Garlic and Sapphires Book Review

Garlic and Sapphires: The Secret Life of a Critic in Disguise Book Review

I am not sure now what inspired me to pick up this book originally for it has been in my reading pile for awhile. I expect that I was looking for something entertaining. I would like to say that I was not drawn in by the cover artwork of spaghetti and wine but that might not be true.

The back of the book says that it is Ruth Reichl's "delicious and compulsively readable account of her exploits as a New York Times food critic" and I can tell you that the book lives up to that promise.

It tells the story of food critic Reichl's move from being food critic at Los Angeles Times to being food critic at the New York Times in New York City and it is funny.  You can imagine that a food critic needs a certain amount of anonymity. However, Reichl was known in Los Angeles and that visibility carried over to her work in NYC, which necessitated her visiting restaurants incognito.  As the Washington Post says, "at times laugh-out-loud funny."

Garlic and Sapphires was my kind of book. It was a great break from normal life and one that kept calling my name when I tried to stop reading. Hopefully, it will not keep you up past your bedtime the way it did me but, if it does, at least you will be having fun.

I can HIGHLY RECOMMEND Garlic and Sapphires. I believe that anyone who loves food will enjoy it. I also think that someone who has NYC on their bucket list, who lives in that city or who once lived there would enjoy it whether or not they can afford to eat at the restaurants that Reichl visits.  Finally, anyone who has followed Reichl's career will likely enjoy this record of her time at the New York times.

I am sharing my copy with my book-loving friends and I have added more of Reichl's books to my book list.  If you read it, I am sure that you will feel the same when you put it down.

Happy Reading!
Brenda
Treasures By Brenda

Quick Links:

Buy Garlic and Sapphires from Amazon.
Clara's Kitchen, a Great Depression Era Cookbook Review.

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Steve Berry's The Amber Room Book Review

If you love thrillers like Ian Fletcher's James Bond stories, you will likely enjoy Steve Berry's books. If you have been to St. Petersburg, Russia, or you are going there, you will definitely want to check out his first book as shown here, The Amber Room. If you are going to Russia and you have the chance, I would definitely recommend reading the book before your trip.

Steve Berry's fictional work The Amber Room is especially fascinating because it is based on the existence of a man made marvel and World War II mystery the site of which you can actually visit in Russia. The book is a mystery thriller, set in the world of art and based loosely on the true story of the Amber Room, which legend says the Nazis took when they invaded the Soviet Union.

I was particularly interested in The Amber Room because I had the opportunity to visit the port of St. Petersburg, Russia, for two days on a cruise. St. Petersburg was my favorite port and it was while on a cruise ship excursion to the truly resplendent Catherine's Palace in Tsarkskoe Selo that I learned of the existence and saw first hand The Amber Room.

The Amber Room that we visited that day in Catherine's Palace is actually a replica of the original Amber Room, recreated by Russia and Germany after the war because the original room is still missing. However, even this replica of the original room was beautiful as I suppose it should be since it cost $6 million dollars to create.

This book was interesting and entertaining but be warned that it also contained violence, sex and profanity. With regard to  profanity, Berry has since said that this is his only book that has excessive profanity. He said, "It was an experiment, as there's a character in that story who says just about anything. He was fun to write but I learned that excessive profanity is not all that necessary." In any case, I am sure that this book would be rated R, if they rated books in the same way that they rate movies. If it had been a movie, it would have probably been too violent for me although the idea of this book as a movie is actually intriguing.

If you can tolerate the issues, I do recommend this book. I have since enjoyed many more Steve Berry novels. If you are a reader and looking for a new author to 'consume,' do check him out.  The Amber Room and his other novels are available in all formats from hardcover through to Kindle. You can click here to order your copy of The Amber Room from Amazon.

Brenda
Treasures By Brenda

More Action & Adventure Reading:

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Travel Tips Book Reviews

Love to travel? Whether you are looking for a small gift for someone who loves to travel or you are someone who loves to travel yourself, if you are seeking out the best travel tips ever, you will love these two small and inexpensive books that are packed with BIG travel tips.

On this page, you will find a quick review of two tiny but helpful books of travel tips and a few additional resources for still more travel tips.

Lonely Planet's Best Ever Travel Tips

Firstly, you might want to seek out a copy of Lonely Planet's Best Ever Travel Tips.

This is one of the tiniest travel tip books that I have ever seen but it is jam packed with tons of travel secrets and advice from veteran travellers.

9 Reasons Why Lonely Planet's Best Ever Travel Tips Book Is A Great Resource:

This book will give you simple pointers for:

• Packing and preparing for your trip.
• Money issues.
• Health concerns.
• Safety and security issues.
• Air and ground transportation hints.
• Hotel tips.
• Technology ideas.
• Ways to make the most of your trip.
• Ways to travel in an eco-friendly manner.

From the book, Hint Number 2: Don't take anything to the beach that you would not want to lose.

At the beach, carry valuables in a protective case
like this one from Aquapac.

It is an obvious point and one that is easily fixed though many never get around to taking the proper precautions.  I have struggled with this before. Going to the beach, setting up a spot as a home base and then wanting to go for a swim but who is going to watch the stuff? Common sense says that anything left alone on the beach might disappear. The recommendation from Lonely Planet's travel tip book is not to take anything to the beach that you would not want to lose AND to carry an Aquapac for your keys, money, identification, camera and/or cellphone. A protective, waterproof case will keep a few important things safe and dry. If you are carrying a cellphone or camera, there's even an Aquapac for that specific purpose.

Lonely Planet's Best Ever Travel Tips may not be for the most seasoned of travellers. If you think you have travelled a lot and learned a lot about travelling, you might want to pass. However, if you are not an experienced traveller or if you want to make sure you have learned as many secrets as you can, this little book is a tiny gem. For a couple of dollars you can take advantage of the wealth of experience the experts at Lonely Planet have gathered together to help you make the best of your trip.

Read more about Lonely Planet's Best-Ever Travel Tips on Amazon.

The Essential Little Cruise Book

Here is another little travel tips book that is packed with expert advice. I love this book, The Essential Little Cruise Book: Expert Advice for Planning and Enjoying a Perfect Vacation at Sea by Jim West. It provides plenty of hints that will be relevant to any cruise vacation. It also provides a wonderful list of top 10 recommended shore excursions and do-not-miss sights for cruise tours in each of the different geographical areas that people cruise in. It won't replace a big cruise guide but it is extremely practical for providing hints about onboard life and at under $5 or just over $5 for your Kindle, it is quite affordable. It offers insight into how to handle different situations on a cruise ship that you do not usually find in the other cruise books.

Read more about The Essential Little Cruise Book on Amazon.

Do you have any travel books you would endorse to the rest of us?

Brenda
Treasures By Brenda



More Travel Tips & Reading:

The Best Practical Cruise Gift Ideas 
A page full of interesting AND practical cruise gift ideas.

How To Choose A Cruise in Europe
Once you have decided to go on a cruise, you would think the sailing would be smooth. However, in today's cruising world there are so many choices to be made...that the choice can be overwhelming. This page is designed to help you choose a cruise...

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What Makes Olga Run Book Review

As a blogger and an eBay seller, I spend a fair bit of time sitting at my computer in my chair. Maybe you do, too. My mind and my body know that this is wrong and I do try to work fitness into my life by getting to the gym at least a couple of times a week and walking daily. That last element becomes difficult but not impossible in the deep cold, snow and ice of our Canadian winters.

At my gym class there is an older woman who puts me to shame. She gets to the gym at least four times a week and sometimes more often than that. When she told me that she was reading a book called What Makes Olga Run? The Mystery of the 90-Something Track Star, and What She Can Teach Us About Living Longer, Happier Lives by Bruce Grierson, I was intrigued.

By chance, the next time I was out shopping I stumbled across it. Because my friend had mentioned it, I opted to take it home. I carried it to my book club, which for whatever reason is populated by women of my age. I guess we could be called middle-aged though I am not sure of the definition of that age group. Most of us have raised families and are empty nesters. A couple still have teenagers at home. Some still work and others are retired. Physically I would say they are an active group of ladies. Whatever our similarities, we are definitely all interested in the process of aging and we took up Olga's story as our next book club assignment.

What Makes Olga Run? is the story of Olga Kotelko, a retired Canadian school teacher who went looking for something active to do. She started with baseball but did not like it when she was almost run down on the baseball diamond. She then found track and field and went on to became a 90-something year old super star.

As the book says on page 2, "Just how good is Olga?" Well, she holds 26 world records. She enters more events than others her age and than others much younger. She often does as many as six throwing events, three sprints and three jumps at one track and field meet. She beats records in her age group by leaps and bounds, pun intended. In 2009, she threw a javelin 20 feet farther than her nearest rival and her 100-meter dash time would have beat competitors two age brackets younger than she was.

Writer Bruce Grierson took up with admitted difficulty the job of following Olga around as she went through her days and as she allowed science to look at and into her body. The question that the book looks into is whether Olga is a superstar because of genetics, because of lifestyle choices or because of a combination of those factors? A subject that intrigues most of us.

The book looks at all of the pieces that we know and think go into healthy living from sleep and diet patterns to personality, exercise and genetics. It is 228 pages of easy-to-read information about Olga and what makes her tick. It closes with a summary called Nine Rules For Living. I will not list them here because I believe you need the explanation that comes with them that is included in the pages of this book. I will admit that I have work to do in numerous areas and I do intend to try to embrace some of the ideas in this book in order to live a bit better. They are not all, by the way, about fitness.

This book comes HIGHLY RECOMMENDED by me, a 50-something year old empty nester though I believe that anyone who cares about their body and how and why we age will enjoy this book. I particularly appreciated the fact that the book was very readable. I think you will, too.

How about it? Are you curious about What Makes Olga Run?

Brenda
Treasures By Brenda

Quick Link:

Click here to buy your copy of What Makes Olga Run from Amazon.

Note: The author may receive a commission from purchases made using links found in this article. “As an Amazon Associate, Ebay (EPN) and/or Esty (Awin) Affiliate, I (we) earn from qualifying purchases.”

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Treasures By Brenda on Review This

I am thrilled to be a new member of the team on the Review This blog site. I have worked with the group of women who write reviews here for years and look forward to working with them for years to come.

Who am I?

I am an empty nester, an eBay seller and a blogger.

I love Canada and I love having fun. (See photo for proof though know that I will not always be wearing a pretty red moustache.)

I am a wife and mother of two young men.

I find many parts of our world fascinating so you never know what I might have in store for you but you can count on me to be regularly writing about the movies, about cooking and anything to do with food and about my travels both locally and in faraway lands. Alternatively, I can be found listing new, used and vintage finds on eBay.

A few of my online projects include:

Treasures By Brenda on eBay
Movie Treasures By Brenda
Treasures By Brenda, the Blog
Culinary Favorites From A to Z

Of course, there is always social media:

If you are on Instagram, I am here.
If you are on Pinterest, you will find me here.
If you are on Twitter, you will find me here.

Thank you for visiting. Please come back soon. You never know what I might have in store for you!

Brenda
Treasures By Brenda

Note: The author may receive a commission from purchases made using links found in this article. “As an Amazon Associate, Ebay (EPN) and/or Esty (Awin) Affiliate, I (we) earn from qualifying purchases.”

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