A Crazy, Mixed-Up List of Books and Movies Related to Chocolate to Celebrate the Chocolate Tasting and Valentine’s Day

--by Hanje Richards

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Come celebrate the "19th Annual Chocolate Tasting" (Saturday, February 13, 6-9pm) with the Copper Queen Library, and get ready for Valentine’s Day (Sunday, February 14) -- make something chocolate out of a wonderful chocolate cookbook, enjoy a movie with a chocolate theme, or curl up with a murder mystery or a novel that has chocolate as a main character!

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And... check back in a day or two for a list of Young Adult and Juvenile titles featuring… you guessed it… CHOCOLATE!

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Art of Chocolate: Techniques and Recipes For Simply Spectacular Desserts and Confections (by Elaine Gonzalez and Frank Frankeny) - This is not just a book of masterful recipes, tips, techniques, and meticulously detailed, easy-to-follow instructions. It is an extravagant paean to decadent desserts. Filled with luscious creations and lavish artistry --Chocolate Swan Truffles, Enchanted Forest Torte -- this definitive guide to working with chocolate is unusual because it is written with beginners in mind.

A cooking teacher with decades of experience, Elaine Gonzalez has devised innovative techniques to put the art of working with chocolate within everyone's reach. After mastering a few basics, any cook can create shimmering cakes, seductive truffles, and amazing chocolate sculptures. With The Art of Chocolate, even novices will soon roll, curl, twist, coax, and nudge chocolate to dizzying heights of fantasy.

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Chocolat (directed by Lasse Hallström) - Based n the novel by Joanne Harris and nominated for five Academy Awards, including Best Picture, Best Actress (Juliette Binoche), and Best Supporting Actress (Judi Dench), Chocolat is a beautiful and captivating comedy.

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Nobody could have imagined the impact the the striking Vianne (Binoche) would make when she arrived in a tranquil, old-fashioned French town. In her very unusual chocolate shop, Vianne begins to create mouth-watering confections that almost magically inspire the straitlaced villagers to abandon themselves to temptation and happiness! But it is not until another stranger, the handsome Roux (Johnny Depp), arrives in town that Vianne is finally able to recognize her own desires...

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Chocolate: A Bittersweet Saga of Dark and Light (by Mort Rosenblum) - Chocolate, long considered the "elixir of the gods," is just about everyone's drug of choice. The preferred gift of Valentine's Day, it triggers the same brain responses as falling in love. And it's better for you than red wine. In this scintillating narrative, Mort Rosenblum delves into the mysteries of cacao: its history, its legends and lore, the processes that make chocolate, and, along the way, the dark side of the chocolate trade.

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Chocolate American Style (by Lora Brady) - In this collection of sweet treats both plain and fancy, Lora Brody builds an irresistible case for eating chocolate morning, noon, and night. In chapters entitled "The Candy Store," "Comfort Me with Chocolate," "Chocolate for Breakfast," "Isn’t It Romantic?" and more, she presents the stuff of which a chocolate lover's dreams are made. Start the day with Chocolate Chip Pancakes with Chocolate Butter or Chocolate Monkey Bread, perk up a lunch box with homemade Whoopie Pies or Chocolate Caramel Cheesecake Brownies, or take a trip down memory lane with Tunnel of Fudge Cake and real Boston Cream Pie. Set a festive mood with White Chocolate Heath Bar Cheesecake or Chocolate Raspberry Torte.

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There's even a section of fun-to-make chocolate favorites that are perfect for kids. Whether the occasion is a formal celebration requiring a showstopper, a casual meal with family, or simply an after-school snack, there is a chocolate indulgence to make the moment that much sweeter.

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Chocolate Desserts by Pierre Herme (by Pierre Herme) - Here you will find the simplest chocolate truffle -- Black-on-Black Truffles, bite-size balls of bittersweet ganache tossed in dark cocoa -- as well as the luxuriously soft and rich Suzy's Cake, which is spectacularly delicious yet quite simple to make. Chic desserts, such as the Triple Crème-individual ramekins layered with espresso crème brûlée, rich chocolate cream, and pure unsweetened whipped cream-or a cup of French-style hot chocolate, or a gâteau de résistance, such as Plaisir Sucré, will be the triumphant end to any meal or the centerpiece for any celebration. Through these more than seventy-five recipes, you will have the many pleasures of tasting chocolate in all its states-hot and cold, creamy and crunchy, smooth and custardy, thick and chewy, bittersweet and sweet, dark, milk, and white.

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Whether you are an expert in the dessert kitchen or a beginner with a desire for the delicious, this collection will introduce you to the myriad delights of Pierre Hermé's desserts, his unusual juxtapositions of ingredients, his conjurer's touch with textures, and his always perfect pitch when it comes to sweetness, tartness, and chocolatey-ness.

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Finally, there are the indispensable Base Recipes and a Dictionary of Terms, Techniques, Equipment, and Ingredients. Together they form a complete course in chocolate dessert artistry. Each recipe has been written with the American kitchen in mind, so that everyone with a passion for the richness of chocolate desserts can now enjoy Pierre Hermé's sublime creations at home.

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Chocolate For a Woman’s Soul: 77 Stories to Feed Your Spirit and Warm Your Heart (by Kay Allenbaugh) - 77 true stories that celebrate life and capture the essence of what it means to be a woman. Like chocolate, these stories soothe, satisfy, and delight -- better yet, they're good for you! Written by and for women, here are heartfelt insights on commitment, compassion, work, marriage, friendship, motherhood, love, courage, spirituality, passion, and dozens of other topics.

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Contributors share their most personal experiences -- funny, poignant, powerful, and uplifting -- as they inspire you to jump-start your own life, discover your talents and vocations, overcome old fears, find love, and let your dreams take flight. Like a box of chocolates, this book can be enjoyed in one sitting, or you can pick out treats at random and savor them one at a time. Whether you want a good laugh or need a good cry, the perfect "chocolate story" is right here, waiting for you!

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Death by Chocolate: A Savannah Reid Mystery (by G.A. McKevett) - Business has been a little slow at the Moonlight Magnolia Detective Agency, but full-figured P. I. Savannah Reid doesn't have time to drown her sorrows in a box of double-chocolate truffles. She's too busy watching the Gourmet Network -- and drooling over the sinfully scrumptious confections that Lady Eleanor ("The Queen of Chocolate") whips up on-air. But someone isn't sweet on the Queen's charming chatter -- and wants her to hang up her oh-so-quaint apron -- for good...

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Diabetic Chocolate Cookbook (by Mary Jane Finsand) - "Appetizing recipes for... using chocolate... A wonderful assortment." (Booklist) "For the chocolate lover... offers an alternative (sugar-free) way of cooking up the sweetest of the sweets." (Country Almanac) Includes the most recent Exchange Lists of the American Diabetes Association.

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Dying for Chocolate (by Diane Mott Davidson) - Meet Goldy Bear: a bright, opinionated, wildly inventive caterer whose personal life has become a recipe for disaster. She's got an abusive ex-husband who's into making tasteless threats, a rash of mounting bills that are taking a huge bite out of her budget, and two enticing men knocking on her door.

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Now determined to take control of her life, Goldy moves her business and her son to ritzy Aspen Meadow Country Club, where she accepts a job as a live-in cook. But just as she's beginning to think she's got it made -- catering decadent dinners and posh society picnics and enjoying the favors of Philip Miller, a handsome local shrink, and Tom Shulz, her more-than-friendly neighborhood cop -- the dishy doctor inexplicably drives his BMW into an oncoming bus.

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Convinced that Philip's bizarre death was no accident, Goldy decides to do a little investigating of her own. But sifting through the unpalatable secrets of the dead doc's life will toss her into a case seasoned with unexpected danger and even more unexpected revelations -- the kind that could get a caterer and the son she loves... killed.

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Hot Chocolate For the Mystical Soul: 101 True Stories of Angels, Miracles and Healings (by Arielle Ford) - This enchanting book is perfect for those who love magic and mystery, and who know that an unseen, loving presence is watching over us. This is an inspiring collection of mystical experiences involving angels, miracles, near-death experiences, divine interventions, animal experiences, personal transformations, and miraculous healings. The storytellers come from all walks of life -- doctors, lawyers, actors, musicians, mailmen, teachers, and others -- and include familiar figures, such as Neal Donald Walsch, Judith Orloff, M.D., and Joan Borysenko. With such a wonderful variety of enlightening stories, readers will find many that will touch them personally.

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Like Water For Chocolate: A Novel in Monthly Installments, With Recipes, Romances and Home Remedies (by Laura Esquivel; film directed by Alfonso Arau) - Earthy, magical, and utterly charming, this tale of family life in turn-of-the-century Mexico became a best-selling phenomenon with its winning blend of poignant romance and bittersweet wit.