Good Book and Good Recpies

I'm about halfway through The Language of Baklava by Diana Abu-Jaber. I'm often drawn to books with food as the central narrative especially if there is a historical bend (two of my favorite books are Cod by Mark Kurlansky and The Secret Life of Lobsters, by Trevor Corson). Abu-Jaber's book, while full of recipes relating to her growing up as a 1st generation American with parents from Jordan. There's a little more to it, for me, on a personal level. My mother, now in her sixties, has told me stories of her youth, visiting her grandfather and other relatives who made their way to America from Lebanon. She and Abu-Jaber carry many collective memories of family feasts and the struggles of 20th century immigrants trying to assimilate. It's definitely worth a few hours of your time.

CR4: The Engineer's place for Discussion and News

And now for a little shameless schilling. At work, (GlobalSpec, Inc.), we've created Conference Room Four (CR4) a community site for engineers. It's set up so that engineers can talk to each other about topics that interest them and seek each other's advice on technical issues. If you're an engineer, check it out, and if you're not, we have a lot of non engineering discussions (space, cryptozoology, etc.).