Mailbox Monday October 31, 2011




In October Mailbox Monday is being hosted by Savvy Verse & Wit.




Last week I attended the book launch for Yellow Mini by Lori Weber. The description of Yellow Mini reads:

Mark, Mr. Popularity, tools around town in the yellow mini left to him by his recently deceased father; his new girlfriend Stacey can’t believe her luck, but doesn’t understand Mark’s odd need to disappear into the woods from time to time; her former friends Mary and Annabelle try to find their place in the world – shy Mary transforms into a concert pianist and Annabelle into an world-changing activist with the idealistic and adoring Christopher by her side. In the background, the teens’ parents struggle with their desire to protect their children, yet give them room to grow into the adults they must become. Each voice tells his or her story in powerful free verse.


This book is written in verse - the first of its kind that I've read. I started reading it and it's hard to put down! It just flows. This is a great YA novel!

Mailbox Monday October 24, 2011




In October Mailbox Monday is being hosted by Savvy Verse & Wit.





Just one book came into my house last week - The Emerald Atlas by John Stephens. From the author's website:

A snowy winter's night. Three small children are chased from their home by the forces of a merciless darkness. Ten years later, Kate, Michael and Emma are no closer to the truth about what separated their family.

The answer lies with an enchanted atlas.

Brimming with action, humor, and emotion, The Emerald Atlas is the first stage of a journey that will take Kate, Michael, and Emma to strange, dangerous lands and deep within themselves. It is the story of three children who set out to save their family, and end up having to save the world.

Waiting on Wednesday: I Am Half-Sick of Shadows





Waiting on Wednesday is a weekly meme hosted by Jill at Breaking the Spine.





Coming out on November 1st I Am Half-Sick Of Shadows is the fourth installment of the Flavia de Luce series by Alan Bradley. From the Random House website the book's description reads:

Colonel de Luce, in desperate need of funds, rents his beloved estate of Buckshaw to a film company. They will be shooting a movie over the Christmas holidays, filming scenes in the decaying manse with a reclusive star. She is widely despised, so it is to no one''s surprise when she turns up murdered, strangled by a length of film from one of her own movies! With a blizzard raging outside and Buckshaw locked in, the house is full of suspects. But Flavia de Luce is more than ready to put aside her investigations into the existence of Father Christmas to solve this yuletide country-house murder.

I love this series and can't wait to get my hands on this one!

Tuesday Teaser: What Was Lost


Tuesday Teasers is hosted by Should Be Reading. The rules are as follows:


Grab your current read and let the book fall open to a random page. Share two sentences from somewhere on that page and the title of the book that you’re getting the teaser from. Please avoid spoilers! Read the official Tuesday Teaser Rules.




My teaser this week is from What Was Lost by Catherine O'Flynn. From page 91:

Every now and then, perhaps bristling at the unwavering flow of hatred directed at it, the lift would suddenly disregard all floor requests and plunge at high speed down below the ground floor into an unused subterranean extension of the shaft, where it would sulk in its hole for anything from thirty seconds to, on one occasion, two hours (inevitably, in that instance containing Unlucky Kieron from the stockroom). Most staff had experienced this petulance at some point and, as the lift had started its swift descent, all without exception had been momentarily convinced that the cable had snapped and they were racing towards a concertinaed end.

Mailbox Monday October 17, 2011




In October Mailbox Monday is being hosted by Savvy Verse & Wit.




I ordered this book a couple of weeks ago - I couldn't find it locally so ordered from Book Depository. Relic is the first book in the Pendergast series by Douglas Preston and Lincoln Child. If you're a fan of thrillers, I highly recommend these books.

Review: The Kitchen Counter Cooking School by Kathleen Flinn




I’m a closet foodie and I love to cook and bake, but after working all day I don’t have the energy. After reading this book I realized I’m far from alone.

For The Kitchen Counter Cooking School project, author Kathleen Flinn recruited nine volunteers who needed help. Each had something that needed improvement - they were cooking unhealthy food, buying take-out and resorting to what they thought would be the fastest and most convenient method of food preparation. All the volunteers were women and I could relate to all of them to some degree.

At the start of the book, the author introduces each volunteer by describing a visit to their homes and in particular their kitchens. There were issues with outdated food, too much food as well as content. Food labels were looked at, cooking methods discussed and even storage issues confronted. Each woman was surprised when a spotlight was pointed at their fridge and cupboards. Sometimes it takes an outsider to say, yep, storing 15 boxes of pre-made pasta dinners at this cost doesn’t make sense when you can make something yourself for a fraction of the price, is much healthier and doesn’t take nearly as much time as you’d think if you know what you’re doing. The author rented a kitchen and once a week the volunteers learned how to do exactly that.

The book is divided into parts and each describes a food product or group and how best to prepare it. The volunteers were given the tools and instructions and were encouraged to experiment. Their delight in discovering that they could produce healthy and attractive dishes was evident. I like how the self-esteem of a person can be raised just by learning a method of cooking they previously thought had been impossible to master. At the end of the book, I enjoyed seeing how each volunteer benefited from what they’d learned during the lessons.

Each chapter ends with the recipes that are taught in the class. I found the chapter on meat to be especially instructive and after reading about how many hormones and antibiotics are fed to livestock, I want to learn how to cook more vegetarian dishes!

People may dislike cooking or simply don’t cook for various reasons. Perhaps they were never taught properly, or as children they were shooed out of the kitchen. Maybe their spouses like doing it more than themselves. Whatever the reason, I recommend this book. It shows how anyone can learn to prepare nutritious and cost-effective meals even if they’ve always thought the task a daunting one. The recipes are simple and fast and there’s something for everyone in The Kitchen Counter Cooking School.

Click here to watch the book trailer and here is where you can find bios of the volunteer participants.

Tuesday Teaser: A Single Shot by Matthew F. Jones


Tuesday Teasers is hosted by Should Be Reading. The rules are as follows:


Grab your current read and let the book fall open to a random page. Share two sentences from somewhere on that page and the title of the book that you’re getting the teaser from. Please avoid spoilers! Read the official Tuesday Teaser Rules.




My teaser is taken from A Single Shot by Mtthew F. Jones. From page 165:

Past the two-foot space between the edge of the screen door and the outer wall, he tentatively places a foot into the darkened house, which smells like the molasses earlier flavoring his fingers, varied manures, and gunpowder's pungent smoke. Though he can't see much of it, the room has the eerie sense of being alive.

Mailbox Monday October 10, 2011




In October Mailbox Monday is being hosted by Savvy Verse & Wit.






Last week I received The Orphan of Awkward Falls by Keith Grades. From the back cover:

Thirteen-year-old Josephine is not exactly thrilled to move to Awkward Falls, a town known only for its sauerkraut and its insane asylum, but she can't resist snooping around the dilapidated mansion next door. She finds more than she bargains for when she is captured by the strange characters who live there: an ancient automaton who serves as a butler, a cat patched together with a few odd parts, and a boy genius named Thaddeus. Meanwhile, Fetid Stenchley, the most feared patient in the Asylum for the Dangerously Insane, has escaped and there is only one thing on his mind...revenge. Unfortunately for Thaddeus and Josephine, he's headed their way, and his arrival will reveal more than a few secrets about Thaddeus's mysterious past. Can these unlikely friends stop Stenchley and save Thaddeus from his greatest fear - the orphanage - before it is too late?
 

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