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alisarae's Reviews (1.65k)
adventurous
emotional
mysterious
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Complicated
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
Complicated
Flaws of characters a main focus:
No
2024 review:
Wow I remembered absolutely nothing about this story from the first time I read it! I enjoyed it so much: the atmosphere is magical, and the heroine Vasya is always true to who she is. Plus, sassy horses are always a bonus.
2018 review:
An enchanting Russian fairytale. I normally don’t like fairytales but this one held my interest. Good for a dark winter day :)
Wow I remembered absolutely nothing about this story from the first time I read it! I enjoyed it so much: the atmosphere is magical, and the heroine Vasya is always true to who she is. Plus, sassy horses are always a bonus.
2018 review:
An enchanting Russian fairytale. I normally don’t like fairytales but this one held my interest. Good for a dark winter day :)
My mom read me this book when I was a child. I remembered the basics of the story, but of course it is much more meaningful to read it again as an adult. The honesty and grace Corrie Ten Boom shows is beyond human understanding. It made me cry to think both the evil and the goodness in the face of it are possible.
This book is waaay creepier than the cover lets on. I like this because there was nothing mystical or out of the realms of reality. Horror that crosses those reality boundaries doesn’t scare me...I haven’t read Carrie but I can imagine that Baby Teeth is way creepier to me than Carrie would be. Also, the language classiness level is like Gillian Flynn, not Stephen King, so that helps. If you are a fan of creepy stories featuring psychopathic demon children, I highly recommend this one!
Love this cookbook because it has a lot of prep options to make weeknight meals fast. I modify the recipes to include beans and rice, and all the recipes are naturally gluten free--essential for a cookbook to be useful for me. Will probably end up buying this one.
This book is like Narnia + Harry Potter + The Goldfinch, for adults. I really liked it even though all of the characters are awful people and terrible things happen.
This book was what I was looking for in terms of: plans for cooking multiple meals at the same time with the same base, foods that freeze well, and meals that are actually things I want to eat and not disgusting casseroles that should have died in the 80's, and suggestions for side dishes.
There are many meal components that are totally homemade and thus preservative free (making cream of celery instead of buying a can). There are also a substantial number of recipes that are naturally gluten free (a list is included in the book).
Living in Brazil, I still don't get access to the cost saving benefits of buying in bulk or buying meat on sale (meat never goes on sale here), buying pre-shredded cheese, Mexican food (have to make all my own salsas, there are zero green chiles, no soft taco shells, in fact my grocery store doesn't even carry hard shells, I pickle my own jalapeños that I buy at a specialty market), etc etc. All of this adds a considerable amount of prep time.
Another complaint I have is that a lot of the recipes ask that you grill the meat. Sorry, no grills in my apartment :( And no broiler either (not a thing in Brazil). Idk.
I picked up some good tips that I am going to try, so let's see....
There are many meal components that are totally homemade and thus preservative free (making cream of celery instead of buying a can). There are also a substantial number of recipes that are naturally gluten free (a list is included in the book).
Living in Brazil, I still don't get access to the cost saving benefits of buying in bulk or buying meat on sale (meat never goes on sale here), buying pre-shredded cheese, Mexican food (have to make all my own salsas, there are zero green chiles, no soft taco shells, in fact my grocery store doesn't even carry hard shells, I pickle my own jalapeños that I buy at a specialty market), etc etc. All of this adds a considerable amount of prep time.
Another complaint I have is that a lot of the recipes ask that you grill the meat. Sorry, no grills in my apartment :( And no broiler either (not a thing in Brazil). Idk.
I picked up some good tips that I am going to try, so let's see....
This was so much better than I remembered it. I wuv all the characters so much 😢
This is an awesome history of the Tudors. Don’t be scared by its size. It does not get bogged down with too many unimportant details, and moves along quite quickly. I wish I had read this before I visited the UK a couple years ago! The Tower of London would have been way more interesting to me.
I particularly liked how the author wove in contextual information from the time in “background” sections: Calvinists, the education system, health practices, the Ottomon Empire, etc. It paints a much richer picture that shows shades of variation between cultures and periods that we often lump together into “Medieval Europe.” For example, though no one in Europe knew about germs and the medicinal purposes of keeping clean, the English were particularly foul and slovenly compared to their continental neighbors, and it was so bad that visitors wrote home complaining of it. That classic mental image we have of Henry ripping apart a turkey leg with bare hands and spilling flasks of beer down his front is false, however. His clothes were far too precious and costly to be put through that sort of abuse.
This book does include a LOT of church history, more from the political lens than spending much time about the theological nitpicking. I think it was interesting to see how much time, money, and energy was put into the politics of the divisions between Protestants, Catholics, and the nascent Anglican church. This struggle for religious categorization and control eclipsed the entire House of Tudor and thus is a big chunk of their history.
I particularly liked how the author wove in contextual information from the time in “background” sections: Calvinists, the education system, health practices, the Ottomon Empire, etc. It paints a much richer picture that shows shades of variation between cultures and periods that we often lump together into “Medieval Europe.” For example, though no one in Europe knew about germs and the medicinal purposes of keeping clean, the English were particularly foul and slovenly compared to their continental neighbors, and it was so bad that visitors wrote home complaining of it. That classic mental image we have of Henry ripping apart a turkey leg with bare hands and spilling flasks of beer down his front is false, however. His clothes were far too precious and costly to be put through that sort of abuse.
This book does include a LOT of church history, more from the political lens than spending much time about the theological nitpicking. I think it was interesting to see how much time, money, and energy was put into the politics of the divisions between Protestants, Catholics, and the nascent Anglican church. This struggle for religious categorization and control eclipsed the entire House of Tudor and thus is a big chunk of their history.
