February 2021 Cookbook Reviews

 

Modern Comfort Food by Ina Garten

I really like Ina Garten and I use several of her recipes all the time now, so I was excited to check out her new cookbook. And it didn't disappoint. There were several recipes I wanted try from this one and I liked that the theme of this cookbook was reinventing comfort food. At the beginning of the book she says "I think we can probably all agree that a mixed green salad isn't anyone's idea of comfort food." Not to say all of the recipes are unhealthy, but this is not a diet cookbook. Overall, another solid cookbook from Ina Garten and I'm excited to try some of these new recipes.

This Will Make It Taste Good by Vivian Howard

I really love Vivian Howard so I was excited when I heard she had a new cookbook coming out. This one is very different than her previous cookbook, but still very good. Her previous cookbook, Deep Run Roots was more of an homage to her heritage in Eastern North Carolina and all the local ingredients that she grew up eating with recipes for each ingredient. In This Will Make it Taste Good Howard wrote recipes for the way she actually cooks at home. Each chapter focuses on a cooking "hero" that helps make otherwise bland foods pop with more flavor. The "heroes" include caramalized or "R-rated" onions, "citrus shine" or preserved citrus, etc. Each flavor hero has several recipes that highlight or are helped by that specific hero. I think it's a really unique cookbook and way to cook. And similarly to Deep Run Roots, in this cookbook Howard also has a few personal stories in each chapter that make you feel like she's your friend chatting while you cook together. There are several recipes from this book I'd like to try and would definitely recommend this one. Also, because of COVID if you follow Howard on social media she has done several live cook-alongs where she cooks one of the heroes and recipes from this book, so you can just watch or cook along with her in real time.

February 2021 Reviews

 

The Dutch House by Ann Patchett (Books & Banter and Evening Edition book clubs)

At the end of WWII Cyril Conroy lucks into some good real estate purchases and soon becomes very wealthy and has a huge real estate portfolio. He sees buying The Dutch House as the ultimate symbol of his status and wealth. But, that house will be his entire family's undoing. The story is told by Cyril's son Danny as he looks back over his life when he's in his 40's. When Danny is 3 his mother leaves the family and they never hear from her again. He has no memories of his mother and his father seemed disinterested in his children, so Danny's whole world was his sister Maeve. Maeve is 7 years older than her brother, so she does remember their mother and takes it upon herself to basically raise Danny. When Danny is 10 his father remarries and introduces Andrea and her two children into the household - that's when things REALLY decline for Danny and Maeve. The majority of the story focuses on Danny and Maeve's relationship and the long-lasting impacts of The Dutch House on their lives.

Without giving anything away when their mother shows back up - wow, is she a piece of work. I think she might have been the worst character in the whole book (and that's saying something). I wasn't sure what to expect with this book I had heard mixed reviews from some of my friends and coworkers - some people loved it and some hated it. I do agree with some of the reviews I read that the whole book felt cold and detached, but I also think if you were either of these kids you would probably be cold and detached as well. I was very glad to see Danny succeed in the career he really wanted in the end - that made me very happy.

Some quotes I really liked:

"Disappointment comes from expectation, and in those days I had no expectation that Andrea would get anything less than what she wanted." (p. 58-9)

"'Let's talk about this at home.' She had made her decision but had yet to find a way to make it palatable to her children." [which was her entire MO anyway] (p. 320-21)

Red State Christians: understanding the voters who elected Donald Trump by Angela Denker

Many Christians (including myself) could NOT believe that Donald Trump won the 2016 election because of the white Evangelical vote. Angela Denker, a Lutheran pastor, decides to explore what led so many Christians to vote for someone like Donald Trump, who seems to be the antithesis of Christianity. Denker visits several "red state" areas to talk to people in those areas about the 2016 election and Trump. What I found most surprising is the variety of reasons people gave for voting for Trump, even when most didn't like him. I think people tend to assume it's one or two main issues, but people had a wide variety of reasons and often still didn't consider themselves "Trump supporters" even if they did vote for him. While I do think Denker did a good job overall, there were a few times where I felt like she just didn't want to like a certain church and only looked for the lacking things instead of being more objective. Overall, it was an interesting book. I was slightly hesitant to read it because this issue has just torn apart the Church and did I really want to read MORE about this. But, I do feel like Denker did a good job and showed all sides of this issue. For me I have too high of personal standards to vote for "the lesser of two evils" and how is a lesser evil going to help the Church? I wish Christians would 1) not see politics as the solution to anything related to the Church and 2) be more willing to do a write-in vote or back other candidates outside the two party system. Overall, I think this book was more written for Christians who didn't vote for Trump, so if that's you then I would recommend this book.

Some quotes I liked:

"I saw in Keet Lewis what I saw in so many Trump-supporting Christinas I interviewed, from the halls of of power in Washington to the hollers of Appalachia: a desire to 'make Trump good,' a sense that they know that all is not right yet desperately want to believe that God has won in Trump, so they make all sorts of leaps. Despite these mental gymnastics regarding Trump, Lewis has a genuine love for Jesus and a desire that America might follow the Bible, at least as he understands it." (p. 36-7)

"The idea of voting for Hillary, he assumes, is unimaginable for any Christian. He identifies the fatal Democratic mistake: misunderstanding and underestimating the Christian antipathy toward Hillary Clinton. More than guns, abortion, gay rights, small government - the Red State Christians I spoke to across the county were unified more in their hatred of Hillary than in any other way." (p. 73)

"'When they said women couldn't be pastors and they had to stay home, I got up and walked out,' [Brad Todd] said, adding, 'If you are conservative socially and not theologically, it is hard to find a church home.'" (p. 149)

"Trump would finally prove that the Evangelical outrage about Clinton was based not on respect for women or for the institution of marriage but instead, as usual in America, on partisan allegiance over any kind of religious morality." (p. 167-8)

"For Evangelical women, the 'pussy' comments weren't enough to overcome decades of right-wing media hatred of Hillary. Trump's comments on the bus were nothing compared with what many Evangelical women had dealt with in the church for generations. As America would find out early in the years of the Trump presidency, Evangelical women had more to deal with when it came to male mistreatment of women than comments on a bus. And ironically, Trump's presidency would usher in a new era of female outspokenness about male aggression and the necessity of women's rights, even in the church." (p. 169)

"What would Jesus do on the US-Mexico border? 'Jesus would say that when it comes to immigration, nobody is illegal in the world. We all have rights.' she said. 'Jesus broke all kinds of rules. He touched the lepers. One came back, and the law said not to come back, but he did, and Jesus blessed him. The law said the Samaritan women should have been stoned. The law said Jesus shouldn't heal on the Sabbath. For Jesus, compassion and love were more important than the law. We are not there to judge [at the border]. God will be the judge. Jesus said to feed the hungry and clothe the stranger. That is it. Who are we to pick who to feed and clothe?'" (p. 278-9)

What My Mother and I Don't Talk About by Michele Filgate, ed.

I thought the premise of this book was really interesting and would be a good, unique read. I found it incredibly depressing and not very interesting overall. I read a lot of hard, darker books, but this one was just full of terrible mothers who abused their children or who weren't there when someone else was abusing their children. There were a handful of stories that I did like including the one by the editor that sparked the idea for the book, but overall awful and not even well-written awful, just mostly awful.

I did really like What My Mother And I Don't Talk About by Michele Filgate, My Mother's (Gate)Keeper by Cathi Hanauer, and Are You Listening? by Andre Aciman.

The Thinking Beekeeper: a guide to natural beekeeping in top bar hives by Christy Hemenway

I am a failed beekeeper who is trying to keep bees again. When I attended "bee school" several years ago I don't think any other hive styles were taught other than traditional Langstroth hives, which is what we started with. After failing two years in a row to have any hives survive and overwinter, I started thinking about trying again a different way. I like that top bar hives are more natural and don't use foundation or frames. I also feel like it would be easier to harvest smaller (more manageable) amounts of honey and keep the wax to use too. I liked how Hemenway gives several reasons why top bar hives are better for the bees overall. There are also detailed illustrations about how to organize and move the top bars as the bees are filling out their comb. Overall, I think this is a good book about top bar beekeeping and I'm interested to try it out soon.

A quote I liked:

"The presence of the queen's pheromone in the hive is what provides the colony with a sense that all is well - beekeepers call that being queensright." (p. 34) [I had never heard that term before and just love it.]

Consent: a memoir of unwanted attention by Donna Freitas

Donna Freitas is a published author and speaker who specializes in Title IX and consent on college campuses. But, when Freitas was a doctoral student she was harassed and stalked by one of her college professors who was also a Catholic priest. At first Freitas thinks her professor is genuinely interested in her as a student and even as things he does cross line after line she keeps trying to explain it away - until she can't. After a year of fending off his unwanted attention Freitas confides in a friend who convinces her to go to their department head. But things only get worse and the stalking behavior continues. When Freitas goes to her University HR she feels like they will help, but, unknown to Freitas at the time, the University knows a clock starts with her first complaint and their goal is to keep her from escalating things until the statue of limitations is up on her case. So, despite huge piles of evidence nothing is done to the stalker professor other than a forced sabbatical after she first contacts the University HR. Meanwhile, Freitas has PTSD and her career in academia is completely derailed and she ends up not becoming the tenure-track professor she dreamed of when she first started graduate school.

Freitas does a great job of really conveying how terrifying and also shameful the whole stalking event was for her. She really struggled (as many women do) with feeling like she somehow caused this or triggered inappropriate feelings in her stalker. Even with her work on consent and Title IX she still struggles to speak about her ordeal because of shame even when she did nothing wrong. I really feel like this highlights so much in our culture about women and harassment and shame. The real problems are the people like this stalker professor and the University and Catholic Church who shielded him from any repercussions. Well-written and timely book.

Some quotes I liked:

"How in the world does a student give a firm no to a professor? To someone so far her senior? To someone who could determine her future? To someone on whom her future depends? How in the world does a young woman give a decided no to a Catholic priest? For me to give a firm and enthusiastic yes or no is to presume the person I am saying yes or no to is my equal, or at least someone I feel equal to saying yes or no to, as though they are a partner, a friend, someone with whom I am on the same footing. It presumes I am in possession of some power in the situation." (p. 101)

"Someone who is not Catholic, who has never been Catholic, someone standing on the outside of the Catholic tradition, might have a difficult time understanding why it was so hard for me to get around the priest part of my professor's identity. You may already see him for who he is and was, which is a man acting inappropriately with a young woman in his program. But I could not see this, refused to see it. It was a betrayal of everything I'd ever known, and I, like so many Catholics of the pre-scandal era, was overly prone to giving representatives of the Church the benefit of the doubt - completely." (p. 109)

"When [the Catholic abuse scandal] broke, I read about it, read all the articles in the newspaper, about the ways the Catholic Church covered up crimes and abuses committed by its priests for decades, how it evaded public scandal, paid victims for their silence. I felt the same outrage and shock everyone around me felt...[but] It would be several years after the news broke before it even occurred to me that my professor was an abusive priest, and that part of the ensuing cover-up and silencing I endured with my university - a decidedly Catholic university, full of priests and affiliated with high-ranking bishops - involved the same methods for deception and silencing victims employed by the Catholic Church for decades." (p. 231-32)

"At the time, no one knew the Catholic Church had a long-standing plan for responding to exactly the kind of complaint I'd brought to this woman, a standard operating procedure, and it did not involve doing the right thing." (p. 250)

"After that Miami conference [where she ran into her stalker and had a panic attack] I stopped going to meetings in my field. I dropped out of my field altogether and moved on to other things, other subjects of inquiry. A different position entirely. I let go of being the professor I'd always wanted to be. My dream as I'd envisioned it was dead."

The Bird Way: a new look at how birds talk, work, play, parent and think by Jennifer Ackerman

Birds are fascinating animals and I love watching them on my bird feeders and seeing all the different kinds around my house. In The Bird Way Jennifer Ackerman explores 5 areas of bird life and how they uniquely function - talk, work, play, love, and parent. Each section has a few chapters that highlight something unique about birds in that aspect of their lives. For a long time people assumed because bird brains were so small that they couldn't be very smart, but recent research begs to differ. Birds are highly intelligent (some species more than others) and are some of the very few species that play. I do wish there had been some pictures included in the book, although there were SO MANY birds mentioned it would have been hard to include them all. My two (small) complaints were that the book was more scientific than I anticipated so it was not as easy of a read and a lot of the research focus covered in the book was in Australia and as someone in the US I would have liked to see more examples of birds I'm familiar with. But, overall it was a very interesting and unique book that really highlights a lot of the ways birds are unique and intelligent.

Some quotes I liked:

"In fact, one study showed that more than seventy species of vertebrates eavesdrop on alarm calls: Birds eavesdrop on other birds, mammals on other mammals, mammals on birds, and birds on mammals. In North America, chipmunks and red squirrels grasp the meaning of bird aerial alarm calls. In turn, chickadees understand the alarm squeaks of red squirrels and will take cover in response. Three species of lizards even attend to bird alarm calls." (p. 53)

"Vultures are nature's sanitary workers. Because they feed in groups and eat rapidly - each bird downing more than two pounds of meat a minute - they can rapidly consume whole carcasses. Their guts are acidic enough to destroy the agents of disease, such as cholera and anthrax, so there's little risk of spreading contamination from an infected carcass." (p. 93)

"Like raptors elsewhere in the world, fire hawks, as they're called collectively - black kites, brown falcons, and whistling kites - hunt in the vicinity of bushfires. But witnesses have observed these birds doing something radically different: flying into active fires, picking up smoldering sticks, and then dropping them in unburned brush or grass, spreading the flames to new areas, presumably to flush out prey." (p. 115)

"'That's the other big thing we discovered,' says Jones. 'These birds recognize individuals. They live in a little territory and they never leave it, so they know every human that lives around the place. They see kids growing up , and they remember them. These birds are very, very smart. They're watching us and interpreting our behavior.' The magpies live on average for twenty years and can remember up to thirty human faces for about that long, says Jones, 'so if you anger a magpie once, you're going to get attacked again and again.'" (p. 255)

"...when it's time to raise their young, [greater anis] coalesce into tight-knit groups of two to four unrelated, socially monogamous pairs, plus a couple of nonbreeding helpers. Together each group builds a shared nest in which all the females collectively lay their eggs more of less synchronously. They all share parenting care, raising the mixed clutch of young until they fledge. The groups are extraordinarily stable, say Riehl, often staying together a decade or more." (p. 302)

"Ornithologist Christopher Heckscher discovered that veeries nesting in Delaware cut short their breeding season in years with the most numerous and intense hurricanes. Months in advance, they anticipate the storms and adjust their migratory schedules for crossing the Gulf of Mexico and the Caribbean Sea on their migration to South America to avoid the worst of the hurricanes. They also lay more eggs earlier in the season. How these birds know in May what will happen in August is a deep mystery...In their ability to predict the tropical storm season to come, the timing of nesting veeries is at least as good as - maybe a little bit better than - the predictions by weather forecasters at the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration." (p. 322)

"A 2019 study found that over the past twenty-five years, populations of birds that depend on insects fell by 13 percent across Europe and by almost 30 percent in Denmark. That same year scientists delivered the shocking news that one in four birds in the US and Canada have disappeared since 1970 - nearly three billion birds...They're gone from all habitats, seashore, forest, grasslands, desert, tundra, probably due primarily to habitat loss from development and agriculture, as well as pesticide use. One recent study found that insecticides known as neonicotinoids prevent migratory birds from gaining the body mass and fat stores they need to start their journeys in a timely fashion." (p. 324-25)

The Seven Necessary Sins for Women and Girls by Mona Eltahawy

I was interested in this book when I read that the author was partially inspired to write it after being groped in a nightclub at age 50 and then beating up her attacker. But, the book is just basically RAGE AGAINST THE PATRIARCHY. And not that I don't feel that same rage as well, but I just can't live constantly being so angry I could explode at any moment. Eltahawy models the book after the seven deadly sins, but frames it as things women and girls SHOULD be doing to fight patriarchy. While I don't really disagree with her message I feel like this book would be off-putting for all but the most radical feminist. And that might be her point - to make people uncomfortable to hope they look and really see what is going on in our world. I agree with the quote, "If you're not angry, you're not paying attention." and Eltahawy brings attention to a lot of real, important issues. Overall, while I agree with most of her major points I wouldn't really recommend this one.

Some quotes I liked:

"Attention is power. When you command attention, you command power, and so patriarchy has muddied the waters around attention with the word 'whore.' A word intended to shame is used to convince women that to want attention is to want something shameful. Much like sex." (p. 37)

"In the summer of 2018 Tokyo Medical University (TMU) was forced to admit it had 'systematically lowered the scores of female applicants to keep the number of women in the student body around 30 percent,' Agence France Presse reported...Unsurprisingly, the university blamed women for getting in their own way. The determination to limit to 30 percent the number of women admitted to the medical school, said an unnamed source to the newspaper Yomiuri Shimbun, was due to 'concerns female graduates were not going to practice medicine in employment.' [Because obviously they would have children and quit working]" (p. 89-90)

"We must refuse those crumbs [patriarchy gives some women]. Those crumbs are offered as compensation for a host of oppressions that patriarchy employs to maintain itself. I don't want crumbs; I want the whole cake. And I don't want patriarchy's cake - we must bake our own." (p. 108)

"If every act of violence against women were reported on the news, it would be recognized for the epidemic - the war - that it is. Instead only 'especially' violent attacks are reported and not even all of those, which tells you that society does not care and/or is immune to them." (p. 136)

"The national US average prison sentence of men who kill their female partners is two to six years, while women who kill their partners are sentenced on average to fifteen years, despite the fact that most women who kill their partners do so to protect themselves from violence initiated by their partners." (p. 145)

January 2021 Reviews

 

Hill Women: finding family and a way forward in the Appalachian mountains by Cassie Chambers

Cassie Chambers is born to two college students in rural Kentucky. Because her mother was determined to finish college Cassie spends a lot of time with her Granny and Aunt Ruth on their rented farm. Despite the limited opportunities in their area the women in Cassie's family were determined for her mother to finish college and for Cassie to go too. Cassie ends up attending Yale and Harvard, yet she feels the pull to come back and try to help her hometown area. The book is divided into three sections - her childhood up through high school, her college experiences, and when she comes back to work as a lawyer in Kentucky. Chambers highlights the (well-known) challenges of rural Appalachia, but also highlights the strong women she grew up with and continue to interact with in her law work.

Several reviews I read said this book has been compared to Educated and Hillbilly Elegy, but I didn't agree. I do agree that this is similar to a female-version of Hillbilly Elegy, but I think Vance was a much better writer. And this is no Educated. I was really looking forward to reading this book, but I found it disappointing. Each section felt skimmed over like there could have been more, but it was just a surface-level sketch of that time in her life. The last section is basically her VERY strong views on why Democrats are better and that was off-putting. I'm not a Republican, but I feel like politicians on either side aren't going to fix these impoverished areas - the community can though, including people like Cassie getting an education and coming back to help her community. Overall, I was disappointed and would not recommend this one.

The Silent Patient by Alex Michaelides (Books & Banter book club)

Alicia Berenson's life seems perfect. She's a famous painter and is married to an equally famous photographer. So, when Alicia murders her husband and never speaks another word everyone in her life is stunned. Alicia ends up in a facility called The Grove, a psychiatric hospital in North London. Theo Faber is a psychotherapist who knew Alicia's story and always wanted to work with her, so when a position opens up at the Grove he gets his chance. Theo seems convinced that Alicia didn't kill her husband and tries to get her to speak. But, his motives are not clinical or altruistic.

I was actually looking forward to reading this one because the premise sounded good. But, while it was a quick read, the "twist" and ending were AWFUL. Based on the ending I don't really understand why Theo would put himself in the position he did other than his huge ego. This one was a HUGE disappointment and I would NOT recommend. Curious to see what my book club will have to say about this one.

Maid: hard work, low pay, and a mother's will to survive by Stephanie Land (Evening Edition book club and re-read)

I almost didn't read this one based on the very mixed reviews, but decided to give it a try. When I saw that Barbara Ehrenreich wrote the introduction, I thought surely it can't be terrible if Barbara Ehrenreich is writing the introduction. Was this book Evicted or Nickel and Dimed? No. But, it was still a well-written account of one woman's struggle to provide a better life for her daughter and how hard that can be with no family safety net at all. Stephanie Land is twenty-eight when she unexpectedly gets pregnant and decides to keep the baby. She hoped her boyfriend Jamie would step up to the plate, but never did except when he could do something to throw in her face. When he starts to become violent Land finds herself and her infant daughter homeless. She is able to cobble together enough government assistance and work to stay barely above water, but there is always the looming dread of something unexpected - illness, car accident, etc. Her family was almost as broke as she was, but were also abusive and not to be relied on. Land realizes that her only escape is education. She enrolls in community college and by the end of the book she is able to transfer to a University and there is a lot more hope for her and her daughter.

A lot of the bad reviews of this book pointed out every little mistake or bad decision Land made. Did she make some really bad decisions and mistakes? Yes. Haven't you? It's nice to know there are so many people out there making NO MISTAKES AT ALL in their personal lives. I feel like Land is honest with the bad decisions she made and owns it. Several reviews complained that she played the victim and never took responsibility, but I didn't read it that way at all. One thing she sees over and over in the houses she cleans is that it doesn't matter how much money you make you can still be miserable - not that having more money doesn't make things easier, but just money in and of itself doesn't make you happy. Overall, I was pleasantly surprised based on the reviews I read and am looking forward to what Stephanie Land will write in the future.

Update to Jan. 2021 reading: In re-reading the book I still enjoyed it and feel that Stephanie is a very good writer. You could feel her anxiety at times because she wrote so descriptively. In doing more research because my second reading was for book club I found her website with more of her writing. I did find that one thing she omitted from this book was that when she graduated college when her daughter Mia was almost 6 she was also almost 9 months pregnant with baby #2 who's father was also not in the picture. It's easy to judge someone in her shoes, but I was like REALLY?! You did this AGAIN and still surprised that it's MORE of a struggle to be a single mother to two children? Honestly, that made me less sympathetic to her even though that's not included in the book. I still think this is a good book and worth reading.

Our Lady of Perpetual Hunger by Lisa Donovan

Lisa Donovan always loved watching her grandmother cook, but didn't plan a career in cooking. After high school she was working in a restaurant as a server and began learning about the restaurant industry. She was also in an abusive relationship and ended up getting pregnant, so that temporarily derailed her college plans. Along the way Donovan finds her way through food and cooking. She works through generational trauma by cooking the food of her grandmother and Mexican ancestors. She brings together Mexican cuisine with traditional Southern cuisine and baking.

I really wanted to like this book more than I did. I like Lisa Donovan and she's obviously overcome a lot to get to where she is today. But, I felt like the book was choppy and kind of all over the place. In the book jacket it talks about her struggle to succeed in the male-dominated restaurant world, but I felt like her experiences were kind of glossed over. I just felt like she focused more on the trauma she endured earlier in her life than her experiences of misogyny in the restaurant world. Parts of the book are hard to read and I personally enjoyed the second half more than the first half. I will also say her husband seems AMAZING and it's pretty miraculous that with her past she managed to marry someone like him. Overall, it was OK, but I wouldn't really recommend this one.

Some quotes I did like:

"Then I pulled seven snapper fish onto the kitchen island, sharpened my knife, remembered where I came from, the shit I had taken in my life, the wrongs I had made right time and time again, and I got back to fucking work." (p. 18)

"John and I had finally figured out a schedule that worked for our family, and throughout it all he was head over heels supportive of my work, doing the dance between our worlds so beautifully and amicably in ways I had never seen a man rise up for his woman. My aprons would be washed and folded for my next day's work, and back when I was pulling all those doubles at City House, a bowl of pasta would be kept warm on the stove waiting for me at night when I came home late. If he could carry any of the weight of how hard I was working, he did." (p. 198)

"This was at the height of hearing man after man on NPR and in The New York Times telling stories of their mothers, their grandmothers, anyone whom they felt gave them clout or a sense of humility and whom, I'm certain, they honored and cherished and wanted to shine a light on, hold up high on that pedestal. The thing is, women are revered straight into abjection, useful only as a totem of inspiration. When we go to make that work on our own, we are unable to survive in the industry the men built, the one they sell our wares within." (p. 248)

"In the midst of all this current talk of women in kitchens and women getting their time in the restaurant industry, investors still can't seem to find their way to actually funding women, but holy shit are they suckers for boys who pretend they are feminists in a very all-of-a-sudden way. It only took me walking out of my fifth meeting with potential investors in Nashville to realize the game wasn't changing. The only thing that has changed is the story men are spinning to get what they want. And bankers and investors are still lapping it up and pouring money on their projects like water on a grease fire." (p. 268)

The Adventurer's Son by Roman Dial

Roman Dial and his family were adventurers. He moved to Alaska and took up rock climbing and other outdoor adventure sports. He and his whole family lived in Indonesia while Roman was doing scientific research. He eventually took a professor position back in Alaska and that stayed their home base, but as a family they often traveled all over the world. Roman's son Cody, who also went by the name Roman, was just as adventurous as his dad. He would work and save money to go off on long-term exploring trips all over the world. He was in Costa Rica when he decided to do an off-trail jungle trip and never returned. When Roman realized he was was past his return date he called the Costa Rica authorities and flew down with a friend to search on their own. That turned into a two year ordeal in trying to find his son in dense, off-trail, jungles. The local authorities weren't much help and the longer he looked and stayed in Costa Rica the more Roman realized just how dangerous the area is - drug smugglers, poachers, illegal miners, AND venomous snakes and other jungle hazards were everywhere. Thankfully, they do eventually find Cody's remains and the family did have some closure, but Roman was often racked with guilt that his own adventurous lifestyle may have been what led Cody to his ultimate death.

I almost didn't read this one because a lot of the reviews talk about how self-centered Roman is and how the book was more about him than his son. But, after a friend read it and recommended it I'm glad I gave it a chance. Yes, he writes about himself, but I read that as more of the backstory to why Cody was so adventurous and all the ways he and Cody were alike and loved exploring together. I didn't read it was self-centered at all. He talked a lot about the guilt he had and whether or not to discourage his son's travels when they communicated by email. Cody was 27 years old and was more experienced than almost anyone his own age in both jungle and arctic conditions - he didn't die because he was dumb and got lost or ran out of food. His death was an accident that could have happened to anyone - prepared or not. My only complaint about the book is that the chapters about all their searching in Costa Rica and all the local people (both friends and authorities) started to run together and go on a little too long. I was glad the family found closure and Cody's remains.

I've always wanted to go to Costa Rica because I love sloths and would love to see them in the wild, but after reading this book I might reconsider. Cody purposely chose non-tourist destinations, but it is definitely portrayed as a pretty sketchy and dangerous place.

Hold On, But Don't Hold Still by Kristina Kuzmic

Even though I don't have children, when I stumbled on Kristina Kuzmic's videos on Facebook I thought she was hilarious and also very insightful. I love how she really tries to be the person she needed when she was at her lowest. So, I was excited to read her book, but I found it less inspiring that many of her short videos. Most of the most poignant or funny moments in the book I had already seen in her videos. I also felt like the book was more a collection of essays than a book that flowed together. It was more like each chapter was from a random time in her life and that made the book feel a little jumbled to me. But, I did not know that she won a contest and had a show on OWN when the network first started. Other, than that I really didn't learn much more than I already had from her videos. It's not a bad book, just not what I was expecting.

A Lab of One's Own: one woman's personal journey through sexism in science by Rita Colwell, Phd

Rita Colwell is one of the top scientists in America, but her journey to get there was difficult. She was in graduate school in the 1950's and had a very hard time finding a male professor to mentor her in a PhD program. She ended up changing her course of study six times because of this. But, she succeeded mostly by never giving up, but also by finding men who would support her along the way - including her husband. Her accomplishments are amazing especially considering how much resistance she had along the way. When I read the blatant sexism and misogyny toward women in college/higher education it's mind blowing, but sadly it's not been completely eradicated either - often it's just more subtle. And while Colwell's story and the stories of the other women scientists she highlights in this book are AMAZING, she also highlights how much hasn't changed and how hard it still is for women in any male-dominated/historic field. The only reason I didn't rate this book higher is that there is a LOT of technical science language that can be hard to follow or fully understand and then toward the end Colwell is working on government committees/appointments and then starts her own business and there was a lot of technical detail about each entity that I wasn't as into reading about. But, overall her story is amazing at how much she accomplished and how much things have changed for women in science in her lifetime.

Some quotes I liked:

"Several months later, [Oregon Representative Edith] Green, without informing her colleagues in the House of Representatives about the implications of what she was doing, slipped Simchak's short passage banning sex discrimination in any educational program receiving federal aid into what would become the Educational Amendments Act of 1972. Once the passage was in the bill, Green ordered the leaders of the women's groups not to lobby for Title IX of the act. She didn't want to alert the men in Congress to its importance. And so, still happily oblivious to what Title IX meant, Congress made it illegal to discriminate against women in education and gave individual women the power to sue universities in order to hold on to their jobs, protest tenure or employment decisions, and demand equal pay." (p. 42)

"When people ask me how I had time to publish more than eight hundred scientific papers over the course of my career, I tell them I had no choice: as a woman, I had to prove my findings twenty times over just to get them taken seriously. Proving, proving, proving - you were always swimming against the current." (p. 96)

"What we women learned by bitter experience, modern research has confirmed: men who openly help highly qualified women and underrepresented minorities are rewarded, while women and nonwhite minorities who do the same are penalized." (p. 117)

2020 Year in Reading

 So, for the second year in a row I've failed to meet my Goodreads goal of 100 books. This year I read 91 books and 22 cookbooks. You would think with the COVID pandemic and my work being closed for 2 1/2 months that I would have exceeded by reading goal, but somehow I did not. I will have to decide if I want to keep my goal for next year 100 or bring it down some. 

Here are my top 10 books of 2020 and my top 5 cookbooks:

Fiction

1. Pachinko by Min Jin Lee

2. Simon the Fiddler by Paulette Jiles

3. The Giver of Stars by Jojo Moyes

4. The Nickel Boys by Colson Whitehead

5. The Little House on the Prairie series by Laura Ingalls Wilder (re-read the whole series in July)

Non-fiction

1. The Less People Know About Us by Axton Betz-Hamilton

2. Golden Girls Forever by Jim Colucci

3. Yale Needs Women by Anne Gardiner Perkins

4. Adorning the Dark by Andrew Peterson

5. Beyond Labels by Dr. Sina McCullough and Joel Salatin

Cookbooks

1. The Goodful Cookbook by Buzzfeed

2. The Duke's Mayonnaise Cookbook by Ashley Freeman

3. Hope's Table by Hope Helmuth

4. I Heart Soul Food by Rosie Mayes

5. The Kerber's Farm Cookbook by Nick Voulgaris, III

December 2020 Cookbook Reviews

 

I Heart Soul Food by Rosie Mayes

Most people associate soul food with Southern food, but interestingly enough Rosie Mayes is from Seattle. Her parents and grandparents are from Louisiana so she grew up eating both Southern soul food and creole/Cajun inspired food. Working in a stressful job she was trying to find a way to do something fun in her downtime and started a food vlog. Soon it took off and she was able to quit her day job and just focus on her food videos and now this cookbook. Looking at the recipes you would never think Mayes grew up outside of the South. There were several recipes I wanted to try and I really liked that with each recipe she included a few sentences about what inspired that dish or a memory from her childhood related to that dish. At the end she also gives some sample menus created with recipes in this book. Rosie Mayes is someone to watch out for in the food world - just looking at the photos in the book will make you hungry!

Cook With Me by Alex Guarnaschelli

I love Alex Guarnaschelli and was excited to check out her new cookbook. In this one she focuses more on meals that remind her of her family (who were also very into cooking and food) and cooking for her own family now. It's organized like most cookbooks with categories like snacks, one-pan dinners, salads, soups, etc. But I would say there are more categories than just the basics she includes sections like baking for breakfast, cookies, fruit crisps, cocktails & mocktails, etc. Overall, a good solid cookbook with lots of variety and nothing that seems to hard or crazy to cook. I didn't find that many recipes I wanted to try, but I did like it.

7 Ways by Jamie Oliver

Jamie Oliver says that he is always asked when will he write another cookbook like 5 Ingredients. In 7 Ways he does a new spin on a similar concept by taking 18 staple ingredients and showing 7 different recipes that highlight that ingredient. The 18 ingredients include obvious ones like chicken breast or eggs, but also some vegetables like cauliflower, avocado, and mushrooms. Each ingredient section lists the 7 recipes, then each recipe has a picture of the finished dish on one side and the recipe and ingredients on the other side. I love that each recipe shows a picture of each ingredient - so you can see what to get, but I think also to highlight that each recipe doesn't have dozens of ingredients. I really like the way the book is laid out and that each recipe has a photo to go with it. In the Introduction he also lists the recipes by categories like - one pan wonders, simple pastas, etc. I really like Jamie Oliver and I like how visually pleasing this cookbook is, but I personally didn't see that many recipes I wanted to try.

Rustic Farmhouse Slow Cooker by Alli Kelley

This collection of slow cooker recipes focuses on quality ingredients to create quick and flavorful meals. There are chapters based on proteins - beef, poultry, pork, and lamb. Then a chapter on soups and one on pasta and sauces. I love a good crockpot or dutch oven meal because it's so easy yet tastes great and you have plenty of leftovers. I love cooking, but I don't want to cook a new meal from scratch every day - that's where these kind of recipes some in. There were several recipes I want to try. I think this would be a great cookbook for a busy home cook or to give as a wedding/newlywed gift.

December 2020 Book Reviews

 

Golem Girl by Riva Lehrer

This is one of the most unique memoirs I've read in a long time. Riva Lehrer was born in 1958 with spina bifida. Miraculously there is a surgeon at the hospital who could perform the emergency surgery on Riva after she's born to close up her spinal cord. She survives the surgery and spends the next two years in the hospital having surgery after surgery. Riva's mother worked in the medical field before marrying, so she knows more than the average parent, but still Riva's health is always at risk. The first half of the book covers Riva's life into high school - going to a special school for disabled children, trying to find independence from her family while needing them so much because of her health, etc. The first half also focuses a lot on Riva's relationship with her mother. Riva's mother also had several painful surgeries related to a ruptured disc in her back. So beyond just the normal mother/daughter bond they also bond of their pain and surgeries. This family REALLY had some rough medical issues. The second half of the book covers Riva's art career and how she found her place to "fit in" with a group of Disabled artists. The book is filled with her vivid, yet often disturbing, artwork. At the end there is a section with more information on all the portraits included in the book. I found it really interesting that she ended up teaching anatomical drawing to medical school students - like her life really went full circle in a way.

I found the first half of the book more interesting than the second half. Parts of the second half were interesting, but there was a lot of relationship drama and a lot of very detailed parts about working on some of her portraits. One of the reviews I read said that that reader couldn't relate to Riva at all and didn't think she would like her - I could somewhat agree with that. Not having disabilities would make it hard to relate personally to someone like Riva. I'm not sure what she would be like in person, but there was something about the book that was so readable - even when I was uncomfortable or she was talking about something I didn't get or agree with I still found myself wanting to keep reading. She has had an incredibly hard life in many ways and at times it was hard to read one more awful thing happening to her. But, Riva has never shied away from her Golem Girl side and really brings to light how much society shuns anything that is not the "norm." But, when no one is perfect what is the norm? Lots to think about after reading this really unique book.

Some quotes I liked:

"By the time Frankenstein was published, Mary Wollstonecraft Godwin Shelley had already had one miscarriage and given birth to two children. The second - a daughter - died before she was two. Of Shelley's five pregnancies, only the last survived to adulthood. Is it any surprise that she fantasized the power to revive the dead? Could Frankenstein have been written by anyone but a mother who had lost child after child? A woman for whom the line between life and death had smudged and faded?" (p. 21)

"If my fertility had been valued, perhaps I would have been taken seriously when I complained of pelvic pain. Instead, I had to begin hemorrhaging before anyone examined me. I don't know whether anything could have been done to preserve my fertility, or whether pregnancy was as dangerous as my mother claimed, but I do know that her reaction, and that of Dr. Martin, speaks to a long-held societal dread of disabled people making more disabled people. I know that no one, back then, expressed a single word of sorrow at the loss of my ability to procreate." (p. 139)

"I hadn't known there was a difference between the cosmetic aspect of the way I walked and whether my limp was doing me any harm. It's still hard to sort out. My scoliosis was never seen as benign. My curvature was upsetting for others to look at, therefore harmful to society, ergo injurious to me. I gambled my body on other people's visions. I believed that there could be an end to surgeries. That someday, I would be normal enough." (p. 147)

"Got it. The Universal equated to men at war and women in bed. The fragile human body pertained only to me. Bryan Jones, TA Extraordinaire, had just stripped me of my nascent purpose in becoming an artist. I unpinned my work with hands that shook so badly that each drawing dropped to the ground. Kids dove under chairs to retrieve the sheets before they were ruined. I surprised myself, though. Instead of sobbing, or quitting, I felt the beginnings of fuck you stirring in my soul." (p. 181)

"Most of my own family treated Will [Riva's first college boyfriend] with friendly bafflement, but Grandpa pulled me aside while I was downstairs shooting pool with my cousins. 'I know you like this boy, Riva, but if you really care for him, you should let him see other girls.' Apparently there had been a family conference: all these people who loved me believed that Will could not." (p. 191)

" I had spent years fighting against misogyny, homophobia, and anti-Semitism, yet I'd so easily believed that I should be ashamed of my body that I'd never understood that the shame was both the product of and tool of injustice. I hadn't just needed Disabled friends. I'd needed friends who could give my experience context and analysis." (p. 243)

Anne of Green Gables by L.M. Montgomery (Books & Banter, re-read)

This was my absolutely FAVORITE book series when I was a kid. My grandmother gave me all the books and I even got my husband to read this one before we went to Prince Edward Island for our honeymoon. But, I was concerned about re-reading it and not liking it as much as an adult. Thankfully, that wasn't the case. After I finished it my first thought was, "Now I want to re-read the rest of the series!"

Anne is an orphan girl who is mistakenly given to brother and sister Matthew and Marilla Cuthbert when they wanted to adopt a young man to help on their farm. Matthew is charmed by talkative Anne and convinces Marilla to keep her. Anne has a way of always getting into "scrapes" and trouble always finds her, but soon Matthew and Marilla have fallen in love with Anne and can't imagine Green Gables without her. The reader follows Anne as she goes from a VERY talkative child to a young woman by the end of the book. I will admit the younger Anne kind of got on my nerves a little with all her talking, but Montgomery does a great job in showing Anne grow up, but still keeping her personality and imagination intact. Overall, a very uplifting and fun book with a wonderful main character.

Some quotes I really liked:

"'Why must people kneel down to pray? If I really wanted to pray I'll tell you what I'd do. I'd go out into a great field all alone or into the deep, deep woods, and I'd look up into the sky - up - up - up - into that lovely blue sky that looks as if there was no end to its blueness. And then I'd just feel a prayer.'" (p. 52)

"'I'm so glad I live in a world where there are Octobers. It would be terrible if we just skipped from September to November, wouldn't it?'" (p. 118)

Second re-reading for book club. Still a great book and I do want to re-read the series. Maybe I'll do that next summer. One additional quote from this re-reading:

"When I left Queen's my future seemed to stretch out before me like a straight road. I thought I could see along it for many a milestone. Now there is a bend in it. I don't know what lies around the bend, but I'm going to believe that the best does. It has a fascination of its own, that bend, Marilla. I wonder how the road beyond it goes - what there is of green glory and soft, checkered light and shadows - what new landscapes - what new beauties - what curves and hills and valleys further on." (p. 293)

Little House in the Big Woods by Laura Ingalls Wilder (Evening Edition, re-read)

In the 1870's the Ingalls family lives in the deep woods of Wisconsin. Laura, her older sister Mary, and her younger sister Carrie live with their Ma and Pa. Pa hunts, traps, and farms while Ma keeps the house, kids, cooks, and cleans. Laura and Mary spend a lot of time playing outside except in the winter. While there are lots of dangerous animals in the Big Woods, the girls feel safe in their cabin with Ma and Pa. Most nights they fall asleep to Pa playing his fiddle and singing at the end of the day.

Little House in the Big Woods sets the stage for the Ingalls family that is followed in the rest of the series by Laura Ingalls Wilder. I read these books as a child and LOVED them and my Mom actually made me a Laura Ingalls Wilder costume for Halloween one year. In recent years there has been some controversy over these books, namely that Laura's daughter, Rose, was the real author of the series, and that there is racist language especially toward Native Americans in some of the later books. My opinion may change as I keep going, but I feel like the tone is consistent with the time period it was written, not overtly racist on purpose. Overall, I'm excited to re-read these childhood favorites and I think children today could still enjoy this introduction to Laura and the series.

A quote I liked:

"Mary was bigger than Laura, and she had a rag doll named Nettie. Laura had only a corncob wrapped in a handkerchief, but it was a good doll. It was named Susan. It wasn't Susan's fault that she was only a corncob." (p. 20-21)

Update from re-reading for book club: Still an enjoyable book and the way it's written is just lovely. You immediately relate to Laura who tries so hard to be good and wishes she could be like her older sister. I especially enjoy reading about the food preparation and harvest for the winter.

Whistle Blower: my journey to silicon valley and fight for justice at Uber by Susan Fowler

Susan Fowler was 25 years old when she quit her job at Uber because of on-going sexual harassment and retaliation. She had previous left two other jobs in the tech/Silicon Valley industry for the same (yet remarkably less blatant) reasons. She thought quitting would bring relief, but it didn't. She was hearing from friends still working at Uber that nothing was changing and nothing likely would. So on a whim she wrote a blog post detailing the harassment and retaliation she endured at Uber. Her post instantly went viral and shortly thereafter she was the target of both journalists and private investigators hired by Uber to follow her and try to dig up dirt on her. But, because she spoke out others started to speak out and things ultimately did change at Uber - the CEO was forced out and finally the frat-boy culture started to truly change. Fowler has a remarkable story to tell - not just about what happened to her at Uber, but throughout her life she had to fight to get ahead. She grew up very poor in rural Arizona and knew education was her way to a better life. She continued to face harassment and discrimination in college - even in an Ivy League school. But, what she realized after the Uber situation blew up was that all these things prepared her to be in the place to take a stand against Uber at the time she did. It's so frustrating to know this kind of blatant discrimination still takes place today - particularly in fields like science and technology that have traditionally had fewer women in the field (after reading this book it's not hard to understand why so few women are in these fields). But, it's refreshing to see Fowler's story about standing up and something actually happening because of what she brought to light. When these "open secrets" start to be exposed that's when things can truly begin to change for the better.

Some quotes I liked:

"I was used to people hating me and mistreating me because of my Jewish background, for my sex, for my sexual orientation, for my social class. I didn't understand it...As a teenager, I'd believed with all of my heart that if I made it out of poverty, if I worked hard enough and got what I called a 'fancy, high-paying job,' I'd never have to endure that kind of treatment again, because I believed that the creepy, inappropriate, demeaning, and discriminatory treatment I'd experienced came from a place of profound ignorance...But now I had that 'fancy, high-paying job' in the real work - one that I assumed would earn me a little more respect, one that was ostensibly protected by hefty federal employment law - and it seemed like things weren't all that different. The thought that such treatment might follow me, no matter how high up the socioeconomic ladder I climbed, absolutely terrified me." (p. 91-2)

"I'd believed in these [diversity] initiatives during the first few months that I worked at the company, but I quickly became disillusioned. The issue wasn't that Uber needed to be more diverse and inclusive; the issue was that Uber had a culture that ignored and violated civil right and employment laws. Uber didn't just need more women engineers, or more employees of color; it needed to stop breaking the law." (p. 161)

"If Uber's internal lawyers got to something or someone first, they would destroy evidence and try to scare or intimidate employees. Several of the women who had made harassment and discrimination complaints during my time at Uber started to put their own documentation together to hand over to Holder's investigation, only to find that their emails, screenshots, and files about harassment and discrimination had been deleted from their email accounts. After one of my friends met with investigators, her personal phone and computer were stolen from her desk. When she reported the theft to Uber's security, they said that the office cameras normally watching her desk were turned off at the time, so they couldn't help her. Another friend had his personal phone stolen from his desk, in the exact same situation, several days later." (p. 229)

The Growing Season: how I saved an American farm - and built a new life by Sarah Frey

Sarah Frey was the youngest of her parents' combined 21 children. She grew up on a struggling farm and learned quickly to take care of herself. Her family did all kinds of work to survive and Sarah helped her mother re-sell melons from local farmers to grocery stores. By the time she was 16 she had expanded the melon business and roped in her brothers to help her. She eventually bought her parents' farm when it was about to be foreclosed. Her small-time melon business turned into a multi-million dollar business that supplied Walmart with produce and owned farms in several states.

When I read reviews of this book I was more thinking it would be like Forrest Pritchard's book Gaining Ground about turning his family's farm from industrial monoculture to a financially successful diversified farm. But, Sarah Frey's story is more of creating a huge empire that just started with her own family's farm. Her success is great and the struggles she overcame while growing up are impressive, but it wasn't quite what I was expecting. I liked the chapters that covered her childhood better than the second half of the book. I think because of how she grew up she was so hell bent on succeeding and growing that parts of the book were stressful to read because she was just doing SO MUCH ALL THE TIME. I'm not surprised her marriage didn't last - it would take a very unique person to be in a relationship with someone so driven and hyper-focused. I loved that this was a story of a woman making a successful business in a typically male dominated field, but I just didn't love the book as much as I wanted to.

Some quotes I liked:

[When Sarah's hired workers from Mexico were discriminated against at her local bank] "'I understand that you folks are a little uncomfortable with our workers coming in to cash their checks,' I said, keeping my voice steady. 'You're making them wait out in the heat because you're not comfortable with them all here? Well, you know what? Now I'm uncomfortable, too. I'm uncomfortable having my money here. Close out all of my accounts. Now. There,' I called on my way out. 'Now no one has to feel uncomfortable.'" (p. 155)

"After all, how many times have I had a man show up at my farm or at one of my facilities and ask me if they could speak to the 'man in charge'? Probably a million. Every time I politely smile and say, 'Sure, I'll go get him.' Then I go find one of my brothers and say, 'Hey, he wants to speak to the man in charge. Maybe you should go have a conversation with him.' My brother goes to speak with the guy. And as soon as the guy asks a question, my brother says, 'You know what? I don't have any idea. I'm going to have to talk to my sister. She's the boss. You had the opportunity to talk to her directly, but now she's gone. Don't worry, though. I'll pass along your question and I'm sure she'll make it a priority to get back to you right away.' Sometimes it's better to let people find out after the fact that they've been rude, rather than depleting your energy educating them." (p. 164)

Rockaway: surfing headlong into a new life by Diane Cardwell

After her divorce Diane Cardwell feels like she's floundering in her own life. On paper everything looked great, but she wasn't really happy. And now that she's divorced and in her forties she feels like she's starting over in middle age. Writing a story for The New York Times in Montauk, she sees surfers in the water and is transfixed. On a whim she decides to rent a house and take surfing lessons later in the summer. This one small decision changes Cardwell's life. She eventually ends up moving out to Rockaway full time and is just steps from the beach so she can surf as often as she can. She'd been in her Rockaway house for less than a year when Hurricane Sandy hits. Thankfully her house only has minimal damage and she is able to ride out the storm with friends, but the area is devastated. That is the moment when Rockaway really becomes home for Cardwell. She stays, despite having no electricity, to be close to her friends and keep working on the area and cleaning up the damage to her house. Surfing and living at the beach become part of her identity and she creates a new community of fellow surfers and beach dwellers in Rockaway. A very well-written reinvention memoir about how surfing led Diane Cardwell to a more fulfilling life.

A quote I liked:

"As we clattered through Queens, I felt a soreness settling into my body that I could tell wasn't from any kind of damage. Instead it was the hard-won, righteous soreness from going all-out chasing after something that I'd decided, entirely on my own, I wanted to do. I was proud of myself for not chickening out, for not, as usual, letting the fear of failure stop me." (p. 39)

Because I Was a Girl: true stories for girls of all ages by Melissa de la Cruz, ed.

I just happened to see this book on the shelf at the library and pick it up. I was familiar with Melissa de la Cruz's fiction, but was unaware of this collection she edited. It's a collection of short essay written by women about either something they did or didn't do or were treated in a certain way because they were a girl or woman. The stories are organized by decade starting with the 1920's -1930's and going up to the 2010's. At the beginning of each section there are several facts about women's rights or issues that took place or were achieved in that decade. I really liked that most of the stories were just from regular women - not necessarily celebrities or famous people. Ordinary women who have achieved great things shows any young girl reading this book that they too can do great things. Overall, it was a solid book that would be good for teen/preteen girls (or older as I'm well past those ages). My only minor complaint was that the few articles in the 2010's section were of pretty young girls with not a whole lot of content (at least compared to the rest of the stories). Still, a book worth reading.

People Who Love to Eat Are Always the Best People: and other wisdom by Julia Child

Julia Child is well-known for her cooking shows and cookbooks, but also for her infectious laugh and humor. This small book is a collection of many of her best-known quotes - including the title, People who love to eat are always the best people. At the end of the book is a list of all the quote sources and also a few pages on Julia Child's life and legacy. This is a very quick read, but would make a great gift to any Julia Child fans.

Some of my favorite quotes from the book:

"You don't have to cook fancy or complicated masterpieces - just good food from fresh ingredients." (p. 61)

"Fat gives things flavor." (p. 77)

"I just hate health food." (p. 127)

Letters to the Church by Francis Chan (Lake Forest)

Francis Chan had a hugely successful megachurch in California. Then he decided to walk away from it. He started feeling like he wasn't making the impact he wanted to as a pastor. First he thought he and his family might move to another country to start a ministry or church, but in visiting churches around the world Chan started to see how smaller house churches seemed to have a bigger impact in these countries than larger churches in the US. His family came back to California and started a house church movement. To date they have over 45 house churches in the San Francisco area. These churches aren't about him as the pastor or about fancy programs or incredible music - they are about the basics of the Bible and spreading the gospel message.

While parts of this book were convicting and encouraging, I didn't agree with everything he said. I really didn't like the chapter where he compares church to gang life - as in churches should be more like gangs (you know, except without the murder and drugs). There are SO MANY other examples he could have used and I found the gang analogy to be very off-putting and offensive. Yes, gang member "have each others backs," but in a very dysfunctional way - gangs are NOT a good example of love and really caring for others. But, overall I think this is still a book worth reading and thinking about. I personally think a lot of the differences in the churches that he highlights in this book are more cultural differences - a church will reflect the people in it and their culture of the day. That doesn't mean we can't strive to do better here in America and I feel like that is more of Chan's overall message in the book. Definitely a unique and challenging book.

Some quotes I liked:

"Suffering is rarely talked about in the American church. I find this ironic because suffering is all through the New Testament. I did a sermon one time where I went through every book of the New Testament and started reading verse after verse about suffering to show it's not just in one book. It's not just one verse. It's all over the place. It's one of the clearest doctrines in the New Testament." (p. 68)

"Has it ever struck you that besides Jesus no one else seemed to recognize the sin of these two groups of people? You don't see the crowds of Jewish temple-goers confronting Pharisees or getting upset about the unholy activity going on in God's temple. They were used to it. It was part of their culture." (p. 71)

Honey and Venom: confessions of an urban beekeeper by Andrew Cote

Andrew Cote comes from generations of beekeepers. He started helping his dad with beekeeping when he was a kid and continued, but started to get more serious as he got older. He eventually left a career in academia to work as a full time beekeeper. While he lives in Connecticut, he keeps bees all over New York City - on the rooftops of many famous buildings. He founded the organization New York City Beekeepers Association to help lobby New York City to allow urban beekeeping again (it had been made illegal in 1999 by Mayor Giuliani) and also a nonprofit called Bees Without Borders to help people in other countries become more successful beekeepers. In this book Cote goes through a year of beekeeping - January through December. Each month highlights what beekeepers would be doing during that time of year and also some of his personal beekeeping experiences. While parts of the book were very interesting in some chapters his personal stories felt forced into the chapter. There were also several un-necessary/unwelcome sexual jokes or innuendos that felt forced and didn't add to the book (or make him look good) at all. He obviously knows honey bees and is interested in sharing his knowledge and helping other beekeepers. Overall, the book was good, but not great. I think some changes in his personal stories or more/better editing could have made it an amazing book.

A quote I liked:

[Bees on NASA space ships to see how honey bees would react to zero gravity] "In space, the lack of gravity influenced the bees to build their honeycomb at odd angles and not to the perfect pitch of the Earth that they normally would. They also, initially, could not fly, and just walked around, but by the end of the week they had worked out how to fly in their new environs. Honey bees are quick studies." (p. 57)

Uncommon Ground: staying faithful in a world of difference by Timothy Keller and John Inazu, eds.

America feels more divided than ever right now and social media only seems to fuel that division. So, how can Christians interact with people in today's divisive culture in a loving way while still remaining true to the gospel message of the Bible? In this book Timothy Keller and John Inazu invite in ten others to write about various ways we can connect with people even when we disagree. The book is divided into three sections - framing our engagement, communicating our engagement, and embodying our engagement - basically thinking, speaking, and living. While there aren't a lot of specific do's and don't's or lists of suggestions, the overall gist of the book is that as Christ-followers we are supposed to try to live like Jesus every day. Prayer was highlighted over and over again and even though it's so obvious how many of us pray before responding to a Facebook post we disagree with? How many of us pray before going to work every day that we will be a good example of the faith to our coworkers? How many of us have friends who aren't believers or are of another faith? How often do we really interact with people who are different than us/have different views/etc.? To me the main theme of this book is to try to live every day more like Jesus. He embodied the example of truth AND love - you can't have just one or the other, it has to be both and that's really hard to do. Overall, a very good and very timely book.

Some quotes I liked:

"One side wanted us to accept the dominant culture's beliefs about homosexuality, while the other wanted us to cut off homosexuals entirely. The Christian gospel, however, did not allow us to do either. The gospel did not fit the conventional categories or received perspective, and Christians who followed the gospel were out of step with everyone." (p. 25)

"Our supervisor's admonition to use words charitably shaped how we felt about the university and its administration - it actually made us feel more charity toward those with whom we disagreed, and it changed our understanding of what was happening. It was not easy to articulate in writing our differences with the administration in a way that honored what was best about the university. It would have been much easier, and more attention-getting, to write a scorched-earth takedown of liberal elites in the academy. Our more nuanced task was to disagree publicly and try, however fumbling and imperfectly, to use words and arguments that were truthful yet humble and that respected the dignity of those with whom we were arguing - to be people who spoke and wrote with conviction, but who resisted the short-lived sweetness of self-righteous vitriol." (p. 76)

"On one hand, we give too much weight to words. We confuse the pursuit of justice - the slow work of building or transforming institutions and systems - with using the right hashtag or rattling off an opinion on social media or venting rage or virtue signaling. It's not that hashtagging or using social media are irredeemable practices. But social media is never a neutral tool; it shapes how we see the world - and how we speak and act in it. Ironically, it can lead us to greater disengagement even as we consume more and more information about the world. We can become too quick to speak or write, and too slow to listen, understand, and respond with depth and creative action." (p. 81)

"A songwriter is called onto the scene not to make spiritual sense of it, or to answer for it, but simply to look around and cry out, 'Oh my God! Look at this unfathomable beauty!' Or, 'Oh my God! Look at this sh*t show!' This is what we see in the Psalms anyway." (p. 86)

"I believe in the idea that we 'vote' with our lives, money, and time. But if I feel as though my sole identity is as a walking representative of my church, my denomination, or my political party, then my speech and creativity are reduced to propaganda. I have to ask myself if I am stifling honest inquiry because I'm afraid to admit a flaw in the groups with which I most closely identify...My identity doesn't come from these organizations, and while the body of Christ is essential to my faith, I don't have to protect any particular organization at the expense of transparency and honest inquiry." (p. 95)

"What's more, we have trouble digesting a narrative that doesn't fit our worldview. It's actually easier for us to believe a false narrative that fits out outlook on the world than a true narrative that shakes and shatters our perspective. And that is true regardless of where we stand." (p. 106)

"Sometimes the inapt characterizations bother me, but more often they amuse me, like the time a faculty colleague said to me, 'I don't get you; you're religious, but you care about poor people.' Or the many times I've heard from Christians who tell me they can't trust a 'liberal law professor' like me. I regularly encounter people in my university world who assume from my faith that I am a Republican who likes guns. People in my church world often assume from my profession that I am a Democrat who reads only the New York Times." (p. 124-5)

"Respect isn't a synonym for agreement, but it does impact the way a person disagrees. One cannot respect another and harbor a desire to overpower that person through insults, dismissal, or derogatory actions." (p. 133)

"...Christians should not overidentify with any particular political party or platform. This does not mean that it is wrong to be a Democrat or a Republican (or a political independent, or part of some other party)...But Christians should also be wary of any identity that claims primacy over their identity in Christ." (p. 195)