I’m a huge fan of the flower still life paintings of the Dutch masters. Whilst my own world tends to be filled with muted tones and neutrals, I find the rich and vivid colours of those flowers set against a dark background, highlighting light and texture, to be just stunning. Hardly surprising then that this book cover would lure me in, not only for that gorgeous tulip but because the pages within seem to promise an historical setting. The title refers to an interesting in Holland’s economic history. Holland in the 1600s was experiencing a Golden Age. The creation of the…
Category: <span>READING</span>
For all those who love to cook, love to read and must surely then enjoy nothing more than curling up with a great cookbook that reads like a book, here are five of my favourites. The Cook And The Gardner Amanda Hesser This is such a charming read. Hesser writes about her time in France, cooking for Anne Willan, herself a well-known cookbook author, at Anne’s seventeenth century chateau in Burgundy. The gardener at the chateau, Monsieur Milbert, is something of a crotchety old bugger, but Ms. Hesser is determined to win him over and learn all she can about…
~Lillian Boxfish Takes A Walk Kathleen Rooney Lillian Boxfish, aged 85, walks to Grimaldi’s for her annual New Year’s Eve dinner. She stops in at a bar beforehand, having decided to walk to the restaurant in an attempt to work up an appetite after munching on one too many Oreos. After dinner she makes an impromptu decision to walk to another restaurant which she has not visited since her divorce, which inspires contemplation about the life she has lived. Lillian’s character is based upon a real person — Margaret Fishback — a celebrated and successful writer in the advertising department at…
By Its Cover is a series of posts wherein I read a book based solely on my love of the cover. No reading the jacket, no checking reviews! Oh, the sheer elegance of this cover. The soft taupe with the pale blush of the flower punctuated by that classic red lip and nail and just a hint of sparkle. Divine. This lady is the embodiment of southern sophistication — all put-together calm and good breeding. So what is this cover telling me? Well, I think it’s safe to say that Charleston is a major character. I’m thinking love story set in high…
By Its Cover is a series of posts wherein I read a book solely on my love of the cover. No reading the jacket, no checking reviews! I grabbed this book on the way out of the library, drawn by its whimsical rendering of double decker buses. To be honest, I have a rather bad habit of leaving the library with a stack of books that I can barely carry let alone find time to read. But after perusing the first few pages of this short book, I was pulled in by its clever writing and charmingly daft premise: that the perfect timing…