Pen and Pink

Woke up, got out of bed, dragged a comb across my head

I did finally start one of my listed reads, although I have had a hard time picking it up after I started.  And I don't even think I'm into the juicy parts yet. 

I'm about 30 pages into The Awakening by Kate Chopin.  I figured I'd start off easy, by reading a shorter book, completing a goal and at least reading one book before my entire goal goes by the wayside (which I hope that it doesn't, but I'm not so good with the fulfilling goals thing).  The section that keeps reverberating in my head is where she talks about women who are suited to motherhood versus those who aren't.  While I realize this isn't the main focus of the book, it was vaguely humbling to read and chew on for the last few days.

I'm really enjoying the writing, and I think the fact that it takes place near New Orleans only adds a little to the maudlin effect of the book.  I'm wondering if I should make it an adultery duo with Madame Bovary.

We've switched your regular read with that of a competitor

The real book that I've completed this year is On What Grounds by Cleo Coyle. Terby had recommended this to me, and my mom got it for me for Christmas.    I have to say that I am drawn to theme mysteries (and it seems like almost all mysteries are themey in one way or another), but there is a quality that I find a bit bothersome, or maybe it's just that it's rare to find them done well. 

I don't understand why authors feel the need to include instructional or almost remedial information on the theme that they're exploring.  The worst offender that I've recently read is Knit One Kill Two, which, aside from the ending coming from almost nowhere, introducing storylines without any further explanation aside from a cursory beginning and the fact that everything in the damn book had the correct name aside from the city it was based in, [obviously I haven't learned anything about writing in my reading career]was rife with asinine characterizations of yarn and knitting.  I can't decide if this is something that publishers want, as they figure they can't market to a niche group (knitters, in that sense, coffeedrinkers in the book I just finished) and thus have to include information to school the uninitiated, or if it's prose that was in the first draft that the author felt was necessary due to fear of talking over the audiences head.  Either way, I find it a bit insulting (I don't think there are many non-knitters who would pick up KOKT, nor coffeehaters who would pick up OWG), and feel like those sorts of mentions would be better left to an addenda at the end of the book, if the author wanted to share some info about their favorite pattern or how to brew their favorite coffee.  I do, however, think that Diane Mott Davidson is able to beautifully blend the cooking in with her mysteries, without pandering to those of us whose cuisine comes more frequently from a box than the garden (I'm including myself in that group).

All that said- the coffeetalk wasn't too bad in this book, although I was going to send some day old espresso to the author had she mentioned how it is supposed to pour like honey out of the portafilter- I really enjoyed this book.  I bought the next two in the series and hope to read them after I get a few off of my list done.  I would definitely recommend this to anyone that likes coffee and mysteries and is looking for a fluff, airplane read.

Sort of a book

My favorite read of 2006 thus far (which isn't really fair, as I've only read one book) is Barefoot Contessa Family Style.  I know it doesn't really count as a book, and with books whose purpose is to teach me something, or give directions, I don't really read the extraneous stuff, but I've made two recipes out of this book so far and they've both been amazing. 

I think a big part of the reason that I love Ina Garten so much is that her stuff is so elegant and simple, yet it uses ingredients I can get at my local grocery store and the stuff in her kitchen is stuff that I have in mine.  I've already warned Mr. Pink that if she switches teams, I'm pilgrimaging out to the Hamptons and offering myself to her.