Dim Sum Palace, Catonsville, Maryland

Dim sum is a cuisine that we all really like, so when we went to Baltimore for our son's birthday weekend this was on the list of places to make time to have a lunch at. My nephew, who lived in China for several years, gave a thumbs up from a previous visit, so it had a seal of approval as well. The restaurant opens at 11AM and the rule of thumb is that you need to be there before it opens or soon thereafter. We were not so on top of it, but a luck would have it, we were a party of 5 and the large tables had yet to fill up, and we were seated immediately. There is a menu that you can order off, but we chose to eat off the roving trolleys, and the food was delicious--the crowd favorite was the Chinese broccoli, which was cooked perfectly with some tooth feel left but cooked through and with a delicious sauce. My next up was the shrimp and scallop shi mei, which we had one left over of and I wish we had gotten more to go. The scallion pancake around a shrimp was the next favorite for some, and I did enjoy the salt and pepper calamari, but wouldn't get it unless there are at least 4 diners, as it is both a large portion and filling. We would 100% make a effort to go back, and when we left 45 mintures after arriving there were dozens of people waiting for tables.

Broken Country by Claire Leslie Hall

Well, the country is quite broken right now, so the title stands out for it's accuracy, and the stories told within are of people who are also struggling mightily. Beth had big dreams as a teenager. She was in love with Gabriel, who encouraged her to reach for the stars, and she was on course to go to Oxford and fulfill her dreams of writing. It was all set off course by Gabriel, a misunderstanding, and his mother, who did and didn't do her part, and Beth decided to marry someone else from her class, a man who had loved her for years. Beth and Frank lead a fulfilling life. They love each other and work alongside each other, along with Frank’s volatile brother Jimmy, on the Blakely family farm in Dorset. They had a son soon after they were married, and he died in a tragic accident that both Frank and Beth blame on Frank. Enter Gabriel, returned from years away, on the verge of a divorce, with a son about the age that Beth's would have been, and it is all over for Beth. A love triangle develops for all to see, and it ends tragically. As with all tragedy's, you can see this one coming from a mile away, but there is no stopping it and no telling how it will end.

Holiday in the Vineyards (2025)

Yes, this is a romantic comedy aimed at the holiday viewing set, and no it is not a great film. I watchd it when my spouse unexpectedly tested positive for COVID and all of our weekend plans got canceled or put on hold because of it. He was ill, not just infected, and so our whole household lived separate lives for several days and I watched this movie. I enjoy the occasional movie in this genre. There are predictable things that happen and there are some real stretches to believe, more so than in movies of this genre, which is saying something. The situation is that Carter Baldwyn is the screw-up son of Margo Baldwyn (Eileen Davidson), the wealthy head of a huge bargain basement wine brand. In an effort to prove to his mom that he’s not a total good-for-nothing, he agrees to visit a small winery called Huckabee Vineyard in the fictional wine country town of Los Santos, CA, that’s just gone on the market and which his mother wants to acquire for their company. The catch – Carter has to be a run of the mill guy while he’s scoping out the vineyard so no one catches wind that it’s a Baldwyn that’s buying. No one likes the Baldwyns or their brand, becausethey are predators who not only make bad wine, but have a scorched earth approach to doing so. Carter lucks out when the real estate agent selling Huckabee, Valentina Espin offers him a place to stay if he finishes the remodel on her guest house. She is a widowed mom of two adorable boys, and Carter is no more suited to renovation than he is to anything else, but he manages to get the local hardware store owner to help him. It turns out that the locals are making some very good wine in their garages, and Carter comes to see things from their point of view. The scenery is gorgeous, and this is a quiet unassuming movie.

The Buffalo Hunter Hunter by Stephen Graham Jones

Ok, first of all, I made a mistake here. I added this to my library holds, I cannot remember why, but it happened in the flurry of articles about "The Best Books of 2025 So Far". Somehow in the rush to capture things I thought I would like but had not discovered, I missed that this book is categorized under "Horror", which is a genre that I most definitely do not read. Consider that as you read forward! I thought this was a non-fiction book, and I have a stack of them to read out from the library, so I brought it on a plane trip, and even though I recognized my mistake, I felt committed at that point, and read it. This isn't a fun read or even necessarily an enjoyable one, and the subject matter is dark and difficult to stomach at times. It is however is an unforgettable novel about a Pikuni vampire seeking revenge related to all that happened to both the buffalo and the Blackfoot in the mid-nineteenth century. So if horror is your jam, you might enjoy this.

La Mexicana, Coralville, Iowa

We had a family dinner here recently to celebrate my son's birthday. It is definitely our favorite Mexican restaurant in the Iowa City area--we literally drive by 6 or 7 other Mexican restaurants to get to it, we feel that strongly. My son has three small children and it has several advantages to recommend it for this occasion. One is that it is continually open, so that we don't have to get there before the lunch service ands or wait for the dinner service to begin--that is not an issue, and the added bonus is that if you are eating at an odd hour it is likely that you can get a table for 8 or more without difficulty. Truely, we never have an issue with it--there is a lot of flexible seating, and the service is fast, so turnover happens quickly. Second is that it is a bit loud and raucous while being kid friendly, so perfect table manners are not absolutely required. Then there is the food--all three of the aforementioned small children could find multiple things on the menu that appealed to them, and in actuality the chips with a salsa and a bean dip were most popular and they took a bulk of their ordered food home. There are several options that are popular and good for the adults--the chili relleno and the choripollo to name two. On this occasion there were a lot of tacos, but the rice and beans are very solid and we all leave happy every time. Finally, there is a grocery store connected to the restaurant and that was a fun stop for candy and cookies on the way out.

There Is No Place For Us by Brian Goldstone

There is one common thread when reading about homelessness in America--it is always gut wrenching and unfair. This is no exception. The twist is that the five families that the author follows in Atlanta are all working. The people in this book work a lot, and earn very little. Sleeping in cars, crashing with friends or paying for a decrepit room in an extended-stay hotel, they are trapped in an endless circle of poverty and uncertainty. Politicians have been incentivized to define homelessness narrowly, including only people living in shelters or on the street. A true measure of homelessness in America would be six times the official figure, pushing the number up to more than four million. It always leaves me wondering how you can feel exceptional when as a country you step on the most impoverished amongst us. The allowance for wages that do not add up to being able to feed, cloth, and house one's family is what underlies this tragedy. That things like food stamps and Medicaid serve to make people depend on government subsidies when the companies that employ people should be shouldering that burden.

Wish (2023)

This movie got a lot of very bad reviews, and where the story goes, this is a sub par addition to the Disney ouevre. The best rap of it is that it is all about emphasizing Disney's 100th anniversary, and that wishing upon a star is one of the oldest Disney tropes out there. From my point of view, that is 100% okay, that making a movie that harkens to their past once every 100 years is excusable. The downside is that the story does not drive the plot, the foundational concept does. So here is the story. Asha is a 17-year-old about to interview for an apprenticeship with the beloved King Magnifico of Rosas. The King is the keeper of magic in Rosas, a man who can extract the wishes of his flock, keeping them in a chamber high above the city, and choosing one wish in a ceremony to allow to come true. Asha hopes that her 100-year-old grandfather Sabino will finally have his wish granted, but she discovers that Magnifico isn’t well named. He’s more of a hoarder of wishes than a granter, and someone who doesn't keep his promises. Of course this is Disney, so Asha isn’t just an ordinary girl who learns about the absolute corruption of absolute power—she becomes a magical figure herself when a wishing star grants her abilities that turn her into a leader for her people. Asha literally wishes on a Star, and said Star comes down to cause chaos and help Asha start a revolution.

A High Wind In Jamaica by Richard Hughes (1929)

I have recently gotten hooked on the Friday videos by Ann Patchett that she does from her bookstore in Nashville, Parnassus Books, and this book was recommended in the series that they do on important books from the past that have been forgotten and shouldn't be. In thinking about the book and preparing to write this review, I found a review by someone who read it as a teenager and then again as a middle aged man. He found it full of adventure and strange and unknown things that enthralled him--that was definitely not my experience, nor was it his the second time around. This is an odd story, creepy even, told from both adult and child points of view and takes place sometime before 1860. The Thornton children and 2 mixed race children are placed on a ship to get them to England, where their parents are waiting for them. Their ship is boarded by pirates pirates, a profession that is no longer profitable but they haven't cross trained to do something else, but neither are they completely blood thirsty villains either. They are unable to wrench any valuables from the ship they have boarded, and they take the children to their ship in an effort to convince the Clorinda captain to hand over his money. He does so, probably more to save his own skin, but, about the children, he gets confused and thinks the pirates have murdered them, and, so, he sails away in the dark. The pirates awaken to find they have the children now as unwanted passengers. You will have to read to see what happens--it is in some ways worse than you think and in other ways better. Richard Percival Graves, in his biography of Hughes, placed this novel between RM Ballantyne’s optimistic adventure story The Coral Island, published in 1858, which shows a group of children cast away on a deserted atoll “to be naturally good, decent and self-reliant,” and William Golding’s Lord of the Flies, published almost 100 years later, in which the civilized values of adult society are soon jettisoned by the schoolboys who turn to savagery on their island. A High Wind in Jamaica takes no sides as it patrols the eccentric, sometimes amoral borders between a child’s and an adult’s natural territory.

Restaurante Lurrak, Arbonne, France

We spent almost a week in Basque country and one day of it was spent in French Basque ountry. We did not get to a memorable bakery, and we did not get any cheese, so that was disappointing to the point of needing to go back when time is less of an issue, but the restaurant we ate at was perfect.

The emphasis on seasonal food, and the fact that we were there when it was white asparagus, artichoke, and strawberry season was exceptional, and we were able to have these delicacies almost every day. The top picture is of a lightly pickle and thinly sliced kohlrabi that was absolutely the best version of this spring vegetable that I have ever had. The kitchen was small, as was the restaurant, but it was a memorable and delicious lunch!

A Blissful Feast by Teresa Lust

The trouble with going to the less traveled spots is that sometimes it is hard to find books that cover said regions. I have an acquaintance who travels extensively and often who swears by travel blogs as a source from which to plan your trips. She travels off the beaten path, and I am seeing the wisdom of her way. So I picked this up because it starts in Piedmont, a region that I am traveling to very soon. The author's maternal grandparents came from the Italian Piedmont, and it's there that she begins her what is part memoir, part recollection of culinary lessons and cultural insights in three parts of the country. The book contains more than 35 recipes for the likes of braised rabbit with white wine and rosemary, breakfast biscotti, and tagliatelle made with fresh eggs, the real instruction comes through the stories Lust tells about the cooks who fed her and whom she worked alongside to learn how to cook regionally in Italy. Ancient and contemporary Italy overlap in her stories of cooks and marketplaces, restaurants and holiday feasts, regional rivalries and evocations of Dante. She went to Piedmont to learn Italian at a language school, and she recounts her struggles when the limitation of her language skills led to challenges in her understanding the conversations she had with the cooks, bakers, and butchers but as her skill improved her stories have more depth and interest. It really stuck with her, because she is now a professor in Italian language study at Dartmouth, and some of the stories towards the end of her book are about trying to take the cuisine of Italy home to New England. I especially appreciated her story of harvesting hops shoots and how perplexing it was for the farms caretaker to understand what she was about. There is a hazard that you're likely to want to make your own trip to Italy, and luckily I had that in hand before I started the book.

Nonnas (2025)

One of my kids and I watch movies together when my spouse is on call or out of town. We watch things that are not clear winners, and also things that might not hit the spot for him--in this case I think he would have been ok with this (we watched Kung Fu Panda 4 this way, and that was a clear win-win. We found it modestly entrertaining and he would not have agreed I predict). This is inspired by the life of Jody Scaravella, who moved into the attic bedroom of his childhood home to care for his mother. When she died he was bereft, set afloat and asea, not knowing quite what to do next. In the midst of his grief, and maybe not thinking as clearly as would be ideal, he opened Enoteca Maria on Staten Island in 2007. Still thriving two decades later, the restaurant became famous for the grandmothers or nonnas in the kitchen. Each of them cooking dishes from different Italian regions. His concept was that the restaurant and the food would remind you of home, that the kitchen would be populated not by prodessional chefs but by people who were cooking food they had made for their families for decades. There is also a thread here of hanging on to your culture, and that the recipes that our grandmother's made being made now is a way to hang on to that history. It’s about holding onto tradition—conjuring our ancestors through the things they pass down to us—whether it’s culture, inheritance, or food. I just saw a recipe for Molasses Cookies in my grandmother's handwriting in my recipe book this past week and it made me think of so much more than her or those cookies. Even though I did not find the recipe that I was looking for, it was quite lovely to peak in to my past.

Confessions by Catherine Airey

This is a complicated novel that shifts between the past and present, between narrators, and also between truths--there are a lot of secrets herein. It opens opens in New York on 9/11. Sixteen-year-old Cora, who is playing truant, watches the news from her apartment, and knows that her father is dead. Michael was an accountant who worked on the 104th floor of the North Tower. Cora’s mother Máire died seven years earlier, so she is now an orphan. From here, the story cuts back to 1974, to rural Ireland, and a narrative told by Cora’s aunt Róisín. We see Cora’s parents, Máire (Róisín’s sister) and Michael (who lives next door) growing up in Burtonport, Donegal. Máire travels to the USA to study at NYU. She is a born artist, but troubled, and people prey on her. Michael joins her, trying to help. The second half of the novel stitches to and fro across the decades, ending in 2023. Passages are narrated by Róisín, Michael, and Cora’s daughter Lyca, who uncovers half a century’s worth of family stories and secrets, and must decide what to do with them. They shape shift in all sorts of ways besides who is narrating and this complex task is handled well--the story comes out surprisingly seamless despite a myriad of ways the story is told. The secrets Lyca uncovers are borne by the women of the family, and involve addiction, adoption, rape, mental illness, gay rights, abortion rights and intergenerational trauma: it takes on big subjects and as debut novels go, this one is impressive.

Restaurante Alameda, Hondarribia, Spain

This was a fancy restaurant in a bustling seaside town in Northern Spain, the most atmosperically fancy place we ate on this trip. There were gorgeous sculptures made from large pieces of wood that towered over table in the dining room, while we ate outside on the reiver's side. The food was all from the region, and it was seasonal. We started off with Fois gras truffles and several fish dishes, and finished with some fruit forward desserts. The one pictured here, a green apple and green pea sorbet, was unusual, refreshing and unexpectedly delicious. The food here was notable for unexpected pops, and I would highly recommend this as a destination.

Turning to Birds by Lili Taylor

I am not big on celebrity writing as a rule, but I enjoyed this, partly because I think all things bird have a way with me, and partly because it contains a nice collection of observations and wisdom that it behooves us all to pay attention to. She starts off by making the point that as an actor of several decades length she knows how to look and how to listen. She’s been trained to use these skills to give outstanding, grounded performances that move her audience. Here she writes about how she’s applied these and other actorly skills to learning to know the birds around her, whether she’s on the job in New Mexico, a newbie at a large birding festival, or simply walking in her neighborhood in Brooklyn. But that’s not all. Like any good essayist, Taylor effortlessly connects the personal to the universal, in this case going from bird observation to major conservation issues. Birds are both the feature and the bug in this case--they are worthy in and of themselves, and they are also a barometer of what is happening in the world around us. This is well worth your time to both read and think about. The author has also used her notoriety for good--to promote increased awareness of the changing environment and how that is affecting birds--and since we share the same environments, ourselves.

Kung Fu Panda 4 (2024)

The most shocking thing about this movie is that it has been 8 years since a Kung Fu Panda has come out--it is both hard to believe it has been that long and equally challenging to think that it still has a sustained audience. This is a solid but unremarkable follow up, not sustaining the magic of the first one, but it is certainly recognizable and uses many of the tropes that worked in the past along with heavy hitting actores coming back to voice the characters even after such a long delay. Here is the basic set up. It is sometime after the defeat of General Kai, where Po – now well established as the Dragon Warrior – become a local celebrity. He even helps his fathers – adopted goose dad Mr. Ping and biological panda dad Li – open a new restaurant in the Valley of Peace. But Po’s master Shifu chimes in with some ancient history--he claims that Po’s time as the Dragon Warrior is coming to an end and he must choose a successor, as he is to advance to the highest stage in all of kung fu: Spiritual Leader. Po, enjoying his status and fearing change, is reluctant to name a new Dragon Warrior and equally hesitant about taking on the new role. This leades to some mistakes being made, another epic battle between good and evil, and a possible new team member to boot. This is deversionary at best--not sorry to have wathced--it is leaving Netflix soon after all--but not exactly recommending it. I will say I so like this series better than the How To Train Your Dragon franchise, so there is that.

Soldiers and Kings by Jason de Leon

If you don't know this book, you really should. For one thing, it won the National Book Award in the category on Non-Fiction. The real overriding and compelling reason is that it tells the story on what is happening in Mexico and Central America in a way that is important to hear, to listen to, and to understand. Now that the United States is establishing concentration camps within our borders, and allowing heavily armed men who wear balaclavas and no identification to pull people off the streets without showing paperwork or case and shoving them into unmarked vehicles, we are now the bad guys. We need to really get our collective minds wrapped around that. This book is an incredible feat of anthropology and human connection. In it, De León chronicles the near-decade he spent getting to know a group of Honduran human smugglers, those hired by migrants to help them cross the border (not to be confused with human traffickers, who take people against their will). Unlike with most books about the migrant crisis, which of course focus on the migrants, De León’s generous, tender focus on the smugglers he befriended shows us a side of the equation rarely considered and often dismissed. These people are not (all) rich, cruel crime lords. They are often fleeing situations just as impossible and dangerous as the people who hire them, and they too have dreams and families and desperate hope. I cannot even fathom the dangers the author faced and the emotional toll this work took on him, as many of the people he came to know well were killed over the course of his field work. This is gritty and important.

Stoney Creek Inn, Pasadena, Maryland

My SIL and BIL have a place just a couple blocks from here--the restaurant sits at the mouth of Stoney Creek, which is a brackish water creek that eventually joins the Chesapeake Bay, and truely, there is no reason to go furhter to eat. They are known for their crab and oysters, which thrive in brackish water and might well come from right outside the restaurant, but their fish and shrimp dishes are excellent. My personal favorites are the shrimp po-boy, which is serves on a perfect roll, and go well with a side salad and fries. My other choice would be the shrimp salad, which is served atop fresh greens that are flavorful and the choices of dressings is above average. The cherry on top is that the prices are reasonable, it is a favorite spot for locals, and the service is quick and friendly. Added bonus is that they have an extensive dessert menu.

Careless People by Sarah Wynne-Williams

I read a review for this memoir of a New Zealander's time at Facebook that characterized it as darkly funny and genuinely shocking to be a fairly good one sentence summation. It comes long after the revelations of Frances Haugen, and I have read it in the wake of the 2.0 version of the Revenge Presidency, and still it unsettles me to to the point that I am not sure where we are heading and what the end of the road holds. This is an insider account of Facebook, which she says was run by status-hungry and self-absorbed leaders, who chafed at the burdens of responsibility and became ever feckless as Facebook became a vector for disinformation campaigns and cozied up to authoritarian regimes. Including the one that was seeking re-election in the United States at the time--all of which has come to fruition in an astoundingly inhumane, areligious, and profit driven manner. The bottom line, the summation of all that is wrong with the tech bros was a conversation that she had with Zuckerberg about the United States president that he most admires is Andrew Jackson. Jackson is more nuanced as a person than is oft remembered, but the bottom line is that he is responsible for the Trail of Tears. Unforgivable imposition of human suffering and Zuckerberg admires him, despite that or because of it, it matters not in the end. We are all screwed.

My Oxford Year (2025)

This movie is based on a YA novel of the same title--I say this because it will appropriately set your expectations. The YA that I read at least has a bit of romance and some amount of sadness bordering on tragic at times. They are decidedly not straight ahead romances, and this certainly fits that bill. Anna De La Vega is a woman who has mapped out a very successful life for herself where she is financially successful, and to date, she has followed through on that plan. She graduated from college and has a job at Goldman-Sachs, which she has deferred for a yearin order to follow a dream. She is going to spend a year studying literature in Oxford before the more serious and fiction-less part of her life begins. She has a checklist of things to do while she is there, and as soon as she has hauled her bags up to her room, she starts out crossing things off. In the chipped she chooses for the British classic fish and chips she meets Jamie Davenport, who she doesn't think much of other than that he quoted a line from the book she is reading. She does him a bad turn there, only to discover that he is her tutor and she is going to have to work with him. Luckily he is passionate about the same Victorian literature that she loves, and they fall into a bit of a love affair as well--apparently the restrictions on dating your teacher are laxer there, at least in this version of Oxford. I'll end by saying the scenes of England in general and Oxford in particular are very alluring, and this is a good poster movie for encouraging someone to study abroad--look at it all! Overall I enjoyed it, despite some very well worn tropes contained within.

The Sweet Life In Paris by David Lebovitz

I am glad that I read this memoir after a recent trip to France that included a several day stop in Paris. I am not a big fan of big cities, and in France my absolute favorite thing to do is to drive around and visit small medieval villages that have great restaurants and enjoy the food and culture. That said, I loved Paris on this recent trip and could finally see why others feel that way. This is a memoir that is already somewhat dated by an author who writes excellent cookbooks (I highly recommend them if you are seeking to cook French food--he was a pastry chef at Chez Panisse for a decade, so his desserts are top notch but his savory food is good too--there are quite a few embedded here that you could try out, but while Dorie Greenspan is my go to American writing about French food, if you want to widen your net, this is a good place to go--or if you are going old school, Julia Child is another option). He moves to Paris, and while he hasn't quite settled there, he doesn't want to go back to San Francisco. Even though he loves and misses Mexican food and BBQ, the tug of Paris has its grip on him. This is a book about his everyday life there, and I really loved were all the anecdotes about daily life in Paris–complete with all its complications, contradictions, and even annoyances. One reviewer complained that the book is not really about a sweet life at all; Lebovitz makes living in Paris look like hard work--which I suspect it is both foreign and difficult but clearly when all is said and done, worth it.

El Doncel, Sigüenza, Spain

We drove back to Madrid the long way, skirting the Pyrenees (beautiful) and stopped at El Doncel in Sigüenza for lunch. It is a peaceful town and the lunch was spectacular. We had the short form tasting menu, and no breakfast (which I recommend for this style of dining!!). The restaurant was lovely from a physical plant stand point, and the wait staff was especially attentive in an unannoying manner.

This is an inland location, and as such the menu was more of a balance between food from the land and the sea. I did not care for the cod, which was served in a sauce made from the balance bladder from the fish, and it was too strongly flavored for me, and it stuck to my tongue for just a bit too long. Otherwise this was another spectacular meal, and paired with some Spanish wine it was impressive, especially when you consider how underpopulate the town was. We arrived a bit early so got a chance to spend some time outside prior to the restaurant opened up, and the towns people we encountered were quite helpful and friendly.

Dream Count by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie

This is a long time coming, this book--it has been over a decade since the last book, and this is a book about dreams not turning out as planned. The interconnected stories of three Nigerian women, Chiamaka, Zikora and Omelogor , who are leaving their youth behind and for various reasons are reflecting on how their lives have not turned out the way they thought they would with respect to men, marriage, and motherhood, and while that is true, it is not the disaster that their families and their culture would assess that to be. Then there is Kadiatou, Chimaka's Guinian housekeeper, who shares their disappointments but is more harmed by them and more vulnerable socio-economically. This part of the story is a bit harder to fit into the puzzle but is based on Dominique Strauss-Kahn’s alleged rape of a Guinean hotel worker in 2011. In the aftermath, Kadiatou only panics all the more at the newfound vulnerability in her manager’s eyes, faced with news of the assault, and the resultant dissection of her life in the press. There is no glamourization of America here--far from it--and the real issues that immigrant women of color face is lyrically if not optimistically portrayed.

Our Little Secret (2025)

This is a solid if unexceptional romantic comedy that does exactly what it is supposed to, and it does it pretty well. It is set in the holiday season and it is family friendly, so it could be something to watch with the relatives if your family traditions veer away from sports and into movie viewing. Here's how it goes. Avery, a successful business consultant with her own firm who is meetiAs luck would have it, Avery and Logan, who had been best friends since they were kids before dating throughout their teens and twenties, and people thinking they had what it takes to go the long haul. That came to a screaching halt ten years earlier, the same year Avery’s mother passed away, because Avery was choosing grad school far away over making her relationship with Logan, and they haven't had contact since, even though their family's live near each other. Now, these two have to get through a four-day holiday weekend with Cam and Cassie’s ultra-snooty parents, Erica and Leonard. The result is a perfectly executed marriage-remarriage style screwball comedy, with new relationship twists and decidedly wacky situations thrown at Avery and Logan every ten minutes. It all turns out more or less the way you might hope it would, with some added whip cream and cherry on top along the way.

Madame Fourcade's Secret War by Lynn Olson

I heard about this book on the Parnassus Bookstore Friday video series, "It's New To You"--which if you haven't checked it out, you should. There is so much to know about authors and books, and this bookstore is a treasure, to be sure, and every week they highlight a handful of books, so even a voluminous reader like myself can be overwhelmed with the choices. This one highlights the work of women during WWII. The book is about one person, but there is some attention to what happened after France surrendered to Germany, in terms of having no organized resistance to begin with and how it organically grew ad what the barriers were, all of which I did not know and had not thought about. Marie-Madeleine Fourcade, married, mother of two, slender, blond and barely in her 30s. Over the course of World War II, Fourcade built a network of agents across occupied France. They collected intelligence on the movements of German U-boats, on supply shipments sailing in and out of key ports, on which of the bridges into Paris were mined. They were frequently captured by Nazis (in Fourcade’s case, twice) and, in some cases, escaped (again, Fourcade’s record: 2-0). The book does have a bit too much of "this happened and then this happened" rather than straight ahead telling the story, but it is a book that highlights a forgotten woman of history, who while spying, also had a third child in 1943, and was altogether forgotten by history--but survived to see France restored.

City Sampler: 100 Modern Quilt Blocks by Tula Pink

I got this book as a present almost about the time that it came out. I looked at it and thought Wow, there are a lot of tiny pieces of fabric in each of these 100 blocks--hard pass. Fast forward to the present when I have been in a Modern Quilt Guild for 18 months, and I know more about scraps and the process of making textiles and the very commendable trend of using ALL your fabric, mix that with one of my friends who quilts is now making her second one of these (she is over 75% done with it in fact) and voila, I am thinking why haven't I made one of these. The book is essentially mostly the blocks--with pictural directions for sewing and written instructions for cutting (I am on my 4th block and I have already made a mistake in cutting, so this is not going to be a breeze), and then various designs for assembly to finish it out. You can make this with scraps and that is my intention--my sewing table, which doubles as my dining room table seating 14, is a total mess, but this is well done and I think it will be fun once I get the hang of it. I also love that something so long buried can be resurrected again.

The Deam Hotel by Laila Lalami

I really liked this. It is a combination of what the extreme of AI might be as well as pushing the limits on what is going on with ICE in the United States--that heavily armed men are covering their faces, not wearing badges and snatching people off the street without any accountability and disappearing them. The later is happening and the former is a what if scenario. Sara Hussein seems unexceptional: she’s a museum archivist, married and mother to young twins. She once had an argument with her husband Elias after he impulsively part-exchanged the family Toyota for a Volvo. Sara sees herself as a person who “couldn’t possibly be considered a member of the lawbreaking classes”, until the moment at the airport when an officer informs her that her “risk score” is too high, and sends her to Madison, a California women’s retention center. This isn’t punishment but risk management, for anybody considered likely to commit a crime. Every citizen has a risk score, extrapolated via algorithm from personal cloud data, from surveillance networks, and from the Dreamsaver – a widely used skull implant that delivers more restful sleep. The small print of Dreamsaver Inc grants the company rights to share the user’s dreams with the government. The author owes a lot to it being 2025 in America, where this all seems quite possible. The Secretary of Health and Human Services wants to eliminate vaccinations, obliterate health research, and put a tracking device on everyone, so it is just a hop, skip, and a jump to locking up people for their thoughts.

In The Shadow Of The Cypress (2024)

There has been a trend in nominees the Best Short Animated Film category for the Academy Awards that there is both less child oriented in content and they tend to run a lot longer than what Disney and Pixar produce, and this 2025 winner is an excellent example of that seeming trend. It is a vivid depiction of what PTSD is like to experience for the sufferer as well as what they are like to live with. The film begins with a Persian man, who is shown struggling with mental health issues. His daughter tries to intervene and comfort him, but without much luck. The man reflects on his past through vivid dreams and memories. His ship was damaged during the war and is in need of serious repair, adding to his stress. While he is experiencing this mental breakdown, a whale washes up on the shore near their home. They are without the resources to free the heavy marine mammal, but the daughter tries to comfort it by splashing water on it as it lays in the sun, and then spreads wet towels across its back to keep it cool. The father sees her efforts as hopeless, and offers little assistance. Later, however, he is struck with an idea – one that would sacrifice his ship but could free the whale. The film touches on many topics, including the environment, war, women's issues, and, most importantly, the dynamic between the father and daughter.

This Is Happiness by Niall Williams

I had two recommendations to read this book, one from Ann Patchett on her weekly videos from her bookstore, Parnassus Books, and the other was from a woman who I have shared reading loves with for 30 years, and so the double whammy rose this to the top of my books to read, that and the fact that I could not renew it--possibly stemming from one of the other of my two sources. It is set in rural Ireland at the time that a town is getting electricity. It is being added to the grid, and while there are a lot of things about that to be excited about, not everyone agrees that it is a good thing. They do have a point, those nay sayers. There are things that will change forever and there will not be an option to change that. The process of progress is the subtext here, what is lost and what is gained, and the inevitability of it, but the concomitant sadness about what changes and goes away. I did not love this book the way that my friend and Ann Patchett did, but it made me think a lot, and that, after all, is part of why I read, and in thinking I realized that it is a different sort of book, one that I do not seek out so much as be thankful that I read it.

The Little Sparrow Murders by Seishi Yokomizo

Sometimes I am good when it comes to picking out books and sometimes I am just plain lucky, and in this case it is the later rather than the former. I have been using a web site with murder mysteries pictured that are published each month in order to keep abreast of authors that I read routinely, but also to read authors that I do not know or have not read, but who have published more than one one book. The sad truth is that while I am getting older, so are the authors that I have been reading, along with my spouse, for the entirety of our relationship, and so I need to find new things to read. I really like the website, because it turns out I really need the pictures as well as the title to pay attention--I am constantly discovering that I am very visual and without it I have trouble paying attention, and it seems to be worse not better as I get older. So I am grateful it exists and that I found it, but the downside is that there is no information about the books beyond author, title and the cover--with a reference to the detective and which number in the series this is. So the good news is that I really liked this, and it is one of a series of books by the same author. He is long gone now, having published his first murder mystery in 1921, and this one is from the early 1950's. He was the first to write in this genre in Japan, and he has over 70 published novels, only 6 of them translated into English. The complexity of the mystery as well as the characters is right up my alley and I will read the rest of them, but I am most grateful to have discovered this author, and to know a little bit more about writing from Japan.

Society of Lies by Lauren Ling Brown

I have a myriad of lists that I work off of for "What To Read Next" and one of my resources is Reese Witherspoon's book club. The selections often have a slightly lighter tone and are almost all well written. Most importantly, I like them and often would not have found my way to the book another way. Not every book is a home run for me, and this one was a miss. It is well written, suspenseful, and I read tons of murder mysteries so the fact that a couple of people die is not a turn off for me, but it put me on edge in a way that I don't enjoy--I struggled to pick it up, and while it had a lot of good literary qualities, I was relieved when it was over. The story follows Maya, a Princeton alum returning to campus for her 10-year reunion and her younger sister Naomi’s graduation. But what should be a joyous weekend quickly turns tragic when Naomi is found dead. The police rule it an accident, but Maya suspects foul play. As she digs deeper into her sister’s final months, Maya uncovers a tangled web of lies stretching back to her own time at Princeton. The supper clubs and secret societies at Princeton play a role (I recently read Leigh Bardugo's book that featured the Yale equivalent and neither Ivy comes off well fictionally speaking) as does the influence that money has on what happens on campus. I would heartily recommend this if a suspenseful book is your jam, that you like it when the tension rises and the complicated relationships that can happen when you keep your college friends well into adulthood. The mystery part of it is less spectacularly done, but not too bad either.

The Many Coats Of Rachel Clark

I had the pleasure of taking a two days class with the quilter and garment maker Rachel Clark. I cannot emphasize enough how magical it is to listen to her talk about her creative process, the making of her coats and the origin story that they each have. Some of them stem from an idea that she wants to convey of celbrate, like her watermelon coat or her Obama coat. Some of them are the celebration of a fabric, like her Japanese fabric coat or her rickrack and polka dot coats. She brought a couple dozen of her coats with her so that we could examine them in class, be inspired by them, and when we got to the design process, we could see examples of directions we could go with the coat. The absolute best part, is just to watch her work. She sorted fabric for several people in the early design process, and then as people made some progress, she highlighted several directions they could go so that the class could benefit from those who were further along. I loved listening to her, and I would take another class with her in a heartbeat if it were offered nearby and I could swing it. She is someone who is fun to be with in person, but I watched a lecture she gave at QuiltCon, and she translates well to the recorded world as well. She is a treasure.

The Secrets We Kept by Lara Prescott

This is a fictionalized version of the story of Doctor Zhivago and the CIA's use of it--funnily enough, there is a non-fiction book about part of this story, The CIA Book Club that you can follow up with if you want the more factual version. This is two stories, one from the Russian side and one from the American side, and they are woven together. At the height of the cold war, the CIA ran an initiative known as “cultural diplomacy”. Following the premise that “great art comes from true freedom”, the agency seized on painting, music and literature as effective tools for promoting the western world’s values, and funded abstract expressionism exhibitions and jazz tours. But when it came to the country that produced Tolstoy, Pushkin and Gogol – a nation that, might value literature like the Americans value freedom (or at least we used to) – the focus was always going to be on the written word. And her subject, the part the CIA played in bringing Boris Pasternak’s masterpiece Doctor Zhivago to worldwide recognition, was the jewel in cultural diplomacy’s crown. In 1955 rumours began to circulate that Pasternak, hitherto known largely as a poet, having survived a heart attack and Stalin’s purges, was ailing and politically compromised but had nonetheless managed to finish his magnum opus. The sweeping, complex historical epic – and simple love story – that is Doctor Zhivago had been a decade in the writing under the most adverse circumstances imaginable: the imprisonment of Pasternak’s lover, Olga Vsevolodovna Ivinskaya; the death in the gulag of his friend and fellow writer Osip Mandelstam and the suicides of two others in his circle, Paolo Iashvili and Marina Tsvetaeva; constant surveillance and his own ill health. Because of its subversive emphasis on the individual and its critical stance on the October Revolution, no publishing house in the Eastern bloc would touch it. It was smuggled out by an Italian publishing house and this is the story of what happened to get it back into Russia. It is a well told story, and one that lays out why women who were of great use during the war and then discarded in the peace might have been tempted with becoming double agents for oh so many reasons.

Bacira, Madrid, Spain

This was absolutely the best deal of the trip, and an excellent meal. The tasting menu was an excellent deal and the wine pairing was even bettr--well chosen wines, generous portions, and all from Spain. I would highly recommend you add this to your Madrid itinerary. It is a Bib Gourmand restaurant, which is often our favorite type of restaurant, and here is from the Michelin website: A perfect example of friendship, hard work and, above all, an unconditional love for cooking. Here, the three owner-chefs at the helm, Carlos Langreo, Vicente de la Red and Gabriel Zapata, each specialise in a different type of cuisine (traditional Mediterranean, Japanese and Nikkei) but who are receptive to new trends and an inclination towards fusion cooking. The atmosphere here is both welcoming and informal with a vintage decor that includes slender wrought-iron columns. There are two tasting menus and we went for the long one--perhaps erroneaous as we could barely move afterwards, but overall a spectacular meal.

The Intuitionists by Colin Whitehead

There are a few living authors who are still writing whose work is so compelling that I seek out their new work, and in this case, am working on the books they wrote before I fell hard for them as a reader. The first book I read was Sag Harbor, and while it didn't knock my socks off as a work of fiction per se, it was so unusual in terms of the setting and subject, an entry into a world that is likely well known to African Americans but was completely unknown to me. So when I saw this on a "Staff Picks" table at my local library, I picked it up, and I would encourage you to do so as well. This book, his first, is set in a steampunky alternate mid-20th century, where elevators are the most important public conveyances in the world, and the people who inspect them basically run the city. There are two types of elevator inspectors: the first is the Empiricists (i.e. the traditionalists), who use close physical examinations to make their inspections, measuring and checking and confirming with evidence. The second type of inspectors are the Intuitionists, who inspect elevators (lifts) not by measuring anything, but by riding the elevators and feeling, sensing, knowing, what is happening to the machine in the parts they cannot see--there is some allegorical magic to be had here, as well as some manipulation for political gain. The protagonist of the novel is Lila Mae Watson, the first black woman to be employed by the city as an elevator (lift) inspector. She is also an intuitionist. As a “representative” of three different types of progressivism within the city, she is constantly being watched. To be an intuitionist is to be in the minority, to be black and an intuitionist is to be in a tiny minority, but to be black, female and an intuitionist makes her a truly unique individual. The corrupt, conservative, boss of the inspectorate want to make an example of her failing, and likewise their rival factions are keen for her to succeed.

Interaction of Color by Josef Albers

If you are going to take one color theory book with you to a deserted island, this is the one. Designers tend to think of Josef Albers (1888–1976) only as a color theorist because Interaction of Color is a classic design school text. However, outside of the design world, Albers is better known as an abstract painter. His work, particularly his Homage to the Square series, influenced Op-Art artists who furthered his explorations in human perception or “the discrepancy between physical fact and psychic effect.” He was the first living artist to have a solo show at The Metropolitan Museum of Art in NYC. This book was originally published in 1963 and it still stands up as the best way to think about the relationship between colors. Here is a quick summary: 1. Color is the most relative medium in art. 2. Experience is the best teacher of color. There is no shortcut to your 10,000 hours towards mastery of this subject. Unless you experiment with colors in the manner in which Albers prescribes, you will not fully grasp how the exact same color can look different in a small quantity than it does in a large quantity or how the same color looks different surrounded by another color. Color is constantly related to its neighbors and to changing light conditions. 3. It is difficult to visualize specific colors. Visual memory is very poor by comparison to auditory memory. 4. People have strong preferences in regard to colors. No way around it, other than to try to add in a color you don't care for and see if you can change your mind. 5. Few people are able to distinguish tonal value in different hues within close intervals. There are apps to try to help you develop this skill. 6. When two colors have the same value, they “vibrate.” Because the eye reads value more than hue, vibrating colors compete for the eye’s attention and are uncomfortable to look at. 7. While there are innumerable colors, in most of the world’s languages, there are only about 30 names for different hues. 8. Any color can “go” or “work” with any other color, it is principally a matter of in which proportions they are used. Albers often required students to use colors that they disliked in order to have them realize this relational aspect of color. You might say there are no ugly colors, only ugly uses of color. These principles are astoundingly useful in modern quilting, and I cannot believe that I have been quilting for 50 years and never read this book--my only defense is that I have zero design background!

The Mortal and Immortal Life of the Girl from Milan by Domenico Starnone

The book opens with a retelling of the myth of Orpheus and Euridice. Euridice dies young and Orpheus, who loved her desperately, goes to the Underworld to bring her back--the only thing he has to do is to not look at her while he is escorting her out--but he fails to follow that one rule and Euridice is doomed. In this book a young boy in Naples named Mimí sees himself in Orpheus. As a child, he watches from the kitchen window as the girl from Milan dances on her balcony. He resolves that, should the girl fall to her death, he would go to the underworld and rescue her. His obsession with her infects his friends and they have great fights over who she belongs to, despite them never speaking to her or knowing her all. She is almost literally mythical for him. The next layer in this book is one of class. The author reminds us that not so long ago Italy was not one country but many regions that were united under one language, which is not the one he grew up speaking. Since Mimi grew up speaking the Neapolitan dialect at home, Italian is his second language and he is desperate to join the ranks of the great poets he reads in class. It is only once he grow up, becomes educated, and learns the girl died shortly after she left his neighborhood that he want to transport the girl from Milan's story from the Neapolitan, where it lives in his head, to Italian, where others can hear it too. This is short and fascinating.

Xolo, North Liberty, Iowa

We are always on the hunt for a new Mexican restaurant. We like La Mexicana in Coralville, but we feel we could do better. Unfortunately, this is not the place. To start with the pluses: The fish ceviche was good--a large portion, and we would have liked an appetizer portion, but strong citrus and no off flavors. The menu is enormous and there are far more choices than at other local Mexican restaurants--including Chicken Milanesa and Huaraches, which are favorites of mine. The chips are very good, maybe the best locally, and the choriqueso dip was excellent. The choripollo was excellent, the best part of the meal. Now for the not so great news: It is pretty expensive for Mexican food (although the portions are large), and the service is quite slow--we previewed the menu, ordered quickly, and it was 45 minutes from sitting down to getting our main courses. The rice and beans were not good--underseasoned and the rice did not have a great texture--this is a deal breaker for me--we love rice and beans and if they are not really good, we might as well not go. The guacamole is not good, and probably not made in house. The restaurant itself if very nice and can accomodate large groups, but as a weeknight dining option, we wouldn't go back.

Universality by Natasha Brown

This book is smartly written and while short, it is not an easy read--don't be fooled by it's weight. The reason it doesn't rate more highly for me is that it is whip smart satire, but as I currently live in a country where The Onion is hard to distinguish from the actual news, it all makes it harder for me to appreciate. It begins with the kind of viral long-read article you might DM your mates, featuring an illegal lockdown rave by an anarchist collective squatting on a banker’s farm, an activist bludgeoned with a solid gold brick during the proceedings, and said banker – who wants his missing ingot back. Chaos, clicks and conspiracies ensue and it isn't even clear if it is real or fake. After a run at the privilege of living off your connections and your parent's cash, the novel’s focus shifts to Miriam ‘Lenny’ Leonard, a middle-aged, girl-bossing white lady columnist who rides the tide of demagoguery, seizing the opportunity for fame, riches and eyeballs at any cost. Lenny’s provocations are all too familiar in the present moment. Language becomes muddied, skidding from hot takes to fresh outrage all over again as she says the unsayable to feed the ghoul of populist opinion. Like I said, it is well done. and she isn't wrong, but I didn't appreciate it--bad timing on my part!

Dolce Villa (2025)

This is a lifeless script with adequate acting--except for the town mayor, Francesca, who is fun from start to finish. The real draw here is the charming Italian town where they are selling houses for $1 in the hopes of revitalizing a village where the population is shrinking to the point of not being sustainable. This is actually happening-two of my kids studied abroad in Sicily and a town nearby, Gangivecchio, had such a deal. The scenery is spectacular, and the house they are renovating is gorgeous. The story here is that a duaghter who is wandering aimlessly in both Italy and life happens upon this village and embarks on a plan to renovate a broke down palace using money that her Italian mother who died recently left her and her father, who used to be a chef but quit when his wife got ill, goes after her to stop her. Stop her he does not, and they both find love, love of land, and love of food and making it. No surprises.

Daisy Jones and The Six by Taylor Jenkins Reid

I read a review that described this a a mockumentary without an emphasis on the Mock--another described it as an earnest look at the music scene of the 1970's. Having been a young person at that time, in college and traveling quite a lot to see music myself, this up close look at the inner workings of a band that is in the midst of a meteoric rise in popularity does ring true. If this is a part of rock and roll history that you want to look more closely at, and have not been satisfied with the available memoirs and non-fiction books that document actual bands, or not particularly interested in any one band but want to experience the inner workings of a fictional band, this is a good rendition of that era. The other motivation might be the inner dynamics within the band, and in that context this is a pretty tame depiction. The book may have had a resurgence in interest because there is an Amazon Prime mini series based on the book tht has been well received.

Lisa Thorpe: Backyard Bird Fabric Collage

I went to the Minnesota Quilters show in St. Cloud last month and took a workshop from Lisa Thorpe doing collage with birds as the central theme. The one on the right is hers and the one below is the collage I made. There were so many things to love about this workshop, not the least of which was that I finished what I started that day and I was very happy with it. I also left inspired to do it again, and the teacher provided all the tools to make that happen, from how to create my own fabric with pictures of birds to selling a do-it-yourself kit.

I have taken a number of classes from great teachers over the years, but rarely have I had a teacher who came so prepared to make her students successful. The first ingredient to that was that her supply list was detailed enough that I actually packed well for the class. I brought things that I had that had bird themes, adn I brough fabric that would work in the background. If that wasn't enough she literally had enough materials with her that if you had packed 100% incorrectly (as has often happened to me) you could be successful because she brought lots of bits and pieces to do collage with, may that she had printed or hand stamped herself. Finally, if you just did not want to make choices, she has wonderful kits that you can assemble. It had beginners, intermediates, and advanced crafters all covered, everyone left with a project well on it's way to completion, and they were all different even though we had the same shared class.

The House On Mango Street by Sandra Cisneros

This is a novella which reads like a memoir that really packs a punch--and you know that it does because it was reissued for the 25th anniversary of it's release. It has staying power. I loved the Introduction of this novel just as much as I love the actual novel itself. Cisneros explains how she came to write this book, explaining that she felt ostracized when she moved from Chicago to Iowa for graduate school because she is Mexican American. Eventually she realized that she should write the book that none of her classmates could, the book that would encapsulate her childhood and the childhoods of so many other Mexican Americans that faced discrimination and “othering” because of the color of their skin or the language they spoke at home or where their parents were born. While it was written in 1983, it is so true today, almost 50 years after they were written. I no longer find this surprising, as we are coming up on 200 years since America could import people to sell, and yet the racism that scaffolded slavery is alive and well in the 21st century. When the book opens, we meet our narrator, twelve-year-old Esperanza Cordero. She and her family has moved around a lot, but most recently — and it will turn out to be her home for the next several years — they have moved into a house in an impoverished Chicago neighborhood on Mango Street. It’s not all she’d hoped for and she goes on to tell us why.

MS Tiramisu

This is the easiest and most delicious tiramisu when you look at effort to result. The secret is Italian ladyfingers and mascarpone. Gli Ingrediente 7 large egg yolks 71 g (1/3 c) granulated sugar Two 8-0z containers mascarpone cheese, cold 1-1.5 c espresso 24-26 ladyfingers (8x8 dish; 18 if individual portions). [An excellent choice is Savoiardi Lady fingers available from Amazon Cocoa Powder, dutch-processed, for dusting Le Indicazione 1. In a stand mixer with the whisk attachment, beat the egg yolks and sugar on high until the mixture is pale, puffy, doubled in volume, and falls in a thick ribbon when the whisk is lifted, about 10 minutes. Reduce to low and add the mascarpone a large spoonful at a time. After all is added, scrape the bowl and mix on low for 10-20 seconds until just homogenous. Pour coffee into a bowl 2. To assemble in a baking dish, dip a lady finger in coffee for a few seconds, then place in the bottom of an 8” square baking dish. Repeat until the bottom of the dish is fully lined. Spoon on half the mascarpone mixture and spread in an even layer. Rap the dish to settle it, then cover the mascarpone with a second layer of coffee-dipped ladyfingers. Scrape on and spread the remaining mascarpone mixture. 3. To assemble individual portions, you will need 6 8-oz ramekins. For each portion, soak 2 ladyfinger halves in the coffee and place in the bottom, spoon on ¼ cup mascarpone mixture; repeat 2 more times for a total of 3 layers each of ladyfingers and mascarpone. Rap the ramekin so the layers settle. 4. Cover and refrigerate for at least 6 hours or up to 2 days. Remove from refrigerator just before serving. Sift cocoa onto tiramisu and serve right away.