Several years ago, my husband and I decided we were tired of going out for ribs and wanted to try making them at home. We had a beautiful Weber gas grill that cost more than my stove did and we wanted to use it.
So I Googled the “best ribs” recipe. There were several recipes, Google is nothing if not generous with its results. But one intrigued me with its title, “Last Meal Ribs” on a website called AmazingRibs.com. I clicked through and found Meathead.
This wasn’t just a recipe. It was a story. And I loved that in the list of ingredients he included:
With links to places to buy these things, and reviews and recommendations. And best of all, detailed instructions on how to do everything necessary to make the best ribs. We’ve never looked back, and a couple of times a year we make these ribs. They come out perfect every time, and that’s all I can ask for.
The website has grown tremendously over the years and so has Meathead’s reputation. (And yes, that is his name. I believe he legally changed it.)
So the cookbook. That legendary recipe is in here, minus the beer, chair, and tunes. But this book is about half science, half cooking because the art of barbecue is really all about the science behind it. Meathead looks at all the myths we’ve heard over the years…
“The more smoke the better.”
“Soak wood chips and chunks for the most smoke.”
“Searing meat seals in the juices.”
“Cook chicken until the juices run clear.”
Then he goes about scientifically disproving them, and explaining the right way to do things. Listen to the man, he really did his homework.
Interestingly, the forward is written by another science forward chef, J. Kenji Lopez-Alt, “Serious Eats” food blogger and author of one of my favorite cookbooks, reviewed here – The Food Lab.
The Table of Contents is seven pages long. Here are the chapters:
The Science of Heat
Smoke
Software
Hardware
Brines, Rubs, and Sauces
Pork
Beef
Ground Meats: Burgers, Hot Dogs, and Sausages
Lamb
Chicken and Turkey
Seafood
Sides
Just looking at this list, you can see this is not your typical cookbook, at least not for the first 150 pages. There is a lot of science here, but also a lot of humor, making it quite easy to digest. The recipes are really delicious and they work. I favor the Memphis Dust rub for my ribs, but how can you not love a recipe called “Simon & Garfunkel Rub” that starts off with the explanation, “Parsley, sage, rosemary and thyme make a pretty good song as well as an all-purpose rub for pork, turkey, and chicken.”
There are tons of pictures, and not just the beauty shots of the food. For instance, Meathead recommends trimming and skinning racks of ribs, and there are step by step instructions with photographs, making it super easy to see how to do it. There is a great photo of “Brats simmered in dyed beer” that beautifully illustrates that a simmering liquid never gets any deeper than the outer 1-2 mm. There is a photo of a whole, unpeeled tenderloin (you’ve seen them at Costco) along with photos of it broken down into the tenderloin tips, Chateaubriand, and the chain. Alton Brown tried to explain this to me in his two part episode of Good Eats, “Tender is the Loin” but I have to tell you, this picture is worth a thousand words. I finally got it. And Meathead, like Lopez-Alt, is a big fan of the reverse sear, especially for such an expensive cut of meat.
Lest you were thinking, why do I need a science-y cookbook for ribs, I’ll tell you. There is way more to this book than just that. Want to cook a whole hog? Got you covered. Make a “Momofuku-inspired Ramen Bowl?” It’s here for you. Want to know what’s in a “Binghamton Spiedie Sandwich”? Grill a turkey or a lobster? Hot smoke salmon? How about impressing your guests with “Championship Bacon-Wrapped Stuffed Shrimp”? This is the book for you!
Labor Day is in few days. I’m going to try out those stuffed shrimp and then go to my fallback, the Last Meal Ribs made with Memphis Dust rub. Maybe with a side of slaw – yeah, that’s in there, too.
8/16 Stacy Alesi, AKA the BookBitch™
MEATHEAD by Meathead Goldwyn. Rux Martin/Houghton Mifflin Harcourt (May 10, 2016). ISBN 978-0544018464. 400p.
I may have reserved this book at my library a while ago, because when it showed up yesterday I didn’t remember asking for it. Maybe I read a great review a while back or maybe someone else reserved it for me. I have great co-workers and every now and then a book shows up and I’m not sure where it came from. No matter, I took a look at it and once I saw the blurb from Susan Elizabeth Phillips, “I highly recommend,” I knew I had to read it.
I took it home last night and started reading during the Miami Dolphins-Tennessee Titans game. It didn’t look good for Miami, so I went book instead. Dolphins lost their last pre-season game – and first home game in their newly renovated and renamed stadium. But I won – this was a terrific read.
Lucy Hutton is a petite woman who shares an office with Joshua Templeman. Lucy has always wanted to work in publishing, and when the company she worked for was on the brink of going under, they merged with another publishing house, creating co-CEOs and co-assistants to those CEOs, and those assistants were Lucy and Joshua. Lucy lost her only friend in that merger when 150 people were laid off, but she kept her job. And their were days she almost regretted it.
Their first day together Lucy gave Joshua her biggest, winningest smile. Lucy is a people pleaser, a genuinely nice person who just wants to get along with everyone. Joshua saw her smile, looked her up and down then turned away. Thus started the war.
They sparred nonstop, bringing competition and passive aggressive behavior to the sort of heights that often had Human Resources involved. And then came the announcement; the CEOs were hiring a Chief Operating Officer and an outside firm would be doing the interviewing. Josh and Lucy were the top contenders, but that just caused the competition to heat up. When Lucy proposed a day of team building to help bring the staffs of the two companies closer together, Josh took over and made it a day of paintball. And that’s when the fun really begins.
Any girl who ever had her hair pulled by a boy on the playground knows where this hate fueled relationship ends up, but it was a really fun ride to get there. If you are looking for a light, fast romance with some laugh out loud moments, look no further.
8/16 Stacy Alesi AKA the BookBitch™
THE HATING GAME by Sally Thorne. William Morrow Paperbacks (August 9, 2016). ISBN 978-0062439598. 384p.
Welcome to the September bookshelf of signed thrillers! It looks like most of the authors I’m after are on vacation, so don’t forget to check back…you never know when new titles will be added. To enter, go to the Win Books page. Best of luck!
THE KEPT WOMAN by Karin Slaughter: Georgia detective Will Trent and medical examiner Sara Linton look into the murder of an ex-cop whose body was found at an abandoned construction site, an investigation that uncovers links to Will’s troubled past in this long-awaited entry in the best-selling Will Trent series.
ROBERT B. PARKER’S DEBT TO PAY by Reed Farrel Coleman: Setting aside complications in his love life to investigate the brutal murder of a high-ranking Boston crime boss, Jesse Stone suspects the work of a vengeful psychotic assassin who is targeting Stone’s ex-wife.
DOWNFALL by J.A. Jance: Juggling her pregnancy, family deaths, her daughter’s imminent departure for college and a reelection campaign, Cochise County Sheriff Joanna Brady investigates two suspicious falling deaths that may be the work of a serial killer.
HER DARKEST NIGHTMARE by Brenda Novak: While running a psychiatric prison in Alaska, Dr. Evelyn Talbot, who survived an attack by a serial killer when she was a teenager, wonders if her past has come back to haunt her when a murderer targets her facility.
TRIPLE SHOT by Ross Klavan, Tim O’Mara & Charles Salzberg: Shadow towns, smugglers and secret notes—this trio of New York authors are a TRIPLE SHOT of twists and turns in three novellas. Signed by all three authors!
THE SMOKE HUNTER by Jacquelyn Benson: Frustrated suffragette and would-be archaeologist Ellie Mallory stumbles across a map to a city that shouldn’t exist. A powerful secret lies hidden in the heart of the city – and if it falls into the wrong hands, it could shake the very fate of the world. OVERDRIVE by Dawn Ius: Gone in Sixty Seconds meets Heist Society in this edgy novel about a crack team of teenage criminals on a mission to learn to trust, build a life, and steal a wish list of exotic cars.
ALL IS NOT FORGOTTEN by Wendy Walker: Given a controversial drug to medically erase her memory of a violent assault, young Jenny Kramer struggles with difficult emotional memories that linger months later as her father becomes obsessed with revenge and her mother descends into denial.
THE BUTCHER’S SON by Grant McKenzie: Ian Quinn has spent his life protecting children from the monsters that live among us. Ian was unable to protect his own daughter when she was killed, and has tried to bury his past. But the past is far from done with him.
You can win autographed copies of all these books! If you are new to the site, each month I run a contest in conjunction with the International Thriller Writers organization. We put together a list of books from debut authors to bestsellers, so you can win some of your favorites and find some new favorites.
What makes this contest really special is that all of the books (except eBooks) are signed by the author! Books with multiple authors will be signed by at least one of the authors.
Don’t forget, if you subscribe to the newsletter or follow this blog, you get an extra entry into every contest you enter. Check out the Win Books page for more information on all these books and how you to enter this month’s contest.
Thanks for reading, and good luck!
Comments Off on Win the September ’16 bookshelf of signed thrillers! | Uncategorized | Permalink Posted by Stacy Alesi
Life Fail #1: Coloring outside the lines | Author Gayle Forman –
When she was in kindergarten, author Gayle Forman’s teachers thought she might have future trouble with reading and writing because Gayle was “bad” at coloring. Can testing performance turn passions into a chore?
Leave Me
Click to purchase
Every woman who has ever fantasized about driving past her exit on the highway instead of going home to make dinner, and every woman who has ever dreamed of boarding a train to a place where no one needs constant attention–meet Maribeth Klein. A harried working mother who’s so busy taking care of her husband and twins, she doesn’t even realize she’s had a heart attack.
Surprised to discover that her recuperation seems to be an imposition on those who rely on her, Maribeth does the unthinkable: she packs a bag and leaves. But, as is often the case, once we get where we’re going we see our lives from a different perspective. Far from the demands of family and career and with the help of liberating new friendships, Maribeth is able to own up to secrets she has been keeping from herself and those she loves.
With bighearted characters–husbands, wives, friends, and lovers–who stumble and trip, grow and forgive, Leave Me is about facing the fears we’re all running from. Gayle Forman is a dazzling observer of human nature. She has written an irresistible novel that confronts the ambivalence of modern motherhood head on and asks, what happens when a grown woman runs away from home?
About the Author
Gayle Forman is an award-winning author and journalist whose articles have appeared in numerous publications, including Seventeen, Cosmopolitan and Elle in the US. She lives in Brooklyn with her family.
Comments Off on Author Gayle Forman on Life Fail #1 | Ramblings | Permalink Posted by Stacy Alesi
Olivia Rawlings is not having a good day. She’s an award winning pastry chef at an exclusive private club in Boston and is having an affair with her married, much older boss. As she presents a flaming Baked Alaska to the crowded dining room, she sees her boss with his wife and somehow manages to drop the flaming dessert and sets the place on fire.
Refusing to hang around to be fired, she escapes to the small Vermont town of Guthrie, where her best friend Hannah lives. Hannah is thrilled to see her, and finagles her into taking a job at the small B&B. The job comes with a place to stay, and Olivia decides to try it.
Margaret Hurley is her new boss, and she is a cantankerous old lady. Olivia can’t understand why this woman who obviously doesn’t care for her has given her a job. Then she finds out it’s to win the blue ribbon for apple pie at the county fair.
Just down the hill from Livvy’s small cottage is a working farm, and she meets Martin McCracken, the son of the owner who is dying of cancer. Livvy becomes enamored of Martin, but he keeps his distance. Meanwhile she is fitting in just fine to the slow and nosy ways of small town life. Orphaned in high school, Livvy finds herself dredging up her early banjo lessons with her father and playing in a local band. Martin plays the fiddle beautifully, and together – dare I say it? They make beautiful music.
When Martin’s fiancee shows up for his father’s funeral, the day after she finally sleeps with him, Livvy runs away yet again; this time she takes off for Boston. But life catches up with her, and she finds herself returning to Guthrie once more.
This is one of those charming novels that are so hard to come by. I just adored this book and it was a one night read for me. There’s even a recipe for apple pie at the end. I’ll let you know if I make it.
NOTE: This book is from the Pamela Dorman imprint and let me tell you, I will read anything that woman publishes – Jojo Moyes, Nicci French, J. Ryan Stradal, Beth Hoffman, and Laura Lane McNeal. She also publishes Luanne Rice but I haven’t read her yet. Guess I’ll have to add her to the list.
8/16 Stacy Alesi, AKA the BookBitch™
THE CITY BAKER’S GUIDE TO COUNTRY LIVING by Louise Miller. Pamela Dorman Books (August 9, 2016). ISBN 978-1101981207. 384p.
Audible, The National Archives and Bloomsbury released In Their Own Words, an exclusive audio collection of largely unpublished letters from throughout history. The collection is narrated by some of Britain’s best loved performers and most famous voices, including Miriam Margolyes, Daniel Mays and Martin Shaw.
The letters included span some 500 years and mark iconic moments in history including the start of Nelson Mandela’s trial and Churchill asking Roosevelt for America’s support during WWII.
In Their Own Words: A History in Letters
Click to purchase
AUDIBLE, THE NATIONAL ARCHIVES & BLOOMSBURY DEBUT
IN THEIR OWN WORDS
Exclusive collection of lettersfeatures writing from Churchill, Catherine Howard, ‘Jack the Ripper’, the Ford Dagenham women and more
Correspondence narrated by some of Britain’s best loved performers including Miriam Margolyes, Indira Varma, Martin Shaw and Daniel Mays amongst others
London, embargoed until 00:01am 25thAugust 2016 – Audible, The National Archives and Bloomsbury today debut In Their Own Words, an exclusive collection of largely unpublished letters from throughout history. Covering centuries of protest, scandal, cultural revolution and technological innovation the series gives audiences an intimate window into the past, documenting momentous events through personal letters from well-known figures and ordinary citizens alike. Bringing together some of the world’s most shocking, funny and poignant writing, the collection spans some 500 years including everything from Catherine Howard’s adulterous love notes, to the letter that marked the start of Nelson Mandela’s trial.
With around 80 pieces expertly curated by Dr Hester Vaizey, the collection is grouped into six, thematic chapters: ‘Companions, Comrades, Lovers’, ‘Espionage & Deception’, ‘Allies, Diplomacy & Foreign Relations’, ‘Protest, Revolution & Rebellion’, ‘Scandals, Loopholes & Murder’ and ‘Cultural, Technological Change’. Notable highlights include (full contents in Notes to Editors):
– A letter from Churchill to Roosevelt asking for America’s support during WWII
– Letters from the Ford Dagenham women rallying one another to strike for equal pay
– A letter sent to the Houses of Parliament warning MPs of the gunpowder plot
– Letters sent to the Home Office urging for the decriminalization of homosexuality in the 1960s
– Letters lamenting ‘class antagonism’ aboard the Titanic after its fateful maiden voyage
– Cryptic letters sent to the police from ‘Jack The Ripper’
– A letter from Idi Amin to Queen Elizabeth II inviting her to celebrate Ugandan independence
Working with some of Britain’s best loved performers, In Their Own Words has been beautifully brought to life by a BAFTA and Tony award winning cast including Miriam Margolyes (Harry Potter), Indira Varma (Game Of Thrones), Martin Shaw (Judge John Deed), Daniel Mays (Mrs Biggs), David Haig (Four Weddings & A Funeral), Robert Bathurst (Downton Abbey) and Rhashan Stone (Desmond’s) amongst others (full list in Notes to Editors).
Tracey Markham, UK Country Manager at Audible, said: “We’re thrilled to have worked with the National Archives and Bloomsbury to bring such a unique and compelling collection of letters to life. From Churchill to the Kray Twins, it’s packed with a weird and wonderful selection of writings, narrated by some of Britain’s finest performers. Whether you fancy a bit of history on the way home from work, or want something to make you feel inspired on your morning run, it’s a great listen for every occasion.”
Dr Hester Vaizey, Publishing Manager at The National Archives, said: “Reading old letters can feel like stepping into a time machine, taking us back to the moment when the author set down their thoughts and feelings on paper. Letters contain the full array of human emotions, from love to hate, from fear to excitement. This anthology of letters has been selected from the 126 shelf-miles of documents held in The National Archives and offers a fascinating insight into the lives of men and women who are no longer with us.”
Contents
–Companions, Comrades, Lovers
o Medieval family politics: Letter from Isabelle of Angoulême to Henry VIII
o A doomed queen: Catherine Howard’s letter to her lover Culpepper
o Lean meals for the Earl of Leicester: Elizabeth I drafts a playful thank-you letter
o ‘Slaving during master’s pleasure’: Bonded labour in eighteenth century Maryland
o Britain versus the South Pole: Telegram sent to Captain Oates’ mother announcing his death
o Letter from India: K B W Sharland, 26 July 1917, Pashan Camp, Kirkee, India
o Medals into munitions: The fight at home: Funding the First World War
o An appeal from Pioneer Baggs: A tragic attempt to keep a son from war
o The Caravan Club: Raids on homosexual clubs in the 1930s
o Children of the Overseas Reception Board: The sinking of the SS City of Benares
o ‘Tell her my grief has no end’: Ken ‘Snakehips’ Johnson: a life, from Guiana to Soho
– Espionage & Deception
o Digging for King and Country: Leonard Woolley and T E Lawrence
o Carl Lody, the spy in the Tower: Letter from a convicted German on the eve of his execution
o From bank clerk to British spy: The origins of Britain’s leading Second World War spy
o Operation Mincemeat: How a dead body deceived the Axis in the Second World War
o Animals and the War effort: GI Joe the hero carrier pigeon
o The Gerson Secret Writing Case: J O Peet and coded correspondence in the Second World War
o The first female British spy: Christine Granville: a female Second World War agent
o Double agents and the Cold War: The disappearance of Guy Burgess and Donald Maclean
– Allies, Diplomacy & Foreign Relations
o Reburying the hatchet: The return of Napoleon Bonaparte’s remains to France
o Nationality and naturalisation: Karl Marx’s application to become British citizen refused
o ‘Wonderful things’: Discovering Tutankhamun’s tomb
o The end of ‘peace in our time’: Lord Halifax and the declaration of war
o Operation Pied Piper: what to feed the children?: Government guidelines for caring for evacuated children
o The most unsordid act in history: The origins of Lend-Lease
o Nuclear weapons and the new world order: Letter from Attlee to Truman
o An invitation to the Queen: Idi Amin invites Elizabeth II to celebrate Ugandan independence
– Protest, Revolution & Rebellion
o Braveheart: A letter from the King of France regarding William Wallace
o ‘Terrible blow this Parliament’: A warning about the Gunpowder Plot
o ‘Ye have not yet done as ye ought’: A letter from ‘Captain Swing’ – the agricultural unrest of 1830
o ‘… we may lie and die in a land of plenty …’: Thomas Henshaw’s demand for redress in the ‘Hungry 40s’
o Class antagonism onboard the Titanic: Did your class affect your chances of survival?
o ‘Wrong and wicked punishment’: Sir Douglas Haig defends Field Punishment No. 1
o A letter of farewell to his mother: Patrick Pearse: executed for being a leader of the Easter Rising
o Animals in a cage: Women’s petitions for equal participation in Parliament
o The Warsaw Ghetto Uprising: Dedication to the Jewish people of Poland
o The League of Coloured Peoples: The mixed-race babies of the Second World War
o ‘Nkosi Sikelel’ iAfrika’: Notes on the trial of Nelson Mandela
o Sexual Offences Act 1967: The decriminalisation of homosexual acts
o Shooting at the Berlin Wall: The Cold War and the fight to stop the flow of people to the West
o For ‘all women everywhere’: Ford Dagenham women strike for equal pay
– Scandals, Loopholes & Murder
o Can a child be deemed an animal?: The case of James Stannard – child welfare in the 19th century
o Copycat Rippers: Letters to the police from ‘Jack the Ripper’
o A pattern emerges and a serial killer is uncovered: The case of the ‘Brides in the Bath’ murders
o A storm in a whiskey tumbler: Diplomatic drinking in prohibition America
o ‘Impassioned Obscenity’: The Cerne Abbas Giant
o Commander of the death camps: Josef Kramer, commandant of Bergen-Belsen, writes to his wife
o Christine Keeler and Stephen Ward: The scandal that rocked the early 1960s
o ‘The Kray twins done it’: Murder at the Blind Beggar
o ‘One for the pot’: The World Cup is stolen
– Cultural, Technological Change
o The cantankerous father of computing: Charles Babbage and street music noise
o Electric trains: Seashore sabotage
o ‘A flyer capable of carrying a man’: The Wright brothers’ negotiations with the British government
o No women drivers allowed: Men from the London Trades Council threaten to strike
o Disappointed fiancées: The right of married women to work in the civil service
o The introduction of the contraceptive pill: Allowing ‘improper demands’ by women?
o ‘A good thing to be laughed at’: Harold Macmillan approves of his TV satirisation
o Aliens in the Mendip Hills: Correspondence to and from the Ministry of Defence
Narrators
– Miriam Margolyes
– Indira Varma
– Martin Shaw
– Daniel Mays
– David Haig
– Robert Bathurst
– Rhashan Stone
– Arthur Smith
– Stephen Critchlow
– Jessica Dennis
– Nicholas Boulton
– Simon Kane
– Adam Hall
About Audible Ltd.
Audible, an Amazon.com, Inc. subsidiary (NASDAQ:AMZN), is the leading provider of premium digital spoken audio information and entertainment, offering customers a new way to enhance and enrich their lives every day. Audible was created to unleash the emotive music in language and the habituating power and utility of verbal expression. Audible content includes more than 200,000 audio programs from leading audiobook publishers, broadcasters, entertainers, magazine and newspaper publishers, and business information providers. Audible is also the preeminent provider of spoken-word audio products for Apple’s iTunes Store.
About The National Archives
The National Archives is one of the world’s most valuable resources for research and an independent research organisation in its own right. As the official archive and publisher for the UK government, and England and Wales they are the guardians of some of the UK’s most iconic national documents, dating back over 1,000 years. Their role is to collect and secure the future of the government record, both digital and physical, to preserve it for generations to come, and to make it as accessible and available as possible. The National Archives brings together the skills and specialisms needed to conserve some of the oldest historic documents as well as leading digital archive practices to manage and preserve government information past, present and future.
Comments Off on Audible, The National Archives and Bloomsbury debut In Their Own Words | Ramblings | Permalink Posted by Stacy Alesi
Lily grew up in an abusive home; she wasn’t abused, but her father beat her mother on a regular basis and Lily grew to hate him for it. Her escape was watching the Ellen Degeneres show each afternoon, and her way of venting was her journal, but instead of “dear diary” she wrote her journal entries as letters to Ellen instead. She never sent them, of course, but she kept all her journals and considered Ellen a friend, one that basically saved her sanity.
Atlas is homeless teen and he moves into the abandoned house behind Lily’s, and she befriends him. Eventually they fall in love, but Atlas had an uncle who was willing to take him in, so he left the small town in Maine for Boston, and then joined the Marines.
Lily moves to Boston too, starting her own floral business. Her first employee is Allysa, who wanders in and not only becomes Lily’s right hand but also her best friend. It’s only kismet that the most attractive man Lily ever met ends up being Allysa’s brother Ryle. And then Lily runs into Atlas, stirring up those old feelings, but she’s determined to make things work with Ryle.
This is a story about friendship and relationships and abuse and love. Growing up in an abusive home, Lily – like many people – judged her mother for not leaving. But as an adult, when she finds herself in a similar situation, she learns how difficult it is to leave, and why so many women stay.
This was a one night read for me, I couldn’t put it down. These characters were so well drawn that they really brought this story to life. Abuse isn’t always a black and white situation, and Hoover illustrates that beautifully.
The amount of abuse that goes on in this country is absolutely horrifying, and this book may be powerful enough to get even one person to leave, or at least to understand what may be going on in their family or with friends, and that would be a wonderful thing. Either way, the level of compassion and empathy expressed for both the abuser and the victim is refreshing, educational and inspirational.
It Ends with Us is an important and compelling read, and sure to make my best books of the year list. Don’t miss it.
8/16 Stacy Alesi, AKA the BookBitch™
IT ENDS WITH US by Colleen Hoover. Atria Books (August 2, 2016). ISBN 978-1501110368. 384p.
Sister Abegail Ntleko (activist and author of EMPTY HANDS) discusses the path we can take to lead a fuller life, and shares stories from her own journey.
Empty Hands: A Memoir: One Woman’s Journey to Save Children Orphaned by AIDS in South Africa
Empty Hands is the inspiring memoir of Zulu nurse and healthcare activist Sister Abegail Ntleko. Growing up poor in a rural village with a father who didn’t believe in educating girls, against seemingly insurmountable odds Sister Abegail earned her nursing degree and began work as a community nurse and educator, dedicating her life to those in need. “Her story tells us,” says Desmond Tutu, who wrote the foreword to the book, “what a single person can accomplish when heart and mind work together in the service of others.”
Overcoming poverty and racism within the apartheid South African system, she adopted her first child at a time when it was unheard of to do so. And then she did it again and again. In forty years she has taken in and cared for hundreds of children who had nothing, saving babies—many of them orphans whose parents died of AIDS—from hospitals that were ready to give up on them and let them die.
Empty Hands describes the harshness of Ntleko’s circumstances with wit and wisdom in direct, beautifully understated prose and will appeal not only to activists and aid workers, but to anyone who believes in the power of the human spirit to rise above suffering and find peace, joy, and purpose.
“Ntleko’s story, which she tells in simple language, is inspiring and moving. She neither dwells in nor dramatizes the hardships she has faced, preferring instead to focus on ‘fill[ing] her hands with love and then spend[ing] all that love until [her] hands are empty again.’ A brief, genuine, heartfelt memoir of an awe-inspiring life.”—Kirkus Reviews
“A tenaciously hopeful memoir by a South African nurse who mothered hundreds of children orphaned by AIDS, all in the spirit of ubuntu—the Zulu belief that you are only a person because of other people.” —O, the Oprah Magazine
About the Author
Born into extreme poverty in KwaZulu-Natal, Sister Abegail Ntleko overcame tremendous obstacles to obtain an education and become a nurse, eventually becoming one of South Africa’s preeminent community activists. She received an Unsung Heroes of Compassion award presented by the Dalai Lama in 2009. Now 79 years old, Sister Abe has built and managed two orphanages serving hundreds of young people and has helped thousands of children and families affected by HIV. She has also personally adopted and fostered more than 30 children, and her latest project, the Kulungile Care Centre in Underberg, has become home for her large family.
Comments Off on Sister Abegail Ntleko on why we should let go of worry and embrace life | Ramblings | Permalink Posted by Stacy Alesi
The underwater waterfalls of Mauritius – an effect caused by sand runoff into a deeper underwater rift – have always been a fascination. But when the falls begin to grow rapidly and local marine wildlife begins dying off in droves, environmental activists worldwide become concerned. Carrie Anderson, a well-known free diver and marine biologist, is part of a team investigating the incident. Their hope is to understand exactly what’s causing the massive growth of the falls and determine the ramifications if that growth continues.
When a routine dive results in the death of her diving partner, Carrie is the first to admit that she herself was lucky to have survived. But giving voice to exactly what went wrong is more difficult than it might seem. See, Carrie witnessed and experienced something she can’t quite explain. Something that defies everything she’s ever experienced in her dives before. Something so potentially terrifying that it could mean devastating results for everyone.
But she’ll need proof if she’s to have any hope of getting people to listen.
Unknown terrors from the deepest depths of the ocean… Brian Keene’s latest seemed like it would be the perfect summer horror read. Unfortunately, Pressure doesn’t quite live up to expectations.
The story and characters are quite thin. There’s no science, no development of the plot, and no atmosphere. Nautical-based horror should have tons of atmosphere, in my opinion. And as someone with major fears of open water, I’m pretty easy to satisfy in that regard. As for the characters, most of them get a few lines of backstory and that’s about it. No fleshing out, no emotion, and nothing to connect the reader to them and make us care about what happens.
There is, in spite of all of that, a certain amount of simple fun to Pressure. If you’re willing to forgo rich detail and simply appreciate the fact that it’s short and doesn’t require a whole lot of attention or thought. And that’s fine sometimes. I simply hoped for – and expected – something more from Keene.
8/16 Becky LeJeune
PRESSURE by Brian Keene. Thomas Dunne Books (June 21, 2016). ISBN: 978-1250071347. 288p.
The Science of Great Barbecue and Grilling
Posted by Stacy Alesi 
THE KEPT WOMAN by Karin Slaughter: Georgia detective Will Trent and medical examiner Sara Linton look into the murder of an ex-cop whose body was found at an abandoned construction site, an investigation that uncovers links to Will’s troubled past in this long-awaited entry in the best-selling Will Trent series.
OVERDRIVE by Dawn Ius: Gone in Sixty Seconds meets Heist Society in this edgy novel about a crack team of teenage criminals on a mission to learn to trust, build a life, and steal a wish list of exotic cars.
Stacy Alesi's BookBitch.com™ 