What’s on my bookshelf? January…

What a fantastic bookish start to 2023! Six books read in January and every one a hit. So, without further ado, here are my January reads…

How To Stop Time, by Matt Haig

My read of the month and, dare I say it, I suspect this might be one of the best books I read all year. There were so many passages in this that I turned corners down for (yes, I’m that person). I can’t say too much without giving it away, but wow.

The Satanic Mechanic, by Sally Andrew

This is the second in the Tannie Maria mysteries set in rural South Africa. Tannie Maria, combines her passion for good food with a weekly agony aunt column in the local newspaper – and somehow ends up involved in solving mysteries.

I loved the series – which is available for streaming on Acorn (and on Acorn via Amazon Prime) -and immediately began digging out the books to read.

A South African colleague of Sarah’s spent Christmas with us last year and it was thanks to Tannie Maria that I made her a South African Melktert… although thankfully she didn’t have the same reaction to nutmeg as one of the victims in the series did.

Miss Aldridge Regrets, by Louise Hare

A cosy crime in the style of Agatha Christie set in the 1930s on board the Queen Mary? Yes please! The perfect accompaniment for planes and trains the other week in Sydney.

Miss Graham’s Cold War Cookbook, by Celia Rees

Mum read this one first and deciding that I’d enjoy it too, reborrowed it from her local library for me to read while I was visiting them. Thankfully Thursday was a public holiday and way too hot to do much other than read.

Anyways, she guessed right. I loved it.

Most books about WW2 that I’ve read recently stop at the end of the war – this one begins where those stop… in the very early days of what became the Cold War. It dealt with what the Allied forces found when they liberated the camps, the hunt for the perpetrators and the machinations and justifications and manipulation along the way. While I felt it was a tad longer than it needed to be, and the resolution rushed, this was a very good and thought-provoking read. Thanks Mum.

Welcome To Nowhere River, by Meg Bignell

Even though the first chapter painted a picture in a way I wish that I knew how to do, it took me a little while to get into this one. When I did, I enjoyed it, but perhaps not as much as I thought I might.

Still worth a read but in a month where everything was excellent, this wasn’t quite as excellent.

Non-Fiction

Thinking On My Feet – The small joy of putting one foot in front of another, by Kate Humble

This one made me want to get outside and put one foot in front of the other more. If anything it’s also made me determined to strengthen this ankle, drop some weight and do another long-distance hike. I just haven’t told my husband that last part yet – so that’s our little secret.

Wintering, by Katherine May

I began reading this early last year before setting it aside – not as a DNF (didn’t finish) but rather not for right now. Some books, as are people, are for reasons or seasons. Picking it up this year at a time when I was feeling quite low, and struggling with the sort of existential sort of things I tend to struggle with from time to time, it was the best possible book I could have read.

The writing is beautiful and I highlighted so many passages on my kindle. My favourite tough was her description of the Aurora Borealis, or northern lights. It summed up our experience perfectly.

…as we watched, a wisp of greenish smoke appeared overhead, almost close enough to touch. Untutored, I would have assumed it was a stray emission from one of the surrounding boats, but this, apparently, was the aurora: pale, evanescent, but tangible in a way that I hadn’t expected. …They move slowly, like drifting clouds. Seeing them is an uncertain experience, almost an act of faith. You have to get your eye in, and I honestly don’t think I would ever have spotted them at all had I not been told they were there.

There is nothing showy about the northern lights, nothing obvious or demanding. They hide from you at first, and then they whisper to you…But then, eventually, at a pace set entirely by the firmament, we were given the gift of seeing them, as if in reward for our faith and patience. Then we seemed to see them everywhere.

wintering, by katherine may

Cookbooks…

Tonight’s Dinner 2, by Adam Liaw

Sarah bought me this one for Christmas. My bookshelf contains every single one of Adam’s books and I cook from all of them, but this Tonight’s Dinner series comes straight from his SBS show The Cook-Up. This means that there’s a video for pretty much everything in the book on the show website… it also means that all the recipes from the book are also on the show website. Anyways, I’m cooking my way through it and will review it on BKD over the next couple of weeks.

River Cottage Good Comfort, by Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall

I’m a massive fan of Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall and have a fantasy other life where I have a small holding in Devon and live off the grid making and growing food. I’d grow veggies and herbs and fruit and write and cook and walk. Sarah tells me that it would last until I ran out of wine and it was raining too hard to get the car out to go and buy more. Sad but true.

Anyways, a HFW book is as much about the life and the words as it is the recipes – he’s a great writer/broadcaster. This one is about how we can make the food that makes us feel good inside better for us. Spoiler alert – usually involves adding more veg, more wholegrains, and subbing white flour out where possible. Easy switches, good flavour, and still the same huggy feel.

I borrowed this one from the local library and renewed it twice until they wouldn’t let me renew it again.

Mezcla, by Ixta Belfrage

Another one I borrowed from the library – the best sort of try before you buy. Unfortunately though other people had reservations on it so I couldn’t keep it long enough to try anything from it – and trust me, there’s plenty I want to try.

Belfrage is a protege of Yottam Ottolenghi, is part of the Ottolenghi Test Kitchen (OTK) team and co-authored Ottolenghi’s Flavour. Exciting doesn’t begin to describe this one and I can’t wait to get my hands back on it and cook from it. I suspect it could end up on my bookshelf…maybe the dog can buy it for my birthday? Although I have it on good authority she’s already bought me The Hebridean Baker…

Your turn…

Deb, Donna, Sue and I would love you to share what you’ve been reading…the linky is below.

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