I thought crème fraîche only grew in France – i.e. that it was hard to make and only French dairies chose to make it – but it is easy to make and we can make it here. That means we can have it without going to France. Take 1 pint heavy cream, ideally not ultrapasteurized, … More Crème Fraîche
I have begun to read Ma Jian’s novel Beijing Coma. It is famous – it has been I would like to read the Book of Mountains and Seas, but not reading Chinese, I cannot. Yet I know of it. See how interesting it is. * Ma Jian’s narrator is in a coma. Yet he can … More Reading for Pleasure Wednesday: Shan-hai Ching
Most of this post was written before Hurricane Gustav came into being, but these first paragraphs are written from my very couch, with the help of electricity restored by workers from northern Texas! Other emergency workers I saw were from Kentucky, Indiana, and Oklahoma, and of course from here. There must have been many more, … More Reading for Pleasure Wednesday: Charles Barber, Helen Redmond
If I had time I would read all the contemporary Chinese novels discussed in the August 4/11 Nation. If you read the articles and then do a search on the book titles, you will see how famous each one is. I am interested in them because they sound interesting, but also because I kept hearing, … More Reading for Pleasure Wednesday: Chinoiserie
For the third day in a row I have failed to get into the Lima film festival. It is somewhat disappointing, but now I know: you have to study the program way ahead of time, and drop down on those tickets like a hawk the first hour they are available. I justified buying Jorge Bruce’s … More Reading for Pleasure Wednesday: Jorge Bruce
I have at last read The Grass is Singing which is brilliant and impactante, epoch making for many reasons. Of all books mentioned in this post, this is the one most worth discussing. I will therefore discuss it least. I have also been reading The Poisonwood Bible, which is a good book although Kingsolver is … More Reading for Pleasure Wednesday: Doris Lessing
And eighteenth century Franciscan writes: Ya que vino el día partí por dentro de una quebrada, y así fuimos hasta mediodía, y aquí, dejando la quebrada, entramos por entre dos cerros, y venimos a subir por aquel cerro de lajas de afilar que dije cuando fui a Angasmarca, cuando iba para Lima desde Guamachuco. Ya … More “Containing What Happened to Me During This Voyage, Until I Arrived at the City of Lima”
From Servetus: the 106 books most often marked as “unread” by LibraryThing’s users. Bold the ones you’ve read, strike through the ones you read but do not remember well, and italicize the ones you have never heard of. Many are unread by me, and some are unknown to me. I am only interested in reading … More Reading for Pleasure Wednesday: Top Unread Books
I normally do not read anything in the genre of self-help, but a friend told me that in her I Could Do Anything… Barbara Sher sounded a great deal like me. And indeed, her ideas fit with mine, but she knows more. I am getting a great deal out of reading at this book. I … More Reading for Pleasure Wednesday: Barbara Sher
Of course I like the name Shahrzad very much and am considering adopting it myself. In Arabic class my name was Ouidad but Ouidad is now a hair salon in New York and I am not. Here is Shahrzad: “The record of the feminist movement worldwide shows that the struggle for liberation is multidimensional, with … More Shahrzad Mojab on “Muslim” Women and “Western” Feminists
coldhearted scientist وداد 