alisarae's Reviews (1.65k)

This is the Corduroy lost button origin story.

#SundayPoetry

Beautiful.

#AlisaReadstheWorld: Ireland

Totally not the author’s fault, but this book is completely overrated.

Luminous.

For years I thought that this book would be too "literary" for my liking, but I should have recognized the signs to read it anyways (it kept popping up everywhere I looked and the cover is so lovely). Now I have found a new favorite author.

The writing style is unconventional, but not hard to follow and understand where you are in time (it jumps around to vignettes of various characters at different points in their lives). It is sparse but I didn't feel hungry.

I loved all the characters, all of them so unique. The book makes a point to separate people into two groups: those who see the world in front of them and those who don't. Those who see it are the artists, the kind and contemplative, the ones able to take joy in ordinary leaves falling, who value the dignity in everyone and everything. Those who don't see are people wrapped up in dehumanizing tv programs, who are bound to rules that mechanize humanity, who create fences based on birthplace or gender. So in reading the book, I was inspired to live more like the type of person who sees life... This dovetails with books by Richard Rohr that I am currently reading.

I hope I can write a beautiful and hopeful story like this someday.

#AlisaReadstheWorld: Scotland

I am buying a hard copy of this book tomorrow. What a brilliant cookbook.

The cover of this doesn't really explain the full concept. Based on the cover, I thought there were 100 recipes with 3 variations for each recipe: easy, vegan, and fancy. The book actually has 100 themes/categories and three completely different recipes for each theme. For example, under the "seafood salad" category, there are:
Easy: Sardine Niçoise
Vegan: Seaweed Salad
Gourmet: Grilled Octopus Salad

French, Asian, and Greek. See what I mean? So there are 300 unique recipes in this book, plus 100 beautiful photos.

All the recipes are very classy and modern. Comfort classics are refreshed and reimagined to give them an updated bistro touch.

The only complaint I have is that there is a LOT of seafood and I am allergic to shellfish. I would sub mushrooms for shellfish but I think my husband is allergic to mushrooms. Le sigh. I'll figure something out. Also important to note that it's not really good for a budget cook since even the easy recipes frequently call for unique ingredients.

But I am going to love cooking my way through this and tackling the gourmet recipes. I hope my cooking repertoire and vocabulary expand.

Wow. Science says ~6 hours of exercise a week affects pretty much every part of your life for the better.

I should have paid more attention to the keywords in the title: Modern, American. If you are looking for recipes of all your favorite dishes from your local Indian restaurant, don't look here. These recipes are definitely modern remixes and sometimes just straight-up American.

Squeeee cute bakery gay love story. I loved loved the illustrations and 90% of the characters are great. The setting is adorable. The real bummer in this book is the main character, Ari. He is so annoying and immature and contrives drama all the time. I thought he was like 15 based on how he acts, but there is a scene where he has a beer so I guess he is 21+.

Super cozy and heartwarming family drama set in the Scotish highlands at Christmas. Exactly what I wanted to read over the holidays. The audio narrator is great with her hint of a Scotish accent.

More than 30 women and girls, mostly First Nations, have gone missing along a stretch of highway in rural Northern BC since the 90s. The RCMP has not released nationwide numbers about missing First Nations women. In spite of international attention from organizations such as Amnesty Intl and the UN, and a symposium that led to a long list of practical and relatively easy measures to be taken for the improvement in safety measures for vulnerable persons, little has been done on the Canadian govt's end.

This book is a compassionate look into the lives of nine of the women who have gone missing and it places the spotlight firmly on family members' voices and stories. It also reveals how ill-equipped the RCMP is for dealing with sensitive matters like establishing long-term trust in communities that have been badly abused by govt and law enforcement via racist policies and individuals.

I think this book is important because it brings a sense of gravitas to what is otherwise just a hollow soundbite on the news, if these stories even make it that far. I mean, women and children are dying and there are easy preventitive strategies that are not put into place simply because we don't care about their lives. So yeah, this book talking about and exposing it is really important.