An idiosyncratic cookbook with a few delicious recipes and a lot of inspirational talk.
A debut cookbook blends motivational words with vegan recipes.
For Karic, cooking is more than simply preparing a meal, so it’s not surprising that this is more than a cookbook. Food, health, and lifestyle inform each other, creating a cycle that defines who we are. “When we return to natural foods, we return to our natural bodies. Food is alive. Everything we eat—vegetables, grains, meat or fish—has energy. It’s alive (or once was) and I truly believe that this energy keeps on giving.” Each section offers not only recipes but a brief essay on what that meal can or should mean as part of the eater’s day. Whether it involves her Tofu Scramble or Thick Chocolate and Banana Almost-Ice-Cream Smoothie, it’s also “a time when we open up to the abundance of the universe.” Certain dishes are best enjoyed with family (vegan lasagna), friends (Pizza Fantastico), children (Cashew Nut Butter Cups), or that special someone (Broccoli and Courgette Spaghetti with Sexy Saffron). Interspersed throughout are pages of “gift cards” bearing inspirational messages that can be cut out and given to dinner party guests or used for personal motivation. The author’s personality and spiritualism are more pronounced than is usual in cookbooks, and a laissez faire attitude prevails. “The quantities are just suggestions,” Karic admits. “I never do the same thing twice in the kitchen. I don’t believe in exact quantities.” Some may find Karic’s dreamy language or the relatively small number of recipes (about 30 for a book more than 120 pages long) to be off-putting. The dishes she includes, however—almost all of which are vegan—do sound quite good and are simple to follow. The layout is attractive and colorful, reflecting the author’s stress-free, it’ll-turn-out-fine ethos. The evocations of God and general New Age-y vibe may limit the appeal of this volume, but it isn’t impossible to imagine this book as a gift for those who need a bit of love in their diets and positive energy in their kitchens.
An idiosyncratic cookbook with a few delicious recipes and a lot of inspirational talk.Pub Date: Sept. 20, 2019
ISBN: 978-1-982230-96-8
Page Count: 124
Publisher: BalboaPress
Review Posted Online: March 19, 2020
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
An absorbing, wide-ranging story of humans’ relationship with the water.
A study of swimming as sport, survival method, basis for community, and route to physical and mental well-being.
For Bay Area writer Tsui (American Chinatown: A People's History of Five Neighborhoods, 2009), swimming is in her blood. As she recounts, her parents met in a Hong Kong swimming pool, and she often visited the beach as a child and competed on a swim team in high school. Midway through the engaging narrative, the author explains how she rejoined the team at age 40, just as her 6-year-old was signing up for the first time. Chronicling her interviews with scientists and swimmers alike, Tsui notes the many health benefits of swimming, some of which are mental. Swimmers often achieve the “flow” state and get their best ideas while in the water. Her travels took her from the California coast, where she dove for abalone and swam from Alcatraz back to San Francisco, to Tokyo, where she heard about the “samurai swimming” martial arts tradition. In Iceland, she met Guðlaugur Friðþórsson, a local celebrity who, in 1984, survived six hours in a winter sea after his fishing vessel capsized, earning him the nickname “the human seal.” Although humans are generally adapted to life on land, the author discovered that some have extra advantages in the water. The Bajau people of Indonesia, for instance, can do 10-minute free dives while hunting because their spleens are 50% larger than average. For most, though, it’s simply a matter of practice. Tsui discussed swimming with Dara Torres, who became the oldest Olympic swimmer at age 41, and swam with Kim Chambers, one of the few people to complete the daunting Oceans Seven marathon swim challenge. Drawing on personal experience, history, biology, and social science, the author conveys the appeal of “an unflinching giving-over to an element” and makes a convincing case for broader access to swimming education (372,000 people still drown annually).
An absorbing, wide-ranging story of humans’ relationship with the water.Pub Date: April 14, 2020
ISBN: 978-1-61620-786-1
Page Count: 288
Publisher: Algonquin
Review Posted Online: Jan. 4, 2020
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Feb. 1, 2020
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
A cogent “horror story” about the plot to reanimate mid-20th-century White male supremacy at the expense of abortion access.
Incisive look at the destructive path of anti-abortion ideology in the U.S.
Even though most Americans believe in a woman’s right to choose—“consistent research has shown that more than 7 in 10 Americans support legal access to abortion”—the radical right has succeeded in steadily eroding reproductive freedoms since Roe v. Wade. According to NARAL Pro-Choice America leaders Hogue and Langford, the campaign against abortion is but a means to an end for the architects of the pro-life movement. Their true aim is the uncontested dominion of White Christian men. The battle began in 1954, when Brown v. Board of Education struck down “state laws used by segregationists to maintain structural inequality in the nation’s schools.” In 1976, the IRS rescinded the tax-exempt status of the Rev. Jerry Falwell’s segregationist Bob Jones University. What has followed, argue the authors convincingly, is more than a half-century of machinations designed “to halt progressive cultural change and maintain power for a privileged minority.” Anti-abortion rhetoric is just a weapon, driven by design, propaganda, disinformation, and cowed Republican politicians—hallmarks of the Trump era. Hogue and Langdon make a strong case that the rises of Trump, fake news, and science skepticism are not flukes but rather the culmination of a dogged campaign by forces still smarting from desegregation and second- and third-wave feminism. The reproductive freedom of American women is the victim of an “anti-democratic power grab on a historic scale.” The authors build a chilling case that the startling 2019 wave of abortion bans across the nation should serve as a canary in the coal mine for citizens concerned with democracy and a catalyst for bolder messaging, better strategic planning, and sustained action to combat disinformation.
A cogent “horror story” about the plot to reanimate mid-20th-century White male supremacy at the expense of abortion access.Pub Date: July 22, 2020
ISBN: 978-1-947492-50-9
Page Count: 280
Publisher: Strong Arm Press
Review Posted Online: Aug. 6, 2020
© Copyright 2024 Kirkus Media LLC. All Rights Reserved.
Follow
Popular in this Genre
We can’t wait for you to join Kirkus!
It’s free and takes less than 10 seconds!
Already have an account? Log in.
OR
Sign in with GoogleTrouble signing in? Retrieve credentials.
Welcome Back!
OR
Sign in with GoogleTrouble signing in? Retrieve credentials.
bookshelf