June 10 - 16, 2018

Milk!: A 10,000-Year Food Fracas by Mark Kurlansky - almost more than you want to know about all kinds of milk and the uses for it. Too many recipes in the first part of the book reaching back many years and impossible to duplicate now even if you wanted to. The book also discusses the constant debate between bottle-fed babies and breastfed and how the pendulum swings back and forth every few years. Also some talk about the merits of raw milk versus pasteurized and organic versus non organic. I've read a few of this author's books, Salt was one of my favorites. This isn't quite as interesting.

3 stars
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Outside the Jukebox: How I Turned my Vintage Music Obsession in My Dream Gig by Scott Bradlee - I love almost everything Postmodern Jukebox does so when I saw that Scott was writing a book I actually pre-ordered it. He tells about all the hard work it took to become an "overnight" YouTube success. He also gives lots of encouragement to artists pursuing their dreams.

4 stars
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The Boy, the Bird, and the Coffin Maker by Matilda Woods - a plague robs Alberto of his family and he becomes the coffin maker for his town of Allora. A town where fish fly out of the sea and all the houses are brightly colored. Thirty years later Alberto discovers someone is stealing food from him. It's a young boy all alone except for his brightly colored bird. As he gradually earns the boys trust, Alberto discovers he's terribly afraid of someone. This is a children's book that is full of the ordinary and the magical. The illustrations are wonderful.

4 stars
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Lost Creed by Alex Kava - Ryder Creed's sister disappeared from a truck stop 16 years ago and it's the main reason he runs a dog training facility. When he gets news there may be a clue to Brodie's disappearance he is quick to join the investigation. As so often when a writer gets on a soapbox, the story is somewhat neglected. This was also very disjointed with multiple viewpoints and plot lines. The clues were so heavy I knew what was going on long before the characters. The Kindle version was also poorly edited. Human trafficking is a huge and ongoing problem, I don't think weaving it into a book in a preachy way is the best way to educate the public.

2 stars