Saving Dinner - Leanne Ely

Title: Saving Dinner Author: Leanne Ely Genre: Cookbook Rating: 9/10

Review: Usually the best part of a cookbook is the pictures, and they're a huge part of how I decide which recipes to try. Saving Dinner has no pictures at all, and as such I'd typically stay far away from it, but thanks to FlyLady I'd already been introduced to some of the recipes and decided to give it a try anyway.

And I'm glad. Saving Dinner has become one of my very favourite cookbooks. I've tried about 20-30 of the recipes, and only a small handful haven't been an instant success. My favourite recipe is the honey-chili chicken with pineapple-avocado salsa. Absolutely delicious!

The recipes in Saving Dinner are split up into 4 seasons with 8 sections of 7 recipes. Each section has a shopping list, so it's possible to plan your weekly menu from it. I've yet to do that, as there are always some of the recipes that aren't really my type (or that require ingredients I can't buy in Denmark), but I can see how it'd be a great help for some people.

Overall I'd rate it 9/10 - the last point is due to the missing pictures.

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The No. 1 Ladies' Detective Agency - Alexander McCall Smith

Title: The No. 1 Ladies' Detective Agency Author: Alexander McCall Smith Genre: Cultural Rating: 8/10 # pages: 236 Date read: June, 2008

Summary: It's the detective as folk hero, solving crimes through an innate, self-possessed wisdom that, combined with an understanding of human nature, invariably penetrates into the heart of a puzzle. If Miss Marple were fat and jolly and lived in Botswana--and decided to go against any conventional notion of what an unmarried woman should do, spending the money she got from selling her late father's cattle to set up a Ladies' Detective Agency--then you have an idea of how Precious sets herself up as her country's first female detective. Once the clients start showing up on her doorstep, Precious enjoys a pleasingly successful series of cases.

Review: After a slow start, it fortunately quickly picked up and ended up a very enjoyable read. It's not a page turner by any means, but like the Mitford series (although very different in genre otherwise) it's a cozy and comfortable read that doesn't require too much of the reader. The perfect summer-read, it would have been just right for the beach or pool-side.

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