The Heart Of The Artichoke

In this collection of stories, Poniatowska weaves together the disparate lives that make up Mexico's rich cultural tapestry. These are stories about servants and matriarchs, street sweepers and sorceresses, shop keepers, nannies, mothers, travelers, prostitutes, and drug addicts. They are stories of broken lives and broken hearts, of betrayal and rebirth. The language is melodic, sensual, plain, coarse, aristocratic. It reflects the varied idioms of Mexico's diverse social classes. Poniatowska constructs characters of immense complexity, then slowly peels away the emotional and psychological layers to expose their greatest vulnerability. Nowhere is this more visible than in the title story The Heart of the Artichoke.

Recipes from a very small kitchen by a man with a very large talent. Nobody better embodies the present-day mantra "Eat real food in season" than David Tanis, one of the most original voices in American cooking. For more than a quarter-century, Tanis has been the chef at the groundbreaking Chez Panisse, in Berkeley, California, where the menu consists solely of a single perfect meal that changes each evening. Tanis’s recipes are down-to-earth yet sophisticated, simple to prepare but impressive on the plate. Tanis opens this soulful, fun-to-read cookbook with his own private food rituals, those treats—jalapeño pancakes, beans on toast, pasta for one—for when you are on your own in the kitchen with no one else to satisfy. Then he follows with twenty incomparable menus (five per season) that serve four to six. Each transports the reader to places far and wide. And for grand occasions, a time for the whole tribe to gather around the table, Tanis delivers festive menus for holiday feasts. So in one book, three kinds of cooking: small, medium, and large.

Blubber meets Steel Magnolias in this funny and honest story about body image and family. Rosemary Goode is smart and funny and loyal and the best eyebrow waxer in Spring Hill, Tennessee. But only one thing seems to matter to anyone, including Rosemary: her weight. And when your mom runs the most successful (and gossipy) beauty shop in town, it can be hard to keep a low profile. Rosemary resolves to lose the weight, but her journey turns out to be about everything but the scale. Her life-changing, waist-shrinking year is captured with brutal honesty and humor, topped with an extralarge helping of Southern charm. A truly uncommon novel about an increasingly common problem.

Winner of the Waterstone's Children's Book Prize, Artichoke Hearts by Sita Brahmachari is an incredibly insightful, honest novel exploring the delicate balance, and often injustice, of life and death - but at its heart is a celebration of friendship, culture, and life. Twelve-year-old Mira comes from a chaotic, artistic and outspoken family where it’s not always easy to be heard. As her beloved Nana Josie's health declines, Mira begins to discover the secrets of those around her, and also starts to keep some of her own. She is drawn to mysterious Jide, a boy who is clearly hiding a troubled past and has grown hardened layers - like those of an artichoke – around his heart. As Mira is experiencing grief for the first time, she is also discovering the wondrous and often mystical world around her.

This full-color illustrated book tells a story of caution yielding to caring, of a friendship growing to full bloom. It is a story that shows us how love, revealed one precious petal at a time, will finally uncover the rare & tender richness of the heart. Illustrator Paul Micich has won numerous awards for his art work. They include Gold & Silver Awards from the Society of Illustrators of Los Angeles, inclusion in Society of Illustrators Shows in New York & inclusion in the "Communication Arts" Illustration Annual. In 1991, he created illustrations for the timeless children's classic, The Littlest Angel. Mary Kay Shanley began her writing career with the Des Moines Register in 1965. Today, she is a freelance writer whose clients include several magazine publishers. SHE TAUGHT ME TO EAT ARTICHOKES is her first book. To order contact; Sta-Kris Inc., P.O. Box 1131, Marshalltown, IA 50158. Telephone 800-369-5676; FAX 515-753-0985.

A boy describes how much he loves artichokes in rhymed text and illustrations.

Featuring over 90 recipes with full coloured photos and written in a casual, approachable style, this cookbook makes the perfect gift for fans of Artichoke, Bjorn or uninhibitedly rockin’ food in general. Bjorn Shen, chef-owner of popular and rebellious restaurant Artichoke, reveals the scrappy stories and recklessly creative recipes behind his deviant Middle Eastern enterprise in this no-holds barred memoir-cookbook. Expect stories on cooking accidents, tasteless jokes, masochistic behaviour, epic staff meals, ridiculous customer complaints and more. His penchant for unapologetic, full-blown flavour is also reflected in recipes that run the gamut from Middle Eastern-inflected basturma-cured tuna to borderline insane offerings of Oreo ‘pancakes’, a Mamee salad and a humongous lamb shoulder called, appropriately, The Lambgasm.