Hello! Once again I have some recent reads and eats to share. I’ve been reading some great books lately, and have been doing some extra cooking. Starting with books…
I had an odd experience with A Spell of Winter. One day I got a notice from the library saying the hold I placed on it had come in and the book was ready to be picked up. Wait… what? I could have sworn I never heard of this book before. Apparently I must have read about it somewhere and impulsively placed a hold on it, but I have no memory of that. Oh well! I picked it up from the library.
While I was still waiting to read it, I read a short review of it on Engie’s blog describing it as a “weird little book about incest.” WHAT? WHY did I want to read this book??? I almost returned it to the library, but then figured I would just read a few pages and see what it was like.
Yes, there were parts of the book that were a little creepy and hard to read. But I LOVED it. I was immediately drawn into the story (and it wasn’t only about incest, thank goodness.) I loved the writing style so much I looked up other books by Helen Dunmore, and it turns out the others sound quite different. Exposure is a suspense novel that takes place during the cold war- I got it out of the library and am going to start it soon.
Anthony Horowitz is becoming one of my favorite mystery authors. The Twist of a Knife was one of his “Hawthorne” series, where he (Anthony Horowitz) is an actual character in the book who teams up with a detective, Hawthorne. This is the fourth book in the series and for maximum enjoyment, I think they should be read in order. This one was a quick, fun read.
My son asked for Atomic Habits for Christmas and has now passed it along to me. “Atomic” habits refers to little changes that add up to huge results. Clear explains that if you’re having trouble sticking to good habits or breaking bad ones, it’s not because you’re a lazy lump who can’t do anything right, but rather you’re just not implementing habits in the right way. A lot of things in this book I already know (Gretchen Rubin talks about the “strategy of the clean slate” for example) but it was definitely worth a read.
Moving on to food! My son is home this week for spring break, and he requires a LOT of food. The first day he was home I made a big brunch:
“Just Egg” quiche (Just Egg is a vegan egg substitute made from mung beans), tempeh bacon, hash browns, blueberry muffins and fruit. This was so good! (Quiche recipe from Nora Cooks.)
A couple hours after this brunch, my son drank a protein shake and about an hour after that asked for lunch. My stomach was still struggling to digest the brunch! Have I mentioned that my son is 6’5″? He’s always been skinny, but is now lifting weights and bulking up on calories, and he’s really starting to fill out.
Later I made an Asian feast for dinner!
It was the same Thai Yellow Coconut Curry With Mango from Minimalist Baker that I made a couple weeks ago. Once again, I added tofu and broccoli and it was DELICIOUS. I also made naan from the same website, and vegetable gyoza from Trader Joe’s. This was enough to fill us all up, although my son made a huge smoothie for himself before bed. I KNOW. He drinks a huge smoothie before bed and then sleeps like a rock for eight hours, not even waking up to pee. How is this possible???
My son is talking about spending the summer at home instead of doing a summer program, and while I’m excited at the thought of him being home all summer, I’m not quite sure how we’ll manage to feed him. I may have to get a second job.
Coming up… lots more food (of course- my son doesn’t go back to school till Sunday) and some exciting reads!
Have you read any of these books?
Are you wishing I would take a photography course and stop posting such terrible photos of my food? I know, they don’t do it justice.
19 Responses
Oh, thanks for the reminder, I need to read Atomic Habits again. It’s one of those books that I’m all enthusiastic about while reading it and then completely forget about it.
Your food pics are fine! I’m not an expert – but perhaps you could place your plates next to a bright window for better lighting? And then do some close-ups? Or maybe we just need to fly Deborah in, ha!
Catrina, I’m going to try that! Birchie was also talking about natural light.
Yes, Atomic Habits is a book that deserves more than one reading.
My sons eat like that too; it’s a constant grocery shop/ baking/ cooking situation around here. It’s unbelievable how much they can eat. My older son is into body building and my younger son wrestles, so they are both very active and constantly eating. Smoothies are very big around here too. Neither of them are vegan, so they make these gigantic smoothies with everything but the kitchen sink in them; we go through six big containers of Greek yogurt a week!
OMG Nicole, I can’t imagine having TWO of them!!! I can’t even imagine your grocery bill.
I have too many books on hold than I can read
I admit it is a relief just cooking for two.
Your son does eat a lot.
I’m a lot more hungry not running. Weird. I think it’s boredom.
Went out for Indian food last night. Yum.
Darlene, I’ve noticed that too- one time when I sprained my ankle and could barely do ANYTHING, I was starving! Maybe your body needs the calories to heal?
I love the way you think… eat more to heal faster.
That sounds like a LOT of food! How fun that your son might be home for the summer!
I am in the middle of A Twist of the Knife right now! I love this series (although, so far, I am not sure I like this one quite as much?), but I think I love Horowitz’s Susan Ryeland series more. I hope there are others in the works!
I agree- this was my least favorite Hawthorne book. The books of his I REALLY love are Magpie Murders and Moonflower Murders- I hope he does more in that style.
Well I want to come over and start eating so that’s how “terrible” your food photos are. My photos are a lot better in the summer when there’s natural daylight and awful for the other 9 months of the year. I love cooking up a batch of the gyroza and eating them with fried rice or noodles.
You’ve talked me into A Spell of Winter! I can deal with some parts being hard to read as long as there’s a good story there to balance it out. I used to request books in Libby anytime I came across something that I wanted to read, and the problem was by the time I got to the top of the hold list and finally got a book I totally forgot why I wanted to read it and couldn’t get into it. I’ve had to settle for my TBR being whatever I can remember.
Okay, I’ll be interested to hear what you think of the book! I guess I need more natural light for my food photos… I’ll have to think about that. Every place I would normally eat doesn’t get much- I might have to get more creative with my photos!
I was literally thinking to myself how GOOD all your food looked (and was even imagining how good it smelled). I’m officially hungry and want to come over with Beckett and feast.
I’ve read Atomic Habits. I really liked the book – the concept of resetting a room is something I still use regularly – but I did find there to be a lot of overlap with Gretchen Rubin’s work. I am a HUGE fan of James Clear’s weekly newsletter. I recently went through a major unsubscribing spree, but Clear’s newsletter got to stay!
Yes! I don’t subscribe to his newsletter but I’m going to start. I also have to unsubscribe to a bunch I never read. They’re all good, but I just don’t have the time.
A Spell of Winter!! Such a weird little book. The writing was SO GOOD, but that relationship between Cathy and Rob was so unexpected! I’m excited that you kept reading more books from that author. A Spell of Winter was the inaugural winner of the Women’s Prize for Fiction and I think about what that committee must have been thinking about when they chose it all the time.
Ha, yes I’m looking forward to reading a book by her that DOESN’T include incest. Although who knows- maybe all her books have uncomfortable topics. I guess I’ll find out!
I did not know that Paul is 6’5″! Are you and your husband tall? Was Paul always tall for his age or did he go through a major growth spurt at some point? I can say with certainly that my Pau will never be 6’5″. We do not have much in the way of “height genes” in our family. I’m tallish for a girl at 5’7″. My husband is 5’9 but I think he says he’s 5’10. Paul is very very petite, though. It can be easy to mix up his clothes with Will’s! One more Phil accidentally put Will’s shirt on Paul but it wasn’t obvious that he was wearing the wrong shirt! I’m impressed with how well Paul cooks!! I had no cooking skills at that age. My mom was all about efficiency so she did most of the meal prep herself. I can’t blame her since she had 5 kids to feed but I didn’t even know how to scramble an egg at Paul’s age!
I have read The 10k Doors of January but didn’t love it. But I’m not huge on the fantasy genre so I wouldn’t put much weight on my opinion.
I thought your food photos were great! That mango dish looks like something I would really like! I love mango!!
I’m 5’7″ but my husband is also 6’5″ so Paul obviously got his genes. For what it’s worth, he would rather be shorter. Being super tall really isn’t that much fun!
I can see my future of feeding my son and it looks expensive. I really liked Atomic Habits and a have a quote from it at my desk at work. I should probably reread. His weekly email is pretty good. I have been meaning to read Ten Thousands Doors of January since it came out. Looking forward to hearing what you think, as maybe that will get me to finally pick it up.
Yes, I want to start getting James Clear’s newsletter! And I’ll let you know about Ten Thousand Doors- I keep hearing about that book but am just now getting around to reading it.