You had me at Nutella.

Matt Lewis and Renato Poliafito have released their second cookbook, Baked Explorations, a follow-up to their popular cookbook, Baked. While Baked is a beautiful, drool-inducing book, I didn't have the greatest results with the two recipes I tried, so I wasn't planning on picking up the new book. But then someone mentioned that it has a recipe for pumpkin cheddar muffins. I was intrigued. Forget the pumpkin cheddar muffins though, they have a recipe for Nutella scones! Say no more, I'm giving Matt and Renato a second chance. They have a bunch of recipes I'm just dying to try besides the scones and pumpkin muffins: sweet and salty brownies, whoopie pies, burnt sugar bundt cake with caramel rum frosting. Should I continue? They also have recipes for some of my favorite things to bake, including mint grasshopper bars, buckeyes, and pecan tassies, so I'm interested to see how their recipes will differ from mine. Even if I don't make anything from this book though, it's a great book just to read and look at the pictures. Pure food porn. My only criticism is that there aren't photographs of every recipe. Stay tuned for the results of my baked exploration.

All My Amish Children?

Turns out, Amish fiction is a bit "sudsier" than I expected.  A bit of background--I am part of a group for librarians in the north suburbs that try to expand our knowledge of genre reading in order to help patrons.  Because of this, I read one book a month that tends to be part of a genre I have never read before.  For February, we were asked to read a book in the popular new "Bonnet Fiction" genre.  What is bonnet fiction you ask?  Bonnet fiction is Christian fiction that focuses specifically on the Amish community.  You didn't know this was popular??  Well, it is shockingly popular!  I don't know ANYTHING about the popular authors in this subgenre, so I did a little research and grabbed a couple books off the shelf.  I ended up choosing the book The Choice by Suzanne Woods Fisher.  Honestly, I chose it partly because of it's nice cover. 

The Choice is about an Amish girl named Carrie who is pretty, smart, sensible and madly in love with the Amish rebel.  As most loves often do, this first romance takes a rough turn and Carrie is left behind in the community to figure out what to do with her life.  Without giving away too much,  Carrie deals with death of family and encounters no less than three potential loves through the course of the book.  I hate that I can't say much more than that but this book has more twists than your daytime soap opera! There is romance, lust (toned down of course), mystery, evil backstabbing stepmothers, saucy Englishers (those people outside of the Amish community), death, and Pennsylvanian Dutch! 

I'll admit, I wasn't too excited about reading this.  I don't tend to enjoy the "cozy" books and I also shy away from books that talk about God.  The Choice managed to have a softer tone but still keep my attention with the "who is she going to love?!?!" thoughts and include talk about God without being preachy.  I flew through this book! I'm actually debating reading another one to see if it's just as entertaining!

If they ever want to make a movie about The Choice, I'm recommending the cast of All My Children...I've got it all planned out...

Did you know...

That Today Show weatherman and Smuckers birthday announcer Willard Scott was the original Ronald McDonald? Me either!

Willard Scott played Bozo the Clown in a local Washington D. C. TV show, Bozo's Circus, in the early 1960s. When the show was canceled, a local McDonald's hired Scott to create a new clown that would make appearances at local McDonald's. A costume was designed and Scott came up with the name Ronald McDonald. When McDonald's decided to take Ronald throughout the U.S., they fired Scott because he was considered too overweight to play Ronald. They wanted someone thinner to hock their fattening foods.

I picked up this tidbit of trivia from Eric Schlosser's Chew On This: Everything You Don't Want to Know About Fast Food. Schlosser repeats much from his earlier book, Fast Food Nation, but there are some interesting personal stories of people whose lives have been affected by fast food. One story I found particularly disturbing is the rampant tooth decay found among the Eskimo population. Many Eskimos drink copious amounts of soda. The soda, combined with a lack of access to dental care, has resulted in a large number of Eskimos who are toothless. Doctors have also found "baby bottle syndrome" quite common among Eskimos. Mothers put soda into their babies' bottles, the babies fall asleep with the bottles in their mouths, which creates a breading ground for tooth decay. As a result, many babies' upper teeth rot away into black nubs. You would think that if Coca-Cola is flying in cargo planes full of pop, they could make room to bring in a few dentists as well.

May I Introduce....

Myself! My name is Madeline and I'm one of the trusty reference librarians at Deerfield Public Library.  Evidently I've forced enough "Hey have you read..." and "What did you think of.." conversations on Melissa that she's offered to let me post on the blog! Yippee for me! (and hopefully you)  Let's get this ball rollin...

I recently encouraged/challenged my friends and family to join me in trying to read 50 books this year.  It's something I have attempted in the past and, sadly, never accomplished.  So far, I'm on pace by having had read 3 books!  I thought that in order to try and keep myself in line with this goal, I'm going to try and blog about the books as I finish them.  Which means I need to give you a quick update on the 3 books I've read in January! 

Flawless: Inside the Largest Diamond Heist in History by Scott Andrew Selby and Greg Campbell.
Flawless details the planning and execution of the heist of over $500 million dollars worth of diamonds from the Antwerp Diamond Center.  I could NOT put this book down.  It was Oceans 11 with a bit less sex appeal and a lot more "SERIOUSLY?!?".  The scale of this heist, the ridiculous amounts of luck involved, and the level to which diamonds are vulnerable make this a fascinating read.  I highly recommend it.

The Adoration of Jenna Fox by Mary Peterson
This story is a bit difficult to sum up.  The best I can explain is that it's set in a slightly updated future where body parts and organs are able to be replicated using synthetic materials.  The title character, Jenna Fox, has awakened from a coma and struggles to make sense of her surroundings and memories.  Let's just say that these two storylines are intertwined in a way that is explained as the story moves along.  This book is intended for a young adult audience and I would say that's pretty appropriate.  I didn't find myself too engaged in the storyline or characters but I found the bioethical questions it raised to be interesting.  On a side note, it seems like young adult novels these days have two themes: slightly sci-fy/paranormal themes or totally overindulged snotty rich kids??  Has that always been the case and I just don't remember?

We Bought a Zoo by Benjamin Mee
Mee and his extended family come together to purchase a dilapidated zoo in the English countryside.  With none of them being particularly knowledgable in the workings of a zoo or its inhabitants, this becomes large project.  There is actually a movie featuring Matt Damon, Scarlett Johansson, and Dakota Fanning scheduled to be released next December.  You would think in a book about family and a zoo, there would be a lot of talk about family and animals?  Evidently, Ben Mee found it more interesting to discuss the general reconstruction of the zoo buildings for a lot of the book.  I found his stories of the animals absolutely entertaining and I wanted to hear more about his family but that wasn't what happened.  The cover of the book said "The amazing true story of a young family, a broken down zoo, and the 200 wild animals that changed their lives forever.  I'm not sure I get how that happened but I'm hoping the movie will fill me in....

On to my next book!

Da Bears!

Get fired up for the Chicago Bears' smackdown against the Packers this weekend with a little Bears' history. Check out our books on the Monsters of the Midway!

Why Holmes?

The Conan Doyle estate has commissioned Anthony Horowitz a new novel starring Sherlock Holmes. Horowitz is the well-known author of the popular Alex Rider children's series, but the Holmes novel will be for adults. The novel is set to be released in Britain in September.

On Holmes' birthday last week I mentioned that despite being over 100 years old, Holmes remains as popular as ever. Why do you think that is? What is it about this character that continues to draw readers (and moviegoers)? Why Holmes?

National Book Disappointments

After 90 pages of the National Book Award winner Lord of Misrule, I'm giving up. I think I decided to read it more because it's about horseracing rather than because it is the NBA winner. But I've been plugging along for over a week now and am just not enjoying it. This is not a fast-paced, inspiring Seabiscuit-type of story. The story takes place in West Virginia at a rundown racetrack with broken horses and scheming owners. The language is difficult, so reading it really does require a concentrated effort. Most of the characters are not particularly interesting or likeable except for one: Medicine Ed is a poor, old, illiterate, African American groomer, who worries about where he will live out his remaining days. He is a compelling character and I enjoyed his voice, but overall the story left me with an overwhelming feeling of loneliness which I don't particularly need during these dark days of winter.

I haven't had much luck with the NBA books this year. I attempted to read two of the NBA nominees and quit both of those as well. I tried to listen to the audiobook versions of both Peter Carey's Parrot and Olivier in America and Nicole Krauss's Great House. Both sounded like books I would enjoy, but neither captured my attention. Perhaps I just don't have the attention span right now to fully engage and appreciate these works. I think I'm going to try some of the Alex Award winners, which might be easier reads.