Cookbooks Galore

Cookbooks I'd Like to Add to my Collection

Of course I probably need another cookbook like I need a hole in my head. What can I say I'm addicted to books, cookbooks included. I could say that one of my new year's resolutions is to eat healthier, and to cut out fast food, and that I need new recipes. But instead, I'll just present the books I'd like to have.

1) Julie & Julia by Julie Powell. It started as a blog, was made into a movie, and reminded me that cooking can be fun (living alone it can get boring).

2) Mastering the Art of French Cooking by Julia Child. No, I have no desire to recreate Julie Powell's experiment. What I would like to do is master the art of making the 5 mother sauces (and no I don't know all of the names, yet).

3) Ace of Cakes by Duff Goldman. I'm already pretty good at baking cakes. I just like watching the show.

4) More Diners, Drive-Ins and Dives by Guy Fieri. I love this show: seeing what other people have come up with, and the off beat places to visit (when I get the chance). It must be time for a road trip.

5) Good Eats by Alton Brown. He not only explains the what of cooking but the why and the how. He keeps the recipes simple (relatively) and the science interesting. And funny.

6) Gear for Your Kitchen by Alton Brown. You have to gear to be a kitchen wizard, and some of the cooking gear is really cool. What I really need, though, is a bigger kitchen to use my gear in.

7) Food Network Favorites from the chefs of Food Network. Do I really need to say anything? :)

8) Food Network Kitchens Favorite Recipes- recipes from the behind the scenes staff at the food network.

9) Cat Cora's Kitchen- It's always interesting watching her on Iron Chef America and seeing what she cooks up with the secret ingredients.

10) Paula Deen's The Deen Family Cookbook. Again. What more needs to be said?

11) Tyler's Ultimate- by Tyler Florence. He's very good at explaining things as he goes on his show. And his recipes all sound incredible.

12) Barefoot in Paris by Ina Garten. French cooking explained by an American, the secret of Julia Child's success.

13) Quick Fix Meals by Robin Miller- my weeks don't seem to work quite the way hers do. But just making the first meal, with enough to heat up as left overs would be a big help.

Thursday Thirteen #7- Post Storm List

Last week at this time, we were slammed by the storm some people have started calling the Nor'Ida. If you want to see some amazing pictures of the damage done in the area (and the barge it left on the sand in Virginia Beach) go to Pilotonline and check them out. In the meantime, here is a list: 13 Books with Storm in the title. Enjoy. :)

1) Into the Storm by Suzanne Brockmann

2) Cape Storm by Rachel Caine


3) Storm Glass by Maria V. Snyder

4) Storm Cycle by Iris Johansen and Roy Johansen

5) The Gathering Storm by Robert Jordan

6) The Perfect Storm by Sebastian Junger

7) A Storm of Swords by George R.R. Martin

8) Isaac's Storm by Eric Larson

9) Cooking Up a Storm by Marcelle Bienvenu and Judy Walker

10) A Pearl in the Storm by Tori Murden McClure

11) Storm of Visions by Christina Dodd

12) Storm Front by Jim Butcher

13) Storm Born by Rachel Caine

SoNo in the news

On Thursday October 8, the South Norfolk Memorial Library was in the news, and on tv, for the dedication of the Memorial Plaque in honor of the students of the old South Norfolk High School who served in World War II. The plaque was almost lost when the old high school was demolished, but former student and WWII veteran, Raymond Harper, saved the plaque and with help from city officials restored it before giving it to the library. Here is a link to the newscast from Wavy TV-10.

Banned Books Week

In honor of Banned Books Week, I am posting the list of the top ten most frequently challenged books of 2008.

1) And Tango Makes Three, by Justin Richardson and Peter Parnell
2) His Dark Materials trilogy, by Philip Pullman
3) TTYL; TTFN; L8R, G8R (series), by Lauren Myracle
4) Scary Stories (series), by Alvin Schwartz
5) Bless Me, Ultima, by Rudolfo Anaya
6) The Perks of Being a Wallflower, by Stephen Chbosky
7) Gossip Girl (series), by Cecily von Ziegesar
8) Uncle Bobby's Wedding, by Sarah S. Brannen
9) The Kite Runner, by Khaled Hosseini
10) Flashcards of My Life, by Charise Mericle Harper

They also put out a list of classics that have been banned or challenged. This is the list for the Radcliffe Publishing Course Top 100 Novels of the 20th Century, the books that have been banned or challenged are in bold.

1. The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald
2. The Catcher in the Rye by J.D. Salinger
3. The Grapes of Wrath by John Steinbeck
4. To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee
5. The Color Purple by Alice Walker
6. Ulysses by James Joyce
7. Beloved by Toni Morrison
8. The Lord of the Flies by William Golding
9. 1984 by George Orwell
10. The Sound and the Fury by William Faulkner
11. Lolita by Vladmir Nabokov
12. Of Mice and Men by John Steinbeck
13. Charlotte's Web by E. B. White
14. A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man by James Joyce
15. Catch-22 by Joseph Heller
16. Brave New World by Aldous Huxley
17. Animal Farm by George Orwell
18. The Sun Also Rises by Ernest Hemingway
19. As I Lay Dying by William Faulkner
20. A Farewell to Arms by Ernest Hemingway
21. Heart of Darkness by Joseph Conrad
22. Winnie-the-Pooh by A. A. Milne
23. Their Eyes are Watching God by Zora Neale Hurston
24. Invisible Man by Ralph Ellison
25. Song of Solomon by Toni Morrison
26. Gone with the Wind by Margaret Mitchell
27. Native Son by Richard Wright
28. One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest by Ken Kesey
29. Slaughterhouse-Five by Kurt Vonnegut
30. For Whom the Bell Tolls by Ernest Hemingway
31. On the Road by Jack Kerouac
32. The Old Man and the Sea by Ernest Hemingway
33. The Call of the Wild by Jack London
34. To the Lighthouse by Virginia Woolf
35. Portrait of a Lady by Henry James
36. Go Tell it on the Mountain by James Baldwin
37. The World According to Garp by John Irving
38. All the King's Men by Robert Penn Warren
39. A Room with a View by E. M. Forster
40. The Lord of the Rings by J. R. R. Tolkien
41. Schindler's List by Thomas Keneally
42. The Age of Innocence by Edith Wharton
43. The Fountainhead by Ayn Rand
44. Finnegans Wake by James Joyce
45. The Jungle by Upton Sinclair
46. Mrs. Dalloway by Virginia Woolf
47. The Wonderful Wizard of Oz by L. Frank Baum
48. Lady Chatterley's Lover by D. H. Lawrence
49. A Clockwork Orange by Anthony Burgess
50. The Awakening by Kate Chopin
51. My Antonia by Willa Cather
52. Howards End by E. M. Forster
53. In Cold Blood by Truman Capote
54. Franny and Zooey by J.D. Salinger
55. The Satanic Verses by Salman Rushdie
56. Jazz by Toni Morrison
57. Sophie's Choice by William Styron
58. Absalom, Absalom! by William Faulkner
59. A Passage to India by E. M. Forster
60. Ethan Frome by Edith Wharton
61. A Good Man Is Hard to Find by Flannery O'Connor
62. Tender Is the Night by F. Scott Fitzgerald
63. Orlando by Virginia Woolf
64. Sons and Lovers by D. H. Lawrence
65. Bonfire of the Vanities by Tom Wolfe
66. Cat's Cradle by Kurt Vonnegut
67. A Separate Peace by John Knowles
68. Light in August by William Faulkner
69. The Wings of the Dove by Henry James
70. Things Fall Apart by Chinua Achebe
71. Rebecca by Daphne du Maurier
72. A Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy by Douglas Adams
73. Naked Lunch by William S. Burroughs
74. Brideshead Revisited by Evelyn Waugh
75. Women in Love by D. H. Lawrence
76. Look Homeward, Angel by Thomas Wolfe
77. In Our Time by Ernest Hemingway
78. The Autobiography of Alice B. Toklas by Gertrude Stein
79. The Maltese Falcon by Dashiell Hammett
80. The Naked and the Dead by Norman Mailer
81. Wide Sargasso Sea by Jean Rhys
82. White Noise by Don DeLillo
83. O Pioneers! by Willa Cather
84. Tropic of Cancer by Henry Miller
85. The War of the Worlds by H. G. Wells
86. Lord Jim by Joseph Conrad
87. The Bostonians by Henry James
88. An American Tragedy by Theodore Dreiser
89. Death Comes for the Archbishop by Willa Cather
90. The Wind in the Willows by Kenneth Grahame
91. This Side of Paradise by F. Scott Fitzgerald
92. Atlas Shrugged by Ayn Rand
93. The French Lieutenant's Woman by John Fowles
94. Babbitt by Sinclair Lewis
95. Kim by Rudyard Kipling
96. The Beautiful and the Damned by F. Scott Fitzgerald
97. Rabbit, Run by John Updike
98. Where Angels Fear to Tread by E. M. Forster
99. Main Street by Sinclair Lewis
100. Midnight's Children by Salman Rushdie


So. How many have you read? Go. Celebrate your freedom. Read a book.

Thirteen Books on my To Be Read List

It's not Thursday, so this isn't exactly a Thursday Thirteen. But it's been so long since I posted anything, I was feeling guilty for neglecting my blogs. So here is a list of 13 YA series on my to be read list (stack, pile, mountain range). They are:


1) Darkest Powers Series by Kelley Armstrong (Book 1- The Summoning)- The first two are The Summoning and The Awakening. The third book in the trilogy is The Reckoning, due out May 2010. You can read about it here.

2) The Chronicles of Vladimir Tod by Heather Brewer (Book 1- Eighth Grade Bites)- The first two are Eighth Grade Bites and Nineth Grade Slays. The series has an interesting premise, lots of books have vampires going through high school, but in this he is going through all of this for the first time. So in addition to dealing with puberty and school, he has to deal with being a vampire (and must remember not to bite his friends). You can read more about it here.

3) The Morganville Vampire Series by Rachel Caine (Book 1- Glass Houses). The first two are Glass Houses and The Dead Girls Dance. You can read more about them here.

4) The House of Night Series by P.C. Cast & Kristin Cast-(Book 1- Marked) The first two books are Marked and Betrayed. You can read more about it here.

5) The Mortal Instruments Series by Cassandra Clare (Book 1- City of Bones). The first two books are City of Bones and City of Ashes. You can read more about it here.

6) Wicked Lovely Series by Melissa Marr- the first two books in the series are Wicked Lovely and Ink Exchange. Click here for the author's website.

7) The Vampire Academy Series by Richelle Mead- the first two in this series are Vampire Academy and Frostbite, followed by Shadow Kiss and Blood Promise. Click here for the author's website.

8) The Immortals by Alyson Noel- the first two in the series are Evermore and Blue Moon. Click here for the author's website.

9) Thirst No. 1 by Christopher Pike. Thirst No. 2 comes out in January 2010.

10) Vampire Kisses by Ellen Schreiber- the first two are The Beginning and Kissing Coffins.

11) The Night World Series by L.J. Smith- the first nine have been packaged into three volumes. The first volume includes Secret Vampire, Daughters of Darkness, and Spellbinder. You can go here for the author's website

12) The Vampire Diaries is another series by L.J. Smith, and has also been turned into a TV series. I've only seen the first episode but it looked promising (I'm not a regular tv watcher- my schedule is not very regular and I never remember when things are on, so don't judge it by me).

13) Blue is for Nightmares Series- the first two are Blue is for Nightmares and White is for Magic. The fifth is actually a graphic novel titled Black is for Beginnings. The author's website is here.

So. What's on your list? :)

Thursday Thirteen #6

Thirteen Authors I Met (Or Met Again)
at the Romantic Times Booklover Convention in Orlando last week

I intended to post blog entries while in Orlando,the hotel's high speed internet was... wishful thinking. I think the problem was too many people trying to use it at one time (at any time- day or night) and there was just too much to do and too many people to see that blogging did not happen. But I did get to talk with authors. Lots of authors.

1) Mario Acevedo- I saw him on a panel for humor in paranormals. His books include: Nymphos of Rocky Flats and Jailbait Zombie (and no I haven't read them. Yet. They are on the mountain known as to be read- the very big mountain).

2)Vivi Anna- writes vampires for Silhouette Nocturne Series- titles include: Vampire's Quest and Veiled Truth. I have read some, not all, the others are on Mt. TBR (think Everest).

3) Michele Bardsley- writes a series set in Broken Heart, Oklahoma, where all of the single parents are turned into vampires, and their world is turned upside down. Books include: I'm the Vampire, That's Why and Over My Dead Body.

4) Jennifer Lynn Barnes- whose books include Tattoo, Fate, and The Squad Series.

5) Anya Bast- writes a series about elemental witches. Titles include: Witch Heart, Witch Fire, and Witch Blood.

6) Jenna Black- Books are The Devil Inside, The Devil You Know, and The Devil's Due- about a possessed exorcist.

7)Dakota Cassidy- has written three books about a trio of friends and their accidental exposure to the paranormal. Titles include: The Accidental Werewolf, Accidentally Dead, and The Accidental Human. She has a new book coming out in June- Kiss and Hell.

8)Angie Fox- has two books out- The Accidental Demon Slayer and The Dangerous Book for Demon Slayers (both are on Mt. TBR)

9)Stacia Kane- author of Personal Demons and Demon Inside due out in July.

10) Judi McCoy- author of a new dog-walker mystery series- the first title is Hounding the Pavement.

11) Michelle Rowen- writes vampire books with titles such as Bitten and Smitten, Stakes and Stilletos, and Lady & the Vamp.

12) Jeri Smith-Ready-writes a cool book about a radio station where the djs are all vampires called Wicked Game. Book 2, Bad to the Bone, comes out in May.

13) Jeanne C. Stein- her series protagonist, Anna Strong, is a bounty hunter working with her partner when the bounty they're chasing attacks her and turns her into a vampire. I've only read the first two so far, but am looking forward to reading more.

Bonus Photo- L.A. Banks- who couldn't stay for the bookfair (darn it all), but was on the vampire panel I went to. I've only read the first book in her series, but am interested to see where she goes from there.