mouse started reading The Nose and Other Stories by Susanne Fusso
Nikolai Gogol's novel Dead Souls and play The Government Inspector revolutionized Russian literature and continue …
I watched Viy (1967) last night so it's time to re-read some Gogol
Reviews and Comments
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mouse stopped reading The Angel of the Crows by Katherine Addison
This is not the story you think it is. These are not the characters you …
I just haven't been able to get into this. I feel like there's just too many ideas in it, all squished together squabbling to take the forefront over regular old Holmes and Watson stuff
mouse started reading Calculus by Hugh Neill
I've been missing doing math lately? So I'm doing a calc refresher...
mouse finished reading Black Sun by Rebecca Roanhorse
In the holy city of Tova, the winter solstice is usually a time for celebration …
There was just so much in this, which is not objectively a problem but is a reminder that I really prefer standalone novels that wrap up a comparatively smaller number of characters and plot threads...
mouse reviewed Sea of Tranquility by Emily St. John Mandel
Edwin St. Andrew is eighteen years old when he crosses the Atlantic by steamship, exiled …
Lovely
5 stars
I found this touching and hopeful, I liked how poignantly the characters were drawn, and the themes of kindness and the vicissitudes of life.
My main complaint was that I think the simulation theory stuff was basically an unnecessary macguffin and didn't add to the themes (at least as far as they interested me).
mouse reviewed Baking and Pastry by Culinary Institute of America
The Culinary Institute of America holds nothing back in its mission to provide students, professionals, …
A bit of a letdown
3 stars
I found this book a little disappointing because of how it's organized and how much of baking it tries to cover. It starts out with a ton of information about baking as a profession, tools, and technical information about baking (like tables of different gelling agents, and bread techniques and terminology). All of that information is really good, well curated, and clear, but I wished that the techniques specific to certain kinds of baking were placed with the recipes, rather than all together at the beginning. It also spends a lot of time, understandably, on professional bread techniques, and a lot less on pastry techniques. It feels at times like a bread book with some pastry recipes included.
There are tons of recipes, but often they are variants on a theme (like banana, chocolate, or lacenut tuiles) but no basic recipe and no information on how to modify the recipe …
I found this book a little disappointing because of how it's organized and how much of baking it tries to cover. It starts out with a ton of information about baking as a profession, tools, and technical information about baking (like tables of different gelling agents, and bread techniques and terminology). All of that information is really good, well curated, and clear, but I wished that the techniques specific to certain kinds of baking were placed with the recipes, rather than all together at the beginning. It also spends a lot of time, understandably, on professional bread techniques, and a lot less on pastry techniques. It feels at times like a bread book with some pastry recipes included.
There are tons of recipes, but often they are variants on a theme (like banana, chocolate, or lacenut tuiles) but no basic recipe and no information on how to modify the recipe yourself or what makes the modifications work. The pastry recipes aren't terribly well organized, not much time gets devoted to different types, and there are big omissions (like macarons).
I think it is just too ambitious to have a single book about "baking and pastry"!
mouse started reading Nettle & Bone by T. Kingfisher
hoping this will be engrossing enough to distract me from being sick
mouse finished reading The Actual Star by Monica Byrne
The Actual Star takes readers on a journey over two millennia and six continents —telling …
This was really good!! Wow
mouse finished reading The Call-Out by Cat Fitzpatrick
Anvi, Kate, Bette, Keiko, Gaia, and Day are six queer, mostly trans women surviving and …
I really enjoyed this, and was very impressed with how well the verse worked! Real "if you've read Nevada and Detransition Baby..." energy (although personally I enjoyed it more than the latter)
mouse stopped reading Manhunt by Gretchen Felker-Martin
Y: The Last Man meets The Girl With All the Gifts in Gretchen Felker-Martin's Manhunt, …
Too scary for me
mouse finished reading Translation State by Ann Leckie
Qven was created to be a Presger translator. The pride of their Clade, they always …
I didn't think this was one of the stronger books in the series
mouse started reading Translation State by Ann Leckie
Qven was created to be a Presger translator. The pride of their Clade, they always …
So pleased to be here
mouse finished reading The thin man by Dashiell Hammett
The Thin Man (1934) is a detective novel by Dashiell Hammett, originally published in the …
The movie is better.
mouse reviewed The English Understand Wool by Helen Dewitt
Raised in Marrakech by a French mother and English father, a 17-year-old girl has learned …
Just charming
5 stars
Dryly funny and endearing. I read this in one sitting last night and I've been thinking about how fun it was throughout the day
mouse finished reading Tao Te Ching by Ursula K. Le Guin
No other English translation of this greatest of the Chinese classics can match Ursula Le …
I've had this sitting around for a while and I'm so glad I finally got around to reading it