Book #34 and a meal to go with it - Moloka'i

I'm jumping way ahead in the book reviews to talk about my 34th book of the year, Moloka'i. One of the challenges for the Spring Book Challenge on the Nest is to read a book and then cook a meal inspired by the book. I chose the book "Moloka'i" and made a Hawaiian inspired meal to go with it. The book, written by Alan Brennert, is fantastic, and deals with two periods of American History that have always fascinated me because there is so little attention paid: The banishment of Hanson's Disease/Leprosy patients to Moloka'i in Hawaii, and a part of WWII history that is rarely talked about (I'm not going to spoil this part for anyone who wants to read this). This was one of the more effective historical fiction novels I've read, combining a heart breaking story with accurate history in a way that more people can be educated on our past. The characters were very real and the author, though not a Hawaii resident, seemed to honor Hawaii's history with respect. Very well done.

For the meal that went along with this book, I made Ahi Poke as an appetizer, mirroring the Ahi Poke that we had on our 5 year anniversary trip to Hawaii in November. I seriously dream about that dish, and I think I did it honor by buying very high quality ahi and marinating in a prepared Poke marinade. If I didn't have the marinade, I would have made my own using soy, ginger and sesame oil, but the prepared marinade was tasty and I think I presented it well in martini glasses:

For the main course, I made macadamia nut crusted mahi mahi. I have tried making this before and couldn't quite get the nuts crushed enough, plus I didn't know to mix the nuts with other breading. With the help of my Magic Bullet and some panko bread crumbs, I think I got it just right this time:

Macadamia Nut Crusted Mahi Mahi

2 6 oz Mahi Mahi filets

2 oz Roasted Macadamia nuts, chopped in a processor until chopped very fine

3 oz plain panko bread crumbs, added to processer and pulsed until mixed with nuts
1 Tbs olive oil or butter

Preheat oven to 375 degrees. Place nut and crumb mixture on a shallow dish. Press fish into crumbs and pat until both sides are well coated with crumbs. Heat oil in an oven safe pan. Add fish and brown the outsides, about 2-3 minutes per side. Transfer to oven and cook until fish is flaky and cooked through, about 20 minutes. Serve with hot rice.

Book #18 - Dog in a Hat - Joe Parkin

This is a book recommended to me by my husband the cyclist. I am a huge cycling fan as well, although I'm not a rider, so this was a fascinating book for me to read. When my husband finished this book, he said it was sad, and I thought that would be because of the open way the author discusses how prevelant drugs were in pro cycling. While the discussion of drug use is pretty frank, in this day and age, it honestly isn't too much of a shock for those of us who are fans of the sport. We just continue to hope that science for detection speeds along as fast or faster than the science for new substances and that is how we deal. The sadness from this book comes more from the sudden awareness of how difficult being a pro athelete can be, especially in a sport like cycling, which at the time the author was a pro, was not that popular in the U.S. The author had a mediocre career as a domestique (or helper) rider in the pro fields in Europe. He never rode in a grand tour, he never won any big races, and he certainly didn't make all that much money in the sport. But he is passionate about his love of cycling even today. It is sad because even cycling fans in the US didn't know this guys name. But he had an interesting story and thankfully, we are learning about it now, all these years later. I loved that my husband and I had the same reaction to this book. Sad, but for different reasons than one might think.

Book #17 - Lamb by Christopher Moore

After reading some pretty heavy books lately, I thought I'd lighten things up a bit by reading Lamb: The Gospel According to Biff, Christ's Best Friend. I thought this was such a cute concept and had some great potential for comic as well as poignant moments. At times, this book did a great job of living up to my expectations (a scene where Joshua and Biff taste coffee for the first time and Josh goes on a healing frenzy while high on coffee cracked me up!). But for the most part, it really fell flat for me. The author was headed in the right direction, with Jesus learning about the good from all religions from the three wise men, who ended up each representing a different world of religious thought. I could really picture the young Jesus wanting to learn from other religious societies so that he could bring about real change for his followers. But the author threw in really, really random stuff (abominable snowman, kung fu, etc.) and also thought it was funny to have Biff be the true genious (discovering evolution, that the world isn't flat, and latte, for goodness sake). I'm not pretending to be devoutly religious, but when you write a book about Jesus' life and the reader comes away with, "Well, he was a sort of interesting character, I guess," I think the author failed a bit. Bummer.

Book #16 - The Book Thief by Markus Zusak

I was back to the young adult genre for this book, but this was not as easy of a read as I would have thought. This book is about a young girl growing up in Nazi Germany after being abandoned by her mother and raised by foster parents. She steals a book from her brother's gravesite when he dies on the way to the foster family, and so begins her journey through learning to read and learning to trust again. The entire story is told through the narration of death, who takes an interest in the girl through his various distant sightings of her in his day to day work. The combination of the narration by death, the well written characters, and the girl's tenacious will to survive make this a fascinating book. I was tearing up at the end while finishing this book at work, with my boss watching ESPN in the break room with me (he was totally oblivious to my suffering, ha!). This one really tugged at the heartstrings, but I would recommend it.

Book #15 - The Time Traveller's Wife - Audrey Niffenegger

This book is a sweet love story disguised as a science fiction novel. Or vice versa, depending on your perspective. I really enjoyed it and it was a fast read. Keep in mind, however, that this book will leave your head spinning at times. Fans of the TV show Lost will know what I'm talking about. Any storyline that has some characters jumping through time and others not will really start to mess with your head. That being said, this was the first of two books in a row that were: #1 - Really good at forshadowing, so that you knew what was coming but it didn't relieve the suspense at all, and #2 - Really heavy books to read (not weight-wise, but emotion-wise). I probably should have spread these kinds of books out a bit. This was a really well written book, considering how hard it must have been to keep the timeline straight. I didn't find it to be in my top 10 best books of all time list, as some people have, but it was a good one nonetheless.

Book #14 - Sula by Toni Morrison

I've wanted to read a Toni Morrison book for a while now, but didn't want to pick up one of her longer ones only to find that I didn't like her writing style. I was very happy to find Sula in my local library. The story of the difference between two best friends - one growing up to be the good wife, one growing up to be a scandalous woman - really sparked my interest, and the story was short enough that I knew I could get through it even if I didn't like the style. Sprinkled throughout the story are undertones of racism during the time of the depression. Central to the theme was the idea of whether or not your upbringing and background creates your destiny. I enjoyed this book, and more importantly, found Toni Morrison's style to be fascinating. She paints such pictures with her words that normally, I would find her style to be overly flowery, but she still captivates with a fascinating story. I'm looking forward to reading "Beloved," which I will be reading in the next couple of months.

Book #13 - Are You There, Vodka? It's Me, Chelsea - Chelsea Handler

I had heard really good things about this book and then couldn't find it anywhere. Borders near my house, Barnes & Noble, and the Library were all out. So when I finally found it at Borders while on an extended shopping trip... (Ooops! I mean work break!) I picked it up. No doubt, this was a funny book. I think Chelsea's style of writing is not for me, however. I find her style to be a bit over the top obnoxious (which is fine, just not my style of comedy), even on TV, and when given the opportunity to be mostly censor free in her books, she runs with it. I wasn't offended or anything, just didn't find it as laugh out loud funny as I thought it would be. I think those who find her really funny on TV would probably love this book, but I should have thought this one through before I bought it just because I finally found it.

Book Review #12 - Lucky Man by Michael J. Fox

This is another book that I probably wouldn't have picked up if it weren't for the online book challenge I'm participating in. One of the categories for the Winter Challenge was to read a book about a celebrity. I wasn't really interested in anyone all that much, but then I saw this book at the library and thought that Michael J. Fox's story would be an interesting read, because not only is he an actor, but he came from another country (Canada), has a debilitating degenerative disease (Parkinson's Disease), and he kept that disease a secret from everyone for nearly 10 years. All this while keeping a seemingly solid marriage. I found this book to be a very interesting read, and thought that for a celebrity biography, he did a good job at delving into some of the deep demons that he faced, particularly surrounding his diagnosis. He tended to get a little over-wordy, almost as though he was trying to prove his intelligence (he was a high school drop out, but is quite obviously very smart), but I appreciated this honest look at celebrity, the harshness of Parkinson's, and the power of a strong marriage.

3 Posts in 1 - Books 9, 10 & 11

Normally, I would post each of these books separately, but since they are all young adult books in series format, I thought I would blog all at once. I read the first two books in "The Princess Diaries" series ("The Princess Diaries" and "Princess in the Spotlight") and the "Gossip Girl" prequel "It had to be You." I thought the Princess Diaries books, like the Sisterhood books, were very cute and and appropriate for the age range they are targetting. I loved the awkwardness of the character, as I think most women remember feeling that awkward at one time, so it was a very sweet aspect to the books. I have to be careful with "Gossip Girl," since the franchise is owned by my company. I could see how this particular genre of young adult fiction would be appealing to some, but this book really wasn't my thing. I'm not a high fashion kind of girl, and the books are very focused on the finest of designer names. I could also see how this would make for great guilty pleasure TV, so I can see where the success of the series comes from. I won't be reading another "Gossip Girl" book, but I'm glad both the book and TV series are doing so well.

Book #8: The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Nighttime

One of the books on the famous "1001 Books to read in a Lifetime" was The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Nighttime by Mark Haddon. I had seen this around, but was inspired to read it when I saw it on this list of books. The entire story (fiction) is told from the first person perspective of a 15 year old autistic boy. I was very impressed with the author's ability to tell the story while still keeping the consistency required to maintain the main character's integrity. The story is unique in that it tells of great emotional turmoil in the life of the main character, who cannot fathom emotions due to his autism. I enjoyed this book and it was an easy read. I recommend it to anyone who is looking to understand autism better.

Book #7: "The Broker" by John Grisham

I've had this book sitting around for a couple of years. I usually like to read Grisham books on plane trips because they are pretty easy reads and are easier to read in one big chunk. I never got around to reading this one, though, so I thought I'd read it to meet the "Occupation in Title" part of the seasonal book challenge I'm participating in. Maybe it is because I haven't read a Grisham book in a while, but this book was not all that great for me. I felt like it took eons to set the exciting part in motion, and then when it finally got going, it fizzled out before anything really happened. I think it will be a while before I try another Grisham again.

Book #6 - Sisterhood of the Travelling Pants

This was a book that I chose to meet a category of a book club challenge I am participating in online. It has been one of the tools I have been using to inspire me to read different kinds of books while I'm challenging myself for my 2009 goal. One of the challenge categories in this club was to read a book that I've already seen the movie for. Most readers will always read the book before going to a movie if they can, so this can be a difficult category to meet. Thankfully, when "Sisterhood of the Travelling Pants" came out in the theaters, my company, which publishes the book, paid for all the employees to go see the movie as it was the first of our publications to reach the big screen (we are also the publishers of the "Gossip Girl" and "Privileged" Series). I didn't have a chance to go read the book before our big screening on opening day, and since it was a teen book, I figured it would be a quick read, which it was. I thought that this was a really good, relatively innocent book for teens. Some of the other teen novels out there delve a little too deeply into adult topics, and this series (at least in the first book) seems to keep the topics pretty PG-13 appropriate. I applaud publishers and authors who stick to these kinds of scripts because I think there is a gap that needs to be filled for more innocent teen literature in order to motivate the next generation of readers.

Book #5 - Family Tree by Barbara Delinsky

I picked this book up at Costco without having heard anything about it before. Total judgment of a book by its cover, but the description on the back of a white couple who unexpectedly give birth to a black baby intrigued me. This was an interesting look at how we look at ancestry, race, and the definition of family. I liked that the author did not shy away from some of the really deep issues with race that we still have in this country. I thought she bordered on lecturing in some instances, though, and it really bothered me that the more accepting, less racist characters used the description "African American" more often and the "bad guys" seemed to use the word "Black." I thought that while researching the context of this story that the author would have learned that Black is acceptable terminology and is often more accurate than African American, especially for this book in which ancestry for the baby had not been determined at all. Other than that, it was a quick read that brought up some issues that I find relevant to todays society.

Book #4: The Last Lecture by Randy Pausch

This has actually taken me a while to blog about because, honestly, I haven't had a book affect me this way in a long time. I should have known, as an adult who lost a parent at age 7, that reading this book about a parent facing terminal cancer would be emotional for me. I think that after all the press this book had gotten, I had made myself believe that this would be more of an advice book written by someone with a unique perspective on the fragility of life. The book has great advice written with humor and humility, but when it is all said and done, this is a goodbye story from a father to his young children, and I wasn't quite prepared for that. I kept reading it as though my mother was speaking to me and my siblings, so needless to say, I was actually crying (not tearing up, but crying) when I was reading the last chapters. Randy Pausch was a well spoken, highly intelligent man who found a way to speak in a special way to all of us in the special club of children who lost parents too soon. I volunteer to help children like this now, and I hope that others who read it may hear the voices of their own parents, saying the things that were never spoken. This has made it to my "Always Keep" bookshelf. Great, great book.

2009 Book #3: "Suite Francaise" - Irene Nemirovsky

I like most books, but a pet peeve of mine is when a book ends without a real ending or resolution. I avoided this book for a while just due to the fact that I knew it would not be resolved as the author originally intended. Quite unfortunately, the author was taken by the Germans in the middle of writing this novel in WWII and was killed due to her Jewish heritage. Her daughters were hidden and survived, but throughout their underground existence, carried their mother's last, unfinished manuscript and only just recently published it. The author finished 2 of the 5 planned mini-books that were to make up the final novel, but I didn't mind the abrupt ending too much (although I wish she could have finished what would have been a fabulous tying together of all the pieces). What was great about this novel is that it is historical fiction that was written at the time that history was taking place. The honesty that the author uses to describe a horrible time in France's history was profound to me. It offered a different perspective than the one we are taught in school, truly showing the reality of how people will act when faced with the true horrors of war. This was a bit of a departure from the types of books I usually read, but I was glad I took the chance on this one.

Book Review - "Bitter is the New Black" - Jennifer Lancaster

Book #2 for 2009 is "Bitter is the New Black" by Jennifer Lancaster, a memoir written by a high level executive who loses her job after the dot-com bust in 2001. This book reminded me of the "Shopaholic" series because the main "character" is pretty self-centered and name brand oriented at the beginning of her journey, but her grasp on real life and how to be a good person changes through her downward spiral into poverty. I enjoyed the voice that Jen uses throughout this book, she is very honest with herself and her flaws while still being willing to complain about people that upset her during the process. I also found it incredibly interesting since she was in the world of media/advertising sales during the time of her firing (my current career) in the middle of a rough economy. She speaks a lot of the cruddy treatment she got at many of her interviews, and it kind of opened my eyes about companies not being the most ethical during a "buyers" market for companies. All in all, a good read.

First 2009 Book - Audacity of Hope - Barack Obama

I bet some of you were wondering when the first "tale" portion of Tastes, Tales and Tours was going to appear. I had several books in the works when I decided to drop all of them in favor of finishing "The Audacity of Hope" by Barack Obama by Tuesday's inauguration. It is pretty crystal clear that I am a democrat, so my views of this book are obviously skewed by my party lines, but I was also raised in a very conservative family (who are quite disappointed in my current political viewpoints). While I agree with Barack and therefore this book, politically, most of the time, there were certainly times when he was just a little too far left, even for me. The best part of this book, however, were the many times when his words inspired me. I'm hopeful for the future 4 years (at least) in this country where we have the potential for our well spoken, well educated president's words to inspire us to do better things. Democrat or Republican, I would encourage anyone to read this book to futher understand where Obama will be steering this country. But then, I've been sipping a lot of his Kool-Aid and love this guy!