Michael Symon's 5 in 5 for Every Season: 165 Quick Dinners, Sides, Holiday Dishes, and More

I received this book from Blogging for Books for free in exchange for my honest review. Michael Symon is one of the hosts of ABC's The Chew, a show I enjoy watching if I'm home during the day.  The show is a fun approach to cooking, so I thought this would be a great addition to my cookbook library.  Plus who wouldn't love the concept of 5 in 5?  5 in 5 is based on a speed cooking segment that Michael does on the show.  5 ingredients = a prepared dish in 5 minutes.  Sign me up!

Michael Symon's 5 in 5 for Every Season is a nice cookbook.  The size is good, not too large and not too small.  The cover is colorful and attracted me right away, it's also glossy which is nice for wiping away food spills. Michael has arranged the recipes according to season.  The first category is spring, it works through each season and ends with holidays.  He is a big proponent of using fresh produce that is seasonal.  The spring section, for example, includes lots of peas, asparagus, mushrooms and ramps.

The 5 in 5 concept is for fresh ingredients.  There are also pantry items and spices included in most recipes.  Michael gives a nice pantry list in the beginning of the book to help the cook.  It's a good list for almost any cook of items to have on hand to make meals with.  They are shelf stable products that will keep for a good while. Still, even with including those additional items, the ingredient lists for each recipe are short, which to me translates to easier.

I have not yet prepared any of the recipes in the book, but have several marked to try.  My only complaint from my initial reading of the book is that I wish there was a color picture of each recipe.  There are a lot of attractive photos in the book, but not one of each dish. I received this book from Blogging for Books for free in exchange for my honest review.

2 A.M. at the Cat's Pajamas : A Novel by Marie-Helene Bertino

2 A.M. at the Cat's Pajamas wins two awards in my book: weirdest and worst read ever.  I find it impossible to believe that it was named one of NPR's Best Books of 2014.  Seriously?  I had to force myself to finish it and the only reason I did is that I committed to review it for Blogging for Books and felt I couldn't review it honestly without reading the whole awful thing. Thankfully received this book for free from them and didn't waste my own money buying it, although I'm sorry they wasted theirs sending it to me.

When I chose this book, I thought it would be a lovely way to start out the holiday season since it takes place on December 23, or as the author, Marie-Helene Bertino calls it, Christmas Eve Eve. Ha!  Lovely is a word I would never use to describe this book.  It is, in my opinion, awful.  The main character is a nine-year old girl names Madeleine, who speaks with a potty mouth, spouting swear words left and right.  If that sounds like your idea of a Christmas story, then perhaps you WILL enjoy the read.

The other characters were mostly depressing and depressed. They were all desperately seeking love or money or recognition or fame that mostly eluded them. There is one particular scene where one of the characters meets a woman in a strip club and moments later has a quickie with her in the club bathroom, which the reader is privileged to read about in great detail. Now, isn't that sweet?

The back cover of the book quotes it as being vivacious, charming and moving.  Sorry--I just don't see it.

A Moment of Weakness by Karen Kingsbury

I'm quite sure my opinion may not be popular, and obviously doesn't represent the masses of readers who love Karen Kingsbury books, but I just don't.  , so honest I will be. I have read many Karen Kingsbury books over the years, but had really decided they just aren't for me.  The only reason I decided to review this one is that I thought it was a brand new book, and that perhaps I should give the author another chance.  As it turns out, this is just a re-release of a book that she wrote years ago and I read it then. I believe I did like it back when I read it the first time, but I feel now that Christian fiction has come a long way. I've grown past books like this one.

So, here is my problem with A Moment of Weakness, as well as Karen Kingsbury's other books.  All of her characters, including the two main characters in this book (Tanner Eastman and Jade Conner), are always BEAUTIFUL. There are no ordinary looking people, and certainly no ugly people. No one is ever obese or even overweight, heaven forbid. Granted, they do have problems (in this case Tanner and Jade fall into the temptation of having sex before marriage--a very common problem), but their problems are never just ordinary problems.  An ordinary problem might be that Tanner and Jade fell into temptation and their families are not happy about it. Tanner and Jade are very embarrassed, but they swallow their pride and confess their sins. Some people don't want to forgive them, they'd rather take the high ground and keep pointing fingers.  Maybe Tanner and Jade feel forced to find a new church. Tanner and Jade get married and they do struggle.  Marriage is hard and it's even harder when you have a baby right away.  But, by the grace of God they manage to overcome.  They have a good marriage and a great family.  The end. 

In A Moment of Weakness, however, there is much much more melodrama. Jade becomes pregnant that one time they have sex, but when she discovers this, Tanner is off on an overseas mission trip.  Jade calls Tanner's mother to see if she knows how to get a hold of Tanner.  Mrs. Eastman guesses what the emergency might be and lies to Jade, telling her that Tanner doesn't really love her and that he has fathered many other children.  Of course, Jade believes all these lies, runs off and marries another man, and leaves the state (all in the 3 weeks that Tanner is gone) .  I won't give away the entire book, but trust me when I say that the rest of the story is just as melodramatic.

I like books where I can relate to the characters in some way.  I really can't relate to BEAUTIFUL people who don't even communicate with each other, they just draw all the wrong conclusions and run away.  This seems to be a very common theme among many Christian authors and I just plain don't like it. On the other hand, if you like BEAUTIFUL people and melodrama, then I'm sure you will love this book since it's full of both.   I received this book from Blogging for Books for free in exchange for my honest review.

Accidental Saints: Finding God in All the Wrong People by Nadia Bolz-Weber

Accidental Saints is shocking in many ways, just as it's intended to be.  The author, Nadia Bolz-Weber, is an unlikely, atypical pastor in the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America (the more liberal branch of Lutheranism).  She is covered with tattoos and cynicism, enjoys making people squirm with her f-bombs, and spurns the right as much as they spurn her. Your typical radical, left-wing liberal, full of questions and doubts, yet astonishingly in love with Jesus.  And anyone who is love with my Savior is alright by me.

At times, Nadia made me angry.  I admit I was indeed bothered by her swearing.  I can totally understand that anyone, including myself, can let a curse word fly when upset, but her language is intentional.  I just see no need for it, and have always believed that an intelligent, educated person can find better words to express herself.

It also made me angry that she so often portrays anyone with conservative values as narrow-minded and stupid.  I would definitely rate myself as conservative in my views, yet I don't believe I am either narrow-minded or stupid. I was open-minded enough to read and review this book (I received it from Blogging for Books for free in exchange for my honest review).  Although she claims to be a liberal, she is not so liberal in her views of those who are not like her.  But, that is the point of the book.  Even the subtitle says it: Finding God in All the WRONG People.  Not finding God in surprising people or different people, but wrong people.That bothers me.

I did learn some good lessons from Nadia and I think you could too. I am certainly not proclaiming her as the next greatest pastor, but I am always blessed by reading of God's grace and this book does proclaim it.

The Rising: Murder, Heartbreak, and the Power of Human Resilience in an American Town by Ryan D'Agostino

I always enjoy reading biographies or memoirs and for years have been fascinated by crime stories.  The Rising is a great blend of both genres. It is the true story of the Petit family, an upper middle class family living in the suburbs of Connecticut. Bill Petit is a Yale grad and skilled physician. His wife, Jennifer, a beautiful pastor's daughter and pediatric nurse.  They had two daughters, Hayley, an popular athlete preparing for college, and Michaela, a sweet happy eleven-year old. They had it all until one night two men broke into their home and the unthinkable happened.  Everyone's worst nightmare: the men beat Bill within an inch of his life, assaulted Michaela, choked Jen to death, and murdered the girls by setting the house on fire.

This book tells the story of both Bill's and Jennifer's childhood, their dating and early marriage years, and then the time when they raised their children.  The reader really gets a feel for who this family is and what makes them tick.  Then the author tells the story of the horrific night when Bill's marriage, family and home were destroyed.  He then goes on to describe what life was like for Bill afterward.  The devastation, the deep loss, the agony--both physical and emotional.  Ryan D'Agostino does a wonderful job of answering the question: how does one survive a tragedy like that?

For me, one the most fascinating aspect of the book was the trials of the two men who committed the grisly crimes. It was very interesting to peek into the courtroom and into the minds of the attorneys and defendants. Thankfully justice prevailed.  But most of all love and grace prevailed. More than anything, The Rising is a story of the power of love and the resiliency of the human heart.  I received this book from Blogging for Books for free in exchange for my honest review.

Luther and Katharina: A Novel of Love and Rebellion by Jody Hedlund

Luther and Katharina is one of my favorite types of novels: historical fiction based on actual people. Luther is Martin Luther and Katharina his wife.  I thought I knew a fair amount about the reformation and about Lutheranism.  I grew up in a reformed church and worked in a Lutheran church for seven years.  To my surprise, there was much I didn't know (or forgot?). I learned many interesting and many horrifying things.  I was appalled at the abuses of the Catholic church and disgusted with people who called themselves Christians while raping, torturing, murdering others.  I guess there's nothing new under the sun!

This novel has it all.  Drama, suspense, romance, and history.  There is something to appeal to almost any reader. I think it's important to understand the history of Christianity better, to know what those who came before us went through to defend their faith and to practice it the way they believed they should.

Jody Hedlund is an excellent writer.  She did a great job of weaving together the historical facts of the time period with all those little fictional details that we as readers of history always wish we knew. She beautifully fleshes out the story of Katharina's escape from the convent where she lived since age five.  She also adds sweet and even humorous details to Luther and Katherina's romance. 

I enjoyed Luther and Katherina very much.  I would recommend it to any historical fiction fans.  The book I read was an Advance Reading Copy that I received from Blogging for Books for free in exchange for my honest review.

Legend by Eric Blehm

Eric Blehm hits it out of the park again with his latest book, Legend. When I read his best-selling book, Fearless, it was not at all my usual reading genre. I would normally not choose a military drama, but I was drawn to the biography aspect of it.  Navy Seal Team Six had been much in the news and I wanted to read about Adam Brown.  Surprise!  I loved the book.  Well, I am still not drawn to a military drama, but I am drawn to Eric Blehm's writing.  And NO surprise!  I loved the book.

Legend tells the story of Roy Benavidez, a Mexican American, raised in Texas by his migrant working family.  The Benavidez family had first come to the US in the 1800s and fought for independence from Mexico as Texans and Americans. Roy's father liked to tell his children stories about the war then and about family members who fought the Nazis in WWII. He also shared stories from his days as a cowboy.  The moral of many of his stories was "If someone needs help, you help them."  Another family member, Roy's uncle, often told him, "No matter what you do, always try to be your very best."  These two men and their advice to young Roy, shaped him to be a hard-working man of excellence.  Whatever he did, he gave it his all.

Those very characteristics are what set Roy up to be a hero and a legend during the Vietnam War.  Roy was a Green Beret, part of a special forces team with the 240th Assault Helicopter Company.  When a distress call went out from a jungle in Cambodia, Roy volunteered to help.  What happened in that small jungle clearing would become legend among those serving in the Special Operations community. Roy rose above and beyond every expectation of his father and uncle.  He gave his very best to help his severely wounded brothers-in-arms, refusing to leave until every survivor was aboard a helicopter bound for safety.

You'll enjoy this exciting true story and will be riveted to its pages to find out what happens next. Even if, like me, you don't usually go for military books, you'll be inspired by the life of Roy Benavidez. Blogging for Books provided this book to me for free in exchange for my honest review.