Tuesday, November 18, 2014

Factory Man

Author: Beth Macy

While the world is dominated by sweatshop-goods, I wanted to read about the story of Bassett furniture to see how it had survived this domination. I’ll be honest here – I never completed the book. Before I could finish it I had to return it to the library. That is not to say that if I’d had it I would’ve finished it. It’s kind of slow, really slow in the beginning. The author begins at the beginning. Right from when the first Basset factory was setup, the family feuds, the social geometry and so on. That was not what brought me to the book. I was more interested in reading how exactly had they survived this era of sweatshop-goods when left, right and center I see all manufacturing units shutting down. Whenever given a chance, I like to promote goods made in the country. Why? Because I know that people who worked hard to make these goods were given their due wage so that they can lead a decent life. That’s why I was curious to read what is that Bassett did, that others didn’t. However I’m sad to report that I don’t know the secret. Maybe someday I’ll give it another chance. Till then wait for my next book review Smile

Wednesday, November 12, 2014

Vegan cookies invade your cookie jar

Author: Isa Chandra Moskowitz and Terry Hope Romero

I recently go this book from the library to see if I liked the recipes. I was able to try two of the recipes and was very impressed! One of them was banana cookies – which everyone devoured and the other was chocolate biscotti (again a hit!). Below is a picture of the chocolate biscotti made using the recipe from the book.
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Of the two recipes that I tried, both were really good! So the recipes seem like a keeper. The ingredients required seemed to be there in my pantry – another thing I liked about the recipes. The instructions are clear and the book covers almost every type of cookie – from breakfast cookies to decadent cookie bars. Needless to say this book is now on my wishlist and I would highly recommend it to anyone looking for vegan cookies!