55. Tweet Cute by Emma Lord

listened to audio borrowed from Bosler Library
narrated by Dan Bittner and Emily Shaffer
Unabridged audio (10:08)
2020 Wednesday Books
368 pgs.
YA CRF Rom-Com
Finished  3/20/2020
Goodreads rating:  4.07 - 7339 ratings
My rating: 4.5
Setting:  Contemporary NYC

First line/s:  "To be fair, when the alarm goes off, there's barely even any smoke rising out of the oven."

My comments:  Definitely cute, and pretty sweet, too.  In more ways than one - the baking of desserts is a big part of the storyline, lol.  Told in two voices, that of Jack and of Pepper and the rivalry between their parents businesses on Twitter.  Jack and Pepper are doing all the Twitter postingsJack for his family deli on the lower eastside and Pepper for her family's now-international burger chain from where she lives on the upper eastside, although she still pines for Nashville where she lived until 8th grade.  Amid swim team, college prep and applications, a secret app that Jack created which is the current hit of their posh private school, and the fierce competition between their parents' businesses, there's never a dull moment in the story, which I greatly enjoyed.

Goodreads synopsis:  A fresh, irresistible rom-com from debut author Emma Lord about the chances we take, the paths life can lead us on, and how love can be found in the opposite place you expected.
          Meet Pepper, swim team captain, chronic overachiever, and all-around perfectionist. Her family may be falling apart, but their massive fast-food chain is booming ― mainly thanks to Pepper, who is barely managing to juggle real life while secretly running Big League Burger’s massive Twitter account.
          Enter Jack, class clown and constant thorn in Pepper’s side. When he isn’t trying to duck out of his obscenely popular twin’s shadow, he’s busy working in his family’s deli. His relationship with the business that holds his future might be love/hate, but when Big League Burger steals his grandma’s iconic grilled cheese recipe, he’ll do whatever it takes to take them down, one tweet at a time.
          All’s fair in love and cheese ― that is, until Pepper and Jack’s spat turns into a viral Twitter war. Little do they know, while they’re publicly duking it out with snarky memes and retweet battles, they’re also falling for each other in real life ― on an anonymous chat app Jack built.
          As their relationship deepens and their online shenanigans escalate ― people on the internet are shipping them?? ― their battle gets more and more personal, until even these two rivals can’t ignore they were destined for the most unexpected, awkward, all-the-feels romance that neither of them expected.

21. Dead Heat - Dick Francis & Felix Francis

(This looks like the first book in the "collaboration" between father and son)

read by Martin Jarvis
9 cds (10.5 hours)

2007, Penguin Audio

352 pgs.

Adult Murder Mystery

Finished 4/8/2014

Goodreads Rating: 3.78

My Rating: 2.5 It was okay and went very quickly

PBS

Setting: Contemporary Newcastle/Cambridge and London, England

My comments:   2.5 - It was definitely okay, one of my three problems with it - and the biggest - was the reader.  I think the protagonist, Max, was supposed to be a young man, not yet thirty.  However, the reader made him sound a great deal older, and sort of stuffy.  I think if I could have "felt" that Max was under 30 I would have enjoyed the book more.  I really enjoyed the beginning and all the nitty-gritties of running a restaurant.  The mystery was compelling, but the reasons behind the hi-jinx were not plausible.  And the fast-and-furious loved story between Max and Caroline made both of them look desperate.  I found it really hard to believe.  Oh well.  On to the next!

Goodreads Review: Max Moreton is a rising culinary star and his Newmarket restaurant, The Hay Net, has brought acclaim. But two disasters fall. Food poisoning fells banquet attendees, and a bomb explodes the private boxes at a race, killing guests and employees.

Big Jimmy's Kum Kau Chinese Take Out - Ted Lewin

Harper Collins, 2002
32 pages
For: gr. 1-4
My rating: 4
Endpapers: Colorful Chinese take out menu...mmmmm...

Ted Lewin's masterful portraits cover these pages with black font on yellow or light blue, orange and yellow font on black. His are some of my favorites - they really capture place and mood.

It's Saturday and a young boy is going to "help" his parents run their Chinese take-out on a busy street corner in Brooklyn, New York. Ted Lewin has fashioned this after a real Chinese Take Out - named Kum Kau ("gum-kow"), in his own neighborhood. It describes the eight various cooks chopping, steaming, preparing fresh meats and vegetables for the onslaught that begins when the metal doors rise from the sidewalk for the 11 o'clock opening. It has a cute ending, a self portrait of the author eating his favorite - Buddha's Delight, - and an excellent explanation of how the the book's illustrations were created.

Yum. Chinese takout for dinner, anyone?