Comfort Reading

 

As a botanist, Robin Wall Kimmerer has been trained to ask questions of nature with the tools of science. As a member of the Citizen Potawatomi Nation, she embraces the notion that plants and animals are our oldest teachers. In Braiding Sweetgrass, Kimmerer brings these two lenses of knowledge together to take us on “a journey that is every bit as mythic as it is scientific, as sacred as it is historical, as clever as it is wise” (Elizabeth Gilbert).

Drawing on her life as an indigenous scientist, and as a woman, Kimmerer shows how other living beings—asters and goldenrod, strawberries and squash, salamanders, algae, and sweetgrass—offer us gifts and lessons, even if we've forgotten how to hear their voices. In reflections that range from the creation of Turtle Island to the forces that threaten its flourishing today, she circles toward a central argument: that the awakening of ecological consciousness requires the acknowledgment and celebration of our reciprocal relationship with the rest of the living world. For only when we can hear the languages of other beings will we be capable of understanding the generosity of the earth, and learn to give our own gifts in return.

Snow and New Book

 Yay, snow!  

Just a little, but still magical.  

Especially with this gorgeous new book to spend the day with.  

Striving for a drama free day - No News, No trump, No Politicians. 

 I'm sick and fucking tired of this country breaking my heart day after day after day.

SNOW AND SNOW

by Ted Hughes 

Snow is sometimes a she, a soft one.
Her kiss on your cheek, her finger on your sleeve
In early December, on a warm evening,
And you turn to meet her, saying "It''s snowing!"
But it is not. And nobody''s there.
Empty and calm is the air.

Sometimes the snow is a he, a sly one.
Weakly he signs the dry stone with a damp spot.
Waifish he floats and touches the pond and is not.
Treacherous-beggarly he falters, and taps at the window.
A little longer he clings to the grass-blade tip
Getting his grip.

Then how she leans, how furry foxwrap she nestles
The sky with her warm, and the earth with her softness.
How her lit crowding fairylands sink through the space-silence
To build her palace, till it twinkles in starlight—
Too frail for a foot
Or a crumb of soot.

Then how his muffled armies move in all night
And we wake and every road is blockaded
Every hill taken and every farm occupied
And the white glare of his tents is on the ceiling.
And all that dull blue day and on into the gloaming
We have to watch more coming.

Then everything in the rubbish-heaped world
Is a bridesmaid at her miracle.
Dunghills and crumbly dark old barns are bowed in the chapel of her sparkle.
The gruesome boggy cellars of the wood
Are a wedding of lace

Comfort and Hope

 I've recommended this book before, but if you missed it, or purposely ignored my recommendation - I'm Baaaccckkk . . .

From Amazon:

"NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER • Discover the word-of-mouth hit hailed by Ann Patchett as “A cause for celebration”—an intimate novel about the transformative power of the written word and the beauty of slowing down to reconnect with the people we love.

“Masterful is the pace at which Evans fills in the blanks of her protagonist’s life.”—Frank Bruni, The New York Times

“I cried more than once as I witnessed this brilliant woman come to understand herself more deeply.”—Florence Knapp, author of The Names

LONGLISTED FOR THE CENTER FOR FICTION FIRST NOVEL PRIZE AND THE ANDREW CARNEGIE MEDAL • A PBS TOP SUMMER BOOK • LIBRARYREADS PICK OF THE MONTH

“Imagine, the letters one has sent out into the world, the letters received back in turn, are like the pieces of a magnificent puzzle. . . . Isn’t there something wonderful in that, to think that a story of one’s life is preserved in some way, that this very letter may one day mean something, even if it is a very small thing, to someone?”

Filled with knowledge that only comes from a life fully lived, The Correspondent is a gem of a novel about the power of finding solace in literature and connection with people we might never meet in person. It is about the hubris of youth and the wisdom of old age, and the mistakes and acts of kindness that occur during a lifetime.

Sybil Van Antwerp has throughout her life used letters to make sense of the world and her place in it. Most mornings, around half past ten, Sybil sits down to write letters—to her brother, to her best friend, to the president of the university who will not allow her to audit a class she desperately wants to take, to Joan Didion and Larry McMurtry to tell them what she thinks of their latest books, and to one person to whom she writes often yet never sends the letter.

Sybil expects her world to go on as it always has—a mother, grandmother, wife, divorcee, distinguished lawyer, she has lived a very full life. But when letters from someone in her past force her to examine one of the most painful periods of her life, she realizes that the letter she has been writing over the years needs to be read and that she cannot move forward until she finds it in her heart to offer forgiveness.

Sybil Van Antwerp’s life of letters might be “a very small thing,” but she also might be one of the most memorable characters you will ever read."

More Comfort Reading

Twelve-year-old CeeCee Honeycutt is in trouble. For years, she has been the caretaker of her mother, Camille, the town’s tiara-wearing, lipstick-smeared laughingstock, a woman who is trapped in her long-ago moment of glory as the 1951 Vidalia Onion Queen of Georgia. When tragedy strikes, Tootie Caldwell, CeeCee’s long-lost great-aunt, comes to the rescue and whisks her away to Savannah. There, CeeCee is catapulted into a perfumed world of prosperity and Southern eccentricity—one that appears to be run entirely by strong, wacky women.

From the exotic Miz Thelma Rae Goodpepper, who bathes in her backyard bathtub and uses garden slugs as her secret weapons; to Tootie's all-knowing housekeeper, Oletta Jones; to Violene Hobbs, who entertains a local police officer in her canary-yellow peignoir, the women of Gaston Street keep CeeCee entertained and enthralled for an entire summer.

A timeless coming of age novel set in the 1960s, Saving CeeCee Honeycutt explores the indomitable strengths of female friendship, and charts the journey of an unforgettable girl who loses one mother, but finds many others in the storybook city of Savannah. As Kristin Hannah, author of Fly Away, says, Beth Hoffman's sparkling debut is “packed full of Southern charm, strong women, wacky humor, and good old-fashioned heart."

Comfort Reading continues

 

The multi-million bestselling novel about a young girl's journey towards healing and the transforming power of love, from the award-winning author of The Invention of Wings and The Book of Longings

Set in South Carolina in 1964, The Secret Life of Bees tells the story of Lily Owens, whose life has been shaped around the blurred memory of the afternoon her mother was killed. When Lily's fierce-hearted Black "stand-in mother," Rosaleen, insults three of the deepest racists in town, Lily decides to spring them both free. They escape to Tiburon, South Carolina—a town that holds the secret to her mother's past. Taken in by an eccentric trio of Black beekeeping sisters, Lily is introduced to their mesmerizing world of bees and honey, and the Black Madonna. This is a remarkable novel about divine female power, a story that women will share and pass on to their daughters for years to come.

More Hopeful Reading

 

I moved a little out of my comfort range to read this one.  And I am SO happy I did.

Trust me and pick this up.

A country descending into civil war…

A young artist forced to cross a nation in chaos
to retrieve her stolen masterpiece…

Her guide and guardian—whose past remains strangely obscure…

Georgie O’Halloran created an artistic and literary wonder—only to have it stolen from her and published under the thief’s name. Worse, it’s the inspiration for a wildly popular video game that’s become a favorite among the militants seeking to transform America through bloodshed.

To confront the plagiarist, Georgie must cross an entire continent erupting in violence. Her only companion: Shane Riordan, “Irish as wet grass,” a fiercely loyal friend with a beautiful singing voice, an oddly encyclopedic memory—and impressive fighting skills.

It turns out, however, that Georgie isn’t the only one on a cross-country quest. Shane is on a journey all his own, far beyond even Georgie’s imagining.

Poetry - Recommended

 Buy it - Read it 

Magic Enuff by Tara M. Stringfellow

"Each poem asks how we can heal and sustain relationships with people, systems, and ourselves. How to reach for the kind of real love that allows for the truth of anger, disappointment, and grief. Unapologetic, unafraid, and glorious in its nuance, this collection argues that when it comes to living in our full humanity, we have—and we are—magic enough."

I DREAMT THE KKK WERE IN MY LIVING ROOM

and I had made everyone lemonade

they sipped, offered pleasantries

my house, the antiques

how could they see I asked

with only those tiny slits

for eyes and we all laughed

after a bit, it got quiet

so I broke the silence with

what I thought my mom

and my grandma and hers

would've wanted me to say -

I poisoned y'all lemonade

        - - - Tara M. Stringfellow

More Food Related Comfort Reads

Sharing my recommendation for Pat Conroy's Cookbook at Facebook prompted two friends to recommend writings by two more of my favorite food writers who write about so much more than food.

If these names are new to you, fix yourself a cup of tea or coffee, a warm pastry, find your coziest reading nook and give 'em a try!  

Ruth Reichl

From Wikipedia:

Is American chef, food writer and editor. In addition to two decades as a food critic, mainly spent at the Los Angeles Times and The New York Times, Reichl has also written cookbooks, memoirs and a novel, and has been co-producer of PBS's Gourmet's Diary of a Foodie, culinary editor for the Modern Library, host of PBS's Gourmet's Adventures With Ruth, and editor-in-chief of Gourmet magazine. She has won six James Beard Foundation Awards.

• Mmmmm: A Feastiary (cookbook), (1972)
• Tender at the Bone: Growing Up at the Table (memoir) (1998)
• Comfort Me with Apples: More Adventures at the Table (memoir) (2001)
• Garlic and Sapphires: The Secret Life of a Critic in Disguise (memoir) (2005)^[8]
• The Gourmet Cookbook: More Than 1000 Recipes (2006)
• Not Becoming My Mother: and Other Things She Taught Me Along the Way (2009)
• Gourmet Today: More than 1000 All-New Recipes for the Contemporary Kitchen (2009)
• For You, Mom. Finally. (2010; first published under the title Not Becoming My Mother)
• Delicious! (novel) (2014)
• My Kitchen Year: 136 Recipes That Saved My Life (2015)
• Save Me the Plums: My Gourmet Memoir (2019)
• The Paris Novel (2024)^[16]

Laurie Colwin

From Wikipedia:

Was an American writer who wrote five novels, three collections of short stories and two volumes of essays and recipes.^[1] She was known for her portrayals of New York society and her food columns in Gourmet magazine. In 2012, the James Beard Foundation inducted her into its Cookbook Hall of Fame

Novels

edit

• Shine On, Bright and Dangerous Object (Viking, 1975)
• Happy All the Time (Knopf, 1978)
• Family Happiness (Knopf, 1982)
• Goodbye Without Leaving (Poseidon Press, 1990)
• A Big Storm Knocked It Over (HarperCollins, 1993)

Storiesedit

• Passion and Affect (Viking, 1974) aka Dangerous French Mistress and Other Stories
• The Lone Pilgrim (Knopf, 1981)
• Another Marvelous Thing (Knopf, 1988)

Food writing

edit

• Home Cooking (Knopf, 1988)
• More Home Cooking (HarperCollins, 1993)

Happy Reading and Bon Appétit!

❤

Hopeful Reading

 

Searching for hope?

Try this -

Winner of the 2023 Willie Morris Award for Southern Fiction
Winner of the 2023 Thomas Wolfe Memorial Literary Award
Winner of the 2024 Sir Walter Raleigh Award

One of Vanity Fair’s Favorite Books of 2023

“A beautifully fearless contemplation.” –S. A. Cosby

From award-winning writer David Joy comes a searing new novel about the cracks that form in a small North Carolina community and the evils that unfurl from its center.

Toya Gardner, a young Black artist from Atlanta, has returned to her ancestral home in the North Carolina mountains to trace her family history and complete her graduate thesis. But when she encounters a still-standing Confederate monument in the heart of town, she sets her sights on something bigger.

Meanwhile, local deputies find a man sleeping in the back of a station wagon and believe him to be nothing more than some slack-jawed drifter. Yet a search of the man’s vehicle reveals that he is a high-ranking member of the Klan, and the uncovering of a notebook filled with local names threatens to turn the mountain on end.

After two horrific crimes split the county apart, every soul must wrestle with deep and unspoken secrets that stretch back for generations. Those We Thought We Knew is an urgent unraveling of the dark underbelly of a community. Richly drawn and bracingly honest, it asks what happens when the people you’ve always known turn out to be monsters, what do you do when everything you ever believed crumbles away?

Comfort Reading

 

Have we ever needed the comfort of books more?

Description from Amazon

A standout voice in women’s fiction. I was captivated from the very first line.” — Kristy Woodson Harvey, New York Times Bestselling Author of The Summer of Songbirds

Perhaps the secrets of her mother’s past in this tiny French town hold the key to her own future. . .

Food critic Tempèsta Luddington has always felt like the odd person out in her family, ever since she lost her beloved mother at the tender age of thirteen. When her workaholic father passes fifteen years later, Tempèsta is not surprised that the majority of the considerable family money will pass to her dutiful younger brother, Wal. Still, she is left a modest remembrance from her mother, and for the first time Tempèsta has a world of choices before her.

Lost in grief and hoping to reconnect with her memories and her mother’s past, she uses the money to buy a ramshackle manor house in Sainte-Colombe, a small village in Provence, where her mother had grown up. But she is greeted with more questions than answers. Her welcome, especially by the town’s stodgy mayor, is cold at best, and she finds herself wondering if the entire experiment was a mistake.

Yet she stays, stubbornly sticking it out, slowly learning that her mother’s legacy was more than just a nest egg. Through her mother and the village, Tempèsta learns the value of community and friendship, the importance of self-confidence, and the power of love and trust. What’s more, she sees for herself that there is magic and beauty in the everyday—even something as simple as a sprig of lavender and sage.

“For readers who love Under the Tuscan Sun and Chocolat, this is your next heartfelt, delightful read.” —Jennifer Moorman, bestselling author of The Baker's Man

• A dreamy escape into Southern France from bestselling author Aimie K. Runyan.
• Perfect for fans of Katherine Center, Rebecca Serle, and Sarah Jio
• Kate Quinn described Runyan’s previous work as “a moving tale of female solidarity and courage.”

Comfort Reading Continues (edited)

Essays are, for me, comfort reading.

I write them for that very same reason.  Essays have long been my first writing love.



There have been periods of time when I just simply have not had enough sense to read a novel.

These have been periods of stress when I've been concerned about loved ones and can't seem to hold a thought in my head for long without worries nudging it aside.

And there are times when I've been sitting on a deck, or on the beach, watching the waves and all I want is a little literary comfort to go along with the peace I'm feeling.

Now seems to be a time for essays.

It's not just a cookbook (although it can stand alone as one that cooks and cookbook aficionados would love). It's full of some of the most delicious essays written with the pure poetry that you would expect from Pat Conroy.

More Recommended Reading for Halloween

 

Do you love witches?

Do you wish you were a witch?

ARE you a witch?

Whichever . . .

You might love this book as much as I do.  (it is very timely 😊 ).

Description from Amazon:

A witty, spectacular, and timely tale of modern-day witches waging war on the patriarchy, from fan favorite Kirsten Miller, the author of The Change and Lula Dean’s Little Library of Banned Books.

There are places on earth where nature’s powers gather. Girls raised there are bequeathed strange gifts. A few have powers so dark that they fear to use them. Such a place is Wild Hill, on the tip of Long Island. For centuries, the ghost of a witch murdered by colonists claimed the beautiful and fertile Wild Hill…until a young Scottish woman with strange gifts arrived. Sadie Duncan was allowed to stay.

Five generations of Sadie’s descendants called Wild Hill home, each generation more powerful than the last. Then, in the aftermath of a terrible tragedy, the last of the Duncans, once prophesized to be the most powerful of their kind, abandoned their ancestral home.

One of them, Brigid Laguerre moved to California and turned her dark gift into fame and fortune. Her sister, Phoebe, settled on a ranch in Texas, where women visit in secret for her tonics and cures. Phoebe’s daughter, Sybil, has become a famous chef. Seemingly powerless, Sibyl has never been told of the Duncan bloodline.

Now Brigid, Phoebe, and Sibyl have been brought to Wild Hill to discover their family legacy. The Old One, furious at the path mankind has taken, has chosen three powerful witches to turn the tide. The Duncans will fulfill their destinies—but only if they can set aside their grievances and come together as a family.

Halloween Comfort Reading

 I love Halloween.

Last night I watched (for the umpteenth time) one of my favorite movies, Practical Magic.

I like it every bit as much as the book it's based on and now they're doing a sequel.  Yay!!!

So now I think it might be time for me to re-read the series.

Unsure where to start, I scooted over to Alice Hoffman's webpage and this is what she had to say:

Practical Magic Series

I'm often asked about the order in which you should read the books in the Practical Magic series. It’s your choice! You can read them in the order they were written (Practical Magic, The Rules of Magic, Magic Lessons, The Book of Magic) or you can read them in chronological order (Magic Lessons, The Rules of Magic, Practical Magic, The Book of Magic). It’s up to you!

Click on the book jacket to learn more.

Happy Reading!

Happy Fall!

Happy Halloween!

Comfort Reading

 

As the craziness in this country continues getting crazier, I may need some extended comfort reading.

I know for certain I can find it in Margaret Maron's Colleton County.  And ooooh boy - I can hear her right now.  She would have a lot to say about things.  ❤

Read about Margaret and her amazing body of award winning work here