That's exciting, Stephanie, I hope you have a lovely holiday!
OH yes we have to have the cranberry with the ridges, the kids love it, but I make another one too, why not? They like it, too. I don't think the world will end, hopefully, if we have two cranberry offerings. I have to say Whole Foods in the past also has had a third: their wonderful organic stuffing (believe it or not) with cranberries in it and it's just super but I haven't seen it this year. Then you add to it, of course, using it as a base.
Both of those books sound good, Barbara, particularly the Glassblowing one, let us know how you like it? I love Polish glass ornaments and those German painted metal ones, are they pewter? They are gorgeous.
Mary, I love chutney, would you want to share the recipe?
I do want the Jane Smiley but am in the mood for something short and doable, so this morning I thought, you've got a billion books on the Ipad, read one. So I pulled out Ethan Canin (whose short story The Palace Thief was made into the movie The Emperor's Club with Kevin Klein). I love that story and the movie. Have we discussed them here? I seem to recall we have.
So I thought I'd read from the beginning of the book and was caught up immediately in the short story of The Accountant, which in the past I have skipped over to get to the prize of The Palace Thief. These are little moral tales, really, about the choices we make when we are young and how we get to watch the results, and who has not had that experience? How the speakers own actions might reveal more about himself. A contemplative book. Not cozy. No happy pie in the sky ending, although the Emperor's Club had one, just life as most of us live it and the lessons you learn through it.
But I've just started it. But already I would love to hear some of our reader's takes on the issues he's raised so subtly.
I really like Canin. He's on the faculty of the Iowa Writer's Workshop or whatever it's called, it's very highly thought of. For short stories he's hard to beat. I see that he has written several more books, some of which have not been well received, as I guess they are too...non sturm und drang-ish. I seem to recall that's the same criticism said about Wilder's Our Town. Just ordinary people telling their stories. His latest was about a 78 year old man reflecting on his life. They are dirt cheap, 9 bucks on kindle where I am reading it on the IPad, 11 in paperback. And of course most of them are not new, so there's no rush on the library for them.
But they are very provocative in what issues they bring up. He reminds me of Richard Yates.
