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

I’ve just finished reading :

The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier & Clay

From Wikipedia.org:

The novel begins in 1939 with the arrival of Josef Kavalier as a refugee in New York City, where he comes to live with his 17-year-old cousin Sammy Klayman. Besides having a shared interest in drawing, the two are also fans of the Jewish stage magician Harry Houdini… Read the rest of this entry »

These are some highlights of my week. For the details, see my blog at the Grace in Small Things site.

1. A generous sponsor who allowed me to watch the entire three days of the Send Out Cards United We Send convention, via live-streaming from Salt Lake City

2. The smell of roasting pork with apples & saurkraut

3. The Julia Child & David Letterman video that Schmutzie posted

4. Scratchy clean outdoors-smelling towels, fresh from the line.

5. How my cats come running together across the yard when I call them for supper

Wage a battle against embitterment and take part in Grace in Small Things .

[tags]grace in small things, saurkraut & apples, Julia Child, David Letterman, David Letterman show, Send Out Cards, United We Send convention[tags]

For all of my pre-country life (50 years), I lived in homes heated by natural gas. It was just as the ads say: clean, easy & relatively inexpensive. The gas supplier also sold the furnaces & provided maintenance service. We never gave heating a second thought, really.

When we moved here, we had a rude awakening. Read the rest of this entry »

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

I’ve just finished reading :
Junior’s Cheesecake Cookbook: 50 To-Die-For Recipes fpr New York-Style Cheesecake
I just love reading cookbooks and this one was easier than most. I learned lots, including the story of Junior’s and their cheesecake, why to use melted butter in the sponge cake crust, Junior’s two-step mixing technique for the cheesecake filling, how to bake a cheesecake without any cracks, and how to cut a cheesecake properly.
Most of all, I learned I want to go to Junior’s in Brooklyn and taste how the professionals do it!
(Of course, I also I drooled over the recipes. I don’t have any immediate plans to actually bake a cheesecake, but when I try out a recipe from this book, you’ll be the first to know the results, dear reader.)
Read the rest of this entry »

For the rest of my week, see my blog at the Grace in Small Things site.

1. A cookbook that I read like a novel Junior’s Cheesecake Cookbook

2. Having my summer clothes all packed up, including those needing ironing so…

3. My ironing pile has gone down by half!

4. A full night’s sleep

5. Bed socks

Wage a battle against embitterment and take part in Grace in Small Things .

[tags]grace in small things, Junior’s Cheesecake Cookbook, Alan Rosen, Beth Allen[tags]

Michael Crummey was born & raised in Newfoundland, lives there still, and has set all of his meticulously researched novels & collections of short stories thus far in this beautiful, windswept, and harshly-demanding Canadian province.

GALORE is set in the outport villages of Paradise Deep and The Gut, joined by the Tolt Road over the headland between them, in an undefined period that covers most of the nineteenth century and the first few years of the twentieth. The novel chronicles the lives of two rival families (the Sellers and the Devines) for six generations, and I often referred to the genealogy chart at the front of the book, especially during my first reading.

Inspired by the works of Read the rest of this entry »

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

It’s the week of the “Michaels”.

I’ve just finished reading for the second time:
Galore

“An intricate family saga and a love story spanning two centuries…propelled by the disputes and alliances, grievances and trade-offs that bind the Sellers and Devine families through generations.”

Michael Crummey surpasses my (very high) expectations in his third novel about Newfoundland life. I promise a review this week.

I’m currently reading:
The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier & Clay

“Joe Kavalier, a young Jewish artist who has also been trained in the art of Houdini-esque escape, has just smuggled himself out of Nazi-invaded Prague and landed in New York City. His Brooklyn cousin Sammy Clay is looking for a partner to create heroes, stories, and art for the latest novelty to hit America–the comic book.”

Technorati Tags: Galore, Michael Crummey, The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier & Clay, Michael Chabon, Pulitzer Prize winner, Newfoundland history

For the rest of my week, see my blog at the Grace in Small Things site.

1. My heating pad

2. A Marimba band performing in the village club

3. With no cover charge

4. Incredibly blue skies & golden sun

5. Date squares from the Mennonite bakery

Wage a battle against embitterment and take part in Grace in Small Things .

[tags]grace in small things, Marimba Stew, Fables Club, Mennonite bakery, Country Bread Basket[tags]

We had a weekend obligation in Summerside PEI, so we drove the two hours to Confederation Bridge which connects the island of Green Gable fame to the Canadian mainland.

The bridge is 12.9 kilometers (8 miles) long & Read the rest of this entry »

Our property is 2.5 acres, the back one-quarter of which is a swampy area with a “creek”, the foundation of the old barn, and scrubby trees & burdocks. But, near the edge of this bramble lie some wild blackberry bushes.

The berries ripen in late August and so last week we picked a bunch and, Read the rest of this entry »