betsyrisen's reviews
828 reviews

I would normally never add a cookbook to my reading challenge list, but I joined the Onboarding Challenge, and when the prompt is "Scroll to your Genres chart and see what's at the very bottom," a cookbook certainly qualifies.

I'm 42, and with everything that comes along with that, there are cha-cha-changes. But if I'm going to actually review this book, I might as well review it. Number one, the recipes are really simple. It is laid out wonderfully. I am very bad at this type of thing, so the fact that an actual meal plan is included is just wonderful. And, it's not just a cookbook. There are additional resources and a lot more information contained herein that I'm sure I'll be referring to constantly. 

So there you go. There's my review of a cookbook.

While this subject matter is right up my alley, and I did learn interesting things about The Ghost Club, this was not organized very well, grew increasingly repetitive, and just lacked structure. 

I think the reason I keep reading books like this and am so interested in this subject matter is "I want to believe", as it were. Even given evidence of fraud over and over again, as I believe this book did fairly well, I can't help thinking the paranormal really is real. 

I absolutely LOVED THIS. So many strong, strange, and wonderful choices, delivered by a knowledgable actor, who knows what she's talking about. Dame Harriet Mary Walter (DBE), I remember from The Crown, personally. 

As the description of the book says, "With new parts for thirty Shakespearean women, written in `Shakespearean' verse and prose, Harriet Walter goes between the lines of the plays to let us hear what she imagines -- sometimes playfully and sometimes searchingly -- these women were really thinking." 

I don't think it will surprise most people to hear that I am more intrigued by the female characters in Shakespeare's plays (which happens when you have less to work with, which, obviously). This was a wonderful compendium. Including an Anne Hathaway section was just icing on the cake. The Miranda reworking was my favorite. 

"Maybe some people think my life is pathetic, but my life would be a dream to some people. What right do I have to whine about wanting more from life, when what I have is more than some people can ever imagine having? I‘m privileged in a way that doesn‘t have to do with great wealth. I‘m privileged by comforts we take for granted, like education, having food in the refrigerator, a roof over my head, heat, clean water, and easy access to books."

You had me at Shakespeare-adjacent. I ended 2024 having read way more romance novels than I ever have before, and it had me feeling some kind of (not great) way, but the premise of this book was just too much to resist. 

The author did a great job if building the anticipation, where I was 2/3 of the way through the book and everything seemed to be going great, so I knew some trouble was brewing. This could have easily become super campy, but I really enjoyed the twist(s) and the way they were handled. 

I did not have super high expectations for this book, and almost gave up a few times. It really started to go off the rails in the last few chapters, and by that point I figured I might as well finish.

Not a bad premise,  and a good cast of characters. Just woefully underdeveloped and lacking consistency.

 “Being a ghost would be pretty pointless if there were no people left to haunt.” 

Cryosleep? Comet? Disasters of known and unknown origin? A book that jumps 200 years into the future? Sign me up. 

I did NOT expect to enjoy this book as much as I did. This premise is right in my wheelhouse, and I figured it would be a nice palate cleanser. I am not very easily fooled by plotlines, but when I tell you this book bowled me over! Quite happy to learn there are 3 more in the series to continue the storyline.

 “So in theory someone might have shouted “Dinosaur!” many centuries before the 1800s. But that’s unlikely, because discovering is not merely finding something; discovering is finding and understanding that you’ve found something.” 

 “A clue is not a clue until someone sees a mystery.” 

 “The dinosaur discoveries came out of nowhere, like the asteroid, and the public in the nineteenth century was scarcely better prepared than the dinosaurs had been. It was not just that such things as monstrous skeletons were contrary to experience. The shock was that they were contrary to reason. Such things could not be, because they had no place in a world that was, everyone knew, under divine supervision. Why would God have indulged in such follies?” 

I always like to say that history is long but memory is short. It really is intriguing to think about a time when we didn't know what we know now - and imagine what we'll learn in the future! I enjoyed this book very much. The more obscure the history, the better, in my book (although it's only obscure to me because this isn't a thing I think about very often - which is, again, a good reason to start the year off with this book!

It was more wide-ranging than I expected, and I can't help but put myself in the shoes of these people. Imagine coming across a massive bone or three pronged footprints in your field! 

I scoffed at anything average
and avoided middle ground⁠—
you know, The Gray Area.
As a result, I let slip most of my life.