The Fold by Peter Clines

I will not post a summary of this novel as you can find it a lot of places online. Overall I liked this book quite a bit. It was engaging, for the first 270 pages or so, and made me want to keep reading. While the language used wasn't the most advanced, it was easy to read, and therefore even harder to put down. I think this added to the novel. Other than the effect I felt it had on Mike, he's crazy smart but tries to hide it. I would have rather had him speak a little bit more like the smartest person in the world. In the end, the first 270 pages were a solid 4/5, the last pages were probably a 2/5, leading me to give the novel a 3/5 overall. It was almost if the author was rushed to finish the novel, which is a shame for such a wonderful beginning.I received this novel from Blogging for Books for my unbiased opinion.

Author Bio: http://www.penguinrandomhouse.com/authors/176410/peter-clines

5 in 5: For every season

Michael Symon's 5 in 5 came out with a new book focusing on in season produce and a simple way to prepare it. While the recipes do not actually use only five ingredients, you can be sure that many of these recipes will help you with some ideas of what to do with some of the more under-utilized vegetables of the season. I liked Michael's small intro to each recipe which explained his opinions and tips about each dish. Also, as a regular CSA member, many of the produce items I receive can be confusing and intimidating. Michael breaks the book into four sections (spring, summer, fall, winter) which was very helpful when looking for and identifying dishes that use a specific confusing vegetable I may have received at the Farmer's Market that day.

Many of the dishes are accompanied by photos of the food which are beautiful and very detailed. However, many of the dishes are not accompanied by photos which can leave the reader on their own when figuring out how the final product will look. Also, Michael's ingredient lists are not limited by geographical location, obscurity, or price. So you may not be able to just open the book and grab from your pantry and many of the meals are not going to be appropriate for a tight budget. Overall, I was very satisfied and excited about many of the dishes and have plans to try quite a few of them. Additionally, because seasonality is important to me, I was very happy with this cookbook's break down of the seasons which encourages us to eat food growing during that time of year. Michael Symon's notes are funny and personal and I would recommend this cookbook to adventurous cooks looking to create meals using fresh produce appropriate for each season. I received this book from Blogging for books in exchange for this review.




http://www.penguinrandomhouse.com/authors/92231/michael-symon/