Nonfiction Book Reviews

Alrighty, this is the first of my book blogger interview series!! ::trumpets blaring::

Andrea is my first victim participant, and she runs her own book blog review at So Many Books, So Little Time, a blog that she just started on January 10th of this year.  And yet, she has managed to write up twice as many posts as I have in the last ten months!

In other words, she’s even more verbose than I am.  Way to go Andrea.  I’m not sure if that’s a good thing or a bad thing.

To start us off, please tell us about your blog: What kinds of books do you like to review?

My blog is a mix of book reviews, as well as weekly events that have to do with books (Mailbox Mondays, Musing Mondays, Teaser Tuesdays, It’s Tuesday, Where are You?, Waiting on Wednesday, Wednesday Wordle, Booking Through Thursday, Thursday Thoughts, Friday Finds, Friday Fill-In, Weekly Geeks, and The Sunday Salon). I also participate in book challenges and those are on my blog as well.

Recently I’ve been into a big paranormal kick. Mostly the light-hearted, humorous kind, almost paranormal chick-lit if you will, and YA paranormal. I also love chick-lit and will review general fiction and kids books (I teach kindergarten so my students will help me review these books)

I’d love to hear about a favorite book or author that you’ve read recently and why it was your favorite.

I love the House of Night series by P.C. & Kristin Cast.  The books just have the right balance of everything…great characters, a little humor, a little suspense, and a great plot!

Tell me a little about yourself.

I have been reading since I was two (at least that’s what my mom tells me). Growing up,my mom always bought me books and I would devour them. Now I love to cuddle up on the couch while my boyfriend is watching TV and devour a book. Whenever someone asks me my hobbies, I say emphatically “Reading and being a Gator fan!”

Do you do a lot of reading challenges?  What is a book challenge that you have especially enjoyed?

I do some reading challenges: The Paranormal 999 Challenge, The A to Z Reading Challenge, The Chick-Lit Challenge, The Chick-Lit Challenge 2, What’s In A Name Challenge, and Read Your Name Challenge.

What’s the main source of books for you: Publishing companies, contests online, B&N/Amazon/other bookstores, or the library?

I am pretty new to book reviewing, so for now I most get my books from trading websites. But recently I have been getting a few books from publishers. I would LOVE to get more books from publishing companies and authors to review and I am open to doing author reviews.

How do you keep track of your To Be Read (TBR) pile?

I have a bunch of books that I’d love to read at some time (500ish). They are all in 3 bookcases in my office (it’s a good thing I have such an understanding boyfriend!) But the books that I have to read for book reviews, or book rings, I have in a pile on the bookcase my room. Whenever I get a new book to review, I put it at the bottom of the pile unless there is a certain date that it is needed to be reviewed for.

Do you rate your book reviews, and if so, what is the point system and how do you determine what you give?

I do rate the books that I review. I know that when I go to other blogs, I look for for a rating of each book. It helps to know what I might really be interested in. My rating system is out of 5:

1. Hated the book
2. Didn’t enjoy the book
3. Book was okay - average
4. Really enjoyed the book
5. Loved the book - a favorite

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That’s it from Andrea at So Many Books, So Little Time.  If you’re in the mood for some paranormal or YA books, be sure to check her out!  Thanks for hanging out with us today, Andrea!

Havs

PS Do you have a book review blog?  Would you be interested in being interviewed by none other than the Great and Mighty Hava?  Send me an email through my contact page and we’ll chat.

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I first heard about Schuyler’s Monster: A Father’s Journey With His Wordless Daughter by Robert Rummel-Hudson from a patron who was returning the book. He said that his wife read it, and thought it was excellent. Intrigued, I checked it out and brought it home, only to promptly forget about it.

It sat on my shelf for a while, until a couple of days ago, when I finally decided that I needed to either read it or return it. I figured I’d give it the first chapter to prove its worth, or it was going back to the return bin.

Well, I read it and fell in love with it.

Schuyler (pronounced “Sky-ler”) is a beautiful little girl (yes, that is her on the front cover of the book) who was born with an extremely rare disease that robs her of the ability to speak coherently. It also causes her to have only partial small muscle control, which means that it’s difficult for her to use sign language.  She does it, but it’s hard and some of the more difficult signs are out of her reach. And in the other cases of people afflicted with this disease, there is usually mental retardation, although they aren’t positive that’s something Schuyler has been afflicted with.

But up until Schuyler’s 18-month birthday, nobody realized anything was wrong with her. She was a smiley, happy baby who won the hearts of everyone around her; she was able to walk and eat like other babies, and she did make noises. During a routine check-up with the doctor, however, the doctor started to probe deeper and they started to realize that not all was right in the land of Oz. It took several years and many, many tests to finally receive a correct diagnosis.

The eventual result of the testing and diagnosis was that they realized that Schuyler was never going to be able to speak like “a normal person.”  Up to that point, they had been hoping that with enough therapy and work, Schuyler would eventually be able to speak clearly.  So they started looking at options that would provide Schuyler a way to communicate with the rest of the world.

Like I said before, sign language is something she can do, but not well, so they went after a high-tech option that if Schuyler would have been born 20 years earlier, never would have been available to her.  It was an “alternative augmentative communication device” or an AAC device.

An AAC in its most basic form allows the person to push buttons and then the device says the sentence outloud.  The picture I have posted is of the latest and most high tech version yet, the Vantage Lite, but at $7,295 it isn’t cheap.  The funding would normally come from a school district, but the majority of Schuyler’s Monster is spent chronicling their fight to get an AAC for Schuyler, and to get the teacher support needed for this type of device to work.

So that’s the story in a nutshell. Although it’s a sad story, on the surface there isn’t much there to grab you and hold your attention. But it’s the writing that really does it for me. Rummel is a blogger (check out Schuyler’s Monster blog) and in fact this book grew out of that blog, not the other way around. His writing style causes this to be one of the most enjoyable books I’ve read this year. I cried, I laughed, and everything in between.

I cannot tell you how thoroughly I enjoyed Schuyler’s Monster.  It is rare to find an author who is willing to be so open about his life and his feelings.  Life wasn’t hunky-dory.  The family went through a lot, and they almost didn’t make it.  I appreciated Rummel being willing to tell it exactly how it was, and to tell it so well, I cared about them through out it all.

For a darling video of Schuyler using her very first AAC (or “box of words” as Rummel calls it) check out the following.  Keep in mind, she’s 5 years old in this video.

I give Schuyler’s Monster 4.5 out of 5 stars.  Good luck, Schuyler - I know you’re going places, girl.

Havs

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I first heard about Bad Astronomy: Misconceptions and Misuses Revealed, from Astrology to the Moon Landing “Hoax” by Philip Plait at the local planetarium when my husband and I went to watch a movie called (you guessed it!) “Bad Astronomy.” It was a movie made to show in a planetarium, so as you might imagine, it was not exactly on par with Hollywood blockbusters. But still, it was enjoyable, and I learned a lot from it. It also made me want to read the book.

The premise of Phil Plait’s book, movie, and website (Bad Astronomy at Discover Magazine,) is the fact that there are a lot of flat-out wrong ideas when it comes science, and more especially astronomy.  Plait is working hard to debunk the conspiracy theories that surround things like the moon landing, and to help people realize that there are common myths (like you can only balance an egg on the spring equinox) that are completely untrue.

In short, he’s a skeptic and a debunker of pseudo-science.

Since I enjoy that kind of thing, I really enjoyed the book and the movie.  There were certain things that he covered that I had honestly never thought about.  Take, for example, ships flying around in space.  Watch any famous movie or TV series (like Star Wars or Stargate) and you’ll see ships flying, then slowing down and stopping next to the mother ship (or whatever).  Notice when you watch those scenes that as far as you can see, there is nothing to slow the ship down!

In space, in order for a shuttle to slow down, it has to fire thrusters at the front of the ship in order to produce force that would send them backwards.  Or in the case of them already going forward, a backwards thrust would cause them to slow down and eventually stop.  But in all of the Hollywood movies, the ships simply stop, as if the pilot stepped on the breaks or something.

After Plait pointed this out to me, I have to admit that it’s been bugging me ever since.  If you like sci-fi movies or TV shows, do know that reading this book may take away some of that joy.  Just a head’s up in case this sort of thing would annoy you instead of provoking humor (ha-ha!  This movie is so stupid - it breaks every natural law in the book! kind of humor.)

Some of the other bad science that Plait tackles: UFO’s, naming stars after yourself, the supposed “fake” moon landing, and a whole lot more.  I will say that there was hard-core science in the book in some spots, and since I have a hard time following that sort of thing (science is interesting to me but science doesn’t always make sense to me) I will admit that I skipped some paragraphs.  Anyone who is more of a science geek than me won’t have any problems with it.  For the most part, it was written so that anyone could understand, even the non-science geeks of the world.

And, speaking of science, there are some great science blogs here in the Today.com network that you might want to check out - both Science Fun and Rocket Scientist are well-written and educational blogs in the science field.  Also, I have read and reviewed other astronomy related books here on Nonfiction Lover, like Hubble: The Mirror on the Universe and Universe in a Nutshell by Stephen Hawking that you might want to check out if science and astronomy are a passion of yours.

Overall, I give Bad Astronomy 4.5 out of 5 stars.  Whether you’re a science teacher, debunking fiend, or just enjoy astronomy, you’ll love Bad Astronomy.

Havs

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The combination of working at a library plus reviewing nonfiction books in my spare time meant only one thing - Dewey: The Small-Town Library Cat Who Touched the World by Vicki Myron was a must read for me.

It is about Dewey, a stray cat found in the return bin at the library one morning after a terribly cold night in Spencer, Iowa. Someone had dropped the cat down the return bin shoot, and the library director, Vicki Myron, found him in there, clinging to life.

The Spencer Public Library adopted the cat and made him their own. In this autobiography, Myron chronicles not only Dewey’s life but her own, and also the background and history of Iowa, family farms, and libraries.  She discusses going to school to get her masters in library science,  Carnegie libraries, and remodeling libraries, all items that were especially interesting to me as a librarian.

But much more than that, it was a touching memoir of what it means to love a cat wholeheartedly, not only in good times (Dewey brought a lot of fame and attention to this small corner of the world) but in bad - when Dewey started to age and his coat wasn’t as shiny and youthful as it was before.  (Yes, believe it or not, the library board actually discussed what to do with Dewey “now that he was old” and didn’t look as good.  Apparently, we Americans are not only obsessed with human youthfulness but cat youthfulness too.)

If you love cats, libraries, or the small town life, then you’ll adore Dewey. There are pictures of Dewey throughout the book but all of them are printed in black and white, which for an orange tabby means you lose something in the process. But the Spencer Public Library has put together a web page dedicated to only pictures of Dewey with great captions underneath.  After finishing the book, I enjoyed looking through all of the pictures.

Dewey: The Small-Town Library Cat touched my heart - it made me think, it made me grateful, and it made me cry.

4.5 out of 5 stars.

Havs

Well, I know that this will come as a surprise to all of you, but I have heard a rumor that there are more books in this world than just nonfiction books.

Sit and let that soak in for a moment.  That means that there might be other book reviewers than just me!

No!

Yes!

Really?

Okay, fine, so there are a LOT more bloggers than just me out there.  And in an effort to help introduce all of my lovely readers to that great big world of Other Book Bloggers that does in fact exist (this is like The Others from the TV show Lost although not as creepy), I thought I’d start a new series on my site.  From here until the day I run out of people to interview, I will post an interview with a fellow book blogger every Tuesday.

I was trying to come up with a cool title for it like “Tuesdays Bloggers” but then realized that Tuesdays Bloggers is in fact not a cool title, and so I gave up trying to be creative and cool and stuff.

Then I realized that DUH!, I have creative and cool and stuff readers!  So I’m opening this up to you guys - if one of you can come up with a catchy or fun title for this new series, then you’ve just won yourself a nice permanent backlink in my sidebar.  Leave your ideas in the comment section below.

And if you don’t have a blog for me to link to, then you will win a permanent place in my Top Ten Coolest People Ever list.  So if I ever put together another list like that again, you’d totally come in at number one.  And if I don’t, well…ummm….

Moving on now…

I also have to ask: Are you one of those Other Book Bloggers?  And if so, are you interested in being interviewed by moi, and being spotlighted on my blog?  Drop me a link through my Nonfiction contact page and we’ll chat.  I have had quite a few people respond already, so you wouldn’t be highlighted, say, tomorrow, but it would happen eventually and it would totally be worth your while.  I think.

Last but not least, before I sign off for the night, I wanted to thank DreadPirateRose of the ultra-cool Convention Fans blog here at Today.com for my new header.  I will be messing with my colors in my blog to match my new spiffy header which is always fun for me.  I like messing with that kind of thing.  It’s like all the fun of painting your home without all of the work that comes along with!

Thanks again Dread - you rock!

Havs

PS The book bloggers that I interview will have their link added to my sidebar under the “Book Bloggers I Interviewed” heading.  —-> The most recent five bloggers will be highlighted there.  As you can see, I’ve already got one up - Andrea from So Many Books, So Little Time will be the first in the series - her interview will show up Tuesday morning.  Be sure to check it out then!

We’ve been dealing with a rash of thefts lately at the library.  I’ve discussed people stealing from our library before, but this is not your normal theft.  The person (or people) involved are not stealing books, CD’s, DVD’s, or other standard library material.  Instead, they are stealing toilet paper.

Yes, that roll of thin white paper that every toilet paper company in existence tries to convince you is nothing short of little pillows of goodness; a slice of heaven come to earth (and apparently taking up residence in your bathroom.  You’d think if heaven was going to come to earth, it would come in form of chocolate or something equally amazing, but instead, it’s just rolls of thin paper.  Me thinks that there is a bit of embellishment happening in the advertising world, but of course we all know that can’t possibly be what’s happening.)

Apparently, our janitorial staff has noticed a sudden and drastic increase in our toilet paper usage in our public bathrooms - so drastic that even the tubes in the middle of the rolls are gone.  Oh, and yes, you read that right: Bathrooms.  So either our thief has a partner in crime, or s/he is sneaking into the other bathroom when no one is looking.

Now mind you, our toilet paper dispensers all have the standard little locks on them to keep people from doing exactly this.  But give a 7-year-old a pocketknife and about 10 seconds, and they’ll have that lock picked and the roll out of the holder.  Not exactly a Mission Impossible level of difficulty here.

So what are we doing to combat the theft?  Just what you might expect from a library: We’ve put a security strip inside of each roll.  The thin metal strips that normally help keep our books and DVD’s from being stolen are now doing double duty and are keeping our toilet paper rolls from walking out the front door.  We are under strict instructions that if we find a patron trying to steal a roll, we are to notify a manager and they are to call the police immediately.

All I have to say is: Really?  TP?  Couldn’t you find something better to steal?  If you’re going to go to jail for stealing something, make it worth your while!  At least pick up a DVD or two.  I just can’t fathom having petty theft on my record because of toilet paper.

Is the economy really that bad?

Havs

So I’m way excited about this, can you tell?  I am holding the first ever give away here on Nonfiction Lover, and I hope that you all will join in!

To qualify, all you need is a blog or website that you can post on (I apologize to my readers without a blog or website, but unfortunately for this contest, you do need to have a blog of your own).

First, the prizes!

** 2,000 EntreCard credits [**please see note below**]
** Simplexity by Jeffrey Kluger (a book review: Simplexity)
** Before the Scalpel by Panchali Dhar, MD (my book review: Before the Scalpel)
** $5 gift card to Starbucks
** $5 gift card to Barnes and Noble

It’s one prize per winner, which means you’ll have five chances to win! (Note: I will pay for all shipping and handling charges as long as you reside within the US, making your prize completely free. If you live outside of the US, you can still enter into the contest but if you choose one of the books as your prize, I will require you pay the shipping charges to receive it. Sorry in advance for that, but hey, I am a poor college student.)

The first person’s name pulled out of the hat gets to choose their prize first, the second person chooses second, etc, until I run out of prizes (or names, heaven forbid.)

To enter into the contest, it’s simple - simply link from your blog to mine. Every post with a link is worth one entry. The more you link, the greater your chance to win an ultra-cool prize!  (Okay, okay, so it’s not a Wii or an iPod, but remember: Poor college student!  This is as good as it gets ’round here.)

Here’s the nitty-gritty details:

When you link to my blog, I need you to use at least two out of these three words in your link: nonfiction book review. So your link can read as “nonfiction review,” “book reviews,” “reviews of nonfiction books,” “great nonfiction book reviews” - any combination of those three words (and any adjectives that you want to throw in, like great, interesting, well-written, etc) is what I’m going for.

For those who want an example, here’s a sample sentence:

blah blah. Also, for any readers who enjoy nonfiction, be sure to check out a great nonfiction book review site that I have found. blah blah

When you link this way, it tells Google that my site is a place to go for great nonfiction book reviews. If you link like this: “Be sure to check out a great nonfiction book site by clicking here” then you’re telling Google that my site is the place to go when people search for the word “here.” Not exactly helpful.

I also do NOT want the phrase “Nonfiction Lover” used as the link - Nonfiction Lover is the name of my site, yes, but it is NOT a popular term when it comes to people searching for information through Google.

If any of that doesn’t make sense or you want more info on SEO (search engine optimization) please email me and I’ll be glad to tell you what I know.

That’s pretty much it! Feel free to link to individual reviews of books (Example: Be sure to check out the book review of Marley and Me) or to the main page. Just remember to include at least two out of the three words in the link: “nonfiction book review.”

After you’ve linked, either send me an email through my contact page or post a comment on this post, and give me the URL’s of the links so I can verify them. Links in blogrolls also count - please tell me in your email/comment that the link is in the blogroll so I know where to look.

Remember, each post counts as an entry (plus a link in the blogroll), so feel free to sprinkle links throughout several posts, or go back and edit old posts to add my link. Either way is fantastic!!!

The contest will run until April 14th, 2009. I will draw names on April 15th and announce the winners on my site plus send you an email asking you for your contact information, so please be sure to use a valid email address.

Thanks and hope to hear from y’all soon!!!

Havs

**NOTE: Since putting this contest together, Today.com has told us we can no longer use EntreCard on our blogs because of a conflict.  My first thought was, “Should I drop the 2000 EC prize?” but I decided to keep it in.  My thoughts are this:

If you are a Today.com blogger, you may have an outside blog that is not in the Today.com world that you can use the EC’s on.

There is also the possibility that you do not have an outside blog but that you do keep your EC account active, in which case you can use those credits on the EC marketplace to buy reviews of your blogs and lots of other really awesome things.  You are not required to have an EC widget on your blog in order to have an EC account, so you can keep your account without keeping the widget.

And of course, if you are not a Today.com blogger but you do use EC, then none of this matters and you would happily use 2,000 extra EC’s. If you have any questions, please ask below - thanks!

Crazy day at the library today.  I don’t know if it’s the nice weather we’ve been having or what, but today at the library was HOPPING!

To add to all of the fun, I had the worst case of hiccups you can imagine come on right after lunch.  In true Hava fashion, I of course didn’t have quiet ladylike hiccups - that would be too much to ask for.  Noooo…I had loud, can-hear-it-across-the-room-library hiccups.

It all started off with a quiet *uck*.  I thought, “Was that a hiccup?  No, it couldn’t be.  I will NOT have the hiccups!”  Then I got five in a row.

Crap.

Do you know how hard it is to be serious when you’re talking to someone, when at any moment your whole body could converse like you just got hit with a jolt of electricity, and then a loud noise comes out of your mouth that sounds strangely like a dying cow?  I felt like scribbling on a piece of paper and hanging it around my neck: “Warning: I just have the hiccups, not some dread disease, and no, I am not drunk, although quite frankly, if these don’t hiccups don’t stop soon, I might driven to drink.”

But that would have made for an awfully long sign.

I was helping a patron whom I had just warned that I had the hiccups, and as I was leaning over the counter, looking at a book with her, my whole body conversed and out of my mouth came the loudest hiccup ever recorded in the history of mankind.  If anyone in the Guinness Book of World Records had been standing by when that came out of my mouth, I would have instantly made my mark on history.

Instead, the poor lady reared her head back and said, “Good gracious child!  Bless you!” while my face turned about 13 shades of red.

Ahh…the joys.

It only got worse when I was forced to answer the phone.  When I am talking to someone face to face, they can see that I am not a drunken sailor on some bender (I do look normal, which helps) but over the phone, it’s a whole ‘nother ballpark.  Strange noises emitting from the handset tends to make the callers think that I just had a heart attack and had keeled over dead on them.

“Are you okay?!” a lady shouted.  “Do I need to call someone?  Are you there?!”  I was so embarrassed, I almost couldn’t talk.  But don’t worry, if there’s even a hint of life in me, I will be able to talk.  I am just that dedicated.  And talkative.

The hiccups stopped as suddenly as they started.  My throat eased up, and I could tell that with just the blink of an eye, they were gone and they weren’t coming back.

Glory hallelujah, I was free of the hiccups!

*uck*

Havs

I saw Planet Google: One Company’s Audacious Plan to Organize Everything We Know by Randall Stross one day while doing check-in.  Since I am a big fan of Google (I use Gmail for my email service - Gmail ROCKS! - and faithfully use only Google to search the internet) I thought it would be interesting to learn more about this company that has played such a large role in my online life.

Overall, Planet Google was interesting.  It didn’t quite progress the way I thought it would - I thought it would start at the beginning, with the history of the co-founders, and then progressing linearly through time up to the point of publication.

Instead, it had very little personal history about the co-founders (Larry Page and Sergey Brin) and instead of progressing forward through time, the book was organized around ideas that Google has experimented with, from Google Earth to Gmail to YouTube.  Each chapter focused on an idea, or focused on the competition Google has faced from Microsoft and Yahoo.

It made for a very quick read (I sat down after work tonight and finished the whole book in one sitting - about 2.5 hours or so) and I think that reading it so quickly made me realize something that would have otherwise been lost reading it over the course of a week or a month: Randal Stross repeated himself several times throughout the book, almost as if he had written each section separately, and then at the end combined it all into one book.

There were a couple of instances where he would explain a concept in-depth in one chapter, and then explain that same concept again a chapter or two later (in much less detail, but still, there was more explanation the second time around than was needed, for sure.)  If I had taken 6 weeks to read the book, I never would have noticed this.

Despite these shortcomings, I enjoyed it, and I feel like I have a better understanding of the fundamentals of Google than I did before I read it.  I use Facebook regularly, so I was really surprised to learn about the rivalry between Facebook and Google.  I had no clue before I read Planet Google.  Nor did I know that Microsoft has some monetary stake in Facebook, or that Microsoft and Google are rivals (I don’t pay much attention to rivalry between tech companies, what can I say?)

But while there were events or happenings that the author covered in great detail (like YouTube, and more specifically, making YouTube monetarily solvent) there were other Google-related items that the book did not touch on at all, or only mentioned once or twice in passing, like Blogspot and Google AdSense.  Those are both huge parts to the Google world, and yet they garnered zero attention by Stross.

I think that is one of the book’s biggest downfalls - it tended to be fairly superficial.  I feel like he skimmed through a lot, but then repeated other things (how is YouTube going to make money?) too much.

There were events that the author referred to as being a “huge deal” and I had no clue they had even happened, let alone was affected by it happening.  I think there has been more than one technology bubble - for someone wrapped up in the Google world, perhaps these things were a huge deal, but to the rest of us, it was negligible at best.

Planet Google would obviously would not appeal to someone not interested in the tech world - this is not a book I could recommend to just anyone in off the street.  But for the right person, I think this would make for a fascinating read.  Since I fall into that group of people interested in both technology and the story behind the companies that shape our world today (I really need to read a book about Microsoft!) I give it 4.25 stars out of 5.

Havs

The following is a fantastic guest post by a fellow blogger, Jennifer L Price, here at Today.com. If you are interested in more of Jennifer’s writing, please check out her blog at Journeys and Adventures. She is an excellent writer, so be sure to give her lots of praise in the comment section! Thanks again, Jennifer!!

I should probably start this review by admitting that I’m a foodie; foodies are defined by Wikipedia as “amateurs who simply love food for consumption, study, preparation, and news.” Yup, that’s me - I like to make food, look at food, think about food, and, of course, eat food…so a book about a food writer attending the well-known Le Cordon Bleu cooking school in Paris is exactly the kind of book I enjoy.

The Sharper Your Knife, The Less You Cry: Love, Laughter, and Tears in Paris at the World’s Most Famous Cooking School by Kathleen Flinn details her experiences as a former middle manager attempting to follow a life-long dream and navigate life in Paris after being fired from her job - while also trying to learn how to gut a trout without damaging the head, cook with rooster blood, and make the perfect 512-layer puff pastry.

The book is obviously about food; Flinn uses mouth-watering descriptions to illustrate the dishes she creates and enjoys: “My final menu [includes] fillet of veal in pastry, stuffed with apples, celery, and mousse de fois gras with Calvados sauce, endive flowers with marinara sauce, whipped cauliflower with salsify and roasted garlic, chanterelle mushrooms sautéed with parsley.” (Don’t worry if your stomach starts to growl while reading, more than 25 recipes are also included in the book!)

There is more to the book than the food, though - Flinn offers an honest portrayal of life in a challenging culinary school, including demanding chefs and competitive classmates from around the world. The facts used to support her story (like the history of Cordon Bleu and how restaurants started) add a fascinating background to the already enchanting Paris. Trips to the market and glimpses of the Eiffel Tower bring the city to life.

At the forefront, however, The Sharper Your Knife is a memoir. In addition to her culinary experience, Flinn honestly shares the stresses, joys, and trepidations of losing her corporate job, moving to a foreign country, discovering herself, and searching for love: “As in cooking, living requires that you taste, taste, taste as you go along—you can’t wait until the dish of life is done.”

So, foodies like me will definitely enjoy the book—as will anyone who ever thinks of starting over and following their dreams overseas. There’s quite a bit of French in the book and Flinn covers a lot of territory in a short amount of time, sometimes moving too quickly and seemingly glossing over important parts, so The Sharper the Knife, The Less You Cry gets a 4.5 out of 5 stars from me.

~Jennifer

****

Again, you can find Jennifer’s blog at Journeys and Adventures - she writes about countries all over the world that she has visited, and that the tips and ideas that she has to make your trips more enjoyable and stress-free. Even if you’ve gone no further than your own backyard but you love to dream, you’ll love her site. Check it out!

Havs