It was a strange week last week: I brought home no library books, I didn’t download any ebooks (nearly unheard of!), and I didn’t have one book come in the mail. It’s mainly because I’m trying to read my own books this year, but still – when I have had this kind of willpower before?

But, just as I was coming up empty for Mailbox Monday, I visited our local Caper Cafe where there is a bookshelf of “bring some, take some” books in support of an insect rescue/restoration fund. There I found this paperback. Look! Carol Shields? Check. Mystery? Check. Literary? Check. All my boxes were ticked before I even got to the cover: a vintage fountain pen, with a journal and a leather-bound book(!!)

There was no question I had to make a donation and bring this book home and, what’s more, begin reading it immediately!

Go on and visit Mailbox Monday and have a look at the wonderful goodies in other people’s mailboxes!

P.S. This post contains affiliate links. If you purchase after clicking through on them, I will earn a small percentage of the sale.

This is the first time I’ve joined in this meme. It’s hosted by Books Are My Favourite and Best, and was inspired by Hungarian writer and poet Frigyes Karinthy. In his 1929 short story, “Chains”, Karinthy coined the phrase ‘six degrees of separation’. The phrase was popularized by a 1990 play written by John Guare, which was later made into a film starring Stockard Channing.

On the first Saturday of every month, Kate chooses a book as a starting point and links that book to six others forming a chain. Bloggers and readers are invited to join in and the beauty of this mini-challenge is that I can decide how and why I make the links in my chain.

April’s starting book is A Prayer for Owen Meany. The Vietnam War plays a large part in the adult lives of the two main characters John & Owen, and I haven’t yet read a better book to explain (from the side that wasn’t protesting for peace) the emotions and politics of that war in the USA than Altamont Augie. It’s nothing if not thought-provoking.

The Headmaster’s Wager shows the life of the South Vietnamese people during that War, particularly the headmaster of an elite school. Seeing troubles on the horizon Percival Chen, said headmaster, sends his son to live in China, from where his parents emigrated decades earlier, not realizing that China is undergoing even greater change under Mao than Vietnam.

Those changes are only alluded to at the end of Pearl S. Buck’s Pulitzer prizewinning novel, The Good Earth set in mid-twentieth century China. Peasant Wang Lung’s very life is tied up in cycles of that earth that he works so diligently to acquire.

That same question of whether a person owns the land, or vice versa, is a central theme in The Meadow set in the Rocky Mountains on the Colorado/Wyoming border. The author, James Galvin, brings home the hardship of winter, a theme addressed more comedically, in Cathie Pelletier’s The Weight of Winter. It’s the third book in her Mattagash, Maine trilogy. I’ve just finished reading the first title: The Funeral Makers. (I hate reading books out of order, but this just happened.) That finishes up my version of this month’s Six Degrees of Separation – in Maine, next door to Irving’s New Hampshire where we began our journey.

So what six connections can you make from A Prayer for Owen Meany? Visit Kate’s blog and see how she got to Fates and Furies.

P.S. This post contains affiliate links. If you purchase after clicking through on them, I will earn a small percentage of the sale.

Is anyone still out there? It’s been so long since I’ve blogged that I wouldn’t blame you if you’ve all taken your ball and gone home.

I’m working on the summaries of the books I’ve read over the past four months but, in the meantime, and to break radio silence, here’s a fun meme hosted by MizB at Should Be Reading. I came across WWW Wednesday via Words and Peace.

 

 
What I’m currently reading:

The Death of Bees by Lisa O’Donnell

My heart is breaking for all of the main characters. It’s very hard to put down.

I just finished reading:

Necessary Lies by Diane Chamberlain

This is women’s fiction set in 1960 North Carolina. I saw a decent review of this and needed an “N” title for my A-Z challenge, but I should have known better. Happy endings that involve unrealistic resolutions rub me the wrong way.
 

What I think I’ll read next:

A Far Cry from Kensington
Is something published in 1988 “vintage”? I guess it depends how old you are. Anyway, I expect this book will contain a lot of the protagonist’s memories of 1950s Kensington, which I’m sure is old enough to qualify. I’m hoping this is just my cup of tea.

How about you? What are you reading? Leave me a comment and let me know I’m not all alone in the blogosphere.

I discovered both of these words (which I have may have encountered before but have forgotten through disuse) in The Strange Fate of Kitty Easton by Elizabeth Speller.

The protagonist, Laurence Bertram, is a scholar of church history, including their architecture.

Ammonite: (from the horn of Ammon – Jupiter – whose statues were represented with ram’s horns): Any of the flat, usually coiled fossil shells of an extinct order of mollusks.

pg 22 She indicated an ornate bench. Two stone ammonites supported the stone seat (. . .)

Pantile: A roofing tile having an S curve, laid with the large curve of one tile overlapping the small curve of the next

Pg135 A handful of nearer [houses], more finished than the rest, had leaded windows and hanging pantiles
.

Wondrous Words Wednesday is a weekly meme where you can share new words that you’ve encountered or spotlight words you love. It’s hosted by Kathy at Bermuda Onion.

My new grandbaby is due to arrive this weekend and I’m having a hard time being patient.

This is the quilt I made for them: machine-quilted, but it’s the first pieced quilt I’ve ever made – and some of the first sewing in 25 years.

I really had no idea how to properly piece a quilt, but last year I saw a quilting frame in my neighbour’s front room when I stopped to buy some fresh eggs. So I did what I never would have had the nerve to do in the city: I phoned her and asked for help.

She and her daughter invited me to their home and spent a morning teaching and helping me with this project. I will be forever grateful for country neighbours!

Saturday Snapshot is hosted by Alyce of At Home With Books.

I turned to trusty random.org and drew the winner of my contribution to the first Non-Fction Giveaway Blog Hop hosted by Rikki’s Teleidoscope.

Congratulations to

Julie Roddy

who has elected to receive Annie Leonard’s The Story of Stuff.

A big THANK YOU to all who entered this giveaway.

Welcome to the first Non-Fiction Giveaway Blog Hop, hosted by Rikki at Rikki’s Teleidoscope. The list of bloggers participating is small, but if you’re interested in being in the roll call next time, I’m sure Rikki would be pleased to hear from you.

The best book I read in 2012 was non-fiction but I don’t read as much NF as I’d like to think I do, so I have a goal to read at least one each month in 2013.

My giveaway is any one of the books on the list below, drawn from my non-fiction reading over the past two years. I think that any of these books is worth your time investment.

The Story of Stuff by Annie Leonard
A Clockwork Universe: Isaac Newton, the Royal Society, and the Birth of the Modern World by Edward Dolnick
Winter: Five Windows on the Season by Adam Gopnik
The Outermost House: A Year of Life on the Great Beach of Cape Cod by Henry Beston

To enter:
1. Be a subscriber to my blog posts, either by email or RSS. (Orange ‘subscribe’ buttons are at the top right of this page.)

2. Leave me a comment, telling me which book you think you’d like (you can always change your mind if you win), AND the method & name you use to subscribe to my blog.

3. Limit of one entry per person. Contest closes 5 pm Atlantic Daylight Time Monday April 29th. Winner will be chosen from the comments, using random.org

This giveaway is OPEN INTERNATIONALLY, to anywhere in the world that Book Depository delivers.

Now – hop on over Rikki’s where you’ll find a list of the other giveaway participants!

This weekend’s weather forecast called for 10 to 15 cm ( 4 to 6 inches) of snow on Nova Scotia’s North Shore. But what started out as fat white flakes on Friday evening turned into heavy sloppy rain all day Saturday. Cold. Damp. Bitter. Chill. You get the idea: ugh.

Fortunately, Beth over at Budget Bytes (“My stomach is full and my wallet is too”) featured a great recipe last month for navy bean soup with sausage & spinach that sounded like just the thing for getting through winter’s last (I hope, I hope) fling with us.

Since I didn’t have smoked sausage on hand, I adapted Beth’s recipe a bit but I still give her full credit. You can get her recipe here, or see my (very slightly) modified version below.

And, by the way, this soup was wonderful: easy to make, beautiful to look at, delicious to eat, filling, and economical. What more could one possibly ask from a recipe? Thank you, Beth!

NAVY BEAN SOUP with SPINACH
1 Tbsp olive oil
6 oz bacon or ham (I used a combination)
1 medium onion
2 cloves garlic
1 lb carrots
2 cups dry navy beans
2 whole bay leaves
1 tsp dried thyme
1 tsp dried rosemary
1 tsp ground black pepper
½ tsp salt
10 cups water
6 cups fresh spinach
1 tsp apple cider vinegar

1. The night before, sort through the beans to remove any stones or debris. Place the beans in a bowl and cover them with cool water. Allow the beans to soak in the refrigerator overnight.

2. Chop the meat and add to a large soup pot along with the tablespoon of oil. Sauté over medium heat until nicely browned.

While the meat is browning, dice the onion and carrot into small pieces. Mince the garlic. Add the onions and carrots to the soup pot. Sauté for 5 minutes. Add the garlic and sauté a minute or two more.

3. Drain the soaked beans and give them a good rinse with fresh water. Add the rinsed beans to the pot along with the bay leaf, thyme, rosemary, pepper, salt, and the water. Stir everything to combine. Cover the pot. Turn the heat up to high and allow the soup to come to a full boil.

4. Once the soup boils, turn the heat down to medium-low to gently boil for 2 to 3 hours. You want the beans to go past the point of tenderness to the point where they are falling apart. Stir the pot occasionally.

5. When beans are of desired consistency, use a large wooden spoon to smash some of the beans against the side of the pot. This will help thicken the soup. Stir in the fresh spinach until wilted. Lastly, stir in the apple cider vinegar. Serve hot.

(This soup reheats well the next day too.)

Weekend Cooking is a weekly meme hosted by Candace over at Beth Fish Reads. Have a food-related posted this week, why not join the fun?

Weekend Cooking is a weekly meme hosted by Candace over at Beth Fish Reads. Have a food-related posted this week, why not join the fun?

We had a death in our congregation this week. After the memorial Saturday afternoon, we served refreshments, both sweet and savoury. These cheese squares are one of my stand-by items for any get-together.

I don’t know if the original “Julia” of the official title of these squares was that Julia, but I tend to think of these as Julie‘s, after my sister who introduced me to them.

(Recipe from Nifty Nibbles by Cathy Prange and Joan Pauli, authors of Muffin Mania

JULIA’S CHEESE THINGS

1 pkg refrigerator crescent rolls
4 tbsp. butter
3 eggs, beaten
1 cup broken salad olives
1 onion, chopped
4 cups grated sharp cheddar cheese
Dash cayenne pepper or Tabasco sauce

Unwrap crescent rolls and pat into a lightly greased 9×15 pan, smoothing out the seams.

Mix all the remaining ingredients and pour over the dough.

Bake 350◦ for 15-2 minutes, until set.

Cool and cut into squares. May be served warm or cold, but taste best at room temperature.

These freeze well: After cutting in squares, put on cookie sheet to freeze. When frozen, put in freezer bags.

I ran across this week’s word while reading Jane and Prudence by Barbara Pym.

Jane recalls that a talented member of her husband’s last parish had actually had a household hint published in a homemaking magazine: ‘It was a use for a thermometer case, if you had the misfortune to break your thermometer, of course. A splendid case for keeping bodkins in!’ Jane chortled.

bodkin: a blunt needle with a large eye for drawing tape or ribbon through a loop or hem
From Middle English boydekin (“dagger”), apparently from *boyde, *boide (of unknown origin) +‎ -kin

Wondrous Words Wednesday is a weekly meme where you can share new words that you’ve encountered or spotlight words you love. It’s hosted by Kathy at Bermuda Onion.

Weekend Cooking is a weekly meme hosted by Candace over at Beth Fish Reads. Have a food-related posted this week, why not join the fun?

This is the first time I’ve joined this meme.

In the 1980s, I bought or received a copy of a small spiral-bound cookbook called Muffin Mania, written by two sisters from Ontario Canada, Cathy Prange and Joan Pauli.

The book has become somewhat of a cult classic, at least in Canada. Cathy & Joan followed up with the great Nifty Nibbles, as well as Veggie Mania and Sweet Mania, but none attained the commercial or fan success of Muffin Mania.

Somewhere along the way, I’ve lost my copy of this treasure of a book and so had to turn to the Internet to find the recipe for the muffins I made often for my daughter as she was growing up. They’re aptly called:

BEST-EVER BANANA MUFFINS

3 large ripe bananas
3/4 c white sugar
1 slightly beaten egg
1 tsp baking soda
1 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp salt
1 1/2 c all-purpose flour
1/3 c melted butter

Mash bananas. Add sugar and slightly beaten egg. Add the melted butter. Add the dry ingredients. Mix until it is thoroughly moistened but not smooth. Bake at 375 degrees for 20 minutes. Makes one dozen.

I used to add a cup of chocolate chips to the batter for Jen’s muffins. This weekend, I made half plain and half with that addition.

Does Muffin Mania stir up any memories for you? Have another good muffin cookbook you can recommend?

I ran across this week’s word while reading Stealing with Style, a cozy mystery story in which the lead character is an antiques appraiser

Putto: a figure of a plump, young male angel or cupid, as in baroque art (from var. of pusus, boy; akin to puer)

“The body [of the soup tureen] was gracefully shaped, and on the lid a playful putto sat astride a cornucopia overflowing with exquisitely painted, hand-modeled flowers.”

(pg 201) Stealing with Style by Emyl Jenkins

Wondrous Words Wednesday is a weekly meme where you can share new words that you’ve encountered or spotlight words you love. It’s hosted by Kathy at Bermuda Onion.

I just finished reading The Warden by Anthony Trollope so I have a font of new words, especially relating to the church and its clergy. Some of them are just obscure, other now obsolete (the book was first published in 1855). But here’s one that’s still in the dictionary:

Appanage: an accompanying endowment

The patronage was a valuable appanage of the bishopric; and surely it would not be his duty to lessen the value of that preferment which had been bestowed on himself (.)
(pg 28) The Warden by Anthony Trollope

Wondrous Words Wednesday is a weekly meme where you can share new words that you’ve encountered or spotlight words you love. It’s hosted by Kathy at Bermuda Onion.

I haven’t participated before in Bermuda Onion’s Wondrous Words Wednesday weekly meme , but I just had to share this one. To see what other Wondrous Words bloggers have found this week, visit Kathy’s blog (link above).

Analemma: a curve in the form of an elongated 8 marked with a scale, drawn on a globe of the earth to show the sun’s declination and the equation of time for any day of the year: formed by plotting the sun’s actual daily position at noon for a year.

From Safe from the Sea by Peter Geye Pg 101
It was beautiful, a tarnished nickel-silver pocket watch with an analemma on its face.

In July, a small group of book bloggers came together to form the Bloggers’ Alliance of Non-Fiction Devotees (BAND). I’m not sure how I missed the launch, but when Amy of Amy Reads drew my attention to the group in a recent post, I was intrigued.

I first became interested in non-fiction (outside of post-secondary education) in my mid-twenties when, quite unusually for my age, I became interested in tracing my family history. I devoured genealogical research and social history books, and those, along with biographies & memoirs are my preferred NF read to this day.

But it seems to me that I don’t read many non-fiction titles any more. It’s not that I don’t like them; it’s just that there seem to be so many fiction books I want to read that I don’t get around to the NF. So I counted up my reads over the last couple of years and I was little surprised at how “well” I’ve done. In 2010, I read 31 non-fiction titles out of a total of 123 books. That’s a respectable 25%! So far this year, I managed only 12 (out of 110), or about 10%.

Amy’s inaugural post reminds me that I do “love the random topics and collections of facts that come from (…) non-narrative nonfiction.” So I’m going to try to consciously incorporate more such titles into my TBR short list. If you’d like to do the same, don’t miss BAND’s tmblr page!

What are you reading Mondays is hosted by J. Kaye’s Book Blog

It’s been a slow couple of weeks reading-wise; not quite sure why. Over the past two weeks I managed to finish reading:

1. Fellowship of Fear (A Gideon Oliver Mystery)
by Aaron Elkins

Before Kathy Reichs’ Tempe Brennan and television shows like Bones, there was Aaaron Elkins’ Gideon Oliver, physical anthropology professor.

The Fellowship of Fear is the first of Gideon’s adventures (currently sixteen books). Published in 1982, it draws its tension from the cold war between Russia and the U.S.

Here’s my review.

P.S. I love the lists at Fantastic Fiction and the public library that allow me to read any series in order. YAY for both.

2. The Sweetness at the Bottom of the Pie
by Alan Bradley

Unless some sweetness at the bottom lie,
Who cares for all the crinkling of the pie?
The Art of Cookery, William King

I borrowed this from the library as well, although I waited several months after I placed a hold on it.

The debut novel for Canadian author Alan Bradley, Sweetness was a smash hit last year. Imagine my surprise to find it’s a murder mystery – almost a “cozy” – and quite good enough to warrant its own review.

P.S. If you click through the affiliate links in the book titles, you may notice a different cover. I like to see the cover that’s on the copy I read – and it’s usually different than Amazon.com because they display the American release, and I read the Canadian.
P.P.S. Canadian readers interested in any of these titles can click through at the bottom of this post. Or, even better, buy from an independent book seller.

And, yes, they are all affiliate links which means that I earn a small amount if you purchase after you’ve clicked through from this post.)

Links for Canadian readers
Fellowship Of Fear
The Sweetness At The Bottom Of The Pie

Technorati Tags: The Sweetness at the Bottom of the Pie, Alan Bradley, debut novel, Canadian author, Flavia de Luce, Horace Bonepenny, Aaron Elkins, Fellowship of Fear, Gideon Oliver, physical anthrpologist, solving crimes from bones

What are you reading Mondays is hosted by J. Kaye’s Book Blog

I just finished two wins from publishers, two books recommended by readers, a 1930s genre classic, and the first of a relatively new detective series set in Montana: Supreme Courtship, The Last Dickens, The Sea Garden, High Rising, The Postman Always Rings Twice, and Coyote Wind. Read the rest of this entry »

What are you reading Mondays is hosted by J. Kaye’s Book Blog

I’ve just finished a memoir won from the publisher, one reader recommendation, a young adult novel, a book club buy, a lovely story set in Kenya, a short WAHM guide, and the first in a great new detective/dog series (it works!): On The Line, Some Tame Gazelle, Breakfast at Sadie’s, Cormac, A Guide to the Birds of East Africa, License to Play, and Dog On It. Read the rest of this entry »

What are you reading Mondays is hosted by J. Kaye’s Book Blog

I’ve just finished two young girl “chapter” books, both classics in their own right, a top-100 list title, and a “I have no idea how this came to be reserved for me at the library” book: Betsy-Tacy, Ramona and her Mother, Olive Kitteridge, and The Christmas List: a Novel. Read the rest of this entry »

What are you reading Mondays is hosted by J. Kaye’s Book Blog

This week I finished reading :

The Iambics of Newfoundland: Notes from an Unknown Shore

After spending the greater part of a decade traveling around the island of Newfoundland… NPR radio (host) Robert Finch chronicles the people, geography, and wildlife of this remote and lovely place.

Read the rest of this entry »