Uncategorized – Page 53 – Peaceful Reader

The Sandcastle Girls by Chris Bohjalian

I brought three books with me on vacation and I finished one quickly (Strange but True by J. Searles), I started another that didn’t grab me right off but when I arrived at my in-laws amidst one of our many early book discussions they highly recommended Chris Bohjalian’s book. It also happened to be the book my mother-in-law’s book club would be discussing and also “Would I like to come to book club with her?” Yes! Yes, of course I would.

Always ready for book discussion and the challenge of reading a 293 page book in just a few days I was thrilled to be asked. I was easily pulled into this engaging and informative book about the Armenian genocide. What Armenian genocide you ask? Just what I said and every book club member we gathered with on Tuesday night! What? Parts of world history we know nothing about…not that hard to believe, sadly even though we were a learned community of women. Thankfully Chris Bohjalian chose to write his 15th novel about his Armenian roots so that we could learn more and carry that forth into the world.

It begins:

“The young woman, twenty-one, walks gingerly down the dusty street between her father and the American consul here in Aleppo, an energetic fellow almost her father’s age named Ryan Donald Martin, and draws the scarf over her hair and her cheeks. The men are detouring around the square near the base of the citadel because they don’t yet want her to see the deportees who arrived here last night-there will be time for that soon enough-but she fears she is going to be sick anyway. The smell of rotting flesh, excrement, and the July heat are conspiring to churn her stomach far worse than eve the trip across the Atlantic had weeks earlier. She feels clammy and weak-kneed and reaches out for her father’s elbow to steady herself. Her father, in turn, gently taps her fingers with his hand, his vague and abstracted attempt at a comforting gesture.” (1)

Written in 2012 Bohjalian writes this historical fiction from a female perspective in both 1915, Syria, and present day, Bronxville, NY Elizabeth Endicott, a graduate of Mount Holyoke College, arrives with her father to bring aid to the displaced Armenian population and Laura Petrosian, a writer who tells the story backwards as she remembers her childhood from her grandparents “Ottoman Annex” home. Laura discovers mysteries about her own family history as she searches for answers about her grandparents.

I loved how these two stories intersected and became one. I loved how slowly many secrets were revealed. At first it was jarring to get yanked to the present, to the beginning of Laura’s story, as I was so fully engaged in Elizabeth’s daily struggles adjusting to her surroundings. I got used to Laura’s interjections as the story continues. The book does share many repulsive stories of what women suffered at the hands of the Turkish soldiers. It’s gruesome and sadly still commonplace that women bear ungodly amounts of horror at the hands of men in power, or men hoping for power, or men lacking in power. Highly recommended. Find Chris Bohjalian on twitter @ChrisBohjalian.

After this tale it’s hard to pick my next read. College Boy just finished and recommended Mr. Penumbra’s 24-hour Bookstore by Robin Sloan and I have Forever by Pete Hamill still to finish.

Attending my mother-in-law’s book group was inspiring as they’ve been together for 20 years and share a common love of children and teaching. The appetizers were delicious and the company was excellent. I’m so glad I was here and had read enough of the story to participate in the lively discussion.

Ahhh, the bookstores…{NYC}

Of course we ventured into a few bookstores in the city and bought a couple a books but mostly we just loved the comfort zone of books surrounding us.

{G.G. @TheStrand}

The Strand; Oldest daughter spent last summer in NYC working as an intern and loved pretty much everything about being a New Yorker. Her favorite book shop was this one. Groovy Girl and I met up in the children’s section and picked up the exact same picture book, read it, set it down minutes from each other and laughed about it when we realized we’d been reading the same book. I ended up buying the picture book as this was a pretty significant moment and later in life or even tomorrow I can look at this picture book, Tallulah’s Tutu by Marilyn Singer, and remember that we had this “in sync” moment.

Shakespeare and Co.: Big Daddy saw this bookstore just two blocks away from The Strand and we ducked in to see what we could see. It might have been a quick {ish} stop if he hadn’t found the downstairs script area. I think he bought about 8 plays to review for this coming year. They had a lovely selection of children’s book as well and we loved just browsing.

{G.G. @Shakespeare&Co.}

We could have spent hours at both bookstores just for the respite in-between walking. I’d wanted to find Books of Wonder but we never made it there, which means there must be another trip.

O what foodie fun!

We are now back in DC after three fun-filled days in New York.

{College Boy Relaxing at the Milburn}

Our Highlights:

The Millburn-fantastic, friendly staff especially if you get Adam on the phone. The suite we had was spacious and it was wonderful to have the kitchenette space. I could keep my water bottle cold and save the few leftovers we had. We’d go back if we wanted to be in that neighborhood again. I loved the romantic lounge, the breakfast, and the lending library. My husband picked a book for me from the shelf; Pete Hamill’s Forever.

{Groovy Girl w/ her Milk Bar Cereal Milk shake}

{Veggie Bun from Momofuko’s}

Momofuku’s flavors! I loved the veggie bun (David Chang’s) with an egg cracked on top as much as the cereal-infused shake. We hit this spot kind of late last night (8:00-Friday) for us and we walked back to the hotel with food in the bag and shakes in our hand. Guess who finished their shake first?? If you think me; you are wrong. (Groovy Girl took that honor as she sucked it bone dry before her dinner)

{Doughnut bench}

Doughnut Plant; unfriendly staff but delicious doughnuts. I loved my vanilla bean and jam but the big hit was the carrot cake cake doughnut! The cinnamon was powerful and made for an aaaamazing flavor combo.

{Favorite “Big Nick’s” Pizza}

College Boy loved all the easy places to get a slice of pizza and he sampled several “best pizza” spots around town. We had several on the fly meals from local spots like the fish and chips we ordered at 8:00 for dinner while Groovy Girl had a bowl of chicken orzo soup. It was greasy (the fish) but hit the spot.

Friday lunch we went to Lupa in Greenwich Village which College Boy had picked as the one BIG place he wanted to go. He knew about Lupa because Action Bronson worked there as the chef. I’d made a reservation and had talked to staff there before our visit but once we got there I felt much less excited. I knew it was expensive so the prices weren’t a shock but the staff and the ambiance did not provide a relaxing experience. The pace was frenetic and the space was cramped but the kids loved their pasta dishes. I had a lovely spinach salad with roasted fennel and spring peas. I wouldn’t need to go back though. Once was good.

I loved walking through Greenwich Village and as we window shopped I know I spotted Jane Lynch walking through with a beautiful brown leather backpack on her back. We also completely loved Central Park, which was the highlight when I was a teen as well. Groovy Girl and her dad rented one of the motorized sailboats at the pond. We also spent a long time hanging by the Alice in Wonderland statue. All in all it was a wonderful trip, too brief, but it was like giving the kids just a taste of the big city.

Hanging in the City; NYC.

We’ve driven cross country to visit my in-laws for two weeks. For something completely different we took the bus from DC to New York today. It was College Boy’s last vacation request before he leaves his home roost and heads to the great West.

We walked a lot today; from Madison Square Gardens through Times Square and Broadway trekking all the way over to Central Park West (through the park) and to our hotel, The Milburn.

Tomorrow we will head to Greenwich Village for lunch at Lupa owned by Mario B., which will be our only sit down meal for the most part. We ate at a Pizzaria for dinner close to the hotel. We stopped at a grocery store to pick up bagels, cream cheese and fruit for breakfast in our room. The hotel is old but refurbished and has a lovely but tiny kitchenette in the corner.

It is exciting to be in the city. I was lucky enough to come several times while I was a teenager but my kids have never been. It was fun to watch College Boy melt right in with the crowds while Groovy Girl was left hanging with her mouth open for many sites including the huge billboards and lights in Times Square.

Also it is Freezing here so the weather is pretty much the same as Iowa.

Weekend Cooking; Rhubarb, sweet rhubarb

Even though the calendar says June Iowa is experiencing spring weather. I have a light sweater on as I type. Our old brick house stands on a very shady lot and our house is usually cool inside but this cool and rainy weather is throwing our growing season off a bit. While the farmers are unhappy I’m happy to slow down our growing time as there are two spring crops that I adore; asparagus and rhubarb. Asparagus is pretty easy to enjoy plucked straight out of the earth but rhubarb takes some time in the kitchen to bring out its essence.

My mom made me a rhubarb cake a few weeks ago; it was delicious but she didn’t leave me the recipe and I wouldn’t want to repeat anyway but I had several bags of rhubarb from my mom and my friend Janice that needed to be dealt with before we leave on vacation. I know, I know I could have stuck them in the freezer to deal with later but frankly that felt like a cop-out. I do well under pressure.

Two years ago when we had the pleasure of vacationing on The Outer Banks, NC my mother-in-law brought the MOST delicious rhubarb-ginger jam with her for our toasting pleasure. I stumbled upon this jam recipe the other day as I went through my recipe folders. I made it that day adding almond flavoring instead of ginger because I didn’t have any. I made it again Friday night because the first batch was licked clean from its glass container. The recipe is so easy.

Try it:

Rhubarb-Ginger Jam

(makes about 5 cups)

8 cups rhubarb in 1-inch pieces

1 1/2 cups sugar

1/2 cup crystallized ginger, chopped

zest of 1 lemon

Combine the ingredients in a medium, heavy-bottomed saucepan over med.-high heat. Bring to a boil, stirring until the sugar has dissolved. Reduce the heat to medium to medium and cook at least 20 minutes (it may take a little longer) stirring often, until the mixture thickens and mounds on a spoon.

Store in the refrigerator or put in sterilized jars to can.

Changes: I used brown sugar instead of white and I didn’t have crystallized ginger but I did have ginger root so I grated it but used probably only two tablespoons.

And here is my mother-in-law’s notes: “This can be eaten warm as a compote or chilled as a jam. I suggest straight out of the jar with a spoon. It would also make a great topping for ice cream or cake.”

It is just that good. I love it on a good piece of wheat toast or straight out of the jar!

{big fat rhubarb-lemon muffins}

That took care of two bags of rhubarb but I still had one more large bag and I took that and turned it into delicious rhubarb-lemon muffins. Oh, they are so good. Groovy Girl’s comment, “The rhubarb makes them so moist and the lemon makes them tart,” as she gobbled one up for breakfast. I replaced white sugar for brown sugar in the recipe as well.

This post is linked to Beth Fish Reads Weekend Cooking meme. Click her link to find many other food-related posts. Happy eating!

First two books of summer…

I’ve been on summer break for four days so far and I’ve finished two fantastic books. I’ve also deep cleaned parts of my house that are regularly forgotten. I made a few delicious meals while my stepdaughter was here. I’m also packing for our upcoming trip to the East Coast. In between all that I managed to finish these two:

Defending Jacob (2012) by William Landay is our book club choice for June. I won’t be here for the gathering but the book was so highly recommended by my friend Sue that I had to read it anyway. One morning I was reading it at the breakfast table and after checking out the cover she said “That does not look like your kind of book Mama.” She’s right…The cover looks adult and mysterious; not fun but read it I did and loved it. Perfect reason to be in a book club as I’m pushed to read outside my normal reading zone.

The story, narrated by Andy Barber, assistant DA, revolves around the murder of a young man, a classmate of Barber’s son, Jacob. Andy is a loving father and a great lawyer and eventually both those attributes are called into question as his son is arrested for the boy’s murder. This is a precise look at what can happen to a family when they are pushed to the brink of despair. Defending Jacob is filled with plot twists and interesting character portrayals. Landay is a former District Attorney himself so the courtroom drama and lawyer speak is accurate and intense.

Sample:

“Worse, the eighth graders at the McCormick were not especially competent liars. Some of them, the more shameless ones, seemed to believe that the way to pass off a lie convincingly was to oversell it. So, when they got ready to tell a particularly tall one, they would stop all the foot-shuffling and y’knows, and deliver the lie with maximum conviction. It was as if they had read a manual on behaviors associated with honestly-eye contact! firm voice!-and were determined to display them all at once, like peacocks fanning their tail feathers.” (48-49)

If you are looking for a great crime story Landay’s book is definitely worth reading. It would make a great Father’s Day gift for a mystery buff.

Same is true of Boy Still Missing (2001) by John Searles. My husband read this and couldn’t stop chatting with me about it. At my last book club meeting he even mentioned it to them with a slight tone that eventually I would get to it on my PILE. So after I finished Defending Jacob I shocked him by picking Boy Still Missing next off the large stack. I read it in under a week and will add John Searles to my growing list of favorite authors. He told a most interesting story without bogging it down with too much detail and he seamlessly snuck in some important feminist rhetoric weaving it right into the story.

Dominick helps his mother track down his wayward father whether the father is out drinking or sleeping it off with a trail of women. Dominick gets caught up with one of his father’s cast-off girlfriends, Edie, and his life is forever changed as he turns his back on the mother that needs him. His chance encounter with Jeanny, a young protestor for change, pulls him back to earth as he struggles with the direction his life has taken. Sexual explicit details make it not for everyone but fit with Dominick’s experiences.

Sample:

“I peeled back the rug where I had been skimming money for the last two months. Ever since the radiator broke, most of the usual smells of our apartment-canned food, cooked beef, furniture polish-had been muted. But beneath the rug the musty earth scent was as strong as ever. I grabbed three stiff hundred-dollar bills and shoved them into the pocket of my sweatshirt. ‘Just a few Bennies,’ I said under my breath, thinking it sounded cool.” (51)

Both stories feature young men as they struggle through rough times. Boy Still Missing is told from Dominick’s point-of-view and Defending Jacob is shared from his father’s narration. Both have unexpected surprises in store for the reader.

Last week I took both College Boy and Groovy Girl to our local library to check out books for summer and our approaching vacation. I found The Red Book by Deborah Copaken Kogan which I started late last night and continued reading early this morning before I hoisted myself out of bed for some yoga and breakfast. Ahh, summer sleep-ins are treasures.

What's up?

Boy did May fly by or what? I cannot believe the last time I posted we were in Green Bay, WI. Since that wonderful trip we’ve had many graduation open houses (lots of food), baby showers (more food), and two weddings (more food and drink). For all this extra food and drink one might hope I’d done extra yoga. Sadly no. I’m too tired from all that extra food and drink and over scheduling.

I hosted book club two weeks ago, in fact the day after we returned from Green Bay. I like to host book club with something special and this time in connection with our book, The Snow Child, I made adult snow cones. If you’ve read this book you know the two mothers in the book often relax together with some homemade hootch and I replicated that idea with my own. I took a little from several different online recipes, waded through many snow cone pins and came up with a basil-infused simple syrup, mixed with a lemon-lime vodka and a twist of raspberry puree mix to give it a two-toned affect. Groovy Girl churned snow from ice cubes in a borrowed snow cone maker and I layered the mixture over. We had about six or seven pre-made drinks served in martini glasses and waiting in the freezer for the guests to arrive. This made it easy to hand them out as people shed their coats. We’d also stock piled some extra “snow” so all I had to do was pour over the lemon-lime mixture and the fruit puree.

{source}

I did not take any pictures although I should have. The book club members said they liked them and asked for more. We had a great time discussing this book as we sipped our icy drinks. We all liked the fairy tale quality mixed with the harsh background of 1930″s Alaska. I look forward to more from Eowyn Ivey. According to Good Reads she has another book in the works, something to do with wolves. I hope that is another fairy tale connection.

{King Arthur Flour}

I also hosted the first annual Memorial Day waffle breakfast for my friends Rocky and Mary Kay. The greatest part of hosting a casual brunch is that I stayed in my red plaid flannel pajamas for pretty much the whole day. I’m not one to wear my comfy’s all over town EVER but on a day off from school it just felt right. The waffles were delicious. My kids are little foodies when it comes to waffle or pancake toppings. The middle of the table was filled with fresh whipped cream, syrup, my Pampered Chef sprinkler filled with powdered sugar, peanut butter, TJ’s chocolate almond spread, a cinnamon shaker, and a bowl of sliced, fresh strawberries with just a little bit of sugar sprinkled on top. Oh, the possibilities were endless and you needed to have more than one waffle to try new combinations. The perfect a accompaniment was our white wine and orange juice mimosas served in new glasses, a gift from MK.

So we’ve been doing a lot of eating around here. I have a hard core yoga boot camp planned for this week to counterattack. Now that I’m technically done with school I can focus on other projects for a bit. {jumping up and down mentally for the end of this school year}

After The Snow Child I read the ARC of The Real Boy by Anne Ursu (loved it) and Defending Jacob by William Landry (excellent mystery!) -all reviews to come. My summer plan includes more reading mixed with my yoga boot camp.

Happy June!

Weekend Cooking; The Accidental Vegetarian by Simon Rimmer

Breezed through our one and only bookstore in the Cedar Valley to get a gift card for Groovy Girl’s birthday sleepover this weekend I couldn’t help checking out the front shelf of sale cookbooks. I left with a gift card and Simon Rimmer’s beautiful looking book The Accidental Vegetarian (2004). Don’t those stuffed pimento peppers look delicious on the front cover? I thought so.

I glanced through it quickly before I purchased and several recipes caught my attention like the Black bean and eggplant chili, the eggplant tikka masala, and the Lemon grass risotta with lime leaf tapenade. I don’t know if I can find lime leaves but I’m going to try. Even though Simon is English the recipes are written with American measurements (thankfully) and most seem to have easy to find ingredients.

There are six recipe sections, dips and morsels, salads, small platefuls, big platefuls, side dishes, and desserts. Every few pages a lovely photo illustration is included-nice up close and big so you can really see what the food looks like. The instructions are easy to follow and numbered. I’m going to make the Pumpkin enchiladas with mole sauce when I get home. I love the idea of making my own mole sauce and that I can use a really beautiful butternut squash sitting on my counter. There are tons of eggplant recipes which I love and many ethnic-inspired dishes. The salad section bowled me over with varieties of combinations like Coronation chickpeas and potato salad or the Santa Fe Caesar salad both sound delicious.

As College Boy starts his journey this summer, leaving us for the beautiful Colorado scene, I will be happy to return to more vegetarian cooking. I won’t lose sight of our new enjoyment of local meats but his desire for more meaty meals was what pushed me in that direction in the first place. Groovy Girl is less about the meat and more about simple meals and she loves sweet potatoes!

I know I am going to love this slender soft cover cookbook-I’m so glad I threw caution to the wind and shelled out $7.00 for this one. Find Simon on Twitter @simonrim

In other cooking news my mom gave me a subscription to bon appetit and I wasn’t so sure about it at first but I’ve loved looking through the last few copies. I love that they have family friendly recipes and lots of cooking tips. Thanks mom! This one works. Monday night I am making a Radish and white bean salad for book club featured in the April edition.

{Handsome Husband}

As I type this I’m sitting in a mediocre hotel near the airport in Green Bay, WI while my husband goes for his two-mile pre-race run. Tomorrow he runs the GB Marathon and I will meet up with him at certain locations to cheer him on (make sure he is still breathing…). We’ve traveled to quite a few U.S. destinations based on marathon races. Today though we are going out to explore. We found out that Natural Ovens is not far and we loved their bread when we lived in Chicago so we are going on a tour and buying spree. It also sits close to Lake Michigan and I always love being around large bodies of water. We’ve also heard a rumor of a local brewery we plan to check out. I also would love to find a great cheese shop. Much to do, so little time…

This post is linked with Beth Fish Reads Weekend Cooking meme. Click her link to locate many other wonderful food-related posts. Happy weekend.

Museum of Thieves (great little chapter book)

I bought this one awhile ago at the Fall Scholastic Book Fair and catalogued (one of the talents I have as I have a Library Science degree) it into the library. I read a few pages and knew it was going to be good. Then I set it down and went about my business.

I picked it back up two years later. None of the kiddos were reading it so I had to investigate further and I loved it. I’m ready for the second one to come around, which upon investigation is out and so is the 3rd one! This is the bonus of reading books before you recommend them; this morning I had a student come in looking for something “mysterious”-I handed her this one and told her to give it a try.

Synopsis:

Welcome to the tyrannical city of Jewel, where impatience is a sin and boldness is crime. Goldie Roth has lived in Jewel all her life. Like every child in the city, she wears a silver guardchain and is forced to obey the dreaded Blessed Guardians. She has never done anything by herself and won’t be allowed out on the streets unchained until her Separation Day.

When Separation Day is cancelled, Goldie, who has always been both impatient and bold, runs away, risking not only her own life but also the lives of those she has left behind. In the chaos that follows, she is lured to the mysterious Museum of Dunt, where she meets the boy Toadspit and discovers terrible secrets. {back cover}

I have post-it notes littered throughout the book of quotes I just couldn’t resist:

But she (Olga Ciavolga) was smiling when she turned back to Goldie. “But there are some things, child, that you should steal, if you have enough love and courage in your heart. You must snatch freedom from the hands of the tyrant. You must spirit away innocent lives before they are destroyed. You must hide secret and sacred places.” {122-123}

There are different sorts of fear, she (Goldie) realized that now. There was the fear of having a musket held to your head, or having black oily water try to snatch you into its depths. There was nothing easy about that fear. It made your heart nearly tear itself out of your chest, and weakened the long bones in your legs so that you could barely stand. It made you want to vomit with fright.
But there was another sort of fear, the fear that you would never be allowed to be who you really were. The fear that you true self would have to stay squashed up, like a caged bird, for the rest of your life. That fear was worse than any soldier. {179}

and one more…

“The museum should never have become so full of wild and dangerous things,” said Sinew. “But the people of Jewel are like Guardian Hope, with her planks and hammers. They tried to nail life down. they wanted to be completely safe and happy at all times. The trouble is, the world just isn’t like that. You can’t have high mountains without deep valleys. You can’t have great happiness without great sadness. The world is never still. It moves from one thing to another, back and forth, back and forth, like a butterfly opening and closing it’s wings.” {197}

Goldie is a brave young girl who listens to her inner voice which takes her places she’d have never thought to venture otherwise. Her and Toadspit try to think through how to solve the problems they face. They are surrounded by interesting adults who guide them. What’s not to love??

Lian Tanner’s Website-with games for the museum!
Random House fun website for this series.

Happy Friday!

Exhausting Mother's Day events

What a day we’ve had. It began with my beautiful Groovy Girl sobbing because I woke up before her and she wanted to wake me up with breakfast in bed. She did not read my blog post from yesterday (or ever) but I did get that menu exactly sans orange juice as there was none in the refrigerator. She only made me breakfast once I convinced her that I would fall back to sleep, which I did {wink} until she left and then I read under the covers until I heard her creeping back up with the tray.

It was youth Sunday at church so both my children read and or sang and after church we headed to a rabbit show. Yes, we have one little dwarf bunny but that is a post for another day. We went just looking for ideas to build a bunny hutch for outside.

Driving home we decided to ride our bikes to a local restaurant for lunch which was so relaxing and enjoyable as we can watch the bike path traffic in a very green area. It was cool but sunny as we pedaled to and fro. We had a delicious lunch and I enjoyed a spicy Bloody Mary with my fish tacos. Perfecto.

I seriously planned on taking a little nap once we made it back up our driveway but my front garden needed weeding and my husband needed help with the mower which wouldn’t start. So I slipped on my garden shoes and it was like they had wings. For the next three hours we got a lot of yard work done. We weeded the front garden which has been a project for the last two years after we pulled up three huge {ugly} evergreen bushes. Everything I’ve planted in this front part is a perennial and are mostly flowering bushes or herbs. Last year I transplanted a rhubarb plant from the back yard to the front and it looks great.

We then rolled our compost ball over to the far side of our rectangle garden plot and my husband dug down in three feet wide trenches so we could deposit compost under good top soil. It was back-bending work as he piled the dirt back and I scooped and deposited the compost. We got the entire garden turned and our compost ball is fairly empty. Starting over fresh.

We took a small break from turning dirt to linseed oil the small free library my step-father made and gave me for Christmas. It’s been living on the floor of our living room since then and now is the time to get it outside. My husband and son have a hole already dug for it and a post ready to go in the ground. Stay tuned for more of the project later.

We’ve had a small pool awaiting us for another backyard project and we just weren’t tired out enough yet so we {all three of us} dug the hole for the plastic pool. We still need a pump to make it lively but the first step of the project is complete. Amazing how a little sunshine and fresh air will motivate us!

Enjoy the photos to prove all we accomplished.