Baking: From my Home to Yours
by Dorie Greenspan
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Over the past 20 years Greenspan has written 10 cookbooks and won six James Beard and IACP (International Association of Culinary Professionals) awards for them. This book is pretty enough to be a coffee table book, but enticing enough that you will quickly take it into the kitchen. From muffins to cookies to fancy cakes, the author and her recipes are very accessible. This is my go-to baking cookbook for muffins, scones, cookies and more. Everything I have made from this book has been easy and delicious. Her more recent book is Around my French Table: More than 300 Recipes from my Home to Yours.
Reviewed by Molly
Tagged: Baking, Cooking, Non-fiction
Wedding Season
by Katie Fforde
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Wedding Season is the story of wedding planner Sarah who secretly doesn’t believe in love. Her personal love life is non-existent as she plans the perfect nuptials of others. The book begins as she takes on two new clients who are getting married on the same day in just a few months–a celebrity and her own sister. Sarah’s friends, dress maker Elsa and hairdresser Bron have also not been lucky in love until now. This British romantic novels follows the 3 women as they meet new men and deal with demanding brides. While the story is somewhat predictable, anyone in the midst of wedding planning will enjoy the romance and comedy.
Reviewed by Julie
Tagged: Fiction, Romance
Sing You Home
by Jodie Picoult
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Jody Picoult has always been a popular author with library patrons as evidenced by the number of requests I receive to place holds on her books. I had not read one of her books but decided that her most current novel which deals with some current “controversial” topics including gay rights, reproductive rights, the evangelical Christian movement among others would be one that would hold my attention. I enjoyed reading this book and it kept me interested through its fair treatment of the issues mentioned above. This book, whether you are on one side or the other of the issues or open to all viewpoints, will keep you wanting to read it because of its compelling story line and strong character development.
Reviewed by Susana
Tagged: Divorce, Fiction, Lesbian couples, Music therapists
The Bedwetter
by Sarah Silverman
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Comedian and actor Sarah Silverman is known for her outrageously rude humor which belies her ingenuous appearance. Her memoir, subtitled “stories of courage, redemption, and pee,” revels in contradictions and brilliant comic timing. Silverman uses shame to promote self-respect. Her “potty humor” is bizarrely sophisticated. She uses meta-political incorrectness to express sincere liberal tolerance. She endears herself to her audience through obnoxiousness.
It’s hard to tell how much of these stories are factually true, but in Silverman’s comic style, the exaggeration and twistedness bring out a deeper truth.
Note: The subject matter and the short chapters make this ideal bathroom reading, though you might lose track of time in there, and the people waiting outside will hear you laughing.
Reviewed by Faith
Tagged: Actors, Memoir, Non-fiction
The Psychopath Test
by Jon Ronson
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The popular fictional sleuth Sherlock Holmes once stated,“when you have eliminated the impossible, whatever remains, however improbable, must be the truth.”
The Psychopath Test, a work of non-fiction, begins as a real life mystery to discover the meaning and motivation behind selected mailings of a strange bound book entitled Being or Nothingness (notewe are not referring to Sartre’sBeing and Nothingness). Jon Ronson, a journalist and the author of the highly successful novel the Men Who Stare at Goats, is enlisted to find the source and make some sense of the text.
Many aspects of the authors life begin to arrive at certain parallels as the quest progresses and further mysteries unfurl themselves. He finds himself in conversation with members of the church of Scientology (who hold a strong opposition to the field of psychiatry) which leads to an interview with a particular inmate at the Broadmoor Asylum who claims he has faked madness as an escape a lengthy jail sentence.
Ronson becomes intrigued with the concept of psychopathy and learns that there is a specific test that helps experts determine whether any individual has psychopathic tendencies.It should be noted that overall, these studies claim to reveal that 1 out of every 100 people happen to be psychopaths (you’re now cataloging and making a mental list of all the people you know, aren’t you?). He later applies the test to an infamously ruthless CEO after learning studies show that 4 out of every 100 big business, corporate leaders happen to be psychopaths. This interview with the man possessing a menagerie of predatorial creature artwork offers plenty of laughs. You may have heard an excerpt from this humorous section of the book and also the Broadmoor story on NPR’s This American Life.The Psychopath Test eventually extends from Ronson’s personal adventure to discuss the history of experimental treatments for troubled individuals, the present state of the psychiatric and mental health fields and also pharmaceutical industry. While Ronson carefully exhibits little or no bias on these aforementioned subjects, he skillfully presents issues at hand. Though his journey leads him to come face to face with serious and thought provoking dilemmas, Ronson is able find humor in certain situations and always keeps the reader entertained. At one stage the author writes, “I was writing a book about the madness industry and only just realizing that I was part of the industry.”
Reviewed by Jason
Tagged: Journalism, Mental health, Non-fiction, Psychopathy, Science
The Best One Dish Suppers
by the editors of Cook’s Illustrated
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This cookbook is a collection of recipes from American’s Test Kitchen that are all made in one pan or one pot or a dutch oven or a slow cooker. There are 180 recipes with 169 illustrations and tips, tricks and helpful hints accompany the step by step recipes. The recipes include stews, soups, casseroles, pot pies and stir-frys. Several vegetarian options are also included. This cookbook is great to try out some new twists on comfort foods and cool weather favorites.
Reviewed by Jude
Tagged: Cooking, Food, Non-fiction
Hell is Empty
by Craig Johnson
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Craig Johnson’s Walt Longmire series is one of my favorites. Part mystery, part western, set in the remote and mythical Absaroka County, Wyoming with a wonderful cast of characters, with sheriff Walt Longmire at the center. I was thrilled when I heard that A&E has been filming the new series
Longmire based on these books.
Walt starts off on routine prisoner exchange, dreaming of lasagna and his daughter’s upcoming marriage. The prisoner exchange hits some complications and Walt heads off into the Bighorn Mountains after the prisoner Raynaud Shade, a Crow Indian and a sociopath who claims to hear voices and seems to know that the (same?) voices have also spoken to Walt when he has been in the mountains. Walt is led through the icy hell of the peaks of Wyoming by Virgil, coming across his own demons, and yes, carrying
Dante’s Inferno to complete the metaphor. The latest in the Walt Longmire series; start with
The Cold Dish.
Reviewed by Molly
Tagged: Fiction, Mystery, Western, Wyoming
The Broken Shore
by Peter Temple
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Joe Cashin is a big city cop who has gone back to his childhood home on the coast of South Australia to recuperate, physically and mentally. When a local millionaire is murdered, Cashin won’t accept the easy story that some local aboriginal boys are responsible. In the course of the investigation, Australian political and social divisions are examined. The sense of place is practically another character, but be warned: this is a darker Australia than is often portrayed in the media. Includes helpful Glossary of Australian Terms. Temple is the winner of five Ned Kelly Awards by the Crime Writers’ Association of Australia.
Reviewed by Molly
Tagged: Australia, Fiction, Mystery
One of our Thursdays is missing
by Jasper Fforde
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Jasper Fforde’s latest offering in the Thursday Next series is a metafictional tour de farce. The original Thursday — literary police Special Operations Agent (ret.) and the star of her own series of novels-with-novels — has disappeared, and it’s up to her fictional character to find her by impersonating the real Thursday. There’s a border dispute in BookWorld between the genres of Racy Novel and Women’s Fiction, and if Thursday doesn’t show up for the peace talks, war might ensue. Fforde sprinkles his story with characters and allusions from the classics and popular fiction, and makes liberal use of puns including setting up whole subplots just for a punch line. His style is uncategorizable and nearly indescribable, at least not in a way that makes any sense, but irresistibly entertaining and uniquely inventive. This sequel refers back to things that happened (or didn’t) in previous titles in the series, and it might help to start with the first installment, The Eyre Affair.
Reviewed by Faith
Tagged: Fantasy, Fiction, Humor, Literary fiction
A Discovery of Witches
by Deborah Harkness
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Witches and vampires for grownups. A more sophisticated world of fantasy, with academia, history and a love of books thrown in for good measure are wondefully devleoped in this debut by a history professor.
Diana Bishop has spent her life denying her heritage, as the last of a powerful family of witches. While doing historical research at Oxford, she meets Matthew Clairmont, a several century old vampire. One of the manuscripts that Diana requests at the Bodleian is under intense scrutiny by the community of witches, vampires and daemons, and may hold the secrets to the evolution of these uncooperative species. Soon, Diana and Matthew find themselves alienated from both communities. Great description and attention to detail, realistic characters — as much as vampires and witches can be. This is the first in a projected trilogy, and you won’t be able to wait for the sequel when you finish this book.
Reviewed by Molly
Tagged: Fantasy, Fiction, Paranormal
Out of the Silent Planet
by C.S. Lewis
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In this early work of science fiction (Out of the Silent Planet was first published in 1938) C.S. Lewis tells the story of a philology professor, much reminiscent of Lewis’s friend J.R.R Tolkien, who, while exploring a mysterious house in the English countryside, is kidnapped and brought to the mysterious planet of Malacandra aboard a strange space–going vehicle. The professor escapes his captors soon after they land, and he finds himself terrified in an unfamiliar world. His curiosity overcomes his fear, however, when he discovers that many of the native creatures possess the ability to speak and share a common tongue. During his time on Malacandra the professor learns much about the planet and its inhabitants, but even more about his own home, the Earth, and the place of human kind in the universe.
This is an engaging tale, characterized by a sense of wonder and enthusiasm which is too often lacking in newer works of speculative fiction. It is as much a fantasy story as it is science fiction, and with its exploration of the nature of good and evil and its Christian inspired themes it has some resemblance to Lewis’s more familiar Chronicles of Narnia, though it is a more serious, more adult book in many ways.
Out of the Silent Planet is a quick, enjoyable read, that provides much food for thought to those who want it, without weighing down those who would rather do without. It’s also the first book in a trilogy; those who enjoy it will want to continue with it’s successors Perelandra, and That Hideous Strength.
Reviewed by Ben
Tagged: Fantasy, Fiction, Science fiction
Room
by Emma Donoghue
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Having read some reviews of this book which described the harrowing situation of the two main characters, I wasn’t sure whether I wanted to read it or not. I’m glad I did though because the characters of Ma and Jack were so well developed and held my interest so thoroughly that I read this book almost non-stop during a two day period. Emma Donoghue has written a wonderful character driven novel which is absolutely a must read. A previous staff review clearly explains the plot line (Nov.1, 2010)
Reviewed by Susana
Tagged: Fiction, Literary fiction, Mother and child
