Loewen encourages readers to throw out the quilting rule book in this creative take on the craft. The projects start out relatively structured, limiting improvisation to color selection. For instance, Loewen shares how to make an Irish chain quilt by cutting 125 fabric squares of various colors and feeling out where to place each of them in the chain design. Next, she incorporates the “ruler-cut piecing” technique, showing how to construct a ramshackle sawtooth star quilt by sewing half-square triangles at imperfect angles and trimming the lopsided edges against a ruler. Additional techniques are even more distinctive, including “wonky log cabin” blocks made from irregularly sized rectangles and half-square triangles with curved lines instead of straight diagonals. The quilts become more impressive the farther they stray from the neat geometry of traditional quilts. The “scrap-bin cleanout” quilt involves assembling bits of leftover fabric in an elaborate collage of rectangles, while the “rainbow arcs” project juxtaposes deliberately lopsided arcs of color with sawtooth blocks that resemble the jagged shapes used to emphasize comic book punches. The asymmetrical designs offer a refreshing departure from standard quilting fare, and an extensive section on color theory will aid readers in creating harmonious compositions from their fabric scraps. This is sure to get quilters’ creative juices flowing. (Jan.)

Reviewed on 11/29/2024 | Details & Permalink

This empathetic debut manual from Fogel, host of the Whole Parent podcast and a father of four, warns against using fear-based parenting strategies. He contends that punishment is counterproductive because it incentivizes children to care more about whether they’ll get caught than about the problematic behavior itself. Instead, parents should strive to understand why their child acts out, because misbehavior usually stems from unmet needs. For example, Fogel describes how his toddler refused to follow their morning routine until his wife realized the tantrums stemmed from hunger (despite the child’s protestations that he didn’t want to eat) and were resolved by serving breakfast earlier. No punishment doesn’t mean no consequences, Fogel asserts, adding that they should be directly related to the offense and the reasons for them clearly communicated. To illustrate, he recounts how after he discovered one of his sons drawing with a Sharpie on their new deck, he clarified the rules for proper Sharpie usage and enlisted his son’s help in sandpapering the marker off the deck. The guidance is compassionate, and Fogel’s exhortation “to extend to ourselves the same grace and forgiveness that we aspire to extend to our children” will help readers work through their own emotional baggage. Parents will find this a balm. Agent: Kathleen Kerr, Alive Literary. (Jan.)

Reviewed on 11/29/2024 | Details & Permalink

Food blogger Goldstein (The Happy Sandwich) offers a mixed-bag collection of cooking hacks that promises to save readers dishes, money, and time, but delivers advice that is alternately helpful and confusing. Some ideas will appeal to college students without full kitchens (including a microwavable recipe for mac and cheese in a mug) or young adults learning to cook on a budget (for example, the tip to stretch ground meat by adding finely chopped mushrooms), though the audience for others, such as pressing ravioli with the bottom of a wine bottle, is unclear (it’s hard to imagine the cook who makes filled pasta from scratch but is unwilling to “dirty a pasta cutter”). The advice in the time-saving section seems willing to sacrifice quality, such as a burger recipe for a crowd instructing readers to bake ground beef in a sheet pan before cutting into squares, or a “lasagna” made with frozen ravioli. Some of the better tips, such as freezing vegetable peels and parmesan rinds for broth, are hardly secrets, though they may be unfamiliar to novice cooks. Readers who value efficiency above all and who don’t mind relying on single-use products (common in the dish-avoiding section) may find value, but others should feel free to skip this. (Jan.)

Reviewed on 11/29/2024 | Details & Permalink

Mexican Food Memories blogger Zazueta explores the unique flavors of northern Mexico in this heartfelt celebration of her culinary roots. Now living in the U.K., Zazueta sprinkles in childhood memories, historical tidbits, and regional variations, and highlights classic recipes originating in the region, including Caesar salad, Baja fish tacos, and margaritas. An opening chapter on “The Essentials” kicks things off with recipes for tortillas and salsas, and succeeding chapters reflect the connection between geography and food. In “From the Garden,” Zazueta offers stuffed Anaheim peppers and recalls in the introduction to a recipe for cactus salad that her father tended their family’s cactus patch “as if they were another one of his children.” Reflecting the region’s extensive coastline, “From the Sea” features shrimp ceviche, fried lobster from Puerto Nuevo, and skate wing soup. “From the Ranch” includes recipes for shredded beef brisket empanadas, a hearty wakabaki beef and bone marrow stew from the indigenous Yaqui tribe, and oven-cooked kid goat. Dogos Estilo Sonora, hot dogs with a norteño twist that are “almost as popular as tacos,” according to Zazueta, are wrapped in bacon before frying, then garnished with salsa and fried onions. Rounding things out are sweets, drinks, and sample menu plans, especially useful to those new to Mexican cooking. This vibrant collection brings a rich culinary tradition to life. (Dec.)

Reviewed on 11/29/2024 | Details & Permalink

Pastry chef Yoshida presents a refined recipe collection inspired by French patisserie in his elegant if fussy English-language debut. While croissants, chocolate eclairs, Mont Blanc, and other French classics make an appearance, many recipes take inspiration from other parts of the world: the black sesame seed Paris–Brest, for instance, pays homage to Yoshida’s native Japan, and “Sicilia,” a pistachio Joconde sponge with Morello cherry compote, is inspired by Italian pastry. Yoshida admits these desserts “require skill and experience” and even seasoned home bakers will encounter unfamiliar techniques and equipment. Thankfully, Yoshida provides helpful, step-by-step illustrations for assembling fig macarons, piping the lemon tart, and laminating inverse puff pastry. Though the pompous prose at times chafes (“I did make a few improvements to accommodate the French palate, which is more familiar with the real taste of chocolate,” Yoshida says of American brownies) and the recipes can be pretentious (one of his creations, a gateau made with caramelized maple sugar, is simply titled “M”), these tonal issues won’t deter ambitious readers from trying their hands at the gorgeous Souche de Noël, a pistachio-raspberry Saint-Honoré, hazelnut millefeuille, and other show-stopping desserts. Veteran bakers will be rewarded. (Feb.)

Reviewed on 11/29/2024 | Details & Permalink

This helpful manual from Lautenbach (The Money-Saving Gardener) details how to grow flowers and other flora year-round. Listing which plants bloom each month, she notes that crocuses and snowdrops flower in February and that hydrangeas and helenium blossom in August. She discusses when to sow seeds, recommending readers plant bishop’s flower and cupid’s dart in March, and rockcress and Canterbury bells in June. Money-saving tips show how to make biodegradable seed pots from cardboard or large leaves and how to keep harmful aphid populations in check by attracting birds with berry-producing shrubs. To reduce the number of seeds one needs to buy, Lautenbach provides detailed guidance on numerous propagation techniques. For instance, she discusses how to take softwood cuttings by lopping off a non-flowering shoot, removing lower leaves to reduce the shoot’s water needs, and placing it in a pot with moist soil. Lautenbach also provides instructions for how to propagate roses from a bouquet; find seedlings in the wild for replanting; and create a hanging basket featuring thyme, oregano, and other herbs. There’s not much guidance on how to sow seeds or care for plants, but the extensive background on propagating cuttings makes up for that oversight. Gardeners will take to this. (Dec.)

Reviewed on 11/29/2024 | Details & Permalink

In this amiable debut, “Tidy Dad” Instagrammer Moore details what he’s learned about maintaining a clean home from living in a 750-square-foot New York City apartment with his wife and three young daughters. Moving into the smaller of the apartment’s two bedrooms so his daughters could share the larger one taught him to get by with “just enough,” Moore writes, recounting how he downsized his wardrobe to fit in the room’s cramped closet by only keeping clothes in a few colors so most items matched. Though Moore contends that organizing solutions will depend on an individual’s priorities, he offers useful general rules of thumb. For example, he suggests setting a “physical boundary” to prevent excess accumulation, noting that he allows his daughters to keep only as many hair accessories as can fit in a designated container. Throughout, Moore emphasizes practicality over aesthetics, describing how he reconfigured the layout of his first child’s nursery so the crib no longer shared a wall with neighbors angered by the crying. The personal stories breathe life into the advice, and Moore brings a welcome recognition of how clutter often stems from stress, as when he urges readers to “get clear on the why behind the accumulation of all your stuff—physical, mental, and emotional.” This will help even the messiest readers bring order to their homes. (Jan.)

Reviewed on 11/29/2024 | Details & Permalink

Bishara, a doctor of integrative medicine, debuts with a competent guide on the benefits of eating well. Explaining that the gut contains trillions of microbes, she contends that eating a varied diet of high-fiber, plant-based foods contributes to the flourishing of beneficial bacteria, which promote digestion and eliminate toxins, whereas eating unhealthy processed foods fuels harmful bacteria that can make individuals more likely to develop Crohn’s disease and irritable bowel syndrome. Gut bacteria also affect mood by producing neurotransmitters that cycle into the brain, Bishara writes, asserting that eating eggs, grains, and walnuts fosters production of the calming GABA neurotransmitter, while consuming apples, dark chocolate, and leafy vegetables boosts levels of the “excitatory” chemical compound dopamine. Elsewhere, Bishara extols the benefits of intermittent fasting, suggesting readers fast for 16 hours per day because going without food for that long prompts the body to burn fat for energy. There’s not much here that can’t be found in similar diet guides, but Bishara’s no-frills approach and encouraging tone (“Don’t jump off the bandwagon just because you have 1 or 2 bad days”) are a boon. This is worth checking out. (Self-published)

Reviewed on 11/29/2024 | Details & Permalink

“This book is a testament to the creative output Black people give birth to, time and again, in the midst of oppressive machinations,” Ajima Olaghere writes in the preface to this powerful debut from restaurateur Abdul-Hadi, who was on house arrest and wearing an ankle monitor when he launched Philadelphia’s Down North Pizza, which exclusively employs formerly incarcerated people. Executive chef Michael Carter, who served seven and a half years for aggravated assault, contributes the recipes, including one for “jailhouse pizza” made with a crust of crushed ramen noodles and Cheez-Its. (“Prison forces you to get creative like that.”) Local influence is strong: pies are named after songs by Philly musicians and are halal because of the large Muslim community in the area. These square pizzas are made with a flexible, no-knead dough, most featuring mozzarella, provolone, and cheddar and smoky tomato sauce. Toppings are unapologetically American and fiercely flavored, including a vegan buffalo mushroom pie and an option with ground lamb, jerk seasoning, and honey. A chapter on wings and fries and another on lemonades and milkshakes round out the recipes, which are studded with statistics about incarceration, personal stories from Down North’s workers, and suggestions for getting involved. The result is both a bold culinary adventure and a stirring tribute to the strength of community. (Feb.)

Reviewed on 11/29/2024 | Details & Permalink

Murphy and Hagmeyer, founders of the organizing products brand NEAT Method, debut with an underwhelming manual for tidying one’s home. The eponymous method involves bringing all the items together; sorting them into categories; getting rid of redundant or unneeded items; selecting a place to keep each category; and using bins, drawer dividers, jars, and other organizers to separate categories within the same storage space. Showing how to straighten up each room of the house, the authors start with the kitchen, recommending that readers install turntables and risers in pantries to ensure food at the back doesn’t get forgotten. Elsewhere, they encourage readers to use modular drawer organizers in their nightstand and office “junk drawer,” and to transfer laundry detergent and snacks into their own reusable containers. Though the authors include some helpful tips on how to, for example, fold a fitted sheet, other pointers are obvious, as when they recommend nesting pots and pans for storage. Some guidance feels aimed at selling the authors’ products, such as when they suggest transferring cooking spices from their original containers into uniformly sized jars. There’s not much here readers don’t already know. (Jan.)

Reviewed on 11/15/2024 | Details & Permalink