Chatting Books Online Day 79. Since this coming weekend should have been The Walker Percy Weekend I thought we might try something different this week and have all of the recommended books have some relation to Walker Percy or The Walker Percy Weekend. And since I hope to still choose books from different genres I thought it appropriate that we start with "A Confederacy of Dunces Cookbook: recipes from Ignatius J. Reilly's New Orleans" by Cynthia LeJeune Nobles.
When this book was first announced back in 2015 I could not imagine how they could come up with a whole cookbook based on this one book. I mean, how many recipes can there be for Lucky Dogs? I had read a preview of the book that said it would get the recipes from many of the foods and restaurants mentioned in the book and that got me wondering. It had been a while since I read the book and other than the aforementioned lucky dogs and the occasional whisky cake I did not remember that much food in the book. So I re-read the book and it is really amazing how much food is mentioned in this book , though I should have remembered that as I certainly remembered how much Ignatius talked about the effects of all the food on his system (he did have that terrible "valve" problem).
As a food columnist for many years Cynthia LeJeune Nobles was the perfect choice to pull this book together. With sections like "Under the clock at D.H.Holmes", "Refreshments at the Night of Joy", "Santa Battaglia, or how to Cook like a Sicilian", and "Hanging out with Burma Jones" this book really covers the gamut of New Orleans cuisine .
Hardcover, 240 pages $ 35.00 a copy.
Day 78 : The Week in Review May 25-31, 2020
Day 77 : The Illustrated Walden by Henry David Thoreau
Chatting Books Online Day 76. Simply put today's recommended book is the prettiest book I have ever seen. The Illustrated Walden or, Life in the Woods by Henry David Thoreau. Sometime ago I found myself looking for a nice copy of Walden for us to stock in the store. I ordered several editions called "The Illustrated Walden" that had very few actual illustrations in them and then one day this one arrived and I fell in love.
Every page is designed to look like it is written in the inside of a split log with the words on the pulp and the bark showing at the outside edge of every page. Every few pages a quote is highlighted in a leaf mid page and the entire book is interspersed with both black and white sketches and beautiful full color impressionist style pictures of life in the woods. And of course the words are Thoreau's classic American ode to self-reliance and simplicity that is Walden. A joy to both read and just to look at.
This edition is hardcover with a dustjacket. 297 pages . selling for 19.95 per copy.
Day 76 Ollie's Odyssey by William Joyce
Chatting Books Online Day 76: One of my all-time favorite read-aloud books, Ollie's Odyssey by William Joyce recalls the magic of favorite toys.
The description from the publisher covers it: I particularly love the last line : “Never has a journey of ten blocks been more epic.”
From the creator of The Fantastic Flying Books of Mr. Morris Lessmore and The Guardians of Childhood comes an grand adventure of valor, friendship, and a look into the mysterious world of favorite toys. In the secret realm of toys, there are many mysteries. There is the Code of the Toys, which is as ancient as childhood. There's also the magic of becoming a child's favorite, the highest honor in the Toy World. Made by hand by Billy's mother, Ollie is a special toy, "a toy who will matter." He becomes Billy's best friend, confidant, pal, and yes, Billy's "favorite." But there are villains in the Toy World, and Zozo, the clown king, is the most feared. He and his toy henchman (the Creeps) have sworn to steal and imprison favorite toys until they forget their children and become forever lost. When Ollie is toynapped, Billy must rescue his beloved favorite from Zozo's subterranean lair in the old Carnival Place, past the park, through the woods, and into the night. Never has a journey of ten blocks been more epic.
Hardcover 294 pages. $ 17.99 a copy
Day 75: Burial in Endwater by Kelly Landry
Chatting Books Online Day 75. Today's recommended book : "Burial in Endwater" by Kelly Landry is a lucky find courtesy of Covid-19. Like I am sure many others have done I have been doing a bit of purging during lockdown. On days when I was in the house I cleaned out closets and drawers and on days when I was in the bookstore to wait for folks to pick up their front porch curbside pickups I went through the backroom at the bookstore and shuffled through stacks of books and advertisements and catalogs and threw away a TON of stuff (not that the room looks any neater today because it does not). But among the stacks I found a book in an envelope and tucked inside that book was a note. Seams in early 2016 just a few months after we opened the store an author paid us a visit. According to the note we chatted and she told me about her book. The truth is I have no recollection of this conversation, that entire time period just opening the store is a blur. Anyway at some point afterward she mailed me the book along with this note. I am embarrassed to say I never even took it out of the envelope. Until now that is. My curiosity was tweaked and I had just finished the book I was reading previously so I opened the book and sat down to read. Well I hardly got up until I finished it.
The book is set in and around the Boston area and tells the tale of brother and sister Lydia and George Speare whose father has just gone to jail for murder; and the family of the very famous prosecuting attorney. With secrets and lies in both families there are more twists and turns than you will find on a coastal road all ending with a burial in Endwater, but whose burial ? That is the question and in reading this enjoyable book you will find the answer.
Paperback, 335 pages. $ 15.00 a copy.
Day 74: To Kill A Mockingbird by Harper Lee
Chatting Books Online Day 74. To Kill A Mockingbird by Harper Lee opens with the quote " Lawyers, I suppose, were children once" by Charles Lamb and that pretty much sums up this book in my mind. This book and it's characters have become such icons in literature and in the south that just like we think we know what the lawyers we meet have always been like I think we think of the characters we meet both in books and in life and we think we know who they are, or who they have always been. Scout has been and always will be a precocious child, Boo Radley is , and always has been, a scary recluse who frightens childrens and hurts pets. And Atticus Finch is , always has been, and always will be an icon of civil rights , the ultimate good guy. But dig a little deeper and we see in this novel that they all have so many more layers and what you see is not always what you get or what things seem to be now is not necessarily how they have always been or will always be (continue on an also read "Go Set A Watchman" where you can see both the before and after of many of these characters and your eyes open even further.
One of those books we are all familiar with but certainly worth a revisit every few years as you will continue to uncover layers not seen before in this Pulitzer Prize Winning novel.
Paperback, 323 pages. $ 15.99 a copy.
Day 73: Let me hold you Longer
Chatting Books Online Day 73. Today's recommended book is "Let Me Hold You Longer" by Karen Kingsbury. I only recently heard about this book when it started trending on social media fueled by a combination of graduations and the pandemic. So I ordered it. Of course because the world was ordering it it was temporarily on backorder. But then it arrived, and I read it, and I really like the premise. In the little forward at the beginning of the book the author explains that one day her smallest son ran and jumped in her arms and that got her wondering when was the last time her older son had been small enough to do that. As she says we all celebrate the firsts but never realize when the lasts are happening until they are gone. So she suggests in this book that we hold a little longer, hug a little stronger, etc because we never know when that last is and then before you know it they are all grown up rushing off to college and a life of their own. A sweet rhyming book.
This children's book is 7" x 8" and sells for $9.99 a copy.
Day 72: River Road Recipes
Chatting Books Online Day 72, With over 1.3 million copies sold since it's original release in 1959 today's recommended book is River Road Recipes from the Junior League of Baton Rouge..
You know this cookbook, you may have a copy, certainly your southern momma has at some point had a copy, your best friend lost her copy and borrowed yours, etc. Considered "The Textbook of Louisiana Cuisine" you just might need a fresh copy (though no one is ever offended by a cookbook that shows a little love with splashes and splatters and notes on the pages.) Some older copies were spiral bound without the hardcover (this one has a metal spiral binding and a hardcover binder over it), but if you had one without that you might have lost some pages. Or maybe somehow or another you don’t actually have a copy - yet .
Always the perfect gift for the young lady just starting out on her own , or as a wedding shower gift, a book that truly belongs in EVERY southern kitchen.
$ 19.95 a copy. ( we also have volumes II, III, and IV available at The Conundrum.
