Roxanna Badin of the Los Angeles Review of Books, writes Rowling Keeps It Real: On "The Casual Vacancy." is the most interesting review I have read for The Casual Vacancy by J.K. Rowling. Her description of the myth of J.K. Rowling is worth the reading alone. She writes:

Dear book club hosts,
Here is a perfect recipe for a quick and delicious dessert for book club from Food and Wine July 2000.I have been making this ever since. 
 
Molten Chocolate Cakes
Ingredients: Makes 4 6-oz cakes
1 stick of (4oz) unsalted butter
6 oz bittersweet chocolate, preferably Valrhona
2 eggs
2 egg yolks
1/4 cup of sugar
pinch of salt
2 tablespoons all-purpose flour

1. Preheat the oven to 450 degrees. Butter and lightly flour 6-oz ramekins. Tap out the excess flour. Set the ramekins on a baking sheet.
2. In a double boiler, over simmering water, melt the butter with the chocolate. In a medium bowl, beat the eggs with the egg yolks, sugar and salt at high speed until thickened and pale.
3. Whisk the chocolate until smooth. Quickly fold it into the egg mixture along with the flour. Spoon the batter into the prepared ramekins and bake for 12 minutes, or until the sides of the cakes are firm but the centers are soft. Let the cakes cool in the ramekins for 1 minute, then cover each with an inverted dessert plate. Carefully turn each one over, let stand for 10 seconds and then unsold. Serve immediately 

I topped with whipped cream and berries. Yum!!!

Make ahead: the batter can be refrigerated for several hours; bring to room temperature before baking.

Wine: Chocolate is intense and bitter for many sweet wines, but not port. Try this dessert with a Ruby Porto, such as the nonvintage Sanderman Founder's Reserve or the no vintage Fonseca Bin No. 27. 

A Chocolate "Accident"
Perhaps no other recipe in recent history has caught on as fast as barely baked, just-out -of-the-oven individual-sized chocolate cakes, which under the slightest pressure from a fork, releases a flow of melted chocolate. Credit for their invention goes to Jean-Georges Vongerichten, chef and co-owner of restaurants around the world, including New York's Jean Georges and Vong. 

How did it happen? In 1987, Pierre Schutz, now the chef at Vong in Manhattan spent time working with Marc Meneau in France and brought back a recipe for an underbaked chocolate cake. Vongerichten recalls, "We started playing with it at Lafayette, where we both worked." At first, the chefs baked the cakes in tiny paper cups; they were moist but not runny because they were so small. "Three months after we started making them, a customer requested them for a party." Vongerichten says, "That's when we first made larger ones and discovered that the insides ran--everyone loved them." 

Jennifer K Blog writes that she was drawn to The Light Between Oceans because of the moral dilemma at the book's core. Read her blog post for the book. Also, check out her favorite books read in 2012.

Kelly's [Former] France Blog reviews The Light Between Oceans. She writes, "This is one of my favorite books of the year. Hands down." One of her favorite lines from the book is found on page 71:
"There are times when the ocean is not the ocean-not blue, not even water, but some violent explosion of energy and danger: ferocity on a scale only gods can summon.  It hurls itself at the island, sending spray right over the top of the lighthouse, biting pieces off the cliff.  And the sound is a roaring of a beast whose anger knows no limits.  Those are the nights the light is needed most."

La Bibliofille had the same issues I had of not giving away too many details when trying to review this book. She found it interesting to read about life on a remote island. I agree, one of the best things about the book is how well the author is able to put you on Janus Rock! Read more from Alice McNamara's blog.

I was an early Stephen King fan but I hadn't read anything by him since The Stand. This 700 page novel's title and cover captured my attention and I am so glad it did. I am loving every surprise along the way. I found this video below at http://112263book.com/. In the video Stephen King talks about how he began this novel in 1973 and why he stopped writing then and why he is glad he waited to write 11/22/63 until now.

Just finished The Light Between Oceans by M. L. Stedman and I highly recommend it. I enjoyed it so much I picked it for Book Club Extraordinaire's January Read. I can't wait to hear what everyone thinks!
For starters, read Turn the Pages blog's review of the novel.

Reviews for Rules of Civility
Kirkus Reviews, June 1, 2011 writes "An elegant, pithy performance by a first-time novelist who couldn’t seem more familiar with his characters or territory."

The New York Times Book Review by Liesl Schillinger writes "With this snappy period piece, Towles resurrects the cinematic black-and-white Manhattan of the golden age of screwball comedy, gal-pal camaraderie and romantic mischief (think of "Stage Door," "Made for Each Other," "My Man Godfrey" and even Fay Wray in "King Kong")."

The Guardian's Viv Groskop writes "Anyway it's New Year's Eve 1937 and Katey Kontent is heading to a Greenwich Village hotspot – quite literally the Hotspot – with her room-mate Eve. So far, so Sex and the City 1930s-style. We know there are going to be cocktails, flirting and a lot of kicking up of high heels: "We started the evening with a plan of stretching three dollars as far as it would go.""

NPR Books' Heller McAlpin writes "It is also about maintaining integrity and the capacity for wonder in the face of insidious monetary sway, and Thoreau's exhortions to "find our pole star and to follow it unwaveringly.""