Libraries come in all shapes and sizes, from the very small to the large and grand. One library straddles the border! The Haskell Free Library and Opera House may be found along the Vermont/Quebec border in Derby Line. Robert Dawson has photographed many wonderful libraries and put them in a book: The Public Library: a Photographic Essay. Also included are comments from Bill Moyers, Isaac Asimov, Dr. Seuss and many others.

While looking for Twisted Cakes to get for a gift I found this: Scone with the Wind: Cakes and Bakes with a Literary Twist, by Miss Victoria Sponge, and what a find it was! Clever and witty, it will go as a gift, too! There are recipes for things like The Pie Who Loved Me, The Three Mousse-Keteers, Banana Karenina, and so on, each with a paragraph or two spoofing the literary work. Absolutely delightful! Oh, and the recipes look delicious. :-) (See also Tequila Mockingbird: Cocktails with a Literary Twist, from the February 9, 2016 post).

I was expecting a few more 'seasonal' ideas in A Year of Gingerbread Houses: Making and Decorating Gingerbread Houses for All Seasons, by Kristine Samwell, but overall, I really was not disappointed ... there is a lot of fun stuff here! (More so, I'm sure, if you understand all the baking hints.) ;-) There are instructions for making all sorts of trees and flowers and, well, detail on your gingerbread houses here, just amazing effects for bricks, stones, water features ... linger over the pictures of the final designs!

Reading Hermit With Dog