Now You Know What You Eat

Now You Know What You Eat. Valorie Fisher. 2019. [October 15] Scholastic. 40 pages. [Source: Review copy]

First sentence: How to read this book:
a + b = c  a combination of a and b equals c
a - b = a without b equals c
a } b a comes from or can be found in B.

Premise/plot: Now You Know What You Eat is a fascinating concept book for young readers. There are plenty of details packed into the illustrations. It does rely mainly on the illustrations and photographs. There is no central narrative text, just text boxes accompanying some of the illustrations. So the premise, what is it? On each page or two page spread, a food is highlighted. For example, vanilla ice cream cone, oatmeal raisin cookie, peanut butter and jelly sandwich, macaroni and cheese, pizza, vegetable soup, potato chip, etc. On the spread (or single page), illustrations/photographs reveal what is in that food and how it is made.

What ingredients make up an ice cream cone? What ingredients make up vanilla ice cream?

Some examples are more detailed than others. One of the more detailed pages is for oatmeal raisin cookies. Readers can learn where individual ingredients come from and then how to make those ingredients into a homemade cookie.

The page on peanut butter and jelly spends a good amount of time explaining the growing process of peanuts.

It has plenty of information including a nutrition guide, a page on vitamins and minerals, and a glossary of words to know.

My thoughts: I enjoyed this one. I love that it uses play food in the photographs. Not every illustration is a photograph, mind you. There isn't "play food" to represent a vanilla orchid, for example! But much of the finished food products are photographs of play food. Even the author (aka "book creator")  includes a photograph of a PLAY DOLL instead of her actual picture.

Kids are curious. And this book feeds on that natural curiosity. I found this one a very fun and satisfying read! It would have been GREAT fun if they'd included a spread on lunchables. (I understand why they wouldn't/couldn't. But still.) Also why was there no page on CHICKEN NUGGETS?!?! Fisher could have easily swapped out DILL PICKLES or VEGETABLE SOUP for a spread on chicken nuggets.


© 2019 Becky Laney of Becky's Book Reviews

Halfway Mark for 2019 Reading Challenges

2019 Read 52 Books in 52 WeeksHost: Read 52 Books in 52 Weeks (sign up)
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27 / 52 books. 52% done!

Alphabet Soup Reading Challenge (2019) AUTHORS
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57 / 78 books. 73% done!

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101 / 156 books. 65% done!

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Read It Again, Sam
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 © 2019 Becky Laney of Becky's Book Reviews

World at War: Mistress of the Ritz

Mistress of the Ritz. Melanie Benjamin. 2019. Random House. 384 pages. [Source: Review copy]

First sentence:  Blanche is dead.

Premise/plot: This historical novel is based on true people/events. It stars a husband and wife, Claude and Blanche Auzello, living in Paris, France, during the second world war. The novel actually includes flashbacks for earlier--1920s and 30s. Blanche arrived in Paris as an American tourist. She wanted to be a big, film star and an Egyptian prince, J'Ali,  promised her the moon and the stars--essentially. Claude was a hotel manager/director who promised to show her the town--and kept his promise. He wanted to "save" her from the empty promises of one man who wasn't worthy of her. He married her. Cue the happily ever after, right?!?! WRONG.

Much of the first two decades of their marriage is fast-forwarded. Readers really only follow their story from 1940 to 1945. There are plenty of hints that the marriage is more unhappy than happy. The drama and suspense of this one center around their activities during the war. They are living in occupied Paris. Claude has been director of the Ritz for quite a while now, the Nazi occupation has not changed that at least. During the war, the Ritz plays host to the Nazis first and foremost. But does that mean that Claude and Blanche have accepted the Nazis and welcomed them fully?

The drama and suspense of this one center on the couple's individual participation in the French resistance. The husband does not trust his wife with his secrets. The wife does not trust her husband with her secrets. They view each other essentially as enemies.

My thoughts: I have very mixed feelings on this one. On the one hand, I loved the French setting. I've read quite a few books this year about the French resistance--not all have been set in the city of Paris. I love the time period; I do. Reading books--fiction or nonfiction--about the war is something that I actively pursue. (Hence WORLD AT WAR every Wednesday). Books based on true events/people are unique in that the author can give voice to their stories but ultimately not change the fate of her characters. I'd like to hope that Melanie Benjamin would change the ending if she could. I hope.

On the other hand, I do have major issues with the marketing of this one as a "love story for the ages." Would a true love story for the ages star a man who is a cheater?! The excuse he gives and readers are perhaps asked to accept is "I'm French. I can't help it. Other women mean nothing. I married you. Don't nag me about my mistresses. I'll always be honest with you and let you know which nights I plan to spend with them." Throughout the novel, it's "I'm French; I'm French; I'm French. If only you were French too, all our problems would poof--vanish. You just don't understand me."

S
P
O
I
L
E
R

But my REAL issue is that this "love story for the ages" ends in a murder-suicide. How can a book SELL THE IDEA of murder as ROMANTIC AND LOVING AND KIND AND PASSIONATE?!?!?! I do understand that that is the REAL story of a REAL couple. I'm not trying to change the facts, the story. But it is ABSOLUTELY NOT A LOVE STORY FOR THE AGES if the husband decides to kill his wife and then take his own life. The end of this one is not romantic, not loving, not a sign of passion....it is HORRIFIC.

So if the description of this one was actually honest, I might not have such mixed feelings about it. 

© 2019 Becky Laney of Becky's Book Reviews

Dark Triumph

Dark Triumph (His Fair Assassin #2) Robin LaFevers. 2013. Houghton Mifflin Harcourt. 404 pages. [Source: Review copy]

First sentence: I did not arrive at the convent of Saint Mortain some green stripling. By the time I was sent there, my death count numbered three, and I had had two lovers besides.

Premise/plot: The first book in the His Fair Assassin series is Grave Mercy which stars Ismae and Duval. The second book in the series is Dark Triumph which stars Sybella and The Beast of Waroch. Both Ismae and Sybella are assassan nuns--young women dedicated to serving the god Mortain (aka Death). Both also serve the Duchess of Brittany, Anne.  If the first book focused on politics with the threat of war, the second novel focuses on politics and inevitable WAR.


Secrets. Lies. Betrayals. Murders. Sybella has seen and heard too much; she was born into one of the cruelest, darkest families in Brittany. Her escape to the convent to be trained as Death's handmaiden--an assassin--was too brief. For better or worse, Sybella's "purpose" is a dark one. She wants justice, justice for all the lives lost at her father's hand, all the lives lost because of her father's orders, all the lives lost on the battlefield because her father is a traitor to the duchess. She's a killer. She feels she kills justly, men who deserve to die, but she's a killer whether or not she's following her Lord's orders or not.

One of the orders she receives early in the novel is to rescue one of the men captured by her father (D'Albret). A man readers came to know as "the Beast." She knows it won't be easy, but, she knows it's right. For she knows that in saving his life, in giving him his freedom, she'll be doing good for the Duchess. The news he carries back to her may help her cause. But what Sybella never expected was to be "rescued" by the prisoner AS he makes his escape. The Beast and Sybella traveling together...as a team...to the Duchess...it's something!
My thoughts:  At first, I didn't know what to think of Dark Triumph. The opening chapters were so dark and creepy. What Sybella, our heroine, has had to live with her whole life is almost too horrible to describe. But her story, though dark, is necessary for the reader to know, to understand. Both Sybella and "the Beast" were characters first introduced in Robin LaFevers Grave Mercy. I thought they were interesting in the first novel, but after reading the second novel they were so much more than that. I LOVED them. I think I loved them even more than I loved Ismae and Duval. 



© 2019 Becky Laney of Becky's Book Reviews

In Like Flynn

In Like Flynn. (Molly Murphy #4) Rhys Bowen. 2005. 352 pages. [Source: Library]

 First sentence: "Spring? Was there any spring this year?" the man in the jaunty brown derby asked.

Premise/plot: Daniel Sullivan has a job for Miss Molly Murphy. He wants her to go undercover at Senator Barney Flynn's house posing as a cousin. Theresa, Barney's wife, is convinced that the Sorensen Sisters--spiritualists--can contact her dead son. Senator Flynn is skeptical--at best. Captain Sullivan suspects that the sisters are fakes, scammers. Though no one has asked her to pursue the matter, Molly takes it upon herself to see if she can solve the crime as well. The son was kidnapped and is now presumed dead. The ransom note said that he was buried alive--they had a limited amount of time to pay up. The "kidnapper" was shot by police before he revealed the location of the son. But will that task prove deadly? Is the mastermind behind that murder still hanging around?

My thoughts: I really didn't care for the third book in the series. I didn't. But I am glad I read this fourth book! I didn't love, love, love it. But I really enjoyed it. I found it a quick and entertaining read as opposed to a sluggish, frustrating one. Things seem a bit closer to a resolution in terms of Molly's love life. I don't know if I could handle a love triangle that goes on for half a series.

© 2019 Becky Laney of Becky's Book Reviews