Views from the Page and the Oven

In the Garden of Beasts

2012-02-16T09:30:00.000-05:00

At a time when hundreds of men have been put to death without trial or any sort of evidence of guilt, and when the population literally trembles with fear, animals have rights guaranteed them which men and women cannot think of expecting."
He added, "One might easily wish he were a horse!

Erik Larson’s In the Garden of Beasts follows William E. Dodd as he becomes the first American ambassador to Hitler’s Germany in 1933. Dodd is a mild-mannered professor at the University of Chicago when FDR calls upon him to be the ambassador after pretty much everyone else says no. Dodd thinks he’ll be able to work on his history of the South but soon finds that his time as ambassador won’t be a respite. Dodd moves his whole family, although his son and wife only make minor appearances while his daughter, Martha, is prominently featured. Martha becomes quite taken with the early Third Reich and the “New Germany” and finds herself in some interesting and problematic company for much of the book. Larson is able to show both the US’s (and other nations of the world) as well as individuals blind spots to what is really going on in Hitler’s Germany, how many did not want to hear of the escalating warning signs that were apparent at every turn. While Dodd was ambassador from 1933-1937, the book mainly concentrates on the first year he is there, with some call-outs from later years.

I read and quite enjoyed Larson’s Devil in the White City and comparatively, In the Garden of Beasts is not as strong. It is still interesting but it’s pace is a bit more plodding-though it did take me a bit to get into Devil once I did I had a hard time putting it down which never really happened with Beasts. There is a lot of detail in this book, which doesn’t always have to be a bad thing, I recall a lot of detail in Devil as well, but in this one it feels a bit more tedious, a bit more of a slog. That’s not the say the book isn’t interesting, because it is, the book provides insights to the major players in Hitler’s government as people and not just figures in the evil Hitler government. It’s worth a read if you like Larson, or are interested in the topic, but don’t be surprised if it isn’t quite a page turner for you.

Indiespensable 31: Running the Rift

2012-02-14T09:30:00.000-05:00

I really must be better on writing up these posts when my Indiespensable comes in the mail. Volume 31 graced my mailbox a little over a week ago carrying in it Naomi Benaron’s debut novel Running the Rift, “the story of Jean Patrick Nkuba, a boy growing up in Rwanda before and during the genocide. He plans to become an Olympic runner, hoping that that might secure some measure of safety for his family and people.” The book won the Bellwether Prize, which is awarded to novels that address issues of social justice and seems to be well received thus far. Also included in the package, the inaugural edition of the Algonquin Reader and a tea and postcard set from the new book Glaciers.

Volume 32 has been announced and will be The Book of Jonas and has yet to sell out, if you are interested. It’s set to ship on March 23rd.

Embassytown

2012-02-11T09:30:00.000-05:00

Oh China Miéville, your books are always so crazy. For this one, I’m just going to quote the synopsis form goodreads because otherwise, I’m not sure how to explain it:

In the far future, humans have colonized a distant planet, home to the enigmatic Ariekei, sentient beings famed for a language unique in the universe, one that only a few altered human ambassadors can speak. Avice Benner Cho, a human colonist, has returned to Embassytown after years of deep-space adventure. She cannot speak the Ariekei tongue, but she is an indelible part of it, having long ago been made a figure of speech, a living simile in their language. When distant political machinations deliver a new ambassador to Arieka, the fragile equilibrium between humans and aliens is violently upset. Catastrophe looms, and Avice is torn between competing loyalties—to a husband she no longer loves, to a system she no longer trusts, and to her place in a language she cannot speak yet speaks through her.

One of the things I love about Miéville’s books is the fact that he just drops you into whatever world he has created without any explanation. It’s just, here you go, have fun! He trusts that the reader is smart enough to figure out what is going on, eventually, at least by the end of the book, probably. Miéville creates an entire new world from scratch, even the terminology, and the language, and of course “Language” is new and confusing. But the reader just gets thrown in and for a long while, you’re just trying to keep your head afloat so you don’t drown. But then eventually, somehow, it all (mostly) clicks and you find yourself swimming through Miéville’s story, as crazy as it is.

Honestly, I don’t even know where to begin to describe my thoughts on this book. I’m not sure I’m even going to try. Every time I pick up a Miéville novel, I’m not sure what I’m going to get (besides his love of world building) and this one is no different. It is so complex and layered, there is so much going on. I do have to marvel at his ability to build worlds out of nothing, to make his reader trust that everything he is doing has a purpose, even when they have no idea what is going on.

Miss Entropia and the Adam Bomb

2012-02-09T09:30:00.000-05:00

The last book of 2011George Rabasa’s Miss Entropia and the Adam Bomb, and what a novel to finish off the year with. Once again, this novel came across my path due to the ravings of Rebecca at The Book Lady’s Blog and the Bookrageous podcasts. When I found myself in Hawaii, and out of library books on my nook, I turned to my goodreads list, looking for something to buy. I’m glad it was this one.

Miss Entropia is a crazy story. It follows Adam Webb a teenaged boy a client of the illustrious Institute Loiseaux, a mental institute in Minnesota. When his paths cross with one Francine Haggard a.k.a. Miss Entropia a.k.a. Pia his life will never be the same. Adam spends much of his time and energy tracking down Pia and once he finds her, his life begins to spin out of control.

This book is fantastically hilarious and heartbreaking all at the same time. As Pia becomes the object of Adam’s obsession his barely-there grasp on reality becomes non-existent. The novel is a worthwhile romp with truly messed-up and tragic characters, spinning their way to the all too inevitable ending. Hilarious and heartbreaking, even as the two of them spiral out of control, you can’t help but laugh at their crazy antics and hijinks. A good way to end a good reading year indeed. Now I want to track down Rabasa's other novel The Wonder Singer and see if lightening can strike twice.

The Name of the Star

2012-02-07T09:30:00.000-05:00

Before I get into the second to last book I read in 2011 (look at that progress! Almost done. I’m not going to think about the 7 books I’ve already read in 2012 right now.) can we talk about that cover? Thoroughly creepy huh? It’s definitely fitting for the book.

Anyway, I’ve been following Maureen Johnson on twitter for quite some time (If you’re on twitter, and not following her, please do so now @maureenjohnson you will not regret it) and I’ve found her tweets hilarious the vast majority of the time. I had never read one of her books though, but when I heard about her newest book, The Name of the Star, in which someone is carrying out the Jack the Ripper murders all over again to a tee, well, I was already intrigued. Add that to what a know about Maureen from twitter and my curiosity was boosted another notch. So when I found myself on the beach in Hawaii, without any library ebooks left to read, but plenty of gift cards for my nook, I quickly snatched up this one, and I am sure glad that I did.

Rory Deveaux arrives in London to spend her Senior year at a prestigious boarding school on what happens to be the first day of a crime spree that will shock London to the core all over again. Someone has taken to carrying out the Jack the Ripper murders. As the locations of the murders close in around Rory’s boarding school, Rory begins to realize she can see things no one else can. Before she knows it, Rory is more involved in the case than anyone could ever imagine, and her life takes a turn towards the strange and bizarre.

I really enjoyed what Maureen did with this book. It was quite a page turner, I mean I finished the book in one day while on vacation, sure I do a lot of reading but still. I was riveted through most of the story and found the plot thrilling. The writing is pretty good and the plot is quite layered and complex. And Maureen has definitely done her research here, the descriptions of locations are picturesque and her facts on Jack the Ripper are solid. Which is good, considering how well known the Ripper murders are and how crazy people are about them, if she had messed anything up people would be all over it. So anyway, yay Maureen! Also, the book is funny, I definitely laughed quite a bit while reading it. People probably thought I was crazy, but I’m okay with that.

The Name of the Star is the first book in what I believe is going to be a trilogy, Maureen has just finished her manuscript of the second, entitled The Madness Underneath, which should be coming out later this year. The book works well as a stand alone, but I am interested in where Maureen is going to take Rory and the other characters she introduced in this one.

Scrumptious Sunday: Salty Sweet Brownies

2012-02-05T09:11:00.000-05:00

Even though I’m a bake everything from scratch kind of girl, the one thing I will make out the box are brownies. If you get a good brand, sometimes you can hardly tell the difference. However, once I saw these brownies I knew I had to try them out. They’re rich and chewy, with salted caramel deliciousness on the inside. I made these when we had some company over a few weeks ago and they were a bit hit, even with those that aren’t usually big dessert people. (My baked goods win everyone over). They’re made with both dark cocoa powder and melted dark chocolate so they’re extra chocolaty. Super good. The caramel filling calls for sour cream, which I found to be very odd, but it totally works out, I don’t know if it does something awesome to the finished product but all I can say is that it was delicious.

Salt Sweet Brownies (found via mybakingaddiction)
Caramel filling:

1 cup sugar
2 tablespoons light corn syrup
1/4 cup water
1/2 cup heavy cream
1 teaspoon Fleur de Sel
1/4 cup sour cream

Brownie:

1 1/4 cups all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon salt
2 tablespoons dark unsweetened cocoa powder
11 ounces quality dark chocolate (60 to 72%), coarsely chopped
1 cup unsalted butter, cut into 1-inch cubes
1 1/2 cups sugar
1/2 cup firmly packed light brown sugar
5 large eggs, at room temperature
2 teaspoons vanilla extract

To make the filling:
1) Combine the sugar, corn syrup, and water in a medium saucepan.
2) Cook over high heat, until a thermometer reads 350 degrees and liquid is a dark amber color, about 6-8 minutes. As you’re cooking the liquid, it might seem like it is going to take forever to get to 350, but the temperature rapidly increases once you get past about 250 or so, so make sure you keep a watchful eye on it.
3) Remove from the heat and slowly (and I mean slowly) add the heavy cream. The mixture will bubble up rapidly, so add the heavy cream in a slow but steady stream. Add the fancy salt. Wisk in sour cream and set aside.

To make the brownies:
1) Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Grease an 9x13 pan, line the bottom with parchment paper.
2) Wisk together the flour, salt, and cocoa powder.
3) Melt the chocolate with the butter in a double boiler, stirring frequently. Once the chocolate and butter are fully melted, turn off the heat, keeping the bowl over the boiling water and add both sugars. Wisk until completely combined, remove from stove.
4) Once the chocolate mixture cools to room temperature, add the eggs and whisk together until combined. Add the vanilla.
5) Add the flour mixture and fold the ingredients together until just combined, you will still be able to see some flour at this point.
6) Pour half the brownie mixture into the pan and spread evenly. Pour 3/4 cup of the caramel mixture over the brownie layer, being careful not to touch the edges of the pan. Smooth the caramel with a spatula to evenly coat the brownie. Scoop the remainder of the brownie mixture over the caramel and carefully smooth over.
7) Bake brownies for 30 minutes, until a toothpick comes out with just a few moist crumbs attached to it.
8) Remove the brownies and sprinkle with fancy salt and coarse sugar. Let cool to room temperature and enjoy!

Waiting for Columbus

2012-01-31T20:14:00.001-05:00

There are days when she wishes she could be blunt, or even violent. She’d like to shake him-get the remaining stories to fall onto the ground. Then they could stand around and look at the bones of his stories, all haphazard and abstruse on the pebbles. In the clear light of day, they could perhaps make sense of these bones, put them in order, find the end, and more important, find the beginning before the beginning.

Getting towards the end of books read in 2011 here, just these last three to go. In Waiting for Columbus Thomas Trofimuk presents us with an insane asylum with a new patient. A man is brought to this asylum in contemporary Spain insisting that he is Christopher Columbus. Through the stories he tells Nurse Consuela the reader is brought into the mind of this patient, a mind that has been so severely traumatized that histories fuse together.

Trofimuk does a great job of keeping the reader engaged in the story. This in no way is a straight telling of the Columbus we know from our history lessons. Trofimuk shows the many sides and complexities of the man, while weaving in enough anachronisms into the 15th century story to keep the reader wondering what exactly is going on (Columbus has a phone what?), as this is no ordinary tale. It is not until the very last pages, when Columbus the patient has finally told years worth of tales of his life, that the reader finally understands exactly what happened.

This is a fairly long book, so it is a lot to ask of readers to be kept in the dark for so long, wondering if the pay off will all be worth it in the end, but the prose are strong and the story engrossing enough, that if you enjoy books that are as much about the journey as anything else, Waiting for Columbus should be right up your ally. Because of the style, the vast majority of the book feels like walking in unfamiliar territory in a really bad fog, one that you can’t even see your hand in front of your face it’s so bad. Which way is up? We have no idea, but that’s the point, and gives more bang for your buck if you stick with it through the end. This book is so much more than I’ve been able to describe here, it’s mystery, intrigue, romance, a puzzle in which the reader is just along for the ride.

Sex at Dawn

2012-01-28T09:34:00.000-05:00

It is a common mistake to assume that evolution is a process of improvement, that evolving organisms are progressing toward some final, perfected state. But they, and we, are not. An evolving society or organism simply adapts over the generations to changing conditions. While these modifications may be immediately beneficial, they are not really improvements because external conditions never stop shifting.

Asking whether our species is naturally peaceful or warlike, generous or possessive, free-loving or jealous, is like asking whether H2O is naturally a solid, liquid or gas. The only meaningful answer to such a question is: It depends.

So, here’s another book that I’d heard so much about on the bookrageous podcasts that I knew I was going to have to read (apparently whenever someone gushes repeatedly about a book I must read it). Sex At Dawn takes a look at humans throughout their history and paints a picture on the opposite end of the spectrum of the “naturally monogamous” species of today. The book lays out how it was only with the rise of agriculture and of private property that the whole idea of one man and one woman exclusivity came to be. Out went the sharing lifestyle of the hunter gatherers, and in came ownership, over all things.

Sex at Dawn covers a lot of ground in its 400 or so pages and most of the time its breadth is to its benefit. It’s funny and engaging, informative without getting to bogged down in the weeds for the most part. If the idea that monogamy is a new social construct and in fact is most likely not inherent to humans is foreign to you, be prepared to have your mind blown. I mean seriously, the arguments and logic the authors put forth are pretty solid and there are a ton of great nuggets of information in here as well. Reading about the different cultures that handle sexuality and marriage in different ways is utterly fascinating. I think those were the parts I enjoyed the most.

This book isn’t saying that we shouldn’t form families, or pair bonds, or be used as a get out of jail free card for infidelity; it just asks that people reconsider the “inherentness” of monogamy, the “naturalness” of it, the idea that prehistoric life was “nasty, brutish, and short”. All in all, it’s an engaging and interesting book that makes the reader think. What does it mean for our society as a whole? Who knows, perhaps just knowing that every day in our relationships, we are making a conscious choice of how to act is something. Knowing that even if we are hard wired to want something other than monogamy that this is the choice we are making for whatever reason may make people look at things in a different light. Interesting read regardless of how to take the authors’ conclusions.

The Nobodies Album

2012-01-26T09:30:00.000-05:00

Carolyn Parkhurst’s The Nobodies Album was the first full book I read while on vacation in Hawaii (yep, still haven’t caught up on what I read to finish our the year, but slowly making progress, I’m not even going to think about the 4 books I’ve already read this year). I had heard about it from Rebecca over at The Books Lady’s Blog either on her blog, on bookrageous (which if you haven’t checked out you need to, like now), or on twitter. It sounded interesting (that lady can sell a book) so when I saw it was available from my library in ebook form, I jumped at the chance to bring it with on vacation.

In the novel, our main character, Octavia Frost, author, is dropping off a manuscript of her new book-in which she has rewritten the last chapter of each of her previous books-when she hears the news that her estranged son-who is part of a well-known band-has been accused of murdering his girlfriend. Octavia decides, that despite the fact she hasn’t talked to Milo in years, she will fly out to San Francisco to see him and try to piece together the truth of what happened.

Interspersed between chapters of Octavia’s efforts in San Francisco, we also get the book jackets, original last chapter, and the alternate ending to all of Octavia’s novels. These often give the reader background information on Octavia’s life, her estrangement with her son Milo, and slowly tells the story of their lives’ tragedy in the past.

Weaving all these pieces of information and storylines into one coherent novel isn’t any easy task and I’d say that Parkhurst pulls it off quite well. Though I do often enjoy stories that are told from multiple perspectives so it’s not that surprising that this format worked for me since it was done well. I didn’t think it felt disjointed or jerky at all. Parkhurst also does an amazing job getting at the complex emotions and psychology of mother and son as well as the other couples in this story, and just the complexities of people in general. Now that I’ve finished this one, I’m interested to see what Parkhurst has written in the past, perhaps I’ll go back and read some of her previous works.

Gang Leader for a Day

2012-01-24T09:30:00.000-05:00

We live in a community, understand? Not the projects- I hate that word. We live in a community. We need a helping hand now and then, but who doesn’t? Everyone in this building helps as much as they can. We share our food, just like I’m doing with you. My son says you’re writing about his life- well, you may want to write about this community and how we help each other. and when I come over to your house, you’ll share with me. You’ll cook for me if I’m hungry. But when you’re here, you’re in my home and my community. And we’ll take care of you.

In Gang Leader for a Day, Sudhir Venkatesh is a grad student studying sociology at the University of Chicago in Hyde Park. (It is the full version of what appears in a shorter form in Freakonomics)One day, as he is trying to have people from Chicago’s housing projects complete a survey for his research, he accidently finds himself taken under the wing of JT, one of the leaders of the Black Kings. By befriending JT, Sudhir spends the next seven years “observing” (but has Sudhir learns, he can’t just observe) JT, the Black Kings, and the inhabitants of the infamous Robert Taylor homes. As the title suggests, Sudhir gets his chance to run JT’s section of the Black Kings for a day and throughout his time with JT is introduced to the upper echelons of the Black Kings organization.

Sudhir’s book flows much more like a novel than a compilation of facts typical of some nonfiction books, and his experience with JT and the Black Kings is an interesting and unique one. It also deals a bit with Sudhir’s conflicting emotions about how he is, in a sense, using the residents of the Robert Taylor Homes, as well as JT, to further his research and academic standing as well as his feelings on being privy to the inner workings of a gang and everything that goes along with it. Sudhir is able to very vividly illustrate the inner workings of both the Black Kings and the Robert Taylor Homes, the complexities within each, and explain the attitudes of the residents which often would seem puzzling to those not living in this situation (e.g. letting the gang protect the residents because the police/ambulances won’t show up etc.). There is a lot of good information in this book that isn’t often discussed and it gives a different perspective and face to the residents of housing projects.

Scrumptious Sunday: Red Wine Cake

2012-01-22T09:30:00.000-05:00

This cake is super easy and super delicious. It calls for 3/4 cup of any red wine, which makes it great to make if you haven’t quite finished a bottle of wine. The other fun thing about this cake is that depending on what red wine you use. I used a Mourvedre from Airfield Estates which is a little bit spicy which goes quite nicely with the chocolate and the cinnamon. It was a big crowd pleaser and I’m pretty sure I was told that it was the best cake I had ever made.

Red Wine Cake via Smitten Kitchen

6 tablespoons (85 grams) unsalted butter, at room temperature
3/4 cup (179 grams) firmly packed dark brown sugar
1/4 cup (50 grams) white granulated sugar
1 large egg + 1 large egg yolk, at room temperature
3/4 cup (177 ml) red wine, any kind you like*
1 teaspoon (5 ml) vanilla extract
1 cup + 1 tablespoon (133 grams) all-purpose flour
1/2 cup (41 grams) Dutch cocoa powder
1/8 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon baking powder
1/4 teaspoon table salt
1/4 teaspoon ground cinnamon

1) Preheat oven to 325 F.
2) Spray or parchment and butter a 9-inch round cake pan.
3) On medium speed, cream the butter until smooth. Add both sugars and beat until fluffy, about 3 minutes.
4) Add egg and yolk to the mix and beat well, then add the red wine and vanilla. [The batter will look a bit bizarre, coagulated almost, don’t worry it’s fine.]
5) Sift flour, cocoa powder, baking soda, baking powder, salt, and cinnamon over the wet ingredients. Mix until mostly combined, then fold until fully combined.
6) Spread batter into pan and bake for 25 to 30 minutes, until a toothpick comes out clean. Cool pan on a rack for 10 minutes, then flip onto rack and cool completely.

The Magician King

2012-01-18T09:28:00.000-05:00

You didn’t get the quest you wanted, you got the one you could do.

Earlier in 2011, I read Lev Grossman’s The Magicians which I enjoyed quite a bit. The word about the sequel, The Magician King was that it had all the things you loved about The Magicians and none of the stuff you didn’t; which after reading, I feel is a fair assessment. A lot of the wrinkles that popped up in Grossman’s writing/storytelling in the first one have been smoothed out, Quentin isn’t quite so angst-ridden, well he is but it doesn’t seem as annoying? He’s returned to Fillory with his friends to rule as kings and queens and he isn’t quite happy, what he really wants is more adventure, and boy does he get it. He starts by volunteering to go on a diplomatic mission to the farthest island in Fillory but what he gets is so much more. We also get to hear the backstory on Julia, his friend of the “real” world who didn’t make it into Brakebills, which is an interesting and well-told, and CRAZY story. Quentin and Julia find themselves questing all around and in the mean time all sorts of crazy and terrible things are happening back in Fillory. We get a few new characters to fill the gaps left at the end of the last book and we find ourselves acquainted with some familiar faces.

Oftentimes, a sequel doesn’t quite stand up to the first in a series, or books in the middle of a series sometimes drift off, but I think I can say with full confidence that this sequel is even better than the first.

There were quite a few, I can’t believe that just happened, moments, and the ending oh boy, I did NOT see that coming. I read somewhere that this is going to be trilogy (of course I can’t find that source now, other than just a passing reference that this is the second in a trilogy, maybe that’s all we know right now?) but if so, I’m excited to see where Grossman takes us next, especially in light of how this one ended.

I read the vast majority of this on my long plane ride from DC to Seattle back in December, and it definitely kept my attention the whole way through. If you read and enjoyed The Magicians, definitely continue with this one. Depending on what your issues with The Magicians were, you might find you enjoy the sequel since I really do think Grossman improved the story immensely.

Indiespensable Volume 30: The Marriage Plot

2012-01-14T20:56:00.002-05:00

So, as I’m currently reading Jeffrey Eugenides’ The Marriage Plot, I realized I never did a post for the Indiespensable shipment that it came with! This one came to me back in November I think. Obviously, The Marriage Plot was a long time coming so there was a lot of excitement around the novel. So what else came in Indiespensable 30?

Of course there was the signed, slipcased copy of The Marriage Plot and this time a full, final copy of another book, Silas Marner by George Elliot.

Volume 31 will ship January 25th (it was a long wait for this one!) and will include Naomi Benaron’s Running the Rift.

The Secret Life of Bees

2012-01-10T09:30:00.000-05:00

Knowing can be a curse on a person's life. I'd traded in a pack of lies for a pack of truth, and I didn't know which one was heavier. Which one took the most strength to carry around? It was a ridiculous question, though, because once you know the truth, you can't ever go back and pick up your suitcase of lies. Heavier or not, the truth is yours now.

Sue Monk Kidd’s The Secret Life of Bees follows 14-year-old Lily Owens, who’s life has been shaped by the blurry memory she has of the day her mother died. She and Rosaleen, her “stand-in mother” flee their small town, where Rosaleen has managed to insult three of the biggest racists in town, to Tiburon, South Carolina which Lily believes has some tie to the mother she barely remembers.

Now, I know that I am WAY late on this book, apparently published in 2003, and that there was a 2008 movie adaptation, but somehow, I still had no idea what this book entailed. It was another one of those, I’m getting ready to travel, let’s see what the e-library has I can download now.

For me, the highlight of this book was the three Boatwright sisters, August, June, and May, that Rosaleen and Lily find themselves with as well as the rest of the Daughters of Mary clan. Lily herself, and the majority of the story just wasn’t very memorable to me. In fact, besides remembering I enjoyed the three sisters and the Daughters of Mary the most, and that there was a lot of what was supposed to be heartwarming pieces of wisdom and revelations, I don’t really remember much about the book itself; which for me, makes for a very underwhelming reading experience.

The Weird Sisters

2012-01-08T19:15:00.001-05:00

Our destiny is in the way we were born, in the way we were raised, in the sum of the three of us.

Another one that I read ages ago, and this time I was jet lagged from my trip to the UK so my memory is a bit hazy. Anyway…

Eleanor Brown’s debut novel, The Weird Sisters, focuses on a family in the small, college town of Barnwell, Ohio where the father is a professor of English and renowned Shakespearian scholar. As such, Shakespeare, as well as books in general, have always been an integral part of the sisters lives. The younger of the two, Bianca (Bean), Cordelia (Cordy), have moved away from home while Rosalind (Rose) chose to remain close to home. (And yes of course the three daughters all have Shakespearean names.) Though due to problems in their own lives and the revelations of their mother’s cancer, the three find themselves back together in their childhood homes much to the sisters’ dismay.

Brown chooses to narrate the story through the first person plural voice, “we”. I don’t always find this narrative device to be useful or effective, but Brown uses it well enough that it didn’t bother me and I actually found it to be fairly effective. The writing throughout the novel is beautiful, her descriptions moving. However, this is also one of the book’s weaknesses. Brown spends so much time in description, the plot moves along at a very slow pace, and there’s not much plot to move forward anyway. Also, the ending was a bit abrupt, as well as a bit to neat and twee for my liking. The use of an epilogue which travels just enough time in the future was enough to confuse me for a bit too. Despite these flaws it was a nice enough book that while wasn’t a favorite of mine, was solid enough.

When She Woke

2012-01-06T09:30:00.000-05:00

You don't have to stop thinking and asking questions to believe in God, child. If He'd wanted a flock of eight billion sheep, He wouldn't have given us opposable thumbs, much less free will.

Hannah Payne is 26 and wakes up one day in an unfamiliar place to an unfamiliar skin, her own, but it is red. In the not to distant future (and sadly one that is not entirely unimaginable) where religious fanatics are running the country criminals are dyed colors based on the level of their crimes and only the most violent and dangerous are kept in prison. Most, once they are “melachromed” and serve an initial sentence in “prison” which is also broadcast on TV (talk about reality programming huh?) are released into the world to try to make their way through their time as a Color. It’s not easy, and many do not survive.

During her time as a Red, Hannah is forced to confront her beliefs and her entire world view based on her actions and her new situation. The reader slowly learns the details of Hannah’s crime and embarks on her new journey.

I didn’t know much about this novel going in, I need a bunch of things to load onto my nook for my flight and time in the UK and this was available from the library, but I quickly drew the parallels between it and The Scarlet Letter (which I am remiss to admit I have not read), When She Woke being a modern retelling which I verified once I finished it. For the vast majority of the book Jordan builds a world and a story that is engaging, page-turning, and disturbing—mostly because the theories and ideas behind the reality of the book are not so far-fetched. There are a few parts that seem incongruous and thrown in out of nowhere and, for me, the ending fizzled a bit and went off the rails but as a whole, this was a striking novel.

We the Animals

2012-01-04T20:12:00.001-05:00

Hey look! A post! About something I read! Awesome. As you can tell, I’m easing back into this whole catch up thing in 2012. Since I read this book way back at the end of November/early December on an airplane my thoughts are probably going to be brief (which seems fitting for a novel of such brevity perhaps, but maybe not since there’s a lot in it for so few pages).

In Torres’ pseudo-autobiographic debut novel (novella perhaps? at around 125 pages) We the Animals, he gives us three boys in a family, the youngest as narrator but using “we” for most of the story. The narrator shows the reader what it’s like growing up in his tumultuous family in Brooklyn, the good times and the bad. The chapters read more to me like a series of loosely related vignettes to show the reader the time in question rather than a complete flowing novel. Some of the language throughout the novel was quite good, very enjoyable and beautiful in parts. The descriptions are also very vivid, for the time it takes you to read through this short tale you truly live the character’s life, see things as he does, understand (or not) the things he does.

I seem to remember this little book getting quite a bit of press when it came out, and while I enjoyed it enough to not regret reading it, I wasn’t blown away by it. As I mentioned, some of the writing was really great, but otherwise the story just kind of washed over me, I didn’t get very absorbed or engaged in it and the parts that weren’t beautifully written felt disjointed and jerky at times. Although I must say, that is a pretty cover.

Merry Christmas, Happy New Year and all that Jazz!

2012-01-01T16:05:00.001-05:00

This year’s Christmas

So December was not such a great posting month for me. Between all the travel I did in November, trying to catch up was just too much. Besides, it’s hard to post when you’re on a beach for almost 2 weeks, which is where I’ve been :) My family decided to take Christmas to Maui this year, and it was awesome. And I’m tan, which is rare and exciting! While I may not have blogged a lot, I sure did read a lot, long flights and days lounging on the beach will do that so hopefully I’ll be posting at least brief thoughts on all the things I’ve read through the end of the year. With all that reading time, I pushed my total books read this year past last years (it was looking unlikely for a while there—I was so far behind) to a grand total of 71 books and 30,321 pages and I enjoyed most of them! Only 7 of my books received less than 3 stars, which I’d say is pretty good all things considered.

Hopefully things will get back to more regularly posting here, I don’t have any travel for quite some time which should help. Hopefully I’ll also be baking more frequently again now that I’ll be around for large chunks of time, I sure have a lot of recipes I want to try out. (Though it will have to wait at least a bit, as we have NO food in the house right now.)

I hope you all had a wonderful Christmas, holiday, and New Year! Wishing you all the best and nothing but happiness in 2012! Now, until I get the motivation to post all those books I’m behind on, here’s some pictures from Hawaii!

Beach outside our condo

View from our lanai

Rainbow (we saw a LOT of them) at the luau; Warning sign at outlook

Zone One

2011-12-12T21:46:00.001-05:00

Best to let the broken glass be broken glass, let it splinter into smaller pieces and dust and scatter. Let the cracks between things widen until they are no longer cracks but the new places for things. That was where they were now. The world wasn't ending: it had ended and now they were in the new place. They could not recognize it because they had never seen it before.

I feel like zombie/apocalyptic books are the new the new fad in books, they seem to be everywhere lately. Colson Whitehead’s Zone One though is different than a lot of them. Whitehead deals more with the aftermath of the thing that caused the apocalypse, and how those remaining are rebuilding; it’s really more of a look at the human psyche and how we survive. Plus, it’s a more literary take on the whole thing.

Whitehead drops us into a world in which the plague is receding and the government (now in Buffalo) is beginning to think about resettling portions of the country, most notably what is being called “Zone One” in New York City. In order to resettle, the government is sending in teams of civilian sweepers to finish up the remaining “harmless” straggling zombies. Our main character, Mark Spitz, is a part of one those sweeper cells. Of course things don’t go exactly as planned in the resettlement of Zone One. We also are filled in on a lot of what happened via flashbacks.

Now, I had heard very conflicting things about this book. It seems like people either enjoy it or hate it, and it’s definitely not a book for everyone. I appreciate what Whitehead was doing, and he mostly was successful in accomplishing it, but honestly I wasn’t rushing to pick this book up during my time reading it. I think this would be a good discussion book as there are a lot of ideas and devices Whitehead uses throughout. I am eager to see what the Bookrageous crew has to say about this one, since it's their first book club pick which should be posting soon (hopefully)!

The Little Friend

2011-12-06T17:57:00.001-05:00

My love for Donna Tartt is well documented (see my gushing over The Secret History). I’ve heard mixed things about her second book The Little Friend but knew I would read it eventually anyway. I’m also waiting on baited breadth, like many others, for her next novel, something like 10 years in the making. It’s coming for sure—supposedly in 2012--, we’ve gotten confirmation on that point, but it can’t quite come soon enough.

But Robin: their dear little Robs. More than ten years later, his death remained an agony; there was no glossing any detail; its horror was not subject to repair or permutation by any of the narrative devices that the Cleves knew. And—since this willful amnesia had kept Robin's death from being translated into that sweet old family vernacular which smoothed even the bitterest mysteries into comfortable, comprehensible form—the memory of that day's events had a chaotic, fragmented quality, bright mirrorshards of nightmare which flared at the smell of wisteria, the creaking of a clothes-line, a certain stormy cast of spring light.

In The Little Friend, Tartt continues her amazing character construction and writing that she gave us in The Secret History. The main character, Harriet Dufresnes, is the youngest child in a family that has been overshadowed by the mysterious death of her brother Robin. In the midst of the Mother’s Day excitement, Robin is found dead hanging from a tree in the family backyard. How this happened with family all around and who committed this terrible act of things of mystery. One day, Harriet, a girl beyond her 12 years, decides to solve the mystery behind Robin’s death and to exact her revenge on the perpetrator(s), but Harriet soon finds herself well over her head and edging along more dark doings than she can imagine.

The story itself isn’t so much about Robin’s death as it is about the effect his absence has on the rest of the family, most importantly Harriet. Again, Tartt really shines in her character development and her writing. The characters, setting, relationships, everything is so real and life-like it feels like the reader is actually experiencing the plot with the other characters, especially Harriet.

So how does The Little Friend compare to The Secret History? Well, for me, The Secret History was mind-blowing, so freaking good that I’m not sure there are many things that will compare. I had to be very very careful what to read after for this very reason. The Little Friend isn’t quite up to the standard set by The Secret History but there was enough of what I found so enjoyable about Tartt in it to make me enjoy it. It wasn’t as un-put-down-able as The Secret History but I think that’s partially because it really isn’t a mystery with so many crazy twists and turns (not that The Secret History is necessarily a mystery either), the mystery plot points are secondary to the bigger picture of what’s going on in this one.

Anyway, Tartt’s writing and style is amazing as usual, maybe she tried to do too much/something too different from what she’s good at with the second book and it just didn’t quite work as well. Regardless, it was an enjoyable journey that I don’t regret, and I’m still eager for her next book next year (fingers crossed!).

She did not care for children’s books in which the children grew up, as what “growing up” entailed (in life as in books) was a swift and inexplicable dwindling of character; out of a clear blue sky the heroes and heroines abandoned their adventures for some dull sweetheart, got married and had families, and generally starting acting like a bunch of cows.

Pip-pip Cheerio!

2011-12-04T13:12:00.001-05:00

Another long absence, my November and December has been/will be full of them. First I had my trip “home” to Seattle and most recently I was in Cambridge, UK for work. So, I have a stack of things to write about, super long flights will do wonders for your books read count, unless of course you plane happens to have those entertainment systems you get to control and you find yourself watching a bajillion movies and TV shows just because you can—but I digress. So, while I get myself together to tackle my growing review pile, enjoy these photos from Cambridge!

It was a good, successful trip, but it's good to be home.

Robopocalypse

2011-11-15T09:30:00.000-05:00

Memories fade but words hang around forever.

First off, this book should really be made into a movie, I mean it’s just screaming big-budget Spielberg film. Basically, sometime in the near future, all the computer run technologies—cars with computer chips, robots, etc—turn against humans and the New War begins, pitting humans against these technologies. The book is told through a series of transcribed vignettes from information found on a cube at the end of the New War by Cormac “Bright Boy” Wallace.

The novel then progresses through five sections beginning with descriptions of initial incidents, moving to Zero Hour, Survival, Awakening, and Retaliation and through these sections we learn how the New War started and ended.

How much change can a person absorb before everything loses meaning Living for its own sake isn't life. People need meaning as much as they need air.

This is definitely in Sci-Fi territory, I mean the author holds a Ph.D in robotics. The plot is really story driven, there isn’t much character depth, complexity or development throughout, not that the story is completely devoid of it, but there is much less than a normal novel. It’s an enjoyable enough story, especially for when I was reading it, on vacation and the long cross country plane ride back, but it wasn’t a brilliant piece of writing.

A Discovery of Witches

2011-11-13T11:38:00.001-05:00

As far as I can tell there are only two emotions that keep the world spinning year after year…One is fear. The other is desire.

So this book has a witch for a heroine, a vampire for her companion/love interest, and daemons. Was I skeptical of this one before I started it? Oh yeah, but it had gotten such good reviews all over the place so I figured some time I should give it a try. Well, I had that long cross-country flight coming up and I could get it from the library for my nook so the timing seemed perfect. And you know what? It was exactly what I needed, I really enjoyed this book, a lot, like I’m really surprised. It made the flight fly by (as much as a 6 hour flight can fly by) and I stayed up late one night just to finish it.

So much has been said about this book that a synopsis probably isn’t really important as this point, but the gist of it is our heroine Diana Bishop, is a witch. Not just any witch but one with a super strong lineage, but she doesn’t use her magic. One day while researching in Oxford she comes across a book that appears to be enchanted and has been lost for years. She sends it back into the stacks but soon finds herself surrounded by other witches, vampires, and daemons all who want the book.

Our heroine, Diana, is actually smart and strong, the characters well drawn, dynamic, and flawed, the romance is well-done and the relationship between characters is complex. This is definitely more brain-candy than deep thinking, challenging reading, but the writing, while not top-tier, is solid and makes the story enjoyable. It really doesn’t matter that Diana is a witch while Matthew is a vampire. Well, it does, for the plot line, but I mean in the sense of when reading, the superficial fact fades away and leaves a complex relationship with complex issues (there are all sorts of complications when “creatures” don’t keep with their own, including increased notice by humans). So yes, the fact that she’s a witch and he’s a vampire is important to the plot, but not to the reader as their relationship progresses. At least for me I wasn’t preoccupied with this fact. I guess Harkness did a really great job with the two of them to make me not care, it just seemed a natural part of the story. I was never hyper-aware of the fact Matthew was a vampire, anytime it was important to the story I was just like well, yeah of course it’s like that, it just seemed to fit, so bravo to Harkness on that.

As this is the first in a trilogy, there are a suitable number of cliffhangers for Harkness to resolve going forward to make me eager for the next one, but there is also enough resolution on enough points to leave me satisfied with where the story ended. I am excited to see what Harkness does with Diana and Matthew and just where the story goes in general. For having been initially skeptical, I am quite happy and impressed with how much I enjoyed this novel. I think I read it at just the right time too, it was just what I needed.

I’m Back

2011-11-09T21:11:00.000-05:00

So while I was good about scheduling some posts for while I was gone (go me!) I’ve been gone for the last week on vacation. I was in Seattle for my mom’s birthday (yay!) and I promise I’ll have some new posts soon. In the meantime, enjoy this shot of Mt. St. Helen’s, I was cold up there!!! I guess it has to be for all that snow :)

Scrumptious Sundays: Apple Fritters

2011-11-06T08:30:00.000-05:00

So, as much as I love pumpkin, that’s how much R loves apples. Since I kind of like him, every once in a while I’ll throw an apple baked good his way between the rest of my fall pumpkin baking, and this one I even needed his help with (awwww).

Be sure to let these drain a lot after frying them and don’t make the mistake I did of storing them in an airtight container when you’re done or they’ll get soggy and the grease will stay in them from frying. These will be fine staying out, uncovered between eatings.

Apple Fritters via Ezra Pound Cake
Fritters:

2 granny smith apples, peeled, cored, and diced into 1/4-inch pieces
2 cups all-purpose flour
1/3 cup granulated sugar
1 tablespoon baking powder
1 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1/4 teaspoon ground nutmeg
3/4 cup apple cider
2 large eggs, lightly beaten
2 tablespoons unsalted butter, melted
3 cups peanut or vegetable oil, for frying

Glaze:

2 cups confectioners’ sugar
1/4 cup apple cider
1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1/4 teaspoon ground nutmeg

1. Line a baking sheet with paper towels and spread the diced apples in a single layer and pat dry.

2. Whisk flour, sugar, baking powder, salt, cinnamon, and nutmeg in a large bowl.

3. Whisk the cider, eggs, and melted butter in another bowl.

4. Stir apple in the flour mixture, add cider mixture and still until combined and the apples are fully covered and incorporated.

5. Heat the oil (depending on the size of your pot that you are using you may need more than the 3 cups) to 350 degrees.

6. Scoop about 1/3 cup of dough and place carefully into the oil. Flatten with a spoon (it might be a little easier to use a pair of tongs to carefully flatten and then flip them.)

7. Fry the fritters until golden brown on each side.

8. Line a jelly roll pan with paper towels and place a wire rack on top. As the fritters are done cooking, transfer them to the wire rack to drain.

9. Before adding your next batch, let the oil heat back up to 350 degrees.

10. Let fritters cool completely before glazing.

To make the glaze:

1. Combine all ingredients and whisk until smooth. I found I needed a little more cider than called for to get the consistency I wanted. Pour glaze over fritters, and let set for about 10 minutes before consuming.

The Exorcist

2011-11-02T21:30:00.000-04:00

God never talks. But the devil keeps advertising, Father. The devil does a lot of commercials.

Who isn’t familiar with this eerie tale of possession? I’m pretty sure no one. Of course, I know the premise, and I’ve seen the movie, but I’d never read the book. In fact, at times I forget that there is a book simply because the movie is so well known. Well, I finally corrected that this weekend. Really, I should say Saturday. I pretty much read this whole book in one sitting on Saturday.

You don't blame us for being here, do you? After all, we have no place to go. No home... Incidentally, what an excellent day for an exorcism...

Considering I was practically raised on horror flicks from an early age, there aren’t too many that really scare me, but this one is still creepy. Is it as scary as when it was first released? No, but I’m not sure that would be possible, considering all the crazy things we’re exposed to these days, but it’s still a good, creepy Halloween time read. The writing flows extremely well, and I don’t think it would surprise anyone to know that the author wrote the screenplay for the movie as well. Regardless of how scary/not scary we may find the novel/movie today, you have to appreciate that this novel was really the first of its kind in how shocking and terrifying it was and horrifying the images were as they were translated to the screen.

It seems fitting that I finally picked up this book this year, as it is the 40th anniversary. Apparently Blatty has revised the book a bit, as he claims he never go the chance at a second draft the first time around. Also interesting, apparently “Blatty says he actually didn't mean to make the book as scary as it turned out. Instead, it was meant to be a novel about faith, in which Father Karras' beliefs are tested by Regan's possession.” Could have fooled the rest of us huh?

Spook: Science Tackles the Afterlife

2011-10-31T09:30:00.000-04:00

A bright light at the end of a tunnel can seem warm and inviting, or it can seem mysterious and terrifying. People of the world "all working on their arts and crafts" can seem like heaven or, if you're me, hell.

Well, well, look at this. Here is is Halloween and I seem to have a timely post with Mary Roach’s Spook: Science Tackles the Afterlife. It’s almost like I planned this or something. (ha, not likely)

So, Mary Roach. I love her. I’m pretty she could make me read and enjoy a book about paint drying. In Spook, Roach take a look at the afterlife, what happens to our soul/spirits/consciousness after we die. The thing I love about Roach is her commitment to whatever topic she’s researching. In Stiff (her book about the life of cadavers) Roach visits all sorts of places that use cadavers, including an FBI training course that uses the cadavers to teach differing extents of decomposition (fun stuff huh?). In Spook Roach signs herself up for medium school and submits herself to electromagnetic fields (EMFs) in an effort to test the theory that such fields can induce the feeling of hauntings. She explores the various ways researchers have tried to prove the existence of the soul as well as the theory of reincarnation and near death experiences.

Roach has this great ability to be humorous and fully ensconced in her research at the same time. Her sardonic wit keeps things light when the topics get super in the weeds or just plain creepy. I’m not one to usually read science writing, I get enough of it with my day job thanks, but Roach approaches her topics with interest and humor which works just fine for me. Granted, her books aren’t usually an in-depth look at an aspect of whatever topic she’s writing about, but it gives readers a good look at what’s out there and allows for further discovery if interested. Plus, her books give readers a great amount of trivia to pull out at dinner parties :)

Check out this review and many, many more over at R.I.P

Scrumptious Sundays: Pumpkin Pie Biscotti

2011-10-30T09:30:00.000-04:00

Hooray for pumpkin! Yes, I’m still on a pumpkin kick, and probably will be for some time. I just love the way that fall spices fill my apartment with wonderful smells when I bake with them. Biscotti is actually very, very easy to make at home, no longer do you only have to eat it when you’re out at a café! The only thing I would do differently with my next batch of these, is to bake them the first time a little bit longer, They didn’t quite have that super crunchy texture to them, but they were still super delicious! And this recipe is so easy you don’t even need your electric mixer for it!

Pumpkin Pie Biscotti via mybakingaddiciton
3 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
1 1/2 cups firmly packed brown sugar
2 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp salt
2 tsp pumpkin pie spice
1/2 cup pumpkin puree
2 large eggs, lightly beaten
1 Tbsp vanilla paste [I used 1 TBS vanilla extract]
2 Tbsp butter or margarine

[The original recipe also calls for some sorts of nuts, which I don’t particularly care for in my baked goods but if you do you could toast in the melted butter and then add 1 1/4 cups coarsely chopped nuts and just fold them in at the end.]

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees.

2. Combine dry ingredients (flour, brown sugar, baking powder, salt, and spice) into a large bowl and still until well combined. In a second bowl, combine your wet ingredients (pumpkin, eggs, and vanilla) and stir well with a wisk.

3. Slowly add your pumpkin mixture to your dry ingredients.

4. Melt butter and add to your dough.

5. Lightly flour your surface and divide dough in half. Shape each half into logs of approximately 2 x 10 inches. Lightly grease a cookie sheet and place both logs onto it, being sure to leave enough room between them so when they spread during baking they don’t spread into one big blob.

6. Bake for 24 minutes [again I would bake for a little bit longer, I don’t think my logs where quite baked yet] Let cool for 15 minutes before cutting logs into 1/2 inch pieces on the diagonal.

7. Place each piece cut side up on the cookie sheet and bake for 8 minutes. Flip each piece and bake for another 7 minutes.

8. Cool on a wire rack being sure to separate each piece from its neighbor so they don’t get soggy.
Now you can be all fancy and drizzle with chocolate, or even dip them in chocolate. Me I just ate as is, couldn’t wait to have them :) As you might be able to tell based on my lack of pictures of the finished product.

The Gargoyle

2011-10-27T09:30:00.000-04:00

Accidents ambush the unsuspecting, often violently, just like love.

Andrew Davidson’s debut The Gargoyle begins with our main character, who I only realized as I sat down to write this post remains unnamed throughout the whole novel, in a terrible car accident, once that leaves him deeply burned over most his body. He somehow survives and is recuperating in the hospital biding his time until he gets out and can commit suicide. All that changes one day when he receives a visit from Marianne Engel. Though our narrator has no recollection of Marianne, she assures him they know each other and that this is in fact, the third time he has been burned. Marianne continues to visit our narrator throughout his recuperation and he finds, slowly, he no longer wishes to kill himself, that is is quite intrigued by this woman who claims to know him and the crazy stories she tells him about her 700-year life span which is fascinating. We also learn that Marianne carves gargoyles and will go on multi-day binges to finish one, working herself to exhaustion. She believes she has a multitude of hearts inside her, and these gargoyles are the result. Only once she finishes all her gargoyles can she rest.

So the story is a little strange what with the eccentric (to say the least) Marianne and the cynical unnamed ex-drug addicted ex-porn star/director narrator, but it is very well done. The writing grabbed me basically from the start and the two major characters plus some supporting cast are very well drawn and maintained. As we slowly learn piece by piece the story of their past lives from Marianne you get drawn in closer and closer.

You are mine, I am yours; you may be sure of this. You've been locked inside my heart, the key has been thrown away; within it, you must always stay.

Not only is the writing good and the characters well done, Davidson also put in a lot of time researching the many many details that are in the stories. It took seven years for him to finish the book and once you read it you understand why. From medieval bookmaking, to Icelandic customs, and Japanese glass blowing, every detail seems to fit perfectly. Dante’s Inferno is also greatly woven into Marianne’s story and there is a section near the end where our narrator goes through his own version of hell that is fantastic. The imagery throughout the book really pulls the reader into this very strange plot line. All around a great first book, it’s a shame that Davidson hasn’t given us anything else yet. Maybe he’s in deep research, one can only hope!

The Moor

2011-10-25T20:47:00.002-04:00

Oh Russell, I know I can always count on you to get me out of a reading slump. Or in this case, not knowing what to read after the wonderful The Night Circus. I didn’t want something that I would compare to the fabulousness that was that novel, and so I turned to Mary Russell. Though not my favorite of the series thus far, like a good friend she didn’t let me down, it was an entertaining read, a nice cleanser of sorts. I knew I wouldn’t have to worry about comparing this book to The Night Circus, I knew I would enjoy it regardless of how great anything else I had just read was, the series and the characters are like your favorite old sweater, always there when needed and feels lovely. I am very, very behind on my Russell novels, there are 11 of them now after all, but I was a late adoptee, learning of this fabulous series just last year or so.

Sherlock Holmes was not one to suffer fools even under coercion, yet he was apparently here under his own free will, and without resentment. There was undoubtedly something in the situation that I had thus far failed to grasp.

In The Moor, Holmes finds himself once again at Dartmoor, the very same in which “The Hound of the Baskervilles” took place. He and Mary end up investigating a seemingly queer murder and the appearance of a possible phantom coach, along with innumerable other strange occurrences and people that have seemingly nothing to do with each other, but that would be naive. The plot isn’t as interesting or as well done as the previous three but it was still an enjoyable enough story. The interaction between Russell and Holmes is really the best parts in some of these books anyway and I feel like we do get a different look at the two in this book. I do love these characters immensely and am always amazed at how well King has done with them. I am looking forward to O, Jerusalem as I hear it gets the series back on track.

The Night Circus

2011-10-22T18:00:00.002-04:00

More than a carnival,” Chandresh says. “More than a circus, really, like no circus anyone has ever seen. Not a single large tent but a multitude of tents, each with a particular exhibition. No elephants or clowns. No, something more refined than that. Nothing commonplace. This will be different, this will be an utterly unique experience, a feast for the senses. Theatrics sans theater, an immersive entertainment. We will destroy the presumptions and preconceived notions of what a circus is and make it something else entirely, something new.

Ok, so if by now you haven’t heard of Erin Morgenstern’s debut novel The Night Circus, you’ve probably been living under a rock for the last few months. If you follow along here, you know that I received this book in a wonderful package from the Powell’s Indiespensable program and I could not wait to start it. I had heard some very good things, it seemed right up my alley, with gorgeous prose and imagery. I think this is the first book from Indiespensable that I have read as soon as I had a break in books, and I’m so glad I did.

And on the final strike, the dark flames are replaced with a blinding white, a shower of sparks falling like snowflakes around it. Huge curls of dense white smoke swirl up into the night sky.

I found Morgenstern’s novel to be wonderfully fanciful and wonderfully written. Her prose paint a picture throughout the whole of the novel. I really felt like I was in the many and varied tents throughout the circus. The characters are also very well done, ever changing as the tale goes on. The whole group that makes the circus come together are like a quirky little family with some sort of secret that not even everyone in the group knows the whole truth and they are quite delightful. Marco and Celia, the two magicians that are playing the game within The Night Circus, are only told as much as is needed for them to move forward. Integral parts of the story are left out to them, and thus to the reader, so we are left with a tale that is pieced together bit by bit. I know some readers may not look upon this approach very favorably, but I found it exciting and it kept me wondering what else we hadn’t been told yet, what other secrets Le Cirque des Rêves was keeping from me. As the story unfolded I could see the pieces falling into place, I could feel the tension and the intensity as Marco and Celia’s relationship progressed. [The scenes at the party with Celia’s color changing dress where just breathtaking.]

The finest of pleasures are always the unexpected ones, Tsukiko replies.

Also, the story does alternate chapters between time, and it’s not a straight alternation, the story jumps around quite a bit. I know some readers don’t like that either, but when done well—which I think it is in this case—it really works. If you haven’t guessed, I think it works really well. It’s just another way that Morgenstern drops the pieces together for the reader. The book is also grounded in enough reality that the pieces of magic aren’t overwhelming. It all seems extremely plausible, like somewhere out there in the world there could be a travelling circus of dreams that only opens at night. If any of you all see it, be sure to send me a note, I’ll be sure to wear a bit of red to complement my black and white when I attend.

It was like nothing he had ever seen. The lights, the costumes, it was all so different. As though he had escaped his everyday life and wandered into another world.

He had expected it to be a show. Something to sit in a chair and watch.

He realized quickly how wrong he was.

It was something to be explored.

Anyway, LOVED this book. Seriously, after I finished it, I had the story and the scenes running through my head. I had a hard time trying to figure out what to read after this since I loved it so much. This one ranks right up there with Donna Tartt’s The Secret History and Adam Levin’s The Instructions for me. I know I’ll be reading and enjoying this book again and again.

Check out this review and many, many more over at R.I.P

The Wordy Shipmates

2011-10-18T09:30:00.000-04:00

Sarah Vowell, NPR and This American Life alum, is hilarious. I had the privilege of seeing her read and answer questions during the National Book Festival on the Mall in September of this year. Seriously, so funny. She read from her newest book, Unfamiliar Fishes, about 19th century Hawaii. So when I got back I put in a request to finally read some of her books. The first one that came through was The Wordy Shipmates, Vowell’s exploration of the John Winthrop and his Puritans in colonial America.

I’m always disappointed when I see the word “Puritan” tossed around as shorthand for a bunch of generic, boring, stupid, judgmental killjoys. Because to me, they are very specific, fascinating, sometimes brilliant, judgmental killjoys who rarely agreed on anything except that Catholics are going to hell.

I so wanted to love this one, especially after seeing Vowell in person, her sardonic wit had me certain I would love anything she wrote. And were Vowell went off on her own tangents, talked about her research for the book, her nephew Owen, etc. I loved it. But the real meat of the book, the chronicling of the Puritans was a bit arduous for me. There were a lot of different characters, and we kept jumping around in time and place throughout. It was difficult for me to get into the book, it was a bit slow going for stretches for me. Almost *too* much detail and history. Like I said, the parts where Vowell is sarcastic and smart-alec-y I loved. So maybe I just didn’t read the right one to get that. Looking at the reviews on goodreads for this one, it seems I’m not alone in this thinking. Which is good, because it gives me hope that I’ll still love her others, and will definitely make time to read them.

The Old Testament Israelites are to the Puritans what the blues was to the Rolling Stones—a source of inspiration, a renewable resource of riffs. What Cotton is telling them is that, like the Old Testament Jews, they are men of destiny. And, like the Old Testament Jews, God has given them a new home, a promised land. And like the Old Testament Jews, God has printed eviction notices for them to tack up on the homes of the nothing-special, just-folds you are squatting there.

As an American, I am entirely flummoxed by the willy-nilly process by which the Brits acquire a new prime minister. It seems like one afternoon after tea they decide to get rid of the old one, then the majority party in the House of Commons picks the person they most want to yell at on C-SPAN’s Prime Minster’s Questions, then the new prime minister goes to Buckingham Palace and for two minutes the whole country politely pretends he was the queen’s idea.

Hehe, that one made me laugh out loud for a while. So Sarah, I’m going to read your others, but please include more of your commentary and sardonic wit, thanks!

Pumpkin Chocolate Chip Bars

2011-10-16T15:28:00.000-04:00

You might have noticed by now that I really, really like pumpkin. These not only have lovely pumpkin in them, but chocolate too! Win, win! These are really easy to put together and delicious.
Pumpkin Chocolate Chip Bars via Two Peas & Their Pod

2 cups all-purpose flour
1 tablespoon pumpkin-pie spice
1 teaspoon baking soda
3/4 teaspoon salt
1 cup (2 sticks) unsalted butter, at room temperature
1 1/4 cups granulated sugar
1 large egg
2 teaspoons vanilla extract
1 cup canned pumpkin puree (not pumpkin pie filling)

1. Preheat your oven to 350 degrees. Grease a 9x13 inch baking pan.

2. Wisk together flour, pie spice, baking soda, and salt.

3. Cream butter and sugar together (about 2 minutes); add in eggs and vanilla until combined. Add in pumpkin. The mixture will look like it’s not really mixed well, picture below, don’t worry you’re doing it right!

4. Gradually add the dry ingredients on low speed. Fold in the chocolate chips.

5. Spread the batter into your prepared pan. I always find it helpful to spray your spatula with some nonstick spray for easy spreading. Bake for 35-40 minutes until toothpick comes out with just a few moist crumbs attached to it; the batter will also pull away from the sides once it’s done.

6. Cool (if you can wait), cut and enjoy!

There may or may not have been a stampede to my desk to get one of these when I brought them in! :)

The Last Werewolf

2011-10-11T09:30:00.000-04:00

Good and evil are irrelevant. Show us the world’s not the way we thought it was and a part of us rejoices. Nothing’s exempt.

After hearing about The Last Werewolf repeatedly on the Bookrageous podcast and reading Rebecca’s ravings about it on The Book Lady’s Blog I had to pick it up. So when I signed up for the R.I.P challenge, I knew it would be a perfect read.

I’m really not even sure how to describe this one. It’s definitely not your “typical” werewolf novel, if there even is such a thing. Any preconceived notions you might think you have about werewolf novels, or this type of genre, throw them out the window before you read this one. This book is, among other things, smart. (And in that way reminds me a bit of Justin Cronin’s The Passage.) I don’t know about you, but I don’t anticipate werewolf books to be smart, well at least I didn’t. I won’t make that mistake again.

Jacob Marlowe is the last werewolf on earth. He is informed so one evening not long after his monthly transformation by the World Organization for Control of Occult Phenomena (WOCOP) and that as such his days are numbered. Jacob comes to terms with being the last living werewolf and is ready to put it all to an end. He’s tired of it all, the feeding, the transformations, the hunt, he’s ready to end it, finish his life on his own terms. However, he’ll find that giving up isn’t quite so easy when two very different and very powerful groups want him kept alive for their own means.

It’s a survival necessity. You can’t live if you can’t accept what you are, and you can’t accept what you are if you can’t say what you do. The power of naming, as old as Adam.

This book, as I mentioned, is smart. It’s also dark and dirty. It makes no qualms about the fact that once a

month, Jacob transforms into a beast with a taste for flesh, and only human flesh will satiate the beast inside him. And make no mistake, it is a beast that lives inside Marlowe, he can feel it inside him as he gets closer to the full moon, itching to get out. It is made very clear when we see Jacob’s first kill after he is turned, it is the beast inside that calls the shots, Jacob is powerless to overrule it. It also comments on the idea of life’s purpose, Jacob, though werewolf, is not immune to wondering where he came from and why, it actually plays a fairly large role in the novel as well. All this said, this book is NOT for everyone. Granted, there is probably no one book that is for everyone, but this one especially, wouldn’t be for just anyone to pick up. As I mentioned it is dark, but it’s also dirty as in foul language, sex, and graphic in more ways than one.

Here’s the weird thing about this book and I, while I was reading, I almost always loved it, I was really into the writing and the story. But in between picking up the book I felt conflicted, I wasn’t quite sure why I kept going back to it. Maybe I felt a little disconcerted about all the more dark and graphic parts. I can deal with a little bit, but at times it seemed a bit much, but then again, being a werewolf is a dirty, dark, and graphic business. Anyway, I think this a solid book, that gets better as the plot unfolds. But remember to throw all your preconceptions out the window before reading this one, as it will most assuredly disprove them all anyway. After not being sure what to say about the book, I sure seemed to have a lot to say huh?

Check out this review and many, many more over at R.I.P

Indiepsensable Volume 29

2011-10-09T11:36:00.001-04:00

Ah, the eagerly anticipated volume of Powell’s Indiespensable program containing the much buzzed about The Night Circus. This one is a gorgeous package, the box for The Night Circus alone is amazing.

I don’t know how well you can tell from the pictures, but the box is VELVET! I may or may not have stroked the box a few times when I got it :)

That cover is pretty awesome too!

Even the inside has amazing detail! The endpapers are black and white stripped as well.

To go along with the book is the interview with the author and some smoked pecan bourbon caramel corn to go with the circus theme, which is quite tasty (and it’s from Chicago so of course I’m going to love it more).

And the extra special bonus, and ARC of The Vanishers by Heidi Julavits, which doesn’t come out until March of next year.

All in all, another great package from Powell’s, I’ll be sure to update on how I feel about The Night Circus, which shouldn’t be too long as I just started it last night. Now on to waiting for volume 30, which contains Jeffrey Eugenides’ long awaited next novel The Marriage Plot. Which is already sold out, which should surprise no one, and ships October 19th.

Miss Peregrine’s Home for Peculiar Children

2011-10-06T09:30:00.000-04:00

I used to dream about escaping my ordinary life, but my life was never ordinary. I had simply failed to notice how extraordinary it was.

Yes, yet another person that has read Miss Peregrine’s Home for Peculiar Children recently. Well, it is October and look at that cover! Doesn’t it just scream creepy read? It seems like perfect timing to pick it up now, just as the seasons are starting to change and the chill is back in the air.

The novel follows sixteen year old Jacob in the aftermath of a family tragedy that leads Jacob to explore his grandfather’s life. Jacob was very close with his grandfather, growing up on his stories of his time at a home for “peculiar” children including a girl that could levitate and a boy who spit bees. Jacob soon finds himself with cryptic instructions from his grandfather and journeys to the small island near Wales where this home once stood. The story starts out wonderfully, full of promise, and intrigue. However, for me, Riggs didn’t keep the momentum going throughout the story. After the first bit, it really wasn’t so creepy anymore, which is what I was expecting. The story is interesting enough, but quite mesh with what I was expecting from the first bit. I do have to say that there are some interesting plot techniques and ideas in here, things I haven't seen done in other books, so there's another unique aspect to this one. Oh, and the ending is a bit of a clunk, it’s very obvious that Riggs had a sequel in mind when he finished up the plot, and sure enough there is one forthcoming. The book has also been optioned for a movie, which I think might be interesting to see how that works since the story is so wonderfully portrayed through the use of photos, more on that later. I guess the filmmaker will already have a type of blueprint for what things are supposed to be like. All this makes it seem like I didn’t really enjoy the story, which isn’t the case at all! I did. It’s a nice little, quick read. I just wasn’t blown away by the story as many others seem to have been.

For me, the best part of the story, wasn’t the story at all, it was the fantastic use of real vintage found photographs that Riggs weaved into the story. Each character has one and they really add to the overall mood and feel of the book. Without the expertly used pictures, I’m not sure this book would have gotten the same amount of attention it has thus far. This is one book where I think the print version definitely wins out over an electronic version, except probably on the iPad since it is made for visuals. But really, the photographs are awesome, delightfully creepy, and used very well.

I, much like many others, read this one for R.I.P

The Magicians

2011-10-04T10:00:00.000-04:00

It was right in front of him. He was finally on the other side, down the rabbit hole, through the looking glass. He was going to sign the papers and he was going to be a motherfucking magician.

Buzzed about and described as “Harry Potter with sex and drugs” The Magicians follows angsty teen Quentin Coldwater as he stumbles upon the fact that magic is real as he is accepted into Brakebills College an exclusive college for magic, hidden in up-state New York. Couched in reality, Grossman (in my opinion) doesn’t try to emulate the Harry Potter or Narnia series, but does acknowledge and even tip his hat to them both. It would be impossible to not draw the comparisons between The Magicians and the other two series. As if suddenly learning magic is real, and attending Brakebills wasn’t enough, not long after Quentin graduates, he and his friends discover that their beloved childhood book series (a la the Narnia series) placed in Fillory is real. The group embarks on a sojourn into Fillory which isn’t quite what they expect.

Grossman creates a magical land grounded in real life and portrays magic as something that takes hard work and an extra something that not everyone has, even those that seem to learn well at Brakebills. His characters are also well-drawn and Alice is probably one of the better characters I’ve seen in a while. She plays a wonderful foil to Quentin who is quite angsty and snively at times, being strong and extremely talented, doing what needs to be done regardless of the consequences, she really steps it up, especially near the end.

The ending might be a bit unsatisfying as it makes very very clear there will be a sequel without a solid resolution of the current plotline. Well that’s not exactly true, it’s clear that this portion of the story is over, the core of the story is ended, Quentin has returned and is kind of just floating in reality, not really living, but just really going through the motions. So really the ending is just setting up what Grossman is going to be doing next. I know I’ll definitely be reading the sequel The Magician Kings soon!

I read this, one because I heard it was good, and two for R.I.P

A Dance with Dragons

2011-10-02T14:00:00.000-04:00

A reader lives a thousand lives before he dies,” said Jojen. “The man who never reads lives only one.

I just couldn’t help myself, reading the whole series all like 5,000+ pages of it in one great row and now I have to wait the however many years it will take Martin to write and publish the sixth one, which will apparently be called The Winds of Winter (which what happened to the parallelism of the “A something something…” in the titles?). Anyway, A Dance with Dragons runs parallel to the story in A Feast of Crows with all the characters that were missing, Tyrion, Jon, Dany etc. Though it is a bit longer so we do rejoin the story towards the end and get a little bit of Cersi and some others.

Tyrion is trying to make his way East to Dany, Jon has plenty of problems on the Wall-the least of them the Wildling it seems, Dany is trying to hold her city of Merreen and manage her dragons, and Martin has plenty of surprises for all of them, and his readers, along the way. Once again Martin creates a world so real and multi-dimensional that transports the reader totally and completely into it. And of course, knowing that there are (at least) two more books coming (eventually) to finish out the series, Martin leaves us with a few cliffhangers to keep us wondering and waiting for the next installment, one can only hope it won’t be long.

As dubious as I was that I would enjoy the series as I embarked on the first novel, I am thoroughly engrossed in the stories, even though Martin changed his style in ADwD and the previous AFfC which bothered me a bit, but didn’t stop me from devouring both books and wanting more. Martin continues with the seemingly one off POV characters inserted randomly into the storyline. I think my favorite of the series so far is the third installment, ASoS, but I will definitely be reading the sixth whenever it comes out. Hopefully that isn’t too long, but as Martin and his characters say all throughout the book Words are Wind…I’m not sure I would believe a timeline even if Martin offered one at this point.

Indiespensable Volume 28

2011-09-18T11:00:00.000-04:00

As I eagerly await the arrival of Indiespensable 29 with The Night Circus in it, I realized I never did a proper post for Volume 28! So, here it is, extremely late, but better late than never (at least when it comes to blogging about it).

In Volume 28 we received Alice LaPlante’s Turn of Mind. The basic gist of the story is our main character, Dr. Jennifer White, is in the early stages of Alzheimer’s and is suspected of murdering her best friend. White genuinely has no idea whether or not she has committed this crime. I think if done well (and I’ve heard some good buzz around this one) this could be a fantastic and gripping story. Can’t wait to read it!

Also included, because Powell’s always loves to give us extras, a fantastic little jar of spices and some recipe cards to make delicious things with said spices! Yum, yum. I can’t wait for R to try these out!

And then, Powell’s decided to change up the “how we made this” and the author interview presentation. Instead of being two separate things (just a sheet of paper and then cards) they’ve combined them into one cute little notebook like package.

Thanks Powell’s for being awesome! Now, back to waiting on The Night Circus! I can’t wait to see what other goodies they include, that one is just begging for some awesome creativity!

Before I go to Sleep

2011-09-17T09:30:00.000-04:00

As I sleep, my mind will erase everything I did today. I will wake up tomorrow as I did this morning. Thinking I'm still a child. Thinking I have a whole lifetime of choice ahead of me ..

Christine wakes up every day with no memory of her life. Every day she has to relearn basic facts, who her husband is, how old she is, everything. After an “accident” some 20 years ago, Christine is unable to retain memories once she enters a deep sleep. She has some memories from before the accident, mostly of her childhood, but nothing for the past 20 or so years. At the suggestion of a doctor, Christine begins to keep a journal in an effort to help her remember. Christine doesn’t know who she can trust, if anyone, if even herself. As we follow Christine during this short time span of her life we discover things right along with her, always wondering what is true and what is just an imagining.

So this is my book club’s next book, we’ll be discussing it on Thursday, it will be interesting to see how people feel about it. There are some holes in it, one member is adamant that the fact that Christine has a cell phone (but wouldn’t know how to charge or use it) is a huge hole but generally is enjoying the book, but it does what any good thriller should do; keeps you turning the pages. The first and last section are set in the present with the middle being about 2 weeks of Christine’s journal. As I mentioned, as we read this middle portion we learn all the details like Christine, reading each day and trying to decide if the things she wrote are true or not. The ending is unexpected so Watson does a good job of keeping you wondering at each page turn.

It’s a good debut and a good thriller, I read the last half or so in one sitting after work one evening. It’s engaging and does a good job of keeping you wondering who Christine (and thus the reader) can actually trust. I also find it interesting that this book is a result of the first Faber Academy Writing a Novel course “a rigorous and selective program that covers all aspects of the novel-writing process”.

Also, since this is a psychological thriller, it totally counts for RIP!

13, rue Thérèse

2011-09-15T19:15:00.000-04:00

In 13, rue Thérèse our protagonist, Trevor Stratton (an American in Paris), finds a box of artifacts (letters, photos, etc) in his office. Intrigued, Trevor writes a series of letters documenting each artifact and then in the other chapters, imagining the rest of the story of Louise Brunet, the woman to whom the objects belonged. [Side note: all the photos and letters and other artifacts are real, they really did belong to a Louise Brunet who lived in Paris post WWI. We find out in the author’s info on the back flap, that Shapiro lived below a Louise Brunet in Paris and came to own the box of artifacts after Louise died with no relatives.]

I have to say, this book didn’t work for me. I was extremely intrigued by the concept, the story told of this woman’s life from the artifacts she left behind but it just didn’t click and I’m not even really sure why. Trevor seemed almost unnecessary for the story to unfold as we barely see him or know anything about it. I feel like the story would have been better if it had scrapped the whole finding of the items bit and just went with the story of Louise Brunet, it still could have been based on the real items that are used throughout the book. There was also an element of time travel near the end that I just couldn’t deal with, it just seemed so out of place, and came out of left field that it was jarring.

The one thing I do have to say about the book is that it is beautifully done. The paper is think and the whole thing is printed in color. It does make for a beautiful object. In the back there was also the option to scan a QR code to find out more about each artifact if you so chose. This might be interesting to do after reading, but to me, was a bit much while reading. There is a new artifact every few pages at some points and to constantly be scanning and breaking from the story would be distracting. Beautiful object, but the story just didn’t pull me in.

A Feast for Crows

2011-09-11T15:07:00.001-04:00

Wizards may be well and good, but blood and steel win wars.

In the fourth installment of Martin’s A Song of Ice and Fire series, Martin opts to slow down the action quite a bit. That’s probably the most noticeable difference between A Feast for Crows and the rest of the series thus far. That and the fact that about half of our POV characters are missing [more on that later]. There’s a lot of repositioning of characters in this one, moving from one place to another, plotting, and scheming, all at a much slower pace than in previous books. Just because the book is slower doesn’t mean things aren’t happening, they’re just slightly less crazy things, more setting up, and moving pieces into position for the future, things that I’m sure will prove important in the coming books. That said, the last 200 pages or so (sound familiar?) does have quite a few revelations and interesting occurrences, priming these characters for an interesting continuation. However, I can’t just find out what happens in the next book, since the characters in this one won’t be seen in the fifth book, it seems their fates must await the sixth book—whenever that comes.

Why is that? Well, as I mentioned above, this book only covers about half of our POV characters, there’s no Jon (only tangentially through Samwell’s eyes), no Stannis or Melisandre, no Dany, or Tyrion. It seems that when Martin was writing what was supposed to be the fourth book, he was writing much much more than could be contained in one book, so he decided to split book four into two books. Instead of just telling us half of the characters stories, Martin decided to tell all of the stories of half of the characters. So A Dance with Dragons will follow all the other characters during the same time period that AFFC just dealt with. But now I’ll have to wait to find out what happens to people like Cersei (! has her time finally come to pay the piper for all her ridiculous evilness?) until the sixth book comes out, hopefully it won’t be years and years and years like between AFFC and ADWD.

A Storm of Swords

2011-09-06T06:30:00.000-04:00

It all goes back and back," Tyrion thought, "to our mothers and fathers and theirs before them. We are puppets dancing on the strings of those who came before us, and one day our own children will take up our strings and dance in our steads.

Well, I’m continuing my complete immersion in the A Song of Ice and Fire series and boy the third book does not let me down. The war for the Iron Throne is still raging, a few of the hopeful kings have been killed, there is crazy things happening near/at the Wall. The wildlings are rising as are the Others, the Seven Kingdoms are no longer just in civil war, worse things are coming. There is quite a few people getting there comeuppance in this one, Martin is sure not afraid to kill off his characters once he’s done with them. Here’s two things I’ve found on the internet that show this (I can’t help myself)

So anyway, lots of people die in this one, some you might be happy to see go, some you may be very upset to see go, and others are STILL around that you wish would just go away already (but they are delightful in their wickedness and how much they frustrate you!). Whichever side you fall on, Martin does is killing in spectacular fashion and you usually can’t even see it coming. The last 200 pages alone made this book for me, I’m pretty sure I shrieked/screamed WHAT at least 3 or 4 times in that timespan. Seriously, bravo Martin for making me care this much about the characters and kingdom(s) he’s built, especially since I didn’t think I’d enjoy any of these books one bit.

Martin continues to add layer upon layer to his characters, even the ones that are already dead. We get a lot of context in this book, which is helpful, but does slow the story down a bit in the middle, but like I said the last 200 or so pages MORE than makes up for that (ha). We learn that plenty of things are not quite how we thought they were. I was thinking about taking a break between numbers 3 and 4, I mean there’s only 4 and 5 left for me to read and who knows how long it will take Martin to write number 6, but I really had no choice at the end of A Storm of Swords but to immediately pick up A Feast for Crows to find out what happens next. So much for that break huh? GRRM what have you done to me?

RIP Challenge

2011-09-04T12:55:00.001-04:00

I vaguely remember seeing postings about this pop up last year and the start has been in my google reader this past week quite a few times. When I saw it enough times I finally bit and went on over to see what all the fuss is about, and oh boy am I excited. I love creepy, mysterious books and what better way to get into the fall spirit than to read/watch a bunch? Here’s the gist:

Regardless of what my thermometer tells me, my heart tells me that autumn is here and that it is once again time to revel in things ghostly and ghastly, in stories of things that go bump in the night. It is time to trail our favorite detectives as they relentlessly chase down their prey, to go down that dark path into the woods, to follow flights of fantasy and fairy tale that have a darker heart than their spring time brethren. To confront gothic, creepy, horror stories in all their chilling delight.

Between now and Halloween, I’ll be dipping into some delightfully creepy novels and perhaps viewing some wonderfully horrific movies as well for the RIP Challenge Hosted over at Stainless Steel Droppings. There are many different levels of this “challenge”, whose only rule is to have fun, and while I haven’t quite figured out where I’ll be yet, here’s some thoughts on what might make its way into my reading hands during this challenge:

The Night Circus

This one is coming to me via Powell’s Indiespensable program, and I cannot wait for it to get here!

Miss Peregrine's Home for Peculiar Children

A novel with real creepy pictures as source material? Yes please!

House of Leaves

I read this one many many moons ago, I think it’s about time for a re-read so I can fully appreciate its creepiness once again.

We shall see what else might make it’s way in (or out), but I do think it will be a delightful way to welcome fall. Interested? Sign up here.

Triple Berry Cheesecake

2011-08-28T14:46:00.000-04:00

Mmmm cheesecake. This one has lots of things going for it, it’s triple berry, it uses fresh farmer’s market berries, it’s super easy, and it didn’t even crack a tiny bit (and my cheesecakes always crack). Oh yeah, it’s delicious too. I may or may not have traded a piece of this cake for a favor at work :) We were having people over for dinner so I knew I had to make a wonderful dessert, they had never been subject to my baking, so they didn’t know how great it is :) I came across this recipe and I instantly knew it was what I wanted. It looks fancy and it highlights fresh, in-season ingredients which is always a positive and it’s super easy. It’s also not your standard cheesecake, instead of a graham cracker crust, it uses a butter cake for it’s bottom layer, so it’s a little unexpected as well. Again, super easy to make. I nearly had to sneak a few pieces out of the house, that’s how beloved this cake is at home.

Triple Berry Cheesecake via Piece of Cake

For the cake:

3/4 cup plus 2 tablespoons all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon baking powder
1/8 teaspoon salt
5 tablespoons unsalted butter, at room temperature
2/3 cup granulated sugar
1 large egg
7 tablespoons milk
1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract

For the cheese cake:

1 8-ounce package cream cheese, at room temperature
2 teaspoons lemon zest
1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
1/2 cup plus 1 tablespoon granulated sugar
2 large eggs, at room temperature
2 teaspoons cornstarch
12 ounces mixed berries [I used raspberries, blackberries and blueberries]

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Grease an 8-inch springform pan, I used cooking spray and I also covered the plate portion of the pan with aluminum foil before spraying.

2. Make the cake layer: Sift together flour, baking powder, and salt. Cream together the butter and sugar until light and fluffy. Add egg. Mix in dry ingredients. Stir in milk and vanilla. Spread into springform pan and bake for 15 minutes, until the edges of the cake are just set. Remove from oven and let cool for 5 minutes.

3. In the meantime, make the cheesecake batter: Beat the cream cheese, lemon zest, and vanilla in the electric mixer until smooth. Add 1/2 cup of sugar and cream until light and fluffy. Beat in eggs (at room temperature) one at a time until completely incorporated.

4. For the berries: Wisk together remaining sugar, and cornstarch. Add the berries and toss to coat. Pour berries over pre-baked cake layer, spread evenly. Then pour the cheesecake over the top of everything. Bake until puffed and lightly golden, with a set center, about 45-50 minutes [I think mine took slightly longer.] Let cool at least 2 hours before serving. Can be served at room temperature or refrigerated. Refrigerate the leftovers, but they won’t last very long! I can promise you that.

A Clash of Kings

2011-08-24T09:30:00.003-04:00

Sansa, permit me to share a bit of womanly wisdom with you on this very special day. Love is poison. A sweet poison, yes, but it will kill you all the same.

Now, usually if I start reading a series, I don’t read them all at once. I like to space them out and savor each one, I do this with Laurie King’s Mary Russell series, I’m rereading the Harry Potter series in the same way. But not A Song of Ice and Fire, nope this one I’m reading straight through. Why? Because I’m crazy addicted to it.

So, in A Clash for Kings, there are well, more kings than you can shake a stick at. Everybody wants to be king! We’ve got the king on the throne, a king in the north, a king in the sea, a king in the southwestish, some other random people, and oh yeah, that girl that’s all exiled and stuff. There’s unrest in King’s Landing, the people are basically starving, and Joffrey the child king, who by the way, I wish would get his comeuppance soon, has threats marching from all sides. Let’s see oh yes, there’s some crazy red sorceress which has won the love of one of the kings and who is really quite evil it seems. So basically, the Seven Kingdoms are in chaos.

Winter is beginning it’s slow march upon the Seven Kingdoms, and we all know that with winter comes things even worse than civil war. Those on the wall seem to want to go looking for trouble, as they ride out to see if they can find any sign of the missing rangers (including Benjen Stark) and Mance Rayder, former man of the black and the King-Beyond-the-Wall (oh yes, another king!) who of course, just might be marching on the wall, (more conflict yay!)

We continue our round-robin of differing point of view characters, which I still think Martin does extremely well. The more I learn about some characters the more I love them, or hate them, or are surprised by them. Tyrion is probably now one of my favorite characters, though I have a feeling he may not be around for very long. That’s the other thing I love about these books, Martin has no qualms about killing off characters once they’ve served their purpose. There’s tons of political intrigue and double-crossing going on too.

I’ve already started the third book, A Storm of Swords, since I just couldn’t wait to find out what happens. And let me tell you, things get even crazier right off the bat!

Little Bee

2011-08-22T09:30:00.001-04:00

We must see all scars as beauty. Okay? This will be our secret. Because take it from me, a scar does not form on the dying. A scar means, 'I survived'

Chris Cleave’s Little Bee was my book club’s most recent pick. From the instant I started reading, I knew this book wasn’t for me. First, let me talk about how this book was pitched, you know the blurb that’s on the back cover/book flap of every book? Well, this one was a doozy. I’m just going to quote it:

We don't want to tell you what happens in this book.
It is a truly special story and we don't want to spoil it.
nevertheless, you need to know enough to buy it, so we will just say this:
This is the story of two women. Their lives collide one fateful day, and one of them has to make a terrible choice, the kind of choice we hope you never have to face. Two years later, they meet again - the story starts there ...
Once you have read it, you'll want to tell your friends about it. When you do, please don't tell them what happens. The magic is in how the story unfolds.

Now, with a pitch like that I’m thinking, huh, this story has to be told in some unique way right? If it’s so awesome that they can’t tell me anything about it, if the “magic is in how the story unfolds.” Right? Well, boy, was my thinking wrong. There is nothing unique or magical about the way the story unfolds. It’s not a new story telling technique. Plus, the story isn’t really all that original either! The book alternates between Little Bee, a refugee from Africa, and Sarah, a white, well-off English woman. A lot of people really like Little Bee’s voice. I, well, liked it better than Sarah’s voice which seemed totally not real to me but the whole thing, Little Bee’s writing, the story, just seemed contrived and overwrought to me. Plus, I feel like the second half of the book went off the rails. When we discussed the story at book club, consensus seemed to be that even the people that loved it in the beginning, didn’t enjoy it during the second half or so. Oh and that ending! Ugh.

There were too many plot points that I just didn’t find believable, and I can suspend belief for a good story just as well as most people, I mean come on I’m LOVING the A Song of Fire and Ice series and there’s all sorts of crazy things that happen in that!

Again, for me, I found nearly everything contrived and overwrought. Sorry Little Bee, I know you’ve gotten a ton of great press, and a ton of people love you, but it just didn’t work for me. I have a feeling you’ll get made into a movie though, the book definitely had that “make me into a movie please” feel to it. Oh, look, it seems Nicole Kidman just might be involved (link) although 2009 is the latest info I can find on it, but there you go.

Peanut Butter Cups

2011-08-20T15:09:00.000-04:00

It’s summer, so in most places in the country currently it is HOT, I know it is here. (Note to those of you on the west coast, Seattle etc, I don’t want to hear about how it hasn’t been hot out by you, nor do I want to hear how “oh my gosh it’s going to be so hot today, it might get to 80!” just because you’re weather is better, I don’t want to hear it good? good) Now in the summer, when it’s already hot out you don’t want to heat up your kitchen with more heat, so baking seems to drop off a bit (I know it does in my house). But wait! This delicious recipe doesn’t entail any oven use! Just the microwave and the stove top, which means, LESS HEAT BUT STILL DELICIOUS DESSERT (or snack or you know whatever)!

So, um, I don’t have any pretty pictures of the finished product, because well, we didn’t really wait very long before eating them and then I forgot until write this minute as I’m writing. But, if you want to see pretty pictures of the finished product, wander on over to Brown Eyed Baker’s page (where I got the recipe from), hers are probably better than mine would have been anyway.

Peanut Butter Cups (via Brown Eyed Baker)

1 cups creamy peanut butter
¼ cup unsalted butter
¼ cup light brown sugar
1¼ cups powdered sugar
4 cups milk chocolate chips (two 11.5-oz bags)
¼ cup vegetable shortening

1. Line a mini-muffin tin with paper lines and line a baking sheet in parchment paper.

2. In a medium pot, over medium heat, combine peanut butter, butter and brown sugar and cook until melted completely and beginning to bubble. Be sure to stir constantly! Take off the stove top, add powdered sugar in 1/4 cup at a time making sure to stir the powdered sugar in completely after each addition. Let cool.

3. Melt the chocolate and shortening together in the microwave on 50% power for 30 seconds at a time, stirring between increments until completely melted.

4. Spoon melted chocolate into the bottom of each cup. Note: you’ll need less than you think here! I used a small cookie scoop and my first pan’s bottom layer was WAY to thick. Also, scoop out about a teaspoon’s worth of the peanut butter mixture, roll into a ball, flatten slightly, and set on the baking sheet. Refrigerate both the muffin tins and the baking sheet for 30 minutes.

5. Take both out of the refrigerator, place a peanut butter puck (as we called them) onto each layer of chocolate, then cover with more chocolate. Note: some of mine didn’t quite get covered all the way, but they were still delicious! Refrigerate for another 30 minutes and then enjoy!

Now, some pictures of the process, because those I have!

Peanut butter mixture

Bottom layer of chocolate

Covering in chocolate!

Week of Bookish Goodness!

2011-08-13T17:07:00.000-04:00

This week was quite the week of book bounty at my place. It seemed that all of the book things I had ordered or had gifted to me decided to show up all at once! I’ll do individual posts on each later, but wanted to share what found its way to me in the past few days.

Indiespendable Volume 28

McSweeney’s Book Release Club

McSweeney’s Quarterly Concern Issue 38 (which I was surprised to see as yellow and not green!)

I'd say this was a pretty good week for all things book wouldn't you?

A Game of Thrones

2011-08-06T16:59:00.000-04:00

Winter is Coming

As most people probably know already, the popular “A Song of Ice and Fire” series has been made even more popular by the fact that there is now an HBO series that follows the books. R had read this a while back and was trying to get me to read it but couldn’t tell me why I would like it. But then my reading accomplice K started watching the show, got addicted, and started the series. Since we usually feel the same way about books, I decided to give it a try. Shockingly, I found myself really enjoying the story. It’s a big book (and there’s already 4 more with another 2 on the way!) with lots of characters and plots to try to remember and keep straight, and while the writing isn’t phenomenal it isn’t so bad that you cringe while reading it. And really, it’s the story that keeps the reader entertained here, not the writing. There are some supernatural elements in the book, since it is technically a fantasy novel, but you’re definitely not being hit over the head with them (most of the time).

So, the basic plot line is as follows: Robert Baratheon, King of the Seven Kingdoms asks his old friend and Lord of Winterfell in the north, (Eddard) Ned Stark, to come south with him to King’s Landing to be the King’s Hand. It seems there are some dark dealings going on in the land and Ned goes against his better judgment. In the mean time, there is also a giant wall (of 800 or so feet) in the north where the Knight’s Watch waits and watches to protect the kingdom from what lies to the north of it. In the east, the last of the Targaryen’s (the former kings of the Seven Kingdoms) are in exile planning their return to glory. It is among this basic outline that our story takes place with intrigue and betrayal at nearly every turn. Plots against the king, his allies, his enemies and so on fill the pages and of course, eventually a war (hello game of thrones!).

When you play the game of thrones, you win or you die. There’s no middle ground.

Oh right, and of course, in this world, summers and winters last for years on end. Currently, a something like 10 year summer is starting to come to an end, and of course with the winter, come terrors people cannot even imagine.

You must make them understand. I tell you, my lord, the darkness is coming. There are wild things in the woods, direwolves and mammoths and snow bears the size of aurochs, and I have seen darker shapes in my dreams.

“The common people pray for rain, health children, and a summer that never ends,” Ser Jorah told her. “It is no matter to them if the high lords play their game of thrones, so long as they are left in peace.” He gave a shrug. “The never are.”

An accurate and straightforward synopsis of the plot in this book is near impossible just because there is so much going on and it’s so long and epic. The chapters are told from alternating viewpoints, which I think works really well in this case. We hear from a variety of characters and it gives the book some extra flavor. When I finished, I seriously went “That’s it?! I want more!” I was going to have to bide my time until I could get the next book in the series from the library, but upon hearing that K may have deemed that unacceptable and made the books magically arrive on my doorstep :) (yay the magic of the internet)

Mocha Bundt Cake with Coffee Glaze

2011-07-26T10:00:00.005-04:00

So coffee and chocolate are pretty much a match made in heaven. Do not pass go, do not collect $200, just make this cake already! It’s super easy and low-key, you don’t even need to use a mixer! It’s delicious just a teeny bit still warm (really I couldn’t wait for it to “cool completely” before cutting into this bad boy) and delicious after it’s cooled overnight and the flavors have had a chance to meld together. It is wonderfully moist and almost fudgy and honestly, I could take or leave the glaze though it does make the cake extra pretty. Any way you slice it though, this is one delicious (and easy!) cake to make.

Mocha Bundt Cake with Coffee Glaze via Baking Bites

1 3/4 cup all purpose flour
3/4 cup unsweetened cocoa powder
1 1/2 tsp baking powder
1 tsp baking soda
1 tsp salt
1/3 cup vegetable oil
1 cup sugar
1 cup brown sugar
2 large eggs
1/4 cup instant espresso powder
1 tsp vanilla extract
1 1/4 cup buttermilk
1 cup hot coffee

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees, grease and flour a bundt pan. [I actually used a silicone pan, I know not everyone like these but it’s what I have on hand and worked beautifully.]

2. Sift together flour, cocoa powder, baking powder, baking soda and salt into a bowl. In another larger bowl, whisk together the vegetable oil, sugars, eggs, espresso powder, and vanilla.

3. Stir half of the flour mixture into the larger bowl with the liquid mixture. Then add the buttermilk, then the rest of the flour mixture. Stir until there are no streaks of flour remaining. [I didn’t have any buttermilk on hand, so I used the old trick of vinegar plus milk to make my own.]

4. Pour the coffee into the mixture and stir until thoroughly combined. Note that the batter will be quite thin. Pour the batter into the prepared bundt pan. [I placed my pan onto a cookie sheet before pouring and putting in the oven to ensure it remained sturdy since I was dealing with silicone.]

5. Bake for 40-50 minutes, until a toothpick comes out clean and the cake springs back when gently pressed. Cool the cake in the pan for 15 minutes, then invert onto a cooling rack to cool completely.

Coffee Glaze

1 1/2 tbsp coffee
1 tsp vanilla extract
1 – 1 1/4 cups confectioners’ sugar

1. Combine ingredients and whisk until smooth, if necessary or desired, add more sugar until glaze is smooth and thick to pour over the cake.

Lonesome Dove

2011-07-24T12:11:00.000-04:00

“Who asked them dern pigs?” he said. “I guess they tracked us,” Augustus said. “They’re enterprising pigs.”

If you told me I would read a sprawling, epic Western and enjoy it, I would probably have told you that you were crazy. And yet here we are. After much raving from K, my partner in reading crime, I picked up Lonesome Dove and embarked on a journey I never anticipated taking (or enjoying clearly). This sprawling, epic Western takes place in Lonesome Dove, Texas—at least that’s where it all starts—with the Hat Creek Outfit headed by two former Texas Rangers, Woodrow Call and Augustus McCrae and their ragtag group of cow hands. All is quiet on the Texas-Mexico border until old friend and former Ranger Jake Spoon rolls into town, who the outfit has not seen hide nor hair of for something like 10 years. Jake tells Call and Gus about Montana, a place perfect for cattle that is still nearly untouched by people. Call gets the crazy idea to get together his group of hands, a herd of cattle and horses and drive them all up to be the first in Montana. No one is quite sure why this idea catches Call so, but it does and off the Hat Creek Outfit goes to be enterprising cattlemen in the far off Montana, but first they have to get there.

Soon the whites would come, of course, but what he was seeing was a moment between, not the plains as they had been, or as they would be, but a moment of true emptiness, with thousands of miles of grass resting unused, occupied only by remnants—of the buffalo, the Indians, the hunters. Augustus thought they were crazed remnants, mostly, like the old mountain man who worked night and day gathering bones to no purpose.

Now, Lonesome Dove is most definitely about cowboys, their antics, whores, cattle, pigs, Indians, and driving cattle across the country. But it’s also about loyalty, friendship, justice, promises, and integrity. To be honest, I had a hard time getting into this book, part of that had to do with circumstances when I started reading it, it probably wasn’t the best time to start a long, involved, have to pay attention type of book, but I did. I didn’t even really notice I was thoroughly invested and enjoying it until probably 1/3 or so (maybe even longer) of the way through and a plot point developed that had me gasp and realize I actually had come to care quite a bit about these characters and their quest. That’s not to say I was disinterested or hated the novel before that point, but I didn’t think I was invested in it as it became clear I had become.

But when the moon was just a little white hook, Deets tended to lose his worries. After all, water was still sweet, except for an alkaline river or two, like the Pecos. Perhaps if the Indians got on the moon, they had all fallen off.

McMurtry definitely knows how to describe his setting, his sentences evoke the openness of the plain the outfit travels, the vastness of the lands they cross. His characters are also very well done, detailed, full, and dynamic. Even though there are many supporting actors in the plot each is a true individual, fully drawn and realized; and even when you think you have a character figured out, he just might surprise you. As the novel drew to a close I found that even after 900+ pages I wasn’t quite reading for it to end. Strange for a novel I was kind of lukewarm about for so long huh?

One day Augustus asked Newt to ride along with him, much to Newt’s surprise. In the morning they saw a grizzly, but the bear was far upwind and didn’t scent them. It was a beautiful day—no clouds in the sky. Augustus rode with his big rifle propped across the saddle—he was in the highest of spirits. They rode ahead of the herd some fifteen miles or more, and yet when they stopped to look back they could still see the cattle, tiny black dots in the middle of the plain, with the southern horizon still far behind them.

Since I enjoyed this novel so much I just may have to look into the miniseries of it as well as the sequels and prequels.

Mint Chocolate with Mint Chip Cookies

2011-07-19T21:17:00.000-04:00

So, I had a request to make some sort of cookie this weekend and I’ve had these mint chips sitting in my cabinet for a while now since I bought them on a whim. So I had a brilliant idea of making a chocolate cookie with the mint chips in them, I wandered over to my basic recipe standby (joyofbaking.com) and found a chocolate cookie recipe I could modify.I also needed something that I could make with the ingredients I had on time, it had a been a bit since the last real grocery run hehe. I also wanted to make sure the cookies were chewy, this recipe already called for brown sugar but remember, you can always sub out some or all of your white sugar when you want a chewier cookie. I also figured while I was at it, I’d sub out the vanilla extract for mint. It worked out pretty well I’d say, and R would agree (he’s the reason I had to bake cookies in the first place!)

[A note about Joy of Baking, the website has a lot of great recipes, it’s my go-to for classic recipes, when I don’t have a lot of time to research and just want something that I know will work, or when I want to experiment a bit, like this time. I also really like these recipes because they give their dry measurements in weight not cups.] Recipe after the break.

Chewy Mint Chocolate mint chip cookies adapted from Joy of Baking

1/2 cup (113 grams) unsalted butter, room temperature
1/2 cup (105 grams) light brown sugar
1/4 cup (50 grams) white granulated sugar
1 large egg
1 teaspoon pure mint extract
1 cup (130 grams) all purpose flour
1/4 cup (30 grams) cocoa powder
1/2 teaspoon baking powder
1/8 teaspoon salt
1 1/2 cups (260 grams) mint chips

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F and place rack in center of oven. Line baking sheets with parchment paper or silicone pads [I love my silicone pads and use them for everything with baking sheets, so easy to clean and no fuss with tearing paper or making sure you have the right kind of parchment/wax/etc paper].

2. Beat the butter and sugars until light and fluffy. Add the egg and mint extract and beat until incorporated. Sift together the cocoa powder, flour, baking powder, and salt and then add to the butter and egg mixture. Mix just until incorporated. Fold in the the mint chips.

3. Place balls of batter on the prepared baking sheet, spacing about 2 inches apart. [I like to use a cookie scoop for this, it keeps the size uniform(ish), currently I only have the small version but as long as you keep an eye on them in the oven you can adjust the baking time accordingly. I actually like smaller cookies, I don’t feel as bad when I eat 2!]

4. Bake for approximately 8 - 10 minutes or until the the cookies are still soft in the center but are firm around the edges. Remove from oven and let cookies cool on baking sheet for about 5 minutes before removing the cookies to a wire rack to cool completely. [I baked mine for 9 minutes since they were on the small side]

The only two things I would change if I make these again is 1)maybe cut down on the mint extract or up the amount of cocoa powder for a more chocolate taste and 2) use less mint chips. I’m not sure if these chips were larger than the average, but the cookie batter to chip ratio was a bit off. But they were still tasty! The picture didn’t turn out so well for this one, but trust me they’re delicious, maybe if I have some better light [and we don’t eat them all] I’ll edit with some better pictures, but that’s a big if, baked goods don’t tend to last very long in this house.

Indiespensable Volume 27

2011-07-17T16:41:00.000-04:00

A few weeks back my Powell’s Indiespensable Volume 27 arrived. Hooray! In this package was Ann Patchett’s highly anticipated novel State of Wonder as well as an ARC of Miriam Toews's Irma Voth (which of course I’ve no knowledge of either novel or author yay!) and the first issue of McSweeney’s new endeavor, “Lucky Peach” a food journal. (R is especially interested in that one) McSweeney’s was kind enough to include a card for Indiespensable subscribers to receive a discount on a subscription should they choose. On to the pictures of the loot! (Photos and other commentary after the break)

Irma Voth

Author interview cards

State of Wonder

“Lucky Peach”

Looking forward to the next volume (which ships August 3) which will include Alice LaPlante’s Turn of Mind and whatever other goodies Powell’s decides to throw in.

In other literary type news, there will be even more look what I got in the mail posts soon since R so kindly went literary on me for both our anniversary and my birthday (which are less than a week apart ha). I’ll be receiving McSweeney’s Quarterly Concern as well as the next 8 books they publish as part of the McSweeney’s Book Release Club. Both of which I am eagerly (and very impatiently) awaiting.

Posts may be sparse for a while, as I’m making my way through the epic (and long) Lonesome Dove and have a few other large books on my pile to read but hopefully I’ll post shortly after finishing, and soon I’ll have some McSweeney’s goodies to post as well. As always, you can find me on my twitter and tumblr in the meantime.

Zazen

2011-07-15T21:17:00.001-04:00

Walking home it occurred to me that the great thing about a bomb threat is how much it leaves to the imagination. Like your mom saying you’re in trouble but not telling you why, you go over everything it could be in your mind. There were hidden rivers of guilt running underneath. There had to be.

Vanessa Veselka’s debut novel Zazen is, to me, something that nearly defies description or categorization. It’s a sort of end of times novel, there’s some wars going on, things are being bombed, people are fleeing the United States in droves, there are riots in the street, checkpoints and curfews. 27 year old Della, our protagonist, works at a local vegan diner seems pretty apathetic to what’s going on around her until she begins to be pulled into something that’s not quite clear to her at the start; soon she’s calling in bomb threats to random places, plotting her escape, and living on a commune.

If the plot isn’t quite clear from that little description you might begin to see what I mean by Zazen being beyond simple descriptions and summaries. Also though, the story is much less about place and plot, and much more about Della and her internal struggle and personal introspection. Veselka has a talent for this, Della and the rest of the characters come to life and develop well. Veselka’s other talent in this novel is her writing, she can be witty and terrifying all at the same time, her turns of phrase are great as well. I’ve seen others describe the writing in Zazen as lyrical, I couldn’t agree more. There’s something about the writing and the dialogue (internal or otherwise) that sucks you in. It can also be very all over the place at times, swinging from high to low, from one thing to another, seemingly without rhyme or reason; but still keeping this reader engaged. The best way to show what I mean is just to give you some quotes, there are many many more that I could have pulled, but here’s just a few:

That night a bomb woke me up. Credence said it wasn’t possible. That is was across the ocean and wasn’t even ours. But everything’s ours. The outside world is nothing anymore, just a franchise of nations.

The high school girls just love it,” she said.
Because the need to coordinate their torture of each other? Or because it has bees?
“They just think the bees are adorable. And…”
They need to coordinate their torture of each other.
“And it comes in all these colors,” she spread the cell phones like cards on the counter. “Like lollipops.”
And condoms.
“Or sweet tarts.”
And handguns.

I suppose I could have jumped up and down and claimed to the be the art director of the consumer apocalypse. Gone down with ship and all. But I wasn’t the one who bombed those places. I just thought they looked pretty on fire. Sort of. Now that everything is it means less.

Have you gotten around to reading Zazen? How would you describe it? Even though a description is hard for me to articulate, I still did enjoy the work and will keep my eye out for Veselka’s work in the future.

Lovely Hardbound Classics

2011-06-30T20:47:00.002-04:00

Stumbled upon these today, some beautiful Barnes & Noble hardcover classics done by Jessica Hische.

Hop on over to her website (linked above) to see more pictures, as well as her other awesome projects. PS I love that you an look at her website in "teen girl mode" ha!

Johannes Cabal the Necromancer

2011-06-28T10:00:00.001-04:00

Yes, its true function was to tempt to contentiousness, to blasphemy, argumentation, and murder, but you could also win coconuts.

Johannes Cabal, is a necromancer (he basically raises the dead). But Johannes is not your everyday necromancer (if there is such a thing), he is one without a soul. You see, Johannes made a deal with the devil in which the devil received Johannes’ soul immediately and Johannes received the knowledge of necromancy. However, this whole not having a soul thing is kind of impeding on Johannes’ progress you see. So Johannes makes his way down to hell, outwits the head paper-pusher guarding the gates of hell, and finds himself with an audience with Satan. Satan decides to strike a deal with Johannes, Johannes has one year to gather 100 souls for Satan, if he succeeds, he gets his soul back, if not, well that’s the end of the road for him. Since Satan is being so nice in this wager, he gives Johannes the use of a carnival in which to capture his requisite number of souls. So off Johannes goes, with his carnival, some bodies he was “necromanced” to be useful, and his brother to find some unwitting souls to sign themselves over to an eternity in hell.

Lots of forms. Stacks of forms. An average of nine thousand, seven hundred, and forty-seven of them were required to gain entrance to Hell. The largest form ran to fifteen thousand, four hundred, and ninety seven questions. The shortest to just five, but five of such subtle phraseology, labyrinthine grammar, and malicious ambiguity that, released into the mortal world, they would certainly have formed the basis of a new religion, or at least, a management course…Nobody had to fill in the forms of course. But, given that the alternative was eternity spent naked in an endless dessert that has never known night, most people found themselves sooner or later queuing up at the small porter’s door set into one of Hell’s Gates.

What results is a tale full of mayhem, tons of dry, dark wit, and quite an enjoyable read. Johannes knows nothing about people, or having fun, which makes this whole quest an interesting one. His brother, Horst, on the other hand, knows all about people and what they like, but he’s only available after dark, because you see, he’s a vampire and Johannes may have had something to do with that. An enjoyable read, if you’re into this sort of thing, I’ll be looking forward to getting around to the sequel Johannes Cabal the Detective at some point.

The Snowman

2011-06-26T13:19:00.002-04:00

The Snowman is the first of Jo Nesbø’s novels to gain popularity the US, but it’s actually the seventh book in the Harry Hole series. It’s been on just about every recommended and top selling book list out there. There have been a lot of comparisons to Stieg Larsson, probably because the book is from another Scandinavian country, this time Norway.

In The Snowman Nesbø builds a suspenseful plot around murders/disappearances that take place shortly after the first day of snow and are often accompanied by a menacing looking snowman suddenly appearing. Harry Hole is the only inspector in the Norwegian police force that has any experience with serial killers, having taken a course in the States with the FBI and tracking one down in Australia. Is he seeing patterns where none exist? Or has Hole stumbled upon the first serial killer in Norway’s history?

Nesbø does a great job of building suspense and keeping the plot fresh. There are plenty of twists and turns, every time you think you’ve figured out the identity of The Snowman, you find another piece of information that makes you question your conclusion. Maybe it was right, but maybe not. But the twists aren’t gratuitous, they’re not just there because they can be, they really add to the plot. The writing is quite good too, it keeps the plot flowing and the suspense building. Even though this is part of a series, The Snowman also works well as a stand alone novel. I’ve never read (nor had I heard of) any of the previous ones and I thoroughly enjoyed it. If you’re looking for a fun, suspenseful, thriller to read I would definitely recommend this one.

Saul and Patsy

2011-06-20T09:30:00.005-04:00

If the city of Five Oaks had any true siblings, they wouldn't have names like Rheims or Pisa. They would be the close relatives with names like Terre Haute or Duluth or Flint or Grand Forks or Davenport or Burlington or Scranton or Kenosha -- cities you had heard of but couldn't quite picture, cities that called nothing in particular to mind except for an eagerness to be larger and more prosperous than they were, and an all-consuming late-stage boosterism that was mostly insecurity and worry masked by bluster. The wolves were never far from the door in cities like these, and sometimes the wolves got in. The churches tried, with varying success, to keep people calm when the members of the congregation felt like screaming. Five Oaks would always be the sort of place you had to apologize for whenever visitors from out of town -- from larger towns, real cities -- arrived at the airport in their little turboprop commuter planes, shaken up and curious about what had brought them there.

Or else: you lived there for years and you found you liked it, and you stopped apologizing, and visitors noticed that, too.

In Charles Baxter’s novel Saul and Patsy, we follow the lives of the two main characters, Saul and Patsy, who move from Chicago to Five Oaks, Michigan when Saul decides he must become a teacher:

The plutocrats are taking over and keeping everybody ignorant about how things are. The conspiracy of the inane starts in the schools, but it gets big results in business. Everywhere I’ve looked lately I’ve seen a cynic in a position of tremendous responsibility. We’re being undermined by rich cynics and common people who have been forcibly, made stupid. This has got to stop. I’ve got to be a teacher. It’s a political necessity. At least for a few years.

So off the two move to middle of nowhere America and they settle into a life, Saul as a teacher and Patsy as a loan officer at the local bank. One of Saul’s remedial students seems to become attached to him, though Saul is sure the boy hates him, and begins to turn up on Saul and Patsy’s property, staring into space, seemingly needing nothing. This boy, Gordy, has a profound affect on Saul and Patsy, as well as the rest of the town.

The novel is really just the story of the life Saul and Patsy have created for themselves in this small town, of the people around them, and those close to them; just a chronicle of life done very well. The characters are impeccably created and the writing fantastic. Open the book to any page and you’ll probably find a stand out passage or witty bit of dialogue, probably just a musing on life or love but something that grabs at you.

Because he loved Patsy so much, Saul was constantly disappointed with the rest of the world. It didn’t measure up. Having moved to Five Oaks, mingling with the Cossacks, Saul could feel his disappointment beginning to fester. Why couldn’t the world be more like Patsy? The rest of the world—especially where they had found themselves, here in the Midwest—presented itself as both bland and coarse. Intelligence and attention were wasted on it, he thought. It occurred to him sometimes that Patsy did not want to be loved the way he was loving her, that he was bedeviling her, but he did his best to put that thought out of his mind.

This was the first novel of Baxter’s I’ve picked up, on the recommendation of my reading partner but I will definitely be picking up some of his others.

Just Make It: Strawberry Cake

2011-06-19T13:34:00.001-04:00

Do you like cake? Do you like strawberries? If you said yes to both of these questions, then make this cake. Seriously. It’s that good and bonus, it’s really easy!!

I’ve been meaning to post about this cake for ages. I made it over Memorial Day weekend, we had some friends coming over and I needed to make something fantastic. R had gone to the farmer’s market and strawberries were in season. I had seen this recipe the week before so it was an easy choice. This cake is LOADED with strawberries, there’s a full pound of them in there. Seriously, so good. The recipe comes from Smitten Kitchen. Mine doesn’t look as pretty as the one you’ll find there, but I bet it’s just as delicious.

6 tablespoons room temperature unsalted butter
1 1/2 cups (188 grams) all-purpose flour
1 1/2 teaspoons baking powder
1/2 teaspoon table salt
1 cup (200 grams) plus 2 tablespoons (25 grams) granulated sugar
1 large egg
1/2 cup (118 ml) milk
1 teaspoon (5 ml) vanilla extract
1 pound (450 grams) strawberries, hulled and halved

Preheat oven to 350 degrees, spray or butter 10-inch pie pan (Note: I used a 10 inch cake pan because that’s what I had and it overflowed just a bit, luckily I put a sheet pan and foil under the cake pan to reduce the mess, you may want to be on the safe side and do so as well).
Mix flour, baking powder, and salt together. Cream butter and the 1 cup of sugar until pale and fluffy. Mix in egg, milk, and vanilla. Add flour mixture slowly until combined.
Pour batter into pan. Arrange the strawberries, cut side down, on top of the batter. Try to do so in a single layer, but depending on the number and size of your strawberries this may not be possible (it wasn’t for me but it still worked out wonderfully). Sprinkle the 2 tablespoons of sugar over the top of the cake.
Bake for 10 minutes, then reduce temperature to 325 degrees and complete baking about 50-60 minutes. Let cool and then enjoy! I made some whipped cream to serve on top of the cake which was a big hit!

Look at all that strawberry deliciousness! The strawberries basically get all jam like, oh so good!

If you make this let me know how it turns out, I’m sure it will be fantastic and you definitely won’t regret it. R asked if I could make it again the next weekend. I’m sure this will be an often repeated recipe.

Bright Before Us

2011-06-18T15:20:00.002-04:00

Maybe you don’t remember everything, the way I do. But I keep these memories for the two of us. If you ever want them, you can have them.

Powell’s Indiepsensable volume 26 brought me another author and book I was unfamiliar with and another winner. Katie Arnold-Ratliff’s debut novel was a fantastic little read.

We begin with our narrator, Francis, a 2nd grade teacher in San Francisco, as he and his class stumble upon a dead body during a class field trip. From there, Francis sees his life begin to spiral out of control. The book presents Francis’ story in two parts which alternate. The first, being what is happening presently (post-body finding), the other takes us through his past, what events and person shaped him. This latter part is written almost like a love letter to the past, full of remembrances and fondness. While this approach doesn’t always work, I personally really enjoyed it, especially the parts where we learn about Francis’ past. It may take a while to figure out exactly what is going on with the varying narration styles but once you figure it out, it is definitely worth any weirdness. While Francis was not the most empathetic character, I still was sucked in by his story, which to me shows brilliance on the part of the author.

The story and the writing grab you and pull you in until the very end, making this a book that was very had to put down. It’s a quick little read, under 300 pages, but there is so much feeling and emotion in those pages it feels more “substantial”. I will definitely keep my eye out for whatever Arnold-Ratilff puts out next.

The Uncoupling

2011-06-11T10:00:00.000-04:00

All over town, the spell did its work. No one knew, of course; how could they possibly have known? Even in the absence of a spell, no one ever really knew what went on in anyone else’s bed. No one ever really knew what went on in anyone else’s kitchen, or bathroom, or upstairs hallway. What actually happened there, and what got said. Couples might put on clown wigs and prance around. Entire families might kneel and chant and eat root soup. Who really knew anything about how other people lived?

In Meg Wolitzer’s The Uncoupling strange things begin to happen to a small New Jersey town when a new drama teacher shows up. She decides to have the students perform Lysistrata the Aristophanes play in which the women stop sleeping with their men in protest of The Peloponnesian War. There is to be just one performance of the play. Suddenly the women of Stellar Plains, New Jersey, find themselves turning away from their husbands and boyfriends for seemingly no reason.

I’m having mixed feelings about this one, when I started out I really liked it, Wolitzer’s writing is wonderful (and if you’ve been around here before, you know I’m a sucker for good writing), and the plot was intriguing enough, and the characters were very will done, but here’s the thing, it was just unsatisfying.

Here’s a warning, I’m going to talk about the ending here so if you don’t want to know what happens don’t click the “more” link and don’t keep reading the post okay?
Alright, so I’m assuming if you’re still with me you’re okay talking about the ending right? Last chance…alright. So the end it just too wrapped up with a bow for me. All of a sudden, just as quickly as the spell was cast on Stellar Plains, during the one production of the play, it lifts. Just.like.that. The men get on stage professing their love and *poof* everything is perfect again. Passions renewed. There’s really no profound anything at then end like you might think there may be, nor real realizations, nothing. AND THEN we find out that the drama teacher knows this happens, that she actively does this to towns all around New Jersey! She doesn't know why it happens, just that it does every time she does this play. She obviously thinks she knows what’s best for these people and their relationships. Um okay. Anyway, the ending just really really threw me and was very unsatisfying for me. The plots had such promise and then this ending just seemed, I don’t know.

Even with the crappy ending, I still enjoyed the vast majority of my time with the novel. It’s a quick read too, so I don’t feel like I wasted my time with it either.

American Rose

2011-06-09T21:14:00.000-04:00

I picked up American Rose: A Nation Laid Bare: The Life and Times of Gypsy Rose Lee strictly based on my love for Karen Abbott’s first book Sin in the Second City which is all about the red light district in old Chicago. I knew absolutely nothing about Gypsy Rose Lee (no I’ve never seen Gypsy and didn’t even realize the too were related until I picked up this book), but Abbott did not disappoint in telling me all about her.

But Mother was right about the power they held as women, about the one currency that never lost its value. She would give it away whenever and to whomever she saw fit, but always—and only—for something in return.

In American Rose, Abbott tells us both of the life and times of Gypsy Rose Lee, her sister June, and their mother, as well as the rise and fall of burlesque in New York City and the Minksy Brothers who brought them all together. The stories are sordid and we never really know which stories to believe, as Gypsy created so many truths about herself and those that may know the which stories are true are mostly dead, but I kind of like that we don't know what to believe, it seems to fit with what Gypsy was all about; creating the best life she saw possible out of thin air.

I know that not all do, but I really enjoy Abbott’s voice in her novels. Sure they jump back and forth between subjects and time frames but it works for me. I often find non-fiction books to be dry but that is never the case with Abbott’s books, they read (to me) more like fiction, maybe something the way the stories flow so well and the voice they are told in. While maybe not a spectacular read, surely a solid enough piece of work to spend some time with.

Bossypants

2011-06-06T09:30:00.001-04:00

Contrary to what I believed as a little girl, being the boss almost never involves marching around, waving your arms, and chanting, “I am the boss! I am the boss!

Tina Fey’s memoir has been getting a lot of press recently, and it was my book club’s choice for this month’s meeting. Good news, everyone that showed up read the book! Yay! That’s progress. But there were only 5 of us, and we only talked about the book for like 10 minutes. Now to be fair to our group, while Bossypants is pretty funny, at least parts of it, there really isn’t much to discuss. Fey has some great laugh out loud moments and some pretty good life stories, but really the book is just that, a collection of some things that happened that don’t really related to themselves other than they happened to Fey. There’s not really a narrative thread through it all. But I mean it’s exactly what I was expecting, a quick, funny, cotton candy, afternoon read, which sometimes is just what I need.

To say I’m an overrated troll, when you have never even seen me guard a bridge, is patently unfair.

Photoshop is just like makeup. When it’s done well it looks great, and when it’s overdone you look like a crazy asshole.

I was a bit disappointed when I got to the last chapter and realized it had been printed in full in the New Yorker or somewhere and I had already read it. Also, I wonder if the book would be even better in audio form, Fey narrates it herself and as with most comedians jokes are made or fail miserably with their delivery and some of that just doesn’t translate into text. Alas, there were way to many people in front of me for the audio book at the library for me to find out. So anyway, good, fun, quick read. Even the non-speed readers among us finished this in a short time period.

American Pastoral

2011-06-04T14:53:00.002-04:00

So it seems that over here on this here blog it’s either a draught or a downpour. I finish books and fully intend on writing up a post soon after, but that never seems to happen, and now I have 4 books and a cake to write about, so it seems it’s going to be pouring here for a bit.

You go to someone and you think, “I’ll tell him this.” But why? The impulse is that the telling is going to relieve you. And that’s why you feel awful later—you’ve relieved yourself, and if it truly is tragic and awful, it’s not better, it’s worse—the exhibitionism inherent to a confession has only made the misery worse.

American Pastoral is probably one of Philip Roth’s most well known and revered novels, and it’s just a coincidence that I picked this up to read not two days after he won the Man Booker Prize. I had seen it up in NYC at The Strand for something like $7 and it’s one of my reading partner’s favorite books so I had to buy it. I found myself without a library book waiting for me and so I picked it up. Roth follows the Levov family as their life goes from All-American Dream to despair as their daughter goes from typical happy suburban teenager to political terrorist railing against the Vietnam War. Roth is a master of language and of characters. The despair the characters feel is palpable, especially that of the father—the Swede. It is all the more so because in his youth the Swede was held up as a shining example, someone who had it all figured out, living a charmed life, and adored by his peers.

The fact remains that getting people right is not what living is all about anyway. It’s getting them wrong that it living, getting them wrong and wrong and wrong and then, on careful reconsideration, getting them wrong again. That’s how we know we’re alive: we’re wrong. Maybe the best thing would be to forget being right or wrong about people and just go along for the ride. But if you can do that—well, lucky you.

There are numerous scenes in the novel that stuck with me throughout, in the glove factory between Jewish father and the Swede’s Catholic fiancé way back when, former Miss New Jersey; the scene with the Swede and his daughter in her run down apartment; the scenes so powerful they remain after reading and of course the Swede’s anguish through it all.

It did take me a bit to get into the story, mostly because the first section is a lead up to all the desperation. We learn of the Swede’s childhood and only see the beginnings of the anguish of his daughter and what will become of her actions. Once we get into the rocky part of the family history I was much more into the book, what can I say apparently I enjoy the tragic in novels, and this one has tragedy in spades.

A Letter of Mary

2011-05-25T10:00:00.002-04:00

A Letter of Mary is Laurie King’s third installment in her Mary Russell series. In this one Russell and Holmes find themselves in possession of a box which contains a scroll that could rock the beliefs of Christianity if proved to be authentic. Shortly after it finding its way into their possession, Russell’s friend Dorothy Ruskin (and previous owner of said box and scroll) finds herself involved in a motor accident which later proves to be murder. Russell and Holmes employ their detective and disguise skills to get to the bottom of the case with help from Mycroft and Lestrade.

Every time I pick up one of King’s Russell novels I find myself thoroughly entertained. While this is only the third in the series (which as of this year will contain 11 novels and a novella) every time I hope she hasn’t lost the magic of the series, and so far (thank goodness!) she has not. Holmes and Russell, and the interaction of the two, is again at its best. Intellect and wiliness abounds. I’m so very glad that Mycroft plays such a large role in this one as I do enjoy his character and the way King has him play of the others. In this one we really see (once again) Russell’s strengths as a detective, out of the shadow of Holmes as the two are separated on their own missions related to the murder for much of the novel; and boy does she shine!

I am also constantly amazed at how well King’s depiction of Russell and Holmes work so well, both on their own and together. Holmes has to be one of the best known characters in literary history and yet King can make him her own without straying too far from the character we all know and love. He’s completely believable based on what we know from the Doyle stories and yet completely stands on his own as well. And as for Russell, well, I’m sure there were plenty of skeptics out there when King decided to pair Holmes up with a woman! But I think she’s done marvelously well for herself.

These stories and their characters are like good, old friends, whenever I pick up another in the series I know I’m in for a good time. Judging by the success of the series, and my knowledge of other blogger love for Russell et. al. I don’t think I’m going to be disappointed any time soon. In fact while I was up in NYC at The Strand I picked up numbers 4 and 7 (The Moor and The Game) since they were available on the cheap :) Next time I’m in a bit of a funk, or need something I know I’ll love, I’ll be sure to turn to Russell and Holmes.

Instruments of Darkness

2011-05-23T09:30:00.002-04:00

The rest of the village never expected to have much to do with him, but after a month or two of observation, many of the local women found the easiest way to still a child was to threaten it with Mr. Crowther and his big knife. He was a student of anatomy. He wanted to know how bodies lived, what record a man’s life left on his physical remains, and he had the leisure and means to inquire

Imogen Robertson’s debut novel Instruments of Darkness follows Harriet Westerman as she finds a corpse on her grounds carrying a ring with the crest of the nearby Thornleigh Hall. She appeals to Gabriel Crowther, recluse and student of anatomy to aid in her investigation of who the dead man is and how he came to be there. It also follows the Adams children as their father, Alexander, is murdered. Of course the two cases become intertwined as Westerman and Crowther try to determine what happened and how to stop the killings, all of this with the knowledge of the times, 1780.

I enjoyed this novel quite a bit, I do enjoy a good historical fiction and a mystery and this one is a pretty solid debut. The characters are for the most part well drawn and dynamic while still being believable. I did enjoy both Westerman and Crowther quite a bit. Even the more ancillary characters were well done, I especially enjoyed Rachel (Westerman’s younger sister) and Mr. Graves (who becomes the Adams children’s caretaker after their father is killed). It took me a bit to get into the novel though, but once I did it was enjoyable, with enough action and twists to keep me interested. It’s a bit of a long book, 372 pages, and feels it a times, a bit of lagging here and there.

There is also a bit of back and forth, not just between the two independent plot lines but also between a third in the form of flashbacks were we learn about the time the youngest Thornleigh spent in Boston during the revolution. While interesting, it wasn’t all that useful, we did learn some interesting things, but they were also told at other points in the novel as well, so it was a bit redundant, but not annoyingly so I suppose. Although to Robertson’s credit she moves between the two time periods well, without much confusion which can’t always be said for such an attempt in plot.

All in all a solid debut and enjoyable story. It appears that Robertson has second Crowther and Westerman novel out and a third on its way. I might have to keep that in mind the next time I’m looking for a historical fiction mystery to read.

Recipe: Carrot Cake

2011-05-21T16:17:00.002-04:00

Alright, so I’m WAY late on posting this recipe. Back, oh a month and a half ago or so, R and I went to dinner, the main course was to be chicken pot pie and of course I had been tasked with bringing a proper dessert. After much deliberation, and the fact that it would need to be transported, I settled on carrot cake. As we were dinning with a southern gentleman, this could have been a precarious choice, fear not, it was a hit. Since I had to transport it and didn’t want to have to fuss with layers, I made it a bit more casual and put it in a sheet pan instead, trust me, it is no less delicious. Also, we’re not big on nuts in our baked goods in our house, so those were omitted, the southern gentleman didn’t even blink. Everything about this cake is delicious from the every moist cake (good even days after baking) to the cream cheese frosting with just a hint of lemon (I know that might seem a weird combination but take my word for it it’s delicious). So without further ado, the recipe that I made (the link below goes to the original layer cake version with nuts):

Carrot Cake (adapted from The Joy of Baking)

3/4 pound (340 grams) raw carrots (about 2 1/2 cups finely grated)
2 cups (260 grams) all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon baking soda
1 1/2 teaspoons baking powder
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 1/2 teaspoons ground cinnamon
4 large eggs
1 1/2 cups (300 grams) granulated white sugar
1 cup (240 ml) vegetable oil
2 teaspoons pure vanilla extract

1/4 cup (57 grams) unsalted butter, room temperature
8 ounces (227 grams) cream cheese, room temperature
2 cups (230 grams) confectioners sugar, sifted
1 teaspoon (4 grams) vanilla
1 teaspoon finely grated lemon zest

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Spray one 9x13 sheet pan with nonstick spray.
Peel and finely grate the carrots.
Wisk together flour, baking soda, baking powder, salt, and cinnamon.
In mixer, beat eggs until frothy, add sugar a bit at a time and beat until thick and lightly colored. Add oil in stream, add vanilla extract. Add dry ingredient mixture and beat until incorporated. Pour batter into prepared ban.
Bake 30-40 minutes, until toothpick comes out clean. Remove cake from oven and cool.
For cream cheese frosting beat cream cheese and butter in mixer until blended. Gradually add sifted powdered sugar and beat until incorporated and frosting is smooth. Add vanilla and lemon zest.
Once the cake is cool frost with cream cheese frosting.

Indiespensable 26: Bright Before Us

2011-05-17T19:45:00.002-04:00

Returning to the real world is always a struggle. R and I went up to NYC for the weekend which was lovely, expect a picture post or two on that—including our trip to The Strand, but getting back in the swing of things is hard. Not to mention my April was out of control busy with travel and such. But that’s all over now, hopefully things will get back to normal soon. I did manage to finish one book on the trip and train ride home though. But for now, Powell’s Indiespensable volume 26 landed on my doorstep last week, let’s take a peak inside.

There’s also a Powell’s tote that I forgot to include in the picture. The main attraction, the novel, is Katie Arnold-Ratliff's debut Bright Before Us, I don’t know much about the book, but it sounds intriguing and I’m eager to read it (as I am of nearly all of Powell’s selections.

Also included is a excerpt from Scott Sparling’s Wire to Wire. Now this is a clever package. You might be able to tell from the “group photo” above, but the excerpt folds accordion style, just a little quirk I find cool.

Then we have a little tin house notebook, perfect for sticking in a pocket and a set of beautifully illustrated postcards from the upcoming Moby Dick in Pictures (also by tin house).

So there you have it, a look inside Indiespensable Volume 26. AND on the same day I write about it, Powell’s had announced Volume 27 will be Ann Patchett’s State of Wonder. Another book and author I know nothing about, thanks Powell’s for introducing me to things I may never know about otherwise! Can’t wait :)

The Fates Will Find Their Way

2011-05-10T09:30:00.000-04:00

Hannah Pittard’s The Fates Will Find Their Way was featured as the 24th installment of Powell’s Indiepsensable program. Had it not been for this program, I probably would not have picked up or even heard about Pittard’s lovely debut novel.

What each man does will shape his trial and fortune. For Jupiter is king to all alike; the fates will find their way.

-Virgil, The Aeneid

The Fates focuses on a group of boys (and later men) in a community in the mid-Atlantic who during their sixteenth year lose one of their own; Nora Lindell goes missing. This disappearance is the catalyst for the novel, told in the first person plural “we” (and has thus drawn parallels to The Virgin Suicides for itself) of the boys Nora left behind. As in my last read, time is fluid here, we laze back and forth between the lives of those left behind, the remembrances of their lives as children, and imaginings of what has happened to Nora. The boys imagine all sorts of exploits for the missing Nora, have her travelling the world, dying (or not), having children, falling in love etc. Are any of these imaginings true? No one knows, but it doesn’t stop the collective from imagining them. Just as it seems the men have moved on, someone will see something that will spur the imaginings on again, a picture that they are convinced is of Nora etc.

It seemed, some days, that life was nothing more than a tally of the people who’d left us behind.

The book jacket puts it quite nicely: “Far more eager to imagine Nora's fate than to scrutinize their own, the boys sleepwalk into an adulthood of jobs, marriages, families, homes, and daughters of their own, all the while pining for a girl–and a life–that no longer exists, except in the imagination.” And that right there is what the whole novel is about. Whether the men (and the reader) ever finds out what really happened to Nora isn’t important. What is important is how this event affects the lives of those left behind, how the memory of her and all that could have been lives on, all the possibilities that died for those left behind when she disappeared are too strong to just let go. It is also about how much of a mystery we are to each other, while the narration is the collective we of those left behind, the novel is full of things the others don’t know and what happens when those things are revealed, the impact they have on the rest of the community, the impact they have on the memory of Nora.

As if the realization that there’s so much that we didn’t—that we don’t—know that it’s frightening, that it’s distancing and isolating and sad.

Pittard’s language is absolutely wonderful, a thing of beauty really (what can I say, I am a sucker for good writing). On the basis of her writing along, I cannot wait to see what Pittard comes out with next.

And we did hush up. At least, we tried very hard. We hung up the phones. We attended our own crying babies. We soothed our wives. But at night, at night we lay awake, the shades drawn, our eyes wide open, the breath of our families a constant hum beside us. We lay awake and wondered all over again about Nora and her strange sister.

The Tiger’s Wife

2011-05-08T11:52:00.000-04:00

We were seventeen, furious at everything because we didn’t know what else to do with the fact that the war was over. Years of fighting, and, before that, a lifetime on the cusp of it. Conflict we didn’t necessarily understand—conflict we had raged over, regurgitated opinions on, seized as the reason for why we couldn’t go anywhere, do anything, be anyone—had been at the center of everything. It had forced us to make choices based on circumstances that were now no longer a part of our daily lives, and we kept it close, a heavy birthright for which we were only too eager to pay.

Téa Obreht’s debut novel The Tiger’s Wife has gotten a lot of attention. Obreht, just 25, was featured in The New Yorker’s 20 Under 40 List and has received rave reviews from all around. The Tiger’s Wife is set in an unnamed country in the Balkans (Obreht was born in Belgrade) and revolves around our narrator, Natalia as she deals with the death of her grandfather, reconciling her life as a doctor with the fanciful stories he used to tell her during her youth and so time here is fluid as we move back and forth through Natalia’s life and the stories of her grandfather; a man of science yes, but also a man of myth.

Obreht’s prose are delightfully wonderful as she paints this tale for her reader. The details rich and characters complete. Even those of the myths Natalia recounts piece by piece, I especially enjoyed the tale of the Deathless Man who strikes up a type of relationship with Natalia’s grandfather throughout his life and who Natalia envisions her grandfather with at his last moments of life.

This story is complex and builds upon itself layer by layer as the pages pass. It is put together wonderfully with some beautiful use of language and I look forward to seeing what else Obreht has in her bag of tricks.

Nothing to Envy

2011-05-02T19:09:00.000-04:00

The only mobility within the class system was downward. Even if you were in the core class—reserved for relatives of the ruling family and party cadres—you could get demoted for bad behavior. But once in the hostile class, you remained there for life. Whatever your original stain, it was permanent and immutable. And just like the caste system of old Korea, family status was hereditary. The sins of the father were the sins of the children and the grandchildren.

In Nothing to Envy: Ordinary Lives in North Korea Barbara Demick chronicles the lives of six ordinary North Koreans over the course of 15 years, who have now defected and are living in South Korea, where she interviews them. Not usually a book I would pick on my own, but the choice for our April book club meeting. (Of course, I’m now writing my post about it after I’ve returned the book to the library, but such is life.)

While I thought the concept interesting it was very hard for me to get into the book, I found it a bit dry and clunky at times. Also, the way Demick jumped between characters didn’t help my struggle. The stories of the 6 individuals were interesting enough, so I’m not sure why I didn’t find myself thoroughly engrossed. This book was quite easy for me to put down and took much longer than normal for me to read (it’s not a large book by any means). The book gets very good reviews on goodreads and the like, but just didn’t do it for me. Maybe my political science background had me better informed than most, but most of the information in the book wasn’t new to me. The personal aspect of the stories is a good spin on the story though. Although the way they were woven together confused me at times, I had to really think about which person’s story I had rejoin, some were obvious, but sometimes it took me a while to figure it out.

I did find the descriptions of how the father and son were so revered interesting, how people dusted the frames of their photographs daily, could put nothing else on the walls with their photographs etc. You have to admit, Kim Il-sung was pretty smart in that regard:

To a certain extent, all dictatorships are alike. From Stalin’s Soviet Union to Mao’s China, from Ceausescu’s Romania to Saddam Hussein’s Iraq, all these regimes had the same trappings: the statues looming over every town square, the portraits hung in every office, the wristwatches with the dictator’s face on the dial. But Kim Il-sung took the cult of personality to a new level. What distinguished him in the rogues’ gallery of twentieth-century dictators was his ability to harness the power of faith. Kim Il-sung understood the power of religion. His maternal uncle was a Protestant minister back in the pre-Communist days when Pyongyang had such a vibrant Christian community that it was called the “Jerusalem of the East.” Once in power, Kim Il-sung closed the churches, banned the bible, deported believers to the hinterlands, and appropriated Christian imagery and dogma for the purpose of self-promotion.

An interesting enough read, but ultimately not something I was super thrilled with.

Three Seconds

2011-04-29T10:00:00.004-04:00

He had been investigating murders for as long as the man on the floor had been alive and he had learned one truth—each death is unique, with tis own story, its own sequence of events, its own consequences.

I’m not going to lie, I loved the Stieg Larsson Millennium series. I’ve been hearing about a whole slew of Swedish thriller authors so I decided to try some out. Roslund & Hellstrom’s Three Seconds did not disappoint. Now if you’re looking for great literature, this probably isn’t for you, but you probably wouldn’t be looking at thrillers anyway (not that thrillers can’t/aren’t well written, that’s not what I’m getting at at all). But I was looking for a quick, well developed read that wasn’t too obvious or contrived and man I sure got my fill with this one.

Piet Hoffman, or as he’s known in some circles—Paula, is infiltrating the Polish mafia in Sweden as they try to gain control of the Swedish drug supply. Over years he has slowly worked his way into the inner circle and finally has the perfect opportunity to help bring them down. However, a botched drug deal that ends in a murder, this opportunity is in great danger as the investigation into what happened progresses. Piet knows that the only person he can trust is himself and he prepares for seemingly ever contingency.

Roslund & Hellstrom have put together a great plot with twists and turns that keep the reader interested and engaged. I didn’t want to put this down especially once we got past all the set up (there’s some pretty intricate planning, but I guess when you’re plotting something as big as taking down a mafia it has to be). Next time I’m looking for a good thriller to read, I’ll definitely look at their other novels.

West of Here

2011-04-27T19:55:00.000-04:00

And wasn’t it fitting that in a place comprised purely of potential, a failed accountant with no reputation, five hundred dollars, and a moth-eaten suit should help lead the charge toward civilization? For wasn’t this man, in essence, all future?

Jonathan Evison’s West of Here is a sprawling, sweeping, epic novel covering two time periods in Port Bonita, Washington. The first, around the time of its founding, 1887-1891; the second, 2005-2006. The story weaves back and forth between the two introducing the reader to quite the cast of characters.

In the 1887-1891 sections we see Port Bonita at its beginnings, a land deof settlers and natives being tamed by industrious men. In the 2005-2006 sections, we see Port Bonita as it has fallen, its inhabitants struggling.

With this novel, Evison creates an ambitious project. For me, it was a bit too ambitious. Evison creates so many characters I had a hard time keeping track of them. The switching back and forth in time so often exasperated this problem for me. It often felt that just as I was getting a feel for the characters we would move forward/backward in time. Because of this I didn’t feel as connected or engaged with any of the characters. Also, I found quite a few characters that just disappeared after a while, Evison had spent so much time trying to build them and then *poof* they just disappear. These weren’t necessarily minor characters either, at least in my opinion. It was like they had served their narrow purpose and now they were no longer needed, which is fine, sometimes characters only serve a specific purpose, it just seemed a bit odd to me.

Now the book wasn’t all bad, but the length and the characters made it difficult for me to really enjoy this.

There is some wonderful writing in here though.

He missed the comfort and routine of civilized life, the poached eggs and newspapers and umbrellas of it. He yearned for the hours and minutes of civilized life, a tempo that could be controlled and manipulated, doled out, sectioned up, and spent, unlike the shapeless drudgery of day, night, day, night.

We are born haunted,” he said, his voice weak, but still clear. “Haunted by our fathers and mothers and daughters, and by people we don’t remember. We are haunted by otherness, by the path not taken, but the life unlived. We are haunted by the changing winds and the ebbing tides of history. And even as our own flame burns brightest, we are haunted by the embers of the first dying fire. But mostly,” said Lord Jim, “we are haunted by ourselves.

So while this one didn’t quite work out for me, by no means turn up your nose if you were interested before reading my thoughts. There are a lot of people out there that really loved this book, I just wasn’t one of them.

The Help

2011-04-05T10:00:00.002-04:00

It was like something cracked open inside of me, not unlike a watermelon, cool and soothing and sweet. I always through insanity would be a dark, bitter feeling, but it is drenching and delicious if you really roll around in it.

I’m pretty sure that everyone has already read this book. I was on the list for the book at the library, which was super long, I figured I’d just read it whenever it got to me, I mean I have a lot of books I want to read, so it’s no big deal. I wound up getting the e-book version faster.

Stockett creates a novel told in three different voices, there’s Aibileen and Minney two black maids serving high-society ladies in Jackson, Mississippi, and then there’s Miss Skeeter who after returning from graduating from college doesn’t seem to fit right back in to her old place and old friends. When she returns from school, Skeeter finds her beloved maid, Constantine who raised her, has disappeared, and no one will tell her what happened or where she went.

These three seemingly different women, come together to work on a project that will put them all in danger, compiling black maids experiences serving white families. Now, these aren’t just stories of how horribly the maids are treated, though there are those, there are also great stories of love and respect between the two. As Skeeter and Aibileen say in the story: Wasn't that the point of the book? For women to realize, We are just two people. Not that much separates us. Not nearly as much as I'd thought.

The thing that really makes this book is the different voices. Even though all are written by the same (white) woman author, each are unique and absolutely distinct from each other. Stockett captures each of her characters very well. Each has a very distinct personality and voice and it really is to the benefit of the novel. The novel alternates between the three voices and because this is done so well we get a more complete story than if it just came from one character’s voice.
Stockett has created an enjoyable story, sure it has its flaws, but the story shines through.

The Illumination

2011-04-03T12:48:00.000-04:00

Occasionally, the light seemed to arrive from a distinct direction, like the sun slanting through a gap in a curtain, but often it simply infused whatever aches or traumas afflicted people. At such times, it had the appearance of a strange luminescent paint layered directly over their skin. They might have been angels in an El Greco painting.

Kevin Brockmeier’s The Illumination is a novel made up of six people’s stories in the aftermath of what is being called “The Illumination”, the day in which people’s injuries, wounds, and illnesses being to shine with light. In each separate story, each person comes into possession of a journal of love notes written from a husband to a wife.

The novel started out strong, the first section, about a woman who cuts her finger open and must go to the hospital when during her stay “The Illumination” occurs and she meets the woman who is the original owner of the journal, really drew me into the novel. The writing is fantastic. I remember emailing my partner in reading crime telling her I had just started this book but it was wonderful. This feeling lasted through the second story as well. I’m not saying that the rest was disappointing, but for some reason it seemed to putter out a bit. It’s still a fantastic novel, each story standing on it’s own, but maybe that was part of the decline, once we leave a character, we never really hear about them again, maybe in passing, they’re there on the periphery, but because of that it didn’t all come together. Now, I’m not saying that’s terrible, and this book is NOT terrible. In fact it is quite wonderful, it’s hard to describe the things this book does to the reader; making you think how things might (or might not) be different if everyone’s pain were visible.

The writing is really, really good. I read this on my nook and there are so many bookmarks to quotes, so many entries on my tumblr as well. I’ve copied some of them below so you can see what I’m saying.

After I finished, I went with 3.5 stars for this book, but I’m thinking I might bump that up to 4. My mild dislike of the way the different people’s stories never really came back together is seeming more like a mild annoyance upon reflection. Brockeimer does a fantastic job creating his characters, and their world with his beautiful writing. Do give this book a chance if you’re so inclined, I hope you won’t regret it.

There were days when everything seemed to have a beautiful underwater lucidity to it, the banks and the traffic lights, the billboards and parking meters, all of them tilting through their planes until something bent or contorted inside them and they shimmered back together.

Sorry about your heart,” Ryan want to say, or, “Sorry about your legs,” but he was still getting used to the etiquette of the situation. Was it discourteous to admit that you could see a person’s sickness playing out on the surface of his body? What if it was a form of sickness that had always previously been hidden?

He could have put together a book sorting their traumas into two separate lists on the basis of where they lived, one for the city and one for the country. A Comparative Taxonomy of Wounds. On any city street you could spot the pulse flares of impacted heels, in any city hospital the elongated V’s of stab wounds, while at any country fair, any minor-league baseball game, you would find skin cancer pocks like small clusters of stars, sprained knees like forks of lightning, dislocated shoulders like the torchlit rooms of ancient houses. People in the city exhibited the sickly luster of pollution rashes and the silver sparks of carpal tunnel syndrome, while in the country they wore the shimmering waves of home tattoo infections, the glowing white zippers of ligature abrasions. In the city you had your lungs and your stomach to distress you, in the country your skin and your liver, and everywhere, everywhere, there were the agonies of your head and your heart.

A Red Herring Without Mustard

2011-04-01T17:00:00.000-04:00

If there’s anyone on earth who knows the ways of a child’s mind, I thought, it’s me—Flavia de Luce—for I had not so long ago been one myself.

Oh Flavia, my favorite precocious child-sleuth is back! In the third installment of the series, Flavia finds herself wrapped up in all sorts of intrigue involving a gypsy, some local riff raff, more gypsies, a weird local religion, and of course death.

Flavia is her lovely, charming, precocious self. Getting into all sorts of trouble and of course smack dab in the middle of all the death and mystery. Flavia really is the star of this series, while this one still doesn’t beat the first book in my mind it’s still a wonderful little book, she keeps me interested and entertained. There seem to be an influx of characters in this one and some could have been further flushed out. Some are brought in for a bit but never fully realized, but really, I’m reading for Flavia. I mean really, she just might be one of my favorite characters in a novel. Sure I may like other books more, but I’ll always read Flavia, she’s just so hysterical.

Her relationship with her sisters seem to be getting for fractious and how Flavia reacts to that is entertaining as always.

I had already learned that sisterhood, like Loch Ness, has things that lurk unseen beneath the surface, but I think it was only now that I realized that of all the invisible strings that tied the three of us together, the dark ones were the strongest.

As in the last two books, Flavia continues her strange relationship with Inspector Hewitt.

How I adored this man! Here we were, the two of us, engaged in a mental game of chess in which both of us knew that one of us were cheating.

Oh Flavia, how I love you! I eagerly await your next adventure!

The Lover’s Dictionary

2011-03-31T19:33:00.000-04:00

ineffable, adj

These words will ultimately end up being the barest of reflections, devoid of the sensations words cannot convey. Trying to write about love is ultimately like trying to have a dictionary represent life. No matter how many words there are, there will never be enough.

David Levithan’s The Lover’s Dictionary is unlike most books out there. Levithan takes us on a journey of a relationship through dictionary entries. We learn a bit about the couple through the definition of each work, kind of like putting bits of a puzzle together; each entry is a clue to their history.

basis, n.

There has to be a moment at the beginning when you wonder whether you’re in love with the person or in love with the feeling of love itself.
If the moment doesn’t pass, that’s it—you’re done. And if the moment does pass, it never goes that far. It stands in the distance, ready for whenever you want it back. Sometimes it’s even there when you thought you were searching for something else, like an escape route, or your lover’s face.

It took me two sittings to finish this book, but only because I started it in bed at like 11 PM one night, I finished within 40 minutes the next day, so I could have read it in one sitting had I planned things out better.

“I want my books to have their own shelves,” you said, and that’s how I knew it would be okay to live together.

This book is so different from typical books that it’s hard to write a coherent post about it. It’s a quick read, as I mentioned, but it’s intriguing. The entries are in alphabetical order (because it’s a dictionary) but not in chronological, again adding to the puzzle piece effect mentioned above. And since it’s a recollection, it really mimics the way our memory works, we don’t necessarily remember things in chronological order, not when we’re thinking about someone, especially one we love(d). I really enjoyed this book, something totally different and strange.

Have you read it? How did you feel?

When the Killing’s Done

2011-03-28T09:30:00.003-04:00

Guilt—that’s what defines her usage. Guilt over being alive, needing things, consuming things, turning the tap or lighting the flame under the gas burner.

T.C. Boyle’s most recent novel When the Killing’s Done follows two environmentalists on different ends of the continuum, Alma Boyd Takesue—National Parks Service biologist—who is trying to save the Channel Islands off California from invasive species, and Dave LaJoy—local businessman, founder of For the Protection of Animals (FPA)—who is against the harming of any animals for any reason and basically tries to make Alma’s life and job hell. Boyle also, by way of flashbacks, gives us the story of Alma’s grandmother, mother, and the story of the Islands themselves.

They want. All of them. They want things, space, resources, attention to their immediate needs, but they’re getting none of it — or not enough. Never enough.

Boyle’s novel is fast paced—we seem to skip over months at a time and then learn what has happened later—and his characters complex. The real star of this novel is the writing. I read and greatly enjoyed Boyle’s The Women about Frank Lloyd Wright and his cadre of women both for the story and the writing. I also recently read a short story of his in The Atlantic which was fantastic as well. The story in When the Killing’s Done I could take or leave, what really intrigued me once again was his writing. His prose are so beautiful and he has an uncanny ability to make you completely immersed in the place, his descriptions are that vivid. Unfortunately, I didn’t really care about Alma or about Dave, or about their missions so this book didn’t entrance me quite like the other works of Boyle’s that I’ve read, but the writing made it worthwhile. Oh, and the ending just seemed a bit too tidy to me, but I do suppose it fits in with Boyle’s theme of nature both beautiful and dangerous.

Indiespensable 25: Townie

2011-03-24T20:54:00.000-04:00

Oh how I love Powell’s indiespensable program! Yesterday volume 25 arrived at my office for me to open. A copy of Andre Dubus III’s Townie (which I know nothing about, but know it’s a memoir), signed as usual. The cover is made from some sort of material that gives it an odd (for a book cover) feeling, it’s almost a little rubbery and soft.

Also included in the package? Some salted caramel sauce I am looking forward to :)

Hooray Powell’s!!!!

Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets

2011-03-19T14:51:00.000-04:00

So, after reading the amazing Adam Levin’s The Instructions I needed a little bit of a palate cleanser before I moved on to my next book. You know how sometimes you read a book after something you absolutely love that if you had read it at a different time you would have really enjoyed, but because of your love for the previous book, it just doesn’t happen? I didn’t want that to happen with whatever I picked up after The Instructions. I thought to myself what could I read that won’t be diminished by my experience with The Instructions? Well, the obvious answer for me is any of the Harry Potter series. I’m planning on making my way through the series again anyway, so what a better time than now to continue?

Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets follows Harry’s second year at Hogwarts in which the storied Chamber of Secrets is reopened and students are petrified by whatever the monster in the chamber is. Harry also finds some obstacles between himself and Hogwarts in the form of Dobby. Thinking he is protecting Harry, Dobby tries to keep Harry from returning to the famed wizarding school.

I don’t think I’ll ever tire of Harry Potter in any of its forms. I thoroughly enjoyed re-reading this one, and look forward to making my way through the rest of the series eventually. I love that I have a set of books that I can always come back to and enjoy.

Read It: The Instructions

2011-03-14T20:06:00.000-04:00

There is damage. There was always damage and there will be more damage, but not always. Were there always to be more damage, damage would be an aspect of perfection. We would all be angels, one-legged and faceless, seething with endless, hopeless praise.

And so begins the 1,030 page tome that is Adam Levin’s The Instructions. It has been since the wee hours of Friday morning since I finished (yes I stayed up WAY past my bedtime to finish this) and the story is still bouncing around in my head; if you haven’t guessed yet, well, I absolutely adored it.
From McSweeny’s:

Beginning with a chance encounter with the beautiful Eliza June Watermark and ending, four days and 900 pages later, with the Events of November 17, this is the story of Gurion Maccabee, age ten: a lover, a fighter, a scholar, and a truly spectacular talker. Expelled from three Jewish day-schools for acts of violence and messianic tendencies, Gurion ends up in the Cage, a special lockdown program for the most hopeless cases of Aptakisic Junior High. Separated from his scholarly followers, Gurion becomes a leader of a very different sort, with righteous aims building to a revolution of troubling intensity.

Gurion may or may not be the Messiah, you see there is one possible Messiah born in every generation, and well, it just might be Gurion, or maybe not. Gurion, 10 years old, his father is a civil rights attorney hated by many for defending the rights of KKK members to match in Skokie (Gurion lives in Chicago) and his mother, a former Israeli soldier. Gurion is sure of himself and his beliefs (writing scripture, which is what The Instructions is), as seem to be many of his classmates (they tend to call him rabbi). He’s been kicked out of two Jewish day schools and a public school in Chicago and now finds himself in Aptakisic, in a program for those with behavior disorders. And so, it is from this vantage point, that the novel takes on a four-day span of time in Gurion’s life, ending on what some call the 11/17 miracle.

Honestly, that is probably the worst summary/description of a novel I have ever given. When I describe this book to others, I find it so difficult to explain, even though I completely and utterly adored it. Seriously, this is probably one of the best books I’ve read, ever, not just in a long time, but ever. The writing is so smart and funny, the character so well done, I hardly noticed the length of the book. I couldn’t wait to get into it. I seriously have nearly 30 post it flags throughout the book, along with all the quotes I pulled and put on my tumblr. There’s just something about Gurion, his story, the way Levin tells it. Something I can’t quite explain or put my finger on. But really, this writing? Amazing. I found myself laughing out loud a lot, going back and rereading passages I loved, I really wanted to start again once I finished (but it being a 1000+ page book that seemed impractical for the moment).

This was sent to me from Powell’s, part of their indiepsensable program, and I could not be more grateful that it was, otherwise I’m not sure I ever would have picked it up (it also helps that my reading partner in crime is also reading it—she also loves it btw). I’ve told quite a few people that if they find the plot intriguing, if they only read one book this year, it should be this one. Now, I know the length will turn many people off, but as I mentioned, I didn’t feel the length like I do in some other books (but then again I loved it). Also, I’m not saying this book is for everyone. It most definitely is not. Not everyone will love it. In fact, I’m sure plenty of people will hate it. I fall on the former side, every time I talk about this book I gush. Seriously. I’m sure the people I spend my time with are tired of hearing about how wonderful this book is by now. But seriously, one of the smartest books I have read. One of the best books I have read.

I loved her. I just did. Despite, regardless, or otherwise.

And I felt more relieved. Relieved, in neither case, in the sense of unencumbered, though; it wasn’t as if “a burden had been lifted.” It was more like I, with my burden yet shouldered, no longer had to worry how to lay it down properly; more like when you slouch on sore-arched feet, shivering and exhausted, beside your warm bed, a thick towel wrapped capelike around your clean body. How you can, if you want to—and you have for a while, it turns out you have; you’ve wanted to forever even though you didn’t know—just go ahead and fall. Finally, finally, and finally, the end.

We weep because the only way everything could ever be alright is in fiction. We weep because what we’ve seen can’t be true, no matter how badly we wish it were. We weep at the truth.

I be the prophet of the doom that is you. You are the mess in the messiah.

Just going back over the quotes I pulled and flipping through all my flags in the book itself makes we want to go back and read again. I wish I could be more articulate about this book and what it’s about and why I love it so much. It’s about so much more than what I’ve described. Maybe that day will come, when I can articulate what’s bouncing around in my head. But for right now, Gurion’s bouncing around in my head, his story, his voice, his friends, and Levin’s beautifully smart writing. It’s all there sloshing around. This is not a book I’m going to forget anytime soon. I hope if you decide to take it on, it’s not one you’ll soon forget either, and I hope it’s for all the wonderful reason that I won’t. Pure love.

Pretty in Plaid

2011-03-03T09:30:00.001-05:00

Everyone once in a while you just need something ridiculous. I had just finished the wonderful The City & The City which needs some brain power to get through, and wasn’t quite ready to embark on my next journey through (the 1,000+ page) The Instructions—which I am LOVING by the way—so I needed a little fluff, a little palate cleanser if you will. Having read Lancaster’s three previous memoirs I knew to expect light, funny, and snarky content, just what I was looking for between heavy books.

In Pretty in Plaid, I recall the outfits (and events) that ultimately made me the kind of condescending, egomaniacal, self-centered smart-ass who would bark orders at waitresses and make assistants cry. My road to hell wasn’t paved with good intentions—it was cobbled with gold lavalieres and Gucci purses.

In this memoir, Lancaster goes back through her childhood, it basically covers the time before her first memoir Bitter is the New Black. I have to admit, that while it lived up to be a quick, palate cleansing read, it didn’t live up to what I’ve come to expect from Lancaster. Her previous three memoirs were full of snark (which I LOVE) and seriously laugh-out-loud funny. But this one just wasn’t quite to their level. Lancaster as a child, while you can see the beginnings of her personality there, just isn’t as interesting as Lancaster as an adult. There are moments, like the whole Girl Scout saga:

Friendship and faith are not going to fill my sash, woman! I don’t want to learn; I want to earn.

So while this one does have it’s moments, it’s just not as satisfying as the previous ones. I’ll probably still read her fifth (yes FIFTH) memoir when I’m in need of some in-between big/thought provoking book comedy, or when I’m on vacation etc because well, these books are good for that—plus I’m pretty sure she goes back to talking about her present day self which should be helpful I think she’s much better with recent/present times.

The City and the City

2011-03-01T09:30:00.006-05:00

The City & The City was my first encounter with China Miéville and oh what a first encounter it was. How to explain The City & the City? On its surface it is a book about a murder in the city of Beszel (which is located in Europe) and Inspector Tyador Borlú whose job it is to find the murderer. However, Tyador soon learns that this investigation is anything but ordinary or routine. The reader soon learns that Beszel is unlike anything they have ever encountered. The premise is quite unique as well (at least to me) and is a bit hard to describe, but here we go.

In The City & The City, Miéville creates not one but two cities. Beszel and Ul Quoma. The two overlapping in places, “crosshatched”, the residents of each knowing to “unsee” each other, knowing never to breach.

If someone needed to go to a house physically next door to their own but in the neighbouring city, it was in a different road in an unfriendly power. That is what foreigners rarely understand. A Besz dweller cannot walk a few paces next door into an alter house without breach.

Overseeing the space between the cities, to ensure that no one breaches is Breach, a shadowy power unknown, but immensely feared by the residents of each city:

Breach has powers the rest of us can hardly imagine, but its calling is utterly precise. It is not the passage itself from one city to the other, not even with contraband: it is the manner of the passage.

Miéville completely immerses the reader in first one, then the other city, and then in some shadowy place that is neither nor both really. While it takes some time to figure out exactly what is going on, why the characters speak of unseeing (Miéville doesn’t explain it all upfront, the existence of the other city and how the two interact—or don’t'—is worked out in its own time) Miéville constructs a fantastic story with two wonderful settings. He is absolutely complete in constructing these two cities, both are vibrant and detailed, easily imaginable (once you get in the right mindset). This isn’t a book to breeze through, it takes some concentration and brain power to put everything together, but it is a great read.

I know I’m a little late to the Miéville party, but I can’t wait to read his other books, I’m looking forward to Kraken. If you haven’t read this yet, I do encourage you to give it a try, the basic premise itself (murder that becomes more than it seems) isn’t the unique part, but the way Miéville goes about the creation of the cities and the rest of the novel is and oh so interesting.

Scrumptious Sunday: Peanut Butter Banana Bread

2011-02-27T11:18:00.000-05:00

So I had some leftover bananas that were nearing the end of their useful life, off I went to find a new banana related recipe. Peanut butter and bananas sounded like a good combination so off to the kitchen I went. All in all, a pretty good recipe, not my favorite banana recipe but good and different. If I were to make it again I’d sub chocolate chips for the chopped peanuts (but that’s just me). I didn’t have *quite* enough bananas to make the full 1 1/2 cups but I still thought it was full of banana flavor (probably because my bananas were about as black on the outside as you can get without it being gross). Also, I feel like after a few days the peanut butter flavor wasn’t as prominent as it was at first. But again, that might have just been me.

Peanut Butter Banana Bread adapted from joy the baker

1 1/2 cups mashed ripe bananas
1/3 cup vanilla yogurt
1/3 cup creamy peanut butter
3 tablespoons butter, melted
2 large eggs
1/2 cup granulated sugar
1/2 cup brown sugar
1 cup whole wheat flour
1/2 cup all-purpose flour
3/4 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1/8 teaspoon ground allspice
1/4 cup chopped dry roasted peanuts

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Grease a 9x5 loaf pan.
Wisk together wheat and all-purpose flours, baking soda, salt, cinnamon, and allspice.
Wisk together mashed bananas (I like to use a potato masher to mash them), yogurt, peanut butter, and melted butter [Note: butter will explode in the microwave so be sure to keep an eye on it.] Wisk in eggs and sugars until there are no sugar lumps.
Pour the wet mixture into the flour mixture and fold until combined. At this point you can add in the chopped peanuts (or chocolate chips etc).
Pour the batter into the loaf pan and bake for 55 to 65 minutes until a toothpick comes out clean.

The Wilding

2011-02-21T10:00:00.004-05:00

Look! Another indiespensable installment that I’m actually getting around to reading! I didn’t know anything about The Wilding when Powell’s announced it as the 22nd installment. It’s a small book, at 255 pages. While not my favorite book, the whole going out into the wild thing to commune with nature isn’t really my thing, Percy’s writing is quite lovely. More on that in a bit.

The Wilding centers around three generations of men, Paul the grandfather (who is often referred to as Justin’s father which made seeing his name for the first few times confusing, I didn’t know he had a name), Justin the father, and Graham the grandson. Justin and his wife, Karen, are having problems. Justin and Paul have their problems. Paul thinks Graham is too much of a wuss. Really, no one has a functional relationship in this book it seems.

The bulk of the story takes place as Echo Canyon, a tract of nature where Paul and Justin used to go hunting, is set to be turned into a golf course, lodge, and homes, and Paul insists on going out one last time to camp and hunt with his son and grandson. This is also occurring at the same time as a report of a grizzly bear attack. There’s a bit of coming of age for Graham, who handles a gun and drinks a beer for the first time, things that won’t be mentioned to his mother of course. There’s the struggle between Paul and Justin, the struggle between leaving nature as it is and converting it for other uses, and thus the struggle between wildlife and humans.

The story alternates mostly between Justin’s viewpoint and Brian’s viewpoint. Brian being a returned soldier who is a locksmith that helps Karen when she gets locked out of the house. It’s a bit strange because while there’s another story going on that involves Brian, it almost seems secondary to the other taking place in Echo Canyon, and to me at least, seemed a bit superfluous. We also get a bit of Karen and Paul’s viewpoint as well.

As I mentioned, I’m not really into nature, so this isn’t really my type of story to begin with. But I did find parts of it interesting. Although, I did find Brian’s story a bit superfluous as I mentioned. The only tie it had back to the other was it involved Karen, and that was only tangentially. Even though the story wasn’t necessarily up my ally, the writing was. Some gorgeous language here.

In the distance he can see the Cascades. They glow in the moonlight, white shouldered with snow and bearded with forests that look more black than green against them.

Justin stood behind clump of rabbitbrush as if to guard himself from the animal. The bush smelled great. It smelled sugary. It smelled like the color yellow ought to smell. By concentrating on it so deeply he removed himself from the forest and was thereby able to contain the tears crowding his eyes.

Really beautiful language, really paints a picture for you. So while the story not so much for me, I enjoyed reading Percy’s depictions. And since it wasn’t very long, I didn’t feel like I was slogging along in a book I didn’t care about.

Scrumptious Sunday: Peanut Butter Chocolate Brownies

2011-02-20T16:43:00.004-05:00

So this is a bit late in posting, I actually made these last weekend, if you couldn’t tell by the heart shape, but I’m just getting around to posting now. Oh well. These are absolutely fantastic, the recipe calls them a cookie bar, but I just call them a brownie, either way delicious. I don’t think you can go wrong with the combination of peanut butter and chocolate. There’s both peanut butter in the batter and peanut butter chips mixed in, but it’s a subtle flavor that plays off the chocolate nicely. I brought some of them into work and have already had a request for the recipe :)

Peanut Butter Chocolate Brownies via two peas in their pod

1 cup butter, at room temperature
1 1/2 cups sugar
2 eggs
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
2 cups flour
1/2 cup cocoa powder
1 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon course sea salt
1/2 cup peanut butter
1 cup peanut butter chips

Preheat oven to 325 degrees. Spray a 9x13 baking dish with nonstick spray.
Cream butter, peanut butter, sugar, eggs, and vanilla until light in color and fluffy. [Note: I creamed the butter, peanut butter, sugar together first and then added the remaining]
Add flour, cocoa powder, baking soda and salt. Mix until combined.
Fold in peanut butter chips. Spread batter into prepared baking dish. [Note: the batter is very thick, I found it extremely helpful to spray my spatula with nonstick spray to help in smoothing the batter into the pan.]
Bake for 25-30 minutes. Let cool completely before slicing. [Note: this batter results in a treat that is a great consistency to use cookie cutters to make into fun shapes. This was right around Valentine’s day so I used hearts, but there’s really no limit to the fun shapes you could use!]

This recipe is really quick and easy and very delicious! Whether you think of them as cookie bars or as brownies, the resulting taste is the same! Enjoy!

Crooked Letter, Crooked Letter

2011-02-18T10:00:00.000-05:00

Crooked Letter, Crooked Letter refers to the way children in the South learn to spell Mississippi, the p’s are “humpbacks”

M-I-crooked letter-crooked letter-I-crooked letter-crooked letter-I-humpback-humpback-I

Now, I didn’t grow up in the South, but I recall this (very strange) mnemonic device for spelling Mississippi. Regardless, the title is very telling of the novel, set in the deep south of Mississippi, with its back roads, and southern folk which make up the novel, impressing itself on all the characters, almost a character in and of itself.

Larry Ott, or “Scary Larry” as he’s known about town, leads quite a lonely life, ostracized from the community in which he lives over allegations over the disappearance of a female classmate of his who was last scene out on a date with him. Larry never confesses, no body is ever found, no charges are ever pressed, but Larry drops out of high school, and takes over his father’s auto repair shop, though the only customers that ever stop are out of towners, and those are few and far between. Now, another local girl has gone missing, and Larry is immediately under scrutiny once again. Even as a child, Larry’s life was far from pleasant, a loner, suffering from stuttering and asthma, lover of books—especially Stephen King—prays with his mother every night to spend him a special friend just for him. For a short time, Larry finds one, Silas Jones, his secret friend (you see Larry is white and Silas is black), until that is the whole incident with the missing girl. Then again, later, it seems he’s been sent a friend just for him, this time in the form of a local guy. Silas “32” Jones has returned to his small town of old and now is the constable so when this second girl disappears he crosses paths once again with Larry.

The novel is told from the point of view of Larry and Silas, alternating voices, and alternating between past and present. Things unfold in a totally nonlinear way but instead of being a distraction, it adds a depth to the story that wouldn’t have been there otherwise. The character descriptions and development are phenomenal, the writing lovely. Franklin creates his world and his characters and the reader lives it, it is that vivid. The mystery of the missing girls, while seemingly central to the plot, are more of a background item in my mind. The town, its suspicions and prejudices, Silas and Larry, their relationship past and present are much more the main story here; at least for myself. I read this one quickly, didn’t want to put it down, and was utterly immersed in the world that Franklin constructed. I know I’m late on this one, but if you haven’t read it, you should. Oh and by the way, Franklin wastes no time in getting this book off, it is off and running from page one.