The little Danish hygge trend? I got on board with it this month too. I cooked a recipe for Boller i Karry — a.k.a. meatballs in a curry sauce — from The Little Book of Hygge by Meik Wiki
ng. What intrigued me about the recipe is that the meatballs are simmered in broth so that they are really moist instead of being baked. In the past, my meatballs tended to be more dry on one side or even fall apart. This recipe really was perfect. My husband raved about it. You can Google Boller i Karry if you’re curious. The recipe is going to become a regular part of our family meals, but I will probably cut back on the heavy cream to make it a little healthier. I know the hygge trend might sound a little cheesy and obvious on social media, but I think it’s because hygge is something that cannot be fully translated; it is something that is felt. The book did give me some good ideas for cozy practices to incorporate into my family’s life.
Books, Books, Books:
I finished reading At Home in the World by Tsh Oxenreider. She mentioned my blog post on her podcast site, which I really appreciated. The book definitely captured my imagination and allowed me to vicariously experience family travel around the world. I pictured what it would be like to walk down the sidewalk in Hong Kong or snorkel around the Great Barrier Reef with my guys. I will probably re-read this book every once in a while because there is something about armchair travel that is just so enjoyable, especially when the writing is so vivid and insightful.
The book that really surprised me in a good way this month was An Outlaw and a Lady: A Memoir of Music, Life with Waylon, and the Faith that Brought Me Home by Jessi Colter. The writing in this book is vivid and lyrical, which makes sense for the voice of a singer-songwriter. I grew up on country music; my heroes were Crystal Gayle (I wanted to grow my hair as long as hers) and Ricky Skaggs (I got out a wooden spoon for a microphone and had “concerts” along with him). Nothing gets me like a record of Kenny Rodgers or Buck Owens. I used to listen to Country Gold on the radio every Saturday night, and in my college years I kept a good rotation of Johnny Cash, Merle, and Waylon in my CD player, along with Britney Spears, Christina, and Eminem. I got to see Merle, who was part of the “outlaw country” movement twice in concert, which was amazing. Anyway, all of this preface is to say that any background story that I can get about the classic country singers — especially told in such a beautiful format as this book — is something I will give two thumbs up to any day. I remember hearing Jessi Colter’s song “I’m Not Lisa” on the radio, and I knew she was married to Waylon, but I never knew her story of faith. I was really drawn in as she told her story, starting with her mother, a Pentecostal faith healer, and her father, the mining race car driver. Colter writes of how she drifted from faith and then returned to it to sustain her. This book was provided by Book Look Bloggers in return for my honest review.
I finally finished the third book of L.M. Montgomery’s Emily series. I did a slow trudge on this one because I could tell by the foreshadowing that Emily was going to get engaged to Dean, and I kept wanting to tell her don’t-do-it! On one hand, Dean could offer Emily good conversation and access to travel that she did not have before, but on the other hand, he lied and told her that her writing was not good because he thought she loved her writing more than she loved him (she did). Unfortunately, she believed that her writing was not good and stopped creating completely. The Emily series is about the making of a writer, so having a season when Emily does not write is almost like having the life stolen from the book. Fortunately, Emily does eventually find her way, with the help of her family; a family member submits her book to a publisher, and Emily finally achieves the “Alpine Path” that she has been dreaming about, just as she finds out that her best friend is engaged to Teddy, the man that she has truly loved since she was young. It drove me nuts how passive Emily was about expressing her love for Teddy after his wedding to Ilse fell apart (because Ilse really loved their other childhood friend). I thought she would tell Teddy how she felt since she realized they both loved each other and had only misinterpreted each other’s actions. Emily’s passivity frustrated me, but I was glad that she ended up getting the happy ending that she deserved after a lot of uncertainty. Mostly, I wondered, what if LM Montgomery had allowed the Emily character to go to New York after all? Certainly the story would have been more fun to read, but it might not have achieved the message that Montgomery was trying to communicate about how home and sense of place shapes a writer. Here are my posts about the first two books: Emily of New Moon and Emily Climbs.
After reading Tsh Oxenreider’s At Home in the World, the next logical move seemed like picking up another armchair travel book. My book of choice was The New York Times: Footsteps, a curated collection of the New York Times travel column, “Footsteps,” exploring iconic authors’ relationships to landmarks and cities around the world. I was especially curious to read the excerpt about the “dangerous, dirty and seductive” streets of Naples, the setting for Elena Ferrante’s famous Neapolitan novels, because I think Ferrante is the best novelist of our times (seriously, My Brilliant Friend is a skillful weaving of character, setting, and plot). Place is such an influence for writers; take L.M. Montgomery as a prime example. I like to find out “the story behind the story,” and this collection delivers something that a fan of literature like myself can savor. This book was provided by Blogging for Books in return for my honest review.
Have a fantastic month! Hope you get the chance to open a good book and cook something that makes you feel cozy too. If you’ve read any of these books, I would love to talk about them with you in the comments.
xoxo Teresa
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