16 Oct, 2018

RIP Powder

/ posted in: Pets

The absolute Queen of our house died on October 7. I haven’t written about it because it is hard to sum up Powder.

I got her and her brother because they had been abandoned in a trailer park along with another litter mate when their people moved away. (This was lasting trauma for her. Every time we moved afterwards she would try to frantically put herself into moving boxes or into the truck to make sure she went too.)

They were supposed to be barn cats but her brother decided he wanted to come inside. Eventually he liked it so much that he literally dragged her into the house by the scruff of her neck.

She was inside and outside while we lived on the farm. She once went on walkabout for 3 months and then sauntered on home like she’d been gone for an hour. She was a mighty hunter who didn’t tolerate playing with prey. Her brother drove her crazy because he liked to torment mice and she just wanted to kill them.

After her brother died and we got another kitten she pouted in the rafters of the garage for 3 days until I went out and yelled at her. I didn’t know that a few years later she’d pout on a dresser for 18 months to protest Freckles coming into her life.

When our Pomeranian Snowball was dying, Powder guarded her from our other cat who liked to come over and touch Snowball on the top of her head. That made Snowball insanely angry but she couldn’t do anything about it because she was too weak. Powder made sure Riley left the dog alone.

She did not approve of medical procedures. I often had to buy apology presents for my techs after they worked with her. I have a picture of her broken off nail embedded in my thumb after an attempt to draw blood from her. She had several chronic health problems that required meds and monitoring. She decided to take the meds if they were custom blended in her favorite flavorings. No pills for her highness.

She stayed alive much longer than I expected in her condition. We made a lot of allowances in the house for her. When stairs got hard to go up and down as many times as she had to with kidney disease, she got her own litter box in the living room with potty pads because she didn’t like litter.

In spite of it all she still disapproved of most everything we did. I don’t know how to act without someone harrumphing at everything I do. She loved the husband. She considered him her pet. He could do no wrong. Even when he did do wrong, she would come at yell at me about it. I guess she figured I was in charge of him since I brought him home and I should have him under better control.

I had a plan for her. I figured when she stopped eating or at least when she stopped trying to constantly steal my food, it was time. It never happened. She ended up going blind in one eye on a Thursday and then the other eye on Sunday. With all her other issues and general poor condition, we decided it wasn’t fair to her to make her adapt to this too. I’m sure she was shutting down and it was just a matter of days before something else happened. I had to wait for her to finish eating a huge bowl of food that the husband gave her before sedating her. I guess she died doing what she loved. She was 16 and a half years old.

The house is quieter. Paul doesn’t know who to pounce on now. The husband is sad and I don’t wake up with a cat on my head who is spitting mad because I had the nerve to move. Freckles hasn’t seemed to notice.

The husband now has seniority. There are no more pets who were here before him.

15 Oct, 2018

Hot For Food Vegan Comfort Classics

/ posted in: Book Review, Foodies Read, Reading

Hot for Food Vegan Comfort Classics: 101 Recipes to Feed Your Face by Lauren Toyota
on February 27th 2018
Pages: 240
Genres: Cooking
Published by Penguin Books Canada
Format: Paperback
Source: Library

A fun and irreverent take on vegan comfort food that's saucy, sweet, sassy, and most definitely deep-fried, from YouTube sensation Lauren Toyota of Hot for Food.

In this bold collection of more than 100 recipes, the world of comfort food and vegan cooking collide as Lauren Toyota shares her favorite recipes and creative ways to make Philly cheesesteak, fried chicken, and mac 'n' cheese, all with simple vegan ingredients. Never one to hold back, Lauren piles plates high with cheese sauce, ranch, bacon, and barbecue sauce, all while sharing personal stories and tips in her engaging and hilarious voice. The result is indulgent, craveworthy food - like Southern Fried Cauliflower, The Best Vegan Ramen, and Raspberry Funfetti Pop Tarts - made for sharing with friends at weeknight dinners, weekend brunches, and beyond.

This would be a great cookbook for people who want to move to a vegetarian or vegan diet but are hung up on all the foods that they won’t be able to have anymore if they give up meat. The book starts with several pages of recipes devoted to making substitutes for bacon from several different vegetables. It moves onto using cauliflower as a base for vegan fried chicken. A lot of the book concentrates on making vegan versions of meat-based favorites.

I don’t really have any comfort foods that contained meat. I don’t like fried foods. A lot of the recipes in this book don’t appeal to me for those reasons. Others are familiar to people who have been vegetarian for a long time.

What did appeal to me as a long time vegetarian was her section on sauces. She has a very simple vegan mayo recipe (Why does prepared vegan mayo cost a fortune?) and then uses it as a base for several dressings, including my favorite, Thousand Island. I’m definitely going to try that when my current bottle of dressing runs out. She also has basic recipes for cake and frosting and then shows multiple flavor variations. If I baked much, I’d be all over that.

I am going to make the cover recipe this week. It is a buffalo style baked cauliflower sandwich. I’m going to make the cauliflower in slices and combine it with salad fixings for dinner.

This book also has the most delightfully insane recipe I think I’ve ever seen. It is for a double decker veggie burger topped with both Thousand Island and BBQ sauce (yum) but then, then, the buns are made out of ramen noodles. Why are the buns made out of ramen noodles? Because you can.

via GIPHY

I love everything in that recipe. Sure, I’ve only had them separately but what could go wrong? I’m a bit concerned about the ability to fit it in my mouth so I would make a single burger. You know, it’s healthier that way. I even bought some ring molds to make the buns. It will happen someday. In the meantime, Thousand Island and BBQ may be my go to burger dressing.

12 Oct, 2018

Thoughts While Reading

/ posted in: Reading

- - Still listening. Still soothing.

I liked this story of a woman who is running from a failing marriage by investigating an inheritance left to her mother in India.
This family has a lot of secrets that they won’t tell each other. That annoys me in a story. If the entire conflict could be resolved by one clear conversation, I tend to get bored.
There is a brief discussion of adoption that implies that only people who are infertile adopt children. The person says that she wishes it wasn’t that way. It really makes adoption sound like a last resort thing to do.

I received a copy of this eARC unasked for in my email. It makes me feel like a chosen one.
I’ve only read one of her books before and it was ok. This one was much better.
She’s the widowed, pregnant daughter of a preacher.
He’s a self-made banker convicted of a murder.
He marries her to let her inherit his money when he is executed in a few days so she can get away from her overbearing father. But then he isn’t executed. He’s pardoned at the last second because it has been discovered that he is the heir to a dukedom that has been unclaimed for a while. Now they have to decide whether or not to go through with the marriage.
No explicit sex scenes. Thank you! Most everything is implied or fade to black. I find sex scenes incredibly boring.
All the family members are weird. I hope the next books in the series focus on each of them in turn.

08 Oct, 2018

Right on the Monet

/ posted in: Book Review, Reading

Right on the Monet by Malcolm Parnell
Genres: Fiction
Format: eBook
Source: Book Tour, From author/publisher

New York
Claude Monet painting is stolen
Mediterranean
Of all the things Harry Chase had imagined in his life, being a drummer on a cruise ship band was not one that would have occurred to him. And yet, there he was. Centre stage, behind a young female singer along with his mates, Dave, Tony and Steve.
Which meant that getting involved in a jewellery theft, an on-board massage parlour and the hunt for an Old Master was even further from his mind as he cracked the snare drum.
And yet, this was exactly how he found himself being questioned by Interpol …..

This is the third book in a series but enough context is given to allow you to pick up the story if you are starting with this book.

The story line was inventive. The mystery was complicated enough with enough red herrings to sustain the whole book. There was a fairly large cast and I was able to keep the male characters straight because they each had distinct personalities and character traits.

It did drive me batty that every time they went into a new country on this cruise all they did was shop. Who does that? You are supposed to go sightseeing. But that story choice leads into my main problem with this book — its lazy characterization of women.

At heart this is a male fantasy where all the women are attracted to the main character and try to get him to have sex with them even though they know his partner.

One of the first things I noticed about this book is how many breasts were in it. I know this because they were pointed out every time they appeared in a scene. I sighed and reminded myself that I don’t read a lot of male fiction authors and sometimes these authors are distracted easily. Also every female character was introduced not by her purpose in the narrative or her relationship to other characters but by her appearance and sexual desirability. Then I got to this line.

“Like Clem, Liz was blonde and although approaching her mid-forties was still a very attractive woman.”

No, sir. Nope. Done. Automatic DNF from this 45 year old hag. It puts me in mind of this:

But alas, this is not the real world, this is a review book so I soldiered on.

“I looked at the five women sitting around the table and realised that any man would give his eye teeth to spend a night with any one of them;”

At the time the people were having important conversations but that’s ok, ignore that and focus on reducing them to your sexual fantasies.

The resolution of the plot isn’t even allowed to escape.

“Within minutes two squad cars containing plane (sic) clothes detectives had arrived along with two cars carrying uniformed police; one of whom was a very attractive WPC, and I made a mental note to somehow get Cara a police uniform.”

At one point there is this description:

“The barman was small and effeminate, his head was shaved at the sides, and he wore a black ponytail tied up in a top knot. The badge on the lapel of his bright red waistcoat said Sam. He seemed vaguely familiar. “I haven’t seen you guys in here before,” he said holding out a limp wrist. His accent was either American or Canadian.

I shook his hand, and his fingers collapsed in my grip; a similar experience to squeezing a soft rubber ball. “No, first time,” I replied surreptitiously wiping my hand on my trouser leg.”

If that isn’t bad enough, he is referred to later in this conversation.

“It’s a good picture of that bloke’s arse,” Steve added, “maybe we could take it to Sam, the barman, he might recognise it.”

Contrast this to the treatment of one of the main characters who is a lesbian. Of course there is absolutely nothing wrong with that in this book, except for one character’s repeated attempts to sleep with her because all lesbians just need a man to show them what they are missing, right? /sarcasm. Even she is interested in having the main character watch her have sex. (Sadly, not even joking.)

If you like your mysteries served with a large topping of sexist banter on top, then you might enjoy this one.

05 Oct, 2018

Thoughts While Reading

/ posted in: Reading

- - I’m listening to the audiobook which is read by LeVar Burton. Can you get more soothing than LeVar telling the story of Mr. Rogers? I think not.
  - Mr. Rogers’ family was super-wealthy. I’m not sure why that surprises me so much. Is it because we always just saw him in the little two room house that didn’t even have a bedroom? Or is it because it is hard to believe that the eldest son of a family of industrial tycoons could turn out to be so gentle and loving to others after living a life of luxury? His family was very charitable. Not in a “flashy, name everything after yourself” kind of way but in a “write a check for any family in need that you hear of” kind of way.
  - He had a degree in music composition and was a pianist who had his concert grand shipped everywhere he lived but he was always playing that little rinky dink upright piano on the show. LOL

I’ve been following the author on Twitter ever since I heard that this was a job. I think that was after I visited the Tower or else I would have spent more time stalking ravens when I was there.
If you do follow him, a lot of what is in this book isn’t new info but it still is interesting. If you don’t know about his job, it is fascinating.
Most of the book is about the ravens outsmarting humans, including him. Only one of them is fairly tame and she is still very opinionated.
Foxes live in the Tower. That surprises me. It is a very busy place. I wouldn’t think they would like it there but there is a lot of human food they can eat. They are constantly trying to eat the ravens too. Sometimes they have succeeded.
I actually finished this one and reviewed it yesterday.

04 Oct, 2018

The Ravenmaster

/ posted in: Book Review, Reading

The Ravenmaster: Life with the Ravens at the Tower of London by Christopher Skaife
on October 2, 2018
Genres: Nonfiction, Personal Memoirs
Format: eBook
Source: Owned
Setting: England

The first behind-the-scenes account of life with the legendary ravens at the world’s eeriest monument

The ravens at the Tower of London are of mighty importance: rumor has it that if a raven from the Tower should ever leave, the city will fall.

The title of Ravenmaster, therefore, is a serious title indeed, and after decades of serving the Queen, Yeoman Warder Christopher Skaife took on the added responsibility of caring for the infamous ravens. In Ravenmaster, he lets us in on his life as he feeds his birds raw meat and biscuits soaked in blood, buys their food at Smithfield Market, and ensures that these unusual, misunderstood, and utterly brilliant corvids are healthy, happy, and ready to captivate the four million tourists who flock to the Tower every year.

A rewarding, intimate, and inspiring partnership has developed between the ravens and their charismatic and charming human, the Ravenmaster, who shares the folklore, history, and superstitions surrounding the ravens and the Tower. Shining a light on the behavior of the birds, their pecking order and social structure, and the tricks they play on us, Skaife shows who the Tower’s true guardians really are―and the result is a compelling and irreverent narrative that will surprise and enchant.

I’ve been following the author on Twitter for a while so I was familiar with his job and what it entails. Despite that, this is still a fascinating look at the care of the ravens at the Tower of London.

If you aren’t familiar with the story, there is a legend (which the author casts doubts on) that if the ravens leave the Tower of London, then England will fall. There are seven ravens who live in the Tower. They are free during the day to mingle with the tourists, steal food from the tourists, and observe the general hub bub. At night they have an enclosure to help protect them from the foxes who also live in the tower.

“In the past the Ravenmasters preferred to put the food out around the Tower, but the problem was that a seagull might take a nice juicy piece of ox liver, say, that was intended for a raven, have a little nibble on it and then casually drop it on a visitor from a great height.”

The ravens aren’t pets. They aren’t tame. They don’t work on your schedule. They don’t sit nicely on the bench when David Attenborough wants to film with them. They are prone to killing and eating pigeons (not always in that order) in front of the tourists. Most of the Ravenmaster’s time seems to be taken up with getting them where they are supposed to be and getting them out of places where they shouldn’t be.

“[m]ore than once I’ve seen a raven chasing the Tower’s many resident cats and dogs.”

Readers of this book will find out not only lots about ravens but about what it takes to be a Yeoman Warder. He discusses The Story – the official tour group talk that takes people about 6 months to learn perfectly before they can start to change it by adding in their own embellishments. The Story is standardized so any Yeoman Warder can step in and take over a tour if the original guide has to step away to help someone (like if they faint after watching ravens murder other birds.)

The book is written in short chapters in a very conversational style which makes it a very quick and entertaining read. I enjoyed this more since I have been to the Tower and could visualize most of the places that he is discussing. If you haven’t been there, looking at a map of the grounds would be helpful to understanding the story.

There are several stories of the deaths of some of the ravens from illness, accidents, and old age. They made me a little teary as did this last line of the acknowledgements about Munin, who hated him from day 1.

“A very special thank-you to Munin. During the publication of this book, sadly, Raven Munin passed away due to complications of old age. Her presence at the Tower will be greatly missed by her partner, Jubilee; by Team Raven; and by all staff at Historic Royal Palaces.”

02 Oct, 2018

We Fed an Island

/ posted in: Book Review, Foodies Read, Reading

We Fed an Island: The True Story of Rebuilding Puerto Rico, One Meal at a Time by José Andrés
on September 11th 2018
Pages: 288
Length: 10:35
Genres: Nonfiction
Published by Anthony Bourdain/Ecco
Format: Audiobook
Source: Library
Setting: Puerto Rico

FOREWORD BY LIN-MANUEL MIRANDA AND LUIS A. MIRANDA, JR.

The true story of how a group of chefs fed hundreds of thousands of hungry Americans after Hurricane Maria and touched the hearts of many more

Chef José Andrés arrived in Puerto Rico four days after Hurricane Maria ripped through the island. The economy was destroyed and for most people there was no clean water, no food, no power, no gas, and no way to communicate with the outside world.

Andrés addressed the humanitarian crisis the only way he knew how: by feeding people, one hot meal at a time. From serving sancocho with his friend José Enrique at Enrique’s ravaged restaurant in San Juan to eventually cooking 100,000 meals a day at more than a dozen kitchens across the island, Andrés and his team fed hundreds of thousands of people, including with massive paellas made to serve thousands of people alone.. At the same time, they also confronted a crisis with deep roots, as well as the broken and wasteful system that helps keep some of the biggest charities and NGOs in business.

Based on Andrés’s insider’s take as well as on meetings, messages, and conversations he had while in Puerto Rico, We Fed an Island movingly describes how a network of community kitchens activated real change and tells an extraordinary story of hope in the face of disasters both natural and man-made, offering suggestions for how to address a crisis like this in the future.

Beyond that, a portion of the proceeds from the book will be donated to the Chef Relief Network of World Central Kitchen for efforts in Puerto Rico and beyond.

Chef Jose Andres has developed his theories on food relief first by working with a homeless shelter who used restaurant left overs to feed people and then expanding their process after the earthquake in Haiti. The biggest test so far of his small non-profit came after Hurricane Maria hit Puerto Rico.

His ideas are simple:

Find a working commercial kitchen and chefs. He started in a friend’s restaurant in San Juan.
Source the ingredients locally to avoid delays and to let businesses in the supply chain start to rebuild. In Puerto Rico he used the normal suppliers that restaurants would use.
Make a few simple dishes that can be made in huge quantities. They started with a stew, pans of chicken and rice, and thousands of ham and cheese sandwiches.
Use local food trucks to deliver food to the hardest hit areas. Also partner with whatever group is going into areas and have them deliver food. Among his best delivery teams in Puerto Rico was Homeland Security.
Open other commercial kitchens in strategic areas around the disaster area and repeat. Throughout his time in Puerto Rico they used a convention center, school kitchens, culinary school kitchens, and a church.

One of his major complaints about the food situation in Puerto Rico was that the groups who normally handle this in disasters on the mainland decided that it was too hard to get food to the island so they didn’t. The Red Cross for example, didn’t bring in the Southern Baptists and their mobile kitchens to cook like they normally do so they didn’t have any food to deliver. (I had no idea the Southern Baptists have a whole relief cooking operation despite going to a Southern Baptist church for four years. Never heard of it.) Food and water distribution was not listed as a priority for most groups.

When food was getting distributed it was MREs. These are prepared military food packets and they can get you through a few days but you don’t want them long term. He was also angry that water was being given in bottles only. He campaigned for tanker trucks of water to be taken to towns and let people fill their own containers instead of adding all the plastic waste to the environment. That idea didn’t get taken up.

A lot of this book is about his fight with FEMA. He wanted a government contract to pay for his supplies. He had started ordering food and supplies on a handshake with the distributor with no idea how he was going to pay for it. At their peak they were spending over $50,000 a day on food. Government contracting is a slow business that is doubly hard in a disaster. He talks about contracts that were given to people who never delivered food. The husband was a government contract person (not with FEMA). He listened to some of this part and talked about the other side. After disasters, FEMA contractors are apparently reviewed and taken to task for working too quickly, for not getting bids even if there is only one supplier in the area, etc. Careers get ruined because people were trying to do the right or fastest thing in an emergency and now there is a lot of trouble trying to get anyone to do those jobs and those who remain aren’t likely to take risks. Things are just going to get worse.

This is a good review of what happened in the disaster from the point of view of an outsider to the government. His ideas are definitely worth listening to and I’m interested to see where his nonprofit, World Central Kitchen, goes from here.

01 Oct, 2018

October 2018 Foodies Read

/ posted in: Reading

Welcome to October 2018 Foodies Read

We had 18 links in September. Thank you to everyone who linked up. The winner of the drawing is Hardly A Goddess for her Simple Vegetarian Cookbook review.

She won:

A $10 Amazon gift card if in the U.S.
A book of their choice (up to $10) from Book Depository if international

Foodie Reads News

Fall 2018 Announcements: Cooking & Food

Fall 2018 Notable Cookbooks

Link up your reviews of books about food – fiction, nonfiction, or cookbooks!

30 Sep, 2018

September 2018 Wrap Up

/ posted in: Reading

This is a month where I’ve been reading a lot of big nonfiction books in little chunks at a time so I haven’t finished any of them.

Here’s what I did finish.

The books were:

3 nonfiction
2 audio books
Set in England, Spain, and the U.S.

The authors were:

7 unique white women, 1 African-American man, 1 African-American woman, and 1 Spanish man

Which ones would I totally recommend?

What books have I been nibbling at?

Jefferson’s Daughters was an audiobook that got auto-returned to the library on me. Caesar’s Footprints and Avignon are background for an upcoming trip. Fear is just … about Trump…. so it can only be handled in small doses. One Man and a Mule is so me but I put it down and forgot about it until the husband picked it up and now I have to share.

Reading All Around the World challenge from Howling Frog Books

Read a nonfiction book about the country – or
Read fiction written by a native of the country or someone living for a long time in the country.

Costa del Churros is written by a British person who has lived in Spain for a long time so it counts but I’m reserving the right to replace it with something by a Spanish person. We Fed An Island is written by a Spanish person but doesn’t take place in Spain.

28 Sep, 2018

Thoughts While Reading

/ posted in: Reading

Fear: Trump in the White House by Bob Woodward

I actually had put this one aside for several reasons but Wendy wanted to hear more about it so I’m going to read some more.
It is very detailed. He’s getting deep into the minutia of what has happened so it gets a bit boring to read actually.
I don’t think that you are going to learn a whole lot that is new here if you’ve been paying attention to the administration. Maybe that’s cynical of me. I always just assumed that Trump was such a toddler that people managed him like one so none of those stories seem the least bit surprising to me.

I’m Still Here: Black Dignity in a World Made for Whiteness by Austin Channing Brown

I heard of a bunch of books in a long article about former evangelical Christians trying to find their way back to a kinder, gentler Christianity. This is the first of them I was able to get. I’m not interested in moving back to Christianity but I would like to read other people’s perspectives.
Austin Channing Brown is a black woman. Her parents named her to sound like a white man so she would be able to get job interviews. It is messed up that that needs to happen.

Excommunication is my favorite scam. The whole concept proves that any religion that believes in it is full of crap.
A man (and it is always a man) can say that you are no longer part of the religion and that is fine. But if you truly believe that this man’s word is going to cause your god to abandon you for eternity, what kind of wimpy god are you worshipping? You’d be better off worshipping the man who can boss around the god.

He has a lot of good ideas for how to do disaster relief as a private charity. The problem is that doesn’t mesh well with a government that moves very slowly and with a lot of oversight and covering yourself when large amounts of money are being discussed.
I’ll be doing a full review of this one next week.

25 Sep, 2018

Costa del Churros

/ posted in: Book Review, Foodies Read, Reading

Costa del Churros by Isabella May
on September 18, 2018
Genres: Fiction
Format: eARC
Source: Book Tour, From author/publisher
Setting: Spain

The rain in Spain doesn't mainly fall on the plain…
Brits abroad Belinda, Julia, Laura and Georgina need more than the sweetness of churros with chocolate dipping sauce to save them from their unsavoury states of affairs.
Cue Carmen Maria Abril de la Fuente Ferrera, the town's flamboyant flamenco teacher! But can she really be the answer to their prayers?
One thing's for sure: the Costa del Sol will never be the same again

This book tells the story of British people behaving badly in Spain.

Belinda is on the run with her husband Jez. They are living on the yacht that is all they have left after their business collapsed in England, probably because of her husband’s shady dealings.
Julia lives with her husband and daughter. She’s the type of ex-pat who refers to all other foreigners as immigrants and is angry that people in Spain want her to speak something other than English.
Laura lives in a super wealthy English enclave with her husband and mother and children. She spends her time lunching with other wives and is bored out of her mind.
Georgina has been dumped in Spain after a bad breakup and an even worse rebound fling. She’s working in a bar and has just learned that she is about to be kicked out of her housing.

These four end up joining an unorthodox flamenco class in a small town. The first lessons involve learning to step out of your comfort zone. A lot of this happens around eating churros. Most of these women are horrified at the idea of eating anything with so many fried carbs covered in chocolate sauce. But each little act of rebellion against the lives that they are living leads to larger steps until their lives are changed forever.

There is an element of magical realism in this story. The flamenco teacher Carmen is able to determine exactly what push each of them needs. She’s a mysterious figure. You never learn much about her. She never even teaches them to dance. They can just magically do it perfectly . This fits into the stereotype of the “exotic” person who teaches white people to fix themselves and then disappears, presumably to go help others.

I never really warmed up to the characters, except for Laura. She realizes that she is living in Spain and not some English colony. She starts to want to get out more and learn some Spanish and interact with the real country. She moves away from the overwhelming fakeness of her life. I wanted to back away slowly from the other characters. Even as the story progresses and you are supposed to start to feel for them I couldn’t get over the horribleness of how they are first described.

Giveaway – Win a signed copy of The Cocktail Bar (Open Internationally)
*Terms and Conditions –Worldwide entries welcome. Please enter using the Rafflecopter box below. The winner will be selected at random via Rafflecopter from all valid entries and will be notified by Twitter and/or email. If no response is received within 7 days then I reserve the right to select an alternative winner. Open to all entrants aged 18 or over. Any personal data given as part of the competition entry is used for this purpose only and will not be shared with third parties, with the exception of the winners’ information. This will passed to the giveaway organiser and used only for fulfilment of the prize, after which time I will delete the data. I am not responsible for despatch or delivery of the prize.
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Author Bio –
Isabella May lives in (mostly) sunny Andalucia, Spain with her husband, daughter and son, creatively inspired by the sea and the mountains. When she isn’t having her cake and eating it, sampling a new cocktail on the beach, or ferrying her children to and from after school activities, she can usually be found writing. As a co-founder and a former contributing writer for the popular online women’s magazine, The Glass House Girls – www.theglasshousegirls.com – she has also been lucky enough to subject the digital world to her other favourite pastimes, travel, the Law of Attraction, and Prince (The Purple One). She has recently become a Book Fairy, and is having lots of fun with her imaginative ‘drops’! Costa del Churros is her third novel with Crooked Cat Books, following on from the hit sensations, Oh! What a Pavlova and The Cocktail Bar.

Social Media Links –
www.isabellamayauthor.com
Twitter – @IsabellaMayBks
Facebook – https://www.facebook.com/IsabellaMayAuthor/
Instagram – @isabella_may_author

21 Sep, 2018

Thoughts While Reading

/ posted in: Reading

I’ve got all new books this week.

This is my new audio book from the library.
It is narrated by the author who talks fast enough that I had to slow it down to 1x playback speed for a while to be able to understand.
They made mass quantities of chicken and rice, ham and cheese sandwiches, and stew to feed people.
His plans for food relief include buying the food locally to get businesses operating again quickly.
He talks about making food for relief efforts in Haiti and having to have the humility to adapt to local culture. He made Spanish style beans and not Haitian style as he was told by some local ladies.
Why have I never heard of the Southern Baptists’ relief efforts? They cook all the food for the Red Cross. I went to a Southern Baptist church for 4 years and it was never mentioned.

I pre-ordered this book. It came on Tuesday. I decided that I would wait until my day off on Thursday to read it all at once and savor it. I’m a huge fan of this series. (I’ve watched an illegal upload of The Discovery of Witches TV pilot 5 times this week.)

Of course, I started this on Tuesday. I don’t know who I thought I was fooling with that waiting until Thursday nonsense.
I’m…not loving it…. It hurt to say that. Of course, not loving it is relative because I’m comparing it to the original trilogy that I read at least once a year.
I think the problem is that this is Marcus’ story. You know how he ends up from reading the other books. This is giving you back story so there isn’t a whole lot of suspense.
Stuff in the present is focused a lot on Matthew and Diana’s twin toddlers. I’m a person who thinks a story is ruined once you bring kids into it. Not interested in them at all.
I finished it. The present storyline grew on me a bit. It is good but it isn’t one I see myself rereading regularly.

20 Sep, 2018

Incoming!

/ posted in: Reading

I’m not a big pre-orderer of books. Mostly that’s because I don’t pay enough attention to know what is coming out in the future. Also, a lot of my auto-buy authors have been fairly quiet lately.

Here’s what I am looking forward to enough to have put some money down.

Releasing October 2, 2018

The Ravenmaster: My Life with the Ravens at the Tower of London by Christopher Skaife

“The ravens at the Tower of London are of mighty importance: rumor has it that if a raven from the Tower should ever leave, the city will fall.

The title of Ravenmaster, therefore, is a serious title indeed, and after decades of serving the Queen, Yeoman Warder Christopher Skaife took on the added responsibility of caring for the infamous ravens. In The Ravenmaster, he lets us in on his life as he feeds his birds raw meat and biscuits soaked in blood, buys their food at Smithfield Market, and ensures that these unusual, misunderstood, and utterly brilliant corvids are healthy, happy, and ready to captivate the four million tourists who flock to the Tower every year.

A rewarding, intimate, and inspiring partnership has developed between the ravens and their charismatic and charming human, the Ravenmaster, who shares the folklore, history, and superstitions surrounding the ravens and the Tower. Shining a light on the behavior of the birds, their pecking order and social structure, and the tricks they play on us, Skaife shows who the Tower’s true guardians really are―and the result is a compelling and irreverent narrative that will surprise and enchant.“

I follow him on Twitter so of course I need to read his book.

Always Look on the Bright Side of Life: A Sortabiography by Eric Idle

“We know him best for his unforgettable roles on Monty Python–from the Flying Circus to The Meaning of Life. Now, Eric Idle reflects on the meaning of his own life in this entertaining memoir that takes us on an unforgettable journey from his childhood in an austere boarding school through his successful career in comedy, television, theater, and film. Coming of age as a writer and comedian during the Sixties and Seventies, Eric stumbled into the crossroads of the cultural revolution and found himself rubbing shoulders with the likes of George Harrison, David Bowie, and Robin Williams, all of whom became dear lifelong friends. With anecdotes sprinkled throughout involving other close friends and luminaries such as Mike Nichols, Mick Jagger, Steve Martin, Paul Simon, Lorne Michaels, and many more, as well as the Pythons themselves, Eric captures a time of tremendous creative output with equal parts hilarity and heart. In Always Look on the Bright Side of Life, named for the song he wrote for Life of Brian (the film which he originally gave the irreverent title Jesus Christ: Lust for Glory) and that has since become the number one song played at funerals in the UK, he shares the highlights of his life and career with the kind of offbeat humor that has delighted audiences for five decades. The year 2019 marks the fiftieth anniversary of The Pythons, and Eric is marking the occasion with this hilarious memoir chock full of behind-the-scenes stories from a high-flying life featuring everyone from Princess Leia to Queen Elizabeth.”

He’s always been my favorite. This comes out on the same day but I ordered this from Audible so that fine.

Releasing November 15, 2018

A Duke in Disguise by Cat Sebastian

“It’s the story of a publisher who wants nothing more than to print her scandalous novels and maybe keep her seditionist pamphleteer brother out of prison. She accidentally winds up falling in love with a handsome illustrator who is extremely cranky to discover he’s the heir to a dukedom. Yes, this is an actual m/f romance.”

I love Cat Sebastian books so I automatically order the next in the series

Releasing February 19, 2019

The Haunting of Tram Car 015 by P. Djèlí Clark

“The Haunting of Tram Car 015 returns to the alternate Cairo of Clark’s short fiction, where humans live and work alongside otherworldly beings; the Ministry of Alchemy, Enchantments and Supernatural Entities handles the issues that can arise between the magical and the mundane. Senior Agent Hamed al-Nasr shows his new partner Agent Onsi the ropes of investigation when they are called to subdue a dangerous, possessed tram car. What starts off as a simple matter of exorcism, however, becomes more complicated as the origins of the demon inside are revealed.”

Tor is the only publisher that I pay attention to. It seems like whenever a book sounds really original it comes from them. I loved this description.

Releasing March 19, 2019

Internment by Samira Ahmed

“Rebellions are built on hope.

Set in a horrifying near-future United States, seventeen-year-old Layla Amin and her parents are forced into an internment camp for Muslim American citizens.

With the help of newly made friends also trapped within the internment camp, her boyfriend on the outside, and an unexpected alliance, Layla begins a journey to fight for freedom, leading a revolution against the internment camp’s Director and his guards.

Heart-racing and emotional, Internment challenges readers to fight complicit silence that exists in our society today.”

I feel like this will be a big-news book but I just heard of it now in the same tweet thread as the last book. My pre-ordering brain was already on so I got this one too.

14 Sep, 2018

Thoughts While Reading

/ posted in: Reading

Who’s shocked that out of all his books there is no record of Jefferson ever owning the best seller, Vindication of the Rights of Women?
Martha Jefferson gets so frustrated with her little sister Maria that she wonders if she sustained brain damage during some illness. I’m with you there, girl. She’s a hot mess.
I’m sad for Martha because she would have been a brilliant politician but she got married off in backwoods Virginia because she was woman.
I can’t stand Maria because of her emotional manipulations and her distain for all the opportunities that she had to see the world and learn things. All she wanted was to be a wife in Virginia so I guess why should she have wasted to childhood learning things? Both women ended up in the same place no matter what their education and desires were.
I was just getting to the part about his enslaved daughter when the audiobook was returned to the library automatically! I’m going to have to get back to this one later….

Wilde in Love by Eloisa James

Ugh, I so hate the whole alpha-male schtick.
Can we get rid of “You’re mine!” from the vocabulary of men in romance books? Likewise with him having to have her or possess her.
No means no, jackass. If she says “Don’t touch me”, your immediate response shouldn’t be to touch her again.
I read Eloisa James’ nonfiction before I knew she was a romance writer. I liked that better.
It is a shame because I’m interested in where the story goes with other characters because she makes up good characters but if they are all icky like this one, I don’t want to read them.

Avignon of the Popes: City of Exiles by Edwin Mullins

I love reading ecclesiastical history but it infuriates me. How anyone can know this stuff and still go to a church is beyond me. It is just corruption on top of corruption from the beginning.

The Black and the Blue: A Cop Reveals the Crimes and Racism in America’s Law Enforcement and the Search for Change by Matthew Horace

My new audiobook since Jefferson’s Daughters ran away on me.
Written by a veteran African-American police officer who interviewed cops and victims all over the country
Very good discussions about what leads to riots
Talks about his own treatment at the hands of cops who don’t know he is also a cop

Fear: Trump in the White House by Bob Woodward

Why do I do this to myself?

13 Sep, 2018

The Gin Shack on the Beach

/ posted in: Book Review, Reading

The Gin Shack on the Beach by Catherine Miller
on June 5th 2017
Genres: Fiction
Format: eBook
Source: Owned
Setting: England

When octogenarian Olive Turner is persuaded by her son to move into a retirement home, she congratulates herself on finding the secret to an easy life: no washing up, cooking or cleaning. But Olive isn’t one for mindless bingo with her fellow residents, and before the first day is over she's already hatching a plan to escape back to her beloved beach hut and indulge in her secret passion for a very good gin & tonic.

Before long Olive’s secret is out and turning into something wonderful and new. Only a select few are invited, but word spreads quickly about the weekly meetings of The Gin Shack Club. Soon everybody on the beach wants to become a gin connoisseur and join Olive on her journey to never being forced to grow older than you feel.

I picked up this book because it is precisely a genre that I don’t think we can ever have enough of – old lady chick lit!

Give me stories of older women in charge of their own lives; finding new passions; doing whatever they want! I’ll read them all. Give me more old ladies defying their fussy children and skinny dipping at the beach.

This book also made me really, really want a beach hut even though I don’t live by the beach and even if I did, they aren’t a thing here.

Olive moves into a home where everyone cares about safety to the point of not allowing the residents to live. This is actually a huge problem for older people. If you can’t do anything other than what is super-safe, you don’t get to do anything fun.

I was intrigued by the gin combinations that are discussed here. I wish there were some recipes for the cocktails discussed. I don’t drink so I have no idea if I like gin or not but this book made me want to try some. I feel like I wouldn’t like a gin and tonic at all but the gin with violet syrup that tasted like candied violets sounded interesting. I’m not sure if the rhubarb one sounded good or not but they were fans of it in the book.

I didn’t care much for the bit of mystery in the book. I was just here for the characters and their adventures!

11 Sep, 2018

Fitness Update

/ posted in: Fitness

I have been doing Facebook fitness challenge groups. I’m in my second month. The idea is that you have a group of people who post three things every day:

A post-workout selfie
A picture of a healthy meal they ate that day
Check in at night about how the day went

Then once a week we have to record a video about a non-scale victory.

I didn’t win last time. My partner was apparently not as super competitive as I am. She didn’t do her posts every day. This partner isn’t either. I am sad but having to post every day is helpful for me. I makes me eat at least one healthy meal if I’m accountable for it.

I’ve gotten a subscription to Beach Body on Demand. It gives me access to all kinds of workouts at home. I just finished Liift4 which is a 4 day a week mixture of weight lifting and high intensity interval training. I liked it. I finished it exactly on time which meant that I didn’t procrastinate any workouts to the next day.

I didn’t lose any weight but my body definitely changed during the 8 weeks of the program. It focuses on upper body weight lifting and my arms are much tighter. I’ve lifted a lot heavier in the past but this was all about consistency. Unfortunately, I come from a long line of peasant stock so I have my family’s flabby underarms covering up some of the muscle. I need to keep working on it so I can get these muscles to show!

In the challenge last month, I lost 3.5 inches overall. 1.5 inches of that was in my waist. My arms and thighs went down a little. The difference is noticeable even though the scale didn’t move.

I just restarted Liift4 at the beginning to keep working on my upper body. I’m not really a fan of the lower body day each week so I think I may mix in other workouts on those days to keep from getting bored. I’m used to lifting super heavy in deadlifts and squats so doing those moves with dumb bells just isn’t challenging my muscles. There are also a lot of hiit moves in those days that my knees have protested. They must be getting old!

Working out at home is working for me though. I have a scheduled time on each day when I know I’m going to be working out. I don’t have to go the gym even though it is close. The equipment I need is always available.

07 Sep, 2018

Thoughts While Reading

/ posted in: Reading

These are my actual feelings and reactions while I’ve been reading books this week. It isn’t as formal as a review but a little more structured than live tweeting.

Whenever the narrator says, “The Jeffersons” I picture George and Weezy, not Thomas and Martha.

Ooh, Abigail Adams is not amused that Jefferson didn’t come to London to meet 9 year old Maria on her trip from Virginia. She also thought Sally Hemmings should be sent back to Virginia because a teenager wasn’t a suitable companion for a 9 year old and what purpose could she serve in the Jefferson household in France. Well, Abigail, unfortunately he’ll find a use for her.
No, girl. Don’t do it. Stay in France, Sally. You’re a free woman there.
At least she negotiated her terms before she went back to the U.S. Her kids wouldn’t be farm laborers and they wouldn’t work before age 14. They would be freed at 21. No way she could enforce that though.
This book is really sympathetic to Maria Jefferson as a child. I think she is a horrible spoiled brat who manipulates adults through emotional blackmail. She’s the type of child who makes me really happy that I never had kids.

Caesar’s Footprints: A Cultural Excursion to Ancient France – Journeys Through Roman Gaul by Bijan Omrani

I bought this to get a sense of the history of the area of France that we will be going to this fall. The husband read it and loved, loved, loved this book. I’m struggling.
I dedicated an hour to reading it between a really hard workout and having to go to work. I kept dozing off and dropping the book on my face. I mean, I was dozing off and catching the book every 10-15 seconds at times. I have mad book and face saving skills.
This book is all accounts of battles and conquest and I just don’t care. The husband was an Army fellow so I’m sure that why he was fascinated.
This talks about the defeat of Vercingetorix, the Gaul leader. I read a series about him a long time ago. After that I’m still heartbroken about his loss. I just looked it up. I think it is the Druids series by Morgan Llywelyn. I didn’t drop that book on my face over and over. Soon after reading that the TV show ROME came out. One of the first episodes had Vercingetorix in a cage in Caesar’s triumph parade. I was horrified. In my mind he was still the hero of a series of book with a tragic ending. I wasn’t ready to see him portrayed as a horrible savage. #TeamVercingetorix

06 Sep, 2018

Matrimonial Advertisements

/ posted in: Book Review, Reading

The Matrimonial Advertisement by Mimi Matthews
on September 4, 2018
Series: Parish Orphans of Devon #1
Genres: Fiction, Historical, Love & Romance
Format: eBook
Source: Book Tour, From author/publisher
Setting: England

She Wanted Sanctuary...

Helena Reynolds will do anything to escape her life in London, even if that means traveling to a remote cliffside estate on the North Devon coast and marrying a complete stranger. But Greyfriar's Abbey isn't the sort of refuge she imagined. And ex-army captain Justin Thornhill--though he may be tall, dark, and devastatingly handsome--is anything but a romantic hero.

He Needed Redemption...

Justin has spent the last two decades making his fortune, settling scores, and suffering a prolonged period of torture in an Indian prison. Now, he needs someone to smooth the way for him with the villagers. Someone to manage his household--and warm his bed on occasion. What he needs, in short, is a wife and a matrimonial advertisement seems the perfect way to acquire one.

Their marriage was meant to be a business arrangement and nothing more. A dispassionate union free from the entanglements of love and affection. But when Helena's past threatens, will Justin's burgeoning feelings for his new bride compel him to come to her rescue? Or will dark secrets of his own force him to let her go?

I have pretty strict rules about the historical romances that I will read. Generally they need to be recommended by some trusted sources on Twitter. When I pick them myself I tend to get horrible books that I DNF. That’s why I’m so excited about this book. I chose this one from the description on the book tour and I absolutely loved it!

Helena is on the run but she isn’t flighty or impetuous. Her escape from her family has been well planned. She needs to get married in order to wrest control of her inheritance from her relatives. She is unable to control it herself because she is a woman so she is in desperate need of a husband.

Justin returned from being a prisoner of war in India and in an act of pure spite, managed to seize control of the largest house from its impoverished gentleman owner. Now he is hated by the community and just wants to be left alone. His secretary and a lawyer friend though have advertised for a bride for him. He’s ignored them up to now when his friend in London sent him a woman who is obviously in trouble.

I loved that these were both sensible, no-nonsense people. There was a real threat that Helena was running from based on newspaper accounts of the time. This was a great way to get actual historical issues into the story.

This book felt comfortable from the opening pages. I was pulled directly into the story. This is the type of historical romance that I love and I’m looking forward to reading more of this series.

Giveaway

During the Blog Tour we will be giving away a signed copy of The Matrimonial Advertisement! To enter, please enter via the Gleam form below.

Giveaway Rules

– Giveaway ends at 11:59pm EST on September 18th. You must be 18 or older to enter.
– Giveaway is open to US residents only.
– Only one entry per household.
– All giveaway entrants agree to be honest and not cheat the systems; any suspect of fraud is decided upon by blog/site owner and the sponsor, and entrants may be disqualified at our discretion.
– Winner has 48 hours to claim prize or new winner is chosen.

The Matrimonial Advertisement

04 Sep, 2018

A Tale of Two Kitties

/ posted in: Pets

The husband said a mouse was in the garage. He wanted to make a live trap. I was horrified. “We have cats!”

Him – “My way leaves the mouse alive. Aren’t you a vegetarian?”

“The cats aren’t.”

We looked at each other in the silent acknowledgement of the pros and cons of this plan. “Ok, well try the cats first and then get a trap,” he decided.

Powder

Pro:

The mightiest hunter who ever did live. I’ve seen her chilling in the yard and then jump up and snag a bird flying 5 feet over her head. A lot of yelling about how we don’t eat birds followed while she ate her bird. She doesn’t play with prey. She kills in seconds and gets on with her life.

Con:

She’s 15 years old and very frail now. Her mass murdering days are behind her. But maybe she has one more hunt in her.
Did I mention how frail she is? A good sized mouse might win that fight.

Paul

Pro:

He’s in the prime of his life. No weakness here.
He loves to hunt things. He hunts his toys, bugs, lint, and Powder despite being repeatedly told to leave old ladies alone. It is time to show him what he has been practicing for.

Con:

He was born in a shelter and has been an indoor cat all his life. “Mouse” is just a shape toys come in
He’s afraid of the garage since he heard the garage door opener up close.

I took Powder to the garage and told her the mission. She immediately started a perimeter patrol. I went to get Paul. He panicked when he saw he was headed to the garage and put 4 puncture wounds and 1 laceration on my left bicep. Eventually we were all in the garage. Powder had finished her first circuit and walked up to me. Paul started screaming and crying and pawing at the door to the house.

Powder looked at him with total disgust. “Back in my day cats didn’t have to be taught how to cat. Kittens these days are too soft!”

I let him back in the house before he had a heart attack. Powder stomped off on perimeter patrol number 2.

I went upstairs. Paul stayed by the door to the garage crying piteously because we had abandoned Powder to certain death in the horrible GARAGE.

1 hour later Paul was done crying (probably because he had given up all hope of ever seeing Powder again). The husband went downstairs. Powder hadn’t found a mouse but she was mighty proud of herself and did not want to come in. I checked an hour later with a nervous Paul peering around the door to see if she was still alive. She reported the situation as under control from her station on the mat. She supposed she could come in. She slowly sauntered in with a superior glance at her fraidy cat housemate. Hopefully, she left enough scent to let everyone know that apex predators live here (Well, one apex predator at least) and prey should stay out.

She was very full of herself all night. She had a strut to her stride that I hadn’t seen in a while. Give an old lady a job and she gets all her self esteem back.

No mice have been seen. Either they ran away from Paul’s horrible screeching or they died laughing.

03 Sep, 2018

Mistress of Pennington’s

/ posted in: Book Review, Reading

The Mistress of Pennington's by Rachel Brimble
on July 1, 2018
Genres: Fiction, Historical
Format: eBook
Source: Book Tour, From author/publisher
Setting: England

Elizabeth Pennington should be the rightful heir of Bath's premier department store through her enterprising schemes and dogged hard work. Her father, Edward Pennington, believes his daughter lacks the business acumen to run his empire and is resolute a man will succeed him.

Determined to break from her father's iron-clad hold and prove she is worthy of inheriting the store, Elizabeth forms an unlikely alliance with ambitious and charismatic master glove-maker Joseph Carter. United they forge forward to bring Pennington's into a new decade, embracing woman's equality and progression whilst trying not to mix business and pleasure.

This book takes place in 1910 in Bath. I read a lot of historical fiction but I don’t see many books set in this time period. I was interested to read about a woman who is trying to take over her family business at a time when this was not an acceptable thing to do. This is also a time of great changes in retail. Ready to wear clothing is becoming more popular. Being able to touch the merchandise without a clerk helping you is a new idea.

I had a bit of a hard time getting into this book. In the beginning the writing was a bit clunky. There was a whole lot more description of what people were thinking than showing their actions on the page. I set the book aside for a while because of this. I don’t know if I would have picked it back up if it wasn’t a review book for me and if I wasn’t really interested in the premise.

I’m not sure if the writing improved as I got into the story or if I just accepted it as I went along but it didn’t bother me as much as I got deeper into the book. There are several conflicts here:

The heroine who wants to run the store versus her father who wants her to marry and live the life of a rich housewife.
The hero who wants to expand from a small family store to selling their merchandise in department stores over his father’s objections.
There was conflict between the heroine and hero’s families in the past.
Should department stores continue to cater to the wealthy or should they bring in lower price clothing for the new middle class customers? Would the wealthy continue to shop there if you let lower classes in the same stores?

It was interesting to see the ideas that were considered so progressive (and potentially alarming) that are commonplace now. The anti-woman rhetoric was as expected. Women aren’t smart enough to be in business. Suffragettes are just rabble-rousers causing the downfall of society.

This is a good book for anyone who loves historical fiction where you learn a lot about a topic.