Little Children by Tom Perroitta

The characters in this intelligent, absorbing tale of suburban angst are constrained and defined by their relationship to children. There's Sarah, an erstwhile bisexual feminist who finds herself an unhappy mother and wife to a branding consultant addicted to Internet porn. There's Todd, a handsome ex-jock and stay-at-home dad known to neighborhood housewives as the Prom King, who finds in house-husbandry and reveries about his teenage glory days a comforting alternative to his wife's demands that he pass the bar and get on with a law career. There's Mary Ann, an uptight supermom who schedules sex with her husband every Tuesday at nine and already has her well-drilled four-year-old on the inside track to Harvard. And there's Ronnie, a pedophile whose return from prison throws the school district into an uproar, and his mother, May, who still harbors hopes that her son will turn out well after all. In the midst of this universe of mild to fulminating family dysfunction, Sarah and Todd drift into an affair that recaptures the passion of adolescence, that fleeting minimal period of freedom and possibility between the dutiful rigidities of childhood and parenthood. ~ Publishers Weekly

I recommend this book, it was not your typical fairytale story.  Maybe not quite like real suburbia, but not that far off either.  You'll like it!

How to Train Your Dragon book one by Cressida Cowell

Chronicles the adventures and misadventures of Hiccup Horrendous Haddock III as he tries to pass the important initiation test of his Viking clan, the Tribe of the Hairy Hooligans, by catching and training a dragon.

A recommendation! This book is totally cute!! love it!!  I'll be getting the other books in the series and saving them for my daughters! If you have a kid or kids in the age group 9-12 you must get this for them!! ;0)

Joanne Chang ~ Book Signing

"Make life sweeter...Eat dessert first." ~Joanne Chang

About the Book: Flour is not only an excellent cookbook with a million recipes I can't wait to try, it is also a genuinely good read.  Each recipe features an introduction by Joanne about when she first encountered the dessert, how it effected her, and how she has elevated it into something divine.  My favorite story goes along with her Nutella tart.  She talks about spending time abroad, and how at breakfast they put out bread and a variety of spreads, and how she avoided the Nutella because she was skeptical of the brown goo (despite the assurances of her host that it was "schokolade"). When she finally gave in and tried it, she was hooked and amazed that people actually ate chocolate for breakfast.  The book is also packed full of beautiful color photos of each recipe that make you want to lick the pages.  Seriously.  I have yet to try any of the recipes from the book, but my one experience at her bakery tell me that everything inside is going to be phenomenal.  

About the Author: Joanne Chang, who owns the Boston bakery, Flour, is known for traditioal American desserts, muffins and other breakfast treats, rich cakes, fruit tarts, good cookies. Her trademark is a little extra crunch, more richness, caramelized edges that only come about from well-made components and enough time in the oven. Essentially she like to reinvent the ordinary and make it extraordinary.  Her oreo (I've included the recipe below), pop tart, and fig newton recipes are excellent examples of her transformations. Since Joanne didn't have many sweets growing up, she sees even the simplest desserts, that the rest of us take for granted, as something worth developing into an upscale treat.

She also beat Bobby Flay in a Throwndown with her Sticky Sticky Buns.

I find it funny how two people on opposite end of the world can be doing practically the same thing at the same time...well, almost.  Take Lisa's post about Nigella Lawson, swap in Joanne Change, remove the healthy foods in place of all-American dessert, and you have my recent book signing experience in Boston.  I was not first in line and I had no kids in toe but, like Lisa, I had been looking forward to this meet-and greet for weeks, since I had seen it advertised in the window at the Brookline Booksmith.  I stood in line for about 15 minutes wondering what I wanted to say to this Harvard-educated mathematician turned distinguished pastry chef.  When I made it to Joanne, I said hello and handed over my new book, and the post-it with my name spelled correctly, and said "I love that you began your career as a mathematician and that you were able to give up such a practical career for such an impractical one and be a success."  She smiled and said that it was an easy transition once she knew what she wanted and was willing to work for it. 

"Melanie - Eat dessert first! - Joanne Chang"

Homemade Oreos
Adapted from: Flour

Ingredients:
1 cup (2 sticks/228g) unsalted butter, melted and cooled slightly
3/4 cup (150g) granulated sugar
1 teaspoon vanilla
1 cup (200g) semi-sweet chocolate chips, melted and cooled slightly
1 egg
1 1/2 cups (210g) all-purpose flour
3/4 cup (90g) Dutch-processed cocoa powder
1 teaspoon kosher salt
1/2 teaspoon baking soda

Filling:
1/2 cup (1 stick/114g) unsalted butter, softened
1 2/3 cups (230g) confectioners sugar
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 tablespoon milk
Pinch of salt

Method:
1. In a medium bowl, whisk together the butter and granulated sugar until well combined. You may also use a stand mixer with a paddle attachment. Mix in the vanilla and chocolate until just combined, and add the egg, continuing to mix until thoroughly incorporated.

2. In another medium bowl, stir together the flour, cocoa powder, salt, and baking soda until well mixed. Using a spatula, stir the flour mixture into the chocolate mixture. The dough will start to seem pretty floury, so you can just mix with your hands if that's easier. It should have the consistency of Play-Doh.

3. Divide the dough in half and wrap each disk in plastic wrap. Chill in the refrigerator for one hour.

4. Preheat the oven to 325 F.

5. Remove the disks from the refrigerator and let sit at room temperature for 5-8 minutes to make them easier to work with. Using a rolling pin roll out each disk to about 1/4-inch thickness.

6. Using a 3-inch cookie cutter, cut out as many circles as you can out of the dough. Quickly bring it back together and re-roll the scraps, repeating the process of cutting out the circles. If it become tacky or difficult to work with, place back in refrigerator for ten minutes to firm back up. Repeat with second disk.

7. Transfer the dough to parchment-lined cookie sheets. Bake for 20-22 minutes or until the cookies are firm to the touch. Check them frequently after 18 minutes. Unfortunately, you can't judge by color because they're already black. Allow to cool completely on baking sheet before you fill.

8. To make the filling: beat the butter on low for 30 seconds until smooth. Gradually add the sugar and vanilla and beat on high for 2-3 minutes until nice and fluffy. And milk and salt and beat again until smooth - it will resemble white spackle

9. Assemble the cookies: Scoop a heaping teaspoon of filling onto the bottom cookie and press a second on top until the filling spreads to the edges.  Repeat until you have 16-18 homemade oreos.

The Sheriff of Yrnameer: A Reccomendation

"Finally a science fiction book your grandmother will love--if she's a lustful, violent lady." -- Stephan Colbert

The author, Michael Rubens is a former writer/field producer for The Daily Show and Yrnameer is his first attempt at sci-fi.  Written in the style of Terry Pratchett or Douglas Adams, the book is ridiculous and illogical but delivered in a dead pan way that's quite hilarious.  Rubens has a ways to go before he is really on the same ballfield as Pratchett or Adams, but this was his first attempt and he made me chuckle so I won't complain.

From the back of the book:

Meet Cole: hapless space rogue, part-time smuggler, on a path to being full-time dead. His sidekick just stole his girlfriend. The galaxy's most hideous and feared bounty hunter wants to lay eggs in his brain. And the luxury space yacht Cole just hijacked turns out of be filled with interstellar do-gooders, one especially loathsome stowaway, and a cargo of freeze-dried orphans.

Reluctantly compelled to deliver these defenseless, fluidless children to safety, Cole gathers a misfit crew for a desperate journey to the far reaches of the galaxy. Their destination: the mysterious world of Yrnameer, the very last of the your-name-heres—planets without corporate sponsors. But little does Cole know that this legendary utopia is home to a murderous band of outlaws bent on destroying the planet's tiny, peaceful community.

Follow Cole's adventures through a delightfully absurd science-fiction universe, where the artificial intelligence is stupid, dust motes carry branding messages, and middle-management zombies have overrun a corporate training satellite. In the spirit of Douglas Adams and Terry Pratchett, The Sheriff of Yrnameer is sci-fi comedy at its best—mordant, raucously funny, and a thrilling page-turner.

Timeline by Michael Crichton -- A Recommendation

I recently read a book called Timeline by Michael Crichton. I couldn't put the book down! After talking to Lisa I was reminded that this is one of her top five favorite books and rightfully so. I guess I am recommending an old recommendation. Here is the synopsis:

In an Arizona desert a man wanders in a daze, speaking words that make no sense. Within twenty-four hours he is dead, his body swiftly cremated by his only known associates. Halfway around the world archaeologists make a shocking discovery at a medieval site. Suddenly they are swept off to the headquarters of a secretive multinational corporation that has developed an astounding technology. Now this group is about to get a chance not to study the past but to enter it. And with history opened to the present, the dead awakened to the living, these men and women will soon find themselves fighting for their very survival–six hundred years ago. . . .

The Hunger Games Trilogy: A Reccomendation

                       

The Hunger Games takes place in an unidentified future time period after the destruction of North America, in a nation known as Panem. Panem consists of a rich Capitol and twelve surrounding, poorer districts. As punishment for a previous rebellion against the Capitol, every year one boy and one girl between the ages of 12 and 18 from each district are selected at random and forced to participate in the Hunger Games, a televised event where the participants, or "tributes", must fight to the death in a dangerous outdoor arena until only one remains. The story follows fatherless 16-year-old Katniss Everdeen, a girl from District 12 who volunteers for the 74th Games in place of her younger sister, Prim. Also participating from District 12 is Peeta Mellark, a boy whom Katniss knows from school and who once saved Katniss's life by giving her bread when her family was starving. 
(Synopsis from Wikipedia)

The first book details Katniss' journey through the Hunger Games - I read this book over the course of weekend (a busy weekend where I only had time to pick up the book to get a few pages in while waiting for water to boil or sitting in my car outside a friends house before leaving to tailgate).  I haven't yet read the second two books in the (supposedly) young-adult trilogy but the person who recommended them to me assures me that they are just as good.  The second looks at life after the Hunger Games and if I tell you too much about what happens in the third, I'd have to tell you too much about the second...so if you want to know, read them ;)

Sunshine by Robin McKinley

There are places in the world where darkness rules, where it's unwise to walk. But the lake had been quiet for years...She never heard them coming. Of course you don't, when they're vampires. They took her clothes and sneakers. They dressed her in a long red gown. And they shackled her to the wall of an abandoned mansion - within easy reach of her fellow prisoner. She knows he is a vampire. She knows that she's to be his dinner, and that when he is finished with her, she will be dead. Yet when dawn breaks, she is still alive. And now he needs her to help him survive the day...

Robin McKinley is an American writer who has won many awards in the US, including the Newbery Medal for The Hero and the Crown, a Newbery Honor for The Blue Sword and the Mythopoeic Award for Adult Literature for Sunshine.She lives in Hampshire with her husband, author Peter Dickinson, two hellhounds, an 1897 Steinway upright, increasing numbers of rose bushes, and a stone's throw from her change-ringing bell tower. Her blog and her website are full of lots more information!

Okay Okay I know I've said over and over again that I am sick of vampire novels, but I have always liked them and a series I won't mention coughtwilightcoughcough has sorta ruined it for me. I have read lots of vampire books when I was but a young person. So, why should I let one series that I did not mentioned above ruin it for me? Plus Amazon was shoving this book down my throat every time I signed on! I think because I have recently bought a couple Neil Gaiman books and he is quoted on the cover saying 'Astonishing...a perfect work of magical literature.' And I assume that it's what brought it up as I hadn't seen it before....beside the point really. My point being that this is a great book. I really enjoyed it and had a hard time wanting to put it down. It was so different from anything I read before. It's not like those other vampire novels. It stays true to vampires with out making them glittery and veggie. Sunshine seems more marketed to the female(s) but there are parts that I could see males enjoying too. Especially at some parts I was thinking to myself (I do think out loud sometimes much to the annoyance of my husband who gets flustered when I just come out with something) how awesome would that be as a video game!
If you follow the links above to her website/blog she's made it very clear that there is no sequel in the making and I have to assume that means no prequels or video games either and hopefully for the sake of my sanity no movie either! Maybe I shouldn't assume as it makes an ass out of u and me; I don't know the author personally and shouldn't assume I do. I think that's the only problem having a personal blog as people read it and assume they know you.

Back to the point...the book I would recommend it to anyone who enjoys fantasy, scify, adventure novels. Not sure where it fits in genres but that's why I think I like it. There were so many things in this novel that I would love to know more about. Yet I'm not sure I want the author to tell me. I love the world Sunshine lives although a little scary. Sunshine is her nickname but also so much more. A lovely heroine who I would love to be friends with! I didn't find myself personally relating to her, but I rarely do as I usually see myself in the sidekick characters. I don't want to give anything away which is why this is a long post that basically says nothing!  Please if you see this book out and about give it a chance and don't judge it by the hype surrounding vampire stories. 

This is the cover I have as I live in the UK and get different book covers then most of you who read this! I love book covers!! :0)

Molecular Gastronomy by Hervé This

I know we usually stick to fiction here at Pages of the Mind, but I've been so thoroughly enjoying this book that I had to share it!  Have you ever wondered if salt really enhances flavours?  Or why?  What is the best way to cool a cup of tea?  Stirring or blowing?  Or, which method of hard boiling an egg most effectively centers the yolk?

The subtitle of this book is Exploring the Science of Flavor and that's exactly what This (pronounced: Teese, like geese) does in this book.  I think the phrase molecular gastronomy itself might scare some people off, but please don't be fooled by the name of the subject.  Molecular gastronomy is simply a branch of science that tried to understand the chemical processes that occur during cooking.  Understanding these processes then allows molecular gastronomers to understand how to best accomplish the cooking task. 

Each chapter is one to three pages long - 99 chapters in all.  He begins every chapter with a question and proceeds to explain the experiments that have been done to answer that question, and explains how the conclusions of those experiments translates into the kitchen.  Hervé This is French, so there are a few chapters pertaining to food or cooking techniques that I have never heard of, but I still found it extremely interesting to read about them anyway.

Happy Mother's Day!!

Here are some books for mothers!!

~What Mothers Do Especially When It Looks Like Nothing by Naomi Stadlen
~How Not to be a Perfect Mother by Libby Purves
~Letter to My Daughter by Maya Angelou
~The Mother-Daughter Book Club by Heather Vogel Frederick
~The Yummy Mummy by Polly Williams
~Every Day is Mother's Day by Hilary Mantel
~Confessions of a Bad Mother by Stephanie Calman
~The Yummy Mummy's Survival Guide and A Spoonful of Sugar by Liz Fraser


Please keep the list going if you have any other great books about mothers!! Just add them in on the comments page!!

Happy Mother's Day to all the Mothers and Grandmothers out there!!!

A recommendation: House Rules by Jodi Picoult

House Rules is about Jacob Hunt, a teenage boy with Asperger's Syndrome.  He's hopeless at reading social cues or expressing himself well to others, and like many kids with AS, Jacob has a special focus on one subject - in his case, forensic analysis.  He's always showing up at crime scenes, thanks to the police scanner in his room, and telling cops what they need to do...and he's usually right.   But then one day his tutor is found dead, and the police come to question him.  All of the hallmark behaviors of Asperger's can look a heck of a lot like guilt to law enforcement personnel -- and suddenly, Jacob finds himself accused of murder. 

I really, really enjoyed this book.  As usual, I was sucked right into what was another amazing story by Picoult.  After reading several of her novels, I am begining to be able to pick up on her forshadowing and pretty much figure out the "mystery" of the story.  Even so, she still tells a fantastic story that questions my morals and endears me to the honesty of her characters.  Jodi Picoult is becoming a favorite author for sure!

A recommendation: And She Was by Cindy Dyson

From Publisher's Weekly:

Brandy "was thirty-one, the daughter of a bum and a slut, saddled with a liquor name." It's with these dubious credentials that our heroine finds herself—yet again—drifting after a man. This time she follows her latest boyfriend, Thad, a tenderhearted fisherman she keeps at emotional arm's length, to remote Dutch Harbor, Alaska, in the Aleutian Islands. Brandy finds a gig as a cocktail waitress at the local roughneck bar, the Elbow Room, where brawls are the evening's entertainment and fishermen drink with Aleut women, including Bessie, a coke whore, and Little Liz, a hostile drunk. Between drinking, drugging and deciphering mysterious graffiti on the bathroom walls, Brandy delves into the past of the native Aleuts, who were brutally decimated by the Russians in the 18th century. She stumbles upon their mythology and hidden powers—Bessie and Little Liz, for example, are more than what they seem. Dyson expertly interlaces Brandy's story, set in 1986, with the vibrant history of the Aleuts, hundreds of years earlier. While relishing the smart prose, bawdy humor and '80s references, readers will find themselves rooting for the hard-as-nails blonde as she wrestles her demons and begins to redirect her fate. Dyson delivers an original and provocative first novel.



Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.
 
I recommend this book even though I found it a bit different.  I am interested in Alaska and Hawaii because of their culture that is so different from the rest of the U.S.  This book explores some of the Alaskan history.  It's kind of an interesting book, though, and I read it pretty fast.  Let me know what you think!  Cindy Dyson's site is pretty cool too - check it out here!

A recommenation: The Glass Castle by Jeannette Walls

This book was recommended to me by Alicia and my friend Sally.  It is an excellent book!

Jeannette Walls's father always called her "Mountain Goat" and there's perhaps no more apt nickname for a girl who navigated a sheer and towering cliff of childhood both daily and stoically. In The Glass Castle, Walls chronicles her upbringing at the hands of eccentric, nomadic parents--Rose Mary, her frustrated-artist mother, and Rex, her brilliant, alcoholic father. To call the elder Walls's childrearing style laissez faire would be putting it mildly. As Rose Mary and Rex, motivated by whims and paranoia, uprooted their kids time and again, the youngsters (Walls, her brother and two sisters) were left largely to their own devices. But while Rex and Rose Mary firmly believed children learned best from their own mistakes, they themselves never seemed to do so, repeating the same disastrous patterns that eventually landed them on the streets. Walls describes in fascinating detail what it was to be a child in this family, from the embarrassing (wearing shoes held together with safety pins; using markers to color her skin in an effort to camouflage holes in her pants) to the horrific (being told, after a creepy uncle pleasured himself in close proximity, that sexual assault is a crime of perception; and being pimped by her father at a bar). Though Walls has well earned the right to complain, at no point does she play the victim. In fact, Walls' removed, nonjudgmental stance is initially startling, since many of the circumstances she describes could be categorized as abusive (and unquestioningly neglectful). But on the contrary, Walls respects her parents' knack for making hardships feel like adventures, and her love for them--despite their overwhelming self-absorption--resonates from cover to cover. --Brangien Davis

A recommendation: Watermelon by Marian Keyes

From Publisher's Weekly:
Claire Webster, heroine of this breezy Irish bestseller, thinks hubby James is the man of her dreams until he ditches her for an older woman (Claire herself is 29) two hours after their daughter is born. Mother and child repair to Dublin, where there's hope of solace and sustenance in the bosom of an eccentric family, while Claire downsizes from watermelon to wisp and struggles over the hurdles of blues and booze. When she attracts a handsome young lover and considers dumping the suddenly repentant James, it's clear a happy ending's in sight. Or is it? There are a few surprises and plenty of sassy girltalk in this slick if sometimes silly take on what it's like to be female. Much of the hilarity generated by Claire's funky family?airhead sisters who squabble over clothes and men, a mother who'd rather watch soap operas than cook, a father perpetually bewildered by the women in his life?wears thin, but readers will identify with Claire's flaws, applaud her irreverent wit and rejoice at her triumphant recovery. Like the fruit it's named for, this overlong novel is short on nutrition but long on refreshment.

I found this book to be an easy, quick read.  It is not something that stirs your mind, but it is good for a chuckle.  It is often pretty wordy and kind of silly, but the idea is cute.  I would reccomend it for a light read by the pool.

Recommendation: The Heather Wells Mystery Series by Meg Cabot

Size 12 is Not Fat: When you peak at fifteen, where can things go but downhill?
Former teen pop sensation Heather Wells has hit rock bottom: tired of singing other people’s lyrics, she hasn't exactly been bombarded with recording contracts for her own songs. Worse, Dad’s in jail, Mom’s bolted for Buenos Aires, and Heather can’t seem to stop drowning her sorrows in Kit Kat bars. To top it all, Heather's fiancé Jordan Cartwright has replaced her – on the charts as well as in his bed - with America’s newest number one pop sensation, Tania Trace.
When Heather finds a job in a New York college dorm--right around the corner from her temporary digs in her gorgeous friend Cooper's attic apartment - things seem to start looking up.... at least until girls in the dorm begin to perish at an alarming rate. Elevator surfing is the official explanation from university administration, but Heather has other suspicions, and - enlisting a reluctant Cooper's aid - she attempts to get to the bottom of the rash of teen deaths in the building where she works, never knowing that it isn’t her supper she’ll be singing for this time, but quite possibly her life.

Size 14 is Not Fat Either: It's the first day of the winter semester at New York College, and assistant dorm director Heather Wells has a lot more to worry about than roommate conflicts. One of the New York College cheerleaders has lost her head - literally - in the Fischer Hall cafeteria, and no one can find the rest of her.
With the entire population of the dorm under suspicion for murder, it doesn’t look like anyone on campus, least of all Heather, who is starting night classes, is going to have a good semester. She’s got a decapitated cheerleader and a demoralized student body to deal with, as well as enough guy problems to make a normal girl seek shelter in a convent. With her ex insisting she has to be at his wedding - The Celebrity Wedding of the Decade, her incompetent new boss freaking out over his job demands, her long lost father looking to reunite (with an eye on Heather’s far-from ample bank account), and the love of her life still no closer to realizing she’s the girl of his dreams, it’s no wonder Heather prefers questioning suspects to dealing with her personal life.
But when the murder trail leads her to the door of one of New York College’s oldest and wealthiest fraternities, Heather finds that initiation rites have been taken to a whole new level . . .

Size Doesn’t Matter: Heather should be happy. She’s finally got a boyfriend and although he was only supposed to be her "rebound guy", things have gotten serious fast . . .
She's also actually passing her first college course, and better yet her dad’s moving out.
On the down side, her boss, Dr. Veatch, may well be the most boring man on the face of the planet . . . But that hardly seems reason enough to put a bullet through his head. Can Heather find her boss’s murderer, answer Tad’s question, and get her landlord Cooper to realize that by letting her go, he’s making the biggest mistake of his life, all while maintaining a fifteen hundred calorie per day diet?