Book Shopping, Day Nineteen
Once again I’m returning to one of my own favorite childhood books as a gift idea for the young readers on your list—Marguerite Henry’s beloved Misty of Chincoteague. Winner of the Newbery Honor in 1948 yet just as heartwarming and gripping today, Misty tells a tale of the wild ponies of Assateague Island (perhaps descended from survivors of a wrecked Spanish galleon in the 1600s—once again there is that touch of romantic history), of a mysterious and magical mare called The Phantom with a white map of the United States over her withers, and of the Phantom’s foal Misty, named because “she came up out of the sea.”
Young readers will read Misty for themselves, and even younger ones will delight in having the exciting story read to them. Will the plucky Paul and Maureen Beebe earn enough money to buy the Phantom and Misty? For me it never, never tires. And even today I thrill to the moment when the Phantom flies to meet the Pied Piper at the end. (I think I always loved the Phantom almost more than little Misty.)
The wonderful drawings of Wesley Dennis are as much a part of Misty as the story. He and Marguerite Henry had a fruitful partnership through the years, and I collected and treasured many of their books—not only Misty but Sea Star: Orphan of Chincoteague, King of the Wind, and Album of Horses.
Misty of Chincoteague is available from Barnes & Noble, Amazon, Books-a-Million, and of course your favorite independent bookstore. In these last few days before Christmas shop a nearby brick-and-mortar bookstore to avoid expedited shipping charges.
Book Shopping, Day Eighteen
New Classic Family Dinners by Mark Peel jumped into my shopping cart for the cover photo alone—just look at that delectable little chicken pot pie! The most comforting of comfort foods, yet executed with elegance and restraint. And gorgeously photographed.
Mark Peel is the chef/owner of Campanile, an award-winning restaurant in Los Angeles. In this book he takes traditional, best-loved family dishes (meat loaf, barbecued ribs, hamburgers, pork chops, macaroni and cheese, tuna noodle casserole, chocolate pudding) and realizes them in a beautifully polished style—not so much “re-imagined” with a bunch of fancy additions, as made into the most perfect, most refined version of the simple original dish. That’s what makes this book a fabulous gift for plain home cooks (like me) as well as more ambitious foodies.
Peel’s voice is friendly and accessible and the photographs are simply stunning—this is not only a book to cook from but a book to curl up with on a rainy Saturday afternoon. For example, when he’s writing about his chocolate pudding he says “If Jell-O Pudding could fantasize about becoming something great, this would be it. Lighter and less intense than pots de crème, the creamy, comforting pudding with a whisper of mint added to the chocolate is very popular at the restaurant. We serve it in whiskey glasses. Note how little peppermint extract is needed here. You have to use this ingredient with caution. Mint is delicious right up to the point where it turns awful.” Heh. Now that is my kind of chef.
New Classic Family Dinners by Mark Peel, with contributions by Martha Rose Schulman and photographs by Lucy Schaeffer, is available at Books-a-Million, Amazon, Barnes & Noble, and of course your favorite independent bookstore. For these last few days before Christmas, shop in a brick-and-mortar bookstore to save expedited shipping charges.
Book Shopping, Day Seventeen
Hello, the Broadcasting Legend™ here, weighing in on book gift ideas for guys.
I like thrillers and I’ve enjoyed Clive Cussler since I read Raise the Titanic back in whenever. This guy can tell a story and that’s what I like—I read on airplanes and a book like this sure helps me forget the hassles and indignities of air travel today. Anyway.
In Arctic Drift, Cussler and his son (I can’t believe he actually named him “Dirk,” but that’s another story) collaborate on a yarn set in the near future, with the U.S. and Canada all set to go to war over global warming and the price of gas. Well, sometimes I feel like I’m ready to go to war over global warming and the price of gas, but still, Canada? It does sound weird but Cussler père et fils make it work. Suspension of disbelief, people. Add in an artificial photosynthesis process that could eliminate the threat of global warming (and hopefully bring down the price of gas), a couple of spooky Victorian ships (appropriately named the Erebus and the Terror) wrecked during an expedition in search of the Northwest Passage and frozen into Arctic ice [Note from Elizabeth: a nifty touch for history-lovers], a rare element called ruthenium (which I thought was made up because it sounds like it’s named after somebody’s maiden aunt, but which turns out to be real) and something called the Devil’s Breath, which supposedly according to Haisla of British Columbia is “a cold white breath of death that [kills a man] and everything around him.” I researched this a little and although the Haisla are real, I think the Cusslers made up the Devil’s Breath. More power to them—it’s still pretty cool. No pun intended.
I liked this book. I think other guys would like this book. And with that, I’ll turn the blog back over to Elizabeth to add the cover image and the links.
Arctic Drift by Clive Cussler and Dirk Cussler is available from Barnes & Noble, Amazon, Books-a-Million, and of course your favorite independent bookstore. For these last few days before Christmas, shop in a brick-and-mortar bookstore to save expedited shipping charges!
Book Shopping, Day Sixteen
This is one of those serendipitous books. You know how it happens—you’re browsing for one thing, and you happen across something else so intriguing you must have it now. Here it is—Spice: The History of a Temptation by Jack Turner.
In Roman and medieval times people believed spices came from Paradise, that misty garden of Adam and Eve somewhere far away to the east, and that is part of what made the flavors and scents of spices so precious, costly and mysterious. No, they weren’t really used to make rancid meat edible—fresh meat was less expensive and more readily available than spices were. But they were used with meats (and every other possible kind of foodstuff) to show off one’s wealth and social position. They were also mixed with wine, incorporated into magical potions, and used in sumptuous perfumes and unguents.
Let me just quote a bit from Publisher’s Weekly: “Turner’s lively and wide-ranging account begins with the voyages of discovery, but demonstrates that, even in ancient times, spices from distant India and Indonesia made their way west and fueled the European imagination. Romans and medieval Europeans alike used Asian pepper, cinnamon, cloves, nutmeg and mace to liven their palates, treat their maladies, enhance their sex lives and mediate between the human and the divine.”
Spice is based on painstaking research and scholarship, but it’s shot through with such fascinating anecdotes and written with such wit and style that even casual readers will find it to their, well, taste. Find Spice: The History of a Temptation by Jack Turner at Amazon, Barnes & Noble, Books-a-Million, and of course your favorite independent bookstore.
Book Shopping, Day Fifteen
The Last Queen by C.W. Gortner joined my towering to-be-read pile because Juana of Castile, the last queen of the title (she was the last monarch of the house of Trastámara) was my own Barbara of Austria’s grandmother. Who would not be curious about this intriguing woman, sister of the better-known Catherine of Aragon, wife of Philip the Fair of Austria (who could ever trust a man who is called “Philip the Fair,” anyway?), and ultimately in her own right Juana I of Castile, Juana la Loca, Joanna the Mad?
We enter into Juana’s life when she is just thirteen, an exquisite child at a Spanish court which for her lifetime has been little more than a series of military camps while her parents, Fernando and Isabel, drove the Moors out of Spain and created a united nation. She is married off to the Habsburg archduke Philip sight unseen, for political advantage—the usual fate of princesses at the time—but falls passionately and jealously in love with him. Poor Juana. Philip proves to be a philanderer, which is bad enough. (Supposedly Juana attacked one of his mistresses with a pair of scissors, slashing her face and cutting her hair.) Worse, he wants her throne for himself. Gortner’s Juana is proud, willful, high-hearted, and trapped—not so much mad as understandably driven to extremes of love and hate.
Royal secrets, opulent intrigue (the best kind), passions and poisons, love and death—this is my favorite sort of book. The Last Queen by C.W. Gortner is available at Barnes & Noble, Books-a-Million, Amazon, and of course your favorite independent bookstore.
Book Shopping, Day Fourteen
Today I’m going to recommend something a little different—not necessarily Wild Strawberries (although it’s a striking cover, which is why I chose it, and a very good book in its own right) but any one (or two or three or a dozen) of the Barsetshire novels you can find by Angela Thirkell.
Not all of them are in print—you may have to try used book stores or sites to find some of them. (Here’s a complete list from the Angela Thirkell Society in North America.) But oh, do they repay the effort! In brief, Thirkell takes the English county of Barsetshire originally created by Anthony Trollope (dear Anthony Trollope! He is my hero when it comes to productivity) and updates it to the England of the thirties, forties and fifties. She peoples it with amusing and colorful characters (some of whom are descendants of Trollope’s original Barsetshireans), and with a deliciously light, wry, self-deprecating touch she sends up village ways, aristocratic follies, and (horrors!) middle-class aspirations.
Thirkell is one of my personal writing sages, and whenever I am blue or overwhelmed by the complexity of modern-day life I retreat to Barsetshire, to Winter Overcotes and Worsted, Pomfret Hall and Little Misfit, Gatherum Castle (home, of course, to the Duke of Omnium) and Pooker’s Piece.
Search for “Angela Thirkell” and choose whatever strikes your fancy at Amazon, Barnes & Noble, Books-a-Million, Abebooks, Alibris, and of course your favorite independent bookstore.
FLAT RINETTE
The Flower Reader
Read the First Chapter of The Flower Reader
The Second Duchess
Read the First Chapter of The Second Duchess
The Second Duchess is available on iBookstore!
