Lots of Food in the Books

Wow, has it been so long since I've written on this blog? Time sure does fly when you are living life, eh?

Strangely enough, as I'm looking through all of these books that I'm about to list, I'm noticing that I've been buying a lot of books that center around food. Am I lacking something in my life? Some type of nourishment that's missing? Hmmmm, food for thought.

anyway, let's get right to it, shall we? A couple of weeks ago, I felt like I hit the thrift store book find jackpot! The Salvation Army was fully stocked and I walked away with a stack of books. Then, I went to Beth's Book Box, a new used book store close to my 'hood and bought a few more books there. At the Book Box, I found:

The Lost Recipe for Happiness by Barbara O'Neal
Spotted in France by Gregory Edmont
Finding My Way by Evelyn Stefanson Nef
Cranberry Queen by Kathleen DeMarco

At Salvation Army:

Stones From the River by Ursula Hegi
Freddy and Fredericka by Mark Helprin
Eat Pray Love by Elizabeth Gilbert
Luscious Lemon by Heather Swain

In an attempt to find The Middle Place by Kelly Corrigan for my required book club reading, I stopped in at Half Price Books and bought:

Ines of my Soul by Isabel Allende (loved all of her other books!)
The Wise Virgins by Leonard Woolf (yes, I do believe I already have this one, but, I couldn't pass up buying a LW book in a book store since I rarely see them).

I ordered The Middle Place online and am half way through. Sad, has had me on the verge of tears in a couple of spots, but a nice read. I'm pulling for her, hoping that all ends well, but I think her dad is going to die. Don't tell me!

We are going to be doing some kitchen remodeling so I popped into Borders to look through their remodeling books. While my husband was entertaining my two year old by allowing her to go up and down the escalator about two thousand times, I walked over to the biography section to browse. I happened to pick up A Thousand Days in Venice by Marlena De Blasi. I know, I never (or rarely) buy new books. I'm the one you see in a new book store either writing down the titles of books that I want to look for used or even going so far as taking pictures with my phone (when I'm either too lazy to look for a pen or paper). But, I was in the mood to spend some money and said, "What the hell, life is short." I bought it, read it in a couple of days and then looked her up on Google.

She is an American chef and food writer who, while traveling in Italy, meets an Italian man, falls in love, moves to Venice and marries the stranger, as she lovingly refers to him. She writes a lot about food and the Italian people. I loved reading it and reflecting back on my journies to Italy. Yes, the food was delicious and the people fascinating in their "old world" culture and traditions. I found that she has several other books that have come out after the one about her life in Venice. She travels to Umbria (which is the region in Italy where my husband and I were married), Tuscany and somewhere else.... can't remember. But, the point is that I now am going to order all of those other books, make my friends who enjoy cooking read them too and then have a dinner party with the recipes that come at the end of the books. Fascinating idea, isn't it? I bet you want to come to one of those dinners.

Then, I was book shopping at BookPeople for K.A. Holt's new book Mike Stellar: Nerves of Steel for my soon-to-be eleven year old son's birthday. Just so happens that K.A. Holt is a local author and they had signed copies in stock. Score! While there, I also picked up It Sucked and then I Cried by THE Heather Armstrong. Normally, I would have also looked for that used cause I'm cheap, but it was signed as well and I love Dooce! So, I am in the middle of reading that simultaneously, as I read The Middle Place-- book club is less than a week away and I didn't want to be "one of those" who don't actually read the book for book club.

I started to read The Ballad of the Low Lifes by Enrico Remmert and put it down without even making it out of the second chapter. My husband read it and really enjoyed it, but the way it was written just made it feel wrong. It's written as if someone is talking to me. I just didn't get into it and with so much to read, it wasn't worth my time to pull through. I'll save it and attempt it again when I run out of good books. Sorry Enrico.

And that's about it. I'm taking a book buying hiatus to try to catch up. I'll be back soon!