In terms of recorded history, the emergence of sushi as a culinary delight in the
Monday, January 28, 2008
The Zen of Fish by Trevor Corson
Monday, January 07, 2008
The Birth House
Sunday, January 06, 2008
Now and Then
For fans of Robert B. Parker and the Spenser novels, Now and Then will not disappoint. For those new to Robert B. Parker, although there are some references to past exploits, it would be a great taste of his work. A new client asks Spenser to look into his wife's "abnormal" behavior, starting a chain of events that will end up putting everyone involved into harm's way. It also stirs memories about a situation that occurred years before between Spenser and his long-time love, Susan Silverman.
Friday, December 28, 2007
Cookies: Bite-Sieze Life Lessons by Amy Krouse Rosenthal
Ask a room full of four-year-olds, “Who likes cookies?” and you will invariably find yourself greeted unanimously by cookie-lovers. Rosenthal uses this universal language of food to demonstrate some big concepts in Cookies: Bite-Size Life Lessons.
“TRUSTWORTHY means, if you ask me to hold your cookie until you come back, when you come back, I will still be holding your cookie.”
“GREEDY means taking all the cookies for myself. Hee Hee Hee. Yum Yum Yum.”
“LOYAL means that even though the new person has a much bigger cookie, I’m sticking by you and your little cookies because you’re my very best friend.”
Jane Dyer’s precious pastel watercolors of children and animals enjoying baked goods impart a timeless feel to Rosenthal’s book of virtues. Share Cookies over a plate of real cookies for an especially tasty treat.
JD
Thursday, December 27, 2007
Scaredy Squirrel by Melanie Watt
Many frightening things keep Scaredy Squirrel at home in his nut tree- tarantulas, poison ivy, green Martians, killer bees, germs, and sharks, to name a few. Sometimes the same old view and the same old nuts get boring, but life in the nut tree is safe and under control. Scaredy Squirrel is prepared with an emergency kit and an exit plan if he should ever have to embark beyond the tree. But Scaredy Squirrel is not prepared when a killer bee appears IN the tree. Mouth opened wide with terror at the smiling bee floating before him, he panics and knocks his emergency kit right out of the tree. It isn’t long before this timid squirrel finds himself outside of the tree as well. Melanie Watt’s simple watercolor illustrations poke gentle fun at a life lived too cautiously. Youngsters who live life on the edge may learn some lessons in safety and careful planning, while the more fastidious may be inspired by Scaredy Squirrel’s realization that it’s sometimes okay to “jump into the unknown.”
JD
17 Things i'm not allowed to do anymore by Jenny Offill
Savvy listeners of all ages will fall in love with Offill’s gloriously naughty narrator. Ever creative, she is undeterred by each new taboo she encounters.
Tuesday, October 16, 2007
Wicked Lovely by Melissa Marr
Aislinn: A seventeen-year-old girl born with the Sight. What does that mean? It means she can she see into the faery world. Aislinn has always followed the rules when it comes to the faery world. These include: don’t stare at invisible faeries, don’t speak to invisible faeries, and most importantly, don’t ever attract their attention. But, things are changing. The rules no longer work for Aislinn and the faery world is becoming a larger part of her life. Why?
Monday, September 10, 2007
The Tenderness of Wolves
Winner of the U.K. Costa Award (formerly the Whitbread Award), The Tenderness of Wolves is a finely wrought tale of complex human beings as they react to a violent murder in 1867 in Dove River in Canada’s Northern Territory. Mrs. Ross, a resident of the settlement, discovers the murder and reports it. The murder casts its shadow on two people, one of whom is Mrs. Ross’s adopted son, who is missing and William Parker, a half-breed Native American trapper, who is found in the murdered trapper’s cabin some time after. Several outsiders are drawn to the community because of the murder: Thomas Sturrock, a man whose inquiry into two children’s disappearance years ago ties him to Dove Rover, seeks something the murdered man owned; Mackinley and Moody, the Hudson Bay Company representatives, are here to find an answer. Mrs. Ross’s son, Francis, is the object of a cross-country trip, fraught with its own dangers: bitter cold, wolves, madmen and dangerous people. Moody sets out to bring back Francis, convinced of his guilt. Mrs. Ross’s devotion to her son (and belief that evidence suggests his innocence) makes her seek out Parker to guide her into the wilderness, frightened as she is of it. Parker has his own reasons for the trip.
Penney writes with fluidly and with wonderful detail – both of personalities and setting. The book is not only suspenseful, but revelatory of human actions, desires and feelings.
This is a true winner!
