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Thursday, January 31, 2013

Embracing the Winter Season


Stopping by Woods on a Snowy Evening
By Robert Frost

Whose woods these are I think I know.   
His house is in the village though;   
He will not see me stopping here   
To watch his woods fill up with snow. 

My little horse must think it queer   
To stop without a farmhouse near   
Between the woods and frozen lake   
The darkest evening of the year.   


He gives his harness bells a shake   
To ask if there is some mistake.   
The only other sound’s the sweep   
Of easy wind and downy flake.   


The woods are lovely, dark and deep.   
But I have promises to keep,   
And miles to go before I sleep,   
And miles to go before I sleep.


Happy Reading!
Rebecca

Sunday, January 27, 2013

What I'm Reading- Jan. 28, 2013

It's Monday! What Are You Reading?" is a meme hosted by Sheila from Book Journey where readers share what they are currently reading, recently read, or plan to read next.

Recently Finished:
Check out my thoughts on Gone Girl by Gillian Flynn here:

Check out my thoughts on The Twelve Tribes of Hattie by Ayana Mathis here:

Currently Reading:

** This is my book club's latest selection.
Book Description from amazon.com: Police Chief Luke Granger's witness to a murder, Amy Griffin, has been on the run for years. Her family thinks she was murdered eight years ago, but Amy chose to accept a life in the shadows in order to protect her sisters' lives. Now unveiled secrets about their father have thrust the sisters into the public spotlight. The man who wants Amy dead now sees her sisters as the way to locate her. Luke and two of his homicide detectives are determined to stand in the way. They are each falling in love with a different sister, and it's become a personal mission to keep them safe. But chances are that at least one of them will fail, and facing the future will take a faith deeper than any of them currently knows.

Up Next: The Plague of Doves by Louise Erdrich
Happy Reading!
Rebecca

Saturday, January 26, 2013

Weekend Cooking: Rosemary Bread


This simple and delicious bread recipe is one that I have make a lot, especially during the summer months when my rosemary plant is flourishing. Surprisingly, the plant is still surviving the winter thus far so I decided to harvest some of it up and bake more bread. This recipe is a version from Romano's Macaroni Grill that I found on food.com. It is really good and super easy but you do have to plan ahead because it takes a while for the bread to rise.

This version makes two small loaves.
Ingredients:
1 Tablespoon yeast
1 Tablespoon sugar
1 cup warm water
2 1/2 cups flour
1 teaspoon salt
2 Tablespoons rosemary
2 Tablespoons butter

Directions:
1. Place yeast, sugar and water in large bowl or food processor and allow mixture to become bubbly.
2. Mix in 1 Tablespoon butter, salt, and 2 cups of flour
3. Add 1 Tablespoon of fresh rosemary
4. Knead for about 10 minutes by hand or in food processor about five minutes until smooth and elastic
5. Add more flour if necessary
6. Oil a bowl, put dough in it and cover with a towel
7. Let dough rise in a warm place for one hour until doubled
8. Punch down dough and divide in half
9. Let dough rest about five minutes
10. Spray baking pan or cookie sheet with cooking spray
11. Shape dough into two small rounded loaves
12. Sprinkle remaining 1 Tablespoon of rosemary over the loaves and press lightly in the surface
13. Let loaves rise again until doubled, about 45 minutes
14. Preheat oven to 375 degrees
15. Bake for 15 to 20 minutes until lightly browned
16. Carefully remove from oven, brush with remaining butter and add salt if desired.

You could also substitute dried rosemary, Italian seasoning, or Herbs de Provence seasoning if you did not have fresh rosemary on hand.
Enjoy!


This post is linked up to Weekend Cooking, a weekly meme hosted by Beth at Beth Fish Reads.

Happy Cooking!
Rebecca



Thursday, January 24, 2013

Gone Girl by Gillian Flynn

Book Description (from amazon.com):
Marriage can be a real killer.
One of the most critically acclaimed suspense writers of our time, New York Times bestseller Gillian Flynn takes that statement to its darkest place in this unputdownable masterpiece about a marriage gone terribly, terribly wrong. The Chicago Tribune proclaimed that her work “draws you in and keeps you reading with the force of a pure but nasty addiction.” Gone Girl’s toxic mix of sharp-edged wit and deliciously chilling prose creates a nerve-fraying thriller that confounds you at every turn.
On a warm summer morning in North Carthage, Missouri, it is Nick and Amy Dunne’s fifth wedding anniversary. Presents are being wrapped and reservations are being made when Nick’s clever and beautiful wife disappears from their rented McMansion on the Mississippi River. Husband-of-the-Year Nick isn’t doing himself any favors with cringe-worthy daydreams about the slope and shape of his wife’s head, but passages from Amy's diary reveal the alpha-girl perfectionist could have put anyone dangerously on edge. Under mounting pressure from the police and the media—as well as Amy’s fiercely doting parents—the town golden boy parades an endless series of lies, deceits, and inappropriate behavior. Nick is oddly evasive, and he’s definitely bitter—but is he really a killer?
As the cops close in, every couple in town is soon wondering how well they know the one that they love. With his twin sister, Margo, at his side, Nick stands by his innocence. Trouble is, if Nick didn’t do it, where is that beautiful wife? And what was in that silvery gift box hidden in the back of her bedroom closet?
With her razor-sharp writing and trademark psychological insight, Gillian Flynn delivers a fast-paced, devilishly dark, and ingeniously plotted thriller that confirms her status as one of the hottest writers around.

My Thoughts:
     Gone Girl by Gillian Flynn is one of those books that you simply do not want to put down. A suspenseful tale that is always changing course. Flynn takes the reader on a terrifying yet exciting ride with her incredible talent to craft a story that astonishes more with each chapter. What begins as a missing wife/husband suspected of foul play routine story becomes anything but in Flynn's creative hands. This is definitely a story that you can't be told about, you have to read this one for yourself in order to experience the impact of the twists and turns- and there are many.
"When I think of my wife, I always think of her head. The shape of it to begin with. The very first time I saw her, it was the back of her head that I saw, and there was something lovely about it. Like a shiny, hard corn kernel or a riverbed fossil. She had what the Victorians would call a finely shaped head. You could imagine the skull quite easily." ~ Nick Dunne
     At root is the looming question- "How well can we truly know another person?" We are all flawed but in our efforts to camouflage these flaws, are we altering who we really are? In Gone Girl, Flynn tackles the concept of what happens when the charade of a new relationship is over? While at times the story feels very heavy, it is also peppered with comedic relief from secondary characters such as Amy's parents, Rand and Marybeth Elliott and Nick's attorney Tanner  Bolt. Pop culture also plays a secondary character in this story- society's interest in crime stories; the power of the media; the fall of print media in the online age; the impact movies have on how we think we are "supposed" to act and react.
"...Because you can't be as in love as we were and not have it invade your bone marrow. Our kind of love can go into remission, but it's always waiting to return. Like the world's sweetest cancer." ~ Amy Elliott Dunne

     As over-the-top and despicable as both Nick and Amy often are in this story, Flynn has created two characters that instantly engage the reader like a the "perfect couple" image we are so often presented through mass media. It is completely unrealistic, yet we want to believe it all the same.

Happy Reading!
Rebecca


Monday, January 21, 2013

The Twelve Tribes of Hattie by Ayana Mathis


Book Description (from amazon.com): In 1923, fifteen-year-old Hattie Shepherd flees Georgia and settles in Philadelphia, hoping for a chance at a better life. Instead, she marries a man who will bring her nothing but disappointment and watches helplessly as her firstborn twins succumb to an illness a few pennies could have prevented. Hattie gives birth to nine more children whom she raises with grit and mettle and not an ounce of the tenderness they crave. She vows to prepare them for the calamitous difficulty they are sure to face in their later lives, to meet a world that will not love them, a world that will not be kind. Captured here in twelve luminous narrative threads, their lives tell the story of a mother’s monumental courage and the journey of a nation. Beautiful and devastating, Ayana Mathis’s The Twelve Tribes of Hattie is wondrous from first to last—glorious, harrowing, unexpectedly uplifting, and blazing with life. An emotionally transfixing page-turner, a searing portrait of striving in the face of insurmountable adversity, an indelible encounter with the resilience of the human spirit and the driving force of the American dream.

My Thoughts:
     The Twelve Tribes of Hattie (Alfred A. Knopf, 2012) references Hattie's 11 children and grandchild that she later cares for as her own. From our first introduction to Hattie, we sense that her life is going to be filled with heartaches and difficult situations. We also sense her strength and intelligence, yet these qualities never seem to be enough to elevate Hattie. In Chapter One, Hattie suffers the loss of her her twin babies, Philadelphia and Jubilee, and this event haults Hattie's evolution. "She felt their deaths like a ripping in her body." (page 13) Her life is chronicled by the births of nine more children and little else.
     Told through the eyes of Hattie and her tribe, this family saga dismantles in a series of short stories that weave together time. Human flaws and internal conflicts abound in her descendants, eagerly passed from Hattie herself, perhaps in an attempt to alleviate her own burdens by sharing the pain.

" Hattie knew her children did not think her a kind woman--perhaps she wasn't but there hadn't been time for sentiment when they were young. She had failed them in vital ways, but what good would it have done to spend the days hugging and kissing if there hadn't been anything to put in their bellies? They didn't understand that all the love she had was taken up with feeding them and clothing them and preparing them to meet the world. The world would not love them; the world would not be kind." (page 236)

     Each chapter stands alone yet ties into the next, creating a portrait of a family struggling to survive in a changing America. The writing is exquisite. The character development is powerful with each strong enough to lead separate novels. In The Twelve Tribes of Hattie, Mathis expertly guides the reader through the passage of time that defines Hattie the mother, the lover, the grandmother, and the woman. Her tribe will go forth and with them the hope for a better future.

This book is the current selection from the Oprah 2.0 Book Club. You can learn more and participate in online discussions at www.oprah.com.

Happy Reading!
Rebecca
 About the author: Ayana Mathis is a graduate of the Iowa Writers' Workshop and is a recipient of the Michener-Copernicus Fellowship. The Twelve Tribes of Hattie is her first novel.

Thursday, January 10, 2013

The Happiness Project by Gretchin Rubin

How Happy Are You?
Have you ever thought about working to become happier?


"There is no duty we so much underrate
 as the duty of being happy."
                                                   ~ Robert Louis Stephenson

Book Description (from amazon.com)
Gretchen Rubin had an epiphany one rainy afternoon in the unlikeliest of places: a city bus. "The days are long, but the years are short," she realized. "Time is passing, and I'm not focusing enough on the things that really matter." In that moment, she decided to dedicate a year to her happiness project.
In this lively and compelling account, Rubin chronicles her adventures during the twelve months she spent test-driving the wisdom of the ages, current scientific research, and lessons from popular culture about how to be happier. Among other things, she found that novelty and challenge are powerful sources of happiness; that money can help buy happiness, when spent wisely; that outer order contributes to inner calm; and that the very smallest of changes can make the biggest difference.

"...studies show that the absence of feeling bad isn't enough to make you happy; you must strive to find sources of feeling good." (page 113)

My Thoughts
     Gretchen Rubin's, The Happiness Project (2009 HarperCollins Publishing),was an ideal read before the start of the year but this is a book that could inspire any month in which you read it. Rubin begins her project by acknowledging that she is not depressed and has no reason to be unhappy. The goal of the project is to feel happier by changing her attitude not her surroundings. By incorporating positive thoughts and reactions into her daily routine, Rubin details her year of success and failure in trying to achieve happiness while things are calm in her life so that she is more prepared to deal with setbacks when they are bound to occur. Even the author questions her own purpose for wanting to begin this project. "Was I searching for spiritual growth and a life more dedicated to transcendent principles- or was my happiness project just an attempt to extend my driven, perfectionist ways to every aspect of my life?" (page 4)
     Rubin's book sparked many to begin their own happiness projects during the year she blogged about the process and following the publication of the book. Each happiness project would be unique with the individual using his/her own interests to determine areas of focus. She outlined her project as such: January- Boost Energy, Vitality; February- Remember Love, Marriage; March- Aim Higher, Work; April- Lighten Up, Parenthood; May- Be Serious About Play, Leisure; June- Make Time for Friends, Friendship; July- Buy Some Happiness, Money; August- Contemplate the Heavens; Eternity; September- Pursue a Passion, Books; October- Pay Attention, Mindfulness; November- Keep a Contented Heart, Attitude; December- Boot Camp Perfect, Happiness.
     For those who have previously read about mindfulness, gratitude or simplifying your life, The Happiness Project repeats a great deal of these techniques and affirmations. It is through her research of these topics that provides Rubin with a basis for her study. What this particular book does is to reinforce the concepts that you are likely familiar with such as thinking before you speak, waking with the right attitude, listening to what others are saying without feeling the need to correct or express your own opinions, etc. Rubin's project takes the concept of New Year's Resolutions further by creating a checklist for the areas in which she hopes to improve in an effort to hold herself accountable. "My desire to change was meaningless if I couldn't find a way to make the change happen." (page 287)
     One of the most significant attributes of this book is Rubin's willingness to share details about her life and family with the reader. She doesn't always paint herself in the best light nor does she score herself perfectly on her attempts to change. She acknowledges that resolutions can be difficult to maintain, but she inspires us to keep trying. If you decide to begin your own happiness project, it may be beneficial to read other books on your spiritual inclinations and ways to be work on being "in the present." But if you are looking for a realistic approach to addressing areas in your own life that leave you feeling less than happy, The Happiness Project is a solid starting point.

Happy Reading!
Rebecca

Sunday, January 6, 2013

What I'm Reading- Jan. 7, 2013

It's Monday! What Are You Reading?" is a meme hosted by Sheila from Book Journey where readers share what they are currently reading, recently read, or plan to read next.


It's a new year to be filled with great reading in wonderful books!
You can check out my Reading Resolutions here: Reading Resolutions for 2013
These are the books I hope to pull down from the shelves and delve into in the coming months.

Currently Reading: The Twelve Tribes of Hattie by Ayana Mathis
This is the latest selection from the Oprah 2.0 book club. I am already half-way through this one and the writing is excellent. I am excited to try the process of online discussion and look forward to sharing my experience with fellow readers.

Recently Finished: Wuthering Heights by Emily Bronte
I had read this book many years ago but it was book club's recent selection so I needed to reread it in order to discuss it at length. It was much more challenging than I recall it being the first time I read it. I had previously watched the recent Masterpiece Classics adaptation which helped with following the storyline. The language is often difficult to follow due to the dialect of the characters. Following two families for two generations, Bronte weaves an incredible story of love and loss in this book that has stood the test of time providing it the label of a classic novel.

Up Next: The Witness by Dee Henderson
This is my book club's latest selection.
Book Description (from amazon.com: Police Chief Luke Granger's witness to a murder, Amy Griffin, has been on the run for years. Her family thinks she was murdered eight years ago, but Amy chose to accept a life in the shadows in order to protect her sisters' lives. Now unveiled secrets about their father have thrust the sisters into the public spotlight. The man who wants Amy dead now sees her sisters as the way to locate her. Luke and two of his homicide detectives are determined to stand in the way. They are each falling in love with a different sister, and it's become a personal mission to keep them safe. But chances are that at least one of them will fail, and facing the future will take a faith deeper than any of them currently knows.

I hope everyone is enjoying their new reading selections for 2013!
Happy Reading,
Rebecca

Saturday, January 5, 2013

Weekend Cooking: Tortellini Soup

I have been seeing several recipes for Tortellini Soup as of late and wanted to give it a try. I was going to make a healthier version that consisted only of tortellini, tomatoes, spinach, and a chicken broth base but then I came across this version in the 2012 Mixing Bowl magazine, a special interest publication from Better Homes and Gardens.
 
This version incorporates Alfredo sauce, chicken and cheese in addition to the tomatoes, fresh spinach and chicken broth. I used a jar of sun-dried tomato alfredo instead of the regular version for a little extra flavor but you could make your own alfredo sauce if you prefer your version to store bought. The amount of sauce you make will be dependent on how many servings you want.

First, boil your tortellini according to the package directions. Next, heat the alfredo sauce and broth on the stove. Adding the broth to make the soup the consistency you prefer. Bring to a boil, then toss in some pre-cooked shredded chicken and tomatoes. Finally, toss in your fresh spinach for a few minutes. Finally, combine the tortellini with the sauce mixture and sprinkle on some extra cheese if you so desire.

This was a great way to serve tortellini in a different fashion and it was a perfect cold weather, comfort food dish.
Enjoy!
 
This post is linked up to Weekend Cooking, a weekly meme hosted by Beth at Beth Fish Reads.

Happy Cooking!
Rebecca

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