Mom's Comfort Food

By Joyce Klynstra

Skyhorse     2019

212 pages     Cooking

When cooking for a family, most people want recipes that will be appreciated by everyone—picky eaters included. Joyce Klynstra has collected 50-years-worth of her best recipes, compiled from recipe cards, her wedding cake business, and church suppers. The chapters are divided into classifications that you would expect, but also include chapters on classic Christmas recipes as well as advice on canning and freezing. The sub-title of the book says: “Meals, sides and desserts to bring warmth and contentment to your table.”

I instantly connected with Klynstra. She is about my age, lives in Lansing, Michigan—just slightly north of me —and has cooked and collected recipes her whole life. Unlike me, she got her training at a drive-in in Allendale, Michigan. A couple of the recipes come from that drive-in. Most of my training came from Mom, Grandma, and my ever-efficient Mother-in-Law.

The thing I liked the most about all of the recipes is that they can easily be created for a family supper or a holiday brunch. Many of the ingredients might already be on your shelves or in your freezer. She uses a lot of local produce. For example, some lovely dishes are created with asparagus, easily available in the spring in Michigan. (Hey! It’s April! Asparagus season is almost upon us. Hallelujah!) The first recipe that caught my eye was the very first recipe in the book: Asian Meatballs cooked in a very simple and delectable teriyaki sauce. I found several recipes that are similar to ones I make. My chocolate chip cookie recipe—exactly.  More importantly, I found a lot (and I do mean a lot) of recipes that I plan to try in the next few weeks.

What sets Mom’s Comfort Food apart from many other cookbooks are the photographs of the foods as well as photos of Klynstra’s grandchildren holding their favorite foods that Grandma makes. Laura Klynstra, Joyce’s daughter, is a well known book designer. When I looked her up, I saw that she designed several of the books that I read this year, including Lilac Girls, Small Great Things, and White Houses. When you look at her books, you realize how important the design of a book is to its appeal.

Several years ago, my sister and I put together a cookbook of family recipes including family pictures and some family history. It was such a joy to create, and I can only imagine how much fun Joyce and her daughter had creating the book.

Mom’s Comfort Food is a treat to the eye and the palate.

Under the Tuscan Thumb: How "Building Dreams in Tuscany" Turned Into a Nightmare

By Jim Kachenmeister

Self-published     2019

251 pages     Memoir

My friend, Patricia, has shared with me all the marvelous things that happen when she is at her vacation apartment in Lucca, Tuscany, Italy. She just sent me her friend Jim’s memoir of the 15 years, he and his wife Debbie have spent in this marvelous region—but the beauty of the city and countryside are only part of the story he is telling. Some of it has been a nightmare. 

Part memoir, part travel narrative, part horror, and part diatribe, Kachenmeister tells the story of how he and his wife gave up their jobs to move to Lucca—planning to live a quiet life there. Once there, Kachenmeister got itchy to own some of the ancient properties that dotted the landscape. He and a couple of partners decided to buy properties and create homes and condos for other expats and vacationers. Enter Italian bureaucracy and global recession. I won’t go into detail about all the problems that ensued, but believe me, less hardy people would have escaped in the dark of midnight—oh, wait, some actually did!

The title, Under the Tuscan Thumb,  is of course a take-off of the love song to Tuscany named Under the Tuscan Sun by Frances Mayes and the movie by the same name. Much of the book is written in good humor, but there are hints of the despair Kachenmeister and his team felt when the economy and their plans tanked in 2008 and 2009. Interspersed with this tale of woe are lighthearted and touching moments, as well as memoir-style looks at Kachenmeister’s life prior to the move to Italy. Another section tells of playing golf in Italy, while another far more interesting section tells of the annual olive harvest and their own private brand of olive oil.

The couple tried in vain to sell the apartments and farm houses they purchased, but they changed course and now run them as VRBO rentals. He speaks about how much he loves sharing the properties with the families that come to vacation on his beloved properties. Look at the book’s website for before and after pictures of the property called Il Borghetto in San Gennaro where there are 5 apartments for rent, available on VRBO. Wow! I want to go there.

Under the Tuscan Thumb is available on Amazon.

The Book of Mistakes: 9 Secrets to Creating a Successful Future

By Skip Prichard

Center Street     2018

178 pages     Self-Help

I was with my oldest grandson last weekend. He is struggling to understand what he should be doing with his life. His parents are incredibly patient with him while he is slowly coming to some decisions about his future.  He told me that he was developing a plan—a major step toward maturity, I thought.

The Book of Mistakes is a self-help book disguised as a parable. As a person who has reviewed many self-help books over the course of my career as a book reviewer, I found this to be a refreshing change of pace. Two stories are being told. One is of Aria, a young woman in Revolutionary times who is entrusted with a book of wisdom—wisdom for the ages. The other is of David, a young man just beginning his career in the current era and questioning if it is what he should be doing. He receives the wisdom from the book in small batches from a variety of people and finds that this wisdom is changing his life. Following each of the episodes, David finds wisdom in the form of lists of mistakes while Aria learns three laws or life lessons to guide future behavior and achievement.

Prichard, who is a successful businessman, relates his lessons for life success in a unique format. I believe that The Book of Mistakes would be a valuable gift for a recent graduate or someone, like my grandson, who is floundering a bit to find his place in the world. It is straightforward in the lessons it is teaching, but disguised as fiction to make it easy to read. Prichard says that after reading thousands of books, “I’ve condensed all the information, all of the books, all the stories, all of my own experience into a simple story that will help guide you along your success path.”

Thanks to the publicist for sharing it with me. Prichard’s website is https://www.skipprichard.com/

The Hate U Give

by Angie Thomas
 Balzer + Bray     2017
444 pages     YA

I was driving a young African American woman who is on the periphery of our family to a play we were going to see together. She is currently living with grandparents as she goes to community college. On our way, she told me that she had been at a party the night before at a Motel 6. Apparently there had been a lot of drugs, alcohol and sex. One of her "friends" had accused her of making out with the friend's boyfriend. A fight broke out. and at 4:00 a.m., she placed an emergency call to her grandpa who came to rescue her. She said, "I was scared that someone might have a gun or someone might call the police." I said to her, "Are these your friends?" She responded that no, just the girl she went to the party with--the one that caused the fight. I told her that I wasn't sure she needed friends like this. She agreed that she had been too scared to let that happen again. We'll see.

This story was fresh in my mind when I began reading The Hate U Give by Angie Thomas, one of the most devastating and powerful books I have ever read. The book begins with Starr at a party, very similar to the one I just described. She is not sure how or why she got to the party. When shots ring out, she escapes the party with her childhood friend, Khalil. On the way home from the party, Khalil is stopped by the police, shot, and killed. It is horrible and breathtaking. Even more devastating, this is not the first killing that Star has witnessed.

Starr is 16, Black, a member of an intact family, living in an African American neighborhood of an unnamed city. Her parents are living the best lives they can--the mother a nurse and the father, the owner of a convenience store. One of the first teenaged things the children are taught is how to react if they are stopped by police. The parents' concern for their children extends to sending them to a mostly white private school in the suburbs. Starr's mother wants to move away from the ghetto neighborhood, but Starr's father feels that they can do more for the neighborhood if they stay and work hard at the store to upgrade the neighborhood. Here is a remarkable quote from Starr about living in one world and going to school in another. When she has to speak to the police following the shooting of Khalil, she muses, "My voice is changing already. It always happens around 'other' people, whether I'm at Williamson (her school) or not. I don't talk like me or sound like me. I choose every word carefully and make sure I pronounce them well. I can never, ever let anyone think I'm ghetto."

The plot following the shooting concerns Starr's response to being the eye-witness. It exposes the entire Black Lives Matter movement, police brutality, moral and ethical choices, and how young African American teenagers negotiate a world filled with fear, violence, and bad choices. One of the most remarkable aspects of the book is the fierceness with which Starr's parents and the extended family protect her and her siblings. One of her greatest advocates is her Uncle Carlos, who is a police detective.

My writing about this book and its plot cannot possibly serve it justice. I have to lead two discussions of the book over the next several weeks, and I am not sure how to proceed with the discussion. I asked an African American friend to help me with one of the discussions, and I had to laugh when Starr talks about being the "official representative of the black race." I guess that is what I am asking my friend to be.

The Hate U Give is the Kalamazoo community read for 2019, and Angie Thomas will be speaking in Kalamazoo on April 18. I noticed that in the lead up to the event, several high school classes are reading the book. I am sure that the discussion that night will be incredible and revealing. I would not have read the book if it had not been chosen for this event, but it is a book that will stay with me forever. One reviewer said that it has entered the lexicon of great young adult books. A movie of the same name came out in 2018, which I intend to see before the Reading Together events.

Here are some comments from the reviewer in The Guardian: "The Hate U Give is an outstanding debut novel and says more about the contemporary black experience in America than any book I have read for years, whether fiction or non-fiction. It’s a stark reminder that, instead of seeking enemies at its international airports, America should open its eyes and look within if it’s really serious about keeping all its citizens safe."

Dark Blossom

by Neel Mullick

Rupa Publications 2019
214 pages     Fiction

Sam and his therapist Cynthia are each fighting their own demons. Sam has just lost his wife and son in a car accident. Cynthia has divorced her abusive husband and is struggling to maintain a relationship with her uncommunicative teenage daughter, Lily. The relationship between client and therapist is told through the words of the therapist, and early on, it is easy to see that the relationship is going to include some drama. The reader is exposed to what is happening in Cynthia's life, but not so much about Sam's life other than his interactions with Cynthia and Lily.

The mystery of the death of Sam's family develops slowly while the reader becomes enmeshed in the drama between Cynthia and Lily, Cynthia and Sam, and Sam and Lily. We begin to think that Sam is falling for Cynthia and that this book might end up being a romance, even though the reader entered the novel thinking it is going to be a mystery. But oh, just when you think it is a indeed romance, a twist in the plot begins to emerge, and the reader is in for a bit of a shock.

There is an OMG factor to the novel that holds the reader's attention until the conclusion, which, frankly, left me scratching my head and having to go back to reread and refigure the relationships. Dark Blossom sucks you in and holds you fast.

In many ways, it is easy to see that Dark Blossom is the first novel for Neel Mullick, a businessman and entrepreneur. There is a minimum of plot development with few subplots. Additionally, the character Sam is not very well developed. I would have liked a broader definition of Sam's marriage and his career. One little thing that bugged me was that the author used British English spellings even though the book takes place in New York City. Although a small thing, the spelling made the setting lose some of its authenticity.

It will be interesting to see how Mullick's career as a writer develops. He offers a contest for Dark Blossom readers and will donate half of the book's royalties to a children's charity. Here is his website. He calls himself a "geek turned storyteller." Love it! By the way, the title of the book only comes clear at the book's closing. Another aha moment!

Watching You

by Lisa Jewel
Atria     2019
324 pages     Thriller

One day while I was reading Watching You  by Lisa Jewel, I observed a man drive slowly by our house and then stop and take a picture of the house. I freaked out! I was way involved in Watching You  where everyone is watching or stalking everyone else, and my imagination took over! In fact, it was much more mundane than that--an appraiser, for a refi on our house.

Lisa Jewel does a masterful job of character development and suspense in her creation of a neighborhood full of secrets. Several of the characters take turns leading the plot forward as well as becoming suspects in a murder whose victim is hard to anticipate. The setting is Melville,  a colorful, closeknit, Victorian neighborhood in Briston. Newly married to Alfie, Joey has just arrived iin the community to live with  her brother and his wife, who welcome them into their home. They live a couple of doors down from the Fitzwilliams--Tom, the esteemed principal of the neighborhood high school, Nicola his much younger wife, and Freddy, a voyeur teenaged son, who documents all the neighbors with his photographic binoculars. Jenna and her psychotic mother live nearby. Jenna goes to the school where Fitzwilliams is the principal, but she is enduringly suspicious of the principal.

One of the unique aspects of Watching You is that everyone is a voyeur. Jenna's mother watches everyone because she is sure everyone is out to get her and her daughter. Her Internet conspiricy theorists feed her neuroses and paranoia. Freddy, on the other hand, is trying to chronicle all the events in the lives of the young girls in the neighborhood. The cover illustration of windows is totally appropriate and totally telling.      
                       
The reader is given clues about the victim and the murderer, but the clues are opaque, which causes the suspense to build. We delve into the histories of each of the main characters, but most of the suspicion focuses on Joey, who seems to know something about the murder. Each of the other characters also have their own moments of suspicion, but I was about three-quarters through the book before I put the whole picture together. Great plot development!

Lisa Jewel is the author of several mysteries, so the appearance of Watching You came with great anticipation. It was the first of her mysteries that I had read, but I am eager to read another. Here is her website.

Cyber Smart: Five habits to protect your family, money, and identity from cyber criminals

by Bart. R. McDonough

Wiley     2019

267 pages     Nonfiction

The Shortlist

The rise of powerful mobile phones, fitness trackers, smart appliances and other new technologies over the last decade has vastly improved our lives. Yet every new device, application and online service we use now leaves us vulnerable to a black market of criminals eager to exploit this new landscape by hacking and selling our passwords, bank accounts, personal photos, and, in some cases, our biggest secrets. 

In Cyber Smart, McDonough uses his extensive cybersecurity experience consulting for the FBI, major financial institutions, and his clients to answer the most common question he hears: “How can I protect myself at home, on a personal level, away from the office?” 

McDonough simplifies the process of digital security, identifying five simple habits that will allow you to protect yourself and your family from:

·         Identify fraud

·         Device hacking

·         Financial account theft

·         Breached email and social media accounts

 

When it comes to cybersecurity and data privacy, the good news is you don’t need to be a tech genius to protect yourself like one. With clear instructions, a friendly tone, and practical strategies, Cyber Smart will help you rest easy, knowing you and your family are protected from cyberattacks.

The author, Bart R. McDonough is a cybersecurity service provider. Certainly he is an expert, and the book reflects his expertise. It is pretty easy to read and understand.  I passed Cyber Smart along to my husband, who is in charge of our cyber security.