Anna Morgan

42 Jovial Jams (Jam recipes, canning and preserving, jars, Jar recipes, Jar meals, jam cookbook)
by Anna Morgan
Starts with table of contents where recipes are broken up into groups:
tools and recipes for jams.
Many methods for making jam is included. I like pressure cooker one myself but have done boiling water one as well.
Each recipe starts with a title, servings and a list of ingredients are included and you should be able to substitute for your healthier dietary needs: low sodium, low fat, low sugar and fresh vs. canned items.
Directions are given and there is NO nutritional information and NO photos.
What I like are the variety of fruits used. What I did not like was some combinations. I just wanted a blueberry one but they put other fruits in. Not sure it'd come out to what I think flavor would be like.… (more)

After some friendship conflicts (revealed through flashback memories), Grace decides to spend schoolies with her brother, Casper, rather than her uber-christian bible studies group. She is barely tolerated by Casper's friends until they meet a singer-songwriter named Elsie who convinces them all to camp on an uninhabited island for the week. The tension builds very slowly as the narrative moves through each of the four friends' perspectives, as we watch their friendships unravel and await their revelation that Elsie's invitation may have a sinister motive.

I liked the quiet way that each characters' emotions built a new layer of context onto the situation, but ultimately didn't find the novel especially riveting, except when I was trying to unpack the extra-narratorial clues spelled out through encyclopaedic sea-monster entries and newspaper reports about a past tragedy. Perhaps the voices weren't differentiated sharply enough for me. Or I just wanted a deeper engagement with the mythological framing. Or something more than a vaguely superficial reference to gay marriage and lesbian experimentation. Or maybe schoolies is just too far away from my middle aged perspective. Either way, it slightly missed the mark for me. Never the less, I expect that it will find plenty of teen readers - mainly girls - and especially recommend it to anyone struggling with didactic expressions of faith.… (more)

Interesting look at at a "Schoolies" week away. Grace has decided at the last minute to tag along with her (nearly twin) brother and his two best friends for their "schoolies" week down at the family beach shack, instead of the planned Bible camp.
This is because with the end of school, she is struggling to work out WHO she is and WHAT she wants to do with her life . (She has a planned overseas missionary exchange next year.) When her brother Casper 's friends see Grace has tagged along, they are not very happy and Elsie is downright rude because she thinks Grace will try and convert her to Christianity. Their first night at a party is tense affair until the 4 of them discover guitar playing local Sierra who mesmerizes them all with her siren like qualities. Sierra encourages the 4 to ditch the beach shack and camp on a nearby island with her instead. Under her spell, the 4 agree and then things get really interesting.
SPOILER ALERTS: Grace accidentally blabs to Caspar that his friend Elsie is in love with him (in front of Elsie), Noah is running over the panic attack he had in the last exam that will mean he failed a crucial subject, Caspar is realising he needs to commit to his future as a serious artist and he's running out of time to complete his folio. And Sierra? Who is she really? Why does she seem to want them to stay forever on the island, so much so that she "forgets" to fill up the boat petrol and then steals the oars so they can't get back to the mainland.
This book has a Girly cover that doesn't do it justice as something a bit darker. There is a LGBT moment between Grace and Seirra that make the book for older readers,,Year 9-10… (more)

Had to laugh when I started reading this as the main character Lara is attending St Margarets ( the same school I teach at) and the email address of the main character ends in the same suffix we use for our email addresses. This is about Lara coping with being in Year 10 after her older sister has finished Year 12 and is now taking a gap year overseas in Paris. Lara misses her sister a lot although she doesn't like being compared to her by teachers who taught her sibling previously. Then mysterious postcards start appearing from the sister saying that she is no longer in Paris and is now in Croatia and not to tell their Mum or Dad.
On top of all this, the new history teacher has given her an assignment about the Somerton Man, who was found dead on an Adelaide Beach in 1948 and has never been formally identified which is very intriguing but also Lara notices the teacher has something of a mystery about himself too. When Term 3 rolls around and her history teacher has vanished, Lara tries to sort out what is going on. There are added complications with her old "friendship" group, a new boy and the history teacher giving her too much individual after-school attention. Intriguing book with twists and turns.… (more)