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Fisher’s Foodie Thoughts

July 10, 2008 – 7:41 am

“It seems to me that our three basic needs, for food and security and love, are so mixed and mingled and entwined that we cannot straightly think of one without the others.”

Here the prolific culinary writer M. F. K. Fisher answers why she writes about food. I have the fat tome The Art of Eating by my bed and read an essay every now and then. The collection includes her first book Serve it Forth (published in 1937) and her thoughts on food from oysters, eggs to vegetables. Fisher was a top-notch essayist, weaving in her thoughts about the history and culture of food. Her sentence structure is sophisticated and sensual. Foodies and writers will appreciate her.

If you’re not familiar with Fisher, I recommend any of her essays with a cool glass of wine.

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Welty’s Beginnings

July 9, 2008 – 7:58 am

“The future story writer in the child I was must have taken unconscious note and stored it away then; one secret is liable to be revealed in the place of another that is harder to tell, and the substitute secret when nakedly exposed is often the more appalling.”

Eudora Welty’s One Writer’s Beginnings is part autobiography and part “how to be a writer.” It’s also a charming story of Welty’s upbringing in Jackson, Mississippi. Welty’s three chapters titled Listening, Learning to See and Finding a Voice, describe how important it is that any writer be a keen observer. In this sentence she tells that as a girl she frequently asked her mother where babies come from but, one day, instead was told the story of how her mother’s first baby died. Welty lived her long life in Jackson, dying in 2001 at the age of 92.

You can visit her home and garden in Jackson which is preserved by the Eudora Welty Foundation.

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Dowd’s Ideal Husband

July 8, 2008 – 7:35 am

“It’s good to have a doormat in the home, but not if it’s your husband.”

I just had to read the most popular emailed article in The New York Times — Maureen Dowd’s column An Ideal Husband — even though I already have a wonderful husband. Dowd relates the points a Catholic Priest has been making for decades in his lecture called Whom Not to Marry. It’s one of those bits of advice that seems so common sense that isn’t common at all. He dispenses advice with humor and adds why it’s important to assess a new friend’s character, “Infatuation trumps judgment.” It’s worth sharing with your single friends.

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Wharton’s Summer

July 7, 2008 – 7:54 am

“The haze of the morning had become a sort of clear tremour over everything, like the colourless vibration about a flame; and the opulent landscape seemed to droop under it.”

The heat is rising in Charity Royall’s life just as in this summer day. Edith Wharton’s 1917 novel follows a young girl’s romance amidst the backdrop of the lush New England landscape in summertime. I like Wharton’s use of words such as haze and tremour which help us see the heat. Both nature and the heat are elements which enhance this story of first love. If you’re in Massachusetts, you can visit Wharton’s home The Mount Estate & Gardens to see how passionate she was about landscape design.

I’m only half way through and am worried the flame might burn too hot for Charity! Better go make iced tea so we can stay cooler than Wharton’s heroine in the heat of this afternoon.

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Ford’s Independence Day

July 4, 2008 – 9:10 am

“I gotta do holidays. They offer me so much. In particular, for me and the reader, a whole set of associations. If you write about Easter, if you write about the Fourth of July, something as important, almost invisibly important, as the temporal setting of a book…if the reader can say, ‘Gee, that’s a time I know. I have a whole set of memories and associations to bring to bear on whatever’s happening then,’ you’ve got a lot going for you. “

Richard Ford’s Independence Day was the first novel to win both a Pulitzer Prize and the PEN/Faulkner. Holidays are evocative. What does today bring to your mind? From fireworks and grilling to where America is headed with a new president at the helm – July 4th covers a lot of ground. Perhaps fitting for our multi-cultural nation, I’m cooking chili chicken with roasted tomatillo salsa this afternoon. Happy Independence Day!

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Metolius River

July 3, 2008 – 7:40 am

“Upstream the canyon is silent.
Water innocent and steady as window glass
slides over speckled stones.
Brook trout and kokanee, rose and silver,
cast moving shadows on the bottom,
announce themselves to eagles, to flies.
Hard to be either predator or prey
in such transparency.”

A poem by Sharon Fain I found in a guide book to my favorite place: Some Common Birds and Flowers of Central Oregon’s Metolius Basin. The river is spring fed, about the same level and temperature all year around, and is clear as glass as the poet writes. I fly-fished the river BC (before children), and today hike along the river banks lush with lupine, paintbrush and corn lily. When she was four, my daughter said, “I love the nature” and I hope today finds you out in it.

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Dillard’s Tinker Creek

July 2, 2008 – 7:32 am

“You take huge steps, trying to feel the planet’s roundness arc between your feet.”

I took an early morning walk but couldn’t feel that arc… the thought in this sentence struck me and I know I’ll continue trying to feel the impossible when walking through our forest again. I was surprised to realize Annie Dillard’s Pilgrim at Tinker Creek has sat on my shelf unread. Published in 1974, Dillard won a Pulitzer Prize for nonfiction for this book which is part nature, part meditative writing. Dillard herself referred to it as a theological treatise. Her appreciation of Thoreau is supposed to be evident in the pages. I’ll see – I’ve only just begun walking through it.

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Summer’s Heat

July 1, 2008 – 8:15 am

“Summer afternoon – summer afternoon; to me those have always been the two most beautiful words in the English language.”

British author Henry James would enjoy today since it should be in the 80’s. I was thinking how the weather can almost be a character in a novel. Remember the heat in the courtroom in To Kill a Mockingbird? Those emotional scenes of the trial wouldn’t have been the same if snow had been falling. Last weekend, we had a thunder, lighting and hail storm. We stayed outside in our shorts in the warm air amazed at the drama of nature. The storm made our pine and juniper forest feel tropical — think The Year of Living Dangerously when you can smell a summer rain. What summer reads are truly about the heat of summer?

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Henkes Rythmic Words

June 30, 2008 – 8:01 am

“It was an absolutely wonderful, positively perfect, especially terrific idea.”

Keven Henkes sentence almost sings with fun sounds. Henkes isn’t afraid to use big words, then he strings them together in a musical way. Here the first word in each pair has four syllables which lends a poetic touch. I’ve blogged about this prolific children’s writer before because he understands words and kids so well. In this book titled Owen, a little boy has trouble giving up his blanket when it’s time to start school.

Grown-up writers can learn from good kids’ books. I dare you to read one aloud today… whether there’s a kid present or not!

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Weekend Words: Great Book Blogs

June 28, 2008 – 9:06 am

Thank goodness there are so many great blogs for book lovers! In this age when reading actual books is down, it warms the cockles of my heart.

If you’re wondering what your next summer read should be, visit The Elegant Variation. Mark Sarvas posts insightful book reviews and talks about his own new novel Harry, Revisited. This enthusiastic and very busy reader will inspire you to add to your stack of must-reads.

As a mom, I appreciate reviews of kids books and Books For Kids by a retired librarian is a helpful resource. Book-a-Rama is fun to check out from a blogger and bookaholic in Canada who is taking a Read-a-Thon challenge today. I’ve found several books to add to my list at A Life in Books. And Danzig U.S.A. is an eclectic mix of culture, insight and beautiful photographs from three contributors in Louisville.

Just a few of my favorite things – please add yours!

Monday Note: I noticed on Google Analytics several international readers of my weekend blog. Fun to know people in Malaysia, France and Columbia are visiting! What’s on the bestseller lists in Israel and Portugal?

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