The Kitchen Counter Cooking School – Giveaway and Knife Skills

Oct 122011

For more information on The Kitchen Counter Cooking School by Kathleen Flinn, please see my review.

One of the first things that showed Kathleen Flinn just how excited people could be about learning their way around a kitchen was her knife demonstration as part of a book event in France. As such, it makes sense that she is passionate about sharing knife skills and techniques, as she demonstrates in this video. I must say, I feel stupid that it never occurred to me to cut a zucchini this way:

I have a finished copy of the book, plus this really cool kitchen conversions magnet for one lucky reader and aspiring cook with a US mailing address.

kitchencountercookingschool picture kitchencountercookingschool 1 picture

Simply fill out the form below by 11:59 PM on Wednesday, October 19, 2011.

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S is for Silence by Sue Grafton – Book Review (+ Exclusive V is for Vengeance Excerpt!)

Oct 112011

S is for Silence by Sue Grafton
Published by Berkley, an imprint of Penguin
It has been 34 years since Daisy Sullivan last saw her mother. Violet walked out of the house on the 4th of July, and neither she nor her fancy new car were ever seen again. For her entire life, Daisy waited, sure her mother will either come back, or contact her. Now, able to stand it no longer, she is hiring Kinsey Millhone to track Violet down.

This was my first ever Sue Grafton book (feel free to gasp in surprise). I lucked out in getting S: Is for Silence, because in S Kinsey is a bit out of her geographic comfort zone. The majority of the action takes place in the small rural town where Daisy Sullivan grew up and still lives, and half of it even takes place in the past, the week or so before Violet’s disappearance. Since Kinsey lives in the 1980s, she isn’t exactly speaking to Cheney on her cell phone. In fact, Cheney’s role is almost nonexistent, he is mentioned only enough that I know there is something going on between them, and if I hadn’t read Nicole’s review of R is for Ricochet I wouldn’t even have known what that something is. This general lack of Kinsey’s personal life means that I, as a new reader, wasn’t confused about Kinsey’s past or relationships, but could just enjoy her story.

Why yes, I did mention a few sentences ago that the ‘present’ of S is for Silence is the 1980s. I must admit, that really, really threw me, considering the book was published in 2005. I get that Grafton began writing her series in the early 1980s, but it definitely threw me that time in Kinsey’s world moves so much slower than it does in ours. I think I was expecting it to be more like Sara Paretsky’s V.I. Warshawski series which started around the same time, the most recent of which, Body Work, was set in the present. Although it pulled me out of the story a few times, though, the setting of the story in the 1980s was no hindrance, and there were several scenes that worked much better not having to explain why someone was unable to make a cell phone call (although Kinsey lugging her typewriter around still weirded me out).

As a heroine, Kinsey is smart, tough, and a lot of fun. I can definitely see why people enjoy Grafton’s ‘Alphabet Series.’

Buy this book from: Powells | Indiebound*

Source: Publisher. * These links are all affiliate links. If you buy your book here I’ll make a very small amount of money that goes towards hosting, giveaways, etc.

Exclusive V is for Vengeance Excerpt

November BOOK CLUB giveaway – The Taste of Salt by Martha Southgate

Oct 102011

5256159881 7ba9c432e6 m picture It is that time again! We are gearing up for this month’s discussion of The Marriage Artist by Andrew Winer (Tuesday, October 25th on Nicole’s blog), but it is also time to give away next month’s BOOK CLUB selection. In November we will be reading an offering from Algonquin Books, The Taste of Salt by Martha Southgate.

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We will be discussing The Taste of Salt right here on Tuesday, November 15. Please note this date is a week earlier than normal to accommodate people’s Thanksgiving travel.

From the publisher:

Josie Henderson loves the water and is fulfilled by her position as the only senior-level black scientist at the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institute. In building this impressive life for herself, she has tried to shed the one thing she cannot: her family back in landlocked Cleveland. Her adored brother, Tick, was her childhood ally as they watched their drinking father push away all the love that his wife and children were trying to give him. Now Tick himself has been coming apart and demands to be heard.
Weaving four voices into a beautiful tapestry, Southgate charts the lives of the Hendersons from the parents first charmed meeting to Josie ‘s realization that the ways of the human heart are more complex than anything seen under a microscope.

If you would like to be considered as a participant for November, please fill out the form below by noon, Eastern on Thursday, October 13th. Your mailing address will be discarded if you aren’t selected to participate and used to mail you the book if you are. I do not share or retain any personal information. Only those selected will be contacted by email.

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The Lady of the Rivers by Philippa Gregory – Book Review

Oct 102011

The Lady of the Rivers by Philippa Gregory
Published by Touchstone, an imprint of Simon & Schuster

This is the third book in Philippa Gregory’s The Cousin’s War series. I have also reviewed the two previous books, The White Queen and The Red Queen. Each book stands alone, and none of the reviews contain spoilers for the other books.

Both a friend and attendant of Lancastrian Henry VI’s queen Margaret of Anjou and the mother of Yorkist Edward IV’s wife Elizabeth Woodville, Jacquetta of Luxembourg was a complex and complicated medieval woman. Unlike so many women she was able to marry for love – at least the second time – and had a large, apparently close-knit family. Perhaps at another time in England’s history Jacquetta might have had a peaceful life at court and with her family, but her family began to come of age at a time when the houses of Lancaster and York were locked in a deadly battle for control of England, battle that caused everyone to reexamine their loyalties and choose sides.

So overall, I really like The Lady of the Rivers. It is classic Gregory, very engaging, if not always particularly historically accurate (although we now know that she isn’t too concerned by that allegation). I was sucked in, very interested about Jacquetta’s story, particularly since she is all but ignored in most historical fiction. But you guys, oh my gosh, the repetition. I don’t know whether this is a case of her being a big enough superstar not to have to accept edits or editing not being done very carefully on her books because she is a superstar who will sell no matter what, but at the beginning of the book in particular, she would describe the same thing in the same way multiple times in a few pages, or even on the same page. On particularly egregious example includes the same phrase being used twice in as many paragraphs.

“It is home, he says simply. “And even at its worst, one acre of England is worth ten square miles of France.”

I look at him blankly. “All you Englishmen are the same,I tell him. You think that you are divinely blessed by God for no better reason than you had the longbow at Agincourt.”

He laughs. “We are,” he says. “We think rightly. We are divinely blessed. And one acre of England is worth ten in France.” (emphasis mine)

I suppose that wasn’t exactly the same thing two paragraphs later, since he assessment changed by the magnitude of a mile to an acre, but you get the drift.

The good news is that either this repetitive ridiculousness stopped after about the first hundred pages or Gregory pulled me deeply enough into Jacquetta’s story that I didn’t notice. I do wish, however, that The Lady of the Rivers had been released as the first book in this series. There were parts in The White Queen where Jacquetta seemed almost cartoonish, her magic overdone. I think Gregory has tempered that picture and made her a much fuller character in The Lady of the Rivers, and I think The White Queen would have been improved with that additional knowledge both on Gregory’ part, and the part of the reader.

Gregory fans, this is no The Other Queen debacle, pick up it. Those of you not already acquainted with Gregory’s work, pick it up if you are in the mood for fun, absorbing historical fiction and aren’t too worried about strict adherence to known historical facts – and if you can bear a little repetition.

Buy this book from:
Powells | Indiebound*

Source: Publisher.
* These links are all affiliate links. If you buy your book here I’ll make a very small amount of money that goes towards hosting, giveaways, etc.

The Sunday Salon – Family Time

Oct 092011

This is going to be a quick one, because my parents are in town visiting this weekend. Daniel loves his Nana and Papa and, once the summer is over, he doesn’t get to see them very often, so we’re off doing fun things with them this weekend, despite the fact Daniel got sick Friday night (he is much better now, other than not having a huge appetite). We went to a local carnival-like pumpkin patch yesterday and had a blast.

I have a feeling that October may be a slow reading month, because I will be doing a lot of traveling (and packing, and unpacking, and laundry…), but it actually got off to a pretty good start. I’m really impressed with how much I read, considering Lionheart is 600 pages of Sharon Kay Penman’s trademark deliciously dense historical fiction.

Print:

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Audio:
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And here’s what I reviewed last week:

I also talked about The School of Night and Louis Bayard’s other books and posted about the fall books I want to Drop Everything And Read.

Five Little Pumpkins – Saturday Story Spotlight

Oct 082011

Welcome to Saturday Story Spotlight, my feature where I discuss books my husband and I are reading with our son, Daniel. These are books that he, we, or all of us particularly enjoy.

Five Little Pumpkins, illustrated by Dan Yaccarino
Published by Harper Festival, an imprint of HarperCollins

Five Little Pumpkins, a Halloween classic!

You all probably know the Five Little Pumpkins poem: “Five little pumpkins, sitting on a gate; the first one says “Oh my! It’s getting late!” And so on, and so forth.

This might be one of Daniel’s very favorite books. I think we kept reading it for about six months after Halloween last year. There is a great rhythm and rhyme, and this edition has only a short bit of text on each page, which really keeps the poem moving -and which makes it easy to repeat and memorize, I’m pretty sure Daniel is going to know the whole thing before Halloween. The illustrations are simple with lots of contrast, which makes them great for young children. Oh, and if you weren’t aware, that pumpkin in the back with the down-turned oval eyes is crying. At least according to Daniel.

Five Little Pumpkins is a great Halloween staple for any young child’s library.

Buy this book from:
Powells | Indiebound*

Source: Personal copy
* These links are all affiliate links. If you buy your book here I’ll make a very small amount of money that goes towards hosting, giveaways, etc.

Birds of Paradise by Diana Abu-Jaber – Audiobook Review

Oct 072011

Birds of Paradise by Diana Abu-Jaber, narrated by Tamara Marston
Published in audio by Highbridge Audio, published in print by WW Norton & co

Synopsis:

Avis and Brian Muir have what seems like it should be a happy life. They live in a big house in a wealthy community in Miami. Avis has a job that she loves. Brian has a job he at least likes, and one that more than pays the bills. They have two lovely and intelligent children. When their daughter Felice runs away at thirteen, though, the entire family falls apart. Now, five years later, they have fallen even farther, even as they continue to hope that they may someday because a “real” family again, whatever that might mean.

Thoughts on the story:

Abu-Jaber is extremely skilled at getting inside her characters heads, going so far as showing the reader the neurosis of which the characters themselves may not even be aware. In Birds of Paradise, she manages the often difficult task of fully fleshing out all four members of the family, making each of them seem real, bringing to life their hopes and their foibles. Felice’s storyline is particularly interesting. Although the secret that drove her to running away is relatively easy to guess, it is believable, even logical by the standards of her young teenage self.

Thoughts on the audio production:

This is where Birds of Paradise fell apart for me. Marston seemed more like she was reading Abu-Jaber’s text than like she was narrating or performing it. She had a great command of accents – a necessity for the multicultural world in which the Muirs live – but there was little to no passion in her voice, which is somewhat of a problem in a book with such deep emotions from its characters. Also, she had an incorrect and obnoxious pronunciation of the state Oregon that just pulled me right out of the book and annoyed me every time she said it. Marston’s narration really detracted from the potential power of Abu-Jaber’s story.

soundbytes picture Overall:

Be prepared to become emotionally involved in the lives of the Muirs if you pick up Birds of Paradise, but for full effect choose print.

Buy this book from:
Powells: Audio/Print*
Indiebound: Audio/Print*

I’m launching a brand-new meme every Friday! I encourage you to review any audiobooks you review on Fridays and include the link here. If you have reviewed an audiobook earlier in the week, please feel free to link that review as well. Thanks to Pam for creating the button.

Source: .
* These links are all affiliate links. If you buy your book here I’ll make a very small amount of money that goes towards hosting, giveaways, etc.

D.E.A.R. – Fall Books

Oct 062011

Do you remember D.E.A.R? At my elementary school that meant “Drop Everything And Read,” something we typically did for 10 or 15 minutes every day. Best part of my day, really. As my TBR and Library piles are battling for supremacy and trying to sneak in around the review copies who have staked out places on my calendar, I’m thinking back to the simpler days of D.E.A.R., when I believed I had time to get to any book I wanted. And that, of course, got me fantasizing about a world where I really could just Drop Everything And Read for more than just 15 minutes a day.

This fall has been a great time for new books, maybe too great of a time. For awhile there I was getting an average of 3 fall books per day EVERY day. Obviously, there simply isn’t even close to enough to time to read all of those, particularly since most of them showed up unsolicited. There were definitely some that could immediately be identified as things I didn’t care to read, but others I desperately tried – and failed – to fit into my reading schedule. Below are 10 of the August and September titles that I most wanted to get to and hope to still read in the future. Titles are ordered by release date and title.

Displaced Persons by Ghita Schwartz, August 23 from Harper Perennial Reprints Edition, an imprint of HarperCollins

Displaced Persons is the story of a Polish Jew released from the concentration camps after WWII, the decisions he must make for survival, and the way those decisions will continue to influence the rest of his life, even after he emigrates to America. Unless I’m mistaken, this promises to be a heart-breaker.

The Legacy by Katherine Webb, August 30 from Harper Paperbacks, an imprint of HarperCollins

This book was pitched to me as being reminiscent of The Thirteenth Tale by Diane Setterfeld, which made me want it immediately. It is the story of a family delving in to the mystery of a long missing cousin, and seems as if it would be delightfully gothic.

Murder Most Persuasive by Tracy Kiely, August 30 from Minotaur Books, an imprint of Macmillan

I’ve been meaning to read Tracy Kiely for some time. She is Austen-inspired fiction, which I don’t always like, but I appreciate the way she takes Austen as an inspiration for modern-day mysteries – or at least the idea of how she does it, since I haven’t read her yet. Murder Most Persuasive is, on one level, your standard, run-of-the-mill mystery/cozy with a dead body discovered under a swimming pool. At the same time, however, the lives of the main characters echo those of the characters in Jane Austen’s Persuasion.

Cross Currents by John Shors, September 6 from NAL Trade, an imprint of Penguin

According to Serena from Savvy Verse & Wit, Cross Currents is devastatingly beautiful, a two-word phrase which can sell me on a book without any other knowledge, honestly. Essentially, though, it seems to be the story of two families in a resort-town in Thailand whose lives cross paths to dramatic consequences.

Irma Voth by Miriam Toews, September 6 from Harper Books, an imprint of HarperCollins

All I needed to know about Irma Voth is that it is set inside a Mennonite community in Mexico. I had no idea that there was such a thing, so it immediately piqued my curiosity. It sounds like a great, dramatic novel about faith, family, and identity, though, and I’m a sucker for those, so it is on my “hurry up and get to me soon!” list.

Paris Without End: The True Story of Hemingway’s First Wife by Gioia Dilberto, September 6 from Harper Perennial, an imprint of HarperCollins

Although I didn’t completely love Paula McLain’s The Paris Wife this spring, I did enjoy it, and I was fascinated by Hadley Richardson Hemingway and her life with Ernest in Paris. Paris Without End is a biography of Hadley and their marriage, updated and rereleased. I’ve heard amazing things about Dilberto’s previous books, so I have extremely high hopes for this one.

The Taker Almata Katsu, September 6 from Gallery Books, an imprint of Simon & Schuster

So I’ve heard the buzz about The Taker since its UK release back in April, and I’m not exactly sure how and why I haven’t managed to read it yet. Love, lust, eternity, immortality, all without sparkly vampires and with better prose than Stephenie Meyers, how could it fail to be completely absorbing? Maybe I’m just waiting for the perfect dark and stormy night.

The Winters in Bloom by Lisa Tucker, September 13 from Atria Books, an imprint of Simon & Schuster

When the child of two extremely overprotective parents disappears, they are both sure that the dark parts of their pasts are to blame. As a mom of a little boy, The Winters in Bloom may horrify me past the ability to actually read it, but I have skimmed through much of the first chapter and it just looks absolutely lovely, and as if there is the possibility of redemption in addition to simply terror.

The Destiny of the Republic: A Tale of Madness, Medicine, and the Murder of the President by Candice Millard, September 20 from Doubleday, an imprint of Random House

This is my second nonfiction title on the list, and I’m pretty sure that nobody needs to go any further than the subtitle to figure out why I want to read it. I mean, is that dramatic, or what? The Destiny of the Republic details the events surrounding President Garfield’s assassination; I know almost nothing about Garfield or his death, and I’m an absolutely fool for things I don’t know anything about (see: my reasons for wanting to read Irma Voth) so this is a no-brainer.

Child Wonder by Roy Jacobsen, September 27 from Graywolf Press

This is probably the book I’m most ashamed of not having gotten to yet, because I’ve had a galley for a ridiculously long time, and I’ve wanted to read it for even longer. Child Wonder is the story of a young boy growing up in Oslo, Norway in the early 1960s. For that interesting cultural viewpoint alone I’d probably pick this up, but it also looks like a really moving novel of family and childhood.

All of these books were provided to me for possible review.

The School of Night by Louis Bayard

Oct 052011

The School of Night by Louis Bayard
Published by Henry Holt & Co, an imprint of Macmillan

On a recent episode of What’s Old is New, Nicole and I had the pleasure of speaking to Louis Bayard about his latest book, The School of Night. The School of Night is a dual time period piece, the modern piece dealing with rare manuscript collectors and the historical piece dealing with a secret society of Elizabethan scholars who took their name from a line in one of Shakespeare’s plays. Shakespeare himself plays an integral role in The School of Night.

Louis had a lot of fascinating things to say about the influence that classic authors continue to have today, but that isn’t terribly surprising, considering the homages he has included to so many classic authors in his published work.

thepaleblueeye picture mrtimothy picture

In The Pale Blue Eye, Edgar Allen Poe helps Bayard’s main character solve the mysterious death of one of Poe’s associates. Unlike the other books which focus on the real men themselves, Mr. Timothy reimagines as an adult one of the best known characters in Western literature: Charles Dickens’s Timothy Cratchit.

Bayard’s thoughts on the continuing importance of the classics, especially their importance for modern authors, is truly inspiring and I encourage you all to listen to this episode. Just a warning, though, it may cause you to add to your TBR pile.

Buy The School of Night from:
Powells | Indiebound*

Source: Publisher, for an episode of What’s Old is New.
* These links are all affiliate links. If you buy your book here I’ll make a very small amount of money that goes towards hosting, giveaways, etc.

Little Gale Gumbo by Erika Marks – Book Review

Oct 042011

Little Gale Gumbo by Erika Marks
Published by NAL Trade, an imprint of Penguin

In 1977, Camille Bergeron fled New Orleans and her abusive husband with her daughters Dahlia and Josie. A Creole woman willing to work a little voodoo didn’t exactly go over well on Little Gale Island in Maine, but the Bergeron women made it work for themselves, made at least some of the inhabitants of the town love them – enough to bring them into the fold a bit, as well as to get them into trouble. Now, in 2002, their pasts have caught up to them and suddenly their father is dead and the man they always thought of as their father is in a fight for his life.

Dahlia and Josie are rich, complex characters who lead very interesting lives as fish out of water in Maine. They are mostly accepted by townspeople, but truly welcomed by very few, even after having lived on Little Gale Island for 25 years. Marks draws them realistically, especially considering that their present selves are only the stars of half of the book, since the other half deals with the time from when Camille met her husband up through the girls’ lives in Maine. In addition to having wonderful characters, the plot of Little Gale Gumbo pulls the reader right along, trying to figure out what really happened between the two men, as well as what might still happen for the sisters and their love interests.

A quick and satisfying read. Recommended.

Buy this book from:
Powells | Indiebound*

Source: Publisher.
* These links are all affiliate links. If you buy your book here I’ll make a very small amount of money that goes towards hosting, giveaways, etc.

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Devourer of Books

The Kitchen Counter Cooking School – Giveaway and Knife Skills

S is for Silence by Sue Grafton – Book Review (+ Exclusive V is for Vengeance Excerpt!)

Exclusive V is for Vengeance Excerpt

November BOOK CLUB giveaway – The Taste of Salt by Martha Southgate

The Lady of the Rivers by Philippa Gregory – Book Review

The Sunday Salon – Family Time

Five Little Pumpkins – Saturday Story Spotlight

Birds of Paradise by Diana Abu-Jaber – Audiobook Review

D.E.A.R. – Fall Books

The School of Night by Louis Bayard

Little Gale Gumbo by Erika Marks – Book Review

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