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Archive for the ‘Book News’ Category
Chocolate Delights: Decadence Beyond Dessert
Tuesday, February 22, 2011
Chocolate Delights Volume I may very well be the most incredible cookbook I have ever seen. Every single recipe is enticing and decadent, and many provide new ways to use chocolate or unique flavor combinations that are very exciting. My mother is a chocoholic and owned numerous chocolate cookbooks that I have perused extensively, but I have never seen anything like Karen Hood‘s Chocolate Delights. At over 300 pages, this collection of recipes covers far more than just desserts and sweet treats: there are also appetizers, main dishes, soups, even jams and jellies with chocolate in them–an idea that frankly knocked me off my feet–and much more.
As with other books in the Cookbook Delights series, recipes are laid out in a simple, consistent manner that is easy to understand, and there is a glossary of cooking terms and a measurement chart in the back to aid less experienced cooks. Added to this is a wealth of fascinating history, folklore, and helpful information. Find out the truth about white chocolate, learn about the chocolate festival celebrated by the ancient Mayans, and more. I found these sections very valuable, especially the information about the different types of chocolate. I was not aware how significant of an impact the different types have on the outcome of any recipe, both in taste and nutritional value. Now I have a good reference that will help me select the right kind of chocolate for any cooking situation.
All of the recipes that I read were clear and easy to follow, and the three recipes that I tried out with my family were alot of fun as well. We made the Mexican Coffee, Savory Chili with Pasta, and Orange Oatmeal Cookies. The chili was very quick and easy, and it was praised even by the picky eaters in my family. The cookies were our favorite recipe–simply amazing, crammed with delicious ingredients that I had never thought to put in oatmeal cookies before. The coffee was an excellent after-dinner treat for my husband and I, and we’ll definitely make it often. My entire family is really excited about trying out the rest of the recipes, and we are already eagerly anticipating the second volume of Chocolate Delights.
Order your copy of Chocolate Delights today!
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Christmas Delights: Delicious New Traditions Your Family will Love
Wednesday, February 16, 2011
Christmas Delights is not your average modern cookbook, a baker’s dozen recipes alongside full page photographs–pretty, but with little substance. No, this is your mother or grandmother’s cookbook, a weighty and serious volume with more than 200 scrumptious recipes divided into comprehensive sections that make it quick and easy to find exactly what you are looking for. The recipes are laid out in a clear and consistent manner, easy to follow and understand for even a kitchen novice. At the same time, more experienced cooks will not find themselves bored by the recipes, which offer many unique ideas and flavor combinations that are sure to tantalize the tastebuds.
Christmas Delights is packed with extras including the history of Christmas traditions around the world, the meaning of familiar Christmas symbols, even tips on how to care for your poinsettia. There are also several Christmas-themed poems by Karen Hood, and these have her usual simple yet elegant style, ensuring that this section of the book will be read and enjoyed time and time again. Further facts about Christmas are sprinkled throughout the cookbook, livening up the recipes with fun tidbits of trivia. There is also a US and Metric Measurement Chart in the back, an invaluable assistance for conversions and measuring ingredients; a glossary of cooking terms that will help even an inexperienced cook feel comfortable in the kitchen; and an alphabetized index of recipes.
Karen Jean Matsko Hood has a great deal of experience in the kitchen, and it definitely shows. I tried out several of the recipes: Ham Casserole Supreme, Artichoke Green Chile Dip, and Butternut Ball Cookies. The ham casserole made a wonderful dinner that my entire family loved, a very flavorful and unique twist on the old favorite macaroni and cheese. The dip was very quick and easy to make, and again provided an unexpected and delightful twist on the usual artichoke dip that I am familiar with. The cookies also made a big hit, and were alot of fun to make. I have looked through many of the other recipes in the book and am very excited about trying them out. There are many fun ideas that any parent or grandparent will love to make with their little ones. The Cookie Casserole in particular looks like it will be a blast for children, and every recipe I turn to sounds delicious. This is definitely a cookbook my family will enjoy not just at the holidays, but all year long.
Order your copy of Christmas Delights today!
Not Poetry
Friday, August 13, 2010
“The only thing we have to fear is fear itself.”–Not Poetry
Most people shudder when they hear the word poetry. It causes them to cry out, tear out whatever hair they’ve got left and run for the hills, but this discomfort is shortsighted. In fact, most people encounter poetry on a regular basis whether they enjoyed nursery rhymes and Dr. Suess or song lyrics (one of its subcategories, rap, is considered poetry by some). People must realize that poetry is not some esoteric abstraction, but something deeply engrained in the everyday fabric of our lives; therefore, reading and enjoying poetry is not about reading the “great” poets, but reading the right poets, the ones that reflect on life and influence the way you think about the world or maybe a poet just captures a moment that makes sense to you.
Poetry is many things, and as more writers come along it develops an ever richer complexity. It can capture moments, dialogue, and ways of speaking and approaching the world that differ from prose; neither poetry nor prose is necessarily more correct, but both are different. Readers should allow themselves a jaunt into this rich field of words because life is multi-faceted, so why not explore another avenue that embraces this diversity?
Jumping into poetry can be scary because it is a leap of faith, an unavoidable bout of ignorance that could cause you to swear and shake your fist or (more likely) to close a book of poetry and not pick up another or both, which would be a travesty of the highest order because just as you may have a favorite sport or novelist that took some trial and error to find, you must also discover the right poet for you. Lucky for you, I’ve done some of your dirty work.
To begin, I recommend that you pick up a copy of The Poet’s Corner with selections compiled by John Lithgow. This book offers a quick survey of English speaking poets from different times and with varied writing styles. John Lithgow also offers a brief biography of the poet, and what the selected poems mean to him. I also like it because he includes a short list of other poems he enjoyed by the poet, so you can peruse them at your leisure, and he provides links to recordings of the poets reading their work. John Lithgow is down to earth and sharing something that he loves, so it’s not torturous and condescending—like you may have experienced with an English professor. The end of the book also has a MP3 CD with 50 readings by talented readers, so the poets’ work can really come alive for you. In short, this book is an excellent jumping off point for someone wishing to dabble in the lavishly complex, but equally rewarding world of poetry.
I also recommend that you pick up a copy of Full Woman, Fleshly Apple, Hot Moon, the selected poems of Pablo Neruda. Pablo Neruda originally wrote in Spanish, but his poems are so good that Stephen Mitchell translated them for us, and they still have that WOW factor. I’d heard that Pablo Neruda was good, but I had no idea how good. I’d hardly read much poetry before, but I simply could not put this book down. I don’t want to talk this book up too much, but you may enjoy it. Neruda shapes simple language in such a way that we enjoy the beauty and excitement packed into day-to-day situations. Check it out!
E-Books Top Hardcovers at Amazon
Tuesday, July 20, 2010
Monday was a day for the history books — if those will even exist in the future.
Amazon.com, one of the nation’s largest booksellers, announced Monday that for the last three months, sales of books for its e-reader, the Kindle, outnumbered sales of hardcover books.
In that time, Amazon said, it sold 143 Kindle books for every 100 hardcover books, including hardcovers for which there is no Kindle edition.
The pace of change is quickening, too, Amazon said. In the last four weeks sales rose to 180 digital books for every 100 hardcover copies. Amazon has 630,000 Kindle books, a small fraction of the millions of books sold on the site.
Book lovers mourning the demise of hardcover books with their heft and their musty smell need a reality check, said Mike Shatzkin, founder and chief executive of the Idea Logical Company, which advises book publishers on digital change. “This was a day that was going to come, a day that had to come,” he said. He predicts that within a decade, fewer than 25 percent of all books sold will be print versions.
The shift at Amazon is “astonishing when you consider that we’ve been selling hardcover books for 15 years, and Kindle books for 33 months,” the chief executive, Jeffrey P. Bezos, said in a statement.
Still, the hardcover book is far from extinct. Industrywide sales are up 22 percent this year, according to the American Publishers Association.
The figures do not include free Kindle books, of which there are 1.8 million originally published before 1923 (they are in the public domain because their copyright has expired). Amazon does not specify how paperback sales compare with e-book sales, but paperback sales are thought to still outnumber e-books.
The big surprise, Mr. Shatzkin said, was that the day came during the first period that the Kindle faced a serious competitive threat. The Apple iPad, which started sales in April, is marketed as a leisure device for reading, and it has its own e-book store. Yet sales of the Kindle also grew each month during the quarter, Amazon said.
Amazon is being helped by an explosion in e-book sales across the board. According to the Association of American Publishers, e-book sales have quadrupled this year through May.
Amazon said its sales exceeded that growth rate. One reason Kindle book sales have held their own is that owners of iPads and other mobile reading devices buy Kindle books, which they can read on computers, iPhones, iPads, BlackBerrys and Android phones. But, except for the free uncopyrighted books, Kindle owners must buy or download content via Amazon. “Every time they sell a Kindle, they lock up a customer,” Mr. Shatzkin said.
Some industry analysts say that many people do not consider the iPad to be a reading device the way the Kindle is, and see a need to own both. Amazon’s latest sales figures are “clearly an indication that the iPad is complementary to the Kindle, not a replacement,” said Youssef H. Squali, managing director at Jefferies & Company in charge of Internet and new media research.
The growth rate of Kindle sales tripled after Amazon lowered the price of the device in late June to $189 from $259, Amazon said. That was moments after Barnes & Noble dropped the price of its Nook e-reader to $199 from $259.
During roughly the same period, Apple sold three million iPads, it said.
Analysts said Amazon’s announcement could assuage investors’ concerns that the iPad threatens Kindle sales. Amazon’s stock price is down about 16 percent in the last three months, in part because of those fears.
“The sentiment’s turned a little more negative on the stock because of iPad issues and concern that Amazon would lose market share in the book segment,” said Aaron Kessler, director of Internet and digital media equity research at ThinkEquity.
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