The Book Lover’s Cookbook

author: Shaunda Kennedy Wenger

The Book Lover’s Cookbook: Recipes Inspired by Celebrated Works of Literature, and the Passages that Inspire Them, is a pretty basic, well-rounded “how to cook basic food” cookbook, livened up by literary quotes.

This cookbook didn’t give me any new insights into how food and literature intersect, but it was well organized with good use of quotes. Some of the quotes are from fiction or non-fiction, and some are quotes by authors about food and writing. The recipes seem pretty practical, from “Breakfast” to “Desserts”. There are no pictures (I myself like pictures, but I can live without them). It’s not a vegetarian cookbook but there are a lot of vegetarian choices (vegans are probably out of luck – I noticed a lot of cheese and eggs). For the most part, this is pretty standard Middle American Cooking with a few Asian and Mexican offerings.

With all of American literature to choose from, you’d think the menu would be more varied, but it’s very much middle and southern American stuff (grilled cheese, flapjacks, fried green tomatoes, blueberry muffins). I regret to inform our Midwesterners that I didn’t see any recipes for Hot Dish.

These are not historically accurate recipes – there’s a quote from Pride and Prejudice that leads to a recipe for punch, but I’m pretty darn sure that Jane Austen used alcohol and that she did not have access to grape juice concentrate or 7-Up. The recipes are loosely inspired by literature, with the emphasis on “loosely.” On the plus side, this means we get the rather delightful “Anne of Green Gable’s Liniment Cake (Without the Liniment).”

Frankly, there’s nothing much in this cookbook that I don’t already have in other cookbooks, but it would make a good gift for someone who is just starting their collection. If you know a college student who is studying English Lit, tell them I said hi (English Lit Majors FTW!) and give them this cookbook. Also give them a gift card for pizza, because let’s face it, college students don’t have a lot of time to cook anyway.

– Carrie S

Cookbook

Bound with Passion

author: Megan Mulry

Bound with Passion is part of Megan Mulry’s erotic Regency Reimagined series, and it’s a good read for someone looking for more spice in their historical.

Lady Georgiana Cambury is used to doing whatever she damn well pleases. She dresses like a man, rides like a hellion, and enjoys love affairs unconstrained by society’s mores. When the book opens, she’s returning to Derbyshire from North Africa with two beautiful horses in tow.

Georgie relishes her freedom and doesn’t particularly want to stay in England. Then her best friend, Lord Trevor Mayson, makes a startling request of her. He has to marry or forfeit his inheritance, and he’s been with his lover James Rushford for some time. He can’t marry James so he wants to marry Georgie, and then they can all go about doing their own thing again.

The marriage of convenience only lasts so long before Trevor and James realize they want Georgie as their lover too. Most m/m/f romance I’ve read is about two straight men who want to share the same women. She’s the filling in the Double Stuff Oreo (ha! DP joke!) that keeps their balls from touching. In this story James and Trevor are sexually and romantically involved as well, which I liked. The fantasy was of three people who belong together, not of one woman being worshipped by two dudes.

The sex in this book is hot–but graphic.  I don’t know of any m/f/m books that hedge on the sweet side. Also there’s some unlubricated buttsecks which always makes me cringe.

The conflict comes more from James and Trevor convincing Georgie that being with them won’t tie her down to wifedom and motherhood, than it does from society judging them for their happy menage (hence Regency Reimagined). I really liked this books right up to the end which I felt was a little bit of crazysauce that came out of left field. But, hey, this is erotica and you don’t always know who is coming where, right?

– Elyse

Historical: European, Romance

Monstress #1

author: Marjorie Liu

Monstress is a new comic by Marjorie Liu and artist Sana Takeda. It’s a fantasy story set in an alternate version of China in the early 1900s. In this world, humans keep ‘Archanics,’ non-humans, as slaves, and they fear ‘Monstras:’ “unnerving, but harmless, apparitions.” A young woman, Maika, who looks human, has a psychic connection to a supernatural force. She uses this link to try to get revenge on her oppressors – but she might not be the one in charge.

I adored this comic and yet I had a heck of a time understanding what, in terms of larger plot, the story is about. This first issue gives us the basics – who is in power, what Maika wants in the short term (to get revenge on the woman who betrayed her mother), and where and when the story is set (China, in an alternate world with magic and technology). The issues left me curious, in a good way.

The first issue contains rape threats and violence towards children. You’ve been warned. I might not have read it if I had been warned:

Also Trigger Warnings for rape threats and discussion of slavery, including an auction.

Quick points: The art in Monstress is delicate and colorful and fairytale-like. The imagery is lavish and heart-stoppingly beautiful, drawing inspirations from the Rococo period and the combination of European and Chinese art known as Chinoiserie. Sometimes the imagery is gory and terribly disturbing. It’s not for the faint of heart. There is no romance in the first issue – it’s relevant to the interests of some of our readers because of the powerful emphasis on social justice and feminism, not because of any love story (so far).

This comic has nothing in common with Mad Max Fury Road or Bitch Planet other than the fact that all three stories are stories in which women – communities, families, and warring factions of women – take the lead. Where men appear, they are supporting characters – Max is the sidekick to Furiosa, Men call the shots in Bitch Planet and yet they are almost totally devoid of characterization, and so far there are no men in Monstress at all. I like stories about men, but let’s face it; I already have plenty of those. It’s thrilling to see new stories that aren’t just about one woman but about many.

Like Fury Road and Bitch Planet, this is also a story about bodies. Archanics don’t have a right to control over their bodies. The very first image in the book is of Maika, nude, at auction. Maika has hidden physical and mental powers, but exercising those powers can both liberate her from without (by helping her destroy her captives) or imprison her form within (she seems to be under threat of possession or of some sort of change that drives her, periodically, to slaughter and eat anything in reach).

This is a stunningly illustrated story about many levels of autonomy and freedom. I’m not entirely sure what’s going on, but I can’t wait to find out more.

– Carrie S

Comic, Science Fiction/Fantasy, Steampunk