Book Review: Kitchens of the Great Midwest by J. Ryan Stradel

This book chronicles the life of Eva Thorvald, a woman who becomes one of the greatest chef's in the country that runs a pop up dinner night. Only one short part of the story is told from Eva's point of view; most of the story is told from the point of view of people she interacts with and not always people she interacts with in a very direct way, like the mother of an old high school boyfriend that enters a baking contest where Eva is a judge. This allows the book to make some statements about food and dining as well. 

To me the most interesting things in the book are the day to day lives of the characters. The author does a great job showing all the different personalities and lives of various characters. I wanted to know more about everybody and sometimes was sad that I didn't get to learn more about what happened to various characters. The character that remains the most elusive by the end is Eva herself as the narrators become further removed from Eva's day to day personal life. I know this book is supposed to be all about the food and there is definitely a lot said here about foodie culture and cooking and it's definitely interesting in that respect, but what really made this an enjoyable for me was the people.

The advanced readers copy was sent to my library by the publisher.

Book Reviews: Voracious: A Hungry Reader Cooks Her Way Through Great Books by Cara Nicoletti

I received this book as part of a Goodreads Giveaway. Voracious consists of essays where the author talks about a book she's read, how that book affected her as a person, what was going on in her life when she read it and a food from the book that really spoke to her. She then provides a recipe for that food. 

I really enjoyed reading this book. It brought back warm memories of reading some many of the same iconic titles as a kid or watching the movies. The essay on witches reminded me of watching Witches with my dad and being so traumatized by Anjelica Huston's portrayal of the lead witch that I never read the book; convinced it would be way too scary. I like that she provides context like that in her essays; like who gave her the book and why and how it made her feel. Her explanations of why the titles appealed to her have given me the impetus to try some books that I had always totally dismissed as being completely not for me before. 

The food all sounds amazing (minus some of the meaty things but that is a reflection on my not eating meat not on the writer's recipes.) She provides vegetarian substitutions when she can/it's necessary and I cannot wait to try making some of these things; especially Where the Red Fern Grows Skillet Cornbread with honey butter and The Aenid Honey Poppy seed cake. I'm a little bit intimidated but her directions are pretty explicit so I feel like I got this. 

I will also admit to having been stupidly excited upon reading the acknowledgements to see that the writer spent some time writing at The Anchored Inn in Brooklyn, where I spend most of my Sunday afternoons after practice. I love the food at the Anchored and it kind of just gave me an extra warm fuzzy.

Book Reviews: Shutter by Courtney Alameda

Micheline Helsing (yes she's a descendant of that Helsing) can see the auras of the dead.  Her family and the families of Stoker and Drake run a worldwide organization that tries to keep the world safe from vampires, zombies and ghosts.  Micheline is part of a crew with three others: Oliver, their tech geek, Jude, who can predict death and Ryder, a force to be reckoned with.  Micheline is the last of the Helsing line after a horrible attack that led to death of her brothers and mother many years ago.  Then her and her crew are infected with a curse known as a soul chain.  To save herself and her crew, Micheline will have to run from the organization and her powerful father.

A friend of mine brought this book back from a conference for me. Initially I wasn't going to read it because I thought it was straight up horror, but once I actually read the description and realized that it was about the descendents of Van Helsing, Stoker and Harker running a paranormal investigations type organization I totally got behind it. 

I thought the premise and world building within the organization was very clever and I enjoyed learning about the way the mirrors and camera worked. I would like to have known a little more about how society outside of the organization was run but that was more me being nosy then feeling like something was missing. I admit to being relieved by the lack of love triangle  as well.  Everyone had their own love interest, and although the road for Micheline and Ryder will hardly be smooth at least there was no competition for affection getting in the way of the story.  

I did not see the ending coming at all.  It was sad and gut wrenching and lovely. The book stands alone but there is room for a sequel as well, which also gives me warm fuzzies.  All in all a fun and interesting read.  

Book Reviews:Falling Hard (Roller Girls #1) by Megan Sparks

Annie and her father move from London, England to her father's small home town in Illinois where her father plans on opening a cafe.  While searching for a place to fit in at high school Annie makes new friends (including artist best friend Lexie)and tries to decide whether her gymnastics replacement should be cheer leading or roller derby.

This was a nice coming of age tale that most tween girls will be able to relate to in some way.  There is a small love triangle forming but as the book is part of a larger series that was not the focus of the book and is in fact left hanging only partially formed.  The real focus of the book is Annie's journey to finding a place for herself and her new love affair with roller derby, which I thought was a nice change from other realistic fiction books I've read for this age group.  Annie has a nice relationship with her father and I thought the author did a good job with both that relationship and Annie's relationship with her mother.  

As a Non Skating Official who has worked with women's, men's and junior roller derby leagues I will say that the roller derby is fairly accurate.  The drills, amount of work and athleticism required were accurate although their timeline for passing a skills test and playing in a bout was a bit expedited.  The author also did a wonderful job illustrating the camaraderie that develops between those involved in roller derby and the sense of welcoming and openness that teams try to foster.

The relationship Jesse has with the players and team which may surprise people from other sports is accurate for the way roller derby officiating currently works.  The book was also written during the last rules set (for those that aren't derby familiar; in January a major revision to the rules of roller derby came out.)  That being said it was only one or two references and I don't think it would keep a reader from going to a game and being able to follow what's going on.

There was one disparaging comment written about men's and women's roller derby being different games because men don't wear fishnets.  I know not everyone is a supporter of men's roller derby however I found the comment demeaning to both men and women's players.  The sport is about more then fishnets as the rest of the book spends a lot of time proving and while I believe there are differences in how the men play vs how the women play I thought the comment was unnecessarily disparaging of everyone.  

E-book copy provided by netgalley.

~Danger Prone Daphne, NSO

Book Reviews: Splendors and Glooms by Laura Amy Schlitz

Parsefall and Lizzie Rose work with Grisini, a foreign puppeteer who unbeknownst to them has amazing powers. Both Lizzie and Parse are orphans that he has adopted and is teaching to run puppet shows. One day they go to Clara's house, a rich young girl, to perform for her birthday. Clara is quiet and reserved. She is only surviving child of a cholera outbreak in the Wintermute home. As such you can imagine her parents heartbreak when she disappears the day after the performance. Lizzie Rose is quite sad as Clara was quite nice to them. What follows is an adventure as the children try to break from Grisini only to get caught in someone else's trap. 

I really enjoyed this. The children were interesting and smart. The true villain was very bad (and the witch clearly not as bad as she wanted to be). The descriptions were lovely (or horrible), the author did a wonderful job making you feel like you were there and the historical detail and information on how puppets work were lovely. While I was expecting some things what actually happened to Clara was quite a surprise; along with how strong she really was. I really loved the ending of this one.

My only complaint was an audiobook complaint. I felt like the voices the reader gave Parse and Lizzie Rose were too grown up sounding for them. Clara and practically all of the other characters felt so perfect otherwise that it was almost unsettling.

Book Review: The Heart Of A Samurai by Margi Preus

Manjiro is a young Japanese teen stranded on a deserted island with four fellow fisherman. Eventually they are picked up by an American whaling ship that will not take them back to Japan due to Japan's closed door policy; foreigners and even locals that have traveled too far from Japan will be fired upon when entering the Japan's harbor's and put to death should they reach land. Manjiro proves himself to be a fast learner and endears himself to the ships Captain with his curiosity and intelligence. The Captain takes Manjiro home with him where they become a family and Manjiro goes to school, tries his hand at an apprenticeship, ships out on a whaling ship as part of the crew, becomes a gold miner and even eventually returns home and manages to avoid being put to death and becomes a diplomat. 

I just want to start by saying that I somehow I had gotten it into my head that this book was going to be about a girl breaking gender barriers, so as you can imagine I was a little surprised when I started listening and it was about a boy. 

There was so much to learn about whaling and life on a ship, mid 19th century life in Eastern United States, life for gold minders in California and Japanese life at that time period. The details are incredible. Clearly the author did a lot of research and I found the historical notes at the end of the book really helpful, particularly since Manjiro was a real person. I had never heard of him before but clearly he led a much more interesting life then the average person. 

The language sounded beautiful and almost lyrical sometimes. Unfortunately the narrator had a very nonfiction quality to the way he read the book that could sometimes be distracting.   However it wasn't all bad, he also did a great job with the japanese and how Manjiro would speak. Several days later I'm still torn between whether this serious matter of fact tone makes sense since it was based on a true story or whether it was in fact too distracting for me. 

About half way though the book I started thinking about this book and that it didn't feel like a children's book. It didn't even really feel like a middle grade or teen book. Both the tone of the book and the time span it covers make it feel more like adult literary fiction. It's an adventurous story but the adventure feels toned down by the language and the amount of introspection.

Personal: Reading Goals and Book Awards

As a Youth Services librarian that works with children and teenagers I feel a need to keep up with new work that is coming out for that age group in addition to reading the award winners each year.  For me that includes the Printz Award and Honor Books, Newbery Award and Honor Books, Caldecott Award and Honor Books, and the Pura Belpre Award and Honor Books.  I also always try to read a couple of winners from the time period before I was a librarian (or before I decided to add the particular award to my reading goals) in an effort to play catch up.  I also tend to look through the Great Graphic Novels for Teens list and read a mountain of those (although I don't keep track) and take a glance at the Orbis Pictus each year and read the winner if sounds interesting.

All of these awards are given by various branches of the American Library Association except for the Orbis Pictus which is given by the National Council of Teachers of English.  The Caldecott, Newbery and Printz are all awards for books that were considered the best in their field.  These are not necesarily the books kids will find most interesting but they will end up becoming school assignment books and every library will try to have a copy of them on shelf. I feel like it's important to read these books because they are supposed to be the best of the best, it's good for professional development and more often then not I do find that a number of the books were on my to be read list anyway because they sounded interesting.  The Pura Belpre award is given to authors and illustrators that do an excellent job of illustrating or writing about hispanic life and culture through their work.  Since my family is all from Spain I always felt like this level was important on a personal level.

However I am beginning to feel torn about this decision.  It's beginning to get a little overwhelming having 16 books added to my to be read list each year, not including the ones I am trying to read from years past.  I don't always enjoy the books.  Sometimes I am not enjoying the particular award winner and it becomes a struggle to finish the work.  I also already have other books that I HAVE to read for library programs that are not necessarily my cup of tea.  I feel like I haven't read anything I've wanted to read in a while now.

What award winners do you try and read every year?  Do you struggle through the books you don't like or let yourself skip that particular one this year?

Book Review: Surviving the Applewhites by Stephanie S. Tolan

Jake Stemple is considered one of the ultimate bad boys. He's been kicked out of every school he's ever attended. Then he ends up at Wit's End. Wit's End is where the Applewhite family lives. The Applewhite children are all home schooled and Jake's grandfather has decided that Jake will be joining them. Jake moves in with the Applewhites and realizes that they are all crazy artists (except for E.D.), but he is eventually sucked in and joins the family for a massive project that will take everyone's skills.

I liked watching Jake find his place in the Applewhite family. He gets sucked in so subtly he clearly doesn't realize it at first. I also like that you get into Jake's brain as he realizes how many of the things he's doing weren't about him but were in fact about how he wanted others to perceive him.

I like the insight into E.D. as well. She is clearly the odd one out but she still plays a vital role in the family. The play could not have been pulled off without her, and in her own way I think she is just as creative as the other Applewhites', it's just in a way that we are not used to thinking of as creative.  

I guess I've been reading too much fiction where relationships play a heavy role. I was totally expecting E.D. and Jake to end up in some kind of relationship and that never happened and it felt so much more right because of it.  It would have made the novel too busy as there was already a lot going on and I don't think it would have felt genuine.

There was lots of humor and lots of hard work. Destiny is a great example of that. He's a funny kid but he takes a lot of work, which also made the book feel more honest and genuine. It was also interesting to see the amount of work that went into putting on the play.  There was just enough technical detail to make things interesting but not so much that it felt overwhelming or taxing to figure out what was going on.  I really enjoyed reading this and when I have time will definitely consider reading the second one.  

Book Review: Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: The Ultimate Collection, Vol. 1

Like most people my age elementary school was all about Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles and I was very sure that I wanted to grow up to be April who was super tough and smart, so when I saw this in the library I was very excited to say the least. This volume covers a massive over arching story line that gives the entire origin story of Splinter and the Turtles from start to finish, introduces the guys to April and Casey and several familiar villains. It also includes in depth notes from on of the creators on the collaboration process, story line inspiration and development, art development and almost personal anecdotes. 

This is not the Ninja Turtles we grew up with. It is much grittier and darker both in it's black and white art style that showcases a seedier side of NYC and it's more serious and at times more grown up storyline. Bad guys die, characters are more violent, teenage turtles drink beer and use not very nice language and all the characters are a little bit more tempestuous. That being said it's very easy to see the roots of the television show we all grew up with (I'd also like to note that I wish the developers of the cartoon had chosen to keep April a scientist. I think that would have been very inspirational to many little girls.) 

I thought the writers did a great job tying everything into this huge origin story that went out of its way to explain everything from where the ooze came from, their battles with Shredder and the foot and to include a trip across the universe. The creators notes added a lot to the story from funny asides about inspiration, pointing out things about the artwork that I may not have noticed otherwise and showing how this comic grew. I thought these notes added a lot to the reading experience and the story itself sometimes; that being said I appreciate how easy they are to skip over if the reader isn't in the mood. The notes are situated between issues, include page numbers and when something from a particular panel or spread is especially high-lighted they include a small diagram. This is much less intrusive then putting notes on each page for those who aren't interested and doesn't force people to keep flipping back and forth. I'm really glad that there are at least 2 more volumes to look forward to and that I already have one of them at home. 

Story Time: Letter G

I got to do two story times in a row and was able to follow the Letter F up with the Letter G.  I had seen an adorable G is for Goose as part of a full alphabet book a mother made with her daughter.  It was so simple and adorable I couldn't resist.  Since I was a little intimidated by the idea of drawing my own goose parts I borrowed both the feet and the tail templates from this goose paper craft from DLTK Kids and just drew a simple triangle for the beak.  I decided to draw some flowers in the background so that our gooses could hang out in the garden.  Next time I do this craft I'm going to make the page horizontal so that there is more room for the garden.

After the previous weeks alphabet book fail I decided to go without an alphabet book this time.  I decided that I was only going to do 3 books and picked two funny goose stories and one nice/gorgeous garden book:

Silly Suzy Goose by Petr Horáček

My Garden by Kevin Henkes

Gordon in Charge by Jill Newton

I'm going to be honest and say that I'm not sure all the children got the joke at the end of Gordon in Charge however I think the parents got a big chuckle out of the ending.  When we were reading Silly Suzy Goose I had all the kids pretend to be different animals with Suzy and they all had a lot of fun with the different actions.  Without the alphabet book it felt like it was harder for the kids to see the connection between our stories and Letter G is for Goose craft.  In the future when I do the alphabet craft and can't find an alphabet story I like to go over the letters with I am going to try to remember to point out the letter G in the titles and talk about how different characters and items start with the letter G.  For our songs we did do the Alphabet song, Old McDonald Had a Farm and my favorite, the Hokey Pokey.  

Love to Laugh

The arrival of Black Friday heralds the start of the holiday season. And while the holiday season is great because it means pretty Christmas trees and menorahs, cookies and hot chocolate and a couple of days off; it can also be pretty stressful what with midterms and finals, crowded stores and trying to find the perfect gift for everyone on your list.

That's why I've put together a list of books gauranteed to elicit at least a chuckle if not a full on LOL. So take a break from all the stuff you've got going up and curl up with one of these reads.

Movies and Book Series

The Mid-Continent Public Library has some great readers advisory stuff going on. Two of my favorite features from their site are Series and Sequels and Based on a Book.

Series and Sequels allows the user to find out what's next in a YA or Children's series. Since some series never really number their books and trilogy's such as the Maximum Ride series keep getting made longer, this is a quick and easy way to find out what's next or make sure you actually own an entire series. Users can search by book title, author, series title or subject.

Based on a Book lets readers find out if the book has been made into a movie, thus allowing the neverending, always heated and amusing for spectators "is the book better then the movie" debate to continue.

Twisted Tales

Halloween began as Samhain, a night when people believed the veil between this world and the Otherworld was particularly thin. People would dress up as ghosts and demons to disguise themselves from harmful spirits. Since then Halloween has grown and become a night to wear a costume and go trick or treating. We are no longer limmitted to dressing up as ghosts and ghouls, we can be anything we want to be, whether it's a doctor, a cartoon character, or the traditional goblin or ghoul.

Growing up, many of us wanted to be a princess, genies or even a prince (how else do you convince the grown ups to let you carry that ultra cool sword). Of course fairy tales were originally not tales to amuse and delight such as they are now, originally they were tales told to scare children into behaving.

So instead of going the traditional rout and posting a list of creepy paranormal type books, I have included a list of Twisted Tales, fairy tales that have been modernized, had their settings changed or twisted in some other way. You can check out a pdf file of the list by clicking here.

500 Essential Graphic Novels

So I somehow got this crazy idea that I want to read all of the books listed in the book 500 Essential Graphic Novels by Gene Kannenberg Jr. It started innocently enough, I joined the group on Goodreads as a way to branch out of my normal reading habits; but now the more books I read off the list the more I want to read the whole list.

I am not saying that every book I have read off the list has been a stellar read, in fact I can think of at least two that I absolutely hated; but the ones that I loved I have really loved. For example, I read Persepolis a while ago I did enjoy it, but I was probably never going to read anything else by Marjane Satrapi. Then I saw another one of her books, Embroideries was also on the list, so I took it out of the library and it is great. Like Satrapi's other books it's nonfiction. Marjane and the women of her family regularly gather to have tea and gossip. Through the gossip of her elders Marjane and the readers find out about the heartbreaks of both marriage for love and marriage for convenience. The stories are funny and heartfelt. Since the tales all revolve around love gone wrong, the reader can see the strength in all of the woman who survive these heartbreaks and are still able to raise families and become strong independent

Plus reading from the list has led me to books not on the list I might have never picked up. I have always been a Marvel girl with a love of the X-Men, especially Rogue and Nightcrawler and the Avengers. The only DC character I ever gave the time of day was Wonder Woman. Now I am following Birds of Prey, Green Arrow, and even Batman (he was always kind of dark with way too much deep introspection for my kiddie self) but now that I have read Jeph Loeb's noir style Batman, I am in love. And who knew there was a Green Arrow Black Canary book or that Marvel had Dracula, Wolfman and Frankenstein books as well.