more on pickles.

I am progressing in my pickle-foo. I made my first batch of pickles last week - ginger carrots, YUM - with light supervision from mrpet. Yesterday I started my first batch of totally solo pickles - Vidalia onion and beet, with curry, juniper berries, red wine, and apple cider vinegar. The brine is very pink and pretty. I am planning to do ginger beets later in the summer, when beets are really cheap at the farmer's market (or else in the farmshare). But it takes a lot more than one bunch to fill up the pickle jar.

( How we make pickles, kombucha )

I got The Joy of Pickling out of the library for more ideas. It is less free-form than Wild Fermentation - the author seems to focus on the "complex expertise style", and most of the pickles are vinegar rather than brine-based - no live cultures. So I am using it more as a set of ideas to experiment with.
In that spirit, I am very curious about watermelon rind pickles, broccoli pickles, daikon pickles with dried shrimp and apple, tomato pickles (perhaps I'd oven-roast them first! nom nom nom), apple pickles, pickled bell peppers, pickled pumpkin, pickled mustard greens, and, well, pickled cranberry ketchup just sounds cool.

Anyway, if you're local and want to be in line for some kombucha starter in a month or so, leave a comment.

The Novice by Trudi Canavan

I went into this book with high expectations. I loved The Magician's Guild, and thought this one would be even more fun, now that our heroine Sonea has won a place for herself among the magicians. But all is not well. The other novices harass Sonea endlessly and she no longer has a mentor she trusts. She is struggling just to survive. Meanwhile, her friend Dannyl has become an ambassador. He is investigating the High Lord's past - and his own past is also called into question.

( Literary fairness rant. )

Anyway, that is basically how I felt about this book. Sonea seems to have lost her confidence and street smarts. She is no longer one step ahead of her enemies - heck, she can't even keep up. They always have the advantage. No one protects her, no one befriends her. The adult magicians know that the other novices are attacking her in groups but they don't interfere - they claim it will help her develop her talents, but in reality, they just seem to be curious about what will happen next. Whenever she thinks she's found a solution, it's barred to her or shown to maybe not help at all anyway. I found it terribly depressing and unfair. I'm getting depressed again just thinking about it. Two stars, and I won't read the last book in the trilogy.

the food logging...

has stopped.

That is all.

Mighty Good Road by Melissa Scott

Dem Heikki and her friends have been hired to find out what caused a hoverboat crash. Sabotage is suspected. The catch? She must return to the world of her birth in order to find answers. The other catch? She doesn't quite trust her employer.

I am a strong fan, one might even say a devotee, of Scott's writing. However, this one didn't really do it for me. The central characters fell flat, and we didn't see much of the peripheral characters. The mystery of the main character's past is never solved. The passion in her relationship is never observed. There was no "bang."

It reminded me of the much newer Spin Control but it wasn't as good. Three stars.

Silent in the Sanctuary by Deanna Raybourn

This book is a sequel to Silent in the Grave. In the first installment, Lady Julia Grey seeks to find answers in the death of her husband. In the second installment, her trip to Italy is cut short by a summons from the family patriarch. When she comes home, she finds a number of unexpected guests, including Brisbane, the man who helped investigate her husband's demise, who she has been unable to put behind her.

In this volume we get to see more of the charmingly eccentric March family. I enjoyed the banter between the characters. I enjoyed the continuing tension (both sexual and otherwise) between Lady Julia and Brisbane. The only downside, for me, was that the murder didn't take place until well into the book. That's not my favorite setup for a mystery. Lots of intersecting plots - also fun. The final unveiling of the murderer didn't feel very dramatic to me, though. Three stars. I liked it a lot, but I wouldn't read it over and over.