< Back Secrets of the Sun Mako Yoshikawa February 20, 2024 Mako Yoshikawa's Secrets of the Sun: A Memoir (Mad Creek Books 2024) contains a host of essays about her difficult, brilliant father. Shoichi Yoshikawa grew up in a wealthy family in 1930s Japan, but his mother died when he was five, and he died alone on the eve of Mako’s wedding. He had been a genius, renowned for his research in nuclear fusion and respected at Princeton, until he fell apart. She remembered him being alternatingly kind or violent when bipolar disease gripped him. Her mother packed up and left the house with Mako and her sisters, later remarrying a wonderful man and brilliant chess player who Mako considered the father she always wanted. Mako wants to understand him; why he cross-dressed, why he was so passionate about fusion, why he alienated his daughters so that he hadn’t even been invited to Mako’s wedding. Mako Yoshikawa is the author of the novels One Hundred and One Ways and Once Removed . Her novels have been translated into six languages; awards include a Massachusetts Cultural Council Grant and a Radcliffe Fellowship. As a literary critic, she has published articles that explore the relationship between incest and race in 20th-century American fiction. After her father’s death in 2010, Mako began writing about him and their relationship: essays which have appeared in the Missouri Review , Southern Indiana Review , Harvard Review , Story , Lit Hub , Longreads , and Best American Essays . These essays became the basis for her new memoir, Secrets of the Sun . Yoshikawa grew up in Princeton, New Jersey but spent two years of her childhood in Tokyo, Japan. She received a B.A. in English literature from Columbia University, a Masters in Shakespeare and Renaissance Drama at Lincoln College, Oxford, and a Ph. D. in English literature from the University of Michigan, Ann Arbor. Mako is a professor of creative writing and the director of the MFA program at Emerson College. In addition to her MFA classes, Mako teaches Comedic Lit to undergraduates in Emerson’s Comedic Arts program. She also teaches as often as she can in the Emerson Prison Initiative, a degree-granting program that is based in MCI-Norfolk, a medium-security prison for men. She lives with her husband and two unruly cats in Boston and Baltimore. Listen to Episode Buy Book Previous Next

< Back Cravings Garnett Kilberg Cohen February 13, 2024 Garnett Kilberg Cohen’s fourth short story collection, Cravings ( University of Wisconsin Press, 2024), contains twelve beautifully-written tales. They each start simply before delving into universal human struggles of love, aging, repercussions, and community. Characters mull over or confront decisions and recognize or bemoan past mistakes. A little girl’s life changes while she’s sneaking olives from the pantry, a woman is plunged back in time while attending the book release of her ex, parents of a disabled child struggle as their marriage frays, the daughter of an ex appears on television, and a woman destroys the reputation of her only friend. The collection is about cravings of one kind or another, but also covers a range of complex emotions that arise over the course of a lifetime. Garnett Kilberg Cohen was born and raised in Ohio and feels a strong connection to the Midwest, a place in her memory that is replete with farms, small towns, car factories and fields of corn and purple clover. As a child, she was paid one cent for every five dandelions she ripped by the roots from her family’s yard. Her favorite drink was a cherry phosphate sipped while twirling on a stool at the marble counter of the village drug store. Yet, she was aware of the secrets and trauma often just below the surface. Cravings is Cohen’s fourth collection of short stories. She has also published a poetry chapbook, Passion Tour and multiple essays in such places as Rumpus, Antioch Review, The New Yorker online and Michigan Quarterly Review . Her honors include The Crazyhorse Fiction Prize, four awards from the Illinois Arts Council, and two Notable Essay citations from Best American Essays . In addition to writing and reading, she enjoys drawing, taking long walks, theater, museums and travel. In recent years, she has been fortunate to travel to far-flung places such as Taiwan, Australia, Laos, Tanzania, Iceland and Mexico. She believes that observation is often the key to understanding and inspiration for writing—even if the travel is just to a new neighborhood in the city where she now lives, Chicago. Listen to Episode Buy Book Previous Next

< Back Mrs. Lowe-Porter Jo Salas February 6, 2024 Mrs. Lowe-Porter (Jackleg Press 2024) was an American writer (1876-1963) who, after proving her ability, was contracted by publisher Alfred A. Knopf to translate the brilliant books and stories of Thomas Mann from 1924 -1960. Her flowing German to English translations led to Mann’s growing reputation and helped earn him the 1929 Nobel Prize in Literature. In 1911, she married paleographer Elias Lowe, with whom she had three children and many good years, but he was also another dominating man in her life (in addition to Mann and Knopf). Lowe-Porter wrote numerous stories and one original play that was performed in 1948, but her struggle to write and publish was stymied by convention and the requirements of her time. On a side note, she was also the great-grandmother of former U.K. prime minister, Boris Johnson. Jo Salas is a New Zealander now living in upstate New York. She has a BA in English literature from Victoria University in New Zealand and an MM in music therapy from New York University. As the cofounder of Playback Theatre, an original theatre practice based on personal stories, Jo has published numerous articles and four books including Improvising Real Life , now in 10 translations. Her fiction includes the Pushcart-nominated short story “After,” and the Pen & Brush award winner “Antarctica.” Jo’s first novel, Dancing with Diana , is about a young man in a wheelchair who met the future princess when they were both 15 years old. When she's not reading or writing, Jo is likely to be teaching international students how to enact real people’s stories, playing hide-and-seek with her grandkids, or marching on the street with other social justice activists. Listen to Episode Buy Book Previous Next

< Back The Half-White Album Cynthia Sylvester January 30, 2024 Cynthia Sylvester's The Half-White Album (University of New Mexico Press 2023) is a collection of stories, flash fiction, and poems revolving around the journey of a travelling band, The Covers. The stories are songs on the album, beginning with “Live at the House of Towers,” about a woman’s memories of her mother and home. The story of Shima (and her husband Claude) begins with all of her six daughters being taken by missionaries. The 10-year-old youngest, whom she calls The Last One, and the missionaries call Ruth, keeps running away. Shima is afraid because the missionaries will teach them to forget the songs and stories of their people. In Live at the House at the Edge of the World, Ruth is grown and eating dinner with Albert. We meet Margarita, who was born with cerebral palsy and is confined to a wheelchair and a parade of other characters who struggle to love, live, and survive in a harsh world. These are stories of hope and despair, family and banishment, based out west in what was once the wide-ranging country of native American tribes. Cynthia Sylvester is born into the Kiyaa’áanii Clan for the Bilagáana Clan and is an enrolled member of the Diné. She is a native of Albuquerque, New Mexico. Her work has appeared in numerous literary magazines. She received the Native Writer Award at the Taos Writer’s Conference. She graduated from the University of New Mexico and received her MFA in creative writing from the MFA Program for Writers at Warren Wilson College. Cynthia hosts Albuquerque DimeStories—3-minute stories written and read by the author. Hosting DimeStories is a way to give back and foster a writing community. A community of writers is at the core of what she attributes to her success, endurance, and joy in writing. Writing is a solitary endeavor. “So much of what we writers write never sees the light of day.” A DimeStorie, fiction or non-fiction, is a way to have an achievable goal each month (about 500 words) and provides a venue to read the work to a receptive audience. Having a community of writers is important because Cynthia, like many writers, works a “9 to 5.” Her profession for over thirty years has been physical therapy. She comes from a line of “medicine women.” Her mother and aunts were nurses, and she and her sister have health professions. Cynthia’s career in medicine is often reflected in her work as a writer. When not working as a writer or a PT, Cynthia loves to box, take walks with her wife and their dog, Zeus, hang out with friends and family and talk about writing, TV shows, movies, books, sports, what happened last week or last year, whatever if there is a story involved, Cynthia is in her happy place. Listen to Episode Buy Book Previous Next

< Back Nadiia Christine Evans January 23, 2024 Christine Evans' Nadia (U Iowa Press, 2023) is a dark novel about how the trauma of war follows people no matter how far they’ve fled. A few years after the Balkan War, two refugees from Sarajevo are temping in the same questionable London office. Nadia, who is Bosnian, is unhinged by memories of starvation, deprivation, and losing everyone she loved, including her family and her girlfriend, Sanja. She sees potential snipers and visions of Sanja throughout London, sometimes becoming unhinged by it. All she has is her office friends, and the Indian family where she has tea with buns every day. Iggy was a Serbian sniper who gunned down Bosnians as part of a militaristic street gang, but he justifies all the innocent people he kills by weighing them against the people he saved by distracting his friends or purposefully missing. They’re both forced to confront their choices during the chaotic days of the war, but Nadia still struggles with survivor’s guilt, the ethical choices she made in taking a job in a shady office, and her queer sexuality. Christine Evans writes internationally produced plays, opera libretti, and fiction. Christine’s theater and opera work has been staged at the Sydney Opera House, the American Repertory Theater and many other venues, and her plays are published by Samuel French. She is a multiple MacDowell fellow, VCCA fellow, and a recipient of several DC Council on the Arts & Humanities Fellowships. Originally from Australia, she is a Professor of Performing Arts at Georgetown University, and lives in Washington, DC. She loves the ocean beyond all reason, dreams of dividing her time (as they say on the book jackets) between DC and Australia and has just dusted off her mandolin to start playing music again. Listen to Episode Buy Book Previous Next

Recipes to Die For All Recipes Baking Breakfast Cakes, Pies, & Icing Cookies & Brownies Dips & Sauces Entrees Gluten-Free Muffins & Breads Soup Vegan Vegetarian Soup, Vegan, Vegetarian Black Bean Mushroom Carrot Soup I love making "pantry" soups with what I've got on hand plus whichever vegetables I have in the fridge. I thought I was making my old Black Bean Edamame soup until I saw that I was out of the frozen edamame. Cooking, like jazz, is all about improvisation! Read Recipe Cookies and Brownies Chocolate Passover Cookies Only 4 ingredients and great for last minute cookies anytime of year, but I make these during Passover, when we don't use flour or leavening of any kind. Read Recipe Dips and Sauces, Vegan, Vegetarian, Gluten Free Spinach & Green Pea Dip/Sauce Gorgeous color, bright flavor, and filled with nutrients! Read Recipe Entrees, Vegetarian, Vegan Leek and Red Onion Rice Platter Sometimes I drizzle the tahini on top of this dish so that it looks like frosting. Read Recipe Entrees, Vegetarian, Gluten Free, Soup Chilled Minty Cucumber-Melon Soup The perfect and refreshing snack for a hot day! Read Recipe Gluten Free, Vegan, Baking Chocolate Hamantaschen These are hamantaschen for grown-ups. Not too sweet; just right. Read Recipe Muffins and Breads, Gluten Free, Baking, Breakfast Gluten-Free Pancakes We were desperate for pancakes so I tweaked another recipe I was working on to make these. Read Recipe Gluten Free, Cookies and Brownies Pistachio Tahini Chocolate Chip Cookies It's hard to resist snagging these from the cookie sheet while they cool! Read Recipe Dips and Sauces, Entrees, Vegetarian, Vegan Mashed Cauliflower and Acorn Squash I like to mash veggies from my Friday roasted veggie tray and try different combos. Read Recipe Entrees, Vegetarian Cold Sesame Noodles The perfect recipes for a picnic lunch! Read Recipe Dips and Sauces, Vegan, Gluten Free, Vegetarian Easy Hummus I make this version of hummus when I’m out of tahini. Read Recipe Soup, Vegetarian, Vegan, Entrees Spinach-Lentil Soup Need iron? This delicious soup will do the trick! Read Recipe Load More

< Back Elizabeth George Author of The Inspector Lynley Mysteries July 20, 2023 The length of each Elizabeth Inspector Lynley novel might be daunting to some, but as someone who used to expressly buy only the thickest books (always wanted to get my money’s worth), I’ve set aside entire weekends to delve into many of her well-plotted, twisty and fascinating novels. I started reading Elizabeth George long before I began keeping a record, but every now and then I dive into another novel, and just completed The Punishment She Deserves (2021). I love that this American woman delves into the language and customs of another country, describing various locations in Great Britain with what strikes me as passion. I’m drawn in by finely described interactions between characters, and the slowly simmering arguments and feelings of various characters, each with their own motivations and struggles. I come away knowing them better than most of the people I meet – why they went into their professions, what their upbringings were like, how they fight with their spouses or ex-spouses, how they view themselves. George has been translated into a bunch of languages and has been both nominated and recipient of many mystery awards, plus she still teaches writing (I’m interested in her Hedgebrook Women’s Writers’ Retreat on Whidbey Island, where she lives). In addition to the 21 (as of 2022) Inspector Lynley novels, she also has a young adult series set there, in Washington state. I’m also interested in her newish book, a masterclass in the form of a guide for writing. I'll probably continue to pick up occasional Elizabeth George novels, and hope to one day go through the entire televised series. Meanwhile, she's one of the great authors who has been missing from this list (yes, I know I've neglected to mention many of them - promise I'll get to it at some point). Elizabeth George definitely belongs here - Previous Next

< Back Jennifer Ashley Author of The Kat Holloway Mysteries February 20, 2020 Jennifer Ashley is one of those writers with limitless energy and a treasure trove of untold stories in her head. She writes historical, paranormal and contemporary romance as Jennifer Ashley; mysteries as Ashley Gardner; and paranormal romance/urban fantasy as Allyson James. Her over 100 books have been translated into over ten languages, and she is a N.Y.T and U.S.A. Today bestselling author. Her website informs us that although she loves reading and writing above all else, she also has a bunch of hobbies including cooking, hiking, playing flute and guitar, painting, and building miniature rooms and dollhouses. One can only assume she is another one of those people who requires no more than four hours of sleep at night (or she is the most organized woman in the world). I love reading Kat Holloway mysteries, each of which is carefully researched so that the young cook’s preparations and meals are what might have been served in Victorian England. I was so enamored of her seed-cakes that I’ve spent the past two weeks trying to recreate a healthy version without butter or eggs. I love her evening preparation of yeast dough that rises all night so that she can do the second rising in the morning before baking it – exactly how I do it! It’s delightful to hear how Mrs. Holloway plans and executes the meals she’ll serve ‘above stairs,’ in addition to how she puts together her own and the other servants’ meals. There’s usually something in the oven that needs tending, or a complete meal that needs serving when Mrs. Holloway leaves to help a friend solve a problem. Ancillary characters like vivacious, cross-dressing Lady Cynthia, mysterious, renaissance man Daniel Macadam, and snooty butler Mr. Davis are well-drawn and interesting. Mrs. Holloway is always putting on her apron and getting to work in the kitchen or removing her apron and donning her coat, hat and gloves to venture into the bustling city. She treasures her days off with her little daughter, tries to convey proper behavior to her staff, and strives to make the lives of poor beggars a little easier with coins and extra food that she brings outside after the evening meal. Solid Mrs. Holloway is indeed a most charming and dependable hero. Previous Next

< Back Victoria Thompson Author of The Gaslight Mystery Series June 6, 2019 Even though I like reading lesser known authors and mystery series, I couldn’t help spending a few bitter Chicago winter evenings this year devouring several in the Gaslight Mystery Series by Victoria Thompson. Winner of the Career Achievement Award for Mystery from RT Book Reviews in 2011, Thompson currently teaches in the master’s degree program for writing popular fiction at Seton Hill University, where she earned her Master of Fine Arts (MFA) degree. Victoria is a founding member and past president of Novelists, Inc., a national organization of published writers of popular fiction. She is also co-founder and past president of PENNWRITERS, a statewide writer’s organization in Pennsylvania. Victoria has served on the board of directors of Romance Writers of America (RWA) and was co-founder and the first President of New Jersey Romance Writers. She is also a member of Mystery Writers of America and Sisters in Crime. Victoria lives in a suburb of Chicago with her husband and a very spoiled little dog. I wonder if our children went to the same high school. Chicago is pretty spread out though, with many suburbs. Hint: the one we lived in had a mall. I emailed her because she said: Please send me an email at victoria@victoriathompson.com to let me know what you think of the books and to get on my mailing list so I can send you a reminder each time a new book comes out. Because of the large volume of email I receive, I may not be able to personally reply to each one, but I do read them. You may also visit me on Facebook at Victoria.Thompson.Author and Twitter @gaslightvt. I’ll keep you posted on upcoming releases and appearances. Haven’t heard back yet , but I’ll keep you posted. I’m apparently not the only one who is charmed by Frank Malloy, an NYC detective sergeant until he married wealthy, wise, midwife and champion of women’s health, Sarah Brandt. How fun to wander the streets of late 19th century New York City from Battery Park to Washington Heights, watching as Malloy hops on curbs to avoid horse-drawn carriages or those new-fangled automobiles in a city struggling with corruption and ineptitude. And although he has no need to work, he still finds himself ferreting out con men, thieves and murderers. All in good fun and well done! Previous Next

Cookie & Brownie Recipes to Die For Cookies and Brownies Chocolate Passover Cookies Only 4 ingredients and great for last minute cookies anytime of year, but I make these during Passover, when we don't use flour or leavening of any kind. Read Recipe Gluten Free, Cookies and Brownies Pistachio Tahini Chocolate Chip Cookies It's hard to resist snagging these from the cookie sheet while they cool! Read Recipe Gluten Free, Vegetarian, Baking, Cookies and Brownies, Vegan Ginger-Molasses Cookies G.F. V. "Would you like a pot of chamomile tea?" Read Recipe Gluten Free, Vegan, Cookies and Brownies Peanut or Almond-Butter Chocolate Chip Cookies Who doesn't love freshly baked chocolate chip cookies? Read Recipe All Recipes Baking Breakfast Cakes, Pies, & Icing Cookies & Brownies Dips & Sauces Entrees Gluten-Free Muffins & Breads Soup Vegan Vegetarian Load More

< Back Deanna Raybourne Author of The Veronica Speedwell Mysteries and Lady Gray Mysteries July 7, 2021 Deanna Raybourne (Veronica Speedwell Mysteries and Lady Gray Mysteries) combines romance and mystery in the Victorian era, with charming details about food, dress, and manners of the time. Although there must have been free-thinking young women in the 1900’s, it was probably rare, but I set aside any concern about the appropriation of modern thinking and just enjoyed Veronica’s adventures (A Treacherous Curse, A Perilous Undertaking, A Murderous Relation) as a butterfly collector and amateur sleuth (along with her handsome sidekick, the aristocratic Stoker, who helps solve mysteries when he isn’t stuffing and mounting animal specimens). I read three of these in a row during a vacation and enjoyed every minute, no matter how improbable the situations. Previous Next

Breakfast Recipes to Die For Muffins and Breads, Gluten Free, Baking, Breakfast Gluten-Free Pancakes We were desperate for pancakes so I tweaked another recipe I was working on to make these. Read Recipe Breakfast, Vegan, Gluten Free, Vegetarian, Cakes & Pies & Icing Almond Berry Breakfast Cake (gluten-free/vegan) Now Alene began measuring ingredients for Ruthie’s strawberry breakfast cake. Read Recipe Vegetarian, Baking, Breakfast, Muffins and Breads, Cakes & Pies & Icing Chocolate Zucchini-Pear Cake GF Healthy enough for breakfast! Read Recipe Muffins and Breads, Vegan, Breakfast Vegan Sweet Potato or Pumpkin Muffins "There are only six sweet potato muffins left," said Alene. Read Recipe Muffins and Breads, Baking, Vegetarian, Breakfast, Cakes & Pies & Icing Chocolate Zucchini – Apple Cake Yes, we eat this for breakfast! Read Recipe All Recipes Baking Breakfast Cakes, Pies, & Icing Cookies & Brownies Dips & Sauces Entrees Gluten-Free Muffins & Breads Soup Vegan Vegetarian Load More