The Opposite of Love by Julie Buxbaum

The Opposite of Love wound up on my tbr list after seeing it on Staci's blog. Like Staci, I could relate to Emily. Sometimes too much, but it wound up being a solid read.
The Opposite of Love starts out like a lot of chick lit. A woman makes a choice, could be right, could be wrong and spends the majority of the novel deciding which it is. For the first few chapters, I hated Emily and the stupid place she wound up in. A soul sucking job, a boss who demeans women, and Emily just taking it. I really wanted to slap some sense into her. I almost DNF. But Ruth, Emily's grandpa's lady friend, made me stick around. An author who created that spitfire of an older lady might have something worth reading.
Again, a character with Alzheimer's. Always gets me every time. Plus Emily's mom died when she young. And Emily would talk about missing her mom, how it felt not to have a mom. That touched me. I could relate to her pain. I could relate to a lot of Emily's issues. Not being happy, second guessing herself. I think a lot of women and men can relate too.
Overall a good read. Others who shared their thoughts on The Opposite of Love: Life In The Thumb, Books On The Brain, The Good, The Bad, and The Unread, Write Meg, and The Book Chick.

Gone Girl by Gillian Flynn

I really enjoyed Gillian Flynn's first two books. I was very excited to find her latest, Gone Girl, on the library shelf. Again, Flynn does not disappoint. Flynn is a master at creating characters that get under your skin. 

Gone Girl is the story of Nick and Amy Dunne. Nick and Amy have moved from New York to rural Missouri so Nick can help take care of his aging parents. Amy is completely out of her element. Nick and his twin sister open a bar. Nick's also from Missouri so this is a homecoming of sorts for him. Right away you can see things are tense between Amy and Nick but watching it unfold was like a cross between a train accident and an episode of Jerry Springer. 

I loved how the chapters alternated between Nick and Amy. At first, we have diary entries from Amy starting back when she met Nick in New York. Then later on, Amy tells the story in her own voice, present day. The alternating voice really helps build the story and build sympathy/distrust in the characters. 

Overall, I really enjoyed Gone Girl. If you like thrillers and enjoy very messed up characters, Gone Girl is your book. Others who shared their thoughts on Gone Girl: Book Journey, Chaotic Compendiums, Whimpulsive, You've GOTTA Read This, Life In The Thumb, Jenn's Bookshelves, Devourer of Books, and Take Me Away.

Weekend Cooking: Cinnamon Roll Muffins

One Saturday morning, I woke up craving cinnamon rolls. But I've never made cinnamon rolls. I'm not a baker. My cookies don't alway turn out right. I still use mixes for cakes and brownies. How hard would cinnamon rolls could be?
Apparently, hard. I would need yeast. Yeah, I don't have yeast. Yet still craving cinnamon rolls. A quick internet search led me to these Cinnamon Roll Muffins.

Being a novice baker, I rolled the dough to thick. But it still was delicious. I'll attempt cinnamon rolls sometime but I would gain more experience rolling dough and working with yeast. Until then these muffins are a great substitute. The glaze was excellent.







Weekend Cooking is open to anyone who has any kind of food-related post to share: Book (novel, nonfiction) reviews, cookbook reviews, movie reviews, recipes, random thoughts, gadgets, fabulous quotations, photographs. If your post is even vaguely foodie, feel free to grab the button and link up anytime over the weekend. Please link to your specific post, not your blog's home page. For more information, see the welcome post.

A Million Suns by Beth Revis

I loved Across The Universe so I had to pick up A Million Suns. I had to know what happened next on the Godspeed. Revis continued the adventure wonderfully but I didn't love A Millon Suns as much as Across The Universe.
A Million Suns takes place soon after Across The Universe. The Godspeed is dealing with the reality of their situation. Elder is trying to understand his new responsibilities. Amy's trying to blend in. Nothing is really going well for anyone. The Godspeed has a lot of new problems as well as problems they don't even know about yet.
Amy stumbles on some clues that were left for her. She and sometimes Elder are trying to unravel the mystery Amy was supposed to find. The mystery seems really important but I felt it would slip from the main storyline then become the central storyline then slip into the background again. While the mystery was solved I didn't feel that it got wrapped up. I think it will play into the next book but I wanted a little more resolution to it.
I didn't like that Elder and Amy seemed to bicker a lot. A lot of stop wasting my time, no you don't understand nonsense. I think this is my issue as I forget that they are teens. I think I wanted them to grow up. But if you remember that they are just teens all the bickering makes sense.
I liked that we got more of Victria and the Doc had a larger part in the story this time. I felt like I knew Amy and Elder. I wanted to get to know more of the other people on the ship. All these stories make up the Godspeed.
Again, space is awesome. I loved all the details Revis brings into the story. She spends a lot more time showing how the ship works, how people get food, and how long the Godspeed was designed to function. And there's this really cool part in the middle of the book that makes me wish I could go into space. Wow, I was totally enthralled there.
Overall, great sequel. Just a couple of bumps there for me but I'm still really looking forward to the third book. Others who shared their thoughts on A Million Suns: Pub Writes, BookBorne, The Bookshelf Review, The YA Bookcase on Lake Street, Michelle Shouts Random, and Fyreflys' Book Blog.

Pin It And Do It Challenge-August

Trish over at Love, Laughter, and a Touch Insanity is hosting the Pin It And Do It Challenge in August. She did the same challenge in May but I missed it. I won't miss it this time.
As you know, I puffy heart Pinterest. I pin a lot of stuff and I make a lot of food items that I spy on Pinterest. But I'm upping the ante.
Trish has 3 levels (Timid Pinner-1 to 3 pins, Pinterested 4-7, and Pin Obsessed 8+). I'm going to challenge myself here and go with 10 pins which puts me solidly in the Pin Obsessed category! And while the majority of pins I make are food, I'm going to challenge myself to do 3 pins that aren't food (cleaning, crafts, etc).
It doesn't matter when you pinned the item just that you make/wear/do whatever you pinned in August. This is a great challenge for those of you who pin but never do. This is the time to try that recipe, attempt that DIY, organize, or use that cool cleaning tip.
Join the fun and sign up at Trish's blog!
Follow me on Pinterest! Let me know if you need an invite.

Library Loot

  Library Loot is a weekly event co-hosted by Claire from The Captive Reader and Marg from The Adventures of an Intrepid Reader that encourages bloggers to share the books they’ve checked out from the library. If you’d like to participate, just write up your post-feel free to steal the button-and link it using the Mr. Linky any time during the week. And of course check out what other participants are getting from their libraries!

I spied a bunch of cookbooks on the shelf and couldn't resist picking them up.

Dining In Seattle

Recipes from some of Seattle's finest restaurants. Sounds great.

Cook This, Not That

I've leafed through Eat This, Not That and found it interesting. I look forward to finding some good recipes in this one.

Forks Over Knives

I haven't seen the documentary of the same name but I'm interested in more of plant based diet. 

$3 Make And Take Meals

As I've said before, I'm looking to take my lunches to work. I'm hoping for some more inspiration here.

The Homemade Pantry

I'm so excited to check this one out. 

Enthralled

I'm looking forward to this collection of short stories.

The Picture of Dorian Gray

This one is on my Fill In The Gaps list.

Amy & Roger's Epic Detour

I've been wanting to read this one for a long time. 

All The Pretty Horses

I had to reloot this one. Also for the Fill In The Gaps challenge.

What did you get this week?

Top Ten Tuesday: Most Vivid Worlds/Settings In Books

Top Ten Tuesday is a weekly meme started at The Broke And The Bookish.

This week's topic is the most vivid worlds/settings in books. I thought this one would be simple but I could only come up with eight. 

Across the Universe and A Million Suns-Revis does an excellent job of making you feel like you are on a ship in space. But that ship feels so real from the fields to the solar sun.

Incarnate-I loved the world that Meadow’s created for Ana. I enjoyed how everything flowed in Heart and how the world made sense to the characters.

The Newsflesh series-Georgia and Shaun live in a futuristic United States. There are plenty of similarities to our current world. I love the pop culture references that make it so much easier to relate to a world where the dead rise.

Ready Player One-Again a book filled with pop culture references is going to make me very happy. But I loved the Oasis and the other planets that exist. Sign me up for the Wheadonverse!

The Wicked Lovely series-Marr created such an enchanting world filled with fairies. I enjoyed every minute with those characters.

The Books of Faerie series-Another series I want to just crawl into and live. Stiefvater does a brilliant job of drawing you into the faery world and making magic real.

Y: The Last Man series (Graphic Novel)-Brian K Vaughan is my favorite graphic novel writer. His post apocalyptic world is amazing. I remember the first time I read Y: The Last Man. I was blown away by the details.

The Strain series-Of course de Toro, a wonderful film maker, is going to be able to make a realistic world where vampires attempt to take over the world. The story just jumps off the page.

The Girl With The Clockwork Collar by Kady Cross

After really enjoying The Girl With The Steel Corset, I was eager for the next in the series, The Girl With The Clockwork Collar. Again, Cross did not disappoint.
Jayne and her friends are headed to America to save Jasper. The whole gang-Griffin, Sam, and Emily-head across the Atlantic, bringing some of their toys and plenty of mischief. I did miss Jack Dandy but it was ok. The burgeoning romance between Griffin and Jayne gave me plenty to swoon over. Plus there's a lot more of the rest of the gang. I really enjoyed learning more about everyone. Cross did an excellent job of weaving everyone's story together and making sure the story moved along. I was super excited that Telsa made an appearance.  And who doesn't love the Greatest Geek Who Ever Lived.
I loved this part of the journey and can't wait for next installment. Others who shared their thoughts: Reading Extensively, Read. Breathe. Relax, Nocturne Romance Reads, ReadingDiva, and Reading In Winter.

Weekend Cooking: Crispy Cheddar Chicken

Or quite possibly the best chicken ever.

I pinned this chicken recipe because it sounded easy and delicious. I will warn you. It's not low calorie and it uses Ritz Crackers and canned soup. I happened to have both on hand so it was super easy for me.

I followed her recipe pretty closely. I did substitute chicken thighs for chicken breasts of course.

This was definitely a winner. The sauce tasted rich and decadent and the chicken was simple to make. I wound up with leftovers and it reheated well the next day. I keep the sauce and the chicken separate so the crunchy outside wouldn't get soggy.

In case you missed it, I posted about my awesome kitchen tricks yesterday.

Weekend Cooking is open to anyone who has any kind of food-related post to share: Book (novel, nonfiction) reviews, cookbook reviews, movie reviews, recipes, random thoughts, gadgets, fabulous quotations, photographs. If your post is even vaguely foodie, feel free to grab the button and link up anytime over the weekend. Please link to your specific post, not your blog's home page. For more information, see the welcome post.

Awesome Kitchen Tricks

I'm going to share with you my favorite kitchen tricks. These tricks save me time and money. Two very important things.

You might notice I cook a lot with fresh ginger. No I don't have a ginger farm in my backyard. I used to waste a lot of ginger. Buying a whole piece of ginger and only needing an inch of it. I threw away a lot of moldy ginger. One day I was at my friend, Jennifer's house and she was cooking something that called for ginger. That day she showed me her secret which I will share with you today.
She freezes her ginger.
Seriously she wrapped her ginger in foil and froze it. Now I buy ginger by the pound, wrap each piece in foil and freeze it all in a bag like this:

Instead of chopping it which is a pain when the ginger is frozen, I grate it. Rarely do I need to chop it so grating has worked for me. Yay for no trips to the store for ginger! Yay for not wasting ginger!

I stopped buying chicken breasts. Gasp! What? No more chicken breast? Yup, I only buy chicken thighs now. Boneless chicken breasts are usually around $7.99/lb. Boneless chicken thighs are usually around $5.99/lb. I find the thighs have more flavor and stay juicier than the breasts. There's a small nutritional difference and a lot of people don't like dark meat but neither of those are factors for me. Price usually wins with me.

I like to buy in bulk. When buying in bulk people think cereal or dried beans. But I like to buy meat in bulk. If I come across a good deal, I buy as much as I can afford and freeze it. At the recommendation of one of Tai's coworkers I bought a Foodsaver vacuum sealer. At the time I didn't think I'd really use it. But it was $10 (on sale) so I figured why not try it. I definitely got my money's worth. I vacuum freeze fresh fish and when I cook it later there is no taste difference between fresh and frozen. I also cook meals for Dad and freeze them with the vacuum sealer in individual portions so he can heat what he needs. The vacuum sealer bags are microwaveable so it makes things simple for him.
If you are interested I bought a mini FoodSaver. Mine didn't come as part of a kit which is why it was so cheap. I use mine about 2 times a month for the past six months and I've gone through 3 rolls of bags. FoodSaver tends to run deals frequently (50% percent off) so keep an eye out for a deal.

Do you have any kitchen tips to share?

Awkward & Awesome Thursday

Awkward:

-Sleeping with the window open leads to allergy attacks in the AM. Not fun.

-My library loot pile. Working is getting in the way of my reading time.

-This happened in front of my office Tuesday.

Awesome:

-Related to the last bullet point above, I was totally impressed with the people that flocked to help the postal worker and chase down the fleeing motorist. Nicely done, Seattle.

-Today is my Friday. Yay for a 3 day weekend. 

-Totally free clothing at Old Navy thanks to a gift card I won through Swagbucks. 

The Most Awesomest:

-Today's our 4 year wedding anniversary! I love you sweetie!

Library Loot

 Library Loot is a weekly event co-hosted by Claire from The Captive Reader and Marg from The Adventures of an Intrepid Reader that encourages bloggers to share the books they’ve checked out from the library. If you’d like to participate, just write up your post-feel free to steal the button-and link it using the Mr. Linky any time during the week. And of course check out what other participants are getting from their libraries!

I Am The Messenger

I think Zusak has another book coming out and I realized I haven't read everything he already wrote.

Better By Mistake

I spied this one on someone else's Goodreads feed. Sounded interesting.

Blonde

From my Fill In The Gaps List. 

From Here To Eternity

Also from my Fill In The Gaps list. I didn't realize that this and Blonde were huge. I doubt I can read both in a month.

The Fairy Godmother

I spied the latest in this series on shelf and the series intrigued me.

What did you get this week?

Sixes

I've seen this meme around and wanted to participate. I changed a couple of the categories to suit my needs. I believe this meme was started by The Book Jotter.

Six New To Me Authors
Joe Hill
Nancy E Turner
Beth Revis
Jessica Spotswood
Jo Walton
Veronica Roth

Six Favorite Authors
Mira Grant
Kelley Armstrong
Gail Carriger
Melisa Marr
Maggie Steifvater
Colleen Gleason

Six Series That I'm Working On
Riders of The Apocalypse by Jackie Kessler Morse
Divergent series by Veronica Roth
Across The Universe series by Beth Revis
Women Of The Otherworld by Kelley Armstrong
Steampunk Chronicles by Kady Cross
Firelight series by Sophie Jordan

Six Books That Were Published in 2012 That I Enjoyed
The Selection by Kiera Cass
Faery Tales & Nightmares by Melissa Marr
Fever by Lauren DeStefano
Born Wicked by Jessica Spotswood
Cinder by Marissa Meyer
Blackout by Mira Grant

The Last Six Books I Added To My To Be Read List
This Is Not A Test by Courtney Summers
Belles by Jen Calonita
Wake by Robert J Sawyer
Made From Scratch by Jenna Woginrich
The Dirty Life by Kristen Kimball
Lust by Charlotte Featherstone

Six Books That I Want To Read In The Second Half of 2012
Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen
Plenty by Alisa Smith
A Year In High Heels by Camilla Morton
Dash & Lily's Book of Dares by Rachel Cohn & David Levithan
Clara and Mr Tiffany by Susan Vreeland
What Alice Forgot by Liane Moriarty

Weekend Cooking: Cold Soba Noodle Salad

Ignore the fact that people have been making soba noodle salads forever because mine is the bomb diggity.

One day I was trying to think up something for lunch that involved a package of sukiyaki meat.  I didn't want to make sukiyaki. I wanted something quick, so I "invented" this soba noodle salad.

Sukiyaki meat is thinly sliced beef, chicken or pork. I usually buy it at my local Asian market but I have seen suitably thinly sliced meat at the regular grocery store. I've also made this tofu instead of meat. It works well too.

I love this dish cause it can be prepared with what you have on hand. And it's fast.

This is my usual method.

Linda's Cold Soba Noodle Salad
(serves 3)

1lb of thinly sliced meat (sukiyaki preferably)
1 9.5oz package of soba (buckwheat) noodles
2 (or more) cloves of garlic, minced
2 tbs of grated fresh ginger
1/2 tbs (or more) Korean hot chili or cayenne pepper powder
2 tbs oil
sliced assorted veggies (I like cucumber, onion, carrots, peppers, water chestnuts, or radishes)

Boil water for noodles. Soba noodles only need to cook for 4 minutes so I save the boiling of the noodles to the end.
In a pan over medium heat, pour the oil. Add garlic, ginger, and chili powder. Stir so they will flavor the oil.
Be careful with the chili powder. Inhaling too much will hurt your throat and lungs. If it really bothers you add the chili after the meat has been added.
Once the garlic, ginger and chili powder are fragrant, add beef. Stir to coat the meat with oil, chili powder, garlic, and ginger. Flip meat until cooked.
While meat is cooking, slice up your preferred veggies. I always include onion (either regular or spring) and usually just one or two other veggies.
Once meat has cooked and noodles are done, rinse the noodles in cold water. I plate each portion separately, so I can make sure everyone gets an equal share of veggies. I layer the noodles first, then the veggies and top with meat.
We love this dressing I bought at the Asian Market:

I suppose you could whip up your own ginger dressing but I'm partial to this one.
I have made this for dinners, lunch. It's great any time. I've prepared it ahead of time and eaten cold the next day. Delicious!

Weekend Cooking is open to anyone who has any kind of food-related post to share: Book (novel, nonfiction) reviews, cookbook reviews, movie reviews, recipes, random thoughts, gadgets, fabulous quotations, photographs. If your post is even vaguely foodie, feel free to grab the button and link up anytime over the weekend. Please link to your specific post, not your blog's home page. For more information, see the welcome post.

Blackout by Mira Grant

I have been enjoying the Newsflesh series and I was anxious to complete the series. Blackout is the last in the trilogy. I couldn't wait to see how Grant was going to wrap the whole thing up. But I was a little sad to be leaving Georgia and Shaun behind. While things didn't turn out as I expected, it still was a thrilling ride.
Blackout is all Georgia and Shaun but I enjoyed hearing more about the secondary characters. I didn't think I could like anyone as much as Buffy but I actually liked Becks in this one. She wasn't my favorite in Deadline but I understood her character a lot more. Same with Maggie, Alaric, and Mahir. I felt all of these secondary characters got fleshed out more and added to the overall story. I had complained about not getting to know Shaun better in Deadline. I kind of understood him better after Blackout. But my favorite character is still Georgia. I like how the twists and turns played out. Especially since one of the twists led them to Seattle and the Microsoft campus (a scant mile my from my home). I enjoyed hearing how Seattle faired during the zombie apocalypse. Blackout is definitely full of adventure and zombie filled excitement but also has a lot of the conspiracy theory stuff that Deadline had. To me it was a perfect blend of scary thrill ride and the government's trying to kill us. I've seen books and movies get that blend wrong, so I can safely say Grant got it right. You will be on the edge of your chair with this one.
Overall highly recommended, great end to a wonderful series. I will miss Georgia and Shaun! Others who shared their thoughts on Blackout: The Mad Reviewer, My Friend Amy, and The Quiet Voice.

The Maid by Kimberly Cutter

I picked up The Maid after hearing about it. I do enjoy historical fiction based in Medieval France. I didn't know a whole lot about Joan of Arc but I looked forward to learning more. While I did learn more about Joan of Arc, The Maid fell flat for me. 

The Maid starts towards the end of Joan's journey when she's imprisoned, looking back over how she got there. I enjoyed the parts when Joan was younger before she led the French army against the English. Cutter did a great job of creating a lot of authentic detail. I just didn't connect with Joan. I almost did give up on The Maid but I had a hundred pages left and felt silly quitting so close to the end.   I'll definitely be looking for more books on Joan of Arc.

I would skip The Maid. Others who shared their thoughts on The Maid: Devourer of Books, Luxury Reading, and Historical Fiction Notebook.

Library Loot

 Library Loot is a weekly event co-hosted by Claire from The Captive Reader and Marg from The Adventures of an Intrepid Reader that encourages bloggers to share the books they’ve checked out from the library. If you’d like to participate, just write up your post-feel free to steal the button-and link it using the Mr. Linky any time during the week. And of course check out what other participants are getting from their libraries!

Quinoa 365

I read about Quinoa 365 on One Hundred Dollars A Month's blog. I love quinoa and am always looking for new ways to use it. I'm really excited for this book.

Shiver
I'm really excited to start the Wolves of Mercy Falls trilogy.

Bound By Honor
There was an excerpt of this book in the back of As Shadows Fade. I don't read much erotic fiction but I love Robin Hood legend so I thought I'd try it.

What did you get this week?

Top Ten Tuesday: Best Books I've Read This Year...So Far

Top Ten Tuesday is an original feature/weekly meme created  at The Broke and the Bookish. 

Today's Top Ten are the books I've enjoyed best this year so far. Links are to my posts about the books.

 Ready Player One by Ernest Cline-What you didn’t think this would be first on my list? I’m still talking about this book. And still slightly obsessed. Why aren’t you?

The Scorpio Races by Maggie Stiefvater-Fantastic. I’d like to reread this one.

Incarnate by Jodi Meadows-Still recommending this one to people.

Across the Universe by Beth Revis-Amazing.

The Selectionby Kiera Cass-Couldn’t put this down.

An Everlasting Meal by Tamar Adler-I’m going to need to read this one again. Especially in winter when I seem to struggle with cooking.

Insurgent-Loving the Divergent series! Looking forward to the next one.

Anna and The French Kiss by Stephanie Perkins-Adored this book.

These Is My Words by Nancy E Turner-Great historical fiction. I really felt like I was there with Sarah.

Faery Tales and Nightmares by Melissa Marr-Anything that lets me visit the Wicked Lovely world again is tops in my book!

What are your favorite reads so far in 2012?