This year I started participating in the Classics Spin and I have really enjoyed both books that I read so I am excited to see what the spin throws up for me this time!
The idea is that you put up a list of Classics you want to read numbered 1 to 20, the spin will happen and that is the number book that you have to read. You can find a much better explanation of the rules at the Classics Club itself, but I am sure you get the idea.
The lucky spin number will be announced next Sunday so not too long to wait to see what book the fates have selected for me. The big challenge will be to see if I can complete the read and share a review by October 4.
Here's my list
1. Jane Eyre by Jane Austen 2. The Tree of Man by Patrick White 3. All Quiet on the Western Front by Erich Maria Remarque 4. Down and Out in Paris and London by George Orwell 5. Much Ado About Nothing by William Shakespeare 6. The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie by Muriel Spark 7. Wuthering Heights by Emily Bronte 8. The Women in Black by Madeleine St Johjn 9. Eveline by Frances Burney 10. Scoop by Evelyn Waugh 11. Middlemarch by George Eliot 12. The Songlines by Bruce Chatwin 13. Tales of Genji by Murasaki Shikibu 14. Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Sea by Jules Verne 15. The Diary of a Young Girl by Anne Frank 16. Jamaica Inn by Daphne du Maurier 17. The Day of the Triffids by John Wyndham 18. The Talented Mr Ripley by Patricia Highsmith 19. Sense and Sensibility by Jane Austen 20. Travels with a Donkey in the Cevennes by Robert Louis Stevenson
Have you read any of these? Do we have any classics in common? Are you participating in the Spin this time?
According to Goodreads I started reading War and Peace back in July 2010. I did give it a good go, but then I put it down and just didn't pick it up again. It wasn't that I wasn't enjoying it, but I just stopped.
At the beginning of last year I decided I was going to try and read alongside the chapter a day readalong. I didn't join the group or anything like that. I just kind of kept up with the schedule. I was doing well until I started working again and I fell behind when I was about 2/3 of the way through. It sat on my desk, taunting me every day. Finally, I decided I was going to finish it, once and for all. And so I did!
Today I am sharing a number of thoughts about reading War and Peace. Fair warning....some will be deeper than others.
This isn't my first Tolstoy. Years ago I read and loved Anna Karenina when Oprah chose it for her Classics Book Club. I loved reading along with other readers and discussing the experience, even if not everyone loved it. I should have joined the readalong for this book but I chose to read alone. I knew that I could read Tolstoy but it was still daunting and it definitely felt like an achievement when I finished it.
I think the thing that I do enjoy about these books is the humanness of the characters and how relevant that is still today. Yes, Tolstoy goes off on massive tangents, and spends paragraphs talking about the fact that battles were won despite no one doing what they were ordered to do. I particularly thought where he was talking about the fact that we look back and say this one thing or one person was decisive but really there were many people and incidents that contribute to the eventualities was very perceptive. I think we see this evidenced in the fact that we say that WWI was started because of the shooting of the Archduke Ferdinand. It was, in effect, the straw that broke the camels back, but in reality tensions had been building for years. Another example is that the American's entered WWII due to Pearl Harbor but there had been many events that led up to that one decisive moment.
Getting back to the humaness of the characters, we saw characters who undertook big transformations due to their experiences, such as Pierre going from illegitimate son, to rightful heir, to husband, to member of the Masonic Lodge, to outwardly losing everything. And similarly the female characters such as Natasha and Princess Marya experienced love and loss, and were bound by duty but ultimately achieved happiness.
Whilst the title is War and Peace, it could just as easily have been Love and Loss or Power and what ever the opposite of that is.
Humour isn't the first word that comes to mind when I think of Tolstoy but there was definitely humour in the book, from the inept armies who couldn't follow orders and still triumphed to single lines that just made me smile, like the one late in the book which said about Pierre "Though the doctors treated him, let his blood, and gave him medications to drink, he nevertheless recovered."
Would War and Peace qualify as having one of the longest epilogues ever? There are two parts to the epilogue and together they are nearly 100 pages long which seems crazy. One was an epilogue in the more normal use of the word where we found out what happened to the characters after the main part of the story. The other part was more philosophical thoughts about war.
I read the Richard Pevear and Larissa Volokhonsky translation of the book because theirs was the version I read of Anna Karenina. It felt quite accessible, and I liked that they kept a lot of the French in the books.
Ultimately, reading a book like War and Peace is a commitment, and I am so glad that I was able to finish it this time. I did close the book with a sense of achievement, but also relief that I had finally got to the end. If you asked me to name Tolstoy books I probably would only be able to name this one and Anna K, but there are others out there, which I might try to read.....one day.
This book counts for the Books in Translation Challenge hosted by Introverted Reader, for the Historical Fiction Reading Challenge which I hosted, counts as one of my 20 Books of Winter and was read for the Marathon reader prompt of the Spring Goodreads Challenge.
Last Classics Spin was my first time participating and really enjoyed my experience of reading The Leopard by Giuseppe Tomasi de Lampedusa so I am excited to see what the spin throws up for me this time!
The idea is that you put up a list of Classics you want to read numbered 1 to 20, the spin will happen and that is the number book that you have to read. You can find a much better explanation of the rules at the Classics Club itself, but I am sure you get the idea.
The lucky spin number will be announced next Sunday so not too long to wait to see what book the fates have selected for me. The big challenge will be to see if I can complete the read and share a review by July 5!
It's been a quiet reading week this week. Work is crazy busy and by the time I get home it is all I can do to stay awake!
I did finish The Resistance Knitting Club by Jenny O'Brien which I reviewed last week.
I then started The Berry Pickers by Amanda Peters. I need to finish it as I have two other books that can't be extended at the library! I have a feeling that one or both of those will be returned unread and reborrowed but we will see!
I announced over the weekend that I was going to participate in the Classics Club Spin this time around. The number that came up for the spin was #2 which means I am going to try to read The Leopard by Giuseppe Tomasi Di Lamdedusa. I am grateful that the book selected wasn't too much of a chunkster! Now I just need to read it by the end of March!
I'm watching
If you need a show to define feel good TV, the Muster Dogs is the show. The idea is that you follow a litter of puppies as they are trained to be working dogs. This series it is a mixture of collie and kelpie puppies. This time, the trainers are inexperienced so they are learning as they go along.
We have watched a little bit of the Winter Olympics. I daresay we will watch more over the next couple of weeks!
I did watch a Filippino movie this week, which is a first. A while ago I read a book called The Phone Booth at the Edge of the World. Whispers in the Wind talks about the same concept, which is that there is a phone booth in Japan where you can go to talk to those who have passed away. This story had a different focus as we met two Filipinos in Japan. Hannah was caught up in the tsunami which killed so many, and Ren is looking for his mother who abandoned him and his father many years before. It wasn't a bad watch, although it had a bit of a strange twist.
Here's the trailer
Life
We did something a bit out of the ordinary on Friday night and went to see the Victorian Opera performance of Pirates of Penzance. It was lot of fun, and I found myself singing the tune of Modern Major General - cant sing the words because there are way too many!
Just because I have been doing this book blogging thing for a very long time (more than 20 years but who's counting!) doesn't mean that I can't try at new things.
This year, I have decided that I should try to read more Classics, and so I am joining the Classics Club Spin.
The idea is that you put up a list of Classics you want to read numbered 1 to 20, the spin will happen and that is the number book that you have to read. You can find a much better explanation of the rules at the Classics Club itself, but I am sure you get the idea.
The lucky spin number will be announced on Sunday so not too long to wait to see what book the fates have selected for me. The big challenge will be to see if I can complete the read or not.
Here's my list of 20 books
1. Sense and Sensibility by Jane Austen
2. The Leopard by Giuseppe Tomasi Di Lamdedusa
3. Middlemarch by George Elliot
4. The Little Prince by Antoine de Saint-Exupery
5. And Then There Were None by Agatha Christie
6. Jamaica Inn by Daphne du Maurier
7. All Quiet on the Western Front by Erich Maria Remarque
8. Wuthering Heights by Emily Bronte
9. My Brilliant Career by Miles Franklin
10. The Tree of Man by Patrick White
11. The Fortunes of Richard Mahoney by Henry Handel Richardson
12. Jane Eyre by Charlotte Bronte
13. The Diary of a Young Girl by Anne Frank
14. The Fellowship of the Rings by J R R Tolkien
15. War and Peace by Leo Tolstoy (finishing it!)
16.Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Sea by Jules Verne
Welcome to this week's edition of Top Ten Tuesday which is hosted by That Artsy Reader Girl. This week the theme is Modern Books You Think Will Be Classics In The Future (submitted by Veros @ Dark Shelf of Wonders). I was having a look at some lists of classics and it seems I am not great at even recognising what a classic classic is let alone looking at modern books and thinking it will become a classic in the future. So I am turning the theme on it's head and instead sharing 10 classics I haven't yet read.
All Quiet on the Western Front by Erich Maria Remarque - Not too long ago we watched the recent German adaptation of the movie and then an older English version. Remarque was clearly something of a celebrity in his day as he was involved with Marlene Dietrich and married to actress Paulette Goddard
My Brilliant Career by Miles Franklin -- Mile Franklin, real name Stella has given her name to not one but two of the major awards in Australian literature (Miles Franklin award and Stella Prize) but I haven't read anything by her. The book was published in 2001.
The Tree of Man by Patrick White - Patrick White is the only Australian winner of the Nobel Prize for literature.
The Fortunes of Richard Mahony by Henry Handel Richardson - I had this book on my shelves for a long time but at some point it didn't survive a cull. Like Miles Franklin, Richardson is using a male name but is actually a female writer.
Jane Eyre by Charlotte Brontë - I haven't actually read any of the books by the Bronte sisters.
The Diary of a Young Girl by Anne Frank - You would think I would have managed to read this given how much I read about WWII.
Lord of the Rings by J R R Tolkien - It's not like I haven't tried! I have read and loved The Hobbit at least 3 times. I have started the first book int he Lord of the Rings trilogy several times but I have never made it through to the end.
David Copperfield by Charles Dickens - I did get this on audio a few years ago, mainy because Richard Armitage was one of the narrators. I didn't get very far though.
Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Sea by Jules Verne - I read Around the World in Eighty Days a couple of years ago and really loved it but haven't read anything else by him yet. According to Goodreads there are apparently 6726 different editions of this book! Made choosing a cover a bit of a challenge.
A Wrinkle in Time by Madeleine L'Engle - I have known lot of people over the years who name this as a childhood favourite but I never read it!
I am contemplating using this as the basis to maybe join in on the Classics Spin next year, but we will see. I would have to find another 10 classics to add to make a full list. What's your favourite classic?
For our March meeting, our read on a theme bookclub theme was Classics. Given that it is Jane Austen's 250th birthday this year, it seemed like the time had come for me to read another book by her. I had previously read Emma and Sense and Sensibility, so this time I chose to read Pride and Prejudice, which I listened to on audiobook. It was narrated by Rosamund Pike, who played the eldest Bennett sister, Jane, in the 2005 movie version. It has, somewhat surprisingly, started me on a bit of a Jane Austen path over the last few weeks.
I am not going to write a review as such, because let's face it, this book has been being reviewed for 210 years. My thoughts are somewhat irrelevant. I thought that, instead, I would provide a few comments and then ponder some instances of the impact of Jane Austen in modern pop culture.
Like a lot of classics, it is fair to say that I knew the story before reading the book. Sometimes I think that is the case and then find myself being surprised by some of the directions the book take. Not in this case though.
There were other things that surprised me though, one of which was the wit in the dialogue. There were times when I did laugh as I was listening, particularly at Mr Bennet. For example, there is a scene where Lizzie is telling her father about Mr Collins proposal.
An unhappy alternative is before you, Elizabeth. From this day you must be a stranger to one of your parents. Your mother will never see you again if you do not marry Mr. Collins, and I will never see you again if you do.
His wry observations of his wife and daughters, of his heir and of life in general were somewhat amusing. He wasn't a great judge of character about everyone though.
I also found myself pondering about Jane Austen's observations of the human condition. Whilst her setting was somewhat limited to the upper middle class of the early 1800s, many of the things that people worry about now can be reflected through the pages of the book. For example, Mrs Bennet was mostly concerned with the marriage of her daughters which would give them a home and financial security. Whilst these days we would not necessarily be concerned about the wedding itself, those same concerns for how our children will make their way in the world is real. When talking about historical fiction, I often think we can clearly see that while life in the 13th century, or 19th, or 21st century, the reality is that our main concerns are how do we keep a roof over our heads, food in our mouths, keep our loved once safe and make ends meet. It looks very different in terms of technology, housing, transport etc but the fundamental needs are similar.
Before I start to talk about some of the things that I have done recently, I have been thinking a lot about something that was all the rage around 12 years ago. If you were in the book world back in 2013, you may recall the phenomenon that was The Lizzie Bennet Diaries. It was a multimedia, episodic modern retelling of Pride and Prejudice using Youtube, Twitter and more as the storytelling vehicle.
Like many others, I was completely obsessed with this show. I am always a bit of late to the party when it comes to fashion and social media trends so I came late to The Lizzie Bennet Diaries, but that meant that I was able to binge the whole thing, which I did. I found a post in my blog archives where I talked about just binge watching the show from beginning to end over the Easter weekend, watching the first 40 episodes more than once, and then repeating other episodes over and over. The same team then went on to give this same treatment to other books but it wasn't quite the same phenomen that The Lizzie Bennet Diaries were. Should I start watching the Youtube videos again? I really shouldn't.
More recently, I went to the movies to watch Bridget Jones Diary 4: Mad About You. I realised that I didn't think that I had seen the second and third movies, and so I sat down and watched the first three in quick succession. There are many ways that BJD borrows elements from Pride and Prejudice, and not just because one of the two love interests is called Mark Darcy. It was fun to spot the Austen references from lines like "It's the truth universally acknowledged that the moment one area of your life starts going OK, another part of it falls spectacularly to pieces." to the rollercoaster emotions that Brigid has for Mark Darcy, and the Wickham-esque bad behaviour of Daniel Cleaver. Helen Fielding openly admits that she got a lot of inspiration from the book!
And my thoughts on Mad About You? I laughed a lot. I cried even more. I was so glad that Daniel Cleaver was back. I missed Hugh Grant in the previous movie. Patrick Dempsey was good, but he didn't bring that naughty boy energy that is so Daniel Cleaver. And now, I think that Bridget Jones can stroll off into the sunset. I will probably watch the first and last movies again a few times. I might watch the third one again too, but I can take or leave the second one!
The French Film Festival is currently on here and last week I took myself off to the movies to watch Jane Austen Wrecked My Life. In the book, the main character is a massive Jane Austen fan and can find a JA recommendation for any occasion. She finds herself at a Jane Austen Residency writers retreat. The movie itself was a lot of fun, with some great scenes talking about books and reading, a nice romance, and it does show that the influence of Jane Austen is felt across the world. If you get a chance to see it, please do. Here's the trailer
The final thing that I have done recently is to go to a library event. They had put on a one woman show where the actor depicts acts as the author whilst dressed in accurate period clothing, sharing letters that she sent and received, as well as excerpts from Pride and Prejudice, Sense and Sensibility and Emma. Given that I have only recently read P&P, the section she read was very familiar to me!
You know one thing I haven't ever done? Watched the Colin Firth version of Pride and Prejudice from beginning to end. Maybe it is time to rectify that when we get back from holidays!
We have a public holiday here today for Labour Day so, in theory, that means more reading time! Well, not really, as I do have quite a bit of reading time already.
Last week I finished listening to The Truth by Terry Pratchett. I originally started listening to this back in January, but then I put it aside to listen to Jane Austen. I do intend to write something about this, but I will say here that my favourite character was Otto the vampire iconographer who had a terrible tendency to disintegrate every time he took a photo with a flash!
I have now gone back to listening to Atlas: The Story of Pa Salt by Lucinda Riley. This is a long book so I will probably be listening to this for a couple of months at least.
I finished reading If You Could See Me Now by Samantha Tonge. I really like Samantha Tonge's books but they are a bit tricky to review because there are things that you definitely need to not know when you are starting the book. My review is here.
I also read and reviewed The Jam Maker by Mary-Lou Stephens, which I really loved! I had been to see the author talk a few weeks ago. I really think going to author events really enhances the reading experience! This was a 5/5 read for me!
For a bit of a change of pace, I also devoured Out on a Limb by Hannah Bonam-Young. I had read a couple of chapters a couple of weeks ago, but this week I picked it up and started again and devoured it! This was my first book by her, but it will not be the last! I thought it was fab.
I have two reviews due later this week so I read Love and Laughter (and Other Disasters) by Elora Canne, and started reading The Shadow on the Bridge by Clare Marchant.
In other big news, I finished volume 1 of War and Peace this week. It is funny what you find when you look back in the archives of your blog. I was searching for something last week and came across this post from 2010 which is the last time I attempted to read this book. I have made it further this time than I did then, but I have to figure out what my strategy is going to be for when we go away for a couple of weeks. I don't really want to drag the book around with me, and I don't want to change versions or translations. Maybe I will read a few chapters ahead and then catch up when I get home!
We had our read on a theme book club meeting on Saturday. The theme was Classics and this is just some of what people read. I listened to Pride and Prejudice and will have a post up soon with some thoughts, not necessarily on the book, but on the enduring impact and legacy of Jane Austen or something like that anyway. Our next theme is Spy and I have a couple of ideas of what I am going to read.
I'm watching
You may recall that last weekend I went to the movies and saw the latest Bridget Jones movie. While I knew that I had watched the first one, I had no recollection of the second and third films at all, so this week I sat and watched the first 3 movies. If I had to rate the four movies I would say that the first and last movies are the best, followed by the third one and then the second one was the least entertaining!
The French Film Festival has just started and I am a little bit gutted that I am going to be away for most of it as there are quite a few movies that I wanted to see showing. I did go to the movies by myself on Friday night to see Jane Austen Wrecked My Life which was a lot of fun. It is about a woman who wants to be an author, but can't seem to finish any of her stories. Her friend sends a few chapters off and she gets accepted into a Jane Austen residency writers retreat in England. It is a fun movie!
Here's the trailer
Life
After book club I went to see the Yayoi Susama exhibition for the second time. The second half of the exhibition is so much fun, full of immersion rooms, polka dots, pumpkins with polka dots. It's a lot of fun. You can see a couple of photos from the first time I went here, and then below are some from my most recent visit.
Welcome to this week's edition of Top Ten Tuesday which is hosted by That Artsy Reader Girl. This week's theme is Things Characters Have Said (Maybe a character said something really profound or romantic or hilarious or heartbreaking. You could share witty one-liners, mic-drop moments, snippets of funny dialogue between multiple characters, catchphrases, quotes that have become a part of pop culture–like “May the odds be ever in your favor.”, etc.)
I always struggle with TTT when the theme is about quotes as they are just not something I keep an eye out for, so I am going to go back to an old post I have had in draft for a while. I originally put this post together when the theme was Relationship Freebie (Pick a relationship type and choose characters who fit that relationship as it relates to you. So, characters you’d like to date, be friends with, be enemies with, etc. Bookish families you’d like to be a part of, characters you’d want as your siblings, pets you’d like to take for yourself, etc.), but I didn't get to post it at the time. I think we were away.
I previously did a post featuring the word sisters in the title, so this time I am going to share some authors who are sisters! Let's start with some Australian author sisters:
Liane, Jaclyn and Nicola Moriarty - Whilst Liane is probably the most famous of the Moriarty sisters, Jaclyn and Nicola have also been writing successfully for a long time. Jaclyn writes more in the YA space and Nicola more women's fiction. My favourite book by a Moriarty is probably Paper Chains by Nicola.
Back in 2012 I did a Q and A with Jaclyn Moriarty and asked about the fact that all three of them were writers and this is what she said
Both of our parents are enthusiastic story tellers. We are always saying to Mum, ‘Give us the short version’, and Dad is always advising, ‘Never spoil a good story with the facts’. We had shelves full of books to read when we were kids. Also, instead of giving us pocket money, Dad would commission us to write stories. So I guess we grew up thinking it was the only way to make money.
Here's my review of A Corner of White (it's actually a joint review with Shelleyrae from Book'd Out which I had completely forgotten we did together), and a quote about doing Tim Tam Slams from Free-Falling by Nicola Moriarty
Kate Forsyth and Belinda Murrell - Kate Forsyth is one of my favourite Australian authors, even though I haven't managed to fit in any of her books for quite some time! She writes amazing fairy-tale retellings, is an awesome guest speaker and avid read. Her sister, Belinda Murrell, writes kids books. Interestingly, their great-great-great grandmother, Charlotte Waring Atkinson, wrote Australia's first children's book. Pretty amazing historical connection!
A S Byatt and Margaret Drabble - Whilst these two are sisters, they were estranged for many years .A S Byatt is best known for the book Possession and the book I remember reading from Margaret Drabble is The Red Queen. Here is my review.
Charlotte, Emily and Anne Bronte - It feels like it would be wrong to have a list of literary sister authors and not include the Brontes who have give us books like Jane Eyre, The Tenant of Wildfell Hall and Agnes Grey. They also published a book of poetry under the names of Currer, Ellis, and Acton Bell
Do you know of any other famous authors who are sisters?
It was a busy reading week this week! I read several books, a short story and finished an audiobook.
Firstly, I finished The House of Light and Shadows by Lauren Westwood which I reviewed here. If you like a book where a house is an integral character in the story, then this might be for you.
Happily Ever After by Jane Lovering also has a house like that and for added measure each chapter is named for a famous house in literature. Here is my review.
I was then excited to see that The Bookstore Keepers by Alice Hoffman was available. This is the third short story in the Once Upon a Time Bookshop stories. These are the first Alice Hoffman stories I have read. I will be reading more as I am amazed how much story and feeling she fits into these short stories.
I was then hoping to get a bit of my reviews for March and also read an Aussie author, but the book I wanted wasn't quite ready. I therefore started A Santorini Secret by Rose Alexander which I really loved. Will be searching out some of her other titles. The review for this one will be up later this week.
I am now sneaking in a non-review read. A couple of weeks ago I went to see Mary-Lou Stephen talk about her book The Jam Maker and so I have started that one!
I also finished listening to Pride and Prejudice, narrated by British actor Rosamund Pike. I then started
Mis-Directed by Lucy Parker which also has a couple of celebrity narrators, Nicola Coughlin and Gwilym Lee. I sat on the couch to listen to this and may have fallen asleep so I need to rewind a bit. Generally I listen to audiobooks on walks or in the car.
I'm watching
We watched Unbreakable: The Jelena Dokic Story which was heartbreaking and inspiring in equal measures. Jelena Dokic was a young tennis player back in the late 1990s and early 2000s. She came to Australia as a refugee and then represented Australia, until she announced that she was going back to Yugoslavia. She was infamous because of the way her father, Damir, acted, even getting thrown out of major tournaments due to his aggressive behaviour. However, what the public saw was only the tip of the iceberg. The abuse that Jelena was receiving at home was horrific. She is now estranged from her father, and she is a respected tennis commentator and body image advocate. Here's the trailer
Tuesday night I went to see a preview screening of The Last Journey, a Swedish documentary in which a man and a friend decides to take his elderly father on a road trip to the south of France, to try and spark him back into life. It was a lovely movie, and we went to see it in a fab art deco theatre I had never been to before. The son and his friend, who are famous in Sweden, who produced the movie were at the screening and there was a Q and A session after. It was so touching, because when it started it was about the son not understanding how aging had affected his father, and by the end it was about him accepting that his dad was getting old. Along the way they reminisced about their summers in France. If you get the chance to see it, do so, but maybe take some tissues. It's now the highest grossing Swedish documentary of all time.
Life
We went for a lovely lunch for Valentine's Day which I posted a bit about here. Other than that it was all about the dog this week.
Max
Our lovely boy had a relapse and is not well at all. Late last year he was really unwell and was diagnosed with Addison's disease, liver enlargement, muscle shrinkage in his head and brain, and hyperthyroidism. Despite that for the most part he is a happy dog. He is a Labrador though, so you know there is something wrong when he goes off his food and water, so we ended up at the emergency vet on Thursday. He now has a couple of more things medically and so the vets talk about him having a complex medical history. He takes more medication than Robert and I do combined!
He is recovering, but we have had to have some serious conversations about what happens next time. His a very handsome boy, and has a great nature but he is not genetically blessed and wouldn't have done well in the wild!
Welcome to this week's edition of Top Ten Tuesday which is hosted by That Artsy Reader Girl. This week the theme is Favorite Heroines (or heroes, if you prefer!) but I am going to go off topic this week...again. I am currently listening to Around the World in 80 Days by Jules Verne, so I thought that I would share classics I have read. I know that I should have read many more, but oh well. No guilt allowed right!
Around the World in 80 Days by Jules Verne - Listening to this now!
Les Miserable by Victor Hugo - What a massive undertaking this was!
Alice in Wonderland by Lewis Carroll - I read this last year for Cook the Books and thoroughly enjoyed it!
East of Eden by John Steinbeck - There's several books on this list that I read thanks to Oprah's book club!
The Great Gatsby by F Scott Fitzgerald - I read this back in high school and then read it again 10 years ago.
One Hundred Years of Solitude by Gabriel Garcia Marquez - This was another Oprah read. I did end up going on to read and enjoy a number of his books.
Sense and Sensibility by Jane Austen - Still the only Austen I have ever read - Shocking I know!
Great Expectations by Charles Dickens - I read this after reading Mr Pip!
North and South by Elizabeth Gaskell - I did think about putting up the cover of the DVD of the BBC series as the picture here (hello Richard Armitage) but I restrained myself!
Anna Karenina by Leo Tolstoy - I really enjoyed this! Another Oprah read!
My read on a theme bookclub theme this month is book to screen. I was tossing around a few ideas but I have ended up landing on Around the World in 80 Days by Jules Verne on audio. I watched the TV series with David Tennant last year. So far I can't help but think how different it is from the book and how the things that I thought I knew about the book aren't in it so far!
I am also back reading The Kitchen Front by Jennifer Ryan. I am reading this for Cook the Books, so I need to find something to cook from it so I can post about that when I share the post for Weekend Cooking over the next few weeks.
I'm watching
I went to the movies twice last week. I went to see The Whale, starring Brendan Fraser and then on Saturday night we went too see A Man Called Otto starring Tom Hanks. These are two very different movies. Both good but both different. The Whale was quite confronting and Otto was uplifting and feel good
We also finally finished watching Only Murders in the Building, so now we wait for the next series. We also started watching the final series of Picard and the second series of Jeremy Clarkson's series about running his farm, Clarkson's Farm. I don't always agree with Clarkson, but this show does make me laugh.
Life
Speaking of laughing, we went to see British comedian Sarah Millican live. It is the second time we have seen her and she was just as good the second time around.
Max
We started Advanced Manners training this week, although to be honest, I am pretty sure Max has forgotten all of his basic manners training.
This month's choice for Cook the Books is Alice's Adventures in Wonderland by Lewis Carroll. It is such an interesting choice for Cook the Books as it isn't necessarily a book that you would consider foodie, but it is absolutely full of food references. It was also a fun read to revisit as an adult, especially when you consider that the book itself is over 150 years old, and yet it is timeless.
Reading this again reminded me of the White Night event that was held in Melbourne back in 2015. In honour of the 150th anniversary of the book being published, one of the themes for the event was Alice in Wonderland, with many of Melbourne's building being transformed into giant canvasses for projections. Here are a few of the Alice related pictures I took that night.
The adventures that Alice has after she follows the white rabbit down the rabbit hole are zany, and yet apart from the fact that the game of croquet is something that kids today might not be familiar with, pretty much everything else is still easy for us to understand. Although, I did tend to skip through the poetry but I do that in books like The Lord of the Rings too.
The most well known food reference is probably the mad hatter's tea party, but there were so many others, and I had several ideas of what to make. I ended going with something that wasn't directly related to the story. If you google for ideas there are so many elaborately decorated items - topsy turvy cakes, giant tea pots etc. Unfortunately my decorative skills do not extend to such skilled designs. I do taste good, not necessarily looks amazing!
Some of the ideas I considered were a big cake surrounded by small cakes to represent the food that Alice ate that had the effect of either making her grow big or small. I also thought about making a treacle tart or an onion tart. There were so many options.
So what did I make? We were having our first guests here for dinner at the new house, so I wanted to make something dessert worthy. I also love making chiffon cakes, so once I found my tin in one of the still packed boxes, I decided to make an Earl Grey Chiffon Cake, inspired by all the tea references in the book.
I ended up adapting a recipe which was made with French Earl Grey tea. I only had a couple of bags of French Earl Grey, and I really wanted to use just normal Earl Grey (British I guess) tea instead. The original recipe also called for orange to be included but I didn't have any. I also took some inspiration from a couple of other recipes that I found online by including some of the tea leaves in the cake mixture.
I do love making chiffon cakes (also known as angel food cake). I have made a lemon flavoured one before and a coffee cream cake that isn't called chiffon cake but uses exactly the same techniques. I might try to make a chai flavoured one next. (editted to say....the next one will be a vanilla one as per my husband's request)
The flavour might have been stronger had I used more teabags, but you could definitely taste it, particularly on the second day. There wasn't a lot left for the second day as all the family loved it, especially my nephews who both came back for seconds!
A couple of important things to note when making these kinds of cakes. Firstly, you do not butter the cake tin. You want the cake mixture to stick. It is important that the cake is left to completely cool whilst still upside down. This prevents the cake from collapsing in on itself and ensures that the texture is extremely light.
Earl Grey Tea Chiffon Cake
4 Earl Grey teabags 160ml ( ⅔ cup) boiling water 185g (1¼ cups) self-raising flour 30g (¼ cup) cornflour 1 teaspoon cream of tartar ½ teaspoon salt 6 eggs, separated 200g caster sugar, plus 110g (½ cup) extra 1 teaspoon vanilla essence 100ml vegetable oil Icing sugar, to dust
Preheat oven to 180°C (160°C fan-forced). Place an ungreased 21cm angel food cake tin on an oven tray. You can also use a bundt tin.
Place the tea bags in a small jug, pour the boiling water over and set aside to infuse until the water is warm.
Sift the flour, cornflour, cream of tartar and salt.
Whisk the egg yolks and 200g caster sugar on high speed until thick and pale then whisk in the vanilla.
Squeeze the tea bags so that you get as much flavour as possible into the water.
Cut one of the teabags and add the leaves to the egg and sugar mixture.
Add 125ml ( ½ cup) of the tea to the oil. The tea should still be warm but not hot. Add the oil mixture to the egg mixture and whisk on low speed until well combined.
With the mixer on low speed, add the flour mixture and whisk until just combined. Set aside.
In a clean bowl, whisk the egg whites on medium-high speed until soft peaks form. Add the remaining caster sugar and whisk until thick and glossy and the sugar has dissolved. Add about a third of the egg whites to the yolk mixture and use a large metal spoon or spatula to fold through until well combined. Add the remaining egg white mixture and fold until just combined.
Spoon the mixture into the ungreased tin and gently smooth the surface with the back of a metal spoon. Bake in the preheated oven for 45-50 minutes or until a skewer inserted into the cake comes out clean.
Immediately turn the cake upside down still in the tin so it is suspended, for a minimum of 2 hours. If you are using a bundt tin for this, you can invert the cake over the top of a bottle to have the same effect.
When the cake is completely cool, run a small knife around the side of the tin to release.
Dust with icing sugar and serve with whipped cream and strawberries.
I have also linked this post up with Foodies Read hosted at
Weekly meals
Saturday - Out for dinner
Sunday - Roast Pork
Monday - Beef Chilli with sweet potato wedges
Tuesday - Hainanese Chicken with bok choy and rice
Wednesday - Chicken enchiladas with rice and beans
Thursday - Out for dinner
Friday - Prawn Paella
Weekend Cooking is open to anyone who has any kind of food-related post to share: Book reviews (novel, nonfiction), cookbook reviews, movie reviews, recipes, random thoughts, gadgets, quotations, photographs, restaurant reviews, travel information, or fun food facts. 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. Please link to your specific post, not your blog's home page
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