‘Tangy Tart Hot & Sweet’

By Padma Lakshmi

If you’re a fan of the Bravo series “Top Chef,” then you’re familiar with its host, Padma Lakshmi. I must admit that, although I enjoy most things culinary, I rarely watch that particular show, as I have little tolerance for Lakshmi. Her presence among the knowledgeable chefs and food critics is jarring, and I tend to regard her as lovely but bland window-dressing in a low-cut dress and high-heel boots. (And don’t even get me started on her recent Hardee’s commercial. You know which one I’m talking about.)

Prior to “Top Chef,” I’d only known of Lakshmi as the model/actress ex-wife of writer Salman Rushdie, not as a foodie. So it was with some skepticism that I picked up her new cookbook, entitled “Tangy Tart Hot & Sweet.”

Much to my surprise, I actually liked it. The book is undeniably gorgeous and as sumptuous as its title, brimming with recipes and colorful photos rich in shades of red, yellow and green.

Its subtitle — “A World of Recipes for Every Day” — fulfills the book’s promise. Recipes range from the exotic — lobster bruschetta, green mango curry, lychee granita — to the familiar — grilled cheese toastie with portobello and bacon, creamy broccoli soup, krispy fried chicken. As I scanned the table of contents, the more playfully named recipes enticed me to look them up just to see what they entailed: two hens laughing, green dragon curry with shrimp, fiddlehead ferns in glassy onions.

Some of the more complex recipes are not what I’d deem “for every day,” unless you happen to have a few hours to prepare them. But the majority seem easy enough to prepare after a long day spent at work or chasing the kiddies around the house. Ingredient lists aren’t too long, nor are they too unusual. If an item is very specialized, Lakshmi helpfully suggests a more common substitute.

My one complaint about “Tangy Tart Hot & Sweet” is that, as a longtime vegetarian, I don’t have much use for lamb meatballs simmered in creamy spinach sauce or BBQ Korean short ribs. With her Indian heritage, I would have expected Lakshmi to be a little more vegetarian-friendly, but that is a small and personal quibble. The book contains plenty of salad and vegetable recipes, and I have enough skills in the kitchen that I can make meatless versions of many recipes.

I’m not sure if Lakshmi had help writing the book, but some of the prose is a tad purple. Witness the introduction to the recipe for basil and blood orange salad: “The salad is not only glorious to eat but beautiful to look at. The glistening oranges, jeweled with dried cranberries, sit regally in a luxurious bed of dark green spinach that’s laced with the spiky fragrance of basil. The nuttiness of the pepitas completes the odyssey of taste and texture.”

If I were her editor, I would have cut her off after the first sentence.

However, when she turns to her background, her writing becomes more relaxed and personal. She describes living in South India, moving to New York City with her single mother, and traveling abroad as a student, model and actress; photos of family and friends add to the intimate tone. Through her life experiences, she has soaked up a variety of cuisines and cultures: lingering in the kitchen while her Indian relatives cooked, grocery shopping in New York City’s Spanish Harlem and Chinatown with her mother, absorbing the tastes of Spain, Italy and France.

“No one I know eats one type of cuisine all the time,” she writes in the introduction. “Our lives have been touched by the many cultures that coexist among us. The way we eat now is a reflection of what America has become.”

Remember that next time you’re in your kitchen making tacos or spaghetti or stir-fry. And if you run out of fresh ideas, take a peek at Lakshmi’s “Tangy Tart Hot & Sweet.” I don’t think you’ll be disappointed.

~Lisa - Administrative Assistant

‘Graceling’ a brilliant, unforgettable story

“Graceling”

By Kirstin Cashore

(Young adult)

Katsa lives in a world where certain people are born with an extreme skill, or Grace.

Her Grace of killing, which she loathes, announced itself unexpectedly when she was 8 years old and it makes her the most feared individual in her uncle Randa’s kingdom. Katsa is not happy being her uncle’s thug, but he expects her to punish and torture anyone who angers him and up until she meets Prince Po from a neighboring kingdom, who is also Graced with exceptional fighting skills, she cannot see a way around carrying out her uncle’s dirty work.

Debut novelist Kristen Cashore has written a brilliant, unforgettable story. Katsa and Po are extraordinary characters and they will stick with the reader long after the story has ended.

“The Disreputable History of Frankie Landau-Banks”

By E. Lockhart

(Young adult)

Frankie Landau-Banks is a sophomore at Alabaster, a private boarding school. As a freshman she was pretty much invisible, but during the summer between her freshman and sophomore year, she blossomed into a full-figured knockout. Upon returning to Alabaster she catches the eye of senior heartthrob, Matthew Livingston, and he quickly becomes her boyfriend.

Frankie is not simple a piece of eye candy. She has a brain and when Matthew refuses to tell her about the secret all-male society on campus, she takes matters into her own hands and secretly infiltrates the society.

Lockhart has written a clever novel for sharp teens who enjoy humor, wit and a strong female character who refuses to take “No” for an answer. Frankie’s personality may catch readers off guard but they will soon be cheering her on and waiting with anticipation to see what antics she will dream up next.

“The Boy Who Dared”

By Susan Campbell Bartoletti

(Grades 4 through 8)

Death row in Nazi Germany is not where one would want to be in 1942, but that is exactly where 17-year-old Helmuth has been imprisoned for 264 days.

However, readers must wait to find out what Helmuth has done to be awaiting his execution, with the full story being flushed out through flashbacks to Helmuth’s childhood.

Helmuth was once a happy, naive German citizen, enamored with his country; and when Adolf Hitler came to power in 1933, he, along with many others, thought that Hitler would solve Germany’s problems. At first, things improve, but after awhile things take a negative turn and Helmuth must make a difficult decision. Find a way to voice his concerns and face imprisonment or worse yet, death; or remain silent and watch innocent people suffer.

This book is based on a true story that came to Susan Campbell Bartoletti’s attention while researching her Newbery Honor book, “Hitler Youth: Growing Up in Hitler’s Shadow.” Bartoletti’s portrayal of Helmuth’s story is though-provoking and provides a rare look at what it is like to be an average German citizen caught up in a World War that is careening out of control.

~Jeana- Children's Librarian

Electronic sources offer reading options

In the summer of 2007 I reviewed the library’s collection of electronic books. At that time we had about 6,200 e-books from Netlibrary. Since that time, we have continued to add books to this collection; it now contains more than 9,400 titles.

The newest additions include a broad range of subjects. You can access books on careers and job, such as “Career Guide as a Computer Technician,” “Careers in the United States Secret Service” or “200 Best Jobs for Introverts.”

Find a job you like? Use “Cover Letter Magic,” “Gallery of Best Resumes” and “Acing the Interview” to help you apply for the position. “Award Winning Customer Service” or “Boss from Outer Space and Other Aliens at Work” may help when you get the job.

If you want to travel instead of job hunt, you can read travel guides to everywhere including Tampa, Florida, Alps, Puerto Vallarta, Peru or Sicily. Staying at home? Maybe “Write Your Life Story” or “French in Your Face: The Only Book to Match 1001 Smiles, Frowns and Gestures to French Expressions” will help to fill your time.

Health and self help books are plentiful in the collection. Health topics include migraines, diabetes (both type 1 and 2), diet and weight loss and childhood cancer. “Help, I’m Knee Deep in Clutter,” “30 Days to a More Powerful Memory” and “Are You Your Own Worst Enemy” are just a few of the self-help titles available.

Other titles you might find interesting are “No-Cry Discipline Solution,” “Kids of Character,” “Savvy Mom’s Book of Legal Forms” and “I’m On Facebook — Now What?”

All of these books and the 9,400 other titles in the collection are available to you through the Internet with a Netlibrary account. If you don’t have an account, call (417) 624-5465 or come by the reference desk.

Another previously reviewed resource that has added content is Litfinder.

When the library subscribed to Litfinder it was published by Roth Publishing and it offered only poetry. Cengage, formerly Gale Publishing, purchased the database and began to upgrade the content.

The database offers criticism, biographies, overviews of works and literary topics, reviews and full texts of many literary works. Those literary works, in addition to poetry, include short stories, essays, novels, plays and speeches.

Besides additional content, the publisher also added search capabilities and updated the screens. This upgrade did not come without growing pains.

If you used Litfinder in the last few months, you’ve probably noticed a serious lack of speed. This issue has now been resolved and I encourage you to try it again.

A basic search returns a lot of information and many links to take your search in a new or a more focused direction. A keyword search for Easter, results in four biographies, three overviews and 1,198 primary sources and literary works.

You can narrow your results by clicking the subject link on the left side of the screen. Clicking on “Easter” brings up 317 works while clicking on the broader search term, “Holidays,” nets 2,294 works.

Perhaps in light of the holiday you want to narrow the search and choose Easter. From the results list you can read the H. E. Bates short story “The Easter Blessing” or read the poem “Easter Time” by Laura E. Richards. You have the option to print, e-mail, and download any the works.

You can translate any of the pages very easily. The translation tool is in the tool box on the right side of the screen. Just choose the language and click “Translate.” Languages available are Spanish, French, Japanese, German, Italian, Portuguese, Chinese (simplified) and Korean.

There are many other tools to help you get the most from this database. You can use the “Tips and Guided Tour” links at the top of page for hints and a good overview on the use of Litfinder.

The next time you need a book or a poem and can’t come into the library, try one of these great resources from home. Go to www.joplinpubliclibrary.org and get instant access to a variety of wonderful works.

~Patty- Reference Librarian

Book explains why mistakes get made

Why We Make Mistakes

By Joseph T. Hallinan

In the spirit of books such as “Blink” by Malcolm Gladwell and “Why We Buy” by Paco Underhill, Joseph T. Hallinan has written “Why We Make Mistakes: How We Look Without Seeing, Forget Things In Seconds and Are All Pretty Sure We Are Way Above Average.”

Hallinan is a journalist formerly with the Wall Street Journal and a winner of the Pulitzer Prize for investigative reporting. He has done a dandy job of investigating why we make the mistakes we all do (constantly) and has written about it in an engaging manner.

Each of thirteen chapters focuses on a different type of mistake.

Chapter one, “We Look But Don’t Always See,” centers on how we don’t actually see a large field (as we suppose we do) but rather a small area, and that we tend to see what we expect to see and not what we don’t.

We are all also, apparently, inherently lazy about looking for things. We give up. He quotes a research ophthalmologist who says, “If you don’t find it often, you often don’t find it.”

This can, unfortunately, have serious ramifications. For example, routine mammograms turn up tumors only about .3 percent of the time. So, 99.7 percent of the time, there is nothing to see. Therefore, there are a lot of instances of the viewer not seeing the tumor in the .3 percent of the time that it is present.

Studies suggest that the “miss” rate for radiologists is about 30 percent. Not very comforting, that. The same problem exists with airport screening for guns.

Apparently, our brains are wired so that if we aren’t rewarded with an “I see one!” fairly often, we just don’t really see one when it does show up.

Chapter five, “We Can Walk and Chew Gum — But Not Much Else,” explores the myth of “multitasking.”

Humans, unlike some computers, can’t really multitask. What we do is divide up our time onto each task we’re trying to perform.

Mostly, that’s just inefficient. However, when you’re driving or flying a plane, it can be deadly.

Forty percent of aircraft accidents are attributed to CFIT — Controlled Flight into Terrain. That means there was nothing wrong with the plane (no spiraling out of control, engine failure, explosion, etc.) but that the pilot was distracted. The Air Force refers to “task saturation” for these events, meaning the pilot was trying to do too many things at once.

Most of us don’t fly planes, but we do drive. The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration found that in 78 percent of all crashes and 65 percent of near crashes, the driver was either looking away or engaging in a “secondary task” such as using a cell phone or tapping on a Blackberry.

~Linda- Circulation Supervisor/Collection Development Librarian