Tag: Cynic

Henry Firth and Ian Theasby – Bish Bash Bosh! | Review

Title: Bish Bash Bosh!

Author: Henry Firth and Ian Theasby

Type: Non-Fiction

Page Count/Review Word Count: 290

Rating 4.25/5

This is the second Bosh! cookbook that they’ve released, and I enjoyed the recipes in the first book so much that I asked for the second one for my birthday. I’m lucky in that I have a super awesome girlfriend, and so she bought me a signed copy – although the cynic in me suspects that she just wanted me to cook for her. But that’s okay and I’m cool with that.

In case you didn’t get the memo, Bosh is a YouTube channel that specialises in making videos about vegan food. In this cookbook, they share all kinds of awesome recipes spanning a range of different cuisines, and I picked up everything from starters and desserts to bad ass mains, and in fact I ended by making roast stuffing balls, nut roast and quick onion gravy. It was delicious.

I tend to measure my recipe books based on how many of the recipes I take away with me and put into my overall master list of recipes. This book gave me a good 20+ recipes that I took away for good, and that compares to two or three from some other books that I could (but won’t) mention. And because my copy was a limited edition, it was also signed and included six bonus recipes, two of which in particular I was a fan of.

My only criticism would be that a lot of the recipes have already appeared on their YouTube channel. There were a few in here that I already had because of that, but I can live with that. Yum yum.

Click here to buy Bish Bash Bosh!.


Janis Jonevs – Doom 94 | Review

Title: Doom 94

Author: Janis Jonevs

Type: Fiction/Non-Fiction

Page Count/Review Word Count: 258

Rating 4.5/5

 

 

This book was fantastic for two simple reasons objectively, because it’s different, and subjectively, because it reflected my own childhood. It turns out that the Latvian city of Jelgava in the mid-nineties had a lot in common with the British town of Tamworth in the mid-2000s.

As you’ve probably guessed from that, Jonevs is a Latvian, and I actually met him at a party/networking event when I was invited to Riga to learn more about Latvian literature. This book wasn’t out at the time, at least not in English, but I’d heard enough about it to think that I was going to like it. I just didn’t expect to like it this much.

It’s basically a coming of age story, following Jonevs and his fellow metalheads as they finish up at school, discover drink, drugs and cigarettes and get into the Latvian metal scene. I hadn’t heard of most of the bands, of course, but there were mentions here and there of those that I had heard of. Kurt Cobain’s suicide plays a part in the plot and there were shoutouts for bands like My Dying Bride, Mayhem and Burzum. There was even a mention for Cynic, who are probably my favourite out of all of the heavier bands that Jonevs talked about. How Could I? and Veil of Maya in particular.

The only reason for 4.5/5 and not 5/5 is that there were a few typos.

 

 

Click here to buy Doom 94.