Resistance is futile

I admit it: along with millions of other Americans, last night we watched Red Notice. Sometimes pure escapism is okay, right?

But in books, as opposed to television, my standards are higher. I’ve begun the new Louise Erdrich novel, The Sentence, and I fully intend to finish it this week. Oddly, the last book I read was also about books.

I prefer the library.

Before I made my choice and downloaded the Erdrich book, I made a quick stop at B&N, expecting that, despite my intention to avoid adding clutter to my bookshelves, I would find something irresistible. It turns out that, post-pandemic, my stuff-resistance muscles have become stronger. The only thing I bought was a chocolate brownie, quickly consumed.

Since we were on our own for dinner, I turned to Melissa Clark’s menu for two . Because John felt like cooking and I had already thawed scallops and bought romaine (from a NYC greenhouse, oddly), I zeroed in on Melissa’s dessert recipe and made the pumpkin-and-date sticky toffee puddings. Perfect.

Clearly, two years of shopping only virtually have changed us. Who knows what’s next?

Hello again

Once in a while it’s nice to write here, kind of a diary, shared with whoever wants to read it. Hello again.

Tonight I’m reading Ruth Ozeki’s The Book of Form and Emptiness. Haunting and haunted. I think it’s the first book I have read that is (partially) narrated by a book. Her earlier book was centered around a diary discovered in a Hello Kitty lunchbox, having floated across the Pacific. This book centers around people, with an omniscient book observing and commenting. Spooky.

Our holiday season has begun, and it promises new experiences alongside the traditions. It will be hard to beat the classic dinner we had at TOLHouse last night, and I plan to take Thursday off, but I’m looking forward to cooking at least one meal drawn from my favorite Palestinian cookbooks. I ordered the Ozeki book from Gathered Volumes, knowing that I want to own it and happy to bypass Amazon. When I went to Perrysburg to pick it up, Zaitoun caught my eye and has already become a favorite.

So many thoughts swirling in my head. I hope to organize them a bit by writing them down and, maybe, to bring them to conversations IRL. Join me?