Devon Trevarrow Flaherty's Blog, page 44

Book Review: Flora & Ulysses

BOOK REVIEW: FLORA AND ULYSSES

I haven’t really jumped on the Kate DiCamillo train, though it seems everyone else has. I suppose that she has been on my radar, just out of sight, for several years. She just keeps going—getting movie deals, winning awards, and taking names. Her books boast the Newbery Medal (twice!, and also an honor and finalist), and a #1 New York Times Bestseller as well as a New York Times Bestseller. Plus, you’d recognize the titles of her beloved books (and the movies). They are:

Because of Winn-Dixie
The Tiger Rising
The Tale of Despereaux
The Miraculous Journey of Edward Toulane
The Magician’s Elephant
Raymie Nightingale, Louisiana’s Way Home, and Beverly, Right Here
Mercy Watson and Tales from Deckawoo Lane series
La La La
Flora & Ulysses: The Illuminated Adventures

which is the title that I am reviewing today. It is one of the Newbery Award winners, though I feel like it gets less attention than a few of the others. I have an uneasy feeling about the DiCamillo library. Every back cover reads like a book I am dying to read, and yet I have this nagging sense that I have indeed read two of three books in the past, and they have left so small of an impression on my mind. I am a little uneasy. But I am going to pretend like this is the beginning for me and I’ll review this book just for itself.

[image error]I actually read this with my son, but by the time I got around to reviewing it I couldn’t remember enough about it to do the review. (See!? I don’t know what it is…) So I re-read it, a feat that I don’t often perform, but which was made simple by the fact that it is elementary or middle grades level novel and I zoomed through it in my quarantine spare time in two days. It was a welcome pause in the middle of Moll Flanders and its Victorian wordiness.

What are the negatives of this book? There are maybe three. First, it is so quirky that at times it’s an eye-roller, like it’s trying so hard to sustain quirk in everything. Second—and this is a common one, I find—the ages of the characters are off. I do not find it in the least believable that Flora and Henry Spiver are ten and eleven. At the least, I’m going with eighth grade, and even then a little precocious. For one, they are so tuned in to things, they are super smart and verbose, and then there’s a little romance. Why do authors always feel the need to age-down characters? Unknown. (I have a sixth grader. I know a little what I’m talking about.) And third—another thing that I find very often in modern, elementary and middle grades writing—it. Is. So. Choppy. Why do modern children’s authors feel the need to keep everything so short? The sentences, some, but especially the paragraphs and the chapters. I’m honestly never one for paying a lot of attention to chapter titles, but when they come every couple pages, I’m even worse. And with this book, I felt distracted by all the pauses and the blocky-ness.

That aside, I’m going to give this book two thumbs up. It is exactly the story I would find interesting: middle grades magic realism with plenty of quirk and a gigantic vocabulary. It also has sweet and sophisticated ideas that are great for kids to hear. The message is basically that your parents love you, as imperfect as they are. Or, more basically, you are loved and you can have hope. Even though, as an adult reader, you are well aware that Flora and William Spiver will grow up to the be those high school and college kids, you just have to cheer for them, and of course for Ulysses, the squirrel. Eventually, you root for absolutely everyone.

The writing, and the occasional comic-like cartoons, are clever and well-done. Even though it’s a quick read, there are quotables (see below). It’s funny. It’s sad. It’s chock-full of memorable scenes and the action—though domestic—never really ceases. In fact, the language usage is one of the best things about it: DiCamillo spends a lot of time, through the mind of Flora, playing with words. They float around over people’s heads, they roll around on Flora’s tongue, the poetry-loving neighbor, novelist mother, and philosophy doctor each have their own ways of making word and thought a sort of high-stakes game.

If you have any kids in your life who would like a quirky, easy, fun story like this (or maybe they’re kids of divorce—that’s in there too, a common theme of DiCamillo’s), then I would recommend this. Especially if they tend to be on the more cerebral side (just because they’ll identify with the characters more). My son, who is mostly into nature adventure and fantasy, wasn’t a fan. But I am. And I am among many.

SOME VERY INSIGHTFUL QUOTES

“Flora didn’t bother pointing out to him that the world was a treacherous place when you could see” (p58).

“We are, all of us, medical emergencies!” (p115).

“What good does it do you to read the words of a lie?” (p117).

“You must also list among his powers the ability to understand. This is no small thing, to understand” (p121).

“Cynics are people who are afraid to believe” (p129).

“This is how it is for me. What do I lose if I choose to believe? Nothing! …. There is much more beauty in the world if I believe such a thing is possible” (p130).

“So we said good-bye to each other the best way we could. We said: I promise to always turn back toward you” (p135).

“I’m someone who wants what’s best for you. It that makes me a villain, fine” (p150).

“’I don’t know if that’s exactly what she meant,’ said William Spiver. ‘I think she was surprised. And perhaps her feelings were hurt. She certainly didn’t express herself very well’” (p157).

“’I think your mother had forgotten how to say what she means,’ said her father” (p172).

“It was dangerous to allow yourself to believe that what you said directly influenced the universe” (p199).

Cookbook Reviews: Several New and Newly-Found Acquisitions

I don’t actually ever stop acquiring cookbooks. In the past year, I have averaged one per quarter. I have also re-possessed a few cookbooks that were in the garage, in the very last of the boxes to be unpacked (from moving three-and-a-half years ago). I have spent hours and hours reading these books, perusing them, poring over them, marking them up, and even cooking and baking from them, this past year. And now I’m going to do one big hurrah of a review series.

[image error]JERUSALEM

I studied in Jerusalem for a semester in college. When the book Jerusalem by Yotal Ottolenghi and Sami Tamini burst into popularity a handful of years ago, I knew that I wanted it, if only in the hopes that there would be falafel with fries and pickle (on it) and lamb “cigars.” Well maybe I also wanted to capture many of the other tastes that I had experienced in Jerusalem and in my extensive travels around Israel and the neighboring countries, too. Even breakfast fish. After spending time reading about the place and time, immersing myself in one delicious-looking photo after another—I can tell you this: when any cookbook gets me to star a recipe for something stuffed, I know that at the very least it is persuasive. Stuffed Artichokes with Peas and Dill or Stuffed Eggplant with Lamb and Pine Nuts, anyone? After reading along and looking at the photo, you are bound to agree with me.

This is definitely one of those coffee-table cookbooks, though I would never relegate a cookbook just to the coffee table. I’m not nearly as enamored with this style of cookbook as so many other people seem to be. It might just be because I’m greedy when it comes to cookbooks: I spend money, I want lots of recipes. And where there are glossy, two-page photos, there are less recipes. Then again, this cookbook is more of an ode to modern Jerusalem and the cultures that comprise her. There are more than food photos here, or indeed, even just talking about food. There are historical, journalistic photos of a more intimate nature, as well as the occasional rabbit trail into the genesis of some food, largely in a personal, anecdotal way. And then there is the introduction, a proclamation of Jerusalem food as its own animal and what exactly that animal is, but they don’t overdue it: it doesn’t feel like a textbook.

Right after enjoying what I had half-determined not to (all those photos!), I tried the recipes for Barley Risotto with Marinated Feta, Conchiglie with Yogurt, Peas, and Chile, and Chicken with Caramelized Onion and Cardamom Rice (a great one-pan meal for a family). While I already possess a rather broad knowledge of food and a well-stocked pantry that balks at no new ingredient (except brains), I found this book accessible and the recipes delicious. What I’m saying is I might not be the every-man’s gauge. My family found the tastes a little different, but I found them simultaneously homey and bright and stimulating. Exciting! So I definitely will be wearing this book out with time, and I would highly recommend it for the adventurous home cook or one sympathetic to the cuisine for whatever reason. You could keep it on your coffee table and it can stay there while you make challah and lamb cigars (because neither had recipes here), but not for falafel, baba ghanoush, or chocolate Krantz/babka, all three of which are some of my favorite things to eat in the world.

[image error]MILK STREET: THE NEW RULES

I only have a few signed cookbooks, and only one cookbook that I will not cook from because of that signature. (It’s a Julia Child that was given to my father-in-law and in turn given to me.) Normally, I can’t abide by an unused cookbook. This cookbook, one that I didn’t even know I wanted, was the swag I received when I got an unexpected invite to attend a PBS pre-screening and Q&A session with Christopher Kimball. It is signed, and I will still use it. If you know PBS, you probably have seen Kimball around. He’s been a force of food TV as well as print, from America’s Test Kitchen to Cook’s Illustrated (many editions of which I have sitting on a shelf just feet from where I sit in the dining room to write this). I was stoked to attend the event, and it was a very nice date afternoon, Kimball being entertaining and counterintuitively endearing.

He was doing the circuit to bring attention to his newest endeavor, which is called Milk Street. There will be TV series and there will be publications and there is an online presence as well. Milk Street is a newish kitchen, with Kimball at the head, giving voice to a modern approach to cooking. It’s a cooking school, magazine, radio show and TV shows based in Boston. At 177 Milk Street. The first two cookbooks were The Milk Street Cookbook and Milk Street: Tuesday Nights. For the screening, Kimball seemed all hyped up about his newest cookbook and the one they were about to hand me: Milk Street: The New Rules, Recipes That Will Change the Way You Cook.

I have to admit, I sorta like the old rules. I’ve learned them over time, and sometimes without really knowing why, I have trusted the consensus because they were the time-tested rules. Kimball, though—a man who has spent a career testing the heck out of everything from Dutch ovens to beef bourguinon—has decided to show us exactly where, scientifically and anecdotally—the rules need to be thrown out. These, friends, are the new rules, the ones that will yield better results and with less effort. These are the rich nuggets of wisdom Kimball has gained in the test kitchen and also on extensive travels and a lifetime of tasting. Some will sound familiar. Some will shock. From No. 22: Put Pasta Water to Work to No. 59: Stop Tossing Your Stems, you may end up agreeing to disagree, but with your mouth full of some delicious thing you just made his way.

The assumption of all recipes in this book is that they are accessible to the home cook, simple in their own way, though they are precise. The book is full of foodformation, though a bit random and some of that information might make you want to pull your hair out rather than re-think your cooking methods or throw out your unsalted butter. The book is also pretty, full of food, “food porn” as someone who isn’t me has termed it. To be honest, the book is chock full of foods that I have already discovered—during my own food journey—that I already love, even a few that were a sort of “secret” in my repertoire (fideos, satay, traybake, crusted chicken cutlets, Asian noodles in general). The book really is full of super delicious meals and this cookbook is a great one as either a cornerstone of a family cookbook library or a back-pocket guide (figuratively).

Though I haven’t used it much, yet, I know enough to see a good recipe collection when it lands in my lap. I’m very much looking forward to gems such as Smashed Cucumber Salad, Portuguese Rice with Kale and Plum Tomatoes, Malaysian Style Noodles with Pork and Mushrooms, Smashed Potatoes with Soft-Cooked Eggs and Mint, Chile Red Pepper Chicken Kabobs, and Fennel Brown Sugar Pork Ribs. This is not the kind of cookbook that contains everything you need, unless you plan on cooking intermittently and without any requirements (like, make such-and-such for this or that holiday. And there’s no baking, at all.) It’s a great addition to an established library, though, and I would especially recommend it for a student of the kitchen or a young person who would fully appreciate the pan-cuisine and sticking it to the man. I am also guessing that the other Milk Street cookbooks are solid, as well.

[image error]GERMAN MEALS AT OMA’S

Not very large and with no preamble, German Meals at Oma’s by Gerhild Fulson jumps right into area-specific German recipes, complete with a page-sized photo of each food. Because of it’s small size, it doesn’t have a real breadth of recipes and there are things you might expect to find here but don’t (like German fried chicken and homemade sausage, sauerkraut or sour cream), but there are many standards, like sauerbraten, schnitzel, spaetzle, goulash, stuffed cabbage, red cabbage, and rouladen. There’s also not much of an index, which is a pet peeve of mine.

I came upon acquiring this cookbook in my ceaseless search for the best cookbooks representing various specific cuisines, and this one was highly recommended for German, a cuisine which is close to my heart because of my own heritage and meals around my own grandmother’s table, my enthusiasm for visiting Frankenmuth in Michigan every time I go “home,” and my half-German brother-in-law. I have discovered over time, as well, that Eastern European is among my favorites of the world, and German is this interesting place that sort of spans the European food traditions, between like, the north and Russia. It’s maybe even the hub of these similar cuisines, among which is Moldovan and Polish. Unfortunately, I may have to add one more German cookbook to my shelf or at least tuck some internet recipes in between the pages, because even though I like this one, I really do need recipes for German fried chicken and sausage and Jaeger sauce and sour cream and sauerkraut done the old-timey way.

Certainly this book rings authentic, which is possibly why it didn’t feel it had to stoop to some American conception of what would be in a German cookbook. And it is very selective, which is why there are only a half-dozen (or less) recipes per each of the sixteen regions. There are limited comments, which are a mash-up of one-sentence stories, history, and cooking advice. I do appreciate when a recipe makes suggestions for what to serve it with, which Oma’s generally does. The recipes that I have tried so far—Konigsburg Meatballs in Caper Sauce, Red Cabbage with Apples, and Sauerbraten—have been doable, but also somewhat involved, and have moderate results. In order to put together a meal of meat, potato, and vegetable (at the least), you’re flipping back and forth, doing hours of kitchen acrobatics, for an acceptable meal. When I made sauerbraten and red cabbage, I had every intention of making potato dumplings to go with, but I just plain ran out of time and steam. It was still tasty, though the preparation of meat is not my favorite, but it would have been better with a potato. Maybe I should have just made a mash, but when would I ever get to all the complicated potato recipes that dot this book? Another thing: this is old world cooking. Brown food. Home food and maybe tavern food. But its not pretty or modern or world food. Not date food, but family dinner food.

Again, no baking, leaving me with no recipe for struedel, pretzels, or stollen, though I think I have those in my baking books. Maybe not the stollen, though I wouldn’t in a million years be baking that for me, but perhaps my aunt will need some and I won’t be able to make her any, at least not from Meals at Oma’s.

[image error]MARY BERRY’S BAKING BIBLE

I don’t know how much I needed an English baking book. I try to ignore that little voice that says that British food is the bottom rung, but I am an Anglophile and I’ve watched way too many episodes of The Great British Baking Show (the ones from the BBC) to not be curious about Eaton Mess and trifle and Victoria Sponge and meringue the size of your head and treacle tart. (Perhaps that last one is just one too many times through Harry Potter.) I don’t know how much hope I actually hold out for this book, but then again Mary is so revered in England, an authority on all this dessert. Tea. Whatever. I was Mary Berry for Halloween a couple years ago. Plus, how lovely that her name is Mary Berry and she’s the queen of British pudding? (That’s what they call dessert, crazy.)

It is a stretch to call almost any cookbook a “Bible.” I already have one baking “Bible,” and while it has more breadth than this one, including breads for one thing, neither one of them is what I would call a food “Bible.” Mary Berry’s is distinctly British, including things from other cultures only as they have become popular in England, as far as I can tell. And it’s not everything. I’ve seen the show. She has other books. But if you are a Berry fan, you’ll find what you’ll expect here. Quality but straight-forward recipes for British classics.

There is a forgettable introduction to each chapter, but there isn’t much other in the way of chatting. It’s straight-up recipes. The recipes are well-written, easy to use, and full of ingredients that you can find at the supermarket, assuming you can translate British English to American English. There are photos for a lot of the recipes, which is helpful in baking: to know what a thing’s supposed to look like when you’re done. There is a helpful section at the front of the cookbook, or helpful at least if you are a novice or almost-novice baker. Talks about baking and measuring and tools and techniques and things.

So this is a British dessert book. If that’s what you want, go no further. For more general baking books, keep tuned here. I’ve used her chocolate chip brownies recipe twice already, the first time with toffee bits, because it is really good. I skipped her recipe for carrot cake because it didn’t have enough in it, which I find is a thing in her baking: simplicity, for better or worse. I made her hot cross buns, too, and met with stodgy results. The other thing I made was Banana Loaf (which we know as banana bread). It was straightforward and a tad sweet, but it could be a good starting point. I already added a layer of walnuts on the surface, improving it.

[image error]ENCYCLOPEDIA OF CHINESE COOKING

I mentioned earlier that one of the cookbooks above did not read like a textbook. The Encyclopedia of Chinese Cooking by Kenneth Lo does. Sure, it has hundreds of pages, dense with recipes and nary a photograph or illustration in sight, but it also has a short course in Chinese cooking for the first 35, single-spaced. The truth is, that while Americans love our Chinese food, we’re not so comfortable making much of it at home. And to make the food here, you’re going to need access to a specialty store, or maybe just a grocery store with a well-stocked Asian section. And at the very least, you’re going to have to understand one of the fundamentals of Chinese cooking: prep first, cook after. Also, get that wok scorching hot.

With all the many recipes, there are complicated and unapproachable recipes, like tripe and chicken legs and Thousand Year Old Eggs, but there also are plenty of quicker, easier recipes. It would be a stretch, perhaps, to call them approachable, because you have to do some mining and reading to find what it is you’re looking for without any pictures or cutesy comments, but the processes and ingredients will quickly get familiar since they are largely repetitious. Chinese cooking is often a combination of only a few familiar things, but done with pristine technique and yielding delicious results. It is one of the world’s best and most sophisticated cuisines. Before the book was lost in a box, I tried Vegetarian Stir-fried Scrambled Eggs and the end result was better than it sounded. It was delicious. And while I also plan on acquiring some Fuschia Dunlop cookbooks (having famously made Chinese cooking accessible to Western cooks), I don’t think my Chinese cookbook library need reach any further than that and this.

This is basic and apt. I will be spending years and years ignoring MSG on the ingredient list, but otherwise, I plan on using this cookbook for authentic and delicious meals. A couple caveats: American Chinese is not on the radar, at all. No fortune cookies, Almond Boneless Chicken, or General Tso’s. Even dishes we might sort of recognize are going to go by some descriptive name here that we wouldn’t recognize. We’re just going to have to be adventurous, take risks, and strive to better our techniques. Write notes when we discover a familiar taste. Also, it would be difficult for a Western home cook to pull off a whole Chinese meal from this cookbook. It would take an enormous amount of coordinating and flipping around, putting together all the pieces—sauces, dishes, accompaniments, etc. that would be included in a traditional Chinese meal. However, simplifying it down to the American one or two things with rice or pre-made eggrolls is going to be your best shot for a normal breakfast, lunch, or dinner.

[image error]THE JOY OF COOKING

I have wanted to find an old Joy of Cooking by Irma S. Rombauer for years. It’s just one of those insurmountable, unassailable classics. And while on a honeymoon getaway last year, while wandering the aisles of a quintessential small town antiques store, I found a near-perfect copy of Joy from 1975. True, it was published as early as 1931, so it wasn’t an original, and the newest versions are updated to make them more relevant and approachable. But this is a beautiful, white, leather-bound copy with gold lettering, speckled pages and even thumb tabs for the sections. It’s retro, which is the kind of recipes, tips, and cooking I would expect to find in The Joy of Cooking. Good ol’ old-school, Americana.

I actually wonder if you could do a study of the various reprints of The Joy through the years and expostulate on how it changed for different generations, following the fads and lifestyles of Americans. I don’t know how frequently it was changed that much, but the copy I have seems to be an interesting amalgam of what must have been there originally and some groovy sixties and seventies developments. From what I can tell, mine is the sixth edition out of nine to date, and I read that it is the most popular edition, the standard. Even though it is outdated in so many ways, it remains not only a curiosity to be treasured, but a resource to be used. Goodness sakes, what isn’t in this book? Oh yeah, pictures. It’s huge and heavy and has a never-ending run of recipes for everything from aspic to cocktails to pfefferneusse. Like seriously, this is an authority that you could consult when needed to make just about anything, as long as it’s not new-fangled. And variations! There’s millions of them. There’s also millions of tips, menus, pontification and endless information.

Forget Julie & Julia, someone should host a supper club and work their way through the menus. Maybe it’ll be me. I have used seasons of The Great British Baking Show to serve desserts to my small group, before. The first dinner would be Proscuitto and Fruit, Lasagne, Tossed Salad with French Dressing, and Zabaglione. You could carry in the food on the wind from those seemingly all-the-same American restaurants you visited as a kid. I think it would be both fun and delicious, as well as nobody got all snooty or unadventurous. I also think it would be fun to take the “formal” menus and use one for your next baby shower or tea or whatever. It could be a theme, with everything from Jellied Chicken Mousse to Hot Buttered Rum.

I’m going to be getting a lot of use out of this one, though I haven’t really used it yet. It is clear that the recipes are accurate, even though they are written in a style that is, well, a bird its own. It would take some cooks getting used to. And one last thing: you’re not going to cook your way through this one. It’s just too expansive. It’s a reference, like a dictionary, that, if you have any sense, you’ll pull off the shelf as a starting point for many, many recipes, meals, and gatherings, not to mention information.

[image error] ADVENTURES IN JEWISH COOKING

Adventures in Jewish Cooking by Rosabelle Edlin and Shushannah Spector is another of the books that was trapped in a box in the garage. I do not recall where this one came from, though it could have been from my mother-in-law’s collection. It was published in 1964 and sold, as a hard cover, for a whopping seven bucks. As old as it is, you should assume that it has no photographs, and this one actually has no illustrations at all. It is dense with recipes, but it also tends to the wordy side, so a recipe can spread out for pages at a time. There is limited history here, as well as rules of kosher and holiday menus and explanation. There’s a glossary and a whole lot of baked goods and desserts.

Let’s be clear here. These are recipes in the Ashkenazi tradition, after the diaspora and before the blending of scattered Jewish cultures that has taken place in Israel and perhaps other places. There are very few Sephardic recipes, from what I can tell all shoved in at the end of the book. On one hand, this is what Americans and what American Jews would recognize: the tradition as it expanded in Germany and Eastern Europe (as opposed to the culture as it expanded in North Africa, southern Europe, and the Middle East). Think gefilte fish, knishes, and matzoh ball soup versus hummus, falafel, and shakshuka. I guess this is the “Jewish” cooking that interests me, as an American with Jewish people in my family. As for the other cuisines, I have other cookbooks that address Middle Eastern and North African cooking, as well as Spanish.

Before the book was lost, I tried Flaishig Vegetable Soup and Passover Potato Dumplings, both of which I marked with top marks. There are many standards here, without frills of any sort. This book is another reference, to have on the shelf for when you just need to make something traditional or something traditionally Jewish, if you’ll only make an attempt at seeing through the decades. If you want a more modern approach, there is a book by exactly the same name by Nathan Jeffrey and it gets rave reviews.

[image error]SIMPLE CLASSICS COOKBOOK

I don’t normally like the cookbooks put out by publishing houses, brands, and stores and such. I ended up with William Sonoma’s Simple Classics Cookbook as a gift very early in my marriage, and it is one of the few of this type of book I have hung on to. Maybe the only, actually. Why? Because it contains exactly what it claims to: simple classics. Who doesn’t want to make simple classics? And from this particular book, they would be either French, Italian, or American. Well, we’re probably not going to eat Dan Dan Noodles and Bibimbap every day. These are the types of recipes that will take a suburban Midwesterner right back to the eighties and nineties of their childhood and provide both weeknight and weekend comfort dinners.

My copy’s a little old and stylistically outdated, but there are large photos for every recipe, as well as pretty meticulous recipes. There isn’t a never-ending supply of them, but you’ll still be pretty happy, I imagine, with Minestrone, Chicken with Basil Aioli, Veal Scallopine with Marsala, Grape Focaccia, and Mixed Berry Shortcake. There’s nothing super special about this book, and if I were you I probably wouldn’t run out and find a copy, if indeed they can still be found. But I will be keeping it on my shelf to make simple classics from braised pork loin to roasted duck.

[image error]THE BORDER COOKBOOK

Whew! The last book that I found in the garage, I’m surprised that The Border Cookbook by the Jamisons didn’t make it into the house earlier. A James Beard award winner, it’s a wonderful reference for American-Mexican border cooking. I think the issue might have been that at the time, I didn’t recognize Mexican and Tex-Mex as distinct (although overlapping) cuisines. Perhaps I once looked on this cookbook with disdain, seeing burritos and, well things I would expect to find at Los-Whatever’s-at-the-corner, and dismissed it as inauthentic Mexican, when what it is is authentic Tex-Mex (although they probably don’t use that term because it involves other border states, not just Texas). Not that it really matters, authenticity, so much, unless that’s what you’re specifically looking for. Many of the world’s most exciting cuisine is combination or fusion food, new and wonderful terrain that holds to no tradition at all.

Anyhow, you get the point. This is Tex-Mex border food. There are lots of recipes, no illustrations, but very small stories, tips, variations, and sometimes serving suggestions. There is also an introduction to the ingredients and techniques of the cuisine at the beginning of the book. As is true of many cookbooks I own, sometimes putting together a meal involves planning ahead and flipping around, first making a sauce or two or a pickle or a salsa before actually making the dish. And sometimes, for the sake of family sanity, you’re going to serve things in this cookbook in a way untrue even to Tex-Mex cooking, like with plain rice or—gasp—doctored refried beans from the can. For guests, maybe, you could pull together a whole spread. Recipes also vary from somewhat complicated to downright easy. There are drinks and desserts here, which makes me happy, and, honestly, about every other recipe makes me drool on myself. I can’t wait to try almost everything.

What I have tried is  Caldo de Queso (spicy cheese soup), El Paso Green Chile Soup, Queso Flameado (hot cheese dip), Abuelita’s Almond Chicken, The Honorable Henry B.’s Soft Tacos, Baked Veggie Chimis, Frijoles de Olla (pinto beans), Drunken Beans, Refried Beans, Pinquinto Santa Maria (more beans), and Rice with Fideos, all of which received a rating between good and awesome. (My rating system is never again, not recommended, okay, good, great, and then the extra credit, above and beyond: awesome).

I love this cookbook. It’s full of food that is both exciting and approachable for the average American family, including my enchilada-loving kids and their tamale- and chile-relleno-loving Mama. It is also literally very cheesy, for better or worse.

Best Books List: Writing

I’m on a roll here with the blog. I have been meaning to “complete” the lists of Best Books for years, and I am almost there! I have two more lists left (religion and plays), but they are in sight, during this stay-at-home order. I am an avid list maker, and I will admit that I enjoy making these book lists. I am going to miss doing it, but I rarely have the time, anyhow. Perhaps I’ll find something else to list on the blog. Plus, I’ll have many years of checking things OFF the list ahead of me. Fun times.

So, here is the list of best books on writing and best books for writers. I felt like this list could have gone on another hundred books or more, but I tried to limit it. Turns out, there are plenty of other writers and readers who have an obsession with lists, too, so it wasn’t too hard to come by suggestions for best books on writing. This is, perhaps, the area in which I am most likely to accept mediocre books, only because I feel like I can learn and become better even from those. But I do really enjoy a great writing book, one that is not only informative and a catalyst for change, but also one that is beautiful and full of stories. To date, my favorite is the essential On Writing, by Stephen King.

When I was younger and therefore stupider, I believed that educating in the arts was just a way to stomp out the authenticity. I avoided learning anything in the arts, including writing, because of some voice that was telling me it can’t be taught. You either have it or you don’t. Consequently, I wasted a lot of my formative years avoiding that which could have made me a better musician, painter, and writer. (For some reason, I never believed this about cooking and have self-educated for many years.) There are so many things you can learn about craft and so many tools that you can put into your artist tool belt. You can improve, you can get better, you can learn how to function in the world of art. You can link elbows with other writers. You can learn what and how and when and why, and it doesn’t just have to be by the osmosis of reading thoroughly (though I do recommend that, as well). You can educate yourself about writing and become a better writer. See below.

Once again, I am not bothering with italicizing titles because nobody got time for that. I fully expect there are spelling errors, as well, possibly gratuitous ones.

[image error]On Writing, Stephen King
Self-Editing for Fiction Writers, Browne and King
Zen in the Art or Writing, Ray Bradbury
Publish. Repeat., Platt and Truant
Indie Author Survival Guide, Susan Kaye Quinn
Story Genius, Lisa Cron
Steering the Craft, Ursula K. LeGuin
The Writer’s Journey, Christopher Vogler
The Creative Tarot, Jessa Crispin
Steal Like an Artist, Austin Kleon
Bird by Bird, Anne Lamott
Writer’s Market, Robert Lee Brewer[image error]
On Writing Well, Willian Zinsser
The Elements of Style, Strunk and White
The Associated Press Stylebook
How to Write Bestselling Fiction, Dean Koontz
Writing Down the Bones, Natalie Goldberg
Plot & Structure, James Scott Bell
The Writing Life, Annie Dillard
The Artist’s Way, Julia Cameron
Word Work, Bruce Holland Rogers
A Writer’s Guide to Persistence, Jordan Rosenfield
War of Art, Steven Pressfield
The Writing Life, Marie Arana
Art & Fear, Bayles and Orlando
The Sense of Style, Steven Pinker
The Lonely Voice, Frank O’Connor
Self-Publisher’s Legal Handbook, Helen Sedwick[image error]
How to Make a Living with Your Writing, Joanna Penn
Writer for Hire, Kelly James-Enger
Earn More Money as a Freelance Writer, Nicole Dieker
Scratch, Mandula Martin
Everybody Writes, Ann Handley
Letters to a Young Writer, Colum McCann
Aspects of the Novel, E.M. Forster
Burning Down the House, Charles Baxter
To Show and to Tell, Phillip Lopate
The Situation and the Story, Vivian Gornick
What the Living Do, Marie Howe
Pity the Reader, Kurt Vonegut
Woman Writer, Joyce Carol Oates
Wild Words, Nicole Gulotta
Murder Your Darlings, Roy Peter Clark[image error]
How to Grow a Novel, Sol Stein
The Science of Storytelling, Will Storr
Why Writing Matters, Nicholas Delbanco
Tell It Slant, Miller and Paola
The Poets and Writers Complete Guide to Being a Writer
Everybody Writes, Anne Handley
The Road, Jack Kerouc
Daily Rituals, Mason Currey
The Last Draft, Sandra Scofield
The Forest for the Trees, Betsy Lerner
Story Engineering, Larry Brooks
On Writing, Charles Bukowski
The Sense of Style, Steven Pinker[image error]
Nobody Want to Read Your Sh*t, Steven Pressfield
A House of My Own, Sandra Cisneros
A Little Book on Form, Robert Haas
A Personal Anthology, Jorge Luis Borges
A Room of One’s Own, Virginia Woolf
About Writing, Samuel R. Delany
The Anatomy of Story, John Truby
The Art of Death, Edwidge Danticat
The Art of Memoir, Mary Karr
Big Magic, Elizabeth Gilbert
Black Milk, Elif Shafak
Books & Islands in Ojibwe Country, Louise Erdrich[image error]
Bryson’s Dictionary of Troublesome Words, Bill Bryson
Bullies, Bastards, and Bitches, Jessica Morell
Crazy Brave, Joy Harjo
Eats, Shoots & Leaves, Lynne Truss
The Emotional Craft of Fiction, Donald Maas
The First Five Pages, Noah Lukeman
The Forest for the Trees, Betsy Lerner
Free Within Ourselves, Parker Rhodes
Getting Into Character, Brandilynn Collins
The Heart of a Woman, Maya Angelou
If You Want to Write, Brenda Ueland
Immersion, Ted Conover[image error]
In Other Words, Jhumpa Lahiri
In Search of Our Mothers’ Gardens, Alice Walker
It Was the Best of Sentences, It Was the Worst of Sentences, June Casagrande
The Kick-Ass Writer, Chuck Wendig
The Portable MFA in Creative Writing, New York Writers Workshop
The Poetry Home Repair Manual, Ted Kooser
The Poet’s Companion, Addonizio and Laux
The Paris Review Interviews, 1-4
Outlining Your Novel, K.M. Weiland
One Continuous Mistake, Gail Sher[image error]
On Writing, Eudora Welty
Negotiating with the Dead, Margaret Atwood
Naked, Drunk and Writing, Adair Lara
The Modern Library Writer’s Workshop, Stephen Koch
Memoirs, Pablo Neruda
Making a Good Script, Linda Seger
The Magic Words, Cheryl Klein
The Lie That Tells a Truth, John Dufresne
The Language of Fiction, Brian Shawver

Book Review: Extremely Cute Animals Operating Heavy Machinery

[image error]It has only been two days since I reviewed a picture book, but this one was sitting on the list waiting to be reviewed, so we’re going to go ahead and do it.

I found this book when I was looking for something specific. I have a nephew who is really, really into building and construction and I was looking for a book for him, something new and different. I believe I did an Amazon search with some choice key words, and I came across this. It sounds crazy because the title kind of is: Extremely Cute Animals Operating Heavy Machinery, by David Gordon. There is something about it that smacks of one of those calendars of buff men snuggling puppies, but obviously more innocent. Still, there’s a fun play on concepts going on here which could be construed as blasting open boundaries. I mean, construction doesn’t have to be all grunting, flicking beer cans, and catcalling.

But that’s not obvious to this book. In fact, the title is clever, but it doesn’t actually fit the story. The story is about Karen and her friends, who are picked on repeatedly by Skyler and his friends. Terrorized, is more like. Karen and her friends just keep rebounding and building bigger and better sandcastles until they end up building an entire amusement park. There are no bullies allowed, until Karen peeks her head out to ask if Skyler would like to come in. In other words, it’s a book about advocating for yourself, triumphing against bullying, and inclusivity. Kindness wins.

Still, if your little nephew likes building and machines a whole lot—but he’s still just a nugget himself—then this is a book to put on his shelf. Otherwise, I’d give it a solid “Okay.” Decent illustrations. Decent story. Heavy-handed moral. I won’t tell you to go buy it and I won’t discourage you from it, either. Note that many of the readers who gave reviews on Goodreads commented that they were drawn in by the clever title and then disappointed.

Series Review: Maze Runner

[image error]I am not going to review the whole series. Why? Because I read the first book and have decided that this series is really not meant for me. It is meant for someone, but it is not me, and I have so many other books that I am itching to read right now, but not the rest of this series. (I believe that I can do it justice by reading the first book and the beginning of the second.) Unfortunately, my daughter came to the same conclusion, a couple years ago, about halfway through the first book. I remember her saying to me, “They just kept running and running through the maze!” While that not might not be a fair assessment, I understand her feelings, like when I first read Harry Potter and the Quidditch scenes seemed to creep up on me often and stretch out forever. (They don’t actually, I just don’t like reading about sports, while there are so many who do.)

On the other hand, I imagine that my son is going to really enjoy the Maze Runner series. When he’s done with Dragon Breath, he’s going to begin it, and I imagine that he will finish it. There are things about it that I think will appeal to him, to, indeed, many tween boys. Very Lord of the Flies. And it somehow reminds me of my husbands enduring affection for any movies involving a group of teen boys setting out on a creepy adventure, ala Stand by Me, Stranger Things, The Goonies, Super 8, Earth to Echo, etc. It also smacks of Ender’s Game.

[image error]On one hand, the writing isn’t really anything special. If it was, I might stay on board despite the subject matter. It gets the point across, but I felt like I was reading something meant for my son and not for me. James Dashner wasn’t trying to impress me with his literary genius or his poetry. He was trying to suck me into a story that was exciting and perhaps thought-provoking. This is a dystopian thriller for twelve-year-olds, though it is possible that there is content that is a little more geared at high schoolers. (There’s quite a bit of violence, death, things that go bump in the night, etc.) There are still many high schoolers who would enjoy this as a summer read.

The Maze Runner series is:

The Maze Runner
The Scorch Trials
The Death Cure
The Kill Order (prequel)
The Fever Code (prequel)
The Maze Runner Files (companion book)

Yeah, these books aren’t literary giants, but they are enjoyable reading. You might roll your eyes, but you keep asking what’s going to happen next and, indeed, what has happened in the past to get these kids here. The set up is this: a boy wakes up to find himself in a dark box, not knowing who he is or why he is there. When the box opens, he is in a strange place where boys have shown up just like him, for years, finding themselves set up for survival but alone and unable to find themselves out of the giant maze swarming with deadly creatures back to… well, to what, they can’t remember. Mysteries abound, as well as action and creepiness. There’s not much subtlety here. The characters are fairly stock and the plot twists at times seems either obvious or too neat. But if you’re not old and wizened, like me, you might be surprised and perhaps even delighted (though that’s not what you’d call it).

[image error]

I would recommend this as the type of literature that might get otherwise reluctant readers reading. It’s modern and verges on horror for the age of kids who would like to explore that sort of thing. There’s friendship. There’s a little bit of, well maybe it’s romance. There’s survival and fighting and, true, lots and lots of running. Plenty of time spent in Thomas’s head, leading the reader to put himself in the situation and wonder what they would do. It reads a little like a movie or video game, and the movies have been made. I’m sure I’ll be watching them with my son before the year is up.

Book Review: The Book with No Pictures

[image error]I enjoy giving books to the young people in my life. It is a fantasy of mine to supply great libraries of curated books to all of my grandchildren. Yes, this is my fantasy. Toward this end, I have kept my eyes open for the best of all books for every age of person. This is one of the reasons that I review children’s books. Also for you to make choices for your own children, or just for yourself when you snuggle up in bed with a great picture book. We don’t do that, do we? I wonder why not.

Part of it is that picture books are meant to be shared, they are meant to be experienced in a group of at least two. Which is definitely what A Book with No Pictures is capitalizing so deftly on. Written by B.J. Novak of The Office TV series fame, this book is completely meant to be read aloud, and it targets the funny bones and imaginations of small children. What would compel anyone to pick up a book with no pictures, down to even the very plain cover? You’re just going to have to trust all the other people who have read the book who are telling you to pick it up and read it.

It’s an instant classic, and it should be. The book is conversational, ala Don’t Let the Pigeon Steal the Bus, or Press This, etc. At first, it acknowledges to the listener that a book without pictures sounds awfully boring. BUT did you know that every word in a book must be read by the reader, even if those words were nonsensical, silly, or absurd? Or even embarrassing? And that’s the whole premise, but it keeps the reader doing verbal acrobatics and the listener laughing right up to the end.

There is, by the way, color in this book, and a variety of size and design to the font. So there is something to look at. But the real genius is in the ease with which it ushers the reader into the role of a great storyteller, a performer, as it were.

I also love the idea that some have had of reading it in class and then having the children illustrate pages of the book. It would definitely encourage imagination. Though I still think of this book as perfect for a snuggle with a child, and then that child taking this book and demanding that other adults read it to them, too. Which is the best kind of picture book.

Movie Review: Saving Mr. Banks

[image error]During the Stay-at-Home order, I have had the opportunity to watch more movies than I usually do. Still, it’s not a tremendous amount, as I have a lot of cooking, cleaning, schooling, and writing to do, not to mention projects here and there and everywhere. But that is the reason I have been able to review not one but two movies this month, both of them having a prevalent theme of writerliness. This one is Saving Mr. Banks, and it is about the relationship between Walt Disney and P.L. Travers, the woman who wrote Mary Poppins.

I did some handheld research after I watched the movie, always curious to know where history left off and imagination began. (I do this constantly while watching things like The Crown.) It is based on a true story, but there are plenty of embellishments. In other words, while I would trust the sketch of the story, I would not trust in any of the details. For instance, P.L. Travers was reportedly very similar to her on-screen character, but she did not do any dancing that we know of, nor did she have a cathartic cry that we know of. She did, however, have an alcoholic father who died of—what I saw listed somewhere—the flu (so varied slightly). She also was not able to hold the rights to the Mary Poppins movie over Disney’s head, because he had already bought the rights at the point that our story begins, but it is widely understood she still terrorized the studio during the process. As for the driver? I have no idea if he existed, but he sure makes for good storytelling.

Saving Mr. Banks is not the kind of movie that my teens would watch: it’s on the slow side, more subtle, though my son did wander in and say, “This looks interesting.” So maybe I’m wrong. To be frank, I would watch literally anything that has Emma Thompson in it: she is one of my all-time favorites. And I like Tom Hanks, too. He’s so soothing. I actually have not loved a lot of things with Paul Giamatti, but he was just the sweetest in this movie. So, it was well-acted, all around. (There is more star-studding going on, as well.) Sort of impeccable, that way, as impeccable as an English woman out for tea. And though the story was hardly action-packed, it was engaging and interesting. The cinematography was beautiful for the small scope. The writing of the movie was even and sensical. As an author who would love to collaborate on movies one day, I was sort of watching it like research, as well. And dreaming. And being jealous.

The title was a bit of an enigma to me until it was pointed out that Mr. Banks is the name of the father figure in Mary Poppins. At least for the sake of the movie, Travers’s motives, her writing, her very personality revolved around her idolizing the father that she had know only until he died when she was eight years old. Of course she’s going to see her father in that character, and she acts like a bulldog in her fierce protection of him and of the story. The story also bears a lot of resemblance to her own childhood, so she felt that guarding it was a sort of family loyalty.

There are psychological layers here, and a little bit of Disney magic, but it’s mostly a calm exploration of a couple of historical characters, one in particular. Characters you didn’t even know that you wanted to know more about, but in the end, you were happy to have. I would recommend the movie, unless you usually only watch action movies or comedies or something. It didn’t teach me anything about writing, really, though it did encourage me to look again at my characters and my stories and my own psychology. And I thought: if given the chance that Travers was given—to have my book made into a major motion picture—I would want to guard it, too, to be hard-nosed and true to myself and champion my vision, but I would also want to be a nice and grateful person along the way, and enjoy every minute of a dream-come-true.

Best Books List: Modern: 2000s and 2010s

The plan was always to update the Best Books list every ten years. That way, we can keep up to date and what we’re reading and not miss anything really exciting. Well, it’s been somewhere around ten years, and I thought I would make sure that the list goes all the way back to 2000. So here you go: the best books of the first and second decade of the twenty-first century. I have read very few of them, and like usual, I mashed up several other organizations’ lists and made sure to include nonfiction and Christian literature. Maybe somewhere down the line I’ll make sure to swoop up things like poetry and plays, as well. Let me know if you have any recommendations or if you disagree. You could also let me know if I spelled something wrong, as that is incredibly likely. (Please ignore that I did not italicize titles. That would have been way too obnoxious to do.)

BEST BOOKS OF THE 2000S

Harry Potter series, J.K. Rowling[image error]
The Last Samurai, Helen DeWitt
The Corrections, Jonathan Franzen (or Freedom)
Never Let Me Go, Kazua Ishigiro
2666, Roberto Bolano (or The Savage Detectives)
Atonement, Ian McEwan
The Year of Magical Thinking, Joan Didion
Middlesex, Jeffrey Eugenides
The Known World, Edward P. Jones
The Plot Against America, Philip Roth (or The Human Stain)
The Road, Cormac McCarthy
The Brief and Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao, Junot Diaz[image error]
The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier and Clay, Michael Chabon
True History of the Kelly Gang, Peter Carey
The Last Report on the Miracles at Little No Horse, Louise Erdrich
Austerlitz, W.G. Sebald
The Book of Salt, Monique Truong
Oblivion, David Foster Wallace
Winter’s Bone, Daniel Woodrell
The Lazarus Project, Aleksandar Hemon
Fine Just the Way It Is, Annie Proulx
Scenes from a Provincial Life trilogy, J.M. Coetzee
White Teeth, Zadie Smith
Runaway, Alice Munro[image error]
Cloud Atlas, David Mitchell
Kafka on the Shore, Haruki Murakami
The Boy in the Striped Pyjamas
Killing Yourself to Live, Chuck Klosterman
The Tipping Point, Malcolm Gladwell
Blue Like Jazz, Donald Miller
Netherland, Joseph O’Neill
Fast Food Nation, Eric Schlosser
Slavery by Another Name, Doug Blackmon
Me Talk Pretty One Day, David Sedaris
Consider the Lobster and Other Essays, David Foster Wallace
Everything Is Illuminated, Jonathan Safran Foer
The Year of Magical Thinking, Joan Didion
Blankets, Craig Thompson
The Book Thief, Markus Zusak
Gilead, Marilynn Robinson
A Heartbreaking Work of Staggering Genius, Dave Eggers
Devil in the White City, Erik Larson[image error]
Fargo Rock City, Chuck Klosterman
Freakonomics, Leavitt and Dubner
Nickel and Dimed, Barbara Ehrenreich
Nixonland, Rick Pearlstein
Pictures at a Revolution, Mark Harris
Them, Francine de Plessex Gray
The Tipping Point, Malcolm Gradwell
The Wisdom of Crowds, James Suroweiki
The World Without Us, Alan Weisman
Bel Canto, Anne Patchett
The Blind Assassin, Margaret Atwood
Carter Beats the Devil, Glen David Gold
The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Moonlight, Mark Haddon
Empire Falls, Richard Russo[image error]
The Fortress of Solitude, Jonathan Letham
Jonathan Strange and Mr. Norrell, Susanna Clarke
The Story of Edgar Sawtelle, David Wroblewski
The Terror, Dan Simmons
The Time Traveler’s Wife, Audrey Niffenegger
Half of a Yellow Sun, Chimamanda Ngo
Billy Lynn’s Long Halftime Walk, Ben Fountain
A Visit from the Goon Squad, Jennifer Egan
Wolf Hall, Hilary Mantel
The Known World, Edward P. Jones
Americanah, Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie
Austerlitz, W.G. Sebald
unChristian, Kinnaman and Lyons
The Culturally Savvy Christian, Dick Staub[image error]
Evangelical Feminism, Wayne Grudem
Heaven, Randy Alcorn
Blue Like Jazz. Donald Miller
Wild at Heart, John Eldredge
Real Sex, Lauren Winner
Vintage Church, Driscool and Beashears
Worship Matters, Kauflin and Balouche
Epic, John Eldredge
Paris, Margaret McMillan
Shake Hands with the Devil, Romeo Dallaire
Under the Banner of Heave, Jon Krakhauer
Random Family, Adrian Nicole LeBlanc
Scar Tissue, Keidis
The End of Faith, Sam Harris
The Glass Castle, Jeannette Walls[image error]
The Omnivore’s Dilemma, Michael Pollan
The Blind Side, Michael Lewis
Enrique’s Journey, Sonia Nazario
Legacy of Ashes, Tim Weiner
Blackwater, Jeremy Scahill
The Shock Doctrine, Naomi Klein
The Heminses of Monticello, Annette Gordon-Reed
Born to Run, Christopher McDougall
Zeitoun, Dave Eggers
Methland, Nick Reding

 

BEST BOOKS OF THE 2010S

The Emporer of All Maladies, Siddhartha Mukherjee[image error]
Behind the Beautiful Forevers, Katherine Boo
Wild, Cheryl Strayed
The Black Swan, Nicholas Taleb Nassim
The Warmth of Other Suns, Isabel Wilkerson
Bloodlands, Timothy Snyder
The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks, Rebecca Skloot
Black Count, Tom Reiss
The Passage of Power, Robert A. Caro
Wave, Sonali Deraniyagala
Between the World and Me, Ti-Nehisi Coates
Evicted, Matthew Desmond
The Order of Time, Corlo Rovelli
Bad Blood, John Carryrou
These Truths, Jill Lepore
The Sixth Extinction, Elizabeth Kolbert
The Invention of Nature, Andrea Wulf
Secondhand Time, Svetlana Alexievich
Dark Money, Jane Mayer
Steve Jobs, Walter Isaacson[image error]
All the Single Ladies, Rebecca Traister
Frederick Douglas, David W. Blight
Say Nothing, Patrick Keefe
This Changes Everything, Naomi Klein
The Sports Gene, David Epstein
Nothing to Envy, Barbara Demick
The Courage to Be Disliked, Kishimi and Koga
Thinking, Fast and Slow, Daniel Kahneman
Sapiens, Yuval Noah Harari
Quiet, Susan Cain
Daring Greatly, Brene Brown
Mating in Captivity, Esther Perel
The New Jim Crow, Michelle Alexander
The Tiger’s Wife, Tea Obreht
My Brilliant Friend, Elena Ferrente
Tenth of December, George Saunders
Citizen, Claudia Rankine[image error]
My Struggle, Karl Ove Knausgaard
A Little Life, Hanya Yahagihara
The Sympathizer, Viet Thanh Nguyen
The Underground Railroad, Colson Whitehead
There There, Tommy Orange
Life After Life, Kate Atkinson
The Sellout, Paul Beatty
Sing, Unburied Sing, Jesmyn Ward
Little Fires Everywhere, Celeste Ng
The Nickel Boys, Colson Whitehead
Circe, Madeline Miller
Homegoing, Yaa Gyasi
Fates and Furies, Lauren Groff[image error]
Lincoln in the Bardo, George Saunders
Swamplandia!, Karen Russell
The Fifth Season, N.K. Jemison
The Leavers, Lisa Ko
Station Eleven, Emily St. John Mandel
Sing, Unburied, Sing, Jesmyn Ward
The Way of Kings, Brandon Sanderson
Wolf in White Van, John Darnielle
The Water Dancer, Ta-Nahisi Coates[image error]
The Night Circus, Erin Morgenstern
Family Life, Akhil Sharma
Swing Time, Zadie Smith
The Wise Man’s Fear, Patrick Rothfuss
The Destroyers, Christopher Bolen
Boy, Snow, Bird, Helen Oyeyemi
The Lesser Bohemians, Eimer McBride
Red at the Bone, Jacqueline Woodson
Eileen, Ottessa Moshfegh
The Poppy Wars, R.F. Kuang
The Incendiaries, R.O. Kwon
Bowlaway, Elizabeth McCracken
An Absolutely Remarkable Thing, Hank Green
The Twelve Lines of Samuel Hawley, Hannah Tinti
What Belongs to You, Garth Greenwell
Who Fears Death, Nnedi Okorafor
An Untamed State, Roxanne Gay
The Martian, Andy Weir
Exit West, Mohsin Hamid[image error]
The Ocean at the End of the Lane, Neil Gaiman
Sudden Death, Enrigue and Wimmer
Flight Behavior, Barbara Kingsolver
The Hate U Give, Angie Thomas
The Best We Could Do, Thi Bui
Super Sad True Love Story, Gary Steyngart
The MaddAddam trilogy, Margaret Atwood
The Particular Sadness of Lemon Cake, Aimee Bender
Lives Other than My Own, Emmanuel Carrere (or The Kingdom)
Zone One, Colson Whitehead (or Sag Harbor)
How Should a Person Be?, Sheila Heti
NW, Zadie Smith
The Goldfinch, Donna Tartt
Gone Girl, Gillian Flynn
The Neopolitan Novels, Elena Ferrante
The Argonauts, Maggie Nelson[image error]
The Sellout, Paul Beatty
The Outline Trilogy, Rachel Cusk
Leaving the Atocha Station, Ben Lerner (or 10:04)
The Flamethrowers, Rachel Kushner
Confronting Christianity, Rebecca McLaughlin
Cultural Apologetics, Paul M. Gould
Christobiography, Craig Keener
Reading Romans with Eastern Eyes, Jackson W.
The Common Rule, Justin Whitmel Earley
Be the Bridge, Latasha Morrison
We Too, Mary DeMuth
What Is a Girl Worth?, Rachael Denhollander[image error]
His Testimonies, My Heritage, Kristie Anyabwile
Write Better, Andrew Le Peau
Adorning the Dark, Andrew Peterson
Light from Distant Stars, Shawn Smucker
Throw, Ruben Degollado
God in the Rainforest, Kathryn Long
Anointed with Oil, Darren Dochuck
One Soul at a Time, Grant Wacker
Women in God’s Mission, Mary Lederleitner
Christian Mission, Edward Smither[image error]
In Search of the Common Good, Jake Meador
Religious Freedom in Islam, Daniel Philpott
On the Road with Saint Augustine, James K.A. Smith
As I Recall, Casey Trygett
Justification, Michael Horton
For the Life of the World, Volf and Croasmun
Confronting the Truth, Rebecca McLaughlin
Surprised by Paradox, Jen Pollock Michel
Quiet, Susan Cain

Series Review: Twilight

[image error]Well, this is embarrassing. I guess if I’m going to do the crime, I’ll have to do the time. Just kidding, sort of. The truth is this: one of those little library boxes appeared in my neighborhood last year, which made me very happy. I wander by it frequently, depositing and taking books, although mostly just perusing them and frowning. One of the books that appeared there almost immediately was Twilight, the first book of the wildly popular, four-book YA series. I figured that at some point I was going to have to read Twilight, because of the wildly popular thing and also because I do read and review YA. So I took Twilight home and set it on a shelf of to-reads. A couple months ago, I finished a book series (which very purposely had been light and positive after an especially dark and upsetting season of titles) and looked over to the bookshelf. Something on the shallower end of the pond, perhaps? And my sight rested on Twilight and I rushed out the door to my appointment, beginning the book in the waiting room.

Oh, bother. As I said on my Facebook feed, “Why, oh WHY did I pick up Twilight yesterday? A middle-aged homeschool mom of a tween and teen foes not need this addictive nonsense in her life.” Because this book series, if it is anything, is addictive, at least to the female of the species. I have a hard time imagining most of the men or even boys that I know being sucked into this story, but as for many of the women and girls? There is very little hope for them once they’re a couple chapters in. Funnily enough, a couple of my middle-aged girlfriends responded on my Facebook, admitting to exactly the same vice: helpless inactivity due to having unwittingly starting Twilight.

So, I must have liked the books? Sure. I enjoyed them. And at the same time, putting my embarrassment aside, I could tell that I was eating literary junk food while I was enjoying the story. There were plenty of things not to recommend them. While first person mostly worked for this story, it is still a pretty obnoxious voice in which to read a book. The writing was decent, but not exciting in any way. I understood what was going on. Also, the characters were on the verge of being caricatures, and Bella, the main character and narrator, was often telling us what a particular person (including herself) was like or how they might behave. Which got repetitive in order to make it (almost) believable.

So, when I started reading Twilight I knew that it was YA. I knew vampires were involved, werewolves, and a love triangle: this I had gained by cultural osmosis. I did not realize that it was a romance. I don’t, as a rule, read romance (nor do I read or watch vampire stuff), though I would make exception for books on the Best Books list. In fact, when I went to the bookstore to get the second book in the series, I had to be shown where to look because I was standing in the YA fantasy section, looking like a goober. Sure, the first book has romance, but it didn’t read exactly like a romance. Or maybe it did. How would I really know? In the end, it does get more romantic, but despite the occasional steamy scene, it remains quite Puritan, relatively speaking. Perhaps because Stephenie Meyer is a Mormon, there’s an excessive amount of kissing and touching of sculpted pectorals, but she uses the vampire-human thing (and also that one of them was born in like 1900) to streeeeetch out the courtship until she can get her characters properly settled. Then they do a lot more kissing and we bow out of the room. The Mormonism likely also plays into the Dexter-like goodness of some of the vampires and perhaps in what would eventually be revealed as Bella’s “superpower.” And other things.

[image error]So what is Twilight? It’s a saga, so they say. It consists of four books and it follows the adventures of Bella, a super-ordinary (though we eventually begin to question this appraisal) high schooler from sunny Arizona who decides to leave her mom with her new boyfriend to move in with her dad in wet, dreary Washington. (Even the sketched-out details of the story can sometimes feel not quite sensical.) Bella immediately encounters a very attractive student who hangs with a socially bizarre group of very attractive students and who seems to loathe her on sight. Eventually, of course, we watch as Bella falls in love with a guy, gets chummy with vampires, and then accidentally gets involved with werewolves as well. The antagonist varies from book to book, though clutzy Bella is always in some sort of mortal danger, and the love triangle shifts a few times. Bella is also extremely stubborn, and she is always aiming at the same strange, lofty goal. There are some good twists, though most of the plot I could see coming a mile away, even the biggest things. There are some things, too, that happen in the end which are, well, a bit unsettling.

Which leads me to the last book. Book four, Breaking Dawn, just isn’t as good as the other three. It’s too long and it meanders, not having as nicely sculpted of a plot as the others. It can certainly drag at parts, and feels more like fan-fic than a successful conclusion to a popular series. Somewhere, I read a review that said the fourth book spends too little time dealing with conflict and resolves things too quickly. I totally agree, but that’s only part of the issues. Compared to the other three books, this one felt especially contrived and two-dimensional, like hand-puppets with a bow tied on top. And it had too many details. It needed a more stringent editor.

My rather abrupt conclusion is this: Twilight doesn’t feel important or even believable, but it is book candy: for the masses and definitely entertaining. A one-read journey at lightning speed that will leave you with a small library of memorable characters and scenes and answers for pop trivia night.

THE TWILIGHT SAGA

Twilight (2006)
New Moon (2007)
Eclipse (2008)
Breaking Dawn (2009)

[image error]MOVIE SERIES

I am planning to watch the also popular movie series, but I am working my way up to it. That seems even more embarrassing than reading the books, which, I must say, I did in full view of my community, because I own my decisions.

Book Review: Kitchen Confidential

[image error]I have dreaded writing this review. I have dreaded writing it so much that I actually refused to finish the book for months, therefore delaying the review. Perhaps this wasn’t done consciously, but it was done nonetheless. I like Anthony Bourdain, after all. I have praised him highly for many things, including most of his TV journalism. I have celebrated his anti-static nature and his basic humanitarianism. I am an insatiable foodie. While I know that I do not want to become a chef in the traditional sense, there is a place in my heart for dreams of a less conventional career in the culinary world. Plus, who wants to talk ill of the dead? And yet, here I am, with Kitchen Confidential help limply in my hand, a curl on my upper lip.

I have been looking forward to reading the book for years, with deference and excitement. I fully expected it to become a favorite or at least to immensely enjoy the read. Sigh. This is why they say assuming makes an ass of you and me. It wasn’t completely assumptions, as I have encountered some of his other work, but still, dreams are dashed. Let’s see…

My husband and I wandered into a new used book store on a date, in the fall. I was hoping to buy a little something to show my support for the local endeavor, and when I saw a copy of Kitchen Confidential by the late, great Anthony Bourdain on the shelf, I immediately brought it to the cash register. I knew it was on my Best Books list. I knew that I had been long intending to read it. I assumed I would like it. Food-journalism-memoir by a hero of mine? Sold! For only a half-dozen bucks I took it home. When I started a side job as a personal shopper for Instacart/Publix, I was told to bring a book for odd shifts where I didn’t receive any orders. They didn’t have to tell me that twice! And before I would descend into a pit of alcoholic father books (unintentionally, and I have now emerged), I took this book along and started reading. Surrounded by groceries. People’s eating habits on the brain. And a twinkle in my eye.

Which was extinguished, almost immediately. There is an extent to which this book is about becoming a chef. There is also a maybe-larger extent to which this book is about an adolescent, aimless, angry young man alternately bashing and slouching his way toward a bright future which the reader is not quite sure he deserves. There is an affection for food, for the restaurant scene, and for fellow humans that begins to peek its way out as early as this memoir (and which would develop with the years), but at this point it’s only peeking.

And the grit! To be honest, I have to imagine that the life as a restaurant employee that Bourdain describes is limited. Limited to certain countries and cities and even certain restaurants owned by certain people. I know this is supposed to be an expose of sorts, but you just can’t convince me that this is so prevalent that I would walk into any restaurant within ten miles of myself and find a rampant and complete mess of casual sex, drugs, violence, and disrespect coupled with a near-religious respect of things like masculinity and terror. Restaurants can exist and be successful without terrible bosses, caustic chefs, and criminal workers. He’s honest, but I’m not sure he’s open to conventional beauty. He’s been in the mud so long that he has grown affectionate for it, and this is actually interesting.

For I did find this story interesting. New York City restaurant life, let’s call it. And not completely ubiquitous, but prevalent enough. Probably not even a remnant of the past. So interesting to read about and wonder how likely it is that a new chef straight outa culinary school would have to go through a gauntlet as rough and dirty as the one Bourdain did. Then again, there is an element of Bourdain making the bed that he would have to lie in. He didn’t seem to have any moral boundaries, as it were, and so let the baseness of his surroundings dictate his code. To survive? Maybe. To have a great time and air his artistic personality? More likely.

In the end, I was rooting for Bourdain out of a love for who he would become, outside of the book. If I had just been given the book, I would never have invested myself in him as a character. If you like to gawk at the seedy underbelly of things, if you enjoy, I don’t know, Dateline and Quentin Tarantino movies as well as think you might want to be a chef, well then this is the book for you! Don’t expect it to have much of a roundness to it: the stories aren’t ordered well and the reader loses track of Bourdain’s personal life and the timeline multiple times. But there is a fairly nice voice going on. Not floral, but the lush, snarky, sharp-edged recounting that would characterize all those TV shows I was telling you about.

Want to scare someone out of the food scene? This might do it. Obsessed with food and want to knock another must-read off the list? Take this on a plane to somewhere exciting and far away. My biggest complaint, in the end, is the lack of narration and consistency. That, and there are some rather gratuitous scenes. But I would advise you to take this memoir with a heaping dose of Bourdain’s other—and much better—journalism.

BY ANTHONY BOURDAIN

I would definitely recommend the TV series. All of them. Some of his work did not do well, particularly the novels.

Bone in the Throat (novel)
Gone Bamboo (novel)
Medium Raw (prequel to Restaurant Confidential)
A Cook’s Tour (nonfiction)
Nasty Bits (essays)
Les Halles Cookbook (cookbook)
Typhoid Mary (historical)
No Reservations (nonfiction)
Many articles and a blog
A Cook’s Tour (TV)
No Reservations (TV)
The Layover (TV)
Parts Unknown (TV)
Lots of appearances on food shows and other TV programs