Book a Week in 2014 - BW17

[Angel]

Give it a few years, and try Raymond E Feist.

 

 

OK, Rosie, I'll bite... which one would you recommend starting with?  Any reason why I shouldn't chuck the series at a voracious speed-reading 11 year old?

 

I read Feist quite a few years ago.  Good story.  I've been meaning to reread them now that my Jordan marathon is over.  

 

I would recommend David Eddings over Feist, however!  The humor alone sets it apart  ;)   Begin with The Belgariad, the first book is The Pawn of Prophecy.

http://www.amazon.com/The-Belgariad-Vol-Books-1-3/dp/0345456327/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1398349776&sr=8-1&keywords=the+belgariad

 

Pam is the 11yo your dd?  I don't remember Feist well enough as a whole but I do remember a few of his books being much more adult than Eddings.  I would be ok throwing Eddings at your speed reader!  And there are 5 books in the first series and then 5 books in the next with the same characters!  Eddings is my favorite fantasy author so I'm a little bias.  I love his humor and the development of his characters.  I love that he is almost always clean.  

 

Other series for your 11yo, if your interested  :D because I can't help suggesting books  :001_tt2:

The Enchanted Forest Chronicles by Patricia Wrede, start with Dealing with Dragons (4 books in the series)

Dragons in our Midst (has some Christian content), start with Raising Dragons (I think there are 10 books currently) -- ALL of older dd's friends have read and loved these books and now younger dd and her friends have read and loved these.  

Michael Vey series by Richard Paul Evans, start with The Prisoner of Cell 25 (only 3 books so far, will be 7)

The Books of Bayern by Shannon Hale, begin with the Goose Girl (4 books) - one of older dd's favorite series ever.

[Angel]

Oh, and I'm disappointed everyone is going to read The Night Circus!  It is on my tbr pile this year but it is just too much for me in the next few weeks.  At least, I think it is.  I may cave to peer pressure and see if it's at the library.  Especially since I have not started a single book this week.  In fact, I really need to get off here and start getting my co-op stuff planned for Monday  :thumbdown:

[mumto2]

I think humor is difficult across cultures.  When I first lived in England, a movie was highly recommended as being hilarious and a bunch of us foreigners picked it up at the video store.  None of us thought it was funny but by the end of the year, I could see the humor in it.  

I agree.  After 7 years I am finally starting to honestly find some of the really popular chat type shows funny here......

 

On the topic of Orson Scott Card--Would that series be acceptable for ds14?  Not asking for them to be completely clean just not really shocking.  Somewhere in the middle is fine if that makes sense.  

[Lady Florida.]

I think I might be the only person in my world who has no interest in reading The Night Circus. Most of my IRL reading friends have also either read it or plan to read it. 

 

 

[Stacia]

I just love her Norse mythology, probably why I like Kevin Herne. I need to look for the new one.

Hey, remember awhile ago, I mentioned that Joanne Harris was having a book come out called The Gospel of Loki? It should have been out by now, might have had a brief release, & is now not available. Noticed it on amazon, plus I was in a B&N yesterday & had the info desk look it up. It won't even show up in their system. I'm assuming there must have been some publishing problem & that it was pulled to be released at a later date.

 

Wondering if it is available in the UK yet?

[Murmer]

I just finished The Enchanted April by Elizabeth von Arnim...just in time for my book club tonight!  It was interesting and I am looking forward to what my book club ladies have to say about the book...I am surprised I hadn't read it yet.

 

Starting Meant to Be by Terri Osburn (its my free prime book for April).

[Pam in CT]

I read Feist quite a few years ago.  Good story.  I've been meaning to reread them now that my Jordan marathon is over.  

 

I would recommend David Eddings over Feist, however!  The humor alone sets it apart  ;)   Begin with The Belgariad, the first book is The Pawn of Prophecy.

http://www.amazon.com/The-Belgariad-Vol-Books-1-3/dp/0345456327/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1398349776&sr=8-1&keywords=the+belgariad

 

Pam is the 11yo your dd?  I don't remember Feist well enough as a whole but I do remember a few of his books being much more adult than Eddings.  I would be ok throwing Eddings at your speed reader!  And there are 5 books in the first series and then 5 books in the next with the same characters!  Eddings is my favorite fantasy author so I'm a little bias.  I love his humor and the development of his characters.  I love that he is almost always clean.  

 

Other series for your 11yo, if your interested  :D because I can't help suggesting books  :001_tt2:

The Enchanted Forest Chronicles by Patricia Wrede, start with Dealing with Dragons (4 books in the series)

Dragons in our Midst (has some Christian content), start with Raising Dragons (I think there are 10 books currently) -- ALL of older dd's friends have read and loved these books and now younger dd and her friends have read and loved these.  

Michael Vey series by Richard Paul Evans, start with The Prisoner of Cell 25 (only 3 books so far, will be 7)

The Books of Bayern by Shannon Hale, begin with the Goose Girl (4 books) - one of older dd's favorite series ever.

 

Wow!!  Thank you!

 

Yeah, the 11 year old is my daughter, and youngest, and the kid over whom my current reading influence is the strongest....  

 

My elder daughter is off at college and beyond my direct book selection influence, although I do exert an indirect but significant power through the Kindle app on her iPad that is linked to my account.  (If she condescends to read my books, they're sitting there for free; she has to spend her own hard earned summer money for her own selections, LOL...)

 

The middle one, our 15 year old son, doesn't read much for pleasure outside of what's required for school (sigh).  I am able to lure him into my audio books on occasion; and the girls, especially the younger one, are able to lure him into their own reading enthusiasms on occasion; and during vacations he lurks on the edges of my read-aloud time with the 11 year old -- he reminds me of my childhood cat who used to accompany my mother and me when we walked the dog, always skulking a few hundred yards away from us like it was just a coincidence that he happened to be where we were...  :001_rolleyes:

 

But the little one, bless her heart, is very receptive to just about anything I throw at her... but she especially likes series, and given the speed with which she consumes them, I have grown to appreciate them as well.  I'll go through your list with her!

 

 

(Strong start with Fault in our Stars, btw.  I didn't expect it to be funny!  I'm sure it will become very poignant as we proceed, but 3-4 chapters in, we are both enjoying it.)

[JennW in SoCal]

Ok who's organizing the book, postcard/ goodies thing??? I need to know so I can set aside some shipping and goodies money :)

 

 

That would be me!  I had meant to start this earlier in the week, but what with best laid plans and all that, it didn't happen.  But here I am now.

 

So.  Announcing the official WTM-BaW postcard, book and goody exchange!   

 

A few thoughts.

 

I can compile and share a list of addresses for postcards.  We can continue what Rosie started and start sending postcards across the globe!

 

Then I'll start the small book/goody box, send it to one of you on the exchange list who can add to/subtract from the box and send it to the next BaWer on the list.

 

The smallest flat-rate priority mail box costs about $5 to send.  It is about 8" X 5" X 1.5", so it could hold a paperback, postcards and a small goody.  There are other size flat rate boxes, as well as padded envelopes, and as there is no weight limit, you can pack in as many books as you can fit for a reasonable shipping cost.  No need to top what was sent to you, just forward to the next person what best works for you.  You can also grab those boxes for free from the post office -- you only pay when they are packed and you are ready to send them.  

 

I'm going to come up with a flat-librarian that can pose with books in your home or at a tourist area.  You can take a photo of her (am I being totally sexist in making the librarian a her?  Do we need a mancake librarian for Stacia?!!!) and send her in the box to the next address on the list.  Perhaps we can create a site to post the photos to share??   Maybe I'll make a small sci-fi/fantasy creature instead, or for you Pratchett readers, an orangutan!!  

 

Send me a PM with your actual name and snail mail address, and whether you just want to do post cards.  I'm happy to ship a goody box overseas, btw.

 

I've got to empty my message mailbox now....

[Pam in CT]

I agree.  After 7 years I am finally starting to honestly find some of the really popular chat type shows funny here......

 

On the topic of Orson Scott Card--Would that series be acceptable for ds14?  Not asking for them to be completely clean just not really shocking.  Somewhere in the middle is fine if that makes sense.  

 

Orson Scott Card - not shocking at all.  He's LDS and quite clean-scrubbed.  

 

His quality is very uneven.  Ender's Game is really quite innovative in its ideas, and well-enough written; and the next few in that series -- Speaker of the Dead, Children of the Mind, and Xenocide, while not as strong, still tell a good story and have occasional philosophical / existential insights that get you pondering.  

 

After that... well, it's interesting; in Ender's Game and Speaker several of the characters express the anxiety that humans hit their peak at between the ages of 15-25, and after that it's all downhill, and at best they just keep rehashing their earlier accomplishments.  Irony abounds...

[Pam in CT]

Hey, remember awhile ago, I mentioned that Joanne Harris was having a book come out called The Gospel of Loki? It should have been out by now, might have had a brief release, & is now not available. Noticed it on amazon, plus I was in a B&N yesterday & had the info desk look it up. It won't even show up in their system. I'm assuming there must have been some publishing problem & that it was pulled to be released at a later date.

 

Wondering if it is available in the UK yet?

 

My daughter has it, and enjoyed it -- I think we probably pre-ordered it, and she maybe received it in December-ish?  A while ago.  It may have run through the first printing and is awaiting the next one.

[Stacia]

I'm going to come up with a flat-librarian that can pose with books in your home or at a tourist area. You can take a photo of her (am I being totally sexist in making the librarian a her? Do we need a mancake librarian for Stacia?!!!) and send her in the box to the next address on the list.

Sitting in my car waiting on ds right now, but I had to say that made me rofl!

[Mom-ninja.]

Bwaahaaa! I talked my 13 yr old into trying the first Jeeves book. He was skeptical. "Just give it a try, hon," I said.

 

He loves it and I hear him laughing out loud from across the house.

 

Yes, as I mentioned before, the Force is strong in me.

 

As Stacia posted, resistance is futile.

[Angel]

I think I might be the only person in my world who has no interest in reading The Night Circus. Most of my IRL reading friends have also either read it or plan to read it. 

 

I gave it a go two years ago and didn't like it but I was thrown off by what is, I guess, the only four letter word in the whole book (why bother?!) and the library copy REEKED.  A friend IRL loved it and dd liked it too so I was going to at least try again.  This time with a non-reeking copy.

 

I just finished The Enchanted April by Elizabeth von Arnim...just in time for my book club tonight!  It was interesting and I am looking forward to what my book club ladies have to say about the book...I am surprised I hadn't read it yet.

 

 

 

Was that the book that inspired all the Italian villa talk a year or two ago?  I think that may be on my tbr virtual pile.

 

Wow!!  Thank you!

 

Yeah, the 11 year old is my daughter, and youngest, and the kid over whom my current reading influence is the strongest....  

 

My elder daughter is off at college and beyond my direct book selection influence, although I do exert an indirect but significant power through the Kindle app on her iPad that is linked to my account.  (If she condescends to read my books, they're sitting there for free; she has to spend her own hard earned summer money for her own selections, LOL...)

 

The middle one, our 15 year old son, doesn't read much for pleasure outside of what's required for school (sigh).  I am able to lure him into my audio books on occasion; and the girls, especially the younger one, are able to lure him into their own reading enthusiasms on occasion; and during vacations he lurks on the edges of my read-aloud time with the 11 year old -- he reminds me of my childhood cat who used to accompany my mother and me when we walked the dog, always skulking a few hundred yards away from us like it was just a coincidence that he happened to be where we were...  :001_rolleyes:

 

But the little one, bless her heart, is very receptive to just about anything I throw at her... but she especially likes series, and given the speed with which she consumes them, I have grown to appreciate them as well.  I'll go through your list with her!

 

 

(Strong start with Fault in our Stars, btw.  I didn't expect it to be funny!  I'm sure it will become very poignant as we proceed, but 3-4 chapters in, we are both enjoying it.)

 

:lol:  to the bolded

 

Eddings is more adult than any of the others I listed but it is so clean.  I can't remember any bad words (I just flipped through the book to double check) and there are no explicit scenes.  The first 5 books have a few hinted at or implied scenes but I don't remember any thing that would give me huge pause.  One of the books in the second series (The Mallorean) does have a scene that made me uncomfortable but I could find that for you if she ends up interested!  Or maybe your dd is my excuse to reread them, just to preview them for her  :D

[shukriyya]

Jenn, thanks so much for taking this on! What a generous use of your time :D

 

Pam, and others with middle-school dcs, ds has read a ton of series, his current fave is called The Companions Quartet by Julia Golding. He zoomed through the books. There's no way now that I can keep up with his reading so I can't pre-read everything anymore. Were the Ember books mentioned? Those are popular. Then The Adventurers Wanted series by M.L. Forman. And there's a new book I'm eyeing for ds called, The Mark of the Dragonfly by Jaleigh Johnson...

 

"Heart, brains, and courage find a home in a steampunk fantasy worthy of a nod from Baum."-Kirkus Reviews, starred

[mumto2]

Hey, remember awhile ago, I mentioned that Joanne Harris was having a book come out called The Gospel of Loki? It should have been out by now, might have had a brief release, & is now not available. Noticed it on amazon, plus I was in a B&N yesterday & had the info desk look it up. It won't even show up in their system. I'm assuming there must have been some publishing problem & that it was pulled to be released at a later date.

 

Wondering if it is available in the UK yet?

My library has it but I had to return it because someone requested it.  I did read the first couple of chapters and decided that it was probably a book that would for me need to go slowly.  Chapter or two a day so I could absorb what I had read. I will request it again when it is back in circulation. 

[mumto2]

Orson Scott Card - not shocking at all.  He's LDS and quite clean-scrubbed.  

 

His quality is very uneven.  Ender's Game is really quite innovative in its ideas, and well-enough written; and the next few in that series -- Speaker of the Dead, Children of the Mind, and Xenocide, while not as strong, still tell a good story and have occasional philosophical / existential insights that get you pondering.  

 

After that... well, it's interesting; in Ender's Game and Speaker several of the characters express the anxiety that humans hit their peak at between the ages of 15-25, and after that it's all downhill, and at best they just keep rehashing their earlier accomplishments.  Irony abounds...

I will get them for Ds.  He might like them a lot although listening to the fact that Dh and I are on a downhill slide sounds like it could be irritating.  My Ds reads voraciously when I manage to find the right book,  but finding that book is hard work!  Douglas Adams is his all time favourite.  Some of the quotes I had to live with.......But he read, finally decided I might have to give a bit content wise.

[Pam in CT]

I will get them for Ds.  He might like them a lot although listening to the fact that Dh and I are on a downhill slide sounds like it could be irritating.  My Ds reads voraciously when I manage to find the right book,  but finding that book is hard work!  Douglas Adams is his all time favourite.  Some of the quotes I had to live with.......But he read, finally decided I might have to give a bit content wise.

 

I expect he'll like them.  They're quite gripping, plot-wise (at least the early ones).  

[JennW in SoCal]

 

The middle one, our 15 year old son, doesn't read much for pleasure outside of what's required for school (sigh).  I am able to lure him into my audio books on occasion; and the girls, especially the younger one, are able to lure him into their own reading enthusiasms on occasion; and during vacations he lurks on the edges of my read-aloud time with the 11 year old -- he reminds me of my childhood cat who used to accompany my mother and me when we walked the dog, always skulking a few hundred yards away from us like it was just a coincidence that he happened to be where we were...  :001_rolleyes:

 

 

LOL!  How apt a description of some, if not most, 15yo males!  The wonder of it all is how much they enjoy what they glean while lurking, and how they one day let their guard down and admit it.  We took a vacation when my oldest ds was about 15, which to his utter mortification, was going to include several guided tours.  But after one of the tours (which had an unexpected Star Trek connection that lured him in), he commented on how much he adores his family.  I almost fainted at that!   He said he loved how WE were the ones at the front of the tour group, nodding our heads, asking questions, and otherwise being happily engaged in the tour while everyone else was quietly and passively shuffling along.  

 

That same ds never did become an avid reader.  I feel your pain, Pam!  He reads the newspaper and his trade magazines, but all those trips to the library, all that modeling of loving books didn't influence him.  But he appreciates that his mom and brother trade books all the time!

[JennW in SoCal]

  Douglas Adams is his all time favourite.  Some of the quotes I had to live with.......But he read, finally decided I might have to give a bit content wise.

 

If he likes the comedic style of Hitchhiker's Guide, then he might also like Terry Pratchett.  And my youngest, who has similar tastes, LOVED the Bartimaeus Trilogy that features the most laugh out-loud sarcastic Jinni you'll ever meet!  I really enjoyed them. And did your ds read the Hitchhiker's book written by Eoin Colfer, the Artemis Fowl author?  I never read it but my ds said it was good.

[Pam in CT]

LOL!  How apt a description of some, if not most, 15yo males!  The wonder of it all is how much they enjoy what they glean while lurking, and how they one day let their guard down and admit it.  We took a vacation when my oldest ds was about 15, which to his utter mortification, was going to include several guided tours.  But after one of the tours (which had an unexpected Star Trek connection that lured him in), he commented on how much he adores his family.  I almost fainted at that!   He said he loved how WE were the ones at the front of the tour group, nodding our heads, asking questions, and otherwise being happily engaged in the tour while everyone else was quietly and passively shuffling along.  

 

That same ds never did become an avid reader.  I feel your pain, Pam!  He reads the newspaper and his trade magazines, but all those trips to the library, all that modeling of loving books didn't influence him.  But he appreciates that his mom and brother trade books all the time!

 

Yes, my 15 yo has episodic moments of genuine sweetness too, rare but cherished.

 

My husband's not a huge book-reader either.  It's OK.  They have other windows to the world.  It even has a silver lining; it forces me out of the house, to connect with other book lovers!

[laughing lioness]

I've missed this thread and my booklovingsoulmates! I finally finished a book- first time since last fall. It's called Following Ezra by Tom Fields-Meyer. Fantastic read about a dad's relationship with his autistic son. Beautifully written.I actually cried at the end. 

 

Love the flatlibrarian idea! :lol:

[LostSurprise]

I really can't remember what I talked about reading last, but I've been a shirker lately so hopefully this won't be too repetitive. 

 

Finished: 

 

 

Shark's Fin and Sichuan Pepper: a Sweet-Sour Memoir of Eating in China by Fuchsia Dunlop

 

Adored the first third of the book. So good! She was in Sichuan before a lot of the industrialization that changed China in the late '90s. There were lots of little cultural insights with a general understanding of her own cultural limitations. Not for those really sensitive about meat eating and animal slaughter. One of the themes is Dunlop letting go of Western limitations on texture and what is food, so she talks frankly about Chinese views and food traditions. The middle third was a lot dryer and less joyful. It felt a like she depended a lot more on her cookbook research during that time for material than the curiosity and abandon of her student days. I found myself appreciating it more by the last third though. Again, not as personal or joyous as the first third, not as intuitive, but interesting in terms of China's new wealth and how that affects food availability, waste, the new Chinese chefs. All in all I enjoyed it, but I can't help wishing the entire book was more like the first section. That must have been an amazing time for her. 

 

 

 

A load of books arrived from the library. I finished Annihilation yesterday. Speculative fiction/thriller. A team of 4 women enter a mysterious place called Area X which seems to have cut itself off from the rest of the planet. Over a few generations many teams have entered Area X. Only the first appears to have been able to leave unscathed. Something in the environment seems to promote changes in the people themselves. Some expeditions end in suicide. Others in a paranoid hail of bullets. Some disappear without a trace. The last team simply appeared back home, one at a time, shells of themselves with no memory of what happened...and died of cancer 6 months later. 

 

Not a long book (@200pgs). It's being released as a trilogy over the course of this year. VanderMeer does manage to keep up a great sense of paranoia, curiosity, and low-level fear. It's a bit like the tv show Lost in some ways. Because of that I can appreciate how he kept that feeling going through the whole book, never giving too much, always allowing some answers, but I'm ultimately skeptical about how I'll feel about the book when it finishes. Will he be able to keep the balance going? I did enjoy the narrator, an unnamed biologist, and her complex relationship with her husband, and I'm hoping VanderMeer can keep it all going in the continuation Authority, coming out next month. 

 

 

 

 

[mlbuchina]

WHY?

 

 

(I'm glad you didn't say A Midsummer Nights Dream, because seriously what was Kevin Kline doing flouncing around in a white suit?)

I love Kenneth Branagh, and all the cast in his adaptation. I also like that it was not modern. I enjoyed the other, just not as much.

 

I've hated that version of Midsummer's Night from the get go. It's a nightmare. Ug. *shudders*

[mamaraby]

I think I might be the only person in my world who has no interest in reading The Night Circus. Most of my IRL reading friends have also either read it or plan to read it.

I'll sit on the sidelines with you. I tried reading it last year after hearing about it from my penpal, but I could never really get into it.

[Murmer]

That would be me!  I had meant to start this earlier in the week, but what with best laid plans and all that, it didn't happen.  But here I am now.

 

So.  Announcing the official WTM-BaW postcard, book and goody exchange!   

 

A few thoughts.

 

I can compile and share a list of addresses for postcards.  We can continue what Rosie started and start sending postcards across the globe!

 

Then I'll start the small book/goody box, send it to one of you on the exchange list who can add to/subtract from the box and send it to the next BaWer on the list.

 

The smallest flat-rate priority mail box costs about $5 to send.  It is about 8" X 5" X 1.5", so it could hold a paperback, postcards and a small goody.  There are other size flat rate boxes, as well as padded envelopes, and as there is no weight limit, you can pack in as many books as you can fit for a reasonable shipping cost.  No need to top what was sent to you, just forward to the next person what best works for you.  You can also grab those boxes for free from the post office -- you only pay when they are packed and you are ready to send them.  

 

I'm going to come up with a flat-librarian that can pose with books in your home or at a tourist area.  You can take a photo of her (am I being totally sexist in making the librarian a her?  Do we need a mancake librarian for Stacia?!!!) and send her in the box to the next address on the list.  Perhaps we can create a site to post the photos to share??   Maybe I'll make a small sci-fi/fantasy creature instead, or for you Pratchett readers, an orangutan!!  

 

Send me a PM with your actual name and snail mail address, and whether you just want to do post cards.  I'm happy to ship a goody box overseas, btw.

 

I've got to empty my message mailbox now....

 

So if I want to do the book/goody exchange are there any rules about the kinds of books...like do they have to be new or like new or are used ok?  i want to participate but I am thinking about what kind of books I would want to include :)

[Stacia]

I keep using up my 'Like' button quotas! Argh. :willy_nilly:  So, know I like more posts than I actually show up as liking, please. Lol.

 

Flavorwire's list of Best Southern Short Stories:

http://flavorwire.com/451919/20-great-southern-short-stories/view-all/

 

Looks like a great list, imo. I have to agree about Capote's story on there -- a fave of mine.

 

And, a slight tangent on Jenn's mention of postcards &/or book/goodie boxes (THANKS, btw, Jenn, coordinating).... Ds watched these videos on youtube & had been bugging me to watch them. Thought some of you gals could appreciate them in case any food goodies get sent. Rosie, what do you think of the Australian foods in the videos??? (Do you eat Vegemite? I, too, like the guy in the video have heard of the legendary Vegemite, but have never tried it.) I've gotta agree w/ the Brits that many of the American snacks are not too tasty. :ack2:

 

 

[shukriyya]

Vegemite vs Marmite. Both camps are equally impassioned. Having grown up with Marmite I'm in the latter camp. But rest assured I won't be sending any in my parcel postings.

[Onceuponatime]

Well, I just finished Chekov's The Three Sisters. It was very obvious in this play that the theme was heavily based on Ecclesiastes. My observations of The Cherry Orchard also seemed to be validated.

 

*Chebutykin: You said just now, Baron, that they may call our life noble, but we are very petty.....(stands up) See how little I am.

 

*Vershinin: I wish I could make you understand there is no happiness for us, that there should not and cannot be....We must only work and work, and happiness is only for our distant posterity.

 

*Chebutykin: we don't really live, it only seems that we live. Does it matter anyway!

 

 

Talk of vanities, of sameness. It's all one. It's all the same. Nothing really matters. Nothing is important. Work is our only consolation.

 

So, I bid you farewell Chekov. After all, what does it matter if I never read you again.

 

[Rosie_0801]

OK, Rosie, I'll bite... which one would you recommend starting with?  Any reason why I shouldn't chuck the series at a voracious speed-reading 11 year old?

 

None that I can think of, but it's been a while since I read them. I read the Rift War series, starting with Magician, then the series starting with Daughter of the Empire.

[Rosie_0801]

 Rosie, what do you think of the Australian foods in the videos??? (Do you eat Vegemite? I, too, like the guy in the video have heard of the legendary Vegemite, but have never tried it.) I've gotta agree w/ the Brits that many of the American snacks are not too tasty. :ack2:

 

 

I think, I hope, those are the pansiest people America has to offer. Seriously. Why whinge about a pizza shape? As for the Vegemite, my son is the only one gross enough to eat it out of the jar like that. It's supposed to be consumed as a thin scraping on bread, with lots of butter. Mm. Vegemite. I can't have any. He got into the cupboard the other day and licked the jar clean.  :ack2:

 

I feel the same way about Warheads as the people in the vid. Aren't you supposed to? Twinkies? I don't even think they are food! Why didn't they talk about those Reece peanut butter cups? Those things are poisonous!

[Stacia]

I think, I hope, those are the pansiest people America has to offer. Seriously. Why whinge about a pizza shape? As for the Vegemite, my son is the only one gross enough to eat it out of the jar like that. It's supposed to be consumed as a thin scraping on bread, with lots of butter. Mm. Vegemite. I can't have any. He got into the cupboard the other day and licked the jar clean.  :ack2:

 

I feel the same way about Warheads as the people in the vid. Aren't you supposed to? Twinkies? I don't even think they are food! Why didn't they talk about those Reece peanut butter cups? Those things are poisonous!

 

LOL about the Vegemite. American BaWers, it sounds like Rosie may be challenging us to try Vegemite ('cause I know BaWers are not the pansiest people that America has to offer). :lol:

 

I agree that most (all?) of the Am. snack foods were gross. I don't eat Slim Jims, or War Heads, or Twinkies, or Gushers, or any of those things. I don't think I even know people who do eat those things. I used to like Reece's Peanut Butter Cups when I was young but there's no way I could stomach them now. When the kids get those trick-or-treating, they end up in the trash.

 

Still, I had a giggle watching those videos.

[Uff Da!]

Oh, and I'm disappointed everyone is going to read The Night Circus!  It is on my tbr pile this year but it is just too much for me in the next few weeks.  At least, I think it is.  I may cave to peer pressure and see if it's at the library.  Especially since I have not started a single book this week.  In fact, I really need to get off here and start getting my co-op stuff planned for Monday  :thumbdown:

 

 

I'll sit on the sidelines with you. I tried reading it last year after hearing about it from my penpal, but I could never really get into it.

 

I won't be reading anytime soon either.  Herodotus's Histories is next and I'm a bit worried about tackling that one.

 

 

I think, I hope, those are the pansiest people America has to offer. Seriously. Why whinge about a pizza shape? As for the Vegemite, my son is the only one gross enough to eat it out of the jar like that. It's supposed to be consumed as a thin scraping on bread, with lots of butter. Mm. Vegemite. I can't have any. He got into the cupboard the other day and licked the jar clean.  :ack2:

 

I feel the same way about Warheads as the people in the vid. Aren't you supposed to? Twinkies? I don't even think they are food! Why didn't they talk about those Reece peanut butter cups? Those things are poisonous!

 

 

I'm with you on everything except the Reese's.  I have those to thank for surviving November and having the first 0 draft of anything that is truly worth revision.

[mumto2]

LOL about the Vegemite. American BaWers, it sounds like Rosie may be challenging us to try Vegemite ('cause I know BaWers are not the pansiest people that America has to offer). :lol:

 

I agree that most (all?) of the Am. snack foods were gross. I don't eat Slim Jims, or War Heads, or Twinkies, or Gushers, or any of those things. I don't think I even know people who do eat those things. I used to like Reece's Peanut Butter Cups when I was young but there's no way I could stomach them now. When the kids get those trick-or-treating, they end up in the trash.

 

Still, I had a giggle watching those videos.

Reece's are actually high on the list of requested American items that we get from people.  Other popular items are Captain Crunch and Candy Corn.  Lucky Charms(which rates with Twinkies as yucky  imo) also frequently asked for by friends. Real peanut butter (I just buy it at Costco, Jif I think) seems to be a positive eye opening for many.  If you really want to see a disgusted face on a Brit feed them root beer , it apparently tastes like a common really disgusting medicine here.  I had no clue and had a 4th of July BBQ complete with root beer floats...I managed to separate the expats out really effectively. :lol:  Dutch, Nigerians, S. Afrians all happily drank root beer! Others shuddered. :lol:

 

As far as vegimite and marmite  go not a huge fan but can eat it to be polite.  A friend loves them and is enthusiastic, small doses are acceptable.  Snack foods in those flavours are common at their house -- marmite pretzel like things anyone?  I will never buy it unless for someone else's pleasure.

[Stacia]

Mumto2, funny you mention peanut butter. I should have thought of that. I've never met a non-American who likes peanut butter. Dh absolutely abhors it (including the smell of it). I, otoh, could pretty much live on PB&J sandwiches & be a happy camper.

 

Too funny about the root beer.

 

I find the list of requested items strange. Seriously, I didn't know so many people eat/want Lucky Charms, Cap't Crunch, & candy corn.  :blink:  For me, about one (individual) candy corn per every 5 years or so is about enough of a serving.

[shukriyya]

Capt'n Crunch is kids' food! I loved that stuff...when I was, you know, five :smilielol5: Are these adults requesting this stuff, mumto2?? If so I suggest they look to their diets to see what vital nutrients are missing that has them requesting this stuff :lol:

 

In bookish news The Night Circus has just come available for me in ebook form :hurray:  I really want to like it. I'm still slowly wending my way through The Midwife of Venice. It's been almost two weeks and it's not a long book but for some reason my reading attn span has been very low. The story is good, too :confused1:

[Stacia]

In bookish news The Night Circus has just come available for me in ebook form :hurray:  I really want to like it.

 

I hope you & all the others that are planning to read it will enjoy it. It's always such a bummer to have high expectations for a book or think you will like it & then to have it fall short....

[Mom-ninja.]

 

Finished: 

 

Shark's Fin and Sichuan Pepper: a Sweet-Sour Memoir of Eating in China by Fuchsia Dunlop

 

Adored the first third of the book. So good! She was in Sichuan before a lot of the industrialization that changed China in the late '90s. There were lots of little cultural insights with a general understanding of her own cultural limitations. Not for those really sensitive about meat eating and animal slaughter. One of the themes is Dunlop letting go of Western limitations on texture and what is food, so she talks frankly about Chinese views and food traditions. The middle third was a lot dryer and less joyful. It felt a like she depended a lot more on her cookbook research during that time for material than the curiosity and abandon of her student days. I found myself appreciating it more by the last third though. Again, not as personal or joyous as the first third, not as intuitive, but interesting in terms of China's new wealth and how that affects food availability, waste, the new Chinese chefs. All in all I enjoyed it, but I can't help wishing the entire book was more like the first section. That must have been an amazing time for her. 

 

I can't even get past the title of the book. Just the thought of shark fin soup is enough to boil my blood. So, I don't fancy I'll ever even pick this book up off a shelf.

[shukriyya]

I hope you & all the others that are planning to read it will enjoy it. It's always such a bummer to have high expectations for a book or think you will like it & then to have it fall short....

 

Putting on my parallel universe clothing here (perhaps a la Beyonce :lol: ) and giving you a glimpse into how it's gonna work...see I already like this book, I've decided that, so I'm going to read it and I'm going to like it even if I don't like it. That's just the way it is in the parallel universe. It doesn't make a lot of sense but I'm having one of your Atmospheric Disturbances moments :smilielol5:

 

[mlbuchina]

Reece's are actually high on the list of requested American items that we get from people.  Other popular items are Captain Crunch and Candy Corn.  Lucky Charms(which rates with Twinkies as yucky  imo) also frequently asked for by friends. Real peanut butter (I just buy it at Costco, Jif I think) seems to be a positive eye opening for many.  If you really want to see a disgusted face on a Brit feed them root beer , it apparently tastes like a common really disgusting medicine here.  I had no clue and had a 4th of July BBQ complete with root beer floats...I managed to separate the expats out really effectively. :lol:  Dutch, Nigerians, S. Afrians all happily drank root beer! Others shuddered. :lol:

 

As far as vegimite and marmite  go not a huge fan but can eat it to be polite.  A friend loves them and is enthusiastic, small doses are acceptable.  Snack foods in those flavours are common at their house -- marmite pretzel like things anyone?  I will never buy it unless for someone else's pleasure.

 

 

Captain Crunch turns the inside of your mouth into hamburger.  Seriously, how anyone eats that, and then eats anything else the rest of the day, is beyond me.

 

I could live off of Reece's peanut butter cups.  LOVE them.  Actually, anything peanut butter.

[Onceuponatime]

Peanut butter Captain Crunch is good. :leaving:

[shukriyya]

Captain Crunch turns the inside of your mouth into hamburger.  Seriously, how anyone eats that, and then eats anything else the rest of the day, is beyond me.

 

I could live off of Reece's peanut butter cups.  LOVE them.  Actually, anything peanut butter.

 

These are my go to PB cups. They make a great breakfast with strong coffee...

 

 

 

And these'll do in a pinch...

 

 

[mumto2]

Capt'n Crunch is kids' food! I loved that stuff...when I was, you know, five :smilielol5: Are these adults requesting this stuff, mumto2?? If so I suggest they look to their diets to see what vital nutrients are missing that has them requesting this stuff :lol:

 

In bookish news The Night Circus has just come available for me in ebook form :hurray:  I really want to like it. I'm still slowly wending my way through The Midwife of Venice. It's been almost two weeks and it's not a long book but for some reason my reading attn span has been very low. The story is good, too :confused1:

Sort of a broad spectrum......We usually give the marmite pretzel friend Captain Crunch for his birthday--loves it.  :lol: But for the most part the goodies are for kids, adults would never ask specifically.  I generally give adults peppermint bark Gherridelli.  Different and proves some Americans can sort of do chocolate--after what happened to Cadbury opinions are low here.

 

If you listen to the Twinkies complaints they dislike it because the filling is fake.  Whip some double cream and the cake part would be acceptable.......most people pour cream on most desserts here.  Took me a couple of years to quit cringing.  A piece of incredibly rich fudge cake with sumptuous frosting gets half a cup of cream dumped on it.  My family likes to bake and we had to quit making Carmel popcorn for people who dump cream on it -- watching people with dripping popcorn that took two hours to create was more then we could handle. ;( Actually making requested peanut butter cookies for the bell tower this morning--dc's have a wedding to ring for.

 

On the reading side of things still making my way through Black Roses.  I have the sequel Winter Garden but need to return by Monday due to a hold.  They are interesting, not sure if I have read fiction set in Germany during Hitler's rise to power before.  Unbelievable what people will accept.  Also have a Chicagoland vampire on the kindle.

[Rosie_0801]

Aussies eat peanut butter. Though after meeting those nasty Reece cups, I'm not sure if what we call peanut butter is what you call peanut butter.

 

Candy corn? Between that and the frightening looking HFCS soft drinks, I have to control myself so I don't run screaming past American lolly shops. 

 

 

Back on the topic of books, what chapter of HoAW am I supposed to be on? I'm up to chapter 8.

[Onceuponatime]

 

If you listen to the Twinkies complaints they dislike it because the filling is fake.  Whip some double cream and the cake part would be acceptable.......most people pour cream on most desserts here.  Took me a couple of years to quit cringing.  A piece of incredibly rich fudge cake with sumptuous frosting gets half a cup of cream dumped on it.  My family likes to bake and we had to quit making Carmel popcorn for people who dump cream on it -- watching people with dripping popcorn that took two hours to create was more then we could handle. ;( Actually making requested peanut butter cookies for the bell tower this morning--dc's have a wedding to ring for.

 

 

 Mmmm, cream. I could go for fudge cake with cream on it. It sounds even better than chocolate birthday cake with milk, which is what I eat for breakfast on the day after a birthday. Cream on pie, cream on cake, yes. I'd have to draw the line at popcorn though.

 

This is why I don't buy cream. I would look like a cream puff in no time.

 

On the book side, I've started The Believing Brain by Michael Shermer.

[Pam in CT]

I think, I hope, those are the pansiest people America has to offer. Seriously. Why whinge about a pizza shape? As for the Vegemite, my son is the only one gross enough to eat it out of the jar like that. It's supposed to be consumed as a thin scraping on bread, with lots of butter. Mm. Vegemite. I can't have any. He got into the cupboard the other day and licked the jar clean.  :ack2:

 

I feel the same way about Warheads as the people in the vid. Aren't you supposed to? Twinkies? I don't even think they are food! Why didn't they talk about those Reece peanut butter cups? Those things are poisonous!

 

OK, Twinkies actually are poisonous -- there was a YouTube video floating around a few years ago of a guy who was cleaning out a hunting cabin or something that had been vacant for, like, fifteen years, and he found a package of Twinkies, which were perfectly intact.

 

But you have a son who eats Vegemite straight out of the jar, and you're kvetching about Reese's?  Please.

 

Reece's are actually high on the list of requested American items that we get from people.

 

<snip>

 

 If you really want to see a disgusted face on a Brit feed them root beer , it apparently tastes like a common really disgusting medicine here.  I had no clue and had a 4th of July BBQ complete with root beer floats...I managed to separate the expats out really effectively. :lol:  Dutch, Nigerians, S. Afrians all happily drank root beer! Others shuddered. :lol:

 

 

We used to like Reese's, but once we discovered Trader Joe's Dark Chocolate Peanut Butter Cups, there was no.going.back.  Oh my.  Those are a key component of the packages we send back with our UK-university-attending eldest.

 

And my younger two adore root beer -- consider themselves quite the connoisseurs, actually, swirling their glasses and sniffing the bouquet of these micro indie brands like the most insufferable of wine snobs -- and in our various travels we've found that it really is one of the few things that are hard to find outside of the US.

 

My brother and his family live in Singapore, and we send them a particular brand I can't think of just now -- Green Mountain? -- fire-roasted tomato garlic salsa, and dried cranberries.  (He does a huge Thanksgiving feast, and evidently cranberries are not to be found there, in any form, though they have just about everything else.)

 

When my brother-in-law and his family lived in Israel, my niece craved Kraft Mac'n'cheese  (  :scared: ).  It was easy to get pasta there, so I'd take the cheese packets out of the boxes, we'd keep the macaroni, and we'd just send the so-called "cheese."

 

We have German friends, and when they come, they take back great big vats of peanut butter and maple syrup.

[mumto2]

Aussies eat peanut butter. Though after meeting those nasty Reece cups, I'm not sure if what we call peanut butter is what you call peanut butter.

 

Candy corn? Between that and the frightening looking HFCS soft drinks, I have to control myself so I don't run screaming past American lolly shops. 

 

 

Back on the topic of books, what chapter of HoAW am I supposed to be on? I'm up to chapter 8.

Does calling it toffee popcorn make it more appealing?  That's what I call it here.  Brown sugar, golden syrup, and butter boiled then baked on popcorn at a low temperature to make it crispy, yummy. The inside of of reece's are actually peanut butter and sugar combined with a couple other ingredients -- yes, I have made peanut butter balls and they were close.  So nothing like plain American Peanut Butter. The American creamy kind is very smooth, the two British brands I tried buying were both somewhat gritty, also separated oddly when cooking with it.  Essentially useless imo.  I do feel obligated to say a friend who I supply with Jif recently said she found a new brand that works for cooking at least, cookies were good. Never tried Australian kind,  friend's son might know since he just returned from his student work permit in your country.  I will ask.

 

The cream they seem to prefer is double which is super rich whipping cream unwhipped.  I like milk on pies too.  But when I watch half a container of cream go on the rich cake all I can think of is complete caloric intake for a day or two. Those thoughts rarely occur to me normally. :lol:

 

HotAW -- pretty sure this week is this week is through chapter 8.  I need to catch up.

[welovetoread]

The virgin cure is what I am reading right now and I.love.it.  It is leaving me with the same feeling The Purge did.  Wonderful and horrifying all at the same time.  I have The Birth House by the same author on hold at the library.  I really love the Ami McKay right now :)

 

I also have The Fault in Our Stars on my kindle and Goldfinch.  I'm sure I won't finish Goldfinch before it gets taken away by my library e-book site :)

[shukriyya]

The virgin cure is what I am reading right now and I.love.it. It is leaving me with the same feeling The Purge did. Wonderful and horrifying all at the same time. I have The Birth House by the same author on hold at the library. I really love the Ami McKay right now :)

 

I also have The Fault in Our Stars on my kindle and Goldfinch. I'm sure I won't finish Goldfinch before it gets taken away by my library e-book site :)

The Birth House is wonderful! I've got The Virgin Cure sitting here in my stack just waiting for me to finish up my current read. So excited by your enjoyment of it. Ami McKay is my current fave too. You'll love The Birth House, I think, based on your enjoyment of her.

[Pam in CT]

I don't know where you hold, but if you kasher your kitchen, have you gotten everything back together yet?  ...I've still got stacks of things here and there waiting to get put back where they go... I was a little sad this year to pack the Pesach things away so soon, they bring so many memories with them... I;m not sure why 8 days seemed shorter than usual this year... maybe having kids home just for the chag made it seem to whiz by... I hope you had a lovey time, and that your time with friends/family/community was wonderful.

 

Re: haggados:  We have a minhag that each participant has 2 haggados: 1) the Artscroll Family one (so we can all know we're on the same page - it used to be the Maxwell...) 2) One s/he has selected from our collection of haggados w/ commentary so we each have different sources from which to share insights.  [warning: this can prolong the seder!] 

 

I'd love to hear your reactions to the ones you try... I love adding new ones to our collection!  This year's addition was Darkness to Destiny, which I really enjoyed.  ...I'm eying the Sacks Haggadah for next year.... I loved his To Heal a Fractured World - I think you might like it too.

 

Re: War Brides: I read that a few years ago and was so irritated by it - the ending I hated, but it felt 'off' all the way through... not something that felt compatible with the place or time it was supposed to be in.

 

Re: The Tain: I can't remember how much I shared here, but the first ?half?, perhaps more, was a dreadful slog, not my kind of story at all... it got more complex and interesting later... but I can't tell how much of what I appreciated was the text itself rather than the riffing off of other Celtic texts...

 

 

I censor for a bit longer, but I've also found that each kid has been so different that blanket guidelines have been hard to define.

 

 

Some authors/titles many of my daughters have loved at ~11 (if you want more information, or have any specific content concerns, let me know (and I own all these so if you want excerpts I could type some up))

 

SFF:

 

Megan Whalen Turner: The Thief, Queen of Attolia, King of Attolia, Consiracy of Kings (in that order). These are great J/YA fantasy, there is a jump in intensity from the first to the second (and in complexity), but I think you'd be okay with these.

 

Sherwood Smith: Crown Duel has been tween/early teen favorite for all of my daughters.  The Wren series and CJ's records are younger (and less polished), but also well liked (though outgrown by later own), Posse of Princesses and Trouble with Kings touch, very lightly, on more adult material (more in setting/culture/background than anything else), the Sasha books (Once a Princess and Twice a Prince) are have a... less refined?  not sure how to describe it voice., Coronets and Steel is a riff on Ruritania (I made dd#3 read Prisoner of Zenda & Rupert of Hentzau w/ me before she could read this), its sequels are less derivative (not using that pejoratively here),  the Inda series is *amazing*, but, imho, *very* adult.  (not in graphic-ness, but in the cultures and issues and... angle of the story)

 

Sylvia Louise Engdahl: Enchantress from the Stars, Far Side of Evil (darker than EftS & sadder), This Star Shall Abide, Beyond the Tomorrow Mountains (depending on how careful you are, you might want to preview the last section), and Doors of the Universe (this one I don't give my teens, ymmv)

 

Balance of Trade - the only J/YA Liaden universe novel (well, there is a sequel to this one now, it might be younger too).  They are all appealing for teens, but not what I would hand one of mine, especially as a tween, ymmv.

 

Robin McKinley: McKInley has done a number of fairy tale retellings (Beauty and Spindle's End are my favorites) and two books in her "Damar" world (The Blue Sword and Hero and the Crown) the latter has a (non-explicit) adult issue near the end, but, imho, it is handle tastefully and unobtrusively.  She has many more, but those are our favorites.

 

McKinley has two books I would strongly recommend not giving to teens or tweens: Deerskin (father-daughter rape is at the center of the early plot of this story - it is a brilliant, powerful book, but not, imho, for kids) and Sunshine (a vampire novel before vampires were so popular, and otherwise might appeal to teens, but there are a few very explicit moments (describing body parts and sensations) that I think would be uncomfortable for many parents it is otherwise, imho, a delightful book. 

 

Patricia Wrede: In addition to the Dragon chronicles, Wrede co-authored the delightful magical Regency epistolary novel Sorcery and Cecilia and its sequels (the second book has some, very brief, not eplicit, references to wedding night intimacy) .  Her Lyra novels are also fun (but one of them, as I recall, has some passing references that one might want to screen for), Snow White and Rose Red and The Seven Towers were also popular.. ooh, and the (newly renamed) Matter of Magic (some passing adult references)

 

Katherine Briggs (folklorist extrodinaire) did two folk tale inspired kids' books: Kate Crackernuts and Hobberdy Dick - very well done.  (And they've been *republished*!!)

 

Not of the same caliber, but The Magic Thief series and the Ranger's Apprentice series have been well loved by my 12 year old twins.

 

 

Curse as Dark as Gold: a fairytale retelling (these were very popular with my tweens, often regardless of quality - Cameron Dokey's were well read, but this one is, imho, well done)

 

 

 

 

historical fiction:

 

Sally Watson - these are rosy-tinted, not even vaguely objective HF that all of my daughters have loved. [Only the older books, nothing she has written recently has appealed to us at all]  Highland Rebel and Hornet's Nest were especially popular.  She has a trio of books set in Israel that is equally slanted, but, imho, more concerningly so given the connections to current political issues and the, imho, somewhat patronizing depiction of Palestinians.  ...they are very dated, but the core stories still have a lot of appeal for kids this age (Mukhtar's Children and Other Sandals, at least, To Build a Land doesn't hold together quite as well).

 

John & Patricia Beatty: These are solidly researched and really well done - and they've recently be reissued as (affordable!) ebooks! Campion Towers and Master Rosalind have been my daughter's favorites, but there are many lovely choices.

 

Hester Burton: Also really well done - these do have some more adult situations, but nothing explicit, Beyond the Weir Bridge, In Spite of All Terror, Kate Ryder

 

Cynthia Harnett: Another neglected treasure... Caxton's Challenge was my favorite as a kid, but she has a number

 

Rebecca's War by Ann Finlayson: US Revolutionary War.

 

Elizabeth Marie Pope: Perilous Gard and Sherwood Ring the former is a better book (I wish she had written many more!), but the latter is also fun.

 

 

Other:

 

Margaret J Anderson:  Searching for Shona is WWII Blitz era HF fiction, Journey of the Shadow Bairns was one of my favorites as a kid, In the Keep of Time and several others are fantasy rather than hf (she wrote straight non-fiction as well...) Her strangest book, and one that fascinated me as a child, is Light in the Mountain.

 

Elizabeth Goudge: There are the better known two: Linnets and Valerians and Little White Horse, but her other kids' books are also enjoyable.

 

Jane Langton: Diamond in the Window is the first in her kids' series (The Fragile Flag was my favorite of these, I think)

 

Kate Seredy: the Good Master might be a little younger, but the sequel is, imho, for tweens at least.  Ditto Chestry Oak.  Younger, and less well crafted, The Open Door is an interesting look at the US right before entering WWII

 

Nancy Bond: Best of Enemies (though, imho, not its sequels), Country of Broken Stone, and, my favorite: Voyage Begun (and, yes, yes, String in the Harp... ), Another Shore is one of the best time slip fantasies I've seen, but imho, it is too adult, at least for my teens.

 

Jewish Historical Fiction not from a Jewish publisher:

 

 

Nothing Here but Stones

 

The War Within

 

Pickpocket's Tale

 

Out of many Waters

 

Hebrew Kid & the Apache Maiden

 

Dog of Knots

 

Bridge to America

 

 

Sorry, I meant for this to be more organized and annotated.  I've tried to focus on lesser known authors/titles...

 

Oy, Eliana!  You must have spent an hour putting all these links together!  I just wanted to say thank you, and I've already spent 20+ minutes chasing them down and putting on holds; and I'll come back later!

 

We are Reform, and don't regularly keep kashrut, so that aspect is much, much easier for us... we do have china that I just use for Passover dishes, though, just because I like the "special," ceremonial aspect of it.  My dishes are put away, but we moved all the furniture out of the sitting room to make room for the tables, and that's not quite put back yet!

 

On haggadot... my father-in-law, who does first night, uses the Bronstein / Baskin illustrated one, which I actually love, but when we started doing second night ages ago, we wanted something different since there is so much overlap in the audience... Also at that point our crowd had loads of babies and toddlers, so we opted then for Shoshanah Silberman's serviceable but rather simplistic (and affordable!! which counts, when you're getting 30 of them!) version.  We have definitely outgrown this 20+ years later (although it does have a few modern readings that we enjoy), and have increasingly pulled in bits and pieces of other versions.

 

Our crowd likes: singing, readings that connect to contemporary social issues, and a single uninterrupted narrative of the story (this is a progressive denomination thing, it seems)... we also have a wide range of Hebrew literacy (for several of our regulars, ours is the only seder they attend) so we need transliteration as well.  OTOH, my brother-in-law is a rabbi, and he gets twitchy if we skip any of the traditional sequence, so we have the (common!) balancing act against time...  

 

I like a clear uncluttered layout, ideally with one of those vertical "meters" on the side that lets you know exactly where you are in the progression of the order (your ArtScroll has that on the right side of every page, which is perfect; ours has it at the beginning of each of the sections, so I refer our position in the sequence to a large poster that I hang on the wall...), and I am very attracted to beautiful artwork (one of the things I love about the Bronstein / Baskin); but I also like having a mix of related commentary and contemporary passages easily at hand, rather than shuffling between books / looking up pages / searching for loose sheets of paper, etc...

 

I haven't yet found one that hits all the cylinders... the ones that have come closest thus far are Szyk (this one is gorgeous, btw, if you don't have it yourself, and hits our aesthetic / full traditional sequence / transliteration criteria; but has no contemporary readings and too few songs), the Reconstructionist Night of Questions (which has plenty of marvelous readings, some vaguely interesting modern artwork, and more songs than even my musically inclined in-laws know; but is hopelessly cluttered and too confusing to follow); or the much more streamlined but also much less attractive Kaplan Reconstructionist; and finally Elie Wiesel's (which sadly does not have transliteration, and Podwal's illustrations border on the cartoonish, but Wiesel's commentary -- which touch upon Talmud, and the Holocaust, and his own musings -- are so marvelous that I'm actually tempted to type out the transliterations myself and paste them in, which my husband assures me is INSANE).  

 

I'm still waiting on a few more, and would love to hear any suggestions you have!!

[Pam in CT]

Does calling it toffee popcorn make it more appealing?  That's what I call it here.  Brown sugar, golden syrup, and butter boiled then baked on popcorn at a low temperature to make it crispy, yummy. 

 

That's called Cracker Jack here.  And this being America, we prefer ours with HFCS, thank you very much.  So they can have a shelf life of, you know, 15 or more years, just like Twinkies.  Brown sugar, golden syrup and butter-- that's for tree hugging, whole food, granola eatin' pansies...