Book of the Day Roundup: February 26-March 1, 2024
A Taste of the World
Celebrating Global Flavors
Rowena Scherer
The Collective Book Studio
Hardcover $29.95 (232pp)
978-1-68555-172-8
Buy: Local Bookstore (Bookshop), Amazon
Rowena Scherer’s family cookbook, A Taste of the World, collects accessible recipes, interesting facts, and easy-to-follow instructions for colorful, interactive cooking experiences.
An organic outcropping of the eat2explore subscription box, this cookbook features recipes appropriate for the skill sets of children as young as three all the way to adults. There are plenty of recipes at each level, ranging from beginning to intermediate. Some recipes even feature a range of skill sets so that a number of chefs with different skills can help in the kitchen. A simple rating system also clarifies potential allergens and dietary restrictions, including nut, dairy, vegetarian, vegan, and gluten-free options, as well as preparation and cooking times and the final number of servings. A smart, simple list of tips sets budding cooks up for success.
The book is divided first by continent and then by country, with each section including a smattering of recipes. The selections are accompanied by facts related to culture, topography, and population. The delectable and palate-widening dishes include mapo tofu from China, bulgogi kimbap from South Korea, pea soup with pancakes from Sweden, red lentil stew from Ethiopia, and stuffed potatoes with quinoa salad from Peru.
An instructive photograph accompanies each step of the process for easy reference, and the book ends with a glossary of useful terms. Colorful cartoon drawings of familiar landmarks edge the bottom of many pages, while the vibrant close-ups of finished dishes are enticing.
A Taste of the World is an attractive global cooking introduction—an amuse-bouche to give budding cooks a taste for international flavors and world cultures.
CAMILLE-YVETTE WELSCH (December 27, 2023)
Billy Buckhorn and the Rise of the Night Seers
Book Two of the Thunder Child Prophecy Series
Gary Robinson
7th Generation
Softcover $14.95 (294pp)
978-0-9669317-5-4
Buy: Local Bookstore (Bookshop), Amazon
In Gary Robinson’s series-continuing novel Billy Buckhorn and the Rise of the Night Seers, a Cherokee teenager’s life takes a surprising turn thanks to a newcomer who brings news of an ancient tribal prophecy.
Gifted with unique talents and a strong connection to the spirit world, Billy seems destined to become the long-awaited Chosen One. He’ll be charged with confronting the Night Seers of the Owl Clan across Turtle Island; the Night Seers are determined to regain control over the Middleworld. There are glimpses of Billy’s past adventures present to clarify this path, showing how complex circumstances led him to this moment of becoming. Indigenous legends, terminology, and culture also wend into his exciting tale.
Indeed, in his quest to battle the Night Seers, Billy leans on his ancestral roots often, staying close to his heritage. And as he embarks on his initiation ceremony to become the Chosen One, he unveils new forces unseen by anyone in his circle. His work, he realizes, will require immense courage and resilience on his part––and it’s necessary to ensure the safety of the two worlds that he inhabits. When an Osage teenager, Lisa Lookout, arrives with her family (and word of a prophecy), she complicates his path forward. Her relationship with Billy, with its hints of romance, remains significant throughout the book—if, at times, it obscures Billy’s emergence as the Chosen One.
A teenager is reminded of the importance of understanding his cultural roots in Billy Buckhorn and the Rise of the Night Seers, a fresh novel that’s enlivened by Native American history and mythology.
DANICA MORRIS (December 27, 2023)
Blood and Lightning
On Becoming a Tattooer
Dustin Kiskaddon
Stanford University Press
Hardcover $28.00 (288pp)
978-1-5036-3560-9
Buy: Local Bookstore (Bookshop), Amazon
Dustin Kiskaddon’s memoir Blood and Lightning details the ins and outs of working in a tattoo shop.
The book covers every facet of being a tattoo artist, including the intimacy of the relationship between a tattooer and their client: the tattooer learns a client’s body, monitors their reactions, and asks for consent, all while they breathe the same air. Good artists, Kiskaddon says, can tell if a client is going to pass out based on the smell of their sweat.
Throughout the book are photographs of Kiskaddon’s work—a bumblebee riding a unicycle, cherubs holding machine guns, a traditional rose—as well as snippets from the field notes he kept during his apprenticeship. He also shares anecdotes about the ethical decisions tattoo artists face, like refusing to tattoo the word “heartbreak” on an eighteen-year-old’s forehead. Complex discussions about skin color, race, and sexualized body parts are also handled with grace: Kiskaddon considers whether his Instagram feed of mostly white skin alienates people with darker skin tones.
Blood and Lightning is an illuminating peek behind the doors of a tattoo shop, digging into the realities, ethics, and philosophy of altering the bodies of strangers.
ASHLEY HOLSTROM (December 27, 2023)
The Forgotten Beasts of Eld
50th Anniversary Special Edition
Patricia A. McKillip
Stephanie Law, illustrator
Marjorie Liu, contributor
Gail Carriger, contributor
Tachyon Publications
Hardcover $25.95 (256pp)
978-1-61696-410-8
Buy: Local Bookstore (Bookshop), Amazon
A powerful wizard protects her right to self-determination in Patricia A. McKillip’s fantasy classic The Forgotten Beasts of Eld.
“Every time I read The Forgotten Beasts of Eld, I am filled with love,” writes Marjorie Liu in her introduction to this fiftieth anniversary edition. “I am reminded of love, and I come away feeling loved.” It’s a feeling at first foreign to the book’s heroine, Sybel—the granddaughter and daughter of women called against their will to a wizards’ compound where mythical beasts gather.
Indeed, love is not often spoken of on Eld Mountain—even as orphaned Sybel learns it by being a neighbor to kind, magic-filled Maelga and a caretaker to a lion, a dragon, a swan, a riddle-answering boar, and a slinking black cat. When an intriguing warrior arrives on her doorstep, begging her to care for motherless baby Tam, she learns it in two new ways. But Sybel’s power is a threat to some, and her beauty a jewel that kings and fellow wizards prize. She has to risk much to protect her home and heart.
With delicate line drawings to match the sleek, silver majesty of its prose, this fresh edition of the inaugural World Fantasy Award winner stands to be treasured by generations to come.
MICHELLE ANNE SCHINGLER (December 27, 2023)
Fine Dreams
Linda N. Masi
University of Massachusetts Press
Softcover $19.95 (170pp)
978-1-62534-792-3
Buy: Local Bookstore (Bookshop), Amazon
A young victim of terrorism watches over those she left behind in Linda N. Masi’s novel Fine Dreams.
Kubra loved running, the color pink, and studying to become an educator like her mother. After she becomes collateral damage in a brutal grenade attack, Kubra’s spirit remains in her hometown, able to observe but not interfere with the world around her. As her loved ones grieve her loss and fall victim to the same extremists who took her life, all Kubra can do is hope that someday they will all find their way home.
Each of Kubra’s friends and relatives is rendered in humane terms. Bright and affectionate, these characters enjoy life and are ready to make a difference in the world. But neither they nor their ambitions are safe in northern Nigeria, where terrorism is rampant. The military that’s meant to protect people is ineffectual at best and destructive at worst. When terrorists abduct the girl students from Kubra’s old school, her friends do what they must to survive. One forms a genuine yet fraught bond with her abductor; another embarks on a suicidal escape attempt; all resolve to stay true to their principles until the very end.
Both the girls and their loved ones struggle to hold on to their dreams through the horror of their situations. While their stories are often bleak and devastating (their lives were not easy even before the abductions), their spirits and strength remain unbroken. Refusing to allow tragedy to define them, they figure out how to tell their own stories, to make peace with the past, and to create a future in which they can pursue the happiness they deserve.
Fine Dreams is a wrenching novel in which young women claw back control of their lives after unimaginable violence.
EILEEN GONZALEZ (February 13, 2024)
Barbara Hodge
