August 2026 Reviews

 

Barn Gothic: three generations and the death of the family dairy farm by Ryan Dennis

Ryan Dennis grew up on a dairy farm in New York. He watched both his grandfather and his father work harder and harder to make a living. When he was younger, he assumed he would take over his grandfather's farm. But after college, he wasn't sure and his grandfather ended up selling his farm. A few years later, his father was crushed by a skid steer while farming and almost died. His accident and recovery spelled the death of his farm as well. Dennis covers a lot of the evils of industrial agriculture and how the "go big or go home" industrial ag mentality put a lot of small farms out of business. But, in his family's case, his grandfather had a pretty big hand in destroying both family farms. Dennis's grandfather fell in 2001 and hit his head on a concrete floor, possibly causing a brain injury. There was a LOT of speculation about how much this brain injury changed his grandfather's personality and drive. But, there were also a LOT of decisions his grandfather made well before that can't be blamed on that injury. I knew this wouldn't be a happy book. But, without giving too much away, I did NOT see his grandfather's hand in the destruction of their family farms coming. To make the whole thing even worse, Dennis's dad seemed like such a great guy who continued to think his own dad was looking out for him, when all along he wasn't. I think the saddest thing about this book is seeing all these adults just ruin their lives instead of actually communicating. This wasn't a story of a family farm being lost to industrial agriculture. This was the story of an extremely dysfunctional family who were equally destroyed by farming and their patriarch.

Some quotes I liked:

"...in 1977, author Wendell Berry debated Nixon's secretary of agriculture, Earl Butz, at Manchester College in Indiana. Berry advocated for better farming over bigger agriculture, suggesting that smaller farms created cultural and social capital within a community. In contrast, Butz declared: 'Adapt of die.' The seventies were good for crop farmers and they heeded Butz's call to expand, only to charge headfirst into the farm crisis of the eighties. By the end of the decade, one-third of the farms held two-thirds of the nation's debt. The number of suicides marked the consequences of following Butz's advice." (p. 41)

"Every morning, we had drawn a pitcher of milk from our bulk tank and drank it like water. During the day, the cream shifted towards the top of the container and left rings on the plastic after each cup was poured. However, as my mother explained, we had brought cows into the herd that we didn't know. While our original cows didn't have Johne's, a condition that leads to Crohn's disease in humans, we couldn't be sure of the new cows. Our milk pitcher got stacked in the back of the cupboard. The fact that a farmer could be divested from the things he made was an uneasy omen." (p. 46)

"It is not the simple nature of economics because economics is not nature, but a game mankind made up with his own rules. If there is anything natural about farm economics, we would have recognized the cost of agribusiness and large farming on our environment, rural communities, and our understanding of ourselves. Through the years, many people have shrugged their shoulders and said that they hate to see small farmers go out of business, but that's just how the world works. However, that is not true. Instead, the world was working just fine before farming got big." (p. 167)

A Hymn to Life: shame has to change sides by Gisele Pelicot

Gisèle Pelicot came to international attention when her husband was arrested and accused of drugging her and raping her and also inviting at least 51 other men to do the same. In France, victims of crimes like this can keep their trial behind closed doors so that the whole world doesn't know all the details of what happened to them. But, Gisèle decided that shame has to change sides and made her trial public - so the media knew the name of every man who participated in raping her while she was drugged. The worst time of her life turned her into a feminist icon. She not only survived the worst time of her life, but actually thrived afterward. Even though she didn't remember any of the rapes, she had to watch every video and see every photograph in preparing for the trials. In A Hymn to Life, Gisèle shares her story - not just the story everyone has read about - but her life growing up and what her marriage was like, or what her side of it was like. She does recognize some red flags in hind sight, but she and her husband married very young and things that seemed odd or out of place didn't outweigh the good things in their relationship to her. Gisèle is really an amazing woman. Not that she didn't suffer and grieve, but her inner strength and inner optimist pulled her through. Amazingly, she even started a new romantic relationship. She decided that the worst things to happen to her would not define her. This is not an easy read, but in the same vein of Know My Name by Chanel Miller, it's definitely worth reading.

Some quotes I liked:

"So many strangers had shown me such kindness, made me feel welcome when I had nothing left. I wasn't scared of being seen now, of people knowing. Shame has to change sides. The words I'd first heard over a decade ago, a slogan supporting women who had survived rape and domestic violence, came into my head like a refrain, as if tiny blades were honing my thoughts. Everyone needs to see the faces of the fifty-one rapists. They should be the ones to hang their heads in shame, not me." (p. 191)

"I can't remember the day I first heard the applause as I walked into the Palais de Justice. I realised that the people around me, mostly women, were forming a guard of honour, something I had never imagined or expected. I could feel the warmth of their bodies, the emotion and vulnerability melding with mine...How could I tell the women waiting to thank me for my courage - when I had no claim to any such thing - that their presence outside the courtroom eased for me what was happening inside, that the long-buried stories they came to lay on the steps were the best possible response to the denial and bravado of the men flexing their muscles inside? I stopped wearing a mask after the first few days, took off my sunglasses to make eye contact, and smiled to let them know I felt less alone with them there." (p. 206 & 208)

Demon Copperhead by Barbara Kingsolver (re-read, Evening Edition book club)

Damon Fields was born to a teenage mother who grew up in foster care and was an alcoholic. His father died before he was born and his mother struggled with both her sobriety and finding a decent paying job. Damon's father was of Melungeon heritage, and Damon inherited his bright red hair and darker complexion - it also earned him the nickname Demon Copperhead. Things are fine for Demon growing up even though they are poor until his mother meets Stoner when he's 10. Stoner isn't wild about dealing with Demon and after an altercation at home Demon ends up in foster care. While in his second foster home, Demon's mom dies of an overdose - one of the first wave of oxy deaths in their area. He eventually connects with his paternal grandmother who helps find him a more suitable home. But when Damon is fifteen he is injured playing football and prescribed opioid painkillers. Even taking them as prescribed he's hooked by the time the prescriptions run out. Luckily for him there are any number of ways to keep accessing pills. After more heartache and death than the average 80 year old sees in their lifetime, Damon starts to dig his way out of addiction in his late teens/early 20's. What the future holds is anyone's guess, but by the end of the book Demon's story has taken a hopeful turn for a change.

Barbara Kingsolver's retelling of David Copperfield by way of Appalachia and the opioid epidemic is brilliant. I can't think of a better written character than Demon. Literally every other page is such a brilliant line from Demon that if you marked them all the whole book would be marked up. In her book Unsheltered, I felt like Kingsolver was VERY heavy handed with her message. This is the opposite. Through Demon you see the struggles of rural, poor Appalachia, but you also see the warmth, resilience, and pride of the people of this region. She also does a great job of showing how areas like this were targeted by Perdue Pharma and how Appalachia became the first wave of the opioid tsunami. I read a LOT and this is one of the best books I've ever read. Demon and the other characters here will stay with me for a long time.

Just a couple extra great quotes:

"I had to do the harder English, which was a time suck, reading books. Some of them though, I finished without meaning to...Likewise the Charles Dickens one, seriously old guy, dead and a foreigner, but Christ Jesus did he get the picture on kids and orphans getting screwed over and nobody giving a rat's ass. You'd think he was from around here." (p. 374)

"I made him a miner, with a pick, overalls, the hard hat with the light on the front. I gave him a red bandanna like the old badass strikers that had their war. No cape, he doesn't fly, just super strong and fast, running over the mountaintops in leaps and bounds. This guy is old-school...I named my strip Red Neck. Signed, Anonymous." (p. 419)

"Is it the hardest thing I've ever done? No. Just the hardest one I had any choice about." (p. 509)

"Everything I looked at made my eyes water. It felt like being in love with somebody that's married. I could never have this. Staying here, alone and sober, was beyond my powers. And I still wanted it with all my hungry parts." (p. 530)

Update on re-reading August 2026: I enjoyed the book just as much if not more reading it a second time. This time because I knew what was going to happen, I was able to enjoy the writing even more. It was harder to read the parts of Demon's early foster care situations this time because you knew it was just going to keep getting worse and he's so young. I still loved the book and love the character of Demon. I'm glad my other book club decided to read this so I had a reason to re-read it.

Some additional quotes I loved this time:

"But sixth grade had tricked me out as a new Demon. I was still me but with sixty-dollar shoes, so. A loser in disguise. Living with Coach was like packing heat. I walked down the hall and the crowd parted. Not like pee-yew, I smell foster-boy ass, but like, Wow. There he goes." (p. 227)

"I told Angus my mom being dead wasn't something I pinned exactly on my birthday. 'It's more like this bag of gravel I'm hauling around every day of the year. If somebody else brings it up, honestly, I'm glad of it. Like just for that minute they can help me drag the gravel.'" (p. 246)

"What I said before about having some golden time of life where it's all good, your people have got your back, and you don't notice? That's how the cruel world bites you. I have bad days galore to look back on, the shamings and hard fists, and I'll tell you what. It's the golden times that kill me. I had two. And like a son of bitch, I missed them both." (p. 254)

"If wishes were horses, like they say. We'd all have different shit to shovel." (p. 473)

"Hammer and Maggot waded ahead of me with sturdy strides, or they balanced and hopped from rock to rock, and it choked me up to watch them use their bodies that way, without a thought. Something I'd probably lost for good." (p. 482)

"They wanted payback. I thought about what Rose said, wanting to see the rest of us hurt, because she was hurting. You have to wonder how much of the whole world's running is fueled by that very fire." (p. 496)

"I think most of humankind would agree, the hard part of high school is the people." (p. 519)

Dead Bees Still Sting: tales of life at the edge of nature by Susan Cormier

Susan Cormier keeps bees and this book is a collection of essays/writing on keeping bees and interactions she has with other wildlife around her home. A few of the essays were good and she is a good writer. But I needed more information on her - she never says where she lives or other details about her property (Canada was mentioned but no details on where in Canada). She mentions multiple times about how once she and her husband leave this property it will just be razed and scraped, but she never says why she thinks that. There is NO ONE who would want to buy their property and also keep bees or other animals? There was an undertone of negativity about the future of their property. There was also a VERY long chapter about keeping quail which was interesting until rats starting killing their quail and they trapped the rats and relocated them. Come on. That is ridiculous. Rats are smart so they are hard to trap or kill - I know from personal experience but in my case 2 black snakes took care of our rat problem for us. But relocating them - get serious. The last essay was also VERY odd about a prince and princess (I'm assuming it was her and her husband) and the princess is in a car accident and injured - it was very out there and did not fit with the rest of the essays in the book at all. The writing was good and I did enjoy the few essays about bees/beekeeping, otherwise I would have rated it a 1 star.

A Marriage at Sea by Sophie Elmhirst (Books & Banter book club)

Maurice and Maralyn are an odd couple. He is nine years older and a confirmed awkward loner. She is the life of the party but is kept on a tight leash by her parents even when she's an adult. But when they meet it's an instant connection. Other people might not understand what Maralyn sees in Maurice, but they are happy and in love. After they've been married a few years, they decide to sell their house and build a boat and live on the boat full time, traveling the world. They set sail in June of 1972 and all is well for almost a year. They sail all over, meet other sailers and make lots of friends. They love the freedom of the open ocean. But in March of 1973 a whale hits their boat and it sinks. They have enough time to grab as many essentials as they can before the ship sinks. Then it's the two of them with an inflatable dingy and life raft and the supplies they managed to grab. Immediately, Maurice is despondent and often thinks of possible ways to commit suicide if they aren't rescued. Maralyn is sure every day that today is the day they will be rescued. Their marriage is tested beyond measure during the time they are shipwrecked.

The parts about building the ship and their time at sea (before and after the ship sinks) are compelling. You aren't sure if they will both survive and how long it will take for them to be rescued. After they are rescued, that section is really interesting too. But, the end is a let down. The author skips over the end of their second sailing adventure - what happened after that trip? Why did they sell the boat and move back to land? etc. And also the last section focuses so much on how awful Maurice is without Maralyn to balance him out. Not that the author should paint him better than he was, but it made the end of the book a real let down. I feel like there could have been a better way to end their story and there was a lot that wasn't covered that would have been more interesting than how miserable Maurice was at the end of his life.

Some quotes I liked:

"Once they'd returned to their blanket, Suh watched the woman pat dry her hair, a practised gesture she must have performed a thousand times in the comfort of a bedroom. She crawled over to their heap of things and dug out a comb. Sitting close to the man, she started combing his hair, then stroked his cheek. The crew fell quiet. Suh felt a pain in this chest, which he decided was heartache. Perhaps it was the years away from home, the years without touch or intimacy, the sight of a wife's kindness, a small but deliberate act of care. He hadn't seen or felt anything like it for so long. It must have been this tenderness, he thought, that had kept them alive." (p. 143)

"Maurice felt like a veteran from a long and distant war returning home to find people concerned with the minor preoccupations of their own lives and the wedding day of a princess. What would she wear? He'd known what it was to live at the edge of death." (p. 181)

"Maralyn, meanwhile, was consumed by their plans. No one seemed to understand their desire to return to the sea, and people often asked why they didn't buy a house instead. 'If your house burnt down, you'd build another house,' Maralyn would reply. 'But my home had sunk, so I'm going to build another home.'" (p. 181)

"Maurice wasn't quite able to grasp that it wasn't the voyage itself that had made their last book an attractive commercial proposition, but its failure. No one would have suggested they write a book of their travels if they'd arrived safely in New Zealand. No one wants to read the story of an adventure going right." (p. 188)

July 2026 Reviews

 

The Salt Stones: seasons of a shepherd's life by Helen Whybrow

Helen Whybrow grew up on a farm and was used to growing her own food, heating with wood, and all that comes with a homestead lifestyle. As an adult, she feels drawn back to the land and wants to live on a farm again. Whybrow and her husband have the opportunity to be stewards on a farm in Vermont as long as they promise to keep it in agriculture and run educational programs. They start raising sheep, in addition to chickens and growing vegetables and fruit. The Salt Stones is the story of Whybrow's life as a shepherd. The book starts with her helping a ewe struggling to give birth and only one of the twin lambs surviving. That pretty much sums up farming with animals - there is a LOT of death involved. But, a lot of joy too. Whybrow's writing is beautiful and she explores everything from the day-to-day life on the farm, to the history of sheep in America, and her own personal background and life struggles. She doesn't sugarcoat it, this life is hard. But there is also a lot of satisfaction and joy in it as well. Whybrow does a great job of capturing both.

Some quotes I liked:

"Industrial farming, in which animals are fed grain in barren feedlots, interrupts millions of years of coevolution - for the grasslands and grazing animals that formed a unique relationship, for the humans who understood how these relationships ensured mutual flourishing and could turn grass into milk and meat for their own consumption, and for an entire universe of soil and gut microorganisms that are designed to help soil grow grass and ruminants to digest it. As I learn how everything is connected, I see more clearly how thin the line is between damage and healing in farming. The way we farm places us on a spectrum from poisoning and depleting the land to being a partner in its restoration and resilience." (p. 52)

"We have no trouble cataloging the loss of single species, but it is the diminishment of all species that will cause nature's intricately woven system to collapse, and diminishment is harder to perceive. As our experience of nature also dies, our senses no longer know how to measure the world around us. Can one sense diminishment of all species if one has never been a quiet member inside the full symphony of spring?" (p. 84)

"When you farm in America, there's always the pressure to scale up. Our culture doesn't respect the small. But even small hill farms, given enough of them, can make a substantial contribution to the self-reliance and local economy of a region, both through what they produce and also what they need in the way of supporting local services - vets, tractor supply stores, feed stores, seed, labor. Small farms everywhere are endangered. They are a species people don't think about until they are gone, and suddenly the place they live has less of a story, feels tangibly less vibrant, healthy, and enlivening to the spirit. Small farms are worthy and need help to hang on." (p. 165)

"The things I strive for in my flock - like strong mothering and hardiness for a winter climate - are bred out of modern herds. Modern breeds are totally different in looks and behavior from the more primitive breeds like ours that were adapted to raise themselves and their young with little help. Modern sheep breeds are the equivalent of a supermarket tomato, bred to be generic. They can't thrive on what nature provides, on grass alone." (p. 208)

We the Women: the hidden heroes who shaped America by Norah O'Donnell

In celebration of America's 250th birthday, Norah O'Donnell wrote We the Women to highlight the often unknown and hidden heroes of the past 250 years. The book is divided into 4 time periods and each section highlights many important women that could have been lost to history. I definitely learned about many new women from our country's history. This book highlights how far we have come as American women, but also how quickly what these women worked for could be taken away. And just how long it took for women's rights to be fully recognized. This should be required reading for everyone to get a more full understanding of our country's history. My only complaint is that the 5th section "My Lifetime...1976-Today" was more highlights from that 50 year period and not it's own full section. I understand that 2026 is not over, but I think she could have made that a full section like the other time period sections. Overall, I loved it. It's also a fairly quick read because each woman's story is only a few pages.

Some quotes I liked:

"In what would become a famous phrase a century later, Sarah [Grimke] declared: 'I ask no favors for my sex. I surrender not our claim to equality. All I ask our brethren, is that they take their feet from off our necks.' In fact, Ruth Bader Ginsburg quoted this passage from Sarah in her oral argument before the Supreme Court in the 1973 case of Frontiero v. Richardson, a landmark case against sex discrimination." (p. 71-72)

"The defining achievement of the women's Progressive Era activism culminated in the passage of the Nineteenth Amendment - the largest enfranchisement in America's history, giving twenty-six million women the right to vote, although women of color were often excluded. Before that, many women in the West at the turn of the century could vote - in Wyoming in 1890, Colorado in 1893, Utah and Idaho in 1896. But this wasn't because men realized the error of their ways. Instead, men wanted to entice women to move West and understood how coveted the right to vote was to most women. Men were willing to give women the vote when it was useful to them." (p. 140)

Outsider Animals by Marlene Zuk

Marlene Zuk is a professor of Ecology, Evolution, and Behavior at the University of Minnesota. She's studied all kinds of animals and while she can find something to love about most animals, insects, etc. not everyone feels the same way. In this book, Zuk is highlighting some Outsider Animals that tend to get a bad rap or humans find a nuisance. But Zuk feels that all animals have something to teach us and hopes this book will help you appreciate these less-loved animals. "One of the definitions of appreciation is 'a full understanding of a situation,' without any values attached." (p. 4) Zuk covers 9 different animals and makes the case that they all have something to offer. I will admit, I could barely read the chapter on cockroaches. But she makes a good case for the rest of the "outsiders." I think my main takeaway was that humans like to categorize animals as good or bad and that's not how nature operates. A songbird is technically a "predator" of insects, but most people don't think of songbirds as predators. An interesting book about some less-loved but common place animals.

Some quotes I liked:

[Margaret Renkle writes]"'When you are paying attention to nature, you will always see something you don't want to see, some workings of the great world that don't comport with your own taxonomies, your own notions of justice.' She's right. It all comes down to who you want to root for. In those nature documentaries about lions in the Serengeti, we tend to cheer when the gazelle gets away, but what about the poor little cubs left without their supper? Predators need to eat, too, and sometimes their prey is cute. We don't have to love the blood and guts of hunting other animals for food, but we need to recognize how subjective we are in our judgement of what goes on in the natural world." (p. 78)

"Andrea Griffin noted that people have changed their minds about many animal species, and gives crows as a perfect example. Crows, she points out, have always been recognized as clever, but hundreds of years ago, that cleverness was tied to villainy. Crows were evil plotters, sinister. Then, perhaps starting a couple of decades ago, the whole jay and crow family, the corvids, received something of a rehab. Scientists discovered that crows could use, and even make, tools, and ravens could solve complex problems. Their intelligence suddenly became admirable, not evil." (p. 108)

The Self-Fed Farm and Garden by Eliot Coleman

Eliot Coleman is one of the most well known farmers promoting the organic movement. He and his wife, Barbara Damrosch, started the Four Season Farm in Maine. Growing food year round in Maine shows he knows what he's talking about. He also only just recently retired from Four Seasons at 86 years old. In The Self-Fed Farm and Garden, he is teaching his method for having a completely self-sufficient, self-fed farm. His farm is a vegetable farm without any animals to create/add manure. But Coleman promotes growing your own "green manure," plants that you grow only for the benefits to the soil - whether nitrogen fixing or to till under as more immediate compost. Coleman's garden is a business, so they are growing a LOT of food. But he does talk about how this can translate to a smaller household garden. I do a lot of gardening and just this year started experimenting with "undersowing," growing a second plant (either to harvest or for green manure) under a taller plant. A lot of what Coleman talks about is more for a larger market garden and some of it was over my head as a gardener. But, it's a quick read and the main premise is important - the more garden inputs you can control, the better. There are also a ton of awesome pictures of Four Season Farm throughout the book. If you're trying to up your garden game, this is one to check out.

Destroy This House by Amanda Uhle

Amanda Uhle had a chaotic, but loving family life. Her mother was a fashion school dropout and her father was a wheeler-dealer who always had a new money-making idea that never seemed to actually make money. When the bottom fell out, they would just pack as much of their stuff as they could and pick up stakes to somewhere else. Never paying any past debts, never taking care of the homes they lived in, and her mother's hoarding added to the chaos inside their home. Amanda had a reoccurring dream throughout her teenage years that she was ordered to Destroy This House and while she desperately wanted to, she was terrified in her dream of her parent's reaction to the destruction. Once she moved out for college, she had a little more breathing room. But as she moved further away from them as she became an adult, they started to guilt her into doing more and more for them. While both her parents health was declining, often hospital trips coincided with other important or special dates in Amanda's life. In the last decade of her parent's lives, the time Amanda describes as "gory," she struggled with trying to help them and trying to set reasonable boundaries. She was also uncovering more and more scraps of the truth - something neither of her parents were good at telling. This memoir is her account of her life with her parents and trying to unravel who they actually were and what was or wasn't true about her childhood memories.

It's been awhile since I read a really good dysfunctional family memoir. Amanda's parents were both likely mentally ill and her mother in particular probably had multiple un-diagnosed mental illnesses. Not quite as good as The Glass Castle, but definitely in the same vein. If you enjoy a good dysfunctional family memoir, I would recommend this one.

Some quotes I liked:

"Separately and together, my parents had a knack for self-made obstacles, a proclivity for building situations of extreme hardship for themselves. It made them happy. I came to understand it as something sacred about their true selves. Buying a house whose location promised four hours of commuting each day brought them a distinctive sense of satisfaction, their travails validated and the chaotic world momentarily clicking into precise alignment as they signed the real estate paperwork." (p. 34)

"I was growing more and more afraid of something else. The longer we lived in our huge house with our huge number of things, the more generally uncomfortable I felt. It was a nonspecific malaise that I couldn't name. I understood that the same thing that made me anxious was the exact thing that gave Mom joy. To me, it felt like the things we owned outnumbered us, were taking over." (p. 106)

"And why, in our malaise and our love and our stories and savagery and tenderness of all those years together did we never remember that long is a verb? 'To feel a strong desire or craving especially for something not likely to be attained. To pine. To yearn.'" (p. 336)

June 2026 Cookbook Reviews

 

The Flavor of Fire by Kelsey Barnard Clark

This cookbook is all about Southern grilling. Clark gives a lot of helpful information about set up, grilling tools needed, and tips on both grilling and smoking. The first section of recipes is divided into grilling and smoking with tips for all types and cuts of meat. Then she goes into rubs and marinades and then grilling/smoking sides. I love grilling and you can really do a lot on a grill, but I never understand making biscuits or bread on a grill - unless you're camping out and don't have access to an oven. There is a lot of good information, I just didn't find many recipes I wanted to try.

Eating at Home by Trinity Mouzon Wofford 

A lot of the current food culture is about not cooking - food delivery, meal kits, hacks, etc. The premise of Eating at Home is what if cooking meals from scratch wasn't just about the food but about being in the present moment. I really like that Wofford focuses on using seasonal, local produce and sourcing high quality food. The recipes are organized like a typical cookbook - breakfast, lunch, dinner, baking, etc. While I love the premise of the book, I didn't find many recipes I wanted to try. But I do agree with Wofford about the importance and financial savings of cooking from scratch with local food.

The Complete Grilling and Barbecue Cookbook by America's Test Kitchen

This is a very comprehensive cookbook all about grilling. I wouldn't expect anything less from America's Test Kitchen. The first section gives a lot of helpful tips about grilling with both charcoal or gas. Then the chapters are about grilling specific types of meat, vegetables, pizza, bread, dessert, etc. There is also a chapter about sauces, relishes, and rubs. This is a very thorough cookbook with a lot of information and recipes. If you are new to grilling or want to up your grilling game, this is the cookbook to check out.

King Arthur Baking Company's The Book of Pizza by King Arthur Baking Company

If you like pizza, this is the cookbook for you. King Arthur Baking Company covers every aspect and every style of pizza. The first section covers "the elements of great pizza" - dough, sauce, cheese, toppings, bake, and finishing touch. Then the recipes are based on the type of pizza - Chicago, New York, weeknight, Neapolitan, etc. At the end of the cookbook are chapters on pizza night salads and desserts. I also really like that the recipes include measurements by both weight (grams) and volume (cups). Whether you're new to making pizza at home or want to up your game, this is a great cookbook to check out.

The Taste of Country Cooking: 50th Anniversary Edition by Edna Lewis

This is a 50th anniversary edition of the Edna Lewis classic Southern cookbook, The Taste of Country Cooking, that was originally published in 1976. This edition has the foreword written by Toni Tipton-Martin, but I liked that at the end they included the foreword and introductions of the 2006 edition (30th anniversary edition) as well. The book is organized by the four seasons and Lewis writes an introduction to that season with what would be growing, other seasonal things happening - celebrations, etc. and then throughout the recipes in the section, there are other notes about dishes or ingredients. This cookbook definitely stands the test of time and showcases simple, seasonal, Southern cooking.

The Great Book of Chocolate by David Lebovitz

Who doesn't love chocolate? So, a cookbook full of chocolate recipes is sure to be great, right?! David Lebovitz really explores chocolate thoroughly in this cookbook. The first 70 pages are all about how chocolate is made, a history of chocolate, types of chocolate, how to buy and store chocolate, etc. The the rest of the book are the recipes. The majority of the recipes are sweet, but there are a few savory ones at the very end. I was expecting to find more recipes I wanted to try, but there were only a few that looked good to me. But, it's a very thorough book with all the other information about chocolate in addition to the recipes.

Vegetables the Italian Way by Giulia Scarpaleggia

I'm not vegetarian, but I do love vegetables and I'm always looking for new ways to cook with them. I really like that this cookbook is organized by the way the vegetables are cooked, so even though one vegetable might be in a recipe, you could easily substitute something else. Several of the recipes do include a note on different variations or substitutions. If you're looking to incorporate more vegetables into your diet or eat more seasonally, this is a great cookbook to get some ideas.

In Season by Lisa Steele

I love a good seasonal cookbook, but this one was odd. Instead of the recipes being organized by season, the recipes were still by type (soup, salads, vegetables, etc.) and then within each chapter there were notes at the top of which season applied to that recipe. There are also 4 chapters on eggs which also seemed odd. The author's previous cookbook is all egg recipes, so obviously she's into eggs but to have 4 entire chapters in this type of cookbook seemed odd to me. I really don't like that the recipes weren't organized by season - to me that is the whole point of a seasonal cookbook. My other main complaint was that the Introduction and chapter about sourcing ingredients were in white font on a green background and it was extremely hard to read. Overall, I wasn't impressed with this one.

June 2026 Reviews

 

The Tragedy of True Crime: four guilty men and the stories that define us by John J. Lennon

John Lennon is a writer. But he is also a murderer, currently incarcerated, doing 28 to life for his crime. While in prison he attended a writing workshop and began writing to process his life and crime. He became a published author and began to struggle with his identity. Is he a writer? Is he a murderer? Can he be both? How can someone ever apologize or repent enough when you kill someone? "True crime is the antithesis of the notion that we are more than our crimes. It turns back the clock and replays the worst moments of someone's life, reconstructs and reenacts it all for entertainment, usually by exploiting the people most affected by the violence - victims whose wounds haven't healed, perpetrators who haven't reckoned with their guilt. This is the tragedy of true crime." (p. 297) In The Tragedy of True Crime Lennon explores all of this through his own story and the story of three other murderers - what their background is, what their crime was, and how they've tried (or not) to change and grow in prison. It's definitely a unique book. Lennon is very transparent about his own crime and how much it has affected his victim's family. He does a great job of telling the other stories as well. I agree with some reviews I read that I wish the stories were more separated with like a section for each man's story. All 4 stories were told throughout the book and it made it a little harder to follow each story all the way through. Overall, a tough read but definitely thought provoking.

The Butter Book by Anna Stockwell

As the title states, this book is all about butter. And I love that the actual book is made to look like a stick of butter. Anna Stockwell covers a brief history of butter, how to make butter, butter accessories, tips for buying butter, how to make clarified, compound, and whipped butter, and then several butter-centric recipes. There are also several pictures included - not just of the recipes, but also a page with photos of butter accessories. This is a very quick, one sitting read. It will definitely make you crave something buttery to eat at the end!

Go As a River by Shelley Read (covering Chapter 3 book club)

At seventeen years old, Victoria Nash has dealt with more hardships than most adults several times her age. When she was 12, her mother, aunt, and cousin were all killed in a car accident. Just before that her uncle had come home from WWII a double amputee and has since turned into a mean drunk. Now she's keeping house for 3 men who are unhappy and like to take it out on everyone around them. But a chance encounter with a drifter named Wilson Moon changes the entire trajectory of her life. Her brief relationship with Moon will sever her ties with her family and lead to even more heartbreak and tragedy. Despite all the hardship and loss she's faced, Victoria not only keeps going, but manages to save her family's peach tree legacy when the government decides to demolish her hometown to create a reservoir. More than 20 years after she met Wilson Moon and her life changed dramatically, Victoria has the chance to regain some happiness for herself and right a few of the wrongs from her past.

I really had no expectations with this book, but I did enjoy it. The overall Job-esque vibe for Victoria was a little over the top, but not completely uncommon for that time period (1950-1970). The whole storyline was also a little overly melodramatic and emotional. Not giving anything away, but I did like the way the book ended. I also really liked the two other female characters - Zelda and Inga - who added a lot to the story. I read this for a coworker to cover her bookclub while she's on vacation and the book club should love this one. Lots of topics to talk about.

Garden for Life: strategies for easier, greener, more joyful gardening as we age by Rhonda Hayes

This is a very unique gardening book in that it is all about how to keep gardening as you age. Rhonda Hayes is a Master Gardener and has always enjoyed gardening from a young age. But, as she's aged, she's realized that you need to adapt your garden to your stage of life - whether that means downsizing, hiring out more of the heavy lifting, or changing up your containers or even the type of plants you grow. The book is divided into three categories - rightsizing your garden, designing for comfort and joy, and staying in the game. Gardening is one of the best ways to stay active as you age, but making your garden easier to manage can be helpful at any age. Hayes gives lots of good tips and resources throughout the book. I'm in my late 40's, but my husband and I are already adjusting somethings now to make things easier to manage. I definitely got some good ideas from this book.

A Year With the Seals by Alix Morris

I love a good animal book and didn't know much about seals so when I saw this book I wanted to read it. But, I don't feel like I know that much more about seals - I know a LOT more about the controversies around human-seal interactions. Alix Morris spends a year researching seals and traveling all over the North American waters to learn about different seal populations and conservation issues. I agree with another review I read that only a small percentage of the book is actually about seal life - the majority is the author's travels and various groups who are either studying seals, helping seals, or fighting to reinstate seal culls. I personally don't have a ton of sympathy for commercial fisherman who hate seals, but Morris does include a chapter about the Native Puyallup in the Pacific Northwest who are having issues with seals and sea lions greatly impacting their Native salmon diet. Overall, I learned a little about seals but this book was lacking to me. I was hoping for more seal-focused information and pictures would have gone a long way in adding to the book too. Not the best animal book out there in my opinion, despite Sy Montgomery writing the foreword.

The Carpool Detectives: a true story of four moms, two bodies, and one mysterious cold case by Chuck Hogan

At the beginning of the COVID pandemic in 2020 four moms, who knew each other tangentially through their children's school, end up bonding over their love of true crime and an unsolved double murder from 15 years ago. The four women, Marissa, Jeannie, Samira, and Nicole, all have different backgrounds and had all let their careers take a backseat to motherhood. During COVID while forced to stay at home, they dive into this cold case. Calling and interviewing family members and witnesses, digging into backgrounds and possible suspects, even reaching out to the original detective on the case (now retired). The women all become very invested in the case. What no one expected was that they would actually solve it. Even though their initial suspicion was wrong, the actual culprit is much more dangerous than they anticipated and the women may be in real danger if it came to light all that they uncovered.

I was a little surprised by the mixed reviews and I'm glad I didn't read those before deciding to read the book. I knew this took place in the early days of COVID and while I don't disagree that COVID became like another character in the book, I don't feel like it was the whole focus. Did I agree with all the women's views? No. But that didn't keep me from enjoying the book. I thought the book was very well written. I was shocked to see that this is the author's first nonfiction book. I felt like he did a great job of telling each woman's story, their combined story of working on this case, and then the story of the actual murder case. Overall, I loved it. I don't read a ton of true crime because it seems to be a genre that's hard to do well. But, Chuck Hogan did a great job and I hope he considers writing more nonfiction in the future.

May 2026 Cookbook Reviews

 

The High-Protein Plate by Rachael DeVaux, RD

Getting enough protein, especially as we age is so important. I wanted to check this cookbook out to see if I could find some new, higher protein recipes to try. DeVaux divides the recipes into 4 categories - Breakfast, Everyday Mains, Soups, Salads, and Snacks, and Dessert. Other than the Dessert category, the other categories have subcategories of recipes like Slow Cooker Mains, One Pan Meals, etc. Overall, the recipes look good and not too complicated. I did find a few I'd like to try. If you want/need to add more protein to your diet, this is a good place to start.

The Stress Free Slow Cooker by Stephanie Gigliotti

I tend to cook on 1-2 days for the whole week, so I'm always looking for easy ways to make meals that will have leftovers. Crockpots are great for doing the cooking for you, so you can do other things. This is a great cookbook with lots of crockpot meals. The recipes are organized by type of recipe like Classic Comforts, Five Ingredients or Less, Better Than Takeout, etc. I already use my Crockpot regularly, but I did find a few new recipes I'd like to try. This would be great for someone new to Crockpot cooking or with not a lot of time to cook each night.

May 2026 Reviews

 

Mailman: my wild ride delivering the mail in Appalachia and finally finding home by Stephen Grant

In March of 2020 Stephen Grant was laid off from his marketing job at the very beginning of the COVID pandemic. He had recently been diagnosed with cancer, so he needed to find a job with insurance and fast. After several weeks of looking, he ended up applying to work as a mailman and ended up getting a job in his hometown of Blacksburg, VA. Grant does a really good job of combining his personal story with the inner workings of the US Postal Service. This is HARD WORK. Especially for someone who has had a career in knowledge work, not working with your hands and being out in every kind of weather, year-round. His initial smugness at picking up the job so easily is quickly humbled once he's out on a route by himself. It's hard work and you're alone with a LOT of time to think. But he perseveres and ends up working in the job for over a year - a lot of newbies don't even last the first week. The experience is both humbling and a source of pride for Grant. He shares the highlights, the times he almost quit, the memorable customers (both good and bad), and everything in between.

I really liked Grant's writing and he was pretty funny too. He did a great job of combining his back story with his time working as a mailman. I also appreciated that while the entire timeframe of the book is during peak COVID, there was not tons of talk of masks/vaccines/politics. There was some of all of that, but it wasn't the dominant topic. I also appreciated his descriptions of how physically taxing this job is and his newfound respect for mail carriers. Now I understand more why my mail woman drives like a bat out of hell - she has a LOT of work to do in a very short amount of time. I really enjoyed this one and would highly recommend it.

Some quotes I liked:

"What carrying the mail taught me is that modern life has made us strangely weak in many ways. Weak memories for space, for numbers, for language. Our bodies are capable of walking tens of miles every day, of memorizing every fold of huge territories, of tolerating great heat and great cold, yet in our modern life all these capabilities are latent. When I think about the way that carrying the mail changed me, I wonder how much of it was tapping into this different experience of being human." (p. 101-102)

"I had worked jobs in my twenties, thirties, and forties that I had wanted to quit so bad that it created a physical sensation like tinnitus, a palpable bodily unease similar to but distinct from depression. I say this with a connoisseurship of both job hatred and depression that has been cultivated over a lifetime of experience. This was different. This was about actually trying and coming up short, and it was really fucking with me. The reality of just how slow and inaccurate I was dominated my waking thoughts. At night I dreamed about losing the mail, about being behind." (p. 109)

"There is an actual route in Arizona that delivers to the bottom of the Grand Canyon, by burro. Do you think the USPS makes money on these customers? Profit is irrelevant. The law says your mail gets delivered." (p. 135)

[About a particularly unpleasant customer/resident] "She had the gaunt look of a militant vegan who was professionally miserable." [If you can't picture someone like this immediately, count yourself lucky]

Table for Two by Amor Towles (Books & Banter book club)

I really enjoyed The Lincoln Highway by Towles, so I was really looking forward to reading this one. I didn't love it. All of the short stories are just odd - odd characters, odd storylines, odd endings, just odd. Maybe because I was actually looking forward to reading it, I ended up disappointed. Towles is a great writer - none of the stories were poorly written. But some of the stories and many of the characters were overly pretentious. I just didn't love most of the characters. And I agree with several reviews I read that the book didn't need the novella at the end. I think the New York stories as a collection would have been fine on their own. If he wants to write a follow up to Rules of Civility, then do that as a separate novel. And not having read Rules of Civility that novella was harder to get into for me - the first half was pretty slow. It did pick up in the second half, but like the short stories it ended too abruptly for me. Overall, it was OK verging on good, but not great.

James by Percival Everett (Evening Edition book club)

James is a retelling of Twain's classic The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn told from runaway slave Jim's perspective. When Jim learns he is going to be sold away from his wife and daughter, he decides to run away and figure out a way to either buy his freedom and theirs or come back for them. Coincidently, the same day Jim decides to run away Huckleberry Finn decides to fake his own death to run away from his abusive father. Now Jim realizes that he'll be blamed for Huck's death too if he's caught. Jim and Huck go on the run together and wind up in several surreal and terrifying situations before Jim is finally able to get his wife and daughter and escape to the North on the brink of the Civil War. Everett's writing is fantastic. But this is still a hard book to read. Even though Jim's story turns out better in the end - he is reunited with his wife and daughter and gets to freedom - his time as a slave can never be erased. The sheer brutality is always horrifying to read about even in fiction. This book reminded me a lot of The Underground Railroad by Colson Whitehead. A hard read, but well written and a unique look at a well-known Twain character.

The New Perimenopause by Mary Claire Haver, MD

As a woman in my mid-to-upper-40's, I knew I was probably in perimenopause but no doctors were talking to me about it at all. I had seen some videos from Dr. Haver on Instgram and so when I saw this book I decided I should probably read it to understand more about my current stage of life. And I am so glad I did! I realized that almost ALL of my current health issues can be tied back to perimenopause - things like suddenly my cholesterol and a1c numbers are up, my already pretty short fuse being markedly shorter, frustration, joint issues, weight gain - ALL OF IT is tied to the changing hormones of perimenopause. In America we have sick care, not health care, so as Dr. Haver points out most doctors aren't trying to be dismissive of your symptoms, they are just doing what they've been taught about perimenopause and menopause - which is next to nothing. Dr. Haver began doing more research as she began to get into menopause and is now sharing what she's learned and how she's changed her own medical practice to better address women's health needs throughout their entire life. Dr. Haver shows how just about every system in the body is affected by changing sex hormones during perimenopause. She also gives tips about what you can do to find some relief for each of those area/issues. She reiterates that this is not a one-size-fits-all situation and lifestyle (sleep, diet, exercise, etc.) definitely plays a role as well. This was a VERY eye-opening book for me and I'm so glad I read it now. If you are a woman who is in your 40's even if you think you're too young for perimenopause - you're not and you need to read this book.

Some quotes I liked:

"But another complicating factor is that perimenopause requires a symptom-based diagnosis rather than a lab-test-based one. There are currently no lab tests that allow for a conclusive and straightforward diagnosis of perimenopause, so a doctor must rely on their knowledge of symptoms related to this reproductive transition to make that diagnosis. Well, this is a big problem since doctors aren't being educated about symptoms. I was never taught during my residency that perimenopause had any symptoms other than disrupted periods. The majority of clinicians don't have a bank of knowledge to rely on for the diagnosis and treatment of perimenopause, so many sadly default to dismissive condolences." (p. 16)

"This is why I've been working hard to promote the message that perimenopause is a metabolic event, not just a reproductive milestone. If we're not looking at the whole picture - including cholesterol, inflammation, blood sugar, and fat distribution - we're missing key opportunities to protect women's health." (p. 111)

The Company of Owls by Polly Atkin

During the pandemic Polly Atkin and her partner Will have the opportunity of being home all the day and start noticing an owl near their home in Grasmere, England. Soon they are seeing more and more owls and even a few clutches of owlets. Being home during the pandemic allows them to notice more of the nature around them that was always there, just was often lost in the busyness of life. Atkin has health issues that prevent her from going out as much even when pandemic restrictions are lifted. Her connection to the local owls is a bright spot during the pandemic lockdowns and beyond.

I wasn't super impressed with this book. I agree with some other reviews that I wish she had included some pictures of the owls and the area where she was observing them. I also felt like I needed at least a chapter of background on her. She mentions her illness once, but I am not familiar with it and the limitations it would bring. It was more of an owl journal about when they saw owls or other animals. To me this is not a memoir because I don't really know any more about Atkin than I did from the book description. Overall, it was OK and I think there are better owl books out there. The cover of the book is great though.