The Kitchen Counter Cooking School: How a Few Simple Lessons Transformed Nine Culinary Novices into Fearless Home Cooks by Kathleen Flinn My rating: 3 of 5 stars I was captivated by the book’s beginning in which Kathleen Flinn tells about becoming interested in a woman and daughter grocery shopping. Fascinated by the prepackaged and “mix” foods in her cart, she began stalking them and eventually wound up helping them replace all the highly processed meals with the ingredients for homemade.... Read more

This review first appeared at SFFaudio. Jonathan Strange & Mr. Norrell By Susanna Clarke; Read by Simon Prebble 32 Hours – [UNABRIDGED] Publisher: Macmillan Audio Published: 2004 Themes: / Fantasy / Magic / England / Mr. Norrell is a fusty but ambitious scholar from the Yorkshire countryside. He is also the first practical magician in hundreds of years. What better way to demonstrate his revival of British magic than to change the course of the Napoleonic wars? Jonathan Strange discovers,... Read more

Kingfishers Catch Fire, by Rumer Godden, is another of the books by Godden that my wife got me from Paperback Swap. So, OK. I loved In This House of Brede. I loved Five for Sorrow, Ten for Joy. I loved An Episode of Sparrows. I even liked Pippa Passes, even though I had some problems with it. Kingfishers Catch Fire, on the other hand, is completely failing to interest me. I’m not sure why; it certainly ought to.  The setting... Read more

As someone who enjoyed the Harry Potter novels by J.K. Rowling like millions of others I was interested when her new novel was first announced.   Thankfully though I didn’t preorder it and waited for the reviews. Nancy C. Brown who wrote a book defending the Harry Potter novels from a Catholic prospective has an in depth review of The Casual Vacancy.  I had already put this book on my “do no read” list and her review confirms that for... Read more

Legion is a new novella by Brandon  Sanderson who is best know for his epic fantasy novels. I’ve been quite impressed by his storytelling but usually his novels also have epic page counts.  So when I first saw this novella I wondered how he would perform in a medium where you don’t have hundreds of pages for character development.  Right now the audiobook version on Audible is available free for members, though the Kindle price is about right for a novella.... Read more

The Chronicles of Elantra is a fantasy series by Michelle Sagara, who also writes as Michelle West and Michelle Sagara West.  I’ve read the first four of the current eight, and expect I’ll go on to read the rest of them.  The series begins with Cast in Shadow; and as the books follow one directly upon the other you’ll want to read them in order. The series takes place in the City of Elantra, capital city of the Empire, and... Read more

So many of the crosses I have are made heavier by my approach to them. Instead of just walking along and dealing with them, I spend energy complaining, dreading, and trying to avoid them. Rather than offer them to God or–better yet–rather than asking him to help me, I try to do it just like my toddler insists, “By myself!” When Jesus carried his cross, it wasn’t easy. But it did end. Our crosses aren’t forever. If there’s an aspect... Read more