Review: Zorgamazoo by Robert Paul Weston

Katrina Katrell is an adventuresome girl who lives with Mrs. "Krabby" Krabone. When her creative and active intelligence becomes too much for her guardian, Katrina decides to run away.

Mortimer "Morty" Yorgle lives underground in Zorgamazoo and wants nothing more than to write his sports columns and visit his dad who is ill. But one day Morty gets picked to enter the lottery, and his prize is the dubious honor of getting a chance to search far and wide for the lost Zorgles of Zorgamazoo.

When Katrina and Morty meet up one day just when they each are in dire need of help, they combine their talents and take off for the adventure of a lifetime.

Robert Paul Weston's Zorgamazoo is a scary, funny, gross, and exciting tale told in rhyming couplets. The heroes are an improbable team of a young girl and a rumply middle-aged Zorgle journalist who will capture your imagination and take your whole family on a mission to solve a Zorgamazoo mystery. Boys and girls, young and old will find themselves captivated by the spunky girl and her mild-mannered friend. The pair travels to strange lands where they meet all kinds of creatures, and they aren't quite sure if they will ever manage to make it back home.

To give you a flavor of the text, here's a bit from the publisher's summary:

Are You a Believer in Fanciful Things? In Pirates and Dragons and Creatures and Kings?

Then sit yourself down in a comfortable seat, with maybe some cocoa and something to eat, and I’ll spin you the tale of Katrina Katrell, a girl full of courage (and daring, as well!), who down in the subway, under the ground, saw something fantastical roaming around . . .

What was it she saw? I’d rather not say. (Who’s ever heard of a Zorgle, anyway?)

But if you are curious, clever and brave, if intrepid adventure is something you crave, then open this book and I’ll leave it to you to uncover the secret of ZORGAMAZOO!

I was lucky enough to have listened to the audio edition (Penguin Audio) read by the fabulous Alan Cumming. This is a charming audio production that is brilliantly narrated by Cumming and can be enjoyed by all ages. Reading rhyming couplets is not an easy task, and Cumming is just the right kind of dramatic and never falls into singsong. My full audio review will be published by AudioFile magazine in the coming weeks.

One warning: Krabby is a bit mean and some children may be frightened; the target age for the book is age nine and older. Personally, I wouldn't hesitate to share this story with any child over about six, but only you know your child. Even though the story is about a girl, there is plenty of boy humor.

Don't miss out on the Zorgamazoo website for samples and drawings and more about the book and Robert Weston's blog for more about the author. Zorgamazoo won The Silver Birch Award and an E.B. White Read Aloud Honor award.

Zorgamazoo at an Indie

Zorgamazoo at Powell's

Zorgamazoo at Book Depository
For the audio edition click on the links in the sidebar
These links lead to affiliate programs

Published by Penguin Group / Razorbill, 2010
ISBN-13: 9781595142955
YTD: 101
Source: Review (see review policy)
Rating: A
Copyright © cbl for Beth Fish Reads, all rights reserved (see review policy)

This review will also be linked at Julie's blog Booking Mama: "Every Saturday, [she hosts] a feature called Kid Konnection -- a regular weekend feature about anything related to children's books."

Click for more

Chronicle Book's Happy Haul-iDays Giveaway

I'm sure you've seen this fabulous holiday giveaway sponsored by Chronicle Books. I just love their books and have reviewed several of their cookbooks as part of my Weekend Cooking feature.

Here's how the giveaway works: I simply make a list of Chronicle Books that I'd like to own -- up to $500 in value -- and submit my link to the Chronicle site and I and one of my readers will then have a chance to win every single book listed here in this post.

How's that for a holiday treat! Here are the books I'm hoping to win. Look over the list and see how you too can be entered to win all of these books and journals and stationary.

For more information about each title, click the links.

Michael Chiarello's Bottega ($40), Skinny Dips ($19) The Commonsense Kitchen ($35), The Country Cooking of Ireland ($50)

New Vegetarian ($20), Slow Cooker ($25), Wine Lover's Cookbook ($25), Savory Baking ($25)

Cooking for Two ($20), Sunday Soup ($20), Big Night In ($25)

Lace Knitting to Go ($17), Gift of Wine (this is a craft book; $15)

Beatles Anthology ($60), The Life and Love of Trees ($50)

Repro Notebooks ($13), Mini Journals ($15), Book Journal ($11), Mix and Match Stationery ($9)

There you have my list -- a whooping $495 worth of books and notebooks and one craft kit. Wow!

Here's how you can have a chance to win these books. First the contest is sponsored by Chronicle Books and is open only in the United States (full rules here). Second you must leave a comment here (Chronicle will pick someone from the comments) -- I'd love it if you told me if you will keep all the books yourself or will give some away as gifts. Third you must provide a valid email address (or make sure it's in your profile). Winners will be announced on December 13.

Good luck to us all! And thank you to Chronicle Books. Oh and don't forget to look around at other blogs for different books and more chances to win.

Click for more

Weekend Cooking: Soft Whole Wheat Dinner Rolls

Weekend Cooking is open to anyone who has any kind of food-related post to share: Book (novel, nonfiction) reviews, cookbook reviews, movie reviews, recipes, random thoughts, gadgets, fabulous quotations, photographs. If your post is even vaguely foodie, feel free to grab the button and link up anytime over the weekend. Please link to your specific post, not your blog's home page. For more information, see the welcome post.

_______

Last week I posted some photos of soft wheat dinner rolls I had baked for a dinner with friends. The rolls were well liked by everyone and so I thought I'd share the recipe.

I've mentioned Beth Hensperger's The Bread Lover's Bread Machine Cookbook before as being one of my go-to bread books. When I bake, I knead the dough by bread machine, by hand, or by stand mixer depending on how much time I have and how much dough I'm making. I always bake my bread in the oven, often on a stone. You can use the following recipe to make the rolls any way that works for you, even though the directions are written for a bread machine.

Soft Whole Wheat Dinner Rolls
Makes 16

• 2/3 cup milk
• 1/2 cup sour cream
• 1/4 cup honey
• 2 large eggs
• 4 tablespoons butter or margarine, cut into pieces
• 3 cups unbleached all-purpose flour
• 1 cup whole wheat flour
• 1/4 cup toasted wheat germ
• 1 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 2 teaspoons SAF yeast pr 2 1/2 teaspoons bread machine yeast

Place all ingredients in the pan according to the manufacturer's directions. Program for the dough cycle; press start.

Grease a large baking sheet or line with parchment paper. When the dough is ready, turn it out onto a light floured surface. Divide the dough in half, and then roll each half into a 2- to 3-inch cylinder. With a metal dough scraper or chef's knife, cut the cylinder into 8 equal portions. Repeat with the rest of the dough. Shape each piece of dough as desired, and place them in the pan in two rows of 8 with their sides touching. Brush the tops with melted butter if desired. Cover loosely with plastic wrap or with a tea towel and let rise at room temperature until doubled, about 45 minutes.

Twenty minutes before baking, preheat the oven to 375F. Place the baking sheet in the center of the oven and bake for 25 minutes, until golden brown. Remove the rolls from the pan and let cool on a rack. Serve warm or cool to room temperature and reheat before serving.

Bread Lover's Bread Machine Cookbook at an Indie

Bread Lover's Bread Machine Cookbook at Powell's

Bread Lover's Bread Machine Cookbook at Book Depository
These links lead to affiliate programs

Click for more

Featuring . . . Vanishing and Other Stories by Deborah Willis

This Friday and every Friday for the next several months I'll be featuring a book in the Harper Perennial Imprint. Some were recently published, some will be released later this year, all are worth a closer look.

I used to think I just wasn't a short story kind of gal. But then I started exploring collections that focused on themes that I find hard to resist. Deborah Willis's Vanishing and Other Stories is just such a collection.

Take a look at the publisher's summary:

A French teacher who collects fiancés; a fortune-teller who fails to predict the heartbreak of her own daughter; an aging cowboy seduced by a city girl . . . these are some of the unforgettable people who live in these pages.

In Vanishing and Other Stories, secrets are both kept and unearthed, and lives are shaped by missing lovers, parents, and children. With wisdom and dexterity, moments of dark humor, and a remarkable economy of words, Deborah Willis captures an incredible array of characters that linger in the imagination and prove that nothing is ever truly forgotten.

One of the linking themes to Willis's stories is the idea that some people stay and others leave, and she explores the personalities, reactions, and lives of those who are left behind. I am taken with Willis's ability to create stories told from a diverse group of characters: from children, young adults, and the mature; from city people and country people; from males and females.

Willis can tell you much about a family in just a few sentences:

We were raised on lentils, brown rice, Neil Young, and solstice celebrations. Our mother ran a local grocery co-op and wore skirts made of hemp before hemp was chic. Our dad was a ceramics artist who sold cups and bowls at the local farmers' market, had lost most of his short-term memory, and never got any of the big commissions that the tourist board gave out.

As young children, Claudia and I were encouraged to be wild. We were always outside, and often naked. The neighbors complained because our parents never mowed the lawn, believing that children should have high grass to play in and dandelion seeds to blow. (p. 266)

See what I mean? I'm not the only one to notice Willis's ability to capture her readers:

• Nely from All About {n} says: "[T]he narrators all seemed true, someone you might know, or even a few of their aspects might be found within you. "
• Staci from Life in the Thumb says: "I was amazed at how eloquently Willis could tell a story in such a short amount of words and pages."
• Dawn reviewing at 5 Minutes for Books says: "Willis has a masterful command of words–beautifully constructed phrases and sentences kept popping out at me, wanting to be remembered."

To learn more about Deborah Willis, visit her website.

This book was featured as part of my Spotlight on the Harper Perennial imprint. For information about the imprint, please read Erica Barmash's welcome note posted here on June 18, 2010. I encourage you to add your reviews of Harper Perennial books to the review link-up page; it's a great way to discover Good Books for Cool People. See the alphabetized review index to see what others are saying. And don't miss the The Olive Reader, the Harper Perennial blog.

Vanishing and Other Stories at an Indie

Vanishing and Other Stories at Powell's

Vanishing and Other Stories at Book Depository
These links lead to affiliate programs.

Published by HarperCollins / Harper Perennial, September 2010
ISBN-13: 9780062007520

Click for more

Thursday Tea: Clockwork Angel by Cassandra Clare

A few weeks ago I listened to Clockwork Angel by Cassandra Clare. The novel is the first in a new series, called The Infernal Devices, and is apparently considered a prequel to Clare's Mortal Instruments series (which I have not read). Although I own several Steampunk books, this is the first one I've read. (Or is Tan's work considered Steampunk?)

The Book. Tessa Gray is alone in New York after her aunt dies and is grateful when her brother arranges to bring her to London so they can be together. From the moment Tessa steps off the boat, nothing goes according to plan.

The two old ladies who have come to fetch Tessa show her a Victorian London that most of us mundanes (humans) have never seen. She learns that witches, vampires, shadowhunters, and other beings of the Downworld are real and that she herself has hidden talents. Caught in the middle of a struggle for control of both the mundanes and the Downworld, Tessa must decide whom to trust and if and how to use her own powers.

The Tea. It has finally gotten cool enough to drink hot tea in the afternoons. This week, I'm drinking Peet's Masala Chai. This particular blend includes "pungent Assam and South India broken leaf teas . . . with cinnamon, ginger, cardamon, cloves, and fresh-ground tellicherry peppercorns." Peet's suggest that you drink it with milk and sugar, but I have opted for just a little honey instead. The tea is not my favorite chai blend, but I would likely buy it again.

The Assessment. The novel takes place in Victorian England, and there was certainly plenty of tea being drunk. I'm not so sure the mundanes would be drinking chai, but Tessa and other beings of the Downworld would probably find the Eastern flavors and aromas of this tea to be just perfect.

Mini Review. Clare did an excellent job developing an alternative world, and her take on witches, demons, vampires, and other creatures is fresh. The conflicts Tessa faces--from her relationship with her brother to discovering her true identity to her first feelings of love--are complex and keep the reader engaged. This is a new to me genre, so I'm not sure if the novel is typical of Steampunk, but I am definitely looking forward to more. The audio edition of Clockwork Angel is read by Jennifer Ehle, who is an experienced narrator. Although I enjoyed the audiobook, I felt that Ehle could have made a stronger emotional bridge between listener and characters. Regardless, I'm looking forward to listening to the next book in the series.

Clockwork Angel at an Indie

Clockwork Angel at Powell's

Clockwork Angel at Book Depository
For the audio edition, click on the buttons in the sidebar.
These links lead to affiliate programs.

Thursday Tea was the brainchild of Anastasia at Birdbrain(ed) Book Blog.

Published by Simon & Schuster / Margaret K. McElderry Books, August 2010
ISBN-13: 9781416975861
YTD: 100
Source: Review (see review policy). Audio review published by AudioFile magazine.
Rating: B
Copyright © cbl for Beth Fish Reads, all rights reserved (see review policy)

FTC: I buy all teas myself, I am not a tea reviewer.

Click for more