It has been a while since I’ve done one of these mostly because of traveling on weekends.

Here’s what I read in the last week.

From Scratch: Inside the Tumultuous Billion-Dollar World of the Food NetworkFrom Scratch: Inside the Tumultuous Billion-Dollar World of the Food Network by Allen Salkin

My rating: 3 of 5 stars

When the idea for Food Network was proposed no one believed that there was enough to say about food to sustain a 24 hour television network that people would be interested in watching.  This is the story of how a network gets started and what the people involved need to do to survive.

When in Doubt, Add ButterWhen in Doubt, Add Butter by Beth Harbison

My rating: 3 of 5 stars

Gemma Craig is a personal chef.  She has a client for every night of the week.  Most of them are crazy and they all have very different requests for food. 

The bad person in this book is a woman who is on a very restrictive diet – which sounds a lot like how I’m eating right now.  The author keeps talking about how horrible the food is but I read this book while eating hummus and vegetables and was quite content.  The book is a quick light read.

The Witness Wore Red: The 19th Wife Who Brought Polygamous Cult Leaders to JusticeThe Witness Wore Red: The 19th Wife Who Brought Polygamous Cult Leaders to Justice by Rebecca Musser

My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Rebecca grew up in the Fundamentalist Latter Day Saints, an outlawed sect of Mormonism that practices polygamy.  As a teenager she was forced to marry the 85 year old Prophet, becoming his 19th wife.  After his death she was told that she was going to be married to Warren Jeffs, the new head of the church and her late husband’s son.  She fled. 

Concerned about the safety of her minor sisters, she helped others who were leaving the church.  One of her sisters agreed to testify against her husband who had raped and beaten her since she was 14.  That trial brought Rebecca Musser to police attention as an expert on the sect.  When the raid on the church’s compound in Texas was approaching she was brought in to coach the law enforcement people who would be going in and to help make sense of what they found there.

I’ve read a lot about these cases.  Under the Banner of Heaven was one of my favorite books but this book contains more information about what has happened recently.  Testifying against her former friends and family members has taken a huge toil on this woman but she is trying to help those still living in secrecy including her mother and several of her sisters.