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Rebecca B. (bookmuncher) - , - Reviews

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Alaska by Cruise Ship: The Complete Guide to Cruising Alaska with Giant Pull-out Map
Review Date: 2/20/2007


Very useful for helping to plan an Alaska cruise trip.


Altered Carbon (Takeshi Kovacs, Bk 1)
Altered Carbon (Takeshi Kovacs, Bk 1)
Author: Richard K. Morgan
Book Type: Paperback
  • Currently 4/5 Stars.
 127
Review Date: 2/20/2007
Helpful Score: 2


Cyberpunk-inflected SF; dark (the protagonist is more an antihero than a hero) and quite violent, but quite good. This is the first in a loosely connected series of three novels dealing with the same character.


Angels Flight (Harry Bosch, Bk 6)
Angels Flight (Harry Bosch, Bk 6)
Author: Michael Connelly
Book Type: Mass Market Paperback
  • Currently 4/5 Stars.
 342
Review Date: 2/20/2007


Mystery, set in LA.


Balancing Pregnancy and Work: How to Make the Most of the Next 9 Months on the Job (Stonesong Press Books)
Review Date: 1/3/2009
Helpful Score: 1


I recommend this highly - it has lots of useful information, and although most of it is common sense, I found it very helpful for structuring my thoughts and providing a template for how to plan my maternity leave and draft a simple coverage plan. I supervise 10 people and was lucky enough to take six months off, but I found the reentry pretty easy - despite coming back to a new boss and an economic crisis - and even got compliments on how well I'd organized things (which I didn't think had been anything special: I just followed a few suggestions in this book).


The Best of Marion Zimmer Bradley
The Best of Marion Zimmer Bradley
Author: Marion Zimmer Bradley
Book Type: Paperback
  • Currently 3.5/5 Stars.
 12
Review Date: 2/22/2007
Helpful Score: 2


The author's selection of the best of her own short stories, with a short autobiographical introduction. Contains several early stories from when she was first developing her idea of the Terran Empire (related to, though not all fully consistent with, the Darkover books), as well as two Darkover stories and the initial Lythande short story. A must for any MZB completist, and a pretty good read for anyone who likes her work.


Blender Baby Food: Over 125 Recipes For Healthy Homemade Meals
Blender Baby Food: Over 125 Recipes For Healthy Homemade Meals
Author: Nicole Young
Book Type: Paperback
  • Currently 4.4/5 Stars.
 5
Review Date: 6/21/2009


This book gave me a lot of good general ideas and techniques (e.g., how much liquid to use with how much of what vegetable to get a good texture) as well as a couple of recipes my son liked - particularly the Chicken with Celery.


Blood, Bones, and Butter: The Inadvertent Education of a Reluctant Chef
Review Date: 4/9/2018


This is a memoir by a chef, rather than primarily a cooking memoir, and I enjoyed it despite a certain unevenness of tone and topic. It starts out describing her oddball upbringing in rural northwestern Pennsylvania, as the youngest of 5 children of a somewhat mismatched pair of parents, and how she largely brought herself up herself from the age of 12 after they divorced, working steadily in restaurants all through high school and beyond. She talks a little about her cooking mentors and her time in a writing program (an interlude between stints cooking), and more about her relationships, with both women and men. My favorite part was the description of the early days of her restaurant, which she called Prune from her mother's old nickname for her, even though by this point she hadn't spoken to her mother in over a decade. I could have done with a bit less about her marriage and eventual divorce from the father of her two sons (especially since her self knowledge about this part of her life seems limited; it may have been too fresh for her to write about well), but all in all, Hamilton is an engaging writer who comes across as smart and prickly but not afraid to show herself warts and all.


Bloody Good (Brytewood, Bk 1)
Bloody Good (Brytewood, Bk 1)
Author: Georgia Evans
Book Type: Paperback
  • Currently 3.3/5 Stars.
 52
Review Date: 12/13/2009
Helpful Score: 4


Vampire Nazis have parachuted in to Britain during World War II to commit sabotage, and the only people who can stop them are the plucky lady doctor (a rationalist in denial of her otherworldly heritage), her wise and powerful grandmother, her new assistant (dishy but initially despised for his conscientous objector status), and a mysterious old Welshman with unusual strength. Good story and a strong romance, although the period accuracy of some of the dialog is a bit questionable.


Bloody Right (Brytewood, Bk 3)
Bloody Right (Brytewood, Bk 3)
Author: Georgia Evans
Book Type: Paperback
  • Currently 3.7/5 Stars.
 21
Review Date: 2/26/2010


An enjoyable conclusion to Evans' trilogy of World War II paranormal thrillers, in which dragon shifter Gryffyth Pendragon returns home to his sleepy native village of Brytewood to discover that dark doings are afoot (as established in the previous two books in the series): a cadre of Nazi vampires is targeting the local munitions factory and perhaps even the most powerful politicians in the land!


Bound to Shadows (Riley Jenson, Guardian, Bk 8)
Bound to Shadows (Riley Jenson, Guardian, Bk 8)
Author: Keri Arthur
Book Type: Mass Market Paperback
  • Currently 4.1/5 Stars.
 246
Review Date: 2/20/2010


In the eighth in the Riley Jenson series, Riley is trying to juggle her love for the vampire Quinn with her soul-hunger for the soul mate she distrusts but can't stay away from, plus a few extra complications from another couple of sexy men - not to mention her brother and his partner and - while solving a couple of mysteries: a series of beheading-murders of vampires (where her boss seems to know more about how they might be connected than he's telling) and a series of apparently causeless deaths of women addicted to vampire bites. After several books that had started to seem a little formulaic, the author now throws in some unexpected twists that could take the series in somewhat different directions.


The Brass Dragon
The Brass Dragon
Author: Marion Zimmer Bradley
Book Type: Paperback
  • Currently 3.6/5 Stars.
 4
Review Date: 8/19/2007
Helpful Score: 1


Jacket copy:
Barry Cowan woke up screaming in a hospital room with a nightmare where his memory should have been, and a curious brass figurine in his pocket that made the nightmare seem all too likely to be true. Yet for all the emptiness there was a familiarity about the stranger who appeared, claiming to be his father - a HORRIFYING familiarity, tied somehow to the dreams of another world that invaded his sleep. Where had he been? What had happened to shock his mind so deeply that it refused to remember? Unknown to Barry, his deeper self had been wise in forgetting: if his efforts to call back the lost year of his life should succeed, would he survive?

One of Bradley's earlier, old-style adventure sci fi novels, with an engaging hero and an interesting mystery at its heart.


Catering to Nobody (Goldy Schulz, Bk 1)
Catering to Nobody (Goldy Schulz, Bk 1)
Author: Diane Mott Davidson
Book Type: Paperback
  • Currently 3.8/5 Stars.
 283
Review Date: 2/20/2007
Helpful Score: 1


First in an engaging series of mysteries featuring caterer Goldy Bear. Includes recipes (the couple I've tried from the series are pretty good!).


The Children of Hurin
The Children of Hurin
Author: j.r.r Tolkien
Book Type: Paperback
  • Currently 3.5/5 Stars.
 4
Review Date: 11/19/2009
Helpful Score: 1


A stark and beautiful retelling of a set of tales told in shorter form in "The Silmarillion." Highly enjoyable for Tolkien fans, and possibly a good introduction to his work for any fan of mythology or heroic opera who hasn't read him (if there are any!), although probably not as likely to interest anyone who isn't otherwise a fan of either the writer or the genre.


Class Matters
Class Matters
Author: The New York Times (Editor)
Book Type: Paperback
  • Currently 3.9/5 Stars.
 18
Review Date: 2/27/2007


An interesting series of snapshots, from varying perspectives,of the state of class divisions in the US in 2004, from the New York Times series. I found it had enough meat to stand up to a second reading (after I had read nearly all the pieces in the Times when they first came out). Includes pieces on the interconnections of class with family, marriage, education, health, housing patterns, and so on.


Clear Your Clutter With Feng Shui
Clear Your Clutter With Feng Shui
Author: Karen Kingston
Book Type: Paperback
  • Currently 3.8/5 Stars.
 97
Review Date: 2/21/2007
Helpful Score: 1


Useful as a tool for thinking about de-cluttering your home, whether or not you hold much store by Feng Shui!


Complete Idiot's Guide to Jams, Jellies  Preserves (The Complete Idiot's Guide)
Review Date: 3/22/2007


Fairly good basic guide, although I never found a description of how to sterilize jars and lids (!) - it's either buried or absent. My favorite part is the many recipes, a lot of them really interesting combinations. The couple I have tried worked great. A book I wouldn't trade away if I didn't need to reduce my book load pretty badly.


Dark Moon (Nightcreature, Bk 3)
Dark Moon (Nightcreature, Bk 3)
Author: Lori Handeland
Book Type: Paperback
  • Currently 3.8/5 Stars.
 264
Review Date: 2/20/2007


Paranormal romance. A good, quick read.


Dating the Undead
Dating the Undead
Author: Gena Showalter, Jill Monroe
Book Type: Paperback
  • Currently 3.1/5 Stars.
 16
Review Date: 4/27/2015


I wouldn't pay much for this, but worth chasing down on PBS or in the library to read with a glass of wine. It's funny in spots, but often repetitive (always the same 6 types immortals - which they refer to as "undead" even though some, like werewolves, are simply living). And a painless way to check out Gena Showalter's universe if you haven't done so before, which I hadn't.


Dead Witch Walking (The Hollows, Bk 1) (Spanish)
Dead Witch Walking (The Hollows, Bk 1) (Spanish)
Author: Kim Harrison
Book Type: Paperback
  • Currently 4.2/5 Stars.
 19
Review Date: 4/15/2007


In Spanish.


The Death and Life of Great American Cities
The Death and Life of Great American Cities
Author: Jane Jacobs
Book Type: Paperback
  • Currently 3.6/5 Stars.
 12
Review Date: 1/28/2010


A seminal work of urban theory that is wonderfully written and wonderfully provocative of thought. One of the treasures of American thought.


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