Web-Exclusive Reviews: Week ofIn between are countless gems: Alice B. Toklas’s baroque recipe for lobster, Richard Olney’s meditation on pate and Edna Lewis’s poignant description of killing hogs on her family farm.

NCAA Is for Amateurs; Pro Bettors Love ItThe NCAA Men’s Basketball tournament starts Thursday. Office pools and betting in places like Las Vegas make this one of the most frenzied weeks of gambling in America.

Shelf Life What’s new at the bookstores‘The Assassin’ by Andrew Britton. Kensington, $24. ‘Key Lime Pie Murder’ by Joanne Fluke.