From the Bookshelf: Frozen Assets: Lite & Easy by Deborah Taylor-Hough

Non-Fiction. Paperback from Champion Press. Published in 2001. Purchased at Waldenbooks at the Crossroads Shopping Center, Kentwood, MI

This method of cooking - making large batches of entrees and freezing them - has been very beneficial to our family meal times. Some people do not mind cooking every day. I am not one of those people. But, I do enjoy cooking sometimes. So, by cooking ahead I am able to have a meal for the table even on days when I can't bear the thought of cooking another meal. On the days when I feel up to it, I can add things like homemade breads and desserts to the already prepared entree.

Publisher's summary:
The best-selling author of "Frozen Assets: How To Cook For A Day And Eat For A Month" is back with a book designed specifically for anyone looking for low-fat meal plans (including vegetarian options). It utilizes an even simpler design for once-a-month cooking through weekly "mini sessions". This great technique allows you to customize your menu quickly and easily and cook in advance for a week, two weeks, three weeks or more! Deborah Taylor-Hough, the quintessential "once-a-month cooking" expert, once again shows how to increase time at the family table, while decreasing time in the kitchen. Imaging being able to pull homemade Turkey Tortilla Casserole, Marinated Lime Chicken, Linguini with Vegetables, or Broccoli Tofu Quiche out of the freezer and into your oven. Beside the culinary magic Taylor-Hough pulls off, she also saved $24,000 in five years with this method and shares her secrets here!

To buy from amazon.co.uk, click here: Frozen Assets Lite & Easy: How to Cook for a Day and Eat for a Month
from amazon.com, click here: Frozen Assets Lite and Easy: How to Cook for a Day and Eat for a Month

I like this freezer cookbook because it includes many vegetarian recipes. However, there are many other excellent freezer cookbooks available, including:

• Frozen Assets: How to Cook for a Day and Eat for a Month


• The Freezer Cooking Manual from 30 Day Gourmet : A Month of Meals Made Easy


• The Best Freezer Cookbook: Freezer Friendly Recipes, Tips and Techniques


• Don't panic-- it's in the freezer!: A cookbook full of great-tasting meals you can make ahead

Harry Potter and the Half Blood Prince by J. K. Rowling

Fiction. Hardback from Scholastic Books. Published in 2005. Purchased at Meijer (who had the lowest price).

Book six in the series.

I had to let my daughter read this one first, since she was chomping at the bit to get to it. She finished it in one day, and I finished it the next day. (We didn't get much done those two days, but we had a good time!) My son just finished listening to the audio version on loan from the library. (Shame on J. K. Rowling, she won't let Audible sell the audio versions of Harry Potter, so we have to revert to getting it from the library.)

This series continues to get darker, the reading level growing with the age characters portrayed. My daughter went ahead and told me who the main character was who is killed, so I was prepared for it. Well, as prepared as one can be so see a favorite character dead and especially at the hands of the person who did the killing. (I'm trying not to spoil it in case someone hasn't read it yet, but it's not easy!)

Great book. Am looking forward to the final installment of this series and to anything else J. K. Rowling may write in the future.

Publisher's summary:
The war against Voldemort is not going well; even Muggle governments are noticing. Ron scans the obituary pages of the Daily Prophet, looking for familiar names. Dumbledore is absent from Hogwarts for long stretches of time, and the Order of the Phoenix has already suffered losses.

And yet...

As in all wars, life goes on. Sixth-year students learn to Apparate -- and lose a few eyebrows in the process. The Weasley twins expand their business. Teenagers flirt and fight and fall in love. Classes are never straightforward, though Harry receives some extraordinary help from the mysterious Half-Blood Prince.

So it's the home front that takes center stage in the multilayered six installment of the story of Harry Potter. Here at Hogwarts, Harry will search for the full and complex story of the boy who became Lord Voldemort -- and thereby find what may be his only vulnerability.

To buy from amazon.co.uk, click here: Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince
from amazon.com, click here: Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince

Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix by J. K. Rowling

Fiction. Paperback from Scholastic. Published in 2003. Purchased at Barnes & Noble.

Fifth book in the series.

Publisher's summary:
There is a door at the end of a silent corridor. And it's haunting Harry Potter's dreams. Why else would he be waking in the middle of the night, screaming in terror?

Harry has a lot on his mind for this, his fifth year at Hogwarts: a Defense Against the Dark Arts teacher with a personality like poisoned honey; a big surprise on the Gryffindor Quiddich team; and the looming terror of the Ordinary Wizarding Level exams. But all these things pale next to the growing threat of He-Who-Must-Not-Be-Named –- a threat that neither the magical government nor the authorities at Hogwarts can stop.

As the grasp of darkness tightens, Harry must discover the true depth and strength in his friends, the importance of boundless loyalty; and the shocking price of unbearable sacrifice.

His fate depends on them all.

To buy from amazon.co.uk, click here: Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix
from amazon.com, click here: Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix

St. Augustine in 90 Minutes by Paul Strathern

Non-Fiction. Audiobook from Blackstone Audio. Published in 1997, recorded in 2005. Purchased at Audible.com

Steve got this audiobook, and it sounded mildly interesting to me, so I gave it a listen. The author seemed a bit hostile towards Augustine, but then I feel hostile towards him at times, too. I was just hoping for a better representation of the man, including also some things that he had done that were good. I suppose this author doesn't think that there was much good in Augustine - he certainly picked examples from Augustine's work that were pretty silly. As an aside, I did learn an interesting tidbit about Augustine's mom: her name was Monica, and Santa Monica California is named for her. As to this book, a quick easy read on Augustine, but I wouldn't recommend it as an only source on the man.

Publisher's summary:
Augustine's struggles with sex and a domineering mother, followed by his spiritual crisis and conversion to Christianity, detailed in his Confessions, ultimately led him to his major contribution to philosophy: the fusion of the two doctrines of Christianity and Neoplatonism. This not only provided Christianity with a strong intellectual backing but tied it to the Greek tradition of philosophy. In this way Christianity managed to keep the flame of philosophy burning, however dimly, through the Dark Ages. Augustine also produced important philosophic ideas of his own, including theories of time and subjective knowledge that anticipated by many centuries the work of Kant and Descartes.

In St. Augustine in 90 Minutes, Paul Strathern offers a concise, expert account of St. Augustine's life and ideas and explains their influence on man's struggle to understand his existence in the world. The book also includes selections from St. Augustine's work, a brief list of suggested readings for those who wish to delve deeper, and chronologies that place St. Augustine within his own age and in the broader scheme of philosophy.

To buy from amazon.co.uk, click here: St. Augustine in 90 Minutes
from amazon.com, click here: St. Augustine in 90 Minutes

I Told the Mountain to Move by Patricia Raybon

Non-Fiction. Hardback from Salt River. Published in 2005. On loan from the Cascade Public Library.

I saw this book advertised in a magazine and thought I might like to read it. I wasn't sure I wanted to buy it, so I checked our library web site and discovered that I was able to get it through the interlibrary loan program.

Some books on prayer leave me a bit irritated. I've never been to impressed with books that seem to me to be telling the reader that if they just follow steps 1, 2 and 3 then God will answer all of their prayers. So, it is always with a bit of trepidation that I open a book on prayer. Fortunately, this book was nothing like that. Patricia Raybon is obviously a woman who has done a lot of reading on prayer as the book the liberally sprinkled with quoted wisdom from writers like Richard Foster, Oswald Chambers, and Andrew Murray (plus many others). Written in a narrative style, for the most part the "bits of widsom" flowed smoothly into the story. There were a couple of times when it seemed like she was gone off on a tangent and I wondered when she would get back to the topic at hand, but it was not bad at all. There is much to deliberate on in this book and I thoroughly enjoyed it.

Publisher's summary:
Raised in a strict, church-going family, award-winning writer Patricia Raybon was shocked to find herself struggling in adulthood with a lifeless marriage and an unsettling distance from God. She set out to rebuild her prayer life, searching for a connection that would transform her household and impact others. But as her prayer journey took off, life interrupted with a mountain of hard, personal challenges. Suddenly in the "school of prayer," the Christopher Award-winner and popular college professor found herself not only on her knees praying, but at her desk--writing this powerful, inspiring, funny, personal, brave, redemptive account of her quest to rediscover, in the midst of modern-day challenges, God's greatest lesson on life-changing prayer.

To buy from amazon.co.uk, click here: I Told the Mountain to Move
from amazon.com, click here: I Told The Mountain To Move

Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire by J. K. Rowling

Fiction. Paperback from Scholastic Books. Published in 2002. Purchased at Waldenbooks.

Book four in the series.

Publisher's summary:
It's the pivotal fourth novel in the seven-part tale of Harry Potter's training as a wizard and his coming of age. Harry wants to get away from the pernicious Dursleys and go to the International Quidditch Cup with Hermione, Ron, and the Weasleys. He wants to dream about Cho Chang, his crush (and maybe do more than dream). He wants to find out about the mysterious event that's supposed to take place at Hogwarts this year, an event involving two other rival schools of magic, and a competition that hasn't happened for a hundred years. He wants to be a normal, fourteen-year-old wizard. Unfortunately for Harry Potter, he's not normal — even by wizarding standards.
And in his case, different can be deadly.

To buy from amazon.co.uk, click here: Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire
from amazon.com, click here: Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire

Just for Fun

Here's some Harry Potter fun:



I'm a Ravenclaw!

Go to: Sorting Hat to get yourself sorted or take year end exams.

Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban by J. K. Rowling

Fiction. Paperback from Scholastic Books. Published in 2001. Purchased at a Scholastic Book Fair.

Book three in the Harry Potter series.

Publisher's summary:
For twelve long years, the dread fortress of Azkaban held an infamous prisoner named Sirius Black. Convicted of killing thirteen people with a single curse, he was said to be the heir apparent to the Dark Lord, Voldemort.

Now he has escaped, leaving only two clues as to where he might be headed: Harry Potter's defeat of You-Know-Who was Black's downfall as well. And the Azkban guards heard Black muttering in his sleep, "He's at Hogwarts...he's at Hogwarts."

Harry Potter isn't safe, not even within the walls of his magical school, surrounded by his friends. Because on top of it all, there may well be a traitor in their midst.

To buy from amazon.co.uk, click here: Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban
from amazon.com, click here: Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban

Till We Have Faces by C. S. Lewis

Fiction. Audio from Blackstone Audio. Published in 1956. Recorded in 2000. Purchased at Audible.com

C. S. Lewis is known for his ability to spin a good yarn while still pointing his readers to God. Knowing that he once said that everything he wrote was evangelistic, I went into this tale expecting to be able to tell right away what message he was trying to get across. However, as I listened, I found myself puzzled as to what part of his tale could be considered evangelistic. It's a very engaging story, but I wasn't really finding any big messages hidden it in. Then as I got to the last hour of listening time, it all became much clearer and Lewis lived up to his reputation. Even if you are not familiar with the story of Cupid and Psyche, this is a great read. (And if you are not familiar with it, Lewis gives an overview of the story and talks about about his adaptation as an end note.)

Publisher's summary:
This timeless tale of two princesses, one beautiful and one unattractive, and of the struggle between sacred and profane love is C.S. Lewis's reworking of the classical myth of Cupid and Psyche, and one of his most enduring pieces of fiction.

To buy from amazon.co.uk, click here: Book: Till We Have Faces: A Myth Retold
Audio: Till We Have Faces
from amazon.com, click here: Book: Till We Have Faces: A Myth Retold
Audio: Till We Have Faces

Something Rotten by Japser Fford

Fiction. Audiobook from Recorded Books, LLC. Published in 2004. Purchased at Audible.com

Book four in the Thursday Next series.

Publisher's summary:
Jasper Fforde's time-traveling and fiction-jumping detective Thursday Next is an international hit with fans and critics. Beginning with The Eyre Affair, a Book Sense Top 76 Pick, Thursday's adventures have all cracked The New York Times best seller list.

After spending her time chasing a stray Minotaur into pulp Westerns, filling in for Joan of Arc, and raising her infant son, Friday, Thursday needs a break in the real world. But her return to Swindon is far from relaxing. Rogue fictioneer Yorrick Kaine and the evil multinational Goliath Corporation are trying to rule the world, and a deadly assassin called the Windowmaker is tracking Thursday's every move. To top it all off, her husband is still missing after being eradicated from the timestream before they met.

Fans of Douglas Adams and Monty Python won't want to miss this charming detective adventure sure to tickle the funny bone and stimulate the literary mind.

To buy from amazon.co.uk, click here: Something Rotten
from amazon.com, click here: Something Rotten: A Thursday Next Mystery

For the UK boxed set, click here: Next Boxed Set: "The Eyre Affair", "Lost in a Good Book", "The Well of Lost Plots" AND "Something Rotten"

The Well of Lost Plots by Jasper Fford

Fiction. Audiobook from HighBridge Audio. Published in 2004. Purchased on Audible.com

Book number three in the Thursday Next series.

Publisher's summary:
Thursday Next, the forthright and unstoppable detective of Jasper Fforde's first two novels, The Eyre Affair and Lost in a Good Book, rides again in The Well of Lost Plots. Get ready for time travel, adventure, mystery, romance, and crime in a literary caper that pokes fun at fiction itself.

When soon-to-be single parent Thursday Next emerges from her comfortable life inside an unpublished book, she steps into a new age of fictional narrative. The entire book world is abuzz with anticipation of an improved Text Operating System that moves from the 8-plot to the new 32-plot story system. But danger lurks when Jurisfiction agents keep turning up dead. When Thursday steps in, she encounters Dickens' Miss Havisham, passes through Emily Bronte's Wuthering Heights, and deals with a mispeling vyrus, holesmiths, and unionized nursery rhymes. The Well of Lost Plots, the place where all fiction is created, is an exhilarating romp through literary classics, an insightful look at how books are made, and a jewel in the long tradition of British nonsense.

To buy from amazon.co.uk, click here: Well of Lost Plots
from amazon.com, click here: Well of Lost Plots

Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets by J. K. Rowling

Fiction. Paperback from Scholastic. Published in 1999. Purchased at a Scholastic Book Fair.

The second book in the Harry Potter series.

Publisher's summary:
The Dursleys were so mean that hideous that summer that all Harry Potter wanted was to get back to the Hogwarts School for Witchcraft and Wizardry. But just as he's packing his bags, Harry receives a warning from a strange, impish creature named Dobby who says that if Harry Potter returns to Hogwarts, disaster will strike.

And strike it does. For in Harry's second year at Hogwarts, fresh torments and horrors arise, including an outrageously stuck-up new professor, Gilderoy Lockheart, a spirit named Moaning Myrtle who haunts the girls' bathroom, and the unwanted attentions of Ron Weasley's younger sister, Ginny.

But each of these seem minor annoyances when the real trouble begins, and someone--or something--starts turning Hogwarts students to stone. Could it be Draco Malfoy, a more poisonous rival than ever? Could it possibly be Hagrid, whose mysterious past is finally told? Or could it be the one everyone at Hogwarts most suspects...Harry Potter himself?

To buy from amazon.co.uk, click here: Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets
from amazon.com, click here: Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets

Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone by J. K. Rowling

Fiction. Paperback from Scholastic. Published in 1997. Purchased at a Scholastic Book Fair.

In getting ready for the release of the latest Harry Potter book: Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince I have been rereading the series. This is the first of the set.

As a side note, I've also enjoyed reading the UK version and noting the differences in the wording. Even the title of this one is different in the UK. (It's the Philosopher's Stone there.)

Publisher's summary:
Say you've spent the first 10 years of your life sleeping under the stairs of a family who loathes you. Then, in an absurd, magical twist of fate you find yourself surrounded by wizards, a caged snowy owl, a phoenix-feather wand, and jellybeans that come in every flavor, including strawberry, curry, grass, and sardine. Not only that, but you discover that you are a wizard yourself! This is exactly what happens to young Harry Potter in J.K. Rowling's enchanting, funny debut novel, Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone. In the nonmagic human world--the world of "Muggles"--Harry is a nobody, treated like dirt by the aunt and uncle who begrudgingly inherited him when his parents were killed by the evil Voldemort. But in the world of wizards, small, skinny Harry is famous as a survivor of the wizard who tried to kill him. He is left only with a lightning-bolt scar on his forehead, curiously refined sensibilities, and a host of mysterious powers to remind him that he's quite, yes, altogether different from his aunt, uncle, and spoiled, piglike cousin Dudley.
A mysterious letter, delivered by the friendly giant Hagrid, wrenches Harry from his dreary, Muggle-ridden existence: "We are pleased to inform you that you have been accepted at Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry." Of course, Uncle Vernon yells most unpleasantly, "I AM NOT PAYING FOR SOME CRACKPOT OLD FOOL TO TEACH HIM MAGIC TRICKS!" Soon enough, however, Harry finds himself at Hogwarts with his owl Hedwig... and that's where the real adventure--humorous, haunting, and suspenseful--begins.

To buy from amazon.co.uk, click here: Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stonefrom amazon.com, click here: Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone

A Lost Lady by Willa Cather

Fiction. Paperback from Vintage Books. Published in 1923. From my mom's library.

Mom was reading this for her book club while we were on vacation at the "Red Neck Riviera" (that's the Alabama Gulf Coast, if you weren't sure). She passed it on to me. It is a strange little book.

Publisher's summary:
Marian Forrester is the symbolic flower of the Old American West. She draws her strength from that solid foundation, bringing delight and beauty to her elderly husband, to the small town of Sweet Water where they live, to the prairie land itself, and to the young narrator of her story, Neil Herbert. All are bewitched by her brilliance and grace, and all are ultimately betrayed. For Marian longs for "life on any terms", and in fulfilling herself, she loses all she loved and all who loved her. This, Willa Cather's most perfect novel, is not only a portrait of a troubling beauty, but also a haunting evocation of a noble age slipping irrevocably into the past.

To buy from amazon.co.uk, click here: A Lost Lady
from amazon.com, click here: A Lost Lady

The Amazing Maurice and His Educated Rodents by Terry Pratchett

Fiction. Audiobook from Isis Publishing. Published in 2002. Purchased from Audible.com

This one was irresistible since it's a combination of Terry Pratchett and rats! (I know. Rats? But they grow on you. Really, they do.)

Publisher's summary:
Rats. They're everywhere: in the breadbins, dancing across tabletops, stealing pies from under the cooks' noses. So what does every town need? A good Piper to lure them away.

That's where Maurice comes in. But he's only a cat (even if one that talks), so although he has the ideas, he needs rats and someone to play the pipe. Who better than the kid to play the pipe? And Dangerous Beans. And Peaches. And Hamnpork (who doesn't really like what's been happening since The Change, all a rat leader really needs is to be big and stroppy, thinking is just not his thing). And Darktan. And Sardines. And all the others in the Clan.

Then they arrive in Bad Blintz, which is suffering from a plague of rats, and find there are NO rats anywhere (though the two resident rat catchers seem to have plenty of tails to show, at 50 pence per tail).

Someone else has had ideas, and Maurice is not pleased.

To buy from amazon.co.uk, click here: The Amazing Maurice and His Educated Rodents
from amazon.com, click here: The Amazing Maurice and His Educated Rodents

To Say Nothing of the Dog by Connie Willis

Fiction. Paperback from Bantam books. Published in 1998. From my brother's library.

I am glad that I read Three Men in A Boat before reading this book. It helped me understand many of the references to Jerome's book that I would have not understood otherwise. Not that the book would not have been enjoyable if I had not. Certainly a good read.

Publisher's summary:
From Connie Willis, winner of multiple Hugo and Nebula Awards, comes a comedic romp through an unpredictable world of mystery, love, and time travel...

Ned Henry is badly in need of a rest. He's been shuttling between the 21st century and the 1940s searching for a Victorian atrocity called the bishop's bird stump. It's part of a project to restore the famed Coventry Cathedral, destroyed in a Nazi air raid over a hundred years earlier.

But then Verity Kindle, a fellow time traveler, inadvertently brings back something from the past. Now Ned must jump back to the Victorian era to help Verity put things right--not only to save the project but to prevent altering history itself.

To buy from amazon.co.uk, click here: To Say Nothing of the Dog
from amazon.com, click here: To Say Nothing of the Dog

Reading, but not blogging....

Apologies for the profusion of posts that will be coming today and in the next couple of days. I've been reading very regularly, but have not gotten around to posting. I'm going to try and catch up today and will post a couple of them today and perhaps space the rest out over the next few days.

Happy reading to all!

You can make some, too.