New York Times: Sunday Book Review cover: James Parker on Under the Dome by Stephen King: "King has always produced at pulp speed. 'Nov. 22, 2007 - March 14, 2009' proclaims the final page of “Under the Dome”: that’s 1,100 pages in 480 days. We shouldn’t be too squeamish about the odd half-baked simile or lapse into B-movie dialogue, is my point. Writing flat-out keeps him close to his story, close to his source. It seems to magnetize his imagination: by the final third of this novel King i... Read Full Story

In late September, the Canadian contingent of the Amazon Books team traveled (or travelled, as they say north of the border) to Toronto to help celebrate the five fantastic finalists of the 38th Annual Amazon.ca First Novel Award, and to honor(/honour) the winner.Let me pause here to acknowledge that you may be wondering how it could have been the 38th Annual Amazon.ca First Novel Award. There isn't room in this post to explain (gotta keep it tight), so I'll just say it's an award with an ill... Read Full Story

It's Friday again! Here are a few burger-themed links the Al Dente editors obsessed about this week: Emeril plans to open a burger restaurant called Burgers and More, aka BAM, in a Pennsylvania casino. (Restaurant News) Iceland has no navy, no army, no air force, and now, no McDonald's. (Wall Street Journal) Gastronomic goliath, Adam Richman, took a few bites out of a 190-pound burger. (MLive) Mmm...sweet potato oven fries. (Taste is Trump) A heart-stopping sausage and bacon burger with Velve... Read Full Story

I am so absolutely stuffed after soaking up three days of amazing food and fellowship at the Southern Foodways Alliance Symposium in Oxford, Miss. The theme this year was music and it was enlightening and entertaining to hear food imagery pop up in everything from ragtime to hip hop. I've been going to this magical weekend for five years and it just keeps getting better. I'm not just talking about the incredible meals cooked by famous chefs (Susan Spicer from Bayona in New Orleans, Momofuku's... Read Full Story

Between 60 and 41 yesterday we included a four-sided memoir of a one-of-a-kind childhood, a big retrospective from a master of the short-short-short story, a delirious trilogy-ender from the Demon Dog himself, a tiny and spellbindingly lovely novel of memory, and a travel tale far smarter than its sexpot cover would lead you to think. Today: 40. The Informers, Juan Gabriel Vasquez 39. The Defector, Daniel Silva 38. The Year of the Flood, Margaret Atwood 37. Chronic City, Jonathan Lethem 36.... Read Full Story

We're slowing things down a little now, with just ten picks today, masterfully building the tension toward our top 10 announcement next week. Among our stops from 40 to 21 yesterday: a wonderful debut in English from one of South America's most exciting young novelists, a delicious novel that Michiko Kakutani mistakenly called "a strangely detached and lackadaisical production," a book so full of hoops lore it can stop a bullet (really), a cookbook loaded with f-bombs and pork, a Swedish n... Read Full Story

"Almond Roca over Atomic Fireballs? No way!" my husband said, in total disbelief, when he heard the news. But that's just what happened the first day of the 2009 "Candy and 'Friends' Tournament", put together by the folks at Milliman, an actuarial firm based in Seattle. "Could sour gummy worms be this year's Cinderella? Could a powerhouse like Cracker Jacks see an early exit from the tourney? Is there any way that Bugles could make it into the Sweet Sixteen?" "This is really out of my league... Read Full Story

When I wrote about Jeff Hertzberg and Zoe Francois's first book, Artisan Bread in Five Minutes A Day, I was promptly deluged in emails, which I passed on to the authors. A surprising number were from people asking how to translate the pair's no-knead recipes into whole-wheat or other whole-grain versions. And a surprising number, Hertzberg and Francois told me this week, were from people thinking they could just substitute whole grain flours for white flour, cup for cup. Sadly, baking doesn'... Read Full Story

Now that Seattle's rainy season has officially started, I've dusted off my favorite English teapot and replenished my vast supply of different Tazo Teas--Wild Sweet Orange, Passion, Honeybush, and Zen being just a few.  Over the years on cold rainy nights, I've gotten into the habit of making a pot of herbal tea for my children. I really do think it calms them down and warms them up before they snuggle under the bedcovers. Historically at night, I've been faithful to the Wild Sweet Orange op... Read Full Story

Having been an Amazon.com Kitchen editor for, oh, about nine years, I’ve seen my share of intriguing and interesting items. But even after seeing lots of these eye-catchers, the Presto Pizzazz pizza oven instantly made me do a double-take the first time I saw it. It just looks a little odd: an oven that’s open to the air for the most part. My first thought was: total gimmick, which probably doesn’t work (well, call me a skeptic). My second thought was: wait, I should try it before being skep... Read Full Story