Susan Terris Books

This delightful cookbook is part of the American Girls Pastimes series, and focuses on the sort of recipes that would have been used during the time of Kirsten Larson, 1854. The book begins with some historical notes on pioneer kitchens and eating, and includes a short prayer in Swedish (which my eleven-year-old daughter is trying to memorize). Then the book launches into the recipes. First comes breakfast with homemade sausage patties, hard-boiled eggs (and how to serve), Swedish rice porridge, round rye bread (all hand made), homemade butter, and ginger cookies. Next comes dinner with baked ham slice, Swedish potatoes (better than scalloped potatoes!), cabbage and apple salad, fruit soup, and Swedish almond rusks. Then comes favorite foods, which includes potato soup, Swedish meatballs, fresh applesause, Swedish pancakes, St. Lucia buns, and Pepparkakor cookies (ginger cookies, a traditional Christmas treat, but good anytime). The final chapter is on planning a pioneer party.

This is a very good recipe book. The recipes in here are all easily within the ability of a youngster who is guided by an adult with even moderate experience in the kitchen; no special tools are need. My daughter already made the Swedish pancakes (yum!), and is planning a Swedish meal (at which she'll recite the prayer). I can't wait.

This is a very nice book, an excellent recipe book, and an excellent addition to your Kirsten library.

The American Girl series of historical novels, written for girls (and boys) ages 9-12, contain six novels about each of the seven girls. EAch of the novels represents one aspect of each girl's life. Separate from the stories are the related books, including cookbooks and craft books. The specific period of American history is both educational and entertaining.

"Kirsten's Cookbook: A Peek at Dining in the Past with Meals You Can Cook Today" is one of these books. Kirsten and her family are immigrants from Sweden, who relocated in Minnesota in 1854. The terribly hard life of these people made me thoroughly happy I live here and now.

One reason life on this farm was difficult concerned food and its growth and preparation for eating. With no supermarkets or local convenience stores, families grew or gathered, hunted and killed everything they ate. As you read through this "cookbook," you will learn about the pioneer kitchen, the tableware, and tips for cooking these items today.

The standard breakfast for Swedes was substantial because of the hard work required to establish and keep a home. It included Pork Sausage Patties, hard-boiled eggs, Swedish Rice Porridge (oatmeal), rye bread, home-made butter, and ginger cookies. The pork came from the pig raised and killed on the farm, eggs from their own chickens, and butter from their own cow.

Here's the dinner menu: ham, Swedish potatoes (fried with onions), cabbage and apple salad, fruit soup, and almond rusks (a kind of coffee cake). Little side notes are interspersed throughout the "cookbook." Examples include Mortar and Pestle, Lard, Baking Soda, Churning Butter, Bread Ovens, and so on--the practical aspects of immigrant pioneer life.

The last section of each girl's cookbook is Favorite Foods. The Swedish experience includes Potato Soup, Swedish Meatballs, Fresh Applesauce, Swedish Pancakes, St. Lucia Buns, and Pepparkakor Cookies with such flavorful ingredients as cinnamon, ginger, cloves, and maple syrup.

Finally, are you ready for a party after all the work? American Girl editors have a Swedish pioneer party planned for you.

The recipes are wonderful, and the history is easy to take in. I learned quite a bit from this book without any suffering. There are lots of pictures, including photos. This is my kind of cookbook! I intend to buy the other cookbooks in this series.

Kind of expensive, but probably worth it!

I used to read this book over and over in elementary school! I just couldn't get enough of it! A story about a poor family that moves to San Francisco and the girl's mother makes extra money by jarring pickles, which she has to help with and she always smells like pickles, so the neighborhood kids start calling her "Pickle". She eventually finds a friend in the "witch" who lives across the street. Classic story about trying to fit in and wanting to be with the "in" crowd.

I, too, used to read this book over and over! Wish it were still in print, can't even find it in the library. Amazon, please see if you can get this published again! Thank you!

FIRE IS FAVORABLE TO THE DREAMER is a lively and interesting book of poems.  These are not poems so obscure that the reader has no idea what the poet is saying but poems about love and loss.  There are personal poems of love and loss, but much of the book is narrative poems about real people such as Mary Todd Lincoln, Picasso, or the sailors of the Russian submarine the Kursk.  In contrast to these poems, some of the work is surreal and has the aura of myth or fairy tale.  This is a collection of immense breadth and depth.  I meant to open it and read a few poems but found myself reading on and on. I can't recommend it highly enough!

If you buy one poetry book in the year 2003, make it Fire Is Favorable to the Dreamer, by Susan Terris. Sorrows of everyday life discover their niches, then move beyond the mundane into a world where grief itself teaches us to harbor the light within. Among my favorite poems were "Breaking Away From the Family" in which the author remembers her father's death: "Mother's pork sausage fingers" and the "stiff portrait" of five faces left behind.

Terris is a poet with the gift of understatement and grace. Stark, emotional realities are made into art and laced with a hint of mystery. Her readers will meet death, cancer, the roles of men and women, and growing up -- all in compelling new ways. Section three (entitled Blue Roses) is reminiscent of Tennessee Williams' famous play The Glass Menagerie, where light affords studious appraisal of one's life and mortal limits. Terris is one of the most profound and eloquent new voices in Amercian poetry today.

Janet I. Buck, author of Calamity's Quilt

This book touched my heart. Knowing that people actually lived a hard life by having Polio was heart breaking. Some people cared and others didn't. "Wings and Roots" taught me how to care about others. Knowing a book can teach people how to act tells you something. People need our help everyday, Jennie helped Kit and gave him courage, while he gave her strength. While I was reading the book I realized that people can all teach eachother. I mow look forward to meeting people and helping others. The auther did a great job writing this book and bringing out different types of feelings.

This book touched my heart. Knowing that people actually lived a hard life by having Polio was heart breaking. Some people cared and others didn't. "Wings and Roots" taught me how to care about others. Knowing a book can teach people how to act tells you something. People need our help everyday, Jennie helped Kit and gave him courage, while he gave her strength. While I was reading the book I realized that people can all teach eachother. I mow look forward to meeting people and helping others. The auther did a great job writing this book and bringing out different types of feelings.

Baby-Snatcher, by Susan Terris, is a great book of mystery, excitement and love. I enjoyed reading the book. I finished it in one day; it was so good. I recommend this book to everyone. I give Susan Terris a very big compliment on this wonderful book!

I thought this was a great book and it was a very creative and
imaginative book.I think the author did a wonderful job on this book and had some really great ideas for this book.I hope everybody will read this story.This book was about a girl who didn't like her life at all and one day she starts to scratch her arm and when she gets home sha finds out she has the chickenpox.So she cuts off all her hair.

Life & Richness - even amid loss and pain is what Susan Terris preaches in her thirteenth book of poetry "Contrariwise". It's an exploration of Lewis Caroll and his immortal character of Alice, a whimsical meditation that weaves her life, memories, and experiences into this wonderful, passionate book of poetry. Highly recommended to poetry lovers and poetry collections everywhere. Wild Oats: Katydid, cricket, beetle/grasshopper in wild oats - / melody of midsummer's night.//And in the air/a calligraphy of midges/male and female/a green-black/stylized cloud/scrolled over stagnant water/whining and whining/a high pitched, monotone refrain.

Susan Terris's "Curved Space"is a stunning achievement. She is a remarkably connected poet, with freshness of vision, skill and intelligence Her poems not only reflect , her conviction and integrity but the ability to transform all of these superlative qualities into poetry thatn enchant her readers. "Curved Space" is overflowing with rigorously crafted, strongly felt poetry that is also earthy, celebratory and full of wisdom. Her immense knowledge and imagination lend authenticity to her work. There are so many layers, so many levels to explore and a fearlessness that makes white rafting, shooting rapids and mountain climbing seem like child's play. "Curved Space" is a work of immense courage, sensitivity and God-given talent that make every page of this book an adventure, a pleasure and a discovery. Ruth Daigon (editor of Poets On:) author of "Between One Future And the Next" (Papier-Mache Press).

You've recently been diagnosed with Cancer, read this book. Someone close to your heart has just been diagnosed with Cancer, read this book. You're a caregiver, read this book. I actually recommended this book to someone I met at a Cancer support group. Her response, which sums it up perfectly, is "It's straightforward, very readable and packed with information without being overwhelming. I really recommend it for anyone who is at the start of a diagnosis. It would be such a comfort to start with it from the get go."

This is a poet not afraid to tackle difficult subjects. She pulls it off by crisp, smart, musical attention to language and detail. You learn something from her poems, and you read them again to enjoy her images, her narratives, her explorations of subject and the power of her words. You can't go wrong here.