Feast of Sorrow Book Review

Thanks go out to Touchstone Publishers for sending a complimentary copy for a Feast of Sorrow book review. Friends, Romans, countrymen, lend me your ear! It may seem cheesy to start with this widely known adage, but the world in Feast of Sorrow by Crystal King so completely transports the reader to ancient Rome that… Continue reading Feast of Sorrow Book Review

Ewa Chrusciel’s Contraband of Hoopoe

It’s not a difficult thing to think that at a poetry festival, you might hear a poem that piques your interest. It’s an entirely different thing to hear something– a way of offering words to a subject of already well-tilled ground in a fresh voice that makes you beeline to the bookfair area and snatch… Continue reading Ewa Chrusciel’s Contraband of Hoopoe

The Reach of a Chef by Michael Ruhlman

For my birthday this year Nathan spoiled me royally: Not with roses-  not with sparkly trinkets, but with books. A stack’s worth. I salivated over the anticipated titles my eyes skimmed- this was my kind of celebration. The hardest question was which to read first. And so I reached, a few years later for “The… Continue reading The Reach of a Chef by Michael Ruhlman

The Soul of a Chef by Michael Ruhlman

Many years ago, I found myself guilty of a particular kind of deceit: that of giving a gift and then taking it back. At the time, one of my roommates in our overcrowded apartment bordering Ocean Beach had just entered the culinary program of one of our local San Francisco colleges. Her aspirations of being… Continue reading The Soul of a Chef by Michael Ruhlman

A Severe Mercy by Sheldon Vanauken

My favorite gift to receive is a book. (Hint: it’s my favorite gift to give as well.) This Christmas, among the gifts waiting for me under the tree lay a thin package. Upon unwrapping it, my father-in-law, Bill commented, “that book is a bit old school, but it has some good insight into marriage.” Intrigued,… Continue reading A Severe Mercy by Sheldon Vanauken