Eat: The Little Book of Fast Food by Nigel Slater

This book claims to contain "fast" recipes that can be made in less than an hour and yet are still rather gourmet. I found the recipes to be rather labor intensive and, as stated, they do contain many gourmet ingredients. I like that many of the "recipes" do not have measurements - just suggestions for amounts and the cook can go from there. While some of the photographs are lovely, others seemed rather plain looking. I received this book free to review from Netgalley.

How To Knit by Leslie Ann Bestor

This is a nice, simple, illustrated beginner's knitting book. I like that it explains things about yarn weight and types of needles and how to read a pattern and how to read the yarn label and what all that information means. The author explains the differences in the various yarn fibers and how to block and felt projects. I think that beginning knitters will find this to be a useful, helpful book. I received this book free to review from Netgalley.

The Slug by Elise Gravel

Cute, informative and rather disgusting too. I think that this book would appeal to elementary school children and would be a fun addition to school and children's libraries. It contains interesting facts about slugs along with quirky illustrations. I received this book free to review from Netgalley.

Who Needs a Reef?: A Coral Ecosystem by Karen Patkau

This book is beautifully illustrated and filled with fascinating information and facts about coral reef ecosystems. With it's glossary, diagrams, maps and information about many inhabitants of coral reefs as well as how a reef forms, the food chains involved and more, I think this book would be a wonderful addition to all school and children's libraries. I received this book free to review from Netgalley and I highly recommend it!

Coraline by Neil Gaiman

A total masterpiece. What is so wonderful about Gaiman's stories is not only are they fabulously creepy, but the writing is beautifully, richly descriptive. Here is one example from the beginning of the book: "It wasn't the kind of rain you could go out in - it was the other kind, the kind that threw itself down from the sky and splashed where it landed. It was rain that meant business, and currently its business was turning the garden into a muddy, wet soup." Coraline has moved into a flat in a large house with her parents. The other flats house an old man who claims to be training talking mice for a circus, and two elderly women who used to be actresses. The fourth flat remains empty and there is a door in Coraline's drawing room that used to lead to it, but is now bricked over. And there is where Coraline is drawn into a strange, parallel, mirror world indwelt by her "other mother" and "other father" who look just like her parents except they have black buttons for eyes and paper white skin and they never want her to leave. Coraline realizes that only she has the power to save her parents, who are trapped behind a mirror and the other children who had been previous victims of the "other mother". Totally excellent story!

Saving Vegetable Seeds: Harvest, Clean, Store, and Plant Seeds from Your Garden. A Storey Basics® Title by Fern Marshall Bradley

I am a beginning vegetable gardener and I found this book to be very helpful and informative. I had no idea how much I did not know about saving vegetable seeds. I learned that some plants like carrots only make seeds the second year so you have to leave them in the garden and put mulch around them or move them to someplace where they won't freeze if you live in the north so that they will grow the second year and produce seeds. Some seeds have to be fermented and some plants need to be hand-pollinated and some plants should be planted separate from others or they will cross-pollinate and you won't get good seeds from them. The book is well written and the directions are simple enough for even a beginner to understand. I received this book free to review from Netgalley and I highly recommend it.

The Winter People by Rebekah L. Purdy

This book is a captivating YA paranormal romance/mystery. It begins with the mystery. Seventeen year old Salome is terrified of winter after having nearly drowned in a pond on her family property at age six. Every winter she stays indoors as much as possible and has occasional freak outs brought on by cold and snow. She sees and hears things that no one hears, and while her mother has taken her to a psychologist due to these problems over the years, her grandmother seems to know something about it that she won't tell. There is a lot of that - people knowing what is going on, but they won't/can't tell Salome. Then three boys show up as love interests. No mere love triangle for this book - it is a love square. We learn that there are fae/fairies involved as the plot gets more twisted. I really did find the story to be intriguing and captivating - I read it in two days, but there were parts of the background info that did not seem to make sense. Other details also just seemed to kind of be left out - like what happened to her father? I received this book free to review from Netgalley. I enjoyed it and the writing is well done. I look forward to reading other books by the author.