Stepping in the Write Direction

Crying in H Mart by Michelle Zauner is a poignant, honest, raw, joyful memoir that deals with being an only child of Korean and American parents growing up in Eugene, Oregon, the struggle to discover who you are in high school and as a young adult, mother daughter issues, family dynamics, an unexpected cancer diagnosis, being a caregiver while dealing with other family and friends involved, claiming your ethnic heritage, and living your own dream. It is a book many can relate to, while learning things about Korean culture and cuisine. I had no expectations about this memoir, but found it a very moving and powerful portrait of this nuclear and extended family.  The high school conflicts between mother and daughter involve Michelle wanting to live her life as a musician, playing music in a group, having tattoos, and a mother who wanted her intelligent daughter to go to college and not end up living as a starving artist. When you’re transitioning from high school and living at home to...

Years ago when I was driving long distance I used to get a number of detective, police procedurals, and Lilian Braun’s The Cat Who series books on CDs from the library to pass the time with while traveling. I started looking for books similar to The Cat Who series after Lilian Braun passed away, and Pork Pie Pandemonium by Steve Higgs, book one in the Albert Smith Culinary Capers, involves a retired detective who travels Britain by rail with his German shepherd ex-police dog Rex Harrison (fired for “having a bad attitude”) in search of entertaining culinary related adventures, that always end up with a murder they need to solve, often causing consternation to local chief constables and detectives.  I regularly read a lot of memoirs, acclaimed literary fiction, highly rated thrillers and mysteries, but I also need books that are fun to read, and this one turned out to have a good mystery story with a lot of humor sprinkled throughout the book, often involving the dog, so it was...

In the book blurb for The Kamogawa Food Detectives by Hisashi Kashiwai a question is posed: What’s the one dish you’d do anything to taste just one more time? I flashed back to the Disney film “Ratatouille,” where the famous curmudgeonly food critic shows up at the rat chef’s restaurant, fully not expecting what he receives. He was instantly transported into his past; upon his first bite of the humble Provence vegetable stew dish, he closed his eyes and as his taste buds absorbed flavors the old man had not experienced since he last sat at his mother’s kitchen table as a boy eating her ratatouille, every detail of those moments crystallized in his mind, the feeling of receiving a favorite dish, thoughtfully prepared by the woman who loved him first, infused him with all the warmth and happiness associated with revisiting that childhood memory, awakened with one lift of his fork.  Visitors to the Kamogawa Food Detectives have similar experiences. Koishi Kamo...

Duped Again: Why Sophistry Works by Marc Rudov, branding advisor to CEOs, seeks answers to “Why do people lie—to others and themselves? Why are they so gullible to allow themselves repeatedly to get duped?” He underscores what society becomes when critical thinking is not exercised in everyday life. Rudov notes,“The act of believing is predicated on an alchemy of one’s knowledge, critical-thinking skill, biases, emotions, influences, coercions, motives, purpose and direction, and self-delusions.” He later adds, “Sophistry requires stupidity…colleges are advocating and excusing laziness and stupidity, which lead to poverty…Subverting competence hurts every group: the schools, the students, and our society. What enables widespread deceit? The lack of critical thinking.” Rudolf describes the book’s underlying kernel of truth, “Deception is an emotional Rorschach test: in it, the duped one feels what he wants and needs to feel…People lie and believe/accept lies to get what they want or kee...

Rowan, a want to be screenwriter, and Seth, an aspiring novelist, meet at an LA beachfront party. Three weeks later, they’re living together. At one point Seth decides there’s money to be made from YouTube channel content creation, and embarks on honing his craft, which burgeons to what Rowan begins to feel is invasive in their lives, as it morphs into an obsession to boost viewer numbers and constant re-filming to get the perfect video. Eventually they leave LA which becomes too rich for their bank accounts, deciding to return to Ann Arbor where Rowan grew up, and her parents and “married with two kids each” siblings still reside.  As time’s river flows past them, Rowan feels stifled in her screenwriting ambitions, and generates income taking photos of other families’ milestones. She’s surprised and disappointed not to hear back from a studio employed friend where she’s sent a video of a screenplay pitch just as they were leaving California. The YouTube channel is generating ...

I loved Holmes, Marple, and Poe by James Patterson and Brian Sitts, but it wasn’t love at first sight. I had a very hard time getting into the book. I kept falling asleep while reading, and as I progressed further into the narrative, I wasn’t feeling the page turning pull that a Patterson, or any other police procedural/private investigator book worth it’s salt normally has. A little over 100 pages in, and feeling nothing, I went to Amazon to check reviews wondering if others had felt similarly. I did a cursory search, but although I saw a few 3 star reviews, nothing that indicated my level of frustration. I kept on reading, determined to find the spark that would get the ball rolling. That push didn’t occur for me until about page 191 in a 345 page book, but once it started, it was hard to put down, and I was loving it.  When I finished the book, I went back to the reviews again, but this time started with the one star ratings, and there I found those kindred spirits who felt the ...

All of the female protagonists in Mimi Matthews’ novels are intelligent, opinionated, and outspoken, while in this series they live in Victorian England. Her latest book, The Lily of Ludgate Hill, third stand alone book in the Belles of London historic romance series, is no exception. I’ve read all three books in this series. Lady Anne Deveril chose to stay and care for her mother after her father’s premature death. The author writes, “It was enough for now that her mother had acknowledged the value of Anne’s presence. That she’d recognized Anne was here for her, an ally in the fight to come. They may only be women in a world governed by men, but there were two of them. And when women banded together, they could make empires tremble.” The fact Anne’s father’s title was passed to someone outside their immediate family, would soon create issues for them, giving eye opening insights to how inheritance laws were at that time for the titled.  Anne and the man who loves her, “Hart”(Felix...