The Kitchen Counter Cooking School by Kathleen Flinn

At the end of 2010 I listened to the audiobook of The Sharper Your Knife the Less You Cry by Kathleen Flinn. It is the story of her experience upending her entire life, moving to Paris, and attending the world's most famous culinary school: Le Cordon Bleu. I was so enamored with Flinn's story, not just because I admire anyone who can take a huge risk like that, but Flinn's voice and style of writing were so engaging and her words were so perfectly placed that she managed to make my mouth water in each and every chapter.

So when I was approached by someone at Viking about reviewing Flinn's new book, I jumped at the chance. Given my enchanting experience with her first book, I knew I would not be disappointed with her latest food memoir, and I was not wrong.

After returning to the U.S. from her experience in Paris, Kathleen Flinn found herself unsure of what she wanted to do with her culinary education. Then one day as she was cruising the grocery store, she came across a haggard mom perusing the aisles with her cart full of ultra-processed food. Not one to generally stalk people in the grocery store, something compelled Flinn to approach this particular woman and walk her through the store, replacing her processed food with real food.

Inspired by this chance encounter at the grocery store, Flinn came up with the idea to find a group of people who felt cooking was out of their realm of abilities and start teaching a cooking class. It didn't take long for her to find nine willing participants and The Kitchen Counter Cooking School was born.

Part memoir, part testament to the ease and importance of cooking real food for yourself and your family, The Kitchen Counter Cooking School was one of the most engaging nonfiction works I read in 2011.

Seeing as how I love food so much and have learned a great deal about the subject on my own, I now judge the success of any food book based on two criteria: 1) Did it make me hungry? 2) Did I learn anything new?

I can say this book succeeded on both counts. I have become extremely discriminating in recent years when it comes to cookbooks because I am someone who doesn't follow recipes to the letter. I often find myself looking in the fridge and coming up with ways to use the ingredients I have rather than being slave to a recipe. So cookbooks, in a way, have lost their luster for me. Which is why it is always the mark of a successful cookbook or food tome when I can genuinely say that I learned something new from the author. As you can see by the number of post-it flags strewn throughout the book, I think it's safe to say I learned a great deal.

 Since I would consider myself a fairly successful home cook, one might assume that this book would be over the heads of people wanting to make a change and learn to cook for themselves. I'm here to tell you that it's not. The Kitchen Counter Cooking School will inspire neophytes and aficianados alike. How likely will someone who doesn't like to cook pick up this book? Not very. Nonetheless, if someone who doesn't like to cook or doesn't cook well manages to find this book thrust into their hands, I think they will be inspired to pick up a chef's knife and start chopping.

Which I think is what makes this book so successful - Flinn writes in such a way that will make you feel inspired. Whether it's to get up off the couch and start making a delicious no-knead bread, or to take a look inside your own cupboards and start purging anything that was made in a factory, I can't imagine this book not compelling anyone to act and move in a positive direction toward a healthier eating mindset.

Even though I have largely rid my house of processed foods for many years now, Flinn inspired me to go back to making my own salad dressings. This is something I used to do all the time and for whatever reason, I stopped doing it because I thought that buying my salad dressings at Whole Foods somehow made them healthier than buying them at the regular grocery store. After reading

My impromptu vinaigrette

this book, I realized that no, the healthier option will always be to make them yourself. So that's what I did, I got up off the couch and made a batch of balsamic vinaigrette with honey, whole grain mustard and hazelnut oil. The mustard helped emulsify the oil and vinegar so it has stayed together in the fridge without separating. I keep it in a mason jar and use it as I need it rather than making a new vinaigrette every time I make a salad. Do I still use the

Bottle your own dressing!

bottled dressing every once in a while? Sure, but this book reminded me to have confidence in my own ability and make what I can, especially if it doesn't take much time.

In addition to inspiration, Flinn also gives readers some background about processed food, how they became popular, and why they are so bad for you.

For example, I was rapt to discover that the reason we have so much processed food in the first place is because after World War II, food manufacturers needed to figure out how to sell and market their products so as not to lose out on all the technology and discoveries they made from creating army rations. Food manufacturers had to find a way to convince women in the kitchen that cooking was beneath them, that they didn't need to spend time slaving away in the kitchen. Their products could do it for them. Basically, they marketed laziness.

A perfect example of this is the boxed cake mix. Food science has come far enough to create a mix where you only need to add water. But not only do they taste inferior, food companies discovered that by allowing people to add their own eggs, oil, water, etc, it made them feel more involved in the baking process - like they were making the cake from scratch. But making a cake from scratch does not take that much longer than making one from a box, and when you make your own, you have the benefit of only using seven ingredients as opposed to twenty-five ingredients, most of them unpronounceable. I mean, have you ever actually stopped to look at the ingredients on the back of a box of cake mix? It might compel you to make a cake from scratch next time.

I could go on and on about the things I learned from this book but I don't want to make this review so long that people won't read it. So I'll just leave you with one last thought:  if you often find yourself feeling that cooking is just too much work (and believe me, there are days that even I feel this way and cereal for dinner is the only thing I feel like "making"), Flinn will change your mind. Her writing is so engaging and her methods are so simple that even the most reluctant newcomer to the kitchen will find themselves wanting to try some of the recipes in this book. But this book goes beyond just recipes. Flinn teaches you techniques and methods that will help you to feel confident in your own abilities to put dinner on the table without the need for a recipe. She gives you flavor profiles to work with so that you can create meals at the drop of a hat. More importantly though, she will make you remember why cooking is so important because, in general, the more you cook real food, the healthier you are and the less you weigh, and in a nation that put obesity on the map, it's time we stop being slaves to food manufacturers and start buying real food.

Here is an example from the book of a recipe that many people think is too difficult (even I thought this), but actually can be put together in mere minutes. I wouldn't recommend making this dish frequently given how rich and full of fat it is, but it's certainly a luscious treat to make every now and again.

Basic Alfredo Sauce
Serves 3-4

8 ounces cooked pasta
2 cups heavy cream
1 cup reserved pasta water
1/2 tsp salt
1/2 cup grated Parmigiano-Reggiano
1 garlic clove, minced
Freshly ground black pepper

Prepare pasta according to package directions. Reserve one cup pasta water to use in the sauce. Over medium-high heat, add all but 2 tablespoons of heavy cream to a saute pan. When it bubbles, add the salt. Small bubbles will erupt into larger bubbles. Stir. When the sauce thickens enough to cover the back of a spoon, or leaves a clean line in the bottom of the pan when you pull a spatula across it, add the pasta water. Cook over medium-high heat about three minutes, until it bubbles again and the sauce thickens. add reserved 2 tablespoons of cream, heat through and then add the cheese, garlic, and a few cranks of pepper. Add pasta and any additional ingredients and stir well to coat. Enjoy!

I added a bit of fresh parsley for color, and forgot to reserve the 2 tablespoons of cream for later, but the dish still came out delicious and took almost no time to make. In fact, it took longer to cook the pasta than the sauce.

The Kitchen Counter Cooking School: How a Few Simple Lessons Transformed Nine Culinary Novices into Fearless Home Cooks by Kathleen Flinn
Published: September 29, 2011 by Viking
Pages: 283
Genre: Nonfiction/Food memoir
Audience: Adults
Disclosure: Book received for review

Novels Read in 2011

 I actually read almost 350 books in 2011, but I only count novels as part of my goal-fulfillment (at least 100 books) which I made my goal this year. YAY!

107. Pie by Sarah Weeks
106. The Kitchen Counter Cooking School by Kathleen Flinn
105. Shatter Me by Tahereh Mafi*
104. Zebrafish by Peter H. Reynolds
103. A Pug's Tale by Alison Pace
102. Miracles on Maple Hill by Virginia Sorensen*
101. Homeless Bird by Gloria Whelan*
100. The Time-Traveling Fashionista by Bianca Turetsky
99. Divergent by Veronica Roth*
98. Joy for Beginners by Erica Bauermeister*
97. Dairy Queen by Catherine Gilbert Murdock*
96. Page by Paige by Laura Lee Gulledge
95. Small Town Sinners by Melissa Walker
94. The Future of Us by Jay Asher of Carolyn Mackler
93. Diary of a Wimpy Kid: Cabin Fever by Jeff Kinney
92. Hound Dog True by Linda Urban
91. The Hundred Dresses by Eleanor Estes
90. Catalyst by Laurie Halse Anderson*
89. Nim's Island by Wendy Orr*
88. Fever by Lauren DeStefano
87. Knucklehead by Jon Scieszka
86. Liesl & Po by Lauren Oliver
85. Sisters of Glass by Stephanie Hemphill
84. The Fox Inheritance by Mary E. Pearson*
83. Miss Peregrine's Home for Peculiar Children by Ransom Riggs
82. Breadcrumbs by Anne Ursu*
81. Dreamland by Alyson Noel*
80. The Night Circus by Erin Morgenstern*
79. Daughter of Smoke and Bone by Laini Taylor
78. All These Things I've Done by Gabrielle Zevin*
77. Bake Sale by Sara Varon
76. Beauty Queens by Libba Bray*
75. The Knife of Never Letting Go by Patrick Ness*
74. Dear Bully by Megan Kelley Hall and Carrie Jones
73. Wanderlove by Kirsten Hubbard
72. The Fast and the Furriest by Andy Behrens*
71. Princess Academy by Shannon Hale*
70. Before I Fall by Lauren Oliver*
69. Trash by Andy Mulligan*
68. Story of a Girl by Sara Zarr*
67. The Girl Who Circumnavigated Fairyland in a Ship of Her Own Making by Catherynne M. Valente
66. Water for Elephants by Sara Gruen*
65. After Tupac and D Foster by Jacqueline Woodson*
64. The Book of Awesome by Neil Pasricha
63. Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil by John Berendt*
62. The Sweetest Thing by Christina Mandelski
61. Lunch in Paris by Elizabeth Bard
60. Ruby Red by Kerstin Gier
59. Die for Me by Amy Plum*
58. Bad Taste in Boys by Carrie Harris
57. Absurdistan by Shteyngart*
56. Forever by Maggie Stiefvater
55. Virtuosity by Jessica Martinez
54. Dragonbreath by Ursula Vernon
53. Linger by Maggie Stiefvater*
52. Whale Talk by Chris Crutcher
51. Moonglass by Jessi Kirby
50. Don't Stop Now by Julie Halpern
49. Elsewhere by Gabrielle Zevin*
48. Ready or Not by Meg Cabot*
47. The Revision Toolbox by Georgia Heard
46. Strings Attached by Judy Blundell
45. Olive's Ocean by Kevin Henkes*
44. Bloomability by Sharon Creech*
43. A Monster Calls by Patrick Ness
42. What My Mother Doesn't Know by Sonya Sones*
41. Readicide by Kelly Gallagher
40. The Last Little Blue Envelope by Maureen Johnson*
39. You Had Me at Woof by Julie Klam*
38. Sahara Special by Esme Raji Codell*
37. Songs for a Teenage Nomad by Kim Culbertson
36. Wings by Aprilynne Pike
35. All-American Girl by Meg Cabot*
34. Shimmer by Alyson Noel
33. Mechanically Inclined: Building Grammar, Usage, and Style into Writer's Workshop by Jeff Anderson
32. Missing May by Cynthia Rylant*
31. Bumped by Megan McCafferty
30. Revolution by Jennifer Donnelly*
29. 13 Little Blue Envelopes by Maureen Johnson
28. The Plain Janes by Cecil Castellucci & Jim Rugg
27. Racing in the Rain by Garth Stein
26. Decoded by Jay-Z
25. Pug Hill by Alison Pace
24. Rival by Sara Bennett Wealer
23. Shiver by Maggie Stiefvater*
22. Shine by Lauren Myracle
21. The Incorrigible Children of Ashton Place: The Hidden Gallery by Maryrose Wood*
20. Wither by Lauren DeStefano
19. Bridge to Terabithia by Katherine Patterson*
18. A Great and Terrible Beauty by Libba Bray*
17. Where She Went by Gayle Forman
16. Fat Kid Rules the World by K.L. Going*
15. Hole in My Life by Jack Gantos*
14. Oogy: The Dog Only a Family Could Love by Larry Levin*
13. Island of the Blue Dolphins by Scott O'Dell*
12. This Girl is Different by JJ Johnson
11. The True Meaning of Smekday by Adam Rex*
10. The Fourth Stall by Chris Rylander
9. Does My Head Look Big in This? by Randa Abdel-Fattah
8. A Woman's Guide to a Healthy Stomach by Jacqueline Wolf
7. Here Lies Bridget by Paige Harbison
6. Where the Mountain Meets the Moon by Grace Lin*
5. Fahrenheit 451 by Ray Bradbury*
4. Across the Universe by Beth Revis
3. The Crepe Makers' Bond by Julie Crabtree
2. Delirium by Lauren Oliver
1. Airborn by Kenneth Oppel*

*indicates audibook

Favorite Books of 2011

I read so many great books this year that I couldn't narrow it down to ten. So here are my favorites divided into categories.

Favorite Young Adult Fiction:

Daughter of Smoke and Bone by Laini Taylor
This book seems to be on everyone's favorites list for the year. The characters were intriguing, the story unique, but honestly, my favorite part of this book was the setting. Prague is a beautiful and creepy city, the perfect place to write a beautiful and creepy novel.

Beauty Queens by Libba Bray
Beauty Queens is a hilarious romp with  marooned beauty pageant contestants who just survived a plane crash. The hilarity in this book is almost palpable, yet Bray manages to give this novel substance as well as humor. The audiobook is narrated by Bray herself and not only is she the most successful author/audiobook narrator I have ever had the pleasure of listening to, she also one of the best audiobook narrators period.

Delirium by Lauren Oliver
While everyone raves over the dystopian tour-de-force that is Divergent, I preferred Delirium ten times over. Lauren Oliver's prose is magical, her story-telling masterful. If I could have the talent of any writer, I would wish for Oliver's. The way she weaves words, sentences, and stories together is like nothing I've ever experienced before.

Bad Taste in Boys by Carrie Harris
I have said this many times before, but it bears repeating: I hate zombies. They totally creep me out and I don't like being creeped out (despite the fact that I like the creepy setting in Daughter of Smoke and Bone). But Carrie Harris managed to write a non-creepy zombie novel with Bad Taste in Boys. In fact, it was funny, sassy, and campy. Words I never expected to use when describing zombies. If Libba Bray were to write a zombie novel, I imagine it would be similar to this one. Having met Carrie at her book launch party this summer, and still correspond with her, I can tell you that her personality comes right through in this book. She is so much fun to be around.

Shine by Lauren Myracle
No only does Myracle write a compelling mystery in Shine, but she uses it as a springboard to start a conversation about hate crimes and the bigotry that still runs rampant in small town America. I still vividly remember one of the final scenes in this book. It's a story that will haunt you even after you finish it.

Where She Went by Gayle Forman
*Sigh* Oh how I love Mia and Adam. And the fact that I can even remember their names this many months later tells you how much this book should be on my favorites list. I'm one of those readers who forgets almost everything about a story after I read it. But Mia and Adam? Probably one of the most perfect couples to ever grace the literary world. If I Stay is one of my favorite books of all time and so when Where She Went came out, I was so excited to get the chance to spend some time with Mia and Adam again. I know Forman has said that she's done telling their story, but I so wish that we could have one more romp with them.

Revolution by Jennifer Donnelly
So I know that Revolution was published in 2010, but I had to include this book on my 2011 favorites list because it was by far my favorite book I read (listened to) this year. The story was so unique and the musical aspect of the main character's story was just so compelling that it was like nothing I'd ever read before. I loved this book so much that I was CONVINCED that the classical composer that Donnelly created was real and went to look up some of his music at the library only to discover that he didn't exist. I was so invested in his being real that it was like the wind was knocked out of me when I discovered he was a creation of the author. 


Favorite Middle Grade Fiction

Breadcrumbs by Anne Ursu
This book has a quiet power to it. The story is a modern retelling of The Snow Queen, and Anne Ursu writes in such a way that the magical elements weave seamlessly into reality.

Pie by Sarah Weeks
Even though I gave this book three stars on Goodreads and I still remain dubious about certain aspects of the story, this was still one of the most enjoyable books I read this year. Reading it with a group of kids who beg you everyday, "Can we please read more of Pie today?" probably didn't hurt adding this to my favorites list either. 

The Incorrigible Children of Ashton Place: The Hidden Gallery by Maryrose Wood
In this second book in the Incorrigible Children of Ashton Place series, Maryrose Wood shows how well-suited she is at writing middle grade fiction - and humorous middle grade fiction at that. I can't tell you how many times these books have made me laugh out loud. Though Katherine Kellgrine's audiobook narration certainly helps add to the hilarity of the story.




Favorite Graphic Novel

Bake Sale by Sara Varon
Given the title of my blog, it's no secret that I love books that revolve around food. So when you get a talented artist like Sara Varon and a book that revolves around food as characters? Sound like a book Beth will love. And it was!







Favorite Nonfiction

The Kitchen Counter Cooking School by Kathleen Flinn
I haven't reviewed this book yet as I only finished it a few days ago, but when you read my thoughts, they will be glowing. Whatever Kathleen Flinn writes, I will read. Not only is she a gifted story-teller, but she also writes about food in such a way that always made me want to put the book down, go in the kitchen and whip up something delicious. She makes cooking feel accessible rather than insurmountable, which is exactly the point of this book.





Favorite Picture Books

Teach Your Buffalo to Play Drums by Audrey Vernick, illustrated by Daniel Jennewein
All I can say is, I hope this is not the last of the Buffalo books. The sheer hilarity of turning a buffalo into a lovable, cuddly picture-book character is not lost on me. Add Audrey Vernick's unique voice along with Daniel Jennewein's endearing illustrations and you have a recipe for lots of laughter.

Prudence Wants a Pet by Cathleen Daly, illustrated by Stephen Michael King
What's a girl to do when she so desperately wants a pet, but her parents won't let her have one? Get creative. Which is exactly what Prudence does. I love the idea of this story, I love the humor, and I love the way the ending resonates even more. 

Charlie the Ranch Dog by Ree Drummond, illustrated by Diane deGroat
I absolutely adore Pioneer Woman, Ree Drummond: her blog, her show, and now her picture book Charlie the Ranch Dog. I think what makes me love this book so much is that I am familiar with Charlie from her show and her blog, and this really is Charlie's story. Given that I can't pass up a good dog book, and that the story so perfectly captures Charlie, it's no wonder why this was one of my favorite books of the year. 

Rah, Rah Radishes! A Vegetable Chant by April Pulley Sayre
Colorful, mouth-watering photographs and a fun, chant about vegetables is bound to get kids excited and curious about eating what's good for them. Couple reading this book with a cooking lesson or two, and maybe we can start changing the paradigm of how kids eat in this country. When you involve kids in knowing and learning about food, they're more likely to make better choices.

Magic Trash by J.H. Shapiro, illustrated by Vanessa Newton
Magic Trash is the story of Tyree Guyton, the man behind The Heidelberg Project in Detroit. As someone who has heard of The Heidelberg Project but never actually gone to see it, this book made me want to drive to Detroit to take a gander. Since I live in metro-Detroit, it's really something I have no excuse for not going to see. What I love about the book is how it explains the inspiration for the project in the first place, which was to detract the riff raff from hanging out in the neighborhood. I mean, what crack dealer is going to want to enter an abandoned house decorated with giant polka-dots?


So those were my favorite books of the year, what were yours?

Pie by Sarah Weeks

Alice Anderson adores her Aunt Polly. They spend every afternoon together at Polly's pie shop, appropriately named PIE. But when Aunt Polly suddenly passes away, everyone wants to know where or who she left her pie crust recipe to. It's not long after the funeral that the whole town finds out that Polly left her pie crust recipe... to her CAT!

With everyone in town going pie-crazy, Alice soon finds herself trying to solve a mystery of who trashed her Aunt Polly's old pie shop, and who stole the cat that was left to her in Aunt Polly's will.

Pie is a quick, fun read that gets your mouth watering from the first chapter with its tantalizing descriptions of all the pies Aunt Polly made in her shop. To help the reader feed his or her sweet tooth, Sarah Weeks includes a different pie recipe at the beginning of every chapter that are integral to the story.

In fact, while I was still reading the book, upon the recommendation of Allison at Reading Everywhere, I made the quick and simple buttermilk pie that was so easy to make, it's almost unbelievable that the pie is actually low-cal!

I read Pie aloud to my sixth graders and upon return to school in January we'll be having a pie day where kids can bring in a pie that they made from the novel. When I read it to my class, they would always beg me to keep reading after I stopped, always a sign of a successful read-aloud.

However, most of us were of the same opinion that the ending was a disappointment. For me, however, the way the story ended was not nearly as disappointing as the fact that there was a loose end in the story that was never addressed, which really bothered me because I felt like it was a part of the overall mystery that needed to be solved. Even though it wasn't, I felt like it was something that needed to be addressed. I don't mean to be so vague about it, but I don't want to reveal any spoilers. If you've read the book and want to ask me what I mean, feel free to email me or message me on Goodreads.

Even though the ending was a disappointment, the rest of the story was fun and heartwarming and was even more fun to read with a group of kids. It was interesting to hear all their theories on "whodunit" and it gave the class a chance to work together in coming up with their predictions. Not to mention, the recipes included at the beginning of each chapter are easily attainable, so long as you use a pre-made pie crust (which makes sense that the book wouldn't include how to make pie crust since the whole book is about finding Aunt Polly's famous pie crust recipe).

Final verdict: Delicious descriptions but a tad lacking in the characterization and tying-up loose ends department. Still a worthwhile read despite a few frustrations.

Here is an example of one of the easy, delicious pies included in the novel:

Buttermilk Pie 
9-inch pie tin lined with unbaked pie crust
3 large eggs
3/4 cup sugar
3 tablespoons flour
1 & 1/2 cups low-fat buttermilk
1 teaspoon vanilla
3 tablespoons fresh lemon juice
1 teaspoon lemon zest
1 teaspoon butter, melted
1/2 teaspoon ground nutmeg

Preheat oven to 350. Cover unbaked pie shell with parchment paper or a coffee filter. Press down to fit and toss in a handful of dried beans. Place weighted shell in preheated oven and bake for ten minutes. Remove from oven and discard beans and parchment. Set pie crust aside.

Raise oven temp to 375. Beat eggs and sugar until light and lemony colored. Add flour and beat until well mixed. Add buttermilk, vanilla, lemon juice, lemon zest, and butter. Pour into baked pie crust and dust with nutmeg. Bake 25-30 minutes. Cool before serving.

Pie by Sarah Weeks
Published: October 1, 2011 by Scholastic
Pages: 183
Genre: Mystery
Audience: Middle Grade

Audiobook Review: Catalyst by Laurie Halse Anderson

High school senior and science geek Kate Malone dreams of attending MIT. In fact, she is so confident that she'll be accepted that she didn't bother to apply to any other colleges. While her friends and even her boyfriend are getting accepted to Ivy-League colleges, Kate waits with bated breath for her own acceptance letter.

As the straight-laced daughter of a minister, Kate frequently finds herself grappling with two different sides to her personality. There's in-control Kate: the girl who is always taking care of others  (namely her little brother who has severe asthma) and keeping her family together, then there's the Kate that is one more crisis away from a breakdown.

And suddenly, crises abound for Kate. When a fire at her neighbors' house leaves them with nowhere to go, her do-gooder father offers to let them stay at the Malones' house - in Kate's bedroom. This wouldn't be a problem for her if it weren't for the fact that her neighbor Teri Litch is her arch-nemesis. With her future looming in the balance, will Kate be able to hold it together long enough to make it to graduation and then MIT in the fall?

I adore Laurie Halse Anderson. She is one of my favorite authors of all time. She is a rock star. When I met her at NCTE and got my picture taken with her, I was starstruck.

Catalyst was a solid, quiet novel, that delivered Anderson's consistent, to-the-point writing style. But it didn't knock my socks off the way books like Speak and Wintergirls did. Did I still like it? Most definitely. It's just not a book that will linger in my mind long after I finish reading the way her other books did.

The audiobook was narrated by Samantha Mathis and her performance was convincing as the voice of Kate. Her clean style of narrating worked quite well in concert with Anderson's no-nonsense style of writing.

Final thoughts: While not my favorite book of hers, Anderson writes a solid, consistent narrative that I highly recommend as an audio listen.

Catalyst by Laurie Halse Anderson
Audiobook Narrator: Samantha Mathis
Published: September 2001 
Publisher: Speak and Listening Library
Pages: 232
Audiobook Length: 6 hours, 1 minute
Genre: Realistic Fiction
Audience: Young Adult
 

ARC Review: Fever by Lauren DeStefano

Goodreads summary:

Rhine and Gabriel have escaped the mansion, but danger is never far behind. 

Running away brings Rhine and Gabriel right into a trap, in the form of a twisted carnival whose ringmistress keeps watch over a menagerie of girls. Just as Rhine uncovers what plans await her, her fortune turns again. With Gabriel at her side, Rhine travels through an environment as grim as the one she left a year ago - surroundings that mirror her own feelings of fear and hopelessness. 

The two are determined to get to Manhattan, to relative safety with Rhine’s twin brother, Rowan. But the road there is long and perilous - and in a world where young women only live to age twenty and young men die at twenty-five, time is precious. Worse still, they can’t seem to elude Rhine’s father-in-law, Vaughn, who is determined to bring Rhine back to the mansion...by any means necessary. 

I came across an ARC of this book on display at the Simon & Schuster booth at the NCTE conference a few weeks ago. When I asked one of the reps if they had any more ARCs available to give away, she looked under a table, inside a box, and magically produced a copy of this much coveted sequel to Wither. I was so happy that I gave her a hug.

So I was sad to discover that I didn't love it nearly as much as Wither, which was such an amazing, vivid work of storytelling. The characters of Rhine and the sister wives in the first book were so real to me. They felt like people instead of characters. But for some reason, the characters in this book felt more like they were moving in slow motion rather than real time. Rhine and Gabriel didn't jump off the page the way they did in the first book, and the new, young character of Maddie was just completely out of my realm of ability to imagine. She was in the background even though she was an important character for the first half of the novel.

Fever felt more like a transitional novel, in the sense that you were waiting for something major to happen, only to realize that something major won't be till the next book.Which is not to say that nothing happens in this book. There are plenty of nail-biting moments. And yet, even with those moments, you're still waiting for that "THING" to reveal itself, which, in this book's case, doesn't happen until the very last page. 

And yet, that very last page will sure make you want to read the third book. So kudos to Lauren DeStefano. I might not have loved this book as much as the first, but she succeeded in getting me to want to read (and covet) the third book.

Fever by Lauren DeStefano
Series: Chemical Garden #2
Expected Publication: February 21, 2012 
Publisher: Simon & Schuster
Genre: Dystopia
Audience: Young Adult
 

ARC review: Sisters of Glass by Stephanie Hemphill

From Goodreads:

Maria is the younger daughter of an esteemed family on the island of Murano, the traditional home for Venetian glassmakers. Though she longs to be a glassblower herself, glassblowing is not for daughters—that is her brother's work. Maria has only one duty to perform for her family: before her father died, he insisted that she be married into the nobility, even though her older sister, Giovanna, should rightfully have that role. Not only is Giovanna older, she's prettier, more graceful, and everyone loves her.

Maria would like nothing more than to allow her beautiful sister, who is far more able and willing to attract a noble husband, to take over this role for her. But they cannot circumvent their father's wishes. And when a new young glassblower arrives to help the family business and Maria finds herself drawn to him, the web of conflicting emotions grows even more tangled.

This book was a complete surprise for me. I picked it up at NCTE on a whim, having never heard of it before nor any idea what it was about. When I got home and saw that it was about the daughters of Venetian glass blowers on the island of Murano, I was sold. I tend to be compelled to read any book that takes place in Europe since I lived and traveled there for over a year. 

But then seeing it was a novel in verse, and coming in at a petite 150 pages, it was actually the first ARC I read, even over some of the much coveted ones I've been dying to read for a long time now.

Novels in verse are always quick reads, but sometimes they can be frustrating because there is so much that you have to infer from all that is NOT said. As I read this story, I kept wondering to myself how different it would be if it were written in prose rather than verse. Would the added detail help the story or hurt it?

But then I allowed myself to stop wondering how it COULD be, and just let myself enjoy what it was, which is a lovely, quick read for lovers of novels in verse, and/or historical fiction.

The ending was a little TOO neat and happy for my liking, but at the same time, it's certainly one that will satisfy readers.

Sisters of Glass by Stephanie Hemphill
Expected Publication: March 27, 2012
Publisher: Knopf Books for Young Readers
Pages: 150 (Goodreads is saying it will be 272, but my ARC is only 150 pages)
Genre: Historical Fiction
Audience: Young Adult

Miss Peregrine's Home for Peculiar Children by Ransom Riggs

When Abe Portman dies a mysterious and violent death, most people assume it was a vicious dog attack, but his grandson Jacob knows otherwise. His grandfather's final words to him were, "Go to the island, Yakob. Here it's not safe."

When Abe was a young man, his parents sent him to an island during the war to protect him from the invading Nazis. As a child Jacob always heard stories from his grandfather about the home where he stayed but always assumed they were just fantastical stories made up by a man who was trying to cope with the abandonment of his parents and the loss of his true home.

Given that he saw the terrifying creature that killed his grandfather, Jacob knows his death was no dog attack. But terrorized by nightmares and a family that thinks he's gone crazy, Jacob is sent to a psychiatrist to deal with the trauma of his grandfather's death, all the while knowing there is something much more sinister afoot.

On his birthday, Jacob's aunt gives him a book that was inscribed to him by his grandfather. Inside this book is a letter written by one Miss Alma LeFay Peregrine to Abe Portman. This letter is the impetus Jacob needed to go to the island his grandfather spoke of and find the house where he once lived with these peculiar children that Jacob always assumed were just bizarre stories he made up as a way of coping with the terror of war.

Now he knows otherwise and he somehow manages to convince his father to take him to the very island where his grandfather once lived. Will he find the answers he is looking for? Or just discover that his grandfather, and now he, are the crazy ones?

Peppered with a collection of unusual old photographs, Ransom Riggs weaves a story unlike any other I've ever read. It is the very definition of the publishing house that printed it: Quirk. It's not scary enough to be a horror story, but it's definitely frightening enough to be creepy, and will prevent you from reading it alone in bed at night if you're a chicken like me.

I thoroughly enjoyed this book up until about two-thirds of the way through when the world of the Peculiars started to reveal itself. As someone who is not normally a fan of fantasy and/or scary stories, I found it difficult to lose myself in the world that Riggs created. Still, I can see why this book is a bestseller. The draw of the strange photographs along with the mystery of what really happened to Abe Portman allows this book to appeal to many different types of readers.Whether I read the sequel remains to be seen. I want to see what it's about before I commit to adding it to my TBR pile.


Miss Peregrine's Home for Peculiar Children by Ransom Riggs
Published: June 7, 2011 by Quirk Books
Pages: 352
Genre: Mystery/Fantasy
Audience: Young Adult? (Lots of people seem to be confused about the age group of this book)
Disclosure: Book received from publisher

Audiobook review: Breadcrumbs by Anne Ursu

Jack and Hazel are best friends, but one day Jack gets beamed in the eye with a snowball and suddenly his heart turns cold and icy. To the outside observer, one might think that they just grew apart when Jack decided he preferred to hang out with his guy friends at school. But Hazel knows in her heart something is not right.

When one of Jack's buddies who has, for lack of a better term, been a bully to Hazel, suspects that someone has stolen Jack, Hazel realizes he has followed the Snow Queen into the forest.

Clearly unprepared and lacking proper footwear, Hazel decides to go find Jack and bring him back. There's just one problem: everyone she encounters in the forest tells her that he followed her of his own free will and would not have gone if he didn't want to.

What's Hazel to do when her best friend clearly doesn't want to be saved? Does she risk her own life and try to bring Jack back, or does she accept that his heart's gone cold and that she's lost him forever?

In this modern-day retelling of The Snow Queen, Anne Ursu manages to leave her readers completely captivated and spellbound. As someone who continues to remain dubious over the trend of retellings and remakes these days, I was not disappointed by this lovely read. Ursu's prose is lush and vivid, while at the same time not being overindulgent. It is also a book-lover's dream with references to many loved children's books like Harry Potter, The Phantom Tollbooth, A Wrinkle in Time and many more.

Kirby Heyborne is the narrator of the audiobook and his voice neither adds nor detracts from the story. His narration is on the emotionally neutral end, but not so unemotional that it's not expressive.


Breadcrumbs by Anne Ursu
Audiobook Narrator: Kirby Heyborne
Publish Date: September 27, 2011
Publisher: Walden Pond Press and Harper Audio
Pages: 313
Audiobook Length: 7 hours, 51 minutes
Genre: Fantasy
Audience: Middle Grade
Disclosure: Audiobook received for review from publisher

Daughter of Smoke and Bone by Laini Taylor

From Goodreads:

Around the world, black handprints are appearing on doorways, scorched there by winged strangers who have crept through a slit in the sky.

In a dark and dusty shop, a devil's supply of human teeth grown dangerously low.

And in the tangled lanes of Prague, a young art student is about to be caught up in a brutal otherwordly war.

Meet Karou. She fills her sketchbooks with monsters that may or may not be real; she's prone to disappearing on mysterious "errands"; she speaks many languages--not all of them human; and her bright blue hair actually grows out of her head that color. Who is she? That is the question that haunts her, and she's about to find out.

When one of the strangers--beautiful, haunted Akiva--fixes his fire-colored eyes on her in an alley in Marrakesh, the result is blood and starlight, secrets unveiled, and a star-crossed love whose roots drink deep of a violent past. But will Karou live to regret learning the truth about herself?

  
Since fantasy is not normally my genre of choice, the premise really has to draw me in for me to sit up and take notice and want to read it. In the case of Daughter of Smoke and Bone, I was intrigued by the fantasy aspect of the story that took place in a real-life setting - in this case, the enchanting city of Prague, Czech Republic. 
  
Since so often I see things through the lens of travel (that is part of my blog after all), settings can make or break a story for me. Since so many people have already reviewed this book I've decided that I'm going to mainly discuss how the setting impacted my enjoyment of the book. 

Having been to Prague before, I can say that it is the perfect setting for this off-kilter sort of tome Laini Taylor created. Just read this passage and tell me there would be a better city for the novel to take place:

The streets of Prague were a fantasia scarcely touched by the twenty-first century - or the twentieth or nineteenth, for that matter. It was a city of alchemists and dreamers, its medieval cobbles once trod by golems, mystics, and invading armies. Tall houses glowed goldenrod and carmine and eggshell blue, embellished with Rococo plasterwork and capped in roofs of uniform red. Baroque cupolas were the soft green of antique copper, and Gothic steeples stood ready to impale fallen angels. The wind carried the memory of magic, revolution, violins and cobbled lanes meandered like creeks. Thugs wore Mozart wigs and pushed chamber music on street corners, and marionettes hung in windows, making the whole city seem like a theater with unseen puppeteers crouched behind velvet.

Above it all loomed the castle on this hill, its silhouette as sharp as thorns. By night, it was floodlit, bathed in eerie light, and this evening the sky hung low, full-bellied with snow, making gauzy halos around the street lamps. (25)

I mean, c'mon! How enchanting does that sound?

Which is why I found myself disappointed when two-thirds of the way through the novel, the setting changed from the magical backdrop of the capital of the Czech Republic to the fantasized world of Seraphim and Chimaera. Prague was so vivid to me, and as a result, Taylor's imagined world kind of made the story fade a little bit from my mind.

This, I recognize, is nit-picking since my life and travels have caused my readerly bias to prefer stories that take place in the real-world. However, if it hadn't been for that real-world setting, I'm not convinced I would have read this book. So while the book kept me engrossed enough to want to read the sequel, I do so with trepidation and hope that it returns to Prague, but given how the story ends, I'm thinking it probably won't.

This is still an amazing story and Laini Taylor deserves a huge amount of praise for her talent at being able to seek out and find just the right words. Her sentence structure and word placement is artful to say the least, masterful to say the most.

Daughter of Smoke and Bone by Laini Taylor
Published: September 27, 2011 by Little, Brown & Company
Pages: 420
Genre: Fantasy/Paranormal
Audience: Young Adult


Also check out my recap of Laini Taylor's visit to Nicola's Books in Ann Arbor, Michigan

Audiobook Review: All These Things I've Done by Gabrielle Zevin

The year is 2083 and Anya Balanchine might outwardly appear like your typical 16-year-old girl from the twenty-first century, but outward appearances can be deceiving. In a world where chocolate and coffee are illegal, Anya has grown up in a family where chocolate is the family business. With both her parents having been murdered due to her father's mafia connections, and an ailing grandmother who is their legal guardian, Anya is the de facto head of her family. She does everything in her power to make sure she doesn't get separated from her siblings, which right off the bat, shows the reader how practical and matter-of-fact she is. 

Only when she meets a new boy at school, who ironically happens to be the son of the assistant D.A., does she start to break down her barriers and open up. Even still, with the possibility of love on the horizon, you never feel like Anya doesn't have her wits about her. Her top priority is and always will be her family, so in that sense, her practicality ends up being likeable rather than frustrating. In the hands of a less dexterous author, a character so matter-of-fact and practical might come off as being cold and unfeeling, but Zevin skillfully creates a wonderfully empathetic character in Anya.

The narrator of the audiobook is Ilyana Kadushin, of Twilight fame, and her performance in this audiobook was as luscious as a Balanchine Special Dark chocolate bar. I think her narration of this book was far superior to her performance of the Twilight saga. I thought she wasn't expressive enough and rather one-dimensional in her Twilight performance, and her only saving grace was her exquisite voice. In All These Things I've Done, however, her performance was much more dynamic and expressive. Not only was her voice satisfying to listen to, but she learned from her previous experience that simply having a beautiful voice does not a good narrator make and that you need to put some emotion into it. In Twilight she was stoic and unfeeling, in All These Things I've Done, she was much more charismatic.

In reading other reviews of this novel, everyone labels the genre as dystopia, but I'm not really buying the dystopia moniker. Yes the book takes place in the future and yes, society seems to have degraded, but not enough of the American culture has changed for me to believe that this is a true dystopia. I guess the reason people have labeled it dystopia is because there isn't really any other genre it could be. To me though, it's sort of dystopia-lite. Even with the dubious genre labeling, this book is still worth every second of your time - whether you listen to it or read it. I will definitely be one the people coveting an ARC of the sequel!


All These Things I've Done by Gabrielle Zevin
Published: September 6, 2011 by Farrar, Straus, and Giroux and Macmillan Audio
Pages: 354
Audiobook length: 10 hours, 11 minutes
Audiobook narrator: Ilyana Kadushin
Genre: Dystopia
Audience: Young Adult
Disclosure: I received a copy of the book and audiobook for review

Bake Sale by Sara Varon

From Goodreads:

Cupcake’s life is pretty good. He’s got his bakery, and his band, and his best friend, Eggplant. His days are full of cooking, socializing, and playing music. But lately, Cupcake has been struggling in the kitchen. He’s sure the solution to all his problems is out there somewhere. But maybe that solution is hiding closer to home. 

I know there is a lesson or two buried within the pages of Sara Varon's latest graphic novel, but that is honestly the last thing I was thinking about as I was reading this adorable story of a cupcake's life as a bakery owner.  All I could think was how happy-making it was for a food-lover such as myself. I got such a kick out of seeing all the different foods as characters, and got even more satisfaction out of seeing that Varon writes this story using language to indicate that she might be a foodie herself.

This would be a great read for kids who are budding bakers, but it is sure to bring a smile to the faces of adults who like to satisfy their sweet tooth by creating confections in their own kitchens.


The illustrations in this graphic novel use muted, pastel colors, yet they still manage to pop off the page with their sprightliness and personality. This is the perfect book to read when you need a good cheering up. I mean, how can a talking cupcake with his own bakery, a sandwich shop-owning carrot, and a banjo-playing bagel make you anything other than happy?

And as an added bonus, Varon recognizes that reading a book like this is sure to make the reader hungry for baked goods so she includes the recipes that Cupcake makes in his bakery at the end of the book.


Bake Sale by Sara Varon
Published: August 30, 2011 by First Second
Pages: 160
Genre: Graphic Novel
Audience: Middle Grade

Audiobook Review: Beauty Queens by Libba Bray

From Goodreads:

The fifty contestants in the Miss Teen Dream pageant thought this was going to be a fun trip to the beach, where they could parade in their state-appropriate costumes and compete in front of the cameras. But sadly, their airplane had another idea crashing on a desert island and leaving the survivors stranded with little food, little water, and practically no eyeliner.

What's a beauty queen to do? Continue to practice for the talent portion of the program--or wrestle snakes to the ground? Get a perfect tan--or learn to run wild? And what should happen when the sexy pirates show up? 

Libba Bray is a mad, crazy genius.  I do not claim to love everything she writes -- I'm still scratching my head over Going Bovine -- but I also can't deny her talent and ability to get her readers to think. She doesn't write fluff. She really goes for the symbolic. 


So I don't know why I was surprised when Beauty Queens turned out to be more than just fluff. I was expecting a wild, campy romp through a desert island with some ditzy cheerleader types, which is how the story starts off, but the more invested in the story you become, you begin to realize that this book is also a political statement, an imploring to get the reader to question the gender roles and stereotypes we've become accustomed to in our society.


It is clear as you're reading this that Bray pulls no punches when it comes to her political views so there's no doubt that the message and themes of the story will turn some people off, but that's the beauty of being an author - you have the ability to comment on society for anyone with a pair of eyes to see or ears to hear. Even if you don't agree with her stance, you should at least defend her intellectual freedom and her right to express those views. That's what living in America is all about. (Can you tell I'm still a bit hopped up from Banned Books Week?)


Let's talk about the audio presentation for a bit, shall we? It's not very often that an author can narrate her own audiobook, but Libba Bray rose to the challenge and performed the heck out of this book. It is clear from the word go that she obviously has a theatrical background because her emotion and character voices were perfection. I would go so far to say that this is one of the most memorable audiobooks I have ever listened to. The "commercial breaks" all had entertaining soundtracks and the way they were able to get the footnotes to work (with a little "Ding" type noise every time she went to read one) without being distracting was pure genius. This is one of those few audiobooks that manages to make book more enjoyable than if you had read it. That, in my opinion, is how you know you have an talented audiobook narrator. Based on this rolicking performance, I hope Libba will narrate all of her future audiobooks.


Beauty Queens by Libba Bray
Published: May 24, 2011 by Scholastic
Pages: 390
Audiobook Length: 14 hours, 34 minutes
Audiobook Narrator: Libba Bray
Genre: Satire/Realistic Fiction
Audience: Young Adult

Audiobook Review: The Knife of Never Letting Go by Patrick Ness

From Goodreads:

Prentisstown isn’t like other towns. Everyone can hear everyone else’s thoughts in an overwhelming, never-ending stream of Noise. Just a month away from the birthday that will make him a man, Todd and his dog, Manchee — whose thoughts Todd can hear, too, whether he wants to or not — stumble upon an area of complete silence. They find that in a town where privacy is impossible, something terrible has been hidden — a secret so awful that Todd and Manchee must run for their lives. But how do you escape when your pursuers can hear your every thought?

So just about every review I've read of this book has highly praised it and declared what an amazing story it is. I, on the other hand, found very little that I enjoyed about it. I want to state right off the bat, that doesn't mean I'm saying this is a bad book. I just found it incredibly difficult to get through. 


I'm going to start with what I liked about The Knife of Never Letting Go. The idea of The Noise I thought was so creative and like nothing I've ever encountered in a dystopia before. It's like Patrick Ness took the concept of "Big Brother" from Orwell's 1984 and amped it up tenfold. Despite the fact that I liked the concept, its execution I thought was extremely painful to get through. Virtually nothing about the New World's secrets is unearthed until the very end of the story which makes you feel like you're trudging through the plot to get to the Big Reveal at the end. For me, that was torturous. I like the plot to reveal itself bit by bit throughout the story rather than being bombarded with the whole shebang at the end.


The only thing that waiting till the end had going for it was that it kept me from abandoning the book entirely because I was determined to learn what the Big Secret was. And then once I did learn all the secrets by the end, they seemed to be too complicated for me to feel like this was a truly enlightening moment in the story. It's not like I didn't understand the secrets, but they just took my brain too long to process for me to have that moment where my eyes bug out and am amazed at what has just been revealed.

At the core of the story however, what really prevented me from enjoying it was how hopeless the whole situation felt. There is virtually NO hope to cling to whatsoever in this story. Most dystopias I've read and enjoyed had a modicum of hope to cling to, however small it may have been. While listening to the audiobook of The Knife of Never Letting Go, I felt incredibly depressed. Part of it I think was because I didn't have much faith in the main character. Yes, he was an inherently good person, but he didn't have much oomph to him. Maybe it was his ignorance that frustrated me. And it's not like that was his fault, but I just felt so frustrated to be going on this journey with him and not knowing ANYTHING about the secrets of Prentisstown.

The other thing that bothered me was the audio presentation. I did not buy Nick Podehl's performance of Todd in the slightest. What Nick sounded like to me was a refined, college educated man trying way too hard to sound like a young, illiterate 13-year-old boy and yet it was also half-hearted at the same time. Strangely enough though, I did enjoy his characterization of Todd's dog, Manchee. That was definitely the best characterization in the whole performance and the only one that felt authentic.


I know there were lots of people who loved this book and who sing its praises to the moon and back. I was just not one of those people. That doesn't mean I wouldn't recommend this book to anyone. I think it has a great deal of literary merit and there are so many amazing talking points that it would be a perfect choice for a book club or literature circle. 


Final Assessment:
Would recommend to mature readers who like a challenge and can handle the slow, torturously secretive plot.


The Knife of Never Letting Go by Patrick Ness
Audiobook narrator: Nick Podehl
Original Publish Date: May 5, 2008
Publisher: Candlewick
Pages: 496
Audiobook Length: 11 hours, 55 minutes
Genre: Dystopia
Audience: Young Adult

Dear Bully: Seventy Authors Tell Their Stories

Bullying has always been a problem in schools, but it seems like it's running more rampant these days, with the nexus of cyber bullying in the past few years. Or maybe this is just something the media is choosing to emphasize right now and will move onto something else next year. Though as a teacher, I hope this is always something that is on the forefront of everyone's psyches.

I was listening to the radio the other morning and they were having listeners call in about a particular mom that took the law into her own hands and beat the crap out of a girl who was bullying her daughter. The hosts of the morning show were talking about how what the mom did was obviously not the right way to handle the situation, but as a parent, when the school is not helping, they could understand the anger and frustration that would lead you to do something like that.

Then some meat-head called in and said something along the lines of, "Well I was bullied as a kid. Lots of kids are bullied. It's just a part of growing up. It toughens kids up."

Really dude? Because there's a difference between going through a tough situation to build character and being mercilessly tormented. There's a difference between being challenged and being so afraid to go to school that it affects your health. Kids who are bullied aren't always just faking medical maladies to avoid going to school. Many of them suffer digestive ailments, debilitating headaches, and many other medical conditions induced by the stress of dealing with their tormentors on a daily basis.

I know. I speak from experience. I was bullied in 7th grade. It was during that year of my school career that I began to develop what would be a long string of digestive ailments that have followed me around my entire life. From that moment on, that one year of my life would define how my body handled stress and it continues to manifest in new and frustrating ways - all from just one single year of my life almost twenty years ago.

So you see, this isn't something that should be expected to be a part of growing up. We should all be doing something to try to stop it from happening.

So seventy authors got together and compiled their own stories to help kids know that they're not alone. Dear Bully is an important work for kids to read on their own, but it would be even better for middle and high school teachers to use these stories as a place to begin the conversation in their classrooms and at their faculty meetings about how they can help prevent this from continuing to run rampant throughout our schools.

Every author's story in this book is unique to their own voice, but heartbreaking to read. And yet, so necessary to share with the world. I made sure to flag some of the more memorable stories from this compilation and will be using them as read-alouds in my literature classes to help get this conversation going.

One thing I think that is a really important take-away for adults reading this book is that telling a kid who's being bullied to just ignore their tormentor is like rubbing salt in a wound. Most likely the child has already tried this and to no avail. Oftentimes bullies who are ignored only torment harder. I was told this very thing by my parents and other adults in my life and my bully didn't stop tormenting me until a year later when we were no longer in the same homeroom and moved onto bigger and better things.

We need to remember that kids don't have the ability to think long-term. They are in the here-and-now. When you tell them, "Someday this won't even matter to you anymore," it is not helpful because most of the time, they are incapable of thinking past next week, let alone years into the future. That is why a book like this is so important. Kids can read this book and see that, despite everything they've been through, the bullies didn't win. At the very least I pray this book will help give kids hope. At the most, it may even save some lives.

Dear Bully: Seventy Authors Tell Their Stories edited by Megan Kelley Hall and Carrie Jones
Published: September 6, 2011 by HarperTeen
Pages: 352
Genre: Nonfiction
Audience: Young Adult

Broetry by Brian McGackin

Broet Laureate Brian McGackin has created this side-splitting book aptly titled Broetry, for the men in the world who - I'm not going to pull any punches here - are not cultured in the finer things in life (though I guess what constitutes "finer" completely depends on who you talk to). Rather than reading poems about love and butterflies or Stopping by Woods on a Snowy Evening, McGackin tackles topics like Star Wars, crazy stalker girlfriends, why guys cheat, cougars, and even Steve Guttenberg.

What McGackin was trying to accomplish in Broetry was to show that poetry can be relateable to guys. As he says in the intro:

" A poet I admire once wrote, 'Saying you don't like poetry is like saying you don't like food.' In other words, a beet is just a beet. If you're not into beets, you can eat spinach. Don't like vegetables? Have pizza! The point is, if you think you don't like poetry, you just haven't found a poem that's right for you."

This is pretty much the exact thing I have been telling my students every year when we start studying poetry extensively (though this book is definitely NOT appropriate for my students, who are sixth graders). The students who say they don't like poetry only hate it because they haven't found poems in a topic they can relate to. Brian McGackin has filled a niche that has pretty much gone unfilled since the beginning of time, unless you count dirty limericks.

But does taking an uncultured, non-literary population of males and turning their interests into poetry automatically make it literary? No, but I don't think that was Brian McGackin's goal anyway. Broetry is kind of like the gateway drug. Oh, you like these poems? Well, why don't you try your stab at some of these Billy Collins poems? Or Langston Hughes? Or William Carlos Williams? Perhaps they'll never fully appreciate Emily Dickinson, but hey, it's a start.

The language in Broetry is crass, obscene, and almost banal in its simplicity, but what it lacks in beautiful turn of phrase, it makes up for in clever play-on-words, hilarious titles, and unexpected topics. This book would make an amazing Christmas stocking stuffer for that "guy's guy" in your life who has always looked his nose down at poetry unless it starts with the line "There once was a man from Nantucket..."

Broetry by Brian McGackin
Published: July 5, 2011 by Quirk Books
Pages: 128
Genre: Poetry
Audience: Adult Males
Disclosure: book recieved for review from the publisher

P.S. If you don't recognize the poem on the front cover, please do me a favor, culture yourself and look up "This is Just to Say" by William Carlos Williams. What's on the cover is a lot more amusing once you know it was "inspired by" by an actual celebrated American poet.