Book Review

So this has nothing to do with food or anything food related, unless you count the 'srooms mentioned in the story. But as this is "Farm and Lit" (emphasis on the AND), here's a review I did for Reader Spoils on amazon.com.

Vogel House by John Forrester

Can't Fix Stupid

Latest installment at Words from the Root Cellar. Don't forget to check out the great book reviews at Portland Book Review to help you find your next summer read!

Pure Beef

I reviewed this book for San Francisco Book Review, but in case I can't convince you, here's another take on this ode to grass fed Pure Beef.

April Book Reviews

What Matters in Jane Austen? Twenty Crucial Puzzles Solved by John Mullen

Starting Seeds: How to Grow Healthy, Productive Vegetables, Herbs, and Flowers from Seed by Barbara Ellis

"Words from the Root Cellar" for April has been submitted and even have my reviews for May in on time. It feels like there's something ajar in the universe ;)

Book Review: Meridon by Philippa Gregory

The Wideacre Trilogy has three very unique heroines and Meridon, or Sarah Lacey, is no less formidable than her predecessors.

Raised as a Gypsy bareback rider, Meridon grows up ignorant of her Lacey blood, only sensing that she doesn’t belong in the rough life she leads with half-remembered dreams plaguing her. She remembers a copper haired girl and a place called Wide, but beyond that, she is a girl with only half a past.

Her skills with horses lands her and her sister, born on the same day to two very different mothers, in a circus act. But Meridon’s fears of heights and flying like an acrobat put her sister in the spotlight. When Meridon’s greatest fear is realized, her life changes forever. She washes up at Wideacre, realizing the past she should have had. But money is not all it appears to be, and Meridon learns, like her foremothers, that Wideacre and the Squires of Wideacre are not always of an accord.

Meridon concludes the Wideacre saga, a satisfying conclusion to the struggles of three generations of Lacey women.

The Wicked Wyckerly II

I blogged a while ago about a book called The Wicked Wyckerly, a book that I didn’t review, but it looked pretty good from the review someone else wrote. So I ordered it through paperbackswap.com and burned through in on the elliptical in a few days. Let me just say while it was far from the worst romance I’ve ever read, it certainly didn’t set my head spinning.

Now, I’ll admit I’m biased about romance novels, read too many as a teenager I expect, so perhaps I’m not the most impartial judge here. If you like romance, awesome. This book is probably something you’ll really enjoy. It is funny, in a syrupy, rated G kind of a way. And it is sexy, in a virgin-gets-an-orgasm-in-a-minute kind of a way. It’s well-written and has a solid, somewhat implausibly modern storyline, and while it’s a good escape from the family holiday-type read, it’s a little too romantic for my tastes. But, if you like romance, check it out. It’s available on my trade list on paperbackswap.com and, as usual, from Amazon. Check out the author’s page at www.patriciarice.com.