I once ran a kitchen at an isolated retreat center in Washington state.  The primarily vegetarian food we served three meals a day seven days a week was the only game in town.  Eat it or go hungry.  This is what I learned from that experience: if you want to ignite a powder keg under a group of seemingly good people take away their power to control their own food.  Community staff members once argued for three hours at a meeting about whether or not sugar dispensers should be allowed to remain on the tables. When the wife of one staff member told me her husband hated onions, a vegetable we put in almost every single dish we made, I began making him small “onion-free” portions.  After the first meal, her husband came into the kitchen to thank me and broke down crying.  It is alittle unnerving to see a middle age man cry over the lack of onions. Anyone who has tried to make a toddler eat an despised vegetable knows that food wars are not limited to isolated communities.

Issue of food intrigue me.  All you have to do is Google “what is the healthiest diet for humans” and peruse the 1.5 million hits to see that others share my interest.  It would seem that there is no bigger divide in the food world than that between those who are carnivores (meat eaters) and vegetarians (non-meat eaters).  But even here it is hard to have a discussion regarding the merits of either one because there are no hard and fast rules for what constitutes a vegetarian.  (You know what I mean, all those “vegetarians” you have met who eat “only chicken and fish”.)  According to the Online Oxford Dictionary a vegetarian is “a person who does not eat meat or fish, and sometime other animal products, for moral, religious, or health reasons.”  But even within this definition you can have diets that are vegan (no meat as well as no dairy, eggs, and sometimes honey products) or raw foodies who eat only live food (uncooked, unprocessed, mostly organic food).

When I need help deciphering the ins and outs of an issue, I turn to the shelves of  East Side Books.  In this case, to the section called Food Issues and, of course, our Vegetarian Section.  From what I can tell, people are drawn to vegetarianism for one or more of the following three reasons: ethical, health, or for frugality.  (There are also some religions that enspouse some types of vegetarian diet such as Seventh Day Adventist and Hindus, but I’m not going to mix religion with book reviews.)

Ethical Vegetarianism

Most people know by now that the production of beef needed to sustain our current consumption takes an enormous toll on the environment.  (According to www.earthsave.org, it takes 12 pounds of grain, 55 square feet of rainforest, and 2500 gallons of water to product one pound of beef.), but when Frances Moore Lappe published Diet for a Small Planet in 1971, her ideas linking how we eat to the health of our planet were groundbreaking news.  If you have any interest in vegetarianism, Lappe’s enduring bestseller is a place to start.  She emphasizes the importance of eating a plant-centered diet for the ecological health of our planet.  Her next book, Food First, broadens the conversation to include the issue of the impact of food production practices on global hunger.

About 15 years after Lappe made a splash with Diet for a Small Planet, John Robbins entered the scene with his powerful book Diet for a New America. Robbins, the son of one of the founders of Baskin-Robbins, detached himself from his family’s business and became a vocal advocate for a plant-based, vegan diet for personal and environmental health.  His opinion is that the meat and dairy industries are responsible for the decline of human health as well as the world hunger crisis.  Diet for a New America has sold over a million copies and was nominated for a Pulitzer Prize.  Robbins wrote The Food Revolution in 2001, which discusses factory farming, the problems of genetically modified food, and the importance of buying organic.

If environmental vegetarianism interests you, check out www.meatlessmondays.com .  Sponsored by a non-profit initiative in association with Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health, their goal is to “help reduce meat consumption by 15% in order to improve personal health and the health of our planet.”  Don’t be surprised to see Lappe and Robbins’ names pop up frequently throughout their website.

East Side Books has a number of Lappe and Robbins books in our Food Issues Section.

Vegetarianism for Health

Some people are drawn to vegetarianism for the health benefits of eating low on the food chain.  If you want to find out how a high-fiber, low fat vegetarian diet can help you, check out Eat More, Weigh Less by Dean Ornish, M.D.  Ornish, a cardiologist, believes that the healthiest diet is one that emphasizes beans, fruit, grains, and vegetables while avoiding dairy (except for nonfat dairy in moderation), fats, sugar, alcohol, and meat.  Eat More, Weigh Less can be found in our Diet Section.

In Diet for a Small Planet, Lappe to introduced the idea of “protein combining,” the practice of combining foods such as rice and beans, to make a complete protein, a necessity for vegetarians.  She includes a whole section on how to practice healthy vegetarianism and supplies recipes as well.  May All Be Fed by John Robbins offers information on the health benefits of a vegan diet and a wide range of vegan recipes developed by Chef Gia Patton.

Vegetarianism to Save a Buck

Let’s face it, a bag of rice and a couple cans of beans are going to cost a lot less and make more a lot more meals than one good top sirloin.  Meat and dairy products are expensive, even compared to the cost of buying organic fruits and vegetables.  In our current economic climate (don’t you never want to hear that phrase again?), stretching a dollar is more important than ever.  To help you expand your meatless recipe collection beyond pasta and grilled cheese sandwiches, check out the cookbooks in our Vegetarian Section located directly under Food Issues.  Two of my favorite cookbooks are the classic Moosewood Cookbook by Molly Katzen and The Vegetarian Epicure by Anna Thomas.

My copy of Moosewood Cookbook is held together by silver duct tape, and loses pages every time I open it, but you couldn’t pay me to give it up.  This cookbook was the bible at the retreat center kitchen where I worked, and for good reason.  The New York Times has listed Moosewood Cookbook as one of the top ten best selling cookbooks of all time.  Each recipe is easy to follow yet has a special spin that helps it stand out from your usual vegetarian fare.  I especially love the handlettering that make up the text of the book.  I have to say that The Vegetarian Epicure, while not as well known as the famous Moosewood Cookbook, is possibly an even better cookbook.  Some of my most memorable cooking experiences have come from the pages of this book.  There is also The Vegetarian Epicure Book Two.

Also, when cooking vegetarian fare, don’t be afraid to veer from the vegetarian cookbooks. Most recipes can be easily adapted to fit within your own type of vegetarianism.  For example, many of the recipes in The Thousand Recipe Chinese Cookbook by Gloria Bley Miller can substituted tofu for any meat or fish. Beans are a staple in many Mexican dishes and many helpful recipes can be found in The Cuisine of Mexico by Diana Kennedy.  In many Italian dishes, meat can be omitted completely.  Check out Lidia’s Family Table and A Taste of Italy for some great recipe ideas.

What you eat and why is a very personal decision that each person must make for themselves.  As always, at East Side Books, we have shelves full of quality books at bargain prices to help you wind your way through any complicated issue.  If you need any assistance, please ask one of our staff.

P.S. from Diane,

I just had to add these images from a “vintage” vegetarian book that just came in…don’t those lentil linkettes look delicious?  The articles though, written in 1973, still look relevant and informative, but you may have to try Boca burgers instead of the linkettes!

There was a period of time during my twenties where I only read short stories.  It didn’t matter if they were in an anthology, the collected work of one author, or a gathered in a literary magazine.  I couldn’t get enough of the short story form.  These days I hardly ever pick up a short story collection, but when I do, I always make a commitment to reading more.  There is something satisfying about getting a peek at a slice of  life.  When we lived in St. Paul, Minnesota, we used to walk the old neighborhoods in the early evening when the lights of the houses shone and shadows moved back and forth within.  Reading a short story is like being able to walk up those bright windows and look in for an hour or so, just enough time to get an understanding of the lives of the residents.

Most writer’s know that while publishing a short story in a literary magazine is one way to get your foot in the door, delivering a short story collection to an editor is setting yourself up for disappointment and rejection.  Although many short story collection receive critical acclaim and receive numerous awards, short fiction doesn’t sell, which is surprising. With the world around us traveling faster and faster, and communication becoming more and more brief because of email, text, and twitter, I would think the short story would be the perfect reading material of the new millenium.

Since many short story writers are not as well known as novelist, it can be more challenging to select a collection.  You have to choose blindly with little information about style, subject matter, or even genre.  One way to ease into finding quality short fiction is to come in the backdoor.  By that I mean, often, some of my favorite authors have an earlier short story collection.  A recent example of this is Aimee Bender who just came out with the popular summer novel The Sadness of Lemon Cake (which will probably hit East Side Books in the next six to eight months.  New titles take a little bit of time to circulate around to our New Books Table.)  I enjoyed Bender’s book, and when searching for her other titles discovered she had written the short story collection Girl in the Flammable Skirt, a book I’ve seen often and which received critical acclaim.  I have discovered that this is true for a number of author.  Annie Proulx, winner of the Pulitzer Prize and National Book Award for The Shipping News (which if you haven’t read, stop right now and run run run down to East Side Books and pick up a copy), has published five collections of short stories: three in a series called Wyoming Stories, and two more collections called Close Range and Heart Songs.  Jhumpa Lahiri is best know for her novel The Namesake, which was later turned into a movie, but before The Namesake, she received the Pulitzer Prize for her debut publication Interpreter of Maladies. She has recently published a new short story collection called Unaccustomed Earth.  Amy Bloom’s novel Away recently became a book club favorite (another to pluck from our shelves if you have not yet read), but among critics she was better know for her two short story collections Come to Me and National Book Critics Circle Award Finalist A Blind Man Could See How Much I Love You.

It is not only modern authors who have switched deftly from the genre of short story to novel and back again.  Some of the most powerful writers of this century have also penned a significant number of excellent short stories.  Ernest Hemingway had several volumes of wonderful short stories, many featuring the character Nick Adam.  “The Killers” is his best known story.  John Updike, one of only three writers to win the Pulitzer Prize more than one, published to critical acclaim a collection of his short fiction in 2003 called The Early Stories which included over 100 of his short stories from between the mid ’50s to the mid ’70s.  Joyce Carol Oates, one of the most prolific writers working today, splits her work between short stories and novels.  Her most well known story is “Where Are You Going, Where Have You Been”. Creepy and thought provoking, this work was expanded into a movie called Smooth Talk. Irish author William Trevor is both an excellent novelist and short story writer.  His book After Rain includes the story “The Piano Tuner’s Wife”, which is one of the finest and most beautiful short pieces of fiction I have ever read.  Last, but certainly not least, is southern writer Flannery O’Conner who in her short life, she died at the age of 39, published a number of wonderful short story collection as well as several powerful novels.

Although most short story writers are also novelist, some writers stick with the single form of short stories and become masters of their trade.  The most well known of these is O. Henry, a pseudonym for William Sydney Porter.  O. Henry began writing short stories while serving a five year term in a prison for charges of embezzlement.  While there he published 14 stories.  Once released he went on to write and publish hundreds more.  His stories are know for their wit and clever plot twists and endings, the most famous story being “The Gift of the Magi.” The O. Henry Award is a prestigious annual prize given to the most outstanding short story of the year.  Irish born Frank O’Connor is another master of the short story.  Drawing from his own life experience of Irish family life, O’Connor published over 11 original collections of short stories.  Alice Munro is a Canadian short story author who is been called “one of the greatest contemporary writers of fiction.”  Set in small town Canada, her stories focus on the human condition as seen through the window of daily life.  She is joined by a number of other female short story writers who have left their mark on the shelves including Grace Paley, Ann Beattie, Alice Adams, and Bobbie Ann Mason.  Perhaps the reason you even see short story collections on the bookstore shelves is because of Raymond Carver, who single handedly revitalized the short story form in the 1980’s with the publication of his collections What We Talk About When We Talk About Love, Where I’m Calling From, Cathedral, and Elephant.  His story “A Small, Good Thing” is a powerful and beautiful story about grief, forgiveness, and kindness.  Unfortunately, Carver struggled with monetary and martial issues as well as alcohol abuse for most of this life, and died at the age of 50.

Some people say the reason they don’t like short stories is because just as they are getting into it, the story ends.  For these readers, they might want to try “interconnected short story collections.”  An excellent example of this is the recent Pulitzer Prize winning book Olive Kitteridge by Elizabeth Strout, a slim book of thirteen linked stories that cover a thirty year period of an unforgettable woman’s life.  Another recent interconnected short story collection is The Lone Ranger and Tonto Fist Fight in Heaven by Sherman Alexie, 22 powerful stories about modern life on the Spokane Indian Reservation.  (You have to love Alexie’s long titles. Don’t miss his powerful young adult novel The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian.)   Past popular interconnect short story collections are The Things They Carry by Tim O’Brien about his experience in Vietnam, and Melissa Banks’ A Girls Guide to Hunting and Fishing, which made me laugh aloud several times.  The classic of interconnected short story collections is John Steinbeck’s The Red Pony, four related stories about the coming-of-age events in a young boy’s life as he grows up on a Salinas ranch.  The title story, The Red Pony, is Steinbeck’s most well known short story, powerful and gut wrenching, it often incites mixed reactions from readers.

If you have been automatically picking up novel after novel, we encourage you to branch out and try a short story collection.  If you need any assistance finding any of the above mentioned titles, please ask our staff for assistance.  As always, if we don’t have what you are looking for we are happy to add your title to our Wants List or to place a special order.

In the spirit of full disclosure, I will admit that October is not a good month for me: I scare easily.  When I was a kid, reading a Nancy Drew mystery under the covers at night by flashlight was enough to set my heart racing.  (No, Nancy!  Don’t go upstairs when you hear mysterious  footsteps overhead!  Call 911 and GET OUT OF THE HOUSE!) The movies Poltergeist and The Blair Witch Project scared me out of my mind.  And I have been known on one occasion to be found sitting in my car in the driveway in my nightgown after hearing strange voices in my house.  (We were picking up someone else’s channel through the baby monitor.  My husband was just glad I called him home from work rather than calling the police.)

So you might not find me browsing the shelves of East Side Books Horror Section (ALL HORROR BOOK ON SALE FOR THE MONTH OF OCTOBER), and I admit, I have only read one of Stephen King’s novels.  It was for a book club and I read it so fast the words blurred as my heart beat a million miles an hour.  There was something about a missing arm and an evil spirit in a bottle and twin girl ghostS that kept showing up and leaving wet footsteps.  It was weird and creepy.  I know, I know, King is a master of his genre–I don’t dispute his skill or his fan base (and King’s book On Writing is one of my favorites.  See the blog “So You Want to Be A Writer.”), but I would like to point out that before there was King and all his bestsellers, there was Poe.

One of the earliest and best horror writers of all time is Edgar Allan Poe .  Unlike King, Poe was not a happy or successful man.  His short life (1809-1849) was filled with drug and alcohol abuse, mental instability, and the deaths of loved ones.  His work was often rejected and criticized despite the fact that years later he would be recognized as a brilliant writer of gothic short stories and poems.  Obsessed with death and bodily decomposition, Poe often wrote from the point of view of a murdering narrator.  Two of his most frightening stories are The Cask of Amontillade and The Tell-Tale Heart.  I mean F-R-I-G-H-T-E-N-I-N-G. I don’t want to give anything away, but let’s just say that Poe delves into the horrors of being buried alive and the possibility of dismembered body parts coming back to life.  Even Poe’s own death is shrouded in mystery.  He died a few days after being found unconscious on a city street, and the cause of death remains unclear.  Theories range from alcohol abuse to murder to rabies.  For a good scare, check out Poe’s collected work in the Fiction Section and Poetry Section.

As much as Poe and King are the reigning royalty of horror writing, for me to be scared silly, I don’t need all those blood and guts details spelled out.  What I need is just a hint of possibility, the anticipation of something or someone jumping out from behind the curtains or a thumping coming from a seemingly empty room, to send me into a complete fright.   And that is what I love about the following three authors.  These writers brilliantly craft an atmosphere of fear and chilling anticipation allowing the imagination of their characters and readers to create their own worst nightmares.  If you haven’t read these classics, you are in for a treat.

Wilkie Collins is the author of The Moonstone and The Woman in White. Despite being burdened with an unfortunate first name, Collin’s work, The Moonstone, has been called by T.S. Eliot “the first and greatest English detective novel” and is an excellent book.  But it is The Woman in White, published in 1859, that is filled with chilling plot twists and turns.  A midnight encounter with a woman in white leads the main character into a tangled web of crime, poison, and kidnapping.  A classic Victorian thriller, Wilkie’s The Woman In White is complex and sure to raise the hair on the back on your neck.

The author Henry James is mostly known for his famous siblings, Alice and William, and his eloquent novels about the social standing of his characters, most notably, Daisy Miller, Portrait of a Lady, and The Wings of the Dove. But it is James’ gothic Victorian novella that has been called “the world’s greatest ghost story.”  Turn of the Screw is the story of a governess who tries to protect her young charges from the evil apparitions that begin to haunt the estate.  But are the ghost real? Is the governess suffering from delusions? Are the children able to see the ghost or are they being possessed by them?  James spins a frightening tale of suspense and terror.  Find Turn of the Screw shelved in the Fiction Section.

If you are wanting more modern spine chilling tale, check out The Haunting of Hill House by Shirley Jackson, author of the famous short story The Lottery.  In this novel, a professor of the paranormal and three young volunteers explore the supernatural phenomenons of Hill House.  Jackson steadily builds the suspense to a frightening and powerful conclusion.  I was completely absorbed by Jackson’s story and at the same time completely freaked out. Stephen King calls The Haunting of Hill House “one of the finest horror stories of the late 20th century.”  This is a classic you definitely want to pick up today.

My girls are at the age where they have discovered Nancy Drew.  (Check out our extensive Nancy Drew collection in the Children’s Mystery Series Section.)  Instead of reading under the covers, they snuggle up with their dad on the couch and he reads a chapter a night.  There is much giggling at the funny voices their father uses for the dialogue, and there is ongoing speculation over clues as the mystery unfolds.  Twinset sweaters aside, Nancy is still entertaining.  And she still doesn’t heed my warnings not to proceed down the dark hidden passageways with just a flashlight.  Even all these years later, Nancy is braver than me.

If you have any trouble finding the above mentioned books, please ask one of our staff for assistance.  We can also place a special order or put your requested title on our Wants List.

My grandmother, born and raised in Iowa, was convinced that there wasn’t any problem that couldn’t be solved over a good steak dinner.  She, of course, was horrified when I embraced vegetarianism for ten years.  In her mind, all the woes in my life could be easily explained by the lack of meat on my plate.  I have, over the years, gradually included meat protein back into my diet, but have struggled with the quality of meat available.  A steak from the store didn’t taste the same as the beef I remember growing up and sometime it was so bad it was inedible.  Information was leaking into the press about the less than stellar conditions of meat packing plants.  And what about all those hidden hormones and antibiotics?  Pass the broccoli please.

The great part about living in a small town is where all the edges overlap.  Not only is East Side Books a gem of a used bookstore, but the sons of owner Diane Doonan have begun selling natural local grass fed beef.  Eating locally has become the latest, and possibly the smartest, new food fad. Barbara Kingsolver took a recent departure from fiction writing to pen Animal, Vegetable, Miracle, her account of the year her family only ate what they grew and raised themselves or bought locally.  Her book is wonderfully interesting and opened a floodgate of interest in local eating, inspiring others to follow in her footsteps.  One example of these local food devotees are Alisa Smith and J.B. Mackinnon, a couple living in the Northwest who made a year long commitment to eat foods grown and processed within 100-mile radius of their apartment.  They wrote about their experience in the book Plenty, which is in turn hilarious and thought provoking.

Although it would probably be challenging to sustain yourself on only locally raised food here in Bishop, we are fortunate to have resources such as the seasonal Saturday morning Farmer’s Market located in the parking lot of the Bishop City Park and the pick-your-own-organic-fruits-and-vegetables Apple Hill Ranch located just south of town in Wilkerson.  In the last couple of year, locals have begun raising the question: We see a lot of cattle grazing out in the fields surrounding Bishop, why is it we don’t have access to local dairy and beef products?  The Doonan family, certified organic alfalfa ranchers living north of town, asked that same question and decided to do something about it.  Last spring the industrious brothers Jake and Matt Doonan, ages 18 and 16, started a grass fed beef project to see if raising natural beef in the Owens Valley was an economically feasible industry.  They raised the livestock, found a small, clean processing plant, and secured buyers. (See contact email below for more information about this ongoing project.)

I was fortunate enough to purchase several 20 lb. boxes of their beef.  Having a freezer full of beef made me feel nostalgic for my grandmother.  Thinking of her, I thawed a roast and plopped it into my largest crockpot. (See Salsa Verde Beef recipe below.)  At dinner that night my husband took a forkful of roast, raised an eyebrow at me, and asked,”Where did you get this roast?”

“Why?” I asked.

“Taste it,” he said.

Could I possibly have messed up a simple roast? Again. With trepidation, I took a bite.  Flavor and richness danced a jig in my mouth.  Not only was it good, it was hands down the best beef I’d ever tasted.  “This is amazing,” I said.  I took another bite.  Better than the one before.  “This is magical.”  My husband didn’t answer.  He was too busy concentrating on his dinner.  Our girls, not big meat eaters, were so intrigued by our reaction that they asked to try some.

“This is good,” announced Clara.

“Really good,” said Emma with her mouth full. “This is Magic Beef.”

With giddy enthusiasm, I explained to the girls that the reason this beef was so magical was because it was raised locally and naturally.  “This cow used to be one of the cows grazing in fields just outside of town.”  Both girls looked at their plate in horror and leaned backwards as far as they could from the dinner table.  Apparently that was too much information for my soft “town” daughters.

Despite the fact that my girls are squeamish when their dinner becomes a bit too local, people are paying more attention to not only where their food comes from but the quality of their food.  Beef, pork, eggs, and dairy have gotten a bad rap in the past, but as more research is coming to light, the general public is discovering that meat and dairy products might not be the culprits behind America’s growing health and obesity issues.  In his book Fast Food Nation, Eric Schlosser write of the devastation the fast food companies have wrecked on our health, landscape, and economics.  The chapter “What’s in the meat” may make you rethink eating fast food ever again.  Michael Pollen’s book The Omnivore’s Dilemma explores how industrial farming and agricultural subsidies have greatly compromised the health of our nation.  It isn’t the beef that is killing us, or the poultry or eggs or dairy product, it is how these products are being raised and processed that is our health undoing.

My grandparents ate meat for lunch and dinner almost every day of their lives.  My grandmother pour cream over her cereal for breakfast.  Neither believed much in exercise.  But they didn’t believe in fast food either and never set foot in a McDonald’s or Burger King.  Cookies came from the oven and not the store.  Fruits and vegetables from the garden were canned or frozen, and eaten throughout the year.  Meals were an event, a ritual where everyone sat together at the table with a full place setting, three times a day, no matter what.  Both lived to be in their 80s.  Maybe there is something to be said for my grandmother’s steak theory after all.

We, at East Side Books, realize that one diet does not fit all. (See the blog What Exactly Is a Vegetarian?!?!?.) All you have to do is come in and check out our Food Issues Section where the above mentioned books are located along with many others, to see that what we eat is a complex and increasingly popular and important topic.  Stop by and raise your awareness today, and if you need any assistance in your search, please ask one of our staff for help.

The Doonan brothers’ natural grass fed beef project continues.  After the initial success last spring, the boys will be selling more local beef this Fall and Spring.  For more information you can contact them at bxd@starband.net.

Below is my recipe for Salsa Verde Magic Beef and Magic Beef Stew with Dumplings.  We’d love to hear from you, so please share your own thoughts or your favorite meat recipe in the comments section below.

Salsa Verde Magic Beef

1 beef roast, any cut (preferable natural grass feed)

1 jar of salsa verde

1 or 2 onions, sliced (optional)

Place thawed roast into a crockpot. (Sometimes my roast isn’t thawed all the way…or at all depending on how well I planned ahead.  A frozen or partially frozen roast takes longer to cook.)  If using onions, toss onions over roast.  Pour salsa verde over roast and optional onions.  Set crockpot on Low and cook for 7 to 9 hours depending on the size of the roast.  Before serving, shred beef.  Serve with warm flour or corn tortillas, shredded green cabbage, grated cheese, red salsa, chopped cilantro, and sour cream.

Magic Beef Stew with Dumplings

1 pound or so of beef stew meat (preferable natural grass fed)

flour, salt, pepper, oil

1 chopped onion

2 garlic cloves, pressed

2 to 3 sliced carrots

4 diced red potatoes

1/2 bag frozen green beans

1 large can or 2 box cartons of beef broth

1/2 bottle of cheap red wine

pepper, marjoram, basil, parsley

baking powder, salt, milk

Put stew meat in plastic bag and toss with 3/4 cup of flour, and a dash of salt and pepper.  In a large dutch oven or large heavy bottomed pot, saute beef in oil until browned. Add onion, garlic, and carrots.  Cook until vegetables soften slightly.  Add beef broth and wine plus a healthy amount of pepper, marjoram, basil, and parsley.  Add potatoes. Let simmer uncovered on very low for many hours.

When 20 minutes away from eating, turn up stew temperature to bring to a boil.  Meanwhile, mix together 1 1/2 cups of flour, 1 1/2 tsp of baking soda, 3/4 tsp of salt, 1 1/2 tbsp of oil, and 1 cup milk.  When stew boils, add green beans.  When stew returns to a boil, drop dumpling dough on surface of stew.  Boil 10 minutes uncovered.  Cover and boil 10 more minutes.

We are a crafty bunch at East Side Books.  Kim, otherwise known as “Krafty Kim”, is an experienced basketmaker and recently dived head first into knitting and felting.  Diane is teaching cake decorating for the local 4H club this year, and is responsible for the wonderfully creative revolving seasonal decorations.  Lindsay is a gift food queen (don’t get me started on last Christmas’ caramel popcorn gift box), and I have my Be Lovely Creations bags and bookmarks available for sale at East Side Books.

As you can tell, we are eclectic crafters.  According to Wikipedia, the definition of crafting is “a skill, especially involving practical arts.”  I see crafting as a way over the centuries that women have woven bits and pieces of beauty into their daily lives whether it be a touch of hand embroidery on a dish towel, a quilt pieced together from old clothes, or home made cheese making.  Our Crafting Section at East Side Books reflects the eclectic nature of crafting with its depth and width of titles.  It was great fun for Kim and me to search through the crafting books to pull a few titles to highlight in this blog.  In the spirit of full disclosure, I have to confess that there are a few of those books that won’t be mentioned because they have made their way to my own personal shelves.  Sorry, I couldn’t resist.

But I left many excellent books for the rest of you. One of my favorite places to start when checking out craft books are the volumes of “collected crafts” that are often referred to as “country crafts.”  These types of books showcase a number of crafts.  I find that looking at several different project ideas inspires me to head in a whole new direction using the skills I have and adding a few more from the instructions given.  One excellent book of this type is called Traditional Country Crafts by Miranda Innes.  The sections on feltwork and painted ceramic pots are especially cool.  Another excellent volume is Classic Crafts edited by Martina Margetts.  There are wonderful chapters on rag rug making and papier mache.  I had no idea how creative paper mache could be until I looked at this book. Simple Gifts edited by Garden Way Publishing gives step-by-step instructions for making beautiful Shaker crafts.

If you are more interested in a specific crafting skill, check out our many subcategories within the Crafting Section.  We have books on everything from Origami to Stenciling to larger sections like Quilting, Needlepoint, and Cross-stitch.  If you are looking to make a special gift for a baby or toddler, check out A-B-C 1-2-3 Craft Book by Phyllis and Noel Fiarotta.  It contains easy to follow directions and pattern for cloth alphabet and number books for young children.  Kim showed me two beautiful basketmaking books called Handmade Baskets by Lyn Siler and A Modern Approach to Basketry by Dona Z. Meilach. Both made me want to leap into basketmaking. Our shelves contain a generous number of quilting, knitting, needlepoint, and cross-stitch titles.  Although some of the volumes are older, they are an excellent resource for answering questions about technique, offer great patterns, and provide general creative inspiration. Quiltmaking by Hand by Jinny Beyer is a wonderfully informative book with excellent technical descriptions as well as large, clear accompanying step-by-step photos.  For $9.00 you can purchase The Complete Book of Knitting by Barbara Abbey which will answer any question you will ever have about knitting.  Despite the dated cover, this book has over 200 timeless stitch patterns and illustrated pictures demonstrating all the fundamental steps of knitting you will need to complete a project.  Like knitting and embroidery, needlepoint and cross-stitch are making a comeback.  Needlepoint by Hilary More has wonderfully creative and updated needlepoint projects. You can find the perfect cross-stitch gift to create in the beautiful book Inspirational Cross-Stitch by the Bucilla Design Group. (If you are looking for craft supplies, we suggest you swing by Sierra Cottons and Wools on Highway 395 near The Highlands.  They specialize in stitchery of all kinds and carry excellent quality wools, cottons, and yarns as well as Barri’s wonderful original Bareroot patterns.  If you have never been, you are in for a treat.  Check them out at www.sierracottonsandwools.blogspot.com.)

I confess that I am a bit of a Grinch when it comes to the Christmas holidays, but even I fell headlong into our extensive Christmas Crafts shelves.  It is never too early to start thinking about Christmas, and have I can guarantee you that we have the holiday books to help you create a magical December season.  Again, don’t be turned off by books that seem outdated.  I found some of the best HO HO HO seasonal ideas in The Spirit of Christmas series. These books have especially good food recipes such as cheese pockets with bacon and pecans, and sausage and apple appetizers. (I think I might have to throw a party!)  Krafty Kim is a firm believer in the Christmas with Martha Steward Living series.  The book I browsed through was published in 2002, but looked like it could have been from the pages of her current magazine.  Whatever you may think about Martha, you have to admit that her style is classic and enduring.

The best piece of crafting advice I ever read was on a website of a professional quilter who sold wonderful and unique wall hangings.  She said that the reason she made the kind of work that she did was because she lacked the skills to do more precise, detailed quilting: she worked with the skills she had. (Sounds like a decent life philosophy as well…)  Following her advice saved me HOURS of crafting frustration.  Accepting that I am also not a detail oriented person, I now choose projects that give me a little room.  For example, when picking a knitting pattern I look for the magic words: NO GAUGE REQUIRED.  Where do your strengths and weaknesses lay when it comes to crafting?  Are you looking to improve your current skill set or head off into a new direction.  Come in and peruse our Craft Section; be inspired and find the perfect craft project for you.  If you need any assistance, be sure to ask our staff for help.

If you have a favorite crafting project, we would love if you shared it with us in the comment section below.  Come in and show us your latest completed craft–we’d love to see what you have been working on.

“Fill your page with the breathings of your heart.” –William Wordworth

I decided to be a writer when I was nine years old.  I was in the fourth grade and had discovered that books were magic. What better profession than to be the magician who put the words on the page.  I have started and stopped being a writer off and on for the last 30 plus years.  It is hard to shake your calling, but being a writer is dang hard.  Usually a non-profit activity, writing is often lonely and demoralizing. As Dorothy Parker quipped, “I hate writing. I love having written.” Much of the time I think to myself, “Shouldn’t I be doing something better with my time?”, but for some reason I keep getting drawn back to the allure of the flashing curser on an empty screen.  I guess it is the quest for the perfect sentence or poem or opening paragraph, or at least one better than the one I wrote before.  May Satron believes “…we write toward what we will become from where we are.”  Perhaps all writers are doing is searching for themselves.

“Every writer I know has trouble writing.” –Joseph Heller

Over the years, I have often turned to other authors for writing inspiration and advice.  Hands down the best writing teacher around is Natalie Goldberg.  Author of the books Writing Down the Bones and Wild Mind among others, Goldberg believes that first and foremost you have to set aside the critical editor mind and get the words down on paper.  She calls it finding “beginner’s mind” and her technique is simple.  You pick a topic such as “elbows” or “junior high”, set a timer for 10 to 20 minutes, touch your pen to the paper, and GO!  Don’t stop writing or even pause to reread what you have written until the timer sounds.  Just keep writing as fast as you can even if you have to repeat the phrase “I don’t know what to write” over and over.  Believe me, this technique will work.  I have used it myself, and have taught “free writing” to third graders up to reluctant high school seniors.  You will find that in spite of yourself, there is always something there.  If you want to write but find you just can’t seem to get started, pick up one of Goldberg’s books, follow her instructions, and I guarantee you will be on your way.  (Also, don’t miss Goldberg’s memoir Long Quiet Highway. Although it is not a writing book, it is a beautiful retelling of her creative journey.)

“Talent is nothing but long patience.” –Gustave Flaubert

Most people have heard of Anne Lamott’s wonderful writing book Bird by Bird. Lamott incorporates some of Goldberg’s free writing techniques, but she also addresses issues of procrastination, the inner critic, and jealousy which she calls the “jungle drums” beating in her head.  Wise, witty, and painfully honest, Lamott acknowledges the trials of the writing life and encourages readers to push on to write that one last perfect draft.  (Lamott has also written a number of other books.  Operating Instructions, her collection of journal entries about the first year of her only son’s life, is wonderfully hilarious and terribly truthful.  She has written a number of essays about her spirituality collected in the books Traveling Mercies, Grace (Eventually), and Plan B: Further Thoughts on Faith. Her novel Blue Shoe is a lovely quiet book that did not receive the attention it should have.)

“I don’t wait for moods.  You accomplish nothing if you do that.  Your mind must know it has got to get down to work.” –Pearl Buck

It is easy to image that one of the bestselling authors of all time was born naturally gifted and that his work was immediately recognized as brilliant and publishable, but as Stephen King writes in his excellent memoir On Writing about writing and his writing life, this is not the case.  King, the undisputed master of the horror genre, struggled for years, tenaciously putting pen to paper between shifts at a commercial laundry where he worked to support his young family.  Even now that he is famous and a guaranteed bestseller, King works every single day, writing ten pages or about 2000 words.  His philosophy is that you sit down and do it.  You sit down and write.  And when you are not writing, you read, a lot, to learn how to write better.

The above writing booking are quite popular and come in and out of East Side Books quickly.  If you are interested in one of these titles, ask for directions to the Writing Section, put your name and the title you are requesting on our Wants Lists, or if you are in a hurry, we can place a special order.

“Don’t tell me the moon is shining; show me the glint of light on broken glass.” –Anton Chekhov

Now that you have spent the time at your desk putting thoughts on paper, it is time to reread your ramblings and give them some shape.  For some, present company included, this is the trickiest aspect of writing: how to take your ideas and images and turn them into something that is readable.  Fortunately, at East Side Books, we have a shelfful of writing manuals that teach techniques for working in different writing forms.  The Poet’s Handbook by Judson Jermone is a a resource that I turn to again and again.  Jermone covers the mechanics of poetry writing, the use of techniques such as alliteration and line division, and gives explanations of various fixed forms of poetry such as sonnets, villanelles, and sestinas.  If short stories are your thing, be sure to pick up the Handbook of Short Story Writing Volumes I and II published by The Writer’s Digest.  As a matter of fact, you can’t go wrong purchasing anything put out by The Writer’s Digest.  They are the best when it comes to dispensing sensible, clear, and usable writing advice.

“Being a writer is like having homework every night for the rest of your life.” –Lawrence Kasdan

Once you have revised your draft, it is important to edit your work carefully.  East Side Books has a number of handy grammar books that will make editing a breeze.  A popular grammar manual is Woe Is I by Patricia T. O’Conner.  Clever and fun (yes, I said “fun”!), this book explains much more clearly than Mrs. Grant, my 6th grade English teacher, the difference between a colon and a semicolon, the proper usage of “who’s” and “whose”, and just how to place those pesky apostrophes.  Whether you buy O’Conner’s book or another, no good writer should be without a solid grammar guide and a dictionary.  Eastside Books is well stocked in both.

“A professional writer is an amateur who didn’t quit.” –Richard Bach

Let’s face it, writing for writing’s sake is well and good, but most people have this hidden (or not so hidden) desire to be published.  It is human nature.  You create something you feel is beautiful and powerful or witty and delightful, and you want to share it with the world.  But the only thing you hear these days about getting published is that it is almost impossible.  And it is true, publishing houses receive thousands of unsolicited manuscripts each month.  On the other hand, if you eliminated all the books from Eastside Books that initially were rejected for publication, our shelves would be half empty.  Stephen King had a spike full of rejection letters nailed above his desk.  A Wrinkle In Time by Madeline L’Engle was rejected by 26 editors before it was finally accepted and went on to win a Newbery Award.  The powerful novel Lord of the Flies, which is now taught in most high schools, was rejected 21 times.  John le Carre was told he had no future in writing. Tony Hillerman, who writes a bestselling mystery series set on reservations was told to “get rid of all the Indian stuff”.  Harry Potter and the Sorceror’s Stone was rejected by a dozen publishers and the only reason Bloomsbury bought the book was because the CEO’s eight-year-old daughter who read the manuscript begged her father to print it.

You get the picture.  Manuscript submission is not for the faint of heart. It helps to have a tenacious, resilient spirit as well as a quality manuscript.  It also helps to know a bit about the ins and outs of manuscript submission.  East Side Books Writing Section is teeming with resources to help you find the best publishers for your work.  Again, any resource published by Writer’s Digest will get you on the right track.  I suggest that you pick up a Writer’s Market as a starting place.  A Writer’s Market gives you a categorized list of all the available publishers.  You do not even have to have the most current Writer’s Market–anything within the last five years or so will work.  Submission information changes so fast that even with the most current Writer’s Market, you still have to do an Internet search to double check the submission’s editor name or new changes in submission policies. It is even better if you can pick up a Writer’s Market specific to your area such as children’s writing or magazine writing.  The Way to Publish a Cookbook by Doris McFerran Townsend is a helpful guide to anyone interested in mixing their writing ability with cooking skills, and Writing for Children and Teenagers by Lee Wyndham is a great resource for learning to hone writing to a specific market.

It is of some debate whether or not writers have a better chance of being published if represented by a literary agents.  Agents can often leapfrog their client’s manuscripts over the gigantic slush pile of unsolicited manuscripts.  How to Be Your Own Literary Agent by Richard Curtis is one book that might help you get your own work looked at a little quicker than the rest.  East Side Books has a number of books about how to find a literary agent in our Writing Section.

“I would hurl words into this darkness and wait for an echo, and if an echo sounded, no matter how faintly, I would send other words to tell, to march, to fight, to create a sense of hunger for life that gnaws in us all.” –Richard Wright

If you have always wanted to be a writer, we, at East Side Books, encourage you to pick up a pen and let loose some words.  As Anais Nin said, “The role of a writer is not to say what we all can say, but what we are unable to say.”  If you are needing a little encouragement or guidance, visit our shelves today.  As always, our staff is happy to assist you find just the right book to fit your needs.  Who knows, someday we might be shelving a book written by you.

Additional Note:  There are two organized yearly writing challenges beginning November 1, 2010: National Novel Writing Month (NaNoWriMo) and November PAD Chapbook Challenge.  National Novel Writing Month is exactly what it says–the goal is to write a 175 page (50,000 word) novel during the month of November.  The challenged is geared toward helping writers–experienced or otherwise–get that rough draft on paper.  Over 165,000 writers participated last year.  For more information go to www.nanowrimo.org . The November PAD Chapbook Challenge is put on by Writer’s Digest.  The idea of this contest is to write a poem each day during the month of November.  Participants will have the month of December to revise and organize their November poems into a 10 to 20 page manuscript.  Manuscripts need to be submitted by January 5 and a winner will be selected.  Poets can post their poems along the way.  For more information go to www.writersdigest.com/poeticasides Click on November 2010 PAD Challenge.  You can also check out www.poetry.com for a daily, weekly, monthly, and yearly cash prizes for poetry.

“September is like a quiet day after a whole week of wind.”

So begins Mildred Walker’s coming of age novel Winter Wheat set in the early 1940s in the great wheat country of central Montana.  Walker, a little know but beautiful writer, can capture the essence of a season in one sentence, and the rhythms of farm life in Montana in one book.

There is no group of writers that can capture the sense of landscape and the people who loved and battled that landscape better than the writers of the Western States.  And there in no better time than early fall as the cool air drifts down from the mountains and settles here in the valley to grab a few of these writers off the shelves and wrap their words around you like a blanket.

If unfamiliar with the writers of the Western States–Colorado, Idaho, Montana, and Wyoming–there is no better author to begin your journey with than with Ivan Doig.  A frequent mention on lists of  “top ten favorite books of all time” is Doig’s novel Dancing at the Rascal Fair, the second in the trilogy about two Scottish immigrants who at the turn of the century struggle for survival on the brutal Montana frontier as they work to establish claims and build flocks of sheep.  Of course, you could also read the trilogy in order starting with English Creek and ending with Ride with Me, Mariah Montana.  Another fine and more recent novel of Doig’s is The Whistling Season.  He is also the author of several books of nonfiction, most notably This House of Sky: Landscapes of a Western Mind.

As good as Doig is, the undisputable king of the writers of the Western States is the master Wallace Stegner.  Stegner, who has been called the “dean of Western writers”  and taught emerging student writers such as Edward Abbey, Ernest Gaines, Thomas McGuane, and Raymond Carver, is best known for his novel Angle of Repose. This Pulitzer Prize winning work is the intertwined story of a historian researching and writing the history of his pioneer grandparents. Written in gorgeous prose, Angle of Repose has often been named the greatest novel ever written about the West.  Stegner was a prolific writer and some of his other popular titles are Crossing to Safety; my personal favorite The Big Rock Candy Mountain; and his nonfiction account of John Westly Powell’s running of the Colorado river entitled Beyond the Hundredth Meridian.

I would be remiss to write a blog about writers of the Western States without mentioning these two gentlemen, A.B. Guthrie and Norman Maclean, who both have left their mark amongst the bookshelves.  If Stegner was known for writing the greatest novel ever written about the West, then Guthrie was known for creating three of the most memorable characters of Western American literature in his epic adventure novel The Big Sky.  The story of three men who travel west and live as frontiersmen is as vivid and sweeping as the landscape it describes.  Norman Maclean, on the other hand, has produced only one slim novel in his lifetime.  One exquisitely beautiful and perfect novel called A River Runs Through It, a tale of family, fly fishing, and Montana.  This novel was brought to the big screen by Robert Redford.

If you are looking for more recent writers of the Western States look for work by Mary Clearman Blew who has written several memoirs and short story collections about Montana ranch life, and Mark Spragg who, among other works, wrote the novel An Unfinished Life that was turned into a movie starring Robert Redford, Morgan Freeman, and weirdly enough, Jennifer Lopez.  (I guess Redford has a thing for Western writers also.)  If you haven’t read The Meadow by James Galvin, don’t miss this beautifully rendered story of ranch life along the Wyoming-Colorado border and the neighbors who share a meadow there.  Galvin’s chapters deftly flash back and forth over 100 years, and his writing is lyrical and artful. If you are seeking a little quality nonfiction, pick up Solace of Open Spaces by Gretel Ehrlich, her story of moving to a small ranch in Wyoming.  Ehrlich is an incredibly intelligent essayist who writes with such precision, beauty, and accessibility that you can lose yourself in her for hours.  Her young adult novel A Blizzard Year, set on a ranch in the Northern Rockies, is also excellent.

If you need any help locating the above mentioned books or are interested in similar titles, please don’t hesitate to ask our staff for assistance.  If we don’t have what you are looking for, we can always add your request to our Wants Lists or place a special order.