This is the perfect wintry romance novel. Flannery Jansen and Anne Arden meet through a diner window and its love at first sight. Anne is somber and brooding while Flannery is playfully whimsical. The age difference plays a huge part in the differences of their personalities. Nonetheless, they are on the same campus, Flannery an undergrad and Anne a graduate student.
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It's that time of year again! I'm not talking jolly old elves or Dick Clark on Times Square. It's time for the annual "best of" lists.
I can't get enough of these lists, though I often violently disagree with them. I have only read a handful of the fiction titles on Publisher's Weekly's Best Books of 2009 list, and I thought one of them was terrible. (I'm not telling which one unless you confess likewise!) On the other hand, my absolute favorite novel of the entire year is Amazon's number one pick.
Anyway, if you're a list addict like me, take a look at Early Word, which is a book buzz blog for librarians. Along the right side of the page, they keep track of best lists from a variety of sources.
What was your best book of the year so far?
I listened to a feature on NPR the other day about Earl Cooley, one of the National Forest Service’s first “smokejumpers” back in 1940. Cooley and his fellow smokejumpers jumped by parachute out of airplanes to fight raging wildfires. He died on November 9th in Missoula, Montana, at the age of 98.
I learned that on August 5, 1949, Earl Cooley was the spotter on the airplane hovering over a wildfire in Mann Gulch, Montana. Cooley picked the spot for the crew to land, but tragically, a “blowup”—a deadly explosion caused by a rare combination of flame and wind little understood at the time—trapped and killed 12 firefighters. The fire overran them as they climbed up the gulch trying to escape it.
Several years ago, I read Norman Maclean’s classic book about the Mann Gulch Fire called Young Men and Fire (1992). Maclean grew up in Missoula, Montana, working as a logger and for the Forest Service before becoming a college professor and a writer. He first saw the Mann Gulch fire still burning weeks later, and he was haunted by it for the rest of his life. Published posthumously after Maclean's death in 1990, Young Men and Fire is his absorbing, detailed account of the fire and what happened on that fateful day. He is also the author of the highly acclaimed A River Runs Through It, and Other Stories, upon which the movie is based.
Behold the simple pumpkin, the most versatile of vegetables. It decorates the front porch; it serves as a blank canvas for paint and markers; it keeps goblins away when carved into a Jack O'Lantern, and most magically, it can be transformed into pie, soup, bread, cake, pancakes, ice cream, and other good stuff. Check out these amazing pumpkin cookbooks:
Pumpkin: A Super Food for All Twelve Months of the Year by DeeDee Stovel
A Harvest of Pumpkins and Squash: Seasonal Recipes by Lou Seibert Pappas
The Perfect Pumpkin by Gail Damerow
The Complete Pumpkin Cookbook by Helen Dandar
The Moosewood Collective has produced a slew of cookbooks over the past few decades, (early author Mollie Katzen branched off on her own a while back ) These are sacred texts for vegetarians or just fans of the restaurant in Ithaca, New York. The latest title, Moosewood Restaurant Cooking for Health: More Than 200 New Vegetarian and Vegan Recipes for Delicious and Nutrient-rich Dishes, carries on the tradition of the earlier books.
Originally in paperback, the books have acquired a more sophisticated appearance and durability in hardback but retain the familiar charm and style of the earlier books. This latest offering appeals to vegetarians, vegans and raw foods folk, though there is only a smattering of recipes for the latter. I am none of these, but I am always on the prowl for new vegetable side dishes and look forward to trying some from the book.
In light of more enlightened nutrition information, there are no white bread, potatoes or rice recipes, and the authors have pledged allegiance to the glycemic index. They draw on ethnic dishes from Latin America, West Africa and Asia for inspiration and in addition to eschewing "white" stuff, use a lighter hand with the cheese and pasta, packing in more vegetables where possible.
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I’m not sure how I heard about David Ellis’s new legal suspense novel, The Hidden Man, but you’re hearing it here: go and find a copy of this one—it’s a very clever and enjoyable read.
Jason Kolarich escaped the old neighborhood on a football scholarship, and then became a lawyer. A pretty successful one, till his life was derailed by the traffic death of his wife and daughter. Now he’s just hanging on.
So he can’t say no when an old friend who was also the victim of family tragedy desperately needs his help. His childhood friend, Sammy Cutler, has been accused of murdering the pedophile, Griffin Perlini, who killed Sammy’s baby sister, Audrey, all those years ago.
Strangely, it’s not Sammy who contacts Kolarich for help, but a mysterious Mr. Smith.
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At a glance, I sensed the first scent of winter on the morning's breath. Written on the Body gives a similar sensual chill emanating from Jeanette Winterson's prose. The story unfolds perfectly without haste, without hesitation and without a gender for the narrator.
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