Sorry.

Major almost-two-months blogging failure.

The rest of Advent went well. The Christmas market not as fun this year as last.

January has been tear-my-hair-out crazy-busy. Lots of work to do, hardly a minute to myself. (For example: I had four meetings on Tuesday of this week, and worked straight through from 9:30am-11pm). Still, somehow I'm enjoying it. Minus the number of nights I've only gotten seven hours of sleep. Which includes tonight.

For your reading pleasure:

Crown of Dust by Mary Volmer

My rating: 5 of 5 stars


This book is incredible, mesmerizing, magnificent.



In the late 19th century, a young man arrives in Emaline's town of Motherlode, a small mining start-up near the grass valley. Alex, the young man, is running from a past he doesn't want to remember, and hiding a secret that could ruin his life, and take his freedom. For Alex is not a young man, but a young woman. The story is about Emaline and Alex, and all the other inhabitants of Motherlode, with their many desires, ambitions, dreams, cares, and problems. The setting is a poor town with plenty of water in the creek and enough gold to keep the miners panning, but not much else. A town with an unfinished church, and a wild but mostly decent population.



The story is told through the viewpoints of many of the inhabitants. It is told in the present tense, which is something I just encountered (for the first time?) recently. It takes some getting used to, but it adds a completely different flavor to the story and the plot. It makes the dust and the rain of the town and the cares and hopes of the protagonists more immediate, and separates memories (told in the past tense) from the current storyline.



The writing is more calm than fast-paced, but the book still achieves an un-put-downable quality (there is still action aplenty). The characters are top-notch, wonderful, realistic creations that drive the plot and truly make the story fascinating. Near the beginning of the second half, I started to get a little impatient, and maybe didn't do justice to some of the non-Alex-related happenings. At first I was a little concerned that Alex might have forgotten his origins as a young woman, but she still narrates the story from a young woman's point of view, even though she admits it is easy to think of herself as a young man.



Final word: The ending is So. Good. Sogood.



View all my reviews

Historical Architecture in the Colonial Period - A Book Review

Where We Lived: Discovering the Places We Once Called Home by Jack Larkin

My rating: 3.5 of 5 stars


A fascinating picture of early houses and their regional characteristics. I've frequently been surprised by how humble the more common varieties were. Unfortunately, many of the houses mentioned in the text are unaccompanied by photographs, plans, or other images. The photographs that are included are invaluable to understand what these houses looked like, when a reader does not have the background to understand terminology such as "gables" and .

I would be interested to know how the American Indians fit into the landscape of early housing and architecture. Descriptions of slavery and slave quarters interesting - especially to note the careful line trod by the author when discussing the varying quality of slave quarters. I would also have enjoyed learning more about the distinctions between early English-style houses and other European styles.

Some of the photographs do not seem to be located on the most relevant pages - some photos of churches are placed on pages that discuss houses, instead of on those that discuss churches.

Overall this book was incredibly interesting and a very good resource for a beginner to learn about early colonial architecture. The images are fascinating and essential. The language was very accessible, though occasionally overly simplified. The quotes from travelers are well-integrated. I found them to be some of the most interesting sections in the book. Primary sources are invaluable in understanding "how things were." Furthermore, the author provides backgrounds, assumptions, and biases for the sources.

King James and Gutenberg are Together at the Fisher Library!

Somehow I never arrive at these things directly. I suppose it's more fun to find out about them indirectly...

Went to the opening of the exhibit on the King James Bible that is currently on display at the Thomas Fisher Rare Book Library, and have seen the amazing variations in form that the Bible has taken over the centuries. In the context of research for another project, I came across this:





On a side note, very proud of my computer skills, since I just figured out which part of the embedding code creates the green color of the play bar on the bottom of the video! Okay, so it was cutting and pasting, but reading coding languages is like reading Greek for me.

Anyway, if you're in Toronto, and you haven't checked it out yet, go see the exhibit at the Fisher - they have the really big Bibles (and a page from the Gutenberg press, ask to see that one) and really really little Bibles, pop-ups, cartoons, ancient languages and more!

If you can't get to Toronto before June 3, listen to PJ Carefoote talk about it here:

Zen and the Art of Baking [and the honey bar recipe]

Two nights ago I had a craving for Sweet. This happens frequently in my life, so I'm quite used to it, and usually have chocolate chips on hand. Only, I decided last week not to buy more because I bake chocolate chip cookies (and eat them) way too often.

So instead, I turned to my favorite baking cookbook In. The. World: the Tassajara Bread Book, by Edward Espe Brown. The author, who has a very zen outlook on life (perhaps because he is an ordained Zen priest), is simply amazing. He's a genius. His introduction to the copy my mom has, which I don't think made the cut for the 25th anniversary edition, and which I own, states that you cannot make a "bad" loaf of bread. Each loaf is different.If you enjoy baking, or want to start baking, I suggest you try the Tassajara. It's not all bread, either, but breakfasts and desserts, muffins and butters and pastries.


To get back to my craving, I found a recipe at the back, in the desserts section, called "Honey Bars." To cut a long, boring story short, these are what I made. I didn't have enough honey, so I added a bit of maple syrup instead, and they still tasted great (maybe next time I'll learn how they're really supposed to taste).

I shared them around because initially I didn't like them (now I think they're the best), and I know a few people asked for the recipe. So after that long written perambulation, here it is, with a few notes of my own:

I have always loved the soft but chewy texture of these bars and the exquisite bouquet of spices, honey and fruit peel. They can be kept for several weeks in a tightly closed tin. 

1 1/2 cups honey [I added maple syrup]
3 tablespoons butter OR margarine
2 cups whole wheat flour, sifted with 1 tablespoon baking powder [I used unbleached white here]
2 tablespoons chopped lemon or orange peel OR 1 tablespoon of each
2 teaspoons cinnamon [I never really measure the spices]
1/2 teaspoon freshly ground cardamom
1/4 teaspoon ground cloves
1/4 teaspoon mace OR allspice OR ground coriander (optional) [I don't have these]
1/2 cup chopped almonds or other nuts [almonds are perfect]
1 1/2-2 cups whole wheat flour [my dough looked really thick, so I ended up only adding about a half cup of whole wheat flour here]

[Makes about 24 large bars. Preheat oven to 350F]

Have all the ingredients ready to mix quickly before the mixture stiffens with cooling. 
Heat the honey in a saucepan slowly [this doesn't take very long] just until liquidy; remove from the heat. Stir in the butter or margarine and then the sifted flour with baking powder to make a thick batter. Add the fruit peel, spices, and nuts, and then add the additional flour until a dough forms.  [I ended up using much less than 1 cup extra flour]
Pat the dough into a buttered pan until you have a layer 3/8 inch thick. Bake at 350F for about 20-25 minutes. Be careful not to overbake or the cookies will be quite hard. When done, the bottoms will be lightly browned and the tops dry but not browned. 
Remove from the pan while still warm and slice into bars. Then cool before storing.  

Enjoy! I'd love to hear about variations, too, so let me know how it turns out!

An Informal Book Review

I recently started a new book, one which I found at the library where I volunteer. You may remember it from this post. One day, as I was putting books back on the shelves where they belonged, I straightened up some of the books already on the shelves, and came across a title I'd found (serendipitously) on The Great Internet. Which I almost immediately put on my To-Read List. Here it is, in its lovely hardcover jacket.

I haven't finished the book yet (as I should, before I post a review, but does anyone mind?)

This book reminds me of The Historian by Elizabeth Kostova (a favorite of mine). The narrative travels through time, and follows several individuals who play a role in the rescue of the Sarajevo Haggadah over the past 6 centuries. It opens with the main protagonist, a young Australian book conservator in 1996, who gets asked to recently war-torn, tense Sarajevo to conserve the text. She finds an insect's wings and other anomalies in the book. Her search for the history of the book itself, and how it has survived over the centuries, leads to the other narratives, the first of which takes place in (again) war-torn Sarajevo, this time the Second World War. This second narrative follows a young, poor Jewish girl in Sarajevo, fighting to survive. Her trials lead her to the kustos of the National Museum, a Muslim with a passion for history and diversity and the kindhearted motivation to save a young Jewish girl.


That's as far as I've gotten, but the writing is beautifully evocative, the plot suspenseful and quick-moving, and the stories engaging.