The School of Essential Ingredients - Erica Bauermeister

Title: The School of Essential Ingredients

Author: Erica Bauermeister

Publisher: New York : G. P. Putnam's Sons, c2009
ISBN: 9780399155437
Copyright: 2009
Pages: 240
Quick Review: 4 stars (out of 5)

Why I Read It: Suzanne Issa suggested this book to me.

Where I Obtained the Book: Got it at my local library.

Synopsis: Once a month on Monday night, eight students gather in Lillian’s restaurant for a cooking class. Among them is Claire, a young woman coming to terms with her new identity as a mother; Tom, a lawyer whose life has been overturned by loss; Antonia, an Italian kitchen designer adapting to life in America; and Carl and Helen, a long-married couple whose union contains surprises the rest of the class would never suspect.

The students come to learn the art behind Lillian’s dishes, but it soon becomes clear that each unknowingly seeks a recipe for something beyond the kitchen. One by one they are transformed into the aromas, flavors, and textures of what they create. Over time, the paths of the students mingle and intertwine, and the essence of Lillian’s cooking expands beyond the restaurant and into the secret corners of their lives, with results that are often unexpected, and always delicious.

Review: I enjoyed this book, it was short and very sweet. The talk about the recipes made me hungry, but the life of the students in the class was just as interesting. Claire, made me laugh and cry. She's a young mother who just wishes to be left alone at times. She loves her children and husband, but longs for solitude. I completely indentified with her. Little ones are so time consuming and exhausting. The other students had interesting lives and reasons for taking the class.

I would suggest this to anyone. I loved the journey, it is short, but I read it slowly to savor every word.

Author Biography: I was born in Pasadena, California in 1959, a time when that part of the country was both one of the loveliest and smoggiest places you could imagine. I remember the arching branches of the oak tree in our front yard, the center of the patio that formed a private entrance to our lives; I remember leaning over a water faucet to run water across my eyes after a day spent playing outside. It's never too early to learn that there is always more than one side to life.

I have always wanted to write, but when I read Tillie Olsen's "I Stand Here Ironing" in college, I finally knew what I wanted to write – books that took what many considered to be unimportant bits of life and gave them beauty, shone light upon their meaning.

Other Reviews:
Food with Legs
Book Browser
Book Room

Spider Bones - Kathy Reichs

Title: Spider Bones

Author: Kathy Reichs
Publisher: Detroit, MI : Wheeler Pub., 2010.
ISBN: 9781439102398
Copyright: 2010Pages: 306

Quick Review: 4 stars (out of 5)

Why I Read It: I’ve read the rest of hers and wanted to continue the series.

Where I Obtained the Book: Got it at my local library.

Synopsis: Kathy Reichs #1 New York Times bestselling author and producer of the FOX television hit Bones returns with the thirteenth riveting novel featuring forensic anthropologist Dr. Temperance Brennan. John Lowery was declared dead in 1968 the victim of a Huey crash in Vietnam, his body buried long ago in North Carolina. Four decades later, Temperance Brennan is called to the scene of a drowning in Hemmingford, Quebec. The victim appears to have died while in the midst of a bizarre sexual practice. The corpse is later identified as John Lowery. But how could Lowery have died twice, and how did an American soldier end up in Canada? Tempe sets off for the answer, exhuming Lowery's grave in North Carolina and taking the remains to Hawaii for reanalysis to the headquarters of JPAC, the U.S. military's Joint POW/ MIA Accounting Command, which strives to recover Americans who have died in past conflicts. In Hawaii, Tempe is joined by her colleague and ex-lover Detective Andrew Ryan (how is he?) and by her daughter, who is recovering from her own tragic loss. Soon another set of remains is located, with Lowery's dog tags tangled among them. Three bodies all identified as Lowery. And then Tempe is contacted by Hadley Perry, Honolulu's flamboyant medical examiner, who needs help identifying the remains of an adolescent boy found offshore. Was he the victim of a shark attack? Or something much more sinister? A complex and riveting tale of deceit and murder unfolds in this, the thirteenth thrilling novel in Reichs's cleverly plotted and expertly maintained series (The New York Times Book Review).

Review: It pushed the story ahead and I enjoyed it much more than her last book. Temperance’s relationship with Andrew is still iffy, but they spend more time together. This part of the plot seemed contrived, I can’t see me just jetting off to Hawaii because a friend is there. Don’t get me wrong, I’d love to. (Anyone out there need a visit in their tropical paradise?) We got to know her daughter a bit better. Jargon heavy, but she explained most of it for the dummies like me out there.

These books are nothing like the TV show ‘Bones’ but the show is based on some of the characters. I enjoy her writing and I always learn something interesting about the world of forensic work. The twists and turns in her stories are good, and she somehow survives some hair rising events each book.

Author Biography: Kathleen Joan "Kathy" Reichs was born in 1950 and is a native of Chicago. In 1971 she graduated from American University with a Bachelor of Arts degree in anthropology, and in 1972 she earned a Master of Arts in physical anthropology from Northwestern University. Reichs received her Ph.D. in physical anthropology from Northwestern University in 1975. She works as a forensic anthropologist for the Office of the Chief Medical Examiner, State of North Carolina and for the Laboratoire des Sciences Judiciaires et de Médecine Légale in Quebec and has taught at Northern Illinois University, University of Pittsburgh, Concordia University, McGill University, and the University of North Carolina at Charlotte. Her work as a forensic anthropologist is internationally recognized, as she has traveled to Rwanda to testify at the UN Tribunal on Genocide, helped in an exhumation in the area of the highlands of southwest Guatemala, done forensic work at Ground Zero in New York, and so forth.

Other Reviews:
NJ.com
The Lit Review
Book Loons

Good Reads

I wanted to encourage all you readers out there to join Goodreads. This site is great for recording all the books you read and how you felt about them. There are also groups to join who read similar genres. Giveaways for advance reader copies of books(David and I have both won). I love this site and the interesting books I find to read there.

The Lock Artist - Steve Hamilton

Title: The Lock Artist
Author: Steve Hamilton
Publisher: St. Martin’s Minotaur
ISBN: 978-0-312-34082-7
Copyright: 2009
Pages: 304

Quick Review: 4 stars (out of 5)

Why I Read It: I have been a fan of Hamilton’s running mystery series about Alex McKnight, a retired cop living up in the UP. I originally started reading them after my parents became Yoopers for a while.

Where I Obtained the Book: Through my local library.

Synopsis: Marked by tragedy, traumatized at the age of eight, Michael, now eighteen, is no ordinary young man. Besides not uttering a single word in ten years, he discovers the one thing he can somehow do better than anyone else. Whether it’s a locked door without a key, a padlock with no combination, or even an 800-pound safe… he can open them all.

It’s an unforgivable talent. A talent that will make young Michael a hot commodity with the wrong people and, whether he likes it or not, push him ever closer to a life of crime. Until he finally sees his chance to escape, and with one desperate gamble risks everything to come back home to the only person he ever loved, and to unlock the secret that has kept him silent for so long.

Review: Hamilton has tried a standalone before, 2007’s Nightwork, which was okay but the plot was a little too unrealistic for me. I really just wanted more McKnight. So I began this one with a little trepidation, but in good faith in Hamilton’s skill.

You know what, this book, and especially this character, ROCKED. Michael was a victim of a vicious domestic abuse attack as a child which has rendered him speechless. So other talents come forth that enable him to interact with his world, mainly his art and an uncanny ability to crack locks. Of course this latter skill with the safes attracts an interesting and somewhat dangerous class of associate.

All in all he is a very flawed, but extremely interesting character. Plus there is all the nerd boy information on safe cracking and home invasion that was just fascinating. It also delves into what makes a bad team versus a good team. What is true for thieves is also true for any work situation. When stress levels rise, you have got to count on your partners. Ultimately the surrounding plot demonstrates very clearly how lack of trust and disloyalty can bring down any organization, regardless of how powerful it may be.

I really hope Hamilton explores this character further. It is the first time in a long time the protagonists outshone the crime in a mystery book.

Author Biography: Born and raised in Detroit, Steve Hamilton graduated from the University of Michigan where he won the prestigious Hopwood Award for fiction. In 2006, he won the Michigan Author Award for his outstanding body of work. His novels have won numerous awards and media acclaim beginning with the very first in the Alex McKnight series, A Cold Day in Paradise, which won the Private Eye Writers of America/St. Martin's Press Award for Best First Mystery by an Unpublished Writer. Once published, it went on to win the MWA Edgar and the PWA Shamus Awards for Best First Novel, and was short-listed for the Anthony and Barry Awards. The awards didn't stop there but he's too modest to crow about them. Hamilton currently works for IBM in upstate New York where he lives with his wife Julia and their two children.

Other Reviews:
Spinetingler Magazine
Miami Herald

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