It's Monday! What Are You Reading?

Since my parents' arrival, our trips to the library are more frequent than ever. We're sampling genres as varied as crafts, physics, nutrition, aviation and classic mysteries, and books are being borrowed by the bagful. Here are some highlights from my reading list over the last few weeks:

Image: Goodreads

Crocodile on the Sandbank by Elizabeth Peters (fiction, mystery): This is the first book in the Amelia Peabody series. I can't remember for the life of me how it got on my reading list or where I heard of it, but I can say that this cozy, gently humorous mystery was a rather enjoyable read. Amelia Peabody, a 30-something independent-minded woman in Victorian England gets a substantial inheritance and sets out to travel in Egypt. The book recounts her adventures as she sails down the Nile and ends up as an Egyptologist. As Amelia says, "I embroider very badly. I think I would excavate rather well." 

The story is colorful with historic details and has a satisfying, tidy ending. The book is set in the late 19th century so the wording on "native servants" can be startling (but is true to the era). With a crocodile lurking in the title, this book fits the first category in my Criminal Plots reading challenge: Novel with an Animal in the Title.

Image: Goodreads

Liar and Spy by Rebecca Stead. I really enjoyed Stead's previous middle-school-reading-level book When You Reach Me so I looked for this one. Happily, this was a light and engaging read too. There's nothing complicated or deep about the plot at all, and that's perfectly OK. Ordinary lives and everyday circumstances can contain a lot of meaning. I had every sympathy for Georges (the s is silent) as he copes with changes in family life, with a new friend, with bullies at school. I think the overall message of this book is "Just Be Yourself" and that's a good message no matter what age you are.

Image: Goodreads

Easy Cut-up Cakes for Kids by Melissa Barlow (non-fiction, culinary/craft). Homemade birthday cakes have a very special place in my heart. The ones with custom shapes and fanciful decorations are the most memorable of them all, because they can be tied to the interests of the birthday girl/boy, to the season or occasion or party theme. Shaped cakes can be made with special molds but personally I prefer not to buy those because how many times would you make a cake of the same shape?

Barlow's book is very clever because she shows how you can use standard cake pans- square, circular, rectangular pans, bowls, bundt pans, muffin tins that most of us amateur bakers already have on hand- and  transform the basic shape into a novelty cake with a couple of simple cuts and rearrangement of the pieces, and with strategically placed decorations. Now, the book relies 100% on two things that I absolutely dread, boxed cake mixes and buttercream frosting, but one could make cakes from scratch and use other frosting recipes and still use all of the ideas.

Here are a couple of Barlow's cake ideas that I found online- cut off the 4 corners from a 9 x 13 rectangular cake and make a football cake, a round cake + 3 cupcakes makes a teddy bear. The book has a few others that I really liked, including a sail boat, rocket ship, dragon fly and clown fish. Some of the ideas are time-honored ones that I had seen before, like making a heart cake from one square and one round cake (example here) and making a bowtie-wearing bunny from two circular cakes (example here). What I love about these ideas is that they are doable for the average baker because, let's be honest, slapping on a little frosting and candy decorations is more my style and I'm not likely to be making elaborate fondant creations like these two.

Image: Goodreads

Food Rules: An Eater's Manual by Michael Pollan; illustrations by Maira Kalman (non-fiction, culinary). Pollan is well-known for his dictum: Eat Food. Mostly Plants. Not Too Much. Here, he has collected several dozen pithy food rules, many of them are crowd-sourced. I truly enjoyed flipping through this whimsically illustrated book. Most of the rules are common sense advice but clearly when it comes to food (and many other things), common sense rarely prevails so these things are worth repeating. Many are witty- e.g. Rule #21 about avoiding factory-made food: If It Came from a Plant, Eat It; If It was Made in a Plant, Don't. Some are very wise, like #53: Pay More, Eat Less. I certainly practice this one, which explains why I spend a fortune on fresh produce while buying furniture from Craigslist. Several rules are reminders that we live in a food culture that is dominated by companies rather than growers, such as #8: Avoid Food Products That Make Health Claims. Others are gentle nudges to eat mindfully, such as #76: Place a Bouquet of Flowers on the Table and Everything Will Taste Twice as Good.

I'm guessing that we all have food rules, whether or not we actively think of them as rules per se. While I don't have clever phrasings, some of my own food rules might be:
1. Dessert is for sharing (I never make dessert unless there's an occasion and there are plenty of people to share in the sweetness.)
2. Don't drink your calories (Water and tea are my beverages of choices and I don't understand why people are so fond of juicing- they throw away all that good fiber?)
3. Be grateful that you even get to have food rules (The most important of my food rules. Only lucky people get to worry about carbs and calories and the benefits of this diet and the other diet. The rest have nothing to eat.)

I'm linking this to the It's Monday... meme over on Book Journey.

Your turn: What are you reading? Care to share your own "food rules"?