Eat, Read, and Be Mommy

I finished listening to Katherine Center’s What You Wish For the other day, and I’m of two minds about it. On the one hand, a school librarian heroine? I’m pretty much sold. And there’s plenty of banter and wit and fun–as well as feels. On the other hand, the story felt a little creaky, if you know what I mean. The bad guy was bad in all the ways, but not all the ways made sense with each other; multiple characters’ turnarounds felt rather, well, SWEEPING; and really, pretty much ALL of the characters did things that felt orchestrated rather than organic. (A lot of “the plot needed this and so Character X will do this to make that happen”, if you know what I mean.) Samantha-the-school-librarian and Duncan-the-formerly-fun-loving-teacher-turned-military-style-principal have a fun story with a satisfying ending; just don’t examine the details too closely.

On the other hand, if you want a tasty new muffin recipe, try these Orange Muffins. They’re not exactly low-fat–we didn’t butter them, figuring the recipe had done that for us–but the taste is lovely and using bottled orange juice for the glaze worked just fine. Using part whole wheat flour messed with the texture a bit, but for my kiddos, the extra fiber is generally worth it. Make that call for yourself, as long as you also make the muffins!