#5 The Art of Simple Food

I am in love with Alice Water's The Art of Simple Food. I got this book from my friend Camille for my birthday (Thanks, Camille!) If you want to learn how cooking works, this is a book that you are going to want to buy. This is a great read for this season of great eating. Alice Waters has started a Delicious Revolution that is centered in the principle of using simple, fresh, ingredients that are in season and sold or grown locally. The result is amazing flavor. Here is my favorite quote from the introduction.

Good cooking is no mystery. You don't need years of culinary training, or rare and costly foodstuffs, or an encyclopedia knowledge of world cuisines. You need only your five senses. You need good ingredients, too, of course, but in order to choose and prepare them, you need to experience them fully. It's the many dimensions of sensual experience that make cooking so satisfying. You never stop learning. (p. 4)

I am so excited about the things I am learning. The book is set up in sections and I plan to share a little tidbit from each section so you can learn with me. By the way I made the most amazing chicken noodle soup tonight with homemade chicken stock. It was amazing. I will share more when I write about the soup section. Stay posted!

#4 Mayflower

Nathaniel Philbrick's Mayflower: A Story of Courage, Community, and War is a must read for the Thanksgiving season. I picked this one up because I have been feeling that my education had been somewhat inadequate and I had many gaps in my understanding of American History. I decided to start at the beginning with some of the first settlers in America.

The first half of this book told of the voyage on the Mayflower, the selecting of a place to live, and the beginnings of a settlement in Plymouth Harbor. I was drawn in to the stories of how the residents of Plymouth made alliances with the Indians, which allowed some of them to survive those first brutal winters. This is the reason we celebrate Thanksgiving, but you might be interested to know what was the same and what was different at that first feast. For one thing, the main dish was not Turkey!

I'll have to admit that the second half of the book was rather long and less interesting to me. It told of a war that was started by King Phillip, an Indian, and killed a large percentage the early settlers and Indians that were living on the east coast of America at the time. I appreciated learning about a part of history that I was unaware had happened, but I found the details about the war less interesting than the stories of the early settlement.

If you have read this book, let me know what you thought. If you have not, this is a great book to pick up as we are approaching Thanksgiving.

Coming Soon

I have some great books to report on for your holiday season. They are coming soon!

#3 The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society

Dear Bloggers

I decided this final post should be in letter format to align with the theme of The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society. I hope you all have picked up this book and have fallen in love with the jumble of characters living in Guernsey. I have to say I enjoyed the simple story line, with hints toward the serious topic of World War II. I was curious to see if the author could really tell the whole story through letters. I assumed the idea would break down eventually, but she (they) proved me wrong. Every detail was included by carefully selecting who was writing the letter and to whom they wrote. Very clever idea! I hope you enjoy it as much as I did. And this book made me think I need to take a real trip so I can write letters about my adventures. Or, just have a new adventure. Happy Reading!

Heidi

Dr. Suess

My favorite Dr. Suess book is called And To Think That I Saw it on Mulberry Street. If you haven't read this one, it is about a boy whose dad always asks him what he saw on the way home from school. As he is walking home, all he sees is a horse and a wagon, which of course is not very exciting. So he spends his walk home, imagining all the exciting things that he could tell his dad that he saw on Mulberry Street. When he gets home, his dad asks him what he saw today, and instead of sharing all the amazing things he imagined, he simply reports that all he saw was a plain horse and wagon.
I love this story because I feel such a kinship with this boy. I feel like my life is full of interesting moments, events, and activities. Whenever I get on the phone with someone and they ask the dreaded question, "What have you been up to?", my mind goes blank. I usual reply is, "Not much." I even find myself sometimes preparing for the question during the week by carefully keeping note of all the exciting things that happen, but too often, like the boy in the story, all my careful planning causes me to see nothing more than a plain horse and wagon on Mulberry Street.

Which Dr. Suess book do you relate to the most?

Heidi's Rules

I am so excited to have all of you reading with me! It's so fun to read your comments. I added some rules to the sidebar. They aren't really rules, just some ideas for making this blog work. You can read them to the right of this post.


I am excited to keep reading with you. Or at least reading and having some people to talk with about my books!

#3 The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society

So I am still in the middle of letters coming and going from Juliet and the Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society. This seems to be a group of hodge podge people who, for various random reasons, came together to read books on a small island off England during World War II. They are all coming to life and I find myself wanting to know who Dawsey will turn out to be, he is the one who first contacted Juliet, and Elizabeth McKenna, her sorted past has me wondering, but don't even get me started on Adelaide Addison, if you have read this book, you know what I am talking about. There are so many characters now, I feel like I am going to need a chart to keep them all straight. Anyone out there reading this book with me?

#3 The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society

I am going to try something new on this blog and try posting as I read. You can see on the sidebar that I am currently reading The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society by Mary Ann Shaffer. This book was recommended by my sister-in-law Thomalee (Thanks Thomalee!). I wish I could tell you what this book is about, but I am really not sure yet. I opened it up last night and started reading it and I was surprised to find that is a series of letters between lots of people. In fact you really have to pay attention to know who is talking about what. I am intrigued with the story. Is it a love story? And if so, who is in love? Is it Juliet and Sidney or Juliet and the guy sending her flowers? And how does this literary society even fit in to the story? You can see I have a lot of questions so far, but I think I am going to like this one. If you have read this you are welcome to comment below, but the rule here is that you or I can never leave a spoiler, so please play by the rules. And if you haven't read this one, pick up a copy and join me.