Books 'Turn Up in Your Life When You Most Need Them'
"I think books are like people, in the sense that they'll turn up in your life when you most need them. After my father died, the book that sort of saved my life was Gabriel García Márquez's novel One Hundred Years of Solitude. Because of that experience, I firmly believe there are books whose greatness actually enables you to live, to do something. And sometimes, human beings need story and narrative more than they need nourishment and food."
--Actress Emma Thompson on choosing seven "books that made a difference" for O magazine.
Black Friday--which 
Approximately 35% of iPad owners have not used the devices to read e-books, according to preliminary findings from a nationwide survey by Simba Information, which based its estimate on more than 1,800 respondents selected on a nationally representative basis.
The Echo Park 
Used bookstore the Book Nook opened last week at 101 N. Second St. in Saint Clair, Pa. The 
Daniel Day-Lewis will star as Abraham Lincoln in the film version of Doris Kearns Goodwin's Team of Rivals, the 
Just
looking at cookbooks can put the pounds on, especially when the cookbooks focus
on dessert. The cover of Ready for
Dessert: My Best Recipes by David Lebovitz (Ten Speed Press, $35) features
a cake being chocolate-frosted and looks so attainable, unlike many a cover
dessert photograph, that you feel you'll be okay with the recipes. According to
the NYT, cupcakes have jumped the
shark and pies are in the ascendancy (yes!), but how could you resist
Guinness-Gingerbread Cupcakes, especially with photographer Maren Caruso's
full-page shot of the moist cupcakes with frosting and curling lime peel?
Lebovitz is a bit light on pie recipes, with only five, but makes up for it
with some lovely tarts (Fresh Fig and Raspberry), cobblers and crisps. Of
course, there are also cookies, custards, puddings and frozen desserts. And
lots of cakes. 
Should this
not be enough for you, more cake recipes are available in Warren Brown's United Cakes of
America: Recipes Celebrating Every State
(Stewart, Tabori & Chang, $29.95). The usual suspects are well-accounted
for--Coca-Cola Cake from Georgia, Key Lime Pie from Florida--but Brown
highlights lesser-known recipes, like Silver Cake from Alabama (a velvety and
tender glazed white cake), Jalapeño Cheddar Cheesecake from Arizona, Tennessee
Mountain Stack Cake (six layers with a dried apple filling). The book has
sidebars about the recipes and other state-specific treats, like Pennsylvania
church spread; photos to clarify steps, like how to remove vanilla bean seeds;
and other nuggets (the Rice Crispies elves were introduced in 1933; the sweet
potato was the primary food eaten by Revolutionary War soldiers). A fun
cookbook.
Searching for cherry pie recipes (my dessert apex),
I found a scrumptious one for Deep-Dish Sour Cherry Pie in Farmers' Market Desserts by Jennie Schact (Chronicle Books,
$24.95). Obviously geared toward local produce, the recipes follow the seasons,
and the author includes substitutions for out-of-season ingredients. Meyer
Lemon-Goat Cheese Souffle Cakes with Fresh Raspberries can be served with a
citrus compote, or Roasted Peach Melba can use plums. Tangerine-sicle Ice
Cream, Ginger-Pear Skillet Cake, Cranberry-Pecan Tart in a Cocoa Crust--these
delicious recipes are enhanced by Leo Gong's photos of the food, the produce, a
few animals and the farmers. 
Tuttle Publishing turns out some lovely cookbooks,
and its The Arabian Nights Cookbook by Habeeb Salloum ($24.95) continues that
tradition. Salloum introduces the recipes with an introduction to modern Gulf
cooking, then explains each recipe, with history, commentary, detailed
instructions when needed and some asides about his family. From something as
simple as Orange and Olive Salad to Baked Chicken with Almonds and Rice to Cauliflower
Sautéed with Chili Peppers and Fresh Coriander, the recipes are tantalizing and
diverse. 
More diverse recipes can be found in Breaking Bread: Recipes and Stories from
Immigrant Kitchens by Lynne Christy Anderson (University of California
Press, $24.95). Anderson visited the homes of immigrants to record their
stories and to hear about their culinary traditions, memories and recipes.
Sehin Mekuria fled Ethiopia in 1979, lives in Massachusetts and works as an accountant.
Her recipe for lamb stew is not just a recipe, it's the story of her as the
food authority among her siblings, her sense of duty, the traditions she keeps
alive, memories of her brother, and what life in America means. "Back
home, people can get together to have coffee. Here, we're just running all the
time." Barry Nolan, from Ireland, works as an interactive multimedia
graphic designer, and when he invites Anderson over for dinner, includes his
mother in a village in County Cork via Skype. He cooks a dinner she always
prepared for him and his siblings: baked fish with mashed potatoes, carrots and
parsnips. "One of the pursuits, and disappointments, I've had here is
trying to find a potato that actually tastes like the kinds we have in Ireland."
Food powerfully evokes a past, a place left behind, and can bind a family, new
or old, beautifully. Anderson gives voice to that, and Robin Radin's
black-and-white photographs enhance the stories.--
Louise Yates and Louise Rennison have won 2010 Roald Dahl Funny prizes. Yates took the Funniest Book for Children Aged Six and Under award for Dog Loves Books, while Rennison's Withering Tights topped the Funniest Book for Children Aged Seven to Fourteen category. 
book is a surprise, something fresh and odd. So this book leaves behind some of the staples of present-day humor and gives us humor on every page with a dog that just wants to read books."
Standup comic, writer and radio personality Greg Fitzsimmons stumbled on a cache of letters that his mother saved from his childhood and teenage years. Eagerly browsing through what she had deemed worth saving, he discovered the collection contained every last bad report she had ever received about him, starting with his preschool teacher's ridiculous complaint that he was unable to wiggle (the inability to wiggle should have tipped them all off that this was TROUBLE in short pants). Instead of burying this hoard of rebukes testifying that he was trouble every place he set foot, Fitzsimmons uses them as prompts in this merciless and hilarious memoir of his pugnacious early years and coming into his own as a comic. Humiliating craziness is recounted; blame is placed with acid zingers that define his style; and the incontrovertible evidence is laid out in the original letters and family photos.