Ah, the Foodie Memoir

Thanks for all your comments and support last week. That was a low point for me and I actually thought about deleting the personal part of the post but decided in the end to let me be me. Starting on Friday I had backup - Daddy - and we all went to Iowa where I was able to see how a holiday meal for guests can be prepared entirely from processed food. Three varieties of canned soup were involved.

Speaking of food, if you know me, you know I love food, I love cooking, and I love reading about it. The food memoir is one of my favorite genres and I'm always on the lookout for what's new.

Lunch in Paris: A Love Story, with Recipes by Elizabeth Bard

This is the story of an American Woman who has married a Frenchman and how she acclimates to France and her new family. This is one of those books that is easy and breezy to read, fun, cute at times, yet in the end sort of forgettable. It was fine, if you know what I mean. Throughout the book the author muses about her lack of clear career goals for herself, and it seemed as though someone suggested to her 'hey, food memoirs are popular, Americans in Paris stories are popular, you should write a memoir!', thus a career in writing blossomed. The food is not necessarily central to the book and there weren't any recipes that I was drawn to make. Reading over this, it seems like I'm being pretty critical of this book. It's more that I feel ambivalent about it, and you might love it whereas I thought it was okay.

The Art of Eating In: How I Learned to Stop Spending and Love the Stove



Cathy Erway has taken a different direction with her food memoir. Erway was in her early 20's and living in Brooklyn when she wanted to start a blog. She came up with the idea of eating only food prepared at home - a huge anomaly in New York City - for an extended period of time. This book is based on that time and on her blog as well, though from looking at her blog my sense is that this book is not just reprinted posts, but a new way of looking at this period in time.

The Good: I found the subject matter of this book interesting and Erway's voice is appealing. She's intelligent and curious, and I appreciated how involved she became with the local food scene. She cooks both off the cuff yet still enjoys much more involved preparations and techniques.

The Not as Good: I felt old when I was reading this book! Erway's youth really shows in her lifestyle and behavior. There are several instances that involve heavy drinking and getting 'wasted'. She writes about the trials and tribulations of dating. Erway sometimes finds herself in situations in which she was perhaps over-extended. Dinner parties where dinner was not served until 10pm. Preparing food for hundreds of people yet not testing your recipes or picking up ingredients until the morning of. It's crazy, but I was actually getting stressed out reading these accounts.

Overall, this was a fun and good read, but I'm left wondering if I'm not the target audience for this book. (And folks, I'm under 40.) There were a couple recipes I've flagged to try and I was curious enough about Erway to check out her blog.

P.S. Don't forget to sign up for my giveaway - see below!

Spotlight on: Elizabeth Cadell

Who?

Before we get to that, can we talk?

We are on Spring Break here, otherwise known around this house as Spring-drive-your-mother-up-a-wall-because-you-have-opposite-temperaments-week. Oh, my goodness friends, I am feeling like A Terrible Mother.

I, a tried and true introvert, gave birth to one of the strongest extroverts I've ever met. As a baby she cried and cried when I turned my back to cook something and as a toddler stood next to me and screamed for about a year and half while I blew my hair dry. Now it's mom?...Mom?....MOM??....MOOOOOOM!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! about every 4 minutes. She talks unceasingly. She climbs on me and touches and pokes me and talks in my face and tries to lick me (sorry). She cries and pouts and whines when she's not winning a game. She badgers me and argues about anything and everything. I faced an hour-long onslaught on why I wouldn't take her to dairy queen for lunch. She even hand copied text from their website about how delicious their food is.

"Mom they have wraps! And sandwiches that use waffles instead of bread!!"

"Someday you will understand why that is not a good thing."

**tears**

When I took the car to Tires Plus:

"Bring a book in case they ask us to wait."

"What do I need a book for? If we have to wait I'll just talk to YOU!!!!"

God help me. I love her more than anything, I'd lay down right now and give up every organ or drop of blood for her. But I wish she would just 'find something to do!' that didn't always involve me. Thanks for listening. She's now on a play-date so I am thrilled to be able to string two thoughts together without interruption.

Back to the books!





So, Elizabeth Cadell. Have you heard of her? This is the author I teased you with a couple posts back whose vintagey looking books I came across at the library. As you can see, I chose The Corner Shop written in 1966. This book definitely fits into that same sort of category as D.E. Stevenson though this book in particular is a little edgier, more mysterious, funnier, and rather a farcical comedy of manners.

Take for example our first meeting with our heroine, Mrs. Lucille Abbey, on a train:

'she had her own method of dealing with burly gentlemen who pushed; her capacious handbag....could in cases like this become a lethal weapon. One jab from the brass-bound end, and the gentleman, like all his pushing predecessors, gave way. As always, her quiet, deceptively mild air lulled the victim's suspicions and led him to conclude that it had been an accident.'

'She was aware that she was slim, blonde, and beautiful-but her looks, though they might be alluring, were also misleading and raised hopes which she was constantly constrained to crush. She had a clear brain, sound common sense and a capacity for hard work; why these sober attributes had been encased in so fancy a package she had never been able to understand; she knew only that she looked far warmer than she felt.'

Funny stuff! Lucille runs a business that sends secretaries out on jobs and when one client goes through three perfectly good secretaries in odd circumstances Lucille decides to find out whatever is the matter. She finds herself in the country where the rather odd 'professor' is sorting through his deceased father's papers and mother's things. A series of events puts Lucille in the middle of an art heist after which she travels to Paris to help her aunt and meets a bunch of quirky people. There's a lot of running around in Paris then and the plots become briefly complicated and intertwined and eventually we see how all the pieces and characters come together. It's really well done for a humorous book that reads quickly, and I told my husband that if I were move clever I would try to write a screen play based on this material.

I still don't know much about Elizabeth Cadell, thought I did find this fan site. She was writing books from the 40s to the 80s! I'm definitely going to be reading her again.

DNF

Besides being the year of D.E. Stevenson, 2010 is quickly becoming the year of the books I can label DNF - Did Not Finish. I've been casting things aside left and right.


I just like this cactus picture I took.

My personal revelations and goals for this blog have carried over into my reading in a big way. The older I get, the more I read, the more I expect from my books and the less of a chance I am willing to give a book that I consider to be sub-par. I want to read great books, amazing and moving books, that entertain or give me insight or just plain take me away. Friends, I have lost patience.

In years past I would plod through a book that I wasn't thrilled with. I'd sigh and moan and by the end, look at it with loathing. At least I finished the darn thing. Now I know that is no way to read.

How do I decide what I'm going to finish and what I'm not? I like the idea of the 50 page rule I read somewhere: Give it 50 pages to see if you like it. If you're over 50, do some subtracting and give it less pages. Presumably, you have even less time available in this lifetime for bad books. Often though, I don't even need 50 pages. One chapter can be enough to know I don't want to spend 350 pages with this story.

Sometimes it takes longer. A month or so ago I whined that nothing I was reading was catching my fancy. Kay told me to cast them all aside. What good advice! I stopped reading a 600+ page book 250ish pages in. I gave up on a 400 page book 150 or so pages in. The library books, I don't so much care about, but I get annoyed by the ones I've spent money on. How could you sell me this lousy book!

It's easy to tell when you've made the right decision about giving up on a book. It's when you look at it after you've decided and you feel great relief. A sigh of calm. You don't ever have to go back to that if you don't want to. There's a great book, and it's just around the bend. Or in that pile in the corner.

Book Bites: The Good and the Not-So-Good

Let's begin with the not so good.

Kurt Vonnegut's Breakfast of Champions is our first book club read of 2010 which will be discussed tonight. I cannot wait to hear what everyone thinks about it! We have a journal in which information from each meeting is recorded, quotes and such. I suspect my quote of the night will be this:

This is 0% of what I am looking for in a reading experience.

Shall I elaborate? I just couldn't stand anything about this book. The writing style, the story itself, the mention of every one's race in a 'hey I'm not racist but everyone else who mentions race is' way, the bizarre mention of the length of the genitals of every male character. What the heck was that all about?? I think I 'get' Vonnegut's point, that this is a satire on 'modern' society and it's ills, but overall it felt like a waste of time. Not funny. Not entertaining. Sort of gross. Just annoying. The only positive thing I would say about it was that occasionally this 1973 book felt current. I wouldn't have finished this book had it been for my husband who has been bugging me to read Vonnegut for years. He thinks I'm nuts. So would all the reviewers on Amazon who love this sort of thing. Maybe you think I'm nuts, too. I don't care. I won't be reading any more Vonnegut, but it seems he has plenty of fans already.

On to better things.

Day After Night: A Novelis Anita Diamant's new book which perhaps I wouldn't have read for some time, but I came across a copy at the library. The library has been my friend in 2010! Anyhow, Day After Night is set in an interesting time period, that just after WW2. I've read a fair number of holocaust books, but I've rarely read detailed accounts of what happened to the many survivors after the war was over. We know they didn't just go home and resume their lives. Day After Night is set in Atlit internment camp in Palestine; basically another prison for those who had just been freed from persecution. The story focuses on four women with varied stories, as they experience Atlit and eventually their rescue/escape from it into Israel. I enjoyed this book and thought Diamant did an excellent job bringing this bit of history alive by making it personal through the characters.

On another subject, can I just say that this blogging change that I talked about in November is working for me. I am happy with the amount of time that I spend blogging and reading the blogs of others. I am commenting less but it means more if you know what I mean. I am very happy with the reading choices I have been able to make and the fact that I have very few books that need to be read on a time frame. My reading feels like me again, instead of feeling like I am following the herds reading the same things. It feels good.

Feel like a chat? Plus book porn.

I'm feeling rather chatty today. It's been a busy morning. Before eleven AM I dropped the girl off at school, got gas and groceries, made 6 jars of butterscotch (see last post), wrapped my Christmas gifts, and am on my fourth load of laundry. Whew! I am rushing, rushing, rushing, because I have a movie date with my coworker/friend this afternoon. It is a rare day that we can get together and see a movie in our favorite genre - The British Period Film - we are seeing An Education. My husband thinks I'm nuts to go see this since there are all sorts of 'nominated' films out there. Whatever. If he was being really nice today, he'd let me see a double feature and go to Young Victoria, as well, but it is not to be. In addition to all this rushing, our Christmas plans are now up in the air due to this new storm coming through the Midwest. I'd just as soon stay home than go to Iowa (so not festive), so perhaps I will get my dream to stay home this year. Doubt it.

I really, really, want to get a few reviews, well, not reviews, my reactions to books up in this space before the end of 2009. I am going to try, but not kill myself over it - I am operating on Blog Simplicity here you know. Next week will be devoted to my 2009 statistics and favorite books of the year, as well as sharing a book project I've been working on all year and my husband wishes would disappear (it's messy). I am a general pessimist in life, but must be an optimist about books, as I've been reluctant to post favorites until now. What if the best book of the year came along? But alas it has not.

In lieu of reviews/reactions and the like, here are the books that have come into my home over the past few months.

These are from Bookcloseouts -they were having a crazy 50% off fiction sale. I'm really curious about the Sarah Rayne (it sounds creepy and suspenseful) and excited about the Linda Holeman, an author under published in the US.




Well this is a lousy photograph, it's very grey here. I'm super excited about The Madness of a Seduced Woman, I loved this author's book, Anya. Has anyone read this?



Here are some new books I couldn't resist.



And here are some more. I'm reading Daphne: A Novelright now and it's quite good.



If I had more time, I'd give you more links here, but I've got to go! Cheers!

Pssst...

Hello there.

I didn't expect to be gone quite so long. I've been up to a few things since my last appearance here.

I've been on a fabulous trip to Boston. Oh, how we loved Boston. It fit us to a T. And we rode the T. Ha! If you get a chance to go to Boston you won't want to miss taking a tour with this gentleman. He works for the Freedom Trail Foundation.



We ate A LOT of seafood. Here is the rundown for me (my goal was to have seafood for lunch and dinner every day):

cod
lobster roll x 2
swordfish
crazy good lobster bisque
clam chowder x 2
shrimp
crab
my first raw oyster (I don't think I get the appeal)
some whitefish

Yum! And The Girl discovered that she loves mussels. Who knew? I mean, she wouldn't try a hush puppy but she eats mussels.

I spent a lot of time volunteering at school.

I did quite a bit of cooking; here is a sneak peek. This was one of my proudest moments as a home cook. I even told my husband to 'be more effusive'.




I went to the farmers' market. I never got to take photos some weeks but here is my most recent trip:




Isn't that kale pretty? Too bad it went to waste. I never did figure out what to do with it (that my family would eat).

I did a fair amount of reading.

Last week I met my new best friend.



Come here, lover.

I also spent some time thinking. Thinking about this space and what to do with it. Thinking about what has been bothering me about blogging and the like. Being put off by the popularity-contest aspect of it all. You know what I mean.

In addition, I am not a writer. I don't want to be a writer and writing is not why I'm here. I'm here because I love books. I came across a brilliant post last week at Kiss a Cloud. I identified with so much of what Claire wrote, especially this:

I would really rather spend more time with my children, read my books, read your thoughts on your books, than write.

Ahhhh. So true.

So what to do? I decided I wanted to come back to this space but I think it will be in a slightly different way. I think most books I read will get more of a 'blurb' and less of a review, and the really special books that stand out to me will perhaps get a highlight post. Or something like that. We'll see. Most of all, I know that if I'm going to do this it needs to be for me, a journal for ME. Not to please someone or to advertise for anyone. Not to generate traffic or more followers. Just for me.

I feel quiet.

I'm not sure why. Perhaps the change of season is sending me within. Maybe the fact that I have a busy few weeks ahead and a trip coming up. Could it be that I am dreading a long and exhausting 6 months ahead at work due to flu season? I just know that right now the thought of putting something coherent in this space is stressing me out. And that is not what this space is for. So I am going to move back for a short time. I am going to warm the house by cooking. I am going to try to persuade The Girl to read more chapter books. I am going to visit my favorite blogs for relaxation. I am going to read good books and drink tea with honey. I am going to walk The Freedom Trail and eat heaps of fish. And then I will be back. See you then.

Two Lauries

I was all set to participate in the blogishness yesterday but I went to the eye doctor yesterday and spent the afternoon blind. How did I forget that they were going to dilate my eyes and why does it seem it affected me more than ever? I went to the grocery store afterwards and almost had to ask someone to read the labels on the food for me. Thank goodness for tv.

This has been a busy week and I have only a short time now as I'm due at school for the 'picnic' when parents join their children for lunch and awful food is served. Ugh.

I'd just like to mention a few books I've read lately - it's been awhile since I've read them so I don't have a lot to say.

Laurie Colwin's Home Cooking: A Writer in the Kitchen is an absolutely delightful food memoir. She's funny, she's sarcastic, she knows what she likes and she's not afraid to eat it. I don't even know that I so much plan to cook any of her recipes - the writing here is what appealed to me. Happily, there is a follow-up to Home Cooking,More Home Cooking: A Writer Returns to the Kitchen; unhappily this is all we will ever have as Colwin passed away at a young age.

I also read Laurie Halse Anderson's Speak in a flash last weekend. Utterly compelling, this young adult novel is one I've heard of everywhere and for good reason. Anderson certainly has some insight into the minds of teenagers. For those unacquainted, Speak is the story of a young woman who has entered high school as an outcast, thanks to a phone call to the police she made at a party. No one knows why she really made that phone call, no one knows why she rarely speaks. I can completely see why this book has become assigned reading for teens. This book is rather bigger than itself, in that so many teens can relate to feelings of isolation and of being misunderstood that Anderson writes of so vividly. This is the sort of book I hope my daughter is reading when the age is right.

We're Off to See the Wizard...

Well, okay, not the wizard. Can you guess?



We're headed off for next few days by car, then I'll be flying back since I have to work THE ENTIRE HOLIDAY WEEKEND starting Friday and except for Sunday when I may try to make my famous tomato sauce. And do all my family's laundry for the past week.

Then school starts and then I will be back to regular posting. BUT! I am scheduling a post of an about-to-be-released-book while I'm gone so stop by and check that out.

See you!

Where in the world is.....Tara?

Here I am!

It's been a strange week here at Chez Books and Cooks. After a long weekend of working (me), the girl traveled off to visit her grandparents for most of the week. It's been very quiet around here! Every evening, we're not sure what to do with ourselves.

We celebrated our 9th anniversary yesterday, so took a little mini-trip on Monday to one of those lovely old river towns, Stillwater, MN. I hadn't been there for a few years so was eagerly anticipating browsing in the many used book stores I remembered and hoping to find a few more green Viragos for my collection. Alas, things have changed. There are only two bookstores there now; one that sells new books and the other that sells 'rare' books, that is to say, expensive. There was an extremely small literature section at the rare bookshop which surprised us. My husband made the astute point, that if he wanted to read, say a history book (there were a lot of those), he would read a current one with updated information rather than one that is 60-80 years old.

In any case, we had a lovely time, and spent the evening at a beautiful bed and breakfast after dinner and drinks overlooking the river. Other than that, my schedule has been very off, full of dinners out and cleaning in expectation of my in-laws coming to stay this weekend. This involved a thorough cleaning of the girl's room and much trash removal of various do-dads.

Incidentally, she will be arriving home soon! I cannot wait to put my arms around her. I can tell it's going to be trouble when she goes away from home based on the meal I'm planning for tonight after only 4 days away...


flank steak
salad
chips with homemade salsa and guacamole
lemon cake

All her favorites.

Something sort of bookish, is that I went to see The Time Traveler's Wife yesterday. Despite the lackluster reviews, I had hopes that this would be a satisfying movie and it just sort of...wasn't. I cannot remember details of the book, but I do remember how incredibly moved I was by the story. The dialogue in the move seemed stilted to me. It wasn't until later in the film that I felt connected to it, and in fact cried from the part when they're trying to get pregnant until the end. I cried during the book too; it all just broke my heart. I'm not sorry I watched the film since I would have always been curious, it's just that this book perhaps doesn't translate well to film.

Out Of Order

We have been having computer/modem/router problems around here and I've been without service all week. What a good thing that our neighbor does IT and was able to help diagnose the problem. It sounds like some part of our system might have been hit by lightening. Crazy!

Funny, when there's no computer to use I'm able to get a lot more reading done. Somehow I didn't get much more housework done. Hmmm.

I hardly know where to begin with my 300 emails, huge backlog on bloglines and the numerous books I've read. So, here, I think I'll start with something fun.

Sophie Kinsella. Do you enjoy her books? For whatever reason, I'm drawn to them, and I was happy to score a fresh and never-read copy from the library of her newest book, Twenties Girl: A Novel. Kinsella is of course known for her Shopaholic series, but this is a stand-alone book.




In Twenties Girl, we meet Lara, a twenty-something young women whose luck has seemed to have run out. She's had problems at work, a break-up with her boyfriend and now she has to attend the funeral of her great-aunt Sadie who she never knew.

But. Twenty-something Sadie in ghost form appears to Lara at the funeral and she begs Lara to stop the funeral because she cannot rest until a very special necklace is returned to her. Let's just say Sadie is extremely persistent and Lara agrees to help her. Thus begins the antics that take place in this novel, from cute and funny, to cringingly embarrassing (and unlikely) as well as quite moving. We discover how having a ghost can actually be quite helpful as they can go places and see things others cannot. Just as you'd expect there's romance involved here, and just as you'd expect with a Kinsella book, there are happy endings all around.

Reading a new Sophie Kinsella book is like eating your favorite candy - wonderful in small doses. I mean, I wouldn't want to read books like this all the time, but once in a while they're just the perfect escape. It's a quick, fun, light, escapist read. I want to give kudos to Kinsella for her writing ability. I think writing a book like this is harder than it looks, keeping the balance between fun and ridiculous, and weaving that invisible thread throughout the book that keeps the reader curious and turning pages. All in all, a delight.

It's a good day for chocolate cake....

Because today is My Birthday!

I woke up to a homemade card that reads: I love you so,so,so,so,so,so,so,so,so,so MUCH! Fabulous.

I received some new earring to replace the ones that were stolen in November (house was broken into). Nothing fancy, just costume jewelery.

I am going out to dinner and then I am going to eat Chocolate Mousse Cake from Buttercream Bakery. They make wedding cakes and use all natural ingredients. Yum!

I am going to treat myself to some new Persephone books thanks to their 3 for 2 anniversary offer; it seems we share a birthday.

Finally, it seems like a good time to share some books that have creeped into my house lately.



Here we have some books I ordered from The Book Depository when they were having a sale.

Persephone's Miss Buncle's Book. The Cranks Bible which is a vegetarian cookbook with a Middle Eastern twist. Singled Out which I've had my eye on for ages. The Blackest Streets - subtitle is The Life and Death of a Victorian Slum - just my thing, and another Barbara Ewing novel - loved The Trespass a few years back.



Here are new advance copies that have arrived.

This Lovely Life: a memoir of premature motherhood - I've skimmed this one a bit - it looks heartbreaking, devastating, and wonderfully written.

Sarah Dunant's new book Sacred Hearts about a 16 year old sent to a convent against her will in the 16th century.

Gifts of War - a love story set against the backdrop of WW2.

Au Revoir to All That: Food, Wine and the End of France - food, wine, France? Sounds good to me.



Here are the books I've purchased, new and used.

The Moonflower Vine - 'A timeless American classic rediscovered, An unforgettable saga of a heartland family' This was a bestseller in the 1960s.

Ruth Rendell. Of course.

Laurie Colwins's cooking memoirs - I got tired of seeing these all over the place and not having read them. I'm on a bit of a food memoir binge, anyway.

The Silent Raga - the story of two sisters in India - the cover is gorgeous - I couldn't resist.

American Cookery - A family saga complete with recipes. I kept picking this up and putting it back until finally I found a used copy and brought it home. Has anyone read this or anything by author Laura Kalpakian?



Finally, here are some books that I've won or mooched, or scored from paperbackswap.

Highlights here include What the Butler Saw:Two Hundred and Fifty Years of the Servant Problem and Barbara Vine's latest, The Birthday Present which is of course worth mentioning today.

Cheers!

Joyce Carol Oates - An Acquired Taste?

Thanks so much for all your kinds words, thoughts, and vibes last week. I had a totally blissed out time with the girl last week. Camp started this morning. My stomach was churning and she was fine until we arrived. That small hand clutched mine and whispered 'I want to stay with you mama.' But. Soon her best friend arrived and all was well, kiss and out the door. Can't wait to hear all about it.

My introduction to Joyce Carol Oates was her novel We Were the Mulvaneys which I read with my book club in 2002. I didn't keep records then so I cannot remember my specific response to the book but I remember that while it was readable we all felt awfully lukewarm about it. It's somewhat surprising then that we chose to read The Gravedigger's Daughter this year. I think we were all drawn in by the description of the book.

The Jewish Schwart family has immigrated to the US from Nazi Germany. Typically, these sorts of characters would be written in a sympathetic light, but not by JCO. Father Jacob is authoritarian and crazy. The only job he's been able to procure is that of the town gravedigger. Ma is passive, doesn't speak English or frankly much of anything. Youngest daughter Rachel is smart and inquisitive, but thwarted by poverty and her family situation.

Jacob commits a crime that leaves Rebecca on her own. Without any positive male role models in her life Rebecca naturally becomes involved with the Wrong sort of man and bears him a child. A series of circumstances lead Rebecca to relocate and change the names of her son and herself. Suddenly the girl who had been dumpy is beautiful and desirable to men. They want to get to know her better while she wishes to keep them at arm's length. Some more things happen to Rebecca, none of them good. There is a somewhat funny and strange series of letters at the end of the book. And then it just ends.

If you couldn't tell already I wasn't crazy about this book, and sadly it was quite long at nearly 600 pages of small print. JCO has a unique narrative style. As a reader I felt quite distant from all the characters. There seemed to be an excessive amount of exclamation points. Exclamation points! Like that! The story is just entirely depressing, crass at times, horrific in others, and towards the end I just didn't care to be introduced to new characters that frankly didn't seem to add much to the story. I'm glad I read it since it sounded good to me, but I don't think I'll be returning to this author.

So, I'm curious to know if there are any JCO fans out there. I'm wondering if she's sort of like Margaret Atwood - you have to sort of 'get' her to enjoy her books. It'll be interesting to see what my bookclub thinks. Or if they even finish it.

I wanted to mention our last meeting when we 'discussed' Emma. It was a disappointing meeting in terms of the bookishness. Only 3 out of 7 members finished the book. There were so many negative comments! It was hard to follow, too many characters, couldn't get into the language, on and on. I was actually pretty surprised at the reaction. I guess we won't be dipping into Austen again as a group.

I guess it sounds like I've been reading a lot of books which I did not enjoy - but I've actually read a few good ones too! I'll share those soon.

Sigh of Relief

what I haven't been doing:

* worrying about next week
* spending more than 1/2 hour per day on the computer
* blogging


(photo taken last summer)

what I have been doing:

* enjoying the girl being home with me, just us
* wondering at when she became such a young lady
* and so tall
* letting her lead me on a 2 hour walk
* eating ice cream in the middle of the afternoon
* going to the playground
* trips to target where I get talked into stuff I never buy
* feeling sad that she's starting daycamp next week
* reading lots
* loving her

see you next week

Out of Sorts

I'm feeling all out of sorts today. It's been a strange stretch of days here. Late last week when I was taking both members of my family to the doctor I was feeling all smug and healthy when suddenly my stomach started hurting. Ugh! So most of my weekend was spent in pain in the hopes that it wouldn't move to my right side (appendix) - it didn't. Whew. What else? It's freezing here! I actually broke down and turned on the heat last night after pulling out my down comforter and fuzzy socks on Friday night. Brrr! And today is the Last Day of First Grade. I can't believe it! I get stressed during change and next week my girl is starting a new camp with new people And I'm not sure how it's going to go And I work weird hours so our schedule is kind of wacky And I'm trying not to be annoying, I really do not want to be annoying but I want to make sure everything goes well next week And that the people don't think we're crazy because of our crazy schedule. Whew. Not to mention, that the place where the camp is is a place where we might want the girl to go to school someday so I want to make a good impression. Yep, I'm stressed.

So, should we talk about books now? Okay.


Well, after I finished Molly Wizenberg's A Homemade Life, I naturally did a little google searching looking for interviews and such. I came across the blog of Adam Roberts, The Amateur Gourmet and realized he had a book. Something about him sparked my interest as well as the fact that there was apparently a chapter in his book in which he dines with foodie extraordinaire Ruch Reichl, so I picked up his book, aptly named The Amateur Gourmet: How to Shop, Chop and Table-Hop Like a Pro (Almost) at the library.

Roberts comes from a family where reservations are made instead of dinner and he did not begin cooking for himself until adulthood, though he's quite able now. Besides the dinner with Reichl (which I loved), highlights of the book include how to shop at the grocery store or farmers' market and a trip to a famous knife sharpener. This is a good book for beginning cooks - Roberts aims to take the fear out of cooking, or for cooks like myself who are interested in the inner food world. The book is a short quick read (less than two hours, I'd say), and Roberts has a fun and easygoing voice. I recommend it - especially if you get it from your library.

Next!


I won Shoot the Moon by Billie Letts - I think it was practically impossible not to win a copy there were so many giveaways a while back. I was looking forward to this book since I'd heard good things about the author (Oprah-approved) and the premise sounded interesting.

In 1972, windswept DeClare, Oklahoma, was consumed by the murder of a young mother, Gaylene Harjo, and the disappearance of her baby, Nicky Jack. When the child's pajama bottoms were discovered on the banks of Willow Creek, everyone feared that he, too, had been killed, although his body was never found.

Nearly thirty years later, Nicky Jack mysteriously returns to DeClare, shocking the town and stirring up long-buried memories. But what he discovers about the night he vanished is more astonishing than he or anyone could have imagine. Piece by piece, what emerges is a story of dashed hopes, desperate love, and a secret that still cries out for justice...and redemption.

See, sounds good, right? To be honest, I don't have much to say about this, that is good anyway. I found the writing style very simplistic, thought the overabundance of characters with odd names were underdeveloped, and the romance was implausible. The word that keeps coming to my mind is pedestrian. Read something else.

The Well and the Mine

Things are still busy, busy at Chez Books and Cooks. Today is the only day I haven't had to be someplace in the morning, someplace in the evening, and places to go in between. I'm an introvert and a homebody so this is not my favorite way of living. It's fun to see people and do things, but I need down time. Whew.

A week or two ago I was trying to figure out what to read next. Nothing was quite clicking so when my Librarything Early Reviewer book arrived in the mail I began reading it almost immediately. The Well and the Mine was just what I was looking for at that moment. Set in Alabama in the 1930s, The Well and the Mine is the story of a family. Father Albert works hard in the mines, is respected by his peers and has come to the realization that under ground, covered with dirt, all men are equal, black and white. Mother Leta works hard at home where the family grows much of their own food. She's the sort of woman who makes breakfast and tells her husband she'll eat with the children, and when they wake up she tells them she ate with their father. Oldest daughter Virgie is the beauty of the family, unsure about boys who want to walk her home. Tess is the middle child, the precocious one we get to know best. Finally, youngest son Jack is somewhat in the background; what we learn from him comes from the perspective of adulthood.

When the story opens, Tess is relaxing on the porch at dusk when a woman approaches and drops a baby into the family's well. Tess and Virgie decide to try to figure out who the mystery woman is, paying calls to neighbors and acquaintances. Throughout the story, it is obvious that the family is poor, but the girls see a different life being lived in some of their neighbors' homes, where there is not always food to eat or shoes to wear. In the end, the mystery woman is discovered but that is not really the point of this novel. It is the story of the struggle and triumph of a family. The story comes full circle thanks to adult Jack's point of view and there is satisfaction in knowing how things turn out for this family.

The Well and the Mine is a beautifully written debut novel by Gin Phillips. She had me at hello, as they say. I felt completely immersed in the world she created; it was Southern and hot, racial tensions were running high, and I could smell and taste the food Leta prepared. At times, the characters seemed almost too good to be true, but this didn't detract from my enjoyment of this book. Highly recommended.

My First Ruth Rendell as Ruth Rendell

Hi. What's up? We've had a little bit of drama here this week, involving an evening-turned-into-night trip to the ER for my husband. He's fine now, but had food stuck in his esophagus. Yes, ick. Yes, I tell him to take smaller bites. Situations like this make it difficult to not have any family nearby, I mean, I don't have anyone to watch my child at 11 pm. Or 1 am. So the evening involved me bringing her home to sleep for a bit, then waking her up and dragging her 50+ pound body back out to the car to pick up Daddy. Who was supposed to be ready. But it took another hour to discharge him by which time the poor child was begging me to take her home. I finally got them into bed around 2 am and all that adrenalin resulted in around 3 hours of sleep for me Tuesday night from which I am still recovering. Ugh. What else? Did you see Lost last night? How great was that? I'm still pondering what it all means. And I'm getting ready to go to an out-of-town wedding for the weekend. So, lots going on around here.

Anywho.

I finished my first Ruth Rendell book during the read-a-thon. I've been reading her books written as Barabara Vine for some time now but this is my first dip into the Ruth Rendell waters. I purposefully chose something that sounded similar to her Vine books, and it definitely was. Similar, that is. Like the Vine books, this focused on the why rather than the who, but unlike the Vine books I've read, this incorporated into the novel the police procedural piece of solving the crime.

The book I'm talking about is A Judgement in Stone and is satisfyingly creepy and suspenseful. Amazing, in a sense that it could be suspenseful since the book begins with this sentence:

Eunice Parchman killed the Coverdale family because she could not read or write.

I, mean, this is not a spoiler, this is it. This is the who-done-it, the who-was-it-done-to and the why-done-it right there, line one. So why keep reading? Because Ruth Rendell is writing, that's why. The Coverdales are a well-do-family living in a small English Village. I'm not certain of the time period, but since this was written in 1977 and there's talk of an expensive cassette tape recorder, the 70s sounds about right. Jacqueling Coverdale is having a difficult time caring for her large home and is thrilled when she employs Eunich Parchman as a maid. Eunice is pretty thrilled too, since there is a TV in her new accommodations and she loves those murder shows. But, aside from being illiterate, Eunice is a damaged soul, she is almost inhuman. Things don't go quite as Eunice plans, and the relationship between herself and another villager seals everyone's fate when the entire Coverdale family is killed in the course of 15 minutes on the evening of Valentine's day.

I can tell you that much, but little else. It's much too good to discover it yourself. I can tell you Rendell is brilliant here. Rendell's voice is that of the omniscient narrator who knows what pushes Eunice's buttons, who knows that this is the last day for the Coverdales. A Judgement in Stone is creepy, darkly comedic at times, bone chilling, utterly divine. I loved it.

Life Sentences

I've had writer's block since late last week. I'm not sure why, but I'm having trouble sitting down and composing what is on my mind into coherent sentences. It could be because I have an extra busy week and a traveling husband. It could be stress from worrying about my job where there were more layoffs yesterday and more 'cost saving measures' implemented. In any case, I am today, forcing myself to sit down and properly write about something and that something is Laura Lippman's latest novel, Life Sentences.




Cassandra Fallows has written two successful books - memoirs - and one not-so-successful novel. Life has brought her back to her hometown of Baltimore where she hopes to research a more personal story to write about. Cassandra is reminded of the life story of a school acquaintance from years past. Calliope was always a quiet girl but her life became news after her infant son disappeared and she refused to discuss his whereabouts. Cassandra contacts old friends, some of whom are happier to see her than others. You see, Cassandra's books are a touchy subject for some of them, who feel her version of events are not exactly or in same cases, even close to the truth. As Cassandra find herself getting closer to the truth, she discovers things about her friends she wasn't expecting, but more surprising, she discovers things about herself.

This is the first time I've read Lippman's work and apparently she is best known as a writer of mysteries. This is much more of a standard literary novel, despite Cassandra's search for answers. In fact, by the time we discover what really happened with Calliope it's rather anti-climactic. What is more interesting in this book are the themes of self-discovery and of realizing that how one person perceives an event can be completely different that another persons. One point I need to make and am finding it hard to, is that Cassandra's friends from school are all black and she is white. Cassandra doesn't see this as being a big difference, but her friends in some cases do, and they resent that Cassandra has seemed to never quite comprehend their point of view.

The novel was at times difficult to follow, written in third person the reader gets the perspective of many different characters. I found it hard to keep track of who was who at times and had to look back. Interspersed in the book are chapters from Cassandra's memoir, which explained a lot of the back story. I thought this was a good addition to the narrative, though I did wonder why the book (the memoir) would have been such a best seller! Overall, I enjoyed this book and would consider reading Lippman's work again in the future.

Many thanks to Harper Collins/William Morrow for providing this book for review.

Again, I want to thank everyone who stopped by during the read-a-thon! In the coming days or weeks I plan to properly visit all of you and check out all the new-to-me blogs out there.

And She's Off!

I am taking a break from packing to tell you I'll be away for a bit. I'm not going anyplace exciting, but it will be a little warmer than here and I am assured that I will not wake up to 17 degrees and new-fallen snow on the ground as I did here today. It's just the girl and I this time around, and besides the rain boots and hundred pairs of underwear that I somehow fit into our suitcase (I am an excellent packer, you should know) I will also need a book light (sharing a room with the girl) and BOOKS! Ahh, vacation books. There's nothing like them! There are of course a few requirements that a book must meet to come on vacation with me. I generally prefer authors that are known to me - I'm looking for comfort reading here, books must be easily replaceable, that is, I won't bring any that are dear to me or arrived from the UK, and I generally don't travel with ARCs for the same reason.

So here is what I have lined up.




Penny Vincenzi's books are deliciously trashy and long, long, long. I've already begun Windfall and am looking forward to losing myself in the story.



A Monstrous Regiment of Women is the second book in the Mary Russel/Sherlock Holmes series by Laurie King and I'm definitely packing this for a bit of mystery.

Is that all? I'm not sure. I don't think there's any chance I'll get through these but I might have to bring that Just In Case book along. What would you bring if you were traveling tomorrow?

Part of my preparations for this trip included finished the books I had started including The Meaning of Night, and today's feature book, Etta by Gerald Kolpan.




Etta is the story of Etta Place, an elusive woman who had a relationship with legendary train robber Harry Longabaugh, otherwise known as The Sundance Kid. Aside from one clear photograph, there is nearly nothing concrete known about Etta Place, if Etta Place was even her true name, and nothing is known of what became of her. Author Gerald Kolpan was intrigued enough with what he did know about Etta Place to conjure up who Etta might have been and what might have happened to her. The result is this novel, his first.

Kolpan uses a variety of narrative methods to tell his story, from newspaper clippings and letters, to Etta's diary and a traditional narrative. I enjoyed the various points of view of this story, but found Etta's words to be most interesting. I am not traditionally a reader of Wild West sorts of stories, so while the Wild West tales were probably my least favorite parts of the book, they don't distract from the focus of the narrative which is Etta's life. Born into a wealthy family, circumstances send Etta off to Colorado, and eventually into cahoots with the Wild Bunch. Life eventually brings her back east to New York City where she becomes close friends with Eleanor Roosevelt (hard to believe) and works in Buffalo Bill's rodeo show (easy to believe). Etta is a fast-paced book, plot driven and entertaining. Naturally, my own interest in Etta Place has been peaked and I'd love to know the real story like many others.

Many thanks to Ballantine Books for this review copy.

So I'm off, and will see you in about a week. Cheers!

Not My Usual Fare

Welcome to Books and Cooks, a blog about books, reading, and cooking along with whatever happens to be plaguing its author Tara at the moment. Geez, there is a lot of whining going on around here lately, and by the way when did Wednesday become the Day of Doom? Today I have a broken shoe (long story, but a pair of Clarks that I wear in the house every day every hour that I NEED) that I can hopefully replace at a minimum charge to me, a frozen cold water pipe to the upstairs bathroom where I am trying to raise the heat but it.is.not.responding.(the heat).and.i.am.getting.very.annoyed., and a driver's side door that won't open won't unlock manually or otherwise and is necessitating my Fourth trip to a car fixing place this winter when I have not needed a car fixing place more than say 3 or 4 times in the past 8 years. So if you sense a sarcastic tone coming from me today, now you know why.

Ahem.


Yes, I see you are looking at the photo of that book, Time of My Life by Allison Winn Scotch and I hear what you're thinking - 'that doesn't look like something Tara generally reads' and yes, you are right about that. I read this book to discuss with my book club at our March meeting. I even remember voting for this book, it seemed like the best of three so-so choices at the time.

Time of My Life is the story of Jillian, one of those New York-to-New Jersey transplanted housewives who has a big house, drives a Range Rover, has a beautiful child and a husband Henry who works all the time. Jillian discovers that her old boyfriend Jackson, the guy she dated right before she met her husband is engaged, and suddenly Jillian finds herself transported back to the past to the time when she is living with Jackson and they are happy. Jillian is thrilled to have a second chance with Jackson, and uses her knowledge of the future to finesse her way through her relationship and her job. But...was Jillian meant to be with Jackson or does she have to give up too much??

What I liked about this book was the writing. Winn Scotch is a very good writer, she has a way with words that made me keep reading even when I wasn't crazy about the subject (more on that later). I flew through this book in about a day and appreciated how modern the book felt. I'll be interested to see what else this author publishes, if she sticks to the married-lit sort of genre or moves on.

I was troubled by a few things about this book. First, the author never sold me on the time-travel thing. Now, I am a person who wants to buy into your story - The Time Traveler's Wife - I believed. I felt the shift in time here was too abrupt, and that the book could have been set up differently either with Parts (1,2,3) or a Prologue and Epilogue bookending the main story, but in any case I never bought it. In addition, I really disliked Jillian, the main character. She is so thrilled to be back in the past! Her husband and child were such burdens and now she is free, and yes the word burden is used. Now, if I were to find myself time traveling without my child, I'm guessing I would be pretty hysterical to get back to her or at least put myself on the path to creating her. Jillian is not so much going in that direction, in fact it takes months before she really begins to express that she misses her child. I was beginning to hope that Jillian would lose both Jackson and Henry since I frankly didn't find much about her that was very likable.

I am definitely in the minority when it comes to this book. The reviews on amazon are almost all positive, across the board. I might have been a fan of this book too, five or ten years ago, but now I just think, eh.