Book Review: Manhood for Amateurs

Michael Chabon, how you have let me down. This from the guy who wrote the Amazing Adventures of Kavalier and Clay? This is a collection of essays (originally published in Details Magazine) that have been pulled together, rather poorly, into a book. I frankly found it boring and was unable to relate to its all-American ideal of manhood and masculinity. I appreciate the message he is trying to send, and pointing out the injustice of stereotypical gender roles, especially when it comes to parenting, but he is too self-righteous about it, and it is lost on me.

I will say though, I am not exactly the target audience for this book, so I would be willing to understand why someone could like it. Also, on the positive side, I appreciated the brutal honesty with which Chabon analyzed himself and his life. It is hard to be that honest about yourself and not come off sounding arrogant and too self-aware for his own good.

Cupcake Happy

This post marks the beginning of the many cupcake blogs I hope to have on this site. As a fan of cute things and delicious things, one of my favorite recent hobbies has to make cute delicious cupcakes. I sometimes use a book (Hello Cupcake is a good one!), and sometimes use my creativity to think of new ones.

The first cupcakes I made were these adorable owl cupcakes, with chocolate frosting, oreo cookies, and m&ms.

The second ones I made were turkey cupcakes for Thanksgiving. I would have liked to have used candy corn for the feathers, but it was not readily available, so I used orange candy that I cut into fan-like shapes. The turkey's head is a donut hole, and the chocolate sprinkles are the neck feathers.

The third installment was the most successful and delicious. I used sweetened coconut flakes, fruit rollups, and m&ms to make an army of snowmen for Christmas/New Years. I made ear muffs using m&ms and fruit rollups!

My last experiment was making sunflower cupcakes with green and yellow frosting, Oreos, and red m&ms for ladybugs. They turned out less like sunflowers and more like regular flowers, but they were cute anyway.