An advice book with just as much wisdom as wit.
In this relationship guide, Borden (Lucky Me, 2007, etc.) introduces “Cooking Therapy”—advice and recipes to help couples work through common marital issues.
The author is a licensed clinical social worker and amateur chef, and in this book, she combines her two passions. In the first chapter, she notes the potential benefits of her version of marriage therapy (in which participants also learn to cook), noting that “Learning to let our accomplishments fill us with insight and pride promotes mental health.” The remainder of the book is split into four sections, focusing on what Borden calls the toughest marital ailments: when partners are sexually “out of sync,” when a relationship has grown “stale” over time, when little quirks take a toll on a marriage, and when differing financial styles lead to conflict. For each of these, she first draws on her therapeutic knowledge to explain the issue in detail. She then walks readers through creatively named recipes with metaphorically significant ingredients and instructions, designed to help resolve that particular problem. For example, a recipe for “Tune-In and Talk to Me Tacos” asks readers to create and eat two tacos—one with all their favorite toppings and one with their partner’s favorites, which the author says teaches the importance of “both fulfillment and compromise” in sexual relationships. The end of the book offers an appendix of all the recipes mentioned, including main dishes, sides, and desserts. Borden’s approach to strengthening marriages with Cooking Therapy is unique and brilliant, setting this book apart with an innovative way to work through problems. Her light humor and wit are constantly entertaining, and her ability to extract metaphors from her recipes will give couples plenty to think about. The recipes are clearly formatted with understandable ingredients and straightforward instructions, so even novices will be able to successfully prepare them.
An advice book with just as much wisdom as wit.Pub Date: Feb. 15, 2018
ISBN: 978-0-9998718-0-5
Page Count: 150
Publisher: CYH Press
Review Posted Online: April 18, 2018
Kirkus Reviews Issue: May 15, 2018
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
This is not the Nutcracker sweet, as passed on by Tchaikovsky and Marius Petipa. No, this is the original Hoffmann tale of 1816, in which the froth of Christmas revelry occasionally parts to let the dark underside of childhood fantasies and fears peek through. The boundaries between dream and reality fade, just as Godfather Drosselmeier, the Nutcracker's creator, is seen as alternately sinister and jolly. And Italian artist Roberto Innocenti gives an errily realistic air to Marie's dreams, in richly detailed illustrations touched by a mysterious light. A beautiful version of this classic tale, which will captivate adults and children alike. (Nutcracker; $35.00; Oct. 28, 1996; 136 pp.; 0-15-100227-4)
Pub Date: Oct. 28, 1996
ISBN: 0-15-100227-4
Page Count: 136
Publisher: Harcourt
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 15, 1996
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
An extravaganza in Bemelmans' inimitable vein, but written almost dead pan, with sly, amusing, sometimes biting undertones, breaking through. For Bemelmans was "the man who came to cocktails". And his hostess was Lady Mendl (Elsie de Wolfe), arbiter of American decorating taste over a generation. Lady Mendl was an incredible person,- self-made in proper American tradition on the one hand, for she had been haunted by the poverty of her childhood, and the years of struggle up from its ugliness,- until she became synonymous with the exotic, exquisite, worshipper at beauty's whrine. Bemelmans draws a portrait in extremes, through apt descriptions, through hilarious anecdote, through surprisingly sympathetic and understanding bits of appreciation. The scene shifts from Hollywood to the home she loved the best in Versailles. One meets in passing a vast roster of famous figures of the international and artistic set. And always one feels Bemelmans, slightly offstage, observing, recording, commenting, illustrated.
Pub Date: Feb. 23, 1955
ISBN: 0670717797
Page Count: -
Publisher: Viking
Review Posted Online: Oct. 25, 2011
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Feb. 1, 1955
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