Yes, I’m back with more books and eats. My streak of great books continues.! I just finished these two:
The Anthony Horowitz is a “Hawthorne” mystery, and it’s a good one! Since there are no new murders to solve and Anthony’s publishers are pushing for a new book, he writes about an old case of Hawthorne’s. As usual, the mystery is clever, as is the way he combines the old case with his present day sleuthing into Hawthorne’s mysterious past.
Next up- Orson Scott Card has done it again. HOW can he write a book that is the same story as Ender’s Game, but told from a different point of view- and still make it an extremely compelling story??? The Shadow Series is the story of Bean, and there are five more books. NO! I refuse to be sucked in AGAIN! I’m not reading the rest of the series… at least not right now. I do have some questions, but every time I ask my son he smiles smugly and says “You’ll just have to read the rest of them.” (Stop that! Stop that right now!)
Seriously… I have a stack of books from the library that need to be read. I’ll read the next “Shadow” book later in the summer.
Eating… has been pretty simple. While my husband and son were gone, I made some pretty basic things for my daughter, including lots of leftovers, and my meals consisted of things like brown rice, tempeh, roasted vegetables, sweet potatoes, chickpeas… I really felt like I needed a reset after my race.
I also made this recipe for pumpkin pancakes from Running on Real Food. I know… I had a little “Pumpkin Palooza in June.” The recipe is gluten free- using chickpea flour- and I made it sugar free as well. They were good! I can’t wait for pumpkin season to officially begin (only three short months away!)
Lastly, I made this blueberry cake from Nora Cooks.
It was really easy, and the family ate it with vegan ice cream (I enjoyed it vicariously.)
That’s it! I can’t wait to dive into some mysteries, including an Agatha Christie re-read.
What are you reading now? What are you eating these days?
22 Responses
I’m excited to hear about the Agatha reread! I wonder which one it is.
That cake looks really good. For someone who claims that you aren’t taking decent food photos, I sure get hungry when I read your blog a lot.
Okay, that’s good! I’m glad the pictures of delicious food aren’t repulsing you. And, the Christie reread is a book someone just mentioned on a blog… but I can’t remember who. So far I don’t remember it, which is good!
I agree with Birchie. I am HUNGRY now. That cake looks amazing.
Your “simple” meals sound incredibly wholesome and delicious. I did a tray bake last night for supper with veggies, potatoes and a bit of protein (pork last night but I’m going to make roasted tofu tonight) and it was really good. I just love roasted veggies.
Yes, I love roasted vegetables so much- and both my kids like them, so I make them all the time.
Oooh blueberry cake! God I love cake. I made a carrot cake on the weekend and it was honestly perfection.
We are eating fresh greens from the garden a lot these days! In terms of reading, I just finished another kind of meh book, so I’m looking forward to reading something NOT meh!
Nicole, I can tell you my blueberry cake was WAY easier to make than your carrot cake- I’ve made carrot cake before and there’s a lof of grating. But I’m sure it was delicious. And, I’m envious of your fresh greens… mine all come from the grocery store.
The blueberry cake looks really good and perfect for summer! I’ve been pretty much eating the same basic meals (beans and rice for lunch, Banza pasta for dinner) but lately I’ve been really loving the combo of watermelon, baby cucumber and tajin for a snack. It’s so refreshing on a hot day and now I’m trying to think of ways to incorporate watermelon into some dinners…
OOH! I had to look up “tajin” and that sound delicious!!!
I like the Horowitz novels, but I sometimes get confused by the “book within a book” if I am not listening intently (as I normally read them as audiobooks). So sometimes they don’t catch me as well as others, depending on my mood and/or attention span. I have not read the Shadow series, but I definitely read the Ender books when I was younger. I would probably have to go back and re-read them now if I were going to read the Shadow series, so that I could be back on track in the story.
I am reading The Indifferent Stars Above and am loving it so far! It is so close to home that you would have thought I had heard enough about the Donners, but the author does a good job telling the story from a different angle. Also it is kind of fun to know where they are talking about when they say they are camped in Truckee Meadow or they are looking up at Castle Peak.
Yes, I know a lot of people really loved that book. And, about the Shadow series- OSC says you can read it independently of Ender, but I think you’d be missing a lot that way. If you ever decided to read it, you could probably just find a synopsis somewhere of the Ender books to refresh your memory. Oh- and I can see how the Horowitz books MIGHT not work as well on audio.
That blueberry cake looks so delicious! And perhaps my next thought contradicts that first thought but your reset sounds divine. There’s been a lot of celebratory and communal eating at our place, and I’m craving simple, crunchy, healthy stuff.
I have the feeling you’re going to keep reading The Shadow Series–if not for OSC, then for your kid :)!
Ha, I know- that’s why I read the whole Ender series. But I did enjoy it. And I know I’ll enjoy the Shadow series too (when I get to the next book- not quite yet.)
Yes, after eating Fritos and Coke Zero on the way home from my race, plus a couple more days of celebratory eating, I was ready for something a little healthier!
Yum, those eats look really good! I had mentioned that I wanted to make banana muffins with the boys and you had graciously looked at the Nora website for muffin recipes so I made that recipe and they were so good! I used dairy milk since we didn’t have non-dairy and I subbed my GF flour blend + xanthan gum and added choc chips and they were a delight. That is the last thing I baked, though. The pumpkin pancakes sound good. I wish my boys liked traditional pancakes. They are kind of meh on them when I’ve made them. I want to try again to see if they can get on board with them as it’d be nice to have another dish in our rotation.
I just finished “Your Truly” which was a very sweet romance written by a local author so it was set in Minneapolis. Romance novels can stress me out because there is always conflict around the 70-85% mark and I am conflict-avoidant! But I liked this one enough to get past the conflict. I just started The Secret Book of Flora Lea. Kyria recommended it to me and gave it 5 stars and she never sets me astray! It is set around WWII, though, which is an era I try to avoid because I read too many WWII books years ago but I’m giving it a chance since it had such a strong endorsement!
I can just see the smug look Paul is giving you! It would be hard to not read those books so you could discuss them with him but 5 books is a lot of books to read!!!
It’s weird- I didn’t like pancakes as a kid either! I wonder why? I mean, they’re so delicious! Yes, you could probably try again. maybe put some blueberries in. Not sure if that would make them more or less appealing though.
I also don’t like conflict, especially the kind that tends to come up in these books- I just want to yell at them to TALK to each other. So many of these “conflicts” in books are silly misunderstandings. But, I’ll be interested to hear about the book Kyria recommended- that’s definitely a good endorsement.
I wish Orson Scott Card weren’t a terrible person because he writes such good books. I think “Speaker for the Dead” is in my top five of books ever. *sigh* I’m happy to hear you enjoyed it, though!
Yes, my son informs he that he’s not a good person- but WHY???? I guess I should find out. Or maybe I shouldn’t, just read the books and enjoy them.
ACK!!!! I just googled it. SO disappointing!
Yum, that blueberry cake looks delicious. Bookmarked!
Yes, everyone liked it and it was so easy!
Yay Agatha reread! I love it! I am reading Circe as part of the Pop Sugar Reading Challenge, but I am having trouble getting into it. That blueberry cake looked SO GOOD! We’ve had an off plan eating week, so it’s been a lot of eggs and toast for dinner and lunch scrambling. I’m making some sort of Greek quiche for dinner, though, so hopefully that gets us back on track.
Circe seems like a book that would be hard to get into. I know a lot of people love it, but I’m not sure if I would. I’ll be interested to hear your review when you finish it!
I’ve yet to read a Horowitz mystery but I have it on my TBR to start the series. One day, I’ll get to it!
I’m about 80 pages into Everyone on This Train Is a Suspect and it’s not really grabbing me. I’m going to give it another few chapters to see if I want to keep going.