Cannonball Read 17

Sticking It to Cancer One Book at a Time

Pandesal? Mmm, Tell Me More

Arsenic and Adobe by Mia P. Manansala

by Leave a Comment

One of the cozy cooking type mysteries, I must knock it down a star because although our girl is charged with murder right out of the gate, there honestly is no danger of anyone buying that.  Lila Macapagal is back home from Chicago and is temporarily helping out in her Tita Rosie’s Filipino restaurant.  Unfortunately Derek Winter, a food critic who has been writing nasty reviews all over town, including her auntie’s, takes a face plant into his dessert, poisoned.  The dessert which Lila had […]

It was like a form of meditation and therapy. Squeezing the limes and cleaning the shrimp – that is the memory of food.

Recipe for Disaster: 40 Superstar Stories of Sustenance and Survival by Alison Riley

by 2 Comments

Recipe for Disaster starts so well. The first recipe is Samantha Irby’s Rejection Chicken. First things first, you gotta get dumped.” The whole recipe is the story of heartbreak, self soothing, and chopping and cooking. I like to slice them on a severe angle because it looks cool and chef-y, but honestly? It doesn’t matter! Does anything?????? Same, Samantha Irby, same. I don’t just eat my feelings, I cook my feelings too. Sometimes I need to fiercely chop a lot of things, and sometimes I […]

Come light the Menorá

J Is for Janucá by Melanie Romero

by Leave a Comment

When I think of Hanukkah, I think of a winter celebration that I know a little about, but not enough to say much about. So, when J Is for Janucá came up on a list of books to read online via Edelweiss, I thought here is a great way to learn. And I learned more than expected. You see, this book is bilingual. Spanish and English words and phrases fill this alphabet book in ways you will be amazed at. Words you might know, such […]

This mite is mighty

Roberto: The Insect Architect by Nina Laden

by Leave a Comment

Roberto: The Insect Architect is what you expect from a book about a termite who wants to be an architect. There are puns about eating your wood and not building with it. There are bug-name puns of real-life architects and more. It is simple enough, but Nina Laden has created a long story that mostly is amusing (it is mostly a Love or Not book, with a few people in the Like category). Landen’s illustrations are what you see from the cover, only a few […]

The GBBO judges are the losers here

The Great British Baking Show Favorite Flavors by Paul Hollywood, Prue Leith, 2022 bakers

by Leave a Comment

So the Great British Bake Off aka Great British Baking Show books have been kind of hit or miss; more miss lately, but thankfully, in spite of some unfortunate decisions during the actual series, the book is back to what it should be: cool bakes that are actually achievable and useful to an average home baker. The Great British Baking Show: Favorite Flavors has a lot of things I think I both can and actually want to try. Before I get into the good stuff, […]

I’ll stick to my TV Bourdain

Kitchen Confidential by Anthony Bourdain

by Leave a Comment

Anthony Bourdain was one of my travel heroes and his suicide several years ago still guts me (while reminding me that people who look like they have everything you could want may still be very unhappy). I have never read any of his work before but I love his voice and attitude, which is to say: my expectations for this book were high. Kitchen Confidential was published in 2000 and was a bestseller. It is Bourdain’s memoir of working in the food industry, divided into […]



Help Our Mission

You can donate to CBR via:

  1. PayPal
  2. Venmo