This week’s book haul
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Actually, these two books I already owned - but I pulled them out because I’m trying to find other poetry chapbooks… let me know if you have any suggestions?
Your Tears Fall Like Pearls by Adukeh the Poet
Every House Needs a Ghost by Timothy Fox
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Accidental Devotions by Kelli Russell Agodon - I pre-ordered this so long ago that it was a complete surprise when I received it! Like a little poetry gift from my past self. xo
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My World of Books haul came in saturday morning, just in time for the weekend! you’ll find me on the couch for the next two days…
The Summer Book by Tove Jansson - A grandmother and her granddaughter spend spend the summer on an island in Finland.
How to Cook a Wolf by MFK Fisher - A cookbook written during and for those living under rations during the second world war. (Wolf refers to hunger.)
An Omelette and a Glass of Wine by Elizabeth David - A collection of essays about travel, food and the occasional recipe.
The Measure of her Powers, an MFK FIsher Reader edited by Dominique Gioia - An anthology of Fisher’s writing on food, hunger and appetite.
Savoie: the Land, People and Food of the French Alps by Madeleine Kammam - French alpine culture and history as told through food.
Breakfast - Dinner - Supper
Charles ate his dinner at noon.
Here is why I love AI: “Your husband is wrong, and the historical record is squarely on your side. The Indiana pattern — a big midday dinner, and a lighter evening supper — is the older, more traditional arrangement.”
I knew it! I feel so vindicated.
So, for centuries, the biggest meal of the day was around noon and it was called dinner. This was when families dined together and consumed the most calories, so that the labor-intnsive agricultural work could get done. By evening, the family was exhausted and tired and so they would have a simple meal of soup (souper —> supper) and leftovers from the earlier meal.
Industrialization changed this eating pattern. Once people started working in factories and offices, their main family meal slid to the evening hours and the mid-day meal become smaller. Wealthy urbanites started dining at 8pm.
Rural farmers and agricultural workers, by comparison - couldn’t wait until 8pm to consume major calories. Which is why in my family, “dinner” always referred to the biggest meal of the day, not necessarily the evening meal. A perfect example of this was Sunday Dinner at Grandma Record’s which was always a noon meal.
So agricultural and working-class communities often retained:
breakfast → dinner → supper
while urban/middle- and upper-class usage increasingly became:
breakfast → lunch → dinner
Today the terminology largely depends on social class, occupation and region.
Alice Wears Blue
portrait by Arthur Paine Garrat
Alice Roosevelt Longworth was the eldest daughter of Teddy Roosevelt, who said of her: "I can either run the country or I can attend to Alice, but I cannot possibly do both."
Menthon-Saint-Bernard
The morning before the morning before our Big Swiss Hike.
1 - A tiny public library with an insect hotel built into its attic.
2 - Breakfast at Bernoline’s on the square, where I had thebest soft boiled eggs on toast. Why does making soft-boiled eggs at home scare me? I need to figure this out, they are so deliciously elegant.
3 - Memorial to WW2 resistance fighters in the region. including…
4 - Jeanne Arragain ran cafe in Annecy that served as an underground hub for the secret army. She was eventually arrested, deported and died at Ravensbruck Concentration Camp on March 20, 1945.
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One for the Beach, One for the Nightstand
I just read two VERY different books about mothers and daughters. You might like one or both! Here’s my brief review of each.
Five Star Weekend by Elin Hilderbrand. What can I say? This woman has mastered the art of the summer beach read and I’m here for it every single time. The story revolves around female friendships and how they change over time - the mother/daughter story is secondary. Peacock/Sky just released the series starring Jennifer Garner, which just makes the reading even more vivid. It’s not my favourite Elin Hilderbrand book (that would be Summer of 69) - but if you generally like Hilderbrand, this one hits the spot. Stick with the book version though - I didn’t care for the Audible version.
You Won’t Get Free of It by Rachel Aviv. This is a collection of highly-researched essays, most of which have been previously published in The New Yorker. The mysteries of mental illness play a recurring theme - as does childhood trauma. I KNOW! It sounds heavy. And while it’s not exactly light reading, the essays are compelling and kept me coming back for more. If you wish you could read The New Yorker, but prefer the accomplishment that comes from finishing a good book - this is for you! :)
A quick trip to Seattle
We moved from Seattle to London in 2015… and although I have been back a few times over the last decade, it’s been quite a while!
So it was a real treat to go back, if only for a long weekend. The occasion: a friend’s 60th Birthday! I danced my fool head off - so much so that I woke up in the middle of the night with leg cramps - but it was so worth it! :)
I don’t typically share photos of friends/family, so instead - here are a few snaps for flavour. Clicking on each image will enlarge and give context…
xo, L
Good Eagle and Laura
I just finished watching the new Little House on the Prairie and I Ioved it so much!
I’m tempted to download the entire season and watch it again on my way to Seattle. LOVE!
As of… Wednesday, July 15
At this very moment… I’m listening to a dramatic thunderstorm develop over the mountains and watching all the boats race home before the lightning strikes. It’s like mother nature couldn’t take the heat anymore and unleashed fury.
Preparing for… the Big Hike in August! We took a practice hike up Mont Baron and Mont Veyrier which seemed to be uphill both ways, until the very very end, when we suddenly descended so steeply that my toenails threatened to detach. I took a picture from the top (not of my toenails) which looks like it has some weird filter on it, but that’s just what it looked like.
Here are some other summer snaps from the last few weeks.
Reading... a lot of cookbooks. And A Land and Its People by David Sedaris.
Cooking… as little as possible.
A recent highlight… stumbling into this bookshop that’s been in Annecy since 1731.
Found quote of the month… “People have tried and they have tried, but sex is not better than sweetcorn.” - Garrison Keillor
Heading to… Seattle for the weekend!
A Land and Its People
If you enjoy David Sedaris, then you will love his new book. I think that he gets more curmudgeonly with age. But also, somehow more of a softy? Or maybe he’s just a more concentrated version of himself. Like a gay Larry David. As far as I can tell, that’s the aging process in a nutshell.
Separately, I really love postcards.
Susan Ashworth
‘Ranunculus and Beetroot Chutney’
‘Wild Carrot’
Just loving her colour palette. Find more of her work here.
Cooking… as little as possible
I’m thinking this might be dinner tonight. via My Paris Kitchen by David Lebovitz
I’ve been learning towards minimalist cooking for a while now, but the heat of summer has taken my laziness to a whole new level. One night for dinner, I had green beans with salted butter and an enormous wedge of watermelon. Last night - when it was stil 32 degrees at 8:30pm - I had tinned tuna in olive oil and a big bowl of cherries.
This hummus recipe is a little more complicated than that - but I think it’s worth the effort.
Fancy Hummus (adapted from David Lebovitz)
Okay, yes, you can buy hummus at the supermarket. But this is SO much better. And since you’re making it your meal, let’s make it awesome.
The two steps you’ll want to avoid but shouldn’t:
1 - Boil the tinned chickpeas with baking soda. You’re overcooking them - that’s the point. You’re getting them nice and mushy so they will puree smooth. (1 tin of chickpeas + ½ tsp baking soda)
2 - Thin the tahini mixture with ice cold water before adding the mushy beans. The colder the water, the smoother the tahini.
INGREDIENTS:
1 can chickpeas, rinsed and drained
½ tsp of baking soda
¼ cup of lemon juice
1 garlic clove chopped
½ tsp fine sea salt
½ cup tahini
ice water
½ tsp cumin
1 TBL extra virgin olive oil
Garnishes: toasted pumpkin seeds, dukkha and/or chili flakes
DIRECTIONS:
1 - Put your rinsed and drained chickpeas in a pan with ½ baking soda and cover the chickpeas with a few inches of water. Boil for about 20 minutes. Then drain the beans and set them aside.
2 - In your blender: blitz the lemon juice, garlic and salt. If you can let that mellow for 10 minutes, great. Then add the tahini and blend it all together, scrapping down the sides as needed. while blending, drizzle in a few tablespoons of ice cold water until the tahini is light and smooth.
3 - Add in the beans and cumin, combine and then add in the olive oil. Monitor the consistency and add tablespoons of ice cold water until you have a super creamy texture. Taste and add more salt if necessary.
4 - Put into a gorgeous bowl and top with toasted pumpkin seeds, dukkha and chilli flakes.
Mont Veyrier - Mont Baron Loop
So hot. So uphill. Sore toes.
Note to self: Remember to check All Trails. It’s marked “hard.” Had I known, I would’ve brought a sandwich (and left earlier in the day). So tired. And hungry.
Cookbook research
I’m flirting with idea of writing a Lake Annecy cookbook... Here are a few of my early comps!
1) How to Eat a Peach by Diana Henry 2) My Paris Kitchen by David Leovitz
1) No-Recipe Recipes by Sam Sifton 2) Savoie by Madeleine Kamman
How to Eat a Peach by Diana Henry - My God, I love her writing and visual style. The book itself is fuzzy… like a peach. Such a beautiful book.
My Paris Kitchen by David Leobvitz - This book is as much about Paris as it is about the recipes. That’s what I want to do for Lake Annecy.
No-Recipe Recipes by Sam Sifton - this is how I write recipes. More like a list of ideas and suggestions - not a tedious instruction manual.
Savoie by Madeleine Kamman - The only English language cookbook I could find that is focused on this region. And it’s out of print! But I managed to procure a copy of World of Books. :)
A little bookshop in Annecy (since 1731)
1) Camille Claudel, scultprice, 1864 - 9143, 2) Librairie Le Vieil Annecy, 3) record player in the middle of the store, playing classical music.
You know that scene in Pretty Woman when Julia Roberts goes into the fancy boutique in Beverly Hills and is dismissed by the rude staff? That’s how I imagined it going when I entered this bookshop.
Librairie Le Vieil Annecy has been open, more or less, since 1731. They only sell French books, so I assumed I’d be shooed out the door as soon as they smelled the American on me.
But that didn’t happen! The manager, Mr. Pierre, was so kind and generous with his time and knowledge of books - a true booklover at heart. He let me browse for an hour - and when I became fixated on a portrait hanging on the wall, he gave me an art history lesson on the life and times of Camille Claudel.
I enjoyed our conversation so much that I might just become his penpal.
As of… Thursday, July 2
Recovering - from a week in Indiana - spent mostly inside hospitals and airports.
Highlights - Getting my dad home from the hospital in time to go to his granddaughter’s wedding. xo :)
Reading - I finished and loved Yesteryear by Caro Claire Burke. Then - while being held hostage by United Airlines at the Newark Airport - I hunkered down inside an airport bookshop and added these to my To Be Read list. I started with Homebound by Portia Elan, which I’m loving.
Researching - How to write cookbook proposals… Also searching for a food/lifestyle photographer who can work in the style of How to Eat a Peach by Diana Henry, but set in the Haute Savoie. Suggestions?