Of all my cookbooks, this one and another by the King Arthur Flour company are my most prized. The recipes in this book are easy enough for the hobby baker to attempt and they’re all excellent! I find that I am learning more and more about baking every time I use this book!

My husband gave me this book and said, “It starts out with a horrible rape, but hang in there…it gets better!” This book is truly incredible. If you’re easily traumatized by what you read, it is a bit of a hard slog to get to your happy ending, but it’s worth it! It’s really an epic. By following the main character and his friends & family, you get to see a glimpse into the life a member of every part of societ in medieval Spain. I love how the author takes us into the life of a peasant, and then a baron. A prositute, and then a grand inquisitor. An artisan and then a labourer. Meanwhile, you learn a lot about the culture in this well researched book. I really recommend this book to anyone who’s willing to see their hero fall hard a few times in order to achieve a glorious ending and in order for the reader to discover an incredible book!

What an excellent read! My husband and I both enjoyed it; so you can’t write it off as a chick flick even if it does deal a bit with Victorian courtships. This is the second Connie Willis book I’ve read and I really enjoyed it. She throws in so many twists and surprises that the book stays fascinating up until the last moment. I wouldn’t mind listening to it a second time. Oh, that reminds me…I wasn’t actually “reading” it. I downloaded the audiobook. The narrator did an excellent job!

Also…if you’re well versed in 19th century British literature or Agatha Christie style crime novels this book will hold a special fascination for you in the fluency with which some of the characters quote their favourite authors!

This is a pretty good book. But it’s weird…so weird. Super duper feminists will love it.

White Lies (For My Mother) is probably a great book. But the truth is there is only so much incest narrative that I can take. I studied this in a women’s writing class in grad school and found it a bit traumatic. Also, the book is so very post-post-modern that I can’t get into the narrative. People interested in trauma theory and memory narratives might be interested in this one.