This book is exactly what it says it is: Homework for Grown Ups: Everything You Learned in School and Promptly Forgot. E. Foley and B. Coates have gathered together what we all probably knew at some point ... and yes, there are tests! The fun thing was that I could skip both the tests and the chapter on math!

For decades now I've avoided chocolate as it triggers migraines, but that doesn't mean I don't like to read about it! Great Moments in Chocolate History, by Howard-Yana Shapiro starts in the 1500's ends in 2014. Fun tidbits of history, with great photos, and then a collection of recipes. Read with a cup of cocoa. :-)

So much for being quiet and demure! Read all about boisterous and shameless females in Scandalous Women: the Lives and Loves of History's Most Notorious Women, by Elizabeth Kerri Mahon. Loved the description on the back of the book: "created a ruckus" and "making waves." !! In addition to the bibliography there are also suggestions for further reading and films.

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Here's one from long ago ... one that I found sweet and charming ... and sadly, it is no longer available. My Mother is Lost, story and pictures by Bernice Myers is a story told from the view of a child, in other words, from the waist down! Told to hang on to his mother's hand (gloved), he does, only to arrive at the top floor (via escalators) holding only that glove! He sets out to find his mother, but it's a big store ... and there are ... distractions!

Ella's favorite color is yellow. She loves the sunshine but feels sad and a bit frightened at sunset. Find out how she learns to love the night in the moon inside, by Sandra V. Feder with pictures by Aimee Sicuro. I think this book would go beautifully with Switch on the Night, by Ray Bradbury. (August 16, 2014 post).

The Easter Bunny needs help in delivering all those eggs. There are many who offer, each with a special skill or talent. Who will be chosen? Find out in The Easter Bunny's Helpers, by Anne Mangan and illustrated by Tamsin Ainslie.

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In times past a computer was a person, one who was good with numbers (obviously!) and many of them worked for the government. First it was to build better and faster planes quickly in WWII. Then it was to build planes that could break the sound barrier. Then it was to build rockets that could, eventually, leave orbit and take man to the moon and back. (John Glenn requested that a human computer check the figures for his flight ... he didn't completely trust the 'machine computer' yet). The little known fact was that these computers were women. And many were black. HIdden Figures: the American Dream and the Untold Story of the Black Women Mathematicians Who Helped Win the Space Race, by Margot Lee Shetterly is their story. It's impressive, and depressing at the same time (think of the time period ...) Read it!

Are you a Sherlock Holmes fan? Or know someone who is? Then I think you will really enjoy the book from DK titled The Sherlock Holmes Book. (David Stuart Davies appears as the consultant editor and may show as the author in some library collections). Like the other books I've read from DK on Doctor Who and Star Trek, it's full of pictures, character and plot descriptions, and, in this case, a synopsis of each book or story. At the end is a chapter about some of the many other versions, from comics, to parodies, plays, animated features, tv series and so forth. Most interesting! Thanks go to Kiwi for sharing this book. :-)

Just when I was ready to give up on ever seeing this book, it appeared! The Eat-a-Bug Cookbook (revised): 40 ways to cook crickets, grasshoppers, ants, water bugs, spiders, centipedes, and their kin, by David George Gordon was both fascinating and a bit repulsive at the same time. (I thought about using that word, after all, most folks are much more adventurous eaters than I am!). What was fun was the author's (who is the bug chef) enthusiasm for his topic. :-) He includes tips on where to get the various bugs, what wine to use, and so forth. Would you eat a bug?

Here's a cookbook about books! Cara Nicoletti is a reader who has always noticed the food in the books she reads. It often takes her on a quest to learn more about them, how they are prepared, etc. She shares both in Voracious: a Hungry Reader Cooks Her Way Through Great Books. How many of these books have you read? Did you notice the food (I didn't). ;-)

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This was a fun little find: Around the Sound: Amusing Thoughts and Tales From Washington's Puget Sound, by Josh Kilen. You might chuckle, you might roll your eyes, you might even decide to take a road trip because of the essays in this book! Topics range from various small towns to laundromats, malls, and an embarrassing parent.

Here's one from the Images of America series I like so much: Foss Maritime Company, by Mark Stork. It all started with rowboats and is now a business with a world wide market. As always, there are wonderful pictures with interesting text. Don't miss Annie the cow! She was a favorite of many a captain and crew since, on foggy days, she'd moo in response to their whistle!

This is just the sort of book I'd use as a gift for my friends and relatives who live far away: Nooksack Wanderings: Images from Mount Baker to Bellingham Bay, by Bob Kandiko. Stunning photos, although personally I wouldn't have minded a few with gray clouds or a bit of rain. (It's worth noting I am a cloudy day sort of person) :-)

Here's another book about the rainforest up in British Columbia: The Salmon Bears: Giants of the Great Bear Rainforest, by Ian McAllister & Nicholas Read. As with Sea Wolves (see the post from February 16, 2017) the photography is wonderful. It is a story of the balance of life between the salmon and grizzly, black, and spirit bears. Follow along through the seasons in this unique place where life is abundant, and delicate.

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I loved the teaser for this book! Just what does happen when you combine an architect who bakes with a pastry chef with a flair (or rather "obsession") with houses? You get a book like The Gingerbread Architect: Recipes and Blueprints for Twelve Classic American Homes, by Susan Matheson and Lauren Chattman. Beautiful houses (all edible), hints on how to do the details that give them a period flair, with gingerbread house blueprints at the end.

For more ideas I moved on to Making Great Gingerbread Houses:Delicious Designs from Cabins to Castles, from Lighthouses to Tree Houses, by Aaron Morgan and Paige Gilchrist. I loved some of the ideas included here ... from leaving the back open so you could see what was inside (which means crafting tables, lamps, beds, sofas and more) to using shredded wheat for a thatched roof.

While searching

for books about gingerbread houses, something strange popped up! Take a look at Twisted Cakes: Deliciously Evil Designs for Every Occasion, by Debbie Goard. Here you'll find dead mouse cakes, heart shaped boxes (the real heart shape, not the one you find on cards, etc)!, severed hand cakes ... boxes of eyeball cupcakes, and other odd and macabre designs. Creepy and fun!

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If you enjoy reading about words, grammar, that sort of thing then give Bryson's Dictionary of Troublesome Words, by Bill Bryson a try! It's a delightful collection of words that have been used incorrectly, or spelled incorrectly, often with humorous results. One of those books with short entries that makes it so easy to read during the ads on tv. ;-)

Sometimes, when I'm looking for one thing, I find something else completely, and so it was with Tawdry Knickers and Other Unfortunate Ways to Be Remembered: a Saucy and Spirited History of Ninety Notorious Namesakes, by Alex Novak. Would you want to be connected with, say, the guillotine? The descendants of Joseph-Ignace Guillotin tried for years to get the government to change the name and when that didn't happen, they changed their name instead. I had no idea so many names are part of our language! A most interesting read.

Here's one of those titles that catches your eye ... Carnal Knowledge ... but it's not what you're thinking! The full title is Carnal Knowledge: a Navel Gazer's Dictionary of Anatomy, Etymology, and Trivia, by Charles Hodgson and it is both a dictionary and history of the words for all parts of the human body. Slang terms are included as well as fun things like what, say, "knocked up" means in American English and British English (very different)! There are also emoticons (created with punctuation marks) for various shapes of the derriere. ;-)

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What starts as a wonderful promotion for an upcoming book signing at the Death on Demand bookshop goes horribly wrong when copycat fliers appear all over town announcing a contest with clues pertaining to earlier deaths in the community. This results in two deaths which Annie and Max again set out to solve. I've not read Carolyn Hart in the past, but April Fool Dead may just change that! A nice cozy, good twists and turns to the plot and ... a seasonal tweak at the end.

Just how did April Fool's Day get started? I was surprised! Find out in Black Cats and April Fools: Origins of Old Wives Tales and Superstitions in Our Daily Lives, by Harry Oliver (with illustrations by Mike Mosedale). If you are going to play a prank on someone, be sure to do it before midday, otherwise it's bad luck.

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