Mailbox Monday and Giveaway Winner

Thanks for joining me for Mailbox Monday! MM was created by Marcia at A girl and her books (fka The Printed Page), who graciously hosted it for a long, long time, before turning it into a touring meme (details here).

Life in the Thumb is hosting in August.  Please visit Staci's fun and cheerful blog for some great reading inspiration.

I got some great books last week. But first I have a GIVEAWAY WINNER to announce:

Despite a valiant effort by Teddy Rose at So Many Precious Books, So Little Time, random.org generated #1 as the random choice, making Debbie at ExUrbanis (also featured on Kittling Books' terrific Scene of the Blog last week) the winner of From This Wicked Patch of Dust by Sergio Troncoso.  

MY BOOKS

Carry Yourself Back to Me by Deborah Reed.  I've been waiting for this one!



The Declaration of Independents: How Libertarian Politics Can Fix What's Wrong With America by Nick Gillespie and Matt Welch, the guys who run Reason Magazine and Reason TV.  I ordered this after meeting the authors when they were in Portland for a reading at Powell's. I had to miss the reading, but enjoyed chatting with them at a dinner put together by my Cascade Policy Institute buddies. Let's see what they have to say.




A Small Fortune by Audrey Braun. Audry Braun is the pen name of Deborah Reed, above.  



I read and reviewed A Small Fortune when Deborah self-published the book last year.  It has since been picked up, along with her literary novel Carry Yourself Back to Me, by AmazonEncore.  The new edition has a Rose City Reader blurb on the back (I'm famous!), so Deborah was nice enough to send me a copy.  See my author interview, here.

Like I said, "the book is absolutely unputdownable."

Book Review of the Day: Everything I Want To Do Is Illegal

"But is it legal?" This is by far and away the most common question I am asked after doing a workshop on local food systems and profitable farming principles.

So begins Joel Salatin in Everything I Want To Do Is Illegal: War Stories From the Local Food Front . And no, he is not talking about growing pot or smuggling in truckloads of undocumented workers. He's talking about the kinds of things small farmers would like to do to build environmentally friendly, sustainable, economically viable, local enterprises – things like curing bacon, selling homemade pound cake, hiring teen-aged interns, selling a neighbor's pumpkins, milling lumber for local projects, allowing on-farm abattoirs, and building a house smaller than 900 square feet.

Salatin is the owner of Polyface Farms, "the farm of many faces," in Virginia's Shenandoah Valley. He was featured in Michael Pollan's The Omnivore's Dilemma and stole the show as the big-hatted farmer in Farmageddon.

He is quite a character. He describes himself as a "Christian libertarian environmentalist capitalist" and pulls no punches when explaining his views on how farming should be done and people fed. Chapter by chapter, he explains how one-size-fits-all government regulations designed for large-scale, industrial, monoculture agriculture unfairly limit small farmers trying to serve local communities by providing a variety of healthy food, humanely produced.

Salatin is a master of what Pollan described as the Prairie Populist stemwinder, so the book has plenty of righteous sermonizing on freedom and responsibility. For example:

Ultimately, the government's involvement in medical care creates the justification to penetrate personal liberties with regulations that codify exactly what the wards of the state may or may not eat. . . .

You can drink 20 Cokes a day, but be careful about that homemade pound cake – it will surely get you. . . .

The only safety comes in our communities, our homes, our families, from the bottom up. And these institutions must be free to experiment, to innovate. . . .

The freedom to opt out of the mainstream paradigm is the cornerstone that preserves the minority view, differentiating between top-down societies and bottom-up societies. Our opponents favor coercing consumers to buy only government-approved food, thereby denying opt out freedoms.

He doesn't care whose ox he gores when trying to make a point. He criticizes liberals for looking to the government to solve problems and conservatives for being soft on corporate fat cats manipulating the system.

He's also a good writer with a sense of humor and a big heart. The book is a pleasure to read even while it gets your blood boiling over the petty tyrannies of government agencies doing their best to thwart small farmers and other agricultural entrepreneurs.

WEEKEND COOKING

Hosted by Beth Fish Reads

Food Freedom is on Facebook and twitter. Click on the chicken for more information.

This counts as one of my books for the Foodie's Reading Challenge, hosted by Margot at Joyfully Retired.

Review: One Was a Soldier by Julia Spencer-Fleming

Julia Spencer-Fleming always finds a new, clever way to pull Clare Fergusson into a murder mystery, which she must, since Episcopal priests in small Adirondacks towns don't usually come across dead bodies in the course of their day.

In One Was a Soldier, the latest in Spencer-Fleming's series featuring Fergusson and her love-interest, Police Chief Russ Van Alstyne, the mystery unfolds slowly, with the first dead body not showing up until quite late in the game. As always, Spencer-Fleming takes her time building a multi-layered story that is as much about the characters as it is the mystery they solve.

The story opens with Fergusson, a former Army helicopter pilot, returning from her tour of duty in Iraq, having signed up for the National Guard in the last book, I Shall Not Want. While she tries to hide it, Fergusson is wrestling with war demons and self-medicating.  She eventually gets involved with a veterans support group, but when one of their own ends up dead, Fergusson rallies the group to try to prove it was murder, not suicide.

This is one of the best mystery series going, with a large cast of recurring characters, intricate storylines, believable and interesting relationships, and plenty of action.

OTHER REVIEWS

If you would like your review of this book, or any other book in this series, listed here, please leave a comment with a link and I will add it.

NOTES

I got my copy of One Was a Soldier from the LibraryThing Early Reviewer program.

Opening Sentence of the Day: The Secret of Chimneys

"Gentleman Joe!"

-- The Secret of Chimneys by Agatha Christie.

This book starts off in Africa, when tour guide Anthony Cade gets roped into a simple courier job.  Those never end well.

I don't read a lot of Agatha Christie books -- at least, not since a jag in high school -- so I always forget how lively and clever they are. The opening scenes of this one were so witty and modern that I was surprised to learn it is one of her earlier books, published in 1925.

This counts as one of my choices for the Vintage Mystery Challenge, hosted by My Reader's Block.

Opening Sentence of the Day: On Beauty

One may as well begin with Jerome's emails to his father.

-- On Beauty by Zadie Smith.

This book won the Orange Prize in 2006 and has been waiting for me on my iPod since about then. 

I knew absolutely nothing about the book before I started it -- I hadn't read the cover or anything about it, except that it had one the prize.  Sometimes I like jumping into a book like that with absolutely no expectations.

I am halfway through the audio version and enjoying it very much. Whatever I may have guessed the book to be about, I did not expect it to be an Ivory Tower novel and family drama.  Pleasant surprise, since a novel of academia crossed with an Aga Saga is a genre made for me.

Teaser Tuesday: Everything I Want to Do Is Illegal

If it's the government's responsibility to make sure that no person can ingest a morsel of unsafe food, then only government-decreed food will be edible.  And when that happens, freedom of choice is long gone, because the credentialed food will be what the fat cats who wine and dine politicians say that it is.

-- Everything I Want To Do Is Illegal: War Stories From the Local Food Front by Joel Salatin.  

 

Joel Salatin is the owner of Polyface Farms, "the farm of many faces," in Virginia's Shenandoah Valley.  He was featured in Michael Pollan's The Omnivore's Dilemma and stole the show as the big-hatted farmer in Farmageddon.

 

 

Teaser Tuesdays is hosted by Should Be Reading, where you can find the official rules for this weekly event.

 

Food Freedom is on Facebook and twitter. Click on the chicken for more information.

This counts as one of my books for the Foodie's Reading Challenge, hosted by Margot at Joyfully Retired.

 

Mailbox Monday & GIVEAWAY!

Thanks for joining me for Mailbox Monday! MM was created by Marcia at A girl and her books (fka The Printed Page), who graciously hosted it for a long, long time, before turning it into a touring meme (details here).

Life in the Thumb is hosting in August.  Please visit Staci's fun and cheerful blog for some great reading inspiration.

I got one book last week and am hosting a giveaway for it (see details below).

LAST WEEK'S GIVEAWAY WINNER

But first, the winner of last week's giveaway of Who in This Room: The Realities of Cancer, Fish, and Demolition by Katherine Malmo is Anna at Diary of an Eccentric. Anna will get her own ARC of this new memoir and the opportunity to host a giveaway of her own for another copy. 

THIS WEEK'S BOOK & GIVEAWAY

From This Wicked Patch of Dust by Sergio Troncoso.   

THE BOOK: In the border shantytown of Ysleta, Mexican immigrants Pilar and Cuauhtémoc Martinez strive to teach their four children to forsake the drugs and gangs of their neighborhood. The family's hardscrabble origins are just the beginning of this sweeping new novel from Sergio Troncoso.

THE GIVEAWAY: Thanks go to Mary Bisbee-Beek, an incredibly diligent book publicist, for providing two ARCs for a "leap-frog" giveaway.

The leap-frog part is that I have one ARC to giveaway.  The winner will get to host another giveaway for the second ARC.

The contest is open until Sunday, August 21, 2011. To enter, do any or all of the following, but you must leave a comment for each one:

1. Leave a comment on this post. You must include a way to contact you (email or website address in your comment or available in your profile). If I can't find a way to contact you I will draw another winner. (1 entry)

2. Blog about this giveaway. (Posting the giveaway on your sidebar is also acceptable.) Leave a separate comment with a link to your post. (1 entry)

3. Subscribe to my rss feed, follow me on blogger, or subscribe via email (or tell me if you already are a subscriber or follower). Leave a separate comment for this. (1 entry)

4. Tweet this post on Twitter. Leave me a separate comment with your twitter user name. (1 entry)

5. Stumble this blog, digg it, technorati fave it, or link it on facebook. Leave a separate comment. (1 entry)

There are a lot of ways to enter (maximum of five entries), but you must LEAVE A SEPARATE COMMENT for each one or they will not count. I will use random.org to pick the winners from the comments.

This contest is open to entries from the U.S. and Canada only. The deadline for entry is 9:00 PM, Pacific Time, on Sunday, August 21, 2011. I will draw and post the winner's name in my Mailbox Monday post for August 22, 2011.

Happy Birthday Jazz Cats!

Ella Fitzgerald and Billie Holiday celebrate their first birthday today! They are officially cats now instead of kittens.

They may not be the irresistible balls of fuzz they were when we first brought them home from the Humane Society . . .

. . . but they are our number one source of entertainment.  They play Synchronized Patrol, Crinkle Ball Soccer, and Bug Attack; enjoy two kinds of kitty wrestling, Big Tail Battle and a more stylized form based on Japanese Noh theater; and have a hundred other little ways and habits that keep us laughing all day long.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO THE JAZZ CATS!

Opening Sentence of the Day: Everything I Want to do is Illegal

"But is it legal?" . . . . is by far and away the most common question I am asked after doing a workshop on local food systems and profitable farming principles.

-- Everything I Want To Do Is Illegal: War Stories From the Local Food Front by Joel Salatin. 

Joel Salatin is the owner of Polyface Farms, "the farm of many faces," in Virginia's Shenandoah Valley.  He was featured in Michael Pollan's The Omnivore's Dilemma and stole the show as the big-hatted farmer in Farmageddon.

Salatin is quite a character.  He describes himself as a "Christian libertarian environmentalist capitalist" and pulls no punches when explaining his views on how farming should be done and people fed.

He's also a good writer with a sense of humor and a big heart.  The book is a pleasure to read even while it gets your blood boiling over the petty tyrannies of government agencies doing their best to thwart small farmers and other agricultural entrepreneurs.

WEEKEND COOKING

Hosted by Beth Fish Reads

Food Freedom is on Facebook and twitter. Click on the chicken for more information.

This counts as one of my books for the Foodie's Reading Challenge, hosted by Margot at Joyfully Retired.

Review: Very Bad Men

Very Bad Men is the second in Harry Dolan's Ann Arbor series featuring crime magazine editor, David Loogan. For Loogan, finding a mystery story left at his office door is nothing unusual. But when the anonymous manuscript starts with the confession of a recent murder and identifies the next victim, Loogan and his police detective girlfriend vault into action.

The story never stops from there. A 17-year-old bank robbery is the link between the murder victims, a retiring U.S. Senator, the bright young woman running for his seat, an ambitious tabloid reporter, and a dozen or so other suspects, suckers, and side-shows.

Dolan's first Loogan novel, Bad Things Happen (reviewed here), was another rip-roarer that had more of a literary theme, with authors and editors murdering each other. It was great, but this one is even better. Bad Things got a little ramshackle and some of the plot threads frayed. Bad Men is more polished and hangs together right to the end.

Dolan is an exceptional storyteller whose writing is so good it is invisible. Reading the book feels like living the story along with the characters. Hopefully this is the second of what will be a very long series.

OTHER REVIEWS

If you would like your review of this book listed here, please leave a comment with a link and I will add it. 

Opening Sentence of the Day: Unnatural Death

"But if he thought the woman was being murdered -- "

-- Unnatural Death by Dorothy L. Sayers.

This is the third in her series featuring Lord Peter Wimsey.  I really liked the second book in the Series, Clouds of Witness (reviewed here).

Opening Sentence of the Day: Hide & Seek

"Hide!"

-- Hide & Seek by Ian Rankin, the second novel in his John Rebus series.

One word opening sentences are not my favorite. But the story takes off like a rocket from there.

Teaser Tuesday: One Was a Soldier

Clare downed half the contents in one swallow.  "Whoa, easy there Major."

-- One Was a Soldier by Julia Spencer-Fleming.  This is the latest in her series featuring the Rev. Clare Fergusson, an Episcopalian priest in Millers Kill, New York, and her Chief of Police boyfriend, Russ Van Alstyne.

This story picks up when Clare gets back from a tour of duty in Iraq with the National Guard (she was an Army helicopter pilot before become a priest). She's wrestling with demons and self-medicating.  Good thing she signed up for a veterans' support group.  Bad thing they start dying off . . .

Teaser Tuesdays is hosted by Should Be Reading, where you can find the official rules for this weekly event.

Mailbox Monday & GIVEAWAY!

Thanks for joining me for Mailbox Monday! MM was created by Marcia at A girl and her books (fka The Printed Page), who graciously hosted it for a long, long time, before turning it into a touring meme (details here).

Life in the Thumb is hosting in August.  Please visit Staci's fun and cheerful blog for some great reading inspiration.

I got two books last week and am hosting a giveaway for the first one:

Who in This Room: The Realities of Cancer, Fish, and Demolition by Katherine Malmo.

THE BOOK: Based on autobiographic experiences, Who in This Room is a gripping collection of creative nonfiction that pushes the boundaries of story and memoir. Kate's adventurous life is interrupted by a diagnosis of inflammatory breast cancer, giving her a ten percent chance of living five years. But her story isn't just about cancer. It is a true tale of survival that is both lived and dreamt. It's about joy found in lemon trees or fly-fishing. It's about the survival instinct that helps us re-emerge and engage with the world.

THE GIVEAWAY: Thanks go to Mary Bisbee-Beek, an incredibly diligent book publicist, for providing two ARCs for a "leap-frog" giveaway.

The leap-frog part is that I have one ARC to giveaway.  The winner will get to host another giveaway for the second ARC.


The contest is open until Sunday, August 15, 2011. To enter, do any or all of the following, but you must leave a comment for each one:

1. Leave a comment on this post. You must include a way to contact you (email or website address in your comment or available in your profile). If I can't find a way to contact you I will draw another winner. (1 entry)

2. Blog about this giveaway. (Posting the giveaway on your sidebar is also acceptable.) Leave a separate comment with a link to your post. (1 entry)

3. Subscribe to my rss feed, follow me on blogger, or subscribe via email (or tell me if you already are a subscriber or follower). Leave a separate comment for this. (1 entry)

4. Tweet this post on Twitter. Leave me a separate comment with your twitter user name. (1 entry)

5. Stumble this blog, digg it, technorati fave it, or link it on facebook. Leave a separate comment. (1 entry)

There are a lot of ways to enter (maximum of five entries), but you must LEAVE A SEPARATE COMMENT for each one or they will not count. I will use random.org to pick the winners from the comments.

This contest is open to entries from the U.S. and Canada only. The deadline for entry is 9:00 PM, Pacific Time, on Sunday, August 15, 2011. I will draw and post the winner's name in my Mailbox Monday post for August 16, 2011.

MY MAILBOX: The second book I got last week was from the LibraryThing Early Reviewer program.

Wicked Autumn by G. M. Malliet.  This is the first in a promised series featuring Max Tudor, a former M15 agent turned Anglican priest.



It reminds me of a male, British version of Julia Spencer-Fleming's series featuring Clare Fergusson, a former Army helicopter pilot turned Episcopalian priest.

Celebrating Food Freedom, One Pig at a Time

This week's police raid of the Rawsome Foods co-op in Venice, California got me thinking about the black market pig in my freezer.

I don't know much about my pig -- I don't know his name, for instance.  Or even if "he" is a he.  I do know that he grew up an only pig on a very small family farm in the outskirts of Portland, and lived a happy life until he, humanely, went on to his higher calling.  And that he is tasty.

But, because I bought 100 pounds of tidily-wrapped butchered pork and not a half of a still-living pig, the pig in my freezer is, technically, contraband.

So in a defiant act of Food Freedom, I decided to make something yummy out of my illegal pig this weekend.  I decided to make homemade-sausage stuffed mushrooms using two pounds of ground pork.

According to James Beard's American Cookery and this high-sodium gem, Pork, Sausage & Ham, you make bulk sausage by grinding pork shoulder with pork fat at a roughly two to one ratio, then adding a blend of seasonings.

I didn't actually have extra pork fat in my larder, but I did have a cube of cured salt pork, so I used that.  I ran it through my grandmother's hand-crank meat grinder, and then ran it through again with the ground pork and seasonings, as instructed.

Maybe my ground pork was already fatty enough, but the sausage at that stage looked like it had too much fat and not enough meat.  I didn't have any more thawed pork to add, so I re-named the "meat grinder" a "food grinder" and had fun running the mushroom stems, a half an onion, four garlic cloves, and a couple of roasted red peppers through it and blended that vegetable mix into the sausage.  Much better.

The stuffed mushrooms were delicious.  The sausage wasn't very salty, so it tasted more like a meatball than sausage.  But it didn't have any breadcrumbs in it, so it didn't have the texture of a meatball.  Between low-sodium for the Hubby and low-carb for me, maybe that is the best that can be expected.

The best part was knowing that, at least until I get caught, I was free to enjoy meat raised and processed the way I want it to be, purchased at a reasonable price agreed on between me and the farmer.  That's how every meal should be.

In the meantime, I'll continue to eat the evidence.

WEEKEND COOKING

Hosted by Beth Fish Reads

Food Freedom is on Facebook and twitter.

 

Review of the Day: Uncle Tom's Cabin

Uncle Tom's Cabin is one of those classics I just never got around to reading, for one reason or another.  Mostly because I thought it would be preachy and boring.  It is neither.

That is, it is preachy, but not in a stale, pedantic way.  The anti-slavery sermonizing is refreshingly sarcastic.  Harriet Beecher Stowe aimed her acid pen at the sanctimonious but hypocritical Northerners with as much vigor as she did at the slave-holding South.  Also, she looked at the issues from a range of viewpoints, from that of the purely evil Simon Legree to the saintly Quakers operating the Underground Railroad.  By far the most interesting are the views of the characters in the middle, those either paralyzed with ambivalence or misguided by their own ideas of morality.

And there is nothing boring about it.  There are daring escapes across ice floes, midnight raids, gun fights, disguises, and ghost sightings.  Like with any good 19th-Century serial novel, there is plenty of excitement and adventure to keep the story rocketing along, which no doubt explains why it was the best-selling book in the world in the 1800s, second only to the Bible.

The drawback of the book is just how offensive it can be to modern sensibilities. Even with a high tolerance for anachronistic literature, Stowe's condescension is striking, no matter how well-intentioned.  She hit all the stereotypes and hit them hard.  She was also a big fan of sweeping generalizations, such as, "Tom . . . had, to the full, the gentle, domestic heart, which . . . has been a peculiar characteristic of his unhappy race," or "[t]he principle of reliance and unquestioning faith . . . is more a native element in this race than any other."

On balance, while these passages will make a reader cringe, they are more distraction than fatal flaw.  The book was published in 1852 and had a huge influence on public opinions about slavery – to the point that Abraham Lincoln apocryphally credited Stowe with starting the Civil War.  Uncle Tom's Cabin should be read – and enjoyed – for what it is and was intended to be, without the expectation that it will mesh completely with current opinions.

OTHER REVIEWS

If you would like your review of this book listed here, please leave a comment with a link and I will add it.

NOTES

Uncle Tom's Cabin shows up on several Must Read lists, including the College Board's Top 101, the Easton Press' 100 Greatest Books Ever, and the Daily Telegraph's 1899 List of 100 Best Novels in the World.

Opening Sentence of the Day: One Was a Soldier

Sarah Dowling's first thought, peering through the wire-reinforced glass of the community center's door, was that they were an odd group.

-- One Was a Soldier by Julia Spencer-Fleming.  This is the latest in her series featuring the Rev. Clare Fergusson, an Episcopalian priest in Millers Kill, New York, and her Chief of Police boyfriend, Russ Van Alstyne.

Like all the books in the series, the story is interesting from the get-go and the sparks between Clare and Russ are still flying. 

Author of the Day: Simon Winchester

Simon Winchester writes lively histories and biographies, often using his own travels as a framework for the book. Whether he writes about volcanoes, the Oxford English Dictionary, China, earthquakes, or geography, Winchester's books are always entertaining.

Those I have read are in red; those on my TBR shelf are in blue.

Here is the list, starting with his latest release:

The Alice Behind Wonderland

Atlantic: Great Sea Battles, Heroic Discoveries, Titanic Storms,and a Vast Ocean of a Million Stories

The Man Who Loved China: Joseph Needham and the Making of a Masterpiece (reviewed here)

A Crack in the Edge of the World

Lonely Planet: Simon Winchester's Calcutta

Krakatoa: The Day the World Exploded

The Meaning of Everything: The Story of the Oxford English Dictionary

The Map That Changed the World: William Smith and the Birth of Modern Geology

The Fracture Zone: My Return to the Balkans

The Professor and the Madman: A Tale of Murder, Insanity, and the Making of the Oxford English Dictionary

The River at the Center of the World: A Journey Up the Yangtze, and Back in Chinese Time

Pacific Nightmare (a novel)

Pacific Rising: The Emergence of a New World Culture

Korea: A Walk Through the Land of Miracles

Outposts: Journeys to the Surviving Relics of the British Empire

Prison Diary, Argentina: A Falklands Story

Their Noble Lordships: Class and Power in Modern Britain

American Heartbeat: Some Notes from a Midwestern Journey

In Holy Terror

NOTES

Photo: Simon Winchester at Dinosaur National Monument in the Uinta mountains on the border between Colorado and Utah, while researching his next book about America. Photo by Setsuko WInchester, used by permission.  

Last updated on April 19, 2012.

OTHER WINCHESTER FANS

If you have reviews of Winchester's books or other Winchester-related posts, please leave a comment with a link and I will list them here.

Teaser Tuesday: Very Bad Men

Rhiner yanked his pistol around from behind his back, too late.  The tire iron slapped down hard against the barrel, the sound of it sharp like the crack of a whip.

-- Very Bad Men by Harry Dolan. 

This is the second in a mystery series set in Ann Arbor, Michigan, featuring crime magazine editor, David Loogan.

I loved the first one, Bad Things Happen (reviewed here) and this one is even better.  

Teaser Tuesdays is hosted by Should Be Reading, where you can find the official rules for this weekly event.

Mailbox Monday

Thanks for joining me for Mailbox Monday! MM was created by Marcia at A girl and her books (fka The Printed Page), who graciously hosted it for a long, long time, before turning it into a touring meme (details here).

Life in the Thumb is hosting in August.  Please visit Staci's fun and cheerful blog for some great reading inspiration. 

I got one book last week, the second novel in Ian Rankin's John Rebus series.  I am excited for this one and am planning a break from my Guilt List to enjoy it right away.

Hide and Seek by Ian Rankin

Opening Sentence of the Day: The Omnivore's Dilemma

What should we have for dinner?

-- from the Introduction to The Onmivore's Dilemma: A Natural History of Four Meals by Michael Pollan.

Air-conditioned, orderless, illuminated by buzzing florescent tubes, the American supermarket doesn't present itself as having very much to do with Nature.

-- from the first chapter, "The Plant: Corn's Conquest."

Although it was enormously popular, I put off reading this because I feared political polemic over unbiased information.

But I am on a tear with food books now that I am on a Food Freedom campaign, so when I saw the audiobook at my library, I snatched it.

I am still in the first section on how corn has come to dominate America's food supply. It is fascinating! I'll reserve judgment on the political issues until I finish the book. So far, nothing is overtly political, so it is easy to keep an open mind.

THOUGHTS AND NOTES

This book inspired my former brother-in-law, Curt Ellis, to make the charming and quirky King Corn documentary.

This book, so far, has inspired me to stop by one of my favorite local markets,  Sheridan Fruit Company, and buy some local, grass-fed lamb chops for the grill last night. Delish!

WEEKEND COOKING

Hosted by Beth Fish Reads

I have been reading food books because I am on a Food Freedom kick, which you can like on Facebook, or follow on twitter.

This counts as one of my books for the Foodie's Reading Challenge, hosted by Margot at Joyfully Retired.

Author of the Day: Maeve Binchy

Maeve Binchy (1939 - 2012) was an Irish author who wrote 16 novels and several collections of short stories. 

Every now and again I want to fall into a Binchy novel and live in it. This mood usually strikes when I am hectic at work or otherwise am feeling a bit overwhelmed. Her novels are dense with details of interesting, but ordinary, people overcoming difficulties. They are satisfying the way cleaning out a messy closet is satisfying.

Below is a list of her novels.  Those I have read are in red; those on my TBR shelf are in blue.

Light a Penny Candle (1982)

The Lilac Bus (1984)

Echoes (1985) (reviewed here)

Firefly Summer (1987)

Silver Wedding (1988)

Circle of Friends (1990)

The Copper Beech (1992)

The Glass Lake (1994)

Evening Class (1996)

Tara Road (1998)

Scarlet Feather (2000)

Quentins (2002)

Nights of Rain and Stars (2004)

Whitethorn Woods (2006) (reviewed here)

Heart and Soul (2008)

Minding Frankie (2010)

A Week in Winter (2012)

NOTES

Last updated on July 11, 2018.

OTHER BINCHY FANS

If you have Binchy-related posts and would like them listed here, please leave a comment with a link and I will add it.