CACTUS EATERS by Dan White

Amazon | Barnes & Noble

Cactus Eaters - How I Lost My Mind and Almost Found Myself - On the Pacific Crest Trail

By Dan White

I was looking for some travel books at my local library when I came across this book. The spine had many indentations on it, and how could I resist a title like Cactus Eaters? My husband and his family eat cactus, but in the form of nopales - sliced into thin strips, cooked and inserted into tacos as a filling. I pulled the book out from the shelf and gave it a good flip before slipping it into my canvas tote bag. 

Cactus Eaters is a memoir by Dan White about his experience of hiking the Pacific Crest Trail with his then-girlfriend, Allison. This isn't just a hiking story. This is also a story of a struggling relationship between two people at pivotal points in their lives, from the perspective of a man whose life is changing and he is unsure of what he wants. Dan wonders whether their struggling relationship can survive outside of the Pacific Crest Trail. 

Before reading this book, I never realized that the PCT hiking community was so small. People recognize each other from the signature books that hikers sign at various points along the trail. Cactus Eaters introduces us to the lightweight hikers who follow the teachings of Ray Jardine, the snobbery and competitiveness that one can encounter occasionally, as well as other intriguing individuals that one can meet on the trail. At some points I found his assessment of certain individuals a bit too judgmental, but for the most part, I enjoyed reading his portraits of different people they met along the trail. 

Dan speculates on the type of person who would be drawn to the Pacific Crest Trail. Many embark on the trail to work through some type of emotional pain. Having grown up somewhat sheltered and privileged, he feels like he is unproven, like a sword not yet used in battle. The full title of this book is Cactus Eaters - How I lost my Mind and Almost Found Myself on the Pacific Crest Trail. *Almost* is right. During the last third of the book, Dan falls into a spiral of aimlessness and prioritizes himself and his PCT goal over Allison and their relationship. The memoir doesn't end with a neat, climactic moment of self-realization, but with his relationship with Allison unraveling into a distant friendship, and the two of them drifting off into their respective lives. As satisfying as it would have been to have a snappy Hollywood ending, I accepted the realism. 

Cactus Eaters breaks away from cliches ending in the protagonist/speaker "finding" himself. Contrary to expectations and hopes that he may have had going into the PCT, he fails to find himself, but instead, gets lost along the way and struggles to find direction after PCT. Eventually he moves on with his life, but those events occur far after the PCT experience. However, I was glad to know that he turned out okay. 

Overall, I really enjoyed this book and White's narrative style. Dan White intermingled his and Allison's experiences in the PCT with the historical background of the PCT and wandering thoughts.

ALL FALL DOWN by Jennifer Weiner

Amazon | Goodreads | Barnes & Noble

I found a used copy of All Fall Down by Jennifer Weiner in a Starbucks cafe in Point Loma in the newspaper rack. It was still in good condition, and I looked around for someone who might've placed it there on purpose. An old man smiled at me from his seat. Maybe he does this as a hobby, I thought, smiling back at him as I slipped the book into my purse.

Am I really going to read this?

Does my bookshelf need another book?

My paralegal program started recently, and on top of that, I started my new job as case assistant for one of the largest local firms in San Diego. I flipped through the book during the weekend as I printed out stuff from the computer. Before I knew it, I was halfway done. And a little after that, I was done.

All Fall Down is about an educated, upper-middle class mommy blogger who lives a stressful life trying to balance between taking care of her sensitive daughter, their finances (she has to write professionally to make ends meet for the family), her distant husband, and her aging father with Alzheimer's. To placate her stressful mind, she takes prescription painkillers. But soon, the calming and soothing effect of those pills becomes the only reason she is able to get up in the morning.

What makes this book good is that it deals with real problems and misconceptions that people have towards drug addiction. We all have this horrid image of the homeless and haggard low-income drug addict, but drug addiction goes past socio-economic barriers, as we can see in Jennifer Weiner's novel, All Fall Down.

My plan for this copy is to pass it onto the next person in a public place.

My rating: 5/5 stars

Find out more about All Fall Down by Jennifer Weiner:
Amazon | Goodreads | Barnes & Noble

THE SCHOOL FOR GOOD AND EVIL by Soman Chainani

Goodreads | Amazon | Barnes and Noble

The School for Good and Evil

by Soman Chainani

(Book 1)

Retellings of classic fairy tales have a history as long as gossip itself, and continue to be popular in pop culture. Among retellings is Soman Chainani's debut novel, The School for Good and Evil, which debuted on the New York Times bestseller list. In this hilarious novel, Chainani takes the generic, quasi-medieval setting of fairy tales and reinvents it to subvert countless fairy tale tropes while telling a story about friendship between two girls. 

Sophie and Agatha live in the village of Gavaldon, a generic fairy tale-esque village in the middle of some woods. Every year, on the eleventh night of the eleventh month, two children disappear. The legends say that a School Master kidnaps the children and takes them into a school where one of them learns Good and the other learns Evil. The children would eventually graduate into fairy tales as a hero and a villain. 

Sophie, the most beautiful girl in the village, has spent most of her life doing "good" deeds and primping herself to prepare to be kidnapped into the School for Good. Agatha, on the other hand, lives by a graveyard, wears black frocks, has a pet cat - looks as if she's perfect for the School for Evil.

However, when the kidnapping happens, the girls find that their purported paths have been switched - Agatha is a student of the School for Good while Sophie is thrown into the School for Evil. 

The School for Good and Evil challenges a lot of tropes introduced by fairy tales that a lot of us grow up accepting, such as that attributes such as ugliness, the color black, and dirtiness = evil, while attractiveness, the color white (and other pastels), and purity (pristine surroundings, pure intentions) = good. 

Chainani also questions the ideology of "goodness" and also our subjective connotations of what it means to "hurt" or "help" someone, and whether it's really so good to "give" something. The five rules that separate Good from Evil are:

1. The Evil attack. The Good defend. 
2. The Evil punish. The Good forgive. 
3. The Evil hurt. The Good help. 
4. The Evil take. The Good give. 
5. The Evil hate. The Good love. (page 157)

Take Rule 4 and apply it to the fate of Good animals who "help" Princesses:

"Animals love to help princesses for so many reasons!" said Princess Uma, stopping at the water's edge. "Because we sing pretty songs, because we give them shelter in the scary Woods, because they only wish they could be as beautiful and beloved as--"

"Wait."

Uma and the girls turned. Agatha held up the storybook's last page--a painting of the stag ripped to pieces by monsters as the princess escaped.

"How is that a happy ending?"

"If you aren't good enough to be a princess, then you're honored to die for one, of course," Uma smiled, as if she would learn this lesson soon enough. (page 130)

A lot of distinguishing between good and evil starts with the appearance, but the book also addresses deception (when a Good or Evil person is disguised as the other). Agatha struggles between the School's institutionally-enforced dichotomy between Good and Evil because she was placed in the School of Good, but her appearance and reclusive outward demeanor makes her appear as if she belongs with the School of Evil: 

"What if my face is Evil?"

Her teacher flinched at her tone.

"I'm far from home, I I've lost my only friend, everyone here hates me, and all I want is a way to find some kind of happy ending," Agatha said, red-hot. "But you can't even tell me the truth. My ending is not about what Good I do or what's inside me. It's about how I look." Spit flew out of her mouth.

"I never even had a chance." (page 372)

Despite this book being full of hilarious moments (mostly in which Sophie attempts to do Good deeds at school), it also contains some sincere moments of growth for Agatha's character, in which she emerges from beneath Sophie's flamboyant shadow and paves her own destiny. As her confidence increases, Agatha transforms from the reluctant sidekick to her own heroine, and also realizes that there are things in-between Good and Evil (page 423). 

Overall, this book helped me develop an appreciation for fairy tale villains for their flair and passion. With their contrasting personalities, Sophie and Agatha complement each other well as friends (and maybe frenemies). I absolutely loved the clever reinvention and subversion of fairy tale tropes in The School for Good and Evil by Soman Chainani. 

I look forward to reading the second book, A World Without Princes, which actually came out this April. The third book, The Last Ever After, will be released on July 21, 2015. 

Find out more about The School for Good and Evil by Soman Chainani:

Goodreads | Amazon | Barnes and Noble

DIARY OF A JOB SEARCH: One Man's Journey from Unemployment to a New Career by Tim Johnston

Amazon | Goodreads

Diary of a Job Search: One Man's Journey from Unemployment to a New Career

by Tim Johnston

Ever read an old manual? My dad owned a lot of old textbooks from the 1970s and 1980s, and as a kid, I'd flip through them whenever I was bored. One of the books was a guide on how to save money on your car, and the author spoke about driving beneath the speed limit, 55 mph. "Wow, cars were slow back then," the ten-year-old me would remark.

The technology of job hunting, while it is a constant phenomenon and necessity, is constantly changing, especially in the Internet Age. This book, like so many others, was a product of its time, and it reveals a lot of insight into the anxious mindset of the post-9/11 American job hunter.

Perhaps the economic chaos after 9/11 was the beginning of the end to the idea of one stable, lifelong career, the expectation that the same company will take care of its employees for life. The beginning of job hunting and company-hopping as employees realized that they were on their own in terms of securing their financial future. Along with new circumstances comes a new "game", new rules, and new tools to use in the job hunt. It's the reason Richard Bolle comes out with a new edition of What Color Is Your Parachute? every year (A thorough book of advice on the job hunting process. I recommend it).

Diary of a Job Search by Tim Johnston goes back to the pre-LinkedIn days of 2003. Tim the Job Hunter's journey is fun (and occasionally hilarious) to read.

I'd like to compare the experience of reading this to staring into a time capsule of what it was like to search for jobs around the time the Internet was starting to take off in popularity. Lots of references were made to the 9/11 attacks and their catastrophic effects on the job market. Tim regarded the use of the pre-LinkedIn Internet for job hunting with skepticism, and partly because job sites were already being spammed with resumes and sketchy sales opportunities.

Some lessons Tim learned along the way remain relevant in 2015: "feeding and watering" your network, interviews, negotiating one's salary, being likable/showing value in an interview, and being persistent in the job search despite the challenges of morale and unemployment.

I hope Tim is doing well today. He was a likable job hunting protagonist in this book, and even though our life circumstances are completely different, it was easy to identify with him and his concerns and aspirations.

My rating: 5/5 stars by 2003 standards

Thanks for reading! Find out more about Diary of a Job Search by Tim Johnston:

Amazon | Goodreads

Audiobook: The Silent Blade by R.A. Salvatore (Drizzt #11) - Narrated by Victor Bevine

Goodreads | Audible | Amazon

The Silent Blade

by R.A. Salvatore

(Legend of Drizzt #11)

Narrated by: Victor Bevine

In The Silent Blade by R.A. Salvatore, we see, once again, another lineup of old villains who've come back for a second (or third) chance to achieve their evil agendas: the Crystal Shard and Artemis Entreri. The novel switches between three different storylines--something I didn't mind, given the fact that each storyline follows a character with a distinct path. 

The Three Storylines

Once again, we continue the journeys of Drizzt and his friends and frenemies. Drizzt and his friends travel, as always, to save the world from evil. This time, the evil takes form in the return of the Crystal Shard to the hands of someone who can make its dreams for world domination come to fruition: Jarlaxle. It's great to see the crew reunited: Drizzt, Catti-Brie, Bruenor, Regis, and Wulfgar. 

The group is unsure of how to comfort Wulfgar. The seven-foot barbarian feels completely disconnected from the person he once was, prior to imprisonment and torture. Eventually, he sets out to do his own thing, hits up some bars and drowns his discomfort in booze, sex with short women, and fighting. Bartender offers him free booze, food, and a bed if he gets rid of troublemakers. Wulfgar finds a successful career in the bar as a professional brawler. 

Artemis Entreri, still suffering from a blow to his ego after two defeats by Drizzt, paces restlessly through Calimport and reenters the underground politics of the seedy city. Entreri meets Dwahvel, leader of a halfling guild. He had always defined himself by his physical fighting skills, but now that Entreri's been defeated, he feels empty...and he wants another rematch. Yeah. Okay. 

This isn't the first time Salvatore has split up a novel between several characters. The paths of our favorite characters converge towards the end, creating a sense of cohesion that was missing at the beginning of The Silent Blade. 

Human Characters Get More Opportunities to Grow and Change, Not Drizzt

Artemis Entreri is a flawed man--troubled, and struggling against his own weakness. And also, less predictable. Unlike Drizzt, who has always been "good", each choice that Entreri changes as a character after he's forced to reevaluate his values. While not quite likable, Wulfgar's struggles are less predictable, because he too is deviating from the typical Mary Sue sort of path. He's a broken man. 

The human characters beside Drizzt are allowed to transform more, perhaps because of their shorter life spans. At heart, Drizzt's is "good", and that's all he ever has been. His character has also become a lot more Mary Sue than back in The Crystal Shard, where Drizzt was depicted as a bloodthirsty swordsman. We know that it's not so much "growth" as it is a different rewriting of his character to be more tender and "good" because the prequels, which were written later, depicted Drizzt as a person who's always been good. However, there are mysteries in Drizzt's life. At the end, Jarlaxle reveals a juicy tidbit about how he came to know Drizzt. 

While sometimes it may seem like Entreri serves as a foil to Drizzt, sometimes it feels like the other way around--Drizzt serves as a foil to the human characters, who evolve, change, soften or harden their hearts depending on the circumstances. 

Audio Narration

I only started listening to the audiobooks after book 10, so this is the first time I've heard Bevine's interpretation of Artemis Entreri's voice. Not bad. Cold, calculating, but not hoarse or anything extraordinary, which is pretty much in character. Overall, Victor Bevine does a good job narrating this novel. His voice is engaging and expressive, pulling me into the story as I drive to and from work each day. 

Conclusion

The Silent Blade by R.A. Salvatore, narrated by Victor Bevine was a good read (or "listen", since I had listened to it by audiobook). I like where this arc is going. Wulfgar's rough life in the spine of the world opens up an opportunity to explore a different part of the world of Faerun. 

My rating: 4.5/5 (rounded to 5)

Find out more about The Silent Blade by R.A. Salvatore:

Goodreads | Audible | Amazon

***

See my review of: 

Passage to Dawn by R.A. Salvatore (Drizzt #10), Audiobook narrated by Victor Bevine

Front Roe: How to Be the Leading Lady in Your Own Life by Louise Roe

Amazon | Barnes & Noble | Goodreads

“My granny was never rich, but boy was she glamorous,” says Louise Roe in the introduction to her book, Front Roe - How to Be the Leading Lady in Your Own Life. “Elegant, ladylike, impeccably mannered, and dressed to the nines at all times…”

Louise Roe, fashion journalist and television host of makeover shows such as Plain Jane, Style by Jury, and Fit for Fashion, shares her style smarts with working women in Front Roe - How to Be the Leading Lady in Your Own Life. Front Roe offers lifestyle advice to women on how to live stylishly and to their fullest potential.

While the book focuses a lot on style, there is also a lot of great advice on etiquette and navigating tricky situations at work. I found this book inspirational, with its beautiful photos and down-to-earth advice. The wisdom shared in Front Roe reads like advice from a street-smart and well-dressed older sister--relatable, practical, and kind. Along with more advanced tips for the sophisticated reader, Front Roe also contains practical knowledge on life that is quite handy to the clueless folks (like me) who are interested in learning how to present themselves better in order to further their career and social lives.

I’ve read a lot of lifestyle books on living the chic life, and Front Roe stands out because of its breadth and depth in the topics that covers, as well as its delivery. The layout is easy to navigate: Front Roe is organized beautifully into sections and subsections of topics regarding style, fashion, work, beauty, lifestyle, and more. Louise Roe goes over the basics of each topic first (wardrobe basics, beauty regimen basics, etc) before going in-depth into related topics.

There’s a lot of advice in here, and you don’t have to read it all in one sitting. It’s fun to flip through. Front Roe is the sort of book that you can come back to anytime for a specific piece of advice. Louise is gorgeous, and the photos make her beauty and lifestyle shine. One of my fave photos from the book is the one with her bright tangerine lipstick.

Some of my favorite tidbits in this book are the parts about how to network and be successful in the workplace under “How to Dress for Work”. I also appreciated and applied Louise Roe’s tips on washing one’s face with a towel. Throughout high school, I was using a horrid technique with my towel and sans cleanser. No wonder my skin broke out so much despite me “washing” it. Now I know!

Front Roe - How to Be the Leading Lady in Your Own Life by Louise Roe is arranged beautifully and gives a lot of straightforward and useful advice to women in terms of channeling their “inner style goddess” into multiple aspects of their lives. Real-life wisdom on navigating through social and work situations makes this book so much more relatable to the everyday working woman.

My rating: 5/5 stars

You can find out more about Front Roe - How to Be the Leading Lady in Your Own Life by Louise Roe on Amazon, Barnes & Noble, and Goodreads. It comes out April 7, 2015.

Macaron Murder by Harper Lin (Patisserie Mystery, Book 1)

Amazon | Goodreads

Macaron Murder

by Harper Lin

(Patisserie Mystery, Book 1)

Genre: Cozy Mystery

Macaron Murder is a short mystery novella that takes place in Paris. Clemence Damour returns to her parents' posh and fancy apartment in Paris after some global adventuring. Her parents own a successful patisserie, which sells delicious pastries and desserts that are good enough to appease even the crankiest of neighbors, la gardienne. 

However, the day after delivering the macarons to la gardienne, the cranky old neighbor is found dead in her apartment with a half-empty box of macarons nearby. Because of this detail, Clemence is immediately placed as a suspect, so she goes out of her way to investigate the other possible suspects in order to clear herself and to find the true culprit. In the meantime, she is also developing chemistry with a cute guy with a typewriter, and she spends time with her good friends at the patisserie. 

True to the cozy subgenre, Macaron Murder treats the murder of la gardienne lightly, as well as sex scandals between the inhabitants of the posh apartment. Murder? Quite awful, but just a problem to solve. The light tone of the story kept the novel easy and fun to read, for its short length. However, the downside of having such a short length is that side characters don't enough space to be fleshed into three-dimensional characters. We're stuck with some simple caricatures such as the gruff and dismissive inspector. Clemence comes off as a bit distant at times, but ultimately I found her intelligent and likable.

With that in mind, the novella is fun and reads fast. The narrator's little explanations of French culture were welcomed for context. The vision of Paris painted by this novel is clean, posh, and sweet. Overall, I recommend this book as a quick and easy read. It won't take long to finish it and the mystery is fun to follow, as Clemence goes through her list of suspects to find the true culprit of the crime.

As of February 19, 2015, the Macaron Murder ebook is free on Amazon. Go for it!

My rating: 

Find out more about Macaron Murder by Harper Lin:

Amazon | Goodreads

Sound of Sirens by Jen Minkman (Tales of Skylge #1)

Amazon | Goodreads

Sound of Sirens

by Jen Minkman

(Tales of Skylge #1)

After reading Jen Minkman's The Island series, I was stunned by how different this novel is in comparison to the ones in her former series, possibly because in this novel, possibly because Minkman draws inspiration from the history of her home country, the Netherlands. Sound of Sirens is well written, and while it took a while to set up, I loved the characters and the cultural and geographical details incorporated throughout the book.  

Sound of Sirens takes place in an island in which two groups of people live: the Currents and the Skylgers. The Currents are the rich ruling class who came from across the sea, while Skylgers are natives to the island. Electricity exists, but the Currents hoard it. The island is surrounded by mysterious merfolk whose siren calls lead hypnotized island folk to their watery doom. It seems that neither Currents nor Skylgers are immune to the call of the Siren. 

Enna, the Skygler main character, is the daughter of a woman who died after heeding the Siren's call. After her brother who returned from a long voyage gives her an LP that can only be played by electric devices, she befriends a Current guy named Royce. Who's hot. And popular with the girls. And somehow indifferent to all except Enna.

Thus begins a taboo Skygler-Current relationship, meanwhile Enna learns more about the monopoly that the Currents hold over electricity, and that there is more to the history of the island of Skylge than what was taught in history class.

Sometimes Enna comes close to falling into what I consider the "Bella Complex" in which she considers herself plain compared to Royce, and Royce is such a girl magnet that it's a wonder he doesn't sparkle in the sunlight.

However, she is not a Bella, because she's curious and passionate about the larger politics of the island. She doesn't want to hide or even defend herself from the scary politics; she wants to change the bigger picture--proactively. She wants to learn more about the history. She is proud of her Skylger culture and language, which is slowly disappearing beneath the Current rule.

The language in this book is simplistic and minimalist, and compared to her other series, Minkman writes with more familiarity about the details of Skylge because she is drawing ideas from her home country this time. It took some time to set up the world and its conflicts, but not too long. Once the island of Skylge was established, I wanted to find out how far Enna would go to discover the truths of the island, and how far the Currents would go to protect the status quo.

I can't wait to read the sequel!

My rating: 4.5 out of 5 stars, rounded up to 5 stars

Tales of Skylge:

1. Sound of Sirens (this)

2. Light of Lorelei 

My Favorite Cookbook - The One That I Will Live and Dine By

Amazon | Goodreads | Barnes and Noble

I've been using this book for over three years, but hadn't felt I was ready to discuss its merits on an adequate level. After all, how can I properly review a book without having attempted several of its recipes?

Let me say this: this cookbook was what inspired me to start cooking.

Before I encountered the colorful and simple cover of The Frugal Foodie while working at a used bookstore, I had already been learning to bake cookies and cupcakes. However, I was an extremely inexperienced cook. I didn't know how to chop or prepare a lot of vegetables, and I followed recipes to the letter, which was probably why baking seemed a lot less intimidating to begin with.

The layout of the book was what made it so accessible and attractive to a cooking novice (or dunce) like me. There are tables on substitution ingredients, mix-and-match additives to a salad, etc. I love going back and referring to them.

However, what elevates this book beyond a simple collection of recipes is the philosophy that a person with a budget can create and dine on gourmet meals by using ingredients wisely and creatively. The philosophy in this book promotes a sustainable-but-luxurious gourmet lifestyle. It even romanticizes the act of cooking at home as opposed to out and unloading a lot of cash for a pre-made culinary adventure. I don't mind the romanticization of cooking at home. In fact, I am eager to embrace and adopt this ideal.

The language is beautiful, and the anecdotes and tips for frugal living greatly enhance The Frugal Foodie's re-read value. I've read it over and over again, not just as a reference for cooking, but for entertainment. 

In the introduction, Lynette Shirk stated, 

"Being frugal is about getting the most value from your food. It doesn't mean using absolutely the least expensive ingredients. You could probably pare your food budget down to pennies if you lived on potatoes and ramen noodles--but would you call that living? Making smart choices are how, when, and where you spend your money will fill your pantry and menus with delicious options. Splurge on a little balsamic vinegar and extra-virgin olive oil for salad dressings, and a few shallots and humble ingredients will come alive with flavor." 

As with most recipe books, there are amazing recipes and some that don't quite turn out as expected. I will share some pictures of my renditions of some of my favorite recipes in this cookbook. I improvise now, but keep in mind that these recipes worked well for me when I followed them faithfully as a cooking novice in 2011. 

"Bowled-Over Chili"

I used ground turkey instead of ground pork because that was what I had on hand, and it still turned out quite well. 

Teriyaki Chicken Stir Fry, based on "Teriyaki Chicken "Skewers"

I took the leftovers from the "Teriyaki Chicken Skewers" and added some broccoli, mushroom, and shredded carrot to create a stir fry, and then served it with steamed rice.

"Pie: Mushroom and Onion"

This was the pie before I baked it. Unfortunately, I have misplaced the photo of the finished pie. The concept of a mushroom pie was strange to me at first, but it was delicious! I love the idea of using mashed potatoes as a savory pie crust. It's also vegetarian, which saves money on meat.

Other Recipe Favorites:

• "Dinner 1: Chicken Curry." This recipe has made it into my regular meal rotation, and is friendly to improvisations. Instead of water, I recommend using coconut milk for a richer and creamier sauce. 
• "Hard-Boiled Curry in a Hurry." Because I was rather impatient the day I attempted this, the eggs were mushy instead of choppable, but it was still incredibly yummy. This recipe uses eggs instead of chicken, but since it uses 12 eggs and my husband loves to eat fried eggs, I reserve the eggs for him and make the chicken curry instead.
• "Classic Pizza Dough." This beats any pizza crust mix that I've ever used (most which result in a flat, awfully-textured crust). While I used jars and cans of pasta sauce as the typical fillings instead of the ones suggested by the book, this pizza dough was great because the crust would inflate tremendously and the texture would be chewy and soft. 

Recipes That Didn't Work Out For Me: (Granted, it was mostly my fault as a cooking novice. I will explain in the following examples.)

• "Three-Day Sandwich." This was the first recipe I ever attempted, and in my great ambition to have my siblings and I feast "like kings from this majestic sandwich," I went to the grocery store to get the ingredients, many which I was unaccustomed to using. However, my biggest mistake as a cooking novice, probably in the history of humankind, was not knowing the difference between a "head" of garlic and a "clove" of garlic.
  
  The recipe asked for a clove, and I figured it must mean the entire head, so I peeled each clove in the head and threw them all into the blender.
  
  For the tapenade, I couldn't find any anchovy fillets so I figured sardines would do. To this day I still do not know what a tapenade is.
  
  ...It did not go well. But my mom loves garlic, so she enjoyed the sandwich a lot more than my siblings and I did.
  
• "Lentil Burgers." Another vegetarian recipe like the mushroom pie, but ultimately I found it lacking in flavor despite adding the salt and pepper to taste. I tried adding chicken boullion, but that just gave it a really weird flavor. 

_____________________________________________________

Here is the table of contents:

• Introduction
• Chapter 1: Bankable Breakfasts
  Morning Fix, Shell Game, Commuter Sammies, Cozy Oats
  3-in-1 Eye-Opener Mix
  Cents-able solutions: Cost-Cutting Cleanup Concoctions
  Cents-able Solutions: Meal Planning 101
• Chapter 2: Brunches--When Your Wallet Doesn't Have Bunches!
  Craveable Casseroles, Naked Quiches, Waffle Bites
  Cents-able Solutions: Be a Hipper Clipper
• Chapter 3: Midday Money Matters: Lunch for Less
  Brown-Baggin' It, Bento Box, Down-Home American Diner
  Ladies Lunchin'
  Cents-able Solutions: Food Storage and Safety
• Chapter 4: Snacks on a Shoestring
  Flashback Candy, Dirt-Cheap Self-Filling Cupcakes, A Way with Wings
  Cents-able Solutions: Grow Your Own
• Chapter 5: Dinners on a Dime
  The Three P's: Pizza, Pasta, and Potatoes, Fowl Play, Retro Date-Night
  Restaurant Dinners
  Cents-able Solutions: Savvy Substitutions
• Chapter 6: Pulled-Purse-Strings Parties
  Pasta Roll Play, Get Punchy, Stone Soup
  Cents-able Solutions: "Antidepressants"
• Chapter 7: Clever Kids' Meals
  The Usual Suspects, Hippie Food, Baby Food, Colorful Birthday Party
  Cents-able Solutions: Snacks for Starving STudents
• Chapter 8: Midnight Snacks
  Mediterranean Meze Munchies, Hot, Toasty, Cheesy and Melty
  Secret Sweets
  Cents-able Solutions: Dollar-Stretching Dot-Coms
• Chapter 9: Thrifty Gifts
  Tasty Tokens, Dessert with Benefits, The Frugal Beauty
  Cents-able Solutions: Restaurant Recessionista
• Acknowledgments 
• About the Authors
  

__________________________________________________

Conclusion

There are still many recipes in this book that I plan to try, so I will be using this book for quite a while. I whole-heartedly recommend this cookbook to anyone who would like to experiment with recipes and enhance their frugal lifestyle (and cooking skills) with yummy bites. 

My rating:

Find out more about The Frugal Foodie by Lara Starr with Lynette Shirk:

Amazon | Goodreads | Barnes and Noble

Review: THE WANTED by Lauren Nicolle Taylor (The Woodlands #4)

Amazon | Goodreads

The Wanted

by Lauren Nicolle Taylor

(The Woodlands #4)

Here are some facts about this book:

• The fourth and last novel in the series, The Woodlands 
• Will release on October 31, 2014
• A post-apocalyptic dystopian novel
• Responsible for at least two late nights beneath the blanket 
• Probably contains nicotine somewhere in there

Out of all the books in The Woodlands series, this one is my favorite because of the dual narrative and beautiful language that weaves together the sensory details with Rosa's inner thoughts. Rosa may think that she's horrible with metaphors, but her narrative voice is actually filled with vivid figurative language. 

The story is divided between the perspectives of Rosa and Joseph. Given the movement that Rosa and Joseph take part in against the oppressive regime of the Superiors, I had an idea of what would happen, but I had no idea how. The episodes between Rosa and Joseph are brief but important -- each scene moves the story forward and keeps me intrigued on what would happen next. 

Sometimes the perspective would switch and I'd whine, "No, but I wanted to find out what happened to Rosa." But soon enough, I'd be entranced with Joseph's side of the line. 

So what's going on in The Wanted?

Rosa is a prisoner of the Superiors and faces interrogations in multiple forms. They want information about her friends, the Survivors, and Joseph. She has to stay strong and defiant and not let them break her. 

I had no idea how Rosa was going to get out of that captivity. I was thinking that maybe Joseph could smash his way in to save her, but then that'd be really cliched and predictable. The story went nowhere in that direction. It was filled with plot twists that boggled my mind and kept me chasing down the rest of the story to find out what would happen. 

In the beginning of the series, I wasn't able to identify strongly with Rosa (even though I liked her a lot as a character), but in The Wanted, I cheered for her the whole way. I think it's partly because she has matured over the past few books, especially after the death of Apella, a girl who ultimately proved Rosa's judgmental views wrong with her sacrifice. And while Rosa does "size up" people when observing them, she's a lot less judgmental than before because she tries to see things from their side of the fence.

Joseph was forced to leave her and escape. He struggles with feelings of guilt over the violence he used in order to flee. In the meantime, he is helping with the Survivors' rebellion against the iron grip of the Superiors. With many readers, there was an issue of Joseph being too perfect. To me, he just came across as an optimistic sort of guy who knows what he wants. In this book, however, his optimism and values go under trials of loneliness, grief, guilt, and uncertainty. It was good to explore some inner turmoil and weakness within him because his negative reaction to certain actions shows us where his values are as a person. Even if he is an overall hero, he can still be prone to moments of weakness. 

Like with Rosa, some of the people in the Survivors have mellowed out a bit after their initial hostility towards each other, such as Deshi. I've gotten really fond of him and Rash as minor characters. I was even hoping for Deshi to hook up with another guy that comes into the picture in this novel, but *ahem* that did not happen, probably for the best. 

I'm going to miss Rosa, Deshi, Rash, and Joseph. They had a wonderfully cranky but loving dynamic. When I saw the novella The Willful, I was actually hoping that this series had been extended into a quintet. Overall, I enjoyed this wonderful ending to The Woodlands series. The main loop is concluded, but as with life, there is a lot of uncertainty in the details in the aftermath. Will Deshi and Hessa become close again? Will Rosa and Joseph move past this moment of disloyalty? Will they all be a family in five years, after things have settled down somewhat? I think so.

My rating:

Find out more about The Wanted by Lauren Nicolle Taylor on:

Amazon | Goodreads

Check out my reviews on the other The Woodlands novels:

The Woodlands (#1)

The Wall (#2)

The Wounded (#3)

Blog Tour: THE NIGHT IS FOUND by Kat Kruger

Hey there. Welcome to this stop in the Take a Walk on the Wilds Side blog tour! I was sent this trilogy (including the eARC for the third installment), and my mind is just blown from the vast and complex world of werewolf societies that Kat Kruger has created. To my faerie-loving brain, werewolves had never been as awesome as they are in these novels. This trilogy is like my gateway drug to werewolf lit, and part of what makes it so addicting is the suspenseful storytelling, filled with twists that caught me by surprise and kept me up late at night.

Book Review: THE WEIGHT OF BLOOD by David Daglish (The Half-Orcs #1)

Amazon | Book Depository | B&N | Goodreads

The Weight of Blood
by David Daglish
(The Half-Orcs #1)
Published: 2010
Genre: Dark Fantasy

What first drew me to this book was the intriguing cover with the two half-orc brothers lurking along the edge of a camp. The second attraction was the fact that this series is about half-orcs, not something I think about too often - most of the cute YA fantasy novels I've been reading tend to feature half-human, half-fae or half-elven main characters. The third thing was that the ebook is free on Amazon (also free on Nook, if that's how you roll) and has decent reviews. Being the cheapster that I am, the freebie status cemented my interest.

Book Review: THE WOUNDED by Lauren Nicolle Taylor

Amazon | Barnes and Noble | Goodreads

The Wounded

by Lauren Nicolle Taylor

Book 3 of The Woodlands Series

Published: February 28, 2014

Note: I was given an eARC in exchange for an honest review.

Despite the controversy over Rosa's character (let's face it: she has a strong personality, and we probably wouldn't get along very well), I thought it was realistic for all the trauma she has gone through. Her determination to make things right for her family is also what distinguishes Rosa as a badass heroine. I actually thought Clara in the first book was some sort of lovable freak of nature. How does one go through such horrific things (like being pulled away from your family, forced artificial insemination) and still be nice and pleasant? One would become a tiger, trying to protect whatever they have left. 

And that's exactly what Rosa is. She is a protective tiger, ever so ready to protect her new-found family. Following her adventures from the second novel, she has become reunited with her dad, Pelo, but holds resentments against him for abandoning her as a child for the cause. With father and daughter reunited once more, they have to go back to The Wall, where the Survivors live. The path is paved with dangers, and once they return, they have to figure out what to do.

Book Review: CROWN OF MIDNIGHT by Sarah J. Maas

Amazon | Barnes & Noble | Goodreads

Crown of Midnight 

by Sarah J. Maas

(Throne of Glass #2)

Published: 2013, Bloomsbury USA

Genre: YA / Fantasy

For the sake of not spoiling anything, I'll try to focus on my reactions. As the sequel to Throne of Glass, Crown of Midnight has a much more satisfying story with a less-contrived plot. The competition structure of the story with its intriguing subplots in the first book had felt contrived - there's none of that here. Crown of Midnight is filled with plot twists, betrayals, and mysteries that keep me with the story.. 

But I had to take an two-month-long hiatus when I hit the middle of the book.

Why, you ask? 

Book Review: WRITING ABOUT WORLD LITERATURE By Karen Gocsik

Published 2012
Genre: Nonfiction / Academic Writing / Guide

Goodreads | Amazon

My first reaction while reading the book was: where was this when I was a freshman?! Writing About World Literature is a tiny book in a small trade paperback form. Spanning only 132 pages, it gives you the basic guidelines on how to organize your thought process and come up with ideas for an academic paper. There are five types of papers that she covers in the book:

Book Review: ECCENTRIC GLAMOUR by Simon Doonan

Goodreads | Amazon

Title: Eccentric Glamour: Creating an Insanely More Fabulous You
Author: Simon Doonan
Genre: Non-Fiction / Fashion / Guide
Published: 2008

A charming style guide written by a charismatic gay man. While his love of drama, bad advice, and loud cell phone conversations may make me recoil in fear should I ever meet him in real life, I am in love with Simon Doonan's sharp-witted writing persona. His warm personality oozes out from the ink squiggles. On top of everything that I love about Doonan, he is also the husband of Jonathan Adler, one of the coolest stationery designers out there. What does being husbands with Jonathan Adler say about him? That he has great taste in men, of course. 

Book Review: SAGA by Brian K. Vaughan and Fiona Staples (Volume 2)

Goodreads | Amazon

Saga (Volume 2) by Brian K. Vaughan (writer) and Fiona Staples (artist)

Genres: Comics / Fantasy / Romance / Sci-Fi

I'm going to start by saying that I am in no way immersed in the comic book world. As someone who can probably count all the graphic novels she has read with the fingers of both her hands, I've barely dipped my toes into the waters of the giant ocean of ink, paint, and other media. Most of the comics I've read were introduced to me by a friend who works in a bookstore, Saga included. Since I'm not a collector, I usually wait until the comics I love have been collected into a trade volume. Saga (Vol. 2) was gifted to me by this special friend, and it's taken me at least six months to get to reading it. Yay!

Book Review: The Woodlands by Lauren Nicolle Taylor

The fiercely defiant face of Rosa on the cover was what drew my initial curiosity about this book. Once I started reading, I was sucked into the The Woodlands, a dystopian thriller full of defiance, love, adaptation, and hope in the face of oppressive circumstances. 

The Woodlands

By Lauren Nicolle Taylor

Amazon | Goodreads

(The ebook is free on Amazon right now, by the way.)

Goodreads Summary:

When being unique puts you in danger and speaking your mind can be punishable by death, you might find yourself fighting to survive. Sixteen-year-old Rosa lives in one of the eight enclosed cities of The Woodlands. Where the lone survivors of a devastating race war have settled in the Russian wilderness because it’s the only scrap of land left habitable on the planet. In these circular cities, everyone must abide by the law or face harsh punishment. Rosa's inability to conform and obey the rules brands her a leper and no one wants to be within two feet of her, until she meets Joseph. He's blonde, fair-skinned, green-eyed, and the laid-back complete opposite of Rosa. She's never met anyone quite like him, and she knows that spells danger.

But differences weren't always a bad thing. People used to think being unique was one of the most treasured of traits to have. Now, the Superiors, who ruthlessly control the concrete cities with an iron fist, are obsessed with creating a 'raceless' race. They are convinced this is the only way to avoid another war. Any anomalies must be destroyed.

The Superiors are unstoppable and can do anything they want. After all, they are considered superheroes by the general public. But not everyone sees them this way. When they continue to abuse their power by collecting young girls for use in their secret, high-tech breeding program, they have no idea that one of those girls has somehow managed to make friends even she didn't know she had. And one man will stop at nothing to save her.

Since this is a dystopian novel, let's talk about how this futuristic society works:

• The Superiors want absolute loyalty, and in order to create that loyalty, it must dissolve all other competing loyalties that each person has: family, ethnicity, common history - things that bring people together against outside forces such as the oppressive government. 
• Children are taken away from parents at the age of 18 (or sooner, if the parents have another kid - only one child per household) to learn a trade, and to leave their hometown forever. This destroys any loyalties a person may hold for their family or home community. 
• Children are indoctrinated from a young age with pro-government lines and pledges. 
• The government has a goal of creating a superior race: One race, created by the mixing of all the other races to create a race of people who look exactly the same. Their ideal look is that of light brown skin and blue eyes. It would be the perfect sort of nationalism - one in which the government is literally the creator and parent of each person. 
• Marriage: people are matched with partners, usually from different hometowns and races, and they are expected to produce one child. The goal is that, given time, with enough racial mixing and ethnic erasing, the future generations will have no sense of ethnic identity. 

What I Liked:

• I couldn't put the book down -  I love how Taylor sprinkles hints before shocking us with the revelation. The questions kept me going as I tried to piece together the hints. The story drops just enough hints for me to suspect there is something more than what's being shown, and even throw in a few guesses in the right direction before tying up the loose ends later on. 
• Twists - They kept me on my toes. I kept reading to find out what was really going on. 
• Rosa's smart and observant - She's good at seizing people up, but occasionally errs on the side of being too judgmental. We get to meet characters through her eyes, even when she turns out to be wrong. She is disgusted with weak-willed characters, partly because her mother failed to stand up to Rosa's cruel stepfather because she was too scared and meek. 
• Most characters are more than they appear - There aren't really any two-dimensional characters here. The characters that surround Rosa may act a certain way (thus causing Rosa to form certain judgments), but they are hiding an inner complexity. There are no single-minded characters; everyone acts a certain way for a reason that isn't apparent at first. 
• Rosa and Joseph don't hit it off right away - She's not going to be lovey-dovey right away. She has her own issues to deal with, especially considering her own personal history of being abandoned by her mother. Rosa struggles with her trust issues, but Joseph is patient and considerate. I would like to learn more about why Joseph is so devoted to Rosa, though. 
• Clara isn't as naive as she sounds - As the perfect foil, Clara embodies the good and hope in the world to Rosa. "I know you don't understand it, Rosa, but I love this baby. I am her mother. That is a strong bond. My love is MY choice, don't ruin it. (111)" Where Rosa is mistrustful, Clara is trusting and optimistic. But that quote indicates that Clara is mindfully hopeful about motherhood - she's loving and hopeful because she chooses to be. Clara is a lot wiser than she shows with her light demeanor, and rises to protect Rosa in her motherly way. 
• The concept of the maternal instinct is questioned - Rosa doesn't immediately feel the expected motherly love towards the fetus, which she refers to as "the leech." After having read through a lot of tropes about parental insta-love (which is pretty nice), finding this sort of ambiguity towards unplanned parenthood is refreshing and honest. 

What I Didn't Like:

• There are certain coincidences that are rather convenient for the plot, especially concerning the placements, relocation, and matching of Rosa and Joseph. I can't talk too much about this without spoiling, so I'll leave it here.

Overall, I'm really glad I read The Woodlands. The writing here is amazing. Questions after questions led me throughout the book, and the answers, when given, packed an emotional punch. I didn't want to leave Rosa at the end of the book. I'm still dying to know what happens in the sequel, The Wall.

The society divided into circles (like districts), the oppressiveness of the governments and the weak mother coupled with the strong daughter are similarities that The Woodlands has with The Hunger Games. If you enjoyed The Hunger Games, then you'll probably enjoy this book too. 

To be honest, I liked The Woodlands more than The Hunger Games because the characterization is a lot more complex here, and the plot isn't limited to a survival, must-win game plot. 

My Rating:

Thanks for reading! Have you downloaded The Woodlands yet? It's a great book!