Review: Everybody Loves Ramen

Everybody Loves Ramen: Recipes, Stories, Games, and FunFacts About the Noodles You Love by Eric Hites
For a tongue-in-cheek cookbook, this turned out to be almost all fluff. Every other page is padded with a recipe journal: When did you serve this dish for the first time? Whom did you share it with?... And most of the 'Ramen Factoids' were stupid: "One pound of ramen noodles weighs the same as one pound of gold. But you can't eat gold." I like silly, but facts like this are lazy. But the book wasn't all terrible. The stories about ramen were fun - college prank type of tales. The title is right: I do love ramen... just not this book. And, I'll admit, I am keeping it for the recipes. (Originally posted as SquareSpot on PaperBackSwap.com.)

Review: Word Warriors

Word Warriors: 35 Women Leaders in the Spoken Word Revolution

Edited by Alix Olson

This is what every anthology should be - eclectic and yet relevant. The best part of this book is each poet's personal essay. Each essay is only a few pages long, but together they cover lots of topics, ideas, and emotions. Issues such as... asking ‘why write?' or ‘ why perform?', being transgender, competing in slam poetry, musing about race, raising the quality of art, rejecting labels, teaming up with other artists, etc. Read this if you are a woman or a writer. Read this if you feel young, jaded, creative, or ostracized. You'll find something to identify with, to be inspired by, and to be shocked by. (P.S. Don't be discouraged by the forward. I thought it was the worst poem in the book. Skip the forward and tackle the the rest of the poems with an open mind and heart.)" (Originally posted as SquareSpot onPaperBackSwap.com.)

Review: The Hobbit

The Hobbit

by J.R.R. Tolkien

While The Hobbit isn't my favorite Tolkien story, this is the one I recommended to everyone. Of his work, it seems to have the broadest appeal or, at the very least, does not take a lifetime to finish. This is the litmus test for the rest of Tolkien's work. If you finished and enjoyed The Hobbit, then venture further into Middle Earth with "The Lord of the Rings" and other stories where the text becomes much more dense and detailed. (Originally posted as SquareSpot on PaperBackSwap.com.)

Review: The Birth of Venus

The Birth of Venus
by Sarah Dunant

A lot of interesting elements at play in this book, but the story as a whole did not come together for me. It took a few days to get hooked, so it was a slow start. The mysterious plot twists and gruesome history of Florence carried my interest throughout. It felt like a Jack-the-Ripper novel set in Italy, but neither the plot nor its conclusion is a full-fledged murder-mystery. Plus, the main characters were too mysterious. I did not get to know them enough to care. The narrator, her mother, and her lover were interesting but something about them felt like outlines. They were characters never completed especially when compared to the detailed backdrop of Italian history. (Originally posted as SquareSpot on PaperBackSwap.com.)