REVIEW: The Memory Keeper's Daughter by K. Edwards

Title:  The Memory Keeper's Daughter
Author:  K. Edwards
Genre / Pages:  Fiction, Realistic / 416
Publication: Penguin Books, 2006
Rating:  2nd shelf 
Source:  Chapters Indigo
lj's plot in one pot: 2 babies are born one fateful night to Dr. David Henry - he chooses to keep only the "healthy" one; this book is the story of the consequences from that choice.

I read this book MONTHS ago for a book club meeting.  Along with a friend, I actually chose it as the first book our book club would read together.  I was sorely disappointed.

Although the writing is beautiful, very descriptive and moving, I just wasn't actually moved by the story.  I don't want to give too much of the plot away, so if you want more details, feel free to email me.

In general, I felt that the book spent WAY too much time focused on David's life (with Norah) and way too little time with Phoebe.  Literally, at one point Phoebe is 10 and the next time we hear about her she's 21 or something crazy.  It mentions a fight for education, a couple of times in fact, but then all of a sudden, it's been solved, they've won and we never get to actually learn about what went on.  There were just too many gaps in the plot (especially with people / events that I was interested in) for me to give this book any higher of a rating.

The rest of the girls in the book club more or less felt the same way, but a lot didn't feel as strongly about David as I did; I wonder if that says something (less than positive) about me???

Anyway, sorry for the HUGE lapse in posts.  It got crazy busy with work and life, but I promise to be more consistent in the future.

Want more info about the book or author?  Click here.

A Little Less Review, A Little More Stew - Wednesday

As I mentioned earlier, we totally bailed on Tuesday's dinner (so the plan was to cook double dinner tonight and freeze the second meal) and so we are already on Wednesday!

This meal sounded awesome, curry shrimp and rice...and I fully admit that the problem we had with this dish MAY have been nonexistent if we followed the recipe more faithfully.  We couldn't find snow peas OR bean sprouts at the grocery store on Sunday, so we decided to skip the bean sprouts and sub in edamame for snow peas.  Also, we used some precooked shrimp that we had in the freezer, instead of uncooked / deveined shrimp (as per recipe).

So I thought to myself, okay, you are making a lot of  changes, but you are aware of said changes and what they mean to things like cooking time, etc..., so self, we should be fine. 

I was wrong.  The shrimp got WAY overcooked, the edamame released a lot of liquid into the curry, so it stayed pretty runny.  The lime addition was great, as was the flavour of the curry (just not so much the texture).  We are willing to try this one again, but with the right ingredients.  
 

 

See how small the shrimp got???   J's sum up:

"Love ya...but this is a swing and a miss"

A Little Less Review, A Little More Stew - Monday

I'm already falling a little behind!  Monday's meal was deliciously Mediterranean!  We made lamb meatballs and (although it called for couscous) quinoa with fresh tomatoes, cucumbers, red onions and feta.  J made the dressing (lemon juice and olive oil) which we drizzled over the whole shebang.

Neither of  us were SUPER impressed with lamb meatballs (couldn't really tell the difference from regular meatballs) but as a whole, the meal was amazing!  We both thought it could be even better if the ingredients were actually in season (the tomatoes were not at their best).  

Yesterday was a crazy day, and we ended up having leftovers from dinner at the parents, so no new meal was attempted...but my master plan for this bought of laziness is tonight, I'll cook two meals and freeze one so we can eat it for another day when we are feeling lazy (encore).

Anyway, here is a pic from our culinary attempts from Monday :)

 

J's comments:

"It's good, but only if you get a little of everything in your mouth at the same time"

SCHOOL STUFF

Lovely readers,

You may have noticed that I'm reading Haddix's "Among the Hidden".  Although I have heard good things, and I'm excited to read it, I thought I should mention that I am reading this along with my 6/7 class.  Feel free to share any ideas for discussion (if you've read it as well).

Thanks,

lj

A Little Less Review, A Little More Stew - Friday

This recipe (unlike Thursday's meal) is definitely a keeper.

The steak was delicious, except in the future, J and I both agreed that we would substitute rib eye for the Newark or sirloin that Real Simple suggests.  I tried to be authentic, so I did as the recipe asked, but we really found the cut of meat to be a lesser quality than what we like. 

The vegetables were DELICIOUS!  Simple; roasted carrots and red onions with a little olive oil and s & p, but hot coffee were they good!  The sauce for the meat and/or veggies was also very simple, it consisted of the meat juices, dijon mustard and a little white wine as well as tarragon.  Super yummy and different for us - we rarely put anything other than s & p on our steaks, so this warm, herby, sharp sauce was amazing!  I'm having my left over steak for lunch (in t-minus 10 minutes) and I can't wait!

J's comments were few (he was too busy enjoying the meal), but they did include this little gem:

"This is definitely going to work" (meaning for lunch the next day)

Me:

"But today is Friday, you're not working tomorrow"

J:

"Well, let's make this again on Sunday, so I can take the leftovers to work".

Mission accomplished :)