Dusting Off the Nightstand

That woebegone "On my nightstand" section of the sidebar over there has been completely pathetic for about a year now. Stale doesn't even begin to describe it.

Here are some possible explanations:

A)  I didn't cry at the end of The Fault in Our Stars*, and was afraid I might be shunned as a result.  Better to appear slow and possibly too emotionally wrecked to go on.
B)  I no longer have a nightstand.
C)  I read loads of fantastic books, then suddenly became very territorial about the whole thing.
D)  I thought people would prefer knowing how to make brownies and cheese dip, so I blew off the book reports.

The answer is, D), and a little bit of A)**.

But, on this very rainy afternoon, with the comforting drip drip drip of water leaking from flaking ceilings into various metal bowls on the floor, the slamming of the kids' doors as they hole up in their rooms with flickering laptop screens held seven inches from their faces, the odor of wet dog wafting around, and my husband stomping through the house grumbling about why everyone just leaves their shoes all over the place for him to trip on***,  it seems like the perfect time to bury myself in a good, catch up, book post.

Books I've Loved 

(all of these have been added to The Nightstand section of The Shop, with more specific "Why you might love it, too" notes)

The Ocean at the End of the Lane  - Neil Gaiman
Magical, lovely, and delightfully creepy. Gaiman at his best.

The History of Love - Nicole Krauss
I wanted to applaud at the end, and literally gasped at times as the threads came together.  One of the best "interwoven stories" novels I've read.

The Financial Lives of the Poets and Beautiful Ruins - both by Jess Walter
Very different books.  Financial Lives is a terrific black comedy, Beautiful Ruins an homage to the power of place and how art tells stories.  Loved them both.

The Unlikely Pilgrimage of Harold Fry - Rachel Joyce

Hands down the most endearing book I read all year.  You won't forget it.

The Light Between Oceans - M.L. Stedman
A baby washes up on the rocks of a lighthouse isle.  Can there be any harm in keeping her? Why, yes.

The Snow Child - Eowyn Ivey
A lonely couple in the wilderness of a century ago seems to will a child out of the storm.  Is she real?

The Dog Stars - Peter Heller
Like The Road, but with a dog and an airplane.  And bizarre neighbors.

Amazing on Audible

Heft - Liz Moore
One of the most unlikely protagonists ever, Arthur is housebound, obese, painfully shy, and in dire need of connection to the human race.  So of course, there's a teenager and a temp. Unforgettable. Perfectly written and read.  Listen to it now!

The Golem and the Jinni - Helene Wecker
A gorgeous, unexpected love story. I could not stop listening to this tale of the struggle of two mythical beings who both emigrate, unwillingly, to NYC.

What Alice Forgot - Liane Moriarty
By turns hilarious and deeply sad,  this is a story of a woman who wakes up to discover she can't remember the past 10 years of her life.  The bad news is, most people seem to really dislike her.

Forgive Me, Leonard Peacock - Matthew Quick
A gripping, moving and oddly charming tale of a teen bent on self-destructing before the day is over.  Great YA fiction that doesn't involve archery of any kind.

Where'd You Go, Bernadette? - Maria Semple
Laugh out loud funny, skewering everything in its sight (and there's a LOT to skewer) as a daughter hunts for her AWOL mom through found emails, receipts and other scraps of her life.

The 5th Wave - Rick Yancy
Like The Passage, but with really evil Aliens instead of Vampire Zombies.  Thrilling indeed.

11/22/63 - Stephen King
Enthralling from the get-go, with the premise of traveling through time to stop Kennedy's assassination. Oddly, that's the least of what happens.

Me Before You - Jojo Moyes
All the tears I didn't shed for Hazel fell out of me with this one. Formulaic all the way, but I didn't care.

NOS4A2 - Joe Hill
When the devil is riding around with personalized plates,  kidnapping kids to steal their souls and trap them in Christmasland, you know bad things are bound to follow.  Highly entertaining, with great characters and plot twists.

Worth Picking Up, But Not Quite As Good as The Other Ones
(any why I dinged them a bit)

Life after Life (imaginative writing in a very creative form, but a little hard to follow)

The Goldfinch (great characters, but way too long, and not as "weighty" as it wants to be)

Claire of the Sea Life (truly lyrical, but a little thin in the end)

Someone (I liked The Golem and the Jinni much better, and the books reminded me of each other)

The Fault in Our Stars (I loved it at first, but was ambivalent mid-way through)
The Dinner (truly creepy, but cold)

Books Lots of Other People Liked But I Didn't
  (and why you can skip these, IMHO)

The Orphan Master's Son (an indulgent slog with a few moments of brilliance.  Mostly in the beginning.)
Magnificence (It's bad when the house full of taxidermy is the most exciting character)

Arcadia (The best part was the groovy cover)

Swamplandia! (Maybe I'm just not the abandoned alligator park type?)

Wild (enough with your toes, Cheryl!)

How I Live Now (Ends with mass slaughter in a barnyard, then a convenient flight back to NY. Right.)

Last Summer of the Camperdowns (One of those annoying books where nobody behaves logically, so of course things work out badly)
The Marriage Plot (Hated everyone in it)

Yonahlossee Riding Camp for Girls (Dreary)

The Interestings (Not)

What's On The Nightstand Now

The slate for the 2014 Tournament of Books has been announced, and I've loaded up on a few of the contenders.  I'm liking How To Get Filthy Rich in Rising Asia at the moment, and can't wait to start these next few:

The Signature of All Things 

A Tale for the Time Being

The Luminaries

How about you?  Read any great books lately? Or, I should just stick with the brownies and do this again when it rains in LA next year...

* My daughter, on the other hand, wept buckets.
** I'm actually 100% sure people care more about the brownies and cheese dip.  And, for the record, I did get choked up during lots of these other books, so I'm not completely heartless.  Maybe I'll bawl when the movie comes out.
*** Guilty.

A humble brand of fabulousness

There was not much love lost for Michael Chabon's Telegraph Avenue when I hosted book group today.  It was a big, over-written slog of a novel, ripe with good intentions and populated with an unlikely but ultimately interdependent tribe of memorable, flawed, striving characters buried under an avalanche of similes and metaphors and weighty authorial preening.  Like Fifty-Eight, abandoned in death, we collectively longed to escape to a loquat tree and never look back.

Here is an example of what Michael's editor should have done:

There was not much love lost for Michael Chabon's Telegraph Avenue when I hosted book group today.  It was a big, over-written slog of a novel, ripe with good intentions and populated with an unlikely but ultimately interdependent tribe of memorable, flawed, striving characters buried under an avalanche of similes and metaphors and weighty authorial preening.  Like Fifty-Eight, abandoned in death, we collectively longed to escape to a loquat tree and never look back.

The book was way too long.  The author was clearly full of himself.  There was a parrot that got away.

Lucky parrot.

There were small flashes of comic genius:

"Then a hatch in the side of the gondola sighed and swung open, divulging the airship's secret cargo: a basalt monolith, the very thing to set half-apes dreaming of the stars.  Black knit polo shirt, skull polished like the knob on an Oscar.  Gold-rimmed sunglasses, gold finger rings, black Levi's, Timerland loafers.  Pausing at the top of a fold-down stair for a display of freestyle looming, brother looked like a celebrity golfer or as if perhaps he had recently eaten a celebrity golfer."

Freestyle looming is going to be my new thing.

I loved this, too:

"The cakes and cookies at Neldam's were not first-rate, but they had an old-fashioned sincerity, a humble brand of fabulousness, that touched Archy in this time when everything good in life was either synthesized in transgenic cyborg vats or shade-grown in small batches by a Buddhist collective of blind ex-Carmelite Wiccans."

Now, I had my lunch theme:  Food with a humble brand of fabulousness. And no blind Wiccans.

I'm also big on the "takeout-to-table" movement

The whole "farm-to-table" thing?

Adore the whole concept.
Huge fan.
Haven't quite gotten there*.

"Stuff from Trader Joe's-to-table" cooking?
Nailed it**.

Nemesis - Definition 1

According to Dictionary.com, the definition of nemesis is as follows:

nem·e·sis [nem-uh-sis]
noun, plural -ses  [-seez]
1. something that a person cannot conquer, achieve, etc.: The performance test proved to be my nemesis.
2. an opponent or rival whom a person cannot best or overcome.
3. (initial capital letter) Classical Mythology . the goddess of divine retribution.
4. an agent or act of retribution or punishment.

Nemesis is also the name of a (not very good, in my opinion) Phillip Roth novel.  Per Amazon:

In the "stifling heat of equatorial Newark," a terrifying epidemic is raging, threatening the children of the New Jersey city with maiming, paralysis, lifelong disability, and even death. This is the startling theme of Philip Roth’s wrenching new book: a wartime polio epidemic in the summer of 1944 and the effect it has on a closely knit, family-oriented Newark community and its children.

That's right.
Polio.
Maiming. Paralysis.
Newark.
The corrupting influence of fear.
Jewish guilt and loss of faith.
The war.
Death.
Lots of death.

Subject matter that could have been the nemesis...
[Definition 1: something that a person cannot conquer or overcome]
...of an eager first time book club hostess*.

But I was not afraid.
I made comforting food.
Jewish-ish food.
Lots of food.
I conquered.

I've been a little busy

Things I did last week:

Baked cookies.
Had friends over for dinner.
Had friends over for brunch.
Drove the kids around.
Sat at the vet with my injured dog.
Went running and hated it.
Played Mah jong at the beach.
Saw Captain America*.
Went back and forth on legal documents with people in China, Texas, San Francisco and New York.
Opened up a corporate bank account**.
Made an exciting journal entry in Quickbooks:  Credit cash, debit equity.
Signed a lease on office space.
Completed an application for D&O, employee practice, liability and umbrella policies.
Priced out health plans and chose a payroll provider.
Received proposals for setting up a 401K and leasing a copier.  (A copier? Cool!)

Yep.  As of last Thursday, a great idea in a friend's head is now a real company with solid financing, and I now have a real, paying, J-O-B***!

The door to the new office.  And my new life!

Holy #%/@!

To celebrate, I baked****.

Life Changing Butterscotch Blondies
I had these at a recent book group meeting, and fell completely in love. They are so rich, I thought of them immediately when it came to an appropriate homage to funding coming in.  I took the original a step further and browned the butter first, then threw in chocolate chips for good measure.  The result is exactly what a great blondie should be...sweet, chewy, buttery and full of caramel flavor, with the perfect hit of salt to balance everything out.  As they bake, this smooth little crust forms on top that just melts in your mouth.  Awe-SOME! The recipe, from Clementine, was reprinted in the LA Times Culinary SOS column, and generously emailed to me by Maggie, one of our hostesses for that meeting.  The book was The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks, which had no butterscotch blondies in it, but was nonetheless fascinating.  To hear the story, listen to this very cool podcast about Henrietta from Radiolab, one of my favorite shows on NPR.

1 3/4 c. flour
2 1/2 tsp. baking powder
2 tsp. salt
10 Tbs. (1 1/4 sticks) butter
2 1/4 c. brown sugar
1 tsp. vanilla
2 eggs
1 1/4 c. chopped toasted walnuts or
1 1/4 c. semi sweet chocolate chips

Butter a 13x9 pan and preheat oven to 325.

In a small bowl, whisk flour, baking powder and salt together, and set aside.

Place butter in a small saucepan over medium heat.  After the butter melts, continue cooking for 5-8 minutes, stirring frequently.  It may foam up, which is fine.  Watch carefully, as your goal is to see the milk solids and salt in the butter begin to turn brown,  but you don't want to have them burn.  If they do, the butter will have a very bitter taste.  When the butter is a light tan/golden color and begins to smell toasty, immediately remove from heat.

Place brown sugar into a large mixing bowl, then pour in the browned butter and vanilla.  Mix on medium speed with an electric mixer until combined.  Blend in the eggs. Add the dry ingredients, mixing on low speed until dough is smooth and a little bit shiny.   Fold in the nuts/chocolate chips by hand.

Spread dough evenly into prepared pan.  Bake for 25 minutes, or until top is puffed, smooth, and light brown.   When you remove the pan from the oven, the top may collapse.  This is perfectly fine...it means your blondies will be dense and chewy, just as they should be.

Cool for at least 20 minutes, then serve.

Click to print this recipe!

* Don't rush out.  It was just OK.
** When I went to the bank after our financing closed, the manager greeted me with a big smile and said, "Your wire came in today.  Would you like a cookie?"  I declined.  I had to go home and bake for the "We got funded!" company BBQ.  I know I'm with the right team at the new job.  The BBQ menu featured marinated skirt steak on fresh naan, with arugula and brie.
*** It's a start up. I'm the CFO.  My average week will be looking a little different very soon.  New blog tag: work!
**** Mostly in celebration.  Partially from nerves over the impending life changes that are coming my way.

The kindness of strangers

I recently listened to a fantastic episode of This American Life. If you're familiar with the show, you know there's usually a prologue that sets up the theme, and this was a great one:

"Brett Leveridge was standing on the subway. A guy comes walking down the platform, stopping in front of each passenger and delivering a quiet verdict: "You're in. You're out. You, you can stay. You—gotta go." Most people ignored the guy. But Brett found himself, against his will, hoping the guy would give him the thumbs up, and when the guy does, it's thrilling in a very small way: a tiny kindness from a stranger."

I so get that. Being approved and embraced by people who don't even know you is a pretty nice feeling. "Thrill" is exactly the word.

I'm that kind of thrilled about the book clubs I joined this year. These were long-established groups of women who welcomed me so warmly that I felt as if I belonged from the beginning. Getting together and bonding over wine and novels we all found preachy and manipulative* or old favorites revisited** just plain makes me happy. Especially because almost before I knew it, the welcoming strangers had become familiar friends*** and meeting nights a much anticipated highlight of every month.

Familiar friends or not, I did experience a significant amount of performance anxiety when my role shifted from "attendee" to "host" this week****. First of all, I had to pick the book. Then, there was the matter of the snacks. I had been paying close attention at prior gatherings and it was clear I would need a savory appetizer, a cheese plate*****, fruit and a dessert at a minimum. Hmm.

For the book, I decided to go with City of Thieves, by David Benioff. I'd just finished it, and was still in the afterglow that comes from discovering a truly special book. It was unexpectedly funny and moving and wise, with characters and a story that were completely absorbing. If you haven't read it yet, you absolutely should. Don't be deterred by the basic plot outline:

"During the Nazis’ brutal siege of Leningrad, Lev Beniov is arrested for looting and thrown into the same cell as a handsome deserter named Kolya. Instead of being executed, Lev and Kolya are given a shot at saving their own lives by complying with an outrageous directive: secure a dozen eggs for a powerful Soviet colonel to use in his daughter’s wedding cake. In a city cut off from all supplies and suffering unbelievable deprivation, Lev and Kolya embark on a hunt through the dire lawlessness of Leningrad and behind enemy lines to find the impossible."

It might sound like yet another depressing WWII novel but it is thrilling and wonderful. One big reason? In the midst of a horrible war, two boys found, in each other, the kindness of strangers.

Book? Check. I was stuck on the snacks. Then inspiration hit. I needed to serve...


Deviled Eggs for Lev and Kolya
From a recipe on Chow

1 dozen eggs
1/2 c. mayonnaise
2 tsp. Dijon mustard
2 tsp. finely chopped capers
1 Tbs. minced fresh tarragon leaves
3 Tbs. minced fresh chives, divided.

Hard boil the eggs.****** When cool, peel and cut each egg in half with a sharp knife. Put the yolks into a medium bowl, and set the egg white halves aside on a serving tray. Add the mayo, mustard, capers, tarragon and 1 Tbs. of the chives to the egg yolks. Using a fork, mix gently until smooth and fluffy. Take a heaping teaspoon of the yolk mixture and carefully spoon it into each egg white half. Use the spoon to round the filling and make it look nice. You can stash these in the fridge at this point if not serving immediately. About 20 minutes before serving, remove the eggs from the fridge. Garnish with remaining minced chives.

* My Sister's Keeper
** The Wizard of Oz
*** Getting to know people (or at least their names) was really easy in one of the book groups: There were two Amy's, three Jody's and another Sharon already. In the other, there were bonus outings to have Chinese food.
**** It didn't help that the construction project we started this summer that was supposed to be completed by September was still in full swing. I had a dumpster in the driveway, no living room to speak of, and a permanent layer of dust and debris everywhere. Plus, on the night of the group meeting it was pouring rain. In Los Angeles. Naturally we had a leak.
***** This explains, in part, why I feel so comfortable with these women. I love cheese plates!
****** A tried-and-true way to do this is to put the eggs in a pan, cover with cool water, then turn on the heat to medium high. Put the pan on the stove and set the timer for 20 minutes. When time's up, put eggs into ice water to stop the cooking, then remove and cool completely. They come out perfectly (none of that gray stuff on the yolk) every single time.