Opening up a whole new landscape

Book facts: Sri Lanka’s Other Half: A Guide to the Central, Eastern & Nothern Provinces; by Juliet Coombe and Daisy Perry “Far from the war-ravaged zones, mass graves and internment camps presented by the international media, this book reveals the other side of the story, introducing a place that contains some of the most beautiful beaches in the world, ancient jungle ruins, pristine rainforests, wildlife parks with the largest elephant gathering of the world and huge mangrove lagoons bursting with exotic flora and fauna” says the introduction to “Sri Lanka’s Other Half”.

Launched recently at a simple ceremony held at Nuga Gama, Cinnamon Grand Hotel, this book by photojournalist Juliet Coombe and Daisy Perry is an exhilarating guide for the adventurous traveller to the North, East and Central Sri Lanka, covering areas that have been shut off to tourism due to the civil war for over 26 years.

Ruins in Jaffna  

If a book can make a big difference in the minds of the tourists luring them to this beautiful island; “Sri Lanka’s Other Half” can definitely be placed in the front of the campaign. “This book makes you want to drop everything and go immediately before it all changes” says Steve Dave – BBC best selling author of ‘Unforgettable Places to see Before You Die’.

But I prefer to call the guide kahambiliya. Like you start itching when you touch the kahambiliya plant, after reading the “Other Half” you start itching to go to these places and explore them. The language in the guide is so captivating you feel like you are travelling along with the writers while reading it.

It is not only the tips on how you should travel around, the book also explores the life of the people and tells interesting stories that will keep coming to mind whenever you visit that area. The guide can be used by up-market tourists as well as back-packers for the writers with their team of young explorers had even done the bus journeys so as to have the real feel of exploring these areas.

The writers were, in fact, among the first travellers to the North soon after the war. Juliet Coombe was eight months pregnant at the time she made her road journey to Jaffna carrying her two-year-old son Samad. A well-known BBC Lonely Planet photographer Juliet is married to a Sri Lankan and lives in Galle Fort.

“The aim of the book is to highlight that travel is for everyone whether you are young or elderly, a mum, pregnant, an independent traveller or a crazy adventurer,” says Juliet. Juliet and Daisy discovered that North, East and Central Sri Lanka certainly have something for everyone.

I’m among thousands of fellow Sri Lankans who want to travel Jaffna, but have no idea where to begin. The guide gave me enough tips from preparation to accommodation to where to find the famous Jaffna ice cream parlours, giving me the confidence to visit the unknown area.

Like its language, the photographs in the book all have their own character. The ‘Other Half’ is full of photographs and interesting stories. The war is over and tourism is already experiencing a revival. “Sri Lanka’s Other Half” carries a welcome message to all those who wants to visit this beautiful island.

http://www.sundaytimes.lk/100314/Plus/plus_15.html

[Via http://window2nature.wordpress.com]

The Killing of Monday Brown

The Killing of Monday Brown is the 2nd of three books in the Phoebe Siegel mystery series by Sandra West Prowell.  The series is set in Montana, home of the author.  This book revolves around indian culture and traditionalism.  It was very interesting and, although not the best book I’ve read, a good read.

[Via http://klccreations.wordpress.com]

'This Errant Lady' by Penny Russell

2002, 207p.& notes

Now here’s a way to decide which book to read next-  what goes well with your decor?  It gave me great pleasure to see Penny Russell’s This Errant Lady lying on my bed, matching so well with my doona cover!  Martha Stewart, eat your heart out!

I was drawn to read this after finishing Ken McGoogan’s Lady Franklin’s Revenge recently.  I’d forgotten that Jane Franklin visited Port Phillip and Sydney in 1839 and I was interested to see what she said about Port Phillip in particular, even though Judge Willis, the Resident Judge of Port Phillip had not arrived at this stage.  I’ve been writing a chapter the last few weeks on Judge Willis’ involvement in colonial politics, which has taken me back to his relationships with Sydney colonists, and as a member of the government elite (albeit of a neighbouring colony), Jane Franklin was well-placed to comment on political events and personalities in Sydney.

Having now read her journal of her overland trip to Port Phillip and Sydney in 1839, I can now see why Ken McGoogan wrote the biography he did, quite apart from any other propensities that a writer on arctic exploration might have.  Jane Franklin’s journals are travel diaries in the true sense of the word- lots of information about routes taken, facts gleaned, people met etc. but not much about her own inner world.  I share the frustration of Penny Russell the editor in her preface:

In recording this epic adventure, Jane Franklin treated her diary essentially as a notebook, producing a compendium of often unrelated scraps of information.  This was in keeping with her general habit in travel writing.  Despite her enthusiasm for knowledge, Jane Franklin rarely ventured to express her opinions, speculations, or interpretations in writing.  The judgments offered in this, as in all her diaries, are generally borrowed from guidebooks, histories or local inhabitants.  Whether she agreed with them or not, she did not see her diary as a space for formulating her own opinions.  She confined her attention to the external, the observable- to what could be ‘fixed’ on the page (p. 16). … Her opinions, her thoughts, her own personality must be deduced as much from what is unwritten as from what is written- her character sketched in the space left vacant in her accounts. (p. 17)

This utilitarian approach can be partly explained by the fiction by which her trip was justified, both to her husband and to Tasmanians generally- that it was a research trip into a sister-colony that would be of use to her husband Sir John Franklin, Governor of Van Diemen’s Land, and would be a form of diplomatic representation of VDL at a governor-to-governor level.  The reality was that she was restless and curious and liked nothing better than getting away from her husband and the scrutiny of a small colonial society.  Mind you, she liked her comforts too- the iron bedstead came on this trip, just as it did on all her journeys- but you sense the increasing tightness of protocol and deference as she moves from the outlying areas into the more settled districts surrounding Sydney.

The editor, Penny Russell, has excluded much of  the weight of detail that shackled Ken McGoogan’s biography, but she has tried to keep enough in

to preserve the rich texture of Jane Franklin’s portrayal of a colony arrested at a particular moment of development: a moment of optimism for the future, in a society still built on convict labour and pastoral expansion, in which progress rested upon the sufferings of the chain gangs and the brutually dispossessed Aborigines…But the catastrophic pastoral depression that would destroy the hopes of so many in the early 1840s had not yet made its mark, and the grandeur of half built churches and suburban villas, the growing concern over education, and the diversity of experiments in agriculture and industry all suggest an overall confidence. (p. 16-7)

Russell  has also worked hard, though, to preserve the human aspects of Jane Franklin’s interactions with the people she met.  Her trip was a long one- from April to July 1839- and she was quite devious in her excuses to cut it short as Sir John wished her to do.  But she probably should have: it was quite clear by July that she had outstayed her welcome with the Gipps’, and it is her discomfort at this knowledge that makes her more likeable.  We have the intimacy of her coming into Mrs Gipps’ bedroom for a chat, thinking that she was alone, and finding Governor Gipps stretched out on the bed; we have the cringing, walking-on-eggshells  embarrassment when Gipps was furious that she had allowed his carriage to become soaked while she was using it.

For me- and I admit that this is probably an acquired taste- I enjoyed finding characters from “my” Port Phillip and Sydney strolling onto the stage.  So we meet Mr Verner (who was to become Judge Willis’ good friend and neighbour) bowling along in his carriage with two friends;  there’s a ship with Protector Robinson’s Van Diemen’s Land aborigines on board (some of whom were to be sentenced to death by Judge Willis two years later);  Captain Lonsdale (who was to become one of Judge Willis’ targets) taking them to a corroboree but arriving late so that it was all over by the time they arrived; there’s Chief Justice Dowling and his wife, and Justice Alfred Stephen (Judge Willis’ brother judges with whom he was anything but ‘brotherly’).  In fact- and this is important for my purposes- conspicuously absent is Judge Willis and his good lady from the balls and levees and receptions that were laid out for Lady Jane Franklin.

And so, eventually Jane headed for home. What a trip that was!  As with all journeys once you’ve decided that yes, you’re ready to go home, it seemed to take an age.  But in this case it did-  five weeks from leaving the heads to their arrival back in Hobart (a trip that can take about 3-4 days for the Sydney to Hobart yacht race today).  Buffeted by storms, and with food and water supplies running low, their ship bobbed around; once almost glimpsing the coast of Tasmania before being swept out into the seas again over towards New Zealand.   Relieved, no doubt to be back, you still sense Hobart society swallowing her up again, with criticisms of her recklessness in even embarking on the trip and sniffy comments about petticoat government.

Penny Russell has intervened quite a bit in this book.  She has, by her own admission

emphasised particular stories, bringing into bolder relief images that are blurred, tangled or broken in Jane Franklin’s original. (p.17)

From the original transcript, retrieved and recorded by Roger Millis (who wrote the huge tome on Waterloo Creek), she has favoured people over trees or buildings, but not reproduced “the exhaustive and inexhaustible coverage of the original”, she has omitted hearsay information, and trimmed wordiness and detail “to give them greater narrative cohesion and more dramatic immediacy.”  She has supplemented the text with lengthy footnotes, giving a biographical sketch of the people Franklin mentions in passing, and interspersed Jane Franklin’s own text with clearly marked corroborating information from letters and other people’s diaries.  The book is given a clearer structure by its division into chronological chapters, many of which are prefaced by an italicized introduction.  You are aware, and Russell makes no secret of the fact, that you are reading a mediated text.   Which is probably a good thing: as the back cover blurb notes:

An intrepid traveller, Jane Franklin was consumed by an unquenchable curiosity. She looked, questioned, listened and wrote- pages and pages of minuscule notes on every topic that came to hand.  This edition, carefully abridged and introduced by Penny Russell, makes the diary available for the first time to general readers.

And while it’s probably not exactly a ripping yarn,  we general readers (and more specialized ones too)  should be glad that she has.

[Via http://residentjudge.wordpress.com]

Cherry

Author: Mary Carr

Published by Viking (2000)

Mary Carr’s memoir about adolescence and her teenage years completely enrapture the reader throughout.  The story is at times compelling, harrowing, and also entertaining. 

There’s something innocent and intelligent about her prose that inspired me during my writing and had me dig into my own experiences.  Specifically her kiss with her crush:

“John’s tongue is not hard and pointy like Davie Ray’s or plumb absent like Bobbie’s.  It parts my lips a little as if testing the warmth of water.  And after a second I get the idea that my tongue’s supposed to do something other than lay there or draw back hiding.  I ease it forward so as not to poke at him the way Davie Ray Hawks did me.  I taste the coppery flesh of his soft tongue on my wet one.  My breathing seizes up again.  And I put my hands up and press them flat against his chest because half of me is afraid I’ll fall entirely into him if he keeps holding me.”

What I particularly culled from this passage was her ability to capture those first moments of liking a boy, the sensations of a first kiss and everything in between. 

Although this passage was my favorite (I have many throughout), the last third of the novel delves into her acid trips with random boys which at some point mesh into one another.  At this point of the novel, I found it hard to follow her through her drug induced foray (perhaps the point?).  This reminded me too much of Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas (the movie) in which I couldn’t follow, not even as a voyeur. 

Would I suggest this novel?  Yes.  I enjoyed her writing very much and I look forward to reading more of her work.

[Via http://bkwriter4life.wordpress.com]

REVIEW: Torah Club Volume 2

Late last year I completed Torah Club Volume 2 : Shadows of the Messiah, available from First Fruits of Zion. It is a once a week study of the Torah ( first 5 books of the Bible ) that goes for a year, and will probably reveal more in that time than you have known your entire Christian life. It also has an option to purchase an audio package, but since I did not get it this will focus solely on the written materials.

Well, unless you’ve been one for less than a year. Don’t screw with me okay, it’s been a long day for me!

First off, I should qualify that I am not a full fledged gung-ho Messianic Christian. Let’s just say for simplicities sake that I am a garden variety evangelical, with a good dose of Hebraic Roots blended in. It’s unfortunate that I need to even state my defense, but such is always the case whenever this subject comes up.

So what is the gist of this package? For a year you will read through the Torah and for possible the first time you will see what Jesus meant when he said “search the scriptures” to find him. He was talking about the Old Testament, but few of us have ever understood that reality.  We instead think he must have been referring to Paul somehow.

Is Jesus in the Torah like he said, or is it just symbolic hypothesis that is read into the text? I was amazed at just how much of him is there. The story of Messiah is not some idea that began two thousand years ago, it begins at day one.

Torah Club is not your typical Bible study. You will read thorough old sages, some who have amazing insight, and some who I must admit are just plain fruitcakes. The study makes it clear that the old Jewish sages offer interesting historical insight, but to be sure to take their views no further.

There can be some difficulty for the average Christian in the sense that many names can be confusing. Jesus is Yeshua, Moses is Moshe, etc. It doesn’t take long to get up to speed, but the first-comer might wonder who the writer is talking about. Yet at the same time, there’s no harm in knowing the proper pronunciation either!

In a modern church that has all but purged Jesus of his Jewishness, we have more or less fulfilled the Genesis story of Joseph, where we have made our master so “Egyptian” that his own brothers, Israel, do not recognize him anymore as one of their own. He’s now a blue eyed European, and in what is becoming all too common, he now resembles a North American social activist. Shame on us.

Doing Torah Club does not mean that you must become part of some Christian fringe group. But it does mean you may have to put long held beliefs to the test. Currently I am involved in Volume 3, and will post a review in November when it is complete. Thus far, it is very promising!

I give this 4.5 Feathers out of 5. Do yourself a favor, and get this Bible study that has teeth!

[Via http://dysfunctionalparrot.wordpress.com]

What I'm Reading #17: Ringside, 1925: Views from the Scopes Trial

Since I had picked up Jen Bryant’s Trial at the same time, I decided to follow it up with her other courtroom-drama-verse-novel, Ringside, 1925.  This was Bryant’s treatment of the Scopes trial in Tennessee over the teaching of evolution.

——————

Ringside, 1925: Views from the Scopes Trial by Jen Bryant

Knopf Books for Young Readers, 2008

Courtesy of Amazon.com:

Review Starred Review, Publishers Weekly, February 25, 2008:
“The colorful facts she retrieves, the personal story lines and the deft rhythm of the narrative are more than enough invitation to readers to ponder the issues she raises. Product Description

The year is 1925, and the students of Dayton, Tennessee, are ready for a summer of fishing, swimming, some working, and drinking root beer floats at Robinson’s Drugstore. But when their science teacher, J. T. Scopes, is arrested for having taught Darwin’s theory of evolution in class, it seems it won’t be just any ordinary summer in Dayton.
As Scopes’ trial proceeds, the small town is faced with astonishing, nationwide publicity: reporters, lawyers, scientists, religious leaders, and tourists. But amidst the circus-like atmosphere is a threatening sense of tension–not only in the courtroom, but among even the strongest of friends. This compelling novel in poems chronicles a controversy with a profound impact on science and culture in America–and one that continues to this day.

———————–

Strengths: This one had more meat to it than The Trial. It felt like Bryant fleshed this one out more.  There is a wide range of characters whose perspectives Bryant uses to tell the story, which I liked, as well as using different verse styles to create a unique voice for each character.

Potential Flaws: I still can’t help but think verse novels are somehow easier to write.  I kept thinking, “I could do this.”  In this case, I felt at times like Bryant wrote out a rather simple narrative and then broke it into verse.  Her variations are cosmetic: line length, page placement.  Nothing using rhyme or more structured verse, which I felt would have added some dimension.

My Rating:

As with The Trial, I was just not particularly excited about this one.  Comparably, it was better, but there was definitely room for improvement.

[Via http://mezzowriter.wordpress.com]

<em>The Annotated Pride and Prejudice</em> by Jane Austen, Annotated and Edited by David M. Shaphard

In accordance with my usual procedure, I finished reading this book earlier today (after lunch, while eating a few stray doughnuts); I am now doing my review of the book, and this evening at 7:00 pm I will be discussing the book with the other members of the Third Tuesday Book Club. I will say that I had read the book many years ago, certainly before I started keeping lists of the books I read (which was in 1999), and that I had remembered it as being a fun read. I can now report that my memory was not faulty on that point, even if I had forgotten just about everything else in the book.

 The book opens with the immortal line, “It is a truth universally acknowledged, that a single man in possession of a good fortune, must be in want of a wife.” It is September in the year 1811, and Mrs. Bennet of Longbourn is quite excited that a Mr. Bingley has taken the nearby country estate of Netherfield, and that he is rich and unmarried. Her thoughts immediately turn to how she can turn this chance into marriage for one of her five daughters: Jane (22), Elizabeth (20), Mary (about 18), Catherine, known as Kitty (17) and Lydia (15). She thereby applies to her husband, Mr. Bennet; he must call at Netherfield so that Mr. Bingley can eventually become introduced to the daughters. He does so, and a few weeks later Mr Bingley attends a dance with his unmarried sister, his married sister and her husband, and “another young man”, who is admired for being rich and handsome, until he was found to “be proud, to be above his company, and above being pleased”. When Mr. Bingley encourages his friend, Mr. Darcy, to dance with the Bennet daughter sitting nearby, Mr. Darcy makes disparaging comments about the said daughter, loud enough for the daughter in question to hear. This is Elizabeth Bennet, who is intelligent, lively, and outspoken, with a tendency to judge on first impressions. She immediately decides that she cannot abide Mr. Darcy for his pridefulness; and her prejudice against him defines her relations with him for the first half of the novel.

The book follows the Bennet daughters, and Elizabeth in particular, as they make their way through the next year and a half, meeting other men in society. Mr. Collins is Mr. Bennet’s cousin, who will one day inherit Longbourn; as he is a clergyman who has a rich patron (whom he adores), and as she has told him to get a wife, he comes to Longbourn to marry one of his cousin’s daughters (he does not much care which one). Mr. Wickham, who joins the militia stationed in the nearby town, is quite the gentleman, who grew up with Mr. Darcy, and who feels he has been hardly used by Mr. Darcy.

Besides being a very good story, with unforgettable characters (Austen is quite as good at characterization as Charles Dickens), it is a fascinating window into a time and place little understood by those of us in the Western 21st Century. It is a world where people of a certain class have standards of style, dress, and etiquette to maintain, and where one simply does not do things that are not sanctioned by society. It is also a world where class is extremely important; there are rules and regulations (mostly unwritten, but still very important) for how one interacts with one who is of a lower social class, and how one interacts with one who is of a higher social class. It is furthermore a world where rich young men essentially do nothing, because they can afford to do nothing, and where women learn to draw, or sing, or play the piano, and wait for the rich young men to come and court them. The worst fate (almost) that can befall a woman is to not become married, because then one is dependent on one’s brothers for support.

I will also note the invaluable assistance rendered by my having read an Annotated edition of the book; the text of the book is on the left-hand pages, and the annotations are on the facing right-hand pages. The annotations cover unfamiliar words, and also contain citations from Austen’s life, letters, and other writings. One can certainly read the book and enjoy the book without the annotations, but in my opinion they made for a more enriched reading of the book; and I will happily use the information from the annotations at my Third Tuesday Book Club meeting tonight.

[Via http://fromtherecamier02.wordpress.com]

Born to Run: Bites of the Apple Book Review

When my sister started reading Born to Run by Christopher McDougall for a class she was taking in college, I was definitely intrigued. I considered waiting until she was finished and stealing it from her, but I ended up springing for it on tape. (Listening to books on tape during long runs is AWESOME. Especially books as riveting as this one.)

This book tells the story of a tribe of “running people” in Mexico called the Tarahumara. The author sets off to learn their secrets for a Runner’s World article, and takes us on a journey through Mexico, where he encounters a mysterious man known only as “Caballo Blanco” (the White Horse). Caballo, who lives among the Tarahumara (as much as any outsider can) emulates their running style and is determined to host an ultramarathon that pits American ultra runners against the Tarahumara superhumans. This quest leads the author to eventually meet up with as a cast of zany American ultramarathoners, ranging from the best ultramarathoner in the US, binge drinking college kids who also run like lightening, and a devoted barefoot runner known as “Barefoot Ted”.

The book keeps the reader thoroughly engaged by weaving MacDougall’s tale of Caballo’s quest to organize a race in mountains of Mexico with various factual jaunts. These jaunts include interviews with evolutionary biologists about the history of human running, discussions of running shoes and barefoot running, and tales of U.S. ultramarathons. MacDougall’s writing style forces you to the edge of your seat, no matter what the topic.

The book kept me so engaged that I had to shift from only listening to it on long runs to listening to it on my daily subway commute. I even chose to listen to it over watching Friends and The Office re-runs on several treadmill runs. While reading it, I felt energized and excited about being a runner. I also was riveted by the discussions of running form and injuries. While I previously had written off barefoot runners as hippie freaks, after reading Born to Run, I found myself lusting after these babies:

 (source)

Barefoot Ted wore these “shoes” to protect his feet, and I had a serious hankering for them!! I decided to ease into it by buying some super light road racing shoes to train in as a baby step towards barefooting. I *did* end up getting a pair for Tim for his birthday, and he LOVED them! He hasn’t run in them yet, but I think he’ll be a barefoot enthusiast in no time. If he ever runs in them, I’ll def get him to do a guest post!

To summarize, this book was one of the most interesting I’ve read recently. It’s a fun, interesting, engaging story, but you also end up feeling like you really learned something. And learning is fun, right??

[Via http://bitesoftheapple.com]

John Steinbeck’s Pulitzer Prize-Winning 'The Grapes of Wrath' -- Champagne or Table Wine?

Dorothy Parker called The Grapes of Wrath “the greatest American novel I have ever read,” but many critics disagree

The Grapes of Wrath. By John Steinbeck. Penguin Classics, 464 pp., $16, paperback. Introduction by Robert DeMott. Also available in other editions.

By Janice Harayda

Still enraged that Premier Bankcard is charging a 79.9 percent interest rateon its credit card? Reading The Grapes of Wrath might be cathartic. More than 70 years after its publication, this novel remains one of the most scathing indictments of banking and related industries to appear in American fiction.

In 1936 the San Francisco News sent John Steinbeck to investigate the living conditions of displaced Dust Bowl farmers who were streaming into California looking for work. That assignment inspired The Grapes of Wrath, a Pulitzer Prize–winning novel about how displacement and bureaucratic cruelty transform families.

Steinbeck refracts his theme through the bleak story of the Joads, Oklahoma sharecroppers evicted by a bank who set out for California hoping to earn a living as fruit-pickers. Ma and Pa Joad and their children face an almost soap-operatic array of disasters on their car trip and in the blighted Eden of California, where people disparagingly call them “Okies”: hunger, homelessness, illness, death, unemployment and the sadism of rich landowners. Their stoic dignity has endeared them to readers of all ages and to the Swedish Academy, which gave Steinbeck the 1962 Nobel Prize in literature.

The Grapes of Wrath has won less consistent acclaim from critics, who disagree on whether the Joads’ story is Dom Perignon or mediocre table wine. Dorothy Parker, one of the finest critics of her day, called the book “the greatest American novel I have ever read,” and it appears regularly on lists of the most influential works of fiction of the 20th century. But Edmund Wilson said that Steinbeck reduced his characters to their biological drives and animal instincts. And when Jonathan Yardley reviewed a volume of Steinbeck’s collected works for the Washington Post in the 1990s, he was struck by “the solemnity, the sentimentality, the heavy-handed irony, the humorlessness, the labored colloquialisms, the clumsiness” and “the political naiveté” he found in them, though reminded of the “powerfully sympathetic portraits of American farm workers and . . . the vision of social justice” he once admired.

Many of the complaints about the book have merit. Steinbeck conflates poverty and goodness – and wealth and evil – to a degree rarely found in novels written in the documentary style of The Grapes of Wrath. He portrays sympathetically and often sentimentally characters such as a waitress who thinks that the rich are thieves and “the bigger the car they got, the more they steal.” He is less subtle than his fellow social-realist and Nobel laureate Sinclair Lewis is in Main Street and other books. You know exactly what you are supposed to think about every issue raised in The Grapes of Wrath, which is why some critics have dismissed it as propaganda or a tract.

But the sentimentality of The Grapes of Wrath is not the cut-rate sentimentality that floods a market full of books by Mitch Albom imitators. It is hard won. And it is rooted in a deep and sincere concern for the brutal conditions endured by the Depression-era poor, some hungry enough to eat coal, as Ma Joad did, or trade a child’s doll for gas that would allow them to flee circumstances. The novelist Don DeLillo rightly said that in The Grapes of Wrath “there is something at stake in every sentence.”

There’s also something going on in every sentence. The Grapes of Wrath keeps its momentum from its opening chapters, when Ma and Pa Joad’s son Tom returns from prison, to its last pages, when the family tries to help a sick man though its own circumstances have grown more desperate. At times, the action includes perceptive observations on what makes life worth living. Steinbeck writes that migrant workers yearned for amusement and found it when they gathered around a fire to hear a storyteller: “And they listened while the tales were told, and their participation in the stories made them great.” The Grapes of Wrath is not a great novel as many critics would define it: a near-flawless work that yields new insights with each reading. It has been made great by the participation in its story of the successive generations to whom it has spoken as if by firelight.

Best line: The title. It appears in this line in the novel: “In the souls of the people the grapes of wrath are filling and growing heavy, growing heavy for the vintage.”

Worst line: “‘No, it ain’t,’ Ma smiled.”

Reading group guide with 12 discussion questions about The Grapes of Wrath from by the Big Read project of the National Endowment for the Arts.

Movie link: The 1940 movie of The Grapes of Wrath with Henry Fonda was nominated for seven Academy Awards and won two.

Furthermore: The site for the Nobel Prize foundation has a biography and more about Steinbeck and The Grapes of Wrath. The California Association of Teachers of English site explores some of the author’s local connections. A preloaded digital audiobook editor of the Penguin Classics edition of The Grapes of Wrath from Playaway is available online and at many libraries.

You can also follow Janice Harayda (@janiceharayda) on Twitter at www.twitter.com/janiceharayda. She satirizes the publishing industry on her FakeBookNews page (@FakeBookNews) on Twitter at www.twitter.com/FakeBookNews.

© 2010 Janice Harayda. All rights reserved.
www.janiceharayda.com

[Via http://oneminutebookreviews.wordpress.com]

The Fabric of the Cosmos (Book review)

This is an extremely in depth review of the history of, and the continuing research into, the nature of the universe from the perspective of physics. The edition I read was printed in 2005 and I intend to follow up the ongoing research mentioned in the book to bring me up to date.

I would suggest that the author assumed his potential readers possessed some prior physics knowledge as some of his material makes some connections that, for someone like me who hasn’t particularly studied the field for some time, are not immediately obvious.

The beginning of the book goes into the theories of, and the circumstances surrounding, the field of classiclal physics (Newton et al) through Einstein and onto quantum mechanics. The clash between general relativity and quantum mechanics is studied in some depth demonstrating the conflicts in reconciling the macro and micro environments.

The resulting history of string theory is then delved into as a consequence of some of this conflict. It becomes obvious that the author is a proponent of string theory, though to his credit, he does explain and acknowledge other ideas as well.

For me though, the real interesting sections are towards the end, with the realization of the physics community that the nature of the universe may have some basis in an illusionary context and this was brought home by some of the newer ideas, such as M-theory and I found a particular empathy with cyclical cosmology and the brane world cosmology. As a physicist, the author steers well clear of any theological interpretations, which one would expect, but I have to confess that it has sparked many connections that I will be exploring in some depth in the coming months.

It would appear that the author received some critical acclaim for this book, and the depth of the subject matter he displays is, indeed, very impressive. I do have to say though, that this book may represent hard work for the general reader, for whom physics may represent nothing but a passing interest. It would represent, and indeed I intend to use this, as a quality reference source, though I have to admit,  at 500 pages, this made a very challenging book to complete.

Recommended, with these stated reservations.

[Via http://corvusrouge.wordpress.com]

The Intrigue at Highbury Or, Emma’s Match, by Carrie Bebris – A Review

It is a truth universally acknowledged that in Carrie Bebris’ clever Jane Austen inspired mysteries, whenever Mr. and Mrs. Darcy embark on a carriage journey across England they are sure to end up investigating murder in a country village inhabited by some one or other of Jane Austen’s characters from one of her novels. This truth has become so well fixed in minds of her fans that we consider this devise our rightful property and any deviations would be insupportable. Happily, her fifth book in the series The Intrigue at Highbury Or, Emma’s Match does not disappoint opening with the Darcy’s traveling to Sussex to visit recently married cousins Colonel and Anne Fitzwilliam. In Surrey along the London Road their carriage is hailed by a young woman in distress just outside the village of Highbury. What starts out as an act of kindness by the Darcy’s quickly turns into a clever con by highwaymen who assault their coachmen and relieve the Darcy’s of their possessions. 

Determined to report the crime and recovery their family heirlooms the Darcy’s seek out the parish magistrate Mr. George Knightley who is having problems of his own. He and his new bride, the former Miss Emma Woodhouse, are entertaining a large party at Donwell Abbey in honor of friends Jane Fairfax and Frank Churchill’s recent London wedding. Among the out-of-town guests are Col. and Mrs. Campbell, newlyweds Mr. and Mrs. Peter Dixon and Mr. Edgar Churchill, the bridegroom’s adoptive father. Many of the Highbury set are in attendance including Miss Bates, a woman of a certain age and no fortune whom Emma has taken it upon herself to rescue from Mrs. Augusta Elton’s misguided matchmaking by introducing her to several illegible bachelors. The party is a great success until Frank’s father Mr. Churchill has a bit too much to drink, promptly becomes ill and unexpectedly dies. There is nothing like a corpse at a party to quickly quell the merriment of a celebration. Emma’s grand event has become the most infamous dinner party in Highbury history, and for all the wrong reasons. Moreover, Mr. Perry the apothecary suspects murder by poisoning and Mr. Knightley agrees. 

Arriving at Donwell Abbey on the night of the ill fated party, the Darcy’s and the Knightley’s see connections between the highway robbery and the murder and join forces to solve both crimes. High on their list on possible suspects in Mr. Churchill’s death is his son Frank. Even though he is to inherit the Churchill fortune, other blood relatives could supersede him and dark family secrets are looming. On the other front, itinerant gypsies could be responsible for the robbery and are quickly connected to newly arrived peddler Hiram Deal who seems to have an abundant supply of merchandise and ample stock of gypsie elixirs potent enough to have killed Mr. Churchill. Throw in charades, riddles, secret anagrams, plot twists, red herrings, and many memorable characters old and new and you have one fast paced, witty whodunit that is sure to keep you guessing until the last page. 

Readers of Jane Austen’s novel Emma will recognize similarities in the underlying plot to our modern murder mysteries. Filled with charades, riddles, word games, secret engagements and the speculation surrounding Jane Fairfax’s gift pianoforte, of all of Austen’s novels, Emma lends itself seamlessly to a continuation with a full mystery plot. Carrie Bebris’ skill at mining the original narrative for interesting coincidences to supplement her new story is amazing. In fear of spoilers I will not divulge my discoveries, but slyly allude to the fact that Mr. Knightley never liked Frank Churchill and was always suspect of his motives while others in the Highbury community could see no fault. That has not changed! Neither has the Austenesque wit as I found myself laughing at Mr. Woodhouse’s continued anxiety over other’s health and safety, Miss Bates’ endless chatter and the Mrs. Elton vs. Mrs. Knightley showdown over who would secure a beau for Miss Bates first absolutely hysterical. Unlike the other novels in the Mr. and Mrs. Darcy Mystery Series, the Darcy’s take an equal role in sleuthing with the Knightley’s and both the men and ladies as pairs doubled the pace of the investigation. As always, Bebris’ historical research and inclusion of medical matters, poisons and gypsie culture in the Regency-era was quite impressive. If she is fibbing, she is a credit to her profession! 

Bebris has surpassed herself offering her finest novel in the Mr. and Mrs. Darcy Mystery Series yet. The Intrigue at Highbury will captivate Austen and mystery fans with its briskly paced continuation of Austen’s Emma infused with enough sharp wit, clever underpinnings, devious relations and fearsome gypsie attacks for the most diehard fans. However, I will withhold my highest praise and strongest prejudice for the next novel in the series when the Darcy’s travel to the seaside and meet the characters from Persuasion. Yay! Men in blue. La!

5 out of 5 Regency Stars 

The Intrigue at Highbury Or, Emma’s Match, by Carrie Bebris
Tor/Forge Books (2010)
Hardcover (320) pages
ISBN: 978-0765318480

Additional Reviews

• Bluestocking Guide
• Austenesque Reviews
• My Jane Austen Book Club
• Genre Go Round Reviews

Read my review of  The Matters at Mansfield (4th Mr. and Mrs. Darcy Mystery Series

[Via http://austenprose.com]

A Review of Richard Dawkins’ River Out of Eden: Chapter 1 – The Digital River

I. Part 2

In the middle of his discussion of small-scale Natural selection in the section, Dawkins takes a short detour; stepping back to take in the ‘bit picture’ of large-scale Natural Selection.

That is why birds are so good at flying, fish are so good at swimming, monkeys are so good at climbing, viruses are so good at spreading. That is why we love life and love sex and love children. It is because we all, without a single exception, inherit all our genes from an unbroken line of successful ancestors. The world becomes full of organisms that have what it takes to become ancestors. That, in a sentence, is Darwinism. (p. 2, emphasis added)

This is where I part company with Dawkins as I believe that the reason that animals are so good at what they do is because they were designed that way.

Far more disturbing, however, is the subtle shift into reductionism he makes in the bolded sentences. After listing the optimized capacities of various animals in terms of purely utilitarian ’survival value’, he casts human passions in that same light. Note that he did not write of the human capacity for life, sex and procreation; but rather the love of those things. Therefore, from a Darwinian perspective, these aspects of human nature are purely utilitarian, having no intrinsic value themselves. I don’t fault Dawkins for this shift. Indeed, from his reductionist, Darwinian perspective it is not a shift at all. He deserves credit for not flinching from the logical ends of his worldview.

Now Dawkins would no doubt plead that such passions would be ’selected for’ as they would better enable our species to thrive, but this isn’t necessarily so. First, we have no means of determining that animals love life, sex and their little ones – at least not in the sense that we do*. Dawkins seems to understand this as he only wrote of animal capacity, not passion. Thus, if the vast majority of life thrives largely absent such passion, it is follows that it is not at all necessary for species to flourish. Why, then, did humans develop such passions? Perhaps it became necessary because of the protracted developmental process humans must go through (i.e. childhood and adolescence) before becoming self-sufficient? Perhaps. But what of the fact that, throughout history, humanity has exhibited the capacity for an extraordinarily callous disregard of life, sex and children. Putting all morality aside, what survival value is conferred upon a species by profligate abortion, infanticide, promiscuity or neglect and abandonment of children? And how does Darwinism make sense of the deliberate choice by much of modern Western culture (particularly Europe) to allow their societies to wither away; to have so few children as to knowingly charge headlong towards extinction? And all of this is to say nothing of the mass slaughters visited upon of wide swaths of humanity by tyrants past and present.

If Darwinism is to make sense of these conflicting realities, it must do so exclusively in terms of utilitarian survival value. In other words, Darwinism demands that a given ‘adaptation’ and its opposite must serve one and the same purpose: survival. Worse, since survival is the ultimate ‘good’ from a Darwinian perspective, both the ‘good’ and the ‘bad’ are, by definition, good.

Any objective basis for morality is thus destroyed.

Agnostic and Darwin skeptic David Berlinski has observed

Darwin’s theory has been variously used – by Darwinian biologists – to explain the development of a bipedal gait, the tendency to laugh when amused, obesity, anorexia nervosa, business negotiations, a preference for tropical landscapes, the evolutionary roots of political rhetoric, maternal love, infanticide, clan formation, marriage, divorce, certain comical sounds, funeral rites, the formation of regular verb forms, altruism, homosexuality, feminism, greed, romantic love, jealousy, warfare, monogamy, polygamy, adultery, the fact that men are pigs, recursion, sexual display, abstract art, and religious beliefs of every description. (p. 23, emphasis added)

Note the bolded ‘opposites’. A paradigm – a ‘view of life’ – that is as malleable and flexible as this doesn’t explain everything, it explains nothing. This is not to say that Darwinians lack ‘explanations’ for how all of this works, indeed they have a multitude of theories to reconcile these conflicting ‘facts of life’ – theories as contradictory to one another as the facts they seek to explain.

Now, how does a ‘Biblical View of Life‘ deal with all of this? Does such a paradigm not suffer the same, or worse, fate? In a word, no. All of that ‘good stuff’, including the love of life, sex and children are all manifestations of the image of God in man. These human passions are pale reflections of the innate, absolute and pure attributes of God. What then of the ‘bad stuff’? These are the manifestations of human sin; perversions of the capacities God endowed us with at creation. God gave Adam & Eve the ‘good’, but it wasn’t enough; they wanted more. So they grabbed the ‘bad’. Thus the paradox of the human condition – we have true and honest ‘good’ and true and honest ‘bad’ all in one flawed package.

Many reject this ‘Biblical View of Life‘ for whatever reason – it’s regressive, backward, primitive, unscientific, what have you. That’s all well and good, but the biblical view has something the Darwinian view doesn’t – coherence. Whereas Darwinism must explain contradictory states of affairs in terms of one ‘metric’ (i.e. survival), Christianity explains each with respect to its own ‘metric’; Creation explains the ‘good’, the Fall explains the ‘bad’. A metaphor might help illustrate why the biblical view outclasses the Darwinian. Think of these ‘metrics’ as eyes. Darwinism has one eye and Christianity has two; only one has depth perception and thus superior vision.

How did Dawkins fair in this section? Again, it’s a mixed bag. While Dawkins again succeeds in giving us a proper view of Darwinism, we see how the paradigm runs aground on the rocks of reductionism and its resulting incoherence. By my lights, this ‘Darwinian view of life’ is not only not inspirational, it strikes me as terribly ‘lifeless’ as we must regard those things which imbue our lives with such color and zest as mere tricks played on us by our genes to get us to reproduce. How utterly dismal and bleak.

*Some animals do evidence a love of some type for their fellows. For instance, elephants have been seen to mourn when one of their herd dies.

[Via http://creationmeditations.wordpress.com]

Reading Update

Some people have asked how I expect to find time to read so many books. The short answer is: I read all the time. By way of offering some helpful advice, though, here are some specific things that I have done to increase both the quantity and quality of my reading.

Discernment

Sir Francis Bacon (1561-1626) has many great quotes on the subject of reading, but the most helpful to me is this one: “Some books are to be tasted, others to be swallowed, and some few to be chewed and digested: that is, some books are to be read only in parts, others to be read, but not curiously, and some few to be read wholly, and with diligence and attention.” I am learning to discern which books are worthy of serious digestion, and reading through (most) others more quickly. While I was already a fast reader, this has greatly sped up the reading process, while allowing me to devote further concentration on the books from which I have the most to benefit.

Diversity

I am typically reading several books at any given time. This keeps me from getting too bogged down in any one book, allowing it to grind my progress to a halt. I try to break my reading up strategically. For instance, I’ll read more substantial theological works in the morning right after my Bible study, when my mind is most prepared for learning. I devote some time at work to reading books about music, ministry, and music ministry. Evenings and weekends are given more to novels, biographies, and other lighter reading. I even try to have books that are broken up into smaller sections which makes for good bathroom reading (That’s right, I’ve admitted it. According to a magazine article I read last week, I’m not alone… this is apparently where men do most of their reading! After all, what else are we to do to pass the time?). Recently I’ve also gotten into audio books, so I can be “reading” while I drive. ChristianAudio.com offers a FREE book every month (this month is “The Cost of Discipleship” by Dietrich Bonhoeffer), which is way too good to pass up.

Sacrifice

The simple fact is, reading comes only at the expense of other activities. For me, what has been most notable has been the reduction in the amount of time devoted to sports & games, although this has been a gradual process that’s been going on for many years. I used to be very addicted to video games, and could spend entire days watching sports on TV. I now regret all the wasted years, because I have absolutely nothing to show for the thousands of hours idly spent on fruitless, mindless entertainment. I still love sports, and have not completely forsaken “fun”, but the time I currently spend on watching sports is a tiny fraction of what it once was, and video games have absolutely no attraction for me anymore. I used the word “sacrifice”, but replacing that time with reading and studying has been tremendously freeing, and more rewarding that I ever could have imagined.

Accountability

The simple fact that I’ve set a measurable goal and made it public keeps my nose in the books when I am tempted to do something less productive!

Here’s a roundup of what I’ve read recently, and links to my reviews of those books:

• Unleashing the Word: Rediscovering the Public Reading of Scripture, by Max McLean and Warren Bird
• Right Behind: A Parody of Last Times Goofiness, by Nathan Wilson
• Spiritual Lives of the Great Composers, by Patrick Kavannaugh
• A Sweet and Bitter Providence: Sex, Race, and the Sovereignty of God, by John Piper
• Christ and the Future: The Bible’s Teaching About the Last Things, by Cornelis Venema

Days remaining in 2010: 293/365
Books read in 2010: 18/100

[Via http://honeyandlocusts.wordpress.com]

Dream On

Book #10 (February 21, 2010): Number9Dream by David Mitchell

David Mitchell is a British writer currently living in Ireland after quite a few years as a teacher in Japan. His short story “What You Do Not Know You Want” was my favorite in the Michael Chabon anthology I wrote about a few posts back. He’s written four novels with another coming out later this year. This one is about a young Japanese man in search of his father, who he’s never met. It takes place largely in modern Tokyo and Mitchell’s description of the city and its inhabitants is vivid and occasionally (as the protagonist slips in and out of his ongoing fantasy life) phantasmagorical. Mitchell’s writing style is energetic, frequently snarky, often funny, and if I have a problem with it it’s that he sometimes skips a little lightly over the surface of believability. Case in point: The encounters between the protagonist, Eiji Miyake, and the Yakuza (i.e., the Japanese mob) are so violently and comically over the top that I began to wonder if Mitchell might be secretly hoping that the Coen brothers will buy the film rights. But he manages to pull the story back from the brink of absurdity (a precipice it spends many pages teetering on) and occasionally creates something rather moving, especially in the parts where Miyake reminisces about his dead twin sister. There’s a John Lennon motif threading through the novel; hence the title, after a 1974 Lennon song. The ending is both cryptic and apocalyptic, and I’m still not sure how I feel about it.

Based on the two works I’ve read by him so far I can make the probably unwarranted generalization that Mitchell’s talents, of which he has quite a few, work better at the shorter lengths. Some of my favorite parts of the book are the stories within a story — for instance, the children’s stories about halfway through the book featuring a goat, a hen and a caveman, which Mitchell uses to make some not-at-all-childish points about human behavior. At this point I admire his work more than I love it, but I’m still interested in reading the rest of Mitchell’s novels and I’ll probably read at least one more of them before the year is out. In fact, Cloud Atlas is already sitting on my bookshelf.

[Via http://52books52.wordpress.com]

Book Review: Right Behind

“Right Behind: A Parody of Last Days Goofiness” by Nathan D. Wilson

I must admit, this book was sort of a guilty pleasure for me. A satirical parody of the Left Behind series, it was one of the most fun reads I’ve enjoyed in quite some time. Certainly the only time in recent memory when I have laughed out loud for the entire length of a book! Which, at only 105 pages, meant a good solid 90-minutes of joy.

Those unfamiliar or unaccustomed with satire should probably stay away from this one. On the other hand, anyone who, like me, absolutely LOVED the Douglas Adams Hitchhiker’s Guide series will appreciate Wilson’s writing style. On the surface, it may come across as just plain dumb, but it takes true genius to write something so intentionally stupid. It’s really quite clever.

Wilson’s biting yet winsome writing pokes fun at many stereotypes within the evangelical culture, such as Christian bookstores, cable networks, and consumerism. Most of all, though, he critiques dispensational theology and the horrid writing style of most books in the genre of prophetic apocalyptic fiction.

Enjoying this book probably depends on a prior familiarity with the original Left Behind series. As someone who actually trudged through all twelve of the LaHaye/Jenkins books, though, I feel like I picked up on most of his references… not that many of them were all that subtle.

Moment of self-disclosure here: I originally began reading the Left Behind series at about the time the sixth book was published. I devoured the first half of the series like it was candy, and was drawn hook, line, & sinker into LaHaye’s system of prophetic interpretation. In my defense, I was a college freshman at the time, and didn’t really know any better. I had never actually read much of my Bible, and certainly not any of the prophetic passages. It took a while to realize that God’s Word is so very much better than fiction! By the time the last book came out I had seen the light. I no longer cared for dispensationalism, and had realized how terrible the writing was in the series… I just can’t stand to not finish a series once I’ve started it!

Anyway, if you are into satirical writing and not into the pre-trib Rapture, you’ll want to check this one out. Buy it here.

[Via http://honeyandlocusts.wordpress.com]

Book Review: 20 Folk Bird And Fish Patterns

 

Who carves a wooden catfish?  I do, and I loved it. The first thing that caught my eye in this book was a wooden catfish. I knew right away that it wanted to be on wheels and be a toy – hence the birth of Captain Catfish. The pattern in the book was fun and the instructions were great. I really enjoyed carving this fish.

I was a little less happy with the bird patterns though. The birds all had side view patterns but no top view.  There was only one photo even that showed a top view during the patterning stage with the birds.  All 0f the fish had both top and side patterns to use.

I wanted this book specifically for the birds, the fish was really just a bonus for me. This makes the book less desirable to me.

The Author published his phone number and address in the back of the book but the phone number was no longer valid when I called. I emailed the publisher to ask if there were side patterns to have and never got an answer about the patterns.  If you are most interested in the bird patterns on the cover of the book, and they are cool, I would not buy this book.

If on the other hand, you are into Captain Catfish! (hehe), he is probably worth the cover price alone.

-Jim

[Via http://makestuffwithyourhands.com]

Life of Pi

Typically, books titled after mathematical figures are written exclusively for the formula-friendly elite of high schools. Not so, with Yann Martel’s Life of Pi.

Half science-fiction, half biography, Pi is the story of
a severed tiger head (Pi) and his life as the ruler of the ocean kingdoms. It’s a classic, middle-eastern epic of retribution, environmental responsibility, and geometry, with a few modern twists (such as the entire story taking place at sunset) to keep up with contemporary audiences.

Martel weaves an intricate story, addressing those human truths often too complex for fiction with veteran ease. The internal conflicts of humanity are expressed poetically; the smooth red sky’s constant clashes with the serrated blue water was my personal favourite.

Pi (short for “Pieces of Tiger”, a name dutifully earned after the brutal dismemberment scene) is a character that strikes a chord in all of us. Caught by fish-shaped Bengalese poachers, he is encircled and decapitated, his body sold for fur. But Pi’s soul lives on in his severed head, and he takes to the skies to exact revenge on humanity. As is all too common in life, his vengeance overwhelms him, and he devours every living thing on Earth — that is, until he reaches the ocean, where the creatures of the sea are safe beneath the waves.

The story ends surprisingly philosophically, as Pi floats above the seas for all eternity, waiting for the seas to evaporate, so he can feast on the last living things on Earth and complete his revenge. But it’s a sad life for Pi, as the fish taunt him day after day, jumping from the seas in a circular shape that mock his name and mimic the circle of hunters that caused his torment in the first place — and we see the story becomes as circular as the fish’s mockery.

Life of Pi is a wonderful thing, one I would recommend to anyone looking for a colourful, well-designed book cover to put in their bag or purse.

[Via http://judgingbycovers.wordpress.com]

Review: A MILLION SHADES OF GRAY by Cynthia Kadohata

Becky of Becky’s Book Reviews recently read A Million Shades of Gray by Cynthia Kadohata for the 2010 Vietnam War Reading Challenge.  Here’s a snippet from the review:

It’s about a Vietnamese village torn apart by war.  . . . A Million Shades of Gray is a devastating book. It shows a village, a country, torn apart by war. It’s chaotic. It’s violent. It’s ugly.

Read the full review.

**Attention participants:  Remember to email us a link to your reviews, and we’ll post them here so we can see what everyone is reading!**

[Via http://warthroughthegenerations.wordpress.com]

Hey, what'cha reading?

Found this really cool article at the LA Times online talking about how more and more adults are finally catching on to all the great stuff being published for teens these days.

Just a taste:

“YA authors are able to take themselves less seriously. They’re able to have a little more fun, and they’re less confined by this idea of themselves as Very Important Artists. That paradoxically leads them to create far better work than people who are trying to win awards.”

According to [Lizzie Skurnick], who also reviews adult fiction for publications including The Times, YA books are “more vibrant” than many adult titles, “with better plots, better characterizations, a more complete creation of a world.”

“There’s some amazing, vibrant, fantastic literature in the YA venue,” said Cecil Castellucci, a young adult author who recently started the Pardon My Youth book club at Skylight Books in Los Feliz to “help people understand that YA literature is not just for young adults.”

Read the rest here:

http://www.latimes.com/entertainment/news/la-et-young-adult8-2010mar08,0,1082099.story

So everybody read lots and lots of teen books, m’kay? 

Cool.  Circulation stats doubled. 

Need a  suggestion?   If you’re still into vampires, I recommend the hilarious, snarky, and oh-so-romantic Hearts at Stake: The Drake Chronicles by Alyxandra Harvey. 

 You can also check out our After Twilight @ CCPL booklist or www.vampirelibrary.com for more series and titles.

 Always,

Missy

[Via http://ccplic4teens.wordpress.com]

The Forest of Hands and Teeth by Carrie Ryan

Zombies, secrets, and romance – what else could you ask for from a title as frightening and ominous as The Forest of Hands and Teeth?

Written by Carrie Ryan, this post-apocalyptic teen novel takes place in the distant future where, except for the fenced-in village in which the protagonist, Mary, lives in, zombies have overtaken the world.

Mary has never known a life without the fear of the Unconsecrated, the name zombies are given in this “safe” village. Controlled by the Sisterhood, a strict religious cult, this community is filled with secrets and rules. Yet, Mary has wanderlust and is curious of what could be out there, stories about the ocean haunt and excite Mary, sometimes to the detriment of her own safety. When the Unconsecrated breach the fences, Mary is forced to run away and discover what, if anything, is beyond the Forest of Hands and Teeth.

Although completely engrossing and beautifully written, there were many questions and plot lines left unanswered in this novel, which frankly, left me a little disappointed. However, maybe some of those mysteries are solved in its companion novel, The Dead Tossed Waves, which is out today. Hopefully, that’s the case.

Honestly though, I really loved the old cover much better. That’s what drew me to this book in the first place, the old hardcover just captured the dreamy and romantic yet eerie world of The Forest of Hands and Teeth more than the new version. What do you think?

Below is the book trailer (that made me jump and cover my eyes) for The Forest of Hands and Teeth.

[Via http://thechildrenssection.wordpress.com]

Chelsea Chelsea Bang Bang by Chelsea Handler Book Review

What … a hilarious book!

Chelsea Chelsea Bang Bang by Chelsea Handler was absolutely fabulous.  Hysterical.  Pee in your pants funny.  Entertaining as hell.  My god, I haven’t laughed that hard in all of 2010!  The #1 New York Times bestselling author of Are You There, Vodka? It’s Me, Chelsea will soon be on the top of that list again with her latest book that comes out today.  I’ve been a fan of Ms. Handler’s long before she got her television show, Chelsea Lately.  I first heard of Chelsea Handler back in the summer of 2006 when she was doing a radio tour to promote her first book My Horizontal Life: A Collection of One-Night Stands.  She was on the air with Drew and Mike on WRIF, a Detroit radio show, and she was so damn funny and held her own with them I immediately went to work and went online to Amazon to purchased her book after hearing her interview, which is something I’ve never done in my entire life.  I don’t impulsive shop like that, but hell, was I glad that I did!  When I read My Horizontal Life in one sitting, I nearly gagged from laughing so hard.  Ditto with Are You There Vodka?  which was also read in one setting last summer.  Chelsea has set the bar high with her first two books, and fans will be relieved to know that her latest book Chelsea Chelsea Bang Bang has passages in it that are so funny, so embarrassingly relatable that you will explode in a sudden burst of laughter, over and over again. 

I read Chelsea Chelsea Bang Bang last Friday morning in a three-hour power read from 5:30 am to 8:30 am.  I had meant to just read a few pages, but I couldn’t stop myself and could not put it down and go to bed, even though I was exhausted beyond belief.  I am so thankfully to have received my review copy, not only because this was one new book I couldn’t afford not to read, but because I am not able to “afford” to buy any new books these days due to my recent unemployment.  I knew that I’d adore this book, and adore it I did.  At one point while reading Chelsea Chelsea Bang Bang, I had to sign into Facebook and update my profile status in the middle of the chapter titled Black-on-Black Crime, because I wanted my friends to know I was laughing so hard while reading that book that tears were rolling down my face.  You see, in this chapter Chelsea had encountered some wild women while on vacation in Turks and Caicos, and those women reminded me so much of two of my old wild friends so much I couldn’t take it, because I could just see them on vacation with “Tracy Lately” as her wild women kept calling her.  As funny as their whole story was, hearing her assistant Eva carried around and used a Sham-Wow to help clean up Chelsea-related spills nearly killed me. 

Chelsea Handler definitely lets loose in this book with some of her best comic personal essays.  My god, even the dedication was funny – To my brothers and sisters.  What … a bunch of assholes.  Classic!  I was so happy to read current stories, including quite a few stories about her recent ex-boyfriend Ted Harbert.  Not that I am sick of her childhood tales of woe, because I just loved hearing about her struggles in getting her first Cabbage Patch Doll (as I never managed to get my own, but happily shared Maynard with my friend G!) but hearing about her family, friends, and life with Ted was so much more funnier to me.  Now that I know that Chelsea can’t stop eating Lean Pockets or can’t learn how to work her own remote control, it makes her even more relatable.  I loved hearing her wild beach stories, but hearing how she tricked Ted over and over by telling him the most ridiculous stories such a killing a dog nearly killed me.  My god, how I laughed when I heard that man had to take the day off work when Michael Jackson died, or how he loved to go dancing so much he hired a helicopter to get him to his dance club a little sooner.  I have noticed a change in Chelsea over the past year on her show Chelsea Lately, and after reading this book, I can understand why – she was dealing with someone, who, to put it politely, wasn’t right for her at all.  I can’t be sure, but after reading this book I am half convinced her ex has Asperger’s Syndrome.  I am not saying this as a bad thing, trust me, I know plenty about it, as my stepson has it; I am only saying that I know how hard it is to deal with this conditions, because having a person who doesn’t understand how to relate with others can be very draining.  For example, Chelsea had to explain to Ted at a wedding that it wasn’t ok to ignore a man who was telling a story about he and his child getting in a car accident and flying through the air.  Not only did Ted stop a waiter mid-story to order a drink, but he left the rest of the table to fend for their own, and you know in Chelsea’s circle that would be taboo.  I personally feel when you are Chelsea Handler, queen of vodka, you need a man next to you who can roll with your crazy adventures without blinking an eye. 

Chelsea has plenty of famous friends and family to take good care of her, and she will be ok.  The girl has been working her butt off, taping Chelsea Lately, doing stand-up all over the country, and writing this book in between stolen moments over the past year or so.  Last night she mentioned on her show that this will be her last book, so I want all you fans of hers to make sure you buy a copy, because this really could be the last of her books, which is unimaginable.  She is so talented, so snarky, and so damn funny that I just love her and her writing, and I’ll be very upset if this announcement of hers turns out to be true.  Fans of Chelsea, go buy your copy of Chelsea Chelsea Bang Bang immediately!

Poor Chuy, left off this cover and replaced by Chunk the dog.  Still, I think she made the right choice, because a dog who refuses to poop in her presence is a rare dog indeed.

To buy your copy of Chelsea Chelsea Bang Bang, click here.

Chelsea Handler’s website (Which is sadly just her Myspace page – Girl, can’t you afford to buy a website?) can be found here.

Chelsea Handler’s Facebook Page can be found here.

Chelsea Lately’s website can be found here.

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[Via http://thegirlfromtheghetto.wordpress.com]

His January and February Reads... Better Late Than Never!

January 2010:

• The Guinea Pig Diaries by A.J. Jacobs (reviewed here)
• Pirate Latitudes by Michael Crichton (reviewed here)
• Darkly Dreaming Dexter and Dearly Devoted Dexter by Jeff Lindsay (both reviewed here)
• The Strain by Guillermo Del Toro – This was an AWESOME book and I can’t wait for the next one in the series to come out because once I finished reading this one I was stuck hungering for more.  It felt like there was an almost a mythical tale being told behind the scenes of the main story and that it had a rich sense of folklore at it’s base.  I hope that the next story scratches deeper beneath the surface to expose more about the ancient ones and that they play a bigger role!
• Catching Fire by Suzanne Collins – The Hunger Games series so far is wonderfully fantastic! This book lived up to everything I was expecting after reading the first book and I really feel like the characters have depth (which is nice to find in a book for teens!)  I am patiently waiting with baited breath for the third and final book of this series to come out so that I can dive back into that universe and see what happens next.
• Odd and the Frost Giants by Neil Gaiman – This was a fun and quick read! I think that it’s one I would have a fun time reading to a child and I hope to find more short but exciting books like this to read to my kid(s) when the time comes because I think it would spark their imagination and hopefully get them into reading too!

February 2010:

• Shadow Kiss by Richelle Mead – I really donno what to say about this one. I can’t tell if I just didn’t like it or if I’m through with the series because I feel like after three books that the characters are stagnant and boring. What I mean is that all of the main characters are pretty much exactly the same now as they were when the story started and although some interesting things have happened I feel like I’m stuck watching characters that refuse to grow, and it’s frustrating. There was a twist at the end that might be enough of a saving grace to get me to read the next book, but right now I feel like I’ve gotten everything out of the Vampire Academy universe that there is to offer.
• Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone by J.K. Rowling – Me and the coauthor of this blog (my wonderful girlfriend!) decided to reread the Harry Potter series so that we could have discussions about each book and I have to say that it’s one of my favorite things we’ve ever done together! It had been almost a decade since I last read this book and I swear it must of gotten better since then. There was a whole new vibe to the book that I think came from knowing how the full story played out and as such it gave me quite a bit to think about. I think Rowling really knows how to weave a story and give her characters incredible depth, and if you’re one of the 30 people of so who have not read this book I definitely recommend it.

I also started Under the Dome by Stephen King but am still in the middle of reading that one (it’s just under 1100 pages, so it’s like reading 3 books I’d say!)

[Via http://mtqt.wordpress.com]

The Kite Runner By Khaled Hosseini :Book Review

Well, this is my first attempt to write a review for a book. So I decided to start with a book which I found to be a truly amazing literary work.

This is a book which makes you feel so bad, yet makes you want to thank God for all the blessings that we have in our lives – for our loving parents, for our culture, society and of course our governments..

This book is all about unconditional love, guilt, pain, poverty,betrayal. Somehow I haven’t read any other book where all these emotions touch you. You tend to feel the same emotions of love, pain, guilt etc when each of the character goes through these emotions. In this way,the author is successful in keeping the reader quite involved in the story. The story takes you through the life of Amir, settled professional in United States, who was born and brought up in Afghanisthan. Amir lives in United States, a country which he embraced not only because of the political asylum she provided, but also it allowed him freedom from his turbulent past. In the end of the story, we feel the same sense of relief, that Amir the protaganist felt himself.

Amir is a rich father’s son surrounded by all the riches, but he is always left yearning for the love of his father. Hussain, the servant’s kid is Amir’s close friend. Though Amir is not jealous of Hussain, he feels bad when his father pours out his love on Hussain. Hussain loves Amir with all his heart and is always ready to be there for his master and friend. His only aim is to please and protect Amir.

The story progress through the change of governments in Afghanistan and the drastic change in the life style of people. It also depicts the changed relation between Amir and Hussain after a unfortunate incident during a kite flying competition..Amir ends up betraying the trust of Hussain and this burdens his heart so much that he plots the removal of Hussain from his life.Through all this Amir finds it difficult to accept the loving and forgiving nature of Hussain which was increasing his burden. Amir finds some release from his burden only after leaving his country and he had become an insomniac by that time.

The story ends when Amir travels back to Afghanistan and tries to put things right.This travels paves his way to his redemption when he finds his lost childhood , hidden family secrets, contradicting values and tries to come in terms with his mistakes, guilt , pain and sets to makes things better for people around him.

Now if you start wondering if this is a review or a description of a book, I would say “Keep Wondering”. But if you would like to wonder aloud, feel free to put a comment.

Reach out to the author on this website: http://www.khaledhosseini.com/

[Via http://bookishreviews.wordpress.com]

"Jesus, Interrupted" by Bart Ehrman

Bart D. Ehrman (James A. Gray Distinguished Professor of Religious Studies at the University of North Carolina Chapel Hill) is perhaps America’s most well-known Evangelical-to-Agnostic story.  His books continue to sit atop the New York Times bestseller list, and his latest is no exception.  Jesus, Interrupted: Revealing the Hidden Contradictions in the Bible and Why We Don’t Know About Them (New York: HarperOne, 2009), provides similar content to his other controversial-ladden texts and has sparked the discussions I’m sure that the publishers sought.  Amazon’s reader reviews call the work everything from “mind blowing” to “arrogant.” 

You don’t have to look hard on the Internet (or on the bookshelves) to find someone spewing vehement rebuttals to Ehrman’s latest assault on traditional Evangelicalism.  And for that reason, I want to avoid this move.  But I also want to avoid filling this brief review with criticism for another reason.  I want to avoid this because Ehrman’s right.

I don’t think he’s right about his claims of Scriptural “contradictions” or the “stunning” assertions in his book.  I don’t think he’s right about his entrenched and overly skeptical view of the “historical-critical” method of biblical interpretation.  I don’t think he’s right about his anti-harmonization-at-any-cost mentality or his views on the early church’s theological development.

I think he’s right about the fact that this type of conversation needs to be happening in the public square.  He’s right that many of our churches aren’t doing enough to educate their parishioners with arguments beyond “well that’s what the Bible says.”  He’s right that many of those who fill the Sunday pew just aren’t reading their Bible, regardless of their high view of Scripture. 

This is a conversation worth having.

And thankfully, Evangelicals are talking about this in the public square.  Ehrman admits his book offers nothing new, and he delivers on this promise.  And because it’s nothing new, answers abound for his argument.  (For example, see Darrell Bocks’ review of Jesus, Interrupted here: Themelios 34 no. 3 (2009). 

Ehrman won’t have the last word, and I don’t think he would want it.  Jesus, Interrupted provides ample topics of conversation, and for that it is helpful.  His “controversial” claims—much less so.  We shouldn’t be scared of books.  Read them, think critically about their claims, and evaluate for yourself. 

And read your Bible too.

[Via http://curtiswlindsey.wordpress.com]

Can you rely on internet book reviews?

 

We always rely on other people to advise us and share their thoughts on the newest books when picking a new book. Is it right that we have confidence reviews we see on the web and how can you be certain the person writing a book review really has the same tastes and levels of thoughts as you. There is no way to be sure, we just simply go along with it at the time and pray that the review given is truthful. I recently read a review about a book for my young son and I was very dissapointed to see a different story to the one that was described within the forum. It could be people online do not have the time to write a true respective review. A bit of research can be done on the sites you read related book news from.

 

Three things to look out for when reading websites:

The date of the latestarticle.

The sites target audience discussing the book.

How many people visit the site.

 

 

[Via http://authorsbooks1.wordpress.com]

Homeschool Freebie ~ The Voice of Spring

The Voice of Spring Copywork Book

I’m so excited to be able to tell you about the Homeschool Freebie of the Day today! As our weather is heating up to the high forties, as the birds are singing again in the air, as I can finally see the blades of grass under the dingy slushy ice snow piles, as I am rushing to put seed orders in, and as I am ever so anxious to pull on my garden boots, this little gem came along. It is a copywork booklet of spring poems and verses. From Wordsworth to Robert Louis Stevenson to the Bible;  from singing birds to the first appearance of daffodils to daydreaming on a breezy day there is a little of everything for everyone, whether old or young. It is done in Zaner style manuscript and can be used as a complete grammar unit (as in Ruth Beechik’s whole language learning ~ post coming soon!) or as individual handwriting lessons as a sunny day calls for or use as a complimentary pairing to outside nature walks and sketching work. It is another little nugget of hope on a cloudy, dreary day!

Here is the link: Homeschool Freebie of the Day

It is only for today only so hurry fast to download your copy! Here is what they have to say about it:

Copying the Poems: The Voice of Spring (PDF ebook) – From Bogart Family Resources comes today’s resource, this neat handwriting copybook that includes the complete text of three well-known poems and four scripture passages that focus the heart and mind on the new life that springs forth from God’s creation each Spring. 25 full lessons in 77 pages, making preparing copywork lessons a breeze – just hit print, and you’re good to go!

[Via http://amypayson.wordpress.com]

Foreword to Pierced for our Transgressions

  

By John Piper. © Desiring God. Website: desiringGod.org

(From: Pierced for Our Transgressions: Rediscovering the Glory of Penal Substitution)

Out of the Jewish leadership of Jesus’ day had risen teachers of the law who did not know what the law meant. Jesus found himself saying things like ‘Are you the teacher of Israel and yet you do not understand these things?’ ( John 3:10 ESV). Some of the teachers had lost all sense of biblical proportion, ‘straining out a gnat and swallowing a camel!’ (Matt 23:24 ESV). And as they lost their bearings, they came under Jesus’ most serious charge: ‘You have made void the word of God’ (Matt 15:6 ESV).

Emotionally, Jesus’ response was a sinless combination of grief and anger. ‘He looked around at them with anger, grieved at their hardness of heart’ (Mark 3:5 ESV). Why both anger and grief?

The anger was because people were being hurt – eternally. These teachers were supposed to know what the word of God meant, but instead Jesus said they were ‘like unmarked graves, and people walk over them without knowing’ it (Luke 11:44 ESV). This made Jesus angry. Their job was to teach what God had said. Instead, they were blind guides and were leading others with them into the ditch. Jesus loved people. Therefore, he was angry with professional teachers who imperiled people with biblical blunders.

But Jesus was not only angry; he was ‘grieved at their hardness of heart’. These were his kinsmen. These were the leaders of his people. These were the representatives of the Jerusalem he loved and wept over. ‘Would that you . . . had known . . . the things that make for peace! But now they are hidden from your eyes’ (Luke 19:42). The condition of their heart and the blindness of their eyes were a grief to Jesus.

This is how I feel today about teachers of Christ’s people who deny and even belittle precious, life-saving, biblical truth. When a person says that God’s ‘punishing his Son for an offence he has not even committed’ would be as evil as child abuse, I am angered and grieved. For if God did not punish his Son in my place, I am not saved from my greatest peril, the wrath of God.

In part, I write this foreword to defend my Father’s wrath against me before I was adopted. He does not need my defence. But I believe he would be honoured by it. On behalf of my Father, then, I would like to bear witness to the truth that, before he adopted me, his terrible wrath rested upon me. Jesus said, ‘Whoever believes in the Son has eternal life; whoever does not obey . . . the wrath of God remains on him’ (John 3:36; italics added). Wrath remains on us as long as there is no faith in Jesus.

Paul puts it like this: We ‘were by nature children of wrath, like the rest of mankind’ (Eph. 2:3). My very nature made me worthy of wrath. My destiny was to endure ‘flaming fire’ and ‘vengeance on those . . . who do not obey the gospel of our Lord Jesus . . . [and who] suffer the punishment of eternal destruction’ (2 Thess. 1:8-9 ESV). I was not a son of God. God was not my Father. He was my judge and executioner. I was ‘dead in . . . trespasses and sins’, one of the ‘sons of disobedience’ (Eph. 2:1-2 ESV). And the sentence of my Judge was clear and terrifying: ‘because of these things the wrath of God comes upon the sons of disobedience’ (Eph. 5:5 ESV; italics added).

There was only one hope for me – that the infinite wisdom of God might make a way for the love of God to satisfy the wrath of God so that I might become a son of God.

This is exactly what happened, and I will sing of it forever. After saying that I was by nature a child of wrath, Paul says, ‘But God, being rich in mercy, because of the great love with which he loved us, even when we were dead in our trespasses, made us alive together with Christ’ (Eph. 2:4-5 ESV). What a grievous blindness when a teacher in the church writes that the term ‘children of wrath’ cannot mean ‘actual objects of God’s wrath . . . [because] in the same breath they are described as at the same time objects of God’s love’. On the contrary. This is the very triumph of the love of God. This is the love of God – the ‘great love with which he loved us’. It rescued me from his wrath and adopted me into sonship.

‘But when the fullness of time had come, God sent forth his Son . . . to redeem those who were under the law, so that we might receive adoption as sons’ (Gal. 4:4 ESV). God sent his Son to rescue me from his wrath and make me his child.

How did he do it? He did it in the way one writer slanderously calls ‘cosmic child abuse’. God’s Son bore God’s curse in my place. ‘Christ redeemed us from the curse of the law by becoming a curse for us – for it is written, “Cursed is everyone who is hanged on a tree”’ (Gal. 3:13 ESV; italics added). If people in the twenty-first century find this greatest act of love ‘morally dubious and a huge barrier to faith’, it was not different in Paul’s day. ‘We preach Christ crucified, a stumbling block to Jews and folly to Gentiles’ (I Cor. 1:23 ESV; italics added).

But for those who are called by God and believe in Jesus, this is ‘the power of God and the wisdom of God’ (I Cor. 1:24 ESV). This is my life. This is the only way God could become my Father. Now that his wrath no longer rests on me (John 3:36), he has sent the Spirit of sonship flooding into my heart crying Abba, Father (Rom. 8:15). I thank you, heavenly Father, with all my heart, that you saved me from your wrath. I rejoice to measure your love for me by the magnitude of the wrath I deserved and the wonder of your mercy by putting Christ in my place.

Those who try to rescue the love of God by minimizing the wrath of God, undermine not only the love of God, but also his demand that we love our enemies. It is breathtaking to hear one of them say, ‘If the cross is a personal act of violence perpetrated by God towards humankind but borne by his Son, then it makes a mockery of Jesus’ own teaching to love your enemies, and to refuse to repay evil with evil.’ Those are deadly words, which, if they held sway, would take enemy love out of the world.

Why? Because Paul said that counting on the final wrath of God against his enemies is one of the crucial warrants for why we may not return evil for evil. It is precisely because we may trust the wisdom of God to apply his wrath justly that we must leave all vengeance to him and return good for evil. ‘Never avenge yourselves, but leave it to the wrath of God, for it is written, “Vengeance is mine, I will repay, says the Lord.” To the contrary, “if your enemy is hungry, feed him”’ (Rom. 12:19-20 ESV). If God does not show wrath, sooner or later we shall take justice into our own hands. But God says, ‘Don’t. I will see to it.’

Every section of this book yields another reason to thank God for the labours of the authors and for IVP in Britain. I pray that the Lord will give the book success in the defence and honour of God, and that Jesus Christ will be treasured all the more fully when he is seen more clearly to be Pierced for our Transgressions.

 

“This book is important not only because it deals so competently with what lies at the heart of Christ’s cross work, but because it responds effectively to a new generation of people who are not listening very carefully to what either Scripture or history says.”
–D. A. Carson, Trinity Evangelical Divinity School

[Via http://emmaustrekker.wordpress.com]

Book review on About

Vintage Knits for Modern Babies by Hadley Fierlinger About.com Rating Article Feedback: User Rating Be the first to write a review

By Sarah E. White, About.com Guide

Ten Speed Press.

Vintage knitting patterns are a lot of fun, but it’s not always fun to update those patterns for modern yarns and current design sensibilities. Hadley Fierlinger, baby knitwear designer and owner of Shescrafty Knits, offers up 25 patterns inspired by the looks of knitting patterns of old in Vintage Knits for Modern Babies.

The projects bring a classic, vintage appeal to more modern, relatively easy designs you’ll love to knit for all the little ones in your life.

Knitting for Baby

Fierlinger says she was inspired to learn to knit, and to design knit garments for babies, because of a collection of passed-down knit garments a friend used when she had a child. These days Fierlinger shares her passion for the knitting looks of old with knitwear designs that keep a modern flair.

The book begins with an introduction to knitting for babies, discussing the best sorts of yarns to be used and how to care for knit garments to ensure they’ll be around and looking great to pass on to the next generation. But the bulk of the book is devoted to the 25 patterns.

The Patterns

Vintage Knits for Modern Babies has patterns for caps, booties, cardigans, pullovers, toys, blankets, jackets and more. Six of the patterns are rated for beginning knitters, eight for beginner/intermediate, three for intermediate, seven intermediate/experienced and one for experienced knitters.

Most of the patterns are modeled by girls and knit in colors more suited to girls, but that doesn’t mean the project couldn’t be made for boys (though some of them are strictly girl terrain).

Most of the patterns that come in different sizes offer three choices; depending on the pattern they might range from 0 to 3 months up to 3 years.

Fierlinger’s style is similar to Debbie Bliss (and she uses a fair bit of Bliss’ yarn, too): often relatively simple shapes with nice design details like eyelets on a sweater, cables on a bootie or Seed Stitch borders on an otherwise simple Stockinette coat.

Some of my favorite patterns in the book are the Matinee Jacket, the one project in the book rated for experienced knitters, it’s a pretty little jacket with Seed Stitch detailing on the yoke; the Angora Bolero, truly a classic little girl pattern; the Modern Baby Bonnet, worked in a wool-silk-cashmere blend mostly in Moss Stitch; the super-easy Apron Dress with pockets for wee toys; and the Double-Breasted Car Coat; the aforementioned Stockinette coat with Seed Stitch borders.

Bottom Line

The projects in Vintage Knits for Modern Babies are really cute, useful, luxurious projects that you’ll enjoy knitting and giving to the little ones in your life. If you make them for your children or grandchildren and see to it that they’re cared for well, they may just become the next generation of heirlooms passed down to inspire another future knitter to take up the craft and a love for the vintage style.

http://knitting.about.com/od/knittingforbabies/fr/vintage-knits-modern-babies.htm

[Via http://vintageknitsphotography.wordpress.com]

Mastering the Art of French Cooking ***

by Julia Child

(Kind of) becoming the master

When I saw the ineffable Meryl Streep in Julie & Julia, I  was going through a cooking phase (and frankly, I didn’t have too much to do otherwise). So after seeing the movie, the only logical thing to do was to go out and buy Julia’s famed cookbook. I did so with all the excitement of a francophile and all the best intentions.

But then I didn’t cook much of anything from it.

Even Julia’s famed boeuf bourgignon went untouched. I read pages, leaved through each one voraciously in search of French words and that e’er so rare crossover of real French cuisine into American terms.

So this weekend, I finally decided to go ahead and actually make something ambitious. I chose crème brulée, in part because I know my father likes it and will therefore eat it, in part because it sounded difficult.

The final verdict? It turned out ok … could have been better. My main problem lay in the fact that crème brulée is not one of Julia’s main desserts but rather an offshoot of crème anglaise (which just sounded so much less appetizing, besides the fact that it sounded more like a sauce garnish than an actual dessert).

The crème part went well. It was thick, pale yellow and faintly sweet (not too). This was also due in part to the fact that I had a friendly helper (who refuses to be named) helping me stir the egg mixture into the boiling water and so on.

The crackly, deep-bronze top was where my trouble came. Julia suggests using a mix of caramel and toasted almonds (pralin) instead of brown sugar — but she neglects to tell you whether you should pulverize the mixture as is said in the pralin recipe, or whether you pour it over the crème hot and then break the top.

The second sounded more delicious, but it also carried the possibility of burning the crème with the hot caramel mixture, so without much guidance from Julia, I chose to pulverize the mixture. The result was similar to a sweet yogurt with bits of Butterfinger dabbled in. Not bad, to be sure, but not quite the essence of crème brulée that I’d been going for.

Ah, well. Next time perhaps I’ll try one of her master recipes or be daring enough to pour that hot caramel. It seems I’m not a good enough cook to make it on my own, though. I need a little more of a guiding hand.

[Via http://petitechenille.com]