Mama Mia!

I used to hate cooking. This, I have now discovered, is because I refused to follow a recipe (hence mishaps such as catching the oven on fire or creating cherry yogurt scrambled eggs.) But I've since discovered how much fun cooking is when you have a good recipe to follow. Everyday Italian has delicious, easy recipes that trick my friends into thinking I can cook. Some of my favorite recipes thus far are the Beef and Cheese Manicotti, Fruit Salad with White Wine Sauce, and Chocolate Tiramisu. (The tiramisu is heaven. And that's not just me being an over-exaggerating author.)

Excerpt from Swan Lake by Mark Helprin

"Are you the emporer?" I asked, because at first I thought he might be a dog handler or a groom.
This seemed to amuse him. It was he: I recognized him from postage stamps.
"No wonder you're the emporer," I said. "You can write with your foot."
"Not really. I just keep my pen there sometimes," he answered. "But wait, maybe I can. What an excellant way to send orders to my foot soldiers. Call for a tablet."
"How?"
"Just call."
"Just say teblet?"
"Yes, my voice is tired."
"I'm not used to giving orders."
"I am. Do it."
"Tablet!" I screamed. The door flew open so quickly that I jumped back in surprise, and a liveried servant appeared with a vellum tablet. While I held it, the emporer tried to write with the pen held in his toes. He didn't do very well. Then he had me try it. I didn't do very well either. Now I breathed a little easier, because I knew we had something in common...I could no longer ignore his costume. "Are those pajamas?" I asked.
"Of course not! This is military underwear! Today I inspected a regiment of my hussars."
"In underwear?"
"Yes in underwear, with a uniform over it."

-Passage from Swan Lake by Mark Helprin

The Screwtape Letters

C.S. Lewis is one of my favorite authors. (Maybe my top favorite.) This book is incredible. It is about two demons, Screwtape and Wormwood, who correspond in letters about the tempting of humans. The book isn't meant so much to be a fantasy novel as a book on theology, a way of looking at our faith in a different way and questioning what we truly believe. You don't have to be a Christian to appreciate this book, nor do you have to be a whiz kid or a minister. It's simple, yet complex, and completely beautiful (as C.S. Lewis' work generally is.) I'm the kind of person who always sees how far I can go before I technically "sin. This book really convicted me. How would your behaviour change if you knew that Satan was luring you over with the little things?

Favorite Book: Swan Lake

You might look at the title of this book and think that it is about the ballet Swan Lake. You would be entirely wrong. Swan Lake, by Mark Helprin, combines the classic legend of a prince bound by the structures of society and a mysterious girl who lives by a lake (and just might have an air of the supernatural about her) with a historical context to make a riveting tale filled with alternating humor and deep insights into the human soul.

This version of the story takes place in an Eastern European country and is told by an old man who used to be a secret agent for the emporer. The emporer has died and the nobleman Von Rothbart aspires to take the country from the true heir, the prince. The prince has fallen in love with a girl he met while hunting, Odette, who is really an exhiled princess. But once the prince returns to the palace, Von Rothbart and his misstress, the Empress, successfully seduce the prince with the decadent world of parties, women, and luxury. Odette waits in the woods, pregnant, not realizing that the man she once loved has sold his soul to the world and forgotten her...unless a stubborn old man and an army full of assasins can make him remember the swan lake.

This breathtaking novel is a quick read, so you have no excuse not to read it. If you love a sweeping romantic epic filled with looming mysteries, lush, seductive settings, and heroes who are thouroughly confused as they try to sort out their life, then you need to read this book!

Favorite Book

I was always the sort of girl who was "anti-domestic skills."
Then I realized how incredibly awesome it can be to actually rely on yourself, not others, for cooking. The other day I found this cookbook, How to Be A Domestic Goddess, by Nigella Lawson. It's irreverent, funny, and treats cooking with a level of respect often reserved for art books, yet revels in the sheer messiness of it (one of my favorite parts.) Favorite recipes thus far? White Chocolate Macadamia Brownies, Chocolate Orange Cake, Pizza Rustica and White Chocolate Banana Cherry Cupcakes.

Favorite Book

Till We Have Faces is my favorite book of all time. Ever since I first read it in seventh grade, I have read it at least once every year, and every time I read it I fall more and more in love with everything about it.

Till We Have Faces is the Greek myth of Psyche and Cupid retold in a semi-historical context and narrated by Psyche's sister, Orual. For those of you who don't know the myth, I'll supply a brief summary.

Orual, a princess of Phars, is looked down upon by her abusive father (and the rest of the world in general) because of her supposed ugliness. Her main joy in life is caring for her stepsister, Psyche, and spending time learning from the Fox, a Greek slave. As Psyche grows older, she becomes so beautiful that people start to worship her as a goddess. The priest says that the gods are angered by this and that Psyche must be sacrificed to the Shadowbrute, the god of the mountain, and become his bride (and his meal.) Orual goes to the mountain to find Psyche and secretly bring her home, but Psyche, alone in the wilderness, is convinced that she lives in a grand palace and will not leave her "husband." The events that follow challenge every idea of love you might have had, from the bond between sisters to marriage to the power we love to feel over our own lives.

C. S. Lewis will forever remain my literary role model. Chances are, you'll hear me talking about more of his work later (such as The Screwtape Letters, A Grief Observed, and The Magician's Nephew. Those are some of my absolute favorites!)

Favorite Book

I'm not writing about the film Jane Eyre, but I thought than any picture was better than none. I am going to write about the book. The book was written by Charlotte Bronte, whose sister, Emily, wrote Wuthering Heights. The story Jane Eyre is filled with the sort of fiery independence, dark themes, and complex characters not often seen in other 1800's literature, or even most literature today. Much more than the story of an abused girl who finds love in an unexpected place, it never fails to hit me with the relevance it carries even today.

Jane Eyre is the story of a girl, Jane, who was raised by her cruel aunt and later thrown into the hands of a a boarding school for girls that uses supposed piety to mask cruel abuse. When Jane grows older she gets a job as a governess to a little French girl, and soon finds herself falling in love with the girl's father, Edward Rochester. Edward, likewise, is madly in love with Jane, but more than her poverty is keeping him from pursuing her, for he is haunted (literally) by the ghosts of his past.

This is the only book that I have ever cried over while reading.