CSN Review: Magefesa Cookware Set

Some weeks ago, I mentioned that I'd be reviewing a set of cookware that I received from CSN.com.  Well, now is the time!  I will be reviewing the Magefesa Classic Danubio Cookware set and the Le Creuset 9" and 5" baking dishes.


As soon as I put the order in for the Le Creuset dishes, I regretted getting them in a light blue (Carribbean) rather than the Dijon yellow one that would complement the dark blue of my pots better.  But oh, well!  Those Le Creusets last forever, so I guess I can get them in whatever color I want :-)

I had a few future classmates over to my parents' house for an authentic Indian dinner last weekend.  My mom and I used the opportunity to test out the new Danubio set.  It's a non-stick set (take note if you have serious worries about that!), and it is very easy to hold and maneuver.  The handles stick out quite a ways from the main dish, but they still get pretty hot when you're cooking.  But they are easy to grip and thus make it a lot easier to flip the dish or turn it around.  The dish also heats up very quickly.  I was caught off guard by that and somewhat burned my soybeans and spinach!  But it all came out well in the end.  The only slight complaint I have about this set is that the blue on the handles does not match perfectly with the blue of the dishes.  The handles are a lighter blue than the dish itself.

This set (a frying pan, a saucepan, a casserole pot and a stew pot) is just the right size for me to take with me to school in a month.  I think for the most part, it will be enough for me to cook what I need for my brother and I.  I am taking an extra few dishes, but that's just to be on the safe side.  Overall, I think the Danubio set would be great for someone working in a small kitchen with a limited amount of time.


As for the Le Creuset baking dishes- well, I just got those because I heart Le Creuset and want everything they make.  The 5" dish is very small.  I think we'll probably use it for dips and such more than for any real baking or cooking of any sort.  The 9" one, though, is a great size for making enchiladas or lasagna or anything else that I would want to make for just a couple of people.  I also do like the light blue, even if I would have preferred the yellow.

All in all, a great set of cookery to take with me to school!  Highly recommend them both, if you're in the market.

Review: Flight

I really enjoyed Sherman Alexie's The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian, and so I was really excited to pick up another book by him, Flight.  Flight is also geared towards the young adult audience.  It's a quick, engaging read about identity, non-violence and walking a mile in someone else's shoes.

I am a total Alexie fan girl.  While I didn't love Flight as much as I did Part-Time Indian, I think that is only because it was the second book I've read by him.  The first flush of my crush has faded and now I'm just comfortably in a relationship with his writing ;-)

Flight is about a teenager who calls himself Zits.  Zits' father left his mother soon after he was born.  And a few years later, his mother passed away.  Since then, Zits has been in and out of foster homes.  He has no family, no friends, and no hopes for his future.  What he does have is a police record- he's been arrested several times.  One of his jailmates persuades him to commit an act of violence, and as Zits walks into the bank holding a gun, he is zoomed back in time to inhabit the body of someone else about to do a very similar thing.

Review: Operation Monsoon

Operation Monsoon, by Shona Ramaya, was my selection for the Spotlight Series Graywolf Press tour.  (For all participating books and blogs, see the schedule here.)

Operation Monsoon is a collection of five short stories, all of which revolve around upper-class life in India (and more specifically, Bengal.  I think) in the early 21st century.  Many of the stories have very interesting premises.  The first story, Gopal's Kitchen, is about live organ trafficking.  Another is about a polio-stricken woman who runs a highly successful match-making service.  The title story is about the impact a Naxalite terrorist had on a woman.  Another story is told entirely through email exchanges.  The fifth is about a woman doing her dissertation on the concept of belief.

Unfortunately, I didn't particularly enjoy this collection.  This will seem like an odd statement to make to people who aren't familiar with Indian literature, but once I realized these stories were mostly set in Calcutta (a city in the Indian state of Bengal), I had to steel myself.

Review: Sunshine

Note to self:  You do not like books with a lot of internal monologue.  Nope.  Not at all.  You also don't like vampire books, remember?

Robin McKinley's Sunshine is set in a world similar to ours, but that is inhabited by demons, were-creatures and vampires as well as humans.  Some time has passed since the Voodoo Wars between humans and vampires.  Humans won, but barely.  Enter Sunshine, a baker in New Arcadia who (surprise!) really loves the sun.  She also has a wee bit of magic in her, which comes in handy when she is kidnapped by vampires and locked in a room with... another vampire, Constantine.  Sunshine and Constantine manage to escape their kidnappers, but by doing so they forge a bond between themselves that is, to say the least, frowned upon by both the human and vampire sides.  And their kidnapper is still out there...

Review: The Little Prince Graphic Novel

It was only after I started reading this graphic novel adaptation of Antoine de Saint-Exupery's The Little Prince that I realized I have never actually read the original version.  Has this ever happened to you?  I think for me, the case is particularly prevalent with children's books that everyone reads, and so I just assume I have read them, too.  And then... er, I really haven't.  This is one of those occasions.

But after reading this adaptation, I really want to read the original The Little Prince (well, translated into English).  The story is deceptively simple- a man's plane breaks down in the middle of the desert.  He works to fix it and then, almost by magic, a little boy comes up to him and asks the man to draw him a picture of a sheep.  From there, we are taken on a wonderful journey with a man rediscovering his childhood through the help of a mysterious young boy who hails from a distant planet.  The boy (the little prince of the title) describes to the narrator his journey to Earth.  He talks about his home planet, where he is the sole caretaker of three volcanoes and a beautiful rose.  He describes the other planets he visited, all with only one inhabitant- a king, a businessman, a geographer and a lamplighter.  Through the little prince, our narrator begins to rediscover a childlike wonder for the world.

Review: Wartime Women - A Mass Observation Anthology

I first learned about the book Wartime Women and the Mass Observation Project on Hannah Stoneham's blog.  I was immediately fascinated.  The Mass Observation Project is just such a good idea.  According to the website, it "was founded in 1937 by three young men, who aimed to create an 'anthropology of ourselves'.  They recruited a team of observers and a panel of volunteer writers to study the everyday lives of ordinary people in Britain."  Thus, many Britons throughout World War II would answer open-ended questionnaires or keep diaries and send them in to the organization, detailing everyday thoughts and feelings and reactions to issues great and small.

This particular book focuses on women's responses to specific issues before and during the war, with specific emphasis on employment, family life and morale.

TSS: How important is THEME to you?

Last week, we talked about whether or not setting is very important in a book and most of us decided it's not a key component, but when it's done well, it's great and when it's done badly, it shows.  This week, let's talk about theme!

Theme is one of those Big Ideas you learn about in English class.  We analyzed every book for symbolism and responses and nitpicked each sentence until we felt certain we had learned exactly what the author meant to do by writing a particular book.  After my last English class (sadly, I didn't take even one in college), I proceeded to never really analyze theme again.  Sure, there have been times when I've read a book and thought, "What the heck is going on here?"  There are books in which theme is so prevalent and obvious it would be hard to miss (The Sparrow and The Vintner's Luck are two that jump immediately to mind).  But mostly... I ignore all that scholarly stuff and focus on the story.

I don't mean to say that the themes of books no longer resonate with me.  But while I loved English class, I hated beating every little thing into the ground, and it's very refreshing to just be able to read and enjoy a book without worrying so much about What The Message Is and whether I truly understood the message (I probably didn't).  I sometimes wonder if I would have liked The Lord of the Flies and The Grapes of Wrath more if I hadn't spent so much time looking for color and animal symbols or wondering about the meaning behind the name "Rosasharn" (by the way, it took me a ridiculously long time to realize that Rosasharn and Rose of Sharon were the same person).  Or if I would enjoy poetry more if I wasn't so intimidated by finding the meaning of every word in each carefully allotted space.

On the other hand, though, I think I would have benefited from a guiding hand while reading The Bone People.  What happened in that book?  A lot of things that I didn't understand, that's for sure.  What was the theme?  No clue.  Really.  I have some vague notions but nothing that I could, say, write a five-paragraph essay on.

That said, when I feel that I've truly connected with a book, then I love theme.  It can make a story so much stronger.  For example, would The Sparrow or The Vintner's Luck have been nearly as powerful without their religious undertones?  Would I have enjoyed Crime and Punishment at all if I hadn't felt completely connected to what Dostoevsky was doing?  Without theme, The Metamorphosis is just a bizarre story about a boy turning into some sort of beetle.  And there are some books that I choose to read for theme alone.  Hilary Mantel's novels all center around the uses and abuses of power- I love that she somehow made Robespierre a sympathetic character.  It's unlikely I'd go through this whole post without mentioning how much the themes in Wish Her Safe at Home and, to a lesser (but in some ways more disturbing) extent, Excellent Women, resonated with me.

So I would say for me, theme is very important, but I don't like to force it or break it down and analyze it.  I just feel happy when I "get" it and when I don't... well, I move on to the next book.  What about you?

With Reverent Hands: My Dream of You

I bring you with reverent hands / the books of my numberless dreams.

-WB Yeats, "A Poet To His Beloved"

WB Yeats, I'm sure, gave books to his beloved that he valued highly himself, and that he handled with reverence.  If you had to recommend a book you revered to someone, what would it be?
 
I'm asking you to highlight one book.  One book that you adore, that you prize, that changed your life, that you would save from a burning building, that you found serendipitously on a library shelf or at a used bookstore, looking lonely and ignored.  A book that thrills you but that, you have come to realize, no one else has really ever heard of, much less read.  With Reverent Hands is all about those books- the ones that deserve a wider audience than they are given and that you want everyone to go out and read, even if they are out of print.

If you would like to participate in the With Reverent Hands series, please comment on this post with a way to contact you and I will send you a template!

This edition of With Reverent Hands is brought to you by Lisa, who blogs at bibliophiliac.  Lisa describes herself as a "passionate, voracious reader," and her blog stands testament to that.  Even though she just started last year, she already has posted 94 times this year!  Seems like she's here to stay, and I am
quite happy about that.  Here's Lisa's choice for a book she thinks you should pick up!  She had me with the comparison to Possession.

What book are you highlighting?
My Dream of You by Irish writer Nuala O'Faolain

Review: A Hat Full of Sky

A Hat Full of Sky is the sequel to The Wee Free Men.  After reading Emma Donoghue's Room, I really needed something light and fun!  Of course, Terry Pratchett is perfect for just such occasions.

A Hat Full of Sky picks up some time after The Wee Free Men left off, with Tiffany packing up to go be an apprentice to Miss Level, a witch who lives in a forest.  While at Miss Level's, Tiffany does a magic trick that involves leaving her own body; when she does this, a hiver takes residence in her body and Tiffany must it for control of herself and her thoughts.  And, of course, she has the Nac Mac Feegles to help her.  This book also features a cameo by my favorite Discworld character, DEATH.

TSS: How important is SETTING to you?

This marks the first in a series (hopefully, depending on how well I get my act together) of Sunday Salon posts discussing different aspects of a novel and how important they are:  setting, characters, language, plot, theme... er, anything else I may be missing?  Let me know and I'll add it to my list!

Setting is the time and place that an event occurs.  For the purpose of this post, it's the time and place that a book's action happens.  It can be modern-day Chicago, 17th century India, the planet Mars in 2500 or a fantasy parallel universe that we'll never encounter. 

To me, setting never seems like a very important aspect of a novel's success until I read a book that does it very well or very poorly.  For example, I think Carlos Ruiz-Zafon brings wartime Barcelona to life.  I love ancient Rome as portrayed by Lindsey Davis.  I think Salman Rushdie does magical realism in the Mughal court very well.  And Hilary Mantel brought revolutionary Paris to amazing life in A Place of Greater Safety.  And I think my love of Georgette Heyer and her sense of place is well-known to most people.  I am focusing on historical novels, but even those set in modern-day can have a great sense of place.  And fantasy, in my opinion, can be make or break, depending on how plausible the setting is.  Guy Gavriel Kay has a wonderful ability of bringing a world so similar to ours but not quite there to his readers.  Joe Abercrombie does it well, too, with a much harsher and gritty take on the world.  And in non-fiction, setting is very key, particularly if you are writing about travel or a very turbulent period.  The Eyes of Willie McGee really made 1950s America vivid for me- in contrast, Rising Road did very little for me.

Depending on the era, an inaccurate setting can bother me.  For example, I think I know the Regency era in English history pretty well, and inaccuracies in language or history or general deportment in novels set in that period really get on my nerves.  However, as I know next to nothing about, say, 4th Dynasty China, I wouldn't notice any discrepancies.  Similarly, I can be very hard to please with books on the Indian immigrant experience, comparing those stories to my own and being skeptical when they don't seem to measure up.

So for me, setting is important in that if it's done well, it can bring a story very much to life, and if it's done poorly, it can ruin a book for me.  Usually, it's something in between and I don't get a great sense of setting.  (In Room, the setting was very strong in that there was a room, and then there was a hospital, but it was hard to get a sense of where in the world the story was taking place.)  I guess I only notice setting when it's at one extreme or the other.

What about you?  Do you pay attention to setting?  How important is it to your enjoyment of a book?

Review: Room

Emma Donoghue is an author I've really enjoyed in the past.  She writes great historical fiction set in 18th century England (Slammerkin and Life Mask), basing whole stories on one-sentence clippings from the Society section of the newspaper.  I was very excited to hear she had a new book coming out, though Room is nothing like her British historical fiction.

NOTE:  The author has asked me to warn readers about spoilers here, though personally I don't think I could write this review without giving away the important bits of information below.

Room is narrated by Jack, a 5-year-old who lives with his mother in a shack, where they are kept imprisoned by Jack's father.  Jack's mother was kidnapped seven years ago, and all of Jack's life he's been in an 11-ft square room.  It's all he's ever known.  But one day his mother comes up with an escape plan, and she and Jack finally get to leave Room.  But living in the big world outside is difficult, with so much noise, so many people, and tons of space.  Jack and his mother have difficulty adjusting to life outside the room, and a life that involves so many other people and things than just each other.

Review: Chew, Vol. 1 - Taster's Choice

Chew is the sort of book that I would never read if it were not in graphic novel format.  I think the descriptions would probably disturb me, and I could very easily be grossed out.  Also, while I really love historical mysteries, modern-day police procedurals do not interest me.  But somehow, I saw this graphic novel at Borders one day and haven't quite been able to squelch my curiosity about it.  So, I read it!

Tony Chu is a cibopath- someone who gets psychic impressions from things that he eats.  For example, when he eats an orange, he knows where it grew, who picked it, who shipped it, and what happened to it before he ate it.  With meat, he gets stronger impressions.  As a detective who sometimes investigates murders...well, he can get a lot of information if he doesn't mind resorting to cannibalism.

Chu lives in an alternate version of our world, where a bird flu pandemic killed hundreds of millions of people, resulting in a poultry ban.  If people want to eat chicken, they have to buy it on the black market, and the black market is thriving.  Thus, the Food and Drug Administration (the FDA) of America has become one of the biggest and most important (and reviled) government organizations in the country, and when Tony is recruited to work for them, he doesn't hesitate to accept the offer.  But what about the rumors going around that it was not the bird flu that caused the world-wide pandemic?

Review: The Vanishing of Katharina Linden

The Vanishing of Katharina Linden by Helen Grant is definitely going to be compared to The Sweetness at the Bottom of the Pie.  I haven't read Sweetness myself, so I don't know if comparisons are justified, but for me, this book was a bit of a disappointment.

Pia is a ten-year-old famed in her small German hometown for being the girl whose grandmother exploded in a freak accident involving hair spray and a match. She has no friends besides one called StinkStefan, her parents are always arguing, and she does not like any of her cousins. When girls from her town begin disappearing, with no clues as to their whereabouts, Pia decides to help find them with the help of her friend Stefan, through the aid of their elderly neighbor Herr Schiller.

Review: 1066 - The Year of the Conquest

1066:  The Year of the Conquest is a very slim history by David Howarth about... well, 1066 and the Norman invasion of England.  It begins in a small English village in January of that year, detailing the class system in place and how the average person in England lived at the time.  From there, Howarth takes us to King Edward the Confessor's deathbed, details English succession law in place at the time (very different than after the Normans came in) and recounts Harold's rise to the throne.  We then cross the Channel to where Duke William hears news of Edward's death and Harold's succession and begins planning his invasion.  And then we are there for the Battle of Hastings, after which England's trajectory changed so drastically.

Double Review: The Hunger Games & Catching Fire

 I am not the first person to review The Hunger Games, nor will I be the last.  I always feel a little silly reviewing books that have already gotten so much hype in blogosphere.  Really, what can I add that hasn't already been said?

Nothing.

So I am going to skip plot summaries for both The Hunger Games and its sequel Catching Fire because... well, mainly because I'm feeling pretty lazy, and anyway, I'm sure you've all heard/read them before.

With Reverent Hands: The Hunters

I bring you with reverent hands / the books of my numberless dreams.

-WB Yeats, "A Poet To His Beloved"

WB Yeats, I'm sure, gave books to his beloved that he valued highly himself, and that he handled with reverence.  If you had to recommend a book you revered to someone, what would it be?
 
I'm asking you to highlight one book.  One book that you adore, that you prize, that changed your life, that you would save from a burning building, that you found serendipitously on a library shelf or at a used bookstore, looking lonely and ignored.  A book that thrills you but that, you have come to realize, no one else has really ever heard of, much less read.  With Reverent Hands is all about those books- the ones that deserve a wider audience than they are given and that you want everyone to go out and read, even if they are out of print.

This week's post is by Skip, who posts at The Reading Ape.  I only learned about Skip's blog after he commented on mine, but I really enjoy it.  He not only reviews books, but also has many discussion posts; one you might remember is about the gender roles in blogosphere.  So I was quite excited to get his post in the With Reverent Hands series- and here it is!  I'm sure you'll enjoy it, too.

What book are you highlighting?

The Hunters by James Salter