Book Lovers Club
Comments
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our local radio station's interviewer - Joe Donahue (excellent) interviewed Sara Paretsky this past week. Here is a link to the interview.0 -
Wow, I would love to see Hanks do Garden!
VR, mothers are always right!
(I don't know if I like these emoticons....too large & kind of creepy)0 -
Jelson: Thanks for the link. She must have been really feeling sick at our venue 'cause this was much better.0 -
Just finished The Hypnotist's Love Story - my second book by Liane Moriarty. So glad this author was recommended on this thread. She really gets into her characters' heads and you really feel that their actions/emotions are genuine.
I am not recommending Apocalypse Cow - by Michael Logan which while imaginative, hysterical actually, was very violent and kind of stupid - a bio-engineered virus escapes and causes first dairy cows then virtually every living thing except birds to go on a killing rampage!0 -
Major Pettigrew's Last Stand by Helen Simonson. A beautifully written, cross-cultural and Mature love story. Since it was published in 2010 I used the search function to see if it was previously mentioned on this thread and it was - Marybe mentioned it and VR chimed in that she enjoyed it - in 2011. It made me sad to read her comments because Marybe passed away this year - but it also made me glad because Marybe and of course Konakat continue to touch us on in this thread through our shared enjoyment of reading.0 -
Jelson...I miss Marybe soooo much! She LOVED to read and LOVED to cook! She was a great fan of Game of Thrones.She used to PM me about how much she enjoyed reading and gardening. If she wasn't outdoors gardening, she was inside reading or cooking. I continue to make and share her recipe for sauerkraut balls. Everyone that I know who has tasted them... loves them!
Major Pettigrew was a sweet book. There are so many books like it...under the radar...that deserve being read. Sometimes I think of collecting an infusion room recommended reading list. Something light... but meaningful... not too taxing...but sweet. Major Pettigrew would be high on the list.0 -
VR, I know this is the book thread, but will you post the recipe for the sauerkraut balls??0 -
Wen... You can google "Sauerkraut Balls" and a few recipes pop up. Marybe said that the recipe was popular in Northeast Ohio...especially in the Fall. It's the kind of recipe that gets handed down in families and varies from family to family... generation to generation. What makes them so delicious is that the sauerkraut adds moisture to the meatballs. You would never notice or believe you were eating sauerkraut in the balls. Here's how I make them:
Drain a can of sauerkraut. Add it to 2-3 lbs of chopped meat. You can mix any type of meat. I usually use chopped turkey meat. Chop up an onion and add it. Then add 2 cups of flavored bread stuffing... I like pepperidge farm. Some people add a half cup of cream cheese... I don't. Anyway... Mix all the ingredients and make balls. I bake them on a cookie grate...covered for 1/2 hour and then uncovered for another 20 minutes... Until they're brown. I serve them with rice or noodles or by themselves. Yum.0 -
Thanks ladies for the Marybe memories. She was always so much fun.
Voracious - do the meatballs truly not taste like sauerkraut? I don't like that taste at all but the recipe intrigues me. I like things you can bake & not fry.
Getting ready to start Sara Paretsky's new book next week. I'll let you all know.0 -
minus... Truly.0 -
Highly recommend "The Goldfinch." It's long but compelling. Has been named one of the year's best books by Amazon. By Donna Tartt.0 -
Thanks VR!!!0 -
hi all, been too busy to read much so have only finished 4 books in the last 4 weeks and all of them fiction.
Really liked Countdown City, book #2 in Ben Winters' Last Policeman trilogy. (Why bother to solve crimes when an asteroid is going to hit Earth and kill us all?) Looking forward to book #3 and how it may end.
Also read Deeply Odd, the new Odd Thomas book in the series by Dean Koontz, as well as Odd Interlude, a paperback compilation of 3 e-books. He writes so well and blends humor & horror in a deliciously creepy way.
Spent yesterday afternoon with The Dogs of Christmas, the brand-new heartwarmer by W. Bruce Cameron which I thoroughly enjoyed.
On the waiting list for W is for Wasted. Wonder what Sue Grafton will do after Z. Anyone read Dr. Sleep, the new Stephen King? It's the sequel to The Shining.
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p.s. I have this version of Marybe's recipe:
"OK, here is the recipe for the sauerkraut balls. They can be frozen after they are cooked and heated up in the oven which is what I am doing. I freeze them in a large pan and then once they they frozen, can throw them in a bag. One recipe makes about 30 balls.
8 oz pkg. sausage crumbled 1/4 cup onion finely chopped 1 14 oz can sauerkraut, well drained and chopped
2 Tbsp dry bread crumbs 1 3oz. pkg cream cheese 2 Tbsp chopped parsley 1 tsp.dry mustard 1/8tsp pepper
1/4 tsp garlic salt
1/4 c flour 2 eggs beaten 1/4 c milk 3/4 c. dry bread crumbs Oil for deep frying
Cook sausage and onion, Drain. Add kraut and 2 Tbsp crumbs. Combine cr.cheese, parsley, mustard, garlic salt and pepper. Mix with kraut mixture. Chill and shape into 3/4 in balls. Roll in flour...then roll balls in milk and egg mixture until coated and then roll in bread crumbs. Then you fry until they are a light brown. Place on paper towels to remove excess grease. Your kitchen will smell like these for days, but it's a good smell.
Serve these with a mustard sauce or curry dip....honey mustard salad dressing will work.
Let me know if any of you make these....they are very good. I do not remember when I last saw a 3 oz pkg of cream cheese or an 8 oz pkg of sausage which is why I always make at least a double batch and just cut off 1/4 of the cream cheese from the 8oz pkg. As I said, they do freeze well. Remember those things called Hanky Pankies they used to serve all the time....Cheeze whiz, and sausage on little rye bread?...those freeze really well also."
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Thanks badger, a little different than the one posted above.0 -
You're welcome wenweb, yes a bit different but it's her own words cut & pasted from a PM. I haven't made them myself though. I'll amend my post with quotation marks!
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badger, no worries, I'm sure that both recipes are from Marybe, I was just commenting…Thanks again!0 -
oooooh. i read about this here, made a list, and went to the store. cant wait to see how good they are! And, downloadled "the goldfinch", and also Elizabeth gilbert's new one. Anyone read "the world to come" by Dara Horn, or, "the bone people", by Keri Hulme? two of my favorite books ever. major pettigrew was great, and loved cutting for stone too.0 -
Thank you for mentioning our dear friends Elizabeth and Marybe. Truly lovely reading women; interested in everything and so interesting themselves.
I have been reading lots of (my favorite) biographies:
* Abigail Adams by Woody Holton....very interesting look at the life of Abigail Adams, and the role of women in that time.
*Camelot Court-Inside the Kennedy White House by Robert Dallek.... a look the men who made up Kennedy's inner circle (you have to really be interested in the policy aspects of history or it will be a little too dry)
*Zealot: The Life and Times of Jesus of Nazareth by Reza Aslan.....very interesting look at the historical Jesus and the times in which he lived.
*Rose Kennedy's Family Album. A beautifully presented book with photos form the Fitzgerald Kennedy private collection of pictures from 1878-1946. Put together by the Kennedy Library with a forward by Caroline Kennedy
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It looks like the main difference in the two meatball recipes is the cooking - baking vs. frying. Since I rarely fry, I'll be trying the first one but will compare ingredients first. Thanks Badger.
I finished Sara Paretsky's new book Critical Mass. It jumps from 1913 to Germany in 1941 to U of Chicago, to White Sands, to 1953, to the present in several locations and it includes lots of characters from the past generations of the current group. About physics & women scientists & and the development of computers & WWII & the camps - with of course mysteries & murders in the past & present. I really liked the book but I was able to read it w/o distractions over a couple of days. It might be hard to keep track if you only read a chapter a night.0 -
Badger! I did make the "tangy-german" balls! They were delicious. With a twist, though. The man I have been cooking for, for fourteen years, eats no red meat. So, I used turkey sausage & ground turkey. Panko because i already had them. And for a side, I guess i was craving a 'meat' kind of side, kind of a stroganoff sauce with sauteed sliced shitakes. We ate it so fast! Triple yum! Back to books. My favourite. Book. Ever. is Les Miserables. Have read it twice, will read again, every 10 years whether I need to, or not! Any body ever read Lionel Shriver? Truly gifted and amazing writer. Not for the squeamish, but you shall enjoy her descriptions, and her insight into characters. First one i read was "We need to talk about kevin" and i was astounded they even attempted to make a movie out of it. Glad I read it first. Tilda Swinton is in it. (the movie). And, this one called " So much for that" & even though one of the main people is struck by cancer, it WILL make you laugh. It WILL make you cry, and even better, it WILL make you think. Highly recommend, even if no one knows if my recommendations are any good yet. I am as proud of those two books as if i had written or discovered them myself. Guarantee you will forget about everything else in your life, for a while. Wonder-awful.0 -
I forgot to mention that I sometimes add turkey sausage to the chopped turkey. I bake them and they do freeze well! I'm telling you... They rock!!!! Everyone asks for the recipe and can't believe they have sauerkraut in them!
I'm enjoying Bill Bryson's latest book, One Summer. Found a small error in the book and wrote to the publisher. Hope they correct it in future additions. He's such a terrific writer!
Read Bill O'Reilly's Keep it Pithy... Also started Here Comes Mrs Kugelman... Enjoying that too!
Did I mention I'm a literacy volunteer? Been reading children's biographies of Helen Keller and Eleanor Roosevelt and I know how much we all love Eleanor!!!0 -
I asked him to guess what was in them, and he couldn't, so I had to tell him about the sauerkraut! amazingly good. Bill bryson is a favorite of mine too, I thought about getting One Summer, you will let us know? Literacy volunteer? Good Job! Sorry if my posts are mispelled & take liberties, i cant write as fast as i think at all. 2 finger pecker. n lazy0 -
Kathy... Bill Bryson's latest book is breezier than his last book, At Home. However, like At Home, it is packed with details that are nothing short of hilarious! Describing Lindbergh, he explains how dry he was and so lacking in personality. But then he goes on to explain how when people met him they were taken aback by his demeanor, but excused it, and went right back to glorifying him. Sounds strikingly familiar how today we often idolize and glorify celebrities who have publicity machines behind them to try to spin those folks into glorious people... when in reality many fall short on the character scale. Accomplished? No doubt. Worth idolizing? Nah!
Mom finished reading Hitler's Philosophers and loved it. Then I had her watch the DVD about the tragic figure Sophie Scholl who is briefly mentioned in the book. Now there's a young woman who should be better known! A true profile in courage.
I also loved reading, This Town. All about Washington DC.0 -
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Oh Ruth - that is so great. Thanks for posting. I have a friend who loves cats and who's husband still hasn't figured out not to interrupt reading after 55 years of marriage.0 -
yeah. But in my house it's the Cats who do the interupting! LOL0 -
kathec, I loved THE BONE PEOPLE. Have read it many times. Dark, but sooo good. Another favorite of mine was THE POWER OF ONE by Bryce Courtenay. Another multiple read effort for me. And I rarely read a book twice.
Currently reading BEHIND THE BEAUTIFUL FOREVERS by Boo, and interspersing it with SHANTARAM, so I'm completely wrapped up in the sights and smells (stench?) of the Mumbai slums.
Next up will be THE GOLDFINCH.0 -
OOOOh, annew! i also loved "the power of one"! i will check out the two you mentioned. Also, another one very dark but so good, about some tailors in india and the things that happen to them, and the people around them, lots of truth to it is, it is called, A Fine Balance. Can't remember the author's name right now, it is on loan to a friend. Also love love love Alice Walker's, The Temple of My Familiar. that one is hugely entertaining and broad, and ultimately uplifting.0 -
love the cat, Ruthbru. Want.0
