Tag Archives: Books

Bookin’ and Cookin’ — Mr. Darcy’s Secret and Spinach Herb Quiche

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Jane Odiwe’s Jane Austen sequels have been sitting on my Goodreads list for a while. I haven’t had much success with Austen sequels; most writers have tried to match Austen’s witty prose and failed and then replaced the wittiness with sex. They were boring and an insult to my beloved Jane’s memory. Some even added zombies and sea monsters to the mix. This one was different and deserves the 4 out of 5 star ratings it receives on both amazon.com and Goodreads.

Click the book cover to read Chapter One of Mr. Darcy’s Secret from Jane Odiwe’s website.

Elizabeth and Darcy arrive at Pemberley after their marriage, ready to begin a new chapter in their lives. Lizzy is learning to be the mistress of a great estate and in order to encourage Georgiana to be more outgoing, a great ball for her society debut is held at Pemberley. Of course, there is the usual Austen drama involving class struggles, and Elizabeth also tries to reconcile Lady Catherine with Darcy after their falling out over the marriage.

While its suggestive title may lead one to believe otherwise, Mr. Darcy’s Secret is primarily about Georgiana’s love story. She struggles with accepting a marriage proposal from an eligible but indifferent  suitor but wants to be dutiful and obey her strong-minded and well-meaning brother. All the while,  she is indulging in innocent flirtation with an entirely unsuitable prospect, the landscape architect hired to do some design work on Pemberley’s gardens. As in Jane Austen’s stories, how Georgiana resolves her dilemma is the main story line — and of course, it resolves in a fully Janeite way.

The title refers to a skeleton from Pemberley’s past that the Darcys have in their closet. Trust Caroline Bingley and the local gossip Mrs. Eaton to try to destroy Elizabeth and Darcy’s happy new marriage with hints of secret affairs and illegitimate children, requiring a stiff upper lip and a lot of standing by her man by Elizabeth.

Jane Odiwe uses Austen’s voice effectively, especially when she mimics Mrs. Bennett and Lady Catherine de Bourge, and she continues the characterization created by Austen in her books. All of your favorite characters from Pride and Prejudice show up for their cameos, including the Bingleys, the Bennetts, the Wickhams, the Collinses, the Gardiners and of course Elizabeth and Fitzwilliam Darcy.

While thinking about what I would match up with Mr. Darcy’s Secret for my Bookin’ and Cookin’ series, I stumbled across a wonderful resource. Created by the Jane Austen Centre in Bath, the website has many interesting bits and bobs about Jane. Here also, Janeites can find Regency recipes that Austen’s characters might have been eating, with modern remixes for modern cooks. Spinach Herb Quiche has an interesting history; it is originally a torta recipe from the Renaissance cookbook written by Platina in 1465 and then collected and republished as Cariodoc’s Miscellany by David Friedman and Elizabeth Cook.

Print
Spinach Herb Quiche

Rating: 41

Prep Time: 20 minutes

Cook Time: 50 minutes

Total Time: 1 hour, 10 minutes

Yield: 4 Servings

Serving Size: 1/4 of pie

A modern remix of an ancient recipe from Renaissance cookbook author, Platina, a Regency version of Spinach Herb Quiche might easily have appeared on the table at Pemberley.

Ingredients

  • 9" frozen unbaked pie crust
  • 3/4 lb cheddar cheese
  • 1/4 t marjoram (dry or fresh)
  • 1/2 t sage (dry or fresh)
  • 1 t fresh mint
  • 1/2 c fresh parsley, stems off
  • 1/4 c spinach
  • 3 eggs
  • 1 cup skim milk

Instructions

Chop all herbs and spinach in food processor. Place in the pie shell.

Grate cheese or chop in food processor. Layer on top of herbs and spinach mixture in pie shell.

Beat egg whites lightly.

Mix milk and eggs together. Pour over greens and cheese mixture in pie shell.

Season with salt and pepper to taste.

Bake in 400 degree oven for 10 minutes; then lower heat to 350 degrees and bake for about another 40 minutes.

Let rest before cutting into wedges for serving.

Notes

While this recipe was fun to make and we enjoyed the unique taste of the herbs, you might prefer my all-time favorite from Julia Child -- Quiche au Fromage de Gruyère, Hambon et Brocoli

Source of original recipe: http://www.janeausten.co.uk/spinach-herb-quiche/

https://gotmyreservations.com/2013/06/23/bookin-and-cookin-mr-darcys-secret-and-spinach-herb-quiche/

The Great Gatsby is almost here!

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The Great Gatsby West Egg Mansion

As  a confirmed Gatsby lover, I can hardly wait until the new movie comes out next week. My daughter and I are such fans of The Great Gatsby that I bought her a Department 56 lighted house. “Somehow” I still have that house…

Baz Luhrman’s new movie starring Leonardo DiCaprio as Jay Gatsby probably won’t be perfectly aligned to the book, but I’m pretty sure it will be an amazing take on what is considered to be one of best English language novels of the 20th Century.

I encourage you to read this wonderful post by the Head Butler, which includes an interview that sheds light on Scott and Zelda Fitzgerald and their relationships with friends who became characters in Fitzgerald’s stories. Sometimes they weren’t particularly flattering, as we see in The Great Gatsby.

Where will you be on Friday, May 10? I’ll be at Randhurst sitting in a comfy rocking chair enjoying The Great Gatsby!

 

 

The Sunday Review: A Summer in Europe

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I wanted to like this book; I really did. It’s about traveling in Europe and learning who one really is. The author, Marilyn Brant, is local and knows people that I know. I’m likely to run into her someday and she’s an ex-teacher — all reasons that I should have liked this book better than I did.

Gwen is a thirty-year-old woman from Dubuque who has managed to become dull. She has a dull life and a dull boyfriend. She’s paralyzed by events from her past. She’s not a likely candidate for a romantic trip around Europe, yet she decides to go when offered a free trip with her aunt and her math-geek friends. Not surprisingly, she thaws out under the magic spell of Europe and frees herself from her past.

As I read this book, I kept thinking that it would make a better movie than it did a book. Brant’s imagery is luscious, and the quirky characters in the book would make a great ensemble movie like The Best Exotic Marigold Hotel. I could see the two handsome brothers, Thoreau and Emerson, sparring with each other in a cathedral. I could see the romantic leads feeding each other pastries all over Europe. As another reviewer mentioned, Nia Vardolos could play this part — she did it before in My Big Fat Greek Wedding.

Should you read it? Maybe, if you like travelogues. That’s why I gave it four stars. For the plot, it’s about a two and a half because of its clichéd plot line and because I think the characters are overwritten. There’s very little subtlety in any of them, and a lot of stereotyping of the secondary characters. Still, there’s Rome and Florence and Venice and Vienna and London and Paris, and they make up for a lot in this book.

The Sunday Review: Anna Karenina

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I have been hearing about Anna Karenina for most of my adult life and have been dreading reading it for the same amount of time. Tolstoy just didn’t seem to be my kind of author, although I do love the Victorian American classics.

When the movie started being advertised, I knew that I had to read the book first so that I could adequately compare the two. The book, while having a strong plot wrapped around the seven main characters, failed to really engage me and it was slow-going at times. Tolstoy’s diversions into politics and social struggles often seemed unconnected to the main story lines, and the last section was very disappointing. Talk about a flat ending after an interesting penultimate chapter — trying not to write a spoiler here if you haven’t read it.

I can see why the book endures as a classic, but it wasn’t my favorite and I know for sure I’m not reading War and Peace. Maybe it was the translation I read, as others have mentioned, but although I’m glad I finally read it, I’m also glad it’s over with.

Interestingly, I haven’t been able to get anyone interested in seeing the movie with me, so I may have to wait until it comes out on video. That’s a shame, as I’m sure the movie version with the luminous Keira Knightley is a masterpiece of cinematography and deserves to be seen on the big screen. Or maybe one of these afternoons I’ll just go by myself; that is one of the prerogatives of retirement, after all.

Leave a comment about dear old Anna if you’d like, and thanks for stopping by to visit!

Reading Bonanza: Free Books

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I’ve been reading this summer, but only a little more than I usually read because I’ve been working pretty hard on regaining control of my house.

I ran across this website today — books, movies, and more books for free! Just in case I need more books. Even if you’re not going to actually read them, the lists of “best books and films” are fun to peruse.

Although I respect the bloggers that are reading the classics — classics clubs are omnipresent among the book bloggers — that’s not why I read. At least not now.

Have a great weekend! I’m on a short break to celebrate my birthday.

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Book Club: The Women

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Read The Women by T.C. Boyle. It’s really good. End of book review and on to the juicy stuff.

Image via http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_OrSWhs5g-6w/SirG2CjbkBI/AAAAAAAAALQ/H5HwnoVuHcs/s400/TheWomen.jpg

Boyle’s tale of Frank Lloyd Wright’s relationships with women is intriguing — a pastiche of story-telling based on solid factual research.

I’ve been a fan of Frank Lloyd Wright for many years. I’ve visited his home and studio in Oak Park many times and I’m always happy when a visitor wants to take the tour. I’ve been intrigued by his story and the depth of his magnetism. It’s kind of amazing how this arrogant and self-centered man was able to inspire love and almost slavish devotion from the people around him.

Sometimes what I write doesn’t end up where I intended it to go when I began.

Clearly this is more than a book review because I’m a history nerd.

After we read Loving Frank in book club, we decided to do a pilgrimage to Spring Green, Wisconsin, to visit Taliesin and I wrote about it here. We have also visited Taliesin West in Arizona, Falling Waters in Pennsylvania, and the local FLW shrines, including Unity Temple.

When I read books about Frank Lloyd Wright and his designs, his houses become characters on their own.

Blue Balliett’s YA novel, The Wright 3, is a good example of this. Wright’s Robie House near the University of Chicago is the setting of this novel, and I couldn’t wait to go visit it after reading the story. The physical connection I get to the houses through the text is hard to resist and apparently I’m not the only one. If you’re going to be in the area with your children, read the book together and then take the house tour designed to connect with the book — or just do it yourself cause it’s worth it!

Given all that history, it’s not surprising that I just lapped up The Women hungrily. Told through the reflections of a fictional Japanese apprentice, T.C. Boyle has given us another intense visit with Wright and the women who loved him. He traces the stories of Wright’s three wives and his mistress backwards, and as the story unfolds, questions are answered and links become clear. It’s a difficult narrative construct to do effectively, but it didn’t drive me too crazy. I wish there had been more about first wife Kitty and how she really coped with Wright’s desertion of her.

I’m a firm believer in the power of chance and there are several chance encounters that led to the writing of this book and the writing of this post.

Image via http://0.tqn.com/d/gocalifornia/1/0/D/T/3/20110522_010-a.jpg

T.C. Boyle bought and renovated Wright’s George C. Stewart house (1910)

T.C. Boyle is the author of many successful books as well as being a professor at UCLA, and apparently he had enough money to purchase and renovate Wright’s George C. Stewart House in Montecito, California. In this interview, he talks about how his fascination with Wright grew after living in one of his homes. I can truly see how that would happen.

On our recent trip to California, we visited the Claremont Hotel in Berkeley. I was deep into The Women, visualizing FLW striding around in his cape and hat, and suddenly, there he was on the wall of the Claremont. Of course I took a photo (as I do incessantly).

Wright loved the Claremont, and designed a wedding chapel for the hotel in 1957 at age 88. It was never built, but its design was organic yet modern, as all of his work was.

In researching the wedding chapel design, I ran across the website of this Italian architect, who has redesigned Wright’s work using specific design principles.

I’m a great reader, but a lousy book reviewer, as you can see.

I get too caught up in the human stories surrounding authors and their subjects to ever make a living writing book reviews. I’m glad you stuck with me through this visit with Frank Lloyd Wright, and I highly recommend The Women if you have been intrigued by my story today.

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A Bloody Season: Books on My List

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A friend faithfully reads The New York Times and brings me clippings with tidbits he thinks I might like.

When he read Charles McGrath’s review of Hilary Mantel’s new book about Anne Boleyn, he knew I’d be hooked. I’ve put both books on my queue at the library.

I just finished Carolly Erickson’s The Favored Queen which visualizes Anne Boleyn’s fall through the eyes of her maid of honor, Jane Seymour, who eventually replaced her as Henry VIII’s wife. I wasn’t particularly impressed with the book, but it was an interesting perspective — and not a flattering look at the doomed Anne. As far as Erickson’s work on the Tudors, I think I’m done with her.

Since I’m retiring in eight days, I also will have time to watch more movies. In looking for a photo of Anne, I came upon pictures of Genevieve Bujold as Anne in Anne of a Thousand Days.That’s a movie I want to find, as well as watching all the seasons of The Tudors again.

That puts a thought in my head… how many movies are there in the Henry VIII canon? Do you have a suggestion for me? Or books — there’s bound to be one I haven’t read yet. Feed me, Seymour, with Tudor trash!

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Linky Love:Tuesday’s Child is Full of Grace

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This week I’ve decided to hook you up with blogs that I follow and love EVERY day. Using the ancient British nursery rhyme, I’ll take you on a tour of my favorite blogs.

I’ve said it before, and I’ll say it again; I love Michelle at The Great Read. Not only are her book recommendations for families spot on, I’d like to be her best friend as she is truly a child of grace in her online personna. She also takes beautiful photos and uses photo editing tools with inspiration.

I have read several of the books Michelle has featured, and I’m so glad MY library has this one! I’ve put it on reserve already.

Book Club: The Expats

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I picked up The Expats from the library shelves thinking that I would encounter a story about living abroad. I barely noticed that it was an espionage thriller, but I’m sure that I decided at the time that it would be interesting anyway. After all, the jacket had glowing praise for the book.

The basic premise of the book is that Kate, a CIA agent who has been keeping her job secret from even her husband for fifteen years, quits the assassination business when her husband gets a new job in “international banking” that requires the family to relocate to Luxembourg. As Kate struggles to rebuild her life in Europe as a stay-at-home mom to their two small sons, she can’t escape her propensity to look at her new world through the eyes of a spy. Author Chris Pavone creates an intricately woven plot in which no one is who he or she appears to be, including Kate’s husband Dexter.

I’m not going to spend much time here critiquing the plot of the book. As many of the reviewers on Amazon said, although the story has great promise and is just itching to be made into a movie, there are bits that just don’t ring true. That being said, it’s a good first novel and is worth a beach or weekend read.

This is the second time in recent months that I’ve been uncomfortable with the voice and behaviors of a female character who was created by a man. I don’t think I notice this as much in books written by female writers, and it seems as though I’d see lots of negative reviews by men if the male character’s voice was off-kilter. Or perhaps it’s just the types of books that I read; maybe there are more problems with this than I know. Any opinions?

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Book Club: The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks

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It’s a rare book that connects the reader to both the subject and the author, but that is the case with The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks. As I added Rebecca Skloot’s name to my 2012 Book List, I realized that unlike most of the authors I read, I knew a great deal about her. It’s one of the reasons that The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks is a compelling read.

The other reason, of course, is that the tragic yet very human story of Henrietta and her descendents cannot be put down and is rarely very far out of the reader’s consciousness. I’m a Gray’s Anatomy watcher — I’m behind right now, though, so don’t tell me — and I love medical dramas, but I’ve never even thought to ask what happens to all that blood and pieces of tissue that have been taken from me in the course of tests and hospitalizations. I just assumed that it was thrown away after a proscribed point in time. Apparently I was wrong.

When young science journalist Rebecca Skloot stumbled on a story about the source of the cells originally harvested from a cancer victim in 1951, she became part of the story herself. She spent ten years investigating the life and death of Henrietta Lacks, whose malignant cervical cells became the incredibly productive HeLa line used for tissue culturing in medical research. The world owes Henrietta Lacks a great deal, as her cells have been used for many medical discoveries, including the vaccine for polio.

Unfortunately, in 1951, indigent African-Americans being treated in clinics were not asked if they gave consent for much of anything, and Johns Hopkins doctors were no different from the rest of the segregated world in which Lacks and her family lived. Skloot has detailed a story of hope and wonder, as researchers at Johns Hopkins found that Lacks’s cells multiplied very quickly and remained viable in storage; they could be used and regenerated over and over again, something that scientists had not been able to depend on previously. The story also tells of a family devastated by the early death of a mother and the years of bereavement and poverty that followed. The obvious question becomes whether or not the Lacks family deserves to be compensated for the booming business that has emerged from Henrietta Lacks’s cells. Skloot leaves the reader to decide for herself.

Because Henrietta’s story and Rebecca Skloot’s story are intertwined, it’s amazing that Skloot was able to stay impartial and fair in presenting the Lacks family’s tragic tale. The book reads like fiction, but the science is also reported in an accessible and accurate way so that the reader understands both the human and the scientific sides of the issues involved.

I am really looking forward to talking about this book at Book Club next week, and I highly recommend it. I listened to it on audiobook and felt that the reader, Cassandra Campbell, was very successful in voicing both Skloot’s youthful enthusiasm and the Lacks family’s southern drawl. The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks is one of those thought-provoking, not-to-be-missed books — there’s a reason everyone is talking about it.

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