A Bookish Life

A Whole Chapter on Cheese

It's easy enough to hold a book and a baby at the same time. Even though my sewing has slowed down considerably (along with everything else), my reading time has actually increased.

Here was a recent find that I snapped up at the library and finished off within the week. Service Included: Four Star Secrets of an Eavesdropping Waiter. Although her political comments and love life are sometimes a bit obtrusive, I really enjoyed the book's comments on food and gourmet culture. If you're a person who enjoys hearing about truffle sauce and foie gras, then consider picking this one up.
You can also read a little intro here, an article linked up from Arts and Letters Daily.

Day 26

A new volume of Henry James tales and a homemade mocktail. Today I'm creating a mood- a little bit decadent, a dash of sophistication, and a pinch of relaxation.

I read through an old Donna Hay recipe for non-alcoholic punch and came up with this little concoction:

Grapefruit Mocktail
juice of 1 grapefruit
juice of 1 lemon
1/4 C sugar
1/2 C water

Shake these ingredients together in a jar with a couple handfuls of ice. Then add a little extra water, if it's too sour or sweet and top with a spash of soda water (although I used a blood orange italian soda for an extra kick, not everyone has access to such luxuries).

Happy Saturday!

Around this house

We are desperately reaching for the Christmas spirit. I am reading A Christmas Carol by Charles Dickens, as well as G.K. Chesterton's biography of Dickens. We are even going to see A Christmas Carol performed at Bass Hall in a couple weeks- a surprise early present from my parents.

Somehow I know we'll get to a certain point where Christmas, in all of its richness, beauty, and grace, will be stronger than my dad's cancer. I'm just not exactly sure how to get there from here.

We are buying presents, making presents, wrapping presents, baking up a storm, crafting up a storm- and ultimately trying to keep the blues at bay. Some days it even seems to work.

Great news, my future child!

If my baby wasn't too young to read, I would try to convince her to be excited about Haven Kimmel's new children's book, coming out in February 2008. It hit my Amazon wishlist like a tidal wave this afternoon when I realized how very lucky our future children are going to be with this talented author splitting her time between children's books and adult fiction.

I already feel lucky for having read her previous works, and I wait impatiently for the newest, The Used World, to show up on my library hold list. Ah Patience, will you always elude me?

The cold weather, the parade of soups and hot drinks, the wrapping up in quilts, the delicious pull of naps... all these things conspire to shift my focus from sewing to books.

The holidays are here and will be upon us before we know it- so I'd best get back to sewing if all my presents intend to be finished and wrapped up in time!

Smells like a home.

There are so many simple pleasures that make up my daily life, and few more satisfying than baking homemade bread. This afternoon I put my kneading biceps to work filling up the pantry with whole wheat bread, cinnamon bread, and pizza dough.

As a food item, it is softer and more tasty-- even somehow more real than bread that comes prepackaged in a bag from the store. It goes better with eggs for breakfast, makes a lovely sandwich, and finishes off a dinner presentation with a flourish.

As a beacon of home, comfort, rightness, and goodness, there is something medicinal in every slice.

For as long as I've been baking bread, the Martha Stewart Baking Handbook has been my guide. She challenged me on to yeast breads when I only dabbled in breakfast breads- and usually the ones that come in a mix at that.

Nigella's Domestic Goddess book has also been very handy and informative. The hearth breads are always a huge hit and extremely easy- very little hand kneading. Her pita recipe goes beautifully with Brian's hummus- in fact most things do, now that I think about it.

The next stage in my bread odyssey is going to take me in the direction of specialized breads that come in specialized shapes. French bread, baguettes, and popovers here I come.

I miss her too

Unlike the author of this article, I found out the news just now. On a Monday afternoon. But I feel loss, and I will miss her too.

"L'Engle once said, "You have to write the book that wants to be written. And if the book will be too difficult for grown-ups, then you write it for children." '

"To compare L'Engle's universe to the stuff cluttering the post-Harry Potter marketplace is to compare a unicorn to a goat with one horn sawed off: real enchantment standing beside something that approximates felt hat and white rabbit magic."

If you have a favorite L'Engle book, then I want to know what it is. Personally, mine are The Small Rain and its sequel The Severed Wasp, both books that graced my top five favorite books of all time list for a significant period of time.

If I have a few spare hours this week to read I think I'll pick them up again, in memory of an author who did so very much for my faith and imagination.

Next week is another chance

So, the unreasonable expectation of posting everyday hasn't quite materialized yet. It's actually not because I'm lax in the sewing/making/time area, but because everytime I look at the computer/camera combo, I think "No! more sewing/reading/sleeping!"

But here I am again, with all my irresponsible, blogging-deficient ways. This week I made a new shirt that still needs a hem, tackled knits for the first time, and generally puttered around in the sewing room. I also started a love affair with this book:

I love a good British mystery, and feel rather firmly that any friend of C.S. Lewis is a friend of mine. Ms. Dorothy Sayers is no exception.

Already this book Have His Carcase is one that makes me laugh out loud and declare reading times throughout the day. Last night I was compelled to read before and after dinner and today before and after lunch. Thankfully, this anti-social little habit of mine doesn't drive Brian crazy the way it did my family growing up. He happily grabs his book and settles in right next to me. I didn't try to ask for perfect in a mate, I just happened to get it.

Also, the sewing lessons have been going beautifully. The project-based schedule works great and takes a lot of pressure off me to "teach". I really just have to act as a guide. I actually have two new students in the future. I was still uncertain about how much I actually enjoyed doing it until my young charge finished her second project- a pair of pajama pants. She was so thrilled and felt so proud of her accomplishment. It was exactly the way I feel when I finish a project and the feeling is just too precious to hoard.

Yikes, it's been a long time

And here I am talking about something safe. Books.

Paris was beautiful. Amos, the puppy, is good as new. I haven't started sewing again yet- even with the lovely fabrics I picked up in Versaille, but at least I've been reading.

Skylight Confessions was a guilty pleasure for me, as Alice Hoffman always is. Sure, her writing style is a little sloppier than I prefer and her symbolism is so extravagant, you feel like it's punching you in the face sometimes. I keep coming back to her though because she's such a good storyteller. Hoffman spins these magical gossamer threads that pull together a real story- with a touch of magic and a touch of reality. It's usually a story no one's ever told before, although this one maybe sounds a bit like her short collection, Local Girls. It's definitely a book to read in the summer, on the couch, after you've been swimming, with your cat curled up beside you. It is definitely that sort of book.

Other than that and the must-read Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows that I finished on a plane, I haven't been making a lot of time to read. Or sew. Sometimes it takes a good guilty read, be it a "children's book" (is anyone still trying to pretend HP is just for kids?) or a bedtime story tucked in the pages of a novel to remind a person what they love to do.

They sure are worth something.

When I'm not checking on my tomatoes obsessively, I am reading about other people's vegetable attempts. The $64 Tomato by William Alexander was a quick, enjoyable read although that gentleman farmer certainly started his garden beds and orchard with a higher budget ($10,000) then I will ever have. It's an expensive tomato, to be sure; I don't think they are worth that much money. The beauty of the experience, however, fresh tomato sauce and yards of rich black dirt, sure is worth something. In the end, his over spending-- the theme of the book-- alienated me as a reader and I finished with a vague sense of contentment. I have not experienced a single sleepless night about my tomatoes.

I am starting to think of the lovely thing called a fall garden, where I hope to try my hand at a few plantings straight from seed. Yesterday I added some Black Beauty eggplants, the cute egg-shaped ones and continued bringing in the parade of strawberries, tomatoes, and zucchinis that make their way to my kitchen almost every day.

This morning, on my daily AM check, I found a perfect, unblemished, sweet smelling, tree-ripened red plum hanging boldly red from one of our plum trees. It came off easily in my hand and I took it inside for my love to eat.

Made Glorious Summer by this Son of York

This book, The Winter of our Discontent, by John Steinbeck is my newest high recommendation.
Not only is it a fantastic commentary on the individual's place in community and the reverberations from increasing moral decay, but it is beautifully written besides. This was my personal introduction to John Steinbeck, nobel prize winner, and he certainly caught my attention and earned my readership for years to come.

It's a funny thing about a nobel prize for literature. I'm enchanted by an award given to a body of work, as opposed to a single novel. I feel slightly ashamed at all the writers on this list that I've never heard of, much less read.

On a slightly more Bookish-the-company and less bookish-the-girl note, the A-line skirts with yarn trim? Those are going to be a reality. There will be two styles to start with- khaki green with green/lavender/gray mottled yarn and dusty blue with red/purple/gray mottled yarn.