Lucci's List: June 2020

For your summer reading pleasure, lose yourself in these otherworldly books.

"The Wild Gourmet: A Forager's Cookbook" by Bracket & Lash is an exceptional guide to creating nutritious and appetizing meals from nature. With a particularly New England focus, this book is split up by the calendar, so that each month features the edibles one might find while hiking or stepping into a back yard.

I was particularly impressed by the wide variety of cooking methods. Many full complete meals could be achieved with simple processes and easily found food.

The sketches accompanying the text are helpful in identifying many of the wildly grown foods.

Reading this book has inspired me to seek out wild foods in my own New England home. The opportunities to incorporate FREE food that are both organic and wholesome is an amazing bonus.

My favourite recipe so far focuses on wood sorrel, which I always simply referred to as clover. Sorrel Soup A La Grecque uses 2 Cups of this easily found plant, and a simple way to cook it to deliciousness.

I recommend this book to New Englanders, survivalists, foodies, historians, and cooks. Bon appetit!

"Standing Out" by Angela Lee Chen is an autobiography of a woman who has searched throughout her life for a solid personal identity.

From New York, to Kenya, to China, and back to America, the author describes her early years as ones of self-discovery. Through loving but strict family dynamics, she judged herself and wondered where in the world she truly fit in. As her family suffered tragedy and then grew in size, Chen further had to seek her place in society.

Her changing culture and home life challenged her to discover her talents and forge a name for herself. sought academia for the answers to her questions and found that this scholarly world was the perfect match for her personality and need to search for information.

This book was slow to start and redundant for the first few chapters. I considered ending my reading there, but am glad I continued. Chen's quest for self-identity and her place in the world was at once foreign and identifiable. Her multi-national background mixed with her new normal way of life demonstrated her ability to change yet stay true to herself. Ever questioning who she was, as a person, as a family member, and contemplating her role in society, this book tells a fascinating story of a woman always searching for the simple answers of who she is.

"Diary of a Meditator" by Quyen Ngo is an autobiography that follows the progress and challenges of a Western man experiencing a 43 day Buddhist retreat far away from home and all he's ever known.

This book reads as a diary, beginning on day one of the retreat. Through the next month and a half, Mr. Ngo shares his angsts and revelations, his irritation and rewards.

As the author's adventure begins, the story includes this relatable sentiment:

“By the end of the day, I’d started to doubt whether I could put up with the noise for another forty-one days! This was only day two, and I was already agitated.”

Through daily practice, meetings with his mentor, inward reflection, acceptance, diet, exercise, breathing rituals, and a variety of focuses, Ngo's mediation brings him to an inner peace that he had no knowledge of before.

“Mundane life seemed less of a concern to me; I had something greater to focus on. Paradoxically, this very fact made mundane life even more enjoyable than before, because I became less attached, less anxious, less fearful, and more attentive to the present.”

This first person retelling of a spiritual journey provided fascinating insight into one person's experience and outlook of meditation. At times it felt dry to me though, especially in the beginning. I didn't feel a connection to the author and so was not intrinsically caring enough about his life to wonder how his progress would go. But diaries are written for the self, and so with this diary I needed to keep that in mind. The author was sharing his own experience his way in his words, and that is valuable.

I am personally interested in Buddhism and meditate daily, so I found the teachings within this book to be interesting and applicable to my own life. I recommend it to people who are learning about meditation and who enjoy short autobiographies.

“The Raving Ones: A Short Story” by Naomi Muse is a supernatural tale that will grip you like Medusa’s stare. The fast action and sense of terror make the words fly by.

Jake loves Yvette, but doesn’t want to commit to marriage, at least not yet. After all, there might be something or someone even better for him out there.

He finds out just what it is.

Although this was a fantastic story, I felt that some more attention to writing style, particularly making transitions, would make this freaky tale a winner.

"Little Red (Everland Ever After, #1) by Caroline Lee is a fairy tale mixed with history mixed with not-so-clean plot lines.

The settings are charming, and the idea of a gingerbread whorehouse is fantastically brilliant! The romances and relationships between characters made me feel a bit icky at times though: the perversion, ages, and romanticism of damsels in distress were turn-offs.

The writing was excellent and the author certainly created a vivid world.

Heroes Wanted: A Fantasy Anthology compiled by Ben Galley, is a collection of strange and wonderful hero tails. My favourites were "Fresh off the Boat," by K.S. Villoso and "Ratman" by Laura M. Hughes.

A great escapist journey through the minds of creative writers.