Last year my seven year old got into a cute cooking manga called Kitchen Princess. I read and reviewed book one for Cannonball Read 10 but then only skimmed through the second through fourth books. After reading volumes five and six my daughter somberly told me that a character had died and requested that I read them too. This was an unexpected turn for a shojo manga. The first four volumes contained a beginning love triangle between female protagonist Najika Kazami and brothers Daichi and Sora […]
The Cheese Stands Alone
I am not the right audience for this book. I had forgotten I read The City Baker’s Guide to Country Living, but then I got the three-day reminder from my library that it was due back. Blast! So I went to Goodreads to see what my fellow readers were saying. That was a bit of a surprise, as it sure seems like people love this book. They LOVE it. I had to scroll down like 15 reviews before I got to one that was less […]
Pie to Pi but a Little Underbaked
How to Bake Pi uses analogies to cooking and baking (and lots of other everyday things) to explain some fairly advanced mathematical concepts. These work nicely, especially for someone like me who hasn’t done anything beyond calculus 2, and that over 10 years ago. The invention of an olive oil plum cake recipe for example becomes a way of explaining generalization (how can something be called a ‘cake’ if it is not completely really a cake) and the mathematical practice of proof by contradiction (proving something […]
How it’s possible for Double Fudge Brownies to Disappoint
I have enjoyed Joanne Fluke’s Hannah Swenson series so far. She gave one of my favorite reading/author’s talks I’ve ever been to. Which is why I was surprised at how much Double Fudge Brownie Murder disappointed me. This 20th installment in the series opens where that last left off: Hannah is about to go on trial for a vehicular homicide that wasn’t really her fault. Before the trail starts, she and her sisters go to Vegas to attend their mother’s elopement (all planned by Doc, […]