Beach Book Bag

I belong to the annoying tribe of people who feel the need to be productive. At the beach completing a book offers a sense of accomplishment, provided you choose your reading well. Beach reading cannot be too heavy  (I don't think this is the time to start Proust) but it cannot be blatantly trashy. Here is my list that got me through July in the city, a week of sandy beach and I expect will take me through to seaside girls weekend in September.  

You cannot go wrong with the tried and true authors. It is a shame Stella Gibbons is mainly known for Cold Comfort Farm because her books do not disappoint. Nightingale Woods is a clever Cinderella story set among 1930s gentry. Twenty-one year old widow Viola Withers is not terribly clever or sparkling, but you cannot help rooting for her. Read it! And let's hope more of Ms. Gibbon's books come back to print.

Fair warning - Brunelleschi's Dome is not strictly speaking a beach read, but you will learn a lot about Renaissance architecture. Ok, it is not a beach read at all, but it is short and feuds between capomaestros do spice things up and you really will up your ante on the construction of cathedrals earning your own esteem.

I will read anything Jasper Fforde will dish out.  This is my number #6 Thursday Next book. These books are chock full of wordplay, book jokes, and familiar characters from the classics. Did I mention it is set in book world where there is a feud between Racy Novel and Women's Fiction genres?

I am eagerly awaiting the last of Corfu trilogy by Gerald Durell. Durells are quirky, kooky, and you just want to be among those dropping in on them in their villa. There is mild Mother, bookish Lawrence, gun-toting Leslie, and perpetually obsessed with her looks Margo. The writer, Jerry at the time, is the youngest. What would it be like to spend your childhood collecting animals on the Greek Isles?

Sorcery & Cecelia is for the Austen-lovers. Two well brought up girls, one in London for the season, the other moored in the country, usual Regency fair.  Oh and there is magic, of course, nothing extreme, just some enchanted chocolate pots and charms. It is a silly little book and a good one at that.

I read Dodie Smith's I Capture the Castle a few months back, but should have saved it for the summer! Though it would be just as perfect on a chilly fall evening. Sisters Cassandra and Rose grow up rambling in a ancient castle. They are bohemian and naive. And then Cotton brothers show up. Of course.

Remember Lemony Snicket? Yes, one in the same. Daniel Handler wrote several grown up books and I am yet to read them, certainly an oversight. Adverbs is a novel written in short stories. Can't wait!

Here is last year's Summer Reading list

Charming Little Book of Stories

Don't let the title fool you, "Christmas at Cold Comfort Farm" isn't just for holiday reading. Nor is it only for lovers of Stella Gibbons - only one of the stories actually features Starkadders of the "Cold Comfort Farm" fame.  It is a lovely little book, even it has never shot up to stardom.

The book's cleverness is reason enough to pick it up...

"She felt that if she had to spend another year of interesting, congenial work during the days, and sensitive, cultured, intelligent talk in the evenings, she would go mad or die"

...and its stories are reason enough to hang on to your copy after you have finished. Though written some eight decades ago, the book does not feel like a time capsule. One protagonist struggles to balance work she loves with family happiness - sound familiar? Bohemians and sensible people are forever at odds with each other. Characters  face their choices, pressing ones and reflecting on the path they have already taken. And stories are about capacity for change, not dramatic important change, but a quiet change impacting only the intimate circle of those involved. 

This book is a rare gem. "Christmas at Cold Comfort Farm" is easy to read on a morning commute or poolside but it also has depth and subtlety. It is easy to care for its flawed characters. Without delivering dramatically happy endings most stories are satisfying in the end.   But the book also catches one by surprise as if the stories are a lens to one's own choices. 

Can you tell I enjoyed it? This one will be a tough act to follow.

Guilty-Pleasure Books

I would like to be the person that reads Proust for pleasure. But most days meaningful reading is out of the question. So I find myself on a quest for easy reads that one would not be embarrassed to hold in public or mortified to read in private (my self-esteem is still recovering from reading the first 50 pages of smutty The Other Boylen Girl). Think Pride & Prejudice and Cold Comfort Farm.

Then I found Georgette Heyer. The Grand Sophy was my gateway book. Regency Buck, The Corinthian, and Arabella followed, each with a decisive and eligible heros and heroines full of pluck What the books lack in originality of plot, they make up for in delicious twists and turns of Regency courting. Historic accuracy and correct language keep her books on the right side of tawdry.

Though Ms. Heyer was prolific, the search for more light reads continues. Next on my list are Lucia & Mapp.

Other book posts you might like:

• Books on my Nightstand 
• Uncommonly Charming Book

Quiet Magic from Scandinavia

I am kicking off the Kids Books Month with a few favorites by Scandinavian authors. Long before the Girl With a Dragon Tattoo there was Karlson-on-The-Roof. You see, Karlson, a small chubby person, flies all over Stockholm thanks to a clever little propeller on this back. He has the coziest of houses on top of a roof of a large building and befriended a very ordinary little boy who lives on the top floor. Karlson likes to defy unreasonable and authoritative housekeeper by swiping tasty Swedish meatballs and wonderful cinnamon buns fresh from the oven.

Karlson saga is by a Swedish writer Astrid Lindgren. I highly recommend exploring her magical world.

For the younger set Ms. Lindgren wrote Tomten.  It’s a quietly magical book about a little elf-like creature that creeps about talking to animals in the night on a snowy farm in the Swedish backwater.  While I grew up with Karlson, I was introduced to Tomten only recently by our friend Dina – her favorites will be featured on the blog later this month.

Final pick from prolific Astrid is Emil.  Growing up my little cousin adored Emil, a boy with innocent looks and a knack for getting in mischief.  I will be ordering a copy for my boys Binka and Bookie any day now (assuming it is in print in English!).

The Moomintrolls come by the way of Finland, though really the Moomin Valley is sovereign nation.  If you haven't met Moomintroll yet, you should. Moomins are peaceful and gentle creatures, timeless and somehow very real. Just as in Tompten there is some melancholy in the book, like a look back to the worldview of a child.

The writer Tove Jansson was also a talented artist and thanks to her illustrations we know just how a Moomin ought to look.  She also did pretty remarkable self-portraits - check out her work here.  

The stories have an ensemble cast with Sniff and Snufkin, Moominpappa and
Moominmamma, Moomintroll, Hemulen, and others.

More favorites, ours and yours, later this week!

Kids Books Month!

Today on Modern Klatch I am kicking off kids books month. I am really not sure if there is an actual month dedicated to children’s literature but October seemed like a perfect month if there ever was one. 

Thought Modern Klatch is decidedly not a ‘mommy blog’ this month is dedicated to my boys, Binka and Bookie. As you may have seen from many past posts, I enjoy books and everything about them. Though not always a disciplined reader tackling books I ought to, reading makes me happy.  Cozying up to reread an old favorite, digging through the stacks of used books, flipping through reviews in New York Times, taking kids for our usual library visit.  So the point is I want to pass on love of reading to my sons and this month Klatch will be chock full of kids books!

Please join us – I hope you will check out some of our favorites and send me your beloved titles.

It's Penguin wrapping paper!

What's On My Nightstand: Part 1

I have recently featured two nightstands or rather books stacked on top of them. It is perhaps time to share with the world the stacks, or piles if you will, by my bedside. 

I confess.  I tidied the overflowing piles of just-read, currenly-reading, and meaning-to-read books, shelving a handful.  Of course there are endless stacks of magazines and a few gems:

1. The Clothes They Stood Up In by Alan Bennett

I picked up this book because it is by Alan Bennett (who also wrote The Uncommon Reader) and because of its diminutive size no larger than a postcard. To sum up the premise: an affluent middle-aged couple returns from the opera to find their home robbed clean of everything down to the toilet paper roll.  

2. My Family and Other Animals by Gerald Durrell

I bought this book before leaving for Greece and finished it on the plane back, it just has not found a home on the book shelf yet. The author and his eccentric family leave the foggy England for sunny Corfu. Throw in a cast of local characters and a few unusual pets and the transatlantic flight does not seem quite so grueling any more.

3. The Grand Sophy by Georgette Heyer

The Grand Sophy, or I suspect any book by Georgette Heyer, certainly is not life-changing,  but it is delicious.  This turned out to be a perfect summer page-turner.  It has all the best of cheesy chick-lit but well researched historical backdrop and decent writing elevate it to respectable status.

4. Possession by A.S. Byatt

In contrast to The Grand Sophy, Possession is the literary equivalent of a graduate course chock full of Victorian poetry, Breton legends, and obsessive academics. This book deserves a Klatch post of its own!

5. Cold Comfort Farm by Stella Gibbons

A parody at its best with yet another colorful cast of characters (what is it with the British?). There is preaching head of household Amos Starkadder, his sons Reuben and playboy Seth. Granny Ada Doom ever leaves her room and goes on about having seen “something nasty in the woodshed.” Why isn’t this on the required reading list at schools?

More about the rest of the books on the table next time!

What's on Chef's Bookshelf?

Last time Chef Matt visited the Klatch, we talked about underappreciated ingredients. Today Chef Matt shares some of his "go to" cook books. Though when cooking at home he tends to use magazines, like Saveur, a couple books made the cut:

Essentials of Classic Italian Cooking by Marcella Hazan. “This book has a lot of basics that bring me back to my roots of simple cooking that I often overlook.”

Splendid Soups by James Peterson. “I love making soups that last a few days and I can get multiple meals out of. We'll have a bowl of soup, some bread and a big salad and call it a day.”

At the restaurant Chef’s picks are all about ingredients and combining flavors. I suspect any home kitchen would benefit from these:

Culinary Artistry by Andrew Dornenburg and Karen Page. “A great book for writing menus. It puts together ingredients that work well together and separates ingredients by cuisine and seasonality.”

Food Lover’s Companion by Sharon Tyler Herbst. “Basically a mini food encyclopedia. I use this every week at work, especially when educating the servers in the restaurant about specific ingredients.”

The River Cottage Meat Book by Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall. “This is sort of an eclectic meat cookbook with cuts of meat and game home cooks don't use a lot. A lot of interesting recipes. I look through it when I'm looking for something different.”

Next time Chef Matt visits the Klatch I will try my hand with one of his recipes.

Uncommonly Charming Book

I meant to discuss this charming little novella at the Klatch and it seemed especially appropriate on the day of the Royal Wedding.

When Her Majesty (yes, the very one that donned primrose hat at her grandson’s wedding) wonders into a mobile library van, she feels compelled to check out a book. One ought not to offend. The Queen finds herself enjoying the common activity of reading, devouring volume after volume. This naturally concerns the palace handlers while Her Majesty grows increasingly impatient with duties. One would rather be reading. It’s the drawing room scandal.

The Uncommon Reader by Alan Bennett

So do scamper to the nearest mobile library to check out this mildly subversive little book.

Thoroughly Modern Women: Maria Sibylla Merian

Maria Sibylla Merian isn’t a household name and that’s a shame. She was a talented artist whose keen eye and skilled hand revolutionized botany and zoology. Maria got married at just eighteen but a few years later ditched her husband and supported her aging mother and two daughters with her art. She published an illustrated book. When she was in her fifties, she packed her bags and went for a lengthy expedition in Suriman jungle, to observe tropical insects in their habitat. She published more books. Oh yes, she was also born in 1647, time we hardly associate with spunky and accomplished women of the science and arts.

Here a few of her lovely, genteel plates

Pretty little pomegranates (1665)

Plantain plants documenting metamorphosis of a moth (1679)

Creepy-crawlies (1719) 
Photos: The J. Paul Getty Museum



Caiman goes after a snake. Photo: The British Museum






A thoroughly fiction girl myself, I was completely engrossed with Maria Sibylla Merian’s biography, Chrysalis: Maria Sibylla Merian and the Secrets of Metamorphosis by Kim Todd

Here is more information about Maria Sibylla Merian from the National Museum of Women in the Arts and the J. Paul Getty Museum.