A Million Words

2009-12-02T11:14:00.000-08:00

I never thought there would be a time in my life when I didn't have time to read. Alas, the past few weeks have been that time. I have, however, painstakingly reread two books a few pages at a time:
Terrier by Tamora Pierce

and Wizard's First Rule by Terry Goodkind

The first time I read Wizard's First Rule was in high school. My friend Magoo and I were competing to read the most books that year, because our English teacher encouraged students to give a quick synopsis of every book they read independently. Magoo and I were in different classes with the same teacher. We decided to see who could take up the most class time with long, complicated retellings of books. When I discovered this series I decided to try it--even though the books are like 800 pages long, their plots are so complicated that I could fill a whole class with the eight books in the series. I was hooked after Wizard's First Rule, the first book in the series, and read them all one after the other.

This year, a t.v. show based on the series aired. It's called Legend of the Seeker. It's not particularly faithful to the books but it's an entertaining show, and it made me want to reread the books.

As for Terrier, I think I've mentioned before that Tamora Pierce is the author who made me a reader. The Song of the Lioness Quartet and the Immortals series are two of my favorite series, at least until the last book in the Beka Cooper trilogy is complete. All three series take place in the same world, which is as well-developed and believable as any I've encountered. Definitely check these out if you haven't read them yet.

2009-11-08T21:35:00.001-08:00

Once upon a time (specifically, October 2005) I heard about National Novel Writing Month, in which a bunch of crazy people attempt to write a 50,000-word novel in 30 days. Because I was studying abroad at the time, and everyone knows that you're not supposed to study when you're studying abroad, I decided to participate. I spent a few days coming up with ideas. At work--which was a bar at the time--I scribbled character details on napkins and coasters. When November 1st rolled around, I was ready.

Unfortunately, my laptop got stolen on November 12th and that was the end of that.

In 2007 I tried again. November also happened to be The Month In Which I Was Taking the GRE, Applying To Grad Schools, and Applying for A Fulbright Scholarship, and after writing three pages I gave up in favor of doing those other things. Again, not a very successful attempt.

Finally, in 2008, I had my game face on. This time I was going to superglue my laptop to my desk. And back up my work at the end of every day. And say NO to any complicated applications and exams that came along. This time, I was going to finish.

And...I did! I wrote 52,000 words in 30 days and it felt AWESOME.

This year I'm trying again, even though I'm a full-time graduate student. I may not have time to earn money or eat or sleep, but doggone it, I'm going to hit that 50,000 word mark. So far I'm ahead of schedule and I'm loving my story.

The point of this post is actually to beg you (whomever you may be) to donate money to the Office of Letters and Light, which is a nonprofit organization that promotes literacy. It also keeps NaNoWriMo and Script Frenzy running so that 100,000 crazy people can try to write a novel every November. Any novelist who raises $200 for the organization is invited to the Night of Writing Dangerously on November 22nd. I would like to go, and that's where the begging for money part comes in.

If you'd like to donate, please go here. Any contribution will be appreciated. If you donate enough, I'll even dedicate my novel to you! (I probably won't let you read it though.)

A video about NaNoWriMo

2009-11-02T09:04:00.001-08:00

Review of Before I Fall and The Postmistress

2009-10-20T18:20:00.000-07:00

The Postmistress
by Sarah Blake
Adult Historical Fiction
Due February 2010

I wasn't so sure about this one when I read the flap copy. I'm not a huge fan of WWII fiction, but I loved GUERNSEY LITERARY so I decided to give it a shot. This is a novel about three women: Iris, a small-town postmaster on Cape Cod; Emma, the new wife of the town doctor; and Frankie, an American reporter who is reporting from London. All three women experience the war in different ways. I liked this book because it walked the line between light and thought-provoking. It was very well-written, and the characters were completely believable as women who were living in a different time and place. Watch for this in February.

Before I Fall
by Lauren Oliver
Young Adult Fiction
Due February 2010

This is Groundhog Day (or Replay) for teenaged girls. Sam Kingston lives the last day of her life, February 12th, and dies in a horrific car accident. She wakes up in her own bed--on February 12th again. Sam relives her last day 6 times, each new time trying to change the factors that are making her repeat the 12th of February. What starts out as a Mean Girls-esque trashy novel becomes unbelievably deep and compelling. Lauren Oliver's depiction of teenage relationships is dead-on (pun intended), and you will find this novel un-put-down-able.

2009-10-10T16:05:00.000-07:00

Incarceron

by Catherine Fisher

Young Adult Science Fiction

Due February 2010

I love that lately there's been a trend toward steampunk, which is kind of a fusion between futuristic machine fiction and Victorian history. This book isn't technically steampunk, but it takes place in the future, in a world where a terrible war has led society to return to a medieval way of life. Anything non-Era is banned, and technology is hidden within the depths of nobles' households. Modern medicine is illegal, wildlife is full of steel and wire--and that's just aboveground.

Claudia's father is the warden of Incarceron, the self-sustaining prison where half the world's population was forced after the war. In Claudia's world it is believed to be a utopia, but inmates know the truth. It is a cruel, harsh place where survival depends on terrible acts and unusual skills. This is Finn's world.

When Claudia and Finn find a way to communicate with one another, it changes both of their lives. Neither one is who they thought they were. Together they could change the trajectory of the world--but only if they survive.

Fans of The Maze Runner will love this book. Claudia is everything that a medieval heroine should be, and Finn is an urban survivor. I can't wait for the next book, Sapphique, which I think has just been released in the United Kingdom.

Review by Sydney

2009-10-04T08:20:00.000-07:00

The Total Tragedy of a Girl Named Hamlet

by Erin Dionne

Young Adult Fiction

Due February 2010

Review by Sydney McGillis

The book I read is called 'The Total tragedy of a Girl named Hamlet' and the Author is Erin Dionne. This book is about a girl named Hamlet who just started 8th grade and all she wants to be is normal. Unfortunately for Hamlet she is anything but normal, having two parents who both live and act like they are in the 1600's and are huge Shakespeare fans, and a seven year old sister who is just about ready to go to college. When Hamlet's sister starts going to her school and her English class starts learning about Shakespeare, Hamlet just about loses it. The only thing that keeps Hamlet looking forward to school are the mysterious origami pigs that are accumulating in her locker. Will Hamlet survive middle school? You'll have to read to find out!

This book was really interesting and it was not the usual story about a teenager's life.

Note from Jake: I read this book as well, and I loved it! Hamlet's little sister Dezzie is a central character in the novel, and I've never met anyone like her. She's smart, spunky, and seven years old. Erin Dionne really brings the characters to life, as usual. : )

2009-09-27T19:34:00.000-07:00

Sorry it's been so long since my last post. Things have been CRA-ZAY around here. I've been cooking a little less, and reading for pleasure a LOT less, but here's a food update:

A couple weeks ago I went to the farmer's market and got fresh corn to make Ina Garten's Sagaponack Corn Pudding. It sounded good and the corn season is almost over, so I thought I'd give it a try. I knew that there was a distinct possibility that Casey and I wouldn't like it, or that I would somehow screw it up and it wouldn't taste right. However. It is pretty much the best thing I've ever eaten. I ate it for breakfast, lunch, and dinner for a couple days and I've been craving it ever since. The best part is that Ina claims it can be made with frozen corn, so we can eat it year round. Compared to her other recipes it has a lot of ingredients, including basil, cornmeal, fresh corn, and 2 kinds of cheese, but putting it together is really simple and it seems like the recipe would be hard to screw up.

That night I also made the Parmesan Roasted Asparagus. It was good, but it was totally upstaged by the corn pudding.

This delicious-looking drink is Herbal Iced Tea. It's apple juice, Red Zinger tea, and Lemon Zinger tea. Sadly, it was not delicious-tasting. In fact, Casey and I both had a few sips and then I dumped it all down the drain. It was just too sweet, and the tea lent this kind of dusty flavor that didn't go well with the intense sweetness of the apple juice and the tanginess of the fruit. Very disappointing.

Last weekend we had some people over for brunch. In the foreground is the Challah French Toast--or, as our guests renamed it, Challah Back French Toast. It's made with challah, milk, and egg, plus the secret ingredients: honey, orange zest and vanilla. SO good. That little bit of orange makes a huge difference. This french toast is light and delicious and easy to make.

In the clear cup you can see the Fresh Fruit with Honey Vanilla Yogurt. Yum! You can't really go wrong with fresh berries and yogurt. The yogurt is mixed with a little honey and vanilla, and it adds just the right touch. I substituted organic nectarines for papayas, and I'm glad I did.

Last but not least, here we have Ina's Arugula with Parmesan and the Mashed Butternut Squash. Both excellent. In the first recipe, Ina has stuck with her tried and true method of adding lemon juice, olive oil, and parmesan to something green. Very simple and very good. The butternut squash was a little more involved: roasted squash, brown sugar, salt and pepper, and some butter and half and half. You can probably see that it was more of a puree than a mash, earning it the nickname "The Slop," but it tasted great. Just the right balance of sweet and salty, and not too hard to make.

2009-09-29T17:36:00.001-07:00

Yikes, I know it's been forever since my last post. I have another one written, but for some reason my computer isn't letting me upload photos so I haven't posted it yet. I'm sorry I've been so lame! While you're waiting, please enjoy this interview with Michael Gyulai, memoirist extraordinaire. (This is not the same interview as the one I posted last time. Check it out...or else!)

Jake-the-Girl Interview with Michael J. Gyulai: Part 2 from Michael Gyulai on Vimeo.

Reviews!

2009-09-13T08:18:00.000-07:00

Replay

by Ken Grimwood

Adult Science Fiction

Available now in paperback

People LOVE this book. My fiance's mom, Diana, is one of those people, and she lent REPLAY to me almost a year ago. Because I'm the worst future-daughter-in-law ever, I put the book on a bookshelf and forgot about it for eleven months, but this week I finally read it.

Jeff dies at the beginning of the novel, only to wake up 25 years earlier in his eighteen-year-old body. He relives his life with every memory intact and dies on the same day as before, replaying those 25 years again and again. Each time he makes new choices and a different impact, but it all disappears in October 1988 when he dies and returns to 1963.

I can see why people love this book. The author, Ken Grimwood, was obviously profoundly affected by the events of the 1960's and 70's. The timeline from 1963-1988 is almost a main character in the novel, with the kind of vibrancy and nuance that all the best literary characters have. Jeff keeps living this period of time, and each replay has a different flavor. I can imagine that, if I had been alive during those years, the setting would have been an incredibly nostalgic and compelling aspect of the novel. But unfortunately (and/or fortunately) I wasn't born until 1985, and I feel like I was missing something. I didn't know much about the 60's and 70's, so there was none of the suspense of knowing that a really huge event was about to happen.

Despite my historical ignorance, I enjoyed REPLAY. Jeff has a lot of interesting relationships with women, sometimes more than once with the same woman under a different set of circumstances. There's also an interesting set of physical and philosophical questions as Jeff attempts to try to figure out why this is happening to him.

I would definitely recommend this book to others--though probably not anyone younger than me.

Bringing Down the House: The Inside Story of Six MIT Students Who Took Vegas for Millions

by Ben Mezrich

Adult non-fiction

Available now in paperback

Lately I've been reading a ton of nonfiction, but this one takes the cake. I've been special ordering it for people for over a year, but a book about Vegas and blackjack didn't really appeal to me until I saw the movie. The story is so exciting and dramatic that I HAD TO KNOW which parts were true and which were artistic license. When I read the book, I wasn't disappointed--the story of these six MIT kids is at least as awesome as the movie implies, if not more so.

The MIT blackjack team led double lives for years: by day they were college students, businessmen, and nerdy Asian-Americans. By night (or, actually, on the weekends) they were Vegas high-rollers with all manner of disguises, alter egos, and impressive connections. They won tens of thousands of dollars every night. And they did it all with math.

You can't really believe this stuff until you've read it. Mezrich's writing is the perfect blend of narrative, interviews, and personal experience. I can't wait to read his new one, Accidental Billionaires, about the guys who invented Facebook.

Spaghetti and meatballs and blueberry muffins

2009-09-12T12:49:00.000-07:00

Last week I made Ina's Spaghetti and Meatballs. I've made meatballs a few times, and they tend to be pretty hit-or-miss; usually they're too dry and overcooked, or under-seasoned, or they fall apart when I'm cooking them. Not these ones. I don't eat pork so I made them with just beef, but they tasted great anyway. They were perfectly seasoned and the sauce tasted great. The sauce was a little watery, though--I'm not sure what I did wrong, but I would've liked it a little thicker. Here's a picture:

On Sunday I made Ina's Blueberry Coffee Cake Muffins. I was wicked excited about these because I spend way too much money at Starbucks after school. I was hoping I could freeze the muffins and bring them instead of buying pumpkin bread. I had no illusions that they might be a good breakfast choice--these muffins are basically cupcakes without frosting. Being mostly butter, sugar, and flour, they are not the least bit healthy. They're delicious though!

DRUMROLL, please...

2009-09-09T17:23:00.000-07:00

Ta-da! Surprise! I did an interview with Mike Gyulai, author of the new memoir Midnight in Rome. Hopefully this will be the first of many author interviews, and hopefully I will learn to look like less of a moron on camera. There are four videos, but I'm going to release them one at a time. So without further ado, here's the first, in which Mike explains how booksellers are the DJ's of the book world.

Jake-the-Girl Interview with Michael J. Gyulai: Clip 1 from Michael Gyulai on Vimeo.

2009-09-03T17:59:00.001-07:00

One of the most awesome Young Adult authors, John Green, recently posted a video blog about the health care debate. Some dudes (and/or dudettes) over at Thought Bubble used the audio to make a new video. I think it's really cool, and I like to support authors with ideas about things, so...

Sometimes egg whites are used to make mohawks stand up.

2009-08-30T13:35:00.000-07:00

A couple nights ago I made Ina's Parmesan Chicken. The recipe was suspiciously familiar, so I flipped to the Kid-Friendly section and checked the Parmesan Chicken recipe against the Parmesan Chicken Sticks--it's the same recipe, just without the sticks. Is that cheating? I was pleased to eat it a second time, and it was even better. I used a special seasoned breadcrumb that Casey gets from a local butcher, which was delicious. I liked the addition of the baby greens on top of the chicken, too.

We had the Zucchini with Parmesan on the side. (I know, parmesan overload. What can I say, I love-a the cheese.) This recipe is really only zucchini and onions sauteed with salt and pepper and dusted with parmesan--so HOW IS IT SO DELICIOUS? I am kind of notorious for underseasoning my food. Ina makes me look bad. There are, like, three things in this recipe and yet it does not taste underseasoned. I hope I can learn something from this cooking experiment!

This morning I decided to make Coconut Macaroons before it got too hot. Macaroons are not on the list of my Top Ten Favorite Cookies, so I thought I'd bring them to class tomorrow and share them with my cohort. The recipe went quite well--again, this is a recipe with only four ingredients, and it's relatively easy to put them together. Here's a picture of the lovely macaroons:

Now, you may be asking yourself why (extremely poor photography skills aside) I didn't take the cookies off the baking sheet and put them on a nice plate. IT'S BECAUSE I COULDN'T. They are GLUED to the parchment, and the two that didn't fit on the parchment are glued to the baking sheet. Why?? What did I do wrong?

I looked up some ideas for what to do if your macaroons won't unstick themselves. One helpful cook suggests that you put a little water between the hot pan and the parchment, generating a little steam and loosening the cookies.

Didn't work.

Another said that they would stick while warm but come off as soon as they'd completely cooled.

Also a lie.

I tried scraping them off with a spatula. Nope. I tried freezing them. Also failed. Finally I resorted to pulling the top half off and shoving it in my mouth, leaving the whole bottom stuck to the paper. It was delicious...but a waste of half a macaroon. Help! How can I save my cookies??

Some reviewses

2009-08-30T11:18:00.001-07:00

Someone Like You
by Sarah Dessen
Young Adult Fiction
Available now in paperback

Sarah Dessen's books are always great. She's the best YA author out there in terms of everyday teenage life. Usually, her characters are fairly self-sufficient and don't have a great relationship with their parents--they are female, they have jobs, they go to school and don't get in trouble. The same is true in this book. The difference is that the self-sufficient "good girl" is not the protagonist in this book--she's the best friend.

Halley is the narrator, and she has an exemplary relationship with her parents until the summer before her junior year. After the death of her best friend's boyfriend, Halley starts dating Macon Faulkner, the town bad boy. She finds herself drifting further from her parents, omitting information and even lying to them on occasion. It doesn't help that her best friend, Scarlett, has a secret that Halley has to keep.

Reading this book makes me want to see the movie How to Be Bad, which was based on this book and another by Sarah Dessen.

Assassination Vacation
by Sarah Vowell
Adult nonfiction (history)
Available now in paperback

I enjoy Sarah Vowell because she's a comedian, a historian, and a crazy person all in one. Her books are technically history--this one is about the assassinations of Lincoln, Garfield, and McKinley--but they're just as much a commentary on the way that modern politics parallel historical events, for better or for worse. Vowell looks at a few different aspects of the three presidential assassinations: the political climate, the presidents' temperaments and viewpoints, the assassins' personal histories, and interesting trends that contributed to the events surrounding the assassinations. At the same time, she adds in some hilarious modern-day scenes that had me cracking up. She is one of those people who attracts interesting characters. I found myself wishing that I knew her friends, because they all seem so awesome. I think that history books could use more personal anecdotes--they are what kept me reading, even though I picked up the book for the history and not the funny stories.

A Character Guide to my Twitter

2009-08-29T10:44:00.001-07:00

It has recently come to my attention that I frequently mention strange people like "Cervantes" and "Fat Spaniel" on my Twitter, but give no indication of who these oddly named characters are. So here is a character guide to the people you might encounter if you follow jakethegirl on Twitter:

Baby Talk Lady: Unfortunately, Baby Talk Lady is one of the more regular characters in my life. She lives on my floor, around the corner, and she talks to her dog (Fat Spaniel) as if he were a 6-month-old child. And not just sometimes. She is CONSTANTLY cooing at him and squealing when he does something cute, even at 2 a.m. when they're standing outside my door waiting for the elevator. Even when he is running into the road and causing car accidents. Even when he is peeing on someone's front steps.

Fat Spaniel: It's not Fat Spaniel's fault that he got such a lame owner. In fact, I recently discovered that he is actually extremely well-behaved when Baby Talk Lady is out of sight. Last week I got off the elevator and FS came barreling around the corner to greet me. I could hear Baby Talk Lady trying to lock her door (and talking baby talk), but she seemed to be having trouble because she never appeared. Fat Spaniel trotted behind me to my door and I, in a momentary lapse of judgment, held it open for him to see if he wanted to come in. FS passed the test: he sat down and looked at me, saying, "I know you're trying to trick me. I know you think I'm poorly behaved. But give me a break--you would act out too if you had this lady talking at you all the time. I'm not coming in." We stared at each other for a few seconds and then I said, "Suit yourself," and closed the door.

Cervantes: Cervantes is a guy who always seems to be at the gym, no matter when I go. He earned his nickname by virtue of his beard, which is grey and pointy, and his accent, which is Spanish. He's a really nice guy, but I hope I never learn his real name because I like to think he is secretly living the life of a modern-day Don Quixote.

Harold: Harold is Harold's real name. He is a 54-year-old black man who looks like he's about 35. He went to college in Illinois, came out here to make his fortune, and unfortunately acquired a drug habit. I met him at the bus stop, where he used to hang out during the day. Then he went to rehab for a while but didn't make it to the end of the program. Sometimes, while he's sweeping the Church's Chicken parking lot in exchange for lunch, he sees me at the bus stop and drops by to say hello. He is kind, friendly, smart (street-smart and book-smart), and hardworking, but he has that one single weakness that cancels out all his virtues. I hope that someday he'll kick his habit because he's a really really neat guy and he deserves to have a job and a home and a family.

Cohort 1: This is my class, the 23 student teachers that I spend half my life with. Every single one of them is awesome. I'm so lucky that I'm part of the cohort. We have a lot of fun.

Casey: Casey is my fiance and roommate. He's pretty much the best ever.

Naked Man: On the way to the gym, I pass through a little park. Sometimes there is a man sitting under a tree in one of those folding chairs. If it's 60-70 degrees, he wears a track suit. If it's 70-75, he takes off the jacket and wears a t-shirt or a muscle shirt. If it's 75-85 degrees, no shirt. Above 85 degrees, his outfit consists of: short shorts. He always tries to talk to me when he's naked. It's gross.

Reviews by Anna

2009-08-27T17:51:00.000-07:00

Gah! This post is extremely long overdue, for which I apologize. As some of you may know, I'm in an intensive graduate program that condenses two years of study into twelve months. We were on a break for the last five weeks, but now we're back into it--and, as part of the program, I am student teaching Kindergarten in the morning and attending classes in the afternoon and evening. This does not leave a lot of time for reading or reviewing, but I'm going to do my best. And don't worry, I'll still be cooking delicious Barefoot Contessa recipes and blathering on about them. (I know you probably were NOT worried, but humor me.)

In the meantime, I have some reviews that readers sent me. Enjoy!

The Roar
by Emma Clayton
Young Adult Fiction
Available now in hardcover
Review by Anna Hart

If the simple the fact that the story is posed in London in the future doesn't grab your interest, Emma Clayton's thrilling sci-fi novel Roar will pull you in on its own. It gives you a fresh new feel, with a touch of Star Wars added, like a delicious dash of exotic spices. Even though it's from a twelve-year-old's point of view, I think older readers (including myself, of course) will enjoy this book.

Mika lives in futuristic London, behind a huge wall that protects the citizens from the mysterious animal plague that swept the city many years ago. But since his twin sister vanished a year ago, Mika has suspected there is more to his world than he has always been told. When an organization starts recruiting children to play violent, very realistic virtual reality games, Mika uses it as a chance to search for his missing twin and uncover a startling truth.

Mika is easy to root for. Throughout the story, he is a brave and believable character that you want to stick with for the exciting ride; even when the dialogue gets a bit sketchy. He manages to discover secrets, and unravel their truths in ways that kept me reading with eager anticipation. When the end of the book came and a fountain of surprises erupted before me, I was quite disappointed that the book had finished.

At one point, the book touches on the fact that humans didn't take care of the earth, and that was what caused the disastrous animal plague. I thought 'Oh great, this is going to be some environmentalist book that bashes people while at the same time trying to be a science fiction, action packed adventure.'I was pleasantly surprised to find that yes, it was an action packed adventure, but there was no bashing involved.

I had a bit of a problem connecting to the villain of the story. My friends, the villains do, in fact, need to be identifiable, as twisted as that may sound, but I had trouble relating to this particular 'bad guy.' Even in the end, when the motives for his evil deeds become clear, I still felt that he could have had much more depth.

With that aside, the book was completely enjoyable and I would personally recommend it to sci-fi fans and people who simply enjoy a good tale. Emma Clayton certainly wrote an amazing first novel that kept me guessing and sucked me in all the way through until the end.

The Midnight Charter
by David Whitley
Young Adult Fantasy (Steampunk!)
Due September 1st
Review by Anna Hart

***CONTAINS SPOILERS***

Do you need something? Well you aren't going to get it if you don't have something worthwhile to trade...not in Agora anyways.

Mark comes from the slums of Agora, only managing to escape the deadly plague because his father sold him. Lily is the servant who takes care of Mark in his new home. In their world where everything -including their lives- can be bought and sold, their only goal is survival.

When the two get a chance to switch lives, they take it. Lily goes outside in the world and Mark remains in the tower, acting as a servant to the mysterious Count. While Mark moves up in fame and fortune, becoming a wondrous astrologer, Lily starts the first Almshouse for the poor. Both of their lives remain entwined, seemingly by destiny. But when Lily discovers the Midnight Charter -started by Agora's founders- she realizes that her city and its elite have some very serious secrets. She and Mark are forced to make dangerous decisions...some that may alter the very future of Agora itself.

Creative and interesting, but also a book that makes you think. The Midnight Charter does have a distinct message hidden in it, but not the cliche messages that often bore one to tears when reading a YA novel.

In the beginning the book slid along quickly and smoothly, keeping me completely mesmerized by Agora's political intrigue and intertwined secrets. As the book slows down a bit, you are attached enough to the characters to continue reading. And if you stick with it to the end, well, the revealing of the mysteries was all the reward I needed.

Overall, I recommend this book for people who enjoy hidden meanings spiced masterfully with entertainment. I would read this book again, simply to uncover more and more of the secrets.

foodz

2009-08-22T12:31:00.000-07:00

Hello, my lovelies! I've been away on vacation--visiting family in Syracuse, NY--for the last ten days. While I was there, I read a few great books, but first things first: food!

Just before I left, I made Ina's Tequila Lime Chicken and her mashed potatoes. Both were stupendous. The garlic, tequila, and lime, and orange juice gave the chicken SO much flavor. It's a super simple recipe and one that I will definitely add to my "easy dinners" file. (Yes, I keep a little box of recipe cards--are you surprised? You knew I was a nerd.) As for the mashed potatoes--wow. It's hard to mess up mashed potatoes, but these were perfectly seasoned and delicious. Here's a picture of our dinner. As usual, I will not be winning any awards for food photography.

The next morning I woke up early so I decided to try Ina's Slow-Cooked Scrambled Eggs with Herbs. Now, I think most people can make scrambled eggs fairly successfully. I know I can. It was tempting to just do my usual thing and add the herbs, but in the end I made myself follow Ina's instructions. I turned down the heat a little, used half & half instead of milk, and stirred them for what seemed like forever. And seriously? Best scrambled eggs I've ever had. Who knew that turning down the heat a little could make such a huge difference? The parsley and scallions were delicious. I'm excited to try the variation with goat cheese.

Once in Syracuse, my mom picked 3 recipes from the Family Style Cookbook. I recruited my stepsister Julia (age 10) to be my sous chef. Here she is:

We made the Parmesan Chicken Sticks, the Mac & Cheese, and the Garlic Sauteed Spinach. All three were delicious, although only my mom and I would eat the spinach. Julia and her dad and brother are picky eaters.

Here's the chicken, breaded by Julia. I taught her the "wet hand, dry hand" technique and she was a pro--she didn't bread her fingers at all. She also stuck the chicken on the skewers. This is a really good kid-friendly recipe for chicken. It was perfectly cooked inside and crunchy outside.

I thought the spinach was great, even if there was WAY too much for two people. Plenty of garlic and salt and lemon.

The winner, however, was the mac & cheese. I have a new favorite pasta recipe. We couldn't find Gruyere anywhere, so we substituted Fontinella, which was delicious. Again, Julia's dad and brother picked around the tomatoes, but I thought they were a fabulous addition. I wish I'd made real fresh breadcrumbs, though. My mom made the shopping list and I didn't check it against the recipe before I went to the store, so I got regular bread crumbs. They were good mixed into the mac & cheese, but a little dry.

And the winner is...

2009-08-14T17:06:00.000-07:00

JONAH HELLER

has won the Summer Reading Challenge!

CONGRATULATIONS, JONAH!

And congratulations to everyone else who participated! We had a great turnout this year, and I was blown away by how many hours you guys read. You should all be proud of yourselves!

Reviews

2009-08-10T16:07:00.000-07:00

I cannot. Stop. Reading. The Stephanie Plum series by Janet Evanovich. I'm making myself read other books between each one, but I'm not particularly successful all the time. I've read 10 of the 15 Stephanie Plum novels in the last month. They are so hilarious. However, I feel like I should do some reviews of what else I've been reading:

Outliers: The Story of Success
by Malcolm Gladwell
Adult nonfiction
Available now in hardcover

Malcolm Gladwell is the new black. His books, which look at trends and patterns in a unique and compelling way, will probably never stop selling. I hadn't read them before because I'm not that interested in business books, but customers kept coming in and telling me cool little factoids that they'd learned from Outliers and I was intrigued. I listened to the audio book--read by the author--on a road trip and now I'm hooked on Gladwell too.

Outliers takes apart several instances of "success"--Bill Gates's career, professional hockey in Canada, Jewish lawyers in New York--and goes over them with a fine-tooth comb. He shows which aspects of success are rooted in personal drive and capability, and which aspects are the simple fortune of being in the right place at the right time. There was no point where I stopped paying attention or thought, "this is not relevant to someone who does not work in the corporate world." Gladwell is really good at balancing interesting facts and useful information. His sections are never too long or too wordy. I'm really glad I read this!

I've also read The Tipping Point, and it's just as good or better.

Fever 1793
by Laurie Halse Anderson
Young adult historical fiction
Available now in paperback

I loved this book. It's about the Yellow Fever epidemic of 1793. It takes place in Philadelphia, which was then the capital of the United States. The store is told by Mattie Cook, a 14-year-old girl whose family runs a coffeehouse 2 blocks from George Washington's house. Mattie has a crush on a painter's apprentice named Nathaniel, but when the fever strikes she is sent out to the country and doesn't know if Nathaniel has survived the epidemic.

Laurie Halse Anderson is known for two things: impeccable historical research (as in Chains) and great emotional depth (as in Speak). This book has them both. Mattie is trying to survive a horrifying historical event, but at the same time she is a 14-year-old girl, and this aspect does not get left by the wayside. The writing is great, the plot is gripping, and the characters are believable. This is a great book.

Fried chicken, rosemary polenta, and green beans

2009-08-09T07:20:00.000-07:00

Last night, because I did an opening shift and got done with work at a reasonable hour, I made a few recipes from the Family Style cookbook. My suspicions were confirmed: Ina Garten is a genius.

First I made the Rosemary Polenta. This was the first time I'd made polenta since April 2008, when the Great Polenta Overdose occurred. Right from the start, it smelled SO GOOD. You can't really go wrong with milk, cream, butter, rosemary, and garlic. My only complaint was that the recipe takes a long time--you have to make the polenta, cool it down, and then pan-fry it--and I had to do the first part while the sun was up and my apartment was 83 degrees.

A little while later, I made the Green Beans and Shallots and a variation on the Fried Chicken.

Both were super easy. Just saute the shallots, blanch the beans, dredge and fry the chicken. Then I fried the polenta and it was good to go. Or that would have been the case if I was capable of successfully frying things.

I should have taken a picture of all the polenta wedges that fell apart during the various stages of getting them out of the cooling pan and into the frying pan. Next time I will cook the polenta a little longer before I cool it--maybe that will help. Here is the finished plate:

The Beginning of the End

2009-08-06T21:35:00.000-07:00

Ladies and Gentlemen--

The Summer Reading Challenge is almost over! Your last day to turn in Reading Records is Friday, August 14th at 5:00 p.m.

Your last day to turn in Secret Bonus Tasks (and get the prize) is Tuesday, August 11th. You can still turn in Bonus Tasks up until the 15th, but you won't get a prize for it after I've left for my vacation on the 11th.

Good luck!

The Julie & Julia Copycat Challenge

2009-08-04T20:52:00.000-07:00

As you may recall, last week I mentioned Julie & Julia, which is both a book and a movie about Julia Child and the influence that her recipes had on a woman named Julie Powell. Because I am a foodie and an avid reader, I was inspired to do the same thing that Julie Powell does in the movie: cook all of the recipes in a single cookbook. Julie chose Julia Child's Mastering the Art of French Cooking, which has about 550 recipes. I chose Ina Garten's Barefoot Contessa Family Style Cookbook, which has about 100.

Tonight I began the "Julie & Julia Copycat Challenge" with dessert: stewed berries and rum whipped cream.
I could probably quit now and be satisfied. IT WAS SO GOOD. And so simple. The recipe is basically sugar, berries, cream, rum, and vanilla. I also added some fresh-baked biscuits because I'm a carb-o-holic. Here are some pictures of the "before and after."

Why Yelp Reviews Are Not Always Trustworthy

2009-07-31T19:14:00.001-07:00

Yesterday morning, I was doing returns. In the book industry we have the option to send back titles that don't sell. I had pulled about a hundred books to return, and a lot of them were stacked on the counter in high piles. On the other side of the counter was a customer who was ordering a book.

Another customer walked in and, instead of coming straight into the store, circled around our front table to try to find a book. When she couldn't find it she asked if we had it in stock. I told her we were getting some more in next week, since we'd just done an event with the author and sold all our copies. Then I went back to helping the other customer.

The other lady--we'll call her "Number Two"--stared at me for a moment and then stormed out of the store. Customer Number One and I gave each other a "that was a crazy person" look and continued with the ordering.

Today we discovered a bad review on Yelp, which reads as follows:

"I must have come on the wrong day. I was very excited to check out this local independent bookstore. There was no one in the store when I arrived. I was looking to buy "Zeitoun" by Dave Eggers. The woman behind the counter told me it was out of stock. I asked when it would be in, and she shrugged. I had come in intending to sign up for the notifications of upcoming events, etc, but this staff member clearly had no interest in engaging. I would have been glad to give a phone number or email so that they could notify me when it arrived, but again, there was no involvement-and no one else to distract her. Odd."

Now, I can see how this woman might have been confused if she couldn't see the other customer. I find it hard to believe that she didn't see her--our store isn't big enough to hide a person--but from where she was standing it might have been hard to see the woman I was helping, especially with the towers of books on the counter. And it probably DID appear as though I wasn't doing anything, since I was just scrolling down a list to find the book I was trying to order. But the part about just shrugging and not talking to her? Blatantly false.

This is just an example of how Yelp reviews can be a bit misleading. I can see where Number Two was coming from, although I probably wouldn't have been so quick to storm out if our roles were reversed. Still, her 30-second experience has the potential to harm our business and that's kind of scary.

The moral of this story is that you shouldn't believe everything you read on Yelp. And you should shop at our store, even if I sometimes appear to be ignoring you!

Secret Bonus and a new project!

2009-07-30T18:01:00.000-07:00

Lots of interesting news at the bookstore, but first things first:

The FINAL SECRET BONUS TASK is: tell me about your favorite book. What characters are in it? What is the plot? What do you love about it? Your explanation should be a full paragraph. Please include your first and last name, the title of the book, and the author.

Remember, August 14th at 5 p.m. is the last possible minute that you can hand in a reading record or a Secret Bonus Task for the Summer Reading Challenge. The Grand Prize Drawing will occur at 5:01 and we'll call the winner at 5:05!

You may have noticed that we have a new window display at the store. We are entering a Julie and Julia display contest! As if I needed a reason to do more cooking, I'm using the contest as an excuse to cook EVERY RECIPE in my favorite Ina Garten cookbook: Barefoot Contessa Family Style. Every time I try a new recipe, I'll write about it here. I'll also post pictures and short videos. I'll be starting next week, so prepare to be amazed!

How To Be The Best Customer Ever

2009-07-25T18:32:00.000-07:00

Today we sold books at Splashdown 2009, an event at the USS Hornet in Alameda. Buzz Aldrin dropped by at 1 p.m. and gave a speech, and then the 1000+ people who had bought his new book got in line and had it signed. Yes, that's right, one thousand people bought the book from us, and most of them bought it between 10 a.m. and 1 p.m. In the middle of that crazy bookselling bonanza, the following customer interacted with me:

[Enter customer dressed in a yellow volunteer shirt and an orange volunteer vest. Customer buys two books from Jessica and then turns to Jake, who is attempting to finish a transaction with someone else.]
Customer: Can I have a bag?
Jake: I'm sorry, we just ran out of bags.
Customer: Well I can't really carry these books.
Jake: You could try the gift store. They might have a few left.
Customer: Well can you go get some?
Jake: You know, I asked them a little while ago and they didn't have enough to share with us--no one expected to be this busy today.
Customer: Well I don't want to carry these books.
Jake: I'd be happy to hold them here for you until the signing.
Customer: I'd really like you to go get me a bag from the gift store.
Jake: Ma'am, we have a really long line right now and I can't leave this table.
Customer: Well I want you to go get me a bag!
[Elaine, observing the exchange, moves to intervene.]
Elaine: Is there something I can help you with?
Customer: I'm just not used to dealing with bad professionalism!
[Customer literally runs away.]

So. How to be the best customer ever: don't be a crazy volunteer lady. Not to say that you shouldn't volunteer or be crazy--just be careful mixing the two.