Wednesday, October 07, 2009

Whatcha Readin' Wednesday -- One Week Update

Well, Cold Comfort Farm totally lived up to its promise. I'm thinking about buying a copy -- for a fan of the movie, the cover of this edition alone is worth the price. On the other hand, the book by Alys Clare is NOT a "worthy successor to Ellis Peters!" The medieval setting is adequate, so is the writing, but Clare's understanding of the period is somewhat less than zero. My suspicion is that she herself has only a hazy concept of God, and so her characters can do no better. It's a pity, because I was hoping for another series to get into. Sigh!

I have not yet started The Reach of a Chef because Arwen was here last weekend and advised me that I should read The Soul of a Chef first. I think she's right, as I am blitzing through that with enjoyment, but also noticing things that I think will be foundational in understanding Reach. And I appear to be falling into a Ruhlman vortex; I have also checked out his book Ratio, about the basic ratios of different types of cooking. For example, cookies are 1(sugar) to 2(fat) to 3(flour). Everything else is just bells and whistles. Now I know how Goldy in the Diane Mott Davidson books invents things so easily!

On another note, today I reread (as I do on this day every year) G.K. Chesterton's poem Lepanto. I have a number of "theme poems" for days of the year, and this is one of them. (Next up is In Flanders Fields.) I'll try to remember to link to each one as I read it. And now I need to stop typing and tidy up a few details before bed. Goodnight!

1 comment:

Roz said...

I think I have a copy of Cold Comfort Farm you can have. Let me know if you're interested.