May 2025 Cookbook Reviews

 

Snacking Dinners by Georgia Freedman

The subtitle of this cookbook "50+ recipes for low-lift, high-reward dinners that delight" didn't come through for me. I could easily have a few snacks for dinner but it felt like the majority of the snack recipes in here were either just a few random things tossed together on a plate or just as much work as making a quick grilled cheese or sauteed chicken. Overall, I wasn't impressed with this one and didn't find any recipes I wanted to try.

Cooking Out by Michael Symon

I think the purpose of this cookbook is to show that you can cook almost anything outside on a grill. And I agree with that, but I felt like a lot of the recipes in here would have just been easier to do inside. Can you bake a cake on a grill? Yes. Is that the easiest way to do it? Probably not. I guess depending on where you live if you just want to be outside doing all the cooking then this cookbook might be helpful. My husband and I grill year round but it's often me making sides inside while he grills the main course outside. There were also a few inconsistencies like for a recipe about grilled corn the picture shows corn with the husk pulled back (almost like a handle) but the recipe talks about marinating the corn - how are you marinating it with the husk still on? That kind of stuff was frustrating to me. Overall, the photos of the food are beautiful and I do think you might be inspired to try more outdoor cooking, but I didn't love it.

Cupcakes for Any Occasion by Rachel Lindsay

This is a really cute cupcake cookbook. I like that the author takes the first 2 chapters for basics - basic baking and decorating tools and basic recipes. My only (minor) complaint is that the recipes are all by weight or ounces. I understand baking is better when you weigh the ingredients but I don't know how much 500g or 17.5 oz of powered sugar is without doing some math work. Other than that the recipes and decorating ideas seem great. Most of the decorating doesn't seem too far out of reach for the average home baker. The decorating ideas are organized by type - like holidays, seasonal, animals, etc. Overall, it's a really cute book with a lot of creative ideas.

The Italian Summer Kitchen by Cathy Whims

Cathy Whims is a restaurant chef who first worked in an Italian restaurant in Portland, Oregon in the early 1980s. Even though she had been cooking Italian food at the restaurant, when she was able to visit Italy it changed her way of cooking. Instead of focusing on fancy, fussy recipes, she started focusing on more simple, ingredient-driven recipes. This cookbook shares what she's learned about Italian cooking during her career - both in restaurants and studying in Italy. The recipes are organized like a typical cookbook - starters, soups/salads, pasta/bread/pizza, entrees, desserts, and basics. Overall, the recipes look good and there were several I'd like to try.

The Garlic Companion by Kristin Graves

This is a great all around book about garlic. The author covers the history of garlic, recipes for using garlic, garlic crafts, how to grow your own garlic, and how to preserve garlic. As a huge fan of garlic I thought this book was great. I am personally not into garlic crafts but I will say the author really includes EVERYTHING to do with garlic. There were a few recipes I want to try and as an avid vegetable gardener I will say it is VERY easy to grow garlic and deer and rabbits leave it alone too. Once you start growing your own, you'll wonder how you ever lived without it.

May 2025 Reviews

 

How to Read a Chicken's Mind by Melissa Caughey 

This is a very quick read with tons of great photos all about how chickens minds work. The term "bird brain" is usually an insult and comes from how small birds brains are in relation to other animal brains. But there is a lot going on in a chicken's brain. Melissa Caughey covers 4 areas - how chickens and humans have interacted throughout history, how chickens communicate with each other, how chickens experience the world, and "chicken psychology" - what might be going on in a chicken's mind. If you've ever owned chickens you know they can be very smart and also each have their own personalities. They are MUCH more entertaining that you might imagine. This was a really quick read that gave a lot of good information about chickens and what might be going on in their minds.

A Well-Trained Wife: my escape from Christian Patriarchy by Tia Levings

Tia Levings grew up in a loving home and attended a large Baptist megachurch in Jacksonville, FL. Within her church, there was a segment who followed Bill Gothard's Institute in Basic Life Principles (IBLP). The IBLP organization focused on rigid rules and a strict hierarchy with men at the top and women and children under them. Her church discouraged dating and encouraged young, quick marriages. Tia married a man she barely knew who was already abusive even in the month or two of their "courting." But to her he was the man God sent her so she felt like if things weren't working it was her fault. Tia's husband continued to dive deeper and deeper into Christian patriarchy and was constantly searching for a church or theology that aligned with his disturbed views. They had several children very quickly and Tia was overwhelmed by both their life with several young children and her husband's erratic temper and likely mental illness. When she was 33 she and her children finally escaped.

Tia's story is horrific and almost sounds like something from another time and place, not modern-day America. She is also included in the Amazon Shiny Happy People docuseries about the IBLP organization and theology. She's a good writer and especially the chapters about her horrific years with her now ex-husband are visceral and you can feel her fear and pain as the reader. But there were several things that didn't make sense to me - 1) her immediate family was NOT like this and it's never stated that they wanted this life for her. I think if at ANY time she had told her parents what her husband was like (even before they married) they would have helped her and not told her to "submit more." 2) I personally didn't see how her childhood and their church in Jacksonville groomed her for IBLP and Christian patriarchy. Her parents seemed normal and loving and nothing she shared about the church seemed way off to me. 3) I think her biggest issue was not trusting herself and not asking questions. If she had followed her instincts she would have never married her now ex. And if she had asked her parents or other people her theological questions, I don't think they would have led her down this path. That's not to say any of this was her fault. But I just didn't really understand how her childhood groomed her for this.

I also felt so bad for her kids. I wish there had been a little bit more at the end about what, if any reckoning they had with religion and/or their Dad. It was also crazy how after she left her ex-husband, she had a TON of health issues. Once she got into trauma specific therapy, her physical ailments improved dramatically. The body really does keep the score. This is not a fun read at all. But I'm glad I read it and this stuff is still going on today all over the US so it's important to know how women get sucked into this and how they can get out.

Some quotes I liked:

[After 9/11] "The Christians we knew were angry about the burkas we saw on the news. It was un-Christian, they said, to force women to be invisible and uniform. But I silently laughed at that, American Christians had burkas too. I wore one. The denim jumper was the American burka." (p. 158)

"Joshua Harris, author of I Kissed Dating Goodbye, recanted his teachings on courtship. He stopped publication of his books and disavowed his position on purity culture and Christianity. I felt like I understood conversion from the inside out - he admitted his complicity without deflection - and I trusted it. To this day, Harris stands out as not only a high-profile ex-evangelical, but also one of the few who's taken tangible action steps to address the harm done by his former work. He's unique in the field that way because the rest of them seem to sneak off and wait for their chance to come back." (p. 266)

Heart of the Hive by Hilary Kearney

This small book is packed with all kinds of information about bees. The anatomy of bees, how they operate as individuals within the colony, how they make honey and decisions, and much more. Plus there are tons of AWESOME photographs. I'm curious how the photographer was able to get some of them because they are so detailed and appear to be taken inside the hive. I've read a lot about bees and kept bees before (and hope to again) but I still learn things whenever I read books like this. If you're interested in honeybees, this is a great book with a lot of information.

Some quotes I liked:

"A portion of the microbes in the hive lives inside the bees' bodies and is passed from bee to bee during feeding and grooming. Studies have shown that it's critical for newly emerged worker bees to have contact with older workers...It turns out that these microbes are the key to how nestmates recognize each other. They give the colony a unique scent that all the bees share, and this acts like a 'members only' pass into the hive. To test this theory, researchers inoculated bees from the same colony with different microbes and found that afterward, they fought! They no longer recognized each other as being from the same hive, even though they shared genetics." (p. 55)

"Honey bees have an astonishing ability to learn. They can recognize and remember colors, shapes, patterns, and scents. They can count, add and subtract, sequence, and combine concepts that they learn...Bees have also been credited with understanding the concept of zero, an ability few other animals possess and one that even human children struggle with." (p. 82)

"Given the collaborative nature of comb building, some have wondered if older bees teach the younger ones how to do it. One study sought to answer this question by raising bee larvae in round cells. They found that even though the bees had never seen an example of hexagonal comb nor had contact with any bees who had, they still managed to build hexagons...[the bees in this study built comb that was hexagonal but not quite right] This suggests that while the use of the hexagon shape may be instinctual, the fine details of comb construction must be learned.

How to Share an Egg by Bonny Reichert

Bonny Reichert's father survived the Holocaust - losing his entire family except for 2 cousins. While he was open about what happened to him, his way of coping was to not dwell on anything bad and focus on the positive. Bonny was the youngest of 4 girls and was the "overly sensitive" one in her family. As a child she constantly tried to imagine what her father's experience would have been like and she also never wanted to upset him because how could her problems compare with surviving the Holocaust? After nearly starving during the Holocaust, Bonny's father's passion was food. He owned two restaurants and was ALWAYS thinking about food. Bonny also loved food and especially enjoyed spending time cooking with her maternal grandmother. As an adult, Bonny finds that food is her connection with her family - both current and her father's lost family. Bonny attends culinary school at 40 years old and later begins to reconnect with her father's history through the food he remembers his mother cooking and trying to recreate it. Several trips back to Germany and Poland (both with and without her father) also help Bonny reconcile her father's history with her own life and future. This is a unique memoir in that it's not 100% about her father or the Holocaust, and not 100% about her either. It's how her father's legacy of surviving the Holocaust is interwoven into her life primarily through food.

Dodge County, Inc.: big ag and the undoing of rural America by Sonja Trom Eayrs

Sonja Trom Eayrs grew up on a farm in rural Minnesota. The farm went back several generations and was the pride and joy of her family. Like many family farms, it was diverse - growing a rotation of crops for sale and a large vegetable garden for their family. In the late 1990s and early 2000s they noticed a huge change in local farming. Huge pig CAFOs (Concentrated Animal Feeding Operations) were being constructed all around them. When anyone in the community tried to fight back or enforce current county codes, there was a LOT of pushback from the CAFO owners and operators. Not one to easily give up, Sonja and her family filed several lawsuits, started grassroots organizations, and fought back equally hard. Spoiler alert: they didn't win. But they do see some progress in other areas and help other communities with what they learned along the way.

I've read a LOT about factory farming and know full well all the evils that come from this way of "farming." But reading this book made my blood boil. In Eayrs community and nearby communities she witnessed Big Ag taking over the governments of these small towns with their yes men who would ignore the law or in some cases CHANGE IT to better suit the construction of the CAFOs and the destruction of the communities. Then to have the nerve to threaten anyone who spoke out - death threats, false police reports, dumping trash and dead animals on their lawn, etc. She had people interviewed for this book who still wanted to be anonymous 25 years later because they were still afraid of speaking out. After reading this book I decided that every one of the people who lied, schemed, threatened, paid off, and bullied their way into forcing these abominable CAFOs on these communities should be forced to live there. Not just on site, but inside the pig barns. They want to lie about the health issues around CAFOs - show me. Live in it yourself. Or we could just throw them in the manure lagoons... While this book is definitely not a happy ending or a triumphant David vs. Goliath story, it's still an important read. What Eayrs exposes is not just the evils of CAFOs but the way these corporations are taking over small towns - changing the government, forcing people out of generational land and farms - all to line their pockets. May each one of them rot in a special hell just for them of pig manure.

There were a lot of good quotes, I'll try to limit here:

"The bit of propaganda repeated most often by 'Big Ag' (big agriculture) lobbyists is that corporate agriculture 'feeds the world.'...But consider this: the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) released numbers in 2018 that indicated the United States produced approximately seventy-three million hogs that year - the same number of hogs it produced in 1943." (p. 15)

"By signing a contract, young farmers essentially become low-wage corporate employees. Most growers do not receive a pay increase, not even a cost-of-living adjustment, during the contract term. Likewise, they do not get a pension contribution, profit sharing, or health insurance. Many economists and ag scholars deem the grower-integrator relationship today's version of sharecropping." (p. 37)

"The single most important organization in enabling the rapid takeover of hog country was undoubtedly the American Farm Bureau Federation (AFBF) and its state affiliates. The Farm Bureau has a chapter in every state and is active in 90 percent of all U.S. counties...the AFBF is one of the most powerful lobbies in Washington DC and is comparable to the National Rifle Association (NRA) in terms of its influence and reach. But unlike the NRA, many people are unaware of the organization's partisanship and politics." (p. 49-50)

"Indeed, at the time, proximity to a meatpacking plant was the greatest predictor of a community's increased likelihood of COVID infection, illness, and death. Research published in July 2020 found that communities near meatpacking plants had more COVID deaths than would be expected by the baseline, in the range of 4,300 to 5,200 excess deaths, representing an elevation of between 37 and 50 percent above the baseline rate. The researchers also reported that these impacts were lessened in communities where the meatpacking plants chose to shut down. Yet most didn't, and those that did close reopened within an average of nine days." (p. 225)

[On keeping meatpacking plants open with the argument of a potential meat shortage] "In reality, it was a booming time for the meat-packers. In April 2020 the pork industry, led by Smithfield and Tyson, exported a record-setting amount of pork to China...the industry produces at least 25 percent more pork than needed for domestic consumption, and government data reveals that in the spring of 2020, Smithfield had 'hundreds of millions of pounds' of meat in cold storage, or enough to feed the entire country for several months even in the theoretical complete absence of more production." (p. 226-27)

"Officials estimated that during plant closures in April 2020, about seven hundred thousand pigs across the nation could not be processed each week and had to be euthanized...Many CAFO operators resorted to depopulation methods that the AVMA (American Veterinary Medical Association) classifies as 'not recommended' but 'permitted in constrained circumstances.' Ventilation shutdown was a common procedure during the 2020 factory closures. Contract growers shut off the ventilation fans inside the CAFOs, closed the vents, turned up the heat, and piped a cocktail of carbon dioxide and steam into the barns. The animals died from overheating, suffocation, and poisoning...In Iowa in May 2020 a whistleblower employee at Iowa Select Farms, the state's largest pork producer, informed the animal rights group Direct Action Everywhere (DxE) when such an extermination would be taking place. DxE installed a hidden camera. The footage captured the sounds of hogs crying out in agonized pain and distress for hours. When employees arrived the next morning, some of the hogs were still alive. Workers killed them with bolt guns." (p. 228)

"Tom Butler, a North Carolina hog contract grower with about 7,500 to 8,000 hogs, told his integrator, Prestage Farms, that he would insist on sending his hogs to local butchers and distribute the meat to the hungry. His pitch was unsuccessful, and there was absolutely nothing Butler could do about it. Prestage owned the pigs...When Butler's integrator announced tentative plans to come to his farm and kill thousands of healthy adult hogs, he continued his plea to send the hogs to local butchers or just give them away to the community. Butler lives in a rural community where most residents know how to slaughter, preserve, and save pork. Finally, the integrator agreed to remove the overweight animals and transport them to their own meat processing plant in Wright County, Iowa. While an imperfect solution, it was preferable to the total waste that the industry was promoting." (229-30)

"The majority of voters in Iowa, including the majority of Republican voters, favor a statewide CAFO moratorium, and 75 percent favor stricter permitting requirements. For six consecutive years - annually since 2018 - members of the legislature introduced a bill cosigned by dozens of local organizations to enact a CAFO moratorium in Iowa and to tighten the regulation of existing facilities. Yet nothing happens. The state's legislature won't even bring the bill to the floor." (p. 243)

"In a final act of retribution against the Trom family, local industry operative spread manure on the land for nearly thirty-six hours the weekend of Lowell's [the author's father] visitation and funeral. They spread it just steps from the funeral home in Blooming Prairie on the day of the visitation...Spreading continued through the night and the following day. As our family gathered around my father's rural gravesite, several family members had to remain inside their vehicles, unable to bear the foul odor." (p. 264) [I hope every single person who did this drowns in a hog manure lagoon.]

Close to Home: the wonders of nature just outside your door by Thor Hanson

Biologist Thor Hanson encourages readers to look for all the nature they can find Close to Home. If you stop and actually look around, you'll be surprised just how much is going on in any given natural space around you. Hanson uses his own backyard in the Pacific Northwest to show how promoting biodiversity with both plants, animals/insects, and landscape can turn the average backyard into a natural wonder. The book is divided into three sections - seeing, exploring, and restoring. In the "exploring" section he really gets into all the ways to explore nature around you including focusing on what's above, below, in any nearby bodies of water, and nighttime. Throughout the book he gives other examples from around the world of how scientists made discoveries in small, often urban settings. His two main focuses are "citizen science" where everyday citizens can report on their local nature data to help scientists work on larger data/papers/discoveries and "backyard biology" - basically not going to a destination to look at nature but encouraging it in our own backyards or nearby nature spots. The book is a good mix of science and general nonfiction that would appeal to many readers. There are a few black and white photos or illustrations throughout the book but I would love to see a section of color photos of the author's backyard and some of the habitats he explores in the book. Overall, a great read that will inspire you to look more closely at all the nature that's around you.

Some quotes I liked:

"Too often our observation of birds - or any other wildlife - end at the moment of recognition. We look just long enough to see what something is, and then turn away, neglecting to ask the next logical (and arguably more interesting) question: What is it doing? To really understand what is happening in the natural world, we need to pay attention to behavior. That's not always easy. Watching closely takes time, a precious commodity that is often hard to spare..." (p. 75)

"Urban ecology is now considered a distinct field of study, focused on the many adaptations springing up in built environments that simply don't occur anywhere else...a growing number of studies have documented local species embracing new habits, from bats and birds feasting on insects at streetlights to brushtail possums, stone martens, and chipmunks denning in artificial structures." (p. 87-88)

The Grand Canyon: between river and rim by Pete McBride 

I read A Walk in the Park by Kevin Fedarko about his experience hiking the length of the Grand Canyon with his friend Pete McBride. McBride is a photographer and he and Fedarko have had lots of adventures together with McBride photographing and Fedarko writing about their experience. After I read Fedarko's book I found that my library system had McBride's photo book from their trip. It is stunning. I do wish that I had this one while I was reading Fedarko's book so that I could see the larger, color photos of what was being described in the book. I've been to the Grand Canyon once and it is amazing. But this is beyond what most people see. Kevin Fedarko writes the introduction and Pete McBride writes a few pages at the beginning of each section of their hike to give some background to the photos. McBride's photography is amazing and if you haven't been to the Grand Canyon in person, this book will make you want to go.

April 2025 Cookbook Reviews

 

There's Always Room at the Table by Kaleb Wyse

I wasn't familiar with Kaleb Wyse or his website wyseguide.com but now I'll have to check that out. I love that in his bio at the back of this book it says he "...documents his life on the farm and shares his expertise on subjects like cooking, gardening, and canning." This cookbook is full of "farmhouse recipes" that you'll want to try. While Wyse's approach is more Midwest than Southern, there is a lot of focus on fresh produce and homestyle recipes. There are several recipes I want to try and overall this is a solid cookbook.

Small Batch Cookies by Edd Kimber

I thought this might be a good cookbook to be able to try out some cookie recipes without making 3 or 4 dozen. But I think it's a little too small batch - I want more than 6 cookies, especially if they're good! There is a wide variety of cookies here but I personally would prefer recipes that make a dozen.

Make More With Less by Kitty Coles

I wasn't sure what to expect with this one but it was a little disappointing. To me making more with less would be focusing on leftovers or how to not waste food. This seemed to be more a collection of recipes with pantry type items. To me the categories didn't really make sense. I did like that the chapter on chicken had a recipe for stock from chicken bones, but otherwise I wasn't overly impressed with this one and didn't see any recipes I wanted to try.

When Southern Women Cook: history, lore, and 300 recipes with contributions from 70 women writers by America's Test Kitchen

"Throughout history, food and cooking have sustained women as they have carved out a place for themselves in society and their communities. This is particularly poignant when you listen to women's stories in the American South; in this book, we highlight those stories, exploring how food has enabled women to overcome adversity, provide for themselves and their families, advance society, exercise their creativity, and claim their identities." (p. x) This first few sentences in the Introduction of this comprehensive cookbook/Southern women's food history book perfectly sums up what you're about to read. This is a cookbook. But it is much more than a cookbook as well. Their are 14 chapters of recipes, but each chapter also includes LOTS of other information either about the food/recipes, historical women, and/or current women working in food in the South. The recipes are created by America's Test Kitchen but using both historical and current recipes to find either the best combination or an easier home cook recipe. This is one I will definitely buy. There are several recipes I'd like to try and I could definitely see this being a cookbook you turn to regularly.

April 2025 Reviews

 

The Heaven & Earth Grocery Store by James McBride (Books & Banter book club)

In 1972 skeletal remains are found in an old well in a formerly Jewish and Black neighborhood in Pennsylvania. Before the police can really investigate, a hurricane blows in the next day and destroys all the evidence and most of the area. But if we go back to 1936, we find out who ended up in that well and why. The whole story builds around Chona Ludlow and The Heaven and Earth Grocery Store she runs with her husband Moshe. Chona is disabled from polio but is not shy about speaking her mind and running the store the way she wants. Instead of moving away like other Jewish families have, she wants to stay in the predominately Black neighborhood and is friends with many of her customers. When a young Black child, who is deaf, needs to be hidden from authorities, Chona immediately agrees to help him. The few weeks they spend together are a highlight for both of them. But sadly, the situation also brings about a terrible situation that drastically changes things for both Chona and Dodo. There is also a colorful cast of characters that flow in and out of Chona's story and show the true nature, both good and bad, of the neighborhood.

I wasn't sure what to expect with this one because I'd had several people tell me they didn't like it or had a really hard time getting through it. I really liked it. I loved Chona and her spunk and how she wasn't afraid to stand up for what was right and important to her. I also loved Dodo and was so happy that his story didn't have the terrible ending it could have. I also loved Nate - he reminded me in some ways of Ray Carney in Harlem Shuffle. Several reviews I read complained that there were too many characters and storylines, back stories, etc. But I think they are missing the point. Chona was the center of the neighborhood and the whole cast of characters were there to show the history and culture - both the good and the bad - of the neighborhood. I thought it was clever and well written. It was also odd. They "mystery" aspect that starts the book with finding a skeleton in a well was pretty light - nobody missed that guy so there wasn't a mystery to solve. It was more of a long-running revenge/karma/comeuppance that again tied back to Chona. Is this the best book I ever read? No. Will I be thinking about these characters for a long time? Yes.

A quote I liked:

"They were a lost nation spread across the American countryside, bewildered, their yeshiva education useless, their proud history ignored, as the clankety-clank of American industry churned around them, their proud past as watchmakers and tailors, scholars and historians, musicians and artists, gone, wasted. Americans cared about money. And power. And government. Jews had none of those things; their job was to tread lightly in the land of milk and honey and be thankful that they were free to walk the land without getting their duffs kicked - or worse. Life in America was hard, but it was free, and if you worked hard, you might gain some opportunity, maybe even open a shop or business of some kind." (p. 62)

The Mango Tree: a memoir of fruit, Florida, and felony by Annabelle Tometich

This book starts with Annabelle Tometich going to court after her mother faces charges for shooting at a man who was stealing mangoes from her tree. This surprises no one who knows Jo Tometich - and after reading this book I'm surprised it hadn't happened before. Annabelle's mother, Jo, is from the Philippines and her father, Lou, was from Cape Cod, Massachusetts and they met in Florida. Jo was a driven immigrant who was desperate to make it in the US and help her family. Lou came from money and never seemed to find the motivation for a career even after he married Jo and they had children. To say the Tometich household was volatile would be a huge understatement. Annabelle grew up between two worlds - never feeling White enough and also never feeling Filipino enough. Her escape from the chaos at home was to do well in school and try to fit in any way she could. After her father's accidental death the family really struggles. As Annabelle goes off to college, then marries and has her own children she re-evaluates her mother's experiences. With her own much less dysfunctional new family, she finally has the family she always wanted. But she still has her family of origin and can finally embrace them for who they are - even if that means going to court to support her mother when she shot at someone (with a BB gun) who was stealing her beloved mangoes. As the subtitle says, "a memoir of fruit, Florida, and felony."

When Southern Women Cook: history, lore, and 300 recipes with contributions from 70 women writers by America's Test Kitchen

"Throughout history, food and cooking have sustained women as they have carved out a place for themselves in society and their communities. This is particularly poignant when you listen to women's stories in the American South; in this book, we highlight those stories, exploring how food has enabled women to overcome adversity, provide for themselves and their families, advance society, exercise their creativity, and claim their identities." (p. x) This first few sentences in the Introduction of this comprehensive cookbook/Southern women's food history book perfectly sums up what you're about to read. This is a cookbook. But it is much more than a cookbook as well. Their are 14 chapters of recipes, but each chapter also includes LOTS of other information either about the food/recipes, historical women, and/or current women working in food in the South. The recipes are created by America's Test Kitchen but using both historical and current recipes to find either the best combination or an easier home cook recipe. This is one I will definitely buy. There are several recipes I'd like to try and I could definitely see this being a cookbook you turn to regularly.

A Walk in the Park by Kevin Fedarko

Kevin Fedarko worked as a river rafting guide on the Colorado River that runs through the Grand Canyon. Fedarko makes his living as a writer, something he could do around the river guide work. His friend Pete McBride is a photographer and approaches Fedarko with an idea for them to do a thru-hike the length of the Grand Canyon and write about/photograph their journey. Even though only a handful of people have successfully done this (and many people die in the Canyon every year doing lesser hikes) Fedarko agrees. For the first segment they tag along with Rich Rudow and 3 of his friends. Rudow is an extremely experienced hiker specifically in the Grand Canyon. Yet still in that first section hike, McBride almost dies and both men realize they are in WAY over their heads. They find a group of more experienced hikers to help them both on the hikes and to prepare and eventually do complete their hike the length of the Grand Canyon.

I liked Fedarko's writing and I did want to know what happened and about their hike. He also gives a lot of background especially about historical people who first explored and/or thru-hiked the Grand Canyon. He also gave a lot of information about the Native people who call the land in and around the Grand Canyon their historical home. I've been to the Grand Canyon but have not hiked into it, so sometimes it was hard to picture the level of detail he was describing. There are a lot of pictures included in the book and that does help. Pete McBride also published a coffee table photography book from this trip so I'd like to see that to really get a feel for what they saw.

A couple takeaways: 1) I NEVER want to hike like this. Seriously, Pete almost DIED. Like a doctor told him after the fact that he was probably 1-2 hours away from going into a coma and dying. Even though he was drinking water, his electrolyte levels got too low from not replenishing the salt his body was losing through sweating. I don't know that I would have continued on after that. 2) It's just a different kind of person who enjoys pushing their body and mind to the limit like this for fun. I love being outside and seeing nature and I'd love to see some of the places they described in person. But my idea of fun is not narrowly escaping death during my "fun" times. 3) Fedarko was 38 when he started working with whitewater companies in unpaid positions during the summer - and, according to him, he sucked at it. I don't know if it was a midlife crisis or what but starting something like that at 38 seemed pretty crazy and then even more so deciding in your mid-40s to do this brutal thru-hike and being shocked at how hard it was, seemed even more crazy.

Overall, I did like the book. Some of the technical aspects of the hiking descriptions and very detailed information about the areas they hiked through did get a little old. But it was definitely an interesting book and Fedarko is now one of the small number of people who have successfully hiked the length of the Grand Canyon, which is a huge accomplishment.

Be Ready When the Luck Happens by Ina Garten

Ina Garten grew up in a very unhappy home. Her parents never really wanted to be parents and had rigid expectations for their children. There was no love or affection shown to or by anyone in the household. While she was still in high school she met her future husband Jeffrey when she and her parents went to visit her brother at Darmouth. It was love at first sight for both of them. Ina's relationship with Jeffrey changed her life for the better. He believed in her and encouraged her to try new things or work in different fields to find something that suited her. Getting married in the early 1970s Ina wasn't taught to have ambitions or work toward anything other than getting married and being a housewife. Food was something Ina was always interested in, so when she saw an ad for a specialty food store for sale in the Hamptons she went to check it out just out of curiosity. As soon as she walked into the Barefoot Contessa store she knew this was it. She and Jeffery made it work even though they were working in different states (and even different countries) for awhile. Eventually she sold the store and started writing cookbooks, then caught the eye of Food Network people and got into cooking on TV. A saying Jeffrey often said was "you don't know your good breaks from your bad breaks," basically meaning somethings things don't work out that you want but it ends up that something better is down the road. Ina never had 5-year-plans and her career trajectory worked out - she just went along was tried to Be Ready When the Luck Happens.

Several reviews I read complained A LOT about how privileged and rich she was and that's why things worked out for her. But she never talked about her family having tons of money or helping them financially. I think it was more the time and place. She and Jeffery both worked for the White House - obviously you'll make some good/important connections there. It was also a time when a couple with or without a college education could buy a really nice house for $50,000. And Jeffery did work in some very well paying jobs - Lehman Brothers, a professor at Yale, etc. If she hadn't married Jeffery or they hadn't stayed together, her life would have been very different. I think that's a lot of what this book is about - their partnership. They worked together to make a life for themselves that was very atypical for the time and that's how she built her career into what it is now. I liked the book and I thought it was well written and interesting.

Some quotes I liked:

"I loved our return policy. Usually, when you return something to a store, you get some kind of resistance. I thought this was an opportunity to be different. Every person in the store knew what to do if someone returned any item. First, you got your money back, no questions asked. Once you had you money in your hand, we'd ask what you didn't like about the product. Finally, based on the answer - you don't like a dense chocolate cake, or the cake you got was overbaked - you got something free, such as a different chocolate cake or a new cake that wasn't overbaked. People were stunned! A serious problem turned into a happy customer for life, and the cost to us was minimal." (p. 149-50)

"A lot of celebrities spent time in the Hamptons, and several came to the store. I was never starstruck until the day I looked out the window and saw a familiar - no, an iconic - woman walking down the street. Long, swinging hair, aviator glasses...'Oh my God, that's Gloria Steinem!' I announced to the girls in the store. When their response was, 'Who's that?' I knew what I had to do...I ran outside and stopped her. 'I'm so sorry,' I apologized...'Would you mind coming in for a minute? I have all these young women who work for me, and they need to know who changed their lives.'...I told the girls what she had done - that she advanced feminism, campaigned for the Equal Rights Amendment, founded Ms. magazine. 'Your mothers didn't know they had options. I didn't know. Gloria Steinem changed all of that,' I explained, wanting them to know what a difference she'd made in the lives they could lead, in the choices they could make." (p. 156-57)

One Way Back by Christine Blasey Ford

This book was already on my TBR list but I recently watched the Anita Hill episode of United States of Scandal with Jake Tapper and decided to go ahead and read this one. What's so incredibly sad and frustrating is how little has really changed since the Clarence Thomas hearing in 1991 to the Brett Kavanaugh hearing in 2018. While I feel like woman are taken a little more seriously today, are there really any more consequences for the men in power? It feels like not really. While the women like Anita Hill and Christine Ford pay the real consequences for coming forward. One Way Back is Dr. Christine Ford's story of how she decided to come forward with her allegations against Brett Kavanaugh after finding out he was a nominee for the Supreme Court. She was never trying to testify in front of Congress, she just wanted to tell the right people what happened to her so that they had the full story of this nominee. The whole process was insane with lawyers initially encouraging her to tell her story and contact Congress, then saying she shouldn't go forward, Congressmen acting like they cared about her then throwing her under the bus at the hearings, etc. She and her family had to go into hiding and hire 24/7 security during the time leading up to the hearings and she continues to get death threats to this day. And for what? Kavanaugh was still confirmed and while he did have protestors and threats as well, he's on the Supreme Court for life. Dr. Ford basically had the rug pulled out from under her and is still trying to recover.

The book was a pretty quick read but it wasn't a good time. It's depressing to see how ridiculously hard this process was and how women continue to be the ones with the worst repercussions for trying to do the right thing. It was also very sad that her immediate family wasn't very supportive of her. Her dad sent Kavanaugh's father an email congratulating him on Brett's appointment! And her brother basically quit speaking to her after this. Wow. Is is any wonder women don't come forward?! Dr. Ford had plenty of supporters and people continue to reach out to her today with their support and their own stories of assault. This is not a happy ending book but definitely worth reading. Maybe someday the tide will turn more and men in power who do bad things will actually have to face the consequences.

We Are the ARK by Mary Reynolds

Mary Reynolds wants to encourage people to do two things 1) re-wild their property (if you have some) and 2) grow some of your own food. I can get behind both of those ideas. She started the organization We are the ARK to promote planting of native plants, re-wilding areas, and growing organic food on a smaller scale. ARK stands for Acts of Restorative Kindness - these acts are to help the earth heal and nature thrive. She gives lots of tips for any size property and even to people who live in apartments or in urban areas of how they can encourage re-wilding and create ARKs in their areas. The book is beautifully illustrated but I wish there had been some pictures included of the author's ARK areas and others that she mentions. I had a hard time picturing some of the ideas she included in the book. Even though she is in Ireland, she makes a point to gives resources for the UK, US, and Canada. Overall, it was an encouraging book but it was slightly repetitive and like I said before I think some pages with photos of ARKs would add a lot to the book.

Demon Copperhead by Barbara Kingsolver (Books & Banter 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)

March 2025 Cookbook Reviews

Super Italian: more than 110 indulgent recipes using Italy's healthiest foods by Giada De Laurentiis

I was not impressed with this cookbook. The subtitle of "...110 indulgent recipes using Italy's healthiest foods" made me roll my eyes a little. Everyone is trying to make healthy food "indulgent" or "sexy" or anything other than just healthy. I like Giada and I've watched her Food Network shows and use some of her recipes regularly. But I didn't really find anything in here I wanted to try. I did like that she talked about her "superfoods" and gave some info on them and also the first chapter with her essential condiments and basics. But overall, I wasn't super impressed with this one.

 

March 2025 Reviews

 

Portrait of a Thief by Grace Li (Community Read, Books & Banter, Evening Edition)

Five Chinese-American college students are invited to steal back 5 pieces of Chinese artwork. Will, the art history major at Harvard is the leader, his sister Irene studying public policy at Duke is the smooth talker who can talk her way into and out of just about anything, Lily, Irene's roommate at Duke and an underground street racer will be the getaway driver, Alex, dropped out of MIT to work for Google and will be their hacker, and Daniel, applying to med school and life-long friends with Will and Irene has an in with his father working for the FBI. Can this unlikely group of college kids pull off not one but five museum robberies without getting caught? Why does each one say yes to the secretive Chinese billionaire who hires them? What will happen if they succeed?

This is my library system's Community Read title. I had mixed feelings about the book. Parts of it I enjoyed and wanted to know what would happen next. But overall, it had a very teen angsty feel to it. About halfway through I realized it reminded me of the TV series 90210 but with older kids. In both, these teens/young adults are mostly privileged, yet constantly having existential crises along the lines of "Is this all there is to life?!" Yeah, going to Ivy League schools where you can basically write your ticket to life is SUCH a downer. A lot of the character focus was on these Chinese-America kids and their divided identity - are they Chinese enough? Are they American enough? Can they live up to their parent's American Dreams for them? These are not made up problems, but I don't see how robbing museums will fix any of that for them. The whole heist aspect was ridiculously unrealistic. If a dragon had flown in and handed them one of the Chinese zodiac heads it wouldn't have been completely out of place with the level of fantasy here. Overall, it was pretty over the top with the plot and the characters were VERY angsty and not really fully developed. If you can suspend belief enough it could be an enjoyable read.

Some quotes that stood out to me:

"...Lily in jean shorts and a battered t-shirt, her brown hair tangled from years of salt air." (p. 19) [Does she not shower or have a hair brush? Growing up at the beach doesn't change your hair texture. You can't still have salt-curled hair when you're NOT AT THE BEACH.]

"Of everyone in this crew, the two of them were here for the same reasons. Not out of a love for art, like Will, and not loyalty, like Daniel and Irene. Not even as a test of their skill. They were here because they couldn't not be, because it was a chance to be more than they were. Sometimes this heist was the only thing that made Alex feel like she existed at all." (p. 160) [I just don't get how an insane and unlikely to be successful art heist is the only thing making you feel alive.]

A Life in the Garden by Barbara Damrosch

Barbara Damrosch grew up in New York city but would visit her mother's family in Louisiana where her grandparents grew most of their own food and Damrosch was exposed to gardening. After a short marriage, Damrosch and her son moved to Connecticut to be near her parents and she rediscovered the gardening bug. She started working at an organic farm and then became a landscaper and landscape designer. In 1991 she met Eliot Coleman in Maine and soon they married and started their own small farm in Maine. Eliot Coleman is known for his 4 season gardening even in a harsh climate like Maine and has written several books about organic gardening. I wasn't familiar with his wife before stumbling on this book. It's a beautiful ode to gardening - whether you're farming for a living like them or just wanting to grow some of your own food in your yard. Damrosch is a great writer and her descriptions really bring their garden to life for the reader. The book is divided into 5 sections - Why I Grow Food, Where to Start, The Garden Year, Sharing the Garden, and What to Grow. She gives a lot of great tips and suggestions but it's not an instructional book - it's really all about A Life in the Garden. If you're not already gardening, this book will definitely inspire you!

Some quotes I liked:

"People who view gardening as backbreaking are probably using their backs when they should use their brains. It helps to vary the position as well as the task. If you're weeding, kneel on one knee, then the other, then sit, crouch, or squat. It's easy to get caught up in the project and ignore what it's doing to your body - until the next morning when you try to get out of bed." (p. 34)

"One of the most limiting factors of our country's garden culture is that it's a popular summer pastime, not a life support system. We are not used to thinking of food growing as the necessity it once was. Anywhere you lived, adaptations had to be made, by means of crop choices, storage, and protective devices, to make sure the supply was year-round." (p. 130)

The 5-Minute Gardener: year-round garden habits for busy people by Nicole Johnsey Burke

Nicole Burke wrote The 5-Minute Gardener for busy people like herself who want to garden and grow their own food but feel like they don't have the time they need. Her premise is that in 5-minutes a day you can grow some of your own food. I picked this one up because I'm always looking at gardening books to get ideas. I also tend to procrastinate (or time just gets away from me) when it comes to my garden so I thought this book could help me work on the garden year-round in smaller increments.

What I liked:
She doesn't organize the book by Spring, Summer, Fall, Winter. Instead she organizes it by Cold Season, Cool Season, Warm Season, and Hot Season - because the months that these fall for you will be different depending on where you live. I really liked that. Also, she emphasizes you don't have to start at the "right" time - just start in whatever season you're currently in and do a few things, then build up over time.

What I didn't like:
She is VERY into sprouts and microgreens, which is fine, but that was a LOT of the daily 5 minute suggestions and recipe suggestions, especially in the cold and cool season chapters. It's also pretty repetitive overall. I found myself kind of skimming toward the end because the tips and suggestions were almost all the same just with different plants depending on the season.

Overall, it does have some good tips. If you're into sprouts and microgreens you will definitely enjoy this one. I found the book too repetitive for me personally but I do think it highlights that you can do a little something everyday to create a garden or build up good habits.

The Owl Handbook: investigating the lives, habits, and importance of these enigmatic birds by John Shewey

Owls are such fascinating birds and in The Owl Handbook you will learn all about them. The book is divided into 5 chapters - the first is owl facts and fictions, LOTS of info about owls and how they have been perceived throughout history, the second chapter is more detailed information about the owls of the US and Canada, the third chapter is about owling or trying to spot or photograph owls in the wild, the fourth chapter is about how to help owls, and the last chapter is a less detailed listing of many other owl species from around the world. Throughout the book there are TONS of great photographs and information. Prior to reading this, I didn't realize that owls would eat other owls! There is also a lot of great information in the "give a hoot" chapter about how to help owls or create better environments for them in your yard/community. Overall, this is a really great book and one I might buy just for all the great photographs. If you're interested in owls this is definitely worth checking out.

Men Who Hate Women: from incels to pickup artists: the truth about extreme misogyny and how it affects us all by Laura Bates

This is not a fun read AT ALL. But it is a necessary read. Laura Bates explores several of the main groups of Men Who Hate Women - everything from incels, Pick Up Artists, Men's Rights Activists and much more is covered. I was familiar with some of the groups she talked about but honestly the chapter on "men who don't know they hate women" was by far the most disturbing to me because this was middle- and high-school age boys who are being exposed to misogynist content via YouTube and not even realizing how wrong and messed up it is. After reading a book like this you have to remind yourself that the internet is also a good thing because this REALLY highlights a big chunk of the bad side of the internet. Misogyny and sexism isn't dying out with the Boomers - it's getting revamped via the internet for a whole new generation. Bates does have a few suggestions in the last chapter, but overall this book is not a happy one and doesn't give tons of hope at the end either. But, this is reality and everyone should read this book so that you're aware of the scope of this issue and try to combat it when/if you can.

Some quotes I liked:

"In the small flurry of online articles that has emerged about incel groups, particularly in the wake of mass killings, there are two clear, polarized groups. The community is either characterized as darkly violent and misogynistic, dangerously promoting violence against women, or as a mischaracterized and disadvantaged group of lonely men, widely smeared by association with a tiny number of bad apples who could exist in any movement. The reality, which almost nobody seems to have confronted, is that both stories are true. That extended exposure to the violent rhetoric of the most extreme ideologues slowly desensitizes and draws in other members too. And it is this combination that is perhaps most explosive of all." (p. 48)

"As I spent hours poring through these posts, I realized just how much offline impact it can have when men are immersed in incel forums day in, day out. And I started to register just how many of the stories men told about manifesting incel ideas in their daily lives echoed and matched the thousands of stories I receive every year from women who are being harassed, assaulted, and abused." (p. 53)

"But what MGTOW [Men Going Their Own Way] has in common with the majority of the other groups that make up the manosphere, perhaps best exemplified by MGTOW itself, is the special quality of being a group supposedly exclusively devoted to men whose near-total focus is women. In the case of MGTOW, this fundamental dichotomy builds inevitable self-destruction into the very core of the movement. It is, one imagines, very difficult for a man to release himself completely from the toxic and damaging impact of women and all they represent - blissfully freeing himself to live a life of simple, manly fulfillment - while remaining entangled within a community feverishly obsessed with, well, women." (p. 100)

"So when we tell women to simply switch off, spend less time online, or stop visiting certain websites, what we are really saying is that they, not their harassers, should suffer the negative consequences of trolling. They, not the trolls, should be excluded from hostile spaces. Like Lee-Kennedy was compelled to, we are suggesting women should sacrifice their careers as the price for escaping online abuse. There is also a real lack of public understanding of the psychological impact such abuse can have, even in the absence of physical harm." (p. 156)

"Yet some of the world's biggest social media platforms repeatedly throw up their hands and imply that the problem is too difficult to solve, claiming to be taking extensive action against harassment but also refusing to disclose detailed reports of their records or procedures for tackling it. They release polished PR platitudes about working hard to keep everybody safe online, even as women reporting rape and death threats or graphic images of sexual violence are receiving automated responses telling them that the content 'doesn't violate our community standards.' These are companies with an income equivalent to some small countries. The idea that they couldn't tackle this problem robustly if they wanted to or certainly make enormous improvement very swiftly is laughable." (p. 161-62)

"Writing in the New York Times, sociologist Zeynep Tufekci described how, no matter what average video she started out with, YouTube's algorithm would quickly send her down a spiraling rabbit hole of associated but far more hardcore content. 'Videos about vegetarianism led to videos about veganism. Videos about jogging led to videos about running ultramarthons,' A Wall Street Journal investigation revealed the same phenomenon." (p. 277)

"Then there are the ways in which online abuse, underestimated and repeatedly belittled, bleeds into offline abuse. It is a reality consistently ignored in the response from authorities. The lackluster reaction to online threats against female politicians. The dismissal of cyberstalking as a tool used by bullying ex-partners, until an escalation from online to offline violence proves fatal and intervention is too late. As case after case reveals that the police have missed opportunities to intervene before women are murdered by their stalkers, frequently failing to join the dots between multiple incidents and forms of harassment, these are very real concerns." (p. 322)

The House in the Cerulean Sea by TJ Klune (Evening Edition)

Linus Baker works for the Department in Charge of Magical Youth (DICOMY) as a case worker. His whole life is boring and dreary but he does feel a responsibility to the children in his cases. He is summoned by Extremely Upper Management to go on a secret assignment to check up on a secret orphanage for magical children. The six children in this orphanage are some of the most extreme magical youth Linus has seen - the Antichrist, a were-pomeranian, a wyvern, a gnome, a sprite, and an unidentified green blob. Their caretaker, Arthur Parnassus, is fiercely protective of the children. He is also hiding his own secret that could threaten the future of the Marsyas Island orphanage. Linus goes in intending to be objective and do his job - but in a month he begins to really connect with each of the children and Arthur. The House in the Cerulean Sea is a beautifully written, feel-good story that highlights the importance of found family, community, and acceptance.

I had only heard good things about this book but I tried to not have too high of expectations. I did love it. Was it somewhat predictable and obvious? Yes. I've also read there has been controversy after Klune said in a podcast that his inspiration was somewhat based on the Sixties Scoop - in Canada when Indigenous children were essentially kidnapped and adopted out to White families or kept away from their families and cultures in Indian schools. Most of the backlash has been about Klune being White and "taking" a story that's not his to tell and turning it into a sci/fi/romance book. I personally didn't see an obvious link between this book and what's happened in both Canada and the US to Indigenous people/children. I could see almost any "other" group being the inspiration. The "see something, say something" posters reminded me more of the McCarthyism/anti-communist period in the US. I'm personally not going to hold Klune's inspiration against him. I liked the book. It had a lot of good messages and I LOVED the children - especially Chauncey, Theodore, and Sal. Even though I don't read a ton of fiction anymore, I'll definitely pick up the sequel to see what happens next on Marsyas Island.