Showing posts with label sarah's picks. Show all posts
Showing posts with label sarah's picks. Show all posts
Jul 3, 2018
Feb 1, 2016
The elegance of the hedgehog - Muriel Barbery
Summary: In an elegant apartment building inhabited by bourgeois families, Reně, the concierge, and Paloma, a twelve-year-old genius, hide both their true talents and their finest qualities from a world they suspect cannot or will not appreciate them. They discover their kindred souls when a wealthy Japanese man named Kakuro Ozu arrives in the building. Only he is able to gain Paloma's trust and to see through Reně's timeworn disguise to the secret that haunts her.
Kirkus Reviews
The second novel (but first to be published in the United States) from France-based author Barbery teaches philosophical lessons by shrewdly exposing rich secret lives hidden beneath conventional exteriors.Renée Michel has been the concierge at an apartment building in Paris for 27 years. Uneducated, widowed, ugly, short and plump, she looks like any other French apartment-house janitor, but Mme Michel is by no means what she seems. A "proletarian autodidact," she has broad cultural appetites—for the writings of Marx and Kant, the novels of Tolstoy, the films of Ozu and Wenders. She ponders philosophical questions and holds scathing opinions about some of the wealthy tenants of the apartments she maintains, but she is careful to keep her intelligence concealed, having learned from her sister's experience the dangers of using her mind in defiance of her class. Similarly, 12-year-old Paloma Josse, daughter of one of the well-connected tenant families, shields her erudition, philosophical inclinations, criticism—and also her dreams of suicide. But when a new Japanese tenant, Kakuro Ozu, moves in, everything changes for both females. He detects their intelligence and invites them into his cultured life. Curious and deeply fulfilling friendships blossom among the three, offering Paloma and Renée freedom from the mental prisons confining them.With its refined taste and political perspective, this is an elegant, light-spirited and very European adult fable. Copyright Kirkus 2008 Kirkus/BPI Communications. All rights reserved.
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Jan 1, 2016
Mad hungry cravings - Lucinda Scala Quinn
Library Journal Reviews
Mad Hungry host Quinn (executive food editor, Martha Stewart Living Omnimedia) here encourages busy families to make their favorite restaurant foods (e.g., Chicken Tikka Masala, Deep-Dish Pizza) at home, arguing that the home-cooked versions will be fresh, nutritious, and less expensive. After offering tips on how to simplify cooking routines and stock a multiethnic pantry, she shares recipes for breakfasts, mains, sides, snacks, drinks, and sweets. VERDICT This title will appeal to readers looking for indulgent home-cooked recipes to satisfy fast-food cravings. For a healthier take, try Devin Alexander's Fast Food Fix.
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Sharaz-de: tales from the Arabian nights - Sergio Toppi
Publishers Weekly Reviews
The late Toppi has been a longtime star of the European comics scene, yet English translations of his highly regarded works have been hard to come by for years. Sharaz-De, published in lavish hardcover, shows his exquisite illustrations at their best. The tale is familiar: faced with execution in the morning, Sharaz-De spins tale after tale for her barbaric king, with each story delaying her impending doom. Two chapters are given over to vibrant watercolors, adding a psychedelic undertone to the tightly woven ink work elsewhere, as jinn, devils, and selfish men do battle upon the pages. Toppi does not use conventional comic panels, but allows his illustrations to sprawl behind and around them, with a singular illustration depicting multiple aspects of the story depending on where your eye first lands. A foreword from Walter Simonson pays tribute to the artist, who died in August, 2012. The Tales from the Arabian Nights may be well enough known, but Toppi's unparalleled skill at twisting fine art, design, and comic book structure together render this a real treat. (Dec.)
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Dec 3, 2015
Dreamblood Series - N.K. Jemisin
Summary: In a city where Gatherers harvest the magic of the sleeping mind and use it to judge the corrupt, Ehiru, the most famous of the city's Gatherers, learns that he must protect the woman he was sent to kill or watch the city be devoured by forbidden magic. - (Baker & Taylor)
Publishers Weekly Reviews
Jemisin's gripping series launch immerses readers in an unfamiliar but enthralling world as well as a rousing political and supernatural adventure. In Gujaareh, a city-state reminiscent of ancient Egypt (though the differences far outnumber the similarities), dreams are the source of magic, and it is Gatherer Ehiru's job to collect the mystical life-giving dreamblood from the dying—and those deemed too "corrupt" to live. Devout and loyal, Ehiru is slow to accept that heretical evil lurks behind Gujaareh's unblemished facade; only after encountering Sunandi, a foreign spy who is far less naïve about Gujaareh's "mad bitch" goddess and her unscrupulous worshippers, does Ehiru begin to glimpse the rot that extends up to the pinnacle of Gujaareh's social pyramid. As a hideous monster preys on the innocent, Ehiru's faith is tested in a crisis of world-shaking proportions. Rather than merely appropriating various details from Earth's past and present, Jemisin (the Inheritance Trilogy) has created a fully developed secondary world that is an organic whole. Agent: Lucienne Diver, the Knight Agency. (May)
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Nov 11, 2015
Fire logic - Laurie J Marks
Booklist Reviews
/*Starred Review*/ Zanja is an emissary for her people, a peaceful mountain tribe of artisans in the land of Shaftal. While traveling with her mentor, the two witness the destruction of the ruling House of Lilterwess by the warring Sainnites, who have plagued all Shaftal for 15 years. Worse yet, the G'deon, the Earth witch who governed Shaftal, has died without an heir for the first time in history, leaving the Shaftali vulnerable to attack. A small army of resistance is being swiftly run down as the Sainnites make steady progress in their attempts to gain control of Shaftal. The country's fate now lies in the hands of just three persons: Emil the Paladin, Zanja the homeless diplomat, and Karis, a half-blood giant with a dark past and a paralyzing addiction. Marks is an absolute master of fantasy in this book. Her characters are beautifully drawn, showing tremendous emotional depth and strength as they endure the unendurable and strive always to do the right thing, and her unusual use of the elemental forces central to her characters' lives gives the book a big boost. This is read-it-straight-through adventure! ((Reviewed June 1 & 15, 2002)) Copyright 2002 Booklist Reviews
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Oct 16, 2015
Rivers of London Series - Ben Aaronovitch
Summary: My name is Peter Grant and until January I was just probationary constable in that mighty army for justice known to all right-thinking people as the Metropolitan Police Service (and as the Filth to everybody else). My only concerns in life were how to avoid a transfer to the Case Progression Unit - we do paperwork so real coppers don't have to - and finding a way to climb into the panties of the outrageously perky WPC Leslie May. Then one night, in pursuance of a murder inquiry, I tried to take a witness statement from someone who was dead but disturbingly voluble, and that brought me to the attention of Inspector Nightingale, the last wizard in England. Now I'm a Detective Constable and a trainee wizard, the first apprentice in fifty years, and my world has become somewhat more complicated: nests of vampires in Purley, negotiating a truce between the warring god and goddess of the Thames, and digging up graves in Covent Garden ...and there's something festering at the heart of the city I love, a malicious vengeful spirit that takes ordinary Londoners and twists them into grotesque mannequins to act out its drama of violence and despair. The spirit of riot and rebellion has awakened in the city, and it's falling to me to bring order out of chaos - or die trying.
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Sep 23, 2015
Baby-Sitters Club graphic novels - Ann Martin
Summary: Based on Ann M. Martin's bestselling series, America's favorite baby-sitters are back -- this time, in a heart-warming and hilarious graphic novel.
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The judge (DVD)
Summary: Big city lawyer Hank Palmer returns to his childhood home where his estranged father, the town's judge, is suspected of murder. He sets out to discover the truth and along the way reconnects with the family he walked away from years before.
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Range of ghosts - Elizabeth Bear
Summary: Going into exile after barely escaping a war waged by his cousin and brother, Temur, the grandson and heir of the Great Khan, teams up against an enemy cult with former princess Samarkar, who after a series of bitter betrayals has pursued a life of magical study.
Kirkus Reviews
Beginning of a new historical-fantasy trilogy, set in the same Mongol Khanate–style universe as the short novel Bone and Jewel Creatures (2010). Along the Celadon Highway, the empire of the Great Khagan is embroiled in civil war. A grandson, Temur, supported his defeated elder brother in terrible battles against his usurping uncle Qori Buqa. In the country of the Eternal Sky, a moon sails in the heavens for each of Mongke Khagan's sons and grandsons. Once there were over a hundred, now less than a third remain, Temur's Iron Moon among them. Though badly wounded, Temur survives, attaches himself to one of the wandering clans of the steppes and takes Edene as his woman. Meanwhile Qori Buqa allies himself with al-Sepehr, an ambitious renegade blood-sorcerer cultist of the Uthman Caliphate. Al-Sepehr raises an army of ghosts to kill Temur, but fails; instead the sorcerer snatches Edene and brings her to his stronghold of Al-Din. Meanwhile, Samarkar, a wizard of Tsarepheth in the Rasan Empire, where another, less bloody, power struggle is going on, learns of sorcerous doings in the city Qeshqer and travels to investigate. Here she meets Temur, who's searching for Edene. They will be joined by Hrahima, a huge human-tiger Cho-tse, who has traveled from Ctesifon with more bad news. The Khagan Empire is Temur's to claim--if he can survive the plots of Qori Buqa. This lean, sinewy, visceral narrative, set forth in extraordinarily vivid prose full of telling detail, conveys a remarkable sense of time and place, where the characters belong to the landscape and whose personalities derive naturally from it. Though the book is not self-contained, Bear provides this opener with enough of a resolution to satisfy while whetting the appetite for more. Gripping, perfectly balanced and highly recommended. Copyright Kirkus 2012 Kirkus/BPI Communications.All rights reserved.
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Jul 2, 2015
Midnight riot - Ben Aaronovitch
Summary: When his ability to speak with the lingering dead brings him to the attention of Detective Chief Inspector Thomas Nightingale, who investigates paranormal crimes, Probationary Constable Peter Grant is drawn into a world where an ancient evil is making a comeback on a rising tide of murder and dark magic. Original. - (Baker & Taylor)
Publishers Weekly Reviews
In this fast-paced paranormal police procedural, Aaronovitch introduces Peter Grant, a rookie cop who can see ghosts. This unusual talent saves him from a potential life of office work when Chief Insp. Thomas Nightingale sends him for wizard training. Britain's police force has long known of the supernatural, and Grant is to assist Nightingale in solving many of London's magical problems—most notably, the mysterious string of violent attacks that tend to end with the perpetrator's face falling off. As the brutal epidemic spreads, Grant must race to finish his magic lessons and solve an ages-long dispute between the rivers of Britain. Though the novel sometimes feels just a little too jam-packed with plot points and adventures, it's witty, fun, and full of vivid characters, and the plot twists will keep even seasoned mystery fans guessing. (Feb.)
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Jun 1, 2015
Texts from Jane Eyre - Marllory Ortberg
"Hilariously imagined text conversations--the passive aggressive, the clever, and the strange--from classic and modern literary figures, from Scarlett O'Hara to Jessica Wakefield. Mallory Ortberg, the co-creator of the cult-favorite website The Toast, presents this whimsical collection of hysterical text conversations from your favorite literary characters. Everyone knows that if Scarlett O'Hara had an unlimited text-and-data plan, she'd constantly try to tempt Ashley away from Melanie with suggestive messages. If Mr. Rochester could text Jane Eyre, his ardent missives would obviously be in all-caps. And Daisy Buchanan would not only text while driving, she'd text you to pick her up after she totaled her car. Based on the popular web-feature, Texts from Jane Eyre is a witty, irreverent mashup that brings the characters from your favorite books into the twenty-first century"-- - (Baker & Taylor)
Library Journal Reviews
This is the best kind of English-major humor. Ortberg, cocreator of the website The Toast, has a wicked sense of humor and an enviable grip on roughly the entire Western literary canon. The book consists of text conversations between notable fictional characters and authors, who are characters in their own right, such as Lord Byron, Henry David Thoreau, and Emily Dickinson. It's loosely arranged by literary era. A final section includes more modern authors (Cormac McCarthy), works (Daphne du Maurier's Rebecca), and literary phenomena (the "American Girl" series, The Hunger Games, Harry Potter books, etc.). Conversations involving Great Expectations and Little Women are particularly entertaining. There's not a weak point in the book; it's terrific, snicker-inducing fun throughout. For the uninitiated, this title may serve as a gateway drug for The Toast. VERDICT Bibliophiles who enjoy their humor laced with snark will be thrilled to find this book, which is probably the only published work containing texts from Medea, Scarlett O'Hara, and Jessica Wakefield. [See Prepub Alert, 6/2/14.]—Audrey Snowden, Orrington P.L., ME
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Dec 1, 2014
The Smitten Kitchen Cookbook - Deb Perelman
The Smitten Kitchen Cookbook - Perelman, DebSummary: The award-winning blogger for Smitten Kitchen presents a long-awaited first cookbook of 100 new and favorite recipes, from Mushroom Bourguignon and Pancetta to Buttered Popcorn Cookies and Chocolate Hazelnut Layer Cake, in a volume that features adapted options for busy home cooks.
Booklist Reviews
*Starred Review* Wildly popular food blogger and self-proclaimed obsessive self-taught cook and photographer Perelman's exhaustive research in her tiny NYC kitchen yields some—lucky for us!—spectacular results in beautiful full color. The chatty warmth of her voice in the friendly, blog-like entry that accompanies each recipe is matched only by her warming food: hearty veggie main dishes relying on seasonal ingredients (e.g., spaghetti-squash and black-bean tacos), carnivorous delights belying her former vegetarianism (e.g., pistachio masala lamb chops), and, testing one's ability to sit through even the most delicious meals, some impressive desserts (e.g., peach dumplings with bourbon hard sauce). Perelman does her part to keep readers from ever resorting to—that dirty word—a mix and even includes an exceedingly approachable brioche in the form of a chocolate-chip pretzel. With an efficient approach to gourmandise and a giddily iconoclastic take on traditional recipes, such as replacing beef with mushrooms in a facile bourguignon and making a classic lemon cake with grapefruit instead, Perelman only includes the fussier versions of ingredients or techniques when she's proven that they will make the end results that much better
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Nov 1, 2014
Pomegranates & Pine Nuts - Bethany Kehdy
Pomegranates & Pine Nuts: A Stunning Collection of Lebanese, Moroccan and Persian Recipes - Kehdy, BethanySummary: Provides 100+ new recipes that will introduce you to the wonders of the Middle East and change any thought you might have had that this hearty cuisine is complicated or laborious.
Publishers Weekly Reviews
In her first cookbook, Kehdy tackles the cuisine of both her personal and her ethnic past. Having written her own food blog, she currently works as a recipe developer and food writer; the next step was obviously a book paying homage to the recipes of her history. With sections covering the entire meal, from mezze to dessert, for both carnivores and vegetarians, the book covers a great deal of ground. From simple Middle Eastern takes on classic dishes like Corn-on-the-Kabab and Ma'amoul Shortbread Cookies to the more complex, traditional Tamarind & Herb Mackerel Stew and Chicken Basteeya (although this is a little experimental, as classic basteeya is made with pigeon). Additional sections cover basics such as what should be kept in a "Middle Eastern and North African pantry" and "basic recipes and methods," in which many of the classical sauces, dipping sauces, ingredients, and techniques for creating the delicacies are covered. Kehdy's book presents an entire culinary world and tradition, ready to excite and challenge the Middle Eastern and North African eater.
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Breakfast for Dinner - Lyndsay Landis
Breakfast for Dinner: Recipes for Frittata Florentine, Huevos Rancheros, Sunny-Side Up Burgers, and More! - Landis, LyndsaySummary: Offers recipes for typical breakfast dishes with an added twist to make them appropriate for dinner, including bacon fried rice, breakfast ravioli, egg and chorizo burritos, and cornmeal pancakes with beer-braised short ribs.
Library Journal Reviews
With such recipes as Nova Lox Bruschetta, Bacon Fried Rice, and Doughnut Fudge Sundaes, Landis and her husband/co-blogger Hackbarth bring elegance, ethnic variety, and whimsy to breakfast favorites served as dinner. If you'd like to entertain guests with creative cocktails and appetizers, or settle down to a comforting dinner, this cookbook will give you plenty of choices, from Bacon Old-Fashioneds and Parmesan Beignets to Habanero-Cheddar Bread Pudding. VERDICT Bringing depth to what could have been a trite concept, this is a fun, versatile, and beautifully photographed collection.
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