News, recipes and books to read

The Secret Life of Bees

My best friend, who lives in the US, sent me this not long after it came out in paperback. The thing that pulled me in here was the place. I could taste the heat of Tuberon, South Carolina, I could hear the hum of those bees. A coming-of-age story set against the background of the Civil Rights Movement in 1964, an era that continually fascinates me. Love the book, love the film and I tried to go see the musical, but it all went wrong the night we had tickets…

Beautiful Ruins

This book was almost ruined by the first chapter. It’s so breath-taking and so beautiful that it’s one of those times that you realise that you’re never going to get anywhere near that ability to write. But I got over it and romped through the rest of it. Again, it’s the place that drew me in (can you see the theme?) – the sun-drenched Italian coastline in 1962… need I say more?

The Poisonwood Bible

This was my first introduction to the literary force that is BK. The story is of a Baptist minister uprooting his family from ‘the easy land of ice cream cones and new Keds sneakers’ to a remote village in the Belgian Congo in 1959, with ‘plagues of killer ants, hordes of malaria-carrying mosquitoes and unseen parasites, and lions and tarantulas and snakes’.

Told from 5 different POVs – the wife and four daughters – we get such a strong sense of the difficulties made only worse by the pig-headed, self-riotous beliefs of the father. Again, I was captivated by the sense of place in this novel, brought to the forefront by BK’s ability to show us the little details.

Possession

A literary detective novel and love story that is so readable you’ll spend the whole weekend reading it. I love a dual timeline story and this one does it to perfection – Victorian love story, modern day comedy of errors all based around academia and a love of reading. This one sits on my bookshelf constantly asking to be re-read.

Persuasion

I read this for my English Literature A ‘level. You’d think that might have killed it for me, but I must have read it at least 5 times since. I love this because it’s such a modern story, even though it was written over 200 years ago. Jane Austen’s ability to depict the worst in society is enthralling because it’s still the same today – Sir Walter Elliot’s vanity, Anne’s younger sister’s preoccupation with only herself, the fraudulent charm of William Elliot and the overall necessity for everyone to keep up appearances – nothing changes.

But it’s ok, this is ultimately a romance, and the girl gets the boy in the end.

I Feel Bad About my Neck and Other Thoughts on Being a Woman

I adore Ephron’s essays. She’s whip smart, funny and insightful. The title essay will appeal to anyone of a certain age who finds wearing a polo-neck is a great way of hiding that chicken neck. And then there’s ‘Moving On’ where she falls in love with an apartment in the Apthorp building on the Upper West Side of New York, where she lives in ‘giddy delirium’ despite the mice, brown bathwater, and asbestos in the radiators. If you have any sort of love for New York, these essays will make you smile.

In the Kitchen: Essays on food and life

I love food so, of course, I love to read about food, about cooking and about the kitchen. This slim volume of food essays feeds all those desires to learn more about other people’s food obsessions, forays into food history and their love of cookbooks – Nora Ephron even gets a mention, along with another of my favourites, Laurie Colwin.