Summary: It begins one day in sophomore English class, just as Ellie Barnett's teacher is assigning Jane Austen's "Pride and Prejudice." From nowhere comes a quiet 'tsk' of displeasure. The target: Sam Blaine, the cute bad boy who's teasing Ellie mercilessly, just as he has since kindergarten. Entirely unbidden, as Jane might say, the author's ghost has taken up residence in Ellie's mind, and seems determined to stay there. Jane's wise and witty advice guides Ellie through the hell of adolescence and beyond, serving as the voice she trusts, usually far more than her own. Years and boyfriends come and go - sometimes a little too quickly, sometimes not nearly fast enough. But Jane's counsel is constant, and on the subject of Sam, quite insistent. Stay away, Jane demands. He is your Mr. Wickham. Still, everyone has something to learn about love - perhaps even Jane herself. And lately, the voice in Ellie's head is being drowned out by another, urging her to look beyond everything she thought she knew and seek out her very own, very unexpected, happy ending. (source: Amazon)
Comments: Would I like to have Jane Austen's thoughts in my head? After reading this book, the answer is no. I can't keep up with my own thoughts, much less having another person's in there too. I'm glad I read the book, but it was a bit long and I wonder about a 30 something year old woman who still thinks about anything that happened in high school. I bet she's on Facebook all the time too, but that's just my little prejudice - high school should be forgotten because, dear lord, we were stupid then. The list of boyfriends Ellie racks up is pretty impressive, especially her Russian musician (his sex drive was a character of its own) and somehow she, mostly, can remain friends with the guys, after a little time goes by. The secondary characters, if given enough page time, are pretty well drawn and believable. The music references were all spot on and I really enjoyed them. Perhaps a little long, but a interesting read. This book is for mature audiences.
I've been collecting recipes since about forever and I have lots of different ways that they are stored and I change those ways every few years. Right now, I have a folder on my computer where everything is saved and I print all my recipes and put them in plastic sleeves and into a binder - yes, it's geeky beyond repair. That said, I've noticed that when I go to make my paper copy of a recipe to print out, I do a lot of editing to them getting rid of extraneous words that just really don't seems necessary for anyone with any level of common sense and who has spent at least, I don't know, a couple of hours around the kitchen making dinner. And no, that does not include nuking something or as the MotH* thinks, reheating pizza.
What do I do my biggest hatchet job on? Descriptions of things that are on the recipe. Do I really need a header for "Ingredients?" I don't think so, I'm pretty aware that a list of things at the beginning of a recipe is the ingredients. Do I really need a header for "Directions" or for that matter, do said directions need to be numbered? Um, No.
I do usually add one thing to the recipe - the website that it came from. I think giving credit is a good thing, sometimes that's not possible, especially if it's a recipe that I've been making so long that I don't use a recipe anymore I just know how to do it - like my pasta sauce, but they all start somewhere. My new favorite recipe is from Mario Batali, but I'm already made
several changes and it will be up here soon. Alterations included.
*Man of the House
