It’s August – time to head to your beach, lake, or mountain home. You already know the essential beach reads to put in your tote bag. But all those lists forgot to mention the books you need to help fill the rest of your time!
Be sure to give the kids – or antsy adults – a copy of Origami On the Go before you get in the car.
BookExpo America, (BEA) an annual booksellers and publishers convention, is a great time to see what everyone else is up to while showing off what we’ve got lined up for the new year. Our booth always attracts a lot of traffic, and this year was no exception.
We brought in authors Anne Byrn, Rufus Butler Seder and Amy Saxton to greet eager fans and sign books. Our booth served cake from The Cake Mix Doctor Returns along with copies of Don’t Forget to Sing in Lifeboats—an optimistic book full of “Uncommon wisdom.” We presented the hottest new idea for children—Indestructibles books, and announced BananaGrams!, a book version of the popular game.
But the BEA fun didn’t stop at the convention center—we held a 400-person cocktail party at the Workman offices!
Even though many predicted a smaller-than-usual show this year with scaled-down booths and events, this BEA had a few twists, but with all of the excitement of years past.
Growing up I always thought my mom wasn’t cool because she used a homemade chimney starter to light the charcoal in her grill. That was two major strikes against her: charcoal instead of gas, and a chimney starter instead of lighter fluid.
Now that I’ve spent the last few months learning from the master griller Steven Raichlen, I realize my mom was not lame at all. She knew that grilling with charcoal can produce complex, rich, smoky flavors that gas can’t duplicate.
It’s that same pure charcoal grilling that’s going to drive my Memorial Day cookout. I’m taking inspiration from Steven’s Ultimate Grilling Menu to impress my friends this year. We’re not only going to grill with coals, but right on them! We are tossing the grate aside and throwing steak on the coals, corn on the coals, and pretty much everything else that looks fresh and hearty at the farmer’s market–right on the coals.
Hopefully my guests will leave with ideas of their own, and then enter them in Steven’s Ultimate Grilling Recipe Contest. I know my hungry friends have some clever ideas brewing. How about you?
Since I can remember, the Silver Palate Cookbook has been right there as a staple next to Joy of Cooking in my mother’s kitchen. The Silver Palate Cookbook is a bible for two of my favorite home cooks- my cousin and my best friend’s mother. And when I started this job in November, it’s the first book I would mention when asked what I’d be working on. The response was a repetitive, but never boring, “I love the Silver Palate Cookbook! I cook from it all the time!”
So when our executive editor Suzanne Rafer asked me if I wanted to attend a Children of Bellevue benefit awarding Workman’s wonderful Sheila Lukins, it was a no brainer. I would finally get to meet the woman behind the Silver Palate sensation. The woman who changed the way America eats.
Sheila’s books have become a cultural touchstone, but what her devoted fan base doesn’t know is that when no one else would help, our wonderful Sheila was a volunteer at the Bellevue Hospital Center working with patients who had TB. Wonderful Sheila, indeed.
I like to think of them lighting up when Sheila arrived, putting a smile on their faces with her distinctive, snappy one-lines. And leaving behind a plate of her chicken marbella.
Well, maybe the chicken couldn’t get past the nurses. But I prefer to imagine it did.
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