Tag: food

• Book Review: The Killer Question by Janice Hallett

  The Killer Question by Janice Hallett (Atria Books, September 2025) is my third book by Hallett. All of her books, those I’ve read and those I’ve yet to read, are told in epistolary style, meaning the story is told through a series of letters, or in modern terms, a series of emails, interoffice communications, text…

  michardillo

  June 30, 2025

  books

  84 Charing Cross Road, Annie Barrows, Atria Books, book-review, books, British, Catherine Called Birdy, Chat GPT, Emily Blunt, England, epistolary novels, Ewan McGregor, fiction, food, Goodreads, Helene Hanff, Janice Hallett, Karen Cushman, Kim Fay, Kindle, library, literature, Love and Saffron, Mary Ann Shaffer, middle school, mystery, NetGalley, novel, Paul Torday, reading, Salmon Fishing in the Yemen, Scotland, teacher, teaching, The Appeal, The Examiner, The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society, The Killer Question, writer

• Book Review: The Great Gatsby

  This “Cook the Book” edition (Chronicle Books) is a republishing of F. Scott Fitzgerald’s novel The Great Gatsby, complete with a set of 15 recipes at the end of the book, recipes of the food and drink mentioned throughout the novel. This edition is beautifully done, with an authentic Art Deco feel to it thanks…

  michardillo

  May 25, 2025

  books

  book-review, books, Chronicle Books, Cook the Book, drink, F. Scott Fitzgerald, fiction, food, NetGalley, nonfiction, novel, reading, The Great Gatsby

• Friends, Family, Food, But No Funeral!

  My husband and I just recently returned home from a nine-day trip to our home state, Louisiana, where we had the time of our lives. This trip was planned around my nephew’s engagement party, bookended by family time and some really great food. When my husband and I married, we were both living in Maryland,…

  michardillo

  May 2, 2025

  Essay, faith, food

  Amite, Baton Rouge, Boston’s, Brady’s, Cajun, Catholic, crawfish, Don’s, Duke’s, engagement party, family, food, friends, funeral, Gumbo, Hammond, Holy Ghost Catholic Church, Lighthouse Coastal Brasserie, Louisiana, Mass, Mississippi River, New Orleans, North Shore, prayer, Southeastern Louisiana Univeristy, strawberry shortcake cheesecake

• Book Review: Let’s Make Dumplings by Hugh Amano and Sarah Becan

  What a charming cookbook! I took my time and savored each and every recipe in Let’s Make Dumplings (Ten Speed Press, 2021) by Hugh Amano and Sarah Becan. The subtitle of this book is “A Comic Book Cookbook,” but there is nothing comical about the step by step instructions and authentic recipes in this book.…

  michardillo

  March 28, 2025

  books

  book-review, comic book cookbook, cookbook, food, Hugh Amano, illustrations, Let’s Make Dumplings, nonfiction, recipes, Sarah Becan, Ten Speed Press

• Book Review: The Mysterious Bakery on Rue de Paris by Evie Woods (a/k/a Evie Gaughan)

  The Mysterious Bakery on Rue de Paris is my second book by Evie Woods, although I am a bit confused whether #2 is the chicken or the egg. I loved her first (?) book, The Lost Bookshop. It was the perfect blend of a dual timeline, half contemporary and half historical, with a dash of…

  michardillo

  January 11, 2025

  books, Essay, food

  afternoon tea, Ann Napolitano, bakery, baking, book-review, books, bookstore, British, chocolate, coming of age, Compiegne, contemporary-fiction, cystic fibrosis, Dear Edward, dual timeline, English, Evie Gaughan, Evie Woods, fiction, food, France, Goodreads, grief, Harper 360, HarperCollins, hello-beautiful, historical fiction, Ireland, Irish, literature, magical realism, NetGalley, novel, Oprah, Paris, reading, Romance, tea, The Lost Bookshop, The Mysterious Bakery on Rue de Paris, Within Arm’s Reach, writing

• A Very Merry Bookmas!

  It’s Christmas Day! I’ve had a wonderful Advent and now Christmas season with my family and close friends. It has to be the most relaxed Christmas I’ve ever had, having retired from teaching this January 12, 2024, I came into Advent this year without reams of papers to grade, midterms to create and then grade,…

  michardillo

  December 25, 2024

  books, Essay, faith, food

  Advent, baking, book-review, books, chocolate, Christmas, cookbooks, cooking, cozy mystery, essays, exercise, faith, family, fiction, food, friends, healthy, Judi Dench, Kate Quinn, Martha Stewart, Maryland, Mass, Mrs. Quinn’s Rise to Fame, nonfiction, novel, Olivia Ford, prayer, reading, self-care, Shakespeare: The Man who Pays the Rent, teacher, teaching, The Briar Club, The Cookbook, writer, writing

• Book Review: Back After This by Linda Holmes

  This yet-to-be published new book, Back After This, is about the world of podcasting, but that is not why I requested an ARC from NetGalley. When I read the description, I saw that it was by the same author as Evvie Drake Starts Over (Ballantine, 2019), a book I read in 2020 and loved. Somewhere…

  michardillo

  December 10, 2024

  books, Essay

  #Currently Reading, Back After This, blind dates, Bon Appetit, book-review, books, brand collaboration, Christopher Kimball, cooking, covid, dog, Elinor Lipman, Evvie Drake Starts Over, fiction, Flying Solo, food, Goodreads, Great Dane, Kaytee Cobb, Linda Holmes, Meredith Monday Schwartz, Milk Street Radio, NetGalley, novel, podcast, reading, rom-com, Romance, social media, teaching, Washington DC, What Should I Read Next, writer, writing

• Book Review: Southern by Design by Grace Helena Walz

  The title of this ARC, graciously provided to me by NetGalley and HarperCollins, called to me on many levels, and I immediately requested this debut novel by Grace Helena Walz. As a dyed-in-the-wool, card-carrying Southerner (born and raised in southeast Louisiana), I just knew instinctively that I would enjoy this book, and I did. I…

  michardillo

  November 14, 2024

  books, Essay

  Beaufort, book-review, books, Charleston, fiction, food, Grace Helena Walz, HarperCollins, HGTV, interior design, literature, Louisiana, mystery, NetGalley, New Orleans, novel, Port Sulphur, reading, South Carolina, Southern by Design

• Book Review: A Chest Full of Words by Rebecca Gugger and Simon Rothlisberger, translated from the German by Tim Mohr

  As an English and literature teacher for nearly 20 years, I have coached (and in some cases, coaxed) middle schoolers on essay writing, including the use of descriptive writing, more specifically the use of adjectives and adverbs. One method I used was to read with them an example of good descriptive writing, starting with Chapter…

  michardillo

  September 23, 2024

  books, Essay

  A Chest Full of Words, Annie Dillard, baking, book-review, books, British, chicken, cooking, English, essays, food, language arts, Laurie Colwin, library, literature, middle school, More Home Cooking, NetGalley, nonfiction, NorthSouth Books Inc., Pilgrim at Tinker Creek, reading, Rebecca Gugger, Simon Rothlisberger, teacher, teaching, The Metamorphisis, Tim Mohr, translated from the German, vocabulary, writer, writing

• Book Review: Sesame Street Let’s Cook Together by DK Publishers

  If you loved (or love even still) Sesame Street growing up, this delightful children’s cookbook will find a welcome place in your home. I am an avid home cook, and I love food from nearly every cuisine I have tried in my travels. I would love to try some of the recipes in this book,…

  michardillo

  September 10, 2024

  books

  carbohydrates, children’s cookbooks, cooking, DK Publishers, food, health, healthy, Let’s Cook Together, NetGalley, Sesame Street, writer