Six Degrees of Separation: Shuggie Bain to A Rose for the Crown

Welcome to this month's edition of Six Degrees of Separation, which is a monthly meme hosted by Kate from Books Are My Favourite and Best.  The idea is to start with a specific book and make a series of links from one book to the next using whatever link you can find and see where you end up after six links.  I am also linking this post up with The Sunday Salon, hosted by Deb at Readerbuzz.

I decided to make this exercise a bit harder for myself this month because I knew the starting point, and I knew where I wanted to end up. Normally, you just see where you end up, but by having the end in mind meant that it took me a few attempts to get from point A to point B, but I got there in the end!

The starting point this month is Shuggie Bain by Douglas Stuart which is a book I don't see myself reading any time soon. What I did know about that book is that it is set in Scotland.

The Shakespeare play Macbeth is often known as the Scottish play, so my next link is Lady Macbeth by Susan Fraser King which I read an enjoyed many years ago because you can't get more Scottish than that really.

A more recent read about a Scottish woman is Eleanor Oliphant is Completely Fine by Gail Honeyman

Moving away fromm Scotland, this time I am linking with the name Eleanor. Eleanor of Aquitaine  was queen of both England and France, the only woman in history to hold both of these titles. There are a number of books about her I could have chosen but I have chosen to use The Autumn Throne by Elizabeth Chadwick as my title. This is the final book in a trilogy about Eleanor.

Eleanor is part of the Plantagenet dynasty from whom the houses of Lancaster and York derived. In turn these were the two sides of the War of the Roses, which was part of the inspiration for A Game of Thrones by George R R Martin.

From fantasy inspired by the War of the Roses, I am turning back to history with The Rose of  York: Love and War by Sandra Worth. This is a story about Richard, Duke of Gloucester and his wife, Lady Anne Neville.

Another book about Richard, who eventually became Richard III, the last of the Plantagenet kings is A Rose for the Crown by Anne Easter Smith, which is where I wanted to end up because, well, it is Easter Sunday!

Next month's starting point is Beezus and Ramona by Beverly Cleary.

A Feast of Ice and Fire: the official companion cookbook by Chelsea Monroe-Cassels and Sariann Lehrer

It seems as all the gods have been smiling in terms of the timing of my post about this book. I was a bit disappointed when I saw that someone else had requested it from the library so I couldn't renew it but, given that I have been reading A Feast for Crows, indulging in watching Season 3 of Game of Thrones this week and Season 4 starts on Monday, the timing really couldn't be better.

This book is actually by two bloggers who started blogging about the food from George R R Martin's A Song of Fire and Ice series over at In at the Crossroads and ended up with a book deal. Not only did they get a book deal, it is the officially sanctioned companion cookbook for the series and as such it includes a foreword from George R R Martin, In it he confesses to not being able to cook much at all, which given how much food is mentioned in the books might be a little surprising.

Whilst this is undoubtedly a book for the fans of the series, whether it be the books or the TV series, there are definitely aspects of the book that might be of interest to other people who like to read about historical food.

Let's start with why fans of the series will like the book. The book is broken up into a series of chapters which relate to different lands in Westeros and reflect the individual character traits of that land. For example, the recipes for the section from The Wall are mostly warm and hearty, as you would need if you lived atop a frozen wall whereas the recipes from King's Landing reflect the more cosmopolitan nature of the population, not to mention the feasts in the royal household and Dorne there are lots of spices and fruits. Each of the recipes includes a quote where the particular recipe has been mentioned in the books and there are plenty of pictures so you know what the finished product should look like.

What about from a purely food perspective? Whilst it would have been easy to put in a pie and call it something to do with the books, this is so much more than that. Lots of fantasy has it's basis in medieval history and this is true of a lot of the food in the series. The first section of the book talks about stocking a medieval kitchen and then gives some basic recipes. For example, there are recipes for Elizabethan Butter Sauce which is recommending for serving with small poultry and Lemon Pastry Dough  which sounds like it would be an awesome base for a fruit tart.

In the main recipe section of the book the authors have gone back through history to find dishes and techniques that reflect the dishes mentioned and then provided a modern equivalent for the recipe where possible. Whilst a lot of them are medieval (like Pease Porridge which I thought was just a nursery rhyme thing), there are some that are Roman in origin (Peaches in Honey-Cumin Sauce) and others Elizabethan. There are some recipes where it has not been possible to find a historical recipe so they have made one up but these are clearly marked as such.

One thing I did like was that on each recipe there is a suggestion of other recipes in the book that would work well together, so if you so desired you could easily have a complete Game of Thrones themed menu for you and your friends.

Because you can't just pop down the shops to buy auroch for example, they generally have provided suggestions for substitute ingredients. There are some recipes though that still have some more obscure ingredients like pigeon, rattlesnake and locusts that may be a little difficult to source, let alone to contemplate eating but reading about those are part of the fun. And there are some that will be challenging but it could be fun to try like Cream Swans which are meringues that are shaped to look like swans - an elegant  addition to any dessert menu I am sure!

The big question for a book like this though is could you cook from it, and I think that the answer is most definitely a yes. There are a wide variety of recipes from breakfasts to soups, mains and sides as well as desserts, cakes and drinks. Yes, there are some recipes that you would be unlikely to make (Honey Spiced Locusts anyone?) but there are more than enough that sound delicious enough to try. My list would include:

Applecakes
Buns with Raisins, Pine nuts and Apple
Bean and Bacon soup
Traditional Style oatcakes
Blueberry tart
Poached Pears
Fingerfish
Lemon cakes
Wintercakes
Tyoshi Honeyfingers

A really good read for fans of the series and for people interesting in comparing historical dishes with modern equivalents.

Rating 4/5



Synopsis

Ever wonder what it’s like to attend a feast at Winterfell? Wish you could split a lemon cake with Sansa Stark, scarf down a pork pie with the Night’s Watch, or indulge in honeyfingers with Daenerys Targaryen? George R. R. Martin’s bestselling saga A Song of Ice and Fire and the runaway hit HBO series Game of Thrones are renowned for bringing Westeros’s sights and sounds to vivid life. But one important ingredient has always been missing: the mouthwatering dishes that form the backdrop of this extraordinary world. Now, fresh out of the series that redefined fantasy, comes the cookbook that may just redefine dinner . . . and lunch, and breakfast.

A passion project from superfans and amateur chefs Chelsea Monroe-Cassel and Sariann Lehrer—and endorsed by George R. R. Martin himself—A Feast of Ice and Fire lovingly replicates a stunning range of cuisines from across the Seven Kingdoms and beyond. From the sumptuous delicacies enjoyed in the halls of power at King’s Landing, to the warm and smoky comfort foods of the frozen North, to the rich, exotic fare of the mysterious lands east of Westeros, there’s a flavor for every palate, and a treat for every chef.

These easy-to-follow recipes have been refined for modern cooking techniques, but adventurous eaters can also attempt the authentic medieval meals that inspired them. The authors have also suggested substitutions for some of the more fantastical ingredients, so you won’t have to stock your kitchen with camel, live doves, or dragon eggs to create meals fit for a king (or a khaleesi). In all, A Feast of Ice and Firecontains more than 100 recipes, divided by region:

• The Wall: Rack of Lamb and Herbs; Pork Pie; Mutton in Onion-Ale Broth; Mulled Wine; Pease Porridge
• The North: Beef and Bacon Pie; Honeyed Chicken; Aurochs with Roasted Leeks; Baked Apples
• The South: Cream Swans; Trout Wrapped in Bacon; Stewed Rabbit; Sister’s Stew; Blueberry Tarts
• King’s Landing: Lemon Cakes; Quails Drowned in Butter; Almond Crusted Trout; Bowls of Brown; Iced Milk with Honey
• Dorne: Stuffed Grape Leaves; Duck with Lemons; Chickpea Paste
• Across the Narrow Sea: Biscuits and Bacon; Tyroshi Honeyfingers; Wintercakes; Honey-Spiced Locusts

There’s even a guide to dining and entertaining in the style of the Seven Kingdoms. Exhaustively researched and reverently detailed, accompanied by passages from all five books in the series and full-color photographs guaranteed to whet your appetite, this is the companion to the blockbuster phenomenon that millions of stomachs have been growling for. And remember, winter is coming—so don’t be afraid to put on a few pounds.

Includes a Foreword by George R. R. Martin

Weekend Cooking is open to anyone who has any kind of food-related post to share: Book (novel, nonfiction) reviews, cookbook reviews, movie reviews, recipes, random thoughts, gadgets, quotations, photographs. If your post is even vaguely foodie, feel free to grab the button and link up anytime over the weekend. You do not have to post on the weekend. For more information, see the welcome post.

Sunday Salon: Musings on audiobooks, TV adaptations and Game of Thrones

I am currently listening to the audio version of the second book of George R R Martin's A Song of Ice and Fire series, A Clash of Kings. This is the latest in a long line of audiobooks that I have listened to in the last year, some of them more than once.

Today, I thought I might muse on a couple of things about listening to audiobooks and then specifically focus on Game of Thrones, with particular emphasis on the adaptation that has taken the world by storm over the last couple of years. At least, that is the plan for this post as I sit down to write it. It could end up taking another direction all together!

In some ways I am a bit old fashioned when it comes to how I prefer to listen to audiobooks. I don't tend to download them from places like Audible or even through the library website but rather I like to get the CD and listen to that. There is no real reason for that preference. I don't actually download movies either, but that is possibly a thought for another day and another post.

In the case of a big book getting the CDs might mean a huge number of discs that need to be listened to. A Clash of Kings is 30 CDs long, but the next book is bigger again and that is still dwarfed by the audio book of A Breath of Snow and Ashes by Diana Gabaldon that I listened to last year which came in at a whopping 49 CDs long!  At the time when I was listening to that book I wasn't driving to work each day so I was only listening for about 15 minutes a day so it literally took me months to get through that audiobook.

Sometimes when you borrow from the library you may get the MP3 version which has both advantages and disadvantages. The most obvious advantage for the listener is the much lower number of discs to be managed. Recently I listened to both On the Jellicoe Road and Saving Francesca by Melina Marchetta which were both one MP3 long. Now that I am driving to work most days, I appreciate not having to continually swap discs around while I am driving in order to hear what happens next in the story. I guess I should experiment a little with the whole download thing and see if it works a better in relation to this particular swapping disk aspect.

There is definitely at least one disadvantage to MP3 files though. Whereas a track on a CD might be anywhere between 1 and 10 minutes long, the MP3 tends to have much longer tracks, usually matching chapters. This makes it really quite difficult to know go back to a particular spot in the narrative if you want to listen to something again, either because it was a good bit or you got temporarily distracted and need to go back. The fact that there is often only one CD can also make it a bit difficult to determine how far through a book you are as well.

Regardless of which format you are listening to, one disadvantage to listening rather than having a book in your hand is that it is difficult to take a sneak peek at the end of the book to see how it ends!

I know that some people like to listen to audiobooks to reread books that they have already read but I am tending to use them to get to books that I want to read but I don't have as much time as I would like to actually get to read. For example, I think I know what my next three audiobooks are going to be. They are The Piper's Son by Melina Marchetta (because I have recently become a MM fangirl and now I need to read everything I can by her!), then the third Game of Thrones book and then I might try the audiobook of Wolf Hall. I have owned Wolf Hall since it first came out but never actually read it, so by listening to it on audio I will finally be crossing it off the list. Also, someone mentioned that the audio version was very good so we will see.

The narrator of an audiobook can make or break the listening experience. Most of the time they enhance the listening experience but sometimes either the voice just doesn't work or the accents are wrong or whatever. Which brings me to the listening experience for Game of Thrones. The narrator for the first three books is actor Roy Dotrice, and I have to say that he is pretty good,  and he would have to be given the sheer number of characters he has to voice throughout the story. According to the box, he is now holds the world record for the most number of different characters (thank you George R R Martin!).

It has been interesting listening to the book after having seen the TV adaptation. Normally I make a my practise to read a book before seeing the movie or TV series but so far I have watched two and a bit seasons of the Game of Thrones TV series. I was watching the third series but I stopped when I started listening to the books as it was a bit distracting listening to a character do one thing in the book as I was driving and then see them do another thing when I sat down to watch TV.

Given that I have already watched the series, it is definitely the actors that I see in my imagination as I listen to the story, even when I know that there are differences between the book and the TV adaptation. I was pleasantly surprised at how true to the book the first series was and that where there were changes that they made sense. For example, one of the few changes I did notice was that some of the young characters were a few years older than the 12 and 13 year olds in the book. For example, Jon Snow was 14 in the book but older in the TV series and Daenerys was much older too - better for modern sensibilities I think.

Having already watched the series also helps with motivation to keep going because, as is more often than not the case with books that are so long, there were some slow parts in the action but knowing what was coming meant that you could clearly see the machinations at work. This is something that I am noticing more in the second book as well, mainly because it is not as clear. It feels as though there were more changes made to the second series compared to the book than there were in the first. All the major things are the same but there are times when I am listening when I think that events happened in a different place in the storyline in the TV adaptation.

I think how much you notice these changes depends on two factors. How well you know the book or how recently you either read it or, in my case, watched the adaptation and then read the book. How much those changes bother you might depend on one additional factor - how much you treasure the book. It is getting very exciting watching all the news coming out of casting and filming for the series adaptation of Diana Gabaldon's Outlander series, but that is one story that I will definitely see and notice the changes that they make.

Getting back to Game of Thrones, I am not going to attempt to cover the plot of Game of Thrones for this post, given it is more a discussion than a review post, but here is the synopsis for those who are interested. I would say that I did very much enjoy the listening experience, and hence went back for more. In my mind, I started using seven hells as a curse, but not yet out loud, and that particular phrase hasn't come up much in the second book. It's always fun when a book you are reading informs your thinking and language, ye ken! I ended up giving Game of Thrones a grade of 4.5/5.

Long ago, in a time forgotten, a preternatural event threw the seasons out of balance. In a land where summers can last decades and winters a lifetime, trouble is brewing. The cold is returning, and in the frozen wastes to the north of Winterfell, sinister and supernatural forces are massing beyong the kingdom's protective Wall. At the center of the conflict lie the Starks of Winterfell, a family as harsh and unyielding as the land they were born to. Sweeping from a land of brutal cold to a distant summertime kingdom of epicurean plenty, here is a tale of lords and ladies, soldiers and sorcerers, assasins and bastards, who come together in a time of grim omens.

Here an enigmatic band of warriors bear swords of no human metal; a tribe of wildlings carry men off into madness; a cruel young dragon prince barters his sister to win back his throne; and a determined woman undertakes the most treacherous of journeys. Amid plots and counterplots, tragedy and betrayal, victory and terror , the fate of the Starks, their allies, and their enemies hangs perilously in the balance, as each endeavors to win that deadliest of conflicts; the game of thrones.

Currently reading

Fables: War and Pieces by Bill Buckingham, The Historian by Elizabeth Kostova, The Briny Cafe by Susan Duncan and listening to A Clash of Kings by George R R Martin.

Up Next

A Song of Willow and Frost by Jamie Ford and The Jade Widow by Deborah O'Briend