Pavarotti and Pancakes is a candid, yet genially rendered tale, of the struggles and victories of a young Italian-American, Francesco Granieri. A child of the 1980's, Francesco grows-up amidst the erosion of a warm, embracing family, subject to the chilling grip of a tenacious villain that ultimately claims his mother-mental illness. Throughout this heartwarming memoir, Francesco's loyalty and perseverance prevail as he takes readers on a romantic and riveting ride from the Jersey shore to the hallways of madness.

Settle into a plush, red Naugahyde booth at Bette's Oceanview Diner, and you'll be served some of the best pancakes on the planet. Back in 1982, Bette's was founded in Berkeley, California, by a breakfast-loving group of chefs. It has since become one of the Bay Area's favorite breakfast and brunch spots, with people lining up well before the doors open each morning. In THE PANCAKE HANDBOOK, Bette's classic buttermilk pancakes take their place alongside daily pancake specials, including blueberry yogurt, golden cornmeal, double chocolate, and sourdough-not to mention the signature soufflé pancakes, which emerge from the oven spectacularly puffed and golden brown. Packed with tips on keeping your pancakes fluffy and plenty of topping and syrup suggestions, this revised edition with more than 15 new recipes is sure to become your personal pancake bible. • A pancake primer from the pancake experts at Bette's Oceanview Diner in Berkeley, California. • Includes more than 75 recipes and variations. • First edition sold 20,000 copies. Reviews "The most tempting, comforting compilation of pancake recipes I've found." —Karola Saekel, San Francisco Chronicle STEVE SIEGELMAN, BETTE KROENING, and SUE CONLEY were among the original founders of Bette's Oceanview Diner in Berkeley, California. Steve is a Berkeley-based food writer for print and television. Bette, the diner's namesake, still owns and runs the restaurant with her husband, Manfred. Sue went on to found Tomales Bay Foods and has become a pioneer in the artisan cheese movement through her Cowgirl Creamery in Point Reyes Station and Artisan Cheese in San Francisco.

A wickedly funny look at opera today--the feuds and deals, maestros and managers, divine voices and outsized egos--and a portrait of the opera world's newest superstar at a formative point in her life and career. In Cinderella & Company, Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist Manuela Hoelterhoff takes us on a two-year trip on the circuit with Cecilia Bartoli, the young mezzo-soprano who has captured an adoring public around the world. Rossini's Cenerentola is Bartoli's signature role, and Cinderella & Company tells the fairy-tale story of her life, which started on a modest street in Rome where the Fiat was the coach of choice. The lucky break, the meteoric rise, the starlit nights and nail-chewing days are all part of a narrative that shows Bartoli rehearsing, playing, traveling, eating, and charming us with her vivacity and dazzling virtuosity. Along the way, Hoelterhoff gives us an unusually vivid, behind-the-scenes look at the opera world. The first stop is Houston, where Bartoli brightens a droopy Cenerentola production; later scenes follow her to Disney World and to the Metropolitan Opera, where a fidgety cast awaits the flight-phobic mezzo's arrival for Mozart's Cosi fan tutte. Traveling to Santa Fe, Paris, Rome, Venice, and London, Hoelterhoff drops in on opening nights and boardroom meetings, talks to managers and agents, describes where the money comes from, and survives one of the longest galas in history. Here too are tantalizing glimpses of divinities large and small: Kathleen Battle's famously chilly limousine ride; Plácido Domingo flying through three time zones to step into the boots of an ailing Otello; Luciano Pavarotti aiming for high C in his twilight years. And we meet the present players in Bartoli's world: Roberto Alagna and Angela Gheorghiu, a.k.a. the Love Couple; Jane Eaglen, the Wagnerian web potato monitoring her cyberspace fan mail; the appealing soprano Renée Fleming, finally on the brink of stardom. At once informed and accessible, Cinderella & Company brings the world of grand opera into sharp focus--right up to the last glimpse of Cecilia Bartoli waving triumphantly from Cinderella's wedding cake.

Journey to the Mythological Realm depicts a non-typical aggressive scientist whose wife is lost while vacationing in Puerto Rico. During a scuba diving expedition, his wife falls through a dimensional door and disappears. The undying love he feels for his wife Caren and his determination to find her allows the dimensional door to reopen. The scientist enters a world of unconquered territories inhabited by aliens, monsters, and defending themselves from pure instinct driven creatures, which best can be described to be demonic in nature. With his anger driven psyche, the battles are forced to begin. A world enduring a 1000-year punishment of an advanced race, unicorns, small energy creatures, brief time traveling, heartbreak, and a simple raw driven romance for his lost love drives the story from the beginning to the end.

Born raconteur George Lang tells the Horatio Alger story--as only he can tell it--of his extraordinary life. Born in Hungary, only child of a Jewish tailor and destined for the concert stage, at nineteen he was incarcerated in a forced-labor camp, never to see his parents again. After he landed in New York in 1946, a whole new world opened up as he switched from the violin to the kitchen. Soon he was orchestrating banquets at the Waldorf for Khrushchev, Queen Elizabeth, Princess Grace, and the like. He invented a new profession: as the first restaurant consultant, he explored Indonesia and the Philippines to bring back exotic tastes for the 1964 World's Fair, and pioneered upscale restaurant complexes within shopping malls. Finally he resurrected two great landmarks: the Café des Artistes in New York and Gundel in his native Hungary.