Book Review: 175 Best Air Fryer Recipes by Camilla V. Saulsbury

175 Best Air Fryer Recipes

by Camilla V. Saulsbury

 

My 19-year-old daughter moved back home and among her new possessions was a 2-quart air fryer. She claimed it was easy to use (it was!), we first heat it up with “That Button,” then we’d pull out “This Drawer” and put in the goodies, lightly spray them with oil to promote browning, halfway through pull out “That Drawer” again and shake them, then let them finish baking.

 

It was nearly effortless! The kitchen didn’t get hot. There wasn’t a big mess to clean up afterward. We feasted on fish sticks, hot pockets, tacos, and all the other naughty, frozen convenience foods. But we couldn’t survive on a diet of fatty, fake food so I searched the library’s catalog for “air fryer” and found several air fryer cookbooks.

 

This cookbook is my favorite and it’s perfect for a beginning user with a basic air fryer. I liked it so well I bought my own copy. It includes an introduction with a very brief history of the air fryer, how it works, choosing an air fryer, and cooking tips. There is also a suggested pantry of ingredients for the air fryer.

 

The recipes are divided into various categories such as Top 20 Fried Favorites (Classic French Fries, Onion Rings, Jalapeño Poppers, Beer-Battered Fried Fish, Light and Crispy Fried Catfish, Buffalo Chicken Wings, and many more – and most of my air fryer cooking began with this section). Other categories include Breakfast and Brunch; Appetizers and Snacks; Entrees; Vegetables and Sides; Desserts; Sauces, Dips and More.

 

The very first recipe I tried was the Buttermilk Fried Chicken. It turned out so juicy and tender with a flavorful coating that didn’t overpower the meat – we’ve all had those entrees that were mostly breading and not much chicken (though I used a boneless chicken breast half instead of the thighs or drumsticks). This was an easy, delicious starter dish.

 

The recipes don’t include weird expensive ingredients you have to hunt for, with multiple, complicated steps. My only complaint is, while there are photos of several of the recipes, there was not a photo of each one. I feel a cookbook should have a picture of every recipe it’s talking about. But other than that, this is a good place to start with making real meals with your basic air fryer, and not simply heating frozen items for a Friday night.

 

Warning. You may enjoy this so much you’ll want to upgrade to a bigger, higher level (“more expensive”) air fryer.

[ publisher’s official 175 Best Air Fryer Recipes web page ] | [ PowerHungry – Camilla V. Saulsbury’s official web site ]

 

Recommended by Charlotte M.
Bennett Martin Public Library — Public Services

 

Have you read or listened to this one? What did you think? Did you find this review helpful?

New reviews appear every month on the Staff Recommendations page of the BookGuide website. You can visit that page to see them all, or watch them appear here in the BookGuide Blog individually over the course of the entire month. Click the tag for the reviewer's name to see more of this reviewer’s recommendations!

Book Review: Radio Silence by Alice Oseman

Radio Silence

by Alice Oseman (YA Oseman)

 

Radio Silence didn’t go where I expected, but I enjoyed my time with it. It starts with a Big Coincidence. Frances is a head girl (British thing) at her school who lets everyone think she’s only about studying and school spirit, but she secretly makes fan art of her favorite sci-fi podcast, Radio Silence. Soon after the anonymous podcast creator asks her to become the official artist for the show, she finds out she personally knows the creator…from kissing his sister just before that sister ran away from home. So, a bit awkward.

 

But now the two of them can become fast friends who know each other’s big secret. What follows is a messy exploration of relationships, both platonic and sexual, among a small group of teens. It’s a story about what people are willing to share and want to hold back, even from the ones closest to them. It’s also a story about pressure put on teens to attend university as the one valued entrance to adulthood. I’ve read some other reviews that complain about this story meandering. Yes, it does, but so do real life relationships and sorting out what one wants / who one is. Radio Silence makes space to respect these realities and is a better book for it.

[If you enjoy this, you may also wish to try Felix Ever After by Kacen Callender or I Wish You All the Best by Mason Deaver.]

[ official Radio Silence page on the official Alice Oseman web site ]

 

Recommended by Garren H.
Bennett Martin Public Library — Public Services

 

Have you read or listened to this one? What did you think? Did you find this review helpful?

New reviews appear every month on the Staff Recommendations page of the BookGuide website. You can visit that page to see them all, or watch them appear here in the BookGuide Blog individually over the course of the entire month. Click the tag for the reviewer's name to see more of this reviewer’s recommendations!

Book Review: Redbone: The True Story of a Native American Rock Band by Christian Staebler

Redbone: The True Story of a Native American Rock Band

by Christian Staebler (YA PB (Graphic Novel) Staebler)

 

This gorgeously illustrated graphic novel tells the story of 60s and 70s era rock band Redbone, best known for their hit “Come and Get Your Love.” The story follows the beginnings of the band, the heyday and all the different, varied artists they worked with throughout their career up to their involvement in various indigenous rights activities. The book is quick informative read and good for anyone interested in a music or First Nations history read.

[ publisher’s official Redbone book web site ] | [ English translation of official Christian Staebler French language web site ] [ semi-official Redbone band history site ]

 

Recommended by Caitlin L.
Bennett Martin Public Library — Public Services

 

Have you read or listened to this one? What did you think? Did you find this review helpful?

New reviews appear every month on the Staff Recommendations page of the BookGuide website. You can visit that page to see them all, or watch them appear here in the BookGuide Blog individually over the course of the entire month. Click the tag for the reviewer's name to see more of this reviewer’s recommendations!

Book Review: Eight Perfect Murders by Peter Swanson

Eight Perfect Murders

by Peter Swanson (Swanson)

 

This is a good book! A little creepy, definitely unexpected, but worth the read if you are a mystery book lover.

 

Another librarian recommended this book to me and I was not disappointed. I do not want to disclose much about the plot, because it may ruin your experience. I will say that the basic premise is that Malcolm Kershaw, owner of the Old Devils Bookstore in Boston, is approached by FBI Special Agent Gwen Mulvey. Mulvey tells him that she is tracking a killer. She believes that a killer is basing his or her murders on a blog post Kershaw made years ago. Kershaw created the “Eight Perfect Murders” post when his book store opened up in 2004, listing what he considered perfect foolproof murders in crime fiction. But now it appears someone is using the premises of those eight books to commit murders that are largely going unsolved; and most likely it is someone he knows.

 

Eight Perfect Murders is a page turner. I read the entire book in one sitting. The farther you get into the book, the more plot twists you encounter. You can guess how it will turn out–you may be right; you may be wrong. I was wrong, sort of.

 

I also greatly enjoyed how Peter Swanson pays homage to some of the classics of the mystery genre: The Red House Mystery by A.A. Milne, Malice Aforethought by Anthony Berkeley Cox, The A.B.C. Murders by Agatha Christie, And Then There Were None by Agatha Christie, The Murder of Robert Ackroyd by Agatha Christie, Double Indemnity by James M. Cain, Strangers on a Train by Patricia Highsmith, The Drowner by John D. MacDonald, Deathtrap by Ira Levin and The Secret History by Donna Tartt. You don’t have to read the featured books first, but your experience would be the richer for it! And if you haven’t read them all yet, chances are good you are going to want to read them afterwards.

[ official Eight Perfect Murders page on the official Peter Swanson web site ]

 

Recommended by Cindy K.
Bennett Martin Public Library — Public Services

 

Have you read or listened to this one? What did you think? Did you find this review helpful?

New reviews appear every month on the Staff Recommendations page of the BookGuide website. You can visit that page to see them all, or watch them appear here in the BookGuide Blog individually over the course of the entire month. Click the tag for the reviewer's name to see more of this reviewer’s recommendations!

New Booklist on BookGuide: Summer Olympics Reading List

 

Have you been watching the Tokyo Summer Olympics sports coverage on TV and online for the past two weeks? Are you sorry to see it come to an end with tonight's Summer Olympics Closing Ceremonies?

If so, then you'll want to check out the recent Summer Olympics Reading List addition to the libraries BookGuide readers advisory resources. Carrie R., from the Bennett Martin Public Library downtown, offers up some recommended reading suggestions for the Olympics in general -- both the Ancient Olympics and the Modern Olympics -- and then also provides reading/viewing suggestions for library materials available for each of the Summer Olympics sport categories -- from swimming and gymnastics and athletics (track & field) to field hockey, BMX, beach volleyball, triathlon, fencing, table tennis and new additions this year including surfing, skateboarding, sport climbing and more. Each category will feature books and DVDs about the individual sports, as well as biographies of some of the prominent athletes known for each sport.

So...hold off your Olympics withdrawal symptoms with some of these great reads!

Check out this new booklist on BookGuide at the following link:

Summer Olympics Reading List

DVD Review: Seabiscuit

Seabiscuit
(DVD Seabiscuit)

I have always been a fan of movies about horses, so it is no wonder that I would find this movie so appealing. This movie is based on the true story of Seabiscuit, an American racehorse who became a symbol of hope to many Americans during the Great Depression. Although small, Seabiscuit beat the odds to become one of the greatest racehorses in America during the late 1930s and early 1940s. The story is about Seabiscuit’s jockey, trainer and owner. The jockey is played by Tobey Maguire of Spiderman fame who gives an incredible performance as Red Pollard. Also notable in this production is Jeff Bridges as owner Charles Howard and author David McCullough as the narrator.

 

This is well worth seeing.

[If you enjoy this, you may also wish to try War Horse, Secretariat or Black Beauty] [Also available in traditional print format.]

[ Internet Movie Database entry for this film ]

 

Recommended by Kim J.
Bennett Martin Public Library — Public Service

 

Have you watched this one? What did you think? Did you find this review helpful?

New reviews appear every month on the Staff Recommendations page of the BookGuide website. You can visit that page to see them all, or watch them appear here in the BookGuide Blog individually over the course of the entire month. Click the tag for the reviewer's name to see more of this reviewer’s recommendations!

Music Review: Summon the Heroes by John Williams and the Boston Symphony Orchestra (on CD)

Summon the Heroes
by John Williams and the Boston Symphony Orchestra (Compact Disc 781.68 Bos)

As I write this review, we are about halfway through the Tokyo Summer Olympics of 2021 (postponed from 2020 by the global pandemic). Ever since 1996, one of my every-other-year traditions during both the Summer Olympics and the Winter Olympics is to listen to this album on auto-replay for two straight weeks as the sporting events take place.

 

Summon the Heroes is both the album title and the title of the first track — which in 1996 was a newly created work by composer/conductor John Williams (yes, he of the many Oscar-winning soundtracks), in honor of the Centennial Celebration of the Modern Olympic Games in Atlanta, GA in July of that year. Overall, the disc contains twelve tracks, three of which are Williams’ music. Track three opens with Leo Arnaud’s “Bugler’s Dream”, which leads immediately into “Olympic Fanfare and Theme”, written by Williams for the 1984 Los Angeles Summer Games. And track #1 is “The Olympic Spirit”, a piece composed by Williams for the NBC Sports Division, in celebration of the 1988 Summer Olympics in Seoul, South Korea. All three of Williams’ pieces feature a wide range of musical stylings, from challenging brasses and pulse-pounding percussion, to pensive woodwinds and striving strings — there’s a little thing in there for all types of athletic experience, from individuals struggling to complete a marathon, and gymnasts flying through the air like birds, to driving beats symbolizing the charge of the speed swimmer or the compulsive excitement of men and women testing the boundaries of human strength and endurance.

 

Admittedly, those are the three tracks I gravitate towards most often, considering that they are still heavily sampled for use in NBC’s ongoing Olympics television and streaming coverage of the games. But the disc does include 9 other tracks of music, some written specifically for the Olympics, and some just thematically appropriate: “O Fortuna” by Carl Orff; “Ode to Zeus” from Canto Olympico (for the 1992 games in Barcelona” by Mikis Theodorakis; “Javelin” by Michael Torke, written for the 1996 Atlanta games; “Olympic Theme” by Leonard Bernstein, written for the 1981 International Olympic Congress; “Festive Overture, Op. 96” by Dmitri Shostakovich, theme of the 1980 Moscow summer games, “Conquest of Paradise” by Vangelis; “Parade of the Charioteers from Ben Hur” by Miklos Rozsa; “Toward a New Life” by Josef Suk, Silver medal-winning composition at the 1932 Olympic Games in Los Angeles, and “Chariots of Fire (Theme)”, also by Vangelis, written for the 1981 film but also performed at the 1984 Winter Games in Sarajevo. I find most of these non-Williams’ tracks to be more about the fanfare and pageantry of the Games, and less about the experiences of the athletes themselves.

 

None-the-less, each of these pieces, in their own way, is inspirational and celebrational. But the three Williams tracks, clocking in at around 14 1/2 minutes total, get my pulse racing and put me in the mood to see the world’s greatest athletes pushing their limits. Of the hundreds of CDs (and digital albums) I own, I’ve probably listened to Summon the Heroes more often than any other…and it never fails to lift me up, no matter what mood I’m in!

[Note: Williams also composed yet another piece of Olympics music — “Call of the Champions” — for the 2002 Winter Olympics, after this 1996 album was released. I wish it was also on this disc!]

[If you enjoy this, I’d suggest listening to other John Williams works. But his soundtracks, tremendous though they are, are very much tied in to the films they were written for. The works he created for the Olympics seem to stand out as an entirely different field of music.]

[ Wikipedia page for John Williams (he doesn’t have an official website) ]

 

See the new Summer Olympics Reading List on BookGuide!

 

Recommended by Scott C.
Bennett Martin Public Library — Public Services

 

Have you listened to this one? What did you think? Did you find this review helpful?

New reviews appear every month on the Staff Recommendations page of the BookGuide website. You can visit that page to see them all, or watch them appear here in the BookGuide Blog individually over the course of the entire month. Click the tag for the reviewer's name to see more of this reviewer’s recommendations!

Book Review: She Persist in Sports: American Olympians Who Changed the Game by Chelsea Clinton and Alexandra Boiger

She Persisted in Sports: American Olympians Who Changed the Game
by Chelsea Clinton and Alexandra Boiger (j796.48 Cli)

In researching books about they Olympics to help a co-worker with her “Summer Olympics Reading List” booklist, I stumbled across this third volume in the series of short picture book biographies of significant women, written by Chelsea Clinton and illustrated by Alexandra Boiger.

 

In their first two volumes, this creative team covered She Persisted: 13 American Women Who Changed the World, and She Persisted Around the World: 13 Women Who Changed History. In this latest (2019) entry, they offer up 13 more inspirational real-life stories, though three of those feature pairs (siblings or teammates) instead of just individuals. In keeping with their “She Persisted…” theme, all of the women in their stories were actively discouraged from pursuing their athletic dreams, but through persistence, perseverance and dogged stubbornness, all the profiled individuals surpassed athletic milestones previously thought unattainable or somehow inappropriate.

 

Individuals (or teams) profiled here include: Margaret Ives Abbott (golf), Gertrude Ederle (swimming), Mildred “Babe” Didrickson Zaharias (multiple sports), Wilma Rudolph (track and field), Jean Driscoll (wheelchair sports and Paralympian), Mia Hamm (and the USA women’s soccer teams of 1996 and later), Kristi Yamaguchi (figure skating), Venus and Serena Williams (tennis), Misty May-Treanor and Kerri Walsh Jennings (beach volleyball), Diana Taurasi (basketball), Simone Biles (gymnastics), Ibtihaj Muhammad (fencing), and Jocelyne and Monique Lamoureaux (hockey).

 

This is a charming an inspirational short read for anyone wishing to celebrate female American athletes, throughout various eras of sporting history. And especially with the Summer Olympics currently providing its own array of inspirational figures right now!

[If you enjoy this, you may also wish to try She Persisted: 13 American Women Who Changed the World and She Persisted Around the World: 13 Women Who Changed History, also by Chelsea Clinton and Alexandra Boiger.]

[ Wikipedia page for Chelsea Clinton ] | [ official Alexandra Boiger web site ]

See the new Summer Olympics Reading List on BookGuide for more titles similar to this!

 

Recommended by Scott C.
Bennett Martin Public Library — Public Services

 

Have you read or listened to this one? What did you think? Did you find this review helpful?

New reviews appear every month on the Staff Recommendations page of the BookGuide website. You can visit that page to see them all, or watch them appear here in the BookGuide Blog individually over the course of the entire month. Click the tag for the reviewer's name to see more of this reviewer’s recommendations!

DVD Review: All My Life

All My Life

(DVD All)

 

If you pay any attention to trending romance stories in pop culture, you may have heard about the experience of Jennifer Carter and Solomon Chou, whose friends and family initiated a GoFundMe fundraising campaign to help them pay for their wedding and honeymoon, after Sol was diagnosed with inoperable cancer only months before their original wedding was to have taken place.

 

All My Life tells their story. Jessica Rothe plays Jenn and Harry Shum Jr. plays Sol, with an extensive cast of supporting actors as their friends, co-workers and physicians. The film telescopes some of the real-life events in the couples’ life, shortening the timeframe of some of the actual events. Yet, the feel of the film isn’t rushed. Rothe and Shum have marvelous chemistry as the ill-fated couple, with Rothe particularly shining, the more stress she’s placed under.

 

Despite the sad ending that most viewers should know is coming, this was an uplifting and life-affirming movie. I enjoyed it very much and give it a strong recommendation!

[ Internet Movie Database entry for this film ] | [ official All My Life Facebook page ]

 

Recommended by Scott C.
Bennett Martin Public Library — Public Services

 

Have you watched this one? What did you think? Did you find this review helpful?

New reviews appear every month on the Staff Recommendations page of the BookGuide website. You can visit that page to see them all, or watch them appear here in the BookGuide Blog individually over the course of the entire month. Click the tag for the reviewer's name to see more of this reviewer’s recommendations!

Audiobook Review: Fair Warning by Michael Connelly, narrated by Peter Giles and Zach Villa

Fair Warning

by Michael Connelly (narrated by Peter Giles and Zach Villa) (Compact Disc Connelly)

 

I read this latest entry in the Jack McEvoy series by Michael Connelly as an audiobook-on-cd, for the library-sponsored Just Desserts mystery book discussion group meeting in June 2021. Unlike Connelly’s other ongoing series, such as the Harry Bosch novels, which produce a new entry every year-or-so, Connelly spreads the novels featuring investigative reporter McEvoy out a bit more — anywhere from eight to a dozen or more years may pass between each new entry. In interviews, Connelly has even said that he finds the McEvoy novels the hardest of all his series to write, as McEvoy is the character closest to Connelly in real-life experiences.

 

In this entry, McEvoy, currently writing for a consumer affairs news website — the “Fair Warning” of the title — is pulled into an LAPD homicide investigation when a woman he had a one-night stand with years ago is murdered, apparently the latest victim of a crafty serial killer who uses a particularly brutal method to kill his victims. Though released from being a suspect, McEvoy feels connected to the case, and begins to believe there’s a story he should investigate. He is partnered with one of his colleagues to research a story involving consumer-level DNA analysis (genetics testing), and some of the apparent security loopholes in that industry. And there IS a story to be uncovered, as the serial killer has used genetics database connections to target his victims…and doesn’t want his trail to be uncovered.

 

McEvoy isn’t quite as unambivalently “righteous” as Bosch or several other recurring Connelly characters. But I found that his grayer edges made him a compelling character. The exploration of the DNA testing industry, and the ability to target potential sexual assault or murder victims based on genetic markers was somewhat chilling. And the cast of supporting characters was intriguing. The book-on-CD version of this includes a one-on-one interview between author Connelly and Myron Levin, the real-life editor/publisher of the real-life Fair Warning website, who allowed himself to be fictionalized for this story. [Note: the FairWarning.org site has ceased doing business as of February 2021, after 11 years as a consumer protection service.]

 

All in all, I found this to be a very solid Connelly entry!

[If you enjoy this, you may also wish to try The Poet and The Scarecrow by Connelly, the previous two Jack McEvoy novels.]

[ official Fair Warning book page on the official Michael Connelly web site ]

 

Recommended by Scott C.
Bennett Martin Public Library — Public Services

Scott listened to this one for the Just Desserts mystery fiction discussion group discussion online in June 2021.

 

If you're a mystery fan, join us for the next group meeting on July 29th, where we'll be discussing the suspense novel One by One by Ruth Ware. The Just Desserts group has returned to in-person meetings as of June 2021. Join us at 6:30 p.m. to 7:45 p.m. in the 4th floor auditorium of the Bennett Martin Public Library downtown at 14th & "N" St. on the last Thursday of each upcoming month. For more information, check out the Just Desserts schedule at https://lincolnlibraries.org/bookguide/book-groups/#justdesserts

Book Review: All Thirteen: The Incredible Cave Rescue of the Thai Boys Soccer Team by Christina Soontornvat

All Thirteen: The Incredible Cave Rescue of the Thai Boys Soccer Team

by Christina Soontornvat (j796.525 Soo)

 

A stirring story of the rescue of the 12 boys and one assistant coach of a Thai soccer team in early July, 2018 from Tham Luang Nang Non (The Cave of the Sleeping Lady) in northern Thailand. The Lady is the fourth largest cave in Thailand, and when it was all said and done they had been stranded underground, mostly in the dark, for 18 days.

 

This became a multi-national effort, and the logistics of this dangerous rescue were amazing. The rescue crews privately estimated that 5-6 of the boys would not make it. Sadly, a retired member of the Thai SEAL team, who returned to assist, did die during the initial operations.

 

Reading through the set-up, the rehearsals, the actual process, and everything involved to get those young men out of the underwater portions of the cave was riveting even though we know they made it.

 

This is classified as a juvenile book, but don’t let that put you off. It could be more of a Teen Read and there is nothing kid-like about this book (this is a 2021 Newbery Honor book – awarded annually by the Association for Library Service to Children section of the American Library Association for the most distinguished American book for children). Includes photos, additional maps and side-stories.

 

A compelling, quick read you can do in an afternoon.

[ official All Thirteen page on the official Christina Soontornvat web site ]

 

Recommended by Charlotte M.
Bennett Martin Public Library — Public Services

 

Have you read or listened to this one? What did you think? Did you find this review helpful?

New reviews appear every month on the Staff Recommendations page of the BookGuide website. You can visit that page to see them all, or watch them appear here in the BookGuide Blog individually over the course of the entire month. Click the tag for the reviewer's name to see more of this reviewer’s recommendations!

Book Review: Typeset in the Future: Typography and Design in Science Fiction Movies by Dave Addey

Typeset in the Future: Typography and Design in Science Fiction Movies

by Dave Addey (not in library collection — I suggest requesting it via the library’s InterLibrary Loan service)

 

Author Dave Addey started Typeset in the Future as a website (https://typesetinthefuture.com/), and has migrated much of that site’s content to this impressive book — all about the use of specific fonts/typesets to innately establish a futuristic science fiction setting in motion pictures. Addey targets seven specific science fiction films to use as prime examples: 2001: A Space Odyssey; Blade Runner; Star Trek: The Motion Picture; Alien; Total Recall; Wall-E; and Moon. This site and this book aim to answer the question — When you see an image from a movie, featuring text or signage or identifying markers in some way, what fonts make you immediately recognize that the scene is set in the future?

 

Each film gets its own in-depth exploration in this book, examining the iconic fonts used in on-screen graphics, signage, paperwork, vehicle name graphics, and more. But that’s not all — Addey has extensive sidebar articles about the history of various fonts, the people who created them or for whom they were named, and much more. What could have been an extremely dry and technical topic is brought to life in vivid detail, Addey’s passionate enthusiasm for his subject matter is abundant, and his sarcastic and snarky sense of humor shines through in his lengthy commentaries. This book is jam-packed with graphics — zoomed-in close-ups of moments from each film, in which a particular font can be identified — reproductions of entire font families to illustrate a point — photos of props from the films, with distinctive text/markings on them in recognizable fonts, etc. Each chapter ends with him interviewing someone associated with the typography and/or production or set design of the film that was just dissected. Personally, I found these interviews to be among the most interesting information provided in this book.

 

Sadly, the libraries have not ordered Typeset in the Future: Typography and Design in Science Fiction Movies for our local collection — if you’re interested enough to track this one down, I encourage you to pursue it as a request through our InterLibrary Loan service, where for a small service fee, we can get borrow it on your behalf from another library elsewhere in the country. I loved this book, and highly recommend it. I only subtract a single point in my review score because Addey occasionally goes off on tangents that seem only vaguely related to the main focus of the book. But sometimes, even those are fun!

[If you enjoy looking at the history and specific use of fonts, you may also wish to try Just My Type: A Book About Fonts by Simon Garfield, Culture & Typography: How Culture Affects Typography by Nikki Villagomez or The Evolution of Type: A Graphic Guide to 100 Landmark Typefaces: Examining Letters From Metal Type to Open Type by Tony Seddon. Books about the making of these films are also out there to track down, which touch on some of the same topics.]

[ official Typeset in the Future book page on the official Typeset in the Future web site ]

 

Recommended by Scott C.
Bennett Martin Public Library — Public Services

 

Have you read or listened to this one? What did you think? Did you find this review helpful?

New reviews appear every month on the Staff Recommendations page of the BookGuide website. You can visit that page to see them all, or watch them appear here in the BookGuide Blog individually over the course of the entire month. Click the tag for the reviewer's name to see more of this reviewer’s recommendations!

Book Review: Gory Details by Erika Engelhaupt

Gory Details: Adventures From the Dark Side of Science

by Erika Engelhaupt (500 Eng/Downloadable Audio)

 

If you like learning gross details about humans and their surrounding environments, look no further! My favorite/most morbidly titillating story was about the woman with worms in her eye. From eating bugs, to will our pets eat us if we die, National Geographic blogger Erika Engelhaupt takes us on a journey through her Gory details.

[If you enjoy this, you may also wish to try All That Remains by Sue Black, Bad Days in History: A Gleefully Grim Chronicle of Misfortune, Mayhem, and Misery for Every Day of the Year by Michael Farquhar or Vampire Forensics by Mark Collins Jenkins.]

[ official Erika Engelhaupt web site (also official Gory Details site) ]

 

Recommended by Rio B.
Bennett Martin Public Library — Public Services

 

Have you read or listened to this one? What did you think? Did you find this review helpful?

New reviews appear every month on the Staff Recommendations page of the BookGuide website. You can visit that page to see them all, or watch them appear here in the BookGuide Blog individually over the course of the entire month. Click the tag for the reviewer's name to see more of this reviewer’s recommendations!

DVD Review: A Call to Spy

A Call to Spy

(DVD Call)

 

I first saw this on the new DVD releases display at WalMart, and realized I’d never seen any promos for it at the time of its 2019 theatrical release. Seeing that one of its stars was Stana Katic, who starred as Kate Beckett for seven seasons on the ABC detective series Castle, of which I was a huge fan, I immediately placed a hold on it through the LibraryLNK app — and then it turned out my wife got a library copy before my hold came in.

 

A Call to Spy is a gritty and emotional World War II story, based on real life events. Katic plays Vera Atkins, a Romanian-born female British intelligence officer, whose work for the Special Operations Executive in the early years of the war included the recruitment of 37 female operatives, who were sent undercover into hot spots occupied by Axis powers, particularly throughout France, to create resistance cells and report back via wireless on enemy movements. These women were in deadly danger at all times, especially those responsible for using the wireless — an activity constantly watched for and targeted for reprisals by the Nazis.

 

This film focuses on her efforts along those lines with two specific women — Noor Inayat Khan (played by Radhika Apte), and Virginia Hall (played by Sarah Megan Thomas — who also wrote the screenplay). Hall was an American who had been injured and supplied with an artificial leg, and Khan was a British Muslim. Both were sent into France, with differing levels of success. Meanwhile, on the home front, Atkins fights against prejudice and distrust amongst the all-male intelligence command structure.

 

This was a compelling film, and made me curious about the real-life story of Atkins and the other women. Research indicates that this film simplifies some of the complex situations they all found themselves in, and Atkins had a very up-and-down relationship with British intelligence. But for a 2-hour movie that needed to streamline the story somewhat, I found this to be excellent — both entertaining and educational. And the performances were top notch, particularly Thomas and Apte, who do a good job of showing how dire their characters’ situations can become. Strongly recommended, especially for fans of war films, espionage films, or films focusing on strong female characters — in this case real historical figures.

 

[ Internet Movie Database entry for this film ] | [ official A Call to Spy web site ]

 

Recommended by Scott C.
Bennett Martin Public Library — Public Services

 

Have you watched this one? What did you think? Did you find this review helpful?

New reviews appear every month on the Staff Recommendations page of the BookGuide website. You can visit that page to see them all, or watch them appear here in the BookGuide Blog individually over the course of the entire month. Click the tag for the reviewer's name to see more of this reviewer’s recommendations!

Music Book Review: Between the Tracks: Musicians on Selected Electronic Music edited by Miller Puckette and Kerry L. Hagan

Between the Tracks: Musicians on Selected Electronic Music

edited by Miller Puckette and Kerry L. Hagan (Music 786.7 Puc)

 

I wanted to highlight this book because it’s a good example of the old adage “don’t judge a book by its cover.” Indeed the cover art for this title is unfortunately bland, with an image of a vinyl record along the top quarter of its front cover and lots of empty blue space for much of the rest. But if you’re interested in the more experimental side of electronic music and its history, this book is far more exciting than the cover suggests.

 

The book consists of 12 essays covering the more “composerly” side of electronic music from roughly the 1960s to the present. Back in the 50s and 60s, there were university sound laboratories packed with room-sized synthesizers for composers and students to undertake what amounted to research in sound. At that stage, most of this music was truly “experimental,” exploring then-new sounds and textures and working methods. Now that so many people have worked with these sounds, they’re largely past the stages of experimentation and function as fully expressive musical tools, but that gives us the opportunity for even more kinds of research: we can look at cultural and social aspects of music-making around these instruments.

 

Although the essays are independent from one another, there are some common themes that arise between them. The first three essays, for example, all address electroacoustic compositions that have some potential for extramusical communication. While electroacoustic music was once regarded as almost impenetrable emotionally, it has become so familiar that we can analyze newer compositions in terms of their ability to function representationally, like the opening essay by Yvette Janine Jackson that describes Jacqueline George’s “Same Sun (2016)” as a narrative commentary on environmental issues. Gayle Young’s “Ice Creek (2018)” and Hildegard Westerkamp’s “Beneath the Forest Floor (1992)” are given similarly thorough analysis.

 

Other essays address issues like collaboration and ownership of compositions, cultural identities within electronic music practices, and investigations into the circuits, both literal and conceptual, used in electronic music performance and composition. This is a great read with some novel perspectives that’s sure to expand your thinking on electronic composition.

[If you enjoy this, you may also wish to try Electronic Music and Musique Concrete by F.C. Judd, Living Electronic Music by Simon Emmerson or Composing Electronic Music: A New Aesthetic by Curtis Roads.]

[ publisher’s official Between the Tracks web page ] | [ Wikipedia page for Miller Puckette ]

 

Recommended by Scott S.
Polley Music Library

 

Have you read or listened to this one? What did you think? Did you find this review helpful?

New reviews appear every month on the Staff Recommendations page of the BookGuide website. You can visit that page to see them all, or watch them appear here in the BookGuide Blog individually over the course of the entire month. Click the tag for the reviewer's name to see more of this reviewer’s recommendations!

Check out this, and all the other great music resources, at the Polley Music Library, located on the 2nd floor of the Bennett Martin Public Library at 14th & "N" St. in downtown Lincoln. You'll find biographies of musicians, books about music history, instructional books, sheet music, CDs, music-related magazines, and much more. Also check out Polley Music Library Picks, the Polley Music Library's e-mail newsletter.

Book Review: The Unicorn Cookbook by Alix Carey

The Unicorn Cookbook

by Alix Carey (j641.86 Car)

 

When I saw this one pass by the check-out desk at the library, I knew I had to take a look — my wife loves unicorns!

 

This children’s cookbook is, quite literally, one of the most colorful cookbooks I’ve ever seen. British baker Alex Carey is extremely imaginative in the use of color, sprinkles and other decorations. The cookbook is broken down into numerous categories, with some crossing over between them: Cupcakes, Celebration Cakes, Cookies & Biscuits, Bars and Bites, Party Food, Breakfast, Desserts, and Drinks. Carey creates unicorn horns in several different ways, including through the use of fondant, and by starting with an ice cream cone base.

 

Most recipes are relatively basic, but some feature steps that might be complex for younger bakers. But the book is definitely a feast for the eyes. If you’ve got a youngster who loves unicorns, fantasy, and magic, you’re bound to find some creative ideas for baking and celebrating in this volume. And as an added bonus — the “English accent” of the author comes through in some of the terminology used in the book, adding a bit of fancy flair even to the text.

[ publisher’s official The Unicorn Cookbook web page ] | [ official Alix Carey Twitter feed ]

 

Recommended by Scott C.
Bennett Martin Public Library — Public Services

 

Have you read or listened to this one? What did you think? Did you find this review helpful?

New reviews appear every month on the Staff Recommendations page of the BookGuide website. You can visit that page to see them all, or watch them appear here in the BookGuide Blog individually over the course of the entire month. Click the tag for the reviewer's name to see more of this reviewer’s recommendations!

Book Review: Say Yes to What's Next by Lori Allen

Say Yes to What’s Next

by Lori Allen (646.72 All)

 

This caught my eye because I enjoy watching the TV series “Say Yes to the Dress: Atlanta”, which features Allen’s bridal boutique, which she formed from the ground up. She is the epitome of a successful and sassy modern Southern Belle. The subtitle is “How to age with elegance and class while never losing your beauty and sass”. Combining biographical information with advice and advocacy for middle- and older-aged women, this is a fairly quick and frequently humorous read. It is not ‘lightweight’ as much as to-the-point. For me, personally, a lot of the information was moot, as she centers most of the topics around women with children and grandchildren, which I do not have. However, one very nice thing about the book is that online and organizational resources, such as mentoring programs and a budgeting website, are referenced in a number of instances. Regarding her personal life, I was surprised to find out about a critical injury Allen had after she had come through breast cancer successfully and it was nice to learn how despite a deep depression she suffered, she persevered and overcame that as well.

[ publisher’s official Say Yes to What’s Next web site ] | [ official Lori Allen web site ]

 

Recommended by Becky W.C.
Walt Branch Library

 

Have you read or listened to this one? What did you think? Did you find this review helpful?

New reviews appear every month on the Staff Recommendations page of the BookGuide website. You can visit that page to see them all, or watch them appear here in the BookGuide Blog individually over the course of the entire month. Click the tag for the reviewer's name to see more of this reviewer’s recommendations!

Book Review: Geektastic edited by Holly Black and Cecil Castellucci

Geektastic: Stories From the Nerd Herd

edited by Holly Black and Cecil Castellucci (YA PB (Non-Fiction) Black or j813.08 Bla)

 

I stumbled across a copy of this 2009 anthology a few years ago in a used bookstore and snatched it up for my own personal collection, and finally got around to reading it. I’m pleased to see it exists as both a physical book and E-book through the libraries as well!

 

Geektastic features 15 short stories and 14 interstitial 1- or 2-page comics that all explore the concept of “fandom” and “being a geek/nerd” -- all written by some of the hottest Young Adult authors at the time of publication, including Scott Westerfeld, Cassandra Clare, David Levithan, Garth Nix, Kelly Link, John Green, Libba Bray and more! In some cases, this might involve science fiction or fantasy — the characters may be huge Star Trek or Star Wars fans, but it can also involve intense fans of other types of things as well — fanfiction, gaming, devotees of an actor — anything where the person can “geek out” over their interests. These stories cover a broad range of styles and tones, and I didn’t necessarily love all of them. But, there were enough strong entries for me to feel comfortable recommending the collection.

 

Though it’s classified in the Young Adult section, I’m reviewing it as an “adult” item, for adult readers. Obviously, it’s appropriate for YA readership. My only real complaint — I got to enjoy some of the characters in the stories so much I was sorry the story was over in just 10-15 pages!

 

Strongly recommended — especially for anyone who’s ever felt ostracized for being overly devoted to an interest, or, conversely, for anyone who’s never really understood the mindset that can lead to that level of devotion. Truly, a celebration of being on the fringes of mainstream.

[ official Geektastic anthology page on the official Holly Black web site ]

 

Recommended by Scott C.
Bennett Martin Public Library — Public Services

 

Have you read or listened to this one? What did you think? Did you find this review helpful?

New reviews appear every month on the Staff Recommendations page of the BookGuide website. You can visit that page to see them all, or watch them appear here in the BookGuide Blog individually over the course of the entire month. Click the tag for the reviewer's name to see more of this reviewer’s recommendations!

Book Review: The Lady Has a Past by Amanda Quick

The Lady Has a Past

by Amanda Quick (Quick)

 

Amanda Quick, aka Jayne Ann Krentz, is back with another historical romance title in her Burning Cove series. Burning Cove is a seaside California town that caters to the rich and famous in the 1930s. Each of the five titles in the series features a strong female character who stumbles into a murder mystery and uncovers the dark truth with the help of a handsome, strong male counterpart. Some of the books carry over characters and places, but it’s not mandatory to read the books in order to enjoy the titles.

 

This installment features a novice private investigator, Lyra Brazier. After a bumpy first day on the job in which she kills a man with a golf club, the next day she returns to find her boss and mentor Raina Kirk leaving the office to help an old friend. But it soon becomes clear that something else is brewing as Raina disappears from the lavish Labrynth Springs Hotel and Spa.

 

When Lyra is determined to look into Raina’s disappearance, nightclub owner Luther Pell (Raina’s boyfriend) employs a “bodyguard” of sorts to aid in her investigation. Enter Lyra’s love interest. Instead of a muscle-bound gangster, Lyra is paired with the cool, quiet antiquarian book dealer Simon Cage. Behind his steely eyes Cage hides a special paranormal ability that hopefully will save Raina–and both of them–from an untimely end.

 

I enjoyed this book because it was a fun read with quick action, steamy romance, and short chapters that keeps you intrigued until the end. Krentz is a bestselling author for good reason and I look forward to the next Burning Cove installment..

[If you enjoy this, you may also wish to try The Girl Who Knew Too Much by Amanda Quick or Tightrope also by Amanda Quick.]

[ official The Lady Has a Past page on the official Amanda Quick/Jayne Ann Krentz web site ]

 

Recommended by Cindy K.
Bennett Martin Public Library — Public Services

 

Have you read or listened to this one? What did you think? Did you find this review helpful?

New reviews appear every month on the Staff Recommendations page of the BookGuide website. You can visit that page to see them all, or watch them appear here in the BookGuide Blog individually over the course of the entire month. Click the tag for the reviewer's name to see more of this reviewer’s recommendations!

DVD Review: Psycho Goreman

Psycho Goreman/PG (a.k.a. “PG: Psycho Goreman”)

(DVD Psycho)

 

A friend kept highly recommending this horror/comedy film to me, so I finally gave in and checked out the library DVD to watch. That’s an hour and a half of my life I won’t get back.

 

Psycho Goreman (a.k.a. PG: Psycho Goreman) is an bizarre hybrid of horror and science fiction, with some extremely dark humor thrown into the mix. The plot, in a nutshell: An ancient, evil, alien warlord was defeated and entombed on Earth millennia ago by a powerful galactic federation. Today, a pair of pre-teen siblings unwittingly release the evil entity, only to discover that a glowing medallion that had sealed him into his prison still has the ability to control his actions — as long as they have that seal, they can tell him what to do. Unfortunately, it is the headstrong, petulant, antisocial sister (Mimi) that takes control of the creature, not the more cerebral, even-tempered brother (Luke).

 

They name the 9-foot-tall nightmare Psycho Goreman (a.k.a. PG), and after first keeping it hidden in an abandoned warehouse (where it has slaughtered the members of a gang of thieves), Mimi eventually starts parading it around their neighborhood. The humor comes from the ridiculous things they attempt to have the murderous Psycho Goreman do, all while the monstrous creatures fumes and swears to wreak its eternal bloody revenge. The carnage of beheadings, spurting blood and a body turned inside out is stacked up against the craziness of seeing a nine-foot-tall spiky monster wearing slacks, a polo shirt and a beach hat.

 

In the end, although I appreciated some of the gory special effects, others are absolutely awful (including a giant brain, and the alien representatives on the UN-like galactic federation). I didn’t think the over-the-top humor made up for the flimsiness of the plot, and I actively despised Mimi, and wanted to see Psycho Goreman pop her head off. However…if you’re a fan of gore-splattered horror films with some unexpected humor thrown in, this might be right up your alley. And, if you DO like that kind of thing, you may be pleased to know that Psycho Goreman has over two hours of special behind-the-scenes features on this DVD disc — much more than the 94-minute length of the film itself!

[ Internet Movie Database entry for this film ] | [ official Psycho Goreman web site ]

 

Recommended by Scott C.
Bennett Martin Public Library — Public Services

 

Have you watched this one? What did you think? Did you find this review helpful?

New reviews appear every month on the Staff Recommendations page of the BookGuide website. You can visit that page to see them all, or watch them appear here in the BookGuide Blog individually over the course of the entire month. Click the tag for the reviewer's name to see more of this reviewer’s recommendations!