book
previews
Looking good in the kitchen—and life
FICTION
Black Ops, by W.E.B. Griffin. The first disturbing reports reach Delta Force Lieutenant Colonel Charley Castillo in the form
of backchannel messages concerning covert
U.S. intelligence operatives who have suddenly gone missing. Then, inexplicably, they
are found dying in various parts of the
world. Castillo finds the information infuriating and fascinating, and then he receives
another backchannel message, this one
delivered personally by a Russian mobster
arms dealer. Is this the beginning of a new
Cold War?
NONFICTION
Bobbi Brown Makeup Manual: For Everyone
from Beginner to Pro, by Bobbi Brown.
Brown looks at everything from skin-care
basics to all aspects of facial makeup and
includes informative chapters such as “Hands
and Feet” and “Body Skin Care.” Each chapter
has step-by-step directions for makeup application, accompanied by easy-to-follow photographs and line drawings. The book also
includes information on how makeup stylists
do what they do, how to break into the business and how to work with photographers
and celebrities.
Lime) and reclaims formerly abandoned territory such as his Creamy Vinaigrette, which
calls for (gasp!) heavy cream. Pastas range
from spaghetti and meatballs to pad Thai.
Sandwiches include old favorites and fresh
combinations, e.g., Curried Pork Tenderloin
Sandwich with Chutney and Arugula. An
enormous breadth of recipes fill these books
for cooks looking for fundamentals.
Cruel Intent, by J.A. Jance. Ali Reynolds
doesn’t really go looking for trouble, but danger sometimes shows up on her doorstep.
When Ali hires a contractor to help remodel
her home, the last thing she expects is that
she has hired someone who will be suspected
of murder. When the body of savagely murdered Morgan Forester is found, Ali’s contractor, Logan, is the primary suspect. Logan
swears he had nothing to do with the killing,
but no one, including Ali’s good friend
Detective Dave Holman, believes him.
How to Cook
Everything: Simple
Recipes for Great
Food and How to
Cook Everything
Vegetarian: Simple
Meatless Recipes
for Great Food, by
Mark Bittman.
Bittman offers
inventive fare (Kale
Soup with Soy and
Mark Bittman
JUVENILE
The Tales of Beedle the Bard, by J.K.
Rowling. This book contains the five wizarding fairy tales left to Hermione Granger
by Albus Dumbledore in Harry Potter and
the Deathly Hallows. Only one, “The Tale of
the Three Brothers,” is recounted in the
final Harry Potter book. Here are the four
remaining stories. Among other tidbits,
learn all about magic wands and spells and,
alas, an admission that magic cannot bring
back the dead.
EVAN SUNG
All proceeds from the book will go to a
charity co-founded by Rowling to help children suffering in institutions.
—Valerie Ryan
arts &
entertainment
Get your books
one day at a time
TRUDIE LEE
Susan Danziger (right) and her husband,
Albert Wenger, created DailyLit to help
people find time to read.
HAVE YOU EVER complained that you have
no time to read? Maybe you’ve always wanted
to read Moby Dick but have been intimidated
by its heft. Costco members Susan Danziger
and her husband, Albert Wenger, have the
answer. Their business, DailyLit ( www.daily
lit.com), lets readers tackle classics and bestsellers one installment at a time.
DailyLit will e-mail installments of
roughly 1,000 words to a reader at a set time—
selected by the reader—every day, weekdays
only or Monday, Wednesday and Friday. The
number of installments is determined by the
length of the book.
Danziger says the idea came to her after
The New York Times serialized classic novels in
the paper: “I thou ght, “What do we get more
often than newsp apers but e-mail?” I”m
always checking m y BlackBerry.”
After the co uple let the idea
simmer for a c ouple of years,
Wenger mocked u p a Web site and
he and Danziger t ested the service,
then shared it wit h friends. It went
live in May 2007.
Readers can c hoose to set up
subscriptions so that e-mails
show up early fo r a
commute to work or or
later in the day to be
readaspartofa n
afternoon break .
And each e-ma il
contains a link th at
allows fast readers—or those with a little extra
time on their hands—to request the next
installment right away.
Not only is the service convenient, but
the site has books that cater to most inter-
e sts of their 140,000 users. “We have more
than 1,000 books,” says Danziger,
“ and most are classics that are
avail-a ble for free.”
D ailyLit also offers bestsellers,
the he majority of which cost less
than han $5per book. Book categories
r ange from adventure to business
to o horror to science fiction.
The site recently began working he site recently began working
with Berlitz and Harlequin so
that subscribers can
learn a language or
g et a little romance in
t heir lives, one day at
a time. time.
—Stephanie E.
Ponder
