Currently I have five books out from the library. A Year in a Vegetarian Kitchen: Easy Seasonal Suppers for Family and Friends by Jack Bishop is to inspire some dishes that our wheat-free-dairy-free family with a son who is also vegetarian can all enjoy together. I got Plate to Pixel: Digital Food Photography & Styling by Helene Dujardin to give me some ideas on how to make my blog posts featuring a tasty recipe look more appealing. (Even I, who ate the delicious food I share on my blog, find my food photos quite unappetizing!)
Then there's Little Bee, written by Chris Cleave. I'm not sure about this one. The flyleaf of the book does not reveal much about it, only that it is a truly special story. From the library website I see that it is about "the tenuous friendship that blooms between two disparate strangers -- one an illegal Nigerian refugee, the other a recent widow from suburban London." It's due in a few days, and if I don't get started on it I'll never know if I like it or not!
I was reading something online about Abraham Lincoln and saw a reference to a book called God Struck Me Dead: Voices of Ex-Slaves, edited by Clifton H Johnson. It was not in the Sno-Isle Library system, but they ordered it for me through Interlibrary Loan and it was sent to our library from the Seattle University Law Library! It put me off a bit, since I thought it might be a little heady for me, but I am enjoying reading the testimonies of men and women, former slaves, who had become Christians. It doesn't look like I'll be able to finish it before the three-week limit (that's all you get for an Interlibrary Loan book) but I'll have read enough to get a good sense of the African-American church in the late 1920s, when these stories were told.
When I picked up my books I was surprised to see that one was a beautiful children's picture book. I'd ordered it, but who knows how I found the title or what was in my mind when I put it on hold! It's called The Fantastic Flying Books of Mr. Morris Lessmore and is written by William Joyce as a way to celebrate the curative power of stories. It is delightful for any age reader, although I suspect it was probably written for kids. Oh, well.
I see that the music book I put on hold, The Big Book of Broadway: Piano, Vocal, Guitar, has been shipped. I thought it might be fun to try to play some of the music from Les Miserables since seeing the movie the other day. Speaking of Les Miserables, we've ordered a couple of videos of the story, one done in 1998 and the other in 2011, a live production for the 25th Anniversary of the musical. We'll have to wait a while to see them, though, as we are number 20 on the waiting list for one and 49 on the list for the other.
My Canadian friend Lori introduced me to Emily Carr, who spent most of her life in Canada. and was both an author and a painter. Her Book of Small, which I began but did not get through, is especially sweet as she tells in simple phrases but great detail about her childhood in Victoria. Its on my holds list now so that I can finish reading it.
I saw a list of novels written by Northwest authors that sounded interesting to me. I put six of the titles on my hold. I'll let you know how I like them once I get a chance to read them.
The only book I have on hold at the moment that is faith based is called An Altar in the World: a Geography of Faith, by Barbara Brown Taylor. Since I know very little about the book, even where I heard about it, I will wait till later to comment on it.
There you have it -- the library check-outs of an eclectic reader. There's a lot more I wanted to say about books today, but it's time to post and I still need to take a photo of the books. Too bad I haven't finished Plate to Pixel. I'm guessing I could apply her lessons of photographing food to getting good pictures of books too.
Stay tuned! If I make it through all of these books you will be the ones to benefit, what with my improved photography as well as my book reviews!
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