alisarae's Reviews (1.65k)

This was just the cutest little paranormal adventure ever! This is middle grade, which I sometimes don't enjoy, but the language and story were not patronizing at all. Set in Edinburgh and filled with descriptions of all the sights, it sure brought back memories.

Estava com muito vontade de ler uma história cativante.... bem, li este livro inteiro em três dias só. Adorei, claro, mas chorei muito. Já meu marido lá, "Essas personagens não são reais...."

Short and sweet, a pat on the back, a cup of tea for a hard day (week, month... year... ). I love Anne Lamott.

Americans under age 50 are now more likely to die of an overdose than of a car wreck. Americans are only 4.4% of the world’s population yet we consume 30% of the world’s opioids. And the epidemic hasn’t even peaked yet.

Masterful reporting that takes a hard look at all sides of the opioid epidemic plaguing America: the origin, big pharma, the FDA, drug marketing and doctor’s prescriptions, national drug trade (doesn’t really go into int’l trade), law enforcement, public health, community services, rehabs, public policy, and numerous personal looks at individuals involved in all these facets. Above all, the harrowing experiences of individuals is never lost.

What to do? We are still floundering about arguing about best practices and public policy, but we know where the answer lies: “The answer is always community.”

This “novel” is just icky. Closely based on the author’s life, it is a play by play of events through a tour in Iraq, strings of girlfriends, and slow spiral into addiction and crime to finance the heroin. I liked the character and the voice is very consistent throughout, but the content is consistently disgusting. There are no deep relationships, no reflection as to why. Just all lizard brain, all the time. I really don’t understand why this is getting so much critical acclaim and attention.

This story is like if Lolita grew up and was beginning to realize that Humbert Humbert was a criminal. I liked it okay.

“Topsy turvy is often a symptom of the presence of God.”

This story has a nickname in English -- The Korean Charlotte's Web. I think it is a good to make parallels between the stories. Both involve a sense of longing to belong, love, loss, an adopted family, and self sacrifice. I teared up at the end, for sure. This edition has beautiful minimalistic illustrations at the start of each chapter.

Yum yum drool. As claimed, this is a user friendly guide to preparing your own delicious Chinese meals at home. I would love to own this as a reference or base for many standard recipes that Americans are familiar with. Raise your hand if you have to go digging around on the internet every time you have a hankering for kung pao chicken. But like the majority of Chinese restaurants in America, the popular dishes in this book come from southern provinces. This in itself has an interesting history, and is related to why people in Chinatowns around the US, as well as Chinese families who have been in the US for 3+ generations, speak Cantonese and not Mandarin. Anyways, my experience in China was in northern provinces and some regional favorites are not present in this book. Nevertheless, this one is a goodie!

I picked this up for some fresh ideas to pack my own lunches. There are a lot of nice ideas, I just need to plan ahead to have interesting snacky things on hand. Another thing I might want to invest in is a good leak proof thermos to carry warm foods. It seems lunches can get a lot more interesting if you aren't worried about spills and leaks. I have never had much luck with that though.

Another thing to note is that this food is quite sophisticated for kids. For example, pizza topped with arugula is high expectations even for adults.