New Year, New Project - Reading - #50BookPledge

I loved reading/skimming over all of the challenge posts in my Google Reader. I bookmarked a bunch in the last few weeks to seriously consider at the end of the year. I haven't participated in many reading challenges, but I figured I'd start with this year. There are so many good ones...so many I'd be interested in doing. Some I know I could do pretty easily; others would be fairly challenging. When I sat down to sort through the ones I picked out, it was all too much. It started to get intimidating. I can't do all of the ones I like. Where to start? Which ones do I join? They all looked so good.

That's when I stumbled across The Savvy Reader's #50BookPledge. I heard about this last year, but didn't participate. There aren't a lot of rules to follow, which I like...just read and talk about books. Since I already do that, to me, it sounds like a great place to start.

I haven't counted how many books I read last year (2011). I could go back and figure it out pretty quickly. But, I'm not going to do that. I'm going to join this challenge blindly and hope that I can get read 50 books by the end of 2012. If I don't, that's okay, too. At least I tried.

Have you heard about this challenge? How you joined? How many other reading challenges have you joined?

Weekend Cooking - Roasted Fennel

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.

For more information, see the Welcome post on Beth Fish Reads.

I haven't posted to Weekend Cooking in ages. However, when I tried this recipe last week (twice!! because it was so good), I just knew I wanted to share it. This recipe came on a tag with the fennel. It's so simple with only three ingredients.

Roasted Fennel with Parmesan

4 bulbs fennel
1/4 cup olive oil
1/3 cup shredded or shaved Parmesan

Preheat oven to 475ºF. Rinse fennel in cold running water. Trim tops and cut off base off bulbs. Cut crosswise into 1/2-inch slices. Arrange in even layer over bottom of 9x13-inch pan or roasting pan. Drizzle with oil and toss to coat fennel. Roast, stirring occasionally, until fennel is just beginning to get tender, about 30 minutes. Scatter cheese over fennel and return to oven for another 10 minutes. Makes 4-6 servings.

Until now, I thought fennel was just ok. Now, I think it might be one of my favourite vegetables. With such a high oven temperature, it gets all caramelized and yummy. The cheese definitely makes the dish. I used a jellyroll pan (or as I call it a cookie sheet with sides) instead of the roasting pan as the recipe suggests.

Enjoy!

Have you tried fennel/anise before? If yes, what's your favourite way to cook it?

New Year, New Project - Photography

Late last year, I read about a great project that I thought was right up my alley. It's photography related rather than book related. It's called the 365 Project. Basically, you pick a theme and then take one photo a day based on that theme. It sounds like a huge commitment, but fun at the same time. There's a more thorough explanation on the website.

My theme is "Life - Up Close". I had tossed around a number of other ideas before settling on this one as it popped into my head this morning. I really like taking macro or close-up photographs, so I wanted to base the project on that. The "life" part is pretty general and that's on purpose. I can basically take a close up of anything.

Don't worry, I won't be posting my photographs daily here. I think I'll do a weekly post with either the photographs themselves or a link to them. I'll see how it goes as time goes by.

As for other photography memes or projects: I had been doing Photo Friday off and on for a few years, something posting the photos here. I'm not sure if I'm going to stick with it. I might check out the theme and if I like it that week, I'll do it. Otherwise, I think I'll have my hands full with this one.    I'll probably stick with Wordless Wednesday and Saturday Snapshot hosted by Alyce at At Home with Books because I like participating in both of these and can use some older photos that I won't be using for my 365 Project.

Anyone else thinking of tackling a year long project? Have you done one in the past? Do you have any advice? What do you think of this one?

[I'm also thinking of doing a book related one. Stay tuned...]

Wish me luck!

Saturday Snapshot - Oh Deer!

Over Christmas, my husband and I rented a cabin in the nearby Whiteshell Provincial Park. It was very quiet and very relaxing. We had a great time. We were greeted by the "welcoming committee" upon our arrival. Here s/he is Christmas morning at our cabin door:

There were about 15 of these white-tailed deer in the immediate area. Probably hundreds, if not thousands, in the whole park. They are wild animals and are not penned. They are free to come and go as they please. However, the owners of the cabins feed them deer chow, I believe - although not usually by hand.  Because of this, they stay close and have gotten used to having people around all the time. Most of them will eat right from your hand, as seen above.    We were giving them some bird seed we brought along to feed the birds.  It's sort of a nice added attraction for visitors from the city to see "wild" life up close.

Here's another photo:

When we were packing up to go, there were four of them waiting at the cabin door to see if they could get one last handout. I wish I had gotten a picture of that, but the camera was already packed away.

Disclaimer: I don't support feeding wild animals, especially deer. It's actually harmful for the animals and for humans. Once in awhile, though, I lose all reason.

Saturday Snapshot is hosted by Alyce of At Home With Books. To participate – post a picture that you've taken (or one taken by a friend, or a family member) then add your link on Alyce’s site using Mr. Linky.

Shut Your Eyes Tight by John Verdon

In Shut Your Eyes Tight, a bride is beheaded at her wedding reception just after she was wed to a prominent psychiatrist. Dave Gurney, a retired homicide investigator can't resist looking into this one. His wife is opposed to the idea and just wants him to enjoy their move out to the country. Once Gurney learns the details, he finds that it's so bizarre and horrific that soon he can't think of anything else. Through his digging he finds evil very close to the surface. However, as he continues to dig the extent of that evil becomes unimaginable.

I loved this book. I love that Verdon doesn't rely on action scenes to make the story interesting or suspenseful. Much like his first book, this is very much a thinking man's mystery. It sucked me in and made me forget about everything else that I should have been doing. It was so intelligently written and meticulously thought out that it was a joy to read. Verdon's storytelling is amazing. I just love it. He reiterated the facts in the case several times without coming across as repetitive or preachy. It just made it easier to follow. I didn't have to flip back once in the book to remind myself of who was who or what had happened previously, even though the book is 500+ pages long.

The storyline did get a little gruesome at times. Thankfully, it did not feature the action of the beheadings, just the aftermaths of them, which was bad enough. The other main topic or subject matter of the story was sexual abuse. Another uncomfortable topic to read about. This time it was especially sad since the both the abused and the abusers were so young.

The main character, Dave Gurney, is a fantastic protagonist with lots of great qualities and numerous flaws. He suffers terrible guilt over his sons and has quite a unique hobby - using his computer to manipulate portraits/mug shots of serial killers. He also lectures at the police academy. I loved both his lectures and the way his students answered his questions. I find Gurney very relatable and easy to understand. I think I like him so much because he's very much like me...at least according to his Myers Briggs evaluation:

His instinctive route to understanding was primarily through thinking...He was fascinated by connecting the dots...He was energized by solitude...observing was just one tool to enable clearer judging. (page 96)

His wife, Madeline, on the other hand, is pretty much his opposite, which is probably why I have a hard time connecting with her. As for the other characters, I didn't like them very much, but I don't think I was supposed to.

If I had to pick one thing that I didn't like, it was the dust jacket. It's very striking with the rose petals, rose stems complete with thorns, drops of blood and the raised and indented lettering. However, the slightly weird texture (a bit rough) bothered me. I didn't like the feel of it. It wasn't exactly irritating, but it wasn't comfortable either. It's strange because now that I compare it to other books, it's not really that different. It did, however, seem very different when I was reading the book and handling it daily.

New words:
shibboleth (page 180): catchword or slogan
amelioration (page 214): improve
scimitar (page 218): Arab or Turkish saber
cupidity (page 242): greed
loquacity (page 268): tending to talk a lot
physiognomy (page 268): facial features
insouciant (page 382): not worrying about possible problems; carefree
condign reparation (page 485): punishment in perfect balance with the offense. Punishment of an ideally appropriate nature (definition from the book).

I've read one other book by Verdon, Think of a Number (my review). I loved it.

Highly recommended. I'll definitely be looking for more of this author's work.

For more information about this book, please visit the Random House website.

I'd like to thank those nice people at Random House for this review copy.

Shut Your Eyes Tight: A Novel by John Verdon, Crown Publishers (Random House), ©2011. ISBN 9780307717894(Hardcover), 509p.

Altar of Bones by Philip Carter

In Altar of Bones, Zoe Dmitroff is entrusted with a centuries old very dangerous secret. Just like those who have come before her, this secret will put her life in danger. As she fights to protect it, others will stop at nothing to attain it. The story spans many years, crosses many countries and touches many lives. Even the rich, powerful and famous are not safe.

I enjoyed this one, but only up to a point. It was a good thriller and had the potential to be great, but it's heavy reliance on action sequences, let me wanting. I kept reading because I wanted to hear about this conspiracy in which "everything you believed is wrong...everything you feared is real". Doesn't that sound good? Maybe I was expecting too much and looked at the book the wrong way. Instead of reading to find out about this conspiracy, I should have just relaxed and read the book for what it was...a good thriller. Maybe.

This book offers up another theory (or theories) surrounding the deaths of John Fitzgerald Kennedy and Marilyn Monroe. I found that very intriguing. However, the theory is so out there and such a small part of the book, relatively speaking, I was a little disappointed. I wanted substance, planning, deception, plotting...all the things of a good conspiracy. Maybe there was some of that here, but it got lost. As far as I'm concerned, with a few changes the conspiracy could have been about any two famous people, say John Lennon and John Belushi, or Natalie Wood and Abraham Lincoln. Again, maybe I'm being too hard on the book.

Back to the action scenes for a minute. I like said above, this book is packed full of action scenes. It would probably translate beautifully into a motion picture. In fact, it's almost like it was written with making a movie in mind. While I don't mind some action in my movies, here it was too much. Much of that action/running around/car chases etc. was wasted on me. While putting the characters in jeopardy as they race around the world added suspense to the story, I wanted to get to the part about Kennedy and Monroe.

Having said all of that, there were parts I really liked. The story might not be probable or even plausible, but it certainly was entertaining. I didn't once think about stopping and giving up on it. I loved how the different characters took turns telling part of the stories. It fit with the overall theme and made it interesting and suspenseful. Also, I really liked the two main characters, Zoe and Ry. I liked the tension in their dynamic relationship.

Favourite quote: I liked this quote because every time my husband and I dig in the garden and a plant is really hard to dig up, I say to my husband "I wish that Chinese person holding onto the root would just let go already?"  It's nice to know that I'm not the only one who thinks like that. 

Babe, they're gonna bury it so deep, the only way it'll ever see the light of day again is if some kid in China accidentally uncovers it while digging around in his backyard. (page 312)

Philip Carter is a pseudonym of an internationally bestselling author. I've heard rumours that it's Dan Brown. It certainly could be. The storytelling and conspiracy angle were not unlike The da Vinci Code. Then again, it could also be any one of a half-dozen other writers out there. Anyone have another theory?

Recommended for its thriller aspects.

For more information about this book or to browse inside, please visit Simon & Schuster's website.

I'd like to thank those nice people at Simon & Schuster UK for this review copy.

Altar of Bones by Philip Carter, Gallery Book (Simon & Schuster UK), ©2011. ISBN 9780857202062(ARC), 455p.

Wordless Wednesday - Happy Holidays

More Wordless Wednesday.