Monthly Archives: February 2010

The Lightning Thief by Rick Riordan

Of course I’ve heard about Percy Jackson – I live in a house with an almost 7 year old boy and that’s all he’s talked about for months now. So, a few months ago I splurged and bought the series knowing that they would be read and re-read, if not by me, then at least by my nephew.

I wasn’t disappointed in The Lightning Thief, the first of the series. My favorite Disney movie has been Hercules, ever since it was released. (Even surpassing Snow White which, for me, is pretty huge!). I’m fascinated by the Greek Gods and love learning about them. And Rick Riordan did a great job of taking confusing content and putting it into not just readable form, but readable form that will keep and hold a young kids interest.

In this book we follow Percy as he learns who his father is and sets out on his quest. The journey is full of twists and turns (not wholly unpredictable, but amusing nonetheless) and there’s plenty of action, strong female and male lead characters and lore to keep everyone interested.

It’s good to know that I can feel good about recommending this book to my nephew. I gifted it to another nephew for Christmas (who is a bit older) and my sister reports that it’s turned him into quite the reader. That alone makes the book well worth its high rating.

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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!

Oishinbo: Sake: A la Carte by Tetsu Kariya

I’m still in love with this series – however there were a few things in this volume that got to me and made my opinion of it drop just a little.

This book was much more technical than Volume 1. Parts were incredibly interesting – learning the different types of Sake and how WWII impacted Japan with its lack of rice and the “need” to still make Sake. The story also attacks the perception that French white wines are to be paired with fish and challenges the reader to try sake instead.

There was less focus in this volume on the relationship between son and father, and more education being offered, sometimes ad nauseum (I counted the story of WWII three times).

All that being said, I learned quite a bit about sake. It probably would have been more had I been more familiar with wine names and sake types, but even as a beginner I took quite a bit.

I think my favorite story in this volume was the one dealing with Champagne. I laughed out loud at the end of it and this volume is worth reading if only for that story alone.

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Oishinbo, Volume 1 – Japanese Cuisine by Tetsu Kariya

It’s not very common in other countries to eat fish raw. And since it’s raw, people might think it doesn’t take a lot of skill. But for fish or meat to be eaten raw, a great deal of technique is required. We should be proud that Japanese cuisine has developed such delicious ways to prepare sashimi.

This is a very “meaty” manga. All puns aside, it has a definite message and carries a fascinating look at the Japanese culture and cuisine – which are very closely intertwined.

We follow the story of a father and son who have had a feud with one another. Both are Japanese chefs in their own right, the son being more of an amateur learning and the father one of the finest in the country. They repeatedly run into one another causing much drama, which is hilarious and perfect and really gives the story a lot more character.

The artwork for the characters is fairly typical, from my limited experience in manga. It’s not quite as beautiful as some others that I’ve seen but the drawing of the food is so precise and delicate, I could almost taste it.

If this is your first Manga, be prepared to read it a little differently. You being at the end of the book and read from right to left, rather from left to right. It took me a few pages of getting used to, but I adapted well and enjoyed reading the story so much I forgot how I was reading it.

Through this first volume I’ve learned the correct method of cutting fish to several ways of serving seabream, learned how the food should be enjoyed, how chopsticks are made and why they are such a valued cultured item. I’ve learned how rice should be made and that it is a delicate, difficult task to make it well.

There were a few moments in this volume that really spoke to me. The first was the passage I quoted above. The second is out of the middle of the book in a section where the author is speaking to us, the readers. He says:

Eventually, I realized “What is Japan”, “What does it mean to be Japanese?” “What is Japanese cuisine?” are all meaningless questions. It is the spirit of washoku that brings everything together as one in harmony.

So, one day, looking around my dining table at several Australians enjoying a meal at my house, I realized that what we were all eating wasn’t “Japenese food” of “Japanese cuisine,” but washoku: a cuisine that brings people together in harmony and gives them pleasure. Here in my house in Sydney, I eat washoku every day.

Reading that made me want to experience that feeling more often. It made me want to change every mealtime to one of washoku. A time for pleasure, harmony and togetherness. I think that’s something we all want to experience on a daily basis.

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