The End of Everything by Megan Abbott

This was a win from Stacy's Books.

This coming of age story was a bit sad as well. It is also a story of a crime. Lizzie and Evie are neighbouring 13 year old kids. They live in each others pockets and seemingly know the other person even better than they know themselves. But it is only seemingly so. One day Evie disappears and by a series of deductions it is decided it is an abduction and kidnapping and everyone including the police know who the kidnapper is.

This was where the story gets a bit different. The girls abduction and disappearance is the highlight and only talk in this small town and everyone is desperate to find both the missing girl and the man who abducted her. It is only Lizzie to whom the police can turn to for even small pieces of the missing puzzle to try to track them down.  Over the period of nineteen days it then also dawns on Lizzie that the story is not one of abduction but that Evie may have gone by her own free will but Lizzie's hands are tied as to how this could ever be told.

The secrets in each family gets exposed one by one. Some of them will remain hidden again, not acknowledged by anyone and life will never seem the same for either girl. When Evie returns (assumption being that she escaped, but Lizzie knows that she was allowed to leave), the situation becomes bizarre between the two. There seems to be a boundary which Lizzie cannot cross and Evie seems to have grown up and away from Lizzie in immeasurable ways.

A simple telling of a story that happens all the time. This time the return of Evie was a happy ending for her family, and for the authorities,  though not necessarily for Evie herself.  Disturbing that thirteen year olds are no longer kids and that such powerful emotions can instigate events that could turn catastrophic. 

Everyday Celebrations with Maria Loggia!

Maria Loggia’s kitchen door is always open. Her home and garden are a gathering place for friends and family, who come to share her easygoing enthusiasm and generosity – and her inspired Italian cuisine. In this, her second book, Loggia celebrates the seasons with 16 sumptuous menus – from a spontaneous al fresco garden party to a slow-simmered midwinter feast and a traditional Sunday family lunch.

Book Details:
Book Title: Everyday Celebrations with Maria Loggia
Category: Non-fiction
Genre: Cooking, Food & Wine, 176 pages
Publisher: Cardinal Publishing
Published: Oct 1, 2012 

Amazon.ca * Cardinal Publishing * Amazon.com

Meet the author:

Maria Loggia is one of Montreal's best-loved Italian cooking teachers. Her Tavola Mia cooking school in the village of Hudson is a warm, inviting place to learn about Italian cuisine. She also appears regularly on television, is featured in newspapers and magazines, and leads culinary tours in Italy.

Maria finds inspiration in her Italian heritage and draws on family recipes that go back generations. She foundedTavola Mia, her at-home cooking school in 1999. Through her study of Italy's regional cuisines, which has included numerous sojourns back to her native country, she has acquired great expertise in the art of Italian cooking. Her passion, humor and dedication to excellence have made her an inspiring teacher. Using fresh local ingredients, Tavola Mia celebrates the seasons in authentic, irrepressible Italian style.

Try One of the Recipes!

Petto di Pollo Farcito con Uva e Noci

Chicken Breasts Stuffed with Grapes and Walnuts

1 tbsp (15 ml) unsalted butter

2 tbsp (30 ml) extra-virgin olive oil

2 shallots, finely chopped

¾ cup (180 ml) walnuts, coarsely chopped

½ cup (125 ml) red seedless grapes, quartered

2 tbsp (30 ml) finely chopped fresh chives

2 tbsp (30 ml) bread crumbs

Salt and freshly ground pepper, to taste

7 oz (200 g) soft goat cheese, cut in 6 slices

For chicken:

6 tbsp (90 ml) extra-virgin olive oil

6 bone-in chicken breasts, skin on

Salt and freshly ground pepper, to taste

3 tbsp (45 ml) unsalted butter, softened

1 orange, cut into wedges

3 sprigs fresh rosemary, each cut in half

5 bay leaves

TO SERVE:

Freshly squeezed juice of 1 orange

Preheat oven to 375°F (190°C).

To prepare filling: Heat butter and oil in a large skillet and sauté shallots until soft, 1 to 2 minutes, and remove from heat. Stir in walnuts, grapes, chives and bread crumbs. Season with salt and pepper and set aside to cool slightly. Leave goat cheese aside for now.

To prepare chicken: Oil a 14-inch (35 cm) round earthenware tiella or roasting pan with 2 tbsp (30 ml) of the olive oil and set aside. On a baking sheet, season chicken breasts with salt and pepper. Make a lengthwise slit in each chicken breast, being careful not to cut all the way through. (This will form the pocket for the stuffing.) Rub remaining 4 tbsp (60 ml) olive oil into the chicken (including in the pockets). Divide stuffing equally among chicken breasts, stuffing it into the slit in each breast, and top with a slice of goat cheese. Pull the chicken skin over the filling and secure with toothpicks. Smear butter over the skin and season again to taste with salt and pepper.

Gently transfer chicken to prepared tiella. Scatter orange wedges, rosemary and bay leaves around chicken. Roast 35 to 40 minutes, or until juices run clear when the thickest part of the breast is pierced. Then broil 2 to 3 minutes, or until skin is crisp and golden. Drizzle with orange juice and serve warm with pan juices.

Serves 6

Everyday Celebrations with Maria Loggia is on tour from July 14th to the 18th. 

Mailbox Monday/It's Monday! What are you reading?

Interesting books in my Mailbox!

             

I think this is a nice bunch of mixed genres!

Right now not reading anything. Lots of reading material on hand but work is getting in the way! 

Sleeping Partners by Alan Goodare

Secret country villages never seem to be what they are. Innocuous characters - the doctor, the retired bluff civil servant, the harmless Professor all have mysteries lurking in their background. 

In this story a seemingly harmless collection of characters, typical of any community even today comprise a hard core spy network - albeit "sleepers" remnants of the Cold War but nevertheless characters who have to be watched for any possible break out and embarrassment to the powers that be on either side.

On reading the story, I first thought alright we have this one character and then you slowly, slowly unravel that there is a host of characters in the story and nothing is as what it seems. Quite a page turner because you always want to know where the next character is going to pop up. 

One person's mid life crisis and another's nightmare sleep triggers off the whole story. Not just a spy story but also a story of how one can live with one person for over twenty years and not really know the person! That for me was the frightening bit. You think you know it all and then you realize that you know absolutely nothing - I know how Teddy felt. Not just betrayal but a loss of all kind of hope and belief.

This was a good one sent via Netgalley - courtesy of Troubador Publishing Ltd

An Untitled Lady by Nicky Penttila

 

This was a book win from Historical Fiction Connection.  Thank you Amy for this win.

This is a romance set in a very important period of history in Britain. The romance is started by the strange turnaround in Madeline Wetherby's life. She intends to marry the Earl, but instead marries his brother a merchant trader of the dreaded commerce and thus becomes several steps lower in the rigidly marked social life of the county.

Nash is a manufacturer and trades in textiles. He is also one of those in the middle ground. At a time of conflict he is trying to broker a peace between mill workers and management and failing badly. Management sees him as a traitor to their cause and style and the workers are always distrustful of the aristocracy to whom he belongs. Maddie his wife with connections to the mill workers themselves is caught in the middle, not knowing to whom her loyalties lie.

Set in tumultuous times in the Industrial Revolution in Britain the story details the life of mill workers - the spinners and weavers that made British cloth world famous. The stark reality of the poverty and way of life is told as a backdrop to the romance between Nash and Madeline.

Enjoyed this book.

The Boathouse by R J Harries

Sean Archer is a criminologist who runs a small but very well knit operation with Zoe who is a "elite" professional hacker who can get into any system possible and obtain whatever information you want.

Sean is also  deeply saddened by his girlfriend's murder. He is also extremely keen to find out who murdered her as he feels that it is linked to the murder of his parents when he was a boy of 14. Two weeks after Alex's murder, her friend who was assisting Sean was also murdered.

Now Sean finds himself being constantly hassled by rogue cops and even assaulted badly warning him to stay off Alex's case.This however makes Sean even keener to find out what is happening.  Alex has left him a list of people involved in her investigation and Sean vows not to allow her death to go in vain. 

It is at this point of time that he is approached by Peter Sinclair a multi millionaire to take over and find his wife who he feels has been kidnapped. Sinclair does not want the police involved as it would mean the death of his wife.  Sinclair is not a person whom Sean even remotely likes but he feels getting on the case is important because Peter Sinclair was also a name on  on Alex's list and Sean feels getting in on this case though a difficult one would be one step closer to finding pieces to the puzzle which has long eluded the solving. 

The suspense of the chase and the revealing in slow stages the mystery of this story and Sinclair himself are cleverly done.  You do want to know how it is going to end and to that end it is a book you start that you want to finish on the day itself.

Thanks to Netgalley who sent the book on to me for an independent review courtesy of Troubador  Publishing Limited.

Still Life with Murder by P B Ryan

Another read which I just discovered was set in the 1860s (two books in a row in the 1860s) we have a Boston elite family the Hewitts who have four sons of their own (two dead in the wars) and two surviving. We have Nell Sweeney who almost accidentally became a governess in the family when Viola Hewitt against all odds and overwhelming gossip I would say of the day, adopted the baby of a maid who did not want this child. 

That was the first improbability for me and only halfway through did I realize what I should I have known, that an old aristocratic woman like Viola Hewitt did not do anything for nothing and there were no half measures either in what she did.

The surprise resurrection of Will the Hewitts eldest son who was presumed dead for three years is the crux of the story. Not only is he back from the dead, he is also under an assumed name and very few people including his brothers know of his survival. Very early on one does come to the point that this is a family that is keeping secrets within secrets and that they are anyway though a family not really that fond of each other.  William is now an opium addict and has been arrested for the murder of a very well known bad egg of the lesser well known parts of Boston. 

It is only his mother who wants to pay for a defence, get him bail, get him resurrected and resuscitated it seems. All his father wants to do is to bury him quietly as possible under the assumed name so that nothing of the scandal touches the great Hewitt name.

The story started very well and then became a bit slow as I felt the technicalities of how opium was smoked was given in too minute detail. It was a bit repetitious at this point but once it got past that point it swiftly got one's attention as you did want to know how this was going to end. 

This was a kindle free download and one which I would recommend to readers who like mystery murder investigations of another age. Police work was very hard at that time and dealing with the rough end of society was definitely not for the faint hearted.

My first read of this author. Will be keeping a look out for the books which will follow.