REVIEW: Everyone is Italian on Sunday

If you love vegetables and Italian food this book is for you. For anyone who is stuck on the 30 minute gimmick and the cutesy sayings Rachel Ray is known for, put those aside and get ready to cook from this book all summer long.

This is not your usual spaghetti, meatballs, and chicken parm Italian cookbook. You'll find those things, but you'll also find dozens of recipes for eggplant, a whole chapter on using up garden veggies, and no less than three variations of mashed potatoes. (There's also a whole chapter devoted to cocktails, and some pretty damn good looking desserts.)

I read this book right after my herb garden started producing, so the first recipe I made was Savory Fennel, Rosemary, and Honey Oatmeal. It was amazing! The oatmeal was just the right mix of hearty food and tasty flavor. I can't wait to request this book again once the full garden starts producing, and cook through the vegetable section.

Other cookbooks that make you want to eat all your veggies:

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Good Night Yoga

My daughter and I have really been enjoying trying out the poses from Good Night Yoga by Mariam Gates each night. My high energy daughter doesn't always have it in her to sit still for a story, so this has been a nice addition to our reading life. We can keep up the routine of reading before bed, but she doesn't have to stay still for it.

Two books about cupcakes

Cookie Monster cupcakes from my daughter's first birthday

Cupcakes are everywhere - they've come to symbolize the little treat we all need now and then. So, of course, I've read a few books that feature them. A large section of chick lit is made up of women who hit rock bottom, and rebound by open shops that sell flowers, yarn, or baked goods. I'm not complaining. There's something comforting about these books. Just like cupcakes, even our brains need a little bit of something sweet every now and then.

How to Eat a Cupcake by Meg Donohue is chick lit with a twist. Yes there's down on their luck girls who open a bakery, but there's also something sinister going on. But, recipes are included!

Meet Me at the Cupcake Café by Jenny Colgan is one of my current reads. The story is lite, and predictable, but just what I need at the moment. This one has recipes too, which is always a plus. (Note: this book has quite a few sudden point of view changes, and does things like refer to skiing and snowboarding as if they are the same thing. It hasn't bothered me too much, but figured I should give fair warning.)

Are you a fan of these "I lost it all so I opened a shop" type books?

How I manage my reading life

I read like it's my job, so there's a fair bit of paperwork and tracking involved.

Back in the day when I saw a book I wanted to read I would just buy it, and leave it in a pile. Then I had kids, and ran out of space and money. Now I am a heavy library user.

My library has a holds limit 50 holds at a time, and I try my best to make it work for me. About 1/3 of it is taken up with books that have a long wait. My library is usually very well stocked, but if something's popular it's not unusual to wait 2-3 months. The other 2/3 is managed so as to try and read my TBR down.

I track my TBR in librarything. I pay a bit each year to maintain my 500+ book list, but to me it's worth it to have something I can sort and tag the way I want. I used to use Goodreads, but the cleaner look of librarything just suits me better.

When I finish a book I track it in three ways. I mark it read and give it a start rating on librarything. I also mark it read here - this isn't strictly necessary, but I like to be able to scroll through the cover images. Plus if someone is thinking about following me, I like to give them a snapshot of my reading life.  Last, if there's any quotes I like from the book I write them down in my paper reading journal.

My journal isn't anything fancy. I use the free printable from Modern Mrs. Darcy. It's three hole punched, and enclosed in a cheap binder from target. I also use my journal to hold any print outs from reading challenges, and my immediate reading list. I pick about 10 books that I want to prioritize each season. The rest of my reading I pretty much leave up to chance and mood.

How do you track your reading?

2016 Reading Goals Progress

Spring is officially here, meaning it's a whole new season of reading! I set some pretty ambitious goals at the beginning of the year in hopes of getting my TBR down. Here's how I did.

The Good: Classics

I made a list of 8 classics I want to read this year, and during the winter I read two of them. I just need to keep up that pace, and I'll nail this. 

The Bad: Non-fiction

I read 16 out of the 50 non-fiction books I want to read this year, but only 7 of them were from my list of 40 assigned books. I need to pick it up if I want to read all 40 in 2016.

The Ugly: Read Out Louds

I assigned myself 5 chapter books to read out loud to the kids, and I didn't read any! (We did read two chapter books out loud, but none from the list.) I would say that we'll make up for it in spring, but we just discovered Mr. Lemoncello!

My TBR

I made all of these lists at the beginning of the year as a way to really make an effort to read down my TBR. I started with 400 books, and am up to 401. So, I appear to add books at the same rate I read them.  I guess I can be happy with that.

Reading Challenges

I love reading challenges! I'm doing two so far in 2016.

For The Modern Mrs. Darcy Reading Challenge I've read:

A book published this year: Readers of Broken Wheel Recommend

A book you can finish in a day: The Perfect Comeback of Caroline Jacobs

A book you've been meaning to read: 10% Happier

A book you own but have never read: Left For Dead

A book that intimidates you: The Green Road

For The Book Riot Read Harder Challenge I've Read:

Read a book out loud to someone else: Love From Paddington

Read a dystopian or post-apocalyptic novel: An Ember in the Ashes

Read a book of historical fiction set before 1900: The Mapmaker's Children

Read a book that was adapted into a movie, then watch the movie: A Walk in the Woods

Read a food memoir: Plenty

Read a play: The Importance of being Earnest

How is your reading year going?

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I forgive you Stephen King

Warning: This post contains minor spoilers from books that came out about 10 years ago. If you are strictly spoiler free on The Dark Tower and Harry Potter this is not the post for you.

I started reading The Harry Potter series during a trying time in my life. It was 2006, and all of the books had been released but the last one. Harry & co. were pretty constant companions during that time. I was easily able to get used copies of the first five, waited a while but finally got the 6th, and pre-ordered the 7th one to arrive at my house on release day like every other muggle I knew. I sat on a blanket under the holly tree in my back yard and read the whole thing at once. I loved the series, when it came to the ending I was underwhelmed.

Eventually I decided to re-read the Harry Potter series. I re-read them twice actually - once for each time I was pregnant. There's something about Harry Potter that suits the mind numbing exhaustion of pregnancy. Then my kids were born, and I began to rely on audiobooks. That's when I met Jim Dale, and listened to the whole series again. Somewhere along the way I changed my mind. I decided that the ending was amazing. It just took me a few reads to slow down, and realize how it all fit together.

I'm not sure what made me go back and re-read a series when I knew I didn't like the ending. But it's reflection on Harry Potter that made me go back and start re-reading Stephen King's Dark Tower Series.

During my misspent youth I used to steal my Dad's Stephen King books, and hide them under my pillow to read late at night. He must have eventually caught me, but I don't think he was mad. (The Stand isn't really suitable for hiding under a pillow.) He even suggested that if I really wanted to read something amazing by Stephen King I should check out The Dark Tower. There were only four books at the time, but he said they were worth reading even if they were unresolved. Being of an age where I wasn't prone to take my dad's advise I didn't pick them up right away.

A few years later I was lonely while studying abroad, and picked up a copy of The Gunsliger at an Oxfam shop. I read the first four books while in England, and waiter eagerly for King to write and release the last three. I have a vivid memory of getting up early the day after my wedding so I could go outside and read Song of Susannah. Like Harry Potter, I got the last installment of the series on the day it came out and read it all in one huge gulp. When I finally got to the end I threw the book across the room. Then I picked it up to make sure I hadn't missed something. Then I threw it again.

My reaction to the ending was so violent that I'm amazed that I had the emotional energy to start reading the Harry Potter series just a few years later. Who knows, maybe that's why I put off reading Harry Potter when everyone else in the world was. When a book breaks your heart, you don't easily set yourself up to let it get broken again.

Last year I realized that just like with the ending to Harry Potter, my tendency to binge read might have made me miss the true genius of The Dark Tower series. So I started again. I made my way through the first four - the original books my Dad had told me about. Then I took a break before I started the last three. I finished Wolves of the Calla last week.

I forgive you Stephen King. I haven't yet gotten to the end of the series in this re-read, but I forgive you. The way you weave in the early 2000's into this book while remaining true to the original characters amazed me. Your world building and weaving ways astound me. Even knowing what's coming I am impressed. I'll keep reading with an open mind and a glad heart, and I promise not to throw anything when I get to the ending this time.

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Quick Lit March 2016

Love to be reading outside again!

Each month I link with Modern Mrs. Darcy's Quick Lit as a way to talk about the books I liked, but didn't review.

I had a sick day a few weeks ago, and reading A Share in Death by Deborah Crombie in bed was just the right medicine. I read this all in one day, and immediately reserved a few more in the series. I needed a good distraction while I waited for Career of Evil to finally come up on my library holds list.

I picked up Train Like a Mother by Sarah Bowen Shea and Dimity McDowell as inspiration for my summer hiking training. I liked the advice on time management, nutrition, coming back from an injury, and play lists even it was focused on training for a running race. Still useful even though I run a mile at best each week.

If I were to play the game where I had to match Cormoran Strike characters to Harry Potter characters Matthew the fiancé would be Umbridge. I was really hoping he would turn out to be the killer so we could be done with him. (That's not a spoiler: he was never a suspect.) Still a good book though; I can't wait for the next one.

The Secret Keeper by Kate Morton was the first book in recent memory that I could guess the ending to before it happened. That doesn't make it a bad book. I liked the characters, and I'm glad I read it.

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REVIEW: The Storied Life of A.J. Fikry by Gabrielle Zevin

“I do not like postmodernism, postapocolyptic settings, postmortem narrators, or magic realism. I rarely respond to supposedly clever formal devices, multiple fonts, pictures where they shouldn’t be - basically gimmicks of any kind. I find literary fiction about the Holocaust or any other magical world tragedy to be distasteful - nonfiction only, please. I do not like genre mash-ups a la the literary detective novel or the literary fantasy. Literary should be literary, and genre should be genre, and cross breeding rarely results in anything satisfying.”

— The Storied Life of A.J. Fikry

It only took me until page 13 to fall in love with A.J. Fikry, the grumpy bookseller main character from The Storied Life of A.J. Fikry by Gabrielle Zevin. Really, isn't it every bookworm's dream to find someone who can talk so eloquently about what they do or don't like in a book?

I put off reading about Mr. Fikry for ages because for some reason I thought this book was about time travel. I'm so glad I finally picked it up last week, because it ended up being one of those books that I loved so much I could only read magazines for a few days after I finished. There was a satisfying love story, a great father daughter relationship, just enough drama to make it a story, and an emotional ending that was sad but not in a manipulative way. And that is what I love in a book.

Other books that were so good I could only read magazines for a while:

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REVIEW: Left For Dead by Beck Weathers

I have a high threshold for scary stuff in books. I can read Stephen King books by the dozen and sleep well at night. So when the first section of Left For Dead by Beck Weathers had my heart pounding, I couldn't wait to read the rest. But sadly, it was just, meh.

I can't think of anything scarier than being alone near the summit of Mt. Everest. Weathers' vivid descriptions of what it was like to wake up and realize he was alone, and most likely going to die were like nothing I've read before. The premise of the rest of the book (how depression led him to take such crazy risks, and how his mountain climbing left a scar on his family life) sounded just as interesting. The book didn't deliver though, and I just barely finished. Sadly, I can't recommend this one, but if you find yourself with a copy the first section is worth a look.

If you too have a fondness for books about disasters on high mountains may I suggest:

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REVIEW: The Bee-Friendly Garden by Kate Frey and Gretchen LeBuhn

I'm in full on garden planning mode this month, and finding ways to attract more pollinators to my yard has been a big part of that process. The Bee-Friendly Garden by Kate Frey and Gretchen LeBuhn is a great resource.

This book is a small one, but it's packed with information and beautiful pictures. There's something for everyone here. I'll admit I skimmed the section of the different types of bees, while my son poured over it. I, on the other hand, read the section about pollinators in the edible landscape twice.

While this book is a great resource for my personal garden it would also make a good gift. If your mom likes to garden, the glossy photos in this book would make it an excellent Mother's Day gift. It's never too early to plan!

Spring is coming!

Note: I received a copy of this book from Blogging for Books in exchange for a honest review.

If you liked The Rosie Project

If you're a fan of The Rosie Project (and who isn't?), you should check out the lesser known non-fiction book The Journal of Best Practices by David Finch. It is funny, and poignant, and true, so there's no off the wall story lines. If you're looking for a real love story, read this one.

Other books I love that never made the best seller list:

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REVIEW: Wide-Open World by John Marshall

I have been on a travel writing kick ever since I had a square for it on my Summer Reading Bingo card last year. That must have been how I ran across Wide-Open World by John Marshall. It was a worthy addition to my current reading obsession!

This was a real life book about doing something kind of crazy that was at the same time relatable. It starts with a couple with two teenagers that is drifting apart. Their marriage isn't terrible, but it's not great, and they feel like they're about to lose their kids to facebook and adulthood. They would love to drop it all, and travel for a year, but aren't sure how to swing it. They realize that by leveraging volunteer work they might be able to swing it.

I'll cut to the chase: these are not self righteous, I'm better than you because I help people instead of traveling types. If you're afraid reading this book will make you feel bad about your next trip to the hotel swimming pool don't be. These are people who initially use volunteer work as a way to help them travel, but who end up being changed for the better by it. This book includes the good, the bad, and the ugly, and that's what makes it so likable.

Other armchair travel I've enjoyed:

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REVIEW: The Green Road by Anne Enright

I read about The Green Road on Library Thing, and thought it sounded like the perfect book for me. I love Irish family sagas. Then I picked the book up from the library, and saw it had been longlisted for the 2015 Man Booker Prize. I avoided it for a while then because I assumed that meant unlikable characters with an unresolved ending. It was only a looming library due date with a holds list three people deep that kept me from renewing this book that got me to give it a try.

An old picture from a trip to Western Ireland I took in college. The trip that started my love for Irish family sagas. 

You know what? The characters were pretty unlikable, and the ending was a bit unresolved, but I still loved this book. Despite their total selfishness, the characters read true, and Enright's writing was beautiful and efficient. She used just the right words. She let you know what was going on in the way F. Scott Fitzgerald told you all about Jordan Baker just by the way she drove.

Don't be scared off by this book's success. The Green Road is exactly the Irish family drama you were hoping for.

Quick Lit February 2016

Each month I link with Modern Mrs. Darcy's Quick Lit as a way to talk about the books I liked, but didn't review.

The Japanese Lover is about love, growing old, expectations, and loss. It is mostly a love story between a Jewish refuge and a Japanese man during World War Two in San Francisco, but there are current day issues as well. There's too much going on in this book to make it great, but it was perfect when we were snowed in.

When Books Went to War was a super interesting account of books, and their role in World War II. Reading! It's patriotic.

Hissing Cousins is a complete account of the rivalry between everyone's hero Eleanor Roosevelt, and the original mean girl Alice Longworth. I listened to this while I was shoveling us out from the blizzard, and I barely noticed what I was doing.

An Ember in the Ashes has all the elements of good dystopian YA. Love triangles (well, love squares really), battles between teenagers, conversations interrupted just when you're about to find out what's going on...

Read this one if you liked Divergent.

Maybe it's just because I'm such a super James A. Garfield fan girl, but I didn't get into Lafayette in the Somewhat United States as much as Assassination Vacation. Still it was completely worth it for the section on the political implications of playing a French Revolutionary War hero at Colonial Williamsburg during the Bush administration.

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REVIEW: 100 Recipes: The Absolute Best Ways To Make The True Essentials by America's Test Kitchen

If you need simple, tasty food that your kids will actually eat may I suggest 100 Recipes from America's Test Kitchen? I've looked at books like this before, and have been disappointed by lists of crazy ingredients or fancy twists on basic food. This book isn't like that. It contains basic recipes that use the best ingredients cooked in the best way.

A real sign of how basic these ingredients are: I was reading this book in the car on the way home from a hike, and saw a recipe for Pan-Seared Chicken Breasts. I decided it looked good, and was able to cook it from things I had on hand. That never happens to me due to the small children who live in my house and eat through all available ingredients as if they were a swarm of locusts.

I've never been tempted to cook through a cookbook before, but this book might just get me to do it. It seems as if it can get me to rise above the daily beat down caused by my lack of time combined with my suspicious of anything that is not pasta kids - at least once or twice a week.

I got this book from the library, but I'm planning on buying my own copy using cash money from the bookstore. That's saying something.

If you too are beaten down by life, here are some more cookbooks that might bring you back from the dark side:

REVIEW: The Mapmaker's Children by Sarah McCoy

I used to hate books told by two narrators to the point where I wouldn't even pick them up, but lately I have been giving them another chance. I'm not sure if old age has mellowed me, or if I just needed to find some good ones. The Mapmaker's Children by Sarah McCoy is a good one.

The novel is narrated by two childless women struggling to find their purpose. In the present day we have Eden, a former PR worker who moved to West Virginia to start a family. In the past we have Sarah Brown, the daughter of abolitionist John Brown, who reacts to her father's hanging with a resolve to fight on. Both characters are sympathetic, and the way their stories eventually come together is very creative.

If you like historical fiction, you'll love this book. The chapters that deal with the present enhance rather than distract from the engrossing tale of Sarah Brown and her family.

(Note: Blogging For Books sent me this book, but all opinions are my own.)

REVIEW: The Readers of Broken Wheel Recommend by Katarina Bivald

The Readers of Broken Wheel Recommend is a love story between a town and some books. Yes, actual people fall in love too, but the love story between people and books is more believable and satisfying. It's not that there's anything wrong with the person to person love stories. It's just that the example of a run down town that starts with almost nothing, but is completely transformed into a place people want to live once it gets a book store is so satisfying. It's economic and social policy that makes more sense than anything you'll see in a presidential debate.

The story starts off simply enough. A Swedish girl goes to visit her pen pal in Broken Wheel, Iowa. The only problem is she shows up just as her pen pal's funeral is ending. The town puts her up, because it's the right thing to do, and they take care of all her needs. However, it doesn't seem right to come all the way to Iowa only to let others make hamburgers for her and make her coffee. All alone, and without purpose, she decides to pay back the town's kindnesses by opening a book shop. The town is doubtful, but as all bookworms know, a small bookstore can solve everything.

If you love reading you'll love this book.

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Catching up on podcasts

When I'm not reading actual books, I tend to alternate between audiobook listening and podcast binging. This week I've been catching up on podcasts, and have found some bookish ones I loved. (Some of these are old, but they're new to me!)

Jane Austen Game Theorist from Freakonomics Radio

What to do with ARCs on Dear Book Nerd

Rick Steves talks to David McCullough about the Wright Brothers

The Get Booked ladies answer the burning question "What should I read if love West Wing?"

What's your favorite podcast?

Where were you when Challenger exploded? Two books about the space shuttle.

The Space Shuttle Discovery at the Air & Space Museum in Dulles, VA

Like many other people my age one of my most vivid memories of elementary school was an announcement on the loudspeaker explaining that Challenger exploded. All of the astronauts died, including a teacher. It's confusing to see your teachers upset when you're so young, and that's what I mostly remember. There was a very special Punky Brewster episode a few months later that made more sense of the situation, but I didn't really realize what this teacher in space from a neighboring state had meant to the ones who were educating me.

Despite deciding to get a degree in physics based on a scene I loved from the movie Apollo 13, despite spending many college nights looking at the stars for my senior seminar instead of just looking something up on the internet like a normal person, despite being hired by a Teacher-In-Space finalist who got me in to meet Barbara Morgan, Christa McAuliffe's back up who later flew on the space shuttle herself, I never knew much about the program.  That changed this year with two great books I can very highly recommend if to anyone who wants to read more about the shuttle.

Sally Ride was a totally kick butt astrophysicist and athlete who also happened to be America's first woman in space. This is a really great biography, one of the best books I read in 2015.

Leaving Orbit is a travelogue written by a woman who visits the last three shuttle launches. I haven't quite finished it yet, but I am enjoying it quite a bit. If you like Sara Vowell's books, you'll probably like this one too.

“For a bit of perspective: at the same time the Mercury astronauts were being chosen, a nine-year-old African American boy was being asked to leave his town’s whites-only public library in Lake City, South Carolina. Fourth-grader Ronald McNair refused to leave until he could check out the books he had chosen, prompting the librarian to call the police. McNair eventually earned a PhD in physics from MIT, was selected in the astronaut class of 1978, and flew in space for the first time in 1984. He was killed in the space shuttle Challenger disaster in 1986. The library where he was once denied service is now named for him.”

— Leaving Orbit by Margaret Lazarus Dean

Where were you when the Challenger exploded?

(Note: you can click on the images above to read a full description of the books on amazon.com. Links to amazon.com are affiliate links. Thanks for your support!)

Books that make me want to read other books

Everything I've read about Mary Karr's The Art of Memoir has been positive, but I've put off reading it because someone said it would cause me to add dozens more books to my TBR. Since my list usually hovers around 400 books, I'm a little scared to read a book that will add to it. So, I'm putting that one off until I can get my list down to 375 or so.

It wouldn't be the first time a book forced me to add to my TBR. It was Kelly Corrigan's Glitter and Glue that got me to try My Antonia, and Katherine Reay's books always have me tempted to spend my whole paycheck on Barnes & Noble Classics. So, it's not a bad thing that a book will cause me to read other books. I just need to put it off for a while. For the sake of my family. And my future employment prospects.

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