Speechless

I can't think of a word strong enough to convey the fabulousness of the tasting dinner we had last night at the Birchrunville Store Cafe. Instead, I'll just share the menu and say that EVERYTHING was outstanding. I wish we had taken pictures because the presentation was almost as impressive as the food.

First course: Ahi tuna and calamari tartare

Seafood course: trio of Diver sea scallop with leek and truffle mousse, crispy bronzino with arugula pesto and tomato coulis, and jumbo lump crab cake with wasabi champagne beurre blanc

Next course: Pan seared foie gras with caramelized pear and black current port wine jus

Another course: Boneless squab breast with juniper berry reduction and red wine risotto

Yet another course: Sliced venison filet with black trumpets and creamy polenta

Dessert: Chocolate walnut brownie napoleon with caramel gelato and Fresh berry vol au vent with lemon cream

Nobody Does it Better

In the world of historical fiction, nobody does it better than Geraldine Brooks. In saying that, I’m reminded of how much I loved the novels of Rose Tremain and Pat Barker. But in my mind, Brooks’ new novel People of the Book is the quintessential historical novel because it combines interesting and important historical facts across several centuries and countries with wonderful fictional characters, a compelling story, passion, and great writing.

Hanna Heath, an Australian book conservator is offered the opportunity of a lifetime: conserving a beautifully illuminated 15th century haggadah that turns up in a library in Sarajevo in 1996, at a time when Bosnia is struggling to rebuild itself after the devastating civil war. I loved learning about the process of conserving a book like this, and how the story of the book’s creation and survival is revealed through tiny clues that Hanna finds tucked into its pages: a wine stain, sea salt, an insect wing. We travel in time from the Spanish Inquisition, through World War II and finally to the Bosnian war. And we meet courageous, as well as ordinary and despicable people. As the story of the book is revealed, so too is Hanna’s story. What she learns about her extraordinary but unloving mother, the father she has never known, the mentor she holds in such high esteem, and the man she has fallen in love with rocks her world. And all of it reveals, ultimately, who she is.

The story of the book and the survival of the haggadah also testify to the ability of people from different religious backgrounds to transcend their differences because of their common humanity. But lest the novel become weighted down with these grand themes, Brooks gives Hanna a distinctive fresh voice and a feisty approach to the hurdles she faces, She is a memorable character in a memorable book, written by a truly gifted author.

As anyone who reads this blog will know, I am forever catching up on reviewing the books I've read. Today I'm determined to catch up, if only because the book I'm just about to finish is so fantastic that I want to get everything else out of the way. Not that some these books haven't also been great:

I started the year with three books about my favorite topic: food. The Omnivore's Dilemma by Michael Pollan is a great and truly important book. I was already a convert to the 'grow locally' movement before reading this book, but I loved the way Pollan makes his case so convincingly, yet so personally. The middle section about Joel Salatin's sustainable farm was a revelation. I was even moved to write to the farmer who raises the organic beef that Garrett & I have gotten to love (Tussock Sedge ) to find out if her beef is grass fed or corn finished (it's both), and she told me that she was also reading The Omnivore's Dilemma, and that they will be finishing some of their steers with grass this year as a test.

Then, for a totally about face, I read Julia Child's My Life in France (with Alex Prud'Homme). She tells a lively and fascinating story about what she went through with her co-authors to get Mastering the Art of French Cooking written and published. It's also sort of a love story about her marriage to Paul Child, about whom I did not know much. Upon finishing the book, I got out my tattered copy of Mastering, thinking I would try some of the classic recipes she talked about in the book. But alas, they are just too heavy, fat-laden, and complicated for my style of cooking. When I wanted to make something delicious with chicken, instead I got out Marcella Hazan's Essentials of Classic Italian Cooking. Her recipes are always delicious and usually fairly simple, which I love.

Next, I read The Tenth Muse: My Life in Food by Judith Jones. Interestingly, she was the editor for both Child's and Hazan's books as well as for a number of other classic cookbooks, including one of my favorite's, Irene Kuo's The Key to Chinese Cooking. Jones shares her delightful adventures with a great many different influential chefs from all different cultures over the years, which I found very interesting, although I wish she had shared a little more of herself in the book. She makes being an editor sound like the greatest job in the world, and I guess it has been for her.

Mixed in with all these food books, I read three novels. Needing something to read for the train ride home one day, I stopped into the book store and picked up The Gathering by Anne Enright, which won the Man Booker Prize in 2007. I can find practically nothing good to say about this book. I found the writing to be cryptic and difficult and the characters were all unlikeable. I won't spend any more time talking about it.

For my book club, I read Love Walked In by Marisa de los Santos. I had mixed feelings about this book; loved the overall message and really liked the writing style and story. But the resolution to the story was unbelievable and way too convenient and some of the characters too one-dimensional and "perfect." I actually liked the book much better after our bookclub discussion. This is a feel-good book to counter all the tragic and depressing books out there (although there is tragedy AND depression in this book!), and it's a good and easy read.

I'll finish these mini-reviews with Amanda Eyre Ward's Forgive Me. This is Ward's third novel and I have really liked all of them. What I love about her writing is that she tackles not-very-pleasant topics (this time, apartheid),has three-dimensional, interesting, and flawed characters, and leaves many questions unanswered. The main character in this book, Nadine, is a journalist constantly in search of danger. I had a hard time relating to her and thought a lot of her stories were cliche, but in the end I thought Ward did a fantastic job of portraying how complicated things like love and forgiveness can be.