March Reads
I had been in the queue for this book from the library for about 6 months since a friend recommended it. After picking it up, it still took me a bit of time to start reading it and I even had to override my due dates. But I figured I'd just swallow the fines and read on, because it was a good one.
The book chronicles the food adventures of Kingsolver and her family as they seek to eat just local, available food for one year. There is plenty of information about why this kind of approach is useful, with parts contributed by both her husband and daughter. One thing I think Kingsolver managed to do was to avoid getting preachy: she fully understood that not everyone has a couple of acres of arable land in Virginia upon which to raise all manner of fruits, vegetables and turkeys. To still inspire, there are ideas and ways in which those in urban places can obtain food without it having to have been trucked miles and miles and miles away. (In some cases, that means growing it yourself; in others, it means asking your grocer where things come from and just buying the stuff nearby.) All in all, a recommended read: you get to learn about turkey copulation, why heirloom seeds are a great idea, and why 'tomato' can become a dirty word, and that living without bananas ain't so bad, after all.
My other non-fiction reading this month has been a mixed-bag of potty training ideas, pregnancy info (it's amazing what I forgot from the first time around) and a swath of curricular stuff for school. But I did run back to my current ficitional fave and completed two more Fforde books, but this time from a new series. The Nursery Crime Mysteries stem from the plots of the Thursday Next novel and Fforde has all his lovely puns, allusions and satire. I really appreciate how this guys is willing to engage with the reader and have fun with his own stories, like making fun of plot holes within his own plots or directly (though subtly) addressing the reader. So go read them!
And now, I must get off to work soon. I though my cold was regressing, silly me, and I could take another day off today without a guilty conscience at all. But no. Preparing for my sub is more work than going. And so I go. Cheers.
The book chronicles the food adventures of Kingsolver and her family as they seek to eat just local, available food for one year. There is plenty of information about why this kind of approach is useful, with parts contributed by both her husband and daughter. One thing I think Kingsolver managed to do was to avoid getting preachy: she fully understood that not everyone has a couple of acres of arable land in Virginia upon which to raise all manner of fruits, vegetables and turkeys. To still inspire, there are ideas and ways in which those in urban places can obtain food without it having to have been trucked miles and miles and miles away. (In some cases, that means growing it yourself; in others, it means asking your grocer where things come from and just buying the stuff nearby.) All in all, a recommended read: you get to learn about turkey copulation, why heirloom seeds are a great idea, and why 'tomato' can become a dirty word, and that living without bananas ain't so bad, after all.
My other non-fiction reading this month has been a mixed-bag of potty training ideas, pregnancy info (it's amazing what I forgot from the first time around) and a swath of curricular stuff for school. But I did run back to my current ficitional fave and completed two more Fforde books, but this time from a new series. The Nursery Crime Mysteries stem from the plots of the Thursday Next novel and Fforde has all his lovely puns, allusions and satire. I really appreciate how this guys is willing to engage with the reader and have fun with his own stories, like making fun of plot holes within his own plots or directly (though subtly) addressing the reader. So go read them!
And now, I must get off to work soon. I though my cold was regressing, silly me, and I could take another day off today without a guilty conscience at all. But no. Preparing for my sub is more work than going. And so I go. Cheers.
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