New Book

Took the grandkids to Barnes and Noble yesterday.  They love to go there not only for the books, but also the toys.  I do love to spoil them.  I bought several foreign magazines and a new book, drum roll, not this one.  I bought A MAN CALLED OVE on a fellow blogger's recommendation.  Thank you Terra.

I worry I am getting dementia.  Oftentimes, I can't remember the title nor the author of the books I am reading.  Perhaps I need to start reading during the day instead of in bed at night.  Maybe I chose the wrong books for me - forgettable.  The pile of books I couldn't finish, as opposed to the ones I did, is larger.  Last time at the bookstore, I grabbed a pile of Alice Hoffman's books. I used to like her writing and there is always a little magic.  Her latest, okay.  I'm on one of hers that was popular.  It's okay.

So, I'm reading two at once.  ATLAS OBSCURA is entertaining.  Lots of unknown places one has never been to.  Who knew?

A Toy Of My Own

Yep.  Got a toy today.  And, it really works.  It says so on the package.  Barnes and Noble wouldn't lie.

The grandchildren are out of school Monday and you know who is taking care of them.  We are going to build this toy of mine, then, I am going to terrorize them.  Just kidding, but I bet I do get a few bald faced lies out of them.

Would love to try it on my husband, but he knows better.

Well, I Never

I am at the city house this week and perusing the aisles at my local Barnes and Noble bookstore, a stop I always make when coming to the city.  I spied this periodical because of the title and thumbed through it.  Wow.  A cookbook that starts out with the launch in 1977 of the time capsule aboard the Voyager spaceship into deep interstellar space in hopes that one day another civilization might find it and know of earth and its inhabitants.  Natural history, geology, space, oceans, pot-feuled trips to the tune of Pink Floyd's Dark Side Of The Moon to Stravinsky, origins of species, whew!  Sounds like the kind of cookbook I would write - unable to stick to topic and going from one thing to another.

How about a recipe for a Coconut Lychee Aquarium?  Gelatin, coconut milk with lychee juice and other ingredients; you use a syringe to add the things into the bowl shaped jello dish.  Gorgeous and tasty I am sure.

Beautiful; it just blows my mind.

How about an Encyclopedia of Nuts Bar with Chia Pudding for dessert.  Notice the snakeskin in the bottom righthand corner of the page.  I have them and vertebra from water moccasins.  So me.

Perhaps you'd like to try this bread which sounds and looks delicious.  It even has its own haiku.

Beauty, old as time.

Fossil's senior citizen,

Round and round it goes.

(Kind of like the recent post about Joni Mitchell's song The Circle Game.)

I put this in there because it is so me.  I have many nests like this.  They also have cocktail recipes like Quicksand Cocktail.

I added this picture because it is one of many gorgeous photos in the book; this one of crystals which I like to collect.  One of the recipes is Crystal Shrimp Dumplings which really are clear. From Lunar Pear Clafoutis (which does look like a pock-marked moon) to a Butterflied Chicken Diorama recipe, I kid you not, this book should have been aboard the Voyager.  So full of essays and the aforementioned topics and recipes.  On the last page of the book is a beautiful essay that begins:

Book Forgive Everything

First there's stellar wind.  A single star, like the pale hair of a girl.  The dim universe plucked with light...

This gorgeous, original book is out there.