Review: Tiny Hot Dogs by Mary Giuliani

I love a food memoir but Mary Giuliani's "Tiny Hot Dogs" missed the mark for me. I had never heard of the author but I thought a book written by the "Caterer to the Stars" would have some hilarious stories and slip ups. Unfortunately, the slim volume is almost entirely about her personal life and I found her constantly self-deprecating humor(?) annoying. On the upside, there are delicious appetizer recipes accompanying each chapter that are worth checking out.⠀

Review: We Went to the Woods by Caite Dolan-Leach

We Went to the Woods by Caite Dolan-Leach  (releasing July 2, 2019 from Random House)

Summary:
Certain that society is on the verge of economic and environmental collapse, five disillusioned twenty-somethings make a bold decision: They gather in upstate New York to transform an abandoned farm, once the site of a turn-of-the-century socialist commune, into an idyllic self-sustaining compound called the Homestead.

My Review:
Five people with different personalities are going to live off the land/get off the grid...and only one has any farming experience.🤷‍♀️Obvious pitfalls arise such as food lasting through the winter and complicated friendships/sexual relationships, but those aren't even the main story. There are arguments with neighbors over chemical dumping and partnerships with another nearby intentional community over acts of civil disobedience and picketing. Knowing that other intentional communities have failed, the main character Mack takes it upon herself to figure out why they failed so that this one will succeed. But while she focuses on her research, everyone else is focusing on something else.

Reviews: The Daughters of Temperance Hobbs and Mrs Everything

I received copies of these releases from the publishers/Netgalley

I went into one of these books expecting to love it and I kept skipping over the other one because I thought I wouldn’t—then the results were opposite!

I was so excited to read The Daughters of Temperance Hobbs (The Physick Book #2) by Katherine Howe (releasing June 25, 2019 from Henry Holt & Company) because I loved her 2009 release The Physick Book of Deliverance Dane, but TDoTH fell flat for me. While the first book in the series was full of witches, old books, and a long abandoned house, this installment was messy and missed the mark on what fans were looking for in the follow-up.

When I accepted the ARC offering of Mrs. Everything by Jennifer Weiner (releasing June 11, 2019 from Atria Books) I was second-guessing myself because I’ve read a couple of Weiner’s previous releases and they were hit or miss for me. In her “Dear Readers” letter at the beginning of the book Weiner states that in addition to being the longest book she has ever written it is also the most ambitious work she has ever attempted. I love that she “went big” and succeeded. Spanning decades in the lives of two sisters, Mrs. Everything is a masterpiece of her-storical fiction.