Rebecca Reads

When I decided to start posting reviews of a few books at the same time, I still intended to write the reviews as I go as I did for my math and science reviews the other week. Although I wrote a separate review for the cookbook memoir I read by Emily Franklin, once I read [...]

At first, Baking Cakes in Kigali by Galie Parkin reminded me of The No. 1 Ladies Detective Agency by Alexander McCall-Smith.
In both novels, an independent woman in an African country runs a business and listens to the gossip of her neighbors, showing the reader a little bit about African locale, but also illustrating the pure [...]

I needed to sharpen our kitchen knives, so I found a book to help me along, specifically, An Edge in the Kitchen: The Ultimate Guide to Kitchen Knives by Chad Ward.
Overall, I liked the information I read. I got excited about my kitchen knives! But when I went to try and sharpen my own knives [...]

Most mornings, after my son (age 23 months) finishes his breakfast, he jumps out of his chair and runs to the kitchen stool, yelling, “Cook! Cook!” He climbs the stool and pounds the counter, a big smile on his face, for he knows I’ll probably give in and cook something with him. (I normally prepare [...]

Like Water for Chocolate by Laura Esquivel is almost a genre by itself. The traditional Mexican recipes are provided in a novel format as it tells the story of Tita, Tita’s overbearing mother, and Tita’s lover, Pedro, who marries her sister. And yet, it’s not a cook book, and I don’t think it’s not an [...]

I have an unfair bias against memoirs. This may stem from the fact that many memoirs are written by people who are complete strangers, and I find myself wondering why their life should be of interest to me. With this book, at least, that unfair stereotype was certainly proved wrong!
Molly Wizenberg’s A Homemade Life is [...]

In some respects, I miss the point of Alice Waters’ The Art of Simple Food.
Alice Waters is the original proponent of seasonal, local, and organic foods. But because I grocery shop for a family on a budget, I can never justify going “organic.” I also live in Chicago suburbia, which means that there are about [...]

I don’t usually write up a post for each new challenge I join; I just put my pool of books on my current challenges page. But, as I’m running the Spice of Life Challenge, I hope my list of hopefully delectable books will tempt you to join.
There are three levels of participation: “A Taste” (read [...]

I’m going to be hosting a new challenge for the last six months of 2009. It’s all about food. Go check it out.
I have a list of books to share with you to tempt you in to this, but putting up that site took a lot longer than I thought. List will come another day.
I’m [...]

What I Learned from the CIA
As I mentioned when I read Michael Ruhlman’s The Elements of Cooking, I’ve also been reading one of his other books about food, The Making of a Chef. This book is Ruhlman’s behind-the-scenes look at what a “culinary education” entails, particularly what it takes to earn a certificate or degree [...]