Red Velvet Cupcakes

Today I made red velvet cupcakes for the first time..

I've only had them once, and they weren't my favourite cupcake ever, but a friend requested them for her birthday cupcakes.

Red Velvet Cupcakes..

They do look red.. sort of.

I tried one, but I'm not sure how I feel about it. I think the cream cheese icing needs to sit for a while and get a bit of a better flavour. We'll see what they think when they try them though.

Sons and Other Flammable Objects

Sons and Other Flammable Objects - Porochista Khakpour

From Amazon: "Khakpour builds her luminously intelligent debut around the travails of an Iranian-American family caught in the feverish and paranoid currents immediately after 9/11. Darius Adam and his wife, Laleh (who, much to Darius's disgust, Americanizes her name to Lala), flee revolutionary Iran for the alien territory of Southern California, settling in an apartment complex with the allegorically enticing name of Eden Gardens. Son Xerxes grows up with psychological dual citizenship: regular American outside of Eden Gardens, but the son of bitter Darius and clueless Lala inside. Xerxes finds true paradise in watching Barbara Eden, the star of I Dream of Jeannie. For the brilliantly rendered Lala, America is not so bad—it's a good place to ''lose your mind, which is how Lala translates into English her forgetting her unhappy Tehran childhood. Against this background of a parody paradise, Khakpour plays out the events following 9/11, which will, grotesquely, unite the Adam family. By then Xerxes, 26, is an unemployed college grad in a New York airshaft-view apartment, as far from Eden Gardens as possible."

This was a random pick off a shelf at the library.. although I have a feeling it's on my list, just because of the strange title. I did actually enjoy the book, although it took a while for me to get into it. Once the story got going, I did find it hard to put down. I read this while in Toba, and ended up reading almost half of it in one evening. I'd recommend it to someone who wants something a bit different, with some more cultural influences.

Eco-chic Weddings

Eco-chic Weddings: Simple Tips to Plan an Earth-Friendly, Socially Responsible, Affordable Green Wedding - Emily Elizabeth Anderson

From Amazon: "Planning your wedding can be the best time to be eco-friendly. The wedding industry has a huge impact on the global economy and the environment, as wedding parties spend over $125 billion a year in the U.S. alone. Eco-Chic Weddings presents the quick, simple, and easy-to-follow tips you need to make your wedding socially responsible. This indispensable guide gives you the choice, comfort, and chance to share your own unique style for a truly memorable wedding."

Blah. Just another boring book, telling you how to be socially responsible and green. Basically.. telling you how to use common sense. Pretty sure none of her tips were really that useful...

#15

I can finally take #15 off the list. I am not able to become an RPBio before I turn 25, however, last week my mom sent me an email that said that I am now a BIT, or biologist in training.

Go me.

I think that's 3 down, 22 to go!

Never Shower in a Thunderstorm

Never Shower in a Thunderstorm: Surprising Facts and Misleading Myths About our Health & the World we Live in - Anahad O'Connor 

From Amazon: "For more than two years, the New York Timess science and health columnist Anahad OConnor has tracked down the facts, fictions, and occasional fuzziness of old wives tales, conventional-wisdom cures, and other medical mysteries. Now in this lively and fun book, he opens up his case files to disclose the experts answers on everything, from which of your bad habits you can indulge (yo-yo dieting does not mess up your metabolism and sitting too close to the television does not hurt your eyes) to what foods actually pack the punch advertised (you can lay off the beet juice!). A compendium of answers to the curious and nagging questions of how to keep healthy, Never Shower in a Thunderstorm will provide guidance and amusement to anyone who has ever wondered if the mosquitoes really are attacking her more than everyone else. (Yes, they are.)"

Not the most exciting book I've read, but I suppose not the worst either. Sort of like mythbusters, but for old wives tales and myths. Unfortunately, it involves mostly health, with much less blowing up. It was fast to read because it was just a few pages on each question. I suppose I'd recommend it to someone who wanted to know the answers to these weird questions, but really, there's many better books out there...

Anthem

Anthem - Ayn Rand

From Amazon: "

In a future where there is no love, no science, and everyone is equal and of one entity, one man defies the group to be his own person. That is a serious offense."

I really enjoyed this very short book. It reminded me of the Giver, which I read so long ago. This is the first Ayn Rand book that I've read, but we have many more of them sitting on our bookshelf at home, so maybe I'll actually read more of them. It also reminds me a bit of Oryx and Crake.. and maybe even 1984. 

I'd recommend it!

Payback

Payback: Debt and the Shadow Side of Wealth - Margaret Atwood

From Amazon: "Debt is usually regarded as bloblike, cheerless, and about as illuminating as a dungeon. But Atwood sees things in it that we don’t. What she offers us in tBohese meditations is nothing less than a secret history of human obligation, economic and otherwise. From ancient tax collectors to the reason why “Hell is like a maxed out credit card,” Atwood exposes the debts we incur and the pledges we make in the arenas of law, business, religion, and the environment."

I really enjoy Margaret Atwood. She's bizarre and crazy and I love it. This book has nothing to do with debt as we think, instead she touches on different kinds of debt, and talks about the history of debt, justice, and why there has to be two sides (debtor/creditor) in order for everything to make sense. I enjoyed the history lesson - although it would have been a bit better if I knew a few more of her examples.

Overall, I'd recommend this to someone who wants a different kind of read, especially different for Atwood. The other books that I've read by her are fiction -- this one brings out a different, more inquisitive side of her.