• Bobby Flay shares his top 10 backyard barbecue tips.
• Spice things ups with this Homemade Buffalo Chicken recipe from Robb Walsh’s The Hot Sauce Cookbook.
• For the vegetarians, try Mark Bittman’s Spiked Guacamole recipe from VB6.
• Relax after the parties with refreshing, homemade ginger ale and a copy of Silver.

Eat It.

Ginger Ale
Recipe from True Brews by Emma Christensen
Makes 8 cups – enough to fill a 2-liter plastic soda bottle

2-inch piece fresh gingerroot
1 cup water, plus more to fill the bottles
9 tablespoons / 4 ounces white granulated sugar, plus more if needed
1⁄8 teaspoon salt
5 tablespoons freshly squeezed lemon juice (from 2 to 3 lemons), plus more if needed
1⁄8 teaspoon dry champagne yeast

1. Peel and finely grate the ginger (I use a Microplane). You should have about 2 tablespoons of grated ginger root.

2. Bring the water to a boil in a small saucepan on the stove top or in the microwave. Remove from the heat. Add the sugar and salt and stir to dissolve. Add the ginger and let stand until cool. Stir in the lemon juice.

3. Pour the ginger water into a clean 2-liter bottle using a funnel. Do not strain out the ginger. Top off the bottle with water, leaving at least 1 inch of headspace. Give it a taste and add more lemon juice or sugar if desired. The extra sugar will dissolve on its own.

4. Add the yeast. Screw on the cap and shake the bottle to dissolve and distribute the yeast. Let the bottle sit at room temperature out of direct sunlight until carbonated, typically 12 to 48 hours, depending on the temperature of the room. Check the bottle periodically; when it feels rock solid with very little give, it’s ready.

5. Refrigerate overnight or for up to 2 weeks. Open very slowly over a sink to release the pressure gradually and avoid bubble-ups. Pour the soda through a small fine-mesh strainer to catch the ginger as you pour.

Read It.

Silver Book Excerpt

Quotes

“Detachment doesn’t mean you don’t let the experience penetrate you. On the contrary, you let it penetrate you fully. That’s how you are able to leave it.

“Forgive yourself before you die. Then forgive others.”

Earn Your MBA on the Toilet Book Excerpt

How did we get here? With Twilight of the Elites, Christopher Hayes upends well-worn ideological and partisan categories to offer a radically novel answer. Since the 1960s, as the meritocracy elevated a more diverse group of men and women into power, they learned to embrace the accelerating inequality that had placed them near the very top, leaving a new American elite more prone to failure and corruption and more out of touch with the people they govern.

Twilight of the Elites Book Excerpt

One of the easiest, most versatile (and budget-friendly) quilting techniques, English paper piecing has captured the imagination of contemporary sewers. This age-old technique has beguiled quilting bloggers, and local quilt stores are stocking notions specifically for English paper piecing to keep up with this trend. Jessica Alexandrakis shows how this simple technique can be used to create a wide range of lovely quilts, accessories, and gifts that sewers will be inspired to make—and turn into family heirlooms of their own.

Imagine being able to quilt anywhere you’d like! QUILTING ON THE GO transforms traditional quilting into a portable, uncomplicated, and sociable way to unwind. Readers will learn how to build a travel tool kit with everything needed to start stitching at home, in cafés, on vacation—or wherever else they want to! The 20 projects range from small (a sewing kit, a shoulder bag, a laptop bag, a photo frame, a throw pillow, and more) to large, including the inspiration and the building blocks for 10 full-size quilt patterns using hexagons, diamonds, and other shapes.

Showcasing a kaleidoscope of bold prints and fabric combinations, QUILTING ON THE GO is a visual delight of color and inspiration. With step-by-step tutorials, expert tips, and endless possibilities, now is the perfect time to break free from your sewing machine!

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About the Author:

JESSICA ALEXANDRAKIS learned to quilt while living in Hokkaido, Japan, in 2002. She loves scrap quilts, one-patch quilts, and quilting in public. She started blogging about her quilting efforts in 2006 and currently blogs at LifeUnderQuilts.blogspot.com. An active member of the NYC Metro Modern Quilt Guild, Jessica lives outside of New York City with her husband and two sons.

Artist, designer, and teacher Shabd Simon-Alexander shows how fashion forward, fresh, and fabulous tie-dye can be on everything from leggings and dresses to totes and home décor in her new book, TIE-DYE: Dye It, Wear It, Share It (Potter Craft, $22.99; on sale June 4, 2013). The book offers step-by-step instructions for many different dye techniques and showcases 22 projects that take tie-dye from bright and bold to subtly sophisticated.

TIE-DYE is packed with information on how to set up your work area and what materials you need, and it provides a comprehensive how-to of the basic dyeing processes. Once you’ve mastered those skills, Shabd shares more advanced techniques and design concepts to help guide your creative choices. Each project comes with a key, telling you the level of difficulty, the tie method, the dye method, and how long it will take to complete the project. Projects range from beginner friendly to advanced—the Lightning Tee (page 72), the Crystalline Scarf (page 84), and the Indigo Button-Down (page 117) are especially quick and easy.

This book has something for everyone—for the fashion-forward; for teens, children, and parents; for design students and textile artists; for quilters and sewers who want to hand-dye fabrics; and for crafters of all kinds looking for easy ways to revitalize their wardrobe. (Materials are commonly available in craft, toy, and art supply stores at affordable prices.) Experience all the innovative new possibilities with TIE-DYE!

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About the Author:

Shabd Simon-Alexander is a recognized innovator in tie-dye designs. Her clothing line, shabd, is carried in high-end boutiques and art museums around the world. She has been featured in many magazines, newspapers, and blogs, including the New York Times, Nylon, W, Lucky, Teen Vogue, Bust, Refinery29, Daily Candy, Time Out, New York magazine, Modern Painters, Dossier,  and BlackBook. She has also been featured in books such as Brooklyn Makers and Marina Abramovic: The Artist Is Present. She teaches hand-dyeing classes and was the first person to show Martha Stewart how to tie-dye. She lives in New York City and can be found online at www.shabdismyname.com.

]]> http://crownpublishing.com/news/artist-designer-and-teacher-shabd-simon-alexander-shows-how-fashion-forward-fresh-and-fabulous-tie-dye-can-be-in-her-new-book/feed/ 0 http://crownpublishing.com/news/now-in-paperback-tom-reisss-pulitzer-prize-winning-biography-the-black-count/ http://crownpublishing.com/news/now-in-paperback-tom-reisss-pulitzer-prize-winning-biography-the-black-count/#comments Fri, 10 May 2013 21:17:10 +0000 lkuhn http://crownpublishing.com/?post_type=news&p=19980

Acclaim for THE BLACK COUNT

*National Book Critics Circle Award Finalist*

*New York Times Notable Book 2012*

*NAACP Image Awards Finalist*

*NPR Best Books 2012 – Biography Selection*

*TIME Best of 2012 Books – Nonfiction Selection*

*The Root 12 Best Books of 2012 Selection*

*Plutarch Award Best Biography of the Year Nominee*

When The Black Count was published in September of 2012, Tom Reiss brought to readers a thrilling, sweeping narrative that introduced one of history’s greatest forgotten heroes: Alex Dumas. The New York Times Book Review called it “a richly imaginative biography” while the Wall Street Journal declared it “fascinating” and National Public Radio deemed it “a truly amazing story.” A New York Times and IndieBound bestseller, it would find a place on numerous best-of-the-year lists including those of TIME, The Root, and Salon and was a finalist for both the National Book Critics Circle and NAACP Awards before being selected as the Pulitzer Prize Winner for Biography. 

In THE BLACK COUNT: Glory, Revolution, Betrayal, and the Real Count of Monte Cristo (Broadway Paperbacks; May 14, 2013), now available in paperback, Reiss draws on more than six years of personal research—which included inspecting dungeon cells and even cracking open a safe to recover every piece of the puzzle—to masterfully recount the epic story of General Dumas, an outsized figure whose daring, courage, and sheer intellectual and athletic prowess formed the very model for the modern-day action hero. Born in Haiti to a French nobleman and a black slave, Dumas achieved fame in his own time as a dashing swordsman, accomplished military commander, and hero of the French Revolution—only to have his life virtually erased from history by his dangerous and powerful rival, Napoleon Bonaparte. Until now, Alex Dumas’s extraordinary life and character survived only in the literary works of his celebrated son, the novelist Alexandre Dumas, whose classic tales of adventure, intrigue, and heroism—The Three Musketeers and The Count of Monte Cristo—have captivated hundreds of millions of readers worldwide. As Reiss’s account reveals, the younger Dumas’s novels were not simply the product of a fertile imagination but also the lifelong efforts of a son to resurrect through fiction the story of his own larger-than-life father.

In rediscovering the life of General Alexandre (“Alex”) Dumas, Reiss also sheds startling new light on a forgotten age of emancipation: a single decade when the French Revolution ended slavery, created integrated schools and government, and allowed a black man to lead more than 50,000 white officers and soldiers into battle. Alex Dumas’s career as a black leader in a white society remained unequaled until our own time, when leaders like Colin Powell and Barack Obama have finally followed in his footsteps. 

Everywhere Dumas went, he was celebrated for his feats of bravery, audacity, strength, and skill. As a lowly corporal, Alex Dumas single-handedly captured thirteen enemy soldiers and marched them back to his camp. Not long afterward, he led four horsemen in an attack on an enemy post manned by over fifty men—Dumas alone killed six and took sixteen prisoner. In the early years of the Revolution, he led a corps of black and mixed-race volunteers called the Légion Noire—the Black Legion—who patrolled France’s borders to defend them from German invasion. As general-in-chief of the Army of the Alps, roughly the equivalent of a four-star general today, Alex Dumas led his men up seemingly impregnable ice cliffs at night to surprise an Austrian battery that seemed unassailable. He captured the enemy’s matériel and turned their own guns against them, forcing immediate surrender and taking 1,700 prisoners. And at the height of his career, he commanded Napoleon’s cavalry in France’s massive invasion of Egypt—but it was here that he became a threat to Napoleon himself. 

On his journey home from Egypt, General Dumas was captured and cast into a dungeon—a harrowing ordeal that inspired one of the world’s classic works of fiction. When he was finally freed, he returned home to a changed country. Napoleon had turned the clock back to a world of slavery, ending France’s audacious experiment with racial justice. Napoleon went to particular lengths to bury the memory and legacy of General Dumas. As a result, in France today, General Alex Dumas remains forgotten, despite the staggering success his son had in writing his life into legend. (The only physical monument honoring the great general was a statue erected in the early 1900s by a small group of admirers; when the Nazis occupied Paris in 1940, they destroyed it.) 

Reiss has spent years investigating the life of General Dumas, retracing his steps across the globe to ensure that this incredible life resides not just in the realm of fiction but in history. Equal parts swashbuckling adventure, impeccably researched history, and action-packed narrative, THE BLACK COUNT is an astonishing work, echoing the enduring bonds of love that kept an embattled family together and providing a magnificent tribute to one of history’s greatest unsung heroes.  

About the Author

TOM REISS is the author of the celebrated international bestseller The Orientalist. He has written for The New Yorker, the Wall Street Journal, and the New York Times Book Review, among other publications. He lives with his wife and daughters in New York City.