Book Review: The Violet Bakery Cookbook by Claire Ptak

Here is the description of the book on Netgalley.com ---

A design-forward cookbook for sweet and savory baked goods from London's popular Violet Bakery that focuses on quality ingredients, seasonality, and taste (as opposed to science) as the keys to creating satisfying, delightful homemade pastries, tarts, sweets, and more. 

Violet is a jewel box of a cake shop and café in Hackney, east London. The baking is done with simple ingredients including whole grain flours, less refined sugars, and the natural sweetness and nuanced hues of seasonal fruits. Everything is made in an open kitchen for people to see. Famed for its exquisite baked goods, Violet has become a destination.

Owner Claire Ptak uses her Californian sensibility to create recipes that are both nourishing and indulgent. With a careful eye to taste and using the purest ingredients, she has created the most flavorful iterations of classic cakes, as well as new treats for modern palates. Over 100 recipes include nourishing breakfasts, midday snacks, desserts to share, fruit preserves, and stylish celebration cakes.

This book is about making baking worth it: simple to cook and satisfying to eat.

My review--  WOW, all I can say is every one of these recipes sound soo delicious!!!  I want to make every single one!!  But my real dream would go to the Violet Bakery and experience the delicious food first hand.  This cookbook would make a great addition to any ones kitchen.

Thank you to Netgalley for allowing me to read and review this book for my honest opinion.
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Book Review: Maggie's Turn by Donna Lynn Sletten

Here is the description of the book Netgalley has posted: 

 Maggie has always put her family’s needs in front of her own, until one day—without forethought—she drives away, leaving behind her indifferent husband and two sulking teenagers.

As she begins a quest of self-exploration, she meets new people, enjoys new adventures, and rediscovers long-neglected passions. For the first time in years, Maggie contemplates what she wants from life and soon realizes that her deteriorating marriage can no longer continue as it is. Can she and Andrew repair their broken relationship, or is their marriage over?

Left to his own devices, Andrew is forced to take over the household responsibilities and bridge the growing divide between himself and his children. Slowly, he begins to understand what drove Maggie away—and how he can’t bear to live without her. But is it too late? Will Andrew lose Maggie forever?

Here  is my review: 

 I really enjoyed reading this book.  I found myself cheering for Maggie and hoping that she and her husband would get a second chance. This book was very easy to read and I didn't want to put it down.

Thank you to Netgalley for allowing me to read this book for my honest review.

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Book Review: The World on a Plate by Mina Holland

This is so much more than a cookbook!  As it says on the first page, it contains 40 Cuisines, 100 recipes, and the stories behind them.  This is a book that will tell you some information about the country that the recipe comes from then offers a few recipes from that region.
  This is a book you will want to hang on to and get lost in reading.

Book review: The Autism Parents Guide To Reclaiming Your Life by Deanna Picon

I really needed to read this at this time in my life.  I have a son that has Down Syndrome and Autism we are transitioning from High School to whatever comes next.  This book literally made me tear up,  I have been feeling a lot of the things the Author mentions. I could relate to the feelings she was saying that parents go through in their life with their child with a special need.  I needed to hear someone give me permission to live my life and not feel guilty. And also telling me that doing my best is all I can do.
     I will definitely read this over and over again.  I wish I had this book years ago.
Thank you to Netgalley for allowing me to read and review this book for my honest opinion.
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Book Review: The Good Gut by Justin Sonnenburg and Erica Sonnenburg, PhDs.

This was a very informative book on the value of eating healthy and getting your gut to a healthy level for anyone concerned about living their best life.

Thank you to Netgalley for allowing me to read and review this book for my honest review.

Here is how Amazon.com describes the book:


The groundbreaking science behind the surprising source of good health

Stanford University’s Justin and Erica Sonnenburg are pioneers in the most exciting and potentially transformative field in the entire realm of human health and wellness, the study of the relationship between our bodies and the trillions of organisms representing thousands of species to which our bodies play host, the microbes that we collectively call the microbiota. The microbiota interacts with our bodies in a number of powerful ways; the Sonnenburgs argue that it determines in no small part whether we’re sick or healthy, fit or obese, sunny or moody. The microbiota has always been with us, and in fact has coevolved with humans, entwining its functions with ours so deeply, the Sonnenburgs show us, humans are really composite organisms having both microbial and human parts. But now, they argue, because of changes to diet, antibiotic over-use, and over-sterilization, our gut microbiota is facing a “mass extinction event,” which is causing our bodies to go haywire, and may be behind the mysterious spike in some of our most troubling modern afflictions, from food allergies to autism, cancer to depression. It doesn’t have to be this way.

The Good Gut offers a new plan for health that focuses on how to nourish your microbiota, including recipes and a menu plan. In this groundbreaking work, the Sonnenburgs show how we can keep our microbiota off the endangered species list and how we can strengthen the community that inhabits our gut and thereby improve our own health. The answer is unique for each of us, and it changes as you age. 

In this important and timely investigation, the Sonnenburgs look at safe alternatives to antibiotics; dietary and lifestyle choices to encourage microbial health; the management of the aging microbiota; and the nourishment of your own individual microbiome.

Caring for our gut microbes may be the most important health choice we can make.

Book Review: The Truth According To Us by Annie Barrows

I give this book 5 Stars.  This book is a delightful read that proves people are not what they seem on the outside and incapable of change. I really liked that I had NO IDEA how the book was going to end.

Here is a book description as provided by Amazon--

From the co-author of The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society comes a wise, witty, and exuberant novel, perfect for fans of Lee Smith, that illuminates the power of loyalty and forgiveness, memory and truth, and the courage it takes to do what’s right.  

Annie Barrows once again evokes the charm and eccentricity of a small town filled with extraordinary characters. Her new novel, The Truth According to Us, brings to life an inquisitive young girl, her beloved aunt, and the alluring visitor who changes the course of their destiny forever.

In the summer of 1938, Layla Beck’s father, a United States senator, cuts off her allowance and demands that she find employment on the Federal Writers’ Project, a New Deal jobs program. Within days, Layla finds herself far from her accustomed social whirl, assigned to cover the history of the remote mill town of Macedonia, West Virginia, and destined, in her opinion, to go completely mad with boredom. But once she secures a room in the home of the unconventional Romeyn family, she is drawn into their complex world and soon discovers that the truth of the town is entangled in the thorny past of the Romeyn dynasty.

At the Romeyn house, twelve-year-old Willa is desperate to learn everything in her quest to acquire her favorite virtues of ferocity and devotion—a search that leads her into a thicket of mysteries, including the questionable business that occupies her charismatic father and the reason her adored aunt Jottie remains unmarried. Layla’s arrival strikes a match to the family veneer, bringing to light buried secrets that will tell a new tale about the Romeyns. As Willa peels back the layers of her family’s past, and Layla delves deeper into town legend, everyone involved is transformed—and their personal histories completely rewritten.

Thank you to Netgalley for providing this book for my honest review.
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Book Review: Pastel Orphans by Gemma Liviero

I really enjoyed the book Pastel Orphans.  So you get to know a little about the book here is Amazon's description of the book

.In 1930s Berlin, young Henrik, the son of a Jewish father and Aryan mother, watches the world around him crumbling: people are rioting in the streets, a strange yellow star begins appearing in shop windows, and friends are forced to move—or they simply disappear.

After his father becomes gravely ill, Henrik and his little sister, Greta, are taken by their mother to Poland for safety. However, not even the pastoral surroundings of their new home can protect them from the terrors of war. When the Nazis invade and Greta is kidnapped, Henrik must shed his youthful innocence and search for his lost sister, a quest that will further reveal a harrowing landscape of violence and struggle―but also unexpected connections.

Uniquely told from the perspective of youth plunged into adult chaos, Pastel Orphans is a coming-of-age story that explores profound lessons in self-belief, kindness, and human endurance.

My review:  I did not want to put this book down.  I really liked how the author Gemma Liviero wrote in Henrik's point of view and tells what he saw in that time from a young boy to mans eyes.
The plot kept me guessing and wanting to know what was going to happen next.  This is a story I will not forget and will recommend to everyone.

Thank you to Netgalley for providing this book for my honest review.
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