Top Ten Characters I’d Like To Hang Out With

I live a quiet life.

The biggest adventure of my entire existence

was the summer I worked in Yellowstone Park.

So, for this Top Ten Characters I'd Like to Switch Places With,

I'm going for Adventure.

I'd like to go along on some adventures 

with real people. 

Real people featured in children's nonfiction picture books.

And then, of course, Return Safely Home.

So, here we go...

I'll start by travelling along with Jacques Cousteau

under the sea.

How about zooming across America with Jackson and Bud

on the first cross-country automobile trip?

Maybe I could go camping with president Teddy Roosevelt next.

I love the American West,

and I'd love to help Yellowstone Moran paint all the beautiful sites.

I have a terrible fear of heights,

but surely I wouldn't be afraid

 if I walked between the towers

with tightrope performer Philippe Petit.

And if I'm already on a tightrope,

it will be easy-peasy to head off to the moon

with the Apollo 11 astronauts.

When I get rested up from that big trip,

I'll take off for Africa,

and teach there.

While I'm in Africa anyway,

I'll head over to gorilla country

and hang out with Jane Goodall.

All these adventures are going to make me hungry,

so I'll zip over to Paris and

spend time cooking with Julia Child.

I might need to take a little break from all these adventures

and relax in Paris by writing poetry with Gertrude Stein.

Who'd you like to hang out with?

Top Ten Tuesday is an original feature/weekly meme created at The Broke and the Bookish. This feature was created because we are particularly fond of lists here at The Broke and the Bookish. We'd love to share our lists with other bookish folks and would LOVE to see your top ten lists!

Each week we will post a new Top Ten list that one of our bloggers here at The Broke and the Bookish will answer. Everyone is welcome to join. All we ask is that you link back to The Broke and the Bookish on your own Top Ten Tuesday post AND add your name to the Linky widget so that everyone can check out other bloggers lists! If you don't have a blog, just post your answers as a comment. Have fun with it! It's a fun way to get to know your fellow bloggers.

It's Monday! What Are You Reading?!

                 

               

What I Finished Last Week Two more Paris books Paris, I Love You But You're Bringing Me Down (Review coming soon) Le Road Trip (Review coming soon) Two more 1001 Children's Books You Must Read The Breadwinner by Deborah Ellis (Review coming soon) Teddy Robinson by Joan G. Robinson (Review coming soon)

What I Might Read Next I've got all these books awaiting me. Who can choose?!

What are you reading today?!

It’s Monday! What Are You Reading? is where we share what we read this past week, what we hope to read this week…. and anything in between!  This is a great way to plan out your reading week and see what others are currently reading as well… you never know where that next “must read” book will come from!

I love being a part of this and I hope you do too! As part of this weekly meme Book Journey loves to encourage you all to go and visit the others participating in this meme. Book Journey offers a weekly contest for those who visit 10 or more of the Monday Meme participants and leave a comment telling BJ how many you visited.

Pain Français

We're off for one last weekend in Paris.

I couldn't resist sharing with you

the recipe I love most and make most:

Pain Français.

If you are not a baker,

you are thinking,

Non, non, non!

Pain? Non!

Trop difficile!

Shhh! Come here. Now I'm going to let you in on a secret:

Baking bread is the easiest thing you will ever do. Shhh!

Any book on baking will have great ideas to help you.

I used this book, Baking, by James Peterson.

Here's all it takes to make two wonderful loaves of French bread:

6 cups flour

.75 ounce active dry yeast

1 1/2 tsp. salt

2 cups warm water

That's it.

Just flour, yeast, salt, water.

What could be easier?

I stir some of the flour with some of the water and the yeast

and let it sit until it bubbles a little (an hour?)

Then I stir in more of the flour and water

and add the salt.

I knead it for about ten minutes.

It will feel smooth when it is just right.

I let it rise until it doubles,

punch it down, and knead it again.

After it has risen again,

I roll it out into long lovely loaves and

let it rise for a little on the baking pan.

Then I pop it into the oven at 375 degrees for 15-20 minutes.

(Sometimes I slash the tops of the loaves

before I put it in the oven,

and sometimes I place a glass bowl of water on the bottom rung of the oven

to give the bread a beautiful crust.)

Then it is out of the oven

and I slice enough for our meal,

and add lots of butter.

Yum!

Weekend Cooking is hosted by Beth Fish Reads and is open to anyone who has any kind of food-related post to share: Book (novel, nonfiction) reviews, cookbook reviews, movie reviews, recipes, random thoughts, gadgets, quotations, photographs. If your post is even vaguely foodie, feel free to grab the button and link up anytime over the weekend.You do not have to post on the weekend. Please link to your specific post, not your blog's home page. For more information, see the welcome post.

Top Ten Most Vivid Settings In Books

Radioactive

This book is all about the setting,

with danger in everything,

even the smallest particles.

Buddha in the Attic

America in the time leading up to and during WWII,

America afraid.

1Q84

Another Murakami world

of secrets and mysteries,

where nothing is certain.

The Yearling

I never knew what Florida Crackers were

until I read this book.

Think Florida Crackers = Early Wal-Mart People.

Game of Thrones

If you are a woman and you've ever been talked into playing Risk

with a bunch of men,

and you ended up running away from the table, in tears...

well, that's basically this book,

only you won't just leave the table in tears.

Window

It's inevitable, we know,

but it hurts anyway.

Paris to the Moon

It's Paris.

It's the most vivid spot on earth.

It's the book that makes me think of moving there every day.

Watership Down

I was a rabbit, living among rabbits,

for days as I read this book.

Children on the Oregon Trail

No water. Hunting for food.

Cold. Seven children,

one an infant, headed for Oregon.

In winter. Alone.

Zeitoun

New Orleans after Katrina.

Top Ten Tuesday is an original feature/weekly meme created at The Broke and the Bookish. This feature was created because we are particularly fond of lists here at The Broke and the Bookish. We'd love to share our lists with other bookish folks and would LOVE to see your top ten lists!

Each week we will post a new Top Ten list that one of our bloggers here at The Broke and the Bookish will answer. Everyone is welcome to join. All we ask is that you link back to The Broke and the Bookish on your own Top Ten Tuesday post AND add your name to the Linky widget so that everyone can check out other bloggers lists! If you don't have a blog, just post your answers as a comment. Have fun with it! It's a fun way to get to know your fellow bloggers.

It's Monday! What Are You Reading?

                 

               

What I Reviewed Last Week (Paris Books) Paris My Sweet by Amy Thomas Amy Thomas (get ready for the swell of covetousness that is about to overtake you) goes to Paris to write ad copy for Louis Vuitton....more The Sweet Life in Paris by David Lebovitz The Sweet Life in Paris is  the moving-and-starting-over story of Lebovitz’s venture into Parisian life.  It’s a story we have heard many times before...more A Town Like Paris by Bryce Corbett Australian Bryce Corbett somehow finds himself in the most bewitching,  the most bewildering of towns, Paris. He bungles his way through working at his...more (1001 Children's Books You Must Read Before You Grow Up books) Parvana's Journey by Deborah Ellis Parvana is a girl in midst of a terrible war in Afghanistan.  Her father has just died and she desperately wants to find her mother and siblings.  She...more Figgie Hobbin by Charles Causley I’m not sure whether children in America these days read...more The Little Horse Bus by Graham Greene There are some books that I really, really wonder  how they made the 1001 Children's Books You Must Read Before You Grow Up list.  This is one of those....more The Lighthouse Keeper's Rescue  by Ronda and David Armitage There comes a time in every reader’s life when she finds she must bend the rules.  Of course we want to read all of the 1001 Children’s Books You Must...more Clever Polly and the Stupid Wolf by Catherine Storr Wolf is quite annoyed that Polly won’t fall for his tricks.  All Wolf wants, really, is to eat Polly, but she manages to elude him every time.  You must...more The Incredible Adventures of Professor Branestawm by Norman Hunter How is it that this book has eluded me all my life?  It should be in every library in the world.  Yes, a worthy choice for 1001 Children’s Books You Mus...more

What I Finished Last Week The Light Between Oceans by M. L. Stedman This is a sad, sad story.  I was pretty sure it was going to be a sad, sad story when  I saw it on the list of recommended books in the August issue of...more The Fault in Our Stars by John Green You told me this was a great read, but I ignored you,  thinking John Green was just another author of Sad Teenager Stories.  I was wrong....more

What I'm Reading Now (Chicago Books) Insurgent by Veronica Roth     City Walks: Chicago

What I Might Read Next I'm back from Chicago this week, and I have a giant stack of possibilities to read next. Which do you recommend?

What are you reading today?!

It’s Monday! What Are You Reading? is where we share what we read this past week, what we hope to read this week…. and anything in between!  This is a great way to plan out your reading week and see what others are currently reading as well… you never know where that next “must read” book will come from!

I love being a part of this and I hope you do too! As part of this weekly meme Book Journey loves to encourage you all to go and visit the others participating in this meme. Book Journey offers a weekly contest for those who visit 10 or more of the Monday Meme participants and leave a comment telling BJ how many you visited.