The Personal History of Rachel DuPree by Ann Weisgarber

I

When Rachel, hired help in a Chicago boardinghouse, falls in love with Isaac, the boardinghouse owner's son, he makes her a bargain: he'll marry her, but only if she gives up her 160 acres from the Homestead Act so he can double his share. She agrees, and together they stake their claim in the forebodingly beautiful South Dakota Badlands.

Fourteen years later, in the summer of 1917, the cattle are bellowing with thirst. It hasn't rained in months, and supplies have dwindled. Pregnant, and struggling to feed her family, Rachel is isolated by more than just geography. She is determined to give her surviving children the life they deserve, but she knows that her husband, a fiercely proud former Buffalo Soldier, will never leave his ranch: black families are rare in the West, and land means a measure of equality with the white man. Somehow Rachel must find the strength to do what is right-for herself, and for her children.

Reminiscent of The Color Purple as well as the frontier novels of Laura Ingalls Wilder and Willa Cather, The Personal History of Rachel DuPree opens a window on the little-known history of African American homesteaders and gives voice to an extraordinary heroine who embodies the spirit that built America.

Recently, I was asked the question 'Why do you read historical fiction?' I think my answer was something along the lines of being able to eavesdrop on history. Really, the answer could have been to read books like this to find out about little known facts from history. My knowledge of homesteaders in America is very limited and I certainly hadn't given any thought to the fact that there were African-American homesteaders,or to the life that they and their families would have lived.

Rachel and Isaac DuPree are living in the Badlands of South Dakota,  a land that is beautiful but also harsh at the best of times but is especially harsh during a long drought. The novel opens with a disturbing episode as one of the smaller children, Liz, is sent down the well to scoop out what little water remains at the bottom because the bucket can't be used in such a small amount of water as the well is practically dry.

Rachel tells us of her life in the Badlands but also flashes back to episodes from her past, especially back to when she was working in the Chicago boarding house owned by Mrs DuPree. When Mrs DuPree's son Isaac returns on leave from his duties as a buffalo soldier, she has grand ideas of marrying him off to a nice young lady from an acceptable section of society. She certainly doesn't want him marrying the help, but that is exactly what happens when Rachel agrees to join the parcel of land that she is entitled to under the Homestead Act to that which Isaac has already claimed, thus doubling his land size. They initially agreed to a limited time marriage, but they are still together, working hard to maintain their constantly expanding land holdings and their expanding family.

Rachel is in the latter stages of pregnancy when we meet her, and already has several young children, but this life that she has chosen with Isaac was not an easy one and she has also lost two children. She is however proud of the life that she has built with Isaac, having started with nothing, then living in a sod dugout until finally she is living in a wood house that they built themselves. That begins to change however when she begins to questions Isaac's priorities.

I loved reading about Rachel. She was strong enough to make the decisions that need to be made, both for herself and her children. It took her a while, but she got there in the end.

The character that has me thinking the most though is Isaac. I can't quite decide if he is such a driven man that he can think of nothing but acquiring and holding on to land, or if he is just a guy who doesn't easily show or communicate his emotions. He is hard on all of his family but I don't think he is blind to them and just making them do things that they won't like just for his own selfish ends. For example, with sending a terrified Liz down the well, the fact of the matter was that without doing this there would be absolutely no water for his family and they would all die of thirst.

In his mind, he thinks he is doing the right thing by contemplating going off to work in the mines to bring in a steady income and leaving Rachel to cope despite the fact she is telling him quite plainly that she won't be able too. It is obvious though that he is capable of physical affection with Rachel which he shows just by the touch of his hand on her back when she needs it. He does have feelings about his children, evidenced by the tears he sheds at one of the key moments in the book.

Isaac is particularly rigid when it comes to the rules in his own house. He seems to me to be very much of a generation where the father in the house must be obeyed by everyone, including his wife. Some of his rules make sense, but we did get to see more emphasis on the idea of persecution of a minority group with his own refusal to allow agency Indians into his home, or even to meet his own responsibilities in relation to certain Indians who make their way to him. He is discriminated against by certain towns people but he in turn is intolerant of others who he sees as beneath him for whatever reason.

I didn't actually realise for a few chapters that the characters in the book were African-American, and for me, that can be seen as quite a good thing. Whilst a big part of the subject matter of the book is both the isolation that Rachel felt not only living in the middle nowhere with few neighbours, but even more isolating is the fact that there are no other African-American people living anywhere near her. At it's heart though The Personal History of Rachel DuPree is a human story - a woman who is struggling to get by in a difficult situation and making the difficult but necessary choices to get the best outcome for both herself and her children. A story of endurance, of courage and of knowing when it is time to make changes.

A couple of years ago I was visiting Perth and I spent some time listening to the stories that my grandfather told about some of the jobs he has done over the years. One of his earliest jobs was clearing areas of land in some of the hilly areas nearby. He had a horse and cart, and himself, and that was it. In another example is having to walk from one town to the next in the country areas of Western Australia in order to get to the next job, and these towns were not close together. All of his work as a farmer and a shearer was hard and it was physical, and is really pretty foreign to the kind of work that his grandchildren get to do. I found myself thinking of his stories as I read this book, mainly because of the sheer physicality of their day to day lives! I suspect that I would be a bit too soft from modern city living to live this kind of life.

When I think of pioneers and homesteaders in Australian terms I think that we are talking more than 150 years ago, and yet this book is very much talking about life in the wilderness, about making a life for yourself in the isolated rural region of the Badlands of South Dakota in America. 100 years ago was a long time ago, but by that time in the cities there was electricity, there was running water, there were cars on the street. It was therefore something of a shock to me to realise that timewise, The Personal History of Rachel DuPree was in my grandfather's lifetime! In 1917, he would have been 8 or 9 years old. Giving it some kind of context makes it feel as though it happened very recently indeed.

This is a book that I would highly recommend to anyone who loves to read about times gone by. I am sure that you will cheer for Rachel, just as I did.

Rating 4.5

I am reviewing this book today as part of the TLC Book tours blog tour, although I obtained the book from my local library. To see other stops on the tour click on the following links.

Tuesday, November 1st:  nomadreader
Wednesday, November 2nd:  Peeking Between the Pages  
Thursday, November 3rd:  Linus’s Blanket - author Q&A
Monday, November 7th:  A Bookish Libraria
Tuesday, November 8th:  Man of La Book
Thursday, November 10th:  Unabridged Chick
Monday, November 14th:  Book Dilettante
Tuesday, November 15th:  Book Chatter
Wednesday, November 16th:  She is Too Fond of Books- Spotlight on Bookstores guest post
Thursday, November 17th:  Book Club Classics
Monday, November 21st:  Raging Bibliomania
Tuesday, November 22nd:  The Brain Lair
Wednesday, November 23rd:  Historical Tapestry – author guest post, “Why I Love Book Groups”
Wednesday, November 23rd:  Broken Teepee
Friday, November 25th:  Historical Tapestry
Monday, November 28th:  A Bookworm’s World
Tuesday, November 29th:  My Bookshelf
Wednesday, November 30th:  Elle Lit.
Thursday, December 1st:  Melody & Words
Monday, December 5th:  Book Snob
Wednesday, December 7th:  Life in Review
Thursday, December 8th:  The 3 R’s Blog

Library Loot: November 23 to 28

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!

My self control in terms of requesting books has held strong, and this week it might appear that restraint is showing. That would, however, only be part of the story. The sad truth is that my library card is full and so I need to return a few books so that I can pick up the other items that are still sitting on the library hold shelf.

Claire has the Mr Linky this week, so head on over and share your loot!

I only actually picked up one book today.

Fifty Shades of Grey by E L James - I must confess I was a bit surprised when an erotica novel was chosen as the book for this month in my online book group. I have read the occasional erotica novel, but never actually read one with a view to discussing it! We'll see how it goes!

Teaser Tuesday: The Personal History of Rachel DuPree by Ann Weisgarber

My teaser this week comes from a book I will be reviewing Friday as part of a blog tour. Figured I should at least start it!

The teaser is from page 95 of the large print version:

I started walking again, picking my way over the broken sidewalk, my chin high. Mrs. DuPree might have the money for a second boardinghouse, but this neighbourhood was where she lived. Mrs. DuPree was on her way down, I told myself, but the next Mrs. DuPree - me - was on her way up.

Teaser Tuesday is hosted by Miz B at Should Be Reading. Head on over to find out all about it, and how to join in! 

Sunday Salon: Getting ready for the Virtual Advent Tour 2011

Last week Kailana from The Written World and I announced that the sign ups for 2011 Virtual Advent Tour are open! This is going to be the sixth year that Kailana and I have co-hosted the tour where we invite people to share their holiday memories, recipes, traditions etc with us all, even for those of you who don't celebrate Christmas (we would love to hear what you do for the holidays). We have a separate blog for sign ups, buttons, and the daily posts talking about where the stops will be! We hope that lots of you decide to sign up and join in on the fun this year. If you would like to have a look at some of the posts in previous years, you will be able to find some links here.

In case you missed the announcement, here are the gorgeous buttons that were created for us! Head over to the blog, grab a button, sign up. I can't wait to once again visit all the participants and see what everyone comes up with to share with us all!

Special thanks to Alex from Le Canape who designed these amazing buttons. Alex, is the same person who did my blog design. She is so talented!

You can also follow us on Twitter @VirtualAdvent


This year I am not having a specific date for people to visit my blog, but instead I will be posting something everyday, both here and at the Advent Tour blog and a couple of the quotes might find their way over to Historical Tapestry as well.  I have been preparing for this since May when I started collecting quotes about Christmas in particular. As soon as I saw a mention, I looked at it as a possible blog post. It is kind of surprising how few mentions there really are, but I think I have nearly enough.

I have actually read a few Christmas themed romances this year, which is kind of out of the ordinary for me, and I still have a couple left to read as well. When I look back at this year for my end of year wrap up, that is just going to be one of the ways in which my reading has been different this year. I have also read a lot more contemporary romances and also short stories mainly from the spec fic genre.

To be honest, I am not the biggest fan of Christmas. I watch other people talk about the fantastic time they have had since their childhood and their family traditions. It really wasn't the case for me, especially from the age of about 10 on when we moved away from my father's side of the family. My sister and I have worked at trying to make it a more special time, especially for the kids, but it does feel like an effort! The Advent Tour has become a huge part of my build up to Christmas each year, helping to get me just a little bit excited about the holidays, and I love reading about everyone's traditions, favourite food, music and films!

I hope that you enjoy all the posts that I put up! Next year, I plan to start from the beginning of the year so that I will hopefully have enough to cover the whole period of the tour!

Currently Reading

The Most Beautiful Walk in the World by John Baxter, Busted in Bollywood by Nicola Marsh.

Reading Next

Not sure. Maybe India Black and the Widow of Windsor by Carol K Carr or Curse not the King by Evelyn Anthony. Then again, I listed these same books last week as reading next!

Weekend Cooking: Sour Cream Banana Cake

Earlier this year when the flooding and cyclone hit Queensland, one of the casualties was the banana crop. As a result bananas have been extortionately expensive for months, and so there was no way that you would be buying bananas just to make cakes with.

Finally, prices are on their way down again, and so I have had a couple of bananas sitting in the fruit bowl, steadily ripening to the point where a cake can be made. I do have a favourite banana bread recipe, which was one of my earliest Weekend Cooking posts, but I did think it was time to try a new recipe, and this one looked, and tasted, delicious.

It was my intention to actually make this but it the little chef ended up taking charge and making it himself! The only thing he really needed assistance with was the icing.

Sour Cream Banana Cake

Ingredients

125g butter, softened
3/4 cup caster sugar
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
2 eggs, at room temperature
3/4 cup sour cream
1 cup mashed banana (you will need 2 large, very ripe bananas)
2 1/4 cups self-raising flour
1/4 teaspoon bicarbonate of soda

Icing

180g white chocolate, chopped
1/4 cup sour cream

Method

Preheat oven to 180°C. Grease base and sides of a 7cm deep, 19cm square cake pan and line with baking paper.

Using an electric mixer, beat butter, sugar and vanilla until pale and creamy. Add eggs, 1 at a time, beating well after each. Using a metal spoon, gently fold in sour cream and bananas. Sift flour and bicarbonate of soda over batter and gently fold through.

Spoon batter into cake pan. Smooth surface. Bake for 50 to 60 minutes or until a skewer inserted into the centre comes out clean. Stand for 5 minutes before turning out onto a wire rack.
Make icing Place chocolate and sour cream in a heatproof bowl over a saucepan of simmering water. Heat, stirring constantly with a metal spoon, for 3 minutes or until smooth. Remove from heat. Stand for 10 minutes or until slightly thickened. Pour icing over cake, allowing it to drizzle down sides. Serve warm.

Notes

Sour cream banana cake (without the icing) can be made a day in advance. Store at room temperature in an airtight container. To warm, place un-iced cake on a microwave-safe plate lined with baking paper. Heat, uncovered, on MEDIUM-LOW DEFROST (30%) for 4 to 6 minutes or until warm to the touch. Ice while warm.




Weekend Cooking is hosted by Beth Fish Reads and 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.

Charles II, King of Bling

I have posted before about my fascination with the reign of King Charles II of England. This song, from the wonderful people at Horrible Histories, might help explain why!

Library Loot: November 16 to 22

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!

It may not look like it from the sheer number of books I picked up from the library today, but I have been very controlled this week and haven't broken my own rules about requesting books from the library. Whilst previous requests are coming in thick and fast I am expecting that it will be a bit slower in the next few weeks...maybe!

Here's my loot for this week:

My One and Only by Kristan Higgins - I am not sure how many books I have left on Higgins backlist, but I think there is only a couple left including this one.

Lost and Found by Marilyn Higgins - A few of my Goodreads friends have been reading the Eden series by Marilyn Higgins. Unfortunately, the library system in this state only has one book available in the series and it isn't the first, so I thought I would try this one instead.

The Diplomat's Wife by Pam Jenoff - This is the follow up book to Kommandant's Girl which I read and reviewed recently.

Rocks in the Belly by Jon Bauer - This is my next book club read.

Cold Comfort Farm by Stella Gibbons - I can't remember why I added this book to my request list, but I know that I have been waiting for it for ages!

Guards! Guards! by Terry Pratchett - With the recent release of Snuff, I really need to go back and read the first guards book!

Movida: Spanish Culinary Adventures by Frank Camorra - I actually borrowed this book earlier this year. I enjoyed looking at it but it was hard to cook anything when I had no idea how much longer before I had a working oven. I thought I would have another look at it!

Do you have loot to share? Add your link to Mr Linky below:

Teaser Tuesday: Soulless by Gail Carriger

I feel as though I am very behind the times, but I am just now reading Soulless by Gail Carriger. My expectations are very high given that I have heard so many good things about it!

My teaser comes from page 292:

"This has got to stop," she insisted. "We are in danger, remember? You know, ruination and tragedy? Calamity just beyond that door." 

Teaser Tuesday is hosted by Miz B at Should Be Reading. Head on over to find out all about it, and how to join in! 

Lady Sophie's Christmas Wish by Grace Burrowes

All she wants is peace and anonymity...


Lady Sophie Windham has maneuvered a few days to herself at the ducal mansion in London before she must join her family for Christmas in Kent. Suddenly trapped by a London snowstorm, she finds herself with an abandoned baby, and only the assistance of a kind, handsome stranger standing between her and complete disaster...


But Sophie's holiday is about to heat up...


With his estate in ruins, Vim Charpentier sees little to feel festive about this Christmas. His growing attraction for Sophie Windham is the only thing that warms his - but when Sophie's brothers whisk her away, Vim's most painful holiday memories are reawakened.


It seems Sophie's been keeping secrets, and now it will take much more than a mistletoe kiss to make her deepest wishes come true.

There are a couple of things that you need to know if you are even thinking about reading this book.

The first is that if you don't like reading about babies in your romances, then this is not the book for you. The young boy, Kit, gets a lot of air time in the pages of this book - a LOT of page time. There were also times when I wasn't sure that his age was consistent with the developmental milestones that were talked about.

The second thing to be aware of is that even though this book is being released before the third book in the Duke's Obsession series which is Valentine's story, chronologically it is set after that book. Goodness only knows what the thinking was there, especially seeing as this book and The Virtuoso are now being released so closely together.

So with those two big provisos out of the way, let's talk about the actual book.

Lady Sophie Windham is one of eight children - five of them daughters. She is the sensible one, the one that her parents don't really need to worry about, the one who has been left on the shelf and is likely to stay there.

When all of her family retire to their country estate for the Christmas holidays, Sophie manufactures an excuse that will enable her to get some much needed alone time in the ducal mansion in London. She just has one small task to perform first. One of the servant girls has got herself into trouble and so Sophie is packing the girl and her baby off to their family, or at least that is what she thinks is going to do. Instead, the girl does a runner, literally leaving Sophie holding the baby.

Being the well bred, aristocratic lady that she is, Sophie has absolutely no clue what to do with a baby. Whilst at the coach station waiting in vain for the mother of the baby to return (she had just left Sophie with the baby for a "few minutes") she catches the attention of Vim Charpentier who offers to assist her. He not only does have some experience with babies (because of his younger siblings, not because he has children of his own), but with the onset of a blizzard he knows that he cannot leave Sophie to deal with both the child and the elements. And that suits him just fine, because he is in no hurry to return to his family home where his elderly uncle is waiting for his heir to show up and actually show some interest in the title and property that he is going to eventually inherit.

For reasons known only to themselves, both Sophie and Vim neglect to tell the other exactly who they are and what their social standing is. Housebound due to the blizzard, the attraction between them grows and Vim instructs Sophie in the skills required to care for a small child. Every night Vim tells Sophie that he is leaving the next day but always ends up back with her again.

In the meantime Sophie's three brothers, who have featured in the other three books in the linked series, have been instructed by their parents to head to London to find out exactly what is stopping Sophie from heading to the country as was expected. I loved reading the scenes featuring the brothers - the jokes, the camaraderie, the glimpses into their lives after their own book has been finalised.

I also really enjoyed reading about Vim. For most of the book he seems like a decent bloke  - no alpha male here - who sees his attraction to Sophie and tries to do the right thing by her all the way through. I did find the big embarrassment that kept him from wanting to claim his inheritance a little too flimsy really, but I could totally imagine the duke mortifying Vim each time they crossed path. That duke is imperious and demanding, but he does seem to have quite a cheeky sense of humour at times.

It probably should be noted that if you are a stickler for historical accuracy or for ensuring that the characters behave exactly as per the social rules of the day, if you expect a Duke to react quite differently when he finds out exactly what has been going on, then, again, Grace Burrowes is probably not the author for you. Her characters are quite modern, the behaviour is somewhat fluid, the family a little too laid back about morals for this to stand up to that kind of expectation.

What Burrowes does have is a style of writing that is compelling in its gracefulness, in the tempo of the book and in the absolutely readability of the text. There is no one else that I am reading in historical romance at the moment that has that kind of mellow tempo and fluidity that Grace Burrowes has in her books whilst still having sizzling chemistry between the characters. Despite the flaws that I have touched on here I thoroughly enjoyed both this book and the other three books that I have read about the Windham siblings. Bring on the next one!

Rating 4/5

Sunday Salon: October Reading Reflections

I normally post my reading roundups in the first weekend of the next month and that was what I meant to do for October, but then I started writing a review which turned into a opinion/review that seemed suitable for a Sunday Salon post. I was three quarters done with writing that post when I realised that it was the first Sunday of the month so had the dilemma of using the post that was nearly done or the one I hadn't even started yet. I ended up going with that one since it was pretty much done, all of which is a pretty long intro as to why my round up is being posted half way into November!

October ended up being a good reading month with 18 books read, but I have to say it didn't look that way at the beginning because by the end of the first week I had only finished one book! Part of the reason for that was the fact that I participated in 3 readalongs during October and so those books were paced out through the month.

One thing that October was good for was blogging. I wrote a lot of blog posts during the month, and that included quite a few reviews which was awesome. Of course, then I went and bragged about having my reviewing mojo back and didn't write another one for 2 weeks so I am being very careful about how I write this post up now! I was very proud of myself there in the middle of the month as at one point I had reviewed everything I had read in October and nearly everything in September as well. Then I got a bit of a reading run on so now I have some outstanding but there's nothing unusual there!

So here is what I read during October:

A Visit from the Good Squad by Jennifer Egan 4/5
Jane Austen Made Me Do It Anthology 3/5
Imperial Highness by Evelyn Anthony 4.5/5
Sense and Sensibility by Jane Austen 4/5
Lola and the Boy Next Door by Stephanie Perkins 4.5/5
The Name of the Star by Maureen Johnson 5/5
To Darkness and To Death by Julia Spencer-Fleming 4.5/5
The Lantern by Deborah Lawrenson 4/5
Sinful in Satin by  Madeline Hunter 4/5
The Soldier by Grace Burrowes 4.5/5
The Virtuoso by Grace Burrowes 4.5/5
Small Town Christmas Anthology 3.5/5
The King's Courtesan by Judith James 4/5
Too Good to be True by Kristan Higgins 4/5
Bring Me Home for Christmas by Robyn Carr 3.5/5
Foal's Bread by Gillian Mears 3/5
Fragile Things by Neil Gaiman 4/5
Wife for a Week by Kelly Hunter 4.5/5

The only major challenge reading I did was for the RIP VI challenge. This year I participated in all three of the readalongs which I hadn't done before, and also read a number of books that qualified for the challenge.

Here is my RIP reading list for this year.

The Name of the Star by Maureen Johnson
To Darkness and to Death by Julia Spencer-Fleming
The Lantern by Deborah Lawrenson
Fragile Things by Neil Gaiman
White Time by Margo Lanagan
Out of the Deep I Cry by Julia Spencer-Fleming
Maisie Dobbs by Jacqueline Winspear
Storm Front by Jim Butcher
Forest of Hands and Teeth by Carrie Ryan

I look forward to participating in next years RIP challenge.

In addition, A Visit from the Goon Squad qualified for both the Orange Prize Project and the Pulitzer Project - both ongoing reading challenges that I haven't read much for at all over the last couple of years.


Currently Reading

The Most Beautiful Walk in the World by John Baxter, Angry Housewives Eating Bon Bons by Lorna Landvik, The Legacy by Katherine Webb, Soulless by Gail Carriger

Reading Next

Not sure. Maybe India Black and the Widow of Windsor by Carol K Carr or Curse not the King by Evelyn Anthony

Launching the 2011 Virtual Advent Tour

Over the last 5 years Kailana from The Written World and I have been cohosting the Advent Blog tour where we ask people to share their holiday memories, recipes, traditions etc with us all. Again this year, we have a separate blog for sign ups, buttons, and the daily posts talking about where the stops will be! We hope that lots of you decide to sign up and join in on the fun this year. If you would like to have a look at some of the posts in previous years, you will be able to find some links here.

If you don't celebrate Christmas, please don't feel excluded. We are interested in hearing what you do during the holiday season too! 

Head over to the blog, grab a button, sign up. I can't wait to once again visit all the participants and see what everyone comes up with to share with us all!

Special thanks to Alex from Le Canape who designed these amazing buttons. 

You can also follow us on Twitter @VirtualAdvent

Weekend Cooking: Jamie Oliver and me

Weekend Cooking is one of the easier posts for me to come up with ideas for. Generally there are a few different ideas that have been kicking about, then there are the recipes I find and end up sharing here, mainly because I want to be able to find them again next time I want to make them. Today's post is one that I have been meaning to write for a few months now but never quite managed .

I wasn't sure what to call this post because I am pretty such that Jamie Oliver has no idea that we are, you know, together in any way! I was going to go with Jamie and me, but it could have been awkward if my brother in law had of seen the post title on Facebook because his name is Jamie!

I have talked briefly in the past about my cooking skills or lack of them or more precisely laziness when it comes to cooking. I go through phases where I am quite keen on cooking but there will be lots of times when I can't be bothered and the little chef and I eat far too much takeaway. We were in that place back early last year and seemed to have been in that rut for quite some time when one weekend I was at home and I stumbled on a marathon session of the Jamie Oliver  Ministry of Food series on the Food network. I watched all weekend, and then I watched the repeats during the week. I was entertained, I was shocked, I was challenged, and over the period of the next few weeks I was once again more interested in cooking a bit more. That by no means indicates that I don't do far more takeaway than I should do, or that I cook as healthily as I should, but it does indicate that those elements are better than they were.

If I had one favourite participant in the Ministry of Food series it was Mick the Miner. I loved the look of surprise on this man's face as he realised that he could cook something delicious all by himself! Loved him! (Click here to watch Mick cooking something for himself for the first time in his life!). How could you not be inspired by that joy! And it was great to revisit him later in the series and see how much he continued to learn and love to cook.

I did decide that I was going to cook all the pass-it-on recipes that participants were taught and then asked to teach others as part of the series but in the end I only made a couple of them. One of these days I will try some of the others if I can remember what they are.

Of the pass-it-on recipes, I tried Parmesan Chicken Breast with Crispy Posh Ham and the Irish Stew. I really liked them both, although the little chef wasn't as keen on the chicken. I intend to try it again some time to see whether his taste has matured a little bit.

Here is Jamie Oliver cooking the Parmesan Chicken Breast dish.






I haven't always been a big Jamie Oliver fan, particularly when I look back at the early TV series with the over the top good old boy around town routine. However, I think we have been able to see him evolve from that into someone that is passionate and committed to making things better, who has persistence and endeavour to get things done. While I like the educational things that he has done over the last few years, I also do enjoy those books he has done which are purely about the joy of cooking, like his latest book Jamie's Great Britain.

Originally this post was going to be a review of that book plus what I have written here but I think this post is already going to be long enough so that might have to wait for another day! I already know that book is going to be my next cookbook purchase even though I have read it from the library. It will join the other couple of Jamie Oliver cookbooks on my shelf!

I was going to link to the recipe rather than just the video, but I can't find it online. If anyone wants an actual recipe, let me know and I will put it up in the next couple of weeks.

Weekend Cooking is hosted by Beth Fish Reads and 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.

Kommandant's Girl by Pam Jenoff

September 1939. Overnight, Jewish nineteen-year-old Emma Bau's world is turned upside down when Germany invades Poland. And after only six weeks of marriage, her husband Jacob, a member of the Resistance, is forced to flee.


Escaping the ghetto, Emma assumes a new, Christian identity and finds work at Nazi headquarters. As secretary to the charismatic Kommandant Richwalder, Emma vows to use her unique position to gather intelligence for the Resistance, by any means necessary.


Poignant, affecting, and gripping, Kommandant's Girl is the beautifully written story of one woman's struggle to survive one of the darkest periods of human history.

Whilst it wasn't a deliberate choice on my part, it does seem very fitting to be posting about this book on Remembrance Day, where we remember all those who have fought and died for their countries over the years. In this case, those we are remembering are the Polish resistance who fought so hard for their country during World War II.

When I started to think about what I was going to write for this review, I realised that most of the time when I do read a book about Polish history I am mainly concentrating on the events of World War II. That doesn't discount what I am sure is a fascinating history of the country before that but rather even nearly 70 years on, the terrible events that took place there are still very much in the modern consciousness. I suspect another factor may well be that the country itself was relatively closed off during the Communist regime in effect blocking readers around my age from knowing too much about the country. Thinking about it, there are very specific times in interest in several other country's histories that I concentrate on too.

This main character in this book is Emma Bau. She is a young, recently married Jewish girl living in the city of Krakow just before the invasion of Poland by the Nazis. She has been married to Jacob for a few short weeks. He is something of an activist so when the invasion comes, he knows that he will be targeted and so he has to leave Emma as he goes into hiding. Initially, she heads for the ghetto in the city to be with her parents, but it isn't long before she is found alternative accommodation with his Catholic aunt Krysia. When she is smuggled out of the ghetto she is also given the responsibility to look after a small orphan boy by the name of Lukasz.

Obviously living outside the ghetto means that she needs to assume a new identity and so she becomes Anna Lipowicz. All evidence of her marriage to Jacob must be removed. It isn't long before Anna catches the eye of Herr Kommandant Georg Richwalder, a very important figure in the Nazi administration of the city. He is immediately attracted to the young woman and so employs her as his personal assistant to work at Nazi Headquarters. This gives Anna the perfect position to be able to provide information to the Resistance movement, at great personal risk to herself.

It isn't long before Anna is asked to obtain information by any means necessary, even if that means that she must do the unthinkable and break her marriage vows. Anna is conflicted though. She loves Jacob, but she is attracted to the Kommandant, and she knows that by getting closer to him and becoming more trusted by him means that she needs to not get caught by the Kommandant, not catch the attention of the informers at work inside the headquarters, or outside when she is meeting the members of the Resistance, all in order to keep herself, and Krysia and Lukasz, alive.

Anna not only has to answer the question how far would you go for the cause of freedom, but also what happens when you are attracted to the wrong man at the wrong time and can she face the consequences, whatever they are going to be, of the risks that she takes in order to survive during the darkest days of World War II.

One thing that the author did seem to take a lot of care with is giving the Kommandant a human face which is something you don't often see. That doesn't mean that his role or actions are glossed over or denied but he is shown as being conflicted at times and certainly unlucky in love.

This is the kind of novel that I love to read - history, drama, romance, tension all rolled up into a book that you can get lost in and from purely that perspective I really enjoyed this book. In the Author's Note Jenoff explains that the story is fictional, although some of the events are true, but that she tried to remain true to the spirit of the Resistance, and as long as you read the book with that framework in mind, then you will enjoy it. There are some plot holes, some lucky coincidences and the ending is conveniently neat in some ways but for all that I am glad to have finally read Jenoff after talking about it for ages now. I will definitely be reading more!

Some times it must be tricky for an author to keep readers happy. For example, in this book I both liked the fact that the ending is kind of vague in that you know that the book is over and the characters will go off into their sunset whatever that happens to be, but in other ways I really wanted to know exactly what happened to them. Maybe I will get some resolution in relation to this when I read the connected book, The Diplomat's Wife. I've already requested it from the library.

Rating 4/5

The Man She Loves to Hate by Kelly Hunter

Three reasons to keep away from Cole Rees…


1. My mom had a scorching affair with his dad—just think how awkward that "meet the family" would be…


2. His arrogance drives me mad—he might be a gorgeous billionaire, but I hate how he knows it!


3. Every time he touches me I go up in flames…and it's utterly terrifying.


Come on, a fling with the man I love to hate? Like that would ever work out…

Do you think that it is possible to overdose on an author's books? If it is then I am in serious danger because this is the seventh Kelly Hunter book I have read in the last four days.

When she was teenager, Jolie Tanner was best friends with Hannah Rees and she had a huge crush on Hannah's delicious older brother Cole. She thought that they were inseparable until, in the course of one day, the friendship was ripped apart and her life was changed forever. Not only was she not friends with Hannah anymore but all the other kids had turned away from her as well. When Jolie went home to her mother that day she found out why - Cole and Hannah's dad had been having an affair with her mum.

Fast forward through the years and Jolie has become adept at wearing the various masks that she employs to both hide her shyness but also to protect herself from the assumptions and insults that have been made about and to her, most of which assume that she has loose morals just like her mother before her.

Now, James Rees has died and Jolie is returning to his mountain top cabin to collect her mother's belongings, removing evidence of the liaison between the two that lasted more than twelve years. Little does she know that Cole is also up the mountain saying goodbye in his own way to the father he loved and admired, but who he also couldn't understand when it came to the decisions he made about his wife, mistress and children.

There is a blizzard coming in, and when Jolie and Cole end up sharing the last gondola of the day, the last thing Jolie wants is for him to recognise her and she tries to hide her identity from him. When the blizzard worsens, they are stranded in the gondola and they suddenly find themselves in a life and death situation where the past doesn't matter anywhere near as much as managing to find safety and stay alive.

For a relatively short book, this book covers a lot of ground. Not only do our main couple have to deal with the snow and ice, but they have their own misconceptions about each other, the rumours spread by others, a hostile business situation for Cole, mostly instigated by his bitter mother, as well as finding a way to balance their two lives. Cole has a successful business life in Queenstown and Jolie lives and works in Christchurch as an artist. She knows that he needs someone who can be a proper business wife, and he thinks she can do it, but she knows that with a past like her mothers and the not necessarily true rumours that swirl around her she is being unfair to Cole to keep the relationship going.

You just know that when a woman makes a list of reasons as to why they shouldn't be with a particular man that is exactly what is going to happen though. The list above that forms the cover blurb makes it sound as though this could be written in first person but it isn't. Both Cole and Jolie get ample page time for the reader to get to know them - to learn what is important to them and what makes them tick as people whether it be Cole's business dealing or Jolie's art (especially towards the end of the book where she pours all her heartbreak out into her pictures).

I have no idea if there is going to be another book featuring the other characters from this book. If so, I would love to see Hannah come undone just a little and meet the man who can thaw her out a whole lot. That thawing out process started in this book but there is still a whole lot more to go!

In closing, I would like to volunteer my services to the author as a location scout. So far in the books that I have read by Kelly Hunter the locations have included Singapore, London, the Greek Islands, Outback Australia and now this one which is set in New Zealand. I could totally help out with finding future locations!

Now I am off to scour my bookshelves because I know that I have one more Kelly Hunter book in my house that I haven't read yet. It's here somewhere!

Rating 4/5

Thanks to Netgalley for the review copy.

Library Loot: November 9 to 15

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!

Last week I made a new resolution about trying to limit some of my library requests, and I have to say I think I did quite well this week. I actually only broke the rules twice. Once was for a cook book, which doesn't really count (right?) and the other was for my next book club book so I had to request that in order to have any chance of reading it in time.

That doesn't mean that I had no books to pick up...no sirree! All these are books that I had requested before I put my new initiative in place!

Silk Road by Colin Falconer - This author did a guest post for us at Historical Tapestry. All the interactions I have had with him have been great, so it's only fair that I try his book!

Dangerous to Know by Tasha Alexander - I actually am not sure why I requested this one. I didn't really like the last book in the series that I read but I still continue on.

American Gods by Neil Gaiman - After reading Fragile Things it is now time to give a Neil Gaiman full scale novel a go.

The School of Essential Ingredients by Erica Bauermeister - I have heard such good things about this author!

The Black Pearl by Cynthia Harrod-Eagles - Will this be the time that I actually read this book?

The Island by Victoria Hislop - this sounds exactly like a book I would love!

Home Again by Mariah Stewart - the next book in the Chesapeake Diaries series.

Dangerous in Diamonds by Madeline Hunter - the next book in the Rarest Blooms series.

The Weird Sisters by Eleanor Brown - I have been meaning to read this ever since it came out.

Claire has the Mr Linky this week so head on over to share your loot!

Sunday Salon: Self Publishing and Wish: A Novella by Kelly Hunter

One of the interesting thing that seems to be happening in self publishing these days is that many established authors are using self publishing as a venue to either republish their older work which have been out of print for a while or publishing work that wouldn't necessarily make it into "normal" published works.

For example, sitting on my ereader at the moment I have a number of books by Colleen Gleason which are completely different to her more established vampire books, but I am still prepared to give them a go because I know that for the most part I like her voice.

When Kelley Armstrong visited Australia earlier this year she talked about the fact that she was working on writing the third book in the Nadia Stafford series and that it would be self published. There are readers all over the world asking for this third book, including me, but the publishers have decided that they aren't interested, so self publishing keeps the readers happier than they would otherwise have been.

I do worry sometimes that we might end up with books being self published that shouldn't really see the light of day, especially if an author decides to self publish their early books that were rejected until they had honed their art enough to get to a point where they did achieve publishing success.

This novella is another example of an established author exploring the world of self publishing, and has the added bonus of being a seasonal read! Kelly Hunter is a successful author in category romance. She has been nominated for a Rita (the Oscars of romance) three times. I wouldn't exactly call myself an established Hunter fan given that I have only read one book by her and that was earlier this week, but I am going to buy more over the weekend and I have one already loaded up on the ereader ready to go at the moment so I am well on my way.

I knew from that first book that I enjoyed Hunter's storytelling, I liked her humour and I especially liked the way she used her settings. This novella confirmed this! It is also a good chance for someone who hasn't read her before to get a taste of her writing for less than $1.50.

Billie Temple is after a new start. She want to get away from her inner suburban life where she lives in a couple of rooms above the pub she manages and there is nowhere safe for her son Cal to play. A new life managing a country pub where her son has acres of space to play in seems like the perfect solution!

It is therefore a bit unfortunate that one of her closest neighbours, and her land lord, instantly decides that he doesn't want Billie and Cal on his land. He has his reasons, mostly to do with his own past which is filled with heartbreak, but he makes it very clear to Billie that she and her son will be moving somewhere, anywhere, else as soon as the necessary arrangements can be made.

Billie shakes things up a bit not only with Adam but also in the pub that she manages, making changes and bringing in new ideas, and trying to fit into the country community. It does seems that not everyone is happy with this and so we have a brief suspense-type subplot where someone vandalises some property and we have to wait to see who it is that seems to not like Billie and why. As an aside, I never really understand why the suspense subplot is so prevalent in contemporary and historical romances. It seems to be an over used plot tool to me. Surely there are other ways to make the characters realise how much they care about the other person and get them to act on it.

Adam seems to epitomise an Aussie country bloke to me. He is good looking, rugged, a little bit on the quiet side. I know that this doesn't necessarily reflect reality, but a girl can dream can't she. Even though Billie and Adam agree that they are going to act on their growing attraction (who knew that fixing windmill pumps could be so sexy?) but that it is going to be a no-strings attached type relationship. Despite this, Adam can't help himself. He finds himself being protective of both Billie and Cal. It is hard for him though, because this interaction reminds him of his own past, and his wife and child who died years before.

Even with the no-strings relationship agreement, I was glad when Billie stood up to Adam and basically said this isn't working for me anymore. Billie is definitely the better defined, more dimensional character of the two, but I did like Adam a lot too. I especially liked the fact that these are two relatively normal people. No billionaire, no superstar. Just two normal people who meet and fall in love.

Hunter manages to fit in not only the romance, the suspense subplot and also a lovely secondary romance as well in this novella and it feels very balanced.

I am not always convinced that short stories and novellas work for romance, particularly where there isn't any kind of existing relationship between the two main characters. After all, you need to convey a meaningful relationship with growth between and by the characters, often with some kind of conflict and resolution as well as the happily ever after declaration! Hunter manages to move the narrative forward in time without making the reader feel as though they were missing out or that the relationship was rushed.

If you want to read the review that made me need to go to Smashwords and buy this novella immediately, head on over to Katydid in Oz. She's even got a dancing Picard!

All single mother Billie Temple wants for Christmas is to trade her hectic Sydney lifestyle for simple country living and a place to call home.


All widowed cattleman Adam Kincaid wants is for Billie and her son to go away.


Santa's got a problem.