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Book Reviews

Book Review: 2K to 10K

January 28, 2014 by Vanessa Leave a Comment

2,000 to 10,000: Writing Faster, Writing Better, and Writing More of What You Love

I’m not planning on writing a book any time soon but Rachel Aaron’s tag line sold me. I want to write faster, better, and more of what I love.

The first thing that immediately made me like this book was the author’s respect of the reader. She admits to writing this book because so many people asked her the same questions over and over about how she improved her writing speed. She wrote this book out of love for her readers and genuinely wanting to share her system for the benefit of others.

The tone she uses in the book is conversational. Really the book reads like a long blog post (which makes sense because this book started as several blog posts). I’ve read other books that teach writers a system for their writing but those come off as preachy and condescending. Aaron writes as if we were talking over coffee.

This is a good start-up guide for a new writer. It is practical and walks the reader through the whole book writing process from idea flash to editing and read throughs. I appreciated her system of recording what time she writes, how much, and where she is so she gets a better picture of when is the optimal writing time and place.

Aaron’s section on editing did not convince me to love editing but I was interested in her method. When I edit I just start from the beginning and work my way line by line until the end. The system she gives seems much more efficient. It may be non-linear but I like the idea of writing a to-do list of all the edits needed and attacking them from hardest to easiest. I do love to-do lists. I think this one idea could make editing bearable, being able to attack one task at a time instead of just dauntingly facing the whole piece.

I do have to say that this book has a lot of typos. Lots. And the irony of a how-to-write and how-to-edit book having typos is not lost on me. But really this book is like a PSA and is so useful that I don’t mind too much.

Her purpose in writing this book is clear. She is not teaching us but walking alongside us. She has been there in those frustrating and “stupid head-against-brick-wall” problems and she is trying to motivate us and give us the key to get through it.

So if you’re tinkering with the idea of writing a book but don’t know how to start, this is a good and quick read.

Filed Under: Book Reviews

Cookbook Review: The Food You Crave

January 22, 2014 by Vanessa 2 Comments

thefoodyoucraveThe Food You Crave from Ellie Krieger is a cookbook I’ve had for years. It was on sale at Half-Priced Books so I snagged it. I had no idea that it would become such a staple in our life. I cook at least two recipes out of it every week. This is especially a good January cookbook when we’re all trying to get on the healthy eating train.

Up until I bought this cookbook, I thought most recipes from cookbooks needed a lot of tweaking. I had used lots of Rachael Ray’s cookbooks and if I followed her recipes to the t, they usually came out bad. Not so for this book. Krieger does an amazing job constructing very solid recipes. Follow it exactly and usually it will turn out fantastic. Even the worst recipes are not bad, just bland, but I have only run across a few of those (lasanga rollups and stuffed peppers).

Even though our kids have food allergies, we’ve been able to make substitutions in her recipes without a whole lot of work. However, I haven’t tried many of the breakfasts or desserts because I just go to the Allergy Mama for that.

Where this book really shines is the sauces and the salads. I ate salad before I got this cookbook, but it was always the same buffet-type salad with iceberg lettuce and cherry tomatoes and sesame seeds. The salads in this book are amazing. The dressings, perfect. Because of this book, in the summer we eat salads as our entree most days because I don’t have to turn on the stove or oven and they are so darn tasty. Even the girls will chow down.

Also, what I appreciated about this book was the little tips she gave. For example: Did you know that when you drain and rinse canned beans it removes more than 40% of the sodium? You can do that for anything canned.

My favorites from this book:

  • Lemon Chicken and Orzo Soup (subbed out the eggs for cornstarch)
  • Cornmeal-Crusted Roasted Rataouille Tart (I have no idea how to make this dairy and egg-free, nor would I try, it is the most delicious thing I’ve ever made. No joke.)
  • Crab Salad on Crisp Wonton Cups
  • Grilled Thai Beef Salad (the girls eat this like it’s pizza)
  • Spinach Salad with Warm Bacon Dressing (we cheat and use a little more bacon. Good winter salad.)
  • All Day Breakfast Salad (Mine and B’s fav, better in the summer with good tomatoes)
  • Salmon Cakes with Ginger-Sesame Sauce (I could drink this sauce – her lemon-mint tzatziki is pretty good, too)
  • Fish Tacos (really it’s the Chipotle Cream that makes them so good)
  • Her Honey Mustard recipe

After I had this book for a while, I went back to Half-Priced books and bought them outof copies. I’ve been giving them out as wedding gifts because I love this cookbook that much.

So click on these links and try out her food. Oh, and we’d be happy to come over and help you taste it 🙂

Filed Under: Book Reviews, Food

Book Review: Fearing the Stigmata

January 14, 2014 by Vanessa

fearing-stigmata-weber-book-coverThe author is Matt Weber, a twenty-something Catholic who hosts the weekly Catholic TV segment “A Word with Weber”. This book is a compliation of vignettes from his life as a young adult.

The observations (more like Catholic inside jokes) he makes about Catholicism are right on as are his theology and sense of liturgy. He doesn’t reveal anything too personal or initimate but you can see that he is a good man and a nice guy. I agree with another review I read online — reading this book is like having a beer with an endearingly dorky, funny Catholic guy who went to Harvard.

I’ve read some of Matt’s stuff on Busted Halo and his writing can be sidesplitting.  He does the same here:

A prayer while he is in front of a statue of Mary:

Lastly, please do not physically manifest yourself in this statue because a) I’m not sure I’m the guy you want to be talking to and b) I’m not sure I can handle being spoken to in direct statue form…keep my heart calm and my pants dry.

After Ash Wednesday, he would call the proceeding days Pimple Thursday, Friday, and Saturday. (So true!)

He takes on the subject of appropriateness of instruments in liturgical music:

If you have strict notions about church music — pre-Vatican II era — and you just fainted, I apologize. Being “the harmonica guy” from church over the past few years has brought me a lot of joy.

He has a chapter that compares faith and church to wellness and the gym. I agree.

I think Matt Weber is a gifted humorist. I am glad he is out there in the world trying to help Catholic young adults not feel weird. It is a needed ministry. As a young adult, I feel weird all the time. It is difficult deciding what kind of adult you want to be. Do you want to accept the interests and passions that you have or do you try to bury them making yourself something you think you should be? Matt shows us that we can embrace ourselves, quirks and all, and it can lead to a good life.

In his next book, I would like to see him apply his humor to a longer and more singular narrative. As I was reading I found myself wanting to hear him speak more at length about a subject or delve a little deeper into why he loves the Church so much. He touched on the fact that being Catholic at Harvard was kind of a challenge but he brushes this under the rug quickly by saying that most people were open minded. This would have been an interesting angle, getting into the details of where his Catholicism came up against the New England intellectualism that Harvard is so famous for.

When I read the chapter about how he played balloon volleyball with cloistered nuns as a family tradition every year, that’s when I realized that this book is not aimed at giving the reader concrete ideas of how to remain faithful during the young adult years. It is definitely not preachy. Instead he wants to offer glimpses of his life that show that being a faithful young adult does not have to be boring. Matt follows his faith in his own unique way and has a blast doing it.

This book is an amusing quick and light read. Each chapter is short – three to six pages and only takes a few minutes to read. Especially since the chapters aren’t linked together, I found myself reading a chapter here and there throughout the day.

Enjoy!

Filed Under: Book Reviews

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