I‘ve watched a lot of Jamie Oliver‘s shows on the Roku channel, so this was cool to read one his cookbooks. I love that he included not just a picture of the finished product for every recipe but also pictures of the process. I know of very few cookbooks that do that. Great for less experienced people. Although, I do think there are recipes that would be challenging for beginners. Lots of nice variety. There are 21 recipes I want to make in here.

Beautiful artwork. The story wasn‘t super impactful but it was cozy. About friendships, apprenticing, and maintaining tradition. Perhaps loved the explanation of tea dragons and care at the end even more than the story!

Got this book at Bob‘s Red Mill in Milwaukie, OR, just south of Portland, OR on vacation. So cool to see the headquarters in person! They have all kinds of Bob‘s Red Mill products at my grocery store in the natural food section. There are 31 recipes I want to try making in here. No pictures of recipes, though. I want to see how it‘s supposed to turn out!

An excellent sequel to the first in the series! Again, the reader was wonderful for the audiobook. I enjoyed the new characters and creatures of Austria and Wendell‘s realm. The author‘s description of the faeries enchant and scare. Emily is an enjoyable character to follow in her adventures, I find myself laughing out loud or nodding my head in agreement.

Excellently written book and excellent narrators. I was a little thrown off when I read the author was inspired by Fleetwood Mac‘s turbulent band history, because I kept comparing them with the book. I loved the documentary style of storytelling, really unique for a fictional story. It was funny hearing each of the band member‘s perspectives about the same thing, like how they came to be called The Six or how much control Billy had in the group.

I know a cookbook isn‘t really something you read cover to cover, but this one was! It‘s filled with Disney history as related to food in the parks as well as concept art for the food establishments. There are 22 recipes I‘d like to try to make. The downsides for me are 1) too many fried foods and 2) it seems like there are a lot of iconic Disney foods that are missing in here. A lot of Disney resort recipes rather than Disney park recipes.

The Two Princesses of Bamarre was one of my favorite books as a kid, so I thought I‘d give this one a try. Another story with two female protagonists. Didn‘t like it at all. Probably because I didn‘t like either of the narrators of the audiobook. Cassandra‘s conversations with her dog were annoying. It‘s frustrating knowing throughout the end of the story of the Trojan War, but nice that they were able to change fate a bit.

I can‘t say I really liked any of these poems. Saadi was okay.

I know it took me a bit to get to it, but I found it in a used bookstore! Interesting reliving 2020 through poetry, but I just had COVID for the first time in December so actually kind of relevant for me. I am ridiculously impressed with what a great poet Amanda Gorman is. The wordplay and alliteration are so beautiful. I felt like the wind was knocked out of me after many of these poems and certain lines. So clever and provoking.

My 5 star rated books of 2023!

The wordplay!! From “Compass”

From “In the Deep”

Definitely for younger readers. Dialogue was almost too polite and cheerleader-y. However, it‘s fun to have a prequel perspective on the Nightmare story. We‘re introduced to the pumpkin king that precedes Jack. I was hoping for a little more depth to the story, but it was still fun.

From “The Shallows”

Like the first book of lost tales, it‘s a lot of extraneous explanation from Christopher Tolkien about his father‘s work. The last few stories were unfinished but a few did have full narratives. I liked a couple of them, but the Turambar tale was super messed up and violent. A lot of this is more fleshed out in the Silmarillion.

The narrative didn‘t feel very consistent from part 1 to part 2. I was expecting to hear more about each of their most famous musicals, but they were kind of brief summaries. More like musical reviews rather than hearing more about the composer/lyricist process. This book was also published in the 1960s, so I think perspective on some of their shows has changed over time, particularly racial. Then again, Oklahoma and The Sound of Music are loved!

Whaaaat? 😱 So cool.

The writing of this sentence. So beautiful. So vivid. F. Scott Fitzgerald, I tell ya!

The right kind of poetry to read for Thanksgiving! I liked 26 of these poems. Not a ton but enough to keep it.

Cute, fun read. Odd backstory on origins of witches and their families. Heartwarming coming together of people to make a nontraditional family. Bit of romance. Lacked depth for me but enjoyable.

That was unnecessarily long. It seemed promising, which was why I kept reading, but there ended up being very little drama in the plot or the characters. Just felt like a waste of time overall.

It seems silly when a novel is written in journal form. People don‘t write out whole conversations in journals…but other than that, I loved this book. So many unexpected twists and turns. Fantasy, romance, thriller, and so much interesting detail about this world of the Folk. I enjoyed the main character, Emily. She‘s socially awkward and very smart. The evolution with Bamblebee was interesting. Ending was odd.

Wow, what a great book. I was immediately hooked, and it never let go. The concept is fantastic, the emotions are raw, and even though I predicted the ending from the start, it still had me teary-eyed at the end. Beautifully written, inspiring, loved it.

🌇❤️

I don‘t think I‘ve read books in the “for dummies” series, but this was quite good. Helpful explanations, humor, and good-sounding recipes!

Not too many recipes in here, but it‘s more about explaining how to adopt a new lifestyle of eating. DASH is recommended by doctors for lowering inflammation and blood pressure, and Mediterranean is supposed to be the best for health and long life. This is a combination to give you the best chance for healthy ways of eating. Explained well, lots of examples. Lots of vegetables, lean meats and fish, nuts, dairy, fruit.

It‘s the story of a girl who goes out to be a governess because her father didn‘t invest his money well and they became poor. It was a fictional expose on what it was really like to be a governess. Spoiled kids, parents that don‘t help and just blame, away from home, little recognition by society in general. It turned into a subtle love story, and I enjoyed that. I definitely wasn‘t as impressed in writing style as Charlotte and Emily.

Best to keep the mind and hands occupied in grief

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The author takes a very narrow, specific approach to a Chopin biography by solely focusing on his life in the years he wrote his funeral March. There were a lot of interesting tidbits I enjoyed, but overall the wandering narrative of other people and politics and culture in Chopin‘s life as well as the author‘s travels and thoughts became too unorganized for me.

☕️🍫❤️

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That‘s cool

I enjoyed these poems and Sara Teasdale‘s style. The introduction mentioned that it was a bit old-fashioned for the early 20th century, but I quite enjoyed it for whatever time it was in. Definitely an overall melancholy tone and a lot of repeated themes. She really loved the month of April, the star Arcturus, and Sappho. I liked 48 of the poems. Pictured is one of them.

This is one of the best graphic novels I‘ve read. The author built this alternate world where wishes are commodities that are mined and sold. It is so thorough and the philosophical musings of whether someone should use a wish or not and what would be the best wish is fascinating. There are three first class wishes that the book is basically divided up into, and it‘s set in modern-day Egypt. I was really impressed.

Definitely reminded me of Nausicaa, but it seems this was published in the 80s in Japan, so that makes sense. The story wasn‘t super riveting to me. Pretty, watercolor, blurry artwork. Narration style was odd.

As was the case with The Storied Life of AJ Fikry, Zevin‘s writing style is so engrossing. Definitely kept me reading but was rather dark throughout. A lot of depression. Centers around Sam and Sadie‘s friendship through time. Enjoyed the video game maker and player themes. It ended up not being a book I‘d want to keep but was interesting to read.

Interesting concept but I‘m not sure it really drew me in by the end.

That was absolutely the worst book of the series. It was all over the place, where narration and plot it concerned. It was disgusting and disturbing throughout. I‘ve come to the conclusion that this author is a misogynist a-hole. The ending fizzled out ridiculously, like reading that whole series was a waste of time. Very unhappy.

I liked the first one better but still so darn cute

Absolutely adorable, ughhhhhhhh. As a cat parent and mostly ex-gamer, this manga was perfect. The story of a woman who works in an office by day and games by night who adopts a cat. She‘s never had a pet before so she approaches having her cat, Musubi, like she would a game. Hilarious and cute to the max.

Well, I loved the concept. The intro just hit me over the head with the fantasy of monarchy in America and the what-if of George Washington being made king instead of president. There were bits of originality in the setting beyond that, but then the author just copied themes of the real British monarchy‘s family. It really became a story of young romance with couples that aren‘t “supposed” to be together but are. The ending was very abrupt.