Peter Heller and Nigel Slater

Last week's post inspired me to make a new reading list for fall.  More on that later as I round it out.

Here is my update of Nigel Slater's The Kitchen Diaries.  Funny I started up with this again in the middle of the year. 

I finished reading the diary entries for August and decided to make a white bean soup. Nigel has an entry with photo of a white bean salad sitting on greens with lots of garlic.  No matter that it's quite hot where I am, I have always liked soup so I thought I'd adapt the ingredients.  Today it's rainy so this worked out well.

I used great northern beans, garlic, onion, spinach and oregano. Loved it and everything was in the pantry and fortuitously a bag of baby spinach in the fridge. Now I am reading his September entries.  It's getting cool in his London garden and I'll take some of that weather here please.

Reading: This week I read Burn by Peter Heller.

Jess and Storey grew up together with Jess spending more time at Storey's home than his own.  They are more brothers than friends, going off on hunting and fishing trips several times a year.  The beginning of this plot has them coming off a two week moose hunt in Maine, far out in the wilderness with no knowledge an uprising has taken place.

The first town they come to is burned to the ground, houses smoking, bridges blown up and a few bodies strewn in the streets as they were shot down trying to escape something. Boats in the harbor remained untouched so they cautiously look for supplies in the boats.  As they move on, carefully sticking to the woods and staying off the road, they search for a cell signal and news of what could have happened.  Eventually from their hidden spot in the wood line on a hill, they see a woman in a small boat, obviously rowing as fast as she can when a black helicopter appears and cuts her down.  What is going on?

This is a dystopian novel yet a plot involving a succesionist movement that could have been all too real during the trump presidency. It plays out slowly and in my opinion didn't have an end to give you resolution.  The excellent author that he is, perhaps he left it to us as readers to figure out the many possible outcomes.  I didn't give away the story here and there are some surprises in store.  The flashbacks gave us Jess and Storey's background, lots of ruminating on Jess's part about why his marriage failed and unnecessary memories about a situation involving Storey's mother.  That last part added nothing to the development of the story in my opinion. Rounded up to 4 stars.

Finally, Loki using his stuffed tiger as a makeshift pillow.

Sharing with:

Joy's Book Blog for British Isles Friday. and Deb at Readerbuzz for Sunday Salon.

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The Kitchen Diaries by Nigel Slater

In the past I liked perusing  The Kitchen Diaries by Nigel Slater .  It's been a while since I picked it up to read about a month in his life.  His thoughts on the London weather, his garden, the informal get-togethers he hosts and of course - recipes. One thing I love about this book is the diary format.  

One year I had planned to read through, month by month, and perhaps try a recipe or two.

It didn't pan out for as my proposed annual project. Alas.

So here I am, picking it up again as I am reading Claire Messud's tome This Strange Eventful History.  I needed something completely different to read at the same time, something without plot so I wouldn't be juggling two different stories/character sets.

This book has gorgeous photos and if you like a diary format with a foodie emphasis, you'd enjoy this book.  I’ve started reading July for now :-)

Sharing with Joy for British Isles Friday.