The Quick and Easy InstaPot Diet Cookbook
This cookbook had me at the title with buzzwords like quick, easy, instant pot and even diet. So does The Quick and Easy InstaPot Diet Cookbook deliver on the promises of its title? All the recipes use an instant pot, or other electric pressure cooker so check that one off.Continue Reading
The Seven-Step Homestead
The Seven-Step Homestead contains seven annual steps to making yourself and your family less dependent on expensive grocery stories by growing, and later raising, your own food. We are not talking about a full-blown farm with pigs and cows. However eventually, if you follow the plan, you will have fun,Continue Reading
The Marigold
Is it a horror novel? A social commentary? A new, or revamped older, mythology? An eco-novel (if there is such a thing)? Who knows but The Marigold is definitely a different type of genre mashup! The real question is whether you will enjoy reading it. The novel is set inContinue Reading
The Time Nature Keeps
The Time Nature Keeps is not just through a clock. Time and events are also recorded by the fossils in the earth, the rings inside a tree, and the earwax of a whale. Just as we perceive time moving slower when in a stressful situation, animals and insects perceive timeContinue Reading
Tasty. Healthy. Cheap.
So, you are just beginning adulting. Cooking looks so easy on TikTok. However, you find it confusing and even frustrating to cook yourself (either in your small apartment or dorm room). Enter Tasty. Healthy. Cheap., the cookbook meant for you. While I can totally see the benefit of eating foodContinue Reading
The Only Survivors
It was the worst or the best reason for a reunion. Ten years after a high school field trip goes horribly wrong, The Only Survivors get together every year on the event’s anniversary. They are sticking together to avoid the fate of two of their number. Survivor’s guilt and aContinue Reading
Veg Out
Veg Out is the perfect gardening book for newbies who want an edible garden (or a patio pot or two) but have never read another gardening book. It is clearly laid out with plenty of photos. The steps to proceed are easy to follow. There is an extensive section withContinue Reading
Dirty Laundry
Even in suburban Ireland, stay-at-home wives with young children hide behind their Instagram filters while their real home life falls apart. Ciara and Lauren are neighbors—but certainly not friends. Lauren’s life is chaotic but is based on love. Ciara, an important, at least in her own mind, Instagram influencer, hasContinue Reading
Fateful Words
In Fateful Words, Delaney is a Kansas expat working in an Edinburgh bookstore when her boss mysteriously disappears right before hosting his annual tour of the area. Despite her ex-pat status, Delaney steps in as head of the small global tour group. The tour relates books including The Prime ofContinue Reading
Poop for Breakfast
Who wants Poop for Breakfast? A surprisingly large collection of animals, birds and insects. Luckily (or maybe hopefully), humans don’t eat poop. This picture book explains the reasons why some species do, and some don’t, enjoy the culinary delights of poo. While marketed for children, I found some fascinating tidbitsContinue Reading
Sherlock Holmes—The Final Problem
Sherlock Holmes—The Final Problem is a new illustrated edition of the famous short story. The illustrations are reminiscent of German woodcuts. They are beautiful. The text is abridged from the original version, which may make the story more accessible for younger readers. Though originally published in 1893, the story holdsContinue Reading
How Not to Kill Yourself
How Not to Kill Yourself attempts to give people with a suicidal mindset a reason not to do it—at least not today. Overall, I think it achieves that goal. Though obvious recommendations, like call a friend or just wait one more day, are discussed, many new ideas are also included.Continue Reading
Hiss & Tell
Hiss & Tell is a cozy mystery with two timelines—the present and 1789–both set in the same location in rural Virginia. In the present day, when a man is found shot dead in a ditch with no ID and drugs in his system, the locals worry that big city problemsContinue Reading
Tour Review A Flicker of a Doubt
My Review Courtney is the owner of a fairy-gardening/tea shop in picturesque Carmel-by-the-Sea. She also can see fairies around her. One fairy in particular, Fiona, is tasked with helping Courtney with any issues in her life. In A Flicker of a Doubt, Fiona’s story is told, and it is fascinating!Continue Reading
Strike Out 4 Murder
Not you see him…and now you don’t. When a dead body goes missing, Phee’s retired, but not retiring, mother Harriet insists that her amateur sleuth/bookkeeper daughter find out what happened. If only it were that easy. Will Phee Strike Out 4 Murder? Sun City West is a retirement complex inContinue Reading
How I’ll Kill You
Three newborn identical triplets are found abandoned in a roadside rest stop. The girls are split up by the government and grow up in multiple foster and group homes with only occasional visits with each other. Moody, Iris and Sissy reunite at eighteen. When one’s relationship goes horribly awry, theContinue Reading