Book Review: Lord of the Flies

Author: William Golding

Originally Published In: 1954

Read in: October 2009

Poor Piggy. Lord of the Flies is an interesting study in human nature. This was one of the many books I missed out on in high school. I recall my friend Susan mentioning reading the book and I always thought it had something to do with corn (maybe Children of the Corn?). My interest was sparked this year when I realized that a lot of my patrons read and like the book. It was also mentioned on this show which I thought I wouldn't like, but ended up a follower anyway.

The story takes place on a remote island. A plane crashes leaving only British school children as survivors. No adults. The survivors must find a way to summon outside help and also create a society of their own. Ralph, a blonde-haired boy is the first elected leader. His right hand man is a chubby boy named Piggy (although he doesn't want to be called that) who is constantly picked on even in this new situation. He wants the boys to have fun, build shelter, and build a fire to summon help. Jack, whose choir boy group becomes the hunters of the pack, becomes Ralph's main adversary. Jack and his pack of hunters become increasingly insane when a corpse on the island is mistaken as a beast, resulting and crazy rituals and even more serious occurrences.

I liked this book, although I expected to like it more than I did. The book is very allegorical, so I think I would have understood all of its nuances had I read it in a class rather than on my own. Overall, I'm glad I read it and now I can understand all of those pop culture references to the book!

Book Review: The Monk

Author: Matthew Lewis

Originally Published: 1796

Read in: September and October 2009

The Monk is a creepy reminder of the capacity for evil in humans. The story describes the downfall of a prominent Spanish monk named Ambrosio at the hands of Satan. This is Gothic literature at its best and most detailed.

Ambrosio begins his descent when a woman named Matilda disguised as another monk, tempts him. As an instrument of Satan, she encourages him to commit horrible acts throughout the book, of which I will spare the reader because you all should read this yourselves!

There are many diversions (for example, the bleeding nun) in the book, which honestly slowed my reading of this book, but it's usually my preference to stick with the main story. Overall, I was justifiably appalled by the main story (in a good way because I would recommend this book to anybody who likes Gothic literature). I often felt like Catherine Morland from Northanger Abbey while reading the story because I had trouble walking into dark rooms after reading the book. It was a great fall early evening read.

I'm happy about finishing this book before Halloween because I was able to complete this year's R.I.P Challenge. This was also a Classics Challenge read. Both challenges end on the 31st, so I'm just in the nick of time. Thanks to the hosts for encouraging people to read read read!

Fulfilling a Childhood Dream : Cherry Clafouti

Anybody who was friends with me growing up knows my mom is a super baker. It was inevitable that her love of baking would transfer to me. I started baking hard-core in college with easy recipes that became more elaborate and refined as I got older.

My mom feels that in order to gain a love of cooking and baking, you have to start young. I don't know if this is true, although I do plan to bake and cook with my kids. I have many distinct memories of standing on a stool and staring at my reflection in the stand mixer, stirring when allowed, and waiting to lick the whisk or paddle depending on what was being created. I remember looking on with envy during Christmas season when my mom would make spritz cookies with the cookie press (Way later I learned that my mom gets very frustrated making cookies with a press... the humidity in Georgia makes for many repeats. When I lived with my parents for two years before moving to Colorado, I would be the spritz maker in her place).

So, naturally, I received cookbooks in addition to fiction as presents when I was a kid. I think it was my 5th birthday when I received Yum yum! I'll be my own cook by Monique Felix. It is an obscure (I think) illustrated kid's cookbook and is obviously translated from French. I remember fantasizing about making all of these fabulous recipes. In reality, I think we made only one thing from the book... the directions were vague and we often had our own recipes for many of the dishes. Regardless, I still covet this book because who doesn't like reminiscing about a good childhood?

I generally like to bake something on my days off and today I decided to fulfill one of my Yum yum! dreams by baking a Cherry Clafouti. I was perusing through one of my favorite baking books, when I came across the recipe I would use. I had some sour cherries left over from spring baking, so I decided to make use of them after some major pumpkin overload over the past few weeks.

So here are a couple pictures of the Yum yum! recipe. Notice how I circled the recipe in the right hand corner because I wanted to make it.

Also pictured is the final product before baking... illustrated.

Here is my final KAF creation. I had to make the custard-y version in a 9in. pan because my only 10 in. pan is a springform, and the batter would leak through...

I'm too lazy to type in the recipe, but here is another KAF recipe that I bet is just as good.

Fall Madness

So, I can't believe it's been over a month since I last blogged! A couple of weeks back, I tried to chronicle our awesome trip to the pumpkin patch, etc. but I didn't end up publishing it for some reason.

I had a wonderful 4 day weekend planned, but of course things got in the way. I ended up working more than I wanted to (which was not at all) but it does mean less work during the week. We're pretty jammed packed schedule-wise until our big trip overseas next month, so blogging will be sparse.

I will, however, chronicle some of our fall madness over the past few weeks. I should mention that there is 2 inches of snow on the ground as we speak, so it feels more like Christmas right now than October.

A couple of weeks ago J and I went to a pumpkin patch in Ault, Colorado. The dogs had a blast (even if Quincey got a bad reaction to something and we had to rush him home to give him medicine) and we walked away with 15 pumpkins for $17. Jon and I love different varieties of pumpkins, so we were satisfied. I immediately ran home, pureed one of the white pumpkins and made a lovely pumpkin chiffon pie. It may not have been orange, but it is one of the best tasting pies I have ever made. And yes, that is homemade cinnamon whipped cream... yum!

Jon and I decorated the front of the house with the rest of the lot. We decorated the window boxes with gourds and winter squashes and the doorstep and porch with pumpkins. We don't have a picture of the entire front yet because we're waiting to carve some pumpkins closer to Halloween. We do, however, have a picture of some of the pumpkins... one is particularly fluffy (trust me, he looks like a rat when wet)!

So it's been a busy fall so far at our house! More later with some home improvements!