San, Fine Cooking magazine is always a great source for new ways with vegetables. We love the recipe from them for Roasted Green Beans: Roasted Green Beans with Garlic Source: Marilyn (from Fine Cooking) 1 1/2 pound fresh green beans 1 small head garlic (I use only 6 to 8 cloves) 1/4 cup extra-virgin olive oil 1 teaspoon kosher salt Fresh ground pepper to taste 1/3 cup toasted pine nuts 1/4 cup grated Parmesan cheese Wash, trim and dry green beans. Position oven rack in the top third of the oven and preheat to 450° (425° is using dark pan) and place a baking sheet in the oven. Peel each garlic clove and cut each into 4 pieces. Place green beans in a large bowl along with garlic, oil, salt and pepper; toss to coat evenly and pour onto hot baking sheet in a single layer. Roast beans for 10 minutes, stir and continue to roast another 5 minutes if beans are slim and another 10 minutes if beans are thick. Remove to serving dish and sprinkle with toasted pine nuts and grated parmesan cheese. And yesterday I made a wonderful cauliflower dish from them. The cauliflower is browned first so it makes a beautiful carmelized combination: Browned Cauliflower with Anchovies, Olives and Capers 1 medium-small head cauliflower (about 2 pounds) 1 large clove garlic pinch coarse salt- sea or kosher 6 oil packed anchovy filets, drained (I used 1 tablespoon anchovy paste) 1/4 cup EVOO 15 black olives, pitted and roughly chopped 1 tablespoon fresh lemon juice, more to taste (this really made the dish pop!) 2 teaspoons capers, roughly chopped (I left these whole) 1 teaspoon grated lemon zest (I left out) Large pinch crushed red pepper flakes Clean and cut cauliflower into chunks, keeping florets attached to pieces of stem. Crush garlic with salt into a paste and add anchovies and pound them to a paste as well (since I used anchovy paste I just stirred it into crushed garlic). Add 1 tablespoon olive oil, olives, lemon juice and zest, capers and red pepper flakes; stir well. Heat 2 tablespoons EVOO in a 10-inch skillet over medium-high heat and add half the cauliflower pieces in a single layer, cut side down. Cook until cauliflower is well browned on all sides then transfer to plate. Add the remaining cauliflower and more EVOO if necessary and brown on all sides. Add cauliflower from plate to cauliflower in pan and turn the heat down to low. Carefully add 2/3 cup (I only used 1/4 cup) water; cover and let steam until the stems are just tender, 6 to 8 minutes. Remove skillet from heat and pour off all but about 1 tablespoon cooking liquid (or place in a serving bowl). Gently fold in anchovy mixture. Serve warm or room temperature. *This is my new favorite way to eat cauliflower! Marilyn

Leaving aside A Tale for the Time Being I remember someone here a while ago saying how they couldn't get on with Angela's Ashes as the subject matter was so distasteful. Now I admit I enjoyed the book and, for me, the 'distasteful' part was saved by Frank McCourt's humour. If it had been written from the angle of "Didn't we suffer as kids? Wasn't my Mother a drunk who starved us so she could buy booze? Didn't my Father run away and leave us when we got back to Limerick where we were forced to live upstairs in a hovel awash with raw sewage? Were we not beaten by the priests at school and wasn't I mocked over my 'yellow eyes' running with pus? It does sound truly horrendous and perhaps the fact that most of it was untrue (except for the eyes) helped to take the sting out of it. On the other hand We Need to Talk About Kevin by Lionel Shriver (which I heard as a reading on radio) was most powerful (for me) at the end, when the 'why' came out. I agree with netla when she says that some 'true-crime' writers seem to revel in and 'Big Up' the criminals. We may not have as many baddies as there are in the US but some of ours are/were very nasty people. Much was made of the 'Great Train Robbery' because the thieves got away with millions of pounds worth of used bank notes, most of which never found, nor were the 'brains' behind the operation. Books have also been written about a notorious family the 'Kray Twins' who beat up/maimed/killed/tortured with no compunction in the East End of London, an area that still offers 'tours' of the back alleys where Jack the Ripper carried out his horrible murders. I'm not suggesting nothing should be written about these subjects, but why do the writers need to dwell on the pools of blood/dismembered body parts. I suppose I know the answer. It is what sells books. :-(

Vee, thanks for the link to the Gallup poll. Whew! It will take me a while to assimilate it. As for "the sad state of affairs": I understand now. I tied it to the wrong paragraph. :-) Woodnymph, yeah, I realize that I'm in the minority about the film of To Kill a Mockingbird. I figure my love of the whole book makes me too critical of the adaptation, which picks out and gives emphasis to a particular part. Which reminds me: June, if you watch the Olivier/Oberon Wuthering Heights, don't expect to see the whole story -- you will only get part of it. Otherwise, it's a quite fascinating interpretation: telling, I think, of what adaptors of the 1930s thought was important and what subsequent audiences have taken in. Woodnymph, I saw The English Patient film first, and then read the book. While the "essence" of the book might have been captured in the film, the two are so different! I like the film better. Another essence capturer, I think, is The French Lieutenant's Woman. Oh gosh, yes, the Polanski-directed Tess is superb, I think, and very faithful. Actually I like nearly all of the film versions of Hardy's books, particularly Tess and Far from the Madding Crowd -- Alan Bates will always be my Gabriel Oak. I also liked most of the Merchant-Ivory productions. I certainly like their adaptations of Forster, though I find Forster's writing insufferably Edwardian. I do like some Edwardian writing but Forster's was even more uptight than most. Knowing his bio and the times, I can understand why he wrote the way he did but the priggishness still exasperates me. Speaking of another Forster -- Margaret Forster, that is -- and Alan Bates: I adore the 1966 adaptation of Forster's Georgy Girl. I loved that book so much as a teenager that I determined I was to live in London. When this subject comes up, I always have to mention two of my favorite short story adaptations: John Huston's "The Dead" (from Joyce's Dubliners) and "Babette's Feast" (from Dinesen's Anecdotes of Destiny). June, you're right: there are so many good films that owe their genesis to a book.

Adella- that sounds interesting! I just finished Hillbilly Elegy which was an interesting as well. Here's a quote from the book jacket, " In Hillbilly Elegy, J.D. Vance tells the true story of what a social, regional, and class decline feels like when you were born with it hanging around your neck." I really enjoyed the memoir. It seems similar to White Trash, which I will be looking for.