BasilandFig

So, listen: I got this package in the mail.  But the thing is, it came addressed to me, at My Guy’s house, a place where I don’t get mail.

And I was almost 100% certain I hadn’t ordered anything.

And it couldn’t have been a gift from a friend because they didn’t have the address.

And I didn’t [...]

Let’s get this over with quickly, shall we, so I can go outside and putter in the garden and enjoy the 70-degree weather.

At one point while I was reading this book, I was going to tell you in the review that I had found an all-natural, drug-free way to cure insomnia.  And that [...]

Let’s start with Toast by Nigel Slater, as it was the more engaging and accessible of the two.

I want to say that it is entertaining as well, but I’m afraid that that makes it sound like a piece of fluff, which it’s not.

Toast is Slater’s memoir, told through the lens of food.

And oh, [...]

I happened across these books at the library and decided to give them a whirl.

Thrive explores the world’s happiest places—Denmark, Singapore, Mexico, and San Luis Obispo—examining their people, cultures and institutions to try to discover what it is that makes them so happy.

In a nutshell: Being part of a community/social club; having good [...]

Let’s start with the fun stuff first: the cookbook!

And how you are rolling your eyes and saying “Reading a cookbook doesn’t count, especially one from your liberal-media public-radio-propaganda-izing left-wing foodie show.”

To which I say, ‘Hey, don’t hate.  It’s just food.’  Delicious, liberal food.

And it’s also not ‘just’ a cookbook—nearly every page is filled [...]

Let’s play catch-up this week, shall we, by reading two (shortish) books that I last read several years ago and had all but forgotten.

Tell Me a Riddle by Tillie Olsen is a collection of 4 short stories, and every one of them will just about break your heart.

This was another book that was [...]

I saw the movie before I read the book.

And probably I wouldn’t have ever read the book but there it was, staring out from the shelf as I skulked through the cookbook section of the library.

Now, having seen the movie, and not particularly loved the main character, I was not expecting to like [...]

For those of you out there who can count (yes, a whole threety-two of you) you may have noticed that there are 52 weeks in a year.

And, as you see above, I’ve read just 42 books so far.

Now I’m not entirely sure how many weeks are left in the year but [...]

Nobody reads poetry anymore, do they?

Well, except for Garrison Keillor and, lets face it, he’s just doing it to kill time during ‘The Writer’s Almanac.’

I used to love reading poetry.

I could sit for hours with my Norton Anthology (dork alert!), skipping here and there and never getting bored.

But I hardly ever read poetry anymore—who does [...]

I had never heard of this book until I was pawing around my mom’s bookshelves looking for books to read during my epic Amtrak trip.

Qualifications for Amtrak-worthy books were that they be paperback, short, and not very good.  If they were good, you see, then you would feel bad when you jettison them [...]