First, before I forget, today’s review is of Peggy Knickerbocker’s delightful Olive Oil from Tree to Table.

Second, it’s time for the weekly Booking through Thursday meme, which I’ve actually missed for the last few weeks. Today’s meme is:

How about a chance to play editor-in-chief? Fill in the blanks:

__________ would have been a much better book if ______________________.

Now, I do a lot of book reviewing, so there are dozens of places I could go with this. But since I reviewed a cookbook today, I’ll let that dictate my choice—particularly because that’ll give me the opportunity to turn this into a rather funny story.

“The Fearless Chef would have been a much better book if the recipes had been kitchen-tested.”

To quote from that review:

I have a great love of Bananas Foster, so we decided to make the Jamaican Rum-Baked Bananas, which are described as “a tropical answer to Bananas Foster.” They include a bit of curry, and instead of flaming the alcohol you simply bake the dish in the oven, which sounded easier.

When we mixed things together I found myself triple-checking (literally) the amount of alcohol to go in; 1 cup of dark rum sounded like an awful lot. In fact, I even just checked it again because I still find it hard to believe the recipe called for that much. But hey, we were testing the cookbook, so I figured we should use the recipe as written.

We put everything together and into the oven. We basted it halfway through as stated. Then, at the end, I watched out for the cats and my husband opened up the oven to see if dessert was done.

I heard a whooshing sound and the slam of the oven door. Then I smelled burnt hair. I whipped around, and when my husband turned to face me all I could say was, “umm, you should look in a mirror.” His eyebrows had been trimmed, his eyelashes (despite his glasses) were a rather interesting ragged length, and the front row of his hair above his forehead was shriveled and now brown instead of black. A gout of flame had apparently shot straight out of the oven when he opened it up.

Nothing like that has ever happened to us before.

Now, on to the topic I was planning for today. Recently I ended up in Penguin’s database of reviewers. Because of this, I suddenly find myself reviewing a lot more erotic romances and variations on the same than I ever expected.

The other day, someone I know said to me, with a tone of horror, “don’t tell me you’re reviewing romances!” as though this was a terrible thing. It reminded me that once upon a time, that’s how I would have viewed it. Yes, I bought into the stereotype (which, mind you, existed for some time with good reason) that romances were ‘bodice-rippers’—ridiculous stories in which helpless, naive women waited for the strong, domineering man to come along and rescue them. And maybe once upon a time that was largely true, but it isn’t any more.

Out of curiosity I decided to read Alison Kent’s The Complete Idiot’s Guide to Writing Erotic Romance a couple of years ago. And in reading that book I came to realize that romances have changed a lot, and I decided to give them a try. Since then, I’ve come to a conclusion.

Romances have changed. And really, that shouldn’t be a surprise. The women of recent generations don’t tend to have patience for stupid, helpless heroines, and these women are writing more and more of the erotic romances out there. This means that the people writing these books tend to want the same things we as readers do: strong heroines who are capable of standing on their own two feet, and can match wits with the best of the heroes. Just like books of any other genre, romances can be written well or poorly depending on the skill and talent of the individual writer. Dismissing the genre out of hand is simply silly.

So I’m no longer vaguely embarrassed by the idea of reading & reviewing these books. Instead I’m enjoying opening my eyes to a whole new genre and discovering some wonderful writers, many of whom write in other genres I enjoy as well.

Today’s Booking Through Thursday:

Here’s something for Valentine’s Day.

Have you ever fallen out of love with a favorite author? Was the last book you read by the author so bad, you broke up with them and haven’t read their work since? Could they ever lure you back?

I’m wracking my brains here, but no, I can’t think of one. All of my favorite authors have so far kept the faith with me. I look forward to checking out others’ answers to this question and seeing how often it’s happened for them.

I’ve posted several book reviews since my last post; all of them, for the first time in a while, are fiction—no cookbooks, no non-fiction. Weird, huh? Here they are:

• Memory in Death, J.D. Robb/Nora Roberts
• The Painted Messiah, Craig Smith
• The Flawless Skin of Ugly People, Doug Crandell

I also have the awesomest husband: I got a box of books for Valentine’s Day! It includes some Val McDermid mysteries (I’ve wanted to read her stuff ever since watching the British TV version of ‘Wire in the Blood,’ based on her novels), one of which I’ve already started in on. I just couldn’t wait!

From this week’s Booking through Thursday:

Sometimes I find eccentric characters quirky and fun, other times I find them too unbelievable and annoying. What are some of the more outrageous characters you’ve read, and how do you feel about them?

For a brief moment I thought I’d skip this week’s BTT due to my notoriously bad memory for details; I was sure I wouldn’t be able to think of an answer. Then I realized it’s such a good question, and I had such a good answer for it, that even I could come up with something.

The two main characters in Bill James’s detective novels, Harpur and Iles, are… unbelievably quirky. And yet, I mean that in the best possible way. I’ve encountered them in two books so far: Wolves of Memory and Girls. They’re completely wacky, and yet so well-written that you just can’t rip your eyes away.

From one of my reviews:

Colin Harpur and Des Iles are two of the strangest detectives you’re likely to come across in your literary wanderings. They have a bizarre interdependent codependent relationship, and each of them has his insane quirks. Iles is a schizophrenic dandy who often scares people more than the criminals do. Harpur is a solid, methodical man who thinks very highly of Iles, despite having slept with his wife Sarah, a fact of which Iles is prone to reminding him—loudly—at the most inappropriate moments.

And the other characters in these books aren’t all that much more ‘normal’ than those two! They’re deliciously fun to read about, particularly since James has a knack for hysterical dialogue and interior monologues that can keep your attention for hours.

And speaking of reviews, today’s is of the EatingWell Healthy in a Hurry Cookbook. Yum!

So far the diabetic desserts cookbook is faring well in our testing, but the Shaker cookbook isn’t. The high-scoring cookbook streak had to end sometime, I guess!

Today’s Booking Through Thursday:

What’s your favorite book that nobody else has heard of? You know, not Little Women or Huckleberry Finn, not the latest best-seller . . . whether they’ve read them or not, everybody “knows” those books. I’m talking about the best book that, when you tell people that you love it, they go, “Huh? Never heard of it?”

I can do you one better—one of my whole favorite authors, not just a single book. Many of the people I talk with about books have heard of most of my favorite authors, at least in passing: Anne Bishop, Garth Nix, Tobias Buckell. However, almost no one has heard of Thomas Ligotti. He has a very loyal cult following among a very small number of people because he writes extremely unusual, bizarre fiction. It’s absolutely captivating. I highly recommend his Noctuary, with Songs of a Dead Dreamer coming in a close second:

When all the landscape is dying, descending fragrantly to earth, we alone rise up. After light and warmth have passed from the world, when everyone stands melancholy at the graveside of nature, we alone return to keep them company. This is our season to be reborn.

I could also list Bettie Sharpe among my little-known faves, but that’s only because she’s just barely started publishing.

Edited to add: I went and found Ligotti’s website for folks interested in exploring his work.

And, a handful of links:

• Mercury in sushi—I mourn.
• Free Fall by Isaac Marion—weird and beautiful fiction.
• Loud Neighbors—another weird and fascinating Isaac Marion story.
• Best source for specialty cooking stuff EVER: King Arthur Flour Company.
• The most bizarre item we’ve ever sold through Cafepress, and I’ll tell you right now that we’ve sold more than one: Level 70 Hottie Thong. Yes, you read that right—thong.

I almost forgot about today’s Booking Through Thursday!

How much do reviews (good and bad) affect your choice of reading? If you see a bad review of a book you wanted to read, do you still read it? If you see a good review of a book you’re sure you won’t like, do you change your mind and give the book a try?

I make up my own mind about the books I want to read, but I use information from reviews to aid me in doing so. I.e., I’m not going to avoid a book because someone else didn’t like it, or read it because someone else did, but I’ll look at the reasons why they liked or didn’t like it and use that to help me figure out whether I’m likely to enjoy it or not.

This is the same philosophy I use when writing reviews. I firmly believe my reviews should be just as useful to folks who don’t share my tastes and views as they are to those who do. I think someone should be able to look at my gushing review of a book I loved and get enough information out of it to know they probably wouldn’t like it, and vice versa. I’m sure I don’t always succeed at this, but I try anyways.

Speaking of which, today’s review is of Elizabeth Falkner’s Demolition Desserts!

Today’s Booking Through Thursday is all about anticipation:

What new books are you looking forward to most in 2008? Something new being published this year? Something you got as a gift for the holidays? Anything in particular that you’re planning to read in 2008 that you’re looking forward to? A classic, or maybe a best-seller from 2007 that you’re waiting to appear in paperback?

Oddly, the two books I’m looking forward to the most are the ones I get to use this week. My husband and I are going to a Twelfth Night feast this weekend at a friend’s, and we were asked if we’d be willing to make bread for 25 people. Willing? We’re psyched! As it so happens—and this is a total concidence—I just got review copies of two very appropriate cookbooks. One is A Baker’s Odyssey, a book of traditional bread recipes from around the world. The other is Artisan Bread in Five Minutes a Day. So we get to make a bunch of really great breads that we’ve never made before, share them with wonderful people, and test out two review cookbooks! It doesn’t get much better than that.

Speaking of cookbooks, I have two new book reviews up: Wild Game Cookery and Make-a-Mix. More to come—particularly those bread books!

I missed last week’s BTT, so this time I’m doing two weeks in one!

This week:

Do you use any of the online book-cataloguing sites, like Library Thing or Shelfari? Why or why not? (Or . . . do you have absolutely no idea what I’m talking to?? (grin))

If not an online catalog, do you use any other method to catalog your book collection? Excel spreadsheets, index cards, a notebook, anything?

I’ve tried to use cataloging software once or twice, but a couple of things prevent me from actually making it work. I lack enough shelves for my books, making it impossible to dig them all up/keep track of them all, so inputting the massive amount of current ones would be prohibitive. To make it an even halfway reasonable task I’d need a barcode scanner and more bookshelves.

However, that wouldn’t make up for the fact that I’m scatterbrained and forgetful, which means that I’d soon start forgetting to input new books, and then the catalog wouldn’t be at all accurate, and I’d give up.

Last week:

This week’s question is suggested by Island Editions:

Do you have a favourite book, now out of print, that you would like to see become available again? (I have several…)

Absolutely. I mourn the fact that Word Painting apparently went out of… hey wait a minute. It’s back in print!

WOOHOO! No more telling people they should track down a used copy!

Ahem. Okay. The second-most-often mourned out-of-print book in this household would be Janice Henderson’s White Chocolate cookbook.

While I’m posting, time to update on reviews. I’ve posted my third annual gift recommendations for cooks (mostly awesome cookbooks), and a review of the Baker’s Edge Pan.

It’s that time again, after several missed weeks: time for the Booking Through Thursday meme!

Do you get on a roll when you read, so that one book leads to the next, which leads to the next, and so on and so on?

I don’t so much mean something like reading a series from beginning to end, but, say, a string of books that all take place in Paris. Or that have anthropologists as the main character. Or were written in the same year. Something like that… Something that strings them together in your head, and yet, otherwise could be different genres, different authors…

Hmm. Sort of. I’ll go on a mysteries kick, or a horror kick, or a single-author kick, or a learning-about-gardening (or whatever) kick at times. I haven’t done it quite as much recently, but it certainly happens. I’d say those are the three most common forms: I get into a new genre/sub-genre interest; I read a bunch of books by an author I’ve recently discovered; or I read a bunch of books in order to learn something new.

This is totally unrelated, but… I was looking at the back of a package of graham crackers this morning and saw a recipe there labeled as “wholesome” snacking. I assumed the fresh raspberries were what they used to justify that, since the sugar in graham crackers isn’t something I think of as wholesome. Then I stopped dead when I saw the entire jar of marshmallow fluff. Okay, so the cream cheese in the recipe is fat-free, but a whole jar of processed sugar?! WHOLESOME?!! Who in hell labels these things?

Write with grace