New and Used Books
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We BUY, SELL & TRADE your paperback and hardcover books!
Book Again features a large selection of current best-sellers
as well as many hard-to-find & out-of-print titles!


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Book Again is located in Torrance, California, at 5039 Torrance Blvd.,
just west of Anza (between Shakey's Pizza and McDonald's restaurant)
Book Again is open 11am to 4pm (CLOSED MONDAYS) (310) 542-1156
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It sure has been yet another lovely summer at Book Again, seeing so many new visitors with students and teachers on their summer break. And most of all, a true joy to see our wonderful regular customers and friends who have always been so very supportive. Thanks to all of you, we have kept busy and have enjoyed a fantastic turnover of fresh titles on the shelves.

And with this new season comes a fresh start as students enter a new class in school and parents face new timetables (while the rest of us face new traffic patterns during our morning commutes).

One new thing I've done recently is to take-in a number of comic books. Competitively-priced, they can be found on the top shelf of the Classics section. I am toying with the idea of carrying comics, which we haven't done in the past, so I would appreciate your feedback. Check them out and let me know what you think before I buy more.

—Sheryl

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From the Editor:
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  • Recent Paperbacks (within 9 months of publication)
  • General Fiction
  • Mysteries
  • Westerns
  • Large Print Books
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A Profitable Wait
By Diana

My intent was to return some books and escape empty handed for once. Alas, Book Again was busy that day, and I had to wait my turn, thereby forcing me to look through the shelves until my books could be checked for acceptance. As with most of you, I did not make it out of the store unscathed. And I'm so glad I didn't, as I came across some wonderful new titles (well, new to me) from the author of one of my favorite books.

Several years ago I read a wonderfully funny and touching book, The Persian Pickle Club, by Sandra Dallas. Narrated by Queenie Bean, the story tells of young city girl Rita who has come to the Kansas farm country with her returning husband, Tom, to take over the family farm. She is introduced to the quilting ladies and is welcomed by most. Agnes T. Ritter, her new sister-in-law does not share the others' feelings. As the story progresses the secrets and history of the town emerge. Set in the 1930's the story is both heartbreaking and heart touching.

So I picked up two more titles from the same author. Both Whiter Than Snow and Tallgrass continue to showcase the talent and expertise she has in bringing characters to life in times of great adversity. Whiter Than Snow takes place in Tenmile, Colorado, during the 1920's. Life in a mining town is hard and dangerous – and so are the mountains. On their way home from school, some children are swept up in an avalanche. As the town rallies around the families during the rescue efforts, individual family members wrestle with their worst fears.

In Tallgrass, set in 1940's Colorado, young Rennie tells the story of the internment of Japanese citizens at the start of the war. Her brother and most of the field hands, like most of the young men at the time, have left for the war. Farmers are left having trouble getting their crops in. Against the advice of many of his neighbors, Rennie's father decides to hire Japanese workers. When a young girl is raped and murdered the full force of fear and bigotry shows itself. Rennie is left to question her father's teaching and her own feelings of right and wrong. Once again, Miss Dallas brings to life the moral and physical hardships suffered by all people in times of war.

click here for our feature article archives

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  Glazed Ham with Dijon Pineapple Sauce
  • 5 lb fully-cooked ham
  • whole cloves
  • 1 C firmly-packed dark brown sugar
  • 1/2 C maple-flavored syrup
  • 1/4 C Dijon mustard
  • 1 T cornstarch
  • 1 can (17 1/4oz) pineapple in own juice (drained)


Score ham; stud with cloves.
Line baking pan with foil. Place ham on rack in pan. Bake at 350° for 2 hours or until internal
temp reaches 140°.

Combine sugar, syrup and mustard. Use 3/4 Cup glaze to baste ham every 10 minutes during the last 35-40 minutes of baking.

Dissolve cornstarch in remaining glaze; add undrained pineapple. Cook stirring constantly, until thickened. Serve sauce with ham.
10-15 servings; approximately 2 1/4 C sauce.
For decoration, add pineapple wedges to ham during last 15 minutes of baking.
Also delicious served with chicken, pork, or fish.

Want more delicious food ideas? Check out our Recipe Archive!

 


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 IT HAD TO HAPPEN ONE OF THESE COLUMNS

I had to address this sooner or later. It was as inevitable as the fact that there would never be a September/October folklore column that did not wrap itself fondly and unshakably around that most magic of holidays: Halloween!

I can no more avoid that than decide to stop eating or breathing, and at last I could no longer avoid this most enduring staple of the fall season, that sweet, often honey-based confection over a century old now, still arriving bedecked in the same three colors our ancestors knew, magic triangular bites that, if one is six or seven and missing just the right teeth, serve as the most excellent vampire fangs…

This is the story of Candy Corn.

Now, it is said that a certain Philadelphia candy maker named George Renninger was actually the inventor of "butter cream" -- a soft candy created by mixing sugar, corn syrup and marshmallow (plus an extra ingredient or two) into a malleable, chewable treat.

Renninger took advantage of the candy's malleable qualities to shape it into various forms -- peapods, chestnuts, turnips, and, finally, corn kernels.

Now, the corn kernels seemed less interesting than the others, owing to the rather basic shape of the things, so for these George added something extra…

Color.

All Candy had been uniformly hued up to that point. In those impossibly primitive times just 120 years ago, it would have been much too costly to attempt to mass-produce a multicolored candy.

But George did it. His company was the now-forgotten "Wunderlee Candy Company", a relatively small candy producer, but it was not so small to keep him from initiating a new system where laborers would pour the three differently colored layers of mix into corn kernel molds, one layer at a time. It took three times as long to manufacture and was as such a pretty big gamble, but it paid off. The great "buttercream" taste coupled with the novelty of the three colors proved irresistible to the masses, and Candy Corn was a hit.

Unfortunately, the candy's popularity was George's downfall, and larger candy rival Goelitz soon "appropriated the idea, by 1898 advertizing their own "Butter Sweet Candy Corn". It became a staple of the Summer/Fall season, and, in spite of a brief attempt around the 1920's to redub the candy "Chicken Feed", Candy Corn remained true to its origins. Of course, another candy rival, Brach's, began selling their own candy corn in 1948. They added two innovations -- first, they used honey instead of conventional sugar.

Then, they narrowed the seasonal aspect down even more, electing to manufacture and sell Candy Corn only during the Halloween season. They quickly became and remain the Candy Corn leader, in effect doing to Goelitz what Goelitz had done to Wunderlee.

Amazingly, that same three-colored design was still a source of wonder 70 years after its invention, as I recall discovering Candy Corn when I was about Clara's age, and found myself eating each candy one color at a time, just to see if there was even the slightest difference in flavor between them.

And I am sure you need not ask what Clara's favorite Halloween treat is.

Between the two of us we have already decimated the first Candy Corn bag of the season...

HAPPY HALLOWEEN!

click here for the Folklore archive
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"Some books are to be tasted, others to be swallowed, and some few to be chewed and digested."—Francis Bacon
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We are located in Torrance, California, at 5039 Torrance Blvd.,
just west of Anza, between Shakey's Pizza and McDonald's restaurant.
Book Again is open 11am to 4pm (CLOSED MONDAYS) (310) 542-1156

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Site updated 9/10/14 • click here for our newsletter archive
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