Honey, Olives, Octopus: Adventures at the Greek Table

So there you go, a promise of good Greek food, travel, history and many other writer's thoughts about all these.

Writers are urged to name the world. You saw a flower. Readers will be more interested if you name the flower. Christopher Bakken too immerses himself in Greek food to the extent that he travels enough to know the cross pollination of food terms between Italians and Greeks. He goes for not just olives but Throumbes.
If you have been to The Old Sphagetti Factory restaurant, then you will know Mizithra cheese which is a star in this book next only to Tsipouro.
With the recipes after each chapter, the author also explains the meaning of the name of the recipe and other related recipes. By switching that different ingredient with one recipe, you can make couple of different dishes.
Using local words, the author captures the place in the book. Dont be surprised at the end of your reading to find yourself with a smattering of Greek food terms.
In the Chapter about making Cherisia Makaronia, I read the procedure again to visualise how it is made and one of these days will try it myself.
Mountain tea, Thyme honey.

Voices of the Rainbow: Contemporary Poetry by Native Americans

I have never read native American Poetry.
Like the other reviewer said that you'll be seeking works of individual poets. Some such poets in the book and their work.
Anne Walters - Hartico
Carter Revard - Getting across. this poem was used for a poetry exercise in Contemporary Writers Forum 2006.
While reading this anthology, I have started reading 'The Art of the American Frontier' to supplement each other

Eating an Organic Diet on a Frugal Budget

Recently a colleague had explained why organic is the way to go. So my interest in the book peaked when it said Frugal Budget.
Its a simple but effective list of things we can do in terms of procuring organic food. Growing your own is probably the coolest idea. Monsanto and farmer related cases regarding seeds are very interesting to follow, but I never spent time in thinking that organic label would not just be limited to the method of growing but to the seeds themselves. I found the easing into organic food idea starting from whats in the fridge very practical.
Paragraphs with sub titles format worked well in the book. I find that the reader is kept at a distance through the formal style. Few recipes shared or an anecdote or two about why the author made the transformation would let me engage with the book. As soon as I read 'Advice for Eating Well on A Tight Budget, from a Mom who's been there' article on NPR, I got to making the garlicky Kale salad.

10 Busy Brownies

This book reminds me of The Elves and the Shoemaker.
I didnt know of any brownies other than the ones made to eat until I read this book. These brownies are adorable with their shiny huge buttons which seem magical. The indefinite forms in the illustrations are as mind bending as the acceptance of the brownies existence.
The pages are very engaging. the vines and the cobbled cottages will have you not just counting but story telling and describing.

Children's Bilingual Picture Book

When I saw this book at a library, English - Gujarati version, I thought it will be fun but in the field, the book turned out successful beyond my expectation. My daughter will go through the pages at random and identify the pictures she knows. Sometimes, it is funny when she thinks the duo wrestling is mama and papa. My neighbor had a very interesting colourful picture book. But even a simple black and white sketch picture book grabs a childs imagination. Without the advantage of color, kids learn to identify things by their shape and not colour. You can see their vocabulary growing.

The Wondrous Tree - A Christmas Story

You must have read 'The Giving Tree' or something on similar lines. Each culture has a variation of the ever giving tree story. 'The Wondrous Tree' too is ever giving but counters the controversy of 'The Giving Tree' by having its own needs, for companionship and feeling happy when they are fulfilled by a family's moving to the hill.
Most of the book is very enticing for toddlers too, even though the book is meant for age 5 -18. The pictures are worth mentioning. The pictures endow the tree with an animation that reflects the anthropomorphic self of tree with all its fears beforehand of crossing the bridge. The side pyramid of bees, birds growing and leaving the tree with an empty nest syndrome are illustrated very well in light colours in a minimal style. With each new animal on the tree, every alternate page, you get an opportunity to introduce your kids to a new animal, its needs and the symbiotic relationship (even though its fictional in this story).
I like the story for upending the one sided relationship of tree and humans.

Hunters of the Great Forest

The Hunters of the Great Forest set out with many tools - looking glass, scope, spear, walking stick, bag and camp bed. They help each other on their journey just like us. There's only one difference. They belong to a place like Whoville in 'Horton hears a Who'. They are double the size of ants. Its like Gulliver Travels but instead of Gulliver in the Land of Lilliputs. Its Lilliputs in the Land of Gulliver, who is actually a sweet girl enjoying her marshmallows by the campside. After running into a bunch of hostile, huge animals like frog, a blue jay, the campside is the success point of their mission. After their find, they go to their village and party. Their tools are now the find of a band of ants.
If the girl were to trace the route of the hunters back to the village, it would be a 'Walk in the Woods' from her perspective. You dont realise that it is a picture book, with the illustrations speaking for themselves. Each page has a clear agenda.

Buzz

I didnt know about this myth that 'Buzz cant fly'. That aside, the illustrations and clear pictures of the sky, mountains, hills and brambles make it an amazing game to identify. The elements of the illustrations in each page are limited, so its easy to get your toddler to interact with it, by pointing to and asking them to tell what they see. Buzz has friends she care about and swoops to them high and low, as they are not all who can fly. In an emergency, she 'rises' up to the situation despite the professors's words.
For grownups, this will lead you to a concept called 'Dynamic Stall' that begins with “Aerodynamic bodies subjected to pitching motions or oscillations exhibit a stalling behavior different from that observed when the flow over a wing at a fixed angle of attack separates”.
Oh well, I think you will like the Buzz saving his friend at the end of the day better..

Photorealism: Beginnings to Today

Paintings of still life that at once look real and as a photograph are very often in your mailbox forwarded by friends who cant believe that paintings can be done so realistically. Photorealism is one subject which divides a clear line between those who get it and those who dont. For one side if its skill and tradition, for the others it lacks artists perspective. For such a disputed topic, 'Photorealism: Beginnings to Today" has a great section of Artists Biographies which summarise the artists view of why they do photorealistic paintings.
For one artist, "changing the size of an object lets them explore its reality" like Georgia O keefe's flower paintings, for another, "cropping of the subject enforces tight composition", yet another shows "how people need chrome in a painting to see themselves". One artist convinces himself that he is creating everything he is painting.
The artist statements are very inspiring prompts for creative exercises.
For such a divisive topic, I would have liked more essays than available in the book.

Map: Collected and Last Poems

Map Collected and Last poems of Wislawa Szymborska begins with her work from 1944. I am glad I stuck to the book. From Salt 1962 is when I started reading the book with fire. From then on, each poem had something to offer.
If the poet Wislawa Szymborska were a painter, her painting would be a montage that morphs from a hyperrealistic painting to a revelatory painting, retaining only the necessary objects.
Her poems deal with plain opposites - In 'To My Heart, On Sunday' - its the restlessly working heart on Sabbath rest day.
Her poems deal with movement - In 'The Acrobat' - movement in time (present and future) and space. Sometimes calculated like this and other times, its a huge push to future of

"Nothing - but after us,
who were here before
and ate our hearts
and drank our blood" - Cave poem

Her poems, zoom in on a single in a multitude in 'Snapshot of a Crowd'

Her poems use literary devices like alliteration, string of words
"Moraines and morays and morasses and mussels,
the flame, the flamingo, he flounder, the feather-" - Birthday poem
Her poems usually a page and a half long arrive by the end of the page, the next half is a bonus. Unlike some poets, you dont have to wait
till the end.

Measure for Measure: An Anthology of Poetic Meters (Everyman's Library Pocket Poets Series)

Thanks to Measure for Measure, I found my favourite meter to be Sapphics, Alcaics, Hendecasyllabics, Lesser Ionics which I have never heard of before. I mostly enjoy free verse. I tried learning how to write formal poetry using "The ode Less travelled: Unlocking the Poet within" by Stephen Fry. As a creative writing exercise, it was great but now I realise that liking formal poetry is about knowing the meter style that appeals to your inner formalist.

Ten Windows: How Great Poems Transform the World

In 'Ten Windows: How Great Poems Transform the World' by Jane Hirshfield, each page has atleast a line or two that start off a nice thought process not just in the book but a parallel one in the reader's mind too. For example, 'Every good work of art holds something that was not quite knowable before is own existence'. Here I want to think of the past works I liked and see what it introduced to the art world and in the future too, I want to keep that in mind. Just few pages before trying to define art, she moved to skill and then from articulate to artificial.
These kind of meanderings bring me to a full halt and think to have a conversation with me, myself and Art.
For their aptness, the poems - imagine time before Bach's music. Milosz's "My Faithful Mother Tongue' with reference to who's the saviour and the saved between the poet and language are note worthy.

Children's Book of Magic: 30 Magic Tricks for Young Wizards (Educational series for kids 4-9 years)

Children's Book of Magic: 30 Magic Tricks for Young Wizards by Konrad Modzelewski will change young and adult hearts and minds alike that they too can perform magic. There are card tricks, string tricks, coin and cool illusions. The format is such that the magic and fun of performance is maintained with the first page of a trick and the secret is unraveled only in the next page. The two performers of the magic, bright and funny kids maintain the energy of the book. This is a great book for kids to stage a surprise magic show for family, Mothers Day, Fathers Day or anyone birthday. The tricks are easy. They will have a sense of accomplishment after having practiced and performed.

Find Momo Coast to Coast: A Photography Book

Momo like the dumpling attracted em to this book. I didnt believe it when the book said 'Find Momo' that Momo would be in every page. But when the end of the book had circles on each page, I knew I had to get serious and look. I like the book for the fact that I can enjoy it with my kids.. looking for Momo.

Find the Cutes: Book 2: Festival Fun

Find the Cutes: Book 2: Festival Fun (seek and find books for kids, look and find books for boys and girls, fun look and find book) 

Find the Cutes with Festival Fun theme is like 'Where's Waldo' but triple fun because now not only do you search for some fun, cool things but you also are in a 3D world scanning people and surroundings up close in different parts of the world, learning how they celebrate their festivals. The figures are packed but not too much to overwhelm you. Its like you have the power of Bubba Jones to time travel. Great gift idea for kids. Binds fun and learning.

AI has peaked. pic.twitter.com/xYynF7azUt

— Brad Sams (@bdsams) August 10, 2018