The Davenport Library will be closed Monday February 17th in observance of President’s Day. All locations will reopen on Tuesday at their regularly scheduled time – 9am to 5:30pm at Main and Eastern Avenue and noon to 8pm at Fairmount Street.
Have a safe and happy holiday!
What does it take to perfect a flawless éclair? A delicate yet buttery croissant? To pipe dozens of macarons? The answer is: an intimate knowledge of the fundamentals of pastry.
In The Art of French Pastry award-winning pastry chef Jacquy Pfeiffer, cofounder of the renowned French Pastry School in Chicago, gives you just that. By teaching you how to make everything from pâte à choux to pastry cream, Pfeiffer builds on the basics until you have an understanding of the science behind the ingredients used, how they interact with one another, and what your hands have to do to transform them into pastry. This yields glorious results! Expect to master these techniques and then indulge in exquisite recipes, such as: · brioche · napoléons / Mille-Feuilles · cream puffs · Alsatian cinnamon rolls / chinois · lemon cream tart with meringue teardrops · elephant ears / palmiers · black forest cake · beignets as well as some traditional Alsatian savory treats, including: · Pretzels · Kougelhof · Tarte Flambée · Warm Alsatian Meat Pie.
Pastry is all about precision, so Pfeiffer presents us with an amazing wealth of information–lists of necessary equipment, charts on how ingredients react in different environments, and the precise weight of ingredients in grams, with a look at their equivalent in U.S. units–which will help you in all aspects of your cooking. But in order to properly enjoy your “just desserts,” so to speak; you will also learn where these delicacies originated. Jacquy Pfeiffer comes from a long line of pastry chefs and has been making these recipes since he was a child working in his father’s bakery in Alsace. Sprinkled with funny, charming memories from a lifetime in pastry, this book will have you fully appreciating the hundreds of years of tradition that shaped these recipes into the classics that we know and love, and can now serve to our friends and families over and over again.
The Art of French Pastry, full of gorgeous photography and Pfeiffer’s accompanying illustrations, is a master class in pastry from a master teacher. (description from publisher)
Crafting is always more fun and more meaningful when it’s shared with those you love. Discover the joy of working alongside your child while creating arts and crafts that inspire in Side by Side by Tsia Carson.
With these twenty whimsical projects in a variety of mediums, you and your child will find fun ways to work collaboratively and independently – together on the same project, or side by side on related projects. Create Giant Newspaper Snowflakes that take traditional paper snowflakes to magical new levels. Create surprising monoprints that take glitter glue to new heights. Explore the versatility of embroidery with a child-friendly version that uses a leaf as the canvas and a more advanced version that uses a child’s drawing for stitching inspiration. Get out in the garden and plant a Living Willow Teepee that will be a perfect playhouse and retreat for years to come.
Some of life’s best moments are spent simply doing things in the presence of the ones we love, not necessarily doing the same thing together, but being together and working side by side. The craft projects in this book will help you to create just those moments with your child. (description from publisher)
It can be argued that we love to read books because we love the written word. Whether it comes to us by electronic device, or letters on a page, words fascinate us, inspire us, amuse us. A well-chosen quote from a favorite book has the power to evoke fond memories and take you back to that joy of first discovery. Join us as we explore some of our favorites. Do you know what book this quote is from? (we started off with an easy one!)
“It is a truth universally acknowledged, that a single man in possession of a good fortune, must be in want of a wife.”
Not sure? Find the answer here!
The chalkboard isn’t just for the classroom anymore! With DIY Chalkboard Crafts, you’ll find everything you need to create one-of-a-kind accessories, decorations, and gifts using the latest home decor trend.
This fun and original collection features 50 imaginative crafts that you can create using a few essential tools and a splash of chalkboard paint. You’ll find simple, step-by-step instructions as well as helpful tips for turning a little bit of paint into stylish crafts that you won’t be able to find anywhere else. From bookends and lampshades to cake toppers and ornaments, you’ll transform ordinary household items into eye-catching pieces with beautiful chalkboard crafts like: Cake-Silhouette Table Runner Chevron Votive Holders Paint-Dipped Flowerpot Rustic-Wood Menu Card Patriotic Lanterns.
Complete with stunning, full-color photographs and plenty of chalkboard inspiration, the projects in DIY Chalkboard Crafts will show you that this schoolhouse staple is all grown up! (description from publisher)
Food Network’s star Giada De Laurentis reveals her secrets for staying fit and feeling great in Giada’s Feel Good Food, a gorgeous, practical book with healthy recipes including nutritional information, and personal lifestyle and beauty tips.
Finally answering the question her fans ask most often, “How do you stay so trim?,” Giada De Laurentiis shares the delicious easy recipes and tips she uses to maximize energy and remain fit. Here are 120 recipes for breakfasts, juices, lunches, snacks, dinners, and desserts that can be combined into a month of delicious feel-good meals. So that everyone can enjoy these dishes, many are gluten-free, dairy-free, vegetarian, and/or vegan, with helpful icons to call them out – and, for the very first time, each recipe includes a calorie count and nutritional analysis. Special sections delve into Giada’s everyday life, including her beauty and exercise routines, how she satisfies sugar fixes, what’s always in her bag, and her ordering tips for eating in restaurants.
With 100 color photographs, Giada’s Feel Good Food is a beautiful guide to staying on track while still eating everything and enjoying life to its fullest. (description from publisher)
I’m pretty sure that if a cute stranger offered to take me to a romantic European city for the day, I would probably say “No, but thank you. I’m just too awkward for that.” And I wouldn’t even fret about possibly missing out on an experience of a lifetime because, luckily, there are plenty of young adult romances that can satisfy my “but what would have happened?!” curiosity. Just One Day by Gayle Forman (and its companion book, Just One Year) is the perfect choice for armchair travel because the heroine just happens to be quite introverted herself, and thus, very relatable to us classic Librarian-types 😉
Just One Day begins with sensible, quiet Allyson feeling ready for her graduation trip around Europe with a teen tour group to be over so she can go home to the States. Yeah, that whining-about-being-in-Europe part isn’t that relatable to me, but granted her best friend has gotten a little bit wild/annoying, and the tour skipped over Paris–the one city Allyson wanted to see on the tour. But then she runs into a cute street actor who had flirted with her during his performance the night before…AND HE OFFERS TO TAKE HER TO PARIS! YES! YES! YES! So Allyson tells him her name is Lulu and hops on the train to Paris with him (and then promptly has several panic attacks on the train about him leaving her, killing her, making a fool of her, etc–this is actually the moment where I went from liking the book to LOVING the book). Lulu/Allyson and Willem spend an amazing day running around Paris and then live happily ever after. Swooooooon.
Well, until the next morning when Allyson wakes up alone in an empty Paris art studio.
With lots of tears and panic, Allyson finds her way back to London and her tour group and then back home to the United States. We then follow her through her first year of college as she learns to overcome her broken heart and embarrassment. After a long self-inflicted isolation, new friends help Allyson discover that she needs to revisit Paris and find Willem–partly because she believes that there is a mystery surrounding the morning Willem left her and partly because she needs to prove to herself that she is in control of her life.
Sorry, I can’t tell you if she finds Willem…BUT I will tell you that the companion book Just One Year tells the story of what happened to Willem during his year apart from Lulu. He does quite a bit more traveling…that is all I will say.
These two books are a must read for fans of Stephanie Perkins, John Green and Maureen Johnson and anyone else who likes a little independence and a little travel with their romances.
February 4th
Dallas Buyer’s Club – Matthew McConaughey, Jared Leto, Jennifer Garner
Texas cowboy Ron Woodroof’s free-wheeling life was overturned in 1985 when he was diagnosed as HIV-positive. Shunned and ostracized by many old friends and bereft of government-approved medicines, he decided to take matters in his own hands, tracking down alternative treatments from all over the world by means both legal and illegal. Bypassing the establishment, he joined forces with an unlikely band of renegades and outcasts and established a hugely successful ‘buyers’ club.’ Rated R
February 11th
Riddick – Vin Diesel, Karl Urban, Katee Sackhoff
Riddick must fight for his life after his people betrayed him, leaving him stranded on a desolate planet to die. On this unbearably hot planet, Riddick is up against predators of an alien race. Using his emergency signals, he summons two ships: one transporting a mercenary, and the other led by an old acquaintance. Rated R
Ender’s Game – Asa Butterfield, Harrison Ford, Hailee Steinfeld, Abigail Breslin, Ben Kingsley, Viola Davis
A hostile alien race attacked Earth, and if not for the legendary heroics of Fleet Commander Mazer Rackham, all would have been lost. In preparation for the next attack, Colonel Hyrum Graff is training only the best young children. Ender Wiggin, a shy, but brilliant boy, is soon ordained by Graff as the military’s next great hope. Once at Command School, he’s trained by Mazer Rackham to lead them into an epic battle that will determine the future of Earth and save the human race. Rated PG-13
All is Lost – Robert Redford
An open-water thriller about one man’s battle for survival against the elements after his sailboat is destroyed at sea. Using only a sextant and nautical maps to chart his progress, he is forced to rely on ocean currents to carry him into a shipping lane in hopes of hailing a passing vessel. But with the sun unrelenting, sharks circling, and his meager supplies dwindling, the ever-resourceful sailor soon finds himself staring his mortality in the face. Rated PG-13
Austenland – Keri Russell, Jj Feild, Jennifer Coolidge, Bret McKenzie, Jane Seymour
Jane Hayes’s adoration of all things Jane Austen is complicating her love life. Determined to be the heroine of her own story, Jane spends her life savings on a trip to Austenland, an eccentric Austen-inspired resort, where she meets two very different gentlemen…but has a difficult time determining where fantasy ends and real life, and maybe even love, begins. Rated PG-13
February 25th
Rush – Chris Hemsworth, Daniel Bruhl, Olivia Wilde
Set against the golden age of Formula One racing in the 1970s, Rush is based on the true story of a spectacular sporting rivalry between English playboy James Hunt, and his structured, intelligent opponent, Austrian driver Niki Lauda. Directed by Ron Howard. Rated R
Gravity – Sandra Bullock, George Clooney
Dr. Ryan Stone is a brilliant medical engineer on her first shuttle mission with veteran astronaut Matt Kowalsky. On a seemingly routine spacewalk, the shuttle is destroyed, leaving Stone and Kowalsky spiraling out into the blackness. The deafening silence tells them they have lost any link to Earth and any chance for rescue. As fear turns to panic, every gulp of air eats away at what little oxygen is left, and the only way home may be to go further out into the terrifying expanse of space. Rated PG-13
Nebraska – Bruce Dern, Will Forte
After receiving a sweepstakes letter in the mail, a cantankerous father thinks he’s struck it rich, and wrangles his estranged son into taking a road trip to claim the fortune. Getting waylaid in the father’s hometown in Nebraska, the son tries to reconnect with his impenetrable father. Rated R
Thor – the Dark World – Chris Hemsworth, Tom Hiddleston, Idris Elba, Christopher Eccleston, Stellan Skarsgard, Natalie Portman
Thor fights to restore order across the cosmos, but an ancient race led by the vengeful Malekith returns to plunge the universe back into darkness. Faced with an enemy that even Odin and Asgard cannot withstand, Thor must embark on his most perilous and personal journey yet, one that will reunite him with Jane Foster and force him to sacrifice everything to save us all. Rated PG-13
Founded in 1973, Moosewood Restaurant revolutionized vegetarian cooking by introducing delicious soups, satisfying sandwiches, and warming casseroles, zesty entrees, spiffy salads and divine desserts.
Moosewood Restaurant Favorites contains 250 of their most requested recipes, completely updated and revised to reflect the way they’re cooked now – increasingly vegan and gluten-free, and benefitting from fresh herbs and new varieties of vegetables, and the wholesome goodness of newly-rediscovered grains. This mouthwatering cookbook includes favorites like – Red Lentil Soup with Ginger and Cilantro – Sweet-Potato and Black Bean Burrito – The Classic Moosewood Tofu Burger – Carmelized Onion Pie – Peruvian Quinoa Salad – Confetti Kale Slaw – Vegan Chocolate Cake – Moosewood Restaurant Brownies – Apple Spice Cake with Sesame Seeds. Including a guide to natural-cooking techniques, Moosewood Restaurant Favorites is the next classic book on their much-loved cookbook shelf. (description from publisher)
Kiss those excuses goodbye! “I don’t have time.” “I don’t know what to journal about.” “I can’t keep the momentum going.” Sound familiar? What are your excuses for not spending time with your art journal? Get ready to cast those excuses aside because Gina Rossi Armfield’s No Excuses Art Journaling offers a no-fail approach to art journaling.
Using a day planner as your art journal, you’ll find daily, weekly and monthly prompts that you can adapt to fit your real-life, busy schedule. Along the way, you’ll learn fun and convenient techniques to add sketching, watercolor painting, collage and more into your journal, all while setting goals, creating art and chronicling your unique life. Inside you’ll find more than 20 mixed-media art journaling techniques demonstrated step-by-step so you can add color, style and life ephemera to your journal, 6 pages of journaling prompts and tips for every month of the year, dozens of inspirational art journal pages by Gina and 12 guest artists to show how you can make the No Excuses program decidedly yours.
Grab your journal and pen, and kick your excuses to the curb! (description from publisher)
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