One Chapter

The Pasta Queen: The Art of Italian Cooking by Nadia Caterina Munno

3 stars Cookbook

After reading the other cookbook by Nadia, I had to pick up this one. There were similarities among the two cookbooks, yet the recipes were somewhat different. This cookbook was not for me though.

Nadia begins this cookbook just like her other one. She introduces herself and explains her cooking journey. It is an interesting journey from her family to where she is today. Next, she spends a great deal of time talking about tools, terms and items that you might need to create great Italian dishes. This section is very detailed, and it does provide some good information but there is a lot of reading and information. The recipe section begins next, and it is sectioned off into 7 categories. They are: Aperitivi, Antipasti, Primi, Secondi, Contorni, Dolci, and Street Food.

With each recipe you get: a list of ingredients (grams and cups), total prep and cooking time, how many it will serve. Some recipes have an icon to scan so you can watch the recipe if you scan the icon with your phone. Some recipes also tell you how much/how many the recipes make. Some of the recipes are titled in their Italian name which left me boggled sometimes but Katie puts on the page what it means in English.

This cookbook begins with some interesting alcohol beverages. Nothing hard or too fancy but they are simple and sound delicious. The appetizer section had a recipe I might try: Insalata Pantesca (Sicilian Potato Salad). The first course is next, and this is the section that I thought I would like the most, but it had a lot of seafood in it and I’m not a huge fish eater. Zuppa Di Pesce, Scialatielli Alle Vongole, Baked Seafood Linguine, and some risotto recipes were some of the offerings in this section. The second course comes next, which had more meat, chicken, and fish recipes. Cozze Alla Tarantina, Abbacchio Alla Scottadito, Piccata Di Pollo, and Frittura Di Pesce were some of the dishes offered here. Side dishes were next, and I couldn’t find anything in here for me. Cicoria in Padella, Carciofi Alla Romana, and Broccoletti in Padella were a couple of the dishes in this section. Desserts, yes. Ciambelline Al Vino looks tempting and easy to prepare. For those coffee drinkers, there is Caffe Alla Panna. Nothing in the street food section caught my eye. Tiella Alla Scarola or the Pizza E Fichi just wasn’t something that I would eat.

Nadia closes the book with some comments and a great index. The illustrations in the book were great. Not every recipe had a picture with it and some recipes had multiple pictures.

I don’t understand why there were so many photographs of Nadia throughout the book when there weren’t photographs of all the recipes included. I’m not against a couple individual shots but I think this cookbook had too many photographs of the author and not the food. It’s a cookbook, right? 3 stars

The Pasta Queen: 100+ Recipes and Stories by Nadia Caterina Munno

4.5 stars Cookbook

I’m a pasta lover! Seriously, I love my pasta! Ok, let me rephrase that, I love pasta that doesn’t have anything to do with fish. I’m not a fish person. Nevertheless, I was excited to get my hands on a few of the pasta books at the library. From how she got started cooking, to what a cook needs to make pasta, to recipes, this book has a little bit of everything in it.

I enjoyed reading how Nadia began her career and learning about her family’s history. Sharing these recipes, she hopes that she is keeping her family’s traditions alive and bringing together her family’s history with society today. Nadia explains the tools, terms and items that are needed to make good Italian recipes even before providing any recipes to her readers.

She then puts her recipes into 6 chapters in this book. There are also some closing remarks from her, a resource guide (where to locate items), a pasta by category page, and a great index. The six chapters are:

Pasta Basics, Where It All Began, Be My Guest, Family First, Falling in Love With America, The Pasta Renaissance.

I liked that this book spends a lot of time discussing and showing how to make the different kinds of pasta. I’ve been meaning to do this, and I think I can tackle this now. I also like how most of her recipes don’t take a lot of ingredients to make. Using fresh tomatoes, I like how she adds a few more ingredients, her pasta and there’s a new dish. There are not a lot of fish recipes, and I think I could tweak most of the recipes to make them something I would enjoy. What I didn’t like about this cookbook was that every recipe didn’t have a picture. Now, I’m not expecting a huge picture each time but something small would be nice.

I think around 80 % of the recipes had their accompanying recipe pictures with them. Some of the recipes had no pictures and some had pictures of Nadia or Nadia and her family. I still think this cookbook is a keeper. 4.5 stars for me

Choose Your Own Adventure: Eighth Grade Witch by Andrew E.C. Gaska

2 stars Children’s Chapter/Middle School

I was excited when I came across this book while volunteering at the library last week. Once a month, I clean the children’s graphic novel sections at two of the branches that our library has in town, and when I came across this graphic novel, I immediately snagged it up. This book brought back so many memories of reading the smaller paperbacks of Choose Your Own Adventure stories with my own children when they were younger. I really had high hopes for this graphic novel. Unfortunately, this book didn’t work for me.

I was totally lost in this book, I mean really lost. I started it multiple times and took many of the different options that were offered within its pages, but it still didn’t make any sense to me. I even backtracked and thought that perhaps I had landed on the wrong page and had read the “If you want …… go to page XX” wrong but nope, I was just lost. It felt that when I page hopped, there was no connection to the previous page that I had just read, which was unfortunate.

I liked the storyline as I thought it could have lots of different possibilities. Thirteen-year-old Rabbit has just moved into a new city, into a new house, that has been rumored to be haunted. From day one, things are a bit weird and I’m not sure if she’s a witch or if she’s not but that’s just one of the questions that she’s confronted with. There seems to be a lot happening in Rabbits new surroundings, bits and pieces that I tried to put together, but it was the illustrations that drew me in.

The illustrations were great, and I liked the variety of text fonts that were used throughout the book as they made the scenes pop.

I remember loving the original Choose Your Own Adventure books in fact, I still have some of the books that I used to read with my own children. I will try to find another one of these graphic novels and try it again, as perhaps it was the story itself that I couldn’t follow. Perhaps I am better off imagining these books in my head instead of seeing them in a graphic novel. This book, I’m not a fan. 2 stars

The Puppets of Spelhorst by Kate DiCamillo

5 stars Tale

They were together and then, they’re not. I heard about this book, so I picked it up. It’s a Norendy Tale about five puppets that’s told in 3 Acts consisting of 28 chapters. Kate brings us this story about a lonely sea captain who discovers five puppets and the story they were meant to tell. The wooden trunk for which they were housed becomes their home, their shelter, as they traveled about experiencing the world. They were a unique group, a bonded family who knew they held greatness within.

The sea captain, a man alone in his thoughts, was out for a walk because today was one of his good days as the weather was nice and his body felt good. On bad days, the sea captain would lie in his bed all day and just exist. Spelhorst was a lonely man as he listened and watched the world around him. Today on his walk, there’s a toy shop in the alley that grabs Spelhorst attention. Floating midair, in the glass display there are a group of puppets: a king, an owl, a wolf, a boy, and a girl. It’s the girl puppet that captures his heart. As he attempts to buy this female puppet from the merchant, the face on this female puppet fills his head with memories. Unable to buy just one of the puppets, Spelhorst buys the whole set and sets off for home.

Upon entering his home, Spelhorst sets the girl puppet on his table, casting the other puppets into a wooden chest on the floor. Spelhorst is overcome with emotions as he begins talking to the girl puppet, calling her Annalise and apologizing to her. Retiring for the night, the emotional spent sea captain takes to bed while the puppets begin to talk amongst themselves about their new surroundings. They’re finally out in the world, experiencing the world but they’re not prepared for what lies ahead.

They wanted to tell their story; they each knew they had something within them, but would they be able to tell it.

This is such a fun adventure story. As two young girls become the owners of the wooden chest, the puppets each begin to experience life outside the toy store. With individual personalities and stories, each of them has an adventure that has a lasting effect on them. Everyone dreams and has hope and this book definitely shows us that. 5 stars

Weirdo by Tony Weaver, Jr.

4.5 stars Graphic Novel Memoir

Overload. Tony is trying, I mean really trying to find a place to land. I thought the main character, Tony, acted more mature than those around him which made him different. As Tony enters a new school again, you’d think he’d be used to all the challenges being in a new environment brings. Tony even has a list of survival tips but this time, those tips aren’t working. Tony is being pulled in multiple directions the minute that he arrives at Chambers Academy. He knew that being in the high achiever’s program would be a challenge, but he was not expecting this. It’s not the schoolwork that’s dragging him under but it’s everything else. It was a tense and frustrating time for Tony and for me! Dang, Tony really stuck with it longer than he should have. Once again, Tony is facing another school, another day where he’s the new kid and learning the ropes. Hopefully, this school will be better than the last one– it has to be, right?!?!!

He made it. Tony found somewhere safe. Somewhere where he can be Tony and be accepted. Tony has a voice and with others, they learn to use them.

There’s a lot of hard topics discussed in this book(memoir). Hard topics, real topics that young individuals must deal with today. I liked the honesty and openness that the topics are discussed. The textboxes were easy to follow in this book and there was quite a bit of text to read. For mature audiences: there are mentions of attempted suicide, bullying, depression, and other mental health issues. 4.5 stars.

The Glass Girl by Kathleen Glasgow

5 stars YA mental health

I couldn’t put this book down as I needed to know the fate of these characters. The language and the subtleness of the book was whisking me away. Each puppet carried their own distinct voice and personality and value. The wolf and his comments about his teeth, the king ‘s comments about what he thought his status represented. The owl’s wisdom, the boy’s desires, and the girl’s insight. They each had a vision, a desire, and even though they knew they were puppets, they had hope.

The journey is just beginning for the puppets as they soon find themselves moving. Inside the box, the puppets feel the box moving but where they are going, they do not know. Finally at their destination, two small voices can be heard. Martha and Emma have received the box from their uncle, a box of puppets. Emma and Martha have their own hopes and desires when they see what was inside the box and it becomes one fantastic story as each of the puppets begin their own journey on their own way to fulfill their own destiny. It’s a short story but the journey is quite impressive. I really enjoyed this book.

The pressures were mounting. Issues were stacking inside her head like a Jenga tower, and she needed a release. To the outside of the world, she had it all together, at least she thought she did. The weight and tensions of the world were bearing down on her and those first few sips cooled the fires within her. She could juggle life and a couple drinks to get her through the day but then, those couple drinks began to multiple. A couple of drinks and a light buzz turned into a handful of drinks, a variety of concoctions now flowed through her veins and Bella’s life began to change.

The roles/ titles that Bella once proudly wore were no longer important. Bella: a student, a sister, a friend, a daughter, an employee, these titles took a backseat for now, what was important was where and what drink could Bella get to help her make it through the day. Bella’s situation comes to an abrupt stop when she hits bottom. Finding herself in rehab, she, like many others struggle and this book isn’t glamourous. We don’t find Bella walking out of rehab with a gold star on her chest, this book doesn’t end with a happily ever after because typically, life comes with battles. Battles make us stronger. This book is about struggles, about the push-and-pulls of addiction. Life isn’t easy and Bella shows us her struggles now and the reality that she will continue to struggle throughout her life. Addiction is real, addiction is hard, addiction is everywhere. Addiction is not just alcohol either and it affects everyone. This was an excellent audio book. 5 stars

Visitations by Corey Egbert

4.5 stars Graphic Novel

Oh,Corey. Corey looked to his mother for love and security, but she was dragging him with her. Based on the true life of Corey Ebgert, Corey had a religious upbringing in the Mormon faith. His mother was the center of his life, and he felt the need to watch over her. After his parents’ divorce, Corey and his sister would visit their father according to the arrangement they had set up. Mother would be ready when they returned home with questions about their visits and the battering that went on, mother was just looking for something, anything to “hang on” their father.

Corey and his sister’s life begin to take a drastic change one evening as they prepare to go to their father’s. According to their mother, she tells the children that they don’t have to go to their dads for a visitation and when he arrives, all three of them ignore and hide from him. Mother takes this behavior a bit further as she tells the children to pack their bags and soon the whole family is leaving the house, in their car. They are on the run. Running from everyone. The children listen to mother’s “logic” as their car becomes their home and they have nothing to cling onto but themselves and each other. As a child, I could see how their world would become confusing and scary. Mother is spiraling out of control and taking those small innocent children with her.

This graphic novel was such a powerful story about mental health, religious control, abuse, parental kidnapping and childhood trauma. I commend Corey for writing it and speaking about his own personal story as I’m sure this will help and/or bring comfort to other individuals who read it.

I was a bit confused about the angel images in the later part of the book, otherwise it was a great book for older YA readers. 4.5 stars

Somewhere Beyond the Sea by T.J. Klune

5 stars ++++ Fantasy

I loved, loved this book! Actually, I loved this series and I’m going to miss these characters. If you’re looking for something different, heck even if you’re not ready for something different, listen to the audio of this book/series. The characters in this book will make you laugh, think, and cry. Each one of them is unique and you will fall in love with how they made their world a better place.

This book took me on a magical journey. I left the status of my own world behind, and I stood beside them on Marsyas Island watching the new arrivals. Since book one, I knew that the government wouldn’t leave the island alone, but I didn’t expect Miss Marblemaw. She’s a strict one, that’s for sure, and when she meets the children, I had a feeling that she wouldn’t be ready for that. She’s there for a purpose just like Linus was but I really doubt that Miss Marblemaw will soften like Linus.

Linus is standing with Arthur now, as he has decided that Marsyas Island is now his home also. The children have welcomed him and like having them both there to watch over them. A child named David finds his way to the island and although deemed to be a monster, he’s the nicest monster that I know. I loved the relationships built and strengthened on the island. I loved how they looked out for one another and how they empowered each other. The characters themselves were unique and different yet together they achieved and conquered what they set out to do.

As Miss Marblemaw investigates the orphanage of magical beings and works at dissolving the relationships that have developed within it, what she does is just the opposite. This orphanage has evolved into a family. For “family” is more than blood. This family welcomes others, is hard-working, and committed, and is a host to a wide variety of other qualities. Can they change her mind? Will she leave? What will David decide to do? Definitely a 5 star read!!

The Housemaid is Watching by Freida McFadden

4 stars Mystery

That was a complicated, twisted story. Having read the first book in this series and wanting more, I somehow just jumped into the third book. Not realizing that I had missed the second book in this series until I was completely absorbed in the depths of this book, I didn’t feel lost. I liked the continuation of some of the characters from the first book and the introduction of new individuals into the mix and the storyline felt the same, yet I felt like it was trying to get me off track.

Millie’s family has finally moved into a new home, and she couldn’t be happier. No longer a maid to a family living in such a home, this is hers. She’s bursting with high expectations and dreams which slowly start to fade as the family begins unpacking and settling into their new neighborhood. Nothing was perfect but I started wondering if anything was right with this move. Sure, you have the neighbors peeking out of the curtains at the new arrivals on the block but what if they never stop or how “friendly” can these neighbors be? This small family unit soon encompasses those around them and the show begins.

I enjoyed the relationships among the characters and how the neighborhood operated. Reading the characters’ thoughts and feelings, suspicion was the theme. This theme, I thought, took quite a while to address. I enjoyed how the book ended and now, I must read book two. 4 stars

The Bletchley Riddle by Ruta Sepetys

4 stars Middle School

I’m tired! This book was exhausting……on a good level. Lizzi didn’t think her mother was dead, so she took it upon herself to prove it. Was Lizzi onto something as she investigated her mother’s death? Surprises and secrets began to pop up as the story started rolling.

The characters were a mature bunch, perhaps it was caused by the situation that they were forced into, or it was their nature, nevertheless, I thought they acted mature for their age. Determined and strong, Lizzi and Jakob become very important and very good at what they do. Jakob was the oldest, codebreaking was something that he liked to do during the war as he thought it was his way of helping. When his little sister Lizzi decided to follow in her brother’s shoes, little did they know what impact she would make.

With plenty of activity and great information on codes and codebreaking during WWII, this book was very interesting, and I really enjoyed it. 4 stars