who, when I was there, shopped for meat, dairy, and staples at chain supermarkets in the outside suburbs...But as with Serenbe, the Kiawah River agrihood - replete with twenty miles of waterfront, an on-site Auberge hotel, and $1 million to $6 million homes - is likely not within the reach of most farmers." (p. 166-67)

While You Were Out: an intimate family portrait of mental illness in an era of silence by Meg Kissinger

Meg Kissinger is the 4th of 8 children growing up outside Chicago, IL during the 1960s. While her family looked like the ideal family from the outside - living in a huge house, members of a country club, vacations, etc. on the inside they were struggling. Meg's mother suffered from severe depression and anxiety and her father had wild mood swings and would later be diagnosed with bipolar disorder. As her older siblings headed toward adulthood they also started exhibiting signs of mental illness. She would lose two siblings to suicide in a time when these kind of things weren't talked about and were a source of shame for the family. Each family member dealt with things in their own way and they NEVER talked about it all together. Meg's way of dealing was to become an investigative reporter who researched and wrote a lot about mental illness, including a few personal stories as well. Only later, after both of their parents had died, did Meg finally start seeing a therapist to deal with all the family trauma. Once she did she knew she had to write a much more personal story - this book.

This book reminded me a lot of Hidden Valley Road by Robert Kolker. Both were large, Catholic families in a time when mental illness or any weakness was NOT discussed publicly. In both cases the parents were also mentally ill as well although again not fully known the extent by the children until after the parents were gone. I did think the siblings in Meg's family had better relationships. Maybe because it was 5 girls and 3 boys instead of 8 boys and 2 girls. There was chaos in Meg's home growing up but not the level of violence as in the Hidden Valley Road home. It was just the perfect storm of the time period, the Catholic, huge families, and mental illness in both cases. Meg does an incredible job of telling her family's story and including all her remaining siblings' versions as well. This is a heart-breaking story of how mental illness impacted the Kissinger family.

Some quotes I liked:

[When Jake visited his college counseling center because he was depressed and struggling] "Jake told the man how lonely he felt and how sluggish he'd become, how he'd toss and turn all night long. He was scared and frustrated as he began to fail one class after another. The counselor's solution? Join a fraternity. Get drunk. Have more fun. Jake didn't know how to have fun, and nothing he was trying was working." (p. 83)

[After their sister Nancy committed suicide they were worried the Catholic church wouldn't perform her funeral since she committed suicide. They did, then this happened.] "Just as the gathering was about to end, a busload of nuns from our high school showed up to say the rosary. One old nun, who taught us math, pulled Mary Kay aside, pointed at Nancy's casket, and whispered, She's going to hell you know." (p. 113)

[When Meg wrote a story for her newspaper about Nancy's suicide and the impact on her.] "I was terrified to go into the newsroom the day after the story ran, afraid everyone would be staring at me. Her sister jumped in front of a train! The elevator doors opened, and I slinked to my desk, trying to avoid eye contact. That was some story, said the medical reporter whose desk was next to mine. Good for you. Colleagues I had never really talked to before stopped by my desk to hug me and to thank me for sharing my story. A quiet man on the copy desk told me his son died like that, too." (p. 156)

Remarkably Bright Creatures by Shelby Van Pelt (Evening Edition - but read early)

Tova Sullivan started working the night shift at the aquarium after her husband died. Keeping busy always helped her cope and she's had more than her share of bad things to cope with including losing her 18-year-old son Erik, her husband's recent death, and estrangement from her brother. But at the aquarium she can be alone and clean and not think about her son and husband. She develops a relationship with Marcellus, a giant Pacific octopus after he escapes his tank and she helps untangle him from cords and get back to his tank. Marcellus is a Remarkably Bright Creature and can read the humans around him very well. He recognizes Tova's sadness and eventually helps her uncover the secrets around her son's death.

This storyline seems pretty implausible and it definitely is. I loved Marcellus's character - he definitely gave off Sad Cat Diary vibes in his "updates." Octopuses ARE Remarkably Bright Creatures but could one figure out the stuff Marcellus figures out about the humans around him? Doubtful. I did love his ending which I did not see coming. All the main characters are a little Island of Misfit Toys-esque and some like Tova and Ethan are very likable. But Cameron was pretty insufferable. I kept forgetting that he was a 30-year-old man and not an angsty teenager. A review I read said that the plot was pretty predictable but it took way too long to get there and I definitely agree. I also felt like the overall tone of the book was sad and depressing until close to the very end. I didn't hate it but I definitely didn't love it.

Alice's Adventures in Wonderland by Lewis Carroll (Books & Banter book club)

Alice follows a white rabbit down a rabbit hole into Wonderland where nothing is as it appears. Alice grows and shrinks by eating or drinking concoctions or sides of a mushroom. She gets advice from a 3-inch-tall smoking caterpillar and a disappearing Cheshire cat. She almost drowns in her own tears and tries to play croquet with flamingos for mallets and hedgehogs for balls with the King and Queen of Hearts. She attends a never ending tea party with a Mad Hatter, March Hare, and sleeping dormouse. All the while wondering how she'll ever get back home. And she does get back home when she wakes up and realizes Wonderland was all a curious dream.

I haven't read this since I was an older child/young teenager. For whatever reason I just LOVED this book and the follow up Through the Looking Glass. While it didn't have quite the same appeal as an adult, the story is definitely unique, creative, and entertaining. It's also much shorter than I remembered. I basically read it in a two sittings. I think for the time period this was written (1865) it was probably pretty ground breaking and it's still entertaining kids and adults today.

Favorite Cheshire Cat quotes:

"'Would you tell me, please, which way I ought to go from here?' 'That depends a good deal on where you want to get to,' said the Cat. 'I don't much care where-' said Alice. 'Then it doesn't matter which way you go,' said the Cat. '-so long as I get somewhere,' Alice added as an explanation. 'Oh, you're sure to do that,' said the Cat, 'if you only walk long enough.'" (p. 49)

"'But I don't want to go among mad people,' Alice remarked. 'Oh, you ca'n't help that,' said the Cat: 'we're all mad here. I'm mad. You're mad.' 'How do you know I'm mad?' said Alice. 'You must be,' said the Cat, 'or you wouldn't have come here.'" (p. 49)

August 2024 Reviews

 

Killers Amidst Killers by Billy Jensen

In Killers Amidst Killers Billy Jensen explores the cases of dozens of missing and murdered women in Ohio. In all the cases he looks at the women were dealing with drug addiction and often prostituting themselves for drugs and/or money for drugs. This type of person makes the perfect victim because often they are estranged from their families and if/when they are found dead the police don't investigate as hard once it's obvious they were a drug addict and/or prostitute. But these women were still people - daughters, often mothers as well, sisters, etc. who didn't deserve to be murdered. Jensen highlights both the women's struggles and the lackluster efforts of police. Can we really be sure these women were murdered though? Both hard drugs and prostitution create a wide variety of ways someone could die. Could serial killers be seeking out these kind of victims? Yes. But do we know that for sure in all the cases he highlights? No. I do think he does a good job of highlighting the very real issues of opioid addiction and unsolved cases of missing/murdered women.

Jensen also interjects his own story into the book discussing his parents addiction issues and how that seemed to be a factor in both of their early deaths. He also discusses his own issues with alcohol and in the acknowledgements at the end talks about how after this book was written he went into rehab and now has 2 years sober. Obviously, he's known for his true crime work but I think he also has a personal connection to addiction issues and that could be why he was drawn to tell these stories. Overall, I like Jensen and really enjoyed this book and his previous book Chase Darkness With Me.

Some quotes I liked:

"In fact, in St. Louis right now, Tom [Hargrove] tells me the lifetime odds of being a murder victim are 1 in 25. In Chicago, they're currently about 1 in 61. 'These would be wonderful odds if you were playing the Powerball; these are awful odds if you want to stay alive.'" (p. 36)

"If you rank your serial killers based on body counts, the collective serial killers of the pill industry blow Gacy, Dahmer, and Bundy away." (p. 123)

"At the end of 2019, the Journal of the American Medical Association published a study analyzing 112 American car manufacturing counties. They search from 1999 to 2017 and charted the communities that lost at least one car manufacturing plant. Then they analyzed the rates of opioid deaths in those communities versus the areas where plants didn't close. In the five years following a plant closure, the death rate from opioids in adults in those counties rose a staggering 85 percent. People had lost their sense of where they belonged. People disconnected from each other, from meaningful work, from financial security." (p. 153)

How to Train Your Human: a Cat's Guide by Babas

This is a cute "manual" written as though from a cat on how to manage and deal with humans. It's a quick read that you could probably finish in one sitting. In between chapters are black and white paintings of cats. Any cat owner will recognize their own cat(s) in the pages depending on how well trained you are. A cute book for any cat lover.

Some quotes I liked:

"Beds - one of the most indisputable wonders so expertly created by humans for their world - deserve a separate chapter. Cushions, blankets, chairs, couches: the primate's den is a comfort paradise. The bed of all beds is the king-size bed, a large, stuffed area furnished with soft layers into which humans slide to sleep." (p. 48)

"Noteworthy makeshift beds also include stacks of clean, ironed laundry, always pleasant and fragrant, and the coats and handbags of guests, preferably those allergic to cats." (p. 51)

"There are rumors of a prime example - that of Koko, a gorilla raised in captivity to whom Francine, a human, taught sign language. Even though the two had spent time together for many years, Koko never managed to teach Francine gorilla language - which proves once again how poorly equipped these loquacious animals are to listen. But let us not digress. What we wish to bring to your attention is that when Francine, using sign language, asked Koko what her greatest wish was, she replied, 'A cat.' And there are numerous reports about the friendship that bound Koko, throughout her long life, to various cats." (p. 118-19)

Magic Pill by Johann Hari

Johann Hari always struggled with his weight. After the COVID pandemic, where he had put on even more extra weight, he was at a party and realized everyone else was VERY thin despite the stressors of the pandemic. A friend pulled him aside and clued him in that everyone else hadn't taken up a rigorous exercise routine, they were using Ozempic - the newest weight loss Magic Pill. Hari decides to look into it and ends up going to his doctor and getting a prescription. But the whole time he's conflicted about taking it. In Magic Pill he explores all aspects of this medication - the pros, cons, concerns, and unknowns. He is also using himself as somewhat of a guinea pig too. In the end, he decides that for himself he feels like the benefits outweigh the risks and decides to keep taking it. I felt like he did a great job of really exploring this medication, how our food has changed, the obesity epidemic, and more with a very open mind and really showing all sides. I was also impressed with how candid he was with his own weight and food struggles. In reading about his home life it was almost guaranteed that he would end up with an eating disorder and/or serious food issues. But I was also somewhat surprised that he made it to 44 years old without understanding that fast food and processed food is NOT as good for you as meat and vegetables and it DOES have a huge impact on your weight and health. Overall, I had no idea what to expect with this book but I really liked it. I will likely check out some of his other books as well.

Some quotes I liked:

"We built a food system that poisons us - and then, to keep us away from the avalanche of bad food, we decided to inject ourselves with a different potential poison, one that puts us off all food." (p. xiv)

"The first way that ultra-processed food undermines our satiety is strangely simple. You chew it less. It is, Tim explained, 'generally very soft...It is adult baby food.' When you eat, your body gradually registers that food is coming in and sends you the signal that you've had enough. If you have to chew your food and it takes longer to eat it, the signal to stop kicks in at the right time, when you are sated. But when you don't have to chew - when it all just slips down your gullet with disarming ease - you don't get the signal to stop until you've gone too far and gorged yourself. Chewing, Tim said, is a necessary brake on overeating, and processed food has tampered with the brakes." (p. 39-40)

"If you deliberately want to make an animal fat, you take away what its ancestors ate and give it an ultra-processed and artificially sweetened replica instead. In other words - Big Agriculture does to animals precisely what the processed food industry is going to us and our children every day." (p. 47)

"Something is wrong, he believes, 'any time a society has a problem that everyone acknowledges is heavily based on the environment, and turns increasingly to treating it in a medical way.' It leads us to neglect what is causing the problem in the first place." (p. 49)

"[Dr.] Max [Pemberton] said the effects of diabetes are so severe, even when it is treated well, that he has personally reached a conclusion that if he had a choice, he would rather be diagnosed as HIV-positive than diabetic. He knows that sounds shocking, but urged me to look at the facts. 'This is from a purely medical point of view. At the moment, people with HIV [who receive treatment] are living as long as somebody without. Someone with diabetes? You lose fifteen years of your life on average,' if you get it as a young adult. And it's not just that you die much earlier. You are far more likely to live with terrible complications, often for years." (p. 61-2)

"Most of the people I knew who were taking these new weight-loss drugs told me that their pleasure in food had plummeted, or even vanished. Food felt, to them, joyless and ulititarian - they ate just because they had to, not because they liked it. Many experts are worried about this. Jerold Mande, the Harvard nutritionist, said...'But the real human pleasure is eating, because you need to make sure you eat every day. So the body had to create a system of pleasure where you would eat every day and not get tired of it...the relationship between food and pleasure is fundamental.' Taking that away is hugely risky, he believes." (p. 137-38)

"When Ozempic pushed me toward eating in a healthier way, I experienced it not as a joyful liberation, but as a frightening and slightly shameful deprivation. I felt like I was being deprived not just of junk food, but of love. I felt, in fact, like I was being punished." (p. 146)

The Hummingbird's Gift by Sy Montgomery

Sy Montgomery had the opportunity to help Brenda Sherburn rehabilitate/rescue two baby hummingbirds. Montgomery flew out to Brenda's home in California where Brenda is a dedicated hummingbird rehabilitator. Rescuing baby hummingbirds is a LOT of work they have to be fed every 20 minutes and need a mixture of crushed fruit flies (preferably fresh) and nectar. Brenda has dedicated a number of years to helping hummingbirds both rescuing them and creating a habitat for them on her property. Interspersed with Montgomery's story of helping Brenda with the orphaned baby hummingbirds are facts about hummingbirds. These birds are incredibly fragile but also the most acrobatic birds in existence. There are also some photographs included - both of the orphaned babies Montgomery helps with and other varieties of hummingbirds. It's noted that this book was a chapter in a previous book but I didn't realize that when I checked this one out. I just love Montgomery's writing and realized this was one I hadn't read. I basically read it a day and it probably could have been one sitting. But it a short, sweet story of two baby hummingbirds that were rescued and went on to be released back into the wild.

Soundtrack of Silence: love, loss, and a playlist for life by Matt Hay

Matt Hay didn't realize as he was growing up that he didn't hear as well as his peers. He was compensating for his diminished hearing without even realizing it. When he tries to enroll in West Point he's denied due to failing the hearing test, but even then doesn't really realize the extent of his hearing loss and issues. In college he is diagnosed with neurofibromatosis type 2 or NF2 - a rare condition where tumors grow on the brain, spinal cord, and peripheral nerves. Removing these tumors is extremely complex because of where they are located and how fragile these nerves are. Right around the diagnosis is when he meets his future wife Nora. While not the best romance backstory, Nora goes into their relationship knowing full well about Matt's medical issues and how they will progress - basically, it's guaranteed that he will become fully deaf. Hay grew up in the 80's and music was the background of his childhood and young adulthood. He decided to memorize all the important songs from his life so that he could "listen" to them in his head once he lost all hearing. Shortly before Matt and Nora get married he has his first major surgery that results in him having to relearn to walk and be out of work for several months. He has different, major complications after his second major surgery to implant an experimental hearing device and ends up partial facial paralysis that creates a whole new major problem with one of his eyes. Through all this Nora is both the primary breadwinner and Matt's caretaker especially during the immediate aftermath of his surgeries. Then they decide they really want children. But with NF2 being genetic that entails IVF and genetic testing of the embryos. Miraculously they end up with twins after the first go with IVF and another daughter the second round a few years later. Matt eventually ends up working a pharmaceutical company as the US director of advocacy for NF.

I picked up this book because like Matt I grew up in the 80's and have a HUGE love for music. Losing my hearing and never being able to hear live music again is a real fear. So, I was curious about his story. He is a good writer and there is a lot of humor despite the hard situations but sometimes it was hard to read about all the surgeries and botched procedures trying to fix side effects of the surgeries, etc. He admits it but his wife is a SAINT. When they had 3 small kids and both are working and he decides NOW is the time to train for the Ironman triathlon I was like, REALLY?! He does own that that was not his best decision but still. I also can't imagine wanting to add kids to the mix when he was still so limited physically. I guess because I never wanted kids I never felt that huge pull to have them but it was still surprising because that was even MORE work his wife took on. Overall, the book was well written and shined a light on a rare condition that I had never heard of before. But I didn't love it and it was hard reading about so much bad stuff happening to one family.

Some quotes I liked:

"Concerts ranked just below rent and food on our monthly budgets. Whether or not we realized it at the time, we drank in each show with a sense of urgency. These weren't casual live-music experiences. We were imprinting memories onto our collective psyche, moments we could fall back on when the silence finally came." (p. 86)

"Remember that rich kid in first grade who came to school with the giant box of Crayola crayons, all sixty-four colors, with names like burnt sienna and sky blue?...the box of crayons was perfect, a full panoply of everything you could want - mountain meadow, cadet blue, atomic tangerine, neon carrot - the box even had a built-in sharpener. That kid with his crayons is a person with normal hearing. Those of us with NF2 who get an implant have the three-pack of crayons you get with the kids' menu at Applebee's." (p. 153)

The French Ingredient by Jane Bertch

Jane Bertch is working for a bank in London when she has the opportunity to transfer to a position in Paris. She immediately jumps on the opportunity but transitioning to life in Paris is much harder than life in London. Parisians are much more closed off socially and don't like to mix work and personal lives so becoming friends with coworkers isn't really a thing. Jane also has language (she knows French but is not fluent) and cultural barriers of overcome. Thankfully her boss helps her understand French culture and over time she does excel in her job. After losing a close friend and her grandmother Jane starts thinking about leaving banking and doing something completely different. She decides to open a cooking school with classes in both French and English and catered more to tourists who want to do more on their Paris vacation. Opening a business in another country is a huge challenge but La Cuisine defies the odds and becomes successful - surviving several calamities like the Iceland volcano eruption of 2010, a terrorist attack on Paris, and COVID. Jane does a great job throughout the book of explaining all the cultural differences between American and French culture and how she managed to navigate all that in both her personal and professional life.

While I did mostly like the book there were several issues I noticed. How did she quit her job and manage to open this business?! She's not a French citizen so I assume she had a work visa that would have ended when she quit her job. Also, the money. I don't need detailed chapters on the finances but I doubt any of this was cheap. She and Olivier start out dating and seem to open La Cuisine together but that's not super clear either and then their break up is just briefly mentioned but he's still her business partner. Did he quit his job when she did? I have a lot of questions about that. I also could have done without 3 chapters on COVID at the end. Overall, I liked the first half to two-thirds better than the end. I feel like there was important stuff left out and too much COVID in the last third of the book.

July 2024 Cookbook Reviews

 

Homestyle Kitchen: fresh & timeless comfort food for sharing by Julia Rutland

This is a great, basic cookbook focusing on homestyle/homemade food. There is a large range of recipes and they all look easy to execute. There were a few that I'd like to try. Overall, this looks like a good, solid cookbook if you would like to incorporate more homestyle/homemade food into your kitchen.