Auugghhhh!

Please bear with me-
I am in the middle of trying to figure Blogger's new Design feature and I don' t know what the heck I am doing......

Weekend Cooking: Salsa/Dip

Weekend Cooking is hosted by Beth Fish Reads each week and offers a unique way to merge booking with cooking!

I am sitting here having my first lazy Saturday morning in ages and I must say it is glorious to not have a gazillion events to attend, or plan, or to have a to-do list a mile long! All of our graduation events are over and while it has been a great ride and such a milestone in our son's life, it is nice to have life settle down.

Today, I have no "cooking" type book to spotlight--the reality being that my reading time has been a bit limited for the past 2 months. But, I do have a really yummy recipe to share. I take this recipe to lots of gatherings--and it is always a hit and I always have people asking me for the recipe. Great for taking to a 4th of July gathering next week!

Even though it is just a dip, we have been known to have it for dinner on a hot summer night. There are many versions of this floating around out there, but this is the best one I have tasted, and the fancy, smancey name is.... Corn Dip! You can make it as hot or mild as you like by adjusting the amount of Tiger Sauce you use. I am a "no heat" kind of gal, so I use the amount listed in the recipe and it is just perfect.

CORN DIP

1 chopped green pepper

1 chopped onion

1 can shoe peg corn

1 can black beans (or garbanzo beans, black eyed peas,etc) I use black beans.

1 small jar pimentos

1 avocado

Combine all the ingredients in a bowl except the avocado

MIX FOR MARINADE:

1/2 cup sugar

1/2 cup oil

1/2 cup vinegar

2 tablespoons Tiger Sauce (located in grocery store by marinades & hot sauces)

Pour marinade over ingredients and refrigerate overnight. Drain off excess liquid before serving. Peel, cut up and add avocado just before serving. Serve with your favorite tortilla chips.

I hope you try it and if you do, let me know how you like it!
As a side note, we are still waiting for summer like weather to arrive here in Seattle. We finally had a 75 degree day last week, but today? Back in the 60's this morning with cloudy skies, but the promise of sun by the afternoon. We shall have to see about that!

How about you? Are you all roasting in the rest of the country?

Spring has sprung and left the building....

Edited:June 23rd
Well, Summer has finally arrived, weather wise, here in the northwest, after a miserable spring. Today we finally had temps reach into the upper 70's with a slight marine breeze--it was quite perfect.
The Spring Reading Thing has finished and I think, considering the crazy Spring we had with tons of family activities, I did pretty well! I finished 11 out of 15 books, and two of those 4 not finished were just graphic novels. I am relishing the thought of having the Maise Dobbs book to read as a summer read.

1. My favorite book of the Spring: Tallgrass by Sandra Dallas. I love Dallas's writing style and all the historical research she puts into her stories. I always feel like I just step right into the story.
2. My most memorable book: a tie between both of the Harry Potter books. I have so enjoyed them and am looking forward to reading the rest of the series. Rowling has a great imagination!
3. Least favorite: Going Coastal. It wasn't that it was a bad read, per se, it was just a little too predictable and chick-litty. It did meet a need for something lighter after reading something heavy before it.

Thanks Katrina for hosting a great challenge--one I look forward to each year!

Good-bye Winter, and Hello Spring....
The Spring Reading Thing, hosted by Katrina at Callapidder Days has begun!
Just choose your books, write your post, and then click the link above to sign up with Mr. Linky.

I have kind of a long list, but several of my book picks are on the short side or are graphic novels. Plus, with the read-a-thon right around the corner I hope to at least finish the graphic novels for the challenge I signed up for...

The list:

1. The Postmistress--Finished
2. Eternal on the Water--Finished
3. Fanny and Sue
4. Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets--Finished
   
5. Tallgrass-Finished
6. Snow Falling in Spring--Finished
7. Going Coastal-Finished
   
8. Hens Dancing-Finished
9. The Invisible Wall-Finished
10. The Marriage Bureau for Rich People-Finished
11. Wonderland--GN
12. Rapunzel's Revenge--GN
13. The Mapping of Love and Death (New Maise Dobbs novel, released March 23rd
14. To Dance: a ballerina's graphic novel --Finished
    
15. Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone--Finished
    

With this number of books on the list, I need to read an average of 5 books in each month of spring. I am looking forward to all of these and am not sure where to start!

Fantasy Land

Edited June 23rd: Well, the challenge completion date has come and gone and I think I can safely say I failed at this one. I read 3 of the 5 books I had hoped to read. Many on my list are choices I still want to read sometime, but sadly they won't be to complete this challenge. With my busy Spring, I have just not had time to keep up with my challenges....but maybe next year! Thanks Carl, for hosting such a great event.
Have you heard?
Carl, from Stainless Steel Droppings is hosting the 4th annual, Once Upon a Time Challenge. This is always a popular event--for many reasons. For me, it gives me permission to take a break from my regular genres, and read some fantasy/fairy tales. There are several levels of participation--I am committing to Quest the First: requiring 5 books read that fit somewhere in the genres included in the challenge. (fantasy, fairy tales, mythology, folklore) The challenge runs from March 21st through June 20th. How about you? Feel inclined to join in the fun???

My books?

• Garden Spells by Sarah Addison
• Tithe by Holly Black
• Goose Girl by Shannon Hale
• Once Upon a Marigold by Jean Ferris
• Odd and the Frost Giants by Neil Gaiman-Finished
• The Sisters Grimm by Michael Buckley
• Harry Potter (#1)-- Finished
• Harry Potter (#2)--Finished
  
• The Night Fairy
• Rapunzels Revenge
• Except the Queen by Jane Yolen

This is just my list of options--there is no way I will be able to read all of them!

Good books are the warehouses of ideas.

----H.G. Wells

fairy tales and such....

As I perused a few of my favorite book bloggers this morning I saw this fun little quiz posted over at Molly's and decided to play along. Something light and cheery for a summer morning....

You Are the Magic Wand

You are imaginative and idealistic. You believe that anything is possible, and you don't leave room for doubt. You think that there is too much hopelessness in the world. People need more optimism and hope in their lives. You know that change isn't as easy as the flick of a magic wand, but you also know that amazing things can happen if you let them. You aren't sure if you believe in miracles, but you do believe in yourself. And that's almost as good.

What Part of a Fairy Tale Are You?

summer time

Happy summer everyone! Although, living in the unpredictable Northwest, we are still waiting for our spring, let along summer weather to arrive....

Only here can the weather be the same on the first day of winter as the first day of summer!!!

I still have not had time to put together my own summer reading list--but now that Austen's graduation and Senior Recital are over, I think my evenings and weekends might settle down a bit and I can become a faithful blogger once again.

I do know that as I near the end of Harry Potter #2, there will be more Harry Potter on my summer list. I am loving those books--and maybe part of the loving them comes from my husband and sons' reactions as I report to them what part I am at every so often! Like I have said before, apart from my 7 month old grandbaby, Adelaide, I may be the last person on Earth to read these! :)

I also threw out the idea of just chucking my challenges to the wind and really just read what I want all summer and then let the chips fall where they may, come December, when most of my challenges are due to end....we will see if this will happen as I peruse my shelves and stacks of books to see what I really want to read this summer.

How about you? What are you reading? What do you want to read? What books are being released this summer that you can't wait to get your hands on?

New additions...

....to Mimi's bookshelf.

These are all books I loved reading to my own children and can't wait to read to my little Adelaide.

And as a bonus? They were all either purchased through the thrift store or were free from paperbackswap.com!!

Wordless Wednesday

Pretty in Pink

Wednesday's Letter S

Hosted by Vicki from Reading At The Beach


Welcome to A-Z Wednesday!!

To join, here's all you have to do:
Go to your stack of books and find one whose title starts with the letter of the week.
Post:
1~ a photo of the book
2~ title and synopsis
3~ link(amazon, barnes and noble etc.)

This week's letter is: S

My :S: book is the Sugar Queen by Sarah Addison Allen

From Amazon:

In this irresistible novel, Sarah Addison Allen, author of the New York Times bestselling debut, Garden Spells, tells the tale of a young woman whose family secrets—and secret passions—are about to change her life forever.

Josey Cirrini is sure of three things: winter is her favorite season, she’s a sorry excuse for a Southern belle, and sweets are best eaten in the privacy of her closet. For while Josey has settled into an uneventful life in her mother’s house, her one consolation is the stockpile of sugary treats and paperback romances she escapes to each night…. Until she finds her closet harboring Della Lee Baker, a local waitress who is one part nemesis—and two parts fairy godmother. With Della Lee’s tough love, Josey’s narrow existence quickly expands. She even bonds with Chloe Finley, a young woman who is hounded by books that inexplicably appear when she needs them—and who has a close connection to Josey’s longtime crush. Soon Josey is living in a world where the color red has startling powers, and passion can make eggs fry in their cartons. And that’s just for starters.

Brimming with warmth, wit, and a sprinkling of magic, here is a spellbinding tale of friendship, love—and the enchanting possibilities of every new day.

On a personal note, I have not read this one, but I do own it. Before reading it I am planning on reading Garden Spells by the same author. They both look enchanting...

Summer Reading: Sam edition

In my previous Sunday Salon post I mentioned how Sam's (just finishing 8th grade) Honors English class did such a poor job with literature. Really--in 9 months of school, they were only able to read 2 complete books! The rest of the time was spent reading snippets out of a literature book. I do not blame his teacher as I think she is doing the best she can with what the district is giving her.

The other day I saw an English paper of Sam's laying about and after glancing at it I could tell that at some point they had read Flowers For Algernon. I started to get excited that here was another book they had read!! When I questioned Sam, the wind was taken out of my sails when he revealed that they had only read an excerpt. But hope was rekindled when he told me he kind of wants to read the whole book.

Thus, Sam's summer reading list has evolved. Sam is a very fine and capable reader--probably the biggest bookworm at times than any other of my 4 kids. While I have no doubt that he could read all of these this summer, I do not expect them all to get read. I will allow him to pick some books for himself, just for fun. Those that don't get read, will be waiting for him next summer!

(I have provided links to the Amazon page for each--just click on the title)

• Flowers for Algernon by Daniel Keyes
• Night by Elie Wiesel
• Death Be Not Proud by John Gunther
• To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee (they will probably spend a whole quarter picking this book apart in 10th grade, so I am having him read it for pleasure ahead of time)
• The Invisible Man by H. G. Wells
• Freckles by Gene Stratton Porter
• Farewell to Manzanar by Jeanne Wakatsuki Houston
• Blue Willow by Doris Gates
• It's a Jungle Out There by Ron Snell
• Black Ships Before Troy by Rosemary Sutclif
• Make Lemonade by Virginia Euwer Wolff

Now, if you have some other suggestions for me to add, please leave me a comment! This is by no means a complete or exhaustive list, but I had to start somewhere.

The Sunday Salon

Saturday night excitement: celebration of event above!
Child #3 is now a high school graduate and we only have 1 more left!

In book news:
Well, because of graduation activities, evening baseball games and a senior saxophone recital to plan (next weekend) my life is still crazy busy, leaving little room for much reading, but I am squeezing in time when I can.

Currently I am reading Eternal on the Water by Joseph Monniger and Harry Potter: Chamber of Secrets by Rowling. Two totally different types of books, but I am enjoying them both. Eternal on the Water is a bit heartbreaking though.

I am working on a summer reading list for Sam. Our schools here do such a poor job exposing the kids to literature, even in the honors program. This school year, in 8th grade, Sam's honors English class read a total of 2 books!!! The rest of their reading was found in excerpts from their literature book. As a former home-schooling mama who used a literature based curriculum, I find this appalling.

Well- I am off to get ready to attend some of our friend's kid's graduation receptions. Let me know what you are reading!

Book Review:

Book: Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone by J.K. Rowling
Pages: 309
Finished: May
Challenges:
**Once Upon a Time ** Read & Review** New Author **Spring Reading Thing **


Tell me.
Am I the last person on earth to read this book???
I feel like I am, partly because EVERYONE in my immediate family has read this whole series--not just once, but at least 2 times!! (everyone that is except Adelaide, but we will blame this on her only being 6 months old.)

Did I like it--after waiting all this time?
Oh yes I did!! It was spectacular and the best part is that I know that her writing keeps evolving into something better and better with each book. What an imagination Rowling has. I am about 1/2 way through the 2nd book now, and my boys and husband are enjoying talking about the books with me--Kerry said it was like reading them again without actually reading them. :)


From Publisher's Weekly:

Readers are in for a delightful romp with this award-winning debut from a British author who dances in the footsteps of P.L. Travers and Roald Dahl. As the story opens, mysterious goings-on ruffle the self-satisfied suburban world of the Dursleys, culminating in a trio of strangers depositing the Dursleys' infant nephew Harry in a basket on their doorstep. After 11 years of disregard and neglect at the hands of his aunt, uncle and their swinish son Dudley, Harry suddenly receives a visit from a giant named Hagrid, who informs Harry that his mother and father were a witch and a wizard, and that he is to attend Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry himself. Most surprising of all, Harry is a legend in the witch world for having survived an attack by the evil sorcerer Voldemort, who killed his parents and left Harry with a lightning-shaped scar on his forehead. And so the fun begins, with Harry going off to boarding school like a typical English kid?only his supplies include a message-carrying owl and a magic wand. There is enchantment, suspense and danger galore (as well as enough creepy creatures to satisfy the most bogeymen-loving readers, and even a magical game of soccerlike Quidditch to entertain sports fans) as Harry and his friends Ron and Hermione plumb the secrets of the forbidden third floor at Hogwarts to battle evil and unravel the mystery behind Harry's scar. Rowling leaves the door wide open for a sequel; bedazzled readers will surely clamor for one.

The Letter R

Hosted by Vicki from Reading At The Beach

Welcome to A-Z Wednesday!!

To join, here's all you have to do:
Go to your stack of books and find one whose title starts with the letter of the week.
Post:
1~ a photo of the book
2~ title and synopsis
3~ link(amazon, barnes and noble etc.)

This week's letter is: R

My :R: book is: Rooftops of Tehran by Mahbod Seraji

From Booklist:

Pasha Shahed is a typical teenage boy who likes hanging out with his friends on the rooftop terrace of his house, dreaming about life, love, and what the future holds. What makes this 17-year-old different is that he is living under the harsh reign of the shah in Iran during the summer of 1973. With his biggest worry being his feelings for Zari, the girl next door who has been promised to another since birth, Pasha has a rude awakening when the SAVAK, Iran’s secret police, hunt down Zari’s fiancé. When Pasha realizes that he is the one who unwittingly gave away the man’s whereabouts to the SAVAK, he is crushed with guilt over his rival’s death and his continued feelings for Zari. No longer ignorant of the brutality of the shah’s regime, Zari makes a public display of her protest, which devastates Pasha. Told in Pasha’s unique voice and partially in flashback, Seraji’s wonderful coming-of-age story is at times funny and sweet as well as thought-provoking and heart-wrenching.

Wordless Wednesday: my boy

Austen and his Senior Prom date
June 2010

Oh, to be young again!
The world is an open book for them...

Review

Book: Snow Falling In Spring by Moying Li
Pages: 164
Finished: May
Challenges:
**Spring Reading Thing** Memorable Memoir**New Authors**Read & Review**Reading Through the Seasons**Support the Local Library**TwentyTen**













From Amazon:

Most people cannot remember when their childhood ended. I, on the other hand, have a crystal-clear memory of that moment. It happened at night in the summer of 1966, when my elementary school headmaster hanged himself.

Moying Li is twelve years old when the Cultural Revolution sweeps across China. Studying at a prestigious language school in Beijing, she seems destined for a promising future. But everything changes when student Red Guards orchestrate brutal assaults, violent public humiliations, and forced confessions throughout the country. After watching her headmasters beaten in public, Moying flees school for the safety of home, only to witness her beloved grandmother denounced, her home ransacked, and her father taken away—along with this precious books. Struggling to make sense of her crumbling world, she finds sanctuary in literature. But with many schools shut down and most books forbidden, how can she keep her passion for learning alive?

This was a well written an informative young adult memoir, recounting the authors life in China during the cultural revolution. As a child growing up in the 60's I was too young to know about what was happening in a closed country all the way around the world. This is also a subject we did not study in my 1970's junior high or high school curriculum. Also, not really a topic I have ever chosen to read about on my own. Really, I had no idea what that term "cultural revolution" meant to the lives of the people trapped in China during those years. At times while reading this book, I had shivers down my spine. Woe to anyone who had any kind of education or wealth pre-revolution. What a hopeless scary time.

At one point in time, the author's father who had been sent away to a labor camp was able to send home a secret list of books he wanted her and her brother to read. He also told them which friends and relatives had each of the books so they could get their hands on them. Both she and her brother longed to further their education--one that would include western studies also. She eventually had a little secret reading club going and writes about the importance of the reading list her Baba (father) had sent her:

Pg. 108
"Gradually, I realized that Baba's reading list was offering me more that just a joyful escape. It had given me anew sense of direction. And reading had taken on a meaning of its own. In a small way, I was regaining control of my life. My secret reading club, which never head an official meeting, helped to keep the flame of education alive inside me when the rest of my world was still besieged by darkness."

Moying, at the age of 25, was among the first group of Chinese students allowed into the United States to study when the U.S. and China established full diplomatic relations in 1979.

Weekend Cooking

Weekend Cooking is hosted by Beth Fish Reads each week and offers a unique way to merge booking with cooking!

I am spotlighting a book which I have not read yet.
But I really want to read soon.
I received it in the mail this week.
And it has the word eating in the title so I think it qualifies for this post!!

Eating Heaven by Jennie Shortridge

Synopsis

Nothing gets Eleanor Samuels's heart racing like a double scoop of mocha fudge chunk. Sure, the magazine writer may have some issues aside from food, but she isn't quite ready to face them. Then her beloved Uncle Benny falls ill, and what at first seems scary and daunting becomes a blessing in disguise. Because while she cooks and cares for him-and enjoys a delicious flirtation with a new chef in town-Eleanor begins to uncover some long-buried secrets about her emotionally frayed family and may finally get the chance to become the woman she's always wanted to be.

Book Review:

Book: The Postmistress by Sarah Blake
Pages: 318
Finished: May
Challenges:
**Spring Reading Thing** Amy Einhorn Books** A-Z Challenge**Reading From My Shelves** New Authors**

From Publishers Weekly

"Weaving together the stories of three very different women loosely tied to each other, debut novelist Blake takes readers back and forth between small town America and war-torn Europe in 1940. Single, 40-year-old postmistress Iris James and young newlywed Emma Trask are both new arrivals to Franklin, Mass., on Cape Cod. While Iris and Emma go about their daily lives, they follow American reporter Frankie Bard on the radio as she delivers powerful and personal accounts from the London Blitz and elsewhere in Europe. While Trask waits for the return of her husband—a volunteer doctor stationed in England—James comes across a letter with valuable information that she chooses to hide. Blake captures two different worlds—a naive nation in denial and, across the ocean, a continent wracked with terror—with a deft sense of character and plot, and a perfect willingness to take on big, complex questions, such as the merits of truth and truth-telling in wartime."

I received this book as a Valentine's Day gift from my husband and I was really looking forward to reading it. Then, I made the mistake of reading a few reviews on Amazon that did not paint it in a favorable light--which caused me to put off reading it. But I was already hooked by the intrigue of the premise and I picked it up.

I enjoyed it.
I did not agree at all with the negative reviews I had read--(let that be a lesson to me!)--and I am so glad I did read it. It was a little bit more character driven than plot driven which was not what I had expected, but that alright with me.

I have read many war memoirs and stories set during WWII, but almost always they have been written through the eyes of Europe. It was very interesting to read about the Blitz from a reporter's eyes, trying to convey the worldwide impact to his listeners an ocean away, an audience who for the most part does not want to hear about something so far away. Something so horrific. In fact, I have read very little which has given much detail to the actual events of the Blitz.

In this book we also get a glimpse of the anti-war sentiment which abounded in America pre-Pearl Harbor which is something else I have not read much of.

(Page 326, the story behind the story: a statement from the author which for me sums up the primary theme of the novel)

"The deeper my research took me, the more I thought about the position of those who can see what is going on, or see parts of what is going on, and are powerless to do anything but try to turn people's heads in that direction. Frankie Bard's epiphany at the center of the novel-when she realizes that she has seen someone die and knows the ending of a story his parents will never hear--carries the great sorrow implicit in the responsibility of knowledge. And I realized that what happened to Frankie in Europe was the that the responsibility of carrying the voices of all the people she meets, whose endings she cannot know, grows unbearable."

(In the spirit of the Reading From My Shelves challenge, I will be giving this book to my best friend Jodi)