Toss Me That Book

I love to read cookbooks.  The list of ingredients, the measurements, the step-by-step directions.  If you follow all of the steps, you can achieve a wonderful meal to delight family and friends, thereby immediately rendering yourself a Domestic Goddess a la Nigella Lawson.  Or, depending upon how your anxiety is that day, it will help you regain a sense of control.  "See, I made chocolate chips cookies.  I can handle that.  I can handle whatever it is.  And also, let's eat these cookies." There is no doubt about it - if a genre called "Comfort Reading" exists, then, for me,  this cookbook is absolutely its poster child.  The author's voice is warm and open.  None of her directions are overly technical, and in fact, she encourages you to use your own sense of taste and to practice, practice, practice.  It's less "Follow these exact steps to make XYZ," and more "Here are the general steps.  Follow them while also using you...

The latest title in the author's Inspector Gamache series follows Armand, his colleagues, friends and family as they hunt for a killer while dealing with large scale flooding that threatens the province and beloved village of Three Pines.  Despite the tension in the communities and lives of our characters, the book also felt surprisingly calming, reassuring us that where abrupt change happens, there is also room for new growth.  Because, quite literally, the Gamache Squad is growing.  Growing in numbers.  Growing in distance.  Growing in emotional awareness.  And lastly (and worst of all when in happens to me in real life) personal growth.  In this case, I'm not altogether certain that our characters' personal growth is necessarily good.  Gamache himself even plumbs the darker depths of his soul while grappling with that all-too-terrible-yet-wonderful parental emotion of letting go.  It is the worst and the best. Louise Penny is abso...

To be honest, poetry isn't the first genre I reach for. But, I find that the current state of global affairs makes me want to reach out beyond what I know and yearn to learn about people who aren't like me. I don't want to escape into fantasy, I want to know how other people lived/are living/handled/are handling life. After several high profile recommendations (Thank you, Mrs. Obama), I selected the audio book version of Jacqueline Woodson's incredibly beautiful autobiography. I know, I know -- almost all of the positive reviews use the word 'beautiful.' Because it is. It is beautiful and dreamy, evocative of particular places and times in her life. She captures the sudden and often mysterious ways in which a child's life changes with the language available to her at that age. What made it a special treat for me is that the author narrates the audio book which means her inflection, pauses, and pronunciation cause the story to come to life ...

My favorite part about this story was how central reading was to their inner lives and the ways in which each of the characters used reading. One read for dreaming and imagining how her life would be. One read as an act of defiance and a way to learn as much as she could about lives other than hers. And, one read to escape from her life in the only way available to her. I love books about readers because I immediately feel a kinship to the characters. Sort of like an instant recognition - I see you, Isra, Sarah & Deya because I have read for all of those reasons, too. I did feel like the author did a lot of verbal reinforcement of the insular nature of the Palestinian community that the characters lived in. Rather than consistently having her characters say that they are Arab,not American, I would have liked to see the tiny actions that reinforced that idea. Describing the food did some of this, but were there gestures or furniture that could have furthered the point?

These are the books that kept me company from August through December of 2019.  Personal favorites are in bold.  The Death of Mrs. Westaway by Ruth Ware The Daughters of Temperence Hobbs (The Physick Book #2) by Katherine Howe  Steak and Cake: More Than 100 Recipes to Make Any Meal a Smash Hit by Elizabeth Karmel Educated by Tara Westover Lost Restaurants of Houston by Paul Galvani The Casserole Queens Cookbook: Put Some Lovin' in Your Oven with 100 Easy One-Dish Recipes by Crystal Cook & Sandy Pollock When We Left Cuba by Chanel Cleeton Happiness is Baking by Maida Heatter  Whisper Network by Chandler Baker In A House of Lies (Inspector Rebus #22) by Ian Rankin Furious House: Murder, Fraud, and the Last Trial of Harper Lee by Casey Cep Searching for Sylvie Lee by Jean Kwok A Mother's Reckoning: Living in the Aftermath of Tragedy by Sue Klebold The Whole-Brain Child: 12 Revolutionary Strategies to Nurture Your Child's Developing Mind,...

Format: Hardback Date Started:  July 21, 2019 Date Finished:  August 2, 2019 I picked this book up on a trip to the library with my little dudes.  It's August and over 100 degrees outside, which means that there is no such thing until outside until mid-to-late September, so we do a lot of indoor based activities where people won't judge you for being super excited and/or being loud and/or running around and/or announcing that you have to go potty.   Our local library is really great at enticing you into opening books that you might not have ever noticed.  For example, I am always a sucker for the display shelf called "While You're Waiting."  I appreciate this little set-up because 1) I like that the library acknowledges that there are "hot" books that everyone* wants to read so you will be waiting a long-ace time for the book you really want.  (#sorrynotsorry) and 2) some wonderful kindred soul has spent time actively thinking about what ...

Format:  Kindle Date Started:  July 9, 2019 Date Finished:  July 14, 2019 My book club picked this literally one day before Jenna Bush Hagar announced it as her book club pick.  Ugh.  I have thoughts about Jenna Bush dating as far back as the year 2000 at The University of Texas.  But, I'm happy to say that both of our book clubs chose well. Getting off on the right foot because the author is part of NPR's Pop Culture Happy Hour (heart), I loved how fresh and witty the dialogue was because it sounded like the way I talk with my husband and my friends.  I've also heard good things about the audio book version because the narrator really rocks it out with the distinct Mainer accent.  The plot wasn't overly dramatic or even far from real life, but I liked the way it explored complex feelings and the way we handle (or don't handle) things that go really, really wrong. 

Format:  Kindle Date Started:  June 26, 2019 Date Finished:  July 7, 2019 What I liked about this book was that it gave us a little more insight into Constance's personality.  As she travels throughout the NJ/NY area, her actions and thoughts show us what she wants to become - a modern, independent woman.  Cue Destiny's Child. What I didn't like about this book was that it seemed like we all spent a lot of time traveling and thinking and not having any action.   The antagonist was absolutely a bad dude, but I feel like he wasn't as fleshed out and real as the bad guys in Book 1. I also missed Norma & Fleurette.

Format:  Kindle Date Started:  June 21, 2019 Date Finished:  June 23, 2019 Guts and grit - two modern day words that get thrown around a lot.  Two qualities that my favorite real-life heroines - including both of my grandmothers - and my fictional favorite ladies - now including Constance, Norma, and Fleurette Kopp - have in spades! I'm thrilled and delighted to have met the Kopp sisters, and I'm even happier that they have a series, so I don't have to leave them behind after only one adventures.  What I especially like is that even though the series is set in 1914, all of these women feel incredibly modern to me in their attitudes and their opinions. 

Format:  Kindle Date Started:  June 23, 2019 Date Finished:  June 24, 2019 As previously stated, my genre of choice is dark and preferably involving a body count.  However, thanks to some self-diagnosed post-partum anxiety, anything that happens to children hits way, way, way too close to home. Thus, I began "Descent," the story of an abduction and its aftermath, and I was 100% ready to close the book in the event that it was just TOO MUCH.  To my great surprise, it wasn't.  While part of me was relieved/disappointed - it's a delicate balance for me - that we didn't get to know much about Caitlin's disappearance and captor, I was really fascinated by the way the author explored the aftermath of her abduction in the lives of her family.  

Format:  Hardback (First Edition - woot!) Date Started:  June 20, 2019 Date Finished:  June 21, 2019 I am a Murderino.  I blame my parents who let me read whatever I wanted.  I was probably in 6th grade when I stumbled onto the author Lois Duncan and quickly plowed through all of her scary/thriller books for pre-teens.  Browsing the bookstore with my dad one afternoon, I found her book, "Who Killed My Daughter," which is the true story of her own daughter's unsolved murder.  I must have read that book over a dozen times, and I'm dying to read it again...after I re-buy a copy because mine was donated to the library in the early 2000s.  Thanks, Mom. I feel like Georgia & Karen have similar origin stories as to how their interest in true crime developed.  And while I was originally extremely nervous to read this book -- it was billed as a memoir, so I thought I'd have to hear in detail about their formative years -- I LOVED IT....

Format:  Kindle Date Started:  June 13, 2019 Date Finished:  June 20, 2019 I realize that this review is over a month behind.  In my defense, I went on vacation, and since then, everyone in my entire family has been sick at least twice.  Including me -- I think I had Zika.  Anyhow, I like books about cults that aren't too scary.  I couldn't handle The Girls by Emma Cline, and I am too chicken to read anything about the Manson Family.  But if you're going to write a book about a cult, it would be helpful to have something happen at some point during the course of the story.  I was hoping for psychological tension - but no.  It was like the author spritzed "Eau de Vaguely Menacing But Not Enough for the Protagonist to Do Anything About It" all over the book.  Alas.

Format: Audiobook Date Started: June 12, 2019 Date Abandoned: June 13, 2019 I knew that I was going to hate this book even as I was checking it out from the library.  But for some reason, the fact that this book had landed on a "Great Summer Mysteries" list trumped the fact that I cannot stand Mary Higgins Clark's books.  They are the completely predictable murder-y cousin of romance novels.  I don't know what I was thinking.  But, I'm pretty sure that my inner monologue went something like this:  "If it made a list, surely it must be pretty good.  I mean, it's not like this list is straight from the publisher.  (Spoiler alert:  It totally was.)  Maybe I'm being a snob?  After all she is a popular author.  (Double spoiler: Lots of people like terrible books.)  I'll give it a whirl." Approximately one hour into the audiobook, the inner dialogue shifted. "I literally cannot.  There are about seven million charac...

Format:  Kindle Date Started:  June 7, 2019 Date Finished:  June 12, 2019 More than anything, this book validated by long-held belief that everyone is completely nuts . . . especially parents.  While it was pretty funny to read about the nutty things that parents have tried in the name of better behavior/better sleep/better battles with toddlers, I wouldn't recommend it if you're looking for actual help.  But, if you want to feel less alone in the wacky adventures of parenting, this is a good one to borrow from the library where it is free.  

Format:  Paperback Date Started:  June 3, 2019 Date I Asked Permission to Stop Reading:  June 12, 2019 You know that feeling of intense dread?  Like, something is coming down the pike, and it isn't good?    I had when I picked up the book and read that one of the characters was already so anxious about the coming day that he was throwing up.   As a result, I plodded through this book and did things incredibly out of character - like not reading at all before I went to bed - just so that I wouldn't have to face whatever was coming in the book.  Once it arrived, though, I felt like I had committed to riding out the horror, but I am a wimp and couldn't take it.  As ridiculous as it sounds, I had to ask my husband if I could stop reading it. I think I felt like I was abandoning the character in question when she needed help the most, and thus I needed permission to walk away from a totally fictional character...which will be great to ...

Format:  Hardback Date Started:  May 2, 2019 Date Finished:  May 13, 2019 Flavia is growing up.  I can see it in the way that her emotions, which she ever tries to keep at bay, begin to creep into her investigations.  And, it makes a nice change to see her struggle with having conflicting emotions that she has to grapple with.  For example, while she's delighted to be rid of her sister, Feely, following Feely's wedding, Flavia's surprised to find herself overcome with sadness when she catches a glimpse of Feely's empty chair at the breakfast table.  I'm also delighted by Dogger's advancement from indispensable character of the edges of the action to center stage.  Our friend Dogger is a dark horse, and I'm looking forward to seeing how Bradley uses him in the upcoming stories.  I think he would make an excellent surrogate father for Flavia, but I don't think Flavia is ready to deal with the loss of her actual father. 

Format:  Paperback Date Started:  April 12, 2019 Date Finished:  April 17, 2019 It's my first non-digital book of the year! I went into this book expecting a "incredibly funny" book as promised by the cover of my edition and several pages worth of review blurbs.  And while our narrator, Eleanor, and her way of interacting with the world was awkward and humorous, it never left my mind that it was born from an incredible trauma and tragedy. I'm pretty hip at picking up the clues that author's are throwing down, so I figured that something terrible had happened and was probably still coming for Eleanor. I was right, and it was hard to read.  Thankfully, the little gem of a guy who is Raymond was there.  We all need a Raymond. 

Format:  Kindle Date Started:  April 4, 2019 Date Finished:  April 12, 2019 A self-professed Anglophile whose life plan was, in fact, stolen by one Ms. Meghan Markle, I will read just about anything concerning the British Royals.  Heck, I check Hello Magazine everyday.  Even for me, this one was a slog. I made it to "Glimpse #60" before Margaret became altogether too much.  In giving the reader a series of vignettes loosely stitched together to tell her story, the full range of Margaret's snobbery, rudeness, and oftentimes cruelty became too much for me.  I'd like to think that Margaret thought she was being amusing or clever or witty, but, to me, she just read as if she just enjoyed being a brat well into her old age. 

Format:  Kindle Date Started:  April 7, 2019 Date Finished:  April 8, 2019 As a recent joiner of the Reese Witherspoon Book Club bandwagon, I thought it would only be fair to give her memoir/style guide/cookbook a read.  Other than one section on hot rollers and another on the perfection that is the movie "Steel Magnolias," I wish I hadn't.  The book read like an expensive version of Paula Deen and/or down home-style Goop.  She didn't cover any new territory on Southern cuisine or style, and what I had hoped to read about - how she puts together outfits, more about her experiences while filming "Walk The Line, and her grandmother's life story - were just not there. 

Format:  Kindle Date Started:  April 1, 2019 Date Finished:  April 7, 2019 I was 100% prepared not to like this book.  And to be perfectly honest, I was looking forward to actively disliking the story.  But, I couldn't.  The ridiculousness of life in the extremely wealthy suburbs, coupled with strong female friendship, and an appearance by the ever icy Miranda Priestly made for a fun trip to Connecticut.  I also found that the major themes of the book were extremely accurate about what life in your late thirties can be like -- feeling like you've lost your identity, navigating huge life changes, wondering who exactly you married (because husbands are nuts), and trying to keep it all going when you are so very tired and really just want to go to Amangiri for a week.