When I find a book that I really love, I read it very, very slowly.
Sometimes I take more than a year to read a book….soaking up every morsel, tasting every word, and taking in the sights and sounds. Sometimes the really good things in life need to be taken in slowly. Stopping as often as needed to rest, reflect, and enjoy.
My most recent book-love has been A Homemade Life, written by Molly Wizenberg (also of the award-winning blog Orangette). My sister gave me the book for Christmas, and I’ve been enjoying it page by page ever since.
Though I’m near the end of the book, I sometimes go back and read a chapter aloud to my husband at night. He likes for me to read to him…says Molly sounds just like me. I’m flattered.
A Homemade Life has been a faithful lunch companion. Molly’s tender honesty makes me laugh, and cry, but most often her words made me sigh.
As I was reading the chapter about slow-roasted tomatoes, I felt like I needed to call Molly, just as I might call my sister. I have an insane love affair with tomatoes. I especially love to throw them in an oven with parmesan, olive oil, fresh basil, and salt and pepper.
By the end of that chapter I needed to know how she got into blogging. How she became so comfortable sharing intimate details of her life, and how she knew where to draw the line between personal and too personal.
I opened the book again and began to read the next chapter. It began……”I’ve never liked the word blog. it’s kind of weird and lumpy…..” This is followed by how she got started, and the human-to-blog relationship some of us bloggers are coming to know….the rush, the fear, the intrigue. Somehow, she’d read my mind between page 193 and 195, and answered my questions. Molly has an amazing way of connecting with her readers.
It’s a book I’ll keep and re-read, chock full of stories and recipes. From her awkward first encounters with boys, to shopping with her mother and eating crepes in Paris, it’s a book that gives me fresh perspective on things that have happened in my life.
For right now, as I sit at my kitchen table enjoying a bowl of my homemade tomato soup, I’m ready to read the last chapter.
Books become friends, and I don’t like to say goodbye to the good ones. While I’m not ready for A Homemade Life to end, I’ll read the last chapter tonight, certain that I’ll sigh, yet again, when I close the cover. I’ll smile, and send gratitude to our friend, Molly, for giving me a peek into her life, and for the part she’s played in changing mine.
Thanks for sharing, Molly ~
Take good care,
p.s. Last night I read “High Points” to my husband. It reminded me that I still need to try that thing with the dishwasher ~
Jane, I can’t wait to read this book. It sounds delicious.
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Delicious is the word! The text, and the recipes are out of this world!
Each chapter is about a period in Molly’s life, and then she follows it with a related recipe.
When I started reading, I’d dog-ear the pages for the recipes I wanted to make. I soon realized that half of the book was dog-ear’d!
That’s a beautiful piece of writing. The words flow way too easy here and sound very natural. You have found your voice : )
“Blog” is, to me, a suggestive of an insensitive, inert mass of lost wanderings. Well, then, again . . . .
Think blog, smog, fog. Weird and lumpy sounds more poetic though.
Books and papers. I love my genealogy work and the papers excite me. Sometimes I just turn the pages and slide my fingers across each one as it folds back, loving my ancestors, and thanking them for creating this “blog” of a human being.
Some, I might even offer forgiveness for their participation in the process of creating this scatterbrained “blog” of a person. And then, I run across one who received, in her mother’s will, a “new suite which came this year”, in the 1600s and I do another tracing across the fine and silky paper, wondering about the color, the fabric, the trim and the flow of the dress, and knowing I descend from such a grandmother. Just the touch of the page and the silkiness is enough.
I’ve always had a love affair with paper.
Awww….Mom, I just kept smiling when I read your comment! I’m thrilled, and proud that you liked the post so much….and I was also so happy to read about the pleasure you’re getting from digging through so much family history.
That love-affair with paper is hereditary, you know….guess we both got that from a long line of paper-lovers 🙂
You really brightened my day so very much! I love you!
Jane, this post made my day. Thank you! So much.
xo
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Molly, you’re welcome. It’s my pleasure … so glad you enjoyed it!
Take good care,
🙂 Jane
You entice me to get the book. Also, I share that tomato love affair. Finally, in the blog I began (only one entry after the fire and unpublished), I said something similar about the word blog (How does one make italics here?). I can’t remember the word I used, but the sentiment was the same.
Glad you enjoyed the post, Edrie. Do get the book. You’ll love it! 🙂 Please let me know how your blog is coming along!
Take good care,
Jane
Jane, I too love books (and blogs!) that have a homely feel. Like you’ve been invited into someones home to really participate in their personal existence with a warmth and welcome atmopshere. Like your blog! In truth there is no place like home and its where the heart is.
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Hi John, thanks for the comment. After the amazing week I’ve had, I’m learning that home really is where the heart is. In A Homemade Life, Molly loves Seattle, and is at home in Paris, I’m learning that home is wherever there are loving people. I’m in the van, riding to Montana with my dad, and I can’t think of any place I’d rather be. My heart is full and happy.
Take good care,
Jane