Bread and Wine is a RevGals read for Lent. A couple of Advents ago, my spiritual director suggested "lingering" with whatever word or verse struck me in the psalter - rather than plow on until the end.
This season, I'm lingering in that way with the daily readings from Bread and Wine. The words upon which I've been caught today?
Wangerin "In Mirrors": the mirror of dangerous grace
Friday, February 08, 2008
Book Meme from Terrapin Station
Mary Beth at Terrapin Station has tagged me for this meme...
Which book do you irrationally cringe away from reading, despite seeing only positive reviews?
Tomes by candidates for office - whether I support them or not!
If you could bring three characters to life for a social event (afternoon tea, a night of clubbing, perhaps a world cruise), who would they be and what would the event be?
Miles Vorksogian (Lois Bujold's short, but concentrated creation); Daav yos’Phelium of Clan Korval (Sharon Lee and Steve Miller elegantly cynical interplanetary scout); Mary Russell (the brilliant woman Laurie King gave Sherlock Holmes' as a wife) - if one of them could not make it, Blackie Ryan from Andrew Greeley's imagination. Dinner and conversation late into the night, with good food and wine and an incredible chocolate dessert.
(Borrowing shamelessly from the Thursday Next series by Jasper Fforde): you are told you can't die until you read the most boring novel on the planet. While this immortality is great for awhile, eventually you realise it's past time to die. Which book would you expect to get you a nice grave?
Ack...I can read almost anything and enjoy it! The Name of the Rose?
Come on, we've all been there. Which book have you pretended, or at least hinted, that you've read, when in fact you've been nowhere near it?
This is too close to home. A few weeks back, when dropping off my oldest for his youth group meeting, I got drafted to lead a discussion on the novel "To Kill A Mockingbird" -- which I've never read, or even seen the movie! I had 5 minutes to prepare for a 90 minute sesion- even Cliff's notes weren't going to get me through this. Thankfully, the kids had all read the book in school, and we watched clips from the Gregory Peck movie, so I had something to work with. Once the kids were going, I mostly had to referee. But I'm sure if you asked them, they were left with the impression that I'd read the book!
As an addition to the last question, has there been a book that you really thought you had read, only to realise when you read a review about it/go to 'reread' it that you haven't? Which book?
Like Mary Beth, I have a good memory for books, so I can't remember this happening to me.
You've been appointed Book Advisor to a VIP (who's not a big reader). What's the first book you'd recommend and why? (if you feel like you'd have to know the person, go ahead of personalise the VIP)
Sherlock Holmes - the stories are short and compelling, and they invite (and reward) careful reading!
A good fairy comes and grants you one wish: you will have perfect reading comprehension in the foreign language of your choice. Which language do you go with?
Can I pick two?? I'd love to be a better reader of Latin!! And my Spanish is fluent enough, so I pick French --- all the better to read romances?!
A mischievious fairy comes and says that you must choose one book that you will reread once a year for the rest of your life (you can read other books as well). Which book would you pick?
Gerard Manley Hopkins' Poems
I know that the book blogging community, and its various challenges, have pushed my reading borders. What's one bookish thing you 'discovered' from book blogging (maybe a new genre, or author, or new appreciation for cover art-anything)?
Some new authors (Julia Spencer-Fleming), poetry (Mary Oliver's Thirst)...
That good fairy is back for one final visit. Now, she's granting you your dream library! Describe it. Is everything leatherbound? Is it full of first edition hardcovers? Pristine trade paperbacks? Perhaps a few favourite authors have inscribed their works? Go ahead-let your imagination run free.
Auto-reshelving and cataloging!! Somewhere I read that you can track up to about 10,000 volumes in your head, but after that a catalog is helpful. We have only about 5,000 in the family collection, but I still long for more organization! Oh, and one of those wonderful sliding ladders would be awesome....
Who to tag?? Postcards from Ann Arbor should give this one a fly, and anyone else who'd like to play, let us know in the comments!!
Which book do you irrationally cringe away from reading, despite seeing only positive reviews?
Tomes by candidates for office - whether I support them or not!
If you could bring three characters to life for a social event (afternoon tea, a night of clubbing, perhaps a world cruise), who would they be and what would the event be?
Miles Vorksogian (Lois Bujold's short, but concentrated creation); Daav yos’Phelium of Clan Korval (Sharon Lee and Steve Miller elegantly cynical interplanetary scout); Mary Russell (the brilliant woman Laurie King gave Sherlock Holmes' as a wife) - if one of them could not make it, Blackie Ryan from Andrew Greeley's imagination. Dinner and conversation late into the night, with good food and wine and an incredible chocolate dessert.
(Borrowing shamelessly from the Thursday Next series by Jasper Fforde): you are told you can't die until you read the most boring novel on the planet. While this immortality is great for awhile, eventually you realise it's past time to die. Which book would you expect to get you a nice grave?
Ack...I can read almost anything and enjoy it! The Name of the Rose?
Come on, we've all been there. Which book have you pretended, or at least hinted, that you've read, when in fact you've been nowhere near it?
This is too close to home. A few weeks back, when dropping off my oldest for his youth group meeting, I got drafted to lead a discussion on the novel "To Kill A Mockingbird" -- which I've never read, or even seen the movie! I had 5 minutes to prepare for a 90 minute sesion- even Cliff's notes weren't going to get me through this. Thankfully, the kids had all read the book in school, and we watched clips from the Gregory Peck movie, so I had something to work with. Once the kids were going, I mostly had to referee. But I'm sure if you asked them, they were left with the impression that I'd read the book!
As an addition to the last question, has there been a book that you really thought you had read, only to realise when you read a review about it/go to 'reread' it that you haven't? Which book?
Like Mary Beth, I have a good memory for books, so I can't remember this happening to me.
You've been appointed Book Advisor to a VIP (who's not a big reader). What's the first book you'd recommend and why? (if you feel like you'd have to know the person, go ahead of personalise the VIP)
Sherlock Holmes - the stories are short and compelling, and they invite (and reward) careful reading!
A good fairy comes and grants you one wish: you will have perfect reading comprehension in the foreign language of your choice. Which language do you go with?
Can I pick two?? I'd love to be a better reader of Latin!! And my Spanish is fluent enough, so I pick French --- all the better to read romances?!
A mischievious fairy comes and says that you must choose one book that you will reread once a year for the rest of your life (you can read other books as well). Which book would you pick?
Gerard Manley Hopkins' Poems
I know that the book blogging community, and its various challenges, have pushed my reading borders. What's one bookish thing you 'discovered' from book blogging (maybe a new genre, or author, or new appreciation for cover art-anything)?
Some new authors (Julia Spencer-Fleming), poetry (Mary Oliver's Thirst)...
That good fairy is back for one final visit. Now, she's granting you your dream library! Describe it. Is everything leatherbound? Is it full of first edition hardcovers? Pristine trade paperbacks? Perhaps a few favourite authors have inscribed their works? Go ahead-let your imagination run free.
Auto-reshelving and cataloging!! Somewhere I read that you can track up to about 10,000 volumes in your head, but after that a catalog is helpful. We have only about 5,000 in the family collection, but I still long for more organization! Oh, and one of those wonderful sliding ladders would be awesome....
Who to tag?? Postcards from Ann Arbor should give this one a fly, and anyone else who'd like to play, let us know in the comments!!
Thursday, February 07, 2008
All who hunger
Yesterday was a day of fast for many - including me. Shopping a couple of weeks ago I realized that it had been years since my budget really controlled what I ate. In graduate school, I worried whether the budget would stretch that week for meat sauce with the pasta and lasagna, with all that cheese, was a luxury meal, not the freezer stand-by it is today. Steak? Something I hoped my mother might have if I appeared for Sunday dinner...My sense of wonder at the abundance in my pantry has faded over the years, and these days my weekly grocery concerns swirl around how to limit the calories and sodium in my cart while simultaneously increasing the fiber and calcium (it's an age thing, I know). Do I remember what it is like to hunger for something? to savor the tastes when they came? to desire something so much I would surrender everything for it?
So I fast, to learn again what it means to hunger. To savor. To desire.
The photo is of the latest batch of oatmeal bread. Now on the regular baking rota - which has ramped up as I've given up meat for Lent and so bread and cheese are making more frequent appearances on my dinner plate.
Sunday, February 03, 2008
Roux the Day
Barnacle Boy has been working hard to master a kid basic: mac and cheese. Not in the microwave, not from a box. A recipe that begins with butter and flour and his favorite twisty pasta boiling away. He soloed this weekend, no mom hovering over the stove, whisk in hand ready to rescue a sauce gone lumpy, not even a mom acting as his sous chef. I'm emptying the dishwasher on the other side of the kitchen, oblivious to the start of the project. "Mom, is this roux?" Huh? "Uh, yes it is. Do you know what roux is?" "A mixture of flour and butter used to thicken a sauce or soup." This said with the cadence of a Merriam-Websters special, but he is correct. "Where did you learn about roux?" iCarly - which he gets on iTunes!
For the record, his sauce was a velvety concoction, a heavenly choice on a rainy day.
For the record, his sauce was a velvety concoction, a heavenly choice on a rainy day.
Friday, February 01, 2008
Macere
A decade ago we spent a year on sabbatical in the Bay Area, living near a large agricultural area. At this time of year, the strawberries were beginning to come into season. I'd buy grapefruit and strawberries and make a fruit salad in the tiny lab kitchen from the sectioned grapefruit and the fresh berries - with a dash of something to make it sweet.This week I grocery shopped and bought both strawberries and grapefruit to reprise my 1998 lunches. I sectioned the grapefruit, then squeezed the juice by hand from the halves over the sliced berries. The oils from the skin misted over the bowl and my hands, sending memories of that wonderful year wafting across my mind. Rather than toss in my usual teaspoon of sugar, I warmed a few tablespoons of the juice with some local honey, and macerated the fruit in it. Oh...my! The scent of flowers and citrus drifted out of the bowl, as if I were standing in an orchard in full bloom.
Macerated comes from the Latin, and means to soak or soften (these days usually in alcohol) -- but it also carries connotations of stripping the flesh away. As Lent approaches, I begin to think about what I might need to strip out of my life.
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