joanofradius's reviews
245 reviews

You Gotta Eat: Real-Life Strategies for Feeding Yourself When Cooking Feels Impossible by Margaret Eby

4.0

it’s good, I don’t think I’m the target audience of this at least right now and some of the proposed food combos are kinda wacky to me but it does what it sets out to do satisfactorily. I think the main points about giving yourself permission to make at least a shit version of something that’s tasty is sooo important tho. like really

A Cheesemonger's Compendium of British & Irish Cheese by Ned Palmer

4.25

The book is solid in doing what it sets out to do but some things that mark it down for me slightly are the number of typos I noticed (misspellings) and the fact that there is an added sheet at the end with corrections for vegetarian/non-vegetarian cheeses. Man. I really love the map at the end of it though! I don't think it's the fault of the writer that there are so many print errors. Some of the info is also repeated between this book and his last book but it's fine because I wouldn't expect the average individual to read both. It did give me a lot of cheeses to look for the next time I'm in the UK though so that's pretty sick

A Cheesemonger's History of The British Isles by Ned Palmer

4.75

this book took me a full year to read but it is good enough that I would recommend it to anybody in the venn diagram of being interested in history or cheese, which i’m not sure is super large. the amount of research and interviews and photos in this is a truly phenomenal undertaking!!! it is a little bit boring in some parts but i think that’s because it’s a history book

Patient History by Tricia Tan

challenging reflective sad medium-paced

4.0

you know what there were points in this collection where i stopped and was like what is the point of this use of language. sometimes i feel too stupid to read poetry. this is a very strong collection and especially a strong debut which plays well with form and grief and despair. at times the imagery felt deeply kitschy and i kinda felt eh about the audience participation, which felt like one of the weaker aspects of the book. the poet is very sharp it’s just kind of odd to me how much the voice is defined by 90s-00s pop culture nostalgia and touchstones. like it’s sometimes saccharinely nostalgic. good poems but i’ve been trying to read this for at least three months and i’m glad to be done

The New Rules of Cheese: A Freewheeling and Informative Guide by Anne Saxelby

4.5

anne saxelby save me… save me anne saxelby

fr i think this is a rly unique book amongst my many food/cheese books! i really like how strong saxelby’s voice and experiences are and i miss her presence in this world greatly. also it has things to ruminate on about dairy systems and all of that which i’m kind of ehh on and it’s hard to do research on producers when you’re based where i am atm. but mostly good advice :)

Green Eggs and Ham by Dr. Seuss

4.5

it slapped

I Want to Die but I Still Want to Eat Tteokbokki by Baek Se-hee

3.75

its very encouraging to see the thoughts of the writer grow and change throughout the book tbh. makes me feel slightly less crazy

The Essential Dykes to Watch Out for by Alison Bechdel

3.75

temporally locked i think but still very good and very human.

Intruder by Jerrold Yam

4.0

this is good. i think the poems speak to a really specific moment in time for the poet (written 10 years ago!) but i liked this much more than i thought i would. ennui is real. also separately jerrold has really nice eyebrows

In the Dream House by Carmen Maria Machado

5.0

books i will think about frequently for the rest of my life