This felt like the companion cookbook to You Gotta Eat; this is the version of that cookbook that was written for people who aren't depressed or chronThis felt like the companion cookbook to You Gotta Eat; this is the version of that cookbook that was written for people who aren't depressed or chronically ill but who still are new to or struggling with cooking. Turshen tries to distill a lifetime of cooking knowledge into recipes that can be easily made and that are endlessly modular, and she does a great job. (She also includes a bunch of the tips she's learned along the way.) As a bonus, there are some fascinating essays relating to cooking or to Turshen's life in here.
I'll be honest; this book wasn't written for me. I've been cooking for longer than Turshen has. I know these things already. But I learned them the hard way, and I am so, so pleased to see cookbooks like this one that give people a chance to skip over all the trial and error and guesswork and exact following of recipes. Cooking can be hard, but it doesn't have to be, and Turshen is out here trying to demonstrate that. Delightful. ...more
I did not know cozy horror was a genre before reading this book, but I'm delighted to learn that it exists. This is a fun novel set in the classic cozI did not know cozy horror was a genre before reading this book, but I'm delighted to learn that it exists. This is a fun novel set in the classic cozy setting: a small town full of eccentric people cut off from the wider world. And they can have a little eldritch horror as a treat. Bonuses include a whole bunch of queer people and SO much Canadianness. Do you need some soothing reading? Do you like tentacles? Here you go!...more
If you're looking for a definition of not sticking the landing, here it is!
I spent a lot of time trying to figure out if the many, many things that wIf you're looking for a definition of not sticking the landing, here it is!
I spent a lot of time trying to figure out if the many, many things that went wrong here were the author's fault, the editorial staff's fault, or the publisher's fault, but in the end, it doesn't matter. So let's identify the problems and leave the blame game behind.
This is a trilogy made up of three novellas that aren't complete stories and don't make a complete story when taken together. And the novella trilogy structure is an absolute disaster here. First, it means that all of the connective tissue of the story is missing. You don't get to read about planning or relationship building or details on Ada's mother or anything else that would make you care about these characters and their world; you're just told that stuff happened off screen. Second, as the novellas progress, they spend more and more time recapping previous novellas. That's necessary because none of the novellas actually manages to complete a narrative arc, so Revis does need to remind everyone of all of the dangling threads. (I mean, I read these from the library and so it took me like a month and a half to get through all three, and they're not that memorable. She absolutely does need to recap.) But man does it mess up the pacing. And, finally, it turns out that Revis simply doesn't know how to write an ending, or possibly she didn't consider the relationship a plot element that needed a resolution.
But it did need a resolution. The books are sold with romance trappings -- the covers, the blurbs -- and they're full of romance tropes -- the instant, helpless attraction, the will they-won't they (spoiler: (view spoiler)[they won't (hide spoiler)]) -- but this story is not actually a romance in the genre sense. There's no happily ever after. There's no happy for now, even. And, honestly, I would be fine with that, because even though Revis tells us over and over in the third book that these people are in love, it's impossible for me to believe without the connective tissue she didn't write. But if you're going to sell something as a romance, you should follow fundamental genre conventions.
And then there's the ending. If you've read the first of these books, the ending of the third one is exactly the same. (view spoiler)[Ada jets off and Rian writes memos. (hide spoiler)] Which means that none of this actually accomplished anything. If your characters are ending the story in exactly the same place they started it, why exactly did the story happen? What was the point of any of it? I assume the ending of this trilogy is attempting to set up the sequel, but seriously: you gotta give me SOME feeling of satisfaction to get me to pick that sequel up. This book/series of novellas/whatever the fuck it is did not do that.
Honestly, probably the single thing that left the biggest sour taste in my mouth -- and I want to be clear that there were a LOT of things about this book/series that did -- was that all of this felt like a cash grab. Breaking a novel into three novellas that don't function as novellas? Cash grab. Marketing something as a romance even though it is clearly not one? Cash grab. A completely pointless, resolutionless story that exists only to set up a sequel? Future cash grab. It's a shitty, shitty feeling to finish a heist story and realize you were the con victim all along. ...more
I do 95% of the cooking for my family. And the pandemic killed my love of cooking stone dead. I'm recovering it, but let me say that I very much underI do 95% of the cooking for my family. And the pandemic killed my love of cooking stone dead. I'm recovering it, but let me say that I very much understand the "What, cooking AGAIN?" mindset Eby's fighting here.
And, I mean, she's not telling me anything I don't know about constructing easy meals out of the ingredients you have on hand. I know how to make a sandwich, a smoothie, a charcuterie board, a quesadilla -- every dish in this book is something I know how to make. But I sure didn't know how to have Eby's attitude, and that's what I really needed from the book. She kept telling me over and over and over that I don't have to try so hard. That's something I've really lost sight of over the years, and this book reminded me to be a little easier on myself. Sometimes it's okay to make the fast thing. Sometimes it's okay to make a meal that everyone will eat even if it isn't balanced. I can let myself off the Judgment Treadmill (where no matter how good something is, I should've done something a little bit better) sometimes.
This book would be great not just for the sick, the depressed, the exhausted, but for people just starting out in life. I plan to give it to my kid when she goes to college. I think it would also be great for people who are afraid of cooking, because Eby shows you how to take baby steps into the kitchen.
And Eby's an engaging writer, too.
Honestly, this is one of the more valuable cookbooks I've read. It's entirely worth reading even if you don't think you need it, because I promise you: one day you're going to. (We all get sick or sad or tired or busy at some point, my friends.)...more
This is the middle third of a novel. I can't rate it or review it properly until I've read the ending, which will for some reason require me to check This is the middle third of a novel. I can't rate it or review it properly until I've read the ending, which will for some reason require me to check out a THIRD book from the library. And, honestly, that makes for a pretty terrible reading experience; there's no resolution, there's a ton of in-case-you-forgot exposition, and the characters and plots lose a lot of focus in the waits between books. So. Two stars....more
I would never have picked this up if I'd known what it was about and where it was set. Right now, I am seriously off dystopias for reasons that shouldI would never have picked this up if I'd known what it was about and where it was set. Right now, I am seriously off dystopias for reasons that should be obvious, and I am always and permanently off stories with tons of child harm. (Seriously, there is so much child harm and death in this. SO much.) I also don't love teenage narrators. But somehow I kept turning these pages anyway, and that means it deserves four stars.
Look, does this have flaws? Yes, but at the end of the day I didn't care. It was compelling, it was interesting, I cared about the narrator, and I was left wanting more. That's enough for me! (Also, I've had a lot of read-one-chapter-give-up books this month. I was so grateful to this book for convincing me that I didn't just suddenly hate reading.)...more
This is the one where, at roughly 50%, (view spoiler)[the main character, who we are supposed to like, kills the beloved and important beetle belonginThis is the one where, at roughly 50%, (view spoiler)[the main character, who we are supposed to like, kills the beloved and important beetle belonging to her best friend/crush and then lies about it. Let me note that the beetle, in addition to being much loved, was vital to the important project of stopping a serial killer, which the MC is supposed to care about above all other things. (hide spoiler)] And that's where I gave up, but if it had been a different, better book before that, I could have powered through.
This book could not decide what tone it wanted to take, so it just sort of took all of them. It's so cute and cosy! (The ghost has CAT EARS, my guys!) It's so gruesome! (The detailed description of (view spoiler)[choking on your own severed tongue (hide spoiler)] happens more than once and in the victim's head, and that's far from the only gore.) It's so sensitive! It's so clumsy! It's so serious and important! It's so political! It's so fun! You can't be all these things and have any kind of coherence. Choose. Like, you don't have to pick just one, but you have to eliminate a few of those.
This book also fell down pretty hard in the plot department. It's obvious who the killer is well before the point where I stopped reading (and turned to the final chapters to be sure I was right), and it gets remarkably frustrating watching the supposedly brilliant MC and her brilliant friends just fully fail to solve things while people continue to die. And the author wanted to do too many things -- see above about the tone problems -- which meant making space for all of them, which meant the actual A plot was buried in the B, C, D, and pontificating plots. What I'm saying here is that this dragged because the pacing was violently, hideously off.
(The worldbuilding also, shall we say, left a lot to be desired. I'm hoping maybe all the holes in it were explained in the half I didn't read, though, so I'll just leave this as a side note.)
Man. I feel mean. But this book should have been perfect for me -- a paranormal mystery with disability rep and tons of queer characters! It was not at all even good for me, and I'm sad. ...more
This is the kind of WWII book that relies heavily on combing through secondary sources to pull out themes and information on one thing, and that can wThis is the kind of WWII book that relies heavily on combing through secondary sources to pull out themes and information on one thing, and that can work or not work, depending on how interesting the thing the author's focusing on is (and how good they are at writing). I'm not the right audience for a book like this, to be honest; I've read too many of the secondary sources and I spend a lot of time hissing, "But you should also be citing [other source]!" And that's far from the point of books like these; they're about synthesis.
And the synthesis is interesting. Graham focuses on the scholars and librarians who were (by some accounts) the backbone of US intelligence during WWII. (The "by some accounts" is doing some heavy lifting there; I do really, really wish Graham had spent a bit more time acknowledging that for a lot of her chosen details, there are alternate versions.) I find this fascinating, and I did enjoy a lot of what Graham covered.
Reading this was a thoroughly grim experience, given *gestures at the US and the world*. And that's part of Graham's point, yes, and it's an important point, yes, and yet. I didn't love reading this. (And it's totally not the book's fault that it began a period of book drought so severe that I spent some time fearing I'd lost my love of reading entirely.)...more
I'm guessing this works better if you've seen the TV show on which it is based; I had no idea who these people were and felt like I'd accidentally picI'm guessing this works better if you've seen the TV show on which it is based; I had no idea who these people were and felt like I'd accidentally picked up book three in a series. But it's funny, light, and engaging, enough so that I finished it despite the whole "Who is this? Where are we?" thing. ...more
This is absolutely unrateable. It's a glorious mess of a book. Some random facts about it:
1. The most lesbians by volume of anything I've ever read. 2.This is absolutely unrateable. It's a glorious mess of a book. Some random facts about it:
1. The most lesbians by volume of anything I've ever read. 2. The least interest in men of anything anywhere. 3. Defies every piece of wisdom about narrative and structure and does not always do so successfully. 4. Feels like Gideon the Ninth in places and that's not a good thing for this book (which is, above all things, trying to be different). 5. Blithely and aggressively substitutes showing for telling. 6. For something that begins with a union action, it's weirdly One True Hero and One Special Person. 7. Somehow it's both old school and wildly new. 8. Absolutely full of violence, just so so so much violence. 9. Takes a lot of unexpected turns. 10. Never rests in one place long enough for readers (well, one reader: me) to settle into the story.
It is, in short, messy as hell and it does not give a single shit. I truly cannot rate it. But I can tell you: if punk was a book, this would be the book. ...more
Fair warning: this is not a novel. It is the first third of a novel. There is absolutely no resolution of any kind at the end of the story. That makesFair warning: this is not a novel. It is the first third of a novel. There is absolutely no resolution of any kind at the end of the story. That makes it hard to review, so I'll save my thoughts until I get through the third one. ...more
I could feel this book trying to be funny on every page and it never, ever got there for me. And I simply wasn't engaged; I kept finding myself thinkiI could feel this book trying to be funny on every page and it never, ever got there for me. And I simply wasn't engaged; I kept finding myself thinking about the writing (Why isn't this funny? Why did he choose that word? Would I describe this style more as arch or droll?) rather than thinking about or reading the story. ...more
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