Top Ten Tuesday

This is a neat weekly feature over at a blog I really enjoy, The Broke and the Bookish.  They read books similar to some that I've been reviewing, and they're fun and they write well.  Totally worth checking out.

Top Ten Books I've Read So Far This Year

1. Doctor Sleep by Stephen King.  I love love love Stephen King's writing style.  This was a delightfully spooky book; a follow-up to The Shining.  It answers the question of "whatever happened to Danny?"  I listened to this one on CD and the narration is top notch too.

2. The Madman's Daughter and Her Dark Curiosity by Megan Shepherd.  I just love this trilogy so far!  What talent; for the author to weave together a classic tale of horror (The Island of Doctor Moreau in The Madman's Daughter and Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde in Her Dark Curiosity) with a fresh new historic fiction and have it work.  Wow.  I tore through these in about one day each because I couldn't put them down!  I am waiting so-not-patiently for A Cold Legacy, the final book in the trilogy (which will put a new spin on Frankenstein)!

3. George Washington's Secret Six: The Spy Ring That Saved the American Revolution by Brian Kilmeade with Don Yaeger.  I just love books on George Washington, and this was a different topic than I usually read on.  This is one of those nonfiction books that's written so well it reads like fiction.  This has George Washington, spies, and people generally being totally kick-ass.  Who wouldn't want to read this?

4. The Secret Life of Bees by Sue Monk Kidd.  I am absolutely kicking myself for not having discovered Sue Monk Kidd sooner!  This was such a great book.

5. Bourbon: A History of the American Spirit by Dane Huckelbridge.  I've really read some great nonfiction this year!  This one was so well-written that it read almost like fiction.  I loved how the author wove together the history of bourbon with the history of the United States, but without ever getting bogged down in facts.  A very enjoyable read!  Especially with a snifter of bourbon at hand.

6. Burn by Julianna Baggott.  Oh WOW.  What a great wrap-up to the trilogy!  This trilogy ended just as strongly as it began.  The author's world-building is just amazing, and the character development is definitely above-par.

7. My Boyfriend Barfed in My Handbag by Jolie Kerr.  This was supposed to be a nonfiction how-to book on cleaning but I ended up reading it straight through like a book.  Jolie has a great conversational style of writing, and I found myself literally laughing out loud as a I read.  A bonus:  all the cleaning tips and tricks that I tried really did work!

8. The Husband's Secret by Liane Moriarty.  I can't say that I was sucked in from page 1, but the way the author weaves together all the characters by the end was just phenomenal and impressive.  I just can't get this book out of my mind, and I added all of the author's other books to my tbr list.

9. The Running Dream by Wendelin Van Draanen.  Such a sweet, triumphant book!  I very, very nearly cried.  For a book to evoke a physical reaction from me means that it's definitely a great read.

10. The Public Library by Robert Dawson.  This one was a collection of photographs, but it also had essays about the public library by many well-known authors, and loads of fun facts.

Diet Cults: The Surprising Fallacy at the Core of Nutrition Fads and a Guide to Healthy Eating for the Rest of Us by Matt Fitzgerald | Book Review

(I just love this cover!  The whole time I was reading this book I kept showing the cover to people.)

There were many things that I liked about Diet Cults:  the cover (and I can't even articulate why), the layout, the tone, the reassurance, and the Agnostic Eating Plan.

I loved the layout of Diet Cults.  Each chapter addressed a different type of "diet cult" until the very last chapter, which discussed the author's Agnostic Eating Plan.  Personally, I find comfort in reading a book with good, predictable cadence.  There's a time and a place for thrillers and suspense, but a nonfiction book about diet isn't it.  I liked that each chapter was laid out in roughly the same pattern:  the "diet cult" is touched upon briefly, then an anecdote about someone currently on/advocating that diet, then the author's rebuttal, then a summary.  I LOVED that the author isn't overly pushy in his arguments!  He totally lets the science speak for itself.  This allowed me to feel smart, like I was connecting the dots myself.  (I wasn't.  It's just that the author laid out the facts in such an awesomely easy-to-understand way for me.)  

I also loved loved loved that pretty much every major diet fad out there was proven to have at least a little fallacy in it.  You see, I was reading this book for the wrong reasons.  I was reading it hoping that the author would be wrong; that there would be an answer for what to eat for optimal health.  I was wrong.  According to Diet Cults (and I totally agree with this, at least for now), there is no "correct" diet.  There's only food, and it's good for you.  Yes, you should have common sense and know that, like, Krispy Kremes aren't good for you (really nothing that's fried is good for you) but you should also have the common sense to know that it's not bread that's the problem; it's the fried cooking that's the problem.  Whole grain bread is totally ok for you (in moderation).  This book basically reassured me that I'm doing ok in feeding myself and the hubby.  We're not Paleo or Atkins or low-carb or anything; we're just normal.  I try to avoid stuff like canned condensed cream of anything soup and I buy low-fat cheese and I try to avoid preservatives and food dyes, but I don't obsess.  And I now truly and honestly believe that we're going to be ok.

The very last chapter of the book explains the author's Agnostic Eating Plan, which is sort of an un-diet.  Basically, you're aiming to have a good mixture of foods in your diet.  Lots of veggies and fruits, some protein, a little whole grains, and very scant sweets & oils.  The author gives you a chart in case you want to obsess and keep count, but you could easily do the un-diet in your head.  It's that simple.  

What did I take away from this "diet book"?  I upped the amount of veggies present at every meal (for both me and the hubby) and cut back on sugar and am relishing the peace of mind.  This was a very approachable read and I really enjoyed it and I recommend it.

I got Diet Cults from my library.

The Chopped Cookbook: Use What You've Got to Cook Something Great by The Food Network Kitchens | Cookbook Review

I give The Chopped Cookbook two thumbs up!  It's a really pretty cookbook (ya'll know I love cookbooks with big, beautiful photos) and it does exactly what it says it will do:  it gives you recipes that won't require you to go out and purchase a billion ingredients.  You should already have a majority of the ingredients on hand in your pantry.

Confession:  I've never seen a single episode of Chopped!  I am familiar with the set-up on the show though.  A couple of chefs are given access to a well-stocked "pantry" and then are given a surprise "market basket" with 4-5 fresh ingredients in it.  They must use all the ingredients in the market basket in creation of a delicious meal.  I believe sometimes the market basket could be really odd in it's combination of ingredients, such as fish and strawberries in there together.  Now that I've read the cookbook and enjoyed it, I might try to watch an episode of the show!

So far I've tried three recipes out of the cookbook:  Moroccan Carrot Salad, Roasted Corn and Chickpea Salad, and Mocha Brownies.  All three turned out fantastic!  And they all got thumbs up from my slightly picky-eater hubby!  In fact, he said I should make the Roasted Corn Salad as often as possible.  That one was probably my favorite too.  It's got roasted corn, roasted chickpeas, halved grape tomatoes, and chopped scallions all tossed in a dijon vinaigrette.  YUM.  The brownies were fantastic too, but they are so rich.  I can only eat half of one in a sitting!  I can eat a small bowl full of the corn salad in one sitting.  :)

Something that makes this cookbook a bit unique is that there are variations given to nearly every recipe.  This goes along with the whole "use what you've got" subtitle.  So the recipe on the page might call for ground beef, but there's a little "chef's note" at the end that tells you how to mix it up and adjust the seasoning if you use ground turkey or ground chicken instead.  There are also two big two-page spread tables in the book that gives cooks a general idea of how to mix things for best results without being specific in the ingredients.  One is for salad dressings and it tells you what type of base to mix with which kinds of herbs to serve on which kinds of salads.  

Personally, I loved how this cookbook explained variances and substitutions.  The Food Network cooks' explanations just really "clicked" for me, and I now feel more confident making my own substitutions in recipes.  I think this cookbook could potentially save me and my family some money!

I got The Chopped Cookbook from my library.

Insurgent by Veronica Roth | Book Review

(I think this was my favorite cover out of the trilogy.)

Throwback Review!

I read Insurgent in October 2013 and I gave it 5 of 5 stars on Goodreads.  Here's my review:

Insurgent opens right where Divergent, the first book in this trilogy, leaves off and the action never stops! Tris, Four, Caleb, Christina, Uriah... half of Dauntless are still together, and still out to avenge Abnegation. Nearly all of Abnegation have been wiped out, Amity doesn't want to get involved, Candor is supporting the half of Dauntless that Tris & Four are in, and Erudite is supporting the "traitor" Dauntless. Is that enough factions to keep up with, or would you like more plot twists? Because in this second book, Veronica Roth has brought the Factionless forward to speak up for themselves, and the Divergent are recognized as a sub-group of society. 

I tell you what: I read the entire 525 page book in just 24 hours. Yes, it's that good! Now I'm ready for Allegiant!

The Secret Life of Bees by Sue Monk Kidd | Book Review

(I got my copy from my library, so I didn't have a choice: I had to read the copy with the movie tie-in cover.  *shudder*  WHYYY do publishers do this??  At least this one was eye-catching honey-gold, so lots of people would ask me what I was reading and I'd get to tell them, and then also tell them how wonderful it was!)

Plot summary from the back of the book:  Set in South Carolina in 1964, The Secret Life of Bees tells the story of Lily Owens, whose life has been shaped around the blurred memory of the afternoon her mother was killed. When Lily's fierce-hearted black "stand-in mother," Rosaleen, insults three of the deepest racists in town, Lily decides to spring them both free. They escape to Tiburon, South Carolina--a town that holds the secret to her mother's past. Taken in by an eccentric trio of black beekeeping sisters, Lily is introduced to their mesmerizing world of bees and honey, and the Black Madonna. This is a remarkable novel about divine female power, a story women will share and pass on to their daughters for years to come.

FIVE OF FIVE ENTHUSIASTIC STARS TO THIS!  I think I was only about 50 pages in when I started mentally kicking myself for not having read any Sue Monk Kidd before now!

I love the writing style.  I love how realistic it is; you really feel like you're back in your 14-year-old self when you're reading it.  I also love how you can just feel the Southern accents dripping like honey out of the characters' mouths.  I was raised in the South and am proudly biased toward Southern writing.  I just love it!  It always takes me a little longer to read books set in the South though because my mental narration slows down with the accent!  lol

I love the setting.  Tiburon, SC is a fictional town but there's tons of references to real places nearby.  In fact, this book is so popular that official SC government sites such as SCIWAY.net have pages for Tiburon, since so many people try to search for it.  (The page you land on informs you gently that Tiburon is fictional, and urges you to look into real SC places to visit.)  At one point a character talks about "sending someone to Bull Street," meaning to send someone to the mental hospital.  I used to live in Columbia, SC and that mental institution is real!  I used to drive past it frequently, right there on Bull Street.  This book takes place over the course of a summer, and Sue Monk Kidd does a fantastic job capturing the feel of the heat of an SC summer.  It's oppressive.

I love the characters.  The book is told entirely from Lily's point of view, but there are essentially five total main characters.  They are all so well-developed and 3-dimensional!  Ya'll, this is not a long book.  For Ms. Kidd to have developed these characters so fully took real talent.  I just fell so in love with all these strong women in this book!  By the end of the book I was ready to pack my bags and move to Tiburon.

My only gripe:  there's no follow-up!  There's no second book!  And in the author interview in the back of my copy, Sue Monk Kidd says that she doesn't plan to write one.  So now I'm all kinds of emotionally invested in these fine ladies in Tiburon and I will never know for sure how it turns out for them.  

I loved the book so much that I went ahead and put in a request at the library to get the movie.  What the hey!  I'll give it a try.  Anything to spend just a little more time with the Black Madonna Honey family.

Top Ten Tuesday

This is a neat weekly feature over at a blog I really enjoy, The Broke and the Bookish.  They read books similar to some that I've been reviewing, and they're fun and they write well.  Totally worth checking out.

Top Ten Books That Will be in My Mountain Cabin Bag This 

Summer

The official category this week is Top Ten Books That Will be in My Beach Bag This Summer, but I'm not a beach person.  I'm a mountains girl.  So these are the ten books that will be in book bag when/if I get to the mountains this summer!

This summer I'm undertaking a major re-read of all the Mitford books by Jan Karon!  She's written nine so far, and the 10th will be released in early September.  So putting together my imaginary book bag for an imaginary trip was quite easy; I just put all the Mitford books in!  (I've done this before, for Harry Potter releases.  Did any of you do that?  Re-read all the previous books just prior to the release of the newest book to refresh your memory?)

I can't recommend the Mitford series highly enough!

  

  

  

  

  

Fictitious Dishes: An Album of Literature's Most Memorable Meals by Dinah Fried | Book Review

What a fun book!  The author took passages from over 50 much-loved, familiar, and often classic pieces of literature and re-created the memorable meals from them.  I had such a good time flipping through and looking at all the pictures.

(Heidi by Johanna Spyri; cheese toast)

Fictitious Dishes opens with an introduction by the author in which she explains how this project came to be, and how she went about re-creating the settings.  It's not an overly long introduction, and I love getting the "inside scoop" on books!

(The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald; fancy hors d'oeuvres)

Each book/photo pairing is set up the same in Fictitious Dishes.  On the left page you have the book title, author, and excerpt and on the right side you have the photo of the place setting and meal.  A bonus (I love bonuses!) is that you also get fun facts relating to the book/author/food!  For instance, on The Secret Garden page you learn that the author was a Christian Scientist, that the potato was the first vegetable grown in space, and that a hen can lay as many as 335 eggs per year-one egg every 26 hours.  

(A Confederacy of Dunces by John Kennedy Toole; hot dog)

I was so excited to see so many of my personal favorites featured in this book, such as Anne of Green Gables by L.M. Montgomery and East of Eden by John Steinbeck and Gone With the Wind by Margaret Mitchell and many more!  (If you're curious, the featured "meal" for Anne of Green Gables is the currant wine scene...  You'll need to pick up a copy of the book to see the picture!)  I give this book a double thumbs up and recommend it to all my bibliophile friends out there.