The School of Essential Ingredients

April 14, 2009 Fiction,food-lit,must read

I had other plans. I was supposed to be at a bar with Laurie – knitting, drinking pints and gushing over the copy of her book that I’ll get when we meet up. There were other forces in action though and her son got sick so after work I found myself at home staring at my library shelf. It’s my one weekday afternoon that I have “off” and I planned to enjoy it. Erica Bauermeister’s The School of Essential Ingredients called to me and we settled down together in the sunshine streaming through the windows of the sunroom while my cat took a sun nap beside me and the Beatles White Album drifted out from the office speakers.

It’s my first sunroom read of the year. It reminded me why I work two part-time jobs instead of a regular (and probably more profitable) full-time one. It’s for afternoons like this one. It’s for days of reading in the quiet sunshine while the rest of the world is at work and I sit torn between wanting to lose myself in the book and bursting to tell the world that they must pick it up. I want to read passages out loud but there’s no one here except that cat and she’s an unreceptive audience unless the work “cheese” is involved. I console myself by rereading them and letting the words roll around in my mind the way Lillian’s food would melt in my mouth.

I find myself jumping up from the table to go into the kitchen. I open the cabinets. I want to knead some bread dough. Mix up a batch of biscuits with my hands. Make salad rolls with translucent thin rice paper. Chop fresh herbs. Start a tomato sauce. Make ravioli. My essential ingredients for these are missing yet I feel the need to plunge my hands into them. I feel the need to create something luscious.

I wonder why it’s been so long since a book made me feel this way. Is the books? Is it the long cold Canadian winter? Is it the sunshine? Am I just re-energizing like the potted plants placed in the sun after wintering indoors?

Sitting in the sun reading this book I feel like I could stay in this apartment for years. Or at least one more than we planned. Then the neighbour next door sees me and points me out to his friend who pokes his head over the fence to stare at me as well. I resist the urge to flip them the bird and remind myself that when we buy a house (hopefully in a year) I can build my own sunny sanctuary, minus the nosy (and slightly creepy) neighbours. I make a note to get back my sewing machine and make some curtains that will keep in the light but shield me from prying eyes.

I must mar this and complain about something, and yes really I must complain about this – why is it always breast cancer? Why is it always a lump in the breast? And why is it always followed by death? What is that about breast cancer that authors find so romantic and tragic? If this book was a meal that was the sour note, the failed course, the wine turned to vinegar. It always seems to happen in books  I would otherwise completely love and have to settle for mostly loving.  I’m tired of breasts as tools of death.  (Note: this was just apart of the story, it’s not a “breast cancer book” per se, but I desperately wish it hadn’t appeared at all.)

That aside I loved this book. I loved what it said about food, what it said about how food connects to our lives. It reminded me that soon my weekend routine will change. I’ll bound out of bed on Sunday mornings. Lee will brew the coffee and pour it into travel must. We will throw on sloppy clothes. We’ll gather up canvas bags and shove our bed-head hairdos under hats. It’s the one morning where a computer is not touched. We’ll hop in the truck and make the short drive to the farmer’s market where we will be greeted by the people who grow our food. We’ll stock up on farm fresh eggs, maybe some local meat or cheese. And always, always vegetables. We’ll be home in less than an hour and we’ll make breakfast. Eggs. Maybe pancakes or French toast. I’ll spend the rest of the morning preparing the morning’s goodies into something that will feed us. Maybe my hands will become stained with rhubarb or beet juices. Maybe I’ll roast fresh tender asapargus. Maybe we’ll have a treat something that comes rarely, a true seasonal item like ramps. Eventually we’ll taste the first fresh tomato of the summer. We’ll feed each other and our friends and family because our lives revolve around food and it’s how we show our love for them and for life.

“We’re all just ingredients, Tom. What matters is the grace with which you cook the meal.”

The Disreputable History of Frankie Landau-Banks

February 23, 2009 Fiction,Literary Awards,Young Adult,must read

Ah, E Lockhart’s The Disreputable History of Frankie Landau-Banks. What can I say? It’s excellent. Truly wonderful. It was Prinz honoured and won a Cybils.

I’m one of the last to read it so what do I have left to say? Not a lot. This is the kind of book had I read it as a teen would have made me long to go to boarding school. When I was a kid I thought boarding school was the coolest thing ever. (Ha! Dorm life cured me of that fast.) I loved Frankie. I don’t think I could have ever been the same criminal mastermind she was but I loved her and totally would have wanted to be her friend.

So rather than add anything that hasn’t been said already I just say awesome, awesome, awesome. Feminist. Wonderful. Patriarchy! Ha!

Animal, Vegetable, Miracle

June 11, 2008 Biography/Memoir,Non-Fiction,Recommend,food-lit,must read

Animal, Vegetable, Miracle has been sitting on my shelf for about a year. I remember I bought at the Annex Book City in Toronto on my way to meet some friend’s a Pauper’s Pub for pints. I was running early (TTC either had me places 20 minutes early or 10 minutes late – I never did figure out how to get anywhere on time) and had needed something to read and it was on the way. I read the introduction, my friend’s showed up and then it sat on my shelf in three different city, was put through two moves (don’t cry for it – I have book that have been through way more moves), before I picked it up off the shelf to read last week.

The funny thing is that for the last few months we’ve been joking that when we win the lottery we’re going to move to the country (but not too far away). Someplace where my neighbours can’t see into my kitchen or my back yard (help me, I’m turning into my mother…). Where I will plant tomatoes and make jam. Oh wait…already doing both of those. Ok, on a larger scale.

Sort of what Kingsolver is doing but for totally different reasons.

I’ve read other books and articles about people going local. The most notable is probably the 100-Mile Diet. Whereas the 100-Mile diet made going local sound crazy, insane, intense and pretty undoable, Kingsolver’s seemed well-planned, researched, and easier. A certain amount of that was rural vs city but it also seemed like Kingsolver and her family had been moving in that direction for years and that it was almost a natural progression. For them eating local was important but it was more about feeding and supporting themselves and than “local”. At least that was my impression.

When I was a kid we had gardens in the summer – pretty big ones. We’d grow carrots, beans, peas, tomatoes, cucumbers, lettuce… We stopped at some point. Life got too busy. Most of my brothers and sisters had moved out (thus greatly decreasing the amount of available labour). My grandparent’s maintained a garden until my grandfather was in his 70s. My uncles garden. Even when we weren’t gardening we’d raid the family gardens (frequently being encouraged to do so).

One of the hardest things about living in cities is the access to fresh locally grown produce. I did eventually figure out that there were markets in Montreal and how to get to them. In Toronto I’d hit the St. Lawrence Farmer’s Market (north side of the St. Lawrence Market) almost religiously. And in Ottawa there’s the Byward Market, the Parkdale Market and the Sunday Farmer’s Market at Landsdowne Park. Sometime in the next few weeks I’ll be heading to a “pick your own” farm to pick a flat or two of strawberries to make into jam (most of which will probably be given away as gifts because we prefer homemade raspberry – we’ll make that later in the summer).

I’ll probably never raise chickens and turkeys or grow peanuts like Kingsolver. But supporting local farmers? Growing a wee bit of my own food? That’s something I can get behind.

Life As We Knew It

April 12, 2008 Fiction,Science Fiction,Young Adult,must read

Warning: This book is not for people freaked out by the thought of the end of the world as we know it and/or paranoid conspiracy theorists.

That being said, Susan Beth Pfeffer’s Life As We Knew It is fan-freaking-tastic – with extra emphasis on the freaking. It’s good and if you haven’t read it yet go get a copy right now (unless you are one of the people above that I’ve said shouldn’t read it).

Miranda is living a pretty typical life for 16 year old girl in middle America. She’s a figure skating fan, on the swim team, doesn’t have a boyfriend and wonders if she’ll ever get kissed. She worries about grades and her mom rides her about getting into a good college. Her parents are divorced and her dad remarried and his new wife is about to have a baby and wants her to be the godmother. Her older brother in college and her younger brother dreams of being a baseball player.

And then suddenly things will never be the same again.

An asteroid hits the moon. It’s not uncommon for things to hit the moon – after all we can see all the craters on it. But this is the biggest thing to ever hit the moon. But the asteroid is even bigger than the scientists thought it was and it knocks the moon much closer to earth. The moon is the biggest thing in the sky.

Weather patterns are screwed up. The tides are all messed up and anything on the coast is pretty much gone thanks to tsunamis. New York, Rhode Island, Los Angeles, Cape Cod? Pretty much gone. Electricity? Unreliable and is off more than it’s on. Supermarkets are cleared out. The cost of gas skyrockets. Schools mostly shut down.

Miranda’s world gets smaller and smaller. The internet doesn’t work. They can’t get through to anyone on the telephone. Soon her entire world is just her family and their house. Will they have enough food to get through the winter? What happens if someone gets sick? Do any of them have a future?

It’s a fantastic book and I totally understand why it’s been nominated for awards and why everyone was ravin about it when it came out. It would be an excellent book in a classroom setting. Or for a bookclub. Or for families to read together. There’s just so much potential for discussion.

There’s a companion book that is coming out in June called the dead and the gone. It follows the same events but from the point of view of a teenage boy in New York City who must care for his siblings after his parents are killed by a tsunami. I’m really looking forward to it because the one thing that I kept thinking about while reading this book is that while I could see how Miranda’s family was getting by I figured that city dwellers would be pretty well screwed.

Life As We Knew It will make you think. It will likely also make you want to stock up on bottled water, batteries and a crank flashlight and radio. And possibly make you want to start canning things and knitting socks. And stockpiling firewood. And figuring out how the heck to get a woodstove into your city apartment…

The Boy in the Striped Pajamas

December 28, 2007 Fiction,Young Adult,must read

I’ve had The Boy in the Striped Pajamas on my radar for awhile. But then Denise posted about it recently and reminded me that I wanted to read it. So I sat down today and read it and OMG. Read this book. Nowwwwwwwwww.

But you probably don’t want your nine year old reading it even though it’s about a nine year old. When I look on Amazon it says that it’s for grades 7-9 and I’d buy that. When I was reading it I was thinking 8th graders (because that’s the year we did Anne Frank and Underground to Canada that this book would fit in well with the discussions that we had about those books).

Can I just say when I got to the end of that chapter and realized what was going to happen I gasped. GASPED.

Just read the book. It’s a fast read. And I’d talk and rave about it a lot more I need you to read it first. (And the last sentence of the book just may break your heart. )If you are making some crazy New Year’s Resolution to not buy books or anything buy this one first. Trust me.

(And if anyone is working about all the updates I’ve set a deadline of New Years Eve to get all caught up on book blogging…plus I’m still reading. That means lots of posts people.)

Nothing Says Christmas Like Zombies

December 25, 2007 Fiction,must read

I made a startling discovery today. It turns out that I never actually finished reading The Stupidest Angel. I’ve owned it for several years but apparently never finished reading it.

So today I did.

And really, nothing is better for Christmas than a book that has zombies. And fruit bats. And stupid angels.

Seriously, just read it. I love Christopher Moore.
Does anyone have the 2.0 version?

Merry Christmas everyone!

Looking for Alaska

December 1, 2007 Fiction,Young Adult,must read

Awesome. Just freaking made of awesome. And a first novel! Yes, I’d still marry John Green.

To be honest, I was a bit wary of reading Looking for Alaska. I mean, sure, it won the Printz Award and all but I really, really loved An Abundance of Katherines. Katherines was one of the best YA books I’ve read well…ever. So I was worried that I’d be unimpressed with Looking for Alaska (even though Katherines was only a medalist for the Printz whereas Alaska won). I don’t know why I was worried. Silly me.

Looking for Alaska had a great main character – the type of guy that we all know or knew in high school. Miles is a smart, geeky kid with no friends who gets accepted to an exclusive and prestigious boarding school. At home, Miles had no friends. His parents refused to believe this and tried to throw him a going away party. It ended up with the three of them in front of the TV. Then after Miles gets to school he makes friends! Real friends! Kinda bad-ass friends! And, of course, one of them is a really popular, hot girl named Alaska Young. (Alaska, by the way, is totally the type that would say PATRIARCHY if she heard me say I’d marry anyone, let alone the person that created her. I think you can see why I liked her.)

Things are going swimmingly. And then something bad happens. Something really bad. You’d kind of expecting it though since the first section of the book is “before” and the chapters (hmmmm they are more like sections really) are headed with dates like “one hundred thirty-six days before”. If there’s a Before there must be an After and between the two there must a Significant Event and it’s rare that such events are good things right?

And then there is the After. It’s painful and emotion and truthful. But the kicker, the KICKER, is the ending. The book ends with a paper that Miles writes and it’s freaking fantastic. It’s so fantastic I can’t quote anything because that would totally ruin it for you.

If you are one of those people (and if you are I so don’t understand you and we must have a chat about this sometime) that flip to the end to read the last pages before the beginning of the book for the love of all literary things DON’T. Truthfully, it won’t ruin the whole book for you. But it will totally ruin the potency of getting to that piece of writing at the end. Just don’t. If i were in the same room as you I’d rip the pages out of the book, a book that I REALLY LIKE, so you couldn’t do that.

I believe I’ve decided that when it comes to young adult literature John Green can do no wrong. I’ve heard him read the first chapter of his third book, Paper Towns, over at Brotherhood 2.0 so I’m not even worried about the curse of the third book (that may apply only to series anyway…) as I really want to read it right now and I’m highly annoyed that I can’t (I want to say fall 2008 is when it will be released but I might be wrong…).

Oh, and where Katherines had anagrams? Looking for Alaska has the last lines of famous dead people.

An Abundance of Katherines

June 19, 2007 Fiction,Young Adult,must read

Some of you may know that that I am somewhat obsessed with Brotherhood 2.0. While I had known about John Green before that I hadn’t read his books. And what most of you won’t know is that through Brotherhood I’ve developed a wee crush on John Green. How can you not? Ok, fine, my friend Melissa (I’m responsible for her Brotherhood addiction, what can I say, I like to share the goodies) would say that she’s got a crush on Hank and I will acknowledge that Hank has a certain charm. But I’d totally marry John. If, you know, I actually had any temptation to do the whole marriage thing (which I don’t). And if he wasn’t married to the very wonderful Yeti (which he is). So I’ll just keep trucking along with my crush until the end of the year when the Brotherhood ends at which point I’ll have Green Brother withdrawal.

So about the book…An Abundance of Katherines is about Colin. Colin has dated an abundance of Katherines. No, not 1 not 2, not 5. He has dated 19 Katherines. That’s impressive. I don’t think I know 19 Katherines (heck, not even sure I know 19 Jennifers and I know a lot of Jennifers). After his breakup with K19, his best (and only) friend Hassan decides they are going on a road trip. The open road, the world to discover, Katherines to forget. Sounded like a good idea. They end up in the middle of nowhere. And stay there. And technically nowhere is Gunshot, TN. And yes, there is a girl. But no, her name is not Katherine.

A few notes – this book has FOOTNOTES! I LOVE IT!!!! I really, really do. Lovvvvvveeee it. Also this book has an appendix. This is important because anyone who has been a regular follower of the Brotherhood knows that math is not John’s strength and this deals with theorems.

It also has likeable characters. I like when there are likable characters. I’m too busy these days to force myself to like things. Actually I loved Hassan. Hassan rocked!

Two thumbs up! And I feel like I really need to read Looking for Alaska. But I cannot buy any books right now. If I buy em I gotta pack em and it seems like they are breeding on their own as it is.

(Two more books to go and I’ll be caught up I think…)

Technorati tags: Brotherhood 2.0, john green, an abundance of katherines

I finished To Kill a Mockingbird

September 30, 2006 Banned Books,Classics,Fiction,Recommend,must read

After posting last night I grabbed it to read one chapter in it before I went to sleep. Well…that one chapter turned into the rest of the book. Sigh.

I love it. As much as I will acknowledge that I feel like I should have read Harper Lee’s To Kill a Mockingbird earlier, I’m kind of glad that my English class didn’t read this book. I don’t think I would have appreciated it nearly as much being assigned to read as I did reading it for pleasure. Plus, if I had been assigned it in high school I would have read it from an itty-bitty trade paperback that who knows how many others have also read from instead of this great pristine paperback edition with nice thick pages. I really loved this edition.

I can’t really think of anything to say that Mocha Momma didn’t say earlier this week when she posted about To Kill A Mockingbird for banned books week.

Now I gotta find a copy of the movie, which I’ve never watched because I believed I should read the book first, yet even I pictured Gregory Peck as Atticus.

Birth House

August 29, 2006 BlogHer,Canadian,Fiction,Recommend,Women,must read

The Birth House review is posted at BlogHer.

clicky

I loved it. You should all read it.