alisarae's Reviews (1.65k)

Bold, fresh takes on making veggies flavorful and punchy. I like to plan meals by veggie first, then add meat as an accompaniment, and this book is perfect for that.

I love how the TOC has recipes grouped according to the main vegetable, though the book itself groups them by cooking technique—interesting way to maximize usage.

These comforting, wise words from Fr Rohr brought me peace and clarity about traveling onward into the great unknown. I had some feelings validated and this book gave me a hope and expectation for what is yet to come and what to strive towards.

Absolutely brilliant.

First serialized in 1946 and set a few years earlier in 1937, this locked room mystery takes place at an old mansion (honjin - an inn for nobility) in rural Japan in the depths of winter. The sights and sounds are rich and dramatic: the twang of the traditional koto, the deep red of freshly painted walls, the blood drenched crime scene, the katana stabbed into the crisp white snow.

The writing surprised me. First, the psychological explanation of the characters’ development, behaviors, and interpersonal relationships is key to the entire mystery. It is a complex and nuanced analysis. Second, the meta references to the author himself and other detective novels add a delightful tongue in cheek joke to the whole plot. And a final note about the writing voice: if you have read a lot of translated Japanese, you start to notice that it has a certain brisk but engaging quality to it that gives it a sincere and modern tone. I love it.

There is a 70s movie adaptation that I’m dying to see, but I think this would make for an incredible stage play and I would love to see that pulled off.

That was a great mystery/thriller! There is a large cast of characters but they are well written. I don’t want to say anything else for fear of spoilers.

I liked this series--cute characters, eclectic Vermont boarding school--and the dual mystery plot was clever. Sometimes the pacing dragged, esp in the third book when there was a lot of internal monologue, but I think the author pulled off plotting a three-book mystery remarkably well.

I do not approve of Stevie's boyfriend so I won't read the fourth book

Going into this, I thought this would be humorous personal essays by everyone's favorite romcom screenwriter. I was wrong. Did you know that Norah Ephron was a journalist at the start of her career? This book is a collection of her best pieces from that time. She is a witty writer, and managed to make NYC 70s fashion gossip interesting even to me. I especially liked her profiles of bestselling authors pf the time... it's funny how essily her barbs could be applied to many of today's bestsellers. I skipped over a couple of the stories, since I just wasn't interested. Anyways, it's fun when a book catches me totally off guard.

The salads looked good but the rest just didn’t seem particularly appealing to me. I mean, even the cover photo is something that I cannot see myself cooking (fried eggs and strips of bacon on spaghetti).

I appreciate the concept—side dishes should be more exciting than the main dish imo. However, this book is so chaotically organized that you should be prepared to spend a significant amount of time trying to find an appropriate recipe for your meal. For example, where would you expect to find a pasta salad: salads, weeknight dinners, cookouts, or potlucks? Why are cookouts and potlucks different categories? They usually go hand in hand as long as there’s no snow on the ground. Additionally, the ebook version lacks an index at the back and the TOC doesn’t list the recipes. I can’t speak to the print version. Put your Dora the Explorer hat on for this one, folks.

This plot is so over-the-top ridiculous. I don't think I've ever read a more unbelievable romance, and most romance books lie on the unbelievable side of the spectrum. I only finished it because I wanted to see how in the world the love of MC's life was going to accept her after he discovered the elephant corpse in the room.

I think this story would work better as a movie. So much of the humor is slapstick and doesn't really jump off the page (even with the aunties' accents performed well in the audiobook). The book has already been snatched up by a pair of Asian women producers at Netflix, so hopefully this project becomes a reality. Awkwafina, is that your scratchy voice I hear? If so, please please please be an auntie and not the MC, thanx.

Fantastic!

One of the biggest barriers that keeps even proficient chefs like myself from cooking Indian food on the daily is spices: Do I have all of them? Do I need to make a special trip to the asian market? Will the Asian market have everything? Do I want to spend so much money on spices? Will I ever use this many curry leaves? Are they still fresh?

Plus, adding so many spices to a dish, including roasting and grinding them, takes a surprising amount of time.

This cookbook uses combinations of only 5 spices (plus the usual suspects of fresh onion, garlic, serrano peppers, and ginger) for the entire book. The recipes are surprisingly varied, too. When you stop and think about it, many cuisines use only a handful of common spices (Mexican: cumin, oregano, chili, cayenne, paprika; Italian: oregano, basil, thyme, parsley, rosemary, red pepper flakes...etc), so it makes sense that many Indian dishes could also be reduced down to something relatively simple.

The recipes are simple and flexible enough that you can easily substitute out different proteins. I swapped in chickpeas for black-eyed peas. And I think tofu would slide into 75% of the meat dishes without any issues.

yum yum yum...