Review Me Twice - A Beautiful Mind by Sylvia Nasar

We always like to be brutally honest with our reviews here on Review Me Twice so here it is: I didn't finish the book.  Which is really telling unto itself because I think this is now a grand total of two books that I haven't finished in time on this blog, and the first one I had already read, I was just rereading to refresh me memory.

It's not that this book was bad or wasn't informative or even interesting.  It's just that it's not interesting enough to keep me interested.  It seemed like everything else was more interesting: My FFX game, my TV show, other books.  Things that don't usually distract me were constantly distracting me.  I just couldn't seem to buckle down and finish this one on time.

So it's definitely not one to read in a pinch.  A very meandering read, meant to be put down and picked back up and inturrupted, but definitely finished.  Just at its own pace.

Author Bio - Sylvia Nasar

Sylvia Nasar is our author this week, a journalist born in Germany, but whose family immigrated to the US in the 1950s.  She also lived in Turkey for awhile before going to school at Antioch College in Ohio and then getting her Masters at NYU.

In the 1980s, she joined Fortune magazine as a staff writer.  During the 1990s, she was also an economic correspondent for the New York Times.  She became a  John S. and James L. Knight Professor of Business Journalism at Columbia University, but it has since filed a lawsuit saying that the university has misdirected the funds from the endowment that are supposed to pay her salary.

She is the author of A Beautiful Mind, the biography on the Nobel Prize winning mathematician, John Nash. In 2001, a movie was made based on her novel starring Russell Crowe.  The book was nominated for a Pulitzer in 1998.

Review Me Twice: The Sheik's Accidental Pregnancy by Leslie North

I might start making my reviews just the first sentence I said out loud after I finished reading the book. This week, for instance, that would be: "Well, at least it was short."

Another sentence I said aloud while reading that serves as a pretty good review: "Ohhh, it's a Middle-East-set Fifty Shades." I mean this in the sense that a shy, awkward girl works in an inferior position to a powerful, angry guy who's very particular about how he wants others to behave, and they fall into an unhealthy, intensely love-hate relationship. No S&M, and this time there's a baby involved.

I have to admit that sex scenes are very hard to write. The ones in this book aren't bad. Although I can't let this one detail go. There are a few typos in the book, but this error I can't let slide. "He impaled himself upon her." That is... not correct. Not at all. That's the opposite of what should have been said. Sorry... it was just too funny to ignore.

All in all, I don't want to read the sequels, but I don't feel like I lost a small chunk of my life to this book. I feel like I spent half an evening reading something amusing.

When I picked out the book this week, I picked out it mostly because the title amused me, not because it was going to be a great literary masterpiece.  And, also, it was free on Amazon and fit into the "Romance Novel" theme of our month.

It was also a short novel, which was nice.  Took about an afternoon to read.  Was it a great book?  No, not particularly.  Was it the most terrible book I've ever read?  Surprisingly, no.  I mean, the characters were a little flat and the book was a really rushed.  It could do with a little more fleshing out.  And it was pretty predictable, but I think that just comes with the romance novel genre.

I'm with Alex on the "He impaled himself upon her" typo.  I did a little bit of a double take and made me really raise an eyebrow, not to mention, I couldn't really focus on the rest of the scene because I was so distracted by the fact that my main characters had just switched sexual organs.  Not the place that you want to be making typos (and I usually gloss over the typos when I'm reading, if I'm not in editing mode, so it must be REALLY bad for me to so actively catch it.)

Not the worst book this month, but we read Wuthering Heights, so I guess there was no way it could be. ;)

Author Bio - Leslie North

You may be asking what this odd author photo is.  Well, our author this week, Leslie North, is actually a pseudonym.  North doesn't use her real name, or even give it out.  She doesn't appear for things or give out personal information or come out from behind the facade of the name she's created for her novels.

She gives a brief description of her life on her webpage, saying she lives with dogs in Britain, but that contradicts where her Goodreads account says she hails from, so who really knows?

But, like any good author, she does have a Twitter and a Facebook that you can follow.

For our month of Romance novels, we're going to be picking up her book, The Sheikh's Accidental Pregnancy, so stop by on Friday to see what we thought of it.  And check in this week so see some fun topics!

Favorites: Redo!

Today we're getting a second chance at picking a favorite from the past year.

I call a mulligan on my favorite short story. Actually, I just wanted to talk about a close runner-up, because I think the one I got a tattoo of should trump this one, but still.

There's a chapter in Sideways Stories from Wayside School for Maurecia (each chapter is more like a short story about one of the students from the class). It's about ice cream, because Maurecia really likes ice cream. So much so, in fact, that she has tried every flavor of ice cream in existence, and is now bored with ice cream. Mrs. Jewls makes ice cream for each student in the class and names each flavor after them. Everyone's reactions to other people's flavors is the same as their attitude toward that person (for example, Maurecia really likes Todd so she really likes Todd-flavored ice cream) but it turns out that nobody likes their own flavor, because their own flavor is what they taste when they aren't tasting anything.

I've said before that a lot of the stories from that book have stuck with me through the years, but this one pops up unexpectedly. Usually it's when I'm thinking about nothing at all, and suddenly I'm aware that I'm thinking nothing at all (so therefore now I'm really thinking about that fact instead of actually thinking about nothing) and then it triggers my brain to think about what I taste when I'm tasting nothing, like I'm eating Alex ice cream, which would taste like nothing to me. Then I get really aware of my tongue and get fed up with the whole thing and go do something productive just to stop the insanity.

I'm calling a mulligan on my Favorite Picture Book.  Not that I don't still love me some Fancy Nancy (because I do.  She's fabulous.)  But over the holiday season, I got introduced to pretty much the best picture book ever.

Now, I know what you're going to say.  "But Cassy, it doesn't HAVE pictures, ergo, not a picture book!"  But, it is, because it's the right length and the book is set up like a picture book and the words in it have a picture like quality.

So why do I love this book so much?  Because it's hilarious.  And it's funny.  And it makes the reader say silly things, which always makes kids laugh.  I mean, just look at this!!!

What kid wouldn't love something like that?  Especially, when it's an adult saying it (and, in fact, the beginning of the book warns you that the book makes adults say silly things.)  Basically, even though the book has no pictures, I think it's fun and silly and ridiculous and was so awesome, it kicked miss Fancy Nancy out of the number one slot of my favorite picture book.

Some of the Best Time Travel

You should be warned now:  I'm 26 days out from my wedding, so probably a lot of my posts are going to be like today's.  Fun, easy, lists.

That being said, our favorites this week have nothing to do with time travel, and I know we both have favorite time travel books, so I'm just going to list a few of the best right here.

The Time Traveler's Wife

This story is so wonderful and heartbreaking and, despite the fact that time travel is a fantastical thing, it wasn't a fantastical book.  Niffenegger makes it seem like anyone could be a time traveler, could pop in and out of your life just like that.  Henry and Clare's love and their story is just so incredible, you can't help but love this book.

The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy

Ok, so the first one isn't really about time travel, but the subsequent stories are.  The third book has the most, where they travel back in time to help with a war, though that wasn't their original intent.  The whole "Trilogy" (it has six books) is fun and sarcastic and very dry humor.  It's a great series, and pretty much loved by Alex.

Miss Peregrine's Home for Peculiar Children

This book was recently thrown onto my radar, and my little sister actually gave it to me.  It's a fun story about a kid who grew up listening to stories about fantastical children who could do things like fly and life thousands of pounds with one hand.  His grandfather even showed him pictures.  Despite eventually disbelieving these things, our main character ends up stepping through a portal and FINDING these children.  It's a fun mix of time travel, real life, and fantasy with some old fashioned photos thrown in.

Kindred

I read this book in a class about Octavia Butler.  That's pretty much where I learned to love her.  Kindred was the first I read, about a woman who was constantly sent back in time, to try and make sure that everything went smoothly and she was, well, born.  It's an amazing story about life and family and slavery.  Definitely something I would recommend.

What are some of your favorite time travel books?

Review Me Twice: The Neelys Celebration Cookbooks

I don't have TV, so I haven't watched the Food Network in several years, but when I did watch TV, I quite enjoyed it... most of the time.

See, Food Network shows have this habit of being really... over-the-top perky. Just look at Rachel Ray. Calm down, woman. It's just dinner. It's worse when you have two hosts, because they feed off of each other's behavior. As I recall, the Neelys do this.  But they are one of the most saccharine TV couples you'll ever watch do anything, ever.

The perkiness and the cuteness both shine through in this book... so if you don't like that, skip all the commentary parts (explaining where some recipes came from, what situations they would use these for, stories about holidays, etc.) and get straight to the recipes.

This is a from-scratch cookbook. I don't recall seeing any prepackaged ingredients (I'm looking at you, Sandra Lee).

The Neelys are southerners, so this is good old "down home" (ha! that's their show! "Down Home with the Neelys"!) country cooking. But not to the point that - I think - it alienates non-southerners. (I wouldn't know; this is the kind of food my family makes, because they're from NC.) You've got collards, devils on horseback, mustard slaw, corn bread sticks... but a bunch of not-south-exclusive stuff too. YUM. Yum to everything.

I'm with Alex on the YUM factor.  There was a TON in this book that just sounded delicious and the things that I cooked from it were also delicious.  That's right, I COOKED just for those of you on this blog.

And Alex is right.  There's nothing in this that's prepackaged, which is both nice and kind of annoying at the same time.  Yes, I can make your spice rub really easily, but making their BBQ sauce AND their pork BBQ just for one recipe?  That's a little obnoxious.  So I switched out some ingredients to make the recipe easier for me, and it worked out just fine.

The things I made (potato salad, bacon wrapped shrimp) were both DELICIOUS.  A little time consuming, but really yummy.  This book makes some great things, but personally, I don't think it's a very good beginners cookbook.

Author Bio: Patrick & Gina Neely

Pat and Gina Neely are just about the bubbliest couple you'll find on Food Network. They co-own their restaurant, Neely's BBQ, which has been featured on "Road Tasted" (hosted by Paula Deen's sons) and they co-host two shows on Food Network: "Down Home with the Neelys" (which premiered in 2008) and "Road Tasted with the Neelys." This week, we're doing something kind of new and different: we're reviewing their cookbook, The Neelys Celebration Cookbook: Down Home Meals for Every Occasion.

Aren't they just so cute?

Get ready, everyone... it's a week full of food-and-book talk, which are, personally, my two favorite things to talk about.

Favorite Food Book

Since most people's Thanksgivings revolve around food, and Thanksgiving is tomorrow, we're talking about our favorite food-related books today!

There is a whole series of these books by Laura Numeroff. They're considered "circular tales" because, at the end, you come back to what you said at the beginning. If you aren't familiar with If You Give a Mouse a Cookie or any other the others, it goes basically like this: a kid offers the titular cookie to the titular mouse, who requests a glass of milk... then a straw... etc. etc. until he's making ridiculous demands. I always kind of thought the mouse was rude. Like, just be happy with your cookie, dude.

The first several of these books were food related... giving a pig a pancake, and a moose a muffin. Then they expanded out to things like giving a pig a party, and Happy Easter, Mouse! But this is the original, and the only one I remember reading in school.

So mine... sorta counts.  It's not so much about food as it is about a beverage company... but that's ok.

Ok, I will give you that there is a MAD amount of propaganda in this book.  I mean, Schultz is obviously trying to get you to believe that Starbucks is the most super, awesome company in the world.  And while I don't buy into that ideal... it was a good book.

Starbucks has become such a THING in this day and age.  The logo is immediately recognizable and most people buy their coffee from there.  You can even find a large number of people who refer to all coffee in a coffee shop as "Starbucks."

And I will concede that Schultz does run a great company.  They cre about their employees, they care about giving around the world.  They make an effort to have a smaller footprint on the ecosystem, which is awesome.

It was also cool to learn about how so many of the Starbucks staples came to be.  Via, and the exact way that the coffee is made and how Pike Place came to life, and WHY it came to life, is all really fascinating to read about.

You do need to read this book with a bit of a grain of salt, but honestly, I really enjoyed it.  Really, how could anything about COFFEE be bad?

By Its Cover - Shiloh

This book cover I think really shows it's age.  It's that "draw reality" look that was very popular during that time.  It does get the point across (reminds me of the Dear Mr. Henshaw cover.) but it's very 1990s.

These are both updated covers, and I think they're a lot better, especially the one to the right.  It's a lot less complicated, and it has a REAL PUPPY on the cover, which is always a winner.  It's simple, to the point and way less cluttered than the other two.

PUPPIES! That's basically what I think when I see the newer covers. The one on the right looks truer to the story (the one on the left is a little too happy to encapsulate the mood of the entire book) and the fonts on the right fit better (they suggest childhood, which is central to the story; it's a bildungsroman at heart, after all). The one on the left looks like it might be about talking animals going on an adventure, which is - obviously - not the case. (I also don't like the tagline; Shiloh isn't technically Marty's dog for most of the book, and the phrase "the classic story of a boy and his dog" does not entice me to read it.) The old cover was the reason I never wanted to pick this book up; a boy and a dog on a cover might as well be a flashing sign that says Sad Story Ahead.

Review Me Twice - Shiloh by Phyllis Reynolds Naylor

I think I've mentioned this week that I read this book when I was a kid.  And you get a very different perception of it as a kid (IE. There's a puppy.  And you want Marty to keep the puppy.)

As an adult, I realize the reasons this won a Newbery Award.  It manages to teach kids good lessons without being overly condescending.  Marty is a fleshed out, real kid with all sorts of idiosyncrasies.  He's CONSTANTLY rationalizing stuff to himself to make himself feel less guilty.  He also problem solves his way out of his problems.

There's a lot of stuff that's some tough material for kids.  There's blackmail in this book and the entire book is, basically, about Marty wanting to keep a dog that's being beaten.  There's poverty and this sense of "Don't Ask, Don't Tell" in the community, everyone turning a blind eye if it doesn't have to do with them.

I like that, while the ending is happy, it's not unrealistic.  Judd is still kind of really a jerk.  However, we start to see that, maybe, he's not a jerk all the time.  Maybe he might actually be an ok guy sometimes.

It's a really great book for kids and doesn't treat them like delicate flowers (which I'm always in favor of.)

My Bottom Line 4 out of 5

I avoided this book for a long time. I was never asked to read it in school, I skirted around it when it was on lists like the library's Summer Reading Program or the Accelerated Reader options, and I never received it as a gift as a child. Why? There's a kid and a dog on the cover, and that usually means sadness. And as much as I love a sad story, I don't when it involves an animal. I'm one of those people who loves my cat more than I love most people.

But it wasn't that bad. It is a children's book, after all; the animal abuse is discussed, not described.

Beyond that, I like Marty. Not in the sense that I would be friends with him in real life, but that he's a well-fleshed-out character. And the setting is great, too. I don't live in the country myself, but I have close ties to it, and there is one paragraph early in the book that describes southern culture perfectly: Marty's dad has to talk to Judd (Shiloh's owner) about the dog, but in the south, you don't just drive up and start talking about what you're there to talk about. You have to discuss the weather, the price of cattle, your families, whatever, for 10 minutes, and then you can broach the topic at hand. I've seen this in practice all my life, and Naylor perfectly summarized it.

I didn't love the book and I have no nostalgic attachment to it, but it wasn't bad.

Author Bio: Phyllis Reynolds Naylor

This month, it's all about Children's books (which, you know you love, so don't even lie.)  This week, it's Shiloh by Phyllis Reynolds Naylor.

Naylor grew up during the Depression, graduating from a Junior College when she was 20.  At 16, she wrote her first paying story (a short story in the church magazine.  She got $4.67 for it.)  When she was 18, she married and moved to Chicago two years later.

After her divorce, she took on a multitude of jobs: everything from a clinical secretary to an editorial assistant.  Eventually, she returned to school at American University and got her BA.  Though originally she planned to get her Master's in psychology, she became a writer instead, publishing her first children's book in 1965, The Galloping Goat and Other Stories.

She writes the first two drafts of all of her books by hand, and even does so in a specific chair. (Not that weird, as far as writer quirks go.) She says she plans to continue writing as long as she can hold a pencil.

Naylor has won a litany of awards, including the Newbery Medal and the Edgar Allan Poe Mystery Writers award.  She's written over 100 books, including this week's book, Shiloh (which is part of a three book series.)

She doesn't have a whole lot out there in terms of social media, but she does run this blog about her Alice series.