16 February 2025

Review: RecipeTin Eats Tonight by Nagi Maehashi

RecipeTin Eats Tonight by Nagi Maehashi book cover

I read RecipeTin Eats Dinner by Nagi Maehashi in October 2023 and gave it 3 stars but didn't review it at the time as there wasn't much to say. However, we were fortunate to receive her latest offering RecipeTin Eats Tonight - Dinners for every night of the week from Australia’s favourite cook for Christmas 2024 and thought I'd leave a review by way of thanks.

Nagi Maehashi left her job working as a chartered accountant to pursue her love of cooking. She's now an internationally successful Australian food blogger and her website receives more than 500 million page views per year. In 2023, RecipeTin Eats Dinner was the fastest-selling cookbook in Australian publishing history. Following its success, the author turned down several offers to make TV shows and endorse products in favour of doing what she loves most, cooking and writing recipes.

RecipeTin Eats Tonight contains 150 of these brand new recipes and a variety of variations for which I was grateful, as you won't catch me cooking tofu or any of the seafood recipes.

The first recipe we trialled from the book was Baked Satay Chicken from page 84, and it was delicious, although a little spicy. A few of the ingredients were new to me but I'm keen to make it again. Next up was the Creamy, Cheesy Spaghetti from page 120 and this required a basic skill level more familiar in our household. This was very tasty and I'm keen to try it again but note to self, doubling the sauce wasn't required.

After reading this book, we now have red curry paste and curry powder in our pantry and I'm looking forward to trying the Sticky Pantry Chicken from Page 122.

RecipeTin Eats Tonight is recommended for home cooks and those looking for recipes that are flexible and contain proteins that are easily substituted or interchangeable.

My Rating:


13 February 2025

Review: Dunstan by Conn Iggulden

Dunstan by Conn Iggulden book cover

Set in the year 934, Dunstan by Conn Iggulden is the story of a young boy raised to become a Benedictine monk, but who went on to become an Abbot, Bishop and Archbishop and reform the English Church.

Dunstan was canonised after his death and became England's favourite saint for almost 200 years, but according to this reimagining of his life, in addition to defeating the devil, he was also a liar, murderer and maker of Kings.

Despite being set over a thousand years ago, Dunstan's first person perspective cut through the years like a knife and it wasn't what I was expecting at all. We begin at the end of Dunstan's life with a Prologue:
"Perhaps I will consign these precious sheets to the fire. No one will disturb me now; I have earned that much. These hands that hold the quill are just bones and paper-skin, so like vellum themselves as they whisper against each other. Brother Talbot once said they were a workman's fists, all scarred and thick. Well, time served him well, didn't it, with his delicate scribe fingers? I have trod down the soil over his dead face with my bare heels, and only the moon as witness." Page 2
Right from the beginning Dunstan hints that he might be a murderer, yet this didn't deter my interest in his story at all. Dunstan's upbringing alongside his younger brother in the abbey at Glastonbury was brutal and I was caught up in the drama between the boys and Dunstan's creativity in the struggle for dominance and power.

Dunstan performs exceptionally well at his studies, takes an interest in architecture, blacksmithing and medicine and seems to excel in every area he applies himself too. He's also unashamedly ambitious, and weaponises his religion to further his own prospects.
"I have worked my whole life, from six years old when I first piled bricks for workmen on my father's land, in exchange for crusts of bread and a draught of cider. I have prayed and I have dropped my sweat onto the forge. I have made swords and I have used them. I have made a cask or two of wine in my time, taking grapes from different vines. I have pissed in a bottle once or twice as well, when I did not like a man - and I have watched him smack his lips and tell me it was so smooth and extraordinarily fine that I was half tempted to try my own vintage. I have loved a woman and she ruined me. I have loved a king and yet I ruined him. And all I have gained in return for my lifetime of labour is fame and power and servants and an abbey." Page 2
Dunstan's ambition takes him to the court of King Æthelstan, the first King of England, and throughout the course of his life he will be involved - to varying degrees - in the politics and conflicts of the newly emerging England.
"I have known seven kings in all. Three were brothers: Æthelstan, Edmund and Eadred. Two were sons of Edmund: rash Edwy and Edgar the Peaceful. The last were two sons of Edgar: Edward and Ethelred. I am an old man. It breaks my heart." Page 438
Iggulden does an exceptional job of ensuring the reader is able to keep track of these seven kings. Each character was unique and memorable in their own right and their relationships with Dunstan varied to an enormous degree; one of them even sent him into exile!
"I tried to form the words to tell him I forgave him, because I had no other way to take revenge and I wanted him to wince when he recalled me ever after. Vengeance is a fine thing, but forgiveness can be just as cruel." Page 7
The 14 page Historical Note at the end of the novel was a welcome addition and I spent time looking up the Glastonbury Tor and abbey as well as some of the battles and places mentioned in the book after reading.

My maiden name is Dunstan and I originally purchased this book back in 2017 for my Dad and he thoroughly enjoyed it. It's taken me much too long to finally read it myself, but I've been rewarded with an unforgettable character and a fascinating tale of talent, intellect, vengeance, duty, miracles, exile and ambition.

Highly recommended!

My Rating:


04 February 2025

Review: Starling House by Alix E. Harrow

Starling House by Alix E. Harrow book cover

Starling House by Alix E. Harrow is set in a small mining town in Eden, Kentucky where Opal lives in a motel room with her younger brother Jasper. Their parents are both dead and Opal struggles to make enough money for the basics while saving for Jasper's education.

Opal is tough and scrappy and resorts to petty crime to make ends meet.
"People like me have to make two lists: what they need and what they want. You keep the first list short, if you're smart, and you burn the second one. Mom never got the trick of it - she was always wanting and striving, longing and lusting and craving right up until she wasn't - but I'm a quick learner. I have one list, with one thing on it, and it keeps me plenty busy." Page 4
Eden is an unlucky town and has its own gothic mansion of the title, complete with imposing iron gates that fuel fears among the locals the property is haunted or cursed. Starling House is the home of a sole reclusive inhabitant by the name of Arthur who never leaves. Arthur's ancestor Eleanor Starling is the author of Opal's favourite childhood book The Underland which includes tales about mythical creatures from another world.

Opal is drawn to the mansion for reasons she can't explain and accepts a job there as a cleaner. Arthur seems aloof and resistant to company and I just loved this description of him:
"Arthur has a thick yellow pad of paper balanced on his knee. His left pinky is silvery gray with graphite, and his sleeves are rolled to the elbow. His wrists look stronger than I would expect from someone whose main hobbies are skulking and frowning, the bones wrapped in stringy muscle and scarred flesh." Page 55
Starling House is a Southern gothic story about home and running away and is part fantasy, part romance with a dash of spooky paranormal. It's certainly different to my usual reading fare and felt like it was best suited to a young adult audience. The writing was engaging but while some readers might find the inclusion of footnotes in a fictional story quirky, I found them unnecessary and distracting.

The house of the title was a character in its own right, and in particular its ability to communicate feelings about its inhabitants which I loved. Completely run down and neglected when Opal arrives, I particularly enjoyed all of the scenes where she was cleaning room by room, bleaching curtains, removing dead insects and animals and cleaning the walls to bring the house back into shape.

Opal even makes mention of the cliche cleaning montage in the book:
"In the movie version of my life the scene would collapse here into a cleaning montage. You would see me rolling up my sleeves and hauling wet laundry out of the washer, dragging the motel cleaning cart across the parking lot, discovering half a granola bar stuck to the carpet and shoving it furtively in a trash bag. The soundtrack would turn peppy, indicating the heroine's renewed resolve. But reality never skips the boring parts, and I'm not sure I have renewed resolve so much as a real stubborn streak, just like Mom. Survival is a hard habit to break." Page 176
I thoroughly enjoyed The Ten Thousand Doors of January by Alix E. Harrow in 2023 and am looking forward to the publication of The Everlasting later this year.

My Rating: