Book Review: Warm Bodies (Steph)

Warm Bodies by Isaac Marion

 4 out of 5 thumbs up

R is a zombie who lives at the airport.  He likes to ride the escalator, listen to vinyl records and has a surprisingly advanced vocabulary, for a zombie.  He remembers nothing from his past life including his name, where he was from, what he was like, or how long ago he died (or became un-dead).  He eats the Living, an aspect of his new life he’s not proud of. On a hunting trip, R meets Julie, the girlfriend of a young man he had just finished devouring, and decides to spare her and keep her safe.  The bizarre relationship that blossoms between the two starts a revolution that will change the course of humanity (and zombie-anity).

Warm Bodies is an entertaining read which takes you into the world after the zombie apocalypse and into the culture of the corpses themselves. Though the ending is a tad predictable, the journey that you take through the mind of R is engaging and as a result, you begin to have feelings for this Dead character, besides the normal zombie reaction of needing to shoot him in the face.  This is a zombie book, after all, so there is some gore, and the language is pretty bad and the main characters (teens) drink kind of a lot, but I guess you could blame that on zombies eating all the mothers of the characters, so there’s no one left to chastise them when they have a potty mouth.  They also probably figure, “hey, it’s the end of the world…” The movie based on this book is hits theaters February 1, 2013 -and I’ll probably go see it.

Book Review: Uglies Series (Steph)

Uglies Series by Scott Westerfield

Books in this series: Uglies, Pretties, Specials, and Extras 

4 ½ out of 5 thumbs up

Fifteen-year-old Tally Youngblood is counting down the days until her sixteenth birthday when she will finally receives the operation to make her pretty.  Then, she’ll finally be more than a nobody, more than just another ugly.  In the meantime, Tally spends her time tricking, impressing the younger uglies with her deviant escapades.  After a trick sneaking into New Pretty Town to see a friend, she runs into Shay, another fifteen-year-old girl who she befriends, glad to have someone to pass the time with until she’s pretty.  Tally and Shay share a birthday, they love to hoverboard and they both have a fondness for breaking the rules.  The subject of becoming a pretty is one thing they disagree on.  As the day to Tally’s sixteenth birthday draws nearer, she is swept up into an adventure that may ultimately change her mind.

I really enjoyed these books.  Set in the future, there is plenty of new-fangled technology and gadgets, most of which run on magnetics.   They also have their own sort of language, especially the pretties, which is a little strange and almost a little annoying at first, but after a while, I sort of liked it and by the end, I was wishing that we all spoke like that.  These are really fun, well-paced books with likable characters.  Definitely a great pick for any YF/Sci-Fi fans looking for a fun read.

Tea Time ( mom)
Sarah called me last week and asked if I could help her make crumpets for a tea party she had planned with her friends.  I know that we had talked about having one, but we have never planned it.  So she came over, all dressed up, and we made crumpets.  It turns out that they are similar to pancakes only with yeast in them. Here is the recipe:
Crumpets
2 1/4 cups flour
2 tsp. yeast
1 Tbsp. sugar
1 tsp. salt
 1/4 cup warm water for dissolving the yeast
1 1/4 cups warm milk
4-6 3 inch rings, cookie cutters or crumpet molds.  Wide mouth canning rings work just fine.
cooking spray

1. Dissolve yeast into warm water with sugar.  Let proof. Whisk flour and salt in mixing bowl. Barely heat milk to warm.  After yeast has proofed, combine yeast and milk with flour and salt until smooth and thick.  Cover and let rise.  Stir down.
2.Spray a skillet and the metal rings with cooling spray.  Heat skillet over medium heat, and place metal rings on the skillet and let them heat up.  Spoon batter into the rings filling only half way.  Let the crumpets cook until bottoms are browned.  the tops appear nearly dry and popped bubbles appear on top, about 5 minutes. Flip and remove the rings from around the crumpets.  Cook until browned about 1 to 2 more minutes.  Repeat.  Keep warm in preheated oven until all crumpets are cooked.

These were so easy I though well maybe English muffins wouldn't be hard either.  So I looked up a recipe and they were so easy,  I wondered why I haven't been making them on a regular basis.  They were good.
So here is the recipe for the English muffins:

English muffins
1 cup milk, warmed to room temp.
2 Tbsp. sugar
1 Tbsp. yeast
1 cup warm water
1/4 cup melted shortening.
6 cups or so of flour
1 tsp. salt
corn meal

1. Warm the milk to room temp.  Stir in sugar until dissolved and set aside to cool.  Dissolve yeast in warm water.  Proof about 10 minutes.
2.  In a large bowl, combine milk, yeast shortening and 3 cups of flour.  Beat until smooth.  Add salt and enough of the remaining flour to make a soft dough.  Knead.  Place in an oiled bowl and cover to let rise about an hour.
3. Punch down.  Roll out to 1/2 in thick. Make sure you roll it out thin enough. Cut with round cutter.  Dip top and bottom in cornmeal and set on a pan lined with waxed paper to rise.  Cover and let rise 1/2 hour.
4. Heat greased griddle to medium heat, about 350.  Cook muffins on griddle about 10 minutes on each side. You can keep warm in the oven if you plan to eat them right away or allow them to cool for storage. Split with a fork and toast to eat.

Yummy!