Island Cookie Break!

Quick break today from beach reading, for cookies made from white chocolate chips, coconut and walnuts. It's been a really rough week, I found myself craving chocolate comfort cookies. Originally white chocolate and milk chocolate chips cookies sounded pretty good, but then I spotted this recipe on the white chip package. (I will probably still give you a list of some of my favorites from the past year!)

Island Cookies

• 1 2/3 cup flour
• 3/4 teaspoon baking powder (forgot this last night and had to send Tom back to the store!)
• 1/2 teaspoon baking soda
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 3/4 cup butter or margarine.  (I like to use margarine in cookies - seems to make them a little softer and gooey)
• 3/4 cup packed brown sugar
• 1/3 cup granulated sugar
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
• 1 large egg
• 2 cups (12 oz) white chips
• 1 cup coconut flakes - toasted if you would like
• 3/4 cup macadamia  nuts or walnuts

Heat oven to 375.

Mix butter/margarine and sugars, until light and fluffy.  Add eggs and vanilla. Mix together dry ingredients and add them to sugar mixture. Then blend in coconut, chips, and nuts.   Bake 8-10 minutes.

Enjoy every bite!  

Now... what to read with your cookies and milk?

For times when I need a quick stress relief, cannot recommend Gift From The Sea highly enough.  This classic is timeless and holds true even after 55+ years.  Insightful, calming....

"In this inimitable, beloved classic—graceful, lucid and lyrical—Anne Morrow Lindbergh shares her meditations on youth and age; love and marriage; peace, solitude and contentment as she set them down during a brief vacation by the sea. Drawing inspiration from the shells on the shore, Lindbergh’s musings on the shape of a woman’s life bring new understanding to both men and women at any stage of life" 

Still one of the best books that I have read in the past few years - Water for Elephants, by Sara Gruen.  Tragic and beautiful all mixed together in this tale of a struggling circus train - "The Great 

Benzini Brothers Most Spectacular Show on Earth",

 during the early years of the Great Depression. The myriad cast of characters will stay with you long after you put the book down. MUST have on your book shelf.

One of my very best friends, Suzanne Droppert,  owns a small independent bookstore in Poulsbo, WA , Liberty Bay Books, I have been incredibly fortunate to have been able in the last few years to help her with several author events. It's one thing to read, but quite another to actually hear an author speak and bring a whole new perspective to their story.  In November of 2008, we had event with the Kitsap Regional Library and with the areas'  regional bookstores for Lisa See.  We managed to fill an auditorium at the local community college! There were so many people, and she was a fascinating story teller -  stories about growing up Chinese, but not Chinese... I finally had a chance when I moved to CA to read Peony in Love.  Rich characters and places that bring alive imagination  - 

Steeped in traditions and ritual, this story brings to life another time and place–even the intricate realm of the afterworld, with its protocols, pathways, and stages of existence, a vividly imagined place where one’s soul is divided into three, ancestors offer guidance, misdeeds are punished, and hungry ghosts wander the earth. Immersed in the richness and magic of the Chinese vision of the afterlife, transcending even death

The Poisonwood Bible, by Barbara Kingsolver. This was another great author that I had the opportunity to hear speak last winter on Bainbridge Island. The Poisonwood Bible is a rich layered story of a missionary family that traveled to the Congo in 1959, a time of great upheaval in Africa, the Unites and the World . WOW- Difficult to describe this incredible journey.. another MUST have for your bookshelf. 

"They carry with them everything they believe they will need from home, but soon find that all of it -- from garden seeds to Scripture -- is calamitously transformed on African soil" 

Winter Garden, by Kristin Hannah This is the latest book of Kristin's that I have read, (mine is autographed!)  just one story in a long line of many.  I have a special place for Kristin, as she is a local Puget Sound girl, and has written many "chic-lit", books that are simply feel good.  For me, they are especially fun to read because I can imagine many of the places she is describing.  Kristin is a wonderful writer, and totally down to earth.  You will love her! 

Winter Garden is a tale of that takes the characters from the orchards of Eastern Washington to the war-torn streets of Russia.  Great tale, and again, I learned so much that I didn't know about the people and their struggle in Russia in the mid-part of this century.  WWII was particularly heartbreaking...

Enjoy the cookies!

Summer Beach Reads - Part 2

Got some great responses yesterday from readers and from Facebook friends!  Thanks for the input- here's a few of their suggestions:

Mary: The Family Man by Elinor Lipman - fun read!


From Lee: "get ready, I have got some good summer books for you!
I love Florida, and we discovered these great authors who write about Florida. They are hilarious reads
Tim Dorsey-He writes about Serge Storms and his buddy, Coleman.
Robert Tacoma- also funny, and good reads, he writes more about the Keys
Bob Morris-He writes about the Caribbean, also very good
Carl Hiassen- another Florida author, funny and suspenseful
I recently read a book by Claire Cook- Life's a Beach. Light reading, a beach book, but she is a sea glass jewelry artist, so I enjoyed it.
Try these authors, you won't be sorry!"

Have to be honest with all of you - I LOVE Carl Hiassen!  I think I have read every single one of his books.  Great bad guys - stooopid bad guys, hilarious characters.  So far from the norm, that they are actually believable!  All take place in Florida - good and bad Florida; swamps, Miami Beach, the Keys... 

If you are an Elmore Leonard fan, Carl Hiassen's books will remind you a little of the style of  "Get Shorty" and Chili Palmer.  If you have not ever read any Elmore Leonard, you should try one of these too.  I started reading Elmore Leonard when I lived in Hawaii and spent many many happy hours laying in the white sand at Bellows Beach. 

Then there is my favorite Jimmy Buffet book - "A Salty Piece of Land". Kicking myself for lending this to a friend a few years ago, the worst part is, I don't know who I lent it to!  Crazy characters, living crazy dreams - and it all works out.  

For some Laugh Out Loud stories - try the Stephanie Plum series! Starts with "One for the Money" and goes all the way up to the latest book "Sizzling Sixteen".  I just finished "Fearless Fourteen",  Stephanie Plum is a really really bad bounty hunter, is always broke, and usually wrecks a car or two in each book, quick funny books - perfect for an afternoon by the pool!

Was introduced to Mary Kay Andrews a few summers ago - love her books! All take place in Georgia, on the coast and in Savannah - guarantee that you will not be disappointed.

I started with Savannah Breeze and then moved on to Deep Dish, and then the Fixer Upper.  All fun - great reads with wonderful characters. 

Well, there's a few more for your beach bag! 

More tomorrow!

  

1st Day of Summer 2010 - Beach Reads Part 1

For the past several months, I have been compiling a list of some of my best-loved beach reads to share on this blog.   My entire life, I have surrounded myself with books; adventure stories, love stories, biographies, war stories, classics, poetry, history - cannot imagine a life without the many rich layers of literature.  Whenever I have needed another perspective outside of my little town, there was always a story to be read about another part of the world, another part of the country, about someone else's struggle and triumphs, someone that was a different color than me, someone that had a completely different life from my own....

I discovered Rosamunde Pilcher's books many years ago when my children were small and my life was incredibly stressful. I worked full-time, and had these little bodies to take care of - I am not sure that I even slept during those years!  I do remember these books though. When the Allison and Alex would finally fall asleep, I would then find some Earl Grey, make a nice steaming cup of tea with honey toast. Snuggling  up in the covers reading about Wales, Scotland, Ireland and Cornwall., I was a very happy girl  Could escape for a few hours into the British Isle moors full of lilac-colored heather, could smell  and feel the cold beaches of the Atlantic Sea... ah, a few minutes of peace.


The Short List -  (keep in mind, these are not new books!)
Shell Seekers - published 1988. Read this entire book on my way to meet my ex-husband in Amsterdam.  Very good friend for a very long plane flight. (was a tv movie too, I believe)
September - 1990
Coming Home 1995
Snow in April 1972
Wild Mountain Thyme 1979
Sleeping Tiger 1967
Winter Solstice 2000

If you have never read The Secret Garden, this is also a MUST read.  I think when I read this at age 8 is probably when I started my love affair Scotland and the cold, lonely, windy moors.  It's also one of the first books that my grandmother Thea introduced to me.  The next series of books that she started me on was the Anne of Green Gables books - my project for the summer is to re-read these fabulous stories!   Better find the library here in California though, because my books are packed someplace in Washington.
 

Snow Falling on Cedars, and most recently Hotel on the Corner of Bitter and Sweet, (different authors) exposed my cloistered small town life to prejudice and hate within my own community home of the Puget Sound.  Both stories deal with society's shortcomings, misunderstandings, love and with the Japanese Internment Camps in Washington and around the West Coast.  I had such an idyllic childhood in the 70's, and had NO idea of this history of Seattle area in the 1940's.

Cutting for Stone  Not sure where to start with this novel, or how to accurately describe the impact that this story had on me. The story takes you from India, to Ethiopia, to the United States and back to Ethiopia.  I am so lucky to have Suzanne for a friend, as she owns an Independent Bookstore in Poulsbo, and I have been fortunate to have read many many books before they ever hit the regular bookshelves.  This was one of them, and this was one of my favorites from last summer.  I know NOTHING about Ethiopia, and read this to have an insight into another part of the world, ended up on an tangled emotional journey and mystery between twin brothers.  All with the strife in Ethiopia in the background...

Velva Jean Learns to Drive  This was another book that I pulled out of the stack of galleys about a young girl growing up in the Appalachian Mountains before World War II. She was wonderful! Again, I had a chance to read about another part of our big country that I have never seen - while reading this, you can taste the clear water in the brooks, you can feel the earth between Velva Jean's toes as she runs through the life-giving lush forests.   She has big dreams, and gets a little sidetracked by a charismatic preacher - I believe she really does love him, but also wants more,struggles with wanting more (gee, I get that!), before she straps on her shoes, and turns the truck ignition  key to go to find her real voice.

The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society  My daughter bought this wonderful book for me for Christmas this year.  Once I started it, I could not put it down.  I confess, I sat in a barca-lounger at our beach cottage on the Oregon Coast, in my leopard PJ's - sun streaming through the windows, and read the entire story in one day. Once again, was reminded of how ignorant I really am - I didn't know the history of the Guernsey Islands, had no idea that they even existed.  During WWII, these islands were occupied by the Germans starting in 1940, and were completely cut-off from the outside world.  The novel is a series of letters and tells the story of the survival of the islanders in such a fresh new way, completely unlike anything I have ever read.  Romantic, endearing, eccentric characters...cannot recommend it highly enough!

Endurance   I love this story of the Endurance and Shackleton's crew in the Antarctic. Amazing adventure story -  all true. Incredible photography and so well researched.  Any time I am feeling a little down, I just think of this crew, how WITHOUT Gortex, or any other modern cold-weather gear, they survived and thrived after getting their ship stuck in the ice.  Sort of a weird present for me one Christmas, but one book that is always on my bookshelf.










Well, that's a few to get your started on your reading list for this summer! More to follow this week  - including some of my recommended Interior Design Books.