Author Archives: Melissa Beck

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About Melissa Beck

My reading choices are rather eclectic. I enjoy reading a wide range of books especially classics, literature in translation, history, philosophy, travel writing and poetry. I especially like to support small, literary presses.
March 2, 2015 · 12:00 am

Review and Giveaway: The Homegrown Paleo Cookbook by Diana Rogers and Andrew Rogers with Photographs by Heidi Murphy

I received an advanced review copy of this cookbook from Victory Belt Publishing.  Scroll down to the end of my review to win your own copy!  (US residents only).

My Review:
Homegrown paleoThis book contains instructions for setting up your own garden, for raising various animals like chickens, ducks or rabbits, and for cooking with ingredients that are fresh and in season.  Last year we raised two breeds of our own ducks and we really enjoyed the experience.  It was fantastic to have our own, fresh supply of duck eggs.  We were looking at this book for ways to improve our duck pen and we got some great ideas for how to improve the home for our feathered friends.

Even if you are not interested in raising your own crops or animals, this is a fantastic cookbook for anyone interested in using fresh ingredients that are in season.  If you have a local farmer’s market or have a CSA farm share, this is an ideal book to consult for recipes. I had a hard time deciding which recipes to try.  The book is split into 3 parts: early, middle and late season crops.  I made recipes from the late harvest section since that is what I could easily find in the organic produce section of my local store.

Duck StewThe first dish I made from the cookbook was a Cajun Duck Stew with Andouille Sausage and Mushrooms.  The recipe originally called for rabbit instead of duck, but each recipe comes with suggestions for substitution of ingredients.  The blend of vegetables which included mushrooms, carrots, celery, red and green peppers was a perfect combination of sweet and spice.  The picture above is the vegetable mixture and when I plated the dish I laid the duck legs on top. The dark meat of the duck held up so well against the many flavors and spices of the vegetable blend.  My very picky 9 year old daughter also ate quite a bit of the duck, so this is a versatile recipe that the entire family will enjoy.

The next recipe I tried was the Provencal Seafood Chowder with Fennel and Tarragon.  I have experimented a few times thisSeafood Chowder winter with making seafood chowders, but what really made this one special was the addition of the fennel.  I used scallops and cod for the fish and my family loved coming home to this warm, tasty soup on a cold day. The picture on the right features the seafood chowder with a garnish of fresh chives.  I think some grain free biscuits would be perfect for dipping in the soup as well.

The final recipe I attempted was the Butternut Stew with Pork and Spinach.  I had some ground pork Butternut squash and porkleft that we bought from the farmer in the fall.  In addition to the spinach, this recipe also called for a blend of fresh herbs such as mint, cilantro and basil.  These are not herbs that I have tried together in one recipe before, and they worked really well with the sweetness of the butternut squash.  It was nice to have a dish with bright colors even in winter.  I had enough leftovers from this meal to freeze for another dinner.

Overall, The Homegrown Paleo Cookbook is a great resource for anyone who wants more information about the paleo lifestyle and wants delicious, seasonal recipes.  This would be a great book to take along to the farmer’s market when it opens in the spring.

Giveaway:

The publisher is generously giving away a hardcopy of this book to one of my readers.  To enter, just leave a comment below and let me know if you have tried paleo or are thinking about trying it?  It’s that simple.  Open to US residents only.  The winner will be notified via e-mail and have 48 hours to respond with a valid US mailing address.

To learn more about the authors visit their website Sustainable Dish.

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March 1, 2015 · 12:00 am

Review and Giveaway: Cauchemar by Alexandra Grigorescu

I received an advanced review copy of this book from ECW Press.

My Review:
CauchemarHannah lives in a house at the edge of a Louisiana swamp with her adopted mother Mae.  When Mae suddenly dies, Hannah is left completely alone at the age of 20, never having experienced very much of the world outside of their house on the swamp.

When Hannah has a funeral service for Mae, she meets a kind musician named Callum.  They become romantically involved and Callum seems to take the place of Mae as Hannah’s protector.  But what does Hannah need protecting from?

Throughout the course of the story we learn that Hannah’s biological mother, Christobelle, is a witch who is rumored to be able to communicate with the dead.  The townspeople shun Hannah because of her mother’s reputation, even though Hannah has never had anything to do with her biological mother and was raised by Mae.

The contrast between Christobelle and Mae are developed by the author throughout the book.  Whereas Mae is a care-giver and healer, Christobelle is selfish and drains the energy out of people she encounters, especially men.  Mae likes to heal and nourish people through food and Hannah also learns cooking skills from Mae.  The culinary aspects of the book are given a great amount of detail and the recipes are explained well enough for readers to try them in their own kitchens.

Hannah and Callum move into the house on the swamp together and strange things start happening.  Plagues of cicadas, snakes and frogs begin popping up, the house makes strange noises and Hannah and Callum have bizarre dreams.  The book is part romance, as Hannah and Callum become closer and are trying to decide how serious their relationship is, and part mystery as they are trying to figure out the strange phenomena they are encountering on the swamp.

I do not read many books in the mystery/fantasy genre, but I really enjoyed CAUCHEMAR.  It is well-written with just the right amount of suspense to keep the reader guessing what will happen to the characters until the very last page.

Giveaway:

I have one paperback copy of the book to give away to anyone in the U.S. or Canada.  To enter please leave a comment below letting me know that you want to win!  It’s that simple!  Giveaway ends on March 18th.  The winner will receive an e-mail and have 48 hours to respond with a valid mailing address.

 

About The Author:
A. GregoriescuAlexandra Grigorescu is the author of Cauchemar (ECW Press, 2015). She has an MA in Creative Writing from the University of Toronto.

She’s worked as a freelance writer/editor for various Toronto magazines and websites.

Her writing has previously been published in Echolocation, Acta Victoriana, and the Hart House Review.

She lives in Toronto, Ontario with her husband and a little black cat.

Blog Tour:
This is the complete list of stops on the blog tour:

March 1: The Book Binder’s Daughter, Review + Giveaway

March 2: Bibliotica, Review + Guest Post (the use of food to enhance the story)

March 3: Bella’s Bookshelves, Review + Excerpt (Ch. 1)

March 4: Write All The Words!, Guest post for International Women’s Week feature

March 5: Editorial Eyes, Interview + Excerpt (Ch. 2)

March 7: Lavendar Lines, Review

March 9: Svetlana’s Reads, Review

March 10: The Book Stylist, Review + Interview

March 11: Booking It With Hayley G., Review + Guest Post + Giveaway

March 12: Dear Teen Me, Guest post (letter to teen self)

March 13: The Book Bratz, Review + Giveaway

March 14: Feisty Little Woman, Interview + Excerpt (Ch. 3)

 

 

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February 26, 2015 · 12:00 am

Review: The Prank-The Best of Young Chekhov by Anton Chekhov

I received an advanced review copy of these stories from The New York Review of Books.

My Review:
The PrankThese short stories have been collected and published in one volume for the first time and this collection also features two stories that have never before been translated into English.  The book includes an index in which the original publication is mentioned for each story as well as any changes that Chekhov made to each narrative before final publication.

The collection is a humorous and sarcastic commentary on Russian life in the 19th century; Chekhov particularly likes to poke fun at relationships and marriage.  In “The Artist’s Wives,” various types of creative men are featured, including a painter, a novelist and a sculptor, all of whom have trouble controlling their pesky spouses.

Secret lovers, dark humor and narcissism all play a role in the marriages that Chekhov describes.  In “Before the Wedding,” a mother is giving her newly engaged daughter advice about marriage.  She has a long list of complaints about her own husband and tells her daughter, “Marriage is something only single girls like but there’s nothing good about it.”

My favorite story is the one entitled “A Confession” in which a man is writing a letter to his friend to explain why, after 39 years, he is still a bachelor.  He has a few interesting stories about various engagements to women that are foiled because of ridiculous reasons which include a biting gosling, bad writing and hiccups.

The New York Review of books Classics has given us another brilliant and funny collection of translated short stories.  If you are interested in trying to read Russian literature, THE PRANK is a great work with which to start.

About The Author:
ChekhovAnton Chekhov was born in the small seaport of Taganrog, southern Russia, the son of a grocer. Chekhov’s grandfather was a serf, who had bought his own freedom and that of his three sons in 1841. He also taught himself to read and write. Yevgenia Morozova, Chekhov’s mother, was the daughter of a cloth merchant.

“When I think back on my childhood,” Chekhov recalled, “it all seems quite gloomy to me.” His early years were shadowed by his father’s tyranny, religious fanaticism, and long nights in the store, which was open from five in the morning till midnight. He attended a school for Greek boys in Taganrog (1867-68) and Taganrog grammar school (1868-79). The family was forced to move to Moscow following his father’s bankruptcy. At the age of 16, Chekhov became independent and remained for some time alone in his native town, supporting himself through private tutoring.

In 1879 Chekhov entered the Moscow University Medical School. While in the school, he began to publish hundreds of comic short stories to support himself and his mother, sisters and brothers. His publisher at this period was Nicholas Leikin, owner of the St. Petersburg journal Oskolki (splinters). His subjects were silly social situations, marital problems, farcical encounters between husbands, wives, mistresses, and lovers, whims of young women, of whom Chekhov had not much knowledge – the author was was shy with women even after his marriage. His works appeared in St. Petersburg daily papers, Peterburskaia gazeta from 1885, and Novoe vremia from 1886.

 

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February 25, 2015 · 12:00 am

Review: Welcome To Braggsville by T. Geronimo Johnson

Today I welcome TLC Book Tours back to my blog with a very different kind of dark comedy.  I invite you to read my review, learn a little bit about the author, and visit the other stops on the book tour.

My Review:
Welcome to BraggsvilleDaron is from a very small town in rural Georgia called Braggsville.  When he graduates from high school he wants to get as far away from his isolated, small-minded town as soon as possible so he decides to attend Berkeley for college.  Berkeley is a very different world, especially as far as its liberal politics are concerned, than he is used to in Georgia.  He makes three close friends at Berkeley: Louis, an Asian from California, Candance, a farm girl from Iowa, and Charlie, an African-American from Chicago. Together they call their group the “four little Indians”.

I would classify Welcome to Braggsville as a dark comedy.  Daron and his friends, while protesting a Civil War reenactment in Braggsville, make a very stupid, and tragic mistake.  They are not mean or evil students, but just naïve and ignorant about the world. They are under the influence of the very liberal atmosphere at Berkeley and their own stupidity leads them to make decisions that have deadly consequences.  There is also a lot of racial humor and jokes in the book and will definitely make readers uncomfortable.

Daron also spends a lot of time contemplating his life in a small, southern town, his memories of being a nerd in middle and high school, and his attempts to fit in once he is at Berkeley.  Welcome to Braggsville is a social commentary on race as well as a coming-of-age story in which a young man tries to understand that learning right from wrong isn’t always easy.

The author uses a lot of slang and nicknames in the book.  Those who enjoy correct punctuation and grammar can forget about seeing those rules followed in this book.  There are commas in strange places, there are sentence fragments galore, and there are capital letters in places where they should not be.  As one who enjoys traditional grammar and punctuation, I found this style tedious after about 100 pages.

Overall, WELCOME TO BRAGGSVILLE is a thought-provoking read about race, politics and coming of age.  If you pick this book up and read it stop by and let me know what you think in the comments.

About The Author:
T Geronimo JohnsonBorn and raised in New Orleans, T. Geronimo Johnson received his M.F.A. from the Iowa Writers’ Workshop and his M.A. in language, literacy, and culture from UC Berkeley. He has taught writing and held fellowships—including a Stegner Fellowship and an Iowa Arts Fellowship—at Arizona State University, the University of Iowa, UC Berkeley, Western Michigan University, and Stanford. His first novel, Hold It ‘Til It Hurts, was a finalist for the 2013 PEN/Faulkner Award for fiction. Johnson is currently a visiting professor at the Iowa Writers’ Workshop. He lives in Berkeley, California.

Click on the TLC Tour Banner below to see all of the stops on the book tour:

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February 23, 2015 · 12:00 am

Review: Make It Paleo ll by Bill Staley and Haley Mason with Caitlin Nagelson

I received a review copy of this beautiful cookbook from Victory Belt Publishing.

My Review:

Make It Paleo I have been following the Paleo/Primal lifestyle for quite a few years and one of the first websites that I found, and one that still continues to be my favorite for information and recipes, is Bill Staley and Haley Mason’s Primal Palate.  I am so excited to be reviewing their latest cookbook which is chock full of information on grain free cooking, delicious recipes and beautiful pictures.

When I received this cookbook I was in the mood to try something different with chicken.  Make It Paleo has a fantastic recipe for the perfect roasted chicken that is topped with a mouthwatering blend of
Roasted Chicken with Aromatic Herbs aromatic spices.  I made this as a Sunday dinner for my family and I thought I would have leftovers, but it was so good that we devoured it. I think that next time I will roast two chickens and use the leftovers to make the chicken salad recipe that is included in the book.

The next recipe I tried is the porcini crusted lamb chops.  We have recently discovered lamb and have been eating it atLamb with mushrooms least once a week. This recipe makes 10 lamb chops and once again the mushroom mixture is easy and simple to prepare.  The chops were absolutely delicious and even my 8 year old, extremely picky daughter, enjoyed the lamb.  I will be putting this on our regular rotation of weeknight dinners.

The final recipe I tried is the cauliflower crust vegetable pizza.  There are countless paleo recipes out there for making a grain free pizza crust using cauliflower and I have tried many of them.  But my crusts have always come out mushy and do not look or taste like they should.  I thought I would give Bill and Haley’s recipe a try since it had a few more ingredients that would hold the “dough” together.  In addition to the cauliflower, the recipe calls for a cup of Pizza with Cauliflower Crust arrowroot powder as well as a cup of parmesan cheese.  The pizza, I am delighted to say, was absolutely delicious.  My husband, who does not follow the paleo diet, also thought it was great.  I am so excited that Make It Paleo has saved pizza for this gluten/grain free cook!

If you are looking for a versatile cookbook with loads of fantastic recipes and gorgeous pictures then I highly recommend MAKE IT PALEO II.  Even if you do not follow the paleo lifestyle, there are many delightful recipes that everyone can enjoy.

For more information about Bill and Haley visit their website: http://www.primalpalate.com.

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