So what have you been reading?

I stumbled onto the Itchy Boots YouTube channel a few years ago and was hooked. I don’t ride but I love travel and this was a day-by-day travel experience of a solo motorcyclist. The book is a great introduction to why she started traveling and filming her travels on a motorcycle.  She ends up seeing the best out of people most of the time when she is on the road and now I want to watch some of her early videos that cover her time that the book goes over.  

Digital review copy provided by the publisher through Edelweiss

Digital review copy provided by the publisher through NetGalley

I checked this out because I found the videos entertaining. Two labs doing dog things with a sportscaster voiceover put a smile on my face along with thousands of other viewers.  But this book isn’t just about the dogs and to be honest it would be a very short book.   What does come through is the authors love of hiking with his dogs in Scotland.  Due to has job he has hiked other places without the dogs, but it seems he loves doing the hikes with his four legged companions the most.  A nice change of pace dog book and something a bit different for the hiker in your life to read.  The author also reads the book and since he is a professional sports announcer that works really well.

This isn’t set up like most cookbooks course or even some by season.  This is set up taking an item and then showing what a few changes to it can make several different meals based on different cultures.  There is a lot of back and forth from both writer in the book and there is also reference titles they give of you want to learn more in-depth about certain dishes and other dishes from that culture.  This is much more of a cook at home book and a discussion of home cooking than “Let’s do recipes from my restaurant”.   I was reviewing a digital copy of the book but I do want to look at the final version because I think some stuff will be different.  This book feels like it is geared to someone who wants to be more adventurous in the kitchen but is a bit hesitant about playing with flavors. It feels more like an intermediate book, something for someone that is used to cooking a few things but is ready to take the next step in the kitchen.

Digital review copy provided by the publisher through Edelwiess

I’m glad this book came out in 2021 and not 2020, it would have been too much of a tease about traveling when you couldn’t do it. A word to the wise there is nothing really new in this book but it is more of a travel guide to most of the places that Bourdain went to on his various trips. Hotel and restaurant info on the cities covered along with quotes of dialogue from the various shows about those cities.  The back of the book is well footnoted with where each snippet came from. This doesn’t cover every place he went to but is a nice recap of lots of great television and certainly a lovely jumping off point of ideas about where you might want to travel.

Digital review copy provided by the publisher through Edelweiss