Cinnamon and Gunpowder by Eli Brown

THIS BOOK THIS BOOK THIS BOOK! I read it over the course of a week when it should not have taken that long because I was savoring it. Drawing it out. Sucking it down one little slurp at a time. 

If there is a perfect "beach read" this is it, though it's SO much more than the stereotype. 

The year is 1819, and the renowned chef Owen Wedgwood has been kidnapped by a beautiful, ruthless pirate. He will be spared, Mad Hannah Mabbot tells him, as long as he can conjure an exquisite meal every Sunday from the ship’s meager supplies. While Wedgwood attempts to satisfy his captor with feats such as tea-smoked eel and pineapple-banana cider, he realizes that Mabbot herself is under siege. Hunted by a deadly privateer and plagued by a saboteur, she pushes her crew past exhaustion in her search for the notorious Brass Fox. But there is a method to Mabbot’s madness, and as the Flying Rose races across the ocean, Wedgwood learns to rely on the bizarre crew members he once feared: a formidable giant who loves to knit; a pair of stoic martial arts masters, sworn to defend their captain; and the ship’s deaf cabin boy, who becomes the son he never had. (publisher blurb)

SO, what is more magical in the summertime than a book about sassy lady pirates with red flowing locks, attitude and awesomeness? What's more...FOOD! On a boat! With meager provisions! And a morally upright chef who happens to be her capture (captee? capturee?). RIGHT-O! 

I really am sorry about all the caps in this post, but this book knocked me flat with its goodness. The writing is rich, layered and atmospheric. The story is full of adventure and swashbuckling and interesting characters who are much deeper than they appear on the surface. Much like the roiling depths of the ocean!

This made me giggle, raise my eyebrows, I full-on guffawed, and I even got a might teary at the end. It's just so good! If you need an involving, fun read, this is the one. DO IT! I got my copy for a steep discount from BookOutlet.com. You should check and see if they still have some!


Pub. Date: June 2013
Publisher: Farrar, Straus and Giroux
Format: Hardcover (and I never read those)
ISBN: 0374123667
Source: Bought it!

(B)East of Eden, Discussion 1

Today is the first installment of our East of Eden Readalong with the Estella Project! 

Watch out for spoilers from this first section.

1. What do you think of the style of Steinbeck's writing? Readable and awesome or slow and slogging?

Readable and awesome, for sure! When I have time to sit down, I'm whizzing through this book lickety-split! Somewhere along the way, in high school I think, I read a Steinbeck short story that I hated. I thought all of his writing was slow and full of dust. While I had the dust part right, I find his descriptions lush and his metaphors deep. Lurv!

2. We have a wicked case of sibling rivalry going on here. What are your thoughts on Adam's and Charles' relationship thus far? Their father's influence?

Their father was a bit of a dick. I just felt the way he related to his sons was wonky and backwards, making them both feel belittled and cut down, though their reactions to it are quite different. I found myself really surprised that Adam went the wandering hobo route and adopted such a laissez–faire attitude. Since we ended this section with his marriage to Cathy and their trek to California, I'm really curious to see where things are going for these two. And I'm with Charles. There's no way their father, whose hilarious career as a "military expert" was such a farce, came by his fortune honestly.

3. Just....Cathy. Expound.

I've never met a character more evil than Cathy. What a pill! I love her for it, though. I'm captivated. And if you haven't noticed, there's a #beastofeden or #(b)eastofeden hashtag that's sprouted on Twitter. Makes me laugh every time. 

4. It remains to be seen how Samuel Hamilton's brood will play into the story. Any guesses?

Not really. At first, when Adam and Cathy went to California and the Hamilton bunch was re-introduced, I had completely forgotten about them. They seem to embody those who live on and endure the land since their piece is so inhospitable. Looking forward to learning more about them. 

See you next Monday for another discussion!

Top Ten Authors of Whose Books I Own the Most

How's that for an awkward title? There's just no good way to say it! Anywho, I've admitted here before that I'm terrible at reading multiple books by one author. Or I used to be. I've improved dramatically over the last few years. So which authors own my shelves? These right here!

Hosted by the lovely ladies of The Broke and the Bookish!

Paul Auster is, by far, the king of my shelves. My love affair with this Postmodern papa began with his memoir, Hand To Mouth: A Chronicle of Early Failure and skated right on through to The New York Trilogy, Man in the Dark, Oracle Night and others. He's incredibly prolific, so I still have lots of books to go!

Siri Hustvedt, Paul Auster's wife, is also quite voluminous on my shelves. I think I own all of her books except one. Two of my favorites are What I Loved, a novel, and her collection of essays, A Plea for Eros. 

I own all of Jane Austen's novels and I've read half. She didn't write a ton in her life, but my owning them all is a testament to my love of her work. 

I shall own all of the Flavia books! I'm more than halfway there now, my dearest Alan Bradley.

I was introduced to Willa Cather, and The Professor's House, in graduate school, and there's been no stopping me since. I love her writing hard. 

Charles Dickens is my main man. There ain't no denying it. I don't quite own all of his books, but I will! I have a good chunk already.

Since revisiting Beloved earlier in the year, I'm making some headway on collecting all of Toni Morrison's work. So far, so good! 

Bill Willingham has been one of my favorite graphic novel/comics authors since I first tried the Fables series. I don't own all of this overwhelmingly large collection either, but still quite a few for me! 

I own all but one of Gene Luen Yang's graphic novels. He owns my comics heart! 

Before there was A.J. Fikry, there was still my author crush on Gabrielle Zevin. She's amazing, y'all! Buy all the books. 

Pumpkin Time!

It's a rare thing that I accept a picture book for review, but when the pitch for Pumpkin Time, by Erzsi Deák, landed in my inbox, I immediately snatched it up. You see, my son, Greyson, is obsessed with pumpkins. We read Halloween books all year long because...pumpkins. We have an active garden that's actively growing...you guessed it...pumpkins. See some visual evidence of his pumpkin love down below. 

One night after his bath, when we were beginning to wind down, I came out of my bedroom with this book behind my back and surprised him. 

To say he squeaked with joy is an understatement. That first time reading, he actually made me read it to him twice, and it's been our bedtime book for WEEKS now. But I'm sure you'd like to know what it's about...

Evy is the main character, and she has a garden! While all sorts of wacky, wild things are happening on the farm (cows in hats, pigs dancing 'round the maypole, sheep picnicking on the neighbor's lawn), she is single-mindedly nurturing her garden, as we build up to the penultimate pumpkin event: a giant pumpkin pie she can share with her farm friends on Thanksgiving. 

Pumpkin Time! is seriously adorable, full of beautiful illustrations by Doug Cushman, and it was a perfectly wonderful book for my son's age (four). It even has some pumpkin recipes and fun facts in the back of the book, so if you have a child who likes to cook, like mine, or loves to garden, also like mine, that's another great feature. 

If you'd like to win a copy of Pumpkin Time!, enter the Rafflecopter giveaway down below! I'll announce the winner on Monday, August 4 and contact the winner via email. 

Pub. Date: June 2014

Publisher: Sourcebooks Jabberwocky

Format: Paperback ARC

ISBN: 9781402295263

Source: Received from the publisher in consideration of a review. 

a Rafflecopter giveaway

Personally: Amazing What a Haircut Can Do!

I mentioned I got may hair cut a couple of months ago. I went from long (for me) wedding locks to short, sassy pixie cut and occasional faux hawk. I've done this kind of massive hair chopping before...twice...but this time it made a bigger difference in my daily attitude than ever before.

Ya see, I had fallen into a funk. A funk of epic proportions. Ok, so that might be overstating it a bit, but I was definitely in a funk. And what's worse...I didn't realize I was in one until I wasn't anymore!

Once my hair came off, I didn't cringe at myself in the mirror anymore. I started playing with makeup and nail polish and clothes for the first time in a while. I'll go into it more in a separate post, but since losing 50ish pounds over the last couple of years, I've experienced a major disconnect between what I see in the mirror and the size I actually am. With a renewed sense of confidence, I started shopping to refresh my worn out, too big wardrobe. AND I started digging down in my closet for all those items of clothing I'd outgrown for so long.

Since I got my hair cut, I feel so much better about myself all the way around. I am doing more things outside the house rather than hiding and not feeling social. I'm grabbing lunch with friends and co-workers, spending time by the pool and not feeling bad about myself while I do it.

Above: Long hair (straightened during a wedding trial run) and short hair (feeling sassy!). 

At the heart of things, the length of my hair makes no difference. What does matter is that I feel upbeat, energized and a little more like "me" than I have in a while. It's easy to get lost in things like work and chores around the house and giving my all to my family. It's nice to refocus on myself a bit, and I'm letting this new confidence spread out into my writing ventures. I'm just going for it...whatever "it" happens to be.

So thank you to those of you who have noticed (and endured) an uptick in the amount of selfies on my Instagram, the "nail of the day" and "outfit of the day" posts. While I will never love books any less, I've been wallowing in this feel-good-about-me phase, and I wouldn't trade it for the world.

Have you done anything lately that makes you feel like a new you? If you haven't done it lately, what have you tried in years past that had a similar effect? 

Weekend Cooking: Chicken Curry with SQUASH!

I mentioned in last Saturday's "Weekend Cooking" post that I've made it my summer mission to use up all of the zucchini and yellow crookneck squash coming out of our garden. And in walked The Pioneer Woman! Ok, she didn't walk in, but I do follow her in my feed reader, and I immediately pinned her recipe for Coconut Curry Shrimp which you'll see down below and modified it to fit my sneakiest of intentions. 

All hail the Pioneer Woman whose photo I'm using without permission. Don't sue me!

I love curry, and while my husband has never done Indian food, he does love a good Thai coconut soup, and the flavors in this curry dish are very similar. In my ongoing effort to use up our squash AND to sneak more veggies in on the men in my life, I took this as a prime opportunity. 

Chicken Coconut Super-Veggie Curry

• 3 chicken breasts, cubed and cooked through
• 1 huge yellow squash, cubed or diced
• 1 huge zucchini, cubed or diced
• 10 yellow cherry tomatoes, halved (remove skins if you don't like 'em)
• 1/2 of a medium onion, diced
• 4 cloves of garlic, minced
• 1 tbsp curry powder
• 1 can of coconut milk
• 2 tbsp honey
• 1 whole lime, juiced
• 1 squirt of hot sesame oil (or red pepper flake! or Sriracha!) 
• 1 handful of chopped cilantro
• 2 cups of basmati rice cooked according to package directions

Start by cooking your chicken through with a bit of olive oil. I did this ahead of time, but you can do it as the first step in the process. Throw your diced and chopped veggies into the pot with your chicken to cook down a bit and get tender. I used a pot because this makes enough to feed an army. Deep sides are a good thing. Add all of the ingredients except the tomatoes and cilantro to the pot and let it simmer until your house smells stupidly good--about 10-15 minutes. Reserve the tomatoes and cilantro until the last 5 minutes if you don't want them to disintegrate.

Serve over basmati rice. We didn't eat anything with this dish since all of the veggies were built in, and it was a quick, week-night meal. However, a spinach salad would've been super awesome. 

This was slap yo' mama good. My husband and my son both loved the big flavor, and my son doesn't like anything but hot dogs and pizza. There were plenty of leftovers and we annihilated them the very next day.

Win!

Hosted by Beth Fish Reads!

The Fabled ARC!

Y'all know I'm resistant to ARCs because they feel like homework. Well, here lately I've broken my own rules and pursued some specific books that I just can't resist. Some are read and some are upcoming, but you can bet if I beat the homework monster, I'll review 'em!

First Second is my favorite publisher of graphic novels...things like Anya's Ghost by Vera Brosgol, Boxers and Saints by Gene Luen Yang, and Relish by Lucy Knisley, among others. The quality of the writing, illustrations and the physical quality of the books are always stellar. I've been requesting their review copies like crazy, including Scott McCloud's upcoming work, The Sculptor as well as Ariel Cohn's The Zoo Box. And I can't forget Andi Watson's quirky Princess Decomposia and Count Spatula!

The Boy Who Drew Monsters, by Keith Donoghue was one of those books I snapped up IMMEDIATELY when I heard about it because I loved his novel, The Stolen Child, years ago. 

The Girl With All the Gifts, by M.R. Carey, just sounded too dang good to ignore, and the same with The Supernatural Enhancements, by Edgar Cantero. 

Finally, The Big Necessity: The Unmentionable World of Human Waste and Why It Matters, by Rose George, falls right into my "niche non-fiction" interest. This one sounds vaguely Mary Roach'ish, so we'll see how it shakes out. 

What are you excited to review? 

Don't Give a Damn About Anything!

Wow, y'all! I have a wicked case of the summer "whatevers." I don't really care about anything except getting home from work as quickly as possible each day, spending time with my family, wading in the pool, and mayyyyybe reading. My blogging mojo seems to have taken a  nose dive. More than anything I wish I was here...

I think I'm going to put myself on a bit of a social media diet this week and just focus on me and whatever I want to do. Greyson will be visiting his dad's house most of the week, so what better opportunity to slice the reigns of responsibility, drink margaritas in the evenings, run around barefoot, give myself manicures and PRETEND I'm at the beach. Right? 

I have some posts pre-scheduled, but other than that, I'm out! 

I'll see you on the flip side! 

Monday Funday!

Wellll, I'd be lying if I said the BookTubeaThon this past week and the Mini Bloggiesta were anything other than a complete bust. Am I too broken up about it??? Absolutely not! My weekends with my son are rare since he's often at his dad's house, so we had lots of things to do this weekend. That seems to be the theme of the summer so far, and I'm eating it up!

We visited the Northeast Texas Children's Museum. As you can see above, we spent some time canoeing, driving a tractor, and playing inside giant bubbles. Among other things. It's the neatest place, and Greyson loved it every bit. 

Sunday we spent the afternoon at the pool and closed out the day with a wonderfully delectable dinner of fried pork chops, gravy, garlic mashed potatoes and roasted zucchini. Oh, and I might've made a small batch of dark chocolate cupcakes with chocolate peanut butter frosting. Ahem! 

I did read some this weekend...

I got to the first #EstellaProject checkpoint for the East of Eden readalong. Now I just need to write my post! 

I'm also a little further along in Cinnamon and Gunpowder, by Eli Brown, and absolutely loving it. 

What about you? Are you reading or too busy soaking up what's left of the summer? 

Hosted by Sheila at BookJourney!

Weekend Cooking: The Zucchini Parade

We have a garden, and that garden produces MASSIVE ZUCCHINI! Like these...

Go on ahead and click to embiggen those photos and you'll see the craziness of the zucchini size. Essentially, my goal this summer has been to figure out how to use ALL of the zucchini and yellow crookneck squash without our getting sick of zucchini and yellow crookneck squash. So far, I've succeeded! I'll be sharing a few recipes over the next few weeks, but I wanted to start with one of my faves. 

Zucchini Patties

• 2 cups of grated zucchini and/or yellow squash
• 10 cherry or grape tomatoes, quartered or halved depending on size
• 1 egg
• 3/4 cup of breadcrumbs (eyeball it)
• half of a small onion, minced (or dried onion flakes)
• a few good shakes of garlic powder
• salt and pepper to taste

Throw all the ingredients into a mixing bowl, squish it around with your hands, and start forming patties. You can really make these any size you like, but mine were probably half-dollar size. I knew I could sneak a zucchini patty that size in on my kiddo pretty easily.

Heat a skillet of your oil of choice on medium, plop down your fritters, and fry until golden on each side and thoroughly cooked through. Doesn't take long at all. Maybe 3 minutes per side. Maybe! Watch them like a hawk so you don't burn them.

After I've drained my patties on a paper towel, I like to serve them with sour cream and salsa for a refreshing summer meal. This most recent time around we ate them as a side with steak and jalapeno pinto beans. De-lish!

What are your favorite recipes to use up your summer squashes? 

Hosted by Beth Fish Reads! 

Mini Bloggiesta To Do!

It's time for a mini Bloggiesta, y'all! Somehow it always happens that Bloggiesta festivities fall on a weekend when my son is home. Invariably, that means less time on the computer. BUT, this time I'm forging ahead! I'm making myself a halfway doable to-do list that I can tackle while he's napping or otherwise involved.

• Update my review archive
• Write three reviews 
• Write two miscellaneous posts (food, beauty, personal)
• Do one Bloggiesta activity, challenge or Twitter party

Ta-da! I think I can do it...don't you?

Go HERE to read all about it and sign yourself up. 

The Book of Life (Spoiler-free!)

The Book of Life, Deborah Harkness's third installment in the All Souls trilogy, was a huge step up from book two, Shadow of Night. Y'all might remember that I was not a big fan. I was BEYOND THRILLED to be thoroughly sucked into this book even though it has some of the same little issues and tics from the previous volumes. 

Diana, the wishy-washy witch, and Matthew, the passive aggressive vampire hunk, are on the run from a pervasive evil...and who on earth can they trust???? They have family problems, they have vampire/witch/daemon problems. All kinds of conflict is afoot. How's that for vague?

I think the pacing was the thing that improved most from Shadow of Night to this volume. While I often found myself bored or wondering when something noteworthy would happen in book #2, I rarely felt that way reading The Book of Life. More focus and more action were absolutely necessary to make me like this book. 

I enjoyed revisiting some of my favorite characters in this volume...namely the boisterous Gallowglass and the irritable Ysabeau. I was also tickled to see some much-needed character development and growth in Mathew and Diana. I mean, really. It took Diana long enough to "grow a set" and really ramp up the magic.

Some annoying things:

• Some threads left undone
• ALL THE NAMES of characters I didn't remember from earlier in the series (not the writer's fault)
• Vampire/witch/daemon politics that were muddled at times

Overall, though, worth reading if you're interested to know how the series will end. Diana is a badass in some spots, which I really appreciated. 

Pub. Date: Today! July 15, 2014
Publisher: Viking
Format: E-galley
ISBN: 9780670025596
Source: From a reading buddy.

The Shadow Hero by Gene Luen Yang

I am in love with Gene Luen Yang's writing and Sonny Liew's artwork. In fact, I've read almost everything Yang has published, and every time I pick up one of his books I learn something and I come to further appreciate his ability to create nuanced stories of characters grappling with ethnic stereotypes.

In The Shadow Hero we meet our young protagonist, Hank, who lives in Chinatown during the Tong Wars. If you're not familiar with the Tong Wars, don't feel bad...I had to Google it. This was a time in American history (roughly 1880s to 1921) when warring Chinese gang factions were working underground to control the economy of Chinatown. Hank is proud to work in his father's grocery store, and has no plans to do otherwise, until the day that the Tong Wars infringe on his family life. With his mother's enthusiasm (pushiness!) behind him and a wish to avenge a great wrong done to this family, Hank becomes the Green Turtle...a superhero. He also inherits a Chinese spirit god who lives in his shadow and helps out from time to time.

This graphic novel was a great mix of humor (a superhero forced into being by his mom) and weighty issues. Not only is Hank fighting against the Tong factions, he's also grappling with himself and his morals, dealing with a corrupt police force, and struggling with his feelings for a woman he shouldn't get involved with. Arching over all of those conflicts is the greater issue of stereotyping. The "good guys" don't have very flattering things to say about Chinese immigrants in New York City at this time, and the "bad guys" play into the stereotypes in order to manipulate and take advantage of the white New Yorkers' pre-conceived notions of them.  

Besides being a great stand-alone graphic novel, knowing the history behind this volume makes it even more intriguing...

The Green Turtle was the first Asian American super hero. Created by Chu Hing for Blazing Comics in the early 1940s, Green Turtle had a short run before lapsing into obscurity, but Yang has revived the character creates an origin story for the Green Turtle in The Shadow Hero. 

Hing created the Green Turtle comics in a world of cartoonists and publishers interested only in white superheroes. His work was borderline subversive and I loooooooooooove clever subversions. At the end of this book there is a note of explanation from Yang that runs through the real history of the Green Turtle comics. If you'd like to learn more in the meantime, check out this Chu Hing biography.

Perhaps what's greatest about Yang's work is that you can read it on a surface level and find a great story. But if you do a little digging there are depths to plumb that you might not even realize. For me it makes a rich, rewarding reading experience every single time. 

I certainly don't want to skate over Sonny Liew's artwork! After seeing some samples of the original Green Turtle comics, I think it's safe to say that Liew pays tribute to the classic style of Hing's work, especially through the coloration of his panels. His characters have much more exaggerated features that those older works, but it's a nice balance for the contemporary reader...a seamless blend of nostalgia and 21st century aesthetics. The drawings' richness, bold shapes and line are characteristics I tend to associate with my favorite graphic novels from the publisher, First Second, so I felt right at home with this one.  

Pub. Date: July 15, 2014
Publisher: First Second
Format: E-galley
ISBN: 1596436972
Source: I received this book from the publisher via NetGalley in consideration of a review. An honest one!

A Weekly Reading Recap!

I still have a wicked case of reading schizophrenia, y'all. I bounce around from one book to another, but I still manage to finish some along the way. 

This past week I finished:

Horrorstor, by Grady Hendrix. This is an odd book...a horror story set inside an IKEA knock-off! It's an oddly ominous setting. Can't wait to review this one for you guys!

The Shadow Hero, by Gene Luen Yang, is another win for Yang. You already know I adored American Born Chinese and Boxers and Saints. Review will be up this week! 

I'm doing a buddy read of Cranford, by Elizabeth Gaskell, with several lovely ladies on #BookTube. I admit, I'm struggling with this little book because it's such a quiet novel of English life. But I shall finish! Hopefully soon!

I'm also slowly working my way through East of Eden. So far, so good!

I added the following (plus some...see video) to this week's #BookTubeaThon TBR pool, so wish me luck!

Finally, you can see my BookTubeaThon TBR video right here! 

#BookTubeaThon 2014

So far this year readathons have put a fire under my butt to read. While I'm a little behind on my Goodreads Challenge goal of 80 books for the year, I'd be a lot further behind without reading events. Soooo, the next reading event for me is the BookTubeaThon! Not sure what the hell I'm talking about? Go HERE. 

The BookTubeAThon takes place from July 14 to July 20. 

I'll be trying to polish off some of the books I'm in the middle of. Namely, Cranford, by Elizabeth Gaskell; Eating Wildly, by Ava Chin; and I'd like to dig into a new review book, Horrorstor, by Grady Hendrix. 

There are quite a few optional reading and video challenges this time around, so I'll be attempting to complete the ones in red. 

The Reading Challenges:

1. A book with pictures.
2. Start and finish a series.
3. A book with red on the cover.
4. A book someone else picks out for you.
5. A book from the genre you've read the least this year.
6. A book to movie adaptation
7. Read seven books.

The Video Challenges:

• Day One: Show your top 3 book you read because of BookTube.
• Day Two: Find the items on three covers.
• Day Three: Draw a better cover for any book.
• Day Four: Write a story using all the words from three titles.
• Day Five: Make a rainbow of your favourite books.
• Day Six: Find 5 things from one of the books you've read this week.
• Day Seven: Show us where you've read during the BookTubeaThon

See you on the flip-side! Let's #BookTubeaThon!