A Tree Grows In Brooklyn by Betty Smith

"Serene was a word you could put to Brooklyn, New York. Especially in the summer of 1912. Somber, as a word, was better. But it did not apply to Williamsburg, Brooklyn. Prairie was lovely and Shenandoah had a beautiful sound, but you couldn't fit those words into Brooklyn. Serene was the only word for it; especially on a Saturday afternoon in summer."

I've had this book on my shelf for several years now and the What's In A Name challenge gave me the push I needed to read it, fulfilling the Place category. What a fun, sweet and light read. I absolutely loved it. The version I have is not the one pictured, but a hardback Reader's Digest version that came with a paper insert flyer about the author. This was Betty Smith's first novel and it is autobiographical. Betty grew up in a tenement house in Brooklyn, eldest daughter to German immigrants, with a Chinese sumac tree growing outside of her window. At age 11, two of Betty's poems were published in a local newspaper. Her father died the next year and Betty had to quit school to work and help support her family. We read about those jobs in Betty's novel. Just like in the book, Betty was accepted into the University of Michigan's writing course without her high school diploma. There she met and fell in love with law student, George Smith. In 1938, Betty had two kids and was divorced, but continued to write, starting A Tree Grows In Brooklyn in 1939 and finally getting it published in 1943 to great success. Betty also wrote three other, much lesser known, novels.

From Amazon.com:
"Francie Nolan, avid reader, penny-candy connoisseur, and adroit observer of human nature, has much to ponder in colorful, turn-of-the-century Brooklyn. She grows up with a sweet, tragic father, a severely realistic mother, and an aunt who gives her love too freely--to men, and to a brother who will always be the favored child. Francie learns early the meaning of hunger and the value of a penny. She is her father's child--romantic and hungry for beauty. But she is her mother's child, too--deeply practical and in constant need of truth. Like the Tree of Heaven that grows out of cement or through cellar gratings, resourceful Francie struggles against all odds to survive and thrive. Betty Smith's poignant, honest novel created a big stir when it was first published over 50 years ago. Her frank writing about life's squalor was alarming to some of the more genteel society, but the book's humor and pathos ensured its place in the realm of classics--and in the hearts of readers, young and old. (Ages 10 and older) --Emilie Coulter --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title. "

The Diary of a Young Girl - Anne Frank

"Sunday, 14 June, 1942
On Friday, June 12th, I woke up at six o'clock and no wonder; it was my birthday. But of course I was not allowed to get up at that hour, so I had to control my curiosity until a quarter to seven. Then I could bear it no longer, and went to the dining room, where I received a warm welcome from Moortje (the cat)."

The Diary Of A Young Girl by Anne Frank is the 7th book that I have read for the Back To History Challenge. Again, this is a book that I would have sworn I read in school, but it must have just been pieces and parts because I know now that I have never read the full book before.

Anne's diary opens on June 14, 1942, just two days after her 13th birthday. She recieved a blank diary as one gift for this momentus birthday as well as a fun birthday party with her friends. Anne and her Jewish family live in Nazi-occupied Amsterdam during WWII and within just a few short weeks of her first diary entry find themselves in hiding with a second family, and a middle-aged dentist that joins them shortly. Anne is in many ways a typical teenager, hating her mother, jealous of her sister, with very scathing remarks about the others around her. At anytime it would be hard to live in such close proximity to 7 other people. In war time it would be almost unbearable ~ not being able to go out of doors, not having enough to eat, outgrowing your clothes and having no private space of your own, amongst many other complaints. The residents of the Secret Annexe had to spend much of their days making absolutely no sound so as to not get caught. What a hard life. Anne's wisdom and belief that all would turn out good in the end are amazing under such circumstances. Don't get me wrong, she most certainly fussed and fumed about all sorts of issues in her diary, but she was also a very remarkable writer for her age. I think anyone who reads Anne's diary eye's will be opened to the horrors that so many people faced during those horrible years. This is a book each and every one of us should read, so that we never ever forget.
Thank you, Anne...

Luscious Berry Desserts

Both my husband and I love to cook, sometimes fighting over whose turn it is in the kitchen. You can often hear a voice raised in mock anger in our house, "Get out of MY kitchen!", and an arm pointing straight and strong to the other room. Just leave, go, I'M cooking today. Our kitchen is fairly small so it's not often that we squeeze around, doing the kitchen dance to cook together. Riff is the breakfast king and I generally always bow to him when breakfast is in the works, but I am the baking queen, standing tall over my domain. Anyway, (I'm getting away from my point here), I was tickled to death when I saw the post on Ex Libris site for the Soup's On Challenge. Oh, what fun! Another reason to pull out a few of my cookbook's, read them from cover to cover, and maybe add a couple of new one's to the mix. Wa-hoo! I joined right up. Next stop was Powell Books in Portland where I picked up Luscious Berry Desserts. I thought this one was really appropriate for us here in the Pacific Northwest with our abundance of berries and I was not disappointed. Mmmmm....you should see some of these recipe's. Delicious!

Being early spring, Strawberries are starting to be available in our local grocery stores so the first recipe I picked is Roasted Strawberry Shortcakes with Vanilla-Scented Biscuits. I had never roasted strawberries before, but they turned out so good. The roasting just inhances the sweet juicy flavor. And those vanilla-scented biscuits? Yum! You need to serve them warm, just as the recipe says, and they don't keep well, so gobble them all right away. I took pictures, but they came out dark and blurry, so I don't have a visual for you today.

Roasted Strawberry Shortcake with Vanilla-Scented Biscuits
1 3/4 cups all purpose flour
1/2 cup plus 3 tblsp. granulated sugar, plus additional for sprinkling
1 tblsp. baking powder
1/4 tsp. salt
1 1/2 cups heavy (whipping) cream, plus additional cream or milk for brushing
2 tsp. pure vanilla paste or vanilla extract
2 pints small ripe strawberries, hulled
1/2 cup sour cream
2 tblsp. confectioner's sugar

Step 1: Preheat the oven to 425 F. Butter a large baking sheet.

Step 2: Whisk together the flour, the 3 tablespoons granulated sugar, the baking powder, and the salt in a medium bowl.

Step 3: Beat 1 cup of the cream with an electric mixer on medium-high speed in a large deep bowl just until it holds soft peaks when the beaters are lifted. Beat in the vanilla. Make a well in the center of the flour mixture, add the whipped cream, and stir the mixture with a fork just until it begins to form a dough.

Step 4: On a lightly floured surface, knead the dough several times, just until it is well combined. Pat it out to 1/2 inch thick. With a 3-inch cutter, crinkle-edged if you have one, cut out 6 rounds; gather the scraps together and pat them out again if necessary. Brush the biscuits with cream and sprinkle with granulated sugar. Place on the baking sheet.

Step 5: Bake for 12 to 15 minutes, until golden brown. Let cool on the pan on a wire rack. Increase the oven temperature to 450.

Step 6: Meanwhile, toss the strawberries with the remaining 1/2 cup granulated sugar in a medium bowl. Transfer to a baking sheet with sides. When the biscuits are out of the oven, roast the strawberries, stirring twice, for about 12 minutes, until soft and fragrant.

Step 7: Just before serving, beat together the remaining 1/2 cup cream, the sour cream, and confectioners' sugar with an electric mixer on medium sped in a large bowl until the cream forms soft peaks when the beaters are lifted.

Step 8: Split each biscuit with a fork and place the bottom halves on 6 serving plates. Spoon a generous portion of warm berries over each one, add a dollop of the cream, add the tops, and drizzle with the juices on the baking sheet. Serve immediately.

You're going to love these!

There's a long introduction in this cookbook where the author talks about her love of berries. Really fun to read. A great cookbook for any berry lovers shelves.

'One of my most memorable mornings ever was picking strawberries with my friend Barbara on a warm summer day in Maine. We literally lay down among the berries, picked dozens, and ate more. We were giddy and exhilarated at the thought of actually getting all the strawberries we wanted, and slightly guilty at the pleasure.'
Lori Longbotham

Across Five Aprils

'Ellen Creighton and her nine-year-old son, Jethro, were planting potatoes in the half-acre just south of their cabin that morning in mid-April 1861; they were out in the field as soon as breakfast was over, and southern Illinois at that hour was pink with sunrise and swelling redbud and clusters of bloom over the apple orchard across the road. Jethro walked on the warm clods of plowed earth and felt them crumble beneath his feet as he helped his mother carry the tub of potato cuttings they had prepared the night before.'
Across Five Aprils by Irene Hunt

Read as my 6th book for the Back to History Challenge.

Across Five Aprils is a book that our 6th grade teacher, Mrs. Pawlson, read aloud to us. I don't remember actually paying attention to it then, but I have just read it for myself many years later and found it a very good read. As the story opens, Jethro Creighton is a 9 year old boy living on his families farm in southern Illinois. The civil war is starting and there is much heated discussion around the dinner table of right and wrong. All of Jethro's older brothers end up going off to war and the only news is the occasional letter and accounts of battles written in the local newspapers. Five years pass, with Jethro having to take on the farm work at any early age. The story touches on brothers fighting on both sides of the war, desertion, death and politics. It hit home to me with one passage how times have not changed so much in the way that we think and talk about the leader of our country. Read on:

'Ed Turner wiped the sweat from his eyes with an angry gesture. "I got no use for McClellan. I don't know what Ol' Abe means - tuckerin' to him like he was some little sawed-off king."
Then Tom Marin from Rose Hill spoke up. "If you ask my opinion of McClellan, I'll tell you I don't think he WANTS to win. I don't think he's EVER really goin' to move in on the Rebs, because their way of thinkin' is his way of thinkin'."
"Oh, I reckon he ain't THAT low. Ol' Abe must not be quite that pore in pickin' his head men," Israel Thomas objected.
"Maybe Ol' Abe aint' losin' HIS breath to lick the Rebs either - did ye ever think of that? Why is it he ain't freed the slaves? Is he afeared of hurtin' the feelin's of some of his woman's kinfolk down in Kaintuck? Why does he put up with this no-account that's runnin' the Army of the Potomac? Does he LIKE seein' Bobby Lee run over us? I got a lot of questions about Ol' Abe that I'd like an answer to."
"Youre doubts ain't goin' to make me down on Ol' Abe, Tom," Israel Thomas answered angrily. "Things is tough right now, but this war is a big thing. It's middlin' easy fer us farmers and the big editors and the abolitionist preachers to run the job of bein' president. Ol' Abe is doin' all he KIN do, I say, and I'm fer him - all the way."'
Sound familiar?

I was really interested to find in the author's notes that this is the story of her Grandfather, written years after he passed away. A very good read told from the viewpoint of a young boy left to take care of the farm while the fighting raged around him.

I remember this same teacher reading us Up a Road Slowly by this author as well. I think I'm going to head over to Amazon and find it...

The Shape-Changers Wife

'Until Aubrey arrived in the village to study with Glyrenden, he had no idea that the great wizard had taken a wife. At the time, drinking an ale in the warm, lightless tavern which was situated at the very center of town (in fact, the heart of the small community), he did not think it mattered one way or the other. Nonetheless, he was surprised. From what old Cyril had told him, Glyrenden did not seem like the kind of man disposed toward the softer passions. But then, it was obvious Cyril did not like the court magician, and perhaps his unflattering words could be traced to professional jealousy.'
First paragraph of The Shape-Changers Wife by Sharon Shinn

This is a fairy-tale story about Aubrey, a young magician sent to study with the cruel wizard, Glyrenden. Warned by his former mentor to always be on gaurd around Glyrenden, Aubrey enjoys his first months at the dusty strange castle, especially his time spent with the shape-changers wife, Lilith. But there is something very strange about the inhabitants of the castle, including Lilith. Can Aubrey unlock their secrets? A fun little magical read that I think should be in the young readers category. This one isn't as predictable as so many other fairy tales, so was quite enjoyable.

"But magic, I have discovered, is like any skill. It is not inherently good in itself. And some of it - yes, some of it is inherently evil. There are wicked spells, savage spells, enchantments that are so black that even to know them withers the heart a little, taints the soul. And yet to be a great magician, to be a sorcerer of any ability or renown, those spells must be learned as well. For if a magician does not know them, they can be used against him - and what is magic, after all, but a man's power to change the world while it is incapable of changing him?"

Snow Falling On Cedars

'The accused man, Kabuo Miyamoto, sat proudly upright with a rigid grace, his palms placed softly on the defendant's table - the posture of a man who has detached himself insofar as this is possible at his own trial. Some in the gallery would later say that his stillness suggested a disdain for the proceedings; others felt certain it veiled a fear of the verdict that was to come. Whichever it was, Kabuo showed nothing - not even a flicker of the eyes. He was dressed in a white shirt worn buttoned to the throat and gray, neatly pressed trousers. His figure, especially the neck and shoulders, communicated the impression of irrefutable physical strength and of precise, even imperial bearing. Kabuo's features were smooth and angular; his hair had been cropped close to his skull in a manner that made its musculature prominent. In the face of the charge that had been leveled against him he sat with his dark eyes trained straight ahead and did not appear moved at all.'
First paragraph of Snow Falling On Cedars by David Guterson

I read this book as part of two different challenges. The first being the What's In a Name Challenge for the plant category and the second being my 5th book for the Back to History Challenge .

What an excellent read, emotional on so many different levels. The author writes so well that you can smell the musty ancient cedar forests as the rain drips onto the ferns. The warm sun beats down on us as we squat with the characters to pick juicy red strawberries from the local fields. This novel takes us to San Piedro Island in the Puget Sound of Washington State for a murder trial in 1954. Kabuo Miyamota, a gill-netter of Japanese descent stands accused of the murder of fellow fisherman and childhood friend, Carl Heine. Carl has been found dead in his own nets with a blow to the head. To understand why Kabuo is accused of this horrific crime we must go back in time to the days of their boyhood and the townsfolk around them. The story is narrated by Ishmael Chambers, the local newspaper man who also grew-up on the island beside the two other men. Ishmael had a long standing first romance with Hatsue Imada, who is now the accused man's wife, so this is also a tale of forbidden interracial love that ends abruptly when Pearl Harbor is bombed and the Japanese-Americans from the island are sent to interment camps in Montana and California.
Many of the local boys join the service, including those of Japanese descent, to defend our country. On returning, things have changed. The war has left many scars behind, both visible and invisible.
This is a novel of murder, mystery, racism, world war II, interment camps and forbidden romance. One that I will keep on my shelves and recommend many to read. Very, very good.

'One hour later, inside the cedar tree, she brought this matter up with Ishmael. "We've known each other forever," she said. "I can hardly remember not knowing you. It's hard to remember the days before you. I don't even know if there were any."'

Book Lovers Mail

JenClair over at A Garden Carried in the Pocket , was getting rid of some of her stash and I was the lucky winner of last weeks giveaway. Wa-hoo! I'll be reading The Shape-Changer's Wife really soon. It's next on my stack ~ moved it right to the top.

Thanks, Jen!

The Mistress of Spices

The Mistress of Spices by Chitra Banerjee Divakaruni
'I am a Mistress of Spices.
I can work the others too. Mineral, metal, earth and sand and stone. The gems with their cold clear light. The liguids that burn their hues into your eyes till you see nothing else. I learned them all on the island.
But the spices are my love.
I know their origins, and what their colors signify, and their smells. I can call each by the true-name it was given at the first, when earth split like skin and offered it up to the sky. Their heat runs in my blood. From amchur to zafran, they bow to my command. At a whisper they yield up to me their hidden properties, their magic powers.'

This book is a magical fable, written in a very poetic prose. It tells the story of Tilo, a girl born in India with the sight of a seer. This very power gets her kidnapped by pirates and eventually leads her to a magical island where she is taught the mystery of the spices and by the Old One. Once her education is complete, Tilo is made immortal and sent through time to an Indian spice shop in Oakland, California, in the body of an old woman. Here she administers the spices as a balm and healer for her customers. As a Mistress, there are many rules that Tilo must follow in order to stay in the good graces of the spices, but life and love call and Tilo finds herself breaking these rules.
This was a fun read, one of magic and mystery, that I did enjoy, but will probably not keep on my shelves to read again later.

'We are laughing but there is a raw edge to it, a laugh that knows how easily it could have turned to weeping. A laugh like this, when you share it, loosens the knots in the heart.'

I'm now off to spend sometime on San Peidre Island off the Washington Coast, beginning in 1942...

Drums of Autumn

"I've never been afraid of ghosts. I live with them daily, after all. When I look in a mirror, my mother's eyes look back at me; my mouth curls with the smile that lured my great-grandfather to the fate that was me."
First paragraph of Drums of Autumn by Diana Gabaldon

I read Drums of Autumn as my 4th book for the Back To History Challenge , jumping into this chunkster with both feet, not realizing that it was actually the 4th in the "Outlander" series. For some reason when I picked it up, I thought I was going to be immersed in the civil war. I was completely wrong. This book is set in Pre-Revolutionary America and is a continuing time travel saga. I hadn't read the first 3 in the series, so know that there are things that I missed and somethings that I didn't quite know what had happened, but for the most part it read very well as a stand-alone book. The author did a good job of filling in details from the former novels.
A story of timeless love and adventure. Claire is a 20th century doctor who somehow (in the first novel) has traveled through time via an ancient stone circle in modern day Scotland. There she meets and falls in love with Jamie, an 18th century Scottish Highlander. Fast forward 20 or so years to our novel, where Claire and Jamie are living in 1770's North Carolina and their daughter, Briana is in 20th century Boston. Claire had traveled back through the circles while pregnant with Briana during the Scottish uprisings, given birth and raised her in modern day America. Claire has since re-joined Jamie in the 18th century and left Briana, a grown woman, to her own devises. Briana and her boyfriend, Roger, come across an old document that tells them that Briana's parents died prematurely in a fire, so Briana, unknown to Roger, heads through the circles to find her parents and try to change history. Roger figures out what she has done and follows her into the past. Much adventure follows.
It really was a good book and held my attention well, through most of the 1070 pages. At the end I was ready to be done and move on to the next book on my shelves. I did enjoy this one, but will probably not read the others in the series, though the reviews that I checked out on Amazon are all very positive.

I'm off now to San Francisco to spend a little time with the Mistress of the Spices...