'Born Standing Up – A Comic’s Life' by Steve Martin

ISBN: 1416553649
Format: Hardcover, 224pp
Publisher: Simon & Schuster Adult Publishing Group
Pub. Date: November 2007
Price: $25.00


A friend of mine passed along her copy of Born Standing Up – A Comic’s Life with glowing praise and I sat down to read it with high expectations.

It’s hard not to be familiar with Steve Martin in some way, shape, or form. From his stand up, which made him famous and opened doors for him, to the books and movies he’s written and starred in, Steve Martin has a face that is instantly recognizable.

Born Standing Up isn’t about Steve Martin’s successful years as a stand up comedian. It’s about the years it took to get to that point, the time invested and material tested before he became the best. The final chapter almost comes as a shock, you go from reading about setbacks and small triumphs, until suddenly it all explodes and there stands Steve Martin, at the top.

In a voice that is precise yet fluid, Martin lays his past before the readers. His is an unemotional voice; these are the facts, beautifully written but not embellished. His life growing up, scenes with his father, his detachment from his family and reconnection in later years; all these things are gone through, but quickly and with no bitterness or regret.

Martin goes over his early years growing up, summers spent working in Disneyland in joke and magic shops. His fleeting crushes on pretty faces and the hopes that a smooth card trick might do the trick. It was wonderful to read and see how his passion and dedication grew as he aged, his desire to perform started so early and just intensified as the years passed.

Through his young adult years, awkward and filled with passing loves, into his adult years the passion for getting up in front of crowd never wavered. From dark and seedy bars, a stint at Knott’s Berry Farm, Playboy clubs, and eventually the big times Steve talks about his routine; how he worked on it, tightened it, and eventually turned it into what would make a crowd laugh hysterically for hours.

Born Standing Up – A Comic’s Life is a wonderful look into the life of a stand up comedian, but not just any comedian. Steve Martin has done it all, suffered through the worst of the worst and come out the other side as one of the most famous names in the business. It’s sharp and insightful, early on there are a few pages that tug at the heart, but mostly it’s just an engrossing look at what life is like when you’re born standing up.

'My Life in France' by Julia Child with Alex Prud'Homme

ISBN: 0316067253
Format: Paperback, 304pp
Publisher: Little Brown Bks Young Readers
Pub. Date: October 2007
Price:14.95

I can remember watching Julia Child on TV with my mom when I was little. I never sat and watched long; the distraction of playing house or a new Barbie always pulled me away, and running off I didn’t think twice about the woman on the screen with the funny accent. Then during my adolescence we took one of many trips to Washington D.C. to see the capital and visit the Smithsonian. There they have Julia Child’s complete kitchen, which she had donated to the National Museum of American History in 2001. I didn’t remember who Julia Child was and when I asked my mom she said simply, “She’s famous for cooking.”

I’ve never been much of a cook, I try and I am successful in some things, but the passion to cook doesn’t burn deep in my heart. I enjoy cookbooks though; I enjoy the idea that I too could create something so lovely and delicious. I buy them and try recipes only to be kicked out of the kitchen by my husband, the real cook in the family. But the wonderful thing about My Life in France is that you don’t have to be a cook to enjoy this delightful memoir about food, love, and life.

In the introduction Julia states “This is a book about some of the things I have loved most in life; my husband, Paul Child; la belle France; and the many pleasures of cooking and eating. It is also something new for me. Rather than a collection of recipes, I’ve put together a series of linked autobiographical stories, mostly focused on the years 1948 through 1954, when we lived in Paris and Marseille, and also a few of our later adventures in Provence. Those early years in France were among the best of my life.”

It all started in 1948 when Julia Child followed her husband, Paul Child, across the Atlantic aboard the SS America. Newly married and never having been to Europe before, though she did serve during World War II in Asia, she wasn’t sure what to expect. But to her delight France, particularly Paris, was absolutely wonderful.

Paris was where she learned to cook, taking lessons in the famous Cordon Bleu cooking school. Though Julia earned a diploma from this prestigious school she was mostly self-taught. Spending hours, days even, perfecting a simple recipe for mayonnaise or cooking the same dish from three or four different cookbooks, she poured her entire being into learning the correct way to do even the simplest task. Out of this passion her first cookbook with Louisette Bertholle and Simone Beck, Mastering the Art of French Cooking, was born.

Mixed into the stories are wonderful photographs taken by Paul Child as well as a handful of family photos. Glimpses of Paris in the late 1940s, Julia leaning out of their apartment window, and pictures of Julia teaching others to cook or learning herself; these black and white photos added so much to the rest of the book.

Julia Child passed away in 2004 but her passion for life and food still lives on through her many cookbooks and this memoir My Life in France. Passionate and fascinating I could not put it down as I read about Paris in the early 1950s. Julia’s first forays into the kitchen, her first real cooking lessons and the fire that burned within her to learn more; it makes for some of the best reading I’ve come across in nonfiction in a long time. My Life in France is a wonderful tale of self-discovery through cooking and food, stories that you will enjoy and that only leave you wishing for more.

'A Lifetime of Secrets' by Frank Warren

ISBN: 0061238600
Format: Hardcover, 288pp
Publisher: HarperCollins Publishers
Pub. Date: October 2007
Price: $27.95

In 2005 Frank Warren launched a blog as an experiment in community art, inviting strangers to mail him anonymous homemade postcards with their secrets written on them. The only rule is that it has to be a true secret that you have never before shared. Be creative he told the masses. The response he received was overwhelming.

Each Sunday PostSecret is updated with all new secrets and every Monday morning, before I’ve poured my coffee or checked my work e-mail, I check PostSecret. Why do I read PostSecret? There are a lot of reasons. Each week it's different and each week I find a little bit of me in someone else’s words. Some make me cry, making me glad that I've come into the office early enough that I can cry in peace. Some make me laugh. Then there are the ones that steal my breath, break my heart, and make me want to reach out to who ever was brave enough to commit those words to paper. It’s all about making a connection even if it's only for the briefest of moments through an anonymous postcard and a computer screen or book.

In a Lifetime of Secrets, Frank Warren’s fourth collection, he says “I've selected postcards that show how secrets can reveal a momentary impulse or haunt us for decades and arranged them by age to follow the common journey we all take through childhood, adolescence, adulthood, maturity. Stretched over a full lifespan, the secrets expose the meaningful ways we change over time, and the surprising ways we don't.”

Happy, sad, beautiful, ugly, ecstatic, ornate, simple and everything in between; this is another collection worth looking for a bit of yourself in. Where ever you are in your life right now, whatever your path there is someone else out there who knows what it’s like. It's nice to think that maybe you aren't really alone.I was reading secrets online a few weeks back and I saw one that really struck a cord with me. “We are all part of something bigger and we are all part of it together."

Do you have a secret? Share it. Let it go and know that somewhere out there someone will laugh, cry, or realize that their life isn't as lonely or as hard as they thought. Today is the day to let go.

PostSecret
13345 Copper Ridge Rd
Germantown, Maryland 20874

'Cook with Jamie: My Guide to Making You a Better Cook' by Jamie Oliver

ISBN: 1401322336
Format: Hardcover, 448pp
Publisher: Hyperion
Pub. Date: October 2007
Price: $37.50

I love Jamie Oliver’s cookbooks. I have several on my shelf and in each one I always find recipes that I end up making over and over. Not to mention the recipes that I might never try but look good just the same. One of the things that makes Oliver’s cookbooks a must, beside the mouth-watering recipes, is the fact that he makes it seem so easy. He believes that you too can make your food look, as well as taste, just as good as the photographs that catch your eye. Makes me want to pick up my spatula.

Cook with Jamie is special though. All of the profit from the sale of this cookbook goes to the Fifteen Foundation, which is dedicated to helping young people. But Jamie says it so much better than I ever could:

“The idea behind Fifteen is pretty simple- every year we give a unique opportunity to a group of young people to become professional chefs. The kids we take on have had bit of a hard time and could do with a break. Many of them are homeless, have been raised in difficult circumstances, have spent time in prison or gone off the rails and got into drink and drugs. But at Fifteen we believe that we can inspire them to break habits and believe in themselves to become incredibly passionate chefs.”

So on that note we dive right into the kinds of things we should always have in our kitchens. Good knives, quality cookware, food processors, and all the other implements of kitchen torture. But not only does he cover the non-food items throughout the book, he talks about what cuts of meat to look for, veggies, fish, salad ingredients and simple dressings. He covers it all.

From Jamie’s Proper tomato salad to Southern Indian crab curry it all looks absolutely mouth-wateringly divine. There isn’t anything new here, just new takes on old recipes. But each one is presented in an easy manner making even the most intimidated newbie feel like they could tackle it.

And did I mention dessert? Yes, there is dessert too. Tea-Party Cupcakes, Classic Victoria sponge with all the trimmings, fifteen chocolate brownies, and a rather pleasing carrot cake with lime mascarpone icing. Yum!

Packed with recipes, over 175 with a focus on quality and freshness, Cook with Jamie is a must. And along with all those recipes he includes little personal notes about the food that makes Cook with Jamie more than just a cookbook. This is a book that you will pull out time and again to check measurements, share with your friends, or make sure you’ve got the right stuff for the job whether you’re making fresh pasta or roasting a turkey.

'Why I'm Still Married: Women Write Their Hearts Out on Love, Loss, Sex, and Who Does the Dishes' Edited by Karen Propp and Jean Trounstine

ISBN: 0452288215
Format: Paperback, 304pp
Publisher: Penguin Group (USA)
Price: $14.00

Having been married a little over two years myself I was especially interested in reading Why I’m Still Married. Sometimes we struggle; finding the balance and the middle ground can be hard at times. Whose turn it is to clean the kitchen, or who forgot to send the bills off, and it’s a constant battle about who is supposed to feed the cats. But getting to wake up next to my best friend and lover is always a wonderful thing and in the end the good times outweigh the bad.

Why I’m Still Married is divided into years of marriage and the corresponding anniversary gifts. From Silver to Gold features Anne Bernays, Marge Piercy, Susan Dworkin, Aimee Liu, Kathleen Aguero, and Bharati Mukherjee. From Silver to China has Erica Jong, Julia Alvarez, Jean Trounstine, Susan Cheever, Maria Hinojosa, Eve LaPlante, and Jennifer Heath. From Sugar to Tin features Elizabeth Graver, Helen Fremont, Liza Wieland, Audrey Schulman, Hannah Pine, and Karen Propp. The final section From Paper to Wood includes ZZ Packer, Kamy Wicoff, Meredith Maran, Diana Abu-Jaber, and Nell Casey.

What I found most interesting about this collection was how honest and open each author was. We are treated to an inside view of each marriage, the flaws are bared, and mistakes admitted openly. It also features essays from marriages that are unconventional.

In First Person Plural by Helen Fremont we are treated to an inside view of her marriage with her female partner. It was a comfort to read that same sex relationships suffer from the same thing opposite sex relationships do. In her ‘Commitment’ section of her essay she states ‘our marriage is based on a fundamental, irrefutable fact: neither of us can bear the trauma of dating… We are bound to each other because neither of us has the courage to start over again.’ While it struck me as slightly sad the honesty in this statement was very powerful.

Then we have My Husband, His Girlfriend, Her Husband, My Lover, and Others by Hannah Pine in which she shares her experiences with her open marriage. ‘The assumption is that my marriage is full of danger, full of threat, that it survives against all odds.’ But she proves that this arrangement works for her and her husband. While it might not work for everyone, indeed it might not work for most people, she has found a relationship that is strong and loving.

These are not essays about keeping marriages together. In many cases the author is working on their second or third time around but it’s about the faith we have in the state of being married. That despite our disappointments we believe that there could be a happily ever after waiting for us and are not afraid to take a chance finding it.

'Yakuza Moon: Memoirs of a Gangster's Daughter' by Shoko Tendo

ISBN: 4770030428
Format: Hardcover, 192pp
Publisher: Kodansha International
Price:$22.95

Yakuza Moon is brutal, honest, and scary. Shoko Tendo takes you through her turbulent childhood and the life built around her yakuza father. She recounts the many times he came home drunk in the middle of the night and tore the house apart and later beat Shoko. Soon she has fallen in with a tough crowd and has become a yanki, what basically amounts to a juvenile delinquent.

When she gets older she moves on from sniffing paint thinner and ditching school to shooting up and dating married men. She quickly becomes a kept woman who is shuffled about, never really being her own person, and all of this before she is even 23 years old.

Yakuza Moon is hard to read at times. The almost constant abuse that Shoko went through is heartbreaking and painful to read about. It is written in such a direct manner. The hard core drug use, the different boyfriends beating her, attempted suicide, and rape is presented to the reader as simple fact, with a sort of detachment through which you can only feel horror or pity for this young woman.

A lot of things happen off stage, as it were, and you are only treated to the highlights of a very painful past. There are incidents mentioned in passing that are never fully explained. But for the most part it does not distract from the flow of the story. The overall impression is of a young woman who went through hell but came out the other side a stronger person. This is a woman who has earned respect finally, and is not afraid to demand it.

After everything she is strong. The world is full of people struggling to survive and overcome - striving to be the person that they always dreamed that they could be, that they hoped deep down was still inside and had not been killed off by their mistakes. Sometimes the hardest thing to overcome is yourself, the person in the mirror can be your own worst enemy and learning to put the past behind you the hardest lesson to learn in life. Yakuza Moon is a triumph simply because Shoko Tendo overcame the atrocity that her life had become.

“I think a lot about the moon," she says. "How it constantly waxes and wanes, just like my life with its highs and lows. I like to think of myself as having been born under a new moon. Then, in those uncertain days when I was searching for love, I guess the moon would have become a crescent. It was probably about a half-moon when I got married."

But, as the author goes one, "Now that I’m alone, do I warrant a full moon? Have I finally overcome my weaknesses and grown up? I’m heading along a new path in life, but if it turns out to be a dead end, I guess I can start over with the next full moon.”

'Diary of Indignities' by Patrick Hughes

ISBN: 1595821031
Format: Paperback, 256pp
Publisher: Dark Horse Comics
Price:$14.95

While I read Diary of Indignities I marked passages I thought were funny and wanted to share. When I finished reading I realized that I couldn’t share it all because I would have to copy more than half the book down. Okay, the whole book. I laughed, I was shocked and often disgusted, but overall highly entertained.

Diary of Indignities started out as a blog by the name of Bad News Hughes written with brutal honesty by none other than Patrick Hughes. He used the blog to chronicle the daily indignities of his life and now he sits “naked on a throne of human skulls, drinking warm blood while surveying my blog empire of pain” with a book to show for all his trouble. I think he puts it rather well.

So what kind of indignities will you come across? Every single horrible, unimaginable thing your brain could dream up to torment you at three in the morning; those things you do while drunk and claim to not remember or are lucky enough not to. There are a lot of those stories in here. The crazy relatives, and trust me he has yours beat, stories that we all share with friends… and yes, with the stranger sitting next to you on the bus. Patrick Hughes bares his dirty soul to the world and I for one am glad to know I’m not alone in some of the stupid things I’ve done.

I am a huge fan of my local Friends of the Library book sale so I was thrilled to learn that Mr. Hughes was as well. In "Francis Ford Coppola is a Dick," a chapter that has very little to do with Francis Ford Coppola, he touches on the madness that is one of these book sales. The pushing, shoving, and being caught by your mom and her elderly friends with a copy of Penthouse Forum in the adult section of the sale. Good times.

There are also several chapters in which Mr. Hughes doles out advice for the kids. In many cases the advice is something you are sure the author learned the hard way. There are such classics as, “Don’t use one of those little Handi-Vac things to empty an ashtray. Because the inrush of air could potentially reignite the fading embers. And, uh, a big jet flame might shoot out of the thing, surprising you and making you scream like a ten-year-old girl. And you might knock over your beer.”

Or “For that matter, be aware that bowling-alley employees may have a limited tolerance for other non-pajama-related behaviors, such as getting all loaded and pretending to be Godzilla and stomping on the windmill over there in the indoor miniature golf course.”

There is a reason it says "Adult" on the back of the book, and of course it also designates "Humor" and "Memoir" as well. Swear words, references to sex toys, Jell-o shots, use of said sex toys, more swear words, and drug use make this a book you might not want to leave around your kids or your elderly parents. But if you dare to crack its spine, Diary of Indignities will have you laughing out loud and maybe cringing a little.

'Riddled With Life - Friendly Worms, Ladybug Sex, and the Parasites that Make Us Who We Are' by Marlene Zuk

ISBN: 0151012253
Format: Hardcover, 328pp
Publisher: Harcourt
Price: $25.00


Riddled With Life is full of answers. Ever wonder why some kids develop allergies and some don’t? Can intestinal worms be your friend as well as your foe? And did you know that all animals, including insects, get STDs? It tells you all of that.

Some of those questions I’ve wondered about, if not so much the bug STDs, but even this is interesting thanks to Professor Zuk’s lively and humorous writing style. I have to admit that some of these issues would never have crossed my mind but once brought to my attention provides some fascinating reading. This is the kind of book you read and turn to a friend to ask ‘Did you know?’

Marlene Zuk is an evolutionary biologist at the University of California where she studies parasites and the behavior in a variety of animals. Some of her favorites just happen to be jungle fowl, distant relatives of the commercial chicken, which as noted in chapter seven, ‘Parasites and Picking the Perfect Partner,' play a big part. Professor Zuk was part of a group that studied the effect of parasites and the roles they play between the male and female of a species.

In chapter four ‘The Race with Sex That’s Never Won,’ she talks about the mortality difference between the sexes. Namely that males die much earlier than females in many species, including human beings. Professor Zuk discusses the fact that testosterone plays a huge role because it affects how effective a male’s immune system is.

The STD’s I mentioned? Well in chapter four, ‘When Sex Makes You Sick,’ Professor Zuk talks about how evolution has played a role in the sexual transmitted diseases and parasites in animals. Sometimes being at the top of the food chain limits your views of things and this book definitely broadens those horizons.

Riddled With Life is riddled with wonderful bits of humor, intriguing facts, and some of the best scientific writing. I have to admit that the biology was a struggle for me but that didn’t take away from the reading experience. I thoroughly enjoyed this one and will not hesitate to recommend reading about bugs, parasites, and jungle fowl.

'Black Dragon River' by Ben Whately

ISBN: 1411671465
Format: Paperback, 184pp
Publisher: Lulu.com
Price: $13.90

Author Ben Whately tells you right away that Black Dragon River this isn’t a travel book. Instead, it is a "journal of changing thoughts and opinions as I tried to accustom myself to living in a single, very strange, and not especially nice, place."

Whately goes to the city of Qiqihaer China to learn Chinese and to make sense of the "mystery of China." He is one of six native English speakers in a city of five million people. He starts out not even able to hold a conversation in Chinese, but by the end is conversing, if not easily then much less painfully. The change that happens in the book, as he becomes more comfortable with the things around him, is wonderful to read.

In chapter three Ben relates the story of finally meeting in person an American couple who teach English at the University he is studying Chinese at. He had found their home page while researching Qiqihaer and e-mailed them. Over time he had come to think of them as a "celebrity couple," having read all about their exploits in China.

When he finally introduced himself to Heather, one half of the American couple, she said "So you came? Why?" He would soon find that she wouldn’t be the only one to ask that question, to which he didn’t seem to have much of an answer beside mumbling "purity of the Mandarin accent."

While most of the book does take place in the city of Qiqihaer, the author does take weekend jaunts out into the more remote parts of Heilongjiang province, as well as Mongolia. The Heilongjiang province is named for the river that runs through the region. Translated it means "Black Dragon River."

In a town called Tazi, marketed as a tourist town in a 1989 guidebook for a wall from the Liao Dynasty that surrounds the city, Ben discovers that he is the first foreigner that many have ever seen. Brutally honest about China and his experiences, as well as being humorous, thoughtful, and ever hopeful, the author relates all his stories with a certain charm. Highly entertaining, you read from one chapter to the next picking up interesting facts about China that you might not find anywhere else.

My one complaint is that Black Dragon River was too short at only 180 pages. I feel as if there must be more to the story and I would love to know the rest. In that respect Ben Whately has achieved what every author should: he has left his audience wanting more.

'Hypocrite in a Pouffy White Dress - Tales of Growing Up Groovy and Clueless' by Susan Jane Gilman

In a book about 'growing up ambitious and engaging in some spectacularly imbecilic behavior,' Susan Jane Gilman’s Hypocrite in a Pouffy White Dress, a follow-up to Kiss My Tiara, takes you from the very start of a wacky life to adulthood. I’ve got my fingers crossed for another book because it has been a long time since I laughed so hard while reading.

As Gilman further attests in the 'Author’s Soapbox' of a preface, this collection of names-have-been-changed true stories -- 'or at least, I’ve recounted them as honestly as I can remember them' — serves more than a single purpose:

I’ve written this book, in part, because it seems that all of us could use a good laugh these days. Yet I’ve also written it because so many stories women are currently telling are all about getting a man. Or getting over a man. Or about getting laid. Or about not getting laid. Or about not getting laid and not getting a man, but deciding we’re ok with it. While a few stories do involve a boy, a bra, and a booty call, mostly their focus is elsewhere - on other passions and delusions that we all experience in one form or another.

The stories that you find within this book are everything the author promises and more. Each one is something that any girl, or guy for that matter, can relate to.

Hypocrite in a Pouffy White Dress is separated into three sections. Part One, entitled 'Grape Juice and Humiliation' contains, among others, ‘Nudie Hippie Kiddie Star’ and ‘A Girl's Guide to Bragging and Lying.' Part Two, ‘Not Just Horny, But Obnoxious, Too’ contains my favorite, ‘Mick Jagger Wants Me.’ And Part Three -- ‘Reality Says, “Hello”’ -- contains, among others, ‘I was a Professional Lesbian,’ ‘My Father the Park Ranger, My Mother the Nun’ and the title essay.

In ‘Mick Jagger Wants Me’ Gilman talks about how she fantasized as a teenager about Mick Jagger not only being her boyfriend but pulling up in front of her school in a black stretch limo. But he didn’t stop there; he would walk inside, come into her classroom and get down on one knee to tell her how much he has missed her for the last three hours that they have been apart. Of course the whole classroom would be staring opened-mouthed and some of the girls would have fainted between the desks.

I have to admit to having spent criminal amounts of time myself dreaming of my crush sweeping me out of school like in the movie Officer and a Gentleman. I also fantasized that I was taller with perfect skin and in a tight sparkly ball gown. If I’m dreaming I might as well dream big, right? Well Susan Jane Gilman thinks so and that is exactly how her life reads.

Not only will you laugh but you will cry as well. Susan Gilman takes everything that life has to offer and brings out the hilarious, sad, beautiful, and slightly odd things that all of us have experienced. Hypocrite is now one of my favorite books and whenever I have a chance this will be the book I tell my friends to read

'The Essence of Chocolate' by John Scharffenberger and Robert Steinberg

ISBN: 1401302386
Format: Hardcover, 384pp
Publisher: Hyperion
Price: $35.00

Susie Heller, producer of cookbooks and cooking shows including The French Laundry Cookbook, says in the introduction that when she began working on The Essence of Chocolate she wasn’t so sure it was the dream job that most people would think it would be. She worried that all the chocolate around her home would mean weight gain until she met Robert Steinberg and John Scharffenberger, "two very lean men," and she wondered what their secret could be. She soon learned that it wasn't about quantity but quality:

'Working with great chocolate has changed how I bake and eat chocolate. There is such a satisfying feeling when you taste a true artisanal chocolate. The question then became, how do we translate this experience into the recipes chosen for this book? We began by choosing recipes that focused on the flavor of the chocolate. This book doesn‘t call for a lot of fancy embellishments or difficult methods; it's about the ‘essence' of chocolate.'

Susie Heller states it beautifully. It’s all about the essence of the chocolate.

Susie Heller also says that when baking you need to trust your instincts. Use the baking times in the book as a guideline; don’t just follow it blindly because there are so many variables, which include altitude, humidity, type of chocolate, flour, butter, and the temperature of your oven. I liked that they didn’t believe that the recipes were set in stone.

Before you can dig into the decadent, delicious, deliriously delightful recipes they equip you with some of the basic techniques and tools that you will need to create them. Also Robert Steinberg talks about his journey to chocolate in "Before We Made Chocolate: From Medicine to Chocolate" and in John Scharffenberger's "From Winemaking to Chocolate" you learn how the partnership of America’s premier chocolate makers came about.

The recipes in the book are separated into Intensely Chocolate, Essentially Chocolate and A Hint of Chocolate and, depending on your mood, you can pick the perfect fit.

In chapter two, "Intensely Chocolate," the second recipe is the one off the cover, Chocolate Almond Cake. I have to say that this is the best chocolate cake I have ever eaten. I bought some really nice expensive chocolate — believe me, you don’t want to use the cheap stuff here — and attempted it in my tiny apartment kitchen. It got a little messy but the end result was beautiful as well as scrumptious.

Chapter four, "Essentially Chocolate," is filled with such wonders as Cocoa Chiffon Cake, Chocolate Pecan Tart, Black and White Crème Brulee, as well as Chocolate and Peanut Butter Panini. This last one is as easy as making a peanut butter and jelly sandwich and, if you ask me, has definitely replaced the old standby.

Chapter six, "A Hint of Chocolate," has such delicate flavors as Banana Carmel Cake, Cacoa Nib Macaroons, and Mint-Basil Chocolate Chunk Ice Cream. Never again will you buy ice cream from the grocery store once you make this one. It is well worth the time and effort, not the mention the wait, before you can dip your spoon into this frozen heaven.

There are also recipes that use chocolate in more savory ways, such as the BBQ sauce and the Tortilla Soup recipes. There is no end in sight when using a good quality chocolate with the right recipes to guide you.

Full of legends, lore, and facts about the plant, as well as the delicious product, The Essence of Chocolate is perfect for a beginner or a pro working with chocolate.

'Jamie's Italy' by Jamie Oliver

ISBN: 1401301959
Format: Hardcover, 320pp
Publisher: Hyperion
Price: $34.95

When you open Jamie’s Italy you are greeted by a picture of Jamie Oliver standing in front of an open door way with a messenger bag slung over his shoulder, a book in his hand, and a look of happiness on his face. A picture is worth 1,000 words and this picture is the perfect introduction to a fantastic cookbook.

But not just any old cookbook. Jamie’s Italy is full of his personal stories from his travels as he collected these delicious recipes. 'In writing this book, I didn’t just want to give you a collection of Italian recipes,' Oliver says. 'I wanted to share some great experiences with you at the same time. So I wrote it while I traveled around the county, working and eating and meeting people off the beaten track.'

So we go with Jamie as he travels all over Italy. With brilliant photographs by David Loftus and Chris Terry, the food along Jamie’s travels is brought to life and the candid photos of Jamie talking with locals are truly wonderful. You get glimpses of things you might never have the chance to see, of lives that you might never lead.

One of the things I enjoyed, besides the great recipes, was the honesty in which Jamie spoke of Italy. In his section titled ‘Street Food & Pizza’ he says that about 50 percent of street food that he came across was not the best stuff. As the author relates:

'One old chap in an alleyway in the Palermo was surrounded by about ten people all eating and talking. He had a big cauldron in his stall, with a double-lined tablecloth tied on top like a steamed pudding at Xmas. There was nothing similar about the contents, though… this chain smoking, dirty-looking bloke would put his hand into the cauldron though a small hole in the cover and draw out a handful of greasy gizzards, spleen, and lung which he would slap onto a break roll, or just serve on a bit of paper.'

Well that’s one thing I won’t try when I go to Italy. But the pizza is another story. Jamie’s recipes for pizza are mouth-watering. Although I don’t have a brick oven like he recommends I did try his pizza with potatoes, mozzarella, rosemary, thyme, and tomatoes and his best garlic bread. Jamie also includes a recipe for a fried pizza which I haven’t tried yet but will soon.

But my favorite recipes was the one for Caponata, which he describes as an ’incredible Sicilian eggplant stew’ When I saw the picture for it I knew I just had to try it. It was simple and tasted wonderful. I’m not sure if it was anything like how it is done in Sicily but it wasn’t bad for Oklahoma.

Jamie’s Italy is full of recipes that you will want to try and that you will grow to love. Jamie stresses the use of local as well as seasonal produce as the keys to an authentic dish. He also includes some great basic recipes for making pasta and cooked vegetables. Jamie’s Italy is a wonderful place to be, I hope one day to travel off the beaten path and eat all those wonderful things from the source.

'Thanks for the Memories: Love, Sex, and World War II' by Jane Mersky Leder

ISBN: 0275988791
Format: Hardcover, 240pp
Publisher: Greenwood Publishing Group, Incorporated
Edition Description: 1ST
Price: $39.95

Many Americans remember that famous 1945 V-J Day photograph in Life magazine of the sailor in blues kissing the nurse as she’s cradled in the crook of his arm. It’s always been a favorite of mine. The emotional moment moves from the photograph in waves, and for years it was my view of World War II: that one beautiful moment after the carnage of war.

Thanks for the Memories goes beyond what you might have learned from textbooks or what your grandparents might have shared around the dinner table. The Greatest Generation is disappearing, and their stories are dying with them. Jane Mersky Leder has now collected some stories you might not know about, along with those you might have heard somewhere along the way.

When the United States was plunged into World War II, the men stood up to be counted and enlisted - many of them only hours after the news was broadcast nationwide. When the men went to war so did the women, to the factories as well as the military in programs like WAVES and WAAC.

Subjects not covered in standard textbooks include prostitution near Army camps, venereal disease, and the man hours it cost the war effort; or the stories of lesbians and gays who enlisted and fought for our country. Ms Leder goes on to discuss female roles during the war and how this change laid the foundation for Women's Liberation in the 1960s.

Then there are the stories of young service wives who accompanied their husbands from base to base. They usually experienced wretched living conditions, and many couples were not allowed to live together. The men had to stay on the base while women were forced to find a place to live in nearby towns. Once the soldiers were shipped overseas, the long separations chipped away at their hasty marriages although for others, when they were reunited, it was as though no time had elapsed at all.

Thanks for the Memories is replete with captivating bits of history, wonderful personal stories, and a peek into a generation slipping away fast. It’s never dull as Ms Leder moves you swiftly through history, confidently and engagingly.

'Club George - The Diary of a Central Park Birdwatcher' by Bob Levy

ISBN: 0312341679
Format: Hardcover, 384pp
Publisher: St. Martin's Press
Price: $24.95

Club George is the heartwarming story of George, the extraordinary Red-winged Blackbird who ignites the author’s interest in all things bird. New York's Central Park might be the last place you would expect to see a variety of wildlife but soon you learn differently. The park is a migration stop for many species of birds, and through the book you get to experience the variety for yourself. Not to mention George.

'The mention of Red-winged Blackbirds struck a chord with her. She turned and said, "You’re ‘George’ aren’t you?” I corrected her saying, “I’m Bob, but I’m a fan of George if that’s what you mean." She explained she did not mean to say that my name was George, but that she knew me to be one of George’s admirers.'

With that, you follow Bob Levy’s transformation from your average Joe into an experienced birdwatcher. You get to peek over his shoulder as he feeds George for the first time, while he comes to know the Downy Woodpeckers Morton and Mary, and meets Canada Geese, Mallards, American Robins, Common Grackles, Northern Cardinals, Nighthawks, Black-crowned Night Herons, and many others.

Throughout the book there are wonderful black and white photographs of the subjects that are written about with such wonder and enthusiasm. It was wonderful to be able to put a face to a name with George, as well as a few other individuals Mr. Levy befriended along the way.

My favorite story about George was when he stole the yellow cake. Mr. Levy had gone out to his usual spot to watch George and found it crowded with other visitors. Not all were there to see George; in fact most were oblivious to the bird perched on his favorite spot. A man with a small baby in a papoose was there. In the man’s hand was a piece of plastic-wrapped yellow pound cake that he waved back and fourth.

George was trained on it, little eyes focused on his goal. The man, still oblivious to George, unwrapped the cake and George seized the moment. He flew in, landing on the cake, digging his beak and claws into the object and flew away again with a large chunk of it. That is a bird with gumption.

Club George: The Diary of a Central Park Bird-Watcher is much more than just a diary about one man or about one bird for that matter. It is full of information for the beginner bird watcher, helpful tips and hints sandwiched between wonderfully funny moments of a life enriched by birds. Mr. Levy has done his research completely and knows exactly what direction to point you in if he lacks an answer. He has such a passion for the avian world that by just picking up this book, it will rub off on you as well. Become a member of Club George; it’s an experience not to be missed.