Allie

What a weird book. I enjoyed it, but how to actually classify it? I picked it for my book club because they requested “something lighter, maybe something dystopian.” They're probably never going to let me pick anything again!

Because while I thought it was supposed to be a thriller, The Survivalists didn't match the quick pacing that I've come to associate with thrillers. There was a lot more about main character Aretha, her character motivations, a bit of character building associated with the other characters as well, but a lot of the action up until the very end was more internal than external.

And I didn't know where it was supposed to be headed! Which was kind of nice that I didn't figure it out, though there were zero hints dropped in advance. Most of the time we were in Aretha's head, but occasionally we would randomly jump into one of her roommates' heads.

Sometimes the format confused me as to whether Aretha as literally traveling around the city or just fantasizing about doing so. Her job and most of her existence sounded hellish. As always, you should watch the Crazy Ex-Girlfriend “Don't Be a Lawyer” song.

Anyway, I hope some book club people read it so I can talk about it.

A sweet graphic novel about a seamstress who wants to be a clothing designer and the prince that hires her. Prince Sebastian sometimes feels like a prince, and sometimes (to his shame) feels like Lady Crystallia, and seamstress Frances designs for both - and you see her career skyrocket as people begin knocking off her designs and she becomes in higher and higher demand. We watch their friendship grow and change, and the way Sebastian tries to keep his secret before his eventually being outed as Crystallia. It wraps up neatly with everyone (that matters, at least) accepting him for who he is, and Frances getting to design her own collections. The art is lovely, and clearly this book has been well-loved because my library copy was pretty close to falling apart. Lovely.

I've done a lot of cooking, and a lot of learning how to cook, since college, because neither of my parents did a lot of cooking or ever really taught me when I was younger. Even so, with years of dinner prep under my belt, most of the time it's a recipe or bust. I have a very small handful of meals I'm confident making without a recipe, but I had no idea why those worked, just that if I did the same thing time and again, it worked.

This was a great, if hefty in size and information, primer on the basic building blocks of cooking, what flavors work together, and how to elevate even regular, routine meals with just an extra sprinkling of salt or splash of lemon juice. There's even mini cooking lessons throughout and in the recipe suggestions in the back, which I hope to try, but I also learned quite a lot throughout the reading that I took back to the kitchen with me as I went (and declared to Matt as Fun Facts). I liked learning about Nosrat's learning to cook, and her experiences in famous kitchens even if I never plan to set foot in one; she is a lively and passionate teacher with a great sense of humor, and the drawings and charts throughout were delightful. I'm personally a pescatarian (mostly vegetarian) for health reasons, but I found good useful information even among the sections that were more meat-heavy.

This one's going to live in my kitchen and be referred to often.

WHAT. THAT'S WHERE IT ENDS???

This was a really weird book. And yet I kind of had a hard time putting it down. Shadow has been in prison for three years, and upon his release, he has plans to go back home to his wife and work at a gym his buddy owns. But when both of them die in a car wreck just days before he is released, he has to change his plans. On the flight back home, Shadow meets the secretive Mr. Wednesday, who offers him a job as his personal bodyguard. But it's the most unusual job ever — really, they're recruiting other “gods” for the war Wednesday claims is coming. Meanwhile the mysterious Mister World is on the opposing side, and he keeps sending his lackeys to thwart Wednesday and Shadow's progress. Throw in some late-night visits from Shadow's dead wife's not-quite-ghost, several disappearances and the weirdest sex scene ever (seriously), and you've got a really strange, interesting book. I'll give it a solid B, just because it was entertaining to read.