6 Days Without Power Will Allow You To Catch Up On Your Reading

The 411 by Maria: 

A lot of my friends have been making their own everything. I thought about jumping on the band wagon of making my own butter but after reading Make The Bread Buy The Butter by Jennifer Reese, I now know what I shouldn't even attempt. 

I love the format of the book which is broken up as a cook book would be; breads and spreads, breakfast, fruit, meats, etc., heck there is even a section on restaurant food. 

Jennifer gives you a title, lets say mustard for the sake of this here post. 

• Next a little blurb about that food. 
• Then the important part: Make it or Buy it where she will tell you make or buy. 
• The next section is Hassle where she will let you know how much hassle is involved if any. 
• A handy little cost comparison section tells you if it is fiscally responsible to even try 
• Lastly a recipe and the steps involved.

The only thing missing are a few photos of her finished product especially the ones that were soooo not worth it.

I am totally making my own vanilla extract this year. I may even gift some.

The 411 by Maria:

Yes, it is that Molly Ringwald and she is a pretty good writer. The storyline is good and the characters are "real". I wanted to read because it was Molly and I was curious about what she would write. Thought perhaps it would be a light, airy story about 1 dimensional people with 1 dimensional lives but it was so much more than that!

I sincerely enjoyed how the short stories intertwined with each other.  Molly started out wanting to write very separate short stories but the characters suddenly connected and isn't that so like life. We are all 6 degrees of separation and connected in big or small ways. 

The first story is about Greta and Philip and their daughter Charlotte. They are facing a separation and change of location as many families do these days. We also meet single mother Miranda who is raising a little boy Oliver who insists he is a girl and wants to be called Olivia. Peter Layton is an actor who is fired from a children's show who finds himself drawn to Greta and lastly we have my favorite character the one I could completely identify with and broke my heart, Betty a lonely widow who interacts with Charlotte. Each story is heartfelt and structured beautifully. You will LOVE this book.