Sunkist Book Chat Sunkist Branch Library September 2014
Join us at our next meeting for cookies, coffee and conversation on Thursday, October 30 at 1:00 pm News As promised in last month’s newsletter, here is the information on the film, Lioness. It will be shown at the Haskett Branch Library on Thursday, November 6th at 6:30 pm. The film will be followed by first-hand accounts from female soldiers who have served on the cutting edge of history. Lioness tells the story of a group of female Army support soldiers who were part of the first program in American history to send women into direct ground combat. Without the same training as their male counterparts but with a commitment to serve as needed, these young women fought in some of the bloodiest counterinsurgency battles of the Iraq war and returned home as part of this country's first generation of female combat veterans. The women's candid narratives describing their experiences in Iraq and scenes from their lives back home form a portrait of the emotional and psychological effects of war from a female point of view.
The MUZEO is presenting a new program called The Open Book Series. These are free monthly readings by outstanding local authors on Thursdays at 6:30 p.m. followed by discussions and book signings. The readings are held on the lower level of the Carnegie. Upcoming readings are: Thursday October 16 Tom Zaradich, author of Anaheim’s Dead: Ghostly Encounters with the Passed. This is a collection of ghost stories from tales of residents of Anaheim’s Historic District as well as visits from the Anaheim Cemetery, Anaheim High School and Anaheim White House Restaurant.
Thursday, November 20 L.K. Gardner-Griffie, author of young adult books, like Misfit McCabe. Young Katie McCabe is a teenager faced with tough choices, who makes mistakes but learns from them.
Reviews The numbers in parenthesis, following the title, indicates the reader’s rating of the book. The ratings are (1) poor, (2) so-so, (3) good, (4) very good, (5) great.
Ruth Hirsch read 5 books. Kill Me If You Can (2) by James Patterson and Marshall Karp was a disappointment. These two writers are quite good alone but together are not as entertaining. Matthew Bannon, a poor art student living in New York City, finds a duffel bag filled with diamonds during a chaotic attack at Grand Central Station. Plans for a worry-free life with his gorgeous girlfriend Katherine fill his thoughts until he realizes that he is being hunted, and that whoever is after him won't stop until they have reclaimed the diamonds and exacted their revenge. The plot is trite and the foul language overdone. The Butler (3) by Wil Haygood is an interesting book about Eugene Allen who served as a butler in the White House for 8 Presidents. Allen ignited a nation's imagination and inspired a major motion picture: Lee Daniels' The Butler. The Butler explores Allen's life and his service to American Presidents, from Truman to Reagan. Ruth was sorry that the book didn’t include more information about the inner workings of the White House. Huckleberry Murders (3.5) by Patrick F. McManus is a very pleasant murder mystery set in a small town in Idaho. Sheriff Bo Tully is the type of Western lawman who uses his lifelong knowledge of the area and old fashioned wiles to help him solve his cases. Tully, who is famous for his hunches, suspects that local retiree Orville Poulson has been murdered by his ranch caretaker, Ray Crockett, a sociopath with a criminal record. The only problem is that Tully has no evidence and no body to prove that a crime has been committed. Supposedly, Orville is alive and well and cashing his Social Security checks from Spokane. Before Tully can follow up on Orville's whereabouts, three unidentified young men are found dead of gunshot wounds to the head, execution style. With the help of beautiful FBI agent Angela Phelps, Tully tries to connect the dots between Poulson’s disappearance and the sudden occurrence of murders in Blight County. This book contains both humor and intrigue. The Cat Sitter’s Cradle (3.5) by Blaize and John Clement is a Dixie Hemmingway mystery set in the Florida Keys. Dixie has built a nice, quiet life for herself in the sleepy town of Siesta Key, a sandy resort island off the coast of Florida. Things get a little messy when, on an early morning walk in the park with a client’s schnauzer, Dixie finds a homeless girl cradling a newborn baby in her arms. Dixie takes the young girl under her wing, even though she’s just been hired by Roy Harwick, to care for his Siamese cat, Charlotte, along with his wife’s priceless collection of rare, tropical fish. When Dixie discovers a dead body in the pool of the house where she is staying, she sets out to solve the crime. The plot is light and the writing style is plain with a touch of humor. Cut, Paste, Kill (4) by Marshall Karp is another book in the series about LAPD Detectives Mike Lomax and Terry Biggs. When Eleanor Bellingham-Crump, a socialite responsible for the death of a ten-year-old boy, turns up murdered on the floor of a Hollywood hotel bathroom, Lomax and Biggs are confronted with a crime of artistic brutality. Along with the scissors sticking out of Eleanor’s lifeless body, the two detectives find a scrapbook documenting a motive for vengeance in lurid detail. As more bodies are discovered, each one connected by the intricate scrapbooks left at the murder scenes, Mike and Terry are on the hunt for a vigilante stalking unpunished criminals. They must try to decode the meaning behind the scrapbooks before the crafty avenger has time to cut and paste the story for another kill. This author was new to Ruth who found his writing to be very entertaining. Not only was the plot original but the humor that was injected into the story was very entertaining.
John Simon read 3 books. The Racketeer (3) by John Grisham is a weirdly clever novel about Malcolm Bannister, a former attorney serving a 10 year sentence in a federal prison camp in Maryland. Malcolm’s situation isn’t looking too good but he’s got an ace up his sleeve. He knows who killed Judge Fawcett, and he knows why. The judge’s body was found in his remote lakeside cabin. There was no forced entry, no struggle, just two dead bodies: Judge Fawcett and his young secretary. Also, there was one large, state-of-the-art, extremely secure safe, opened and emptied. The FBI would love to know what was in the safe and Malcolm will tell them, for a price. Everything has a price, especially information as explosive as the sequence of events that led to Judge Fawcett’s death. The Ophelia Cut (4) by John Lescroart begins when Dismas Hardy's niece is raped and less than a day later her rapist is found murdered and her father; Moses McGuire becomes the prime suspect in the murder. Hardy agrees to defend him, but McGuire’s volatile, alcoholic nature only seems to be adding fuel to the prosecution fires. As overwhelming evidence against McGuire piles up, Hardy focuses on planting doubt in the minds of the jurors, until, in a feat of legal ingenuity that is staggering in both its implications and its simplicity, he sees a new way that might just save them all. Kill Room (3) by Jeffery Deaver is a Lincoln Rhyme/Amelia Sachs mystery. In the Bahamas, a sniper shot delivered from over a mile away killed a United States citizen who happened to be targeted by the United States government. The nation's most renowned investigator and forensics expert, Lincoln Rhyme, is called upon to investigate the killing. While his partner, Amelia Sachs, traces the victim's steps in Manhattan, Rhyme leaves the city to pursue the sniper himself. As details of the case start to emerge, the pair discovers that not all is what it seems. When a deadly, knife-wielding assassin begins systematically eliminating all evidence, including the witnesses, Lincoln's investigation turns into a chilling battle of wits against a cold-blooded killer.
Ruth Flanagan read 2 books. Command Authority (4) by Tom Clancy is the final novel written by Clancy before his death and proves that he never lost his gift for writing first-class techno thrillers. President Jack Ryan and his son Jack Jr. use their combined ingenuity to thwart a Russian dictator with empire-building on his mind. Russian president Valeri Volodin has imperialistic ambitions but failure to annex Estonia, thanks to unexpected NATO resistance, only redirects Russian attention to the Crimea and other lands currently outside NATO's formal umbrella. Meanwhile, Jack Ryan Jr., is investigating what appears to be an unrelated case involving Russian gangsters using a corrupt system to steal a vast fortune. In fact, the crime is linked to the ambitions of a former KGB officer who decades ago was taking part in the events unfolding in the Crimean region and to the early career of President Ryan himself. Fallen (3) by Karin Slaughter is about policewoman Faith Mitchell and her family. When Faith’s mother doesn’t answer her phone, Faith goes to her house and finds the front door open. There’s a bloodstain above the knob. When she enters the house she sees a man dead in the laundry room and a hostage situation in the bedroom. What she doesn’t see is her mother. Faith is left with too many questions and gets the help of her partner, Will Trent, and trauma doctor Sara Linton to find the answers. To find her mother, Faith will have to cross the thin blue line and bring the truth to light or bury it forever.
Matt Simon read 2 books. Nobody’s Perfect (5) by Donald E. Westlake is another in a series by Westlake featuring John Dortmunder, a laconic and somewhat lazy burglar. In this misadventure, Dortmunder teams up with a colorful cast of crooks to help a wealthy dissolute art collector defraud his insurance company. There are plenty of unexpected twists and turns, and the big score is always just out of reach. Reading this reminded Matt of TV reality shows like America’s Dumbest Criminals, but in this book the criminals are sympathetic characters. This book was a lot of fun•no sex, no violence, but plenty of laughs. Ghost Country (4) by Patrick Lee, is a suspense/science fiction tale that revolves around a time travel device that reveals a horrifying future. The story itself is a bit implausible, but parts of it are fun. The hero, Travis, is recruited by two women (young, beautiful and brainy, naturally) to help save the world. Two objects have come through a dimensional portal that allows one to enter the world eighty years in the future. They reveal a world that has died. When the president is shown the objects, a vast conspiracy is revealed and when the president is shown to be involved at the highest levels, the chase is on. Matt was horrified when the reason for the Earth’s demise was revealed. Although everything is resolved at the book’s conclusion, it is ultimately a somewhat depressing tale. However, if you enjoy sci-fi (and have a strong stomach), you will like this book.
Recipe It’s getting harder and harder to find cookie recipe books that have ingredients that we are used to using when we bake. I looked at one book that used different types of Crisco or other ingredients from a by-gone age. Then I looked at a Martha Stewart cookie book and it called for ingredients like candied orange peel, sanding sugar and different kinds of wine. I think that the wine is primarily for the baker while trying to figure out what to do next. I found a book “Maida Heatter’s Brand-new Book of Great Cookies” that has much simpler recipes along with a description of the cookie. “This is an all-time comfort food. Big, thick, semisoft, moist, chewy – and loaded with goodies. Whatever you do with these, do not store them in a location that can be seen- or reached. They will disappear too quickly”.
Chocolate Chip Sour Cream Cookies 7 ½ ounces (1 ½ cups) raisins 6 ounces (1 ½) cups walnuts 2 cups sifted unbleached flour 1 teaspoon baking soda ¼ teaspoon salt 4 ounces (1 stick) unsalted butter 1 teaspoon vanilla extract 1 cup granulated sugar 2 eggs graded “large” ½ cup sour cream 6 ounces (1 cup) semisweet morsels
Adjust two racks to divide the oven into thirds and preheat the oven to 375 degrees. Line cookie sheets with baking parchment or with aluminum foil, shiny side up. Steam raisins as follows: Place them in a vegetable steamer or a strainer over shallow hot water in a sauce pan, covered, over high heat. Let the water boil for a few minutes, until the raisins are moist. Remove them from the saucepan and spread out on a piece of foil to air a bit. Break the nuts into medium-sized pieces; set aside. Sift together the flour, soda and salt; set aside. In the large bowl of an electric mixer, beat the butter until soft. Add the vanilla and sugar and beat to mix well. Beat in the eggs and then the sour cream. On low speed gradually add the sifted dry ingredients and beat only until mixed. Remove the bowl from the mixer. Stir in the raisins, nuts and chocolate. Use a heaping tablespoon of the dough (make these large) for each cookie. Place them at least 2 inches apart (these will spread). Bake two sheets at a time for 13 to 15 minutes. Reverse the sheets top to bottom and front to back a few times while baking. Watch the cookies on the bottom layer. They might get too dark on the bottom if you don’t change to pans top to bottom soon enough. When done, they will be a barely golden brown all over and should just barely spring back when lightly pressed on top with a fingertip. Do not overbake. With a wide metal spatula, transfer the cookies to racks to cool. If you bake one sheet alone, bake it on the upper of the two racks. When cool, if you are not going to serve these soon, they should be wrapped as follows: The cookies should be placed two together, bottoms together. Each two cookies may then be wrapped in clear cellophane, wax paper or aluminum foil, or you can simply put them in a box without wrapping, two together, bottoms together, with wax paper between layers.