Review: Magnolia Table: A Collection of Recipes for Gathering

Magnolia Table: A Collection of Recipes for Gathering by Joanna Gaines
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

If you ever watch HGTV's show Fixer Upper, then your acquainted with Joanna Gaines, the designer who brings her clients dream home to life. In their last season of the show, one of the projects was a restaurant which had been a staple with history in the Gaines's town of Waco, Texas. Chip and Joanna bought the restaurant and as usual Joanna put her spin on it and updated the restaurant which now they own.

In this book, Magnolia Table is also the name of their restaurant, Joanna shares some of her families recipes and some she put on the menu as well. The recipes in this book are easy for a home cook to make, as Joanna isn't a chef by trade. The beautiful pictures of the food will make your mouth water, and get even the most inexperience cook to make these. The instructions are easily laid out, for one to understand. Their are recipes for almost every family or individual to fix and will satisfy your hunger.

I also like the little backstory to the recipes and the feel like she was actually telling me about the recipe or the meaning of the recipe, or even the memory that went along with it. Even though she isn't a renounced chef, Joanna has put together a wonderful cookbook, for which you can pass down from generation to generation.

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Review: Shot in the Dark

Shot in the Dark by Cleo Coyle
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Claire Cosi and her posses are back for another fun filled adventure at the Village Blend Coffeehouse. This time around Claire's coffeehouse has been voted the best hook-up place in all of NY, thanks to this new dating app, Cinder, which her ex-husband and coffee finder Matteo is using. But when one Cinder-ella has a bad dating experience with a Cinder-fella, and the jilted lady confronts the man in the coffee shop with with a gun (which is only filled with blanks) Claire's business takes the hit when the video goes viral.

But like all good Coffeehouse books, there's always someone in trouble and Claire is always there to solve the murder, this time it ends up as a Cinder-fella. Of course that's not all that's happening in this book. Joy, Claire and Matteo's daughter is thinking that the NYPD Detective Franco, that she's been seeing is cheating on her and asks her mother to help her find out. Tucker, her assistance manger, is so upset because of the business being slow, is blaming himself for becoming friends with Gun-Girl and quits the coffeehouse, Mike, Claire's fiancee has to go to London to work with them on this new drug, Stix, whom all the kids are using now. And of course Madame and her love life with all the men from the Silver-Fox app, which she's been using. So there's plenty of catching up to do with gang.

With each book we characters have been well developed in which they feel like friends than just characters. With well developed background theme and great writing, the author has made this series into of the most popular cozy mysteries out there. Cleo Coyle is the pen name for writer Alice Alfonsi and her husband Marc Cerasini. Together they bring together the character's, story line, and very well developed themes.

This fast-pace, entertaining, fun, suspenseful, humorous, engaging story with twist and turns that will have you second guessing yourself as to who the murder really is.


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Review: Unbreak My Heart

Unbreak My Heart by Toni Braxton
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Toni Braxton hasn't had an easy life. From her up bringing and attending church almost every day, to two bankruptcy, a son who has autism, and her Lupus disease. In her memoir, Toni opens up about all of this and how she has overcome and rebuilt her life.

The oldest child, Toni help tended to her younger siblings, and at a very young age, her parents decided they would all be attending church, as her parents bounced from one church to another, Toni didn't fit into their religion of wearing dresses everyday, speaking in tongues, she long to dance to her own beat of the drum. Even though she didn't fit in with her parents beliefs, she didn't realize they were installing values, morals, and teaching her to stand on her own to feet, making her a strong woman who she is today.

She talks about how the record company only wanted her and not her sisters, how her parents disapproved of this, how her sisters in later life expected her to help them have a career in the limelight. She explains how she came about to having to file bankruptcy and how her record label and tour wouldn't help her when she went on tour with Kenny G. How the banks sent in inspectors and took her five Grammy's because they were classified as assets. She lost the rights to many of her songs, but was able to keep the rights to one of her most popular songs, "Unbreak My Heart".

She talks about how she didn't let all of that bring her down, in fact it made her want to work harder, little did she know at the time her health would play a huge part in her life from here on out. While performing on Broadway, Braxton passes out and she is transported to the hospital, there they find out she has a heart problem, however this wasn't the only problem she had. Upon further testing the results came back, Toni Braxton has Lupus. In true Toni Braxton fashion, she learned everything she could about her disease in which will be a part of her life for as long as she remains on earth. She talks about working with the Lupus Chapter and how she enjoys working with other women who have this disease.

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Review: Snow Flower and the Secret Fan

Snow Flower and the Secret Fan by Lisa See
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

In Asian culture, boys are superior, and girls are worthless, they are only good to marry off. As in the case of this book. Set in the 19th century, women don't have a voice, they don't have choices, and their culture is so much of a hard endurance. The woman go through a ritual of foot binding. This custom of applying tight binding to the feet of young girls to modify the shape of their feet. Foot binding displayed the status of women from wealthy families, who did not need their feet to work, and was a symbol of beauty in Chinese culture. Foot binding limited the mobility of women, resulting in them walking in a swaying unsteady gait.

This was how Lily, a young girl who was matched to a good, high standing family, and Snow Flower, Lily's laotong, a companion, a sister in a secret sisterhood. Their friendship blossoms into a beautiful friendship that last through the age of time. Although after Lily gets married, she finds out the truth about Snow Flower, her family was once a very powerful family, and then they lost it all, the match maker is actual Snow Flower's aunt, and because she was Lily's laotong, she was married off to a butcher, which is classified as the lowest standard in the Chinese culture. Lily's new mother-in-law tells Lily she must not talk or see Snow Flower ever again, but Lily finds a way to stay in touch with Snow Flower. The two have been through so much together, Lily will never stop talking or seeing Snow Flower.

This book brought back memories of my childhood friends, and the tight closeness, sister like we all shared as we were growing up, moving on, being their for one and other in the good times and bad. I found their is a Lily and Snow flower in all of us.

One thing I am so grateful for is, I'm happy I was born in my country and in this time period. I'm able to think at my own free will, I'm in individual, and I can make my own choices. Lily and Snow Flower could do none of it. I was getting a little angry every time they kept saying that girls/daughters/women/wives where worthless, I did have to take a step back and remember this was the way of the culture in that time in their country.

I like how Lily, as she's the narrator of the book, speaks with love and fondness of her friend and you could actually feel the love these women shared with each other. How no matter how high Lily's status was she never lost sight Snow Flower was and would always be her "sister", her friend. She didn't let anyone stand in her way or come between them. They shared so much laughter, love, sorrow, between each other, they were each other's biggest cheerleader, and had the biggest shoulder to cry on.

Although this story was a bit sad, there was something about it which made me feel happy for both of the characters, which made this such a beautiful story that needed to be told. I learned so much about the culture of this country and the time period. At first the story seemed to be moving at a slow pace, but then I realized it was the way the narrator was telling it because in that time, they didn't move fast, and it was as if I was sitting right there in front of Lily as she told me her story.

This is a beautifully written book.

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Review: The Vegetarian

The Vegetarian by Han Kang
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

This novella was a very pleasant surprise for me. I didn't think I would really like it, and as it turned out I loved it! It kept me intrigue and I felt as if I had to keep reading it just to find out what happens.

My heart went out to Yeong-hye, a young married,completely ordinary wife ( other than she doesn't like to wear a bra.) and home-maker who, one day, suddenly decides to stop eating meat after a dream. She can't explain to her husband what the dream was about it, but because of this dream it haunted her and soon she finds herself distanced from her family and from society, who can't understand why she has chosen to do this. This begins her down-ward spiral.

The story is told in three parts, by three different family members. The first part is told by Yeong - hye's husband, Cheong. The second part is told by her brother-in-law, an artist, and the third part is told by Yeong-hye's sister In-hye, and is the only family member that still stands by her after her decline. However, since this book is about Yeong-hye turning into a vegetarian, the reader never even see her perspective of. There is some dialog of her talking and a some about her feelings, but not much.

One thing I must say about this book, it does not talk a lot of the vegetarian ways of eating, or of the diet itself, this is just a story of one woman who chooses to not eat meat. It basically deals with desire, shame, and empathy reflected by the characters' faltering attempts to understand the people around them. This is a darker book, so if your thinking this is going to be all unicorns and chocolates, you'll be very disappointed. It is a wonderful book, that brings out many different emotions. You might not connect to easily to the main character, since the reader doesn't hear from her much, but you do feel something for her. In a way I can understand how making a decision, and other people around you, especially your family, who are suppose to love and support you in whatever you decide to do, criticize you, don't attempt to hear you out, and past judgement, because they don't believe in you enough. These are some of the things that everybody did Yeong-hye. She was basically fighting a battle within a battle all on her own.





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Review: My Sergei: A Love Story

My Sergei: A Love Story by Ekaterina Gordeeva
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

Ekaterina Gordeeva and Sergei Grinkov were two times Olympians who won gold and four times World champions. When the two skated, they moved as one, the moves were breathtaking, excellence. beautiful and romantic, technically, but also emotionally, they were so incredible as a team. They really set the bar high in pairs figure skating, for all who came after them. What made Ekarterina and Sergei most unique was their chemistry with each other as they became one of the most romantic and beloved pairs teams of all time.

Their love story isn't just about them being one of the greatest pair skaters in the world, but also as a team, a man and a woman, husband and wife, father and mother, and then tragically, a skater without a partner, a single mother, a widow, alone.

It was one of the greatest tragedies in the sport of ice skating, when in November 1995, while training in Lake Placid, for the 'Stars on Ice' tour, and with his partner (wife) Ekaterina "Katia", as family, friends, call her, along with people in the skating world calls her, Sergei Grinkov collapsed at the Olympic Center. He died of a heart attack.

Katia, found herself lost after Seregi's death, and writes not only how she felt in those dark, lonely days after he passed, all the questions she had about how she would go on, how will she be able to raise her daughter and answer the questions she will have about her dad, the dad who she'd never know, who wouldn't be there for her first day of school, who wouldn't walk her down the isle when she got married.

She tells their story in this book, not only about herself but also Seregi's from the time he was born, to how he became a skater, to their marriage, becoming a father for the first time. As she tells their story, you can feel the love they had for each other, their happy times when they were off the ice as well as on the ice. She shares into their lives. She talks about the other skaters who were around them, many who were there when Seregi passed, those who helped them both with their english, who became their friends, and later her friends who stood by her, were there for her not only at the rink, hospital or funeral, but after all of it was said and done. They stood by her when she made the choice to return to her home, Russia. She felt she needed to be around family, and Sergei, as that is where they buried him, in his home country.

She talks about life after losing her husband, how she thought how difficult it was and how it might be for the rest of her life, as she says in the book, she just didn't lose her skating partner, she didn't lose just her husband, but she also lost a part of herself, her heart. She writes about how life went on around her, how she, herself, had to make a life for her and her baby girl Daria, how hard it was at times to look at her daughter who reminded her so much of her father, and feel her heartbreaking again, and again, and again. But Daria, was always their for Katia, through the good times and the bad, and she helped her to realize it was up to her to survive, to move on, to continue to live.

The whole time you can feel the same emotions she was feeling, she did a wonderful job of showing you her world, her love for Seregi, and how she herself had to move on. She needed to tell not only her story, but his as well. Her love for him, and someday for her daughter to be able to read this book, and get to know who her father was, and to truly love him the way Katia, loves him. After all, he was her Seregi.



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Review: Cat Playing Cupid

Cat Playing Cupid by Shirley Rousseau Murphy
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Joe Grey is back at it again, helping the Molena Point PD solve a murder. Only this time it's a little different, there wasn't much of a mystery here, yes two dead bodies are found, both of them about ten years old, a cold case. Lindsay Wolf, was engaged to the victim that was found in Oregon, and the other was found in Molena Point.

When Willow one of the talking feral talking cats, brings a wounded Sage to Charlie, one of the only humans that Willow trusts, she takes him to the local vet. It turns out that the old vet, has always known about the talking cats, and informs Charlie she needs to bring him some "special" cats, meaning Joe Grey, Dulcie, and Kit. Here is where we learn about how these cats are so special. However, Clyde, Joe's human is finally getting married to Ryan Flannery, his long time girlfriend, and Joe is please, he likes Ryan but isn't crazy about her dog coming along and invading his house, but he does like Ryan, who has figured out on her own about the cats.

If you haven't read any of the previous books I would suggest you do first, this book might be a little confusing for someone to just jump in and not know the who's who in the book. In all the books, the story is well written, all at a pretty face pace, the character's are well developed, but that also stems from the other books that have helped them along the way to grow and build relationships.

The Joe Grey series isn't as far fetched as some of the other series out there about talking cats, but is a fun series to read, to escape what's going on in your life, or the news around the world, this series is such a fun, entertaining, relaxing read. You'll find yourself smiling, laughing, especially at some of the things Joe does and then him and Clyde getting into their little arguments, or even if you just want to escape along the San Francisco area, with all the beautiful descriptions along the way of the scenery.


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