Review: Delicious!

Delicious! by Ruth Reichl
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

This book is....well, for lack of a better word, Delicious! (Forgive me..)
A foodie brain like mine goes crazy for books like this, scattered with recipes and descriptions of smells and tastes...MMMM! I'm going to try my hand as the orangey spice cake recipe at the end and I'll update later if it falls through or not.

The WWII aspect of the story was sweet and rather fascinating, but also sad. I'm glad Lulu got a resolution. Our main heroine, Billie (short for Willhema) a drab and shy woman living in the shadow of her "beautiful" sister. This story broke my heart too. Gosh. No spoilers I swear but the twist involving her sister knocked the wind out of me. I enjoyed Billie's little romance, and the scenes with the hidden library and hunting through filing cabinets of index cards made my hands shake in excitement. Clue hunting through dusty old books and cabinets? Add hot library sex and living in a city full of restaurants? Count me in baby! I live for stuff like that.

I loved all the side characters, especially Sammy. He was kinda fantasy material, not so much that he was hot or anything, he was quite an older man (and no, it's not that I don't find older men attractive, but this guy was as old as my dad) but he was very sophisticated, and spoke using archaic words. I mean, no one REALLY talks like that, but it was another unique spice in the soup of our cast. (Oh and gay. I guess that's cliched or stereotypical, but whatever. I liked him. He wasn't FABULOUS! or anything. :P)

I do wish we had just a tiny bit more time with the cast of Hell's Kitchen (I kid..) because I found them such a weird motley crew. What I wouldn't give to work at a test kitchen and taste bits of everything here and there. I'd probably get fatter though!

Did I mention I'm obsessed with all the descriptive paragraphs about food? and I mean almost every kind of food...for whatever reason, all the cheese shop scenes had me drooling the most. What can I say, I'm a Dairy Queen (their food is way below sub-par, by the way. EUCK.) I liked our heroines love interest, Mitch, too. all I'm in envisioning is a slightly less muscled mountain man with awesome scruff and sweet, good with his hands *wink wink--and I don't just mean a spatula!* a bit sly...smart. Did I mention he could cook like nobody's business? Adored the scene with him and Billie in the bathtub with his pancakes. Oh god yes. This is sounding more and more like a sex roleplay the more I type...but seriously a cook with scruff? (I don't recommend combining your scruff with your cooking--no one likes beard hair in their scrambled eggs) He's got an island in his kitchen too--I'm such a foodie fangirl because that made me go nuts. It's like paradise compared to my tiny terror kitchen.

The story really enfolded itself in a lovely way, wrapped around a cocoon of grief, courage and food and the comfort it can bring in the worst of times.



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Review: Relish: My Life in the Kitchen

Relish: My Life in the Kitchen by Lucy Knisley
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

Gosh, I loved this graphic novel! I did grow up with food in a minimal way--I do wish I had grown up with it more, and more diverse food, more healthy food with a small amount of indulgence--though I still remember my mother's fried hot dogs, her idea of putting ice cream or ice cream sandwiches between waffles or having my childhood favourite, chicken stir fry. Unfortunately though, my mom burnt or overcooked everything she made, even eggs. On Christmases, my grandmom gave me a whole new taste for food. She made cookies by scratch and ham and veggies and it was just wonderful.

I wrote down all the recipes in this book and I think I will try to the lamb. It was very very funny and I love the art and Lucy's explorations through a diversity of food and adolescence. In particular, I loved the bit with porno magazines. This is a treat for foodies and for artists.

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The Lost Garden by Katherine Swartz (Netgalley Review)

Thanks to Netgalley for letting me read this book.

I enjoyed this OK. It's set over two time periods: the 21st century and post-WWI, switching between two families who both live in the same house and take care of the same garden. A garden which holds a secret of forbidden love which our modern day family is trying to discover, while struggling with grief and problems of their own. Our modern day family, two sisters, one losing her biological mother and then her biological father, the other losing her father too and his second wife, her mother. I won't go into too much detail but this causes our older sister to struggle with resentment she's kept locked away since she was sent away to boarding school when she was a girl after her mother died. In our post World War One story, we also see a story of two sisters, Katherine and Eleanor, struggling to also overcome grief of their lost brother and the vastly changed post war world they've suddenly found themselves in. Eleanor is different from her rigid sister Katherine, and wants something more to do than just nurse veterans. She can't seem to find anything of interest out of her cloud of grief, until a gardener named Jack comes to work and she finds solace in his company, able to let her guard down and be herself when she's been always forced to be the strong one for her family. Never comforted or consoled. Jack cares for her, but cannot act on it, as it is improper. Eleanor refuses to let him go, but a lot of things have changed because of the war and things are not always what they seem...

This is a story of love, grief and forgiveness. of making sacrifices and fresh starts. I found myself more attached to the post-WWI story than the other--I felt their characters were built a little more..It was alright. Probably wouldn't read it again-it certainly wasn't bad, but I felt rather disinterested until at the end I was blubbering like a baby. It was a lovely ending to an otherwise sad book. I'm indifferent, other than that. Thanks Netgalley.

Chocolat by Joanne Harris (Chocolat, Bk. 1)

I'm sorry I haven't posted. I get distracted. My birthday haul shall be up soon, though I know it's very late, just waiting on one more package.

I have a treat for you today...

Read from June 8th to 13th, 2015.
5 chocolate stars!

A delicious whimsical read not to be read while on any kind of diet. Seriously. It's torture. While in the middle of this novel, I couldn't fight the urge to whip up a batch of brownies, as that was the only chocolate product in my house I could indulge in. It only took me so long to read such short a novel because I got caught up watching, or rather re-watching Downton Abbey. The withdrawl is killing me! Anywho, I probably would've finished it in three days. I was addicted to it, like I am to imagining tasting Vianne's many delights in her shop.

It wasn't just the chocolaterie or Lansquenet. It wasn't just the people in it. It was also imagining the gypsy lives of Vianne and Anouke and her mother before her, and maybe even her mother before her. Traveling always. Though I imagine, as Vianne said, it's a tough thing. Never to have memories or be settled. Never have a place you can call home. I wouldn't be able to do that. At least, I would make sure I always had a home to come back to when I traveled. I could go all over the world and would still have my little suburbian home and garden.

We have a vibrant cast to fill in our pictureasque little town. Cynical old ladies and narrow priests and gypsies and a girl with an imaginary rabbit. The town is the type of place to visit on my bucket list. I long to take in everything.

It's beautifully written, as the magical realism genre seems to be (from what I've read of it so far)...It's vibrant and rich and insightful, the words are rather visual. I did see the movie first, and I did enjoy it, but now that I've read it, I picture almost the same movie, but more in the style of Amelie or Pushing Daisies. Imagine that, plus chocolate, plus Johnny Depp. Swoon-worthy, isn't it? The film was very good though, but looking back, I feel like it's missing the whimsy and magical quality which makes this book so so very good. So very good as to call it a favourite for life. Oh yes. This is the book I will always take to bed with me, or in a luxurious bubblebath-my kindle tucked in a ziploc as I tap the screen, eating up Joanne's prose like chocolate creamy bon bons. (Good golly, I'm hungry. FOR CHOOOOOCOLATEEE!) This is a wonderland of a book. A carnival ride. A gorgeous ride of colours, sights...tastes...MMM...
Can you tell I love chocolate? Count my nine cavities I got from girlhood.

I'm very anxious to read the two sequels, especially the third because I find Reynaud a fascinating character. I'm excited to read anything else by Joanne Harris. I sincerely hope she never stops writing. A new favourite author, despite I've only so far read one of her books. You'll fall in love with her too. and this book. and then you can blame her for your cavities as well.

Can you resist? (A salad for dinner seems pretty bland to me right now.)

Intertwine by Nichole Van (House of Oak, Book 1)

Just imagine this guy in Regency era clothing. MMMMM! *SALIVATES*

Read from May 15th to 17th, 2014.
Rating: 1000 stars and a smiley face!

So the premise of this book is that this woman named Emry has found a locket from the 1810s, a locket with the picture of a rather swoony man inside that she has a strange pull towards. An extremely deep pull. On the back of the locket are too beautifully intertwining initials, E and F. Emry's spiritual friend Jasmine swears up and down that the E represents her and they're somehow destined for each other, despite being centuries apart. It isn't until one day she happens to be in the same basement as the mysterious Mr. F's (Sense and Sensibility movie reference, anyone?) house was built on, before it burnt down, that she sees the same initials, carved into the bricks, that she finds out this is true and goes on the biggest adventure of her life.

Watch our heroine bumble through the etiquette of the early 19th century and love blossom between a girl who can't remember the future, and a man trapped in a past yearning for something new and different.

Now to the fangirling....

Oh gosh oh gosh so uhm...this book was lovely and amazing and I just gushed over it like a deranged One Direction fangirl. Is it perfect, no, but to me it is. sure, some of it is a little implausible, but really...it's such a sweet indulgent read I just want to read it again and again.

Can we PLEASE talk about how oh my goodness yummy fantastic perfect James is. Best hero ever.
You should've seen me reading this book. Giggling, squealing, blushing, frowning, crying. You'd think I was PMSing. The bits with him being introduced to 21stc. technology cracked me up, as did Emry's accidental modern behavior in 1812. I loved the characters, so full of life and so real. The atmosphere of both periods was handled well and the romance was deep and affecting and flippin' adorable. I loved the beginning too, especially the reference towards Pride and Prejudice and Zombies. Hah. Fit in perfectly. It's beautiful written, funny and heart warming.

Read if you like: Jane Austen, zombies, sexy sweet men you just want to energizer bunny in bed then gaze in his eyes for hours, time travel and the fantasy of a Regency man hunched over an old desk playing Angry Birds late into the night.

Amazon link for your reading enjoyment!: READ IT BABY ONE MORE TIME!

New Introductory..

My name is Hannah Lynn. I'm a June baby and four foot nine (4'11 now--grew TWO inches! I can be in the WNBA now) with a British heart and I'm from Eastern USA, unfortunately. Really though, it's a quaint little town, with an ice cream truck that comes around daily during summers that I try to avoid as much as I can. But woe is me, is it lacking in bookshops! As you can probably tell, I'm a bibliophile. It means that not only do I read books, but I collect them..rather compulsively, print or otherwise.

For as long as I can remember, I've loved to read. Through school, I was always the over-enthusiastic one-at least in English..math or otherwise, not so much, though I was a very good student. I picked up almost anything but I remember always gravitating towards books set in the past, or about castles, or royal families, or fairytales...Not much has changed!

I love periods dramas/BBC, dark chocolate and the season of autumn. I love musical theatre, Downton Abbey and vintage music and films. I collect records as well as books, but I also have an eclectic digital music library that includes Cat Stevens as well as Jonas Kauffmann *swoons* I knit a little, and I'm an English style horseback rider.

I have two cats, both brothers that look and act nothing like. I have a wonderful boyfriend Bryce from Aussie who visited last Christmas and we're almost three years going strong long-distance.

What'll you see here: Lots of reposts of things that catch my eye from other  blogs, but also book reviews/hauls, book vs. movie reviews and regular movie reviews, musical rants, musings and pictures of my cats/daily life and events and recipes gone wrong or wonderfully well as well as some gardening stuff, during summers.

I hope that you enjoy yourself here.