These Broken Ration Bars (aka Date Bars with Almond and Coconut) - Book Club Recipes

These Broken Ration Bars
(AKA Date Bars with Almond and Coconut)

While reading These Broken Stars, I came to realize something fairly obvious (self low five): food in survival kits is ubiquitously described as nasty.  This should not come as a shock - it’s not designed to titilate the senses and your palate; it’s there so you don’t start eating poison berries (but you may need to, these ration bars don’t just grow on trees...actually almost all ingredients in mine do, come to think).  I've had an MRE, and I'm still unsure how I feel about self heating bags and faux strawberry milkshakes in bags, and basically anything bagged and tagged to last forever. ANYWAYS.  I started thinking about this one in August, and had in mind some hazy plan to make granola bars.  But guys, granola bars are so boring.  And who wants to be bored when surviving in a ballroom gown and scopin’ out the only other human who conveniently happens to be a hottie who also happens wear a uniform seemingly made only of Under Armour, amirite, Lilac LaRoux?  

I set a super un-hyperspeed course (hello, it is now January) to make a ration bar as ungross, as palatable, and as low maintenance as possible.  I tried to use things I had on hand that you might too.  This includes almond butter, which I tried, but wanted to use up after realizing that I remain unconvinced that it actually tastes better than peanut butter.  They’re ultimately pretty simple and have about 9 ingredients (dates, almonds, almond butter, coconut, coconut oil, pepitas, oats, maple syrup, and a dash of salt - no dehydration for my troops allowed!).  The real beauty?  You can kind of throw in whatever you want, or roll them into balls and into the granola if you prefer to bite balls as opposed to squares while rationing your food to survive. I may have created the least practical survival bars ever - pretty sure they will get a little messy/squishy if not refrigerated.  Hence, you should only take them if you plan to get stranded in Antarctica, Siberia, the Yukon, or a planet resembling some foul those three.  That said, they do taste pretty delicious, have a lot of natural proteins and good sugars in them, and are incredibly easy and quick to make.  As usual, I looked at a few other recipes to reference the ratios, but then did my own thing (The Kitchn, OhSheGlows).

 

Mmmedjool.

The moral?  Next time you plan to get stuck in a survival situation, pause before you crash to make These Broken Ration Bars (pro tip, they may be good for future holiday treat use!).  Enjoy them with your ladyfriends while you book club and discuss who you’d like to get stranded on an unknown planet with: Tim Riggins, Indiana Jones, Tarver Merendsen, or Neville Longbottom.  Note: don’t feed them to people with nut allergies unless you hate them and have a burning desire to try out prison for a spell.  

These Broken Ration Bars
(AKA Date Bars with Almond and Coconut)

These Broken Ration Bars
(aka Date Bars with Coconut and Almond)

These Broken Ration Bars
(AKA Date Bars with Almond and Coconut)

Ingredients
(see notes)

Tidbits: Hallowinners

• If you are not a lazy pumpkin carver, like moi, these could prove to be inspiring for you as you ponder what to carve on a pumpkin (that the neighboorhood hooligans will later feast upon/smash).  And by hooligans, I mean squirrels.
• In even more exciting Halloween things, here are 15 Adorably Bookish Pet Costumes!  I'm kind of partial to Max from the Grinch, but Edward Cullen the Cat made me laugh.  
• Litographs has some pretty cool things, what with the text and the books and the art...well played!  Here is the easiest yet cleverest Halloween costume I could come up with.  Especially if you break a slate over someone's head.
• Step out with style, fellow word nerds.  
• In things after my heart, enjoy these 10 great meal ideas from literature.  Perhaps for your next book club?!
• Oh hello, interview with the Divergent ladies on Forever YA! 
• This Case of the Terribles headline kind of writes itself:  Ja Rule wants to write a microwave cookbook.  Fingers crossed, team!  

Dinner Train: The Raven Boy

The Raven Boys meets The Raven Boy

Once upon a time, long ago and far away, I lived in a castle atop a hill with several other beautiful princesses, a fire-breathing dragon, and our loyal manservant, Maurice.  That’s only sort of true: it was sixish years ago, we lived on a cliff in the top two floors of a run-down Victorian house, the fire-breathing dragon was an oven that shot fireballs out when you turned it on, and our manservant was neither loyal nor male, but rather a birthday cake stealing, pregnant racoon named Maurice.  

The one truth?  There were in fact beautiful princesses (and more as the years went on), and we had a magical fresh out of college experience, navigating the perils of the new adult world (running out of French Onion Dip, Brazilian DJs showing up to your housewarming parties, a bathroom without a door, and a landlord who once tried to fix a broken door using only a snow shovel) way more classily (sometimes), and well fed than the girls seem to do on Girls.  More importantly, a group love of YA/fun literature swept through the ranks in the house - we did group reads for things like Breaking Dawn, hazed new roommates with gifts of Outlander, made mixes for books...you get the idea. This appropriately titled blog started right back about then!

Pretty pretty princesses.

It seemed only fitting that in a year when three members of the first generation of the house would be turning 30, and another is having her first baby, that said first generation (and moi, generation 1.5) should muster and eat way too much cheese, drink some wine, and reflect upon these momentous life events.  Naturally, we decided to have a faux book club in anticipation of this event, and even more naturally, choose a YA book about a group of magical friends: The Raven Boys.  JUST LIKE US.  I reviewed it last year, but was really glad to reread it and discuss with like-minded BFFs, especially in light of the sequel (one of...several? I’m unclear what “cycle” means, publishing world.), The Dream Thieves, dropping in just about a month.  Maybe I have a copy.  Maybe you should stay tuned for that review...

A pizza feast fit for Welsh kings,
Raven Boys, psychics?

We’re a little older and theoretically wiser now (which is just a polite way to say that we don’t bounce back like 22-year-olds anymore; our drinks better be worth it!).  We’ve certainly become way better and more confident chefs, even when faced with the daunting challenge of making pizza (in honor of Blue’s job as a pizza parlour waitress, and meeting the Monmouth boys for the first time at work) in a 1970s kitchen lacking any baking sheets.  Over several rounds of Marry Shag Cliff (Does anyone keep Noah?  Poor guy.) and group casting as characters in the book (apparently I’m Maura? Whattt? Disagree?), a feast fit for Glendower was prepared.  I whipped up a little something I’m calling the Raven Boy to toast both our reunion, and the Raven Boys with.  It’s got a little bit of everything from the book in there: mint for Gansey, Bourbon for the Southern Henrietta accents (also alcohol, for Ronan), black-blue for both Blue and the Raven boys, and is served ice cold.  Like Noah! 

Making magic happen in old kitchens since 2005.

This is our kind of tea reading.

Recipe below - but do note that you can use the syrup with more seltzer to make a non-alcoholic version of this, any teens who may stumble across this recipe.  

The Raven Boy

(Blackberry Lime Julep)

The Raven Boy, inspired by Maggie Stiefvater's The Raven Boys

Poisoned Apple Gingerbread Cake (is fairy delicious)

Poisoned Apple Gingerbread Cake

Well, lords and ladies of your own kitchen tables, I made a magical recipe for my book club this month (the real one, not the one I fake started online to motivate myself and still haven't finished...).  We read a compilation of rewritten short fairy tales by Emma Donoghue, Kissing the Witch.  The book was fine - a great quick, LGBTQ reworking of 13 known stories - but the recipe, my friends, came to me in a vision sent by my very own fairy godmother: my stomach.

 

I mean, they're fairy tales, right?  We're all familiar with the ol'poisoned apple trick, right? And how you should never ever enter a gingerbread house if you find one in the woods, even if it smells really good and you're really, really hungry, right?  This also comes to mind.  Naturally, my mind first jumped to conclusions of a caramel apple nature, but I a) don't really like said caramel apples, and b) I wanted to make it poisoned...which in my mind equals booze.  In this case, rum, because rum+cake generally portend good things.   Judge away, teetoallers; this one is for you! I also really, really like gingerbread.  It's so good, you guys.  Double naturally, I just had to combine these things.  And so I did - behold, my glorious, beautiful, Poisoned Apple Gingerbread Cake!

Oh look!  It's my busted ugly stepsister of a Poisoned Apple Gingerbread Cake!

Errrrr...that is one busted ugly stepsister of a cake!  Guys, I think I got my yearly recipe collapse syndrome out on this one.  Or else an evil witch cursed me.  I'm inclined to go with the former, though.  Does anyone else suffer from this?  (I know some of you chocolate banana fiends just had a case of it!)  Like many Grimm fairy tales, this cake did not have an attractive ending.  Some of the cake decided to stay put in the Bundt pan, half came out, and the remaining pieces tragically fell into my mouth...

Poisoned Apple Gingerbread Cake
(so good I suspect it's laced with a love potion)

Long story short, this is a delicious, but super heavy and moist cake.  My oven also tends to overcook, and I was a little more proactive about not doing so, to the point where though it was cooked, it probably should have been a little more dried out, almost erring on the overcooked side (especially because you'll be adding more moisture at the end).   In the end, though I was sad it was a supremely unattractive cake, it almost worked.  I mean, it's supposed to be poisoned, right?  It looked pretty dodgy!  More importantly, the flavors more than make up for it. I'm pretty sure I actually laced it with a love potion, not poison, because it is so delicious, to the point where I ironically ate so much that I got a stomachache...from ginger. Luckily there are MANY fairy tale adaptations (some included below the recipe), that you can use it for many book clubs of your own - let me how yours turn out!

Tips and Notes:

- Don't mess around with preparing your pan.  Grease it up, and then generously flour it down.  Seriously.  Look at my cake.  I'm not joking.

- The next time I make this, I plan to sub in 1/2 cup of wheat flour to see if it helps dry things out a bit.  If you do, let us know how it turns out!

-  I used a combination of Blackstrap molasses and Corn Syrup, because that's what I had.  The original recipe suggests just using dark molasses.  Pick your poison (ba dum?).

- Make sure that the cake is well cooked.  Prick with a skewer to test, and when it comes out clean, give it approximately 5 more minutes.  I'm dead serious; there's a lot of liquid in this one.

- If you are lazy, you can mix the cake all in one bowl.  This might, however, be why the gods of Pastry and Dessert smote me...whatever.  If you want to mix it in multiple bowls, check out how Smitten Kitchen does it.

- I used Flor de Cana rum, straight from my Nicaraguan aventuras.  Use any rum, dark or light, you've got though!

- I used Fuji apples, and would recommend sticking with a sweet, slightly sturdy type that will soften but still hold the rum mix and some semblance of shape.  I consulted the Apple Lover's cookbook!

- I got this recipe from a holiday cookbook released by my graduate school; it had been adapted from Smitten Kitchen, where it had been adapted from the Gramercy Tavern.  I also looked at The Apple Lover's Cookbook, where there is a chaste and different version of an apple gingerbread cake, and The New Best Recipe, for rum glaze ideas (isn't anything involving rum subsequently glazed, especially your eyes?)

Poisoned Apple Gingerbread Cake

Poisoned Apple Gingerbread Cake

Dinner Train Book Club: Little Women

Well, you can revoke my license to be a lady. 

In the interest of full disclosure, this was not the first time I've tried and failed to read/finish Little Women...that's right, I did not finish this children's novel.  I did, however, read to the point where Alcott's all "Oh hey reader-guys, if you like this, TELL MY EDITOR.  You know, so I can publish the end."  I felt that was a fair place to end - especially because I spent most of the book wondering when Beth was going to die already (thanks to the Winona Rider/Christian Bale movie for that one).  I would have given a spoiler alert, but I suspect I'm the only adult woman in the country who would be reading a librarian's blog to have not read this.  For this reason, and because hello, we both know the Internets have no shortage for squeefilled reviews of this one, I'm going to refrain from sharing too many thoughts.  But I will say that this is a book FILLED with food, though kind of old timey things that there was no way I was making.  Blancmange?  Get real, Jo.  That sounds unappetizing - it actually sounds like a skin disease to me.   I totally still made a cheese plate based on it though...But more on food below.

It was so rainy, rainier
than Old Man Laurence's
eyeballs when Beth
(finally) dies.

Additionally, because I did see the movie, I'll admit that I felt really weird about picturing longtime crush Christian Bale as a 12-year-old boy, or however old he is at the start - even though who doesn't have a childhood crush on Laurie?  Get it together, Jo.  Also, Amy is still a twit.  And Beth, I'm sorry, because you do die for being good...but what. the. flip.  Grow a pair.  Also, your doll parties are kind of lame.  I think we should introduce you to Anne of Green Gables.  And Meg?  Well, being the oldest is hard, so Ima cut her some slack, but she could use a self-confidence pep-talk.   Jo?  I mean...she's really not of her time, and she did make me snicker with the crusty old aunt, but gawwwwwd.  Stop being so contrary and archetypal!  Laurie is a babe!  Get some!

Thank you to Bean, Sam, Arianna, Bailey, and Lisa (who came all the way from Philly), who all came out on a supremely rainy spring day to eat some salty strawberries!  We had a great time, and even better discussion.  Topics that I remember covering included if this is the first YA (intentionally, unintentionally, or not at all), the feminist vibes, the book being ahead of its time, the cuteness of Laurie, and why it takes forever for Beth to die (okay, that's all me).

Also...I had this book club meeting on June 2nd.  JUDGE AWAY.

Dinner Train Book Club: Little Women Recipes

•  Lemonade

Marmee hits this stuff hard when the girls go to bed.

• Blancmange-y Cheese and Crackers

Way less gross looking than real blancmange

• Sesame Asparagus Noodle Salad

• Salty Strawberry Crumble (Bonus: Cold Pockets)
  
  
  
  
  

Dinner Train: Little Women - Sesame Asparagus Noodle Salad

Jo March does many things well.  Writing, sistering, befriending old ladies and young boys, burning off curls with a curling iron, you get the idea.  She does not, however, cook asparagus well.  Damn shame, because asparagus cooked well is a thing of beauty.  Tossed with some noodles in a sesame soy sauce?  Boom.  Delicious made easy and quick.  I know I made some adaptations, which I noted on a really crumpled and soy-stained Post-It that has been on my fridge since May...but they're a little less than detailed, so I recommend working from the original recipe.

Sesame Asparagus Noodle Salad

(Adapted from Culinate.com)

Serves MANY

Ingredients

Marinade

1/2 cup sesame oil

4 Tbsp soy (but the original says 7, so...)

3 Tbsp Balsamic vinegar

1 Tbsp Rice wine vinegar

3 1/2 Tbsp dark brown sugar

2 tsp salt

2 tsp chili oil (or more if you're feelin' craycray)

1 garlic clove

Fixin's

2 lb asparagus, cut into 1 inch pieces

1 package (approx 14-16 oz) rice noodles

10 scallions, finely sliced

1/4 cup toasted sesame seeds

1 package extra firm tofu, cut into small squares

2 Tbsp sesame oil

1 Tbsp soy sauce

Directions

1.  Mix all marinade ingredients in a large bowl, and stir to make sure the sugar is fully dissolved.
2.  In a large wok, heat the sesame oil and saute the tofu, stirring every minute or so for about six mintes.  Add the soy and saute two to three more minutes until it is absorbed. Remove from heat. and cool entirely.
3.  You have two options for cooking the asparagus.  You can add it to the end of the tofu cooking process (probably 4-5 minutes), or toss it in for the last three or so minutes of the noodle boiling (next step).  The goal is to let it get bright green and crisp, not firmly crunchy.
3. Bring a large pot of salted water to a boil, and cook the rice noodles until done.  Drain, rise, and store in a bowl (or the original pot) with some water to prevent sticking.  Let it cool entirely. 
4.  In a very large serving vessel, toss together the asparagus, the tofu, the noodles, the sesame seed, and the scallions.  For pretty factor, save a bit of the sesame seeds and the scallions to garnish the top with.
5.  Refrigerate for 30 minutes to ensure it is total cooled, and then serve with some lemonade and a quality book club discussion!

Dinner Train: Anne of Green Gables - Rascherry Cordial

Frankly, I was doubtful about Anne of Green Gables.  I was convinced she was secretly a drunk, middle aged, slightly fanciful, tiny tiny woman in full dissociative break.  Kindreds?  Lake of the Shining Waters?  Eyes rolled so much they get stuck?  But then Anne won me over, decisively so.  How did she do it?  A, she admitted she loved tea parties.  B, she accidentally (on purpose, admit it) got Diana drunk (in order to get her in on the hallucinations imagination train action).  Ohhh, L.M. Montgomery.  You had me at cordial.  Thusly, I made my own cordial in honor of the moment I started liking Anne.

Except, because I'd had some wine before making this (would you have it any other way?), I seemed to think that the actual currant wine was made of cherries.  And that is how this came to be Rascherry Cordial, instead of boring old raspberry cordial.  This process made me realize something I'm okay with: I don't much like Meyers Lemons.  They're like part Balsam, part rosemary, part lemon...and not nearly as acidic as I want them to be, ever.  Disa to the pointing.  Probably, use real lemons.  OR don't, your choice.  Additionally, while flirting with the idea of spiking my cordial like an 80's high school dance punch bowl, I ultimately ruled against it.  You know, since Matthew or the French Canadian boy-helper wouldn't be around to take my unruly ladyguests home in his buggy.  But hey, it made enough to freeze two 16 oz. jars, so my friends, summer is just around the corner at Green Gables South!  

Rascherry Cordial

adapted from Anne of Green Gables Raspberry Cordial

Anne of Green Gables Rascherry Cordial

Dinner Train: The Count of Monte Cristo - Il Flottante

     Using my rudimentary and not at all dubious French translation skillz (honed in my undergrad years in Canada by listening to public service announcements at train stations) I knew I had a winner of a desert when flipping through Julia Child's Mastering the Art of French Cooking desert section and discovering something called Il Flottante.  Loosely translated (using my aforementioned skillz), I deduced that this meant "The Floater."  Which obviously appetizingly means ISLAND.  And you know what is an island?  MONTE CRISTO.  My heart swelled two sizes when I realized it also had nothing in it to murder my allergic to dairy guests! 

     Now, I will caution you, this dish is delish.  But it is really two recipes in one, and you do need to leave yourself enough time to prepare the pralines, let them cool, and additionally to prepare your meringue, and to in turn let that cool.  It's an all day type of recipe, but well worth it.   The best way to describe it is as a French meringue flan.  A few other notes: I doubled the original praline recipe to meet the requirements of the desert.  I also did not use a souffle dish, because I don't have one, but the high sided casserole I used worked just fine.  An electric mixer, either hand or stand, is beyond necessary.  You will be beating eggs all day elsewise, and there are more fun things to beat, like, I dunno, your rugs if you are an extra in Aladdin.  Also, I do recommend pouring out the caramel and then using it as a garnish; I didn't because I thought it would end poorly for me with my notorious lack of motor skills.  I think it consequently became a bit soggy on the bottom.  Finally, good luck not sneaking bites of praline; you're a stronger person that I am! 

Il Flottante
(Translation: "The Floater")

via Julia Child's Mastering the Art of French Cooking

serves 6-8

Il Flottante, unreliably translated to mean "the floater."
Perhaps more appetizingly described as an island of flavor that melts in your mouth. 
Kind of like the opiates the Count enjoys, but sans the hallucinogens (sorry to disappoint).

Recipe(s):

Dinner Train: The Count of Monte Cristo

His boots are so stylish,
but his beard says I'm coming for you.
With my pimp cane.

Mon frer, revenge is a dish best served on a cold and snowy day, with good friends, tasty food, wine, and people who think they can speak French when they've had a sip of said French wine.  Ahem.  Me.  Last night I embarked on challenge one of my 2012 Resolution.  Yes, it was The Count of Monte Cristo night.  Except...of the five of us who present, all whom had never read the book before, only two of us got more than a smidge into it, one of us read the Chaos Walking books instead (way better choice), and one of us found this book and got totally sidetracked.  I mean...who wouldn't.  I've taken to calling it the Mount of Monte Cristo, and I feel that it's got promise to be a far quicker read than The Count of Monte Cristo. 

Because you know what?  While the plot is not bad, Dumas is nothing if not a word fondler.  You heard me.  A dirty rotten word fondler!  He uses 1000 words where 10 will suffice.  I don't need to hear about yet another sailboat!  Or sitting room!  Or the growing quiverings of emotion inside everyone!  Get to the point, word fondler!  More importantly, get to the damn revenge!  I have been reading it for nigh on 21 days now, and I'm only at 575 of 1138 pages on my Nook, and no revenge has yet occurred  (that's another thing - all five of us chose to read it on devices, which is a whole other rumination in and of itself).  I'm going to attempt to finish it, because I can't quit on my first book of the year, right?  But I totally get why people give up on this one.  That said, I think I'm going to have to quit on Anna Karenina already - someone bit off more than she could chew reading-wise when she agreed to run a book a week book-club mini-course for 12th graders in the spring.  Oops!  More on that later, when I perhaps figure out how to post a poll to see what replacement book I should bring up to varsity from the JV book squad.  But I (as per usual) digress. 

I will post my Monte Cristo dinner recipes, of which there are three, but will hold off on the review until I actually, say, FINISH.   This one was a slight challenge, because there were a few dietary challenges that don't exactly fit into the French food friendly category: Vegetarian, Kosher, Dairy-free, Pregnant.  Not wanting to seek revenge, I had to alter my originally scheduled menu, which included swordfish, enemy of both observant Jews and their pregnant friends, and abandon my cheese souffle plans.  But friends, I assure you, I found a way to deliciously use my inner Julia Child for this one, and so can you!  For now, a big thank you to Dave, Lara, Sam, and Arianna for gamely attempting to read this book with me, and for showing up bearing dip, baguette, wine, and madelines to discuss what Dumas is a dumas!  With no further adieu (see, I speak French), il menu (is that Italian?); recipes posted and linked as soon as I type them up later today: 

Dinner Train Menu: The Count of Monte Cristo

Vichyssoise - Revenge is a soup best served cold

Baked Salmon Mediterranean - In which I forget to use the wine

Il Flottante - "The Floater" (how appetizing is my French, you guys?) aka Revenge Island

Vichyssoise

Il Flottante

Baked Salmon Mediterranean

 

Resolution 2012: The Year We All Get Classy and Ride the Dinner Train

Friends, countrymen, foreigners, frenemies,

  

Happy 2012!  Despite being the year the Mayan calendar predicts we will all die (though I’m slightly disinclined to believe the apocalyptic predictions of people who squished their own skulls with boards for fashion, but do admit that the Mayans and co were also responsible for chocolate…so I could be totally wrong here), 2012 is also rumored to be the year that awesome things happen round the world (even if the world ends), STARTING HERE.  Drum roll pleaseeeeeeeeeeeeeeee.

I have set a lofty goal for myself in the new year, being 2012.  I resolve to become cultured! Well read! End my librarian secret shame and finally read a Dickins!  And, obviously, eat well while doing so. 

  

For each book, I will be creating an appropriately themed menu and hosting a dinner/brunch/tea party to debrief.  You may better recognize this concept by its pedestrian name: book club.   Obviously, I have recruited only the tastiest of tastemakers to these exclusive events (so if you want in, let me know).  At the end of the month I will post all recipes here, along with a summary of my/our thoughts about the books.  Thusly, even you, foreign friends (as in anyone who doesn’t live in the same city as moi), can also read along and eat with us (after the fact, but still!).  Outsourcing into your own home is welcome, especially if you live in far far places, and photographic evidence is encouraged! 

Titles and months are listed below:  

January - Count of Monte Cristo

February - Anne of Green Gables

March - Middlemarch

April - Anna Karenina*

May - Little Women

June- Catch 22

July - Moby Dick

August - House of Mirth

September - Phantom Tollbooth

October - Frankenstein

November - 1984

December - Great Expectations

If you do want to participate and ride the dinner train with us, I happen to know you will have the best year EVER, filled with chocolate, lottery wins, laughing babies, and my undying love.  If you don’t want to partake, I happen to know that you will have a year filled with chocolate and laughing babies, but also paper cuts (kidding, it’ll be a fab and happy 2012 for you too!).   BRING IT, 2012!

I resolve to have twice as much fun reading classics while wearing twice as many pearls as this lady!

*This may be ambitious.  

Geektastic: Stories from the Nerd Herd - In which I learn that reviewing collections of short stories is a challenge and give up without trying.

Geektastic: Stories from the Nerd Herd,
edited by Holly Black and Cecil Castelluci
Little Brown and Co.: Boston, 2009
ISBN: 978-0-316-00809-9

This month my book club read Geektastic: Stories from the Nerd Herd, a collection of short stories by a variety of YA authors.  And as I am well overdue for a review, I figured it would be a good one, especially post-club meeting group-think.  But you know what?  It is not easy to review a book of short stories.  Why?  All the stories are so different!  Sure, there is a greater goal.  But it’s kind of like going into the fruit aisle in a grocery store to evaluate it and being all “Yes, I see that you have something in common. You are all fruit.” But you’re still looking at apples and oranges.  And some people like oranges better than they like apples.  So I’m doing away with formal review format for this guy and just telling you some thoughts.  I will be brief, and then more in-depth after the jump, where there may be SPOILERS.  I hate spoilers!  You have been fairly warned!  Regardless, this is a fun book, and frankly it’s a switch up in format to be able to read 15-20 pages and have everything end so you can take a break and move on to a totally different topic.   I recommend it!

Thoughts about the whole book, in bullet format because I like bullets (not the real ones): 

·      There is a wide variety of geekdom represented here.  It is a veritable spectrum, from high, convention attending geekery, to high school theatre geekery, to scholastic geekery.  I personally enjoyed the spectrum, and as one book club participant pointed out, it was important.  It acknowledges the humanity behind geekery!  While sure, there are varying levels of commitment, we are ALL geeks in our own way, whether we attend conventions in our Storm Trooper uniforms, spend a lot of time fondling comic books, or spend hours struggling to perfect the ultimate brownie recipe.  That person looking at you in the mirror?  Huge geek. 

·      This book is HEAVY in the romance department.  It was something that I didn’t realize when reading it, but once someone brought it up, it was hard to avoid it.  Most stories involve romance or crushes.  Which, perhaps, is a device to tell of an important moment in the lives of the characters, as opposed to them being geeky at whatever they are geeky at.  Because an object in motion is so much more interesting than one at rest.  Physics.  Laws of.   Boom, I just scienced you.  But there are ways other than romance that an object can be in motion, YA authors.  But I still liked it, so not a major complaint.

·      Apparently only the paperback version has a glossary, and only a short one at that.  I would have appreciated a glossary at times, and or a heads up as to what some of the stories were about.  I didn’t know Scott Westerfeld’s Dungeons and Dragons story was about D&D.  I thought it was online gaming!  In short, while I got some things, I’m admittedly not down enough with high geekery to understand all of it.  Help the non-initiated out!  You’re only as strong as your weakest reader.  I did, however, really enjoy stories where I learned about aspects of high geekery I never knew about, like Cassandra Clare’s “I Never”. 

·      In a couple of places I wasn’t sure about the gender of characters.  It turns out I wasn’t the only one, as we talked about it at book club!  It was always cleared up, but I still think a few (“Definitional Chaos” & “The Stars at the Finish Line” could have gone Sapphic with no problem, considering that's what I thought was going on until a male pronoun was used.  Food for progressive thought, YA authors!)

·      I really enjoyed the comics that separated the chapters.  They were almost all witty and well drawn!

·      It’s a little weird when the authors you expect to have some of the best stories let you down!  And let me down some did, while others went on to shine and steal the show.  Onto the possible spoiler section! 

Old School

Oh snap, ALA Libraries Direct.  It's like you knew how excited I used to get in anticipation of the school book fairs in elementary school.  It's like you knew how much often I read those fine, newspaper print beacons filled with the hopes of future books.  But seriously, including a link to old book club fliers?  GENIUS. Most of them appear to stylistically be from before my (reading abilities) time, but hey, we all can't be awesome harem pant, hypercolor t-shirt wearing, side pony-tail sporting children of the 90's, can we?  

And you, URLesque, well played on choosing to feature a 1990's Scholastic Book Club version containing a Maryanne and Logan Babysitters Club Book (also how I learned the world versus and that it could be abbreviated, not like it was a big deal or anything...).    It's not like I identified with Maryanne and had my first secret literary crush on Logan or anything...  Incidentally, a while a go a friend passed along the link to The Hairpin's The Babysitter's Club: Where Are They Now?  Most of them?  Dead on.  But the Logan assessment?  Dead off.  There is no way he's not fabulously Southern and gay.  Who's with me?