Cannonball Read 17

Sticking It to Cancer One Book at a Time

What I’m Not Leaving in 2020: Baking

Mary Berry’s Baking Bible by Mary Berry

by 9 Comments

Best for: Fans of the original recipe Great British Bake-Off (I’m in the UK so please don’t come after me, copyright people); people looking for some fun recipes. In a nutshell: Original Great British Bake-Off Judge Mary Berry shares a bunch of recipes. Worth quoting: N/A Why I chose it: Christmas gift! Review: I found the early seasons of GBBO, where Mel and Sue would interject historical interludes and interviews explaining the different items the contestants were baking, to be a huge help in understanding […]

Baking Hollywood Style and It’s Actually Worth It

How To Bake by Paul Hollywood

by 1 Comment

Bingo Book Review 20: Repeat (of the How To variety) I was feeling a little off balance and I did a little retail therapy; for me that meant the bookstore. I decided on an impulse to go with the title I share with you now: Paul Hollywood’s How To Bake. I’ve been a fan of the Great British Bake-Off (or Baking Show if you’re in the US) for years, and I have several of the series cookbooks. I also have one of Mary Berry’s baking […]

Is a cookbook that’s more about decoration still a cookbook?

Let's Bake! A Pusheen Cookbook by Claire Belton and Susanne Ng

by 7 Comments

Bingo Review 18 How To Cookbook review ahead, but really more of a how to decorate book. Full disclosure: I have not actually attempted anything in Let’s Bake! A Pusheen Cookbook. There is a big reason for that which I will get to shortly. First, for those unfamiliar, Pusheen is a cartoon character popular on the internet, but now perhaps best known for cutesey merchandise, like socks, mystery boxes, and calendars, widely available all over. Pusheen herself is a grey tabby cat, and by now […]

A problem of too much cake and spoilers

The Big Book of Amazing Cakes by The Baking Show Team

by Leave a Comment

I am a little bit glad that Netflix now runs the most current Great British Baking Show because I don’t have to worry as much about spoilers and cookbooks. A few seasons/years ago, I had to be out of town for about two weeks in the middle of when a season was airing, ended up in a bookstore in London, and found out that Nadiya had won the season because she had a new cookbook out on display. This past season I also got spoiler-ed […]

3:2:1 Cooking and Baking is all about the Ratios

Ratio: The Simple Codes Behind the Craft of Everyday Cooking by Michael Ruhlman

by 3 Comments

Out of the blocks I have a confession: a friend gave me this book because I love to bake. I read recipes for fun, which isn’t everyone’s cup of tea. I found Ratio to be a great book for bakers and perhaps to a lesser degree, cooks. The ratios for different doughs: bread, biscuits, pie crust, pasta follow pretty strict formulas of flour, water and fat. Baking is often more chemistry experiment than free flowing expression of one’s imagination. Too much fat, flour or sugar […]

A passionate author can make all the difference

Check, Please! Book 1 #Hockey by Ngozi Ukazu

by Leave a Comment

I had seen this floating around, but it wasn’t until I saw Ngozi Ukazu speak at the NYPL professional day at New York Comic Con this year that I really wanted to read it.  I had seen the cover and thought, “Oh, hockey, not really for me,” and passed it by. But seeing Ukazu speak so passionately about her work inspired me to seek it out. (Fun fact – my public library where I work did not have it, but the high school where I […]



Help Our Mission

You can donate to CBR via:

  1. PayPal
  2. Venmo