en-US Sat, 17 May 2025 03:41:22 -0700 60 144 41 /images/layout/goodreads_logo_144.jpg Review7552410891 Sat, 17 May 2025 03:41:22 -0700 /review/show/7552410891 Zee gave 3 stars to Family Dinners: The Ultimate Cookbook (Hardcover) by Cider Mill Press
bookshelves: food-nutrition, non-fiction
Good recipes, but most of them are not what I'd call no-fuss - in fact, most seemed like a bit of a faff and not something someone with a time crunch could pop out in the evening. As such, this seemed more geared to stay-at-home people who have more leeway to organize their time and plan accordingly for these recipes.
What also bothered me was there was no real navigation possible except for the index. Like, no categories like breakfast, dinner, and most importantly, no list of recipe titles you can jump to/from and find easily while browsing. As such, this is a bit of a let-down in what's otherwise a big collection of recipes.
Not very vegetarian or plant-based friendly, though (even though there's a section for plant-based dishes). But I didn't go in expecting this, so it wasn't a let-down. However, keep this in mind as it seems mostly geared to meat-based meals. ]]> Review7567876047 Sat, 17 May 2025 03:34:29 -0700 /review/show/7567876047 Zee gave 3 stars to Freckles (ebook) by Cecelia Ahern
bookshelves: contemporary
This one is more a 2.5 stars for me, really... But I'm giving it 3 stars because it just wasn't my cup of tea at this moment when I read it.
It's very rambling and stream of consciousness, which I'd dig at another time, but it didn't gel when I read it so I couldn't really get into the immersive experience the writing provided. It's not the usual/regular Cecelia Ahern, granted, but this one was a 'good' different which I might've dug in another headspace.
As such, this would be a good book when you're on vacation and/or have just this one book to get into. It kinda warrants shutting out the world to be in here with the characters and the prose, if that makes sense. So if you've got this kind of headspace and lifespace available, then check this one out. If not, it just might not click. ]]> Review7565441324 Wed, 14 May 2025 00:03:00 -0700 /review/show/7565441324 Zee gave 2 stars to Fling with the Children's Heart Doctor (Mass Market Paperback) by Becky Wicks
bookshelves: contemporary, romance
While I loved the setting and generally dig medical dramas, the chemistry felt sadly lacking for me between the main protagonists. As a result, the romance never really clicked for me to get immersed in it. ]]> ReadStatus9423083720 Wed, 14 May 2025 00:01:17 -0700 /review/show/7567882585 Zee is currently reading Radha & Jai's Recipe for Romance by Nisha Sharma
]]> ReadStatus9423074430 Tue, 13 May 2025 23:54:43 -0700 /review/show/7567876047 Zee is currently reading Freckles by Cecelia Ahern
]]> ReadStatus9419591435 Tue, 13 May 2025 04:57:47 -0700 /review/show/7565441324 Zee is currently reading Fling with the Children's Heart Doctor by Becky Wicks
]]> Review7541516716 Tue, 13 May 2025 04:48:50 -0700 /review/show/7541516716 Zee gave 2 stars to Yoke: My Yoga of Self-Acceptance (Paperback) by Jessamyn Stanley
bookshelves: health-wellbeing, non-fiction
Wanted this to be 'more'...and I also thought it'd be 'more' because the author is a yoga teacher, implying she'd have some stuff figured out. As much as I enjoyed how personal this got, how deep and candid (the potty mouth did turn me off initially, but you get to accept this is just the way the author 'is', I'm supposing...), it felt strangely like thoughts and half-thoughts, and much of it wasn't taken anywhere. Like, what is White Girl Yoga as the author presents it in the book, and what is actually cultural appropriation - it's like it's implied the reader knows what these refer to and how in the world of yoga, but this would've been the perfect opportunity or platform to explain this in more detail and say what the author meant by them.
I came away with more questions, and yes, though it's more a memoir of sorts about what yoga means to the author, it felt like a succession of half-starts, false starts, and dead ends much of the time, like just when it's about to reveal or get juicy and deeper into the topic of the chapter, the chapter ends, or the thought is abandoned for another.
As such, the flow was very choppy, and though it's a short/er book, it did take me a long time to get through because it wasn't very immersive to lose oneself in the narrative. ]]> Review7541545875 Tue, 13 May 2025 04:40:58 -0700 /review/show/7541545875 Zee gave 1 star to Fish Heads and Duck Skin (Paperback) by Lindsey Salatka
bookshelves: contemporary, multicultural, women-s-fiction
Difficult story to get into, and the opening itself grossed me out and didn't endear me to the tale and tone... Then the whole 'back to the past to get us here' felt too long and discombobulated - sadly, it lost me from the get-go (who goes into a backwater fabric market with a baby and a little kid who is potty training in tow???)
Could've been entertaining if not for the gross factor and then the rambling to really be catchy, unfortunately ]]> ReadStatus9400689280 Thu, 08 May 2025 01:23:17 -0700 /review/show/7552410891 Zee is currently reading Family Dinners: The Ultimate Cookbook by Cider Mill Press
]]> Review7547467515 Tue, 06 May 2025 22:40:36 -0700 /review/show/7547467515 Zee gave 3 stars to Chetna's Healthy Indian: Vegetarian: Everyday Veg and Vegan Feasts Effortlessly Good for You (Kindle Edition) by Chetna Makan
bookshelves: food-nutrition, non-fiction
Huge fan of her YouTube channel, so I was expecting 'more' from this one... Most of the recipes felt a tad underwhelming, to be honest, like you'd need to make 2-3-4 of them to make a full meal, and they're not really easy-breezy as multiples.
Still, I'm sure someone will find something or more to entice them here. While I did find a couple of recipes I want to try, I was expecting to want to make most of the dishes in this book, and this felt a bit like a letdown ]]>