Spice: The History of a Temptation

The new school year is here! I can almost smell the fresh pencils and pink erasers and can hear the crackle of a brand new text book being opened for the first time. It's a time of optimism and new goals and fresh starts. Which is why it's so hard for me to say this...I gave up on a book.

I'm a good student-- I've only missed one book club in the past 7 years and have read all the books (with the exception of one that I couldn't finish: Barbara Kingsolver's Small Wonder, because I thought she came off as a know-it-all, condescending smarty-pants). I like to give everyone's book a chance, even though we had one member (with a PhD-- you know who you are!) who consistently chose tedious and difficult subject books. In general, if I read a book I wouldn't normally choose, at least I feel I've gained something I wouldn't have otherwise.

Spice: The History of Temptation by Jack Turner sounded promising. It's a historical book-- not something I'd normally pick-- but drew rave reviews on the back cover as well as on Amazon. As soon as I started reading, I was reminded of school...remember how every year in elementary school you'd learn about Columbus and De Soto, etc, etc? Surely, I thought, this would be an introduction and the fascinating parts would be forthcoming. And to an extent, it did get better. I learned that spices were used to preserve food and bodies and were used as displays of wealth and aristocracy. Turner used no shortage of examples and I would find myself skimming through yet another medicinal example of peppercorns and their various uses.

I tried to give this book my all. I took it on an airplane and I even re-checked it out from the library. But it made me sleepy. This book is clearly a labor of love for Turner, and perhaps readers who have a greater interest in history would enjoy this. In fact, I'm willing to take the blame for this. Perhaps I've been dumbed down by reading Twilight and Harry Potter and watching marathons of Project Runway. But I have to be honest and give this book 1 out of 5 netflix stars.

Rag and Bone: A Journey Among The World's Holy Dead

A little over a year ago, my sister Liz took me to the Basilica of the National Shrine of the Immaculate Conception. It's off the beaten track of the other monuments in DC and there's nothing much else out there. But we were curious and we like churches. The Basilica was immense and sparkling and to two non-Catholics, daunting. We opted for the tour. Our guide explained statues and histories of saints and took us into special alcoves and soon we all lined up to view the relic. Maybe it was a bone fragment; I can't recall. But we all moved in a circle to get a glimpse.

Peter Manseau tells similar stories of viewing relics the world over in Rag and Bone: A Journey Among the World's Holy Dead. His interest is that of a layperson, like myself. He's not someone who has a strong religious attachment to the relics he visits themselves, but is curious about how the affect so many people, and on some level, are common to all the world's religions. He visits India, Israel, Pakistan, Syria and interacts with Jews, Catholics and Muslims. He describes a brief history of each of the relics he visits-- most are dubiously authentic but have at any rate suffered indignities and brutalities post mortem that sometimes exceed the violence experienced by the living person. And he usually speaks with the caretakers of the relics and/or shrines. He meets a nun whose personal life was marked by so many violent accidents that she felt compelled to turn to religion and the saint whose remains her convent now hosts. He met a family who for generations had been guarding a holy tooth in Kashmir, but who had lost their legacy through politics; Inidian guards now hold the keys. He met a scientist whose life work it has been to verify (or not) the remains of Saint Joan of Arc. He claims he is not spiritual, yet he reveres her bones with a fervor usually reserved for the most pious.

Mr. Manseau comes to realize that the relics are more than just a spritual connection-- in Sri Lanka they provide jobs-- helping the economy informally (tours) and formally (the requisite gift shop), in France, local pride unites a community and in Syria, children get to practice their English with tourists.

Mr. Manseau journeys the world with curiousity and respect. For him, it's a strictly personal exploration as much as an means to discovering the history of relics. His message is subtle-- living people and living history is more important than the dead.

For myself, the Basillica was beautiful, but maybe too beautiful. It was hard to for me to reconcile the ostentatious gilt with the suffering experienced by the saints featured. I appreciated Mr. Manseau's journey.

Netflix rating: 4/5 stars

Twilight And Harry Potter and the Half Blood Prince

I'd bet that, over the past 10 years, 33% of all passengers on commercial flights read a Harry Potter book on the plane. Even with increased fees to check luggage and decreased space to bring luggage on board, at least half a dozen people are carrying a 600+ page hardback book authored by J.K. Rowling. In the past five years, I bet that 89% of all 11-19 year female passengers on planes read the Twilight series by Stephenie Meyer and 47% of 19+ women read the series. My calculations are based on personal, if not scientific, experience. Two weeks ago, on my way to my summer vacation, I was a statistic.
Twilight had been making the rounds at the office and in order to participate in water cooler talk, I needed to read it. Also my director brought it in to me and told me to report back the next day on what page I was on. I saved it for my cross country flight and nearly finished it. I assume most people know the basic plot of Twilight: handsome vampire meets average 17 year old girl in a sleepy Pacific Northwest town and dangerous hijinks ensue when they aren't gazing adoringly into each other's eyes. It was a quick read, full of magic, but for all of Edward's perfection, a lingering, nagging thought...why do men need more excuses to not fully commit? Okay, he's a vampire, but really, get it together.
Meanwhile, I'd saved my copy of Harry Potter and the Half Blood Prince to read right before the movie opened. Somehow the opening came as a surprise and I wasn't prepared. This weekend, having few firm plans, I dusted off my copy and delved in, pausing only to go to the farmer's market and feed the cats. I'll give away no plots here, but will say that Rowling's writing seems to mature right along with Harry, Ron, Hermione and the other Hogwarts students. I feel like I've really come to know these characters and, ironically, although they are witches and wizards, Rowling seems to represent actual teenagers better than Meyer does.
I have one more weekend trip this summer and am debating whether to finish up the Potter series or move on to Book 2 of the Twilight series. Either way, I'll be in good company on the plane.
Netflix stars: 3/5 for Twilight, 5/5 for Harry Potter

Hot House Flower and the Nine Plants of Desire

I like my reading to match my cooking, that is, it should be seasonally appropriate. Sure, you can splurge and buy a $6 pint of strawberries mid-winter but you'll eat a grainy and tasteless strawberry shortcake. And somehow an oven roasted acorn squash tastes completely out of place mid-July. Likewise, why would you read Dr. Zhivago in the summer? It's cold weather reading! You have to be under a blanket with a cup of hot tea.

Hot House Flower and the Nine Plants of Desire by Margot Berwin was just in season for this summer. It was cool and rainy early summer, just like the New York March weather when Lila Nova buys her first tropical flower from David Exley at the Union Square Green Market. She soon notices a mystical laundromat owned by Armand, who is also a collector of tropical flowers. Entering the laundromat is like entering a tropical paradise, and soon Lila is intoxicated by rare plants and sexy vendors.

Just as the Boston heat and humidity set in, Lila headed off with a one way ticket to the Yucatan jungle to find the mythical nine plants of desire and, yes, herself (this is summer reading, after all!).

This book was smart and contemporary and offered just enough escapism to (nearly) make me forget that it was 63 F and drizzly. 5/5 netflix stars.

Recommended eating: tropical fruit salad, even if the fruit's not grown locally.

Alone In The Kitchen With An Eggplant: Confessions of Cooking for One and Dining Alone

Everyone has some experience eating alone. Perhaps you were a BU student and sat in the G.S.U. during a break in your afternoon classes and ate a BK chicken sandwich. Or perhaps you travel for business and order room service. Maybe you just moved to a new city and go out to eat regardless if you have friends yet who will join you.

In Alone in the Kitchen With an Eggplant, Jenni Ferrari-Adler compiles essays by such noted writers as M.F.K. Fischer, Amanda Hesser, Steve Almond, Ann Patchett and Laurie Colwin, about cooking and dining alone (or in one case, the desire to cook and dine alone!). Each essay provides a glimpse into a personal life and often, a recipe.

I picked up this book book because most evenings I eat alone so I wanted to find out how other people did it. Did they overcook like I tend to? Do they snack their way through a box of crackers and a bottle of wine? Did they forego any pretense of nutrition and instead devour a pint of ice cream?

Far from being a sad book on lonliness, nearly all the contributors looked upon their eating alone days as some of the best in their lives. Each essay made me smile and at least half had me laughing out loud.

What do I eat when I eat alone? I'm not a take-out kind of girl and prefer my own lunches to those of the hospital cafeteria where I work. So I cook on Sundays-- lots of quiches and gratins, soups, stews and things that can last a week or live awhile in the freezer. And the nice thing about eating alone IS that I can eat when and what I want. A few summers back I craved a BLT made with one of the juicy heirlooms I'd just picked up from the farmer's market. But rather than buy bread, I decided to make my own. Nearing midnight, my bread hot out of the oven, I made myself the best BLT I've ever had. And reading this book reminded me why, in part, that was. We are our own best company.

Netflix stars 5/5.

Gilead

I grew up attending church. We went to a Presbyterian Church in Wichita, or, when in Oklahoma City, went to the church my grandparents and parents went to. As a kid, I almost always went to Sunday School-- an hour of songs, crafts, snacks and a Bible story. On occassions I'd have to go to the "adult" service and it would seriously try my patience. In my mind, the sermon was always 45 minutes, with the remaining 15 minutes song singing, prayer and offering collection. This was all followed by donuts in the fellowship hall. It was a time to try to avoid fidgeting and maybe a time to try to understand the sermon, which didn't seem to have anything to do the Bible stories and miracles we learned about in Sunday School. By the time I got to high school, I didn't really have to go to church any longer, so I didn't.

Twenty some odd years later I've decided to give church another try. I wanted a spirit of community, a calmness and a reason to wake up on Sunday mornings. Most suprising is that the sermons are maybe just 15 minutes and are also totally understandable now!

This is all a long way of saying that reading Gilead by Marilynne Robinson was a little like attending a church service as a kid-- kind of tedious and sleep inducing, but poetic-- and a little like attending a church service as an adult-- thought provoking, relaxing and at times even entertaining.

Robinson composes the novel as a letter from Pastor Ames, a man in his 70s, to his young son. It's a loving and detailed journal and at times, it was all I could do to remember that Robinson is in fact a novelist and Ames is a fictional character. The letter/journal is part observation-- detailing what his son is wearing (a favorite red shirt), part philosophical and religious musing and part family history-- from finding and visiting a grandfather's grave in Kansas, to admitting his jealousy and confusion over his best friend's family, with special focus on young Boughton.

I started this book months ago and had a lot of trouble getting into it. I'd read some, then start another book...so I was continually reading it but while I had other books going. It wasn't until about half way through the book that a plot/storyline took hold. There's no doubt that Robinson is an amazing writer. Housekeeping remains one of my all time favorite books. But I can't in good faith recommend this book fully. It was worth the effort in the end, and I'm glad I read it, but it was a tough journey. Thus I'm giving it 3/5 netflix stars.

In The Skin of a Lion

I chose to check out Michael Ondaatje's book, In The Skin of a Lion for two reasons. First, I had just recently rewatched The English Patient and was reminded what a fantastic story teller Ondaatje is. The second reason was a recommendation from an NPR series, "You Must Read This." Kamila Shamsie recommends it so thoroughly that she almost doesn't recommend it, for fear of anyone not loving it as much as she does.

In The Skin of a Lion is a dreamy story of Patrick, the son of a Canadian logger, his life, loves and friends. The narrative skirts between fiction and magical realism; a nun falling off a bridge is miraculously saved, but has a chance to change her identity and become an actress. Caravaggio (the thief from The English Patient) escapes jail by being painted blue. Patrick helps build a waterworks, and then subsequently swims through the plumbing with the aim of destroying it with dynamite. The lives of all the characters intersect and then pass. Like yarn on a loom, they are separate, but complete a whole.

I read most of this book on a rainy bus home from New York and was transported. I thought about books that I have loved and implored friends "they must read": The Living, by Annie Dillard, To Kill a Mockingbird, by Harper Lee, Women in Love, by D.H. Lawrence. I think it would be safe to add this book to that list as well.

Netflix rating, 5/5.