Grand Plans

Daily Dose /

I’m used to TW coming up with grand plans and big ideas. I have a strategy for handling that. What I’m not used to is my mother coming up with grand ideas and big plans.

When I saw a NY Times email forward from my mom I almost didn’t click it – I don’t really feel like doing much work today and I figured she had a suggestion for a BlogHer blog post or something. The link, after all, was about Terrariums making a comeback – which is kind of a neat idea for a BlogHer editor. But, the first line of my mother’s email – the one right before the link – that confused me.

Let’s make these next month. Doesn’t it sound like fun?

For awhile, I thought maybe she meant to send this to my sister. She lives in the same city with my sister. My sister has young children. This seemed like a message not intended for me. I puzzled over it. Closed the email. Went about my business. But that message stuck with me. What was she talking about? I went back to my inbox and I clicked the link. Nice terrariums. I closed it. Pondered it some more. Has she gone just a little bit senile? Should I call my siblings and find out if they’ve noticed anything – weird – like this email to me?

And then it hit me.

She’ll be here, at my house, next month. July is next month. And she thinks making terrariums while she’s here sounds like fun!(?)

Wait until TW and Michelle hear about this. Won’t THAT be fun? Also, anyone know where I can find small glass jars, to use for terrariums, in the Northern Suburbs of Chicago?

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Curtains: Adventures of an Undertaker in Training

2010, Books in Bed, Non-Fiction /

I had high hopes for Curtains: Adventures of an Undertaker in Training – it wasn’t bad, I just didn’t find it quite as interesting or compelling as Stiff. TW seemed to appreciate it more than I did – and when she read it, we ended up having an awful lot of discussions about plans for her death. Err I mean plans for her body after death. She’s sure that Prince J should be the one to manage her affairs after she’s gone – which insulted RJ – and made me laugh out loud. It made Prince J stare blankly at her – which is why I laughed out loud. I just can’t picture it…  I can, however, picture her being cremated and having her ashes placed in “bottle urns” and hung from a bottle tree.

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Julie and Julia

2 Comments / 2010, Books in Bed, cookbooks, Favorites, Non-Fiction, Women /

It’s weird, I really didn’t have any desire to read Julie and Julia. I don’t know why, the book has everything I like – food blogger, grand ideas, Julia freaking Child. So why didn’t I want to read it? I don’t know, it was probably the hype that turned me off. I only read it because a) I saw it on the shelf, in large print, and thought TW’s mom would like it b) TW’s mom said it was “weird” and it didn’t make sense to her that someone would do such a project c) TW’s mother raised TW who would CERTAINLY think up something like this – and carry it through.

I couldn’t NOT read it after hearing TW’s mom talk about it.

Turns out this was a horrible book for TW’s mom. She doesn’t do the F word and lord, the F word is all over the book. I think had this not been the case, she’d have probably had a different reaction. (TW’s mom would totally be one of those “bleaders” who gave Julie shit for her language.)

I, on the otherhand, loved every word of it. Every single word. Well the killing of the lobsters made me kind of queasy but that’s to be expected. Lots of the recipes made me queasy – that’s a lot of mess, a lot of work, a lot of crazy food that I really do not want to eat. But… the project… pure brilliance. And the writing, fun. Fun, fun, fun.

I’m so glad I read it. (I’m sorry though to hear that Robert, the dog Julie and Eric adopted post-project, passed away a couple of months ago. I was irrationally sad about that when I saw it on her blog last night.)

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The Double Comfort Safari Club

2010, Audiobooks, Books in Bed, Favorites, Fiction, Women /

We always listen to the Ladies #1 Detective Agency books on audio. It’s a tradition. Thankfully, my reserved copy arrived really quickly and we didn’t have to wait long. (Oddly, the day I picked up the reserve copy in audio, I saw a large print copy just sitting on the shelf – that would never have happened at my old library! I grabbed it for TW’s mom – she’s not a fan, apparently…)

We enjoyed The Double Comfort Safari Club, as expected. There wasn’t enough storyline from the apprentices, hopefully the next one will include them a wee bit more. Violet was back and wreaking havoc, of course. Grace got a new pair of shoes. And in the end everything was as it should be in Botswana.

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The Brontes Went to Woolworths

2 Comments / 2010, Books in Bed, Classics, Favorites, Meme, Women /

The Brontes Went to Woolworths is one of those books I’ve wanted to read but couldn’t find easily on the shelf – or at the library. I ended up buying the Bloomsbury edition though I wish I had a Virago like Sassymonkey has. Sniff.

When I needed to choose three books for the 1930’s Mini Challenge, this was the first one on my list. It would give me a good excuse to break down and buy it since my libraries have never been cooperative. When I started to read it, I was afraid I’d made a mistake. I knew it was going to be a farce but those first five pages were downright confusing and I was having trouble relaxing and just going with it. Whatever it was. That was the problem really, I couldn’t tell what was real, what was made up and what I was supposed to know was real or made up. I felt like one of the poor Governesses in the book.

After those first ten pages, I did settle into the characters and it was all fun. The Bronte Sisters, Toddy and Lady Toddington, the works – amusing maybe because I live in a house where people make up elaborate sagas all of the time – and then play them like they are real. Yep, we definitely live in a “fun house” around here.

And with that  – my 1930s Mini Challenge is complete. It was fun. Three great books that I’ve wanted to read  – finally read. I’m glad I joined.

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Miriam’s Kitchen

1 Comment / 2010, Books in Bed, cookbooks, Favorites, Non-Fiction, Women /

I never would have read Miriam’s Kitchen had it not been for Sassymonkey’s post, Miriam’s Kitchen and Mine –  and tweets. And even then, if someone hadn’t nicely nominated it for BlogHer Voice of the Week, I might have skimmed and really missed something good.

I’m not a foodie and I don’t have those family memory food experiences that are always the basis of food memoirs. I’ve read so many Jewish memoirs that I don’t go out of my way to read more – not because they aren’t important or well written or I don’t enjoy them, but because I sometimes feel like those stories are becoming diluted for me and that’s not what should happen. So many words all melded together, I’m losing the individual story and find myself lumping it all into one massive trauma. Anyway, enough of that…

Miriam’s Kitchen is something you should run out right now and buy or reserve at your library. If you don’t – you will be missing something special. It may have been simply that I like food memoirs. Or it could be that I like grandmothers. Or also that I was reading it right around Shavuot and we’d been talking about celebration, spring harvest, dairy (who doesn’t love dairy?) and Ruth – which is an even bigger (WHO DOESN’T LOVE RUTH??)

Whatever it was – it all worked for me. Every story. Every question. Every recipe.

I’d happily own this one – but I would ask TW to just not put raisins in my cheesecake. That – that doesn’t work for me.

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