Now reading:

Lots to read this month, and the candy hangover from last night is not helping me concentrate. Self-inflicted torture, I know. Damn you, miniature Milky Ways and Hershey bars. haha.

Veronica Buckley’s new book, “The Secret Wife of Louis IV, Francoise D’Aubigne, Madame de Maintenon” (Farrar, Straus and Giroux, $35, 498 pages), would be a great pick for a book club, but only if your book club actually reads. Do any of you belong to book clubs, out there? I know you do. Is yours more about the wine and the talk-talk, or the books? I like a good mix of both — it’s hard to find. This biography has loads of art, family trees and salacious gossip. Perfect. Buckley’s other biography, “Christina, Queen of Sweden,” also sounds great. Check ’em out.

That one was for the grown-ups, but the next two are for young adults and families.

Marge Pellegrino’s “Journey of Dreams” (Frances Lincoln Children’s Books, $15.95, 250 pages), is one I think more serious students will enjoy. It’s the story of Tomasa, her journey north with her brother, baby sister and father, running away from the Guatemalan army and in search of her mother and brother. Nicely written, with good descriptions and a fast-paced (but not too fast) plot. (Themes of genocide and danger.)

I have to admit, the cynic in me fought a little against opening up “Growing Up Global: Raising Children to Be at Home in the World,” by Homa Sabet Tavangar (a “businesss consultant” and mother of three. I think that sort of got the hackles going, too. Business consultant? Alrighty). (Ballantine Books, $16, 281 pages.) You know who doesn’t fly anywhere anymore? Me. I can’t fly anymore. So long, Caribbean. I probably won’t see you. Paris? Ditto. But I can still venture to Canada… Mexico… anywhere in the U.S. (Love road trips — just have inner ear and motion sickness that prevents me from flying.) But this book has lots of tips and suggestions, even if you’re an “armchair global citizen.” There’s nothing to stop you from learning about other cultures, at school, in your own living room, or at your local library.

* Did you know, for instance, that Papua New Guinea (find it on the globe) contains fewer than six million people, but has the most languages of any country — 832. Mexico has 295 native languages.

* She has to throw in her little promo’s for the Gates Foundation. Blech.

* But then rebounds with lists of movies, books and activities.

* Websites? Sure. With tips on investing responsibly, saying “no” to violence” and information on UNIFEM, UNICEF, Save the Children’s Annual Mother’s Index, Worldpulse.com and the Girl Effect.

All right. It’s worth purchasing, this one.

Happy Sunday!

— wm

Reviewed today:

Really great books tonight. None of them match up with each other, so much, but that’s okay by me, if it’s okay by you? OK!

The new picture book “Zero is the Leaves on the Tree,” was written by Betsy Franco, with illustrations by Shino Arihara (Tricycle Press, 2009, $15.99). The book begins:

“Zero is…
the shape of an egg.
Zero is a number.”

The book goes on to illustrate zero, with colorful, almost old-fashioned art and lilting words. (“…the balls in the bin at recess time,” “…the bikes in the bike rack on the last day of school,” “…the ripples in the pool before the first swimmer jumps in.”) I can see why the littles like number books so much — they provide the reader with a sense of rhythm and order. Nice.

We all know that things sometimes get very much out of rhythm when a new baby arrives. Especially if you’re an older sibling who feels left out. Amy Krouse Rosenthal’s blank journal, “The Big Sibling Book: A Journal” (Potter Style, 2009, $16.99, pages) is aimed at those siblings, and will be a keepsake for the babies, once they’re older. How about… 1) stickers 2) lots of room for photos 3) funny, funny writing “prompts,” including “If you could ask your little brother or sister anything — and he or she could talk back — what would you ask? I am fond of journals and scrapbooks, and they don’t intimidate me (hello, I write and like to make collages) but I know that a lot of people freeze up when “expected” to fill a book. (Even if that “expectation” is coming from within, and is not required by law or anything, for pete’s sake.) This is a nice format, nice layout, and cries out to be scribbled on, filled in and stickered. Same author also published “The Belly Book: A Nine-Month Journal for You and Your Growing Belly” and “Your Birthday Book: A Keepsake Journal.”

One of the most precious things I found after we lost Dear Granny was a puffy pink “This Is My Life” journal that honestly was not her style at all. Not one bit. I opened it expecting to find blank pages. (As an artist friend of mine told me, when she changed the styles of blank books she was creating, “They were just too precious. People weren’t writing in them.” Once she made them shaggier, and not as fancy, then people started scribbling.) Dear Granny had written not just one or two pages, but page after page. Books like this can really mean a lot to someone else, later on. Maybe even to you. (Smiles.)

Now on to cooking. Did I ever tell you that I hate a vegetarian lifestyle? Hate. I tell my kids, That is such a strong word, do you really hate it? Or just dislike it?

I hate that I am a lazy vegetarian cook, let’s say that. And I happen to be a woman who is married to a vegetarian man and we are parents to two vegetarian children. I refuse to do vegetable croquettes with a variety of dipping sauces, a selection of salads, beans on the side for protein, limit the cheese but don’t get all crazy vegan and… It is not my thing, I’m sorry. If I did go to all that trouble, the kids wouldn’t eat it. They live on mac and cheese, peanut butter and… air. Luft und liebe. That’s right — love and air. Steve would be happy, but I wouldn’t be. I have struggled with this whole thing for years, as those of you who are regular readers know good and well.

Here is how things typically go when I cook.

Remember my son’s infamous quote? “You are the kind of bad mommy who never cooks for her kids”??? Which he said to me at the exact moment I was midway through cooking him a delicious homemade meal? (To his credit, he also told me another time, “You are a goody-good Mommy, I love you!”) Freakin’ kids, what are you gonna do, y’know?

It’s a little ridiculous. We Americans are the fattest people in the fattest nation on Earth, and I’m sweating this? (I don’t really know if we are the fattest people on Earth, I’m just making things up now.)

My point (and I do have one) is that today I decided to cook for me. Just me. I made a delicious pot roast with cipollini onions, baby carrots, potatoes, red wine, oregano, olive oil, salt and pepper. I’ve decide that if I want to retain what small amount of sanity I have left, I must do this occasionally.

I LIKE MEAT.

It. Was. Delicious. And I didn’t have to share with anyone. Steve made homemade pesto last week, and the kids gobbled that up with spaghetti. What did Steve eat? Hmm. I think he had a shot of vodka. Poor thing. Maybe I should fix him a Pop-Tart or something?

Thank you, Julia Child, for inspiring me, you Amazon temptress. I bought volumes 1 & 2 of “Mastering the Art of French Cooking” and I am in heaven. (There are vegetable, egg, cheese, bread and DESSERT items for my family, do not worry they will not waste away.) Really wonderful cookbooks. I can’t wait until they’re splattered with sauce stains and chocolate smudges. Ahhh…

Happy Sunday, y’all. BON APPETIT!

— wm

Reviewed today:

Here’s the new thing in books: It’s the old thing. Comic books, that’s right, folks. Only now they go by the name “graphic novels.” At first I thought that meant a novel with Too Much Information, “stop being so graphic, already,” but no. It means graphics. Sometimes a few words, sometimes a lot of words, but always the art.

Artist/author Andy Runton has a series out about a cool little owl and his friends. There are a lot of ’em, including Possum, Raccoon, Butterfly and Wormy. Wormy is his best friend, I think. I had to have my son explain some of it to me because these graphic novels? They’re complex. Especially when they’re delving into Shakespeare, Robert Louis Stevenson, biographies of various historical figures… you could get lost in there. I believe that’s why the kids enjoy them.

So… “Owly, A Time to Be Brave” is the fourth book in the series. (It’s appropriate for all ages.)

Wacky Girl: “It’s really good art.”

Wacky Boy: “It’s a nice story, too.”

I think I will need to purchase the whole series. (PS — don’t forget that Diary of a Wimpy Kid 4 will be released on Oct. 12th.)

Next up:

“There is a fifth dimension beyond that which is known to man. It is a dimension as vast as space and timeless as infinity. It is the middle ground between light and shadow, between science and superstition, and it lies between the pit of man’s fears and the summit of his knowledge. This is the dimension of imagination. It is an area which we call the Twilight Zone.”

I’m a big fan of the Twilight Zone (the original, which I watched in re-runs, thank you. I did not catch it when it was first broadcast for five seasons, starting in October of 1959. Yes, that would be fifty years ago this month, you math majors out there). Serling, who was so sexy and so scary at the same time, wrote more than half of the show’s 156 episodes. Rock on.

Brilliant idea, McHargue and Kneece, to come out with a series of graphic novels (released by Walker & Company, adaptation by Mark Kneece and illustrated by Dove McHargue) that not only pays homage to Serling, but adapts the scripts in their entirety. Every word, every nuance, mattered with Serling. He really was a master at the craft.

Interesting, too, as we celebrate Banned Books Week to remember that “in the 1950s the comics Serling had enjoyed were considered subversive, a threat to America’s youth,” according to Kneece. In 1955, a Senate committee convened to investigate the “pernicious influences” of horror comics on America’s youth, and the Comics Code Authority was established to censor comics’ content.

Artistic team Stan Mack and Susan Champlin have released the first in a series of new graphic novels (Bloomsbury Children’s Books) that bring American history to life. Thank God, someone needed to. The Colonial times leave me cold, and it’s not just all that talk of Valley Forge and Bunker Hill and a bunch of old white guys. Nice job, you two. I think Nick and Penelope, the two fictional heroes, will draw the kids in. No pun intended.

re: Wilson screaming, You lie! at our esteemed President… I’m thinking…

“Black is the new president, bitch.” — Tracy Morgan

Ha. That’s what my late grandma would say. Ha! Yes, she voted for Obama. My Arkansas grandma voted for Obama. I have never been so proud.

I’m reading “Roll of Thunder, Hear My Cry” right now and I’m thinking — okay, it was written in 1976 (won the Newbery Medal in 1977), is set in 1933, skillfully deals with racism, KKK, lynchings, night riders — and this book is (UNFORTUNATELY) so relevant today. Go read it. Stay educated. Speak up!

Reviewed today:

Papi in French, Opa in Dutch and German, Dadu in Bengali… it all adds up to Grandpa. Or how about Go-Go in Haitian Creole, Lola in Tagalog, Yia-Yia in Greek? It all equals Grandma.

Tomorrow (Sunday, September 13th) is Grandparents Day, which is pretty cool. And along come these two picture books, both by author Ashley Wolff (“Miss Bindergarten Gets Ready for Kindergarten,” “Mama’s Milk” and many others; $15.99 apiece, Tricycle Press). They’re rhyming books, and both use collage art. Sweet, and a perfect gift for the grandparents (or adopted grandparent substitutes) in your life.

The Joy of Cooking (Irma S. Rombauer, Marion Rombauer Becker, and Ethan Becker, Simon & Schuster, $35, 1,132 big pages). What do you want? Five hundred new recipes? Four thousand of the most beloved Joy classics? Sure, go for it. I’ve been fond of this cookbook since my grandma gave me my first copy (paperback, now tattered and stained) when I was in high school. The hot buttered rum recipe is one of my favorites. I bought this for Steve as an anniversary gift. (A selfish, selfish anniversary gift, hahaha.) He opened it up right to the cocktail section. Man after my own heart. Our daughter loves the coconut cake recipe — Steve turned the recipe into cupcakes for her birthday and we gobbled them up.

As Julia would say (but not of this cookbook, just… in general)…

Bon appetit!

xo

wm

Reviewed today:

“Man in the Moon,” by Dotti Enderle (Delacorte Press, $14.99, 152 pages) came out last year but got hidden away in my daughter’s room and just recently reappeared. Really good Young Adult (YA) fiction, set in Texas during the summer of 1961. Janine doesn’t know what to think. She’s worried. What if her father can’t find work? Her brother, Ricky, is sick. Really sick. Too sick to play hard, too sick to go outside. Is he going to get better? Her mother is frustrated and short-tempered. Her dog Buddy is restless. Then she hears noises coming from the corn. It’s a visitor. What does he want? Great read — a quiet book, that builds in intensity.

You know Paula Deen from the Food Network? The talk show appearances? Her cookbooks? Here is the best recipe ever for puddin’ — it’s hers, and it’s called Not Yo’ Mama’s Banana Pudding. It is just u-licious, but it is not exactly low-cal so get ready.

These guys Jamie and Bobby Deen are cuties, and they’re hers, too. They grew up in Georgia, run the family restaurant in Savannah (The Lady & Sons), do guest gigs on Good Morning America and are also on the Food Network (“Road Tasted” is their show). These two are mama’s boys for sure — they’re just as adorable as she is, and aim to please.

Their third cookbook (Ballantine Books, $25, 200 pages) is highly usable, yummy and has lots of great ideas for easy, fast meals. (They timed the release for the beginning of school, cuz they know we all forget how to get dinner on the table once the schedule changes. Again.) Look for “Speedy Mini Meat Loaves,” Chicken “Scampi” Pasta, crock-pot cooking (my favorite) and on and on and on. You know three of us don’t eat meat, chicken or fish over here. The one who eats meat, the one who’s crying because dammit, chicken is easy, please eat meat, y’all? Please? Whatever. I made the Spicy Beef and New Orleans Red Rice Skillet Dinner last night, about ten minutes after I ripped open the package of books. It was fast, easy and super-good. (I left out the beef, obviously. Added some cooked brown rice, veggie broth instead of chicken and put in extra hot sauce.)

Anybody who says you can’t cook Southern and cook veggie can just kiss my grits. Leave out the bacon grease and call it a day, would you? Thank you. I am going to experiment with the Chicken and Dumplings recipe and do a veggie soup with dumplings, instead. (Or just leave in the chicken and ask my mama over for dinner.)

I’m thinking… I can recreate Southern cooking to make it vegetarian. Can I do the same with French? Cuz you know Steve and the kids won’t eat duck. Quack, quack. Wish me luck, Julia. I’m thinking of you, up there in foodie heaven. Just ordered volumes 1 & 2 of “Mastering the Art of French Cooking.” Will avoid aspics. Just sayin’.

Bon appetit!

— wm

Can’t call these reviews, yet, except for Beverly Cleary’s classic “Ramona and Her Father.” Such a good book, and really fitting for a lot of us right now, sad to say. This is the one where Ramona’s dad loses his job and the whole family struggles. It’s especially poignant when you realize that the book grew out of Cleary’s own experiences during the Depression, and when you realize that things just go how they go sometimes, don’t they? You just have got to hang on for the ride.

I’m ready to start “I Sold My Soul on eBay: Viewing Faith Through An Atheist’s Eyes,” by Hemant Mehta. And I’m loving the hell out of Kim John Payne, M.Ed., and Lisa M. Ross’s text, “Simplicity Parenting.”

That one is subtitled “Using the Extraordinary Power of Less to Raise Calmer, Happier, and More Secure Kids” (Ballantine Books, $25, 235 pages). I know, you’re probably thinking what I’m thinking, especially when next you hear “Waldorf,” “fewer toys,” “what is wrong with this madcap world we live in?” etc. You’re thinking it’s one of those ploys to purchase a bunch more plastic containers, and organize your life via small, tasteful throw rugs and be-tasseled pillows and a lot of shiny new stuff in shiny new spaces?

You were, weren’t you?

It is not that kind of book.

You will figure that out for yourself when the author talks about his experiences working with refugee children at camps in Jakarta and Cambodia. He then moved to England, completed training as a Waldorf teacher, and worked in school settings and in private practice as a counselor. He started noticing some similarities between the groups he had worked with. He was seeing anger, often explosive; nervousness; a need to be in control, especially around bedtime and food; they were mistrustful of people; they were uncertain in new situations.

Sounds like Post-Traumatic Stress, no? He started treating it as that, with good effect.

I can’t do Payne justice here — he really delves into it with this book. He has some good, workable solutions to the problems a lot of us are facing, as parents and as a global community.

Next up (and most of these are the recommendations of my girlfriend L, who talked books with me at bunco. Books, bunco, food, four kinds of dessert. What more could you want?)… the list: “Parenting Beyond Belief: On Raising Ethical, Caring Kids Without Religion” and “Raising Freethinkers: A Practical Guide for Parenting Beyond Belief,” by Dale McGowan, et al; Sapphire’s “Push: A Novel” and much, much more. If I can stay awake for all of this, that is. I went back to work today!!! Big clap hands.

Reading this week:

Reviewed today:

It’s happened. I’ve finally found a book by Marge Piercy that I like even more than “Woman on the Edge of Time” and “Gone to Soldiers.” And I loved those books — they’re both on my top 15 list of my favorite books of all time. In “Sex Wars, A Novel of Gilded Age New York” (Harper Perennial, $14.95, 411 pages), Piercy gives us a novel set, roughly, from 1862-1916. I’ve always been fascinated by the period around and between the Civil War and the First World War. Must be all those readings of “A Tree Grows in Brooklyn,” or my mom’s family’s obsession (and my unwillingness to get on board) with the Civil War. Piercy did a slam-bang job with historical accuracy, and has gifted us with a novel that features Elizabeth Cady Stanton, Victoria Woodhull and her sister, Tennessee “Tennie” Claflin and their clan, Susan B. Anthony, Anthony Comstock, and my new favorite fictional heroine, Freydeh Levin, who refuses to let life’s circumstances kick her ass.

Such a good book, I loved it. It’s sexy, it’s funny, it makes you understand the era in a whole new way. It’s as if Piercy time-traveled back to those days and let you sneak along, too. (Those of you who are fans of “Woman on the Edge of Time” know how well she handles a time-travel.) Great book, read it.

Dewey, Dewey, Dewey Readmore Books — awesome cat, awesome name. Who hasn’t heard the story of the fluffy orange kitty who was discovered in the library bookdrop one cold freezy morning in Spencer, Iowa, and went on to get local, national and international attention? Dewey’s story has now been committed to print in “Dewey, the Small-Town Library Cat Who Touched the World” (Grand Central Publishing, $19.99, 277 pages.) He lived in the library his whole life, bringing joy to the patrons and staff, but especially to the library director, Vicki Myron. Hers is an amazing success story, and this librarian was inspired by her no-nonsense approach, her chutzpah and her wisdom. (You will find the library’s website here.)

Ms. Myron’s motto:

“Find your place. Be happy with what you have. Treat everyone well. Live a good life. It isn’t about material things; it’s about love. And you can never anticipate love.”

Perfect. I love a good animal story, I must be honest here. This one was extra-satisfying.

I was hoping they’d do this, and they did! A young readers’ version of Dewey’s story will be released soon. (That’s what you get when you have a librarian in charge of things. Smiles.)

You’ve got yer “Daring Book for Girls,” yer “Wisdom and Wonder Pocket Daring Book for Girls,” yer “Pocket Daring Book for Girls, Things to Do,” and now comes the “Double-Daring Book for Girls” (Andrea J. Buchanan & Miriam Peskowitz, Collins Books, $18, 277 pages). Wacky Girl sez: “I like these ‘Daring’ books, they’re very good. Especially for when you’re bored.” And that, my friends, is high praise for a 10-year-old. Her favorite sections were the ones on jokes, art, and “making stuff,” like Japanese lanterns, sand castles, scarecrows and all kinds of cool projects. Here is their homepage.

“There’s fun stuff, uh-huh. It’s just fun.”

We took the book out in the yard with us when we were star-gazing last week — pretty cool.

Happy Thursday, and adieu.

— WM

Reviewed today:

Sophie Kinsella is good. Good plotting, good characters, good reading. (And not just summer reading, either. She gets a rep for that because of her popular “Shopaholic” series, but I like to read her year round.) I loved “Remember Me?” even though I just dug through my archives and it looks like I forgot to review it. Whoops.

Her new one, “Twenties Girl,” (Dial Press) is a lot of fun. The set-up: a 20s-something woman, Lara Lington, who is in work and love trouble, is required to attend the funeral of her 105-year-old great-auntie, Sadie. Sadie, you would think, would be occupied. Being dead and all. But no — she is at the funeral (but seen only by Lara) and demanding to know the whereabouts of her necklace. Good reading.

Judy Blume’s latest, “Friend or Fiend?” (Delacorte Press, $12.99, 109 pages) stars two of my favorite Blume characters, the Pain and the Great One, aka first-grade Jake and third-grade Abigail. They still aren’t getting along that well, but they’re having a lot of fun, anyway. Blume also gives us the backstory of one Fluzzy, the cat the siblings fight over. What happened on that dark and stormy night? We enjoyed this one a lot at our house, especially the New York scenes with the Pain and the Great Ones hideous cousins. Perfect for readers up to fourth- or fifth-grade.

“Monsterology” (by Dr. Ernest Drake, edited by Dugald A. Steer, Candlewick Press, $19.99)… where do I start with the “‘Ology” books? We have several of them at our house, and enjoy them all. They’re big, they’re fancy, they’re not too expensive, and they’re not too precious. By that I mean — even with the fold-out maps, the “samples” of amber, hippogriff feathers, the “scrap of spell-casting parchment for attracting mermaids” and all the other oodles of goodies — they’re still usable. You can play with them, pore over them, really use and learn from them and they don’t (easily) fall apart at the seams. I like that in a book, especially a fancy one.

This one features several of Wacky Boy’s favorites: the Loch Ness Monster, the Hippogriff, the Mermaids and Mermen. We like the Griffins. We appreciate the “challenges to the charlatans.” And the map of “Fabulous Creatures of the World”? Fabulous. Nice work, team.

Whew! That’s right. A ginormous box of books arrived today… SUMMER READING. (more…)