Cooking Demo and Book Signing at Book Beat with Max and Eli Sussman - Come, Eat and Enjoy!  

Join us Sunday, August 24th from 1-4 PM  at the Book Beat, 26010 Greenfield in Oak Park  for a booksigning and food tasting event for the new cookbook, Freshman in the Kitchen: From Clueless Cook to Creative Chef by local authors (and great cooks!) Max and Eli Sussman. Please call 248-968-1190 for more information. 

There will be a temporary outdoor tent next at the store to hold cooking demos and to taste sample recipes from the book. Visit the author's website at Freshman in the Kitchen, to learn more and preview some of the recipes. This should be a fun event for all ages and a great afternoon for tasting food and learning new skills in the kitchen. No matter what your level of talent in the kitchen, you can always learn something new about buying, cooking and preparing food. This makes a great back-to-school gift! 

About the Book:

Freshman in the Kitchen: From Clueless Cook to Creative Chef  is a fun, inspiring cookbook providing a younger crowd not only with the step-by-step cooking instructions for themselves and their friends, but also detailed instructions on grocery shopping, how to outfit the kitchen and a myriad of other kitchen tips. This cookbook is a great gift idea for first-time students living away from home, or anyone who desires an easy-to-use no nonsense guide to cooking. 
 
The book takes the reader through 7 chapters of food preparation starting with the simplest (no heat) to chapters on vegetarian food for vegetarians and non-vegetarians alike, and a chapter on one of the most popular cuisines for someone this age: Grilling. Each chapter adds a new technique or style, culminating in recipes for themed feasts, and of course ending in desserts.
 
The Sussman brothers take all the worry out of cooking, even giving detailed instructions on how to make perfect pasta every time. On the other hand, they promise that even if someone has cooked gourmet three-course meals before, they will still learn new techniques and tips.
 

About the Authors:

Eli and Max Sussman grew up in Huntington Woods, Michigan and attended Berkley High School. Their parents, book artist Lynn Avedenka and attorney Marc Sussman outlawed junk food at home while the boys were growing up - a serendipitous decision. “They were always adventurous eaters, willing to try what was put in front of them. That made it more fun for me,” says Avadenka. Adds Marc Sussman, “They wanted the book to look good and be functional; they thought about all that.”

A Dead Man's Memoir by Mikhail Bulgakov: A Theatrical Novel  A new translation of one of the most popular satires on the Russian Revolution and Sovi et society Best known for The Master and Margarita, Mikhail Bulgakov is one of twentieth-century Russia's most prominent novelists. A Dead Man's Memoir is a semi-autobiographical story about a writer who fails to sell his novel, then fails to commit suicide.

More than anything, what the novel displays, unseen beneath the rushing current of satire, is the author's courage to take a stand against his critics -- from Stalin on down -- and to poke a stick at his own self-image.

Goodnight Bush (hardcover) » A brilliant parody of the children's classic "Goodnight Moon," built around the coming end of the worst presidency ever. "Goodnight Bush: An Unauthorized Parody" is a hilarious and poignant visual requiem for the Bush administration. In it we see a childlike George W. Bush tucked safely away in the confines of his own room with all of the toys he's willfully destroyed, abused, or defaced. Complete with a quiet Dick Cheney whispering "hush," this bedtime story lets us finally say goodnight to the disaster that was the last eight years.    

The Wrecking Crew (hardcover) » From the author of the landmark bestseller What’s the Matter with Kansas?, a jaw-dropping investigation of the decades of deliberate—and lucrative—conservative misrule. 

In his previous book, Thomas Frank explained why working America votes for politicians who reserve their favors for the rich. Now, in The Wrecking Crew, Frank examines the blundering and corrupt Washington those politicians have given us.

Go-Go Girls of the Apocalypse (paperback) »  The highways are lined with abandoned automobiles; electricity is generated by indentured servants pedaling stationary bicycles. What little civilization remains revolves around Joey Armageddon's Sassy A-Go-Go strip clubs, where the beer is cold, the lap dancers are hot, and the bouncers are armed with M16s.

Accompanied by his cowboy sidekick Buffalo Bill, the gorgeous stripper Sheila, and the mountain man Ted, Mortimer journeys to the lost city of Atlanta -- and a showdown that might determine the fate of humanity.                                    ;             

Disgusting Things: A Miscellany (paperback) » A collection of extreme, gross-out, cringe-worthy— and irresistible—trivia.From trivia expert Don Voorhees, Disgusting Things: A Miscellany is the ultimate book of outrageous, revolting, and repugnant trivia, a collection of equally upsetting and intriguing facts that will leave the reader grossed out—and wanting more.

There's a Riot Going On: Revolutionaries, Rock Stars, and the Rise and Fall of the '60s (Hardcover) » From Mick Jagger’s legendary appearance in Grosvenor Square, standing on the sidelines and snapping pictures, to the infamous incident at Woodstock when Pete Townshend kicked Yippie Abbie Hoffman off the stage while he tried to make a speech about an imprisoned comrade, to Lennon’s display of self-promotion when he auctioned off his hair on top of the “Black House,” Doggett unravels the truth about how these ambitious musicians weren’t always the “Street Fighting Men” they saw themselves as. There’s A Riot Going On is a rich, fact-filled, exceedingly well-researched social history at the nexus of pop culture, celebrity, and politics.

SALE BOOKS: 

The Amazing Spiderman Pop-Up: Marvel True Believers Retro Character Collection » Follow Spidey as he makes his transformation from shy bookworm Peter Parker to your friendly neighborhood web-slinger. Plus, encounter his seven deadliest foes, including Doctor Octopus, the Green Goblin, and the Sandman. The classic Marvel Comics superhero is given the star pop-up treatment in this book for fans of all ages. Reproductions of comic book pages from key moments in the characters' developments form the borders for wide-open pop-up spreads full of action, with shiny foil and transparent elements on a dynamically slanted page layout. Pull out tabs to read Fact Files on characters and villains. previosly published at $24.99 on SALE $7.99

The All-New X-Men Pop-Up: Marvel True Believers Retro Character Collection (Hardcover pop-up) » In this second book of the series, it's time to meet those mutant miracles, the X-Men. Under the guidance of Professor Xavier, this second team of X-Men including Cyclops, Storm, Banshee, Wolverine, Phoenix, Colossus, and Nightcrawler take on Magneto and his band of anarchy-minded mutants. The classic Marvel Comics superheroes are given the star pop-up treatment in this book for fans of all ages. Reproductions of comic book pages from key moments in the characters' developments form the borders for wide-open pop-up spreads full of action, with shiny foil and transparent elements on a dynamically slanted page layout. Pull out tabs to read Fact Files on characters and villains. published at $24.99 on Sale $7.99

Slave Spirituals and the Jubilee Singers (hardcover, sale book) » "The first half of this intriguing book surveys the music of African American slaves, while the latter focuses on the Jubilee Singers. From its origins in African vocal and instrumental music to its development into songs of work, complaint, defiance, play, hope, and religion, slave music was so central to slave culture that, after emancipation, African Americans were eager to put the old songs behind them. According to [Michael] Cooper, now-familiar spirituals might have been forgotten without the Fisk University Jubilee Singers." --Booklist,  Hardcover published at $16.00 now $5.99

Shorter Oxford English Dictionary »"This latest (sixth edition) version of the Shorter (the full Oxford is 20 volumes) features 2,500 new words, including blogroll, cremains and crapola, but its real value is in its explanation of word origins and the distinguished examples of usage."--Seattle Times "The big language book of the year."--William Safire, New York Times Magazine "The one dictionary you ought to have."--Philadelphia Inquirer

"A browser's paradise....The Shorter Oxford English Dictionary remains the most reliable and certainly the most capacious of abridged dictionaries. Now with the CD-ROM thrown in, it is also the most convenient."--Edward Short, The American Spectator  published at $165 SALE $79.99 limited quantity. 

Outwitting History: The Amazing Adventures of a Man Who Rescued a Million Yiddish Books (Hardcover, sale) » Yiddish scholar Max Weinreich, who was in Finland when the Nazis invaded his native Poland, was asked why he persisted in teaching the study of Yiddish when half the world's speakers had been killed in the Holocaust. "Because Yiddish has magic," he answered simply, "it will outwit history." By 1980, scholars estimated only 70,000 Yiddish-language books not titles, still existed, a statistic fact that alarmed 23-year-old Aaron Lansky, who set out with little more than his own chutzpah to rescue the world's abandoned Yiddish books before it was too late. Twenty-five years and 1,500,000 books later, as the founder and president of the National Yiddish Book Center, he's still in the midst of a great adventure.published at $24.95   SALE  $6.99