Adult Assembly Required by Abbi Waxman

 

Reviewed by Kristin

Laura Costello is having a very bad day. She’s soaking wet, a newcomer to L.A., and her apartment building has just burned to the ground. When she stumbles into Knight’s indie bookstore, Liz the manager is kind enough to offer her a towel, as soon as she can find where that towel went. (Oh yeah, it’s under the cat.) In the middle of her very bad day in a brand new town, Laura is suddenly surrounded by several people who are ready and even willing to help.

Laura has come to L.A. for a physical therapy graduate degree, which her extremely highbrow academic parents and brothers barely think is a thing. She can still hear the echoes in her mind…But you have so much potential, Laura! The move from New York to the West coast was a big enough deal, but now having to find a new place to live and buy clothes and…a toothbrush? Polly, one of the bookstore employees, impulsively invites Laura back to talk to her landlady who just happens to have a freshly vacated room.

 It almost seems too good to be true, but Laura starts to find her way amidst this group of welcoming strangers. The shared meals are loud and friendly, her room is lovely, and she’s sharing a bathroom with a man known by the other women in the house as Impossibly Handsome Bob. Bob is indeed handsome, but he keeps to himself and tends to the roses in the garden.

Of course there are always a few bumps in the road, as Laura deals with issues from her past and tries to figure out how she will move forward. Striking out on your own is always a bit scary, but Laura is finding a lot of help in assembling her new life.

After finishing this book, I discovered that it’s a follow-up to The Bookish Life of Nina Hill, which makes sense considering that Nina is a co-owner of the bookstore which the soaked Laura tumbles into on the first page. Now I’ll have to go back and happily read that one, since I’ve had a taste of the delightful world these characters inhabit.

A Christmas Memory, One Christmas, & The Thanksgiving Visitor by Truman Capote

 

Reviewed by Jeanne

This is a collection of three of Truman Capote’s short stories, although they draw heavily on Capote’s own childhood for inspiration.  It’s a mix of autobiography and fiction, just as his most famous work In Cold Blood is a “non-fiction novel.”

Whether you take them as truth or fiction, Capote gets to deliver a lot of emotional truths in these stories.  In “A Christmas Memory,” he and Sook, the elderly cousin who is his best friend, set out to make their annual gifts of fruitcakes for people.  Not just family, but for President Roosevelt, for the postman, for anyone they feel merits a fruitcake. They save their money all year long to buy what they need to finish the cakes.  It’s a beautifully wrought story, filled with all the details to make it come alive and to make the reader recall his or her own childhood Christmases—not the toys so much but the excitement, the giving, and the wonderful secrets and surprises.

The second story, “One Christmas,” has the young narrator being sent to visit his father for the holiday.  The man is largely a stranger, since he and the boy’s mother divorced when the child was two, and he lives in the city of New Orleans.  The boy has grown up with his mother’s relations in rural Alabama so the city is quite a shock.  Frightened, a bit angry, and lonely for Sook, the child does all he can to make the visit a short one. His observations, now filtered from an adult perspective, are both poignant and pointed.

Finally, “The Thanksgiving Visitor” tells the story of a bully who made the boy’s life a misery growing up.  Things come to head when Sook invited the bully to Thanksgiving dinner, and valuable lessons are learned.

This isn’t to say that any of the stories are in the least preachy or sanctimonious.  The emotions they evoke are always relatable, sharply observed, and they resonate with the reader.

All these stories are finely crafted and memorable, no matter the season.

Nevermore: Good Medicine Hard Times, Meadowlands, Codebreaker's Secret, On the Rooftop

 

Reported by Garry

Good Medicine, Hard Times: Memoir of a Combat Physician in Iraq by Edward Horvath. At age fifty-nine, and thirty years after retiring from the Navy, Edward Horvath re-enlists with the Army to be a combat physician in the Iraq war in order to save the “neighbor’s kid” – no matter who that kid is. According to our reader, it didn’t take long for Horvath to figure out that the war was completely unnecessary and led to innumerable deaths and injuries on both sides, including innocents. “So good I cried, and I don’t regret any of my tears”.  CD

 

The war theme continues with our next book, Meadowlands by Elizabeth Jeffrey. In this historical novel, the aristocratic Barsham family’s way of life is blown apart by the social upheavals of World War I, leaving the Barshams to figure out how to run the estate on their own. The servants, maids, and workers leave either to go to the front lines or factories to serve the war efforts. The Barsham children’s lives are upended when they take on roles that were deemed “unfit” for the children of the upper class. Class lines are obliterated on the front line, and when the war is over, things do not return to the way they were. A very human look at the societal changes during the horrors of wartime, this book is highly recommended by our reader.  KN

The next war themed book takes place on the other side of the world from England – Hawaii! The Codebreaker’s Secret by Sara Ackerman is historical fiction that centers on Isabel Cooper, a military codebreaker in Pearl Harbor. Isabel meets and falls in love with her late brother’s best friend. Fast forward to 1965 and the opening of the Mauna Kea Beach Hotel, an event being covered by journalist Lu Freitas. One of the high-profile guests goes missing and Lu forms an unlikely alliance with a crotchety veteran photographer to solve the mystery of the missing guest – a mystery that ties in to Isabel’s story and threatens to expose secrets long buried. Our reader loved the twists and turns in the mystery and the way that this story evolves, and, even though she doesn’t usually like time-jumps, found that this author handles them well.  WJ

 

On The Rooftop by Margaret Wilkerson Sexton is the story of a family in 1950s San Francisco and the social changes that engulf them. Vivian is mother to three extraordinarily talented young women, Ruth, Ester, and Chloe, known as The Salvations, who have been singing and dancing together since they were toddlers. Vivian has been working tirelessly to get the girls a recording contract and finally scores an offer from a major talent agent. But is it too late? The girls are now young women in their early 20s who have dreams and aspirations of their own – many of which don’t have room for being in a “girl band”. This story is set against the backdrop of the gentrification of their neighborhood, the Fillmore District. White property developers are buying up Black owned homes, demolishing them and putting up high-priced new housing, driving out the local families that have called Fillmore their homes for generations. Our reader commented on how beautifully and evocatively written this book is and highly recommends it.  MP

Also mentioned:

Haunted Historic Abingdon by Donnamarie Emmert

Civil War Sites in Virginia by James I. Robertson Jr. and Brian Steel Wills

Five-Star Trails: Asheville: 35 Spectacular Hikes in the Land of Sky by Jennifer Pharr Davis

Daniel Boone The Pioneer of Kentucky by John S.C. Abbott

Billy Summers by Stephen King

Ireland by Frank Delaney

Fairy Tale by Stephen King

The Yellow House by Sarah M. Broom

Debt: The First 5000 Years by David Graeber

All Good People Here by Ashley Flowers

Contact by Carl Sagan

The Scarlet Pimpernel by Baroness Orczy

Here on Earth by Alice Hoffman

The Daughter of Doctor Moreau by Silvia Moreno-Garcia

Lessons by Ian McEwan

The Book of Phobias and Manias: A History of Obsession by Kate Summerscale

Deaf Republic by Ilya Kaminsky

She Kills Me: The True Stories of History’s Deadliest Women by Jennifer Wright

Six Feet Deep Dish by Mindy Quigley

 

Reviewed by Jeanne

Chef Delilah O’Leary is seeing her dream come true.  She’s opening her own specialty pizzeria in Geneva Bay, Wisconsin with the help of her fiancé, Sam, who invented an app that made him a fortune: a very, very large fortune.  Far from being the driven type A executive type, Sam is a laid back guy who doesn’t get upset about, well, anything.  Delilah, on the other hand, is driven, with a tendency to micromanage and organize up one side and down the other. Sometimes it’s hard to see how they make it as a couple, but she likes to think they complement each other: she tries to speed him up, and he slows her down.

This time, however, Sam has let his laissez-faire style go too far:  the custom-made sign for the new pizzeria proclaims it is Sam and Delilah’s Deep Dutch Pizza. 

Now all Delilah has to do is figure out what the heck “Deep Dutch” pizza is before the place opens in, oh, an hour.  Unhappy words are exchanged, and Sam does what he usually does—flees.

He leaves behind his cat, chubby orange Butterball, though Delilah has begun to think of the tubby tabby as her own.  Still, she has a business to run and people to feed, so Delilah sets out serving pizza and greeting guests, including her elderly Aunt Biz and the aunt’s caregiver. Things seem to be going well, despite a server who keeps going missing, and Delilah is just beginning to breathe when she hears a voice call her name.

It's Aunt Biz, and her caregiver is now very dead from a bullet fired from Aunt Biz’s gun.

I had heard good things about this one and it mostly met expectations.  I, of course, was very interested in Butterball, and he is an important character in the book, and not just cover eye-candy.  I liked the setting; Geneva Bay is described as a resort town with ties to famous gangsters, such as Al Capone, John Dillinger, and Baby Face Nelson. Who knew Wisconsin was such a hotbed of criminal activity? Not me, obviously.

As for the characters, I wasn’t sold at first on Delilah because she is such a control freak. I am a fan of character growth, though, and she gradually begins to realize that she needs to loosen up a little.  It’s going to be hard, but self-awareness is a start, and I like watching characters learn and change so I have hopes for this one.

The supporting characters are good and reasonably well developed, and the plot was interesting. It was topical and plausible. Delilah’s determination to prove her aunt’s innocence is classic cozy, and the touch of romance was nice. Also there’s Butterball—even though he’s being put on a diet (as he should be).

I’ll definitely be on the lookout for the next in the series which should be Ashes to Ashes, Crust to Crust, due out April 25, 2023. 

The Magic of Lemon Drop Pie by Rachel Linden

 

Reviewed by Kristin

Lolly Blanchard has lived a life of responsibility. After her mother died ten years ago, she gave up her vision of creating her own restaurant in Brighton, a place she loved since she studied abroad in England. Lolly also gave up Rory Shaw, the man she has loved since she was a teenager, as their paths diverged. Lolly stayed home to help her father Marty run the Eatery, their family diner on the west side of Seattle, and also to take care of her teenage sister Daphne. Lolly has done what she promised her mother she would do—keep their family together—but she certainly has collected many regrets along the way.

Lolly rises early every morning to make six lemon meringue pies for the diner. The Danish comfort food diner was started by her maternal grandparents half a century ago, even if it is looking a bit shabby these days. Mostly a family concern, Marty is the head chef and Great-Aunt Gert is often seen balancing plates of meatballs and potatoes with a pot of coffee in her other hand. Lolly is the one keeping the financial side afloat, not to mention those pies.

At the ripe old age of almost 33, as Lolly looks back at what might have been, Aunt Gert gives her a very strange gift: three lemon drops with magical properties. Each lemon drop will give her a chance to live one day in an alternate timeline, in a life that might have been. What if Lolly had opened her dream restaurant overseas? What if her mother had lived? What if she had chosen to follow her heart?

Lolly is not sure if Aunt Gert has lost her marbles or if the lemon drops really are magic. She decides to give it a try to see what path her life might have taken, if only…

This novel is so full of family and of the strings that tie us all together. The phrase “follow your bliss” comes up an unusual number of times, but I think that’s just Aunt Gert encouraging Lolly to discover what she has been missing, and also how to live her best life, regrets not withstanding. Aunt Gert is a most entertaining character and I wish the author had chosen to dive a little deeper into her past. At age 80, she certainly has led a most interesting life as a professor emeritus of religion and mythology, traveling the world and retaining her most unique fashion sense even as she now tromps through the diner in her orthopedic shoes.

All the way through I kept guessing what might happen, and while I was partially correct, the storyline still managed to surprise me pleasantly. I was so invested in the characters that the people Lolly lost, and her hopes for what might be actually brought me to tears a few times. The writing is highly engaging, and I can’t recommend this book highly enough.

Nevermore: Haven, No Impact Man, 10% Happier

 

Reported by Garry

 

Haven by Emma Donoghue has been a very popular book with our readers. Two of our regulars had a discussion about it this week, and spoke about how the main character was a delusional despot who ran the monastery like a cult. Following a vision he had in a dream, the prior recruits two disciples and heads out to sea in a small boat with no destination in mind except to find a rock in the ocean upon which to build a retreat dedicated to God. Surprisingly they didn’t die on the voyage and came to what is now called Skellig Michael – a hostile shard of rock off the coast of Ireland, where the three of them built a chapel and a kind of life for themselves against all odds. This book has proven to be very thought provoking and has deeply touched a number of our readers.  NH and CD

 

No Impact Man: The Adventures of a Guilty Liberal Who Attempts to Save the Planet, and the Discoveries He Makes about Himself and Our Way of Life in the Process by Colin Beavan. Would you want to live on a dying planet and hand its problems on to your children? That is the question that Colin Beavan decided to answer with a resounding “No”. For a year, Beavan, his wife, 2-year-old daughter and dog attempt to live in Manhattan as eco-consciously as possible: no fossil fuels, sustainable energy, local, organic foods. The resulting journey is heartwarming, hilarious, and thought provoking. Our reader was especially surprised how relevant this book is now, considering it was written in 2006.  PP

 

10% Happier: How I Tamed the Voice in My Head, Reduced Stress Without Losing My Edge, and Found Self-Help That Actually Works: A True Story by Dan Harris somewhat follows the same theme of No Impact Man – You are unhappy with your life: What do you do about it? In this case Dan Harris, a correspondent for ABC News and co-anchor of Good Morning America, was an over-achieving, over-stressed type-A personality who, after an on-air panic attack, took a step back to look at his life, what forces led him to where he was, and what he could do about it. Eventually, he stumbled across meditation – a practice that he had earlier dismissed as mere navel-gazing. Our reader found that this memoir which delves into the science of meditation and explains Harr’s journey and struggles with the practice, is one of the most accessible, practical books on mediation that she has read.  PP

 

Also mentioned: 

 

The Water is Wide by Pat Conroy

Humans of New York by Brandon Stanton

Properties of Thirst by Marianne Wiggins

Stalking the Wild Asparagus by Euell Gibbons

The Story of Becoming Piney Flats by Robert Sorrell

Good Medicine, Hard Times: Memoir of a Combat Physician in Iraq by Edward P. Horvath, MD

Quite a Year for Plums by Bailey White

Book Lovers by Emily Henry

People We Meet on Vacation by Emily Henry

Malibu Rising by Taylor Jenkins Reid

Fun with Cookbooks

 Reviews by Jeanne

I think of fall as “The Eating Season.”  It starts with all the Halloween candy, moves into Thanksgiving, and really hits its stride around Christmas.  This is the signal for a lot of people to get out the cookbooks, so we decided to put out a cookbook display.  I asked staff to share some favorites as well, and decided I’d do my picks as part of the bookblog.

Before I give my selections, there’s something you should know.

I don’t cook.

Well, I do cook sometimes but the constant shrieking of the smoke alarms has put me off a bit.  Once I had three going at once, which remains my personal best.

This doesn’t mean I don’t enjoy a good cookbook. It’s just that I look for different things in my cookbooks.

Take the Let’s Bake!  A Pusheen Cookbook by Claire Beldon, for example.  (641.815 BEL) I love it because Pusheen (a fat grey cartoon tabby cat) is adorable and all these recipes revolve around creating baked goods that resemble Pusheen or one of her friends.  Naively, I thought some recipes might be easy enough for me to try but I underestimated my own culinary incompetence.  Still, I love to look at the pictures and marvel that someone would take the time to craft such adorable edibles.  Also, like Pusheen, I would sample all the wares during the cooking stages until there wasn’t anything left. Bonus:  some of the things are too cute to eat, so looking at them doesn’t even make me hungry! If creative baking and cartoon cats are your thing, take a look!

    

The Joy of Cooking by Irma S. Rombauer (641.5 ROM) first appeared in 1931 and has been hailed as a classic.  My battered copy isn’t quite that old but a carbon dating of grease stains would probably put it at least 30 years old and maybe more. I love it because it covers the basics of cooking almost anything, including the weird vegetable I found at the farmers market.  Okay, so my version may never be the delectable item in the cookbook, but at least I have a theory of what it should taste like.

There are other cookbooks I love just because they are fun and make me laugh.

The Cracker Kitchen by Janis Owens (641.5975 OWE) is one of those.  Owens is a novelist and Southerner—specifically a Florida Cracker, a term she deems descriptive rather than pejorative.  Best of all, most every recipe comes with a story or an observation. Wild game appears on the menu, but I’m with Owens who says while she doesn’t judge people who eat possum and will still come to your house if that is what you are serving, but she may pick up a chicken sandwich on the way.  I will also pass on rattlesnake. But if Strawberry Pretzel salad is on the menu, I will at least have dessert. Mostly, I just want to read this book because I love her stories. Pat Conroy did too, and he contributed an introduction. In fact, I’ve seen the book referred to as a “cookbook memoir” and I wouldn’t dispute that at all.

Peg Bracken’s I Hate to Cook Book (641.5 BRA) is closer to my own heart.  Judge it by the title alone, if you wish.  Bracken doesn’t want to cook but if she has to she is going to find the easiest way possible. The book first appeared in 1960, but the recipes still sound great. As Bracken’s daughter notes in the introduction to the 50^th anniversary edition, at the time the book was written there was not a lot of concern about cream, butter, etc. except to be sure you didn’t leave it out.  The recipes are big on convenience, which I would love if I actually cooked.  They are also a reflection of the times in many ways: there are many potlucks, full meals every day and preferably new dishes each time. Bracken displays a genius for trying to disguise leftovers, use canned soup as sauces, and figure out ways to bring the easiest possible dish to potlucks.  (As the person usually asked to bring plates and napkins, I feel I have succeeded at this part.) Even if you are a non-cook, this is a great book for the humor alone.

The other sort of cookbook I like tells me the history of foods and ingredients. Blue Corn and Chocolate by Elisabeth Rozin (641.59 ROZ) has recipes but the attraction for me is learning the history behind them.  Europeans found many exotic new foods in the Americas, but not all were accepted at first.  Tomatoes were regarded with deep suspicion, in fact.  Happily for lovers of Italian sauces, that was overcome.  While thumbing through this book to refresh my memory, I stumbled on a couple of easy recipes I may just have to try. Yeah, they’re THAT easy.

                                                           

But I’ll have fresh batteries for the smoke alarms, just in case.

In Flanders Fields

 

“In Flanders fields the poppies blow

Between the crosses, row on row…”

 

So begins one of the most famous war poems ever written.  The author was John McCrae, a Canadian medical officer stationed in Flanders, France. Tending to the wounded during the Second Battle of Ypres, McCrae was surrounded by death and destruction, but also the graves of the fallen.  Wild poppies grew there in profusion, something that had been noted in previous wars.

On May 2, 1915, a close friend of McCrae’s, Lt. Alexis Helmer, was killed.  In the hours that followed, McCrae penned the poem we know today.  It was published in the British magazine Punch and was an instant success. McCrae’s poem struck a nerve with all those who had fought or knew someone who had fought.  Accompanied by an illustration of bright red poppies in an edition of Ladies Home Journal, the poem resonated with an American woman, Moina Belle Michael and she resolved to wear a red poppy in remembrance of those who had died in the war.

McCrae himself did not survive the war.  He died in 1918 of pneumonia and meningitis, but his legacy lives on.

You can read more about John McCrae and the history of the poppies here:

http://www.greatwar.co.uk/poems/john-mccrae-in-flanders-fields.htm

http://www.greatwar.co.uk/article/remembrance-poppy.htm#americanlegion

 

The library also has a wonderful children’s book entitled In Flanders Fields:  The Story of the Poem by John McCrae by Linda Granfield, illustrated by Janet Wilson.

 

In Flanders fields the poppies blow
Between the crosses, row on row,
That mark our place; and in the sky
The larks, still bravely singing, fly
Scarce heard amid the guns below.

We are the Dead. Short days ago
We lived, felt dawn, saw sunset glow,
Loved and were loved, and now we lie
In Flanders fields.

Take up our quarrel with the foe:
To you from failing hands we throw
The torch; be yours to hold it high.
If ye break faith with us who die
We shall not sleep, though poppies grow
In Flanders fields.

John McCrae

Nevermore: Sleeping at the Starlite Motel, 90% of Everything, Winter Harvest, Mary Jane

 

Reported by Garry

Sleeping at the Starlite Motel: And Other Adventures on the Way Back Home by Bailey White. A couple of weeks ago, we had a review of Mama Makes Up Her Mind, and this second book continues the comfy, down-home feelings for which White is known. Each chapter in this book is a self-contained capsule of eccentric small town Georgia. According to our reader, this collection of stories is enjoyable light reading that can be put down and picked up again at a later time, just like continuing a conversation with an old friend.  NH

 

Ninety Percent of Everything: Inside Shipping, the Invisible Industry that Puts Clothes on Your Back, Gas in Your Car, and Food on Your Plate by Rose George. If you were able to remove everything from your life that had to be shipped to you, either by a local carrier, or by an international one, you would be stunned to realize how little you had left. Without shipping, we would have no clothes, very little food, no furniture, electronics, or any of the other conveniences and comforts of modern life. In this fascinating book, George investigates the international shipping industry and its impacts (both positive and negative) on not only our immediate lives but on our civilization and the world as a whole.  CD

 

Winter Harvest by Norah Lofts is about a particularly gruesome part of the history of 1840s American westward migration. Loosely based on the ill-fated Donner Party, this 1947 classic novel introduces well-to-do businessman Kevin Furmage who has been given a map showing a shortcut to California from Missouri. A rag-tag group joins Furmage and they set out to cross the Sierra Nevada mountain range to disastrous and horrifying results. Our reader really enjoyed the back stories of the various characters in the book, and highlighted the excellent character building.  WJ

Mary Jane by Jessica Anya Blau is about a 14-year-old girl who lives a sheltered life listening only to show tunes and being taught to be a good wife by her mother. The high point of her week is singing in the church choir and she has a great talent for harmony. Then comes the summer when she is hired by a local doctor as a babysitter to his adorably precocious daughter, Izzy. Mary Jane immediately falls in love with the child and begins to organize the chaotic household, even cooking supper for the family each night. But unbeknownst to her mother, she is also becoming privy to an entirely different lifestyle and viewpoint than the one she was raised to appreciate. By the end of the summer, she will have witnessed a lifestyle that includes sex, drugs, and rock and roll. Mary Jane begins to realize that there are many different ways of living her life and a whole new world begins to open up for her. This wonderful coming of age novel was thoroughly enjoyed and highly recommended by our reader. LK

 

Also mentioned:

 

Mary Jane by Jessica Anya Blau

Mama Makes Up Her Mind by Bailey White

Ellie Dwyer’s Startling Discovery by Diane Winger

Mountain Mysteries: The Mystic Traditions of Appalachia by Larry Thacker

I Let You Go by Claire Mackintosh

The Red Cotton Fields by Michael Strickland

Why Nations Fail:  The Origins of Power, Prosperity, and Poverty by Daron Acemoglu and James A. Robinson

The Gentle Art of Swedish Death Cleaning:  How to Free Yourself and Your Family from a Lifetime of Clutter by Margareta Magnusson

Mosquito Bowl: A Game of Life and Death in World War II by Buzz Bissinger

The Queen of the Summer’s Twilight by Charles Vess

Killers of A Certain Age by Deanna Raybourn

Billie Starr’s Book of Sorries by Deborah E. Kennedy

Real Queer America:  LGBT Stories from Red States by Samantha Allen

The Adventurous Eaters Club: Mastering the Art of Family Mealtime by Misha and Vicki Collins

 

A conversation between Ashley and Kristin

Kristin: I picked up this really cool looking cookbook and I think I might do a review on it. It’s by these parents cooking with their kids and it’s really funny.

Ashley: OMG! I requested that book because it looked good. Misha Collins is the guy from Supernatural and he and his wife created it because their kids were starting to want just chicken nuggets and food like that.

Kristin: I flipped through it and I might copy a couple of recipes, but I’m really enjoying the parts like “Culinary Frontiers—recipes only a kid could dream up”. This particular one, “Breakfast Popsicles”, has the ending: “We can’t recommend making these at home—unless you want a breakfast that’ll haunt you till the day you die.” Those popsicles have scrambled eggs in them.

Ashley: Those recipes by the kids are really funny. I really liked “The Pirate’s Eye aka The Bird in the Nest”. Eggs, bread, a frying pan, and you have breakfast.

Kristin: The “Egg and Cheese Cupcakes” sound good, and kids can help with them. Every single recipe has something that the kids can do safely. I guess the kids are much more likely to eat the food when they have helped make it, not to mention picking it from the garden or from the grocery.

Ashley: The “Shiitake Crispies” recipe was one that I would like to try. And “Mix ‘N’ Match ‘Fried’ Chicken” sounds really good with the spices coating each piece of chicken.

Kristin: The illustrations are great too. After the kids are shown eating their “Make-a-Huge-Mess-Sandwich” (spaghetti with sauce on bread) then their dad is throwing a huge pot of water to rinse them off! Some of the photoshoots look like they got out of hand—I can only wonder how much it cost to fill a claw foot bathtub with greens for the kids to sit in and toss around!

Kristin and Ashley: Yay!—We wrote a review because we love cookbooks! We recommend this to anyone with kids or anyone who is embracing their inner child.