The Book Tour Stops Here: A Review of "Mrs. Rochester's Ghost" by Lindsay Marcott, Served with a Shrimp Cobb Salad & a Blue Cheese Dressing Recipe

It's almost Friday! I am excited about that and the fact that I am today's TLC Book Tour stop for Mrs. Rochester's Ghost by Lindsay Marcott, a modern retelling of Jane Eyre.  Accompanying my review is a Shrimp Cobb Salad from a nearby restaurant and a recipe for one of my favorite Blue Cheese Salad Dressings.  

Publisher's Blurb:

In a modern and twisty retelling of Jane Eyre, a young woman must question everything she thinks she knows about love, loyalty, and murder.

Jane has lost everything: job, mother, relationship, even her home. A friend calls to offer an unusual deal, a cottage above the crashing surf of Big Sur on the estate of his employer, Evan Rochester. In return, Jane will tutor his teenage daughter. She accepts.

But nothing is quite as it seems at the Rochester estate. Though he’s been accused of murdering his glamorous and troubled wife, Evan Rochester insists she drowned herself. Jane is skeptical, but she still finds herself falling for the brilliant and secretive entrepreneur and growing close to his daughter.

And yet her deepening feelings for Evan can’t disguise dark suspicions aroused when a ghostly presence repeatedly appears in the night’s mist and fog. Jane embarks on an intense search for answers and uncovers evidence that soon puts Evan’s innocence into question. She’s determined to discover what really happened that fateful night, but what will the truth cost her?

Hardcover: 398 Pages

Publisher: Thomas & Mercer (August 1, 2021)

My Review: 

Although Jane Eyre and Charlotte Bronte does not garner the same level of love and devotion from me as Pride and Prejudice, Persuasion and Jane Austen do, I have always enjoyed it and have read it four or five times throughout my life. This made me more than happy to jump on the tour for Mrs. Rochester's Wife, the modernization of the classic novel. I love a good retelling--preferably where the author doesn't just pick up the novel and put it in a different time or setting, but rather one that reaches out and gives me another angle to explore. 

Mrs. Rochester's Wife manages to keep the dark gothic vibe of the original, even as it moves the story to the dramatic and rugged coastline of Big Sur. Jane is now the unemployed writer of a gothic television series that was recently canceled--making it impossible to afford her rent. She is also recently an orphan, having lost her mother to cancer, and she also lost her boyfriend and best friend who together, betrayed her when her mother was sick. An old friend calls and talks her into leaving New York for California to take a summer job tutoring a notorious tech mogul's teenage daughter and living in a cottage on a massive coastal estate, she is unsure but low on options. Evan Rochester is darkly handsome, and is thought to have killed his mentally unstable wife Beatrice--although no one has been able to prove it. Jane begins to look for answers and finds herself falling for her employer at the same time.

The story is told both by Jane and in flashbacks of Beatrice Rochester which adds an interesting element, as she is quite mad and these bits are very dark and twisty. I liked how the Thorn Bluffs estate setting was brought to creepy and gothic life and how some of the supporting characters in Bronte's work were reimagined here. I did get annoyed a time or two by Jane and some of her actions, and at how quickly she fell for Evan, despiser her misgivings, his secrets and lies, and some pretty good evidence that at the very least, he may have driven his wife to drown herself. But, I get a bit annoyed at the original Jane Eyre too--so it wasn't a new feeling. For me, overall it worked and I had a hard time putting the last third of the book down. I think someone with an appreciation for the original novel (but who is also open to interpretations of it) will enjoy it and someone less familiar or completely new to the story will appreciate it as a slightly soapy and gothic mystery/thriller. 

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Author Notes: Lindsay Marcott is the author of The Producer’s Daughter and six previous novels written as Lindsay Maracotta. Her books have been translated into eleven languages and adapted for cable. She also wrote for the Emmy-nominated HBO series The Hitchhiker and coproduced a number of films, including Hallmark’s The Hollywood Moms Mystery and the feature Breaking at the Edge. She lives on the coast of California.

You can connect with Lindsay on her website, Twitter or Instagram

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Food Inspiration:

Jane's friend and Rochester's cousin is the chef on the estate and so there was plenty of food and drink to be found in Mrs. Rochester's Ghost. Mentions included, a menu of pear and allium to start, black cod with caviar beurre blanc, chocolate ganache, and cocktails made of lavender and lemonade, caraway cookies, a bottle of Sancerre, tapas, peanuts, cabernet, Frappuccinos, a turkey wrap, margarita, coffee, orange juice, homemade cranberry muffins, honey, gelato, a $27 Cobb salad at a sidewalk cafe, a Manhattan, copping (chunky with fresh seafood and fragrant with anise and oregano), a mascarpone fig tart, Cristal, baby back ribs, cheese, soba noodles, garlic, cherries, mojitos, a turkey and Swiss clubs, tubs of assorted salads, apples, peaches, Argentinian Malbec, liqueur, kirsch, chicken tikka masala, mezcal, venison chili, clove tea and lacy rose water cookies, Dr. Browns Black Cherry Soda, cokes, Wavy Lays, burgers, wilted kale and a pear, kugel and potato knishes, matzo ball soup, egg creams with extra Hershey's, Le gloop (penne pasta glooped together with a bunch of random ingredients from the fridge like leftover steak, sour cream, Greek olives), a tale of eating fried rattlesnake, cantaloupes, pizza, popcorn shrimp, Mac and cheese, candy-colored tropical fruit drinks, breadsticks shrimp in cocktail sauce, crab salad lemonade, Perrier, salmon, chocolate-hazelnut biscotti, an açaí bowl, soft-shell crabs, eggs, Fat Tire beer, sushi, bison burger, sweet potato fries, zinfandel, Vanilla Spice Energy tea, fried food, Grape Nuts with blueberries on top, a salad of arugula, radicchio, and fennel with white sardines and toasted slices of sourdough, pistachios, croissants, strawberry-and-kiwi tonics, champagne, martinis, vegetable curry, carrot cake, ice-cold Stoli, Sweet Chili Doritos, steak, and cranberry-bread toast and vanilla yogurt. 

Set in Big Sur, California, salads seemed to feature heavily-- a crab salad for Beatrice, a Cobb salad Jane purchases on a first day there and various salads that Otis made. I decided on a Cobb salad--mainly because it sounded good for a hot and humid night. It has been a long and busy week, and even though a Cobb Salad is not at all difficult to make, I wanted someone to make it for me so I ordered one from a local restaurant/brewery by my house and ran in and grabbed it. I subbed in shrimp for the chicken and although I asked them to hold the bacon, it came with it. 

But, because you probably come here for a recipe, I am including one of my favorite easy blue cheese dressing recipes, perfect for a Cobb salad. It comes from Ina Garten and I first tried it on her Crunchy Iceberg Salad with Creamy Blue Cheese, here. 

Creamy Blue Cheese Dressing
Slightly Adapted from Ina Garten via BarefootContessa.com
(Serves 4)

For the Dressing:
4 oz Roquefort blue cheese, crumbled
2/3 cup good mayonnaise
1/3 cup plain Greek yogurt
1 Tbsp sherry vinegar

kosher salt and freshly ground black pepper 

For the dressing, place 4 ounces of blue cheese in a small bowl and microwave for 15 seconds, until it begins to melt. Place the mayonnaise, yogurt, warm blue cheese, sherry vinegar, ½ teaspoon salt, and ¼ teaspoon pepper in the bowl of a food processor fitted with the steel blade and process until smooth. Set aside or refrigerate until ready to use.

Notes/Results: Never underestimate the power of a good Cobb Salad. This totally hit the spot and I didn't complain that they left the bacon on. ;-) I will order it again. 

 

Ina's dressing recipe above is pretty perfect too--just blue cheesy enough without being too overpowering and thick and creamy enough to be a dip or spread. If you love blue cheese, give it a try.

I'm sharing this post with the Weekend Cooking event  being hosted by Marg at The Adventures of An Intrepid Reader. It's a weekly event that is open to anyone who has any kind of food-related post to share. Here's a link to this week's post. 

And of course a delicious salad and dressing has to get linked up here at Kahakai Kitchen for this week's Souper Sundays post, my weekly feature where anyone can share their soup, salad or sandwich recipes. Here's the link to this weeks post. 

Note: A review copy of Mrs. Rochester's Ghost was provided to me by the author and the publisher via TLC Book Tours. I was not compensated for this review and as always, my thoughts and opinions are my own.   

 
You can see the stops for the rest of this TLC Book Tour and what other reviewers thought about the book here. 

 

The Book Tour Stops Here: A Review of "The Light Through the Leaves" by Glendy Vanderah, Served with a Recipe for Easy Vegan Cauliflower Tacos

I am so happy to be today's stop on the TLC Book Tour for The Light Through the Leaves by Glendy Vanderah, her second novel. Accompanying my review is a recipe for Vegan Cauliflower Taco Filling, made into Easy Vegan Cauliflower Tacos. 

Publisher's Blurb:

Go on a powerful journey of forgiveness and healing with The Light Through the Leaves, a transcendent novel of love, loss, and self-discovery by the Wall Street Journal bestselling author of Where the Forest Meets the Stars.

One unbearable mistake at the edge of the forest.

In a moment of crisis, Ellis Abbey leaves her daughter, Viola, unattended—for just a few minutes. But when she returns, Viola is gone. A breaking point in an already fractured marriage, Viola’s abduction causes Ellis to disappear as well—into grief, guilt, and addiction. Convinced she can only do more harm to her family, Ellis leaves her husband and young sons, burying her desperate ache for her children deeper with every step into the mountain wildernesses she treks alone.

In a remote area of Washington, a young girl named Raven keeps secrets inside, too. She must never speak to outsiders about how her mother makes miracles spring from the earth, or about her father, whose mysterious presence sometimes frightens her. Raven spends her days learning how to use her rare gifts—and more important, how to hide them. With each lesson comes a warning of what dangers lie in the world beyond her isolated haven. But despite her mother’s cautions, Raven finds herself longing for something more.

As Ellis and Raven each confront their powerful longings, their journeys will converge in unexpected and hopeful ways, pulled together by the forces of nature, love, and family.

Paperback : 463 pages

Publisher: Lake Union Publishing (April 1, 2021)

My Review:

Glendy Vanderah's debut novel, Where the Forest Meets the Stars was a sleeper hit for me two years ago (see my review post here). It was a book I enjoyed and recommended to others, who found it equally wonderful. I was crossing my fingers that I would like The Light Through the Leaves just as much and I indeed I did, in fact, I might love it even more. I was a bit worried as the subject matter seemed depressing--Ellis, a young mother loses her baby and falls so deeply into grief and despair that she feels she needs to leave her sons rather than damage them with her pain and her addictions. The book tackles some difficult and sometimes triggering subjects--grief, addiction, mental illness, kidnapping and child endangerment, assault, martial issues--but it doesn't wallow in it. The story is told by both by Ellis, and her chapters and story are very painful, and also by Raven, a young girl growing up in seclusion with her mother--and her story has its pain as well. But in that pain is hope, healing, and growth, and also friendship and love, and it all comes together in a book I was immediately engaged in and didn't want to put down. 

Glendy's love of nature and passion for the land and its inhabitants, plants, animals and people permeate her books, so woven into the story that the settings are their own characters. You can visualize each place; feel the cold of the mountains or the humidity of a Florida summer, smell the mossy earth, and see the river and the meadow wildflowers with each well-crafted sentence. It's only March but The Light Through the Leaves will definitely end up on my list of favorite books for 2021. Highly recommended. 

If you would like to win an autographed copy of Where the Forest Meets the Stars and you have a U.S. or Canada mailing address, head over to my Instagram account @DebinHawaii for a chance to win. 

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Author Notes: Glendy Vanderah is the Wall Street Journal, Washington Post, and Amazon Charts bestselling author of Where the Forest Meets the Stars. Glendy worked as an avian biologist before she became a writer. Originally from Chicago, she now lives in rural Florida with her husband and as many birds, butterflies, and wildflowers as she can lure to her land..

Connect with Glendy on her website or Instagram. 

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Food Inspiration: 

Funny story. As mentioned I reviewed Glendy's first book and I follow her on Instagram and left a comment on her post that I was excited to start reading this one. She replied back: "Thanks to your long list of food mentioned in my debut, I tried to cut back on food mentions in this book. But there's still quite a lot."  Yes there is still quite a lot, including grilled ham and cheese sandwiches, apple slices, pizzas, martinis and old-fashioned, butterscotch candies, coffee, ice cream, whiskey, Bugles and Cap'n Crunch, strawberry jello with peaches in it, hamburgers, cereal, bourbon, fancy French cognac, salad and a grilled cheese sandwich, fried venison strips for a sandwich, vegan enchiladas, ham, baked potato, squash, green beans, hummus, avocado , and vegetable sandwiches, leftover casserole, soda, vegetables, oatmeal with strawberries and sweet soy milk, cupcake, cookies and cream milkshake, food from a Mexican restaurant, hot beef and barley soup, bread, hot spiced cider, vegan tacos and burritos, popcorn, greasy fries, Prime rib, baked potato with butter and sour cream, salad with bleu cheese dressing, homemade cheesecake with blackberry preserves on top, casserole with greens and a bean salad, a vegetable-and-fried-seitan wrap, scrambled tofu and veggies, steak, and kombucha. 

A few of the characters in the book are vegetarian and vegan and Glendy mentioned she recently transitioned to veganism herself. Although I'm not a vegan (fish, eggs and cheese all make their way to my diet), I eat that way regularly and I knew I wanted a vegan recipe to represent the book. The mother of Raven's friends made the vegan Mexican food mentioned above so I decided to make vegan tacos. Since I was making them after a long day at work, I needed them to be quick and easy so I decided to use packaged cauliflower rice with taco seasoning as a base. I intended to buy those little taco bowls and layer things all pretty but of course the store had known to be found so I ended up with taco shells. You can make these tacos as homemade as you like--rice your own cauliflower, chop your own veggies, and make the guacamole but I went the easy route and bought or pulled together most of it from the pantry. It's still delicious and it was on the table in under 20 minutes. 

Vegan Cauliflower Taco Filling

By Deb, Kahakai Kitchen

(Makes about 4 cups of filling)

2 Tbsp olive oil

1/2 sweet onion, diced

1 packet taco seasoning of choice + other spices you like to taste (I used 1 tsp roasted garlic powder, 1 tsp mushroom umami powder, 1/2 tsp cumin, 1/2 tsp mojito lime seasoning, 1/2 tsp chili powder)

1 head of cauliflower, riced or 2 (8.5 oz) packages of cauliflower rice. (I use this one)

Heat the olive oil in a large pan over medium heat and add onion. Cook about 6-7 minutes until onion softens and turns translucent. Add seasoning and spices and mix together, then add the rice cauliflower. Stir mixture until all of the cauliflower is covered with the seasonings. Cook about 7-10 minutes, stirring occasionally until cauliflower filling is warmed and onions are cooked through. Taste and add sea salt and black pepper to taste. 

To Make Tacos: Layer taco shells (toast in oven or heat in microwave if store-bought)  with cabbage mix or shredded lettuce, Vegan Cauliflower Taco Filling, guacamole and salsa. I used this pickle salsa I found because...why not?! ;-) Add other toppings as desired--roasted corn, chopped tomatoes, green onion, cilantro, vegan cheese or non-dairy sour cream, etc. 

Notes/Results: These are really good! I am not going to claim that you will fool meat-eaters or anything with them but the flavor and mouthfeel is there, they are satisfying, and they are pretty darn healthy too. I think the key is too use more spice than you normally would with meat, mushroom or even plant-based soy crumbles because cauliflower id like tofu in that there isn't much flavor so you want to give it that extra oomph. I like the dried mushroom powder--I ran out of my Trader Joe's version but found that Target (which we do have here in Hawaii) has a knock off. It, and the roasted garlic powder give the taco filling more depth of flavor. I will happily make these again. 

Note: A review copy of "The Light Through the Leaves" was provided to me by the author and the publisher via TLC Book Tours. I was not compensated for this review and as always, my thoughts and opinions are my own.   
 
You can see the stops for the rest of this TLC Book Tour and what other reviewers thought about the book here. 

 

"Lord of the Fries" Avocado Fries with Garlic-Sriracha Aioli & a Book Review for #AllGirlsBlogParty

I've had such fun these past few weeks having blog parties with The Book Club Cookbook and other bloggers where we make dishes inspired by books. Tomorrow is the book birthday of All Girls by Emily Laden and I am celebrating with some "Lord of the Fries" Avocado Fries with Garlic-Sriracha Aioli.

But first, our book...

Publisher's Blurb:

A tender and unflinching portrait of modern adolescence told through the shifting perspectives of nine female students, All Girls explores what it means to grow up in a place that promises you the world - when the world still isn't yours for the taking.

An all-girls boarding school in a hilly corner of Connecticut, Atwater is a haven for progressive thinking and feminist intellectuals. The students are smart, driven and worldly; they are also teenagers, learning to find their way. But when they arrive on campus for the start of the Fall term, they're confronted with startling news: an Atwater alumna has made a troubling allegation of sexual misconduct against an unidentified teacher. As the weeks wear on and the administration's efforts to manage the ensuing crisis fall short, these extraordinary young women come to realise that the adults in their lives may not be the protectors they previously believed.

All Girls unfolds over the course of one tumultuous academic year and is told from the point of view of a small cast of diverse, interconnected characters as they navigate the social mores of prep school life and the broader, more universal challenges of growing up. The trials of adolescent girlhood are pitched against the backdrop of sexual assault, consent, anxiety and the ways that our culture looks to young women as trendsetters, but otherwise silences their voices and discounts their opinions. The story that emerges is a richly detailed, impeccably layered, and emotionally nuanced depiction of what it means to come of age in a female body today.

St. Martin's Press / St. Martin's Publishing Group

On Sale: 02/16/2021 | 320 Pages

My Review: 

So first, I am kind of a sucker for boarding school settings. Something about be a public school student all of my life and not going away to college I guess. I find the traditions and life fascinating and Atwater in Connecticut, was a great place for a story. All Girls takes place throughout a school year in 2015 and is told from the perspectives multiple students in chapters titled by school events. The book opens with the incoming students coming across a hundred signs placed to be seen from all of the approaches to campus. These signs state "A Rapist Works Here" and it's the opening salvo of a year where a mysterious someone (or someones), push the school to confront and answer for a 1995 incident where a former student reports a rape from a teacher she was having a consensual affair with. She ends up getting kicked out of Atwater while the teacher is apparently still there, 20 years later. There is a lot of teenage angst and young women facing their sexuality in an environment which positions itself to support them, but really does not. The mystery at first is who the teacher is that the school has protected for so many years and then it becomes the identity of the person pushing the school to step up through various rebellious acts. The story is intriguing but the challenge with the book is that there are so many perspectives that it becomes jumbled and hard to follow which makes it hard to care about every character. All Girls is billed as a Young Adult novel and it would be good to read and discuss with older teens. It's a coming of age story in the time a few years before the #metoo movement got started, and is topical and relevant, but it didn't quite come together for me as much as I wanted it to. 

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Author Notes: EMILY LAYDEN is a graduate of Stanford University, and has taught at several girls' schools nationwide. Her writing has appeared in the New York Times, Marie Claire, The Billfold, and Runner's World. All Girls is her first novel.

You can connect with the author on her website, Twitter, and Instagram.

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Food Inspiration: 

There was definitely food in All Girls and mentions included iceberg lettuce, Korean food, matcha lattes, açaí bowls, buttered pasta, Mac and cheese, grilled cheese, cheese quesadillas, and sandwiches of American cheese on white bread, sneaking vegetables into foods like pureed zucchini folded into banana bread, butternut squash roasted and pureed and stirred into stovetop macaroni and cheese, cauliflower steamed and mashed and used to replace half the potatoes, wheat toast, Instant Pot casserole, coffee, powdered electrolyte mix, teas and decaf coffees, sunflower seeds sprinkled over salads, chickpeas, turkey sandwich, a banana, a granola bar, eggs, maple syrup, oatmeal, birthday cake, Frosted Flakes, acorn squash, green beans, roasted turkey, protein bars, Atwater's designer egg McMuffins (served on little ciabatta rolls instead) and maple sausage, food trucks with banh mi tacos and grilled cheese with smoked gouda and caramelized onions, apples and paper cups of steaming cider, cider donuts, kettle corn, Sour Patch Kids, pizza, jam, past-its-prime winter fruit, Nantucket oysters, a really good burger, rosewater macarons, chicken Parm made with frozen chicken tenders, vodka, orange-red tofu stew, grilled peel-and-eat shrimp, tikka masala, stir fry, roast chicken, poke, bibimbap, and California cheeses. 

As soon as I read the words "avocado fries", I knew that was going to be my bookish dish. I've been wanting to try them, and reading that Atwater served them at their prom gave me a great excuse. 

"Guys!" Karla gasps from two tables away, clutching a cocktail napkin in one hand. "They did the avocado fries again! With the aioli!" She takes a bite and makes an exaggerated groan, a food-induced orgasm. 

I decided to serve them with my favorite Garlic-Sriracha Aioli. Although I didn't set out to use a The Book Club Cookbook Book Blend, how could I make any kind of fries and not use my "Lord of the Fries" Brew Pub Garlic Fries Seasoning  I used it both in my aioli and in the panko coating on the avocado fries. 

"Lord of the Fries" Avocado Fries with Garlic-Sriracha Aioli

By Deb with Lots of Inspiration from Online

(Serves 2 to 4)

2 to 3 medium-large avocados, ripe but still firm

fresh lime juice

sea salt and black pepper

2 tsp Lord of the Fries Brew Pub Garlic Fries Seasoning or garlic powder blend of choice

1 heaping cup panko breadcrumbs

1 large egg, lightly beaten

1/3 cup flour

avocado or olive oil cooking spray

Sriracha-Garlic Aioli (recipe below)

Preheat oven to about 425 degrees F. and line a baking sheet with parchment paper.

Slice avocado fairly thickly (each half into about 5 slices) so they won't break as easily. Drizzle with fresh lime juice and lightly salt and pepper then. 

In a small bowl or container, mix garlic seasoning into panko and add salt and pepper to taste. Add the flour to another small container or plate. To a third small container, beat an egg until blended. 

Dredge avocado slices into flour and gently shake off excess, then dip in egg and gently shake off excess before coating in the panko mix--lightly pressing/patting the panko in so it sticks and avocado slices are well covered. 

Spray your parchment covered pan with cooking spray. Gently lay coated avocado slices in a single layer with a little space in between them. Lightly spray them with cooking spray to help them brown. Bake about 12 to 15 minutes, until golden brown. You can gently turn them mid way through to ensure they brown on both sides. 

Serve warm and crisp with Sriracha-Garlic Aioli or your favorite dipping sauce. 

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Sriracha-Garlic Aioli

By Deb, Kahakai Kitchen
(Makes about 1/2 cup)

1/2 cup mayonnaise 
2 1/2 Tbsp sriracha, or to taste
1 tsp smoked paprika
1 tsp garlic powder (I used "Lord of the Fries Brew Pub Garlic Fries Seasoning")
1/2 Tbsp pickle or caper juice + more to taste

Stir together ingredients in a small bowl. Taste and add additional Sriracha or seasoning as desired. Cover and chill until ready to use. Will keep for about a week to ten days in fridge. 

Notes/Results: OK, these are a little slice of heaven, crispy on the outside, soft and creamy inside, with the garlic blending so well with the sweet avocado and spicy aioli. I admit, they aren't very pretty but they more than make up for it in flavor. I think the hardest part is finding the right avocado ripeness--not too soft but also not hard, I had a couple of bad avocados in my "collection" so I was happy to get three good medium ones that were pretty close to being just right. I ate more of these than I should have--they are pretty addicting. I'll happily make them again. 

Check out this link for the #AllGirlsBlogParty at The Book Club Cookbook to see the other bloggers taking part and their delicious recipes!

Mahalo to St. Martin's Press and The Book Club Cookbook for the review copies of the book and for hosting this fun event. I received no compensation for my participation and, as always, my thoughts and opinions are my own.  

Find The Book Club Cookbook here: 

Facebook: TheBookClubCookbook

Twitter: @bookclubcookboo

Instagram: @thebookclubcookbook

Pinterest: @bookclubcook

 

The Book Tour Stops Here: A Review of "Remedios" by Deborah Clearman, Served with Guacamole & Toasted Tortillas

It's been a couple of months since I have done a book tour review so I'm excited to be today's stop on the TLC Book Tour for Remedios, a new novel by Deborah Clearman. Accompanying my review is a recipe for a Guatemalan-style Guacamole, served with Toasted Flour Tortillas inspired by my reading.

Publisher's Blurb:

Fernando Granados is a university professor in financial trouble when a boyhood friend he hasn’t seen in thirty years reenters his life. Memo Galindo, now part of a notorious Mexican cartel, soon persuades Fernando to build a meth lab on his country property, just outside the ancient town of Remedios. Fernando’s strong-willed wife Sandra and their beloved 18-year-old son Félix each fall under Memo’s charismatic spell. The cascading family crisis plays out on a larger stage, from its roots in Guatemala’s civil war in the ’80s to corruption in the Guatemalan army and American DEA, in a country where even the forces of nature wreak vengeance.

Paperback: 228 pages

Publisher: New Meridian Arts (July 13, 2020)

My Review: 

I have never watched Breaking Bad, or Narcos or been that interested in television shows, movies or books about people caught up in the drug trade but I wanted to read Remedios because I was on the TLC Book Tour for Deborah Clearman's book of short stories Concepción and the Baby Brokers (see my review here). Although Remedios is a novel, like Concepción and the Baby Brokers, it is set in Guatemala and features a gritty look at people caught up in something dangerous. Fernando (Nando) Granados is a university professor with a wife (a previous student) he has never cheated on, children, and several brothers that live with them. Having overspent on a renovating and improving their large home, Nando was in bad enough financial trouble that he looks a large loan from a local loan shark and is getting desperate about how he will pay him back when a friend he hasn't seen in decades shows up. The last time Nando saw Memo Galindo, they were teenagers attending a political meeting that ended with the military shooting it up. Nando and his older brother escape but Memo is left behind and forced to become a soldier to save his life. There are rumors he is part of a dangerous Mexican drug cartel and when Nando offers him a place to stay on some rural family property, Memo soon has him looking the other way while he builds a meth lab there, disguised as a cleaning supply manufacturing business. Nando is desperate to pay off his debt and thinks he can keep himself and his family from getting their hands dirty. Memo has some ulterior motives and long-held grudges with Nando, and soon he is involved with his wife and getting his oldest son involved in the business with some disastrous consequences. 

Remedios is not a light nor happy read but it is a quick and compelling one. I found myself caught up in this story and shaking my head in dismay as the ramifications from bad decisions pile up. I also liked getting another glimpse of Guatemala over the past few decades from Clearman, who divides her time between there and New York. I look forward to her next book.

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Author Notes: Deborah Clearman is the author of Remedios (New Meridian Arts Literary Press, 2020), Concepción and the Baby Brokers and Other Stories Out of Guatemala (Rain Mountain Press, 2017), and Todos Santos (Black Lawrence Press, 2010). Her short fiction has appeared in numerous literary journals. She wrote and illustrated The Goose’s Tale for children.

Deborah is the former Program Director of the NY Writers Coalition, a nonprofit organization dedicated to offering creative writing workshops to disenfranchised populations throughout New York City. She has led writing workshops for seniors, the homeless, and adults in public housing, and since 2011 has led an ongoing weekly workshop for women and men in jail on Rikers Island. She lives in Manhattan and Guatemala.

Since her first visit to Guatemala in 1978, Deborah has been back many times, living for a year in the village of Todos Santos in 2001-2002. She continues to maintain a close connection to the country and her Guatemalan friends to this day.

Find out more about Deborah at her website, and connect with her on Facebook and Instagram.

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Food Inspiration:

There was a fair amount of food inspiration for a small book. Mentions included: soup, red wine, oranges, tortillas to wipe up sauce at mo0st every meal, fish, salad, brandy, avocado trees, fresh eggs, oranges, limes, onions, linked sausages, coffee, rice and beans, brandy, whiskey, lemon trees, chile rellenos, chicken and rice, steak, grilled shrimp, tamales, atole, mutton, fruit and Prosecco, sandwiches, candy bars, ice cream, cappuccinos, beans and tortillas, and McDonalds.

For my bookish dish, I looked up easy Guatemalan recipes and when Guatemalan guacamole appeared, I knew that's what I wanted to make. I have been craving guacamole and liked how most of the recipes I pulled up were pretty simple, most just relying on lime juice, oregano and white onion. I used the one from TasteForTravel.com for my starting point, adjusting the lime and salt to my tastes.

Guatemalan Guacamole 
Slightly Adapted from TasteForTravel.com
(Makes about 2-ish Cups)

• 3 avocados, pits removed
• 1 1/2 Tbsp white onion, finely chopped
• 1 tsp dried Mexican oregano
• juice of 1 lime or more to taste
• 1/2 tsp sea salt or to taste
  

Mash avocados in a bowl with a fork until mostly smooth. stir in onion, oregano and lime juice. Taste and add salt to taste.

Notes/Results: I like how simple this guacamole is. Oregano is not an herb I typically put in my guacamole and I liked the addition as it pairs well with the lime and makes the flavor a bit more complex. The tortillas I used were small soft "street taco" style that I toasted over my gas burner and they were tasty but tortilla chips would also perfect.

I'm sharing this post with the Weekend Cooking event  being hosted by Marg at The Adventures of An Intrepid Reader. It's a weekly event that is open to anyone who has any kind of food-related post to share. You can see this week's post here.

Note: A review copy of "Remedios" was provided to me by the author and the publisher via TLC Book Tours. I was not compensated for my review and as always, my thoughts and opinions are my own. 
 
You can see the other stops for this TLC Book Tour and what other bloggers thought of the book here.

 

The Book Tour Stops Here: A Review of "The Only Skill That Matters" by Jonathan Levi, Served with a Recipe for Baked Eggs in Avocado with Salsa

Friday the 13th and a full micromoon make this Friday a bit more unique than many. If you want to learn and remember the history and science behind it but just don't learn or remember quickly, today's TLC Book Tour of The Only Skill That Matters by Jonathan Levi is for you. It's a book about becoming a superlearner--reading faster and remembering more. To fuel your learning, there's a recipe for Baked Eggs in Avocado with Salsa paired with my review.

Publisher's  Blurb

In the next ten years, every knowledge worker on earth will become one of two things: invaluable or obsolete. No matter the industry, the pace of progress and new information is faster today than ever before in human history—and it’s accelerating exponentially.
In this new reality, how can we possibly hope to keep up? How can we learn, unlearn, and relearn fast enough to stay relevant in the world to come?

In The Only Skill That Matters, Jonathan Levi unveils a powerful, neuroscience-based approach to reading faster, remembering more, and learning more effectively. You’ll master the ancient techniques being used by world record holders and competitive memory athletes to unlock the incredible capacity of the human brain. You’ll learn to double or triple your reading speed, enhance your focus, and optimize your cognitive performance. Most importantly, you’ll be empowered to confidently approach any subject—from technical skills, to names and faces, to foreign languages, and even speeches—and learn it with ease.

Lioncrest Publishing

Paperback: 185 Pages

My Review: 

I consider myself to be a relatively fast learner and reader and pretty good about remembering what I am interested in learning about but The Only Skill That Matters  taught me a lot in under 200 pages. Jonathan Levi breaks down the science of the brain in an easy and intriguing way, teaching techniques for chunking down learning and reading in order to move through it quickly while still retaining what you've read. A few of the techniques I had heard of or used before but I was interested to read the reasons behind why they work. I found Levi's methods for remembering names particularly helpful as it normally takes me several times of hearing a person's name before I have it down. I made a point of using his highly detailed visualizations for the names of the new hires in the orientation I led this week, and found myself remembering their names more quickly and easily than ever before. Levi freely admits most of his methods take effort and practice, making them go beyond "quick hacks"--but he provides exercises and supplements them with extra information and free tools on his website including a Speed Reading Flight Checklist and a Learning Preparation Worksheet. There are also several interesting interviews about memory and learning and Superlearner Success Stories in video and podcast form. I think this book will appeal to students and younger learners as well as those of us "older dogs" who want to learn new skills and keep our retention and memory capacity at an optimum level. I am looking forward to practicing more of Levi's techniques and exploring some of the tools he mentions.

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Author Notes: JONATHAN LEVI is a serial entrepreneur, keynote speaker, podcaster, and bestselling author of the Become a SuperLearner book and online course series. After struggling for decades as a student and “slow learner,” Jonathan discovered a powerful methodology for learning faster and remembering more. Since 2014, Jonathan has taught this methodology to over 220,000 people in 205 countries and territories. His award-winning podcast, SuperHuman Academy, has been downloaded over 3 million times. Jonathan has been featured in such media outlets as The Wall Street Journal, Inc., BusinessInsider, and LifeHacker UK. He lives in Tel Aviv, Israel, with his wife, Limmor. To learn more, visit superhumanacademy.com.

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Food Inspiration:

In a short book about learning and memory there was not much food focus, however Levi offers a chapter about good habits to get into like getting enough sleep, napping, and eating right. He recommends getting plenty of Omega 3s through things like fish and chia seeds and suggests switching out your breakfast bread and cereal for the healthy fats and protein in eggs and avocado. So for my book-inspired dish I decided to make eggs bake in an avocado and top it with salsa for extra flavor.

There are plenty of recipes for the keto-friendly avocado baked eggs online. I kept it simple with just a few ingredients and a big punch of flavor from the chunky salsa on top.

Baked Eggs in Avocado with Salsa
By Deb, Kahakai Kitchen
(Serves 1 or 2)

1 large, ripe avocado
2 small eggs
sea salt and black pepper
1/4 cup salsa

Preheat the oven to 400 degrees, F.

Slice avocado in half and remove pit. If the pit is small, spoon out a bit more of the avocado flesh to make room for the egg.  

Gently crack the eggs into a bowl, be careful to keep the yoke unbroken. Place the avocado halves in a small baking pan, keeping them against the edges so avocados don't tip. Spoon a yolk into the avocado half and spoon in enough egg white to fill the the rest of the hole. Repeat with the remaining avocado half. Gently place pan in oven and bake for about 15-17 minutes until egg whites are set.

Top the baked avocados with salsa and serve immediately. Enjoy.

Notes/Results: Just an easy and satisfying breakfast or dinner that takes just a few minutes to prepare. I loved the creamy avocado and runny-egg-yolk combination--the whites set just right and the slightly spicy salsa on top. I'll happily make it again.

I'm sharing this post with the Weekend Cooking event at Beth Fish Reads, a weekly event that is open to anyone who has any kind of food-related post to share. For more information, see the welcome post.

Note: A review copy of "The Only Skill That Matters" was provided to me by the author and the publisher, via TLC Book Tours. I was not compensated for my review and as always, my thoughts and opinions are my own. 
 
You can see the other stops for this TLC Book Tour and what other bloggers thought of the book here.