Book Reviews

It’s Time For Another Diary of A Wimpy Kid Book Review

Book Reviews

Author Jeff Kinney is back with another book in the Diary of a Wimpy Kid series. Big Shot. This time the book is all about sports.

Knowing the main character, Greg Heffley, I could almost guarantee that sports would not be up his alley. But Greg’s mom has other ideas. Team sports are good for building character, blah, blah, blah… So Greg must attempt to try another team sport to please his mother.

When Greg hears that there will be more kids trying out for the basketball team than available spaces, he decides this would be his sport. Afterall, what could his mom do if he didn’t even make the team? His mother is thrilled with the idea of basketball. She played on her school’s team. Perhaps talent for this sport runs in the family.

Things go just as poorly at tryouts as Greg expected but (and there’s always a but) unexpected circumstances come into play and lead to… To find out more, grab a copy of Diary of a Wimpy Kid Big Shot.

As always, Happy Reading!

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Coconut Pancake Review

Book Reviews, Cooking

First off, I must say, I am not a super big pancake gal. I am a bit picky on my pancakes. I like them thin and crispy. I am also not a fan of maple syrup, never have been. While flipping through Gordon Ramsay’s Home Cooking cookbook, I came across a recipe for Coconut Pancakes with Mango Slices and Lime Syrup. The picture looked good so I thought I’d give them a try.

The recipe makes about 16 small pancakes. I was just making these for myself, so I cut the recipe in half and then in half again. It made about 4 – 5 pancakes this way, which was the perfect amount for my appetite. While I followed the pancake recipe, I did not use Chef Ramsay’s toppings of mango slices and lime syrup. Sorry Chef. I would probably be thrown out of the kitchen for this move, however I made the bold move of using my own toppings. I chose to top the pancakes with honey and chopped almonds. I would have used macadamia nuts as the topping of choice, however almonds were what was on hand.

The pancakes came together easily and I did add a mixture of coconut milk and water to thin the batter a bit. Chef Ramsay did say that water or coconut milk could be added to the batter if it was too thick after its fifteen minute rest. I preferred to add both.

The pancakes cooked beautifully in my cast iron skillet heated with canola oil. I cooked them for about two minutes on each side at a medium heat. After removing them from the skillet, I drizzled them with honey and sprinkled the nuts on top. They had nice crispy edges and were light and lovely. Oh my! I devoured these pancakes. They were the best pancakes I have had in a long time, perhaps ever. If not a huge fan of pancakes, give this recipe a try anyway. They are sure to change your mind about pancakes. https://www.gordonramsay.com/gr/recipes/coconut-pancakes-with-mango-slices-and-lime-syrup

As always, Happy Cooking!

My Take on…The Black Velvet Coat

Book Reviews

Jill G. Hall’s debut novel, The Black Velvet Coat, was hard to put down. The story is placed in modern day San Francisco and San Francisco of the 60’s. Hall merged the stories of two women, each who wore the same black velvet coat, but in different decades.

The first woman to wear the coat was Sylvia. An orphaned heiress who finds herself engaged to trouble. Will she go through with the wedding? The executor of her estate does not seem to think she should.

Fifty years later, Anne, a starving artist, comes across the black velvet coat in a second hand shop. When she puts it on, her life will never be the same again. She is obsessed with the coat and its original owner.

I enjoyed The Black Velvet Coat. There were nights when I stayed up a little longer than I should have to see what would happen next. I can not wait to get started reading Hall’s other books in the trilogy, The Silver Shoes and The Green Lace Corset, also written around a piece of clothing connecting women.

As always, Happy Reading!

Another Day with Yoga

Book Reviews, life

While I had tried yoga in the past, even taking a class, it never became a routine for me until recently. Sometime late last year, I decided to give yoga a try again. This time, I decided to do yoga every day, not just once a week or whenever the urge took hold of me. Daily yoga soon became a habit I looked forward to. In fact, I had to do my yoga. I was hooked.

What was different this time? Why was I able to stick to yoga? Well for one thing, doing something daily, especially at the same time daily, becomes a habit. Another big thing is that I felt the differences that yoga had made on my body as well as my mood. Yoga is great at reducing stress. Yoga got rid of my aches and pains. No more getting out of bed and feeling stiff. The elbow and hip soon felt better. The shoulder, that seemed out of place, took a bit longer to mend. But with daily yoga, even the shoulder is now perfectly fine. After actually feeling the difference, there is no doubt in my mind that yoga is a wonderful way to start each day. I guess I am now a yogi.

Yoga does not have to be intense or take very long. A simple twenty minute routine is all that is needed. I like to do yoga along to videos. Many can be found on Youtube. After becoming familiar with yoga, building one’s own yoga program is easy to do. A good book of reference for this is Yoga Zone Introduction to Yoga A Beginner’s Guide to Health, Fitness, and Relaxation by Alan Finger and Al Bingham.

As always, Happy Yoga Practice!

My Take on…The Apprentice My Life in the Kitchen- Jacques Pepin

Book Reviews

I was gifted the book The Apprentice My Life in the Kitchen by Jacques Pepin. It is a biography written by Jacques Pepin of his life, how he came to be an apprentice in the kitchens of France, how he came to America, and how he became a televsion personality and cookbook author. And what would a biography of a famous cookbook author be without recipes sprinkled throughout the book? This book does not disappoint.

Jacques Pepin had me hooked on this book from the beginning. It is far from dull! Pepin, obviously a humorous man, told laugh out loud stories from his childhood and beyond. There were also interesting looks into the life of the little boy he was during war torn France during WWII. Of course, there were plenty of details into the life of an apprentice in the many kitchens of France. Upon coming to America, Pepin, always a hard worker, detailed the many jobs he had and the choices he made that led him to become a famous chef. Every chapter highlights a recipe with an introduction, in Pepin’s own words, as to what makes the recipe special.

I thoroughly enjoyed reading The Apprentice My Life in the Kitchen! What a fascinating life. I would say a lesson learned by reading this book would be to do what you love and to enjoy life to the fullest. And of course to eat good food. I highly recommend reading a copy of this book. It would also make a wonderful gift to anyone interested in cooking.

As always, Happy Reading!

My Take on Portrait of a Murder

Book Reviews

Art, murder, mystery, romance, are all combined in Portrait of a Murder by Kerry J. Charles. This is the first book in the Dulcie Chambers Mystery series. After finishing Portait of a Murder, I can not wait to start on the other books in the series.

Kerry J. Charles has quite an impressive resume. She has worked as a researcher, writer, and editor for National Geographic Magazine, the Smithsonian Institution, and Harvard University. She has also worked for major textbook publishers. All of this experience has surely come in handy at penning her own works.

The mystery is set on the coast of Maine. Dulcie Chambers is a curator for the Maine Museum of Art. She wants to acquire a watercolor by Winslow Homer to complete her exhibit. The museum’s director, Joshua Harriman, volunteers to go to Christie’s auction house in New York to bid on and hopefully obtain the watercolor. But before Dulcie can lay her sights on the watercolor, she instead comes across a body. She is now in a sticky situation, but police detective Nick Black is on the case.

I enjoyed Portrait of a Murder very much. At 137 pages, it was not a super long read, however, it was a page turner. There were just enough suspects to confuse things and keep one guessing. I would recommend this book and I am planning to continue reading the series. The next book is titled, From the Murky Deep. Sounds interesting already! As always, Happy Reading!

My Take on Rules for Visiting

Book Reviews

My latest read was a book I asked for and received for Christmas, Rules for Visiting by Jessica Francis Kane. Rules for Visiting was an easy read. This book will make one think of the way in which they live their life and the role friendship plays.

The novel is about May, a botanist, and how she decides to catch up with old friends, and perhaps find herself, during bonus time off from her work. May is a gardener at the local university. Being granted a months vacation from her job, May decides to take four seperate vacations to visit friends from her childhood through her college days. While May does have friends of her own, she is often intrigued by other peoples relationships with their frineds. Why does her life seem lacking? Will she find what she is looking for?

Kane’s novel is a wonderful read. A book about life that could easily be made into a movie. It also has plant and tree facts sprinkled throughout the book. This helps define the character and may also teach the reader a thing or two about plants. As always, Happy Reading!

My Take on…Bomb Girls

Book Reviews

I just finished reading Bomb Girls by Jacky Hyams. This book is about the women who worked in Britain’s munitions during WWII. The book is a rare treat, especially for those interested in history.

Bomb Girls starts out by introducing the reader to munitions factories and what it was like to work in one of these factories. But what is even better are the following chapters, the memoirs of the actual workers, the stories they tell of their life experiences. The chapters read as though the women are right there, telling their stories in person. Each woman tells a little about her life before working at the factory and then details of her experience at the factory and what she did after the war was over. The last chapter gives more details about each of the munitions factories that the women in the book worked at and what happened to the facility after the war.

This book was an easy read and kept me interested the entire time. I had no idea that once a girl turned 18 they were called up to work in factories of this kind during the war years. It was very dangerous work. Accidents happened and some were deadly. So what got these women through this stressful time? Friendship, doing what they thought was right to help their country, and the hopes of helping the men they knew and loved.

I highly recommend Bomb Girls. If you love history, have an interest in WWII, or want to learn more about women and their efforts during the war, this book is a must read. As always, Happy Reading!

I Have to Read What!

Book Reviews

Back in high school, my teacher assigned the class to read Dracula by Bram Stoker. What! I was none too thrilled to say the least. Of all the books, why on earth did she have to choose that! I had NO interest in reading a book about vampires, or so I thought…

I should have known that this particular teacher (who was one of the best) would not let me down. Shortly into the book, I was hooked. Dracula, of course, is a classic. This is with good reason.

Since high school, I have read Dracula a few more times. I just recently finished reading it again. It is one of the few books that I have read more than a couple of times. It is a great read around Halloween. I am also a fan of reading this book at night; helps to set the scene.

So the moral of my story is… it is hard to judge a book by its subject matter alone. It is a good idea to try reading books one would not normally choose. One never knows what they may be missing.

As always, Happy Reading!

My Take on… Nottingham vs. Robin Hood

Book Reviews

I read the book Nottingham by Nathan Makaryk and was a bit disappointed. Is this the same Robin Hood that I remembered? Maybe it was time for me to refresh my memory. So here is where my research began.

My son was a HUGE fan of Robin Hood as a child. I even made him a Robin Hood costume for Halloween one year. So I went to the source to ask for a copy of The Adventures of Robin Hood. He leant me his copy, which I devoured. Now this was more like it!

Nottingham was a rewrite of the legendary Robin Hood story. It reads like a movie. Makaryk is writing his novel in a ‘what if?’ fashion, hence, changing things up a bit. He makes lesser characters have larger roles and greater characters have lesser roles. What has he done to Robin Hood?! In Makaryk’s version, it is made out that Robin Hood did not really want to help the poor and did the job only because he felt made to do it. Really! Come on! No, this was not how I remembered Robin Hood. I felt too much liberty was taken with the story, especially in the character of Robin Hood.

The Adventures of Robin Hood by Roger Lancelyn Green, was on point to me. This was the Robin Hood who stole from the rich and gave to the poor. This was the Robin Hood who cared for his followers. Every chapter was interesting and had me wanting to continue. While Robin meets the same fate in the end of each novel, they are in two completely different ways. I prefer the storyline and ending in The Adventures of Robin Hood.

While Nottingham is a well written book, I felt that the book took too many liberties with the storyline and characters. I could forgive most of the changes, but not those to the integrity of Robin Hood. Maybe I just prefer classics to be left alone. After all, if it isn’t broke, why try to fix it?