A massive wealth of knowledge for dedicated cheese-making students.
Winstein’s (Your Fertility Signals, 1991) two-volume work will teach readers how to make the cheeses they know and love—and probably some they’ve never heard of.
The author first experienced fine cheese while traveling to Denmark as a teenager but didn’t try making it until many years later. In 1993, she took a one-day cheese-making class and was frustrated when she couldn’t replicate the strong tastes that she remembered. She began taking more advanced classes in Massachusetts and Vermont with a number of master cheese makers. In these volumes, Winstein hopes to convey the tips that she picked up from them in addition to her own knowledge from years of trial and error. Cheeses are helpfully grouped by order of complication to allow beginners to start small and then challenge themselves as they gain more experience. The photos in the book are in black and white; the author explains that monochromatic images show better detail about texture, that the ink will fade less over time, and that, in her opinion, the style is more aesthetically pleasing. The design is sparse and simple, with large pictures of each step. The recipes are very wordy, however, and color photos might have been preferable for readers who absorb information more readily from images or have poor vision. It’s possible that a reader may look at these texts and think that they contain much more information than they want about cheese making; however, the perspective of this book indicates that cheese is a precise undertaking and that if a person is truly hoping to make quality product, they’ll need to know everything here. In addition to recipes and an index of terms, there’s information about milk choice, starter cultures, rennet, cleanliness, safe cooking procedures, and equipment. It’s clear that the book is meant for people who are serious about taking on cheese making as a hobby or as a small business venture. Potential readers should also note that they may need to find a local source of raw milk, as Winstein explains that supermarket milk has limited functionality for cheese creation.
A massive wealth of knowledge for dedicated cheese-making students.Pub Date: Jan. 1, 2018
ISBN: 978-0-9985959-5-5
Page Count: 670
Publisher: Smooth Stone Press
Review Posted Online: July 12, 2018
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
An autobiography as toxic and addictive as any drug its author has ever ingested.
The legendary booze-addled metal rocker turned reality-TV star comes clean in his tell-all autobiography.
Although brought up in the bleak British factory town of Aston, John “Ozzy” Osbourne’s tragicomic rags-to-riches tale is somehow quintessentially American. It’s an epic dream/nightmare that takes him from Winson Green prison in 1966 to a presidential dinner with George W. Bush in 2004. Tracing his adult life from petty thief and slaughterhouse worker to rock star, Osbourne’s first-person slang-and-expletive-driven style comes off like he’s casually relating his story while knocking back pints at the pub. “What you read here,” he writes, “is what dribbled out of the jelly I call my brain when I asked it for my life story.” During the late 1960s his transformation from inept shoplifter to notorious Black Sabbath frontman was unlikely enough. In fact, the band got its first paying gigs by waiting outside concert venues hoping the regularly scheduled act wouldn’t show. After a few years, Osbourne and his bandmates were touring America and becoming millionaires from their riff-heavy doom music. As expected, with success came personal excess and inevitable alienation from the other members of the group. But as a solo performer, Osbourne’s predilection for guns, drink, drugs, near-death experiences, cruelty to animals and relieving himself in public soon became the stuff of legend. His most infamous exploits—biting the head off a bat and accidentally urinating on the Alamo—are addressed, but they seem tame compared to other dark moments of his checkered past: nearly killing his wife Sharon during an alcohol-induced blackout, waking up after a bender in the middle of a busy highway, burning down his backyard, etc. Osbourne is confessional to a fault, jeopardizing his demonic-rocker reputation with glib remarks about his love for Paul McCartney and Robin Williams. The most distinguishing feature of the book is the staggering chapter-by-chapter accumulation of drunken mishaps, bodily dysfunctions and drug-induced mayhem over a 40-plus-year career—a résumé of anti-social atrocities comparable to any of rock ’n’ roll’s most reckless outlaws.
An autobiography as toxic and addictive as any drug its author has ever ingested.Pub Date: Jan. 25, 2010
ISBN: 978-0-446-56989-7
Page Count: 320
Publisher: Grand Central Publishing
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Dec. 1, 2009
IN THE NEWS
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
© Copyright 2025 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.
