Daily Archives: February 2, 2010

Oishinbo, Volume 3 – Ramen and Gyoza by Tetsu Kariya

I’ve decided to start basing my ratings on how educational these are. Unlike the first Volume, they are starting (with Volume 2) to get a bit more choppy story-wise. However, I’m taking away a wealth of knowledge, and not all about food!

This book primarily deals with noodle dishes. A few misconceptions on cold noodle dishes, ramen, the preparation of noodles, the actual cooking of noodles and a harsh beat down on the use of MSG are prominent in this volume.

It still cracks me up whenever the father and son go head to head- and I appreciate that every outcome is a surprise, there’s no clear leaning of the author toward one or the other. And the story works well for providing an education about the subject matter (and now there are a few dishes I really want to try).

The ending provided a surprise lesson to me on the origins of China’s name and how they react to it in Japan. Really fascinating look at history.

If anything, these books are making me desperately want to visit Japan!

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Before I Fall by Lauren Oliver

(This is a review of an ARC I received from B&N’s First Look program)

If you could relive your last day before you die six times, what would you do differently? That’s the premise of this book. Sam is a high school senior and has the perfect, popular friendships, the popular boyfriend and is just as careless and thoughtless as a teenager on top of the world can be.

The book is split up into seven sections, with each section the numbered day that she is on. It’s thought-provoking and there’s quite a bit of mystery going on. Lauren Oliver does a great job of capturing today’s modern teenager. This is not your scrubbed, squeaky-clean teenage story. It’s harsh, brutal and very, very real. There’s language, there’s sex and there’s a little bit of everything that makes high school a horror and a delight.

I think my favorite character in the book was Kent. Despite being the dork I imagine him to be, it made me wish that when I was a teenager there was a “Kent” around. His role is, to put it simply, quite perfect in the novel.

While the ending wasn’t what I was hoping for, I could understand why it happened that way. It did feel a bit rushed though – but as I think about it.. that’s really the way things ought to have ended.

The most important message of the book was one of encouragement to teenagers to make every day count – that their actions have consequences and those consequences can be life-altering. Oliver portrays this in a very real, very blunt way.

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This month I’ll be hosting a giveaway of this ARC novel in honor of Young Adult month here on this blog, so watch for it!