Dumpling Cats by Sarah Sloyer

Format: Digital ARC received via NetGalley in exchange for an honest review
Publication date: 14 Jun 2017

Disclaimer: There are affiliate links at the end of this review. If you click through and buy something (not just this book, but whatever you want), it will help my bottom line. Thanks!

The subtitle of this pattern book (Crochet and Collect Them All!) shows the author's inspiration. Neko Atsume is a popular mobile game from Japan that involves attracting cats to your yard in order to collect them, and the chubby little amigurumi characters bear a striking resemblance to the cats in the game. You don't have to be a fan of the game to fall in love with these Dumpling Cats, though. Making stuffed items can be addictive!

I haven't made any of these patterns, but based on my experience in reading crochet patterns I would say this book is pretty straightforward. There are patterns for 25 cats plus patterns for a few accessories like a cat bed. Each cat has a name and a short blurb describing its personality. The patterns are written clearly and each one has several photos showing steps in the construction process. There are a few intermediate patterns in the book, but the majority of them are labeled easy. If you have any experience making amigurumi at all, these patterns will be a breeze for you. Several of the patterns seem to build on others, like a cat with a fish tail, so that should help if you decide to make the entire collection.

Whether you want to make a cat to give to your child, to decorate your desk, or to stuff with a bell and give to your real live cat to play with, Dumpling Cats gives you several cute options to choose from.

Dumpling Cats at Book Depository
Dumpling Cats at Amazon

Gun in Cheek by Bill Pronzini

My rating: 2 out of 5 stars
Genre: Nonfiction
Format: Free ARC through NetGalley (no compensation for review)
Expected publication date: 12 Apr 2017

Disclaimer: There are affiliate links in this post. If you click through and make a purchase, I will get a few coins and my coffee budget will thank you. However, if you are skint and have to borrow the book from your library, I understand.

When I was 13, my family had volumes of Reader's Digest Condensed Books in the den. I read those books over and over because we lived out in the country and didn't have easy access to the public library. Gun in Cheek by Bill Pronzini is the type of book I would have enjoyed back then, but I'm not sure who would read it now.

Gun in Cheek is a Dover reprint of a title released in 1982, and the subtitle is "An Affectionate Guide to the 'Worst' in Mystery Fiction". In modern parlance, I think this book would be called a recap rather than a guide. In sections devoted to amateur detectives, cops, and gothic novels, Pronzini picks two or three novels that he considers "bad" and basically retells the entire story of each one. If you have ever read a TV show episode recap on a website like Previously.tv, then you have this book -- except this book doesn't have quite as much snarky fun. Still, some of the quotes from the actual novels Pronzini is summarizing are amusing.

Because the reading of plot synopses can begin to feel repetitive, this isn't a book that can be read straight through. Dover reprints are affordable enough that it wouldn't be a hardship to have this on a shelf for a bored kid to discover on a Sunday afternoon, most likely when the Internet is down.

Gun in Cheek at Amazon
Gun in Cheek at Overdrive (older edition)
Gun in Cheek at Book Depository

What is your "website of record"?

A few weeks ago I was looking for some French reading materials online when I ran across the phrase "newspaper of record". That wasn't the first time I had heard that phrase, but running across it again made me think about it in a new way. (By the way, I'm using the secondary definition of the phrase, which is a newspaper that is considered to have high journalistic standards and is referred to as a reliable source by most of the reading public.) With print newspapers shutting down and people getting much of their news from the internet, I think we need a new phrase. The first one that came to mind for me was "website of record".

I rarely read our local paper or watch the news on TV, so when I hear someone mention a news event in passing -- this week, it was the fertilizer plant explosion in Texas -- I look online to get the details. My first choice is CNN.com because if it is something that has hit the national news, they will have it right on the front page. When you click through to the story, there will be updates with time stamps. I trust this site because the TV network that started it has been around for ages and is often quoted as a trusted source. Sometimes CNN lets me down. One of the most publicized incidences was when Michael Jackson died, and TMZ was reporting details of his death for hours while CNN and other traditional news outlets were still saying it was a rumor. I like to think that happened because CNN was waiting until they got solid information before reporting Jackson's death as fact. That makes them look more trustworthy in my eyes.

When it comes to news, do you have a particular website that you trust most?

Abandoned: "Have a New Husband by Friday" by Dr. Kevin Leman

Have a New Husband by Friday: How to Change His Attitude, Behavior & Communication in 5 Days by Kevin Leman

My rating: 2 of 5 stars

Genre: nonfiction, self-help
On my TBR list?: no


Perhaps if you are young or somehow managed to live your life avoiding daytime talk shows and self-help books, then Have a New Husband by Friday might have something to offer you. It isn't a bad book, but it does travel well-worn roads in the city of male and female relationships. The advice falls under the umbrella of  "men are from Mars, women are from Venus". There was a lot about how women are better at planning and taking care of the children and the household than men, so women need to massage men's egos by finding ways to make them feel needed. The author reminded me of a male comedian who tries to get the women in the audience on his side by starting off with how dumb men are. On top of that, as I was reading I kept saying to myself, "I'm the one who acts like that, not my husband." The picture of the wife as Wonder Woman who can take care of the house, tend to the kids, and manage the accounts while the husband is standing in the middle of it all grumbling, "Where is my clean shirt?" has never been an accurate picture of my marriage. About halfway through the book I realized that it had nothing to offer me, so I ditched it.

In general, I suppose this advice could apply to a lot of relationships. I might consider handing it to one of my daughters after she gets married. The overall theme of the book is to change how you are treating your husband and it will change how he reacts to you, and I think that is good advice.  However, I would also make sure to follow up with her and help tailor some of the advice to her particular situation because everyone's marriage doesn't fall into the stereotypical male/female dynamic as the book suggests.

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"Battle Hymn of the Tiger Mother" by Amy Chua

Battle Hymn of the Tiger Mother by Amy Chua

My rating: 2 of 5 stars

Genre: memoir, parenting
On my TBR list?: no


Summary, from Goodreads:


All decent parents want to do what's best for their children. What Battle Hymn of the Tiger Mother reveals is that the Chinese just have a totally different idea of how to do that. Western parents try to respect their children's individuality, encouraging them to pursue their true passions and providing a nurturing environment. The Chinese believe that the best way to protect your children is by preparing them for the future and arming them with skills, strong work habits, and inner confidence. Battle Hymn of the Tiger Mother chronicles Chua's iron-willed decision to raise her daughters, Sophia and Lulu, her way-the Chinese way-and the remarkable results her choice inspires.

I'm guessing that most of you reading this post have already read or at least heard about the Wall Street Journal article that Amy Chua wrote entitled Why Chinese Mothers Are Superior. It outlined a strict method of parenting that includes pushing your children to excel, picking out their hobbies for them, and not letting them participate in anything that wouldn't eventually result in some sort of medal or award. In this review I will be talking more about the style and format of the book; I'm saving my opinions of Chua's parenting style for a post on my other blog.

The article was excerpted from the book and it covers Chua's main points without the repetitiveness. There were so many anecdotes that followed the same formula: Chua would push her kids to practice their instruments, they would complain, she would yell, they would throw tantrums, but then in the end the audition/recital/performance would turn out brilliantly and the kids would get glowing compliments. I listened to part of this book on audio and it was read by the author, which made these anecdotes sound even more boastful than they did on paper. Also, there were sentences that I'm pretty sure were meant to be sarcastic or funny (like a comment about never dating drummers) but Chua's reading was so stilted that she sounded she was being serious. Her reading style loosened up and became more natural further on, thankfully.

Honestly, I think that if you read the WSJ article (which I did before reading this), then you don't really need to read this book. I read it because many of the podcasts I listen to did episodes discussing it, but I think you could jump into a conversation about Chua's parenting method without spending the extra time to wade through her entire memoir.


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"The Day I Shot Cupid" by Jennifer Love Hewitt

The Day I Shot Cupid: Hello, My Name Is Jennifer Love Hewitt and I'm a Love-aholic by Jennifer Love Hewitt

My rating: 2 of 5 stars

Genre: self-help, celebrity book
On my TBR list?: No


Summary, from Goodreads:

In The Day I Shot Cupid, Hewitt offers her hard-won wisdom and tells us how to embrace love with both feet on the ground. First, we have to shoot Cupid. We have to believe that happily-ever-after is hard work—it's not all flowers and symphonies and floating hearts.

Wise and wry and refreshingly honest, Hewitt talks about how to pick the right guy and how to know when to let the wrong ones go free, and she offers some surprising truths about the opposite sex.

This book caught my attention because I like Jennifer Love Hewitt and I thought it would be a lighthearted memoir. Apparently, 2011 is my year for not reading book descriptions because this is yet another book that is not what I expected. It also became clear pretty quickly that at 44 years old, I am much older than the target audience for this book.

The "chapters" are really little snippets with topics like the top ways to get over a man after a breakup or how miserable it is to be on a diet. If I was reading these chapters as blog posts, I would have enjoyed them more. I've read several books that started out as blogs but fell flat when transferred to paper. The Hewitt book came together as the result of a girls' night out, but it still feels the same. The "surprising truths about the opposite sex" would not be a revelation to anyone who has dated more than one guy or lived with a man for over 20 years, as I have. Still, I can see that a 21-year-old would benefit from knowing that a workout can be a great way to alleviate the post-breakup blues or that you need to stand up for yourself in a relationship.

Ultimately, I think The Day I Shot Cupid makes a great bathroom book. I had it sitting on the edge of the tub in my bathroom and after a couple days, I noticed that two bookmarks had been added to it. Apparently, ABM and M (who just turned 18) had both been reading bits of the book when they were in the bathroom. ABM isn't much of a reader; he liked the book because it was light and the chapters were short. M found the book much funnier than I did, probably because she is young enough to have read some of these jokes for the first time. So if you keep the practice of having magazines like Reader's Digest in your loo, then you might want to slip this book in with them.



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"The Happiness Project" by Gretchen Rubin

The Happiness Project by Gretchen Rubin

Genre: non-fiction, stunt memoir
On my TBR list?: yes, since Dec 2009

My rating: 2 of 5 stars


I picked up this book after reading an article by Gretchen Rubin in the Huffington Post. It is a stunt memoir where the author attempts to live by several different happiness principles for an entire year. Rubin's project involved tackling a different area of her life each month and applying several different principles to making it better. One month it would be marriage, another month parenting, another month friendships, and so on. In preparation for this, Rubin read a lot of books on happiness as well as interviewing people who seemed to be successful in certain areas.

My one takeaway from reading this book didn't come from the author herself but from a person she interviewed who had a long successful marriage. The advice was that a married couple should always have one indoor game and one outdoor game that they like to play together. Simple things like this resonate with me, and this sounds like something that my husband and I could manage.

Overall, The Happiness Project was just OK to me. A lot of the book had a "See? All you have to do is this" tone to it that works in a crafting book, but was somewhat off-putting in this case. I wouldn't dissuade anyone from reading it, but I don't think I'd recommend it.



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"Women, Food, and God" by Geneen Roth

Women, Food, and God: An Unexpected Path to Almost Everything by Geneen Roth

Genre: self-help
On my TBR list? No


My rating: 2 of 5 stars


I belong to an online weight-loss support group and we decided to read this together. One of the women abandoned the book after the second chapter. I probably should have done the same, but I am compelled to finish books that I start.

This isn't a bad book, but it isn't for everyone. If you know or suspect that you are a compulsive eater and haven't found a way to deal with that issue, then you may want to read this. Since that isn't my problem, I found myself reading story after story about women who were nothing like me with eating behaviors that I found strange. I was also mildly offended by Roth's strong suggestion that everyone who is overweight has gotten that way through emotional eating and low self-esteem (barring a medical problem, of course).

Another thing to mention is that the "God" in the title is not the one of Judeo-Christian tradition. I imagine that calling the book "Women, Food, and Whatever Supreme Diety or Life Force You Believe In" would have been a mouthful. Roth draws from Buddhism and many other spiritual practices for her beliefs. I'm not bashing her for that. It is just worth noting that if you are looking for one of the many Christian guides to good health, this isn't it.

There are probably many women who will get something out of this book, especially if they are the type who find that they have inhaled an entire cake without remembering taking the first bite. However, I find it difficult to believe that, in this era of abundant information, there is a woman my age who hasn't read most of Roth's advice somewhere else.


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"Losing My Cool" by Thomas Chatteron Williams

Losing My Cool: How a Father's Love and 15,000 Books Beat Hip-hop Culture by Thomas Chatterton Williams

On my TBR list?: No
Genre: memoir

My rating: 3 of 5 stars


DISCLOSURE: I obtained this book for free through the Goodreads' First Reads program. They don't require a review, but it is strongly recommended if you want to be considered for more books.

Synopsis, from Amazon:

Growing up in Westfield, New Jersey, with a father who loved wisdom and ran an SAT prep business in a home crammed with books, Williams blithely ignored all that in favor of the hip-hop culture he heard and saw on BET. He spent his youth meticulously studying and imitating images of cool and thuggishness and listening to music that glorified misogyny, violence, and bling. The objective was to be "authentically black", despite his white mother and erudite father.

This book touched me more than I expected it, too. Even though I am not biracial, my mother is, and she was raised completely by the white side of her family. So she didn't know anything about "keeping it real"; it was almost like having a white mother myself. As a result, I could identify with Williams' acute awareness as a child that he was not like the other black kids in his neighborhood. The difference is that I didn't want to be like them, whereas Williams dove headlong into hip-hop culture in a effort to fit in and appear more black.

The best parts of the book for me were in the beginning when the author is chronicling his high-school experiences. I was fascinated by how self-aware he was. He was able to fit in and appear authentically "street" while still realizing that the way he was acting may not have been the best way to behave. The book became more difficult for me to understand toward the end when Williams started talking about philosophy and things like the Master-Slave Dialectic. Also, there are some spots where I think he was a little harsh on hip-hop music, as if it was BET's fault that he spent his teen years as an imitation thug. Overall, this is a book that lets people know that there is more than one way to be black and that everyone's journey is different.

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"Food Rules: An Eater's Manual" by Michael Pollan

Food Rules: An Eater's Manual by Michael Pollan

Genre: nonfiction, healthy living
On my TBR list?: no

My rating: 4 of 5 stars

This book is called "a pocket compendium of food wisdom", and I think that it is a good description. I've read Michael Pollan's book In Defense of Food: An Eater's Manifesto and found a lot of fascinating information in it, but I would never be able to get my friends to read it. That's why I like this book. It is a distillation of what Pollan believes about food without all the statistics and such. Each page has a short saying on it to remind you of good eating habits, such as "Use meat as a seasoning." I could hand this book to my friends who say they don't have time to read, and in an evening they would get the gist of what this Michael Pollan they've heard of is talking about.

The edition I read was a tiny paperback that fit easily into my purse. In my mind that makes it more useful. I like the idea of having a little book I can carry with me that reminds me of why I'm trying to eat better. Many of the sayings are just different versions of Pollan's basic mantra ("Eat food. Not too much. Mostly plants.") and he admits as much. Still, it is a book that I would choose over the latest diet craze any day.

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"Scratch Beginnings: Me, $25, and the Search for the American Dream" by

Scratch Beginnings: Me, $25, and the Search for the American Dream by Adam Shepard

Genre: part stunt memoir, part inspirational book
On my TBR list?: yes


My rating: 2 of 5 stars

I enjoy a good stunt memoir, so I was looking forward to reading this book. The premise sounded intriguing: a recent college graduate hits the road with $25, a sleeping bag, and a change of clothes to see if he can work his way up to a job, a savings account, and an apartment at the end of a year. I thought I would learn something new about the struggles of the working poor, but I was wrong.

There is nothing revolutionary about this book. The author stayed close to his hometown of Raleigh, NC because both of his parents were ill and he wanted to be able to get back to them quickly. That is admirable, but the "search" in the title made me imagine that Shepard went on a cross-country jaunt checking out the minimum-wage lifestyle in different areas. Instead, he took the train to Charleston and stayed there. This is more of a story about getting on your feet after college without your parents' help. He wasn't weighed down with two kids or a drug addiction or both. Since he knew he only had to pretend to be uneducated and down-and-out for a year, Shepard had the willpower to deprive himself of a lot of tiny luxuries like cable TV and trips to McDonald's. Yes, he stayed in a shelter for a while but he made it sound like a sleepaway camp.

After reading Barbara Ehrenreich's Nickel and Dimed (a book that incensed Shepard), this book sounds trite and PollyAnna-ish. Shepard's view is that the right attitude will take you anywhere you want to go. That may be true, but he writes as if he is the first person to discover that. The best compliment I can give this book is that it isn't weighed down by a lot of statistics, so you could possibly hand this to a recent high-school graduate as an inspirational book. However, even an 18-year-old knows people who have pulled themselves out of rougher circumstances that what were portrayed in this book.


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"Rapture Ready" by Daniel Radosh

Rapture Ready!: Adventures in the Parallel Universe of Christian Pop Culture by Daniel Radosh

Genre: stunt memoir
On my TBR list?: Yes

Although I classified this as a stunt memoir, it isn't quite in the same category as a book like Julie and Julia: 365 Days, 524 Recipes, 1 Tiny Apartment Kitchen where there is a definite beginning and end. This book is a little more like gonzo journalism without the fictional aspects. After attending a Christian music festival with a distant relative, the author decides to investigate various aspects of Christian pop culture. He visits various towns and meets Christian authors, bookstore owners, musicians, and comedians.

The best part of this book is the interviews that Radosh does with various people involved in different areas of Christian pop culture. It was interesting to see that most of the radical Christians don't think they are THAT radical. I especially liked the passages where he talks to Jay Bakker, son of Jim and Tammy Faye Bakker. PTL was big when I was a teenager, and my younger sister even worked at Heritage USA for a brief period. I enjoyed reading about how Jay turned out after all of that.

As a Christian myself, I think it is a good idea to find out how non-Christians see us sometimes. This book provides a perspective on that. There are some dry bits where he shares statistics or goes over the differences between different strains of Christianity, but I would still recommend this book to my Christian and non-Christian friends alike.

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33 Things Every Girl Should Know by Tonya Bolden

33 Things Every Girl Should Know: Stories, Songs, poems, and Smart Talk by 33 Extraordinary Women by Tonya Bolden

Genre: Essays
On my TBR list? Yes

This is a compilation of essays, comics, poems, and short stories that are supposed to be inspirational and build self-esteem in middle-school girls and older. I think it probably would have seemed cool to girls reading it back in 1998 when it was published, but it is dated now. My girls (age 12 and 16) have never heard of any of the women mentioned in the book and one of the comics does a Madonna parody that would go completely over their heads. The best part of the book was the short stories that were written from the point of view of a teenager because they didn't sound like an adult saying, "Things are bad now, but they'll be better when you grow up."


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"Good Book" by David Plotz

Good Book: The Bizarre, Hilarious, Disturbing, Marvelous, and Inspiring Things I Learned When I Read Every Single Word of the Bible by David Plotz

Genre: nonfiction, stunt memoir
On my TBR list? Yes




DISCLAIMER: If you follow me on Goodreads, you will find this book on my Abandoned shelf. It is only abandoned because I didn't get to finish it before it was due back at the library. I'm posting a review anyway because I feel that I read enough to get the gist of the book.

I am a Christian who believes in reading the Bible. However, in actual practice I have trouble cracking it open regularly because I don't like to re-read anything. If you are like me, reading through the Bible for the third or fourth time and need help sticking to it, then this book might be for you. The title is a bit misleading because Plotz doesn't read through the entire Bible, but rather the entire Bible as Jews see it -- meaning the Old Testament. Still, it is interesting to read a fresh take on it from someone who isn't an evangelical Christian but isn't an atheist or skeptic, either.

The author describes himself as a lax but well-educated Jew who acquired most of his knowledge of the Bible secondhand through what his teachers told him and references in popular culture. Then a random reading of the Old Testament made him realize that he didn't know as much about the Bible as he thought he did. So he sets out to read every word of the Old Testament to find out what else he missed.

Good Book started out as a blog that I vaguely remember reading years ago. Although the writing isn't as tiresome as some blogs-turned-books, in my opinion this book would be better enjoyed in small doses. That's why I say it would make a good companion to a Bible reading program like B90X (reading the entire Bible in 90 days). Actually, the way Plotz has organized the book promotes such a use. His chapters correspond with the books of the Old Testament and then are further broken down so that you can easily read a couple chapters of Genesis and then flip to Plotz's comments.

Reading the Bible is supposed to be its own reward, but there are times when I need a little push. When you are trying to drag yourself through Leviticus, Plotz's pithy comments will lighten your mood. I especially like the bits where he describes how his newfound knowledge affected the way he practiced his faith. I think that this is a book that Jews and Christians could both enjoy.

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The Fortune Cookie Chronicles by Jennifer 8 Lee

The Fortune Cookie Chronicles: Adventures in the World of Chinese Food by Jennifer 8 Lee

Genre: nonfiction, food
On my TBR list?: yes

Read for the Spice of Life Challenge, Memoirs and Essays category



Chinese food (or, more accurately, American Chinese food) is my favorite cuisine, so I appreciated getting a behind-the-scenes look at the industry. That said, the last couple chapters of the book did drag for me. Lee's impetus for writing the book was to solve the mystery of how 110 people had all won the Powerball lottery using the same lucky numbers. It turned out that they had all gotten them from fortune cookies. This story was an intriguing introduction to the book, but then to carry on the supposed hunt for who invented the fortune cookie was a bit much. The fortune cookie sections of the book dragged for me, which is a shame because there is so much fascinating information in this book that I would like to be able to recommend it. As it is, I would only suggest it if you are a person like me who could eat American Chinese food three times a week and not get tired of it.

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"Gastroanomalies" by James Lileks

Gastroanomalies: Questionable Culinary Creations from the Golden Age of American Cookery by James Lileks

Genre: Nonfiction, food, humor
On my TBR list?: Yes

Read for the Spice of Life Challenge


When I picked this up, I expected a bit of snarkiness but I also expected actual recipes. I was looking forward to trying to recreate a few of these crazy dishes myself and passing my own judgment on them. What I actually got was pictures from vintage cookbooks with captions that were supposed to be funny. In fact, it can be funny in small doses -- say, as individual entries on a blog. Take said blog and compile all the entries in a book, and the humor becomes annoying.

I'm counting this in the Nonfiction category for the Spice of Life Challenge. Reading this has also helped me eliminate three other books from my TBR list which were also by Lileks. I'm not saying that this book is bad. I actually like sites like Cake Wrecks and Go Fug Yourself, which have a similar type of humor, but I enjoy them more when I only read one or two posts a day. Reading the whole book of this brand of snarkiness in one sitting bored me.

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I'm Just Here for the Food: Food + Heat = Cooking by Alton Brown

Genre: Cookbook
On my TBR list?: No

Read for the Spice of Life Challenge


This book, written by Food Network personality Alton Brown, is like a cooking course in a book. It would make a great reference book because he doesn't stop at giving you recipes. Brown uses his humorous approach to explain the different ways that heat can be applied to food and what exactly is happening to the food. He throws in plenty of illustrations and anecdotes from his own life to keep things lively.

The subtitle of this book is "Food + Heat = Cooking" so you won't find any cookies or cakes here. In this book, Brown focuses mainly on taking a meat or vegetable, adding some seasoning, and heating it up. You will find detailed information on searing, roasting, grilling, frying, boiling, and braising, among other things. If you've ever wondered how to make french fries without having them soak up a ton of grease, this is the book to tell you.

Part of the Spice of Life challenge is to try some of the recipes in a cookbook. I didn't get a chance to try any of the recipes from this book, but I did use the suggestion to dip my chicken cutlets in flour before I dip them in the egg and then breadcrumbs. It improved the crunch and made the seasoning stand out more. Next, I want to try Brown's method of microwaving popcorn in a brown paper lunch bag. That sounds like a money-saver!

For the challenge, I am putting this in the Cookbook category because it is useful to the modern cook. The next cookbook on my list is more historical (some might say hysterical), so I am putting that one in the Nonfiction category.

Favorite quote: This quote describes the cheap cookware the author found in a colleague's kitchen.

"Next I checked out the hardware and what I found frightened me badly. It was as if one aluminum pie tin had been melted down and cast into 15 different pots and pans, each of which had then been adorned with a rotting balsa-wood handle."



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The Spice of Life Challenge

Michael from A Few Minutes With Michael seems to be paying pretty close attention to my blog. Not only did he give me a Zombie Chicken Award, but he also likes to give me helpful blogging suggestions. As you know, I don't do reading challenges because they usually feel restrictive, no matter how lenient the guidelines are. However, when Michael pointed me toward the Spice of Life Challenge, I couldn't resist! Here is the description from the challenge page:

The goal of the Spice of Life Challenge is to read and/or review books about food and eating our way through a good life. It will run from July 1, 2009 until December 31, 2009 so you can include all those scrumptious summer salads, savory fall soups, and yummy holiday books that get you in the mood for turkey dinner.

Doesn't that sound perfect for me? I would estimate that at least 75% of the non-fiction books I read are about food. If I looked through the books I've read since the official start of the challenge, I could probably count myself done already! I'm coming to the challenge late, though, so I'm only including books I've read since 15 Sep 2009.

I've signed up for the Sampler level, which means reading one book from each of the four categories. There are enough food-related books on my TBR list for me to complet the Feast level, but with my challenge track record I didn't want to be too ambitious. Hopefully, you guys will enjoy a few more food-related book reviews!

Abandoned: "Born Digital" by John Palfrey

Born Digital: Understanding the First Generation of Digital Natives by John Palfrey

Genre: Non-fiction
On my TBR list?: Yes
Referred by: Mur Lafferty




The subject matter (how people born into a world of digital conveniences deal with it differently than their forebears) sounded appealing. However, the book reads like a dry textbook. I could visualize a grey-haired professor droning on as I read the words. I'm sure there is a lot of good information in this book, but I don't have the attention span to ferret it out.

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Abandoned: Working by Studs Terkel

Working: People Talk About What They Do All Day and How They Feel About What They Do by Studs Terkel

Genre: Non-fiction
On my TBR list?: Yes
Referred by: NPR



This book of people talking about how they feel about their work was more difficult for me to get through than I expected. I think I would enjoy this more in an audio version. I've heard that it was adapted into a Broadway musical; that would bring it to life.

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