January Books

 After last year's 163 books I thought I would take it easy this year.  So I only made my reading goal 24 books.  Because of that I plan on doing a monthly post.

American Cookery: The Art of Dressing Viands, Fish, Poultry, and Vegetables by Amelia Simmons

Non-fiction: Food, History, E-book

Anyone who has been watching historic cooking YouTube channels has heard of Simmons.  This book has many recipes that I can mostly make out what one was to do with which items, but like most cookbooks of the time it is a fun mix of no amounts listed with exact amounts listed with a few non-exact measurments mixed in.

Colonial Spirits: A Toast to Our Drunken History by Steven Grasse

Non-fiction:Food, History, 224 pages

A combination of recipes based on historic drinks and history.

Quackery: A Brief History of the Worst Ways to Cure Everything by Lydia Kang, Nate Pedersen

Non-Fiction: History, Science, 334 pages

Many things that people thought would cure or help illnesses were in fact horrible things.  This book deals with some of these "cures."

The History of Underclothes by C. Willett Cunnington, Phillis Cunnington

Non-Fiction: History 272 pages

This book goes over about 600 years of trends in under clothes, ending in the 1950's.  It deals with both male and female garments, but spends more time on female ones, as they both changed faster and they had more of them.  There are photos, but they are only black and white, which makes it harder to see some of the details. 

The Sword of Summer (Magnus Chase and the Gods of Asgard #1) by Rick Riordan 

Fiction: YA, fantasy, e-book

Magnus has been homeless, since his mother died in an attack of wolves with glowing eyes.  She had a couple of brothers that he could live with, but he didn't trust them.  And he knew nothing about his father.  On his 16th birthday he runs into one uncle, raises a magic sword from the river, fights a fire giant, dies, and gets taken to Valhalla by his valkyrie, and finds out who his father was.  After that his life gets complicated.

Murder by the Pint by Belle Knudson

Fiction: Mystery, E-book

This book was a very quick read.  If it wasn't I might have just stopped reading it.  Not only did it have the issues that many self published books have, but it also had issues on basic knowledge of beer. (And the MC is running a brewery, which is an important part of the plot.)  For example a character absolutely hates bitter things (like even cola or coffee is too bitter,) so of course the MC gets them to try an IPA that they just love.