Tidbits

This link should prove to you how long I've been putting off this Tidbits post. Yeah. Christmas, 2013. Seems like just yesterday huh? It's like I'm a hoarder. Don't judge meeee!  

Books and Libraries

• If you need a very uh...saucy gift for Valentine's day for the book fondler in your life, try these.  The 50/50 slap vs chuckle is on you though!  
• 50 Shades of Linger-grey.  Eyeroll. Probably another V-day gift idea, but could be a loaded one. 
• For the more discreet yet naughty, NPR is onto what you're really reading on that cell phone!  
• Struggling with which great YA to pick up next?  Struggle no more!  Book Riot put together a very thorough flow chart to help you muddle through this crisis of great import.  
• According to the most recent Pew study on libraries, "Some 90% of Americans ages 16 and older said that the closing of their local public library would have an impact on their community, with 63% saying it would have a “major” impact."  Thank you for recognizing the importance of your library, Americans who took this survey!  Now please, go and make all your friends agree with you!
• I'm calling it a three way tie between Alec Baldwin, LLCoolJ, and Stephen Hawkings in theRead posters of the 1980s and 1990s, compiled by Book Riot.  
• I want all of these Harry Potter stilettos, or just an invite to this inevitably awesome wedding! 
• Here is a very delightful trailer for BJ Novaks new book, One More Thing, a review of which, I promise, is coming soon.     
• Behold, the worlds worst allergy.  

Food

• How great are these fantastic tea blends based on books and TV/movies/fandoms I am not cool enough to understand?  I want to try them ALL!
• I obvi want to try these literary cocktails (especially the Sherlock and Watson), but not as much as I want to go to Novela in San Francisco! 
• It's Girl Scout Cookie season, and I have as yet failed to mention that an 8 year old in the subway station selling me them tried to get me to give her my credit card...because they take credit cards now.  Those wily minxes!  Here are some wine (they're kind of gross, in my opinion) and beer pairing ideas to go with your cookies as you ponder a world in which you can instantly buy things on credit from children.  

Movies and TV

• I truly madly deeply hope the BBC plan to adapt Anansi Boys comes to fruition! 
• These Broken Stars has been optioned for TV, but I'm more excited for the sequel.  When's that happening already? 
• Remember Little Golden Books?  Here are some TV shows reimagined as Little Golden Books (or, perhaps, cautionary tales for children about dealing meth?).  
• Oooh, Daughter of Smoke and Bone has a director.  I am so hopeful!
• Scary Stories to Tell in the Dark has been optioned, because the illustrations weren't scary enough in 2D.  Fat chance I'll see it; still recovering from my 1994 reading experience.  
• Did you hear that Fault in Our Stars has a trailer?  Yes, yes you did, because everyone did.  Torn between being over it, and glad that people are picking up a book - hoping it leads to more exploration of YA titles!  Still kind of weirded out about the brother-lover sitch though...
• I've save the best for almost last.  OUTLANDERHASATRAILER.  Repeat, one more time, on the slow-like: Outlander has a trailer! Two, actually.  I'm embedding the better one. You know, the one in which Jamie talks and doesn't wear a shirt? Duh.  

Lastly, here is the one of the best things I've read on the Internet in a while, written by a teenage girl.  Suffice it to say, she's tired of being patronized:   

"When you applaud or critique a young girl’s taste based on how well or badly it aligns with yours, you are suggesting that your taste = THE RIGHT TASTE, because you are the one IN THE KNOW."

Huge high five to this young woman.  Well said!

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)

These Broken Stars, by Amie Kaufman and Meagan Spooner: The Titantic Sinks in an Outer Space Blue Lagoon!

These Broken Stars
Amie Kaufman and Meagan Spooner
Hyperion: New York, 2013.
ISBN: 9781423171027

ARC provided by publisher
Book Club Recipe suggestion: These Broken Ration Bars (aka Date Bars with Almond and Coconut)

Ms. Lilac La Roux and Major Tarver Merendsen were passengers of the Icarus, the finest, newest and most technologically advanced spaceship across the many galaxies.  Tarver is a war hero, recently returned from battle and being paraded around and shown off by the military on tour.  Lilac is the only child of the richest man in the universe.  Now, though, they are the only two survivors after disaster befalls the ship.  Stranded on a strange planet, they must survive both the unknown planet, strange whispers they are hearing, and their mutual discord if they have any hopes of living long enough to repair the beacon that will signal their SOS.  But, as they grow to develop a slow-burning bond that is more than mere friendship, they begin to wonder: are they really better off being rescued?  Fast-paced, dramatic, and unexpected, this is a spectacularly fun, engrossing, and totally accessible Sci-Fi title filled with adventure, romance, and intrigue.   It is a STRONG recommendation for anyone who likes their Sci-Fi light on the Sci and heavy on snappy writing, adventure, high-stakes, and romance.  I’m looking at you, readers of this blog. 

This super title came into my orbit (see what I did there?) this summer when I was lucky enough to be working at the best bookstore in all the lands (all of them).  One of my fellow booksellers and I were chatting about what we’d been reading and she’d just finished it.  She summed it up as…Titanic in space.  And she’s TOTALLY RIGHT.  OMG you guys.  It was a tonic to my 13-year-old self, she of the three viewings of Titanic in movie theatres and listening to the CD so much it broke (that must have been awful, sorry, family).  I’m pretty sure I’d re-read this at LEAST three times in a row if I were 13.  I’d go one step further and add that it’s like Titanic in space with shades of Outlander and a healthy dash of Blue Lagoon… Which is why, readers of this blog, I suspect that the vast majority of you will more than dig this.  Even the dudes.  I’m not genderist (okay, well, ladies will probably dig it a little more).   

THIS IS WHY WE ARE BEST FRIENDS.

Now, let us take a walk with my brain through this super fun read together, in bullet form, because my brain is unable to form full paragraphs and desperate for some vacation!