Page 6 November 10, 2016 EL SEGUNDO HERALD Entertainment El Segundo Library Staff Book Reviews and Recommendations Halloween has come and gone, which means the holidays are right around the corner. Making scrumptious treats during the holidays is a tradition for many, so for this review, I’m discussing a new-found favorite baking guide, Real Sweet: More than 80 Crave-Worthy Treats Made with Natural Sugars by Shauna Sever. This modern baking book includes dozens of delicious recipes for cookies, candy, cakes and more but with a twist – only natural, unrefined, readily available alternative sweeteners such as honey or maple sugar are used instead of the more traditional white sugar, corn syrup, etc. While lots of bakers may be looking to cut out processed ingredients for health reasons, I like that this book focuses instead on how each alternative sweetener lends a unique depth of flavor and/or texture to the finished treat compared to a less flavorful processed component. For instance, muscovado sugar lends a rich, smoky richness to blondie brownies while turbinado sugar amplifies the caramelized flavor while adding a subtle crunch and lovely sparkle to cookies and quick breads. A baking expert, blogger and television host, Sever’s modern writing style is fresh and charmingly funny, interspersed with personal anecdotes and fanciful descriptions such as “Maple: The Gentle Giant.” Included in the book are useful tables that help bakers determine how much sugar to swap out for alternative counterparts and if any additional recipe tweaks are needed. Helpful descriptions of each type of sweetener, including how it’s made, flavor characteristics and best uses are also included. Personally, my favorite recipe is the Little Plum, Walnut and Maple Cakes. They are light, flavorful, easy to make, and freeze beautifully to reheat on busy mornings. To check out this title, or browse our extensive cookbook collection for future feast inspiration, please visit the library to apply for your free library card. For further assistance, including reading recommendations and help locating a title, please contact the reference staff. Reviewed by Kristina Kora-Beckman, Librarian I, El Segundo Public Library. • Film Review Check It Out Kristina Kora-Beckman. Real Sweet: More than 80 Crave-Worthy Treats Made with Natural Sugars by Shauna Sever. Enter “Arrival,” This Year’s Smartest Sci-Fi Flick By Ryan Rojas for Cinemacy.com Inevitably, alien invasion movies must ask themselves – and their audience – the same critical question: What are they doing here? And yet, before this question can even be posited to alien life forms, the small hurdle of needing to teach word-based human language to an alien species of entirely symbol-based communication for which to even understand what a “question” is, must be developed. Good thing the world would have time for such a laborious undertaking and wouldn’t likely be on the brink of planet-wide war. This is the premise of “Arrival,” a multilayered sci-fi movie that hinges its dramatics on a linguist’s attempt to find a way to communicate with aliens amidst a tickingtime bomb that is a Cold War standoff between international nations and extraterrestrials. Add to this a circular, non-linear time-space narrative that marries the unlocking of alien language to alternate realities, and “Arrival” stands as the smartest sci-fi offering of the year. When twelve unidentified flying objects land – or more so, ominously hover – over the world, linguistics professor Dr. Louise Banks (Amy Adams) is called upon by Colonel Weber (Forest Whitaker) to aid the U.S. military in figuring out how to communicate with Earth’s newest visitors and uprooted from her rudimentary undergraduate teaching career. Seen to not be leaving any family behind, Louise gets choppered to the Montana landing site, where she meets another civilian-turned-top-security-cleared-specialist in physicist Ian Donnelly (Jeremy Renner). Yet as quickly as she is absorbed into this new world and its high-stakes stresses, so too do lapses of grief flare up, tied to memories of both her lost child and failed marriage, which the movie opens with in somber flashback, seeing the fleeting glimpses of a child’s birth, through childhood, through ultimately being taken by disease at her side – leaving a now alone Louise to shuffle blindly into a new reality before cutting to present-day invasion. Downloaded on their missions, Louise and Ian are shuttled up into the alien pod’s entrydoors when they open every eighteen hours, floating through the gravity-less pod to get to the chamber to communicate with the life forms inside. After a few unsuccessful trials, initial anxieties and fears subside and Louise is drawn closer to the aliens, eventually stripping away her oxygen suit to convey who her “self” is, leading to more breakthroughs in communication. Yet the closer she comes into proximity and contact with the aliens, more vivid do the fragmented memories of her daughter become, bringing Ian closer to support Louise and her lengthy teaching process which, let’s not forget, runs counter to the timelines of both Colonel Weber and the world. Without giving much else away, Louise and Ian’s relationship develops into what leads to the movie’s largest idea of non-linear realities. With such searingly-laced dramas as 2013’s “Prisoners” and in last year’s more-blistering still cartel-drama “Sicario,” director Denis Villeneuve once again proves he is second to none in being able to craft an affecting human drama set in a consumingly dangerous world – and proves it here on his largest scale to date. In “Arrival,” Villeneuve deafens the galactic-absurdity of alien life (yet still taps into fantastic imagery of the design of the aliens and their symbol based communication system) to ultimately show the resounding human drama underneath. Whether it be the intimate devastation of a mother who must manage the memory of a deceased child on one end to the conflict of worldwide human civilization needing to work together amidst a fractured modern landscape of language and politics before world war ensues, Villeneuve handles an entire range of drama to polished success. “Arrival,” like Villeneuve’s filmography, is pristinely photographed and operates in chillingly measured pace, and it’s great fun to see the director maintain his human-drama talents while dipping his toes into the world of sci-fi – which, in its final act, ups the entire ante by unveiling the full stakes of the quantum time-leaping canvas: that unlocking the alien’s language may lead to the discovery of alternate timelines that only Louise may be capable of unlocking to save humanity. If at that point, this reality-bending closer feels a bit rushed in having to wrap up all of the movie’s loose ends, and where MacGuffins start to come sailing in like meteor showers, “Arrival” is still an expertly crafted film that lifts the sci-fi genre to even greater, more thoroughly constructed heights. 116 minutes. “Arrival” is rated PG-13 for brief strong language. In theaters this Friday. • Amy Adams must communicate with extraterrestrial visitors in “Arrival.” Image courtesy of Paramount Pictures. Real Sweet: More than 80 Crave-Worthy Treats Made with Natural Sugars By Shauna Sever School Board from page 4 a 19-hour course that will be hosted by the El Segundo Fire Department. Designed specifically for ESUSD participants, the course will be offered in the evenings and on weekends. It will focus on what the participants will need to do at work if the District’s Emergency Preparedness Plan is activated. Among the skills that will be taught by Fire Department personnel: the identification and anticipation of hazards in the District; the assistance of emergency responders; set-up of medical treatment areas; and provision of disaster first aid. The memorandum of understanding with LACOE is viewed as a needed step in the process to update the District’s aging human resource and financial systems, which are “approximately 28 and 17 years old respectively” and technologically obsolete. The Board then tackled seven action items, including the approval of math textbooks at the High School that are “aligned with State standards, well-organized and designed;” and the go-ahead to issue a request for proposal (RFP) for “energy audit, energy expenditure plan, implementation, and reporting services” that relates to Proposition 39--which “secures funding to school districts for the purpose of facilities projects that generate increased energy efficiency.” The RFP will look for qualified companies to audit the District’s current energy use and identify projects that align with the Prop 39 criteria for receiving funding. Districts must apply for the funding by August 2017. Superintendent Moore shared upcoming events noted on the District’s informational calendar and the Board members followed with their reports, with the general topic thanking the special presenters for their diligent, datadriven presentations. Moore then wrapped up the 130-minute meeting by mentioning that Friday was a school holiday and that the District’s realignment of the next School Board election into 2018 is moving forward. The next regularly scheduled El Segundo School Board meeting is on the docket for Tuesday, December 13 at 7 p.m. • Like Us on Facebook
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