The Lights of Sugarberry Cove by Heather Webber

 

I received a copy of this book from the publisher in exchange for an honest review.

Title: The Lights of Sugarberry Cove
Author: Heather Webber
Release Date: 7.20.21
Publisher: Forge

Publisher's Summary
Sadie Way Scott has been avoiding her family and hometown of Sugarberry Cove, Alabama, since she nearly drowned in the lake just outside her mother's B&B. Eight years later, Sadie is the host of a much-loved show about southern cooking and family, but despite her success, she wonders why she was saved. What is she supposed to do?

Sadie's sister, Leala Clare, is still haunted by the guilt she feels over the night her sister almost died. Now, at a crossroads in her marriage, Leala has everything she ever thought she wanted--so why is she so unhappy?

When their mother suffers a minor heart attack just before Sugarberry Cove's famous water lantern festival, the two sisters come home to run the inn while she recovers. It's the last place either of them wants to be, but with a little help from the inn's quirky guests, the sisters may come to terms with their strained relationships, accept the past, and rediscover a little lake magic.



My Review  

You know that feeling you get when you watch a cooking or home improvement show, or a Hallmark movie--where you can just let your guard down and find comfort in the story? That's the feeling I know I'm going to have when I read a Heather Webber novel. Plus, she adds a dash of magic realism that always makes me smile. The Lights of Sugarberry Cove is just as perfect as Webber's two previous novels I've loved Midnight at the Blackbird Café and South of the Buttonwood Tree but with a summertime spin. Dive into this one if you want a little lake magic in your life this summer. 

Bring Your Baggage and Don't Pack Light: Essays by Helen Ellis

 

I received a copy of this book from the publisher in exchange for an honest review.

Title: Bring Your Baggage and Don't Pack Light: Essays
Author: Helen Ellis
Release Date: 7.13.21
Publisher: Doubleday


Publisher's Summary
The bestselling author of American Housewife and Southern Lady Code returns with a viciously funny, deeply felt collection of essays on friendship among grown-ass women.

When Helen Ellis and her lifelong friends arrive for a reunion on the Redneck Riviera they unpack more than their suitcases: stories of husbands and kids, lost parents and lost jobs powdered onion dip and photographs you have to hold by the edges; dirty jokes and sunscreen with SPF higher than they hair-sprayed their bangs senior year, and a bad mammogram. It's a diagnosis that scares them, but could never break their bond. Because women pushing fifty won't be pushed around.

In these twelve gloriously comic and moving essays, Helen Ellis dishes on married middle-age sex, sobs with a theater full of women as a psychic exorcises their sorrows, gets twenty shots of stomach bile to the neck to get rid of her double chin, and gathers up the courage to ask, Are you there, Menopause? It's Me, Helen.

A book that reads like the best cocktail party of your life, Bring Your Baggage and Don't Pack Light is chockablock with fabulous characters: cat-lady plastic surgeons and waterpark Adonises, bridge ladies and poker players; platinum medallion fliers and Garage Sale Swindlers; forty-year-old divorcées, fifty-year-old new moms and still-young octogenarians. Alive with the sensational humor and ferocious love for her friends that won Helen Ellis legions of fans, this book has a raw vulnerability and an emotional generosity that takes this acclaimed author to a whole new level of accomplishment.


My Review
I read this essay collection in a single evening and while I did laugh out loud a few times, they just didn't crack me up in the way that Ellis' previous essays have done. Overall this collection was enjoyable, but not rave worthy. 

Three-Martini Afternoons at the Ritz by Gail Crowther

 

I received a copy of this book from the publisher in exchange for an honest review.

Title: Three-Martini Afternoons at the Ritz: The Rebellion of Sylvia Plath & Anne Sexton
Author: Gail Crowther
Release Date: 4.20.21
Publisher: Gallery


Publisher's Summary
A vividly rendered and empathetic exploration of how two of the greatest poets of the 20th century—Sylvia Plath and Anne Sexton—became bitter rivals and, eventually, friends. Introduced at a workshop in Boston University led by the acclaimed and famous poet Robert Lowell, Sylvia Plath and Anne Sexton formed a friendship that would soon evolve into a fierce rivalry, colored by jealousy and respect in equal terms. In the years that followed, these two women would not only become iconic figures in literature, but also lead curiously parallel lives haunted by mental illness, suicide attempts, self-doubt, and difficult personal relationships. With weekly martini meetings at the Ritz to discuss everything from sex to suicide, theirs was a relationship as complex and subversive as their poetry. Based on in-depth research and unprecedented archival access, Three-Martini Afternoons at the Ritz is a remarkable and unforgettable look at two legendary poets and how their work has turned them into lasting and beloved cultural figures.


My Review
Formatted to focus on individual aspects of their lives, the chapters are sectioned to cover the youth, marriages, motherhood, writing, mental illnesses, and suicides of these two talented poets. 

Sex: Author Gail Crowther included numerous details about each poets' sex life, with both being "unusually sexually liberated for the time." Prior to reading this book, I didn't know that Plath had ever really written anything about her sex life but knowing her estranged husband controlled the publication of her posthumous journals, it is easy to see how those thoughts and writings didn't previously make it into the public eye. I had known about Sexton's rock-star style sex life, but I did not know that she sexually abused her daughter.  

Personal rant on Ted Hughes: Hughes repeatedly cheated on Plath and left her for their neighbor, Assia Wevill. He shrugged off all parental responsibility to galavant around Spain with Wevill while Plath had to downsize her home, move her children, and try to juggle their care and her work--all on her own. He told Plath of Wevill's pregnancy and then "went off to spend the weekend with another woman he was seeing, Susan Alliston, deliberately dodging being available for Plath in case she tried calling him" on the day of her death. He also prevented Plath's mother, Aurelia from receiving a letter that Plath wrote prior to her suicide, telling Aurelia if she kept bothering him for it she would never get to see her grandchildren. Also, since they were still legally married at the time of her death, Hughes held "full control over all her assets and copyright to her work" due to her not having a will, "a fact that many of her friends found astounding since it was out of character." According to Hughes, Plath's final two journals and an incomplete manuscript were “lost.” This control of Plath's voice even after her death is beyond infuriating to me. 

Another Round: I knew a lot about both Plath and Sexton but learned many new details about each woman while reading Three-Martini Afternoons at the Ritz. Each of these women faced her own personal and professional struggles, but the parallels in their lives were fascinating. One can't help but wonder if they each had better support systems and received access to modern mental health care, would that have been able to better handle some of the tragedies of their lives? Prior to reading this I wasn't aware that Sylvia Plath and Anne Sexton ever crossed paths, let alone were in a writing workshop and would frequently have drinks together afterwards. Could you imagine being a fly on the wall for that?!

The Atmospherians by Alex McElroy

 

I received a copy of this book from the publisher in exchange for an honest review.

Title: The Atmospherians
Author: Alex McElroy
Release Date: 5.18.21
Publisher: Atria


Publisher's Summary
A “dazzling” (Bryan Washington, author of Memorial and Lot ) and brilliantly satirical debut novel for fans of Women Talking and Red Clocks about two best friends—a disgraced influencer and a struggling actor—who form The Atmosphere, a cult designed to reform problematic men.

Sasha Marcus was once the epitome of contemporary success: an internet sensation, social media darling, and a creator of a high profile wellness brand for women. But a confrontation with an abusive troll has taken a horrifying turn, and now she’s at rock bottom: canceled and doxxed online, fired from her waitress job and fortressed in her apartment while men’s rights protestors rage outside. All that once glittered now condemns.

Sasha confides in her oldest childhood friend, Dyson—a failed actor with a history of body issues—who hatches a plan for Sasha to restore her reputation by becoming the face of his new business venture, The Atmosphere: a rehabilitation community for men. Based in an abandoned summer camp and billed as a workshop for job training, it is actually a rigorous program designed to rid men of their toxic masculinity and heal them physically, emotionally, and socially. Sasha has little choice but to accept. But what horrors await her as the resident female leader of a crew of washed up, desperate men? And what exactly does Dyson want?

Explosive and wickedly funny, this “Fight Club for the millennial generation” (Mat Johnson, author of Pym) peers straight into the dark heart of wellness and woke-ness, self-mythology and self-awareness, by asking what happens when we become addicted to the performance of ourselves.


My Review
You know that once I read the word "cult" in a summary I'm in. This satire made some really funny jabs at modern society but lots of it was also...ew. Overall, I liked that I was equally enthralled and disgusted--strange, I know. The characters are very well written and Alex McElroy's commentary on modern masculinity and influencer culture are spot on. I would recommend this to readers who loved Self Care by Leigh Stein. Lastly, I know you're not supposed to judge a book by its cover, but...come on, this one is just so contemporary and smart!

Immunity Index by Sue Burke

 

I received a copy of this book from the publisher in exchange for an honest review.

Title: Immunity Index 
Author: Sue Burke 
Release Date: 5.4.21
Publisher: Tor


Publisher's Summary
Sue Burke, author of Semiosis and Interference, gives readers a new near-future, hard sf novel. Immunity Index blends Orphan Black with Contagion in a terrifying outbreak scenario.

In a US facing growing food shortages, stark inequality, and a growing fascist government, three perfectly normal young women are about to find out that they share a great deal in common. Their creator, the gifted geneticist Peng, made them that way—before such things were outlawed. Rumors of a virus make their way through an unprotected population on the verge of rebellion, only to have it turn deadly. As the women fight to stay alive and help, Peng races to find a cure—and the cover up behind the virus.

My Review
So much potential and a few great gems but overall a difficult story to follow. I was willing to be a bit lost at the beginning with the alternating chapters for each of the main characters because this type of outline tends to weave together as a story progresses. Unfortunately, the storylines and characters did not come together until the very end and then I felt like it was still jumpy and rushed. I was expecting the clones / "dupes" to meet up with each other and/or their creator or to fight the virus on some sort of unified front, like the Orphan Black reference in the main summary blurb. That reference was what initially drew me to this novel and I believe why I was so let down. I did love the realistic portrayal of the Prez and the "patriots" who believe they can fight the virus by simply hanging a flag. The idiocy was both humorous and sadly relatable to this US citizen.

Survive the Night by Riley Sager

 

I received a copy of this book from the publisher in exchange for an honest review.

Title: Survive the Night 
Author: Riley Sager
Release Date: 6.29.21
Publisher: Dutton


Publisher's Summary
It's November 1991. George H. W. Bush is in the White House, Nirvana's in the tape deck, and movie-obsessed college student Charlie Jordan is in a car with a man who might be a serial killer.

Josh Baxter, the man behind the wheel, is a virtual stranger to Charlie. They met at the campus ride board, each looking to share the long drive home to Ohio. Both have good reasons for wanting to get away. For Charlie, it's guilt and grief over the murder of her best friend, who became the third victim of the man known as the Campus Killer. For Josh, it's to help care for his sick father. Or so he says. Like the Hitchcock heroine she's named after, Charlie has her doubts. There's something suspicious about Josh, from the holes in his story about his father to how he doesn't seem to want Charlie to see inside the car's trunk. As they travel an empty highway in the dead of night, an increasingly worried Charlie begins to think she's sharing a car with the Campus Killer. Is Josh truly dangerous? Or is Charlie's suspicion merely a figment of her movie-fueled imagination?

What follows is a game of cat-and-mouse played out on night-shrouded roads and in neon-lit parking lots, during an age when the only call for help can be made on a pay phone and in a place where there's nowhere to run. In order to win, Charlie must do one thing--survive the night.


My Review
Blaming herself for the death of her roommate by the Campus Killer, Charlie Jordan decides to abruptly leave her New Jersey university in the middle of a semester. Initially thankful to have found a ride home to Ohio through a ride board, Charlie begins to suspect that the stranger she is sharing the car with may not simply be a university janitor—he may be the Campus Killer. 

Here we go...I did not like this book. I have tried to read another Sager novel and I really want to like them but I just don't think they're for me. I understand that as readers we have to suspend belief, but I just couldn't get over the fact that immediately following the death of her roommate Charlie decides to hitch a ride cross country with a stranger. Add to this the unreliable female narrator trope and I'm out. I knew these things going in but somehow I thought the story would overpower me and I'd be hooked. Not the case. I won't be rating this book because I really think this is a case of it's not the book, it's me.  

Southern Ground by Jennifer Lapidus

 

I received a copy of this book from the publisher in exchange for an honest review.

Title: Southern Ground: Reclaiming Flavor Through Stone-Milled Flour [A Baking Book]
Author: Jennifer Lapidus
Release Date: 4.27.21
Publisher: Ten Speed Press


Publisher's Summary
A groundbreaking tour of Southern craft bakeries featuring more than 75 rich, grain-forward recipes, from one of the leaders of the cold stone-milled flour movement in the South.

At Carolina Ground flour mill in Asheville, North Carolina, Jennifer Lapidus is transforming bakery offerings across the southern United States with intensely flavorful flour, made from grains grown and cold stone–milled in the heart of the South. While delivering extraordinary taste, texture, and story, cold stone-milled flour also allows bakers to move away from industrial commodity flours to create sustainable and artisanal products.

In Southern Ground, Lapidus celebrates the incredible work of craft bakers from all over the South. With detailed profiles on top Southern bakers and more than seventy-five highly curated recipes arranged by grain, Southern Ground harnesses the wisdom and knowledge that the baking community has gained. Lapidus showcases superior cold stone-milled flour and highlights the importance of baking with locally farmed ingredients, while providing instruction and insight into how to use and enjoy these geographically distinct flavor-forward flours. Southern Ground is a love letter to Southern baking and a call for the home baker to understand the source and makeup of the most important of ingredients: flour.


My Review
This book was a great resource to learn about different types of stone-milled flours but I will warn you it is dense. This is a baker's book, and I don't mean a person who dabbles in a bit of baking, I mean a serious type of baker. I learned several things but a lot of the stories and recipes were like a foreign language to me. If you are a serious baker interested in the detailed description of production and use of stone-milled flour, this is the book for you! I ordered rye flour online (because I couldn't find it at any of my grocery stores) and made the Rye Chocolate Brownies. I liked the flavor of how they turned out but even adding a few minutes to the suggested bake time was not enough to fully cook the center of the 9x13 pan. Next time, I would separate out the batter into two 8x8 pans or I would add several more minutes to the bake time. 

What’s Done in Darkness by Laura McHugh

                

I received a copy of this book from the publisher in exchange for an honest review.

Title: What's Done in Darkness
Author: Laura McHugh
Release Date: 6.22.21
Publisher: Random House



Publisher's Summary:
Abducted as a teenager, a woman must now confront her past and untangle the truth of what really happened to her in this dark thriller from the author of The Wolf Wants In.

Seventeen-year-old Sarabeth has become increasingly rebellious since her parents found God and moved their family to a remote Arkansas farmstead where she's forced to wear long dresses, follow strict rules, and grow her hair down to her waist. She's all but given up on escaping the farm when a masked man appears one stifling summer morning and snatches her out of the cornfield.

A week after her abduction, she's found alongside a highway in a bloodstained dress--alive--but her family treats her like she's tainted, and there's little hope of finding her captor, who kept Sarabeth blindfolded in the dark the entire time, never uttering a word. One good thing arises from the horrific ordeal: a chance to leave the Ozarks and start a new life.

Five years later, Sarabeth is struggling to keep her past buried when investigator Nick Farrow calls. Convinced that her case is connected to the strikingly similar disappearance of another young girl, Farrow wants Sarabeth's help, and he'll do whatever it takes to get it, even if that means dragging her back to the last place she wants to go--the hills and hollers of home, to face her estranged family and all her deepest fears.

In this riveting new novel from Laura McHugh, blood ties and buried secrets draw a young woman back into the nightmare of her past to save a missing girl, unaware of what awaits her in the darkness.

My Review:

I love love love Laura McHugh's novels. Ever since her debut novel Weight of Blood drew me in, I have anxiously anticipated each of her releases, first Arrowood and then The Wolf Wants In. Now she's back with What's Done in Darkness and she's delivering the same style of spine-tingling, creepy, rural noir thrill ride that has firmly cemented her in my "auto-buy author" category. McHugh's talented writing prevents me from immediately foreseeing each twist and predicting the ending. She always gets me thinking about dirty dealings and secrets that go on in small, hidden communities and especially about how easy it is for people to "disappear" from these places. As with any well written review of a thriller, it is vital to not disclose too many details, so I will simply say if you love gritty and atmospheric rural noir, you HAVE to read this novel--then you'll be a McHugh superfan like me. 

Cook Real Hawai'i by Sheldon Simeon

                 

I received a copy of this book from the publisher in exchange for an honest review.

Title: Cook Real Hawai'i
Author: Sheldon Simeon
Release Date: 3.30.21
Publisher: Clarkson Potter


Publisher's Summary
The story of Hawaiian cooking, by a two-time Top Chef finalist and Fan Favorite, through 100 recipes that embody the beautiful cross-cultural exchange of the islands.

Even when he was winning accolades and adulation for his cooking, two-time Top Chef finalist Sheldon Simeon decided to drop what he thought he was supposed to cook as a chef. He dedicated himself instead to the local Hawai‘i food that feeds his ‘ohana—his family and neighbors. With uncomplicated, flavor-forward recipes, he shows us the many cultures that have come to create the cuisine of his beloved home: the native Hawaiian traditions, Japanese influences, Chinese cooking techniques, and dynamic Korean, Portuguese, and Filipino flavors that are closest to his heart.

Through stunning photography, poignant stories, and dishes like wok-fried poke, pork dumplings made with biscuit dough, crispy cauliflower katsu, and charred huli-huli chicken slicked with a sweet-savory butter glaze, Cook Real Hawai‘i will bring a true taste of the cookouts, homes, and iconic mom and pop shops of Hawai‘i into your kitchen.



My Review

I'll admit it...I knew very little about the food of Hawai'i before I read this cookbook. Er, Spam? Roast pigs? Pineapple? Author and two-time Top Chef finalist, Sheldon Simeon, points out that a lot of what us "mainlanders" know about the Hawaiian Islands was "shaped by years of ad campaigns with airline stewardesses handing out leis, ham and pineapple pizza, and big brown guys dancing with fire sticks." Touché. In the introduction to this cookbook Simeon gives an overview of how he became the talented chef he is today by sharing his firsthand experiences with food growing up (both his mom and dad were lovers of cooking,) getting his first kitchen job ("prep cook" but mostly dishwasher,) opening his first restaurant (Star Noodle--a hit among locals and tourists), and humbly listing his subsequent awards and recognitions (James Beard, Food & Wine "Best New Chef".) The stories, photos, and recipes that make up this collection truly gave me a glimpse into a history and culture I knew very little about. Heavy on seafood (squid, octopus, poke, clams, sardines) there are also lots of rice, noodles, salad, and vegetable recipes. I don't cook seafood at home (no one likes it in my family except me) so I chose a recipe that I was pretty sure my family would love: Mac Salad, the perfect combo of macaroni salad and deviled eggs. To say it was a success is an understatement. The leftovers did not stick around long and I've already received requests to make it again. The recipe calls for a lot, I mean A LOT, of mayo but I promise, follow the directions and the measurements and you will be rewarded with the most luscious result.   

Cultish: The Language of Fanaticism by Amanda Montell

 

I received a copy of this book from the publisher in exchange for an honest review. 

Title: Cultish: The Language of Fanaticism 
Author: Amanda Montell
Release Date: 6.15.21
Publisher: Harper Wave

Publisher's Summary
The author of the widely praised Wordslut analyzes the social science of cult influence: how cultish groups from Jonestown and Scientology to SoulCycle and social media gurus use language as the ultimate form of power.

What makes “cults” so intriguing and frightening? What makes them powerful? The reason why so many of us binge Manson documentaries by the dozen and fall down rabbit holes researching suburban moms gone QAnon is because we’re looking for a satisfying explanation for what causes people to join—and more importantly, stay in—extreme groups. We secretly want to know: could it happen to me? Amanda Montell’s argument is that, on some level, it already has . . .

Our culture tends to provide pretty flimsy answers to questions of cult influence, mostly having to do with vague talk of “brainwashing.” But the true answer has nothing to do with freaky mind-control wizardry or Kool-Aid. In Cultish, Montell argues that the key to manufacturing intense ideology, community, and us/them attitudes all comes down to language. In both positive ways and shadowy ones, cultish language is something we hear—and are influenced by—every single day.

Through juicy storytelling and cutting original research, Montell exposes the verbal elements that make a wide spectrum of communities “cultish,” revealing how they affect followers of groups as notorious as Heaven’s Gate, but also how they pervade our modern start-ups, Peloton leaderboards, and Instagram feeds. Incisive and darkly funny, this enrapturing take on the curious social science of power and belief will make you hear the fanatical language of “cultish” everywhere.


My Review

I've been recommending this book to everyone. I learned so much and I keep thinking about it--even weeks after finishing it! Cults, cultish groups, religions, cliques, and communities of all types fascinate me. I always think to myself "why are they drawn to this leader, lifestyle, or way of thinking"? When most people think of cults the images that come to their minds are usually horrific (mass suicide in Jonestown, the fires and deaths in Waco, the Manson murders, etc.) and they tend to use the term "brainwashing" as an all encompassing way of stating a massive change in someone's way of thinking. Charismatic leaders have used a variety of techniques to exploit people's desire for community and inclusion for millennia, the most powerful of which is language. 

Before you think "I wouldn't fall for that" ask yourself about the language used in all of the groups you are a part of in your daily life. Mantras, jargon, acronyms, and group specific phrases, "all inspires a sense of intrigue, so potential recruits will want to know more; then, once they’re in, it creates camaraderie, such that they start to look down on people who aren’t privy to this exclusive code." Some psychologists call this "loaded language" and it is present far beyond the groups that many would be quick to label as a cult. 

Author Amanda Montell shows how cultish language is present in many common groups in our current society, from SoulCycle and CrossFit to the self-proclaimed Instagram gurus and #bossbabes in multilevel marketing groups (MLMs.) This book really got me thinking about all the ways language can form a community and how any community can quickly become a cult.  

Food Between Friends by Jesse Tyler Ferguson and Julie Tanous

 

I received a copy of this book from the publisher in exchange for an honest review.

Title: Food Between Friends 
Authors: Jesse Tyler Ferguson and Julie Tanous
Release Date: 3.9.21
Publisher: Clarkson Potter


Publisher Summary
Best friends Jesse Tyler Ferguson, star of Modern Family, and recipe developer Julie Tanous pay homage to their hometowns as they whip up modern California food with Southern and Southwestern spins in their debut cookbook.

Modern Family star Jesse Tyler Ferguson and chef Julie Tanous love to cook together. They love it so much that they founded a blog, and now put all their favorite recipes into a cookbook for you to dig into with the people you love.

In Food Between Friends, they cook up delightful food, spiced with fun stories pulled right from their platonic marriage.

Drawing inspiration from the regional foods of the South and Southwest they grew up with, Jesse and Julie put smart twists on childhood favorites, such as Hatch Green Chile Mac and Cheese, Grilled Chicken with Alabama White BBQ Sauce, and Little Grits Soufflés.

So come join Jesse and Julie in the kitchen. This book feels just like cooking with a friend—because that’s exactly what it is.


My Review

When I tell people that I love to cook they usually ask me "what do you like to make?" and I can never quite describe my cooking style. I think Food Between Friends by Jesse Tyler Ferguson and Julie Tanous most closely aligns with what I like to cook--nothing too fussy, always delicious, and never shying away from butter and carbs. Each recipe in this collection includes a short story about why it was chosen for the book by either Julie or Jesse and they are each little (usually funny) gems. The ingredients are all fairly common and easily attainable, and the numbered directions are the perfect combination of detailed and concise. Together these friends will show you how to stop making brunch just for Sundays, give you some ideas for taking your taco game up a notch, telling you the secret to making a perfect piecrust, and so much more. This collection includes recipes ranging from broiled oysters to butter pecan caramels and while you might think that sounds like too wide of a range, they all work perfectly together to create a cookbook I will return to over and over again. This would be a great cookbook to use if you have a group of friends you like to cook with, to gift to your friend who loves to cook, or to gift to yourself. 

Home Made by Liz Hauck

 

I received a copy of this book from the publisher in exchange for an honest review.

Title: Home Made: A Story of Grief, Groceries, Showing Up--and What We Make When We Make Dinner 
Author: Liz Hauck
Release Date: 6.8.21
Publisher: The Dial Press

Publisher's Summary

A woman honors her father's legacy by teaching a cooking class in a home for youth in state care--a powerful memoir about the small acts of showing up that transform our lives and how making food can make community.

Liz Hauck and her dad had a plan to start a weekly cooking program in a residential home for teenage boys in state care, which was run by the human services agency he co-directed. When her father died unexpectedly after a brief illness, Liz decided to attempt the cooking project without him. She didn't know what to expect volunteering with court-involved youth, but as a high school teacher she knew that teenagers are drawn to food-related activities, and as a daughter, she believed that if she and the kids made even a single dinner together she could check one box off of her father's long, unfinished to-do list. This is the story of what happened around the table, and how one dinner became one hundred dinners.

An intimate account of humorous and heartbreaking conversations, and a vivid account of the clumsy choreography of cooking with other people, Home Made is a sharply observed and honestly told story about how a kitchen can be both safe and dangerous; how even the short journey from kitchen to table can be perilous. Each chapter explores the interconnectedness of flavor, memory, culture, and life and offers a glimpse into the ways we behave when we are hungry and the food we crave when we seek comfort. Home Made is a tender and vivid portrait of poverty and abundance, vulnerability and strength, estrangement and connection. It is a memoir about the radical grace we discover when we consider ourselves bound together in community and a piercing investigation of the essential question: Who are we to each other?


My Review

As someone who truly thinks food is a love language, I was in awe of how Liz gave the gifts of responsibility and nourishment (physical and emotional) to these boys and young men. It also ripped my heart out to hear the stories of hunger and poverty. This book stands as a testament to the power of food and the warm welcome of a community gathered around a dinner table. Nonfiction readers and those who love to cook will enjoy this book. It would also be a great selection for high school summer reading. 

The Hive by Melissa Scholes Young

 

I received a copy of this book from the publisher in exchange for an honest review. 

Title: The Hive 
Author: Melissa Scholes Young
Release Date: 6.8.21
Publisher: Keylight

Publisher's Summary
A story of survival, sisters, and secrets.

The Fehler sisters wanted to be more than bug girls but growing up in a fourth-generation family pest control business in rural Missouri, their path was fixed. The family talked about Fehler Family Exterminating at every meal, even when their mom said to separate the business from the family, an impossible task. They tried to escape work with trips to their trailer camp on the Mississippi River, but the sisters did more fighting than fishing. If only there was a son to lead rural Missouri insect control and guide the way through a crumbling patriarchy.

After Robbie Fehler’s sudden death, the surprising details of succession in his will are revealed. He’s left the company to a distant cousin, assuming the women of the family aren’t capable. As the mother’s long-term affair surfaces and her apocalypse prepper training intensifies, she wants to trade responsibility for romance.

Facing an economic recession amidst the backdrop of growing Midwestern fear and resentment, the Fehler sisters unite in their struggle to save the company’s finances and the family’s future. To survive, they must overcome a political chasm that threatens a new civil war as the values that once united them now divide the very foundation they’ve built. Through alternating point-of-views, grief and regret gracefully give way to the enduring strength of the hive.


My Review

I was drawn to this novel because it's not often I see the phrase "crumbling patriarchy" in a summary. I was also intrigued with the story's location: rural Missouri, near Hannibal, which is the halfway point between where my mother and my father live. I'm familiar with this geographic area and I'm familiar with the way of life that author Melissa Scholes Young depicts in this story. The Fehler parents, Robbie and Grace, are Catholic Republicans running a business in a small town and raising four daughters. Maggie loves the pest control business and wants to bring their services up to date so the business can survive into the future. Jules wants nothing to do with the business or her family's political ideals. Kate is the people pleaser who doesn't want to cause any disruption, most notably not wanting her family to know about her sexuality. Tammy's teen pregnancy broke my heart. While it was supposed to show strength, it just gutted me because I know firsthand how hard that is and I saw so many other young women experience it in my rural communities. The chapters of this novel rotate through the female characters but Robbie's imprint is heavy. The women are facing financial ruin after his death and they won't be able to hang onto the business much longer. In their grief they each must decide on their own paths and figure out how to move forward as a family. If you like feminist fiction and/or character driven novels about families, I highly recommend this book. 

It's Always Freezer Season by Ashley Christensen and Kaitlyn Goalen

 

I received a copy of this book from the publisher in exchange for an honest review. 

Title: It's Always Freezer Season
Author: by Ashley Christensen and Kaitlyn Goalen
Release Date: Ten Speed Press 
Publisher: 4.6.21

Publisher's Summary
In It’s Always Freezer Season, Ashley Christensen and Kaitlyn Goalen reveal how the freezer can easily become the single most important tool in your kitchen. By turning your freezer into a fully provisioned pantry stocked with an array of homemade staples, you’ll save time and energy.


My Review
I love stocking my freezer, especially with casseroles. I think it's my Midwestern youth that makes me think about preparing for cold winter days. While I'm pretty knowledgeable about what to freeze and the best ways to freeze each item, I love having all the information compiled in one book. Full of strategies and tips, this collection will definitely be one of my frequently used cookbooks. I especially can't wait to try Chicken Piccata Farfalle with Sweet Potatoes; Stuffed Peppers with Short Ribs and Rice; Egg, Potato, and Cheddar Breakfast Burrito; Sausage and Cheese Biscuits; Ham and Swiss Cheese Rolls; Twice Baked Mashed Potatoes; and the Malted Coffee Toffee Cookies.


Personal note: I count myself extremely lucky that my sister's wedding venue/catering was part of this chef's restaurant group. Every item on the menu was absolutely amazing so I know that each recipe from this cookbook is sure to be spot-on delicious.

Do you cook in batches and stock your freezer with meals? Do you label everything? What is your favorite freezer meal?

Girl One by Sara Flannery Murphy

 

I received a copy of this book from the publisher in exchange for an honest review.

Title: Girl One
Author: Sara Flannery Murphy
Release Date: 6.1.21
Publisher: MCD

Publisher's Summary

Orphan Black meets Margaret Atwood in this twisty supernatural thriller about female power and the bonds of sisterhood

Josephine Morrow is Girl One, the first of nine “Miracle Babies” conceived without male DNA, raised on an experimental commune known as the Homestead. When a suspicious fire destroys the commune and claims the lives of two of the Homesteaders, the remaining Girls and their Mothers scatter across the United States and lose touch.

Years later, Margaret Morrow goes missing, and Josie sets off on a desperate road trip, tracking down her estranged sisters who seem to hold the keys to her mother’s disappearance. Tracing the clues Margaret left behind, Josie joins forces with the other Girls, facing down those who seek to eradicate their very existence while uncovering secrets about their origins and unlocking devastating abilities they never knew they had.

A spellbinding supernatural thriller, Girl One combines the provocative imagination of Naomi Alderman's The Power with the propulsive, cinematic storytelling of a Marvel movie. In her electrifying new novel, Sara Flannery Murphy digs deep into women’s extraordinary power and reveals an unassailable truth: so much strength lies in numbers.

My Review
I had to read no further than "Orphan Black meets Margaret Atwood" to send out a request for a review copy of this novel. I always want to read feminist speculative fiction revolving around reproduction and this story was so layered in science and psychology--I loved it! 

In the 1970s a group of nine women gathered at a commune called The Homestead, and each give birth via parthenogenesis, an asexual form of reproduction which does not require male sperm. The outside world is both fascinated and enraged. News outlets can't get enough, the scientific community is skeptical, and "prophets" predict the end of men. After a devastating fire occurs at The Homestead, the Girls and Mothers scatter and lose touch. 

Flash forward to the early 1990s, Girl One, Josephine "Josie" Morrow returns to her mother's home to find there has been a fire and her mother is missing. On a mission to find her mother, Josie sets out to find all the other Girls and Mothers, uncovering a lot of secrets about The Homestead, the doctor who assisted the Mothers, the lives of each of the Mother/Girl pairs, and each Girl's unique otherworldly powers. This medical thriller was full of great twists and turns that kept me guessing and inspired lots of deep thinking. I selfishly want more, more, MORE and am hoping this becomes a series (although there is no indication of that being the case at this time.)