Shelf Life

Author: Jane Simon Ammeson

  • A Sinister Revenge: A Victorian Mystery by Deanna Raybourn

    A Sinister Revenge: A Victorian Mystery by Deanna Raybourn

    Deanna Raybourn takes us back to Victorian times in “A Sinister Revenge” (Penguin Random House), the latest novel in her Veronica Speedwell series. Speedwell, a scientist, lepidopterist or butterfly collector, and lady adventurer, has traveled to Bavaria in search of Revelstoke “Stoker” Templeton-Vane (called Stoker for short), her lover and scientific partner, who understandably is upset to learn that her husband who she presumed dead, is still very much alive. Upon finding out the news, he leaves the country and now seems to have completely disappeared. Traveling with Speedwell is Stoker’s brother, Viscount Tiberius Templeton-Vane, and the two, while dining at a Bavarian inn and hearing the landlord talk about a disagreeable encounter he had with a wolf-like man believe they may have found Stoker.

    But there’s more going on than just a missing lover and brother. Tiberius has received death threats tied to an incident that occurred years ago and he needs his brother’s help in unraveling the mystery in order to save his life.

    Raybourn, a New York Times bestselling author and sixth generation Texan, knew from an early age that she wanted to be a writer. Influenced by such women writers as Mary Stewart, Victoria Holt, Agatha Christie, and even Jane Austen, she describes her books as mysteries with enough romance to keep readers who like both genres happy.

    “There was never a time when I didn’t make up stories,” she says, adding that she remembers being thrilled when she finally learned how to print so she could get them out of her head. There was also the time where she missed out on entire school lesson because she was busy writing a story about Maria Antoinette.

    That might explain why she is a prolific author, having written not only eight Speedwell novels but also the Lady Julia Grey series, which are also historical fiction. Besides that she has stand alone novels including last year’s “Killers of a Certain Age” about a band of female assassins who are over 60.

    Her Speedwell character is like many of the resolute women found in the pages of history and is inspired in part by Margaret Fountaine, a Victorian era lepidopterist who Raybourn says traveled the world collecting both butterflies and lovers. Both Fountaine and Speedwell are nothing like what people expect Victorian to be like says Raybourn.

    “Fountaine was dynamic and intriguing,” she says.  “She was my inspiration for Veronica.”

    This article originally appeared in the Northwest Indiana Times.

  • A mysterious inheritance leads to danger in Kate White’s latest book: “Between Two Strangers”

    A mysterious inheritance leads to danger in Kate White’s latest book: “Between Two Strangers”

    For the last 12 years, Skyler Moore has struggled with a crippling sense of guilt and an inability to be around large groups. An artist who specializes in collages, her work is about to be displayed in a prestigious art gallery and, hopefully, it will help her shaky finances as she wants to become pregnant through in vitro before her biological clock runs out.

    But hearing she may have to speak to the large crowd expected at the gallery greatly increases her social anxiety. Add to that, she still is dealing with her mother who blames Skyler for what happened to Chloe, her younger half-sister 12 years ago after they became separated at a party.

    Told Chloe had left, Skyler returned to the hotel where she was staying and, unusual for her, indulged in a one night stand with Christopher Whaley, an older, handsome—and married–man she just met. And so sets the stage for Kate White’s newest mystery, “Between Two Strangers.”

    Her half-sister never left the party, her body was found days later at the bottom of a hill on the property. As for Whaley, he and Skyler never meet again but his lawyer contacts her a few nights before her gallery show. Whaley has recently died and left her several million dollars much to the anger of his family. Soon she is being harassed and threatened, her apartment broken into, and her career as an artist stymied when her collages, on display at the gallery are defaced. Skyler, unsure of herself as it is, must face the threats and accusations made against her by his family.

    White, the author of 17 novels, was formerly the editor-in-chief of Cosmopolitan magazine and uses her knowledge of New York and the New York art scene to create a fast paced novel that takes us into that world when Skyler works on a collage that she hopes will help unlock the secret of her half-sister’s death.

    I ask White, during a long phone conversation, how she was able to write best selling novels and work as editor-in-chief of an extremely popular woman’s magazine, That, in itself, must surely have been a full-time job.

    “I was definitely burning the candle at both ends,” she says, adding that when she first got the call to take over the job she had completed four chapters of her first foray into mystery writing. “I put those aside.”

    Uber-successful at editing—she took Cosmo to the number one best seller of single issue copies (the magazine was famous for its covers and inspired advice to women), selling two million copies a month.

    “I loved the job, my team, the magazine,” says White.

    But she also loved mysteries, having become addicted to the Nancy Drew mystery series at age 12. And so despite being married with two children and working as editor-in-chief, she returned to the mystery novel she was writing.

    When I ask where she gets her ideas, White says from many places. She keeps a file of news clippings and notes. A plot, which she is meticulously outlined, can come from overhearing a conversation on an elevator. Yes, she says. She eavesdrops.

    After 14 years at the helm of Cosmo (how many other magazines have a nickname?), White decided to focus on writing full-time. Now she spends part of the year in Uruguay where she and her husband have a place in a small beach town where she enjoys the lavender sunsets, the food and being warm in the winter.

    It is also the perfect place for White to write and she is already at work on her next mystery.

    For more information on White including upcoming author events, visit her website katewhite.com

    This article previously appeared in the Northwest Indiana Times.

  • Book: “Anywhere You Run” by Wanda M. Morris

    Book: “Anywhere You Run” by Wanda M. Morris

    “When I turned 18, the first thing my mother told me is to go register to vote,” says Wanda M. Morris, whose latest mystery “Anywhere You Run,” tells the story of two sisters who are caught up in the tumultuous 1960s when Civil Rights workers were trying to help Blacks in the deep south exercise a right they’d been given over a century ago—being able to vote.

    Marigold, the serious sister who dreams of being an attorney, is working for the Mississippi Summer Project, a 1964 voter registration drive attempting to increase the number of registered Black voters in her hometown of Jackson, when she discovers she’s pregnant. The father? A New York lawyer working for the project who skedaddles back home as soon as she tells him of her condition.

    Her younger sister, Violet—the traffic-stopping beauty with lots of beaus—has always done exactly what she wants. Her father taught her how to use a shotgun and so she does, killing the man who brutally raped her. Always resourceful, she gets Dewey Leonard, the son of a rich white man, to run off with her. But Violet never plans on marrying him and once they’re out of Jackson, she steals his wallet and buys a ticket to visit her cousin in Chillicothe, Georgia. There she takes a new name and gets a job while determining what to do next.

    Dewey isn’t about to let Violet go, not only because he’s obsessed with her but also because in his wallet is a photo of he and his father and several other White men standing over the grave of the three Civil Rights workers they’ve just murdered. He hires Mercer, a man who worked for his father to find her. His father ups the ante and promises Mercer more money to murder her. And so, the hunt is on.

    Morris takes us to the time of Jim Crow, where Blacks in southern states lived in fear and were denied the rights that most of us take for granted. This is the world Morris’s parents were raised in.

    “They’re both from Alabama,” says Morris. “And so I heard stories. My parents told me about how they had to drink out of separate water fountains, go in the backdoor of restaurants, and how they couldn’t be caught in certain towns after dark. Those stories always rang in my head.”

    Marigold, in her desperation, has married a long time admirer, hoping to pass off the baby she’s expecting as his. Together they move to Cleveland but the relationship turns sour quickly. Her new husband has big dreams of owning a nightclub and expects Marigold to support him while he wiles away his time. After he beats her, she decides to join Violet in Chillicothe. What she doesn’t realize is that she’s leading Mercer, the man Dewey hired, directly to her sister.

    “I wanted to put the reader right there, jab smack in the middle of what it felt like to just try and live your life, to try and work, to try and raise a family and having to live with all this vulnerability and hatred,” says Morris.

    To create the ambience of the time, Morris dove deep into the era, reading stacks of vintage magazines and newspapers, listening to music of that era, and spending lots of time in the Auburn Avenue Research Library on African American Culture and History in Atlanta, Georgia where she lives.

    The book works on so many levels—as a mystery and thriller and also as an introduction to what it was like living in a world of racial injustice. Saying a book is page-turner is often a cliché. But in the case of “Anywhere You Run,” it’s totally true.

    This article originally appeared in the Northwest Indiana Times.

  • Book: “What Never Happened” by Award Winning Mystery Writer Rachel Howzell Hall

    Book: “What Never Happened” by Award Winning Mystery Writer Rachel Howzell Hall

    Twenty years ago, Colette “Coco” Weber survived the mass murder of her father, mother, and brother on idyllic Catalina Island off the coast of California. The man accused of the murder is now in prison and Coco, who moved away, married, and is now separated from her husband, has returned to the island hoping to jumpstart her life again.

    But Catalina, so pretty with its colorful homes and eclectic boutiques and restaurants, has undercurrents as well. Sure some things haven’t changed. Her Aunt Gwen, who became the caretaker of Coco after the murders, still resents her and is hiding secrets possibly about the ownership of the house where she lives. At first it seems lucky that Coco is still best friends with the owners of the family run island newspapers who hire her to write obituaries—a special skill that Coco excels in. But rampant Realtors are buying up the quaint cottages that line the hilly streets of the island, turning out owners and repricing them at astronomical fees. Catalina, it turns out, may not be the place soon for anyone but the very wealthy.

    That certainly includes Gwen, a former house and hotel cleaner with a penchant for stealing both baubles and expensive items from the places she cleans. It’s in a small part, a payback for all the scorn people in her position endure particularly those of color. But it’s also part of Gwen’s sneaky nature and her disdain for most people including her niece.

    Before long Coco is involved with a handsome rich guy who works at the paper as a lark. His parents make enough money that he really can just dabble in whatever interests him. Soon, though, Coco suspects him of lying to her about his whereabouts at certain times when he goes radio silence so to speak and doesn’t answer his cell phone. And why has he chosen Coco when there are all these luscious beauty queen types in his past.

    “As for her choice of jobs, her family’s obituaries were not special and didn’t capture who she knew they were. And now she has a chance to do for others what she wished had happened for her,” says Rachel Howzell Hall, an award-winning mystery writer about her latest standalone novel, “What Never Happened.” “This is also a story about a woman who’s trying to figure out where she belongs.”

    Determining where she belongs also means figuring out who to trust and as she becomes immersed into island life during the isolated time of Covid, she soon learns that’s not easy to do. One big question is who is sending her threatening obituaries—her own—outlining the day of her death. It turns out there are many secrets and as she writes obituaries, Coco notices a stunning similarity in the deaths of many elderly women. They have refused to sell their homes which now are worth small fortunes. But unfortunately, it’s hard to get someone to believe her.

    “Coco has been stunted in her growth and her ability to figure people out—she lost her parents during the time when they should have been guiding her and her aunt begrudges having to take care of her,” says Hall, who lives in Los Angeles and has visited the island on field trips with her daughter and also conducted extensive research that goes beyond the tourist brochures. “The way her family was taken away from her left her not knowing who she can trust and that becomes even more so with all that is happening on the island. And then she learns that this person she thought—and the law thought—killed her family, did not do it.”

    Determined to find answers, Coco takes chances in trying to solve the mysteries swirling around her. She knows that is the only way she can remain on the island and survive.

    Follow Rachel Howzell Hall at rachelhowzell.com

    This book review originally appeared in the Northwest Indiana Times.

  • Esquire: The Best Books of Fall 2023

    https://www.esquire.com/entertainment/books/g45337255/best-books-fall-2023/

  • Girls and Their Horses by Eliza Jane Brazier

    Girls and Their Horses by Eliza Jane Brazier

    “Horses are healing,” says Eliza Jane Brazier, author of “Girls and Their Horses” (Penguin-Random House), as she walks her horse around the arena while we talk on the phone. Brazier, who first started riding when she was five and has worked as a horse trainer, riding instructor and a head wrangler at a dude ranch, reconnected with her sport and those feelings helped her cope with the death of her husband.

    “I have a horse in my backyard,” she says with a laugh about Tennessee, the draft horse she owns.

    But the love of horses and the pursuit of championships along with the status of the horse owners in the rarefied air of Rancho Santa Fe Equestrian in exclusive Rancho Santa Fe, California can be much more toxic than healthy. This isn’t a jeans and cowboy boots sort of group hanging out in a drafty old barn with straw-covered dirt floors. The equestrian center is all stone and wood beams and the “barn moms” who gather there like it’s a social club can sum the cost of clothes that a new arrival like Heather Parker is wearing just by one quick glance (lucky for Heather she’s wearing an $800 blouse) and how much she’s worth by learning her address.

    And Heather is worth a lot. Her husband stopped telling her how much he was making when it topped $150 million. But money doesn’t make Heather secure, it frightens her. She has other reasons to worry as well. She’s unable to stop her marriage from slipping away, her younger daughter Maple was brutally bullied when they lived in Texas and her older daughter Piper hates the move.

    Their new home is so large that it’s easy to get lost and Heather also carries the scars of her impoverished upbringing and the abandonment by her father.

    She’s determined to make life perfect for her children and she believes that joining the Rancho Santa Fe Equestrian will do just that, creating a bonding experience and also helping her relive and recreate her past. She still feels the pain of losing her barn family when her father left and they no longer had money. She lost friends and overnights and all the things that had made her happy. Now she has the money to give her kids what she missed and is still pining for after all these years.

    Oh, if only it were that easy.

    Her first day at the barn, Heather meets Pamela who takes her in hand. But Pamela has a hidden agenda. Her bank account is filled with nothing but fumes and she sees the rich Parkers as a way to help keep her in good graces with the barn’s owner so she can remain a member. And like Heather, she has a complicated back story as well.

    Add to that, Maple doesn’t like horses. And Piper is jealous because Maple gets a horse the costs seven figures. It’s all so complicated.

    And it becomes even more so when a mysterious death occurs in the barn.

    Brazier’s opening chapter sums up the atmosphere of the rich barn culture perfectly.

    “Oh, I can tell you exactly what happened,” replied the tiny young girl in an expensive riding habit told the police who had been waiting for her to finish her competition at an international horse show when asked if she knew of the murder and what had occurred in the first chapter of the book. “Do you have a mother?” Indeed, this is a wickedly fun murder mystery where the mothers are often more driven for their daughters to succeed than the girls are themselves. “Horses are like mirrors.

    They reflect all the good parts and the bad parts of ourselves back at us,” is a quote from the book.

    “It’s a mean girl kind of place,” says Brazier who is training in show jumping when she’s not writing mystery novels. “And things go deeper and deeper as time goes on.”

    This article originally appeared in the Northwest Indiana Times.

  • Dinner’s in the Oven: Simple One-Pan Meals

    Dinner’s in the Oven: Simple One-Pan Meals

    I’m a huge fan of Rukmini Iyer and am revisiting an old favorite Dinner’s in the Oven: Simple One-Pan Meals (Chronicle Books 2018; $19.95), featuring wonderfully easy sheet-pan recipes that always wow people when you bring them to the table. Hah! Little do they know how quick they are to assemble and cook. But we’ll let that be a secret between us.

    First of all, the cookbook is beautiful as would be expected as Iyer, who is based in London, is a food stylist and has worked for such businesses as Fortnum & Mason, The Guardian, The Sunday Times, Macmillan Coffee Mornings, The British Heart Foundation, Phaidon, Quadrille Books and Kyle Books, the latter three are three publishing companies known for their cookbooks. Her other cookbooks include Vegetarian Dinners in the Oven: One-Pan Vegetarian and Vegan Recipes, the Roasting Tin series which have sold over 1.75 million copies to date, an India Express: Fresh and Flavorful Recipes for Everyday.

    The great thing about her recipes is that once made they look sophisticated but are extremely easy. But to make it even better, Iyer has composed the book so that it starts off with the easiest recipes first so you learn as you move more forward plus she shows how we can make adaptations and provides charts on how to do so.

    “The nicest thing about oven-made meals is that they are versatile and forgiving,” Iyer writes in the introduction to her book, adding that the recipes require the barest minimum in terms of effort—a little light chopping to start, then tasting and adjusting the salt or lemon juice at the end. “Most importantly, they leave you free to do something else while dinner looks after itself—have a bath, help the children with their homework, or, my preferred option, flop on the sofa with a glass of wine.”

    Iyer describes the French Tomato and Mustard Tart with Tarragon as one of the easiest and most satisfying dishes in the book in her book.

    “The paprika gives it a wonderful smokiness,” she says, “but you could easily use a combination

    of honey and mustard as an alternative. It’s that simple.”

    Spicy Chipotle Chicken Wings with Sweet Potato Wedges, Cilantro & Lime Yogurt

    Serves: 4

    Prep: 10 minutes; Cook: 1 hour

    • 1 3/4 pounds chicken wings, separated into wingettes and drumettes
    • 1 3/4 pounds sweet potatoes, peeled and cut into 1-inch [2½cm] wedges
    • 2 teaspoons chile powder
    • 1 teaspoon smoked paprika
    • 1 tablespoon dark brown sugar
    • 3 tablespoons olive oil
    • Sea salt
    • Zest and juice of 1 lime, plus lime wedges, to serve
    • 4 to 5 tablespoons Greek yogurt
    • A handful of fresh cilantro leaves, chopped, plus more to serve

    Preheat the oven to 350°F. Place the chicken wings and sweet potato wedges in a large roasting pan or rimmed baking sheet.

    Mix together the chile powder, smoked paprika, brown sugar, olive oil, 2 teaspoons sea salt, and half of

    the lime zest and juice. Pour the mixture over the chicken and sweet potatoes and mix well with your

    hands to coat evenly. Transfer to the oven and roast for 40 minutes.

    Turn the heat up to 400°F and roast for a further 20 minutes, to crisp the chicken skin.

    Meanwhile, mix together the yogurt, chopped cilantro, remaining lime zest and juice, and a pinch of seasalt. Set aside.

    Sprinkle the chicken wings and sweet potatoes with cilantro leaves and serve with lime wedges and the yogurt dip alongside.

    Smoky Sausage, Sweet Potatoes and Red Onions

    Serves: 4

    Prep: 10 minutes

    Cook: 50 minutes

    • 8 to 12 good-quality fresh pork sausages (approx. 13/4 pounds [800g] total) links
    • 3 sweet potatoes, peeled and cut into chunky wedges
    • 2 red onions, cut into eighths
    • 6 cloves garlic
    • 4 teaspoons smoked paprika
    • A good splash of olive oil
    • Sea salt and freshly ground black pepper

    Preheat oven to 350°F.

    In a roasting pan, toss the sausages, sweet potato wedges, red onions, garlic, and smoked paprika with

    the olive oil. Season well with sea salt and freshly ground black pepper.

    Transfer to the oven and roast for 45 to 50 minutes, until the sweet potatoes are cooked through and

    the sausages are sticky and slightly charred. Serve immediately.

    French Tomato and Mustard Tart with Tarragon

    Serves: 4

    Prep: 10 minutes; Cook: 30 minutes

    • One 10-by-15-inch sheet frozen puff pastry, thawed
    • 2½tablespoons Dijon mustard
    • 3/4 pound vine-ripened tomatoes, thinly sliced
    • 4 teaspoons finely chopped fresh tarragon
    • 1 teaspoon sea salt
    • Freshly ground black pepper
    • 1 tablespoon extra-virgin olive oil

    Preheat the oven to 425°F. Place the puff pastry on a parchment paper–lined rimmed baking sheet.

    Spread the mustard all over, leaving a 3/4-inch border around the edges. Arrange the sliced tomatoes on

    the mustard. Sprinkle on the tarragon, sea salt, and freshly ground black pepper and drizzle with the olive oil.

    Transfer to the oven and bake for 25 to 30 minutes, until the edges of the tart are golden brown and crisp. Serve immediately.

    The above recipes are reprinted from Dinner’s in the Oven by Rukmini Iyer with permission by ChronicleBooks.

  • Night Shift by Robin Cook

    Night Shift by Robin Cook

    His mother-in-law has moved in with him, his young daughter has been diagnosed as being on the autism spectrum, his son’s school wants an ADD diagnosis, and his wife’s promotion to Chief Medical Examiner has turned her into a nemesis in some ways as she now expects her husband to no longer go rogue when investigating a potential homicide.

    What’s a seasoned medical examiner to do?

    For Jack Stapleton, whose irreverent style and sarcastic humor often get him into trouble, the answer is to find a very compelling case to dive into. And fate intervenes when the body of Dr. Sue Passero, his wife’s best friend, lands on Jack’s autopsy table. But even after the autopsy is completed, Jack is still at a loss as to how the seemingly healthy doctor died. Was it a drug overdose? A heart attack? None of the toxicology tests show that’s the answer. So Jack, trying to avoid the tension at home, starts investigating. He talks to Cherine Gardener, a colleague of Passero’s, who tells him that Sue believed there was serial killer roaming Manhattan Memorial Hospital, where the two worked together.

    Gardener promises to meet Jack the next day to tell him more. And she does, but not in the way expected. Just as Sue showed up unexpectedly on his autopsy table the day before, now it’s Cherlne who is dead. Did she really die of a drug overdose? What about the witness who heard her scream, the sounds of fight, and a stranger fleeing down the stairs and out the door? Could she have been murdered to keep from revealing more about the death rate at the hospital? Jack’s good buddy, police detective Lou Saldano, suspects it was a homicide and warns Jack to leave the investigation to the police.

    But Jack’s not good at following rules. And now the killer wants him dead, too.

    Author Robin Cook, a medical doctor whose second book Coma, released in 1977, was a bestseller and made into a blockbuster movie, is considered to have created the medical mystery genre.

    In Coma and his other novels, Cook adds another layer to his plots as he has his protagonists grapple with modern medical issues and the role of private equity ownership putting profits over patients in the hospitals they run. Because of that, the killer in Night Shift easily gets away with his crimes and adds to the obstacles Jack encounters when trying to determine not only how the two women died and why but to stop future deaths including his own.

    In Night Shift, Cook’s 37th novel, he shows that he hasn’t lost his touch.

    This review originally ran in the New York Journal of Books.

  • The Girl in the Eagle’s Talons

    The Girl in the Eagle’s Talons

    “Smirnoff, who lives in Sweden, has done an excellent job, one that should reassure Larsson’s fans that the series is in good hands.”

    Lisbeth Salander, the brilliant computer hacker who is both reclusive and aggressive, is back in The Girl in the Eagle’s Talons, the seventh in the Millennium series. The first three of this series of Swedish crime novels starting with The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo were written by the late Steig Larsson. After his death, the next three were the work of David Lagercrantz and now, the first woman—Karin Smirnhoff—has taken over the franchise.

    Now the part-owner of an internet security company, Salander still finds refuge in numbers, which to her are so much more trustworthy and manageable than people.

    “Decoding the human factor is not like identifying a data breach,” writes Smirnoff in a description of Salander’s personality style. “It requires something different. The ability to read between the lines, perhaps. With very few exceptions, relationships with other people take too much energy. Most people who give want something in return.”

    That’s why the choice of Salander to become guardian for Svala, her genius 13-year-old niece, is problematic to say the least. Add to that, Svala is dealing with a host of crises that would negatively impact even a stable adult let alone a young girl with a dead father and a missing mother whose drug-dealing stepfather is hunting for her to take advantage of her outstanding mathematical capabilities.

    In other words, Svala has a host of complicated issues impacting her life. And it’s up to Salander, who can barely take care of herself, to keep Svala safe. Mikael Blomkvist, the journalist who has partnered with Salander to solve crimes in the past, is dealing with his own significant life changes. His daughter is about to marry a man whose grandiosity and desire to earn vast sums of money has led him into an alliance with shady characters. He’s also jobless as Millennium, the investigative newsmagazine where he’s worked for decades, has folded.

    Carrying on a series after the death of the original author is difficult. But Smirnoff, whose previous novels have sold over seven hundred thousand copies, captures the essence of Larsson’s characters who are complex and flawed but real and likeable as well. The book, translated by Sarah Death, moves quickly, and though at times the substantial number of characters may be somewhat difficult to keep track of, there is a list at the beginning of the book to refer to if needed.

    In all, Smirnoff, who lives in Sweden, has done an excellent job, one that should reassure Larsson’s fans that the series is in good hands.

    This review originally appeared in the New York Journal of Books.

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  • Jacques Pépin Cooking My Way: Recipes and Techniques for Economical Cooking

    Jacques Pépin Cooking My Way: Recipes and Techniques for Economical Cooking

    “This is a pleasure of a cookbook full of great recipes . . .”

    Jacques Pépin, winner of 16 James Beard Awards and author of over 30 cookbooks, has taken his considerable skills and created Cooking My Way, a charming cookbook of easy-to-make recipes designed not only to save money but also time and effort. To add to its delight are his wonderful pastel drawings. It is a cookbook full of good sense, with Pépin, who has starred in 12 PBS cooking shows, sharing how he saves money without impacting the quality of the food he prepares.

    “Buying seasonally is another way to approach economy in the kitchen,” he writes in the book’s introduction. “More often than not, I create my menus at the supermarket, looking for the best, but also the least expensive, and striking a balance between the two.”

    Pépin buys fruits and vegetables in season when they are most flavorful, nutritious, and less costly. The same goes with other ingredients. When whole turkeys are on sale (or in Pepin’s words “attractively priced”) in autumn and winter, he buys them. Lamb and ham grace his menu in the springs when stores are more likely to have them on special. As for pricey seafood, summer is the best time to purchase fish and shellfish as it is most abundant during warm weather.

    It’s also important, he says, to know that first impressions can be misleading when it comes to buying ingredients.

    “For example,” Pépin continues, “the outside leaves of a head of escarole may be wilted or damaged and therefore sold at a discounted price, I will still buy it because the center, the part I want to use, is white, firm, sweet, and tender.”

    Pépin, who founded the Jacques Pépin Foundation, which is dedicated to culinary education, has lessons to impart in this book. Among these are versatility and using not only what is in season and attractively priced but also whatever you have on hand. Because Pépin doesn’t let leftover bread go to waste, there’s a recipe for Cauliflower and Crumbs in which he recommends making your own breadcrumbs using either stale or fresh bread. And there’s his unique Bread Flapjacks. It’s a savory recipe with leftover bread, egg, chopped onions, and herbs. But Pépin shows how you can turn it into a sweet flapjack dish by adding sugar and leftover fruit such as an apple or banana.

    This is a pleasure of a cookbook full of great recipes such as Flan of Green Herbs, Grits and Cheese Souffle, Sweet and Spicy Curried Chicken, and Braised Pork and Cabbage which are intriguing but simple to make is made even better by the full-color photos by Tom Hopkins, and the effort that Pépin has put into it to ensure that we cook wisely and well.

    This review originally ran in the New York Journal of Books.