Get that waffle iron ready because here comes a collection of 100 waffle recipes in the ultimate Waffle Recipe Book.
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Kitchen Inspo with Booko: Waffle Recipe Book
Category Archives: Recommended
Kitchen Inspo with Booko: Baking Science
Baking Science removes the mystery of chemistry in the kitchen with easy-to-understand breakdown of how baking works.
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Build your bookshelf in time for Winter with Booko: Dreamland
Dreamland by Nicholas Sparks forces its characters to wonder whether the dream of a better life can ever survive the weight of the past.
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Build your bookshelf in time for Winter with Booko: Fairy Tale
Legendary storyteller Stephen King is back with Fairy Tale. A 17 year-old boy who inherits the keys to a parallel world where good and evil are at war.
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World Book Day Celebration: Our favourite 6 books on the market now
We love a good World Celebration Day; International Ice Cream Day (17 July), International Hot Chocolate Day (28 January), International Star Wars Day (4 May), World Gin Day (12 June), World Pizza Day (9 February), International Cookie Day (4 December). It will be of no surprise that we also love World Book Day… which just happened to be last Saturday (23 April).
So while we like to throw ourselves into the various festivities (usually tasting and drinking all of the delights) we also dove into the world of literature and found six of our favourite books that have recently hit the bookstores.
The School for Good Mothers by Jessamine Chan
Every mother has a bad day… Frida Liu is a struggling mother. She remembers taking Harriet from her cot and changing her nappy. She remembers giving her a morning bottle. They’d been up since four am. Frida just had to finish the article in front of her. But she’d left a file on her desk at work. What would happen if she retrieved it and came back in an hour? She was so sure it would be okay. Now, the state has decided that Frida is not fit to care for her daughter. That she must be re-educated. Can this mistake cost her everything? The School For Good Mothers is an explosive and thrilling novel about the pressures of perfectionism, parenthood and privilege.
Atlas of the Heart by Brené Brown
This major new work from the international bestselling author of Gifts of Imperfection and Dare to Lead examines the 87 emotions and experiences that define us, and provides a compelling framework to help us all become more emotionally fluent and connected. In her latest book, five-time #1 New York Times bestselling author Dr Brene Brown, writes, “If we want to find the way back to ourselves and each other, we need language and the grounded confidence to both tell our stories, and to be stewards of the stories that we hear. This is the framework for meaningful connection.” In Atlas of the Heart, Brown takes us on a journey through 87 of the emotions and experiences that define what it means to be human. As she maps the necessary skills and lays out an actionable framework for meaningful connection, she gives us the language and tools to access a universe of new choices and second chances – a universe where we can share and steward the stories of our bravest and most heart-breaking moments with one another in a way that builds connection. Over the past two decades, Brown’s extensive research into the experiences that make us who we are has shaped the cultural conversation and helped define what it means to be courageous with our lives. Atlas of the Heart draws on this research, as well as Brown’s singular skills as a researcher/storyteller, to lay out an invaluable, research-based framework that shows us that naming an experience doesn’t give the experience more power, it gives us the power of understanding, meaning and choice.
Ten Steps to Nanette by Hannah Gadsby
Multi-awardwinning Hannah Gadsby transformed comedy with her show Nanette, even as she declared that she was quitting stand-up. Now, she takes us through the defining moments in her life that led to the creation of Nanette and her powerful decision to tell the truth – no matter the cost. Gadsby’s unique stand-up special Nanette was a viral success that left audiences captivated by her blistering honesty and her ability to create both tension and laughter in a single moment. But while her worldwide fame might have looked like an overnight sensation, her path from open mic to the global stage was hard-fought and anything but linear. Ten Steps to Nanette traces Gadsby’s growth as a queer person from Tasmania – where homosexuality was illegal until 1997 – to her ever-evolving relationship with comedy, to her struggle with adult diagnoses of autism and ADHD, and finally to the backbone of Nanette – the renouncement of self-deprecation, the rejection of misogyny, and the moral significance of truth-telling. Equal parts harrowing and hilarious, Ten Steps to Nanette continues Gadsby’s tradition of confounding expectations and norms, properly introducing us to one of the most explosive, formative voices of our time.
A Good Day to Bake by Benjamina Ebuehi
Going through the ritual of bringing out the measuring scales, pouring out flour, whipping up the eggs, stirring the batter and impatiently slicing up warm cake is a beautiful thing that deserves to be enjoyed all year round no matter the day, season or occasion. This is a cookbook that embraces simplicity, mindfulness and the therapeutic comforts of baking. The Great British Bake Off‘s 2016 contestant Benjamina writes so warmly about cakes and her recipes speak to a natural, seasonal and down-to-earth way of baking. Chapters include Herbs Tea, Stone Fruit, Berries, Vegetables, Best of Beige, Spice Cupboard, and Chocolate. Because every day is a good day to bake.
Pink House Living For People Cheating on Fashion with Furniture by Emily Murray
Pink House Living is a beautiful, practical guide to decorating with pink by Emily Murray of the award-winning The Pink House blog. Emily draws on her recent interiors projects to guide the reader through their own rose-tinted renovations and includes case studies on well-known interiors experts that reveal their use of pink, their go-to paint shades and where they glean ‘pinkspiration’. Pink House Living is not about decorating your home in pink from rooftop to rugs, but a look at how the colour can be used alongside other hues – sometimes sparingly, sometimes in spades. Divided up by room, the book uses the colour pink and its history as a starting point from which to discuss the decorating process. Readers will be entertained by Emilys interiors insights and witty turn of phrase while gaining invaluable advice on adding pink (and colour in general) to their homes.
Megan Hess: The Little Black Dress by Megan Hess
The Little Black Dress is an illustrated love story about fashion’s most enduring and chic uniform, celebrating the designers, the women and of course the dresses. A piece of fashion is so much more than an object. To the designer who created it, the muse who inspired it, the fashion lover who lusts after it, the stylist who is lucky enough to own it, or the star who made it iconic; that fashion piece is part of a story. Introduced by Coco Chanel and made famous by Audrey Hepburn, the little black dress redefined how women dress and remains one of the most elegant and versatile pieces in any wardrobe. Vogue said it would become ‘a sort of uniform for all women of taste’, a prophecy that has more than come true. And this little book is the perfect accessory. Filled with fascinating information and stunning illustrations from Megan Hess, and packaged up in a beautiful hardback, Megan Hess: The Little Black Dress is a timeless love story, and the first in Megan Hess’ new Ultimate Fashion Wardrobe series.
Enjoy!
#tuesdaychat
There are so many great books on the market at the moment that it can be hard to choose which to read next. Which book are you currently reading?
Build your bookshelf in time for Winter with Booko: The House of Fortune
The House of Fortune is a glorious, sweeping story of fate and ambition, secrets and dreams, and one young woman’s determination to rule her own destiny.
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Author Spotlight: Agatha Christie
Over 100 years after the publication of her first novel, Agatha Christie’s books are still being enjoyed, justifying her reputation as the “Queen of Crime”, with achievements that go well beyond the mystery genre. Her career spanned over 50 years, producing 66 novels, 14 short story collections, as well as a number of plays, non-fiction and literary fiction under the pseudonym of Mary Westmacott. Agatha Christie is one of the best-known writers in the English language, and remains the bestselling fiction writer of all time (only beaten by Shakespeare and the Bible), as well as the most-translated individual author. Her books have sold over two billion copies, and have influenced the development of detective mysteries, as well as wider popular culture.
Agatha Christie was born in 1890 into an English upper-middle-class family. She loved reading and writing as a child, and wrote her first poem at age 10, and her first short story at 18. However, her path to literary success was not always smooth – after a number of rejections, she finally became a published writer at age 30, and remained a successful author for the rest of her life (and beyond!).
Her stories are famous for their meticulous plots, complete with red herrings and plot twists – they have been likened to intricate puzzles that require readers to scrutinise every sentence for hidden clues. She is also admired for her economy of prose and shrewd observations of human nature. Agatha Christie regularly included details drawn from personal experience: from country house parties, to trips on the Orient Express; her travels to Egypt, Syria, and Iraq; and knowledge about archeology (gained through her time on archeological digs with her second husband), and drugs and poisons (from her work in hospital dispensaries during both World Wars). She has even set a Poirot novel, Dead Man’s Folly, at Greenway House, her holiday home in Devon.
For this week’s showcase, Team Booko has chosen six of Agatha Christie’s best-known as well as most important novels. Is your favourite amongst them?
The Mysterious Affair at Styles
The Mysterious Affair at Styles was Agatha Christie’s first published novel, and it introduced readers to Hercule Poirot, a Belgian police-officer-turned detective with a distinctive moustache. Poirot was inspired by the Belgian refugees Agatha Christie met during World War I; he went on to become her greatest partner in crime, appearing in 33 novels and over 50 short stories. After his last appearance, in Curtain, The New York Times published Poirot’s obituary – the only fictional character to have this honour. Thy Mysterious Affair at Styles is set in a country manor, Styles Court, whose wealthy owner has been murdered with poison. Hercule Poirot, living nearby, takes on the case upon the insistence of his friend, a houseguest at Styles. Besides introducing us to the brilliant, analytical Hercule Poirot, many elements of this story, including the isolated country house, the intricate plot with red herrings and twists, and the final reveal, have become iconic plot devices.
The Murder of Roger Ackroyd is considered by many as Agatha Christie’s masterpiece – including by the Crime Writers’ Association, whose 600+ members voted this book as its Best Ever Novel – “the finest example of the genre ever penned”. Roger Ackroyd is a man engaged to the wealthy Mrs Ferrars, a widow rumoured to have killed her first husband. Within a day of Mrs Ferrars’ unexpected suicide, Roger is found murdered in his own home; the suspects, who include Roger’s relatives, houseguests and servants, all have reasons for wanting him gone. It is up to Hercule Poirot, lured out of retirement, to identify the killer. The Murder of Roger Ackroyd contains probably the most controversial of Christie’s plot twists, and is often cited as a cornerstone of the mystery genre. Once the murderer is revealed, you will want to reread the book right away, looking for missed clues and savouring how Agatha Christie has mislead you.
Miss Jane Marple, an elderly, genteel spinster resident of St Mary Mead, gets her first full-length novel in The Murder at the Vicarage, having already appeared in a number of short stories. Inspired by Agatha Christie’s step-grandmother, Miss Marple is the yin to Hercule Poirot’s yang: instead of Poirot’s professional, methodical analysis, Miss Marple is an amateur sleuth who solves crimes using her intuition and her empathic understanding of human weakness. While investigating the alibis and motivations of various villagers connected to the murder of Colonel Protheroe, the local magistrate, we also get to know Miss Marple’s village, and a number of recurring characters including Miss Marple’s friends, and the local vicar. The 12 novels and 20 short stories about Miss Marple are the forerunners of today’s “cosy mysteries”, typically set in idyllic locations and featuring homely amateur sleuths such as elderly women or pet cats.
One of the best-known and most-popular “locked room” mysteries, Murder on the Orient Express is also memorable because it contains a surprising ending that completely subverts the conventions it has just helped to consolidate. A luxurious train, travelling across Europe through the night, becomes stuck in a snowstorm; there is a cosmopolitan, international set of passengers aboard. One of them, a wealthy, dubious American businessman, is murdered in his cabin, which is locked from the inside. Isolated and with a killer in their midst, Hercule Poirot will need all his “little grey cells” to solve this mystery. Inspired by Agatha Christie’s own experience travelling on the Orient Express in the 1930s, the glamorous period setting has made Murder on the Orient Express a media favourite, with adaptations for radio, TV, stageplay as well as for film.
You may have seen images of the currently-showing film adaptation, full of Art Deco elegance; this most exotic of Agatha Christie’s stories, set in 1930s Egypt aboard a luxury steamer, certainly lends itself to stunning visuals. Death on the Nile starts with Hercule Poirot enjoying a well-deserved holiday on a cruise down the Nile. Alas, intrigue and murder seems to follow him wherever he goes. Not one, but three murders happen onboard – to beautiful heiress Linnet, who was being harassed by a fellow passenger; Linnet’s maid Louise; and romance novelist Salome Otterbourne. All of the suspects have secrets to hide, and only Monsieur Poirot’s talents can untangle the connections between the characters and reveal the killer. Agatha Christie visited Egypt many times throughout her life, first as a young tourist, and later whilst accompanying her archeologist husband on annual archeological digs throughout the Middle East. Besides Death on the Nile, her personal experiences living and travelling in the area informed several other stories, including Murder in Mesopotamia and They Came to Baghdad.
And Then There Were None is a chilling novel more akin to psychological horror than a “typical” Agatha Christie story: in fact, she has methodically subverted all of her trademarks here. The mystery is set up by having ten people at a house party on a small, isolated island; they were played a strange recording, which accuses each person of a crime; thereafter, these ten people begin to die one by one, echoing a sinister nursery rhyme. However, there is no detective involved, no interviews of suspects, no careful search for clues, and no suspects gathered together in the last chapter to be confronted with the solution; what keeps readers on edge is guessing who’s next to die, and how. This clever novel, the bestselling crime novel of all time, was voted “The World’s Favourite Christie” in an online poll marking Agatha Christie’s 125th birthday in 2015.
Author Spotlight: Jodi Picoult
Jodi Picoult is the #1 New York Times bestselling author of twenty-eight novels which have been translated into thirty-four languages in thirty-five countries. Jodi has a penetrating insight into the hearts and minds of real people and writes these insights in page-turning detail.
Born and raised on Long Island in America, Jodi thought her uneventful childhood would not help her as a writer, in fact it was the opposite. The core of a family and the tangle of relationships is something that is central to all of her stories. Jodi studied creative writing at Princeton and published two stories while studying and then went on to further her study with a Master’s of Education at Harvard.
Jodi is the recipient of many awards, including the New England Bookseller Award for Fiction, the Alex Awards from the YALSA, a lifetime achievement award for mainstream fiction from the Romance Writers of America, and the NH Literary Award for Outstanding Literary Merit. Her stories have also been made into movies and television series.
Here are six of our favourite Picoult stories (you can buy all of Jodi’s books here)
Anna is not sick, but she might as well be. By age thirteen, she has undergone countless surgeries, transfusions and shots so that her older sister, Kate, can somehow fight the leukaemia that has plagued her since childhood. Anna was conceived as a bone marrow match for Kate, a life and a role that she has never questioned until now. Like most teenagers, Anna is beginning to question who she truly is. But unlike most teenagers, she has always been defined in terms of her sister – and so Anna makes a decision that for most would be unthinkable, a decision that will tear her family apart and have perhaps fatal consequences for the sister she loves.
Told from multiple points of view, My Sister’s Keeper examines what it means to be a good parent, a good sister, a good person. Is it morally correct to do whatever it takes to save a child’s life, even if that means infringing upon the rights of another? Should you follow your own heart, or let others lead you? What happens when emotion catches up to scientific advances?
Set in a small town in the wake of a horrific school shooting, Nineteen Minutes features the return of two beloved Picoult characters – Jordan McAfee, the lawyer from The Pact and Salem Falls, who once again finds himself representing a boy who desperately needs someone on his side; and Patrick Ducharme, the intrepid detective introduced in Perfect Match, whose best witness is the daughter of the superior court judge assigned to the case. As the story unfolds, layer after layer is peeled back to reveal some hard-hitting questions about the nature of justice, the balance of power and what it means to be different. Nineteen Minutes is a riveting, thought-provoking tale with a jaw-dropping finale.
In this contemporary tale of love and friendship, Jodi Picoult brings to life a familiar world, and in a single terrifying moment awakens every parent’s worst fear: we think we know our children – but do we ever really know them at all? For eighteen years the Hartes and the Golds have lived next door to each other – they’ve grown so close it seems they have always been a part of each other’s lives. Parents and children alike have been best friends, so it’s no surprise that in high school Chris and Emily’s friendship blossoms into something more. They’ve been soul mates since they were born. So when midnight calls from the hospital come in, no one is ready for the appalling truth: Emily is dead at seventeen from a gunshot wound to the head. There’s a single unspent bullet in the gun that Chris took from his father’s cabinet – a bullet that Chris tells police he intended for himself. But a local detective has doubts about the suicide pact that Chris has described.
The Pact paints an indelible portrait of families in anguish, culminating in an astonishingly suspenseful courtroom drama as Chris finds himself on trial for murder.
For seventy years, Josef Weber has been hiding in plain sight. He is a pillar of his local community. He is also a murderer. When Josef decides to confess, it is to Sage Singer, a young woman who trusts him as her friend. What she hears shatters everything she thought she knew and believed. As Sage uncovers the truth from the darkest horrors of war, she must follow a twisting trail between terror and mercy, betrayal and forgiveness, love – and revenge.
At her controversial and compelling best, Jodi Picoult explores the moment when boundaries break down, and when the only step left to take is a leap of faith. As Mariah White struggles with depression her seven-year-old daughter Faith seeks solace in a new friend – a friend who may or may not be imaginary. Faith talks to her ‘Guard’ constantly and begins to recite passages from the Bible-a book she’s never read. After a succession of visits to psychiatrists, all of whom conclude Faith is not hallucinating, the unimaginable starts to seem possible: perhaps Faith may actually be seeing God. When Faith’s cachet is enhanced by reported miracle healings and alleged stigmata, she is touted as a prophet. Amidst the gathering storm of controversy, most disruptive of all is the arrival of two men: one a renowned television atheist who plans to debunk Faith’s claims and help boost his flagging ratings, and the other her divorced father whose fear for his daughter’s safety leads him to battle for custody. As Mariah finds herself fighting to keep her daughter, she has to push past her own insecurities and stand up for herself and her competence as a parent. Keeping Faith explores a family plagued by the media, the medical profession, and organised religion in a world where everyone has an opinion but no one knows the truth.
Dawn thinks she knows everything there is to know about dying. As a death doula she helps her clients fix what is left undone so they can peacefully make the final transition. But when her plane plummets from the sky and she thinks she is experiencing the last moments of her life, she is shocked to find that she isn’t thinking of her husband or teenage daughter – but of a road she strayed from 15 years earlier, when she turned her back on her PhD studies. Against all odds, Dawn survives, and the airline gives her a free ticket to wherever she needs to get to. in alternating chapters, we see possible choices: Land – returning to her husband, a quantum physicist who studies the possibilities of parallel universes, she is faced with a test to her marriage and a daughter who is struggling with self-image issues. And Water: returning to her studies and the archaeological site she worked on 15 years earlier, where the man she abandoned is about to make the discovery of a lifetime. But time may not be as straightforward as we think. As Dawn explores her possible futures, she is finding out what a well-lived life means, what we leave behind of ourselves when we leave the earth, and who she might have been…
Enjoy!
Author Spotlight: Stephen King
Stephen King is best known as The King of Horror, but his range is much wider than many realise. In a career spanning 55 years so far, he has published almost 100 titles, including non-fiction, short stories, comics, novellas as well as full-length novels. His stories blend realistic as well as supernatural elements, and range from horror, to sci-fi, fantasy, crime thrillers and even Westerns.
Besides being popular with readers (with sales of over 350 million copies), Stephen King is also a Hollywood favourite. Many of his stories have been adapted into movies, tv series or miniseries – sometimes twice, even three times (Carrie and It). Many of these adaptations – including Carrie, The Shawshank Redemption, The Shining, and Misery – have become iconic in their own right. Stephen King has had a huge impact on both literature and popular culture; so much so that he was awarded the National Medal of the Arts, the highest honour in the arts in America, in 2014.
What makes Stephen King so successful? He excels at drawing readers in with seemingly ordinary, relatable situations, and then discomfiting and shocking us by taking the stories into unexpected, chilling directions. He is famous for creating memorable, complex characters – revealing him as a great observer of human nature. As a writer, Stephen King is persistent – he sets himself a 2000-word target every day, and doesn’t stop writing until he reaches it; and even serious injuries don’t stop him from writing – he resumed work within a month of a serious car accident in 1999, despite experiencing pain that limited his ability to sit for extended periods. He is also an adventurous writer, demonstrated not only by the wide range of genres he has written in, by his cross-overs into comics, but also by his early adoption of online publishing.
Our pick of Stephen King books are much-loved stories that also make a great starting point for new readers:
The Shining was Stephen King’s first outright bestseller and confirmed his status as the preeminent writer of the genre. It draws heavily upon Stephen King’s own experiences – the setting and plot are based on his family’s stay at The Stanley Hotel in Colorado (they were the only guests in the large, atmospheric building); and the main character’s struggle with alcoholism mirrors Stephen King’s addiction at the time. The Shining tells the story of Jack Torrance, who takes his wife and son to the Overlook Hotel when he accepts the role of seasonal caretaker. The hotel is haunted by evil spirits that gradually erode Jack’s sanity and make him murderous; it is up to young Danny Torrance – who has psychic abilities called the “shining” – to overcome the danger. Stanley Kubrick’s celebrated movie adaptation created some iconic images – a manically grinning Jack Nicholson, creepy twins in a long hallway – that cemented both book and film into pop culture; famously, Stephen King disliked the film and has criticised it repeatedly. Bolstered by fan interest, The Shining is now accompanied by a sequel, Doctor Sleep, featuring Danny Torrance as an adult.
Pet Sematary is the book that Stephen King thinks is his “most frightening”; he felt it was so wrong, so dark, that he put it in a drawer and thought he would never publish it. Luckily, he eventually changed his mind. The Pet Sematary in question is in a small town in Maine, located in the woods behind the new home of Louis Creed and his young family. Louis learns, from his kindly elderly neighbour, that behind the Pet Semetary lies a “real cemetery” built on an ancient burial ground, a powerful place that can bring creatures back to life. Then tragedy strikes Louis’ family and he decides to make use of this supernatural power… Pet Semetary powerfully interweaves supernatural horror elements with the psychological horror created when human nature strays into sinister immorality.
The Green Mile made me realise that Stephen King doesn’t write just horror – this story is more akin to Southern Gothic and magical realism than traditional horror. The Green Mile is presented as the memoirs of Paul Edgecombe, who worked as a prison supervisor in the American South during the 1930s. The rich storytelling draws vivid portraits of the different inmates, and in particular of John Coffey, a tall and imposing but mild-mannered Black man who was on Death Row for raping and murdering two young white girls. Gradually, Paul notices that John has unusual, perhaps supernatural abilities with empathy and healing, and starts to question whether he truly committed the horrific crimes he was convicted of. Originally released as a serial novel in six parts, The Green Mile is now available collected into one volume.
The premise of Misery – a famous writer, injured in a car accident, who is then rescued (but in reality held hostage) by a crazed fan – invites readers to speculate whether it draws from Stephen King’s own experiences. Misery is the main character in Paul Sheldon’s popular novel series, and Annie Wilkes, Paul’s “biggest fan”, is not happy that Misery has been killed off. Once she has him trapped, Annie wants Paul to write stories the way she wants them – and Paul has to escape to save his own life, before the insane Annie goes too far. Misery is an incredibly tense and quietly horrifying story. The movie of the same name – with a compelling performance by Kathy Bates as Annie – is a cultural icon in its own right.
It is an important novel in many ways: its powerful use of the “evil clown” trope (probably the best-known example in the modern era); being the first Stephen King novel set in the fictional town of Derry (a location repeatedly used in his other stories); its sheer heft (over 1000 pages); and the way it combines favourite Stephen King themes of childhood trauma, the power of memory, and human cruelty, with classic horror motifs such as monsters, zombies and the idyllic-yet-sinister small town – “peak Stephen King”, if you will. It is an ancient, shapeshifting monster that preys upon children and feasts on their worst fears. It appears to humans as Pennywise the Clown, and holds power over the small Maine town of Derry. The task falls upon a group of seven young outcasts to confront It and stop the killings. The monsters, gory scenes, and child victims make It one of Stephen King’s scariest stories.
Now may be a good time to read The Stand – what was published in 1978 as a dark, post-apocalyptic fantasy, seems uncomfortably prescient during the current pandemic. The story starts in a world ravaged by an extremely contagious and lethal strain of influenza, developed as a biological weapon and accidentally released. The resulting pandemic kills most of the world’s population and pushes civilisation into near-collapse. The survivors begin to experience prophetic dreams about the old and saintly Mother Abigail, and about Randall Flagg, the personification of evil, and start to align themselves with one or the other. The stage is now set for an ultimate showdown between Good and Evil. The Stand has an epic, multi-layered story and is inspired by Lord of the Rings and the Book of Revelations.