Welcome to my 2021 reading theme - #projectfood!
I enjoyed my first two themed reads - #projectnames (branchild of Simon at Stuck In A Book) and #projectplaces, which I completed yesterday - so much that I knew I needed another one to keep me on track this year.
After much deliberation, I've finally come up with a theme for my 2021 reading, and it is one of my favourite subjects - food (and drink!) I'm going to read books that mention food or drink - or related words - in their titles. I did wonder if I'd find enough appropriate material on my shelves, but I need not have feared. I've actually sorted out far more books than I'll ever read by December, and I never stick entirely to the theme if other things present themselves, so I feel well set for the coming months.
When you start to forage for material, it's amazing to see just how many titles do have some sort of gastronomic reference - from Roald Dahl's Charlie and the Chocolate Factory to Elizabth Bowen's Eva Trout, Ian Stephen's A Book of Death & Fish (which I've read once but look forward to revisiting, so good it is) and Angela Thirkell's Wild Strawberries, the books just leapt out at me.
I found plenty of non-fiction too, from discursive cookery books (I first read James Beard's Delights and Prejudices when I was at school - goodness only knows how it turned up on the shelves of Petts Wood library) to diaries (James Lees-Milne's The Milk of Paradise, Vere Hodgson's Few Eggs and No Oranges) and memoirs (MK Fisher's The Gastronomical Me, Nora Seton's The Kitchen Congregation .)
I've included some children's books too; I love Jill Murphy's Mrs Large books, and I have fond memories of reading Vivian French's Oliver's Vegetables to my own children (not that it ever persuaded them to eat spinach, but they enjoyed the story...)
I'm starting the project with Mary Wesley's The Camomile Lawn (because you can, after all, make tea with camomile). I first read this surprising novel when it was published in 1984, and I'm very much enjoying it again. Wesley was a daring, unconventional woman - not for nothing is her biography (which she not only authorised but largely dictated from her sick bed, remarking that if only she had been younger and in better health, she would have happily invited her biographer, Patrick Marnham, to join her) called Wild Mary.
If anyone would like to join in, feel free!
As the quality of the photo is not the best (Siamese tail thrown in bottom left....), I'll list the books below. (R = re-read.)
Fiction:
Maeve Binchy: Chestnut Street
Elizabeth Bowen: Eva Trout
Alan Bradley: The Sweetness at the Bottom of the Pie
Amy Bratley: The Girls' Guide to Homemaking
Cathy Bramley: A Vintage Summer
Kate Lord Brown: A Taste of Summer
Truman Capote: Breakfast at Tiffany's (R)
Mary Cholmondeley: Red Pottage
Elaine Dundy: The Dud Avocado (R)
Judith Fertig: The Cake Therapist
Elizabeth Goudge: The Herb of Grace
Elizabeth Goudge: The Secret of Water
Jessie Kesson: Where the Apple Ripens
Donna Leon: The Golden Egg
Molly MacRae: Scones and Scoundrels
Stuart McLean: Home from the Vinyl Cafe (R)
Stuart McLean: Vinyl Cafe Unplugged (R)
Meg O'Brien: Salmon in the Soup
Nicky Pellegrino: The Food for Love Cookery School
Peter de Polnay: The Fat of the Land
Bill Richardson: The Bachelor Brothers Bed & Breakfast (R)
Michele Roberts: Playing Sardines
Angela Thirkell: Wild Strawberries
Ian Stephen: A Book of Death and Fish (R)
Colin Watson: One Man's Meat
Mary Wesley: The Camomile Lawn (R)
Children's
Vivian French & Alison Bartlett: Oliver's Vegetables (R)
Debi Gliori: Mr Bear's Picnic (R)
Rumer Godden: Little Plum
Jill Murphy: A Piece of Cake (R)
Dr Seuss: Green Eggs and Ham (R)
Non-Fiction
Verily Anderson: Spam Tomorrow
Elizabeth Bard: Lunch: Paris
James Beard: Delights and Prejudices (R)
Anna del Conte: Risotto with Nettles
Artemis Cooper: Writing at the Kitchen Table (biography of Elizabeth David)
Neil Coombs (ed): The Surrealist Cookbook
Derek Cooper: Snail and Samphire
Lawrence Durrell: Bitter Lemons (R)
MK Fisher: The Gastronomical Me (R)
Vere Hodgson: Few Eggs & No Oranges (R)
Peter Kerr: Thistle Soup
Laurie Lee: Cider with Rosie (R)
James Lees-Milne: The Milk of Paradise - Diaries 1993-97
Prue Leith: Relish
Ruth Reichi: Comfort Me With Apples
Colette Rossant: Madeleines in Manhattan
Colette Rossant: Apricots on the Nile
James Salter and Kay Salter: Life is Meals
Nora Seton: The Kitchen Congregation
Nigel Slater: Eating for England (R)
Alice B Toklas: The Alice B Toklas Cookbook
I have just read your post over at Simon's about #projectplaces, and this one sounds intriguing also. What I like about your projects is that they lead to so much variety in the types of books you read. Looking at your pile of books for this project, I am thinking you may actually have more physical unread books than I do. (I have somewhere around a thousand unread books, but a very small home, so many are in boxes in the garage.) Have a good journey through books for this project.
ReplyDeleteThank you so much for your kind words. I have read some of the books in this photo, but there are plenty that I haven't - and plenty more unread books that aren't in this project! I have made a few more inroads this year, with the libraries and charity shops being closed. I'm always surprised by what I have when I start rooting through the shelves!
DeleteThis sounds like huge fun, Rosemary. And that's a huge pile of books to read from. I've read Wild Strawberries and The Sweetness at the Bottom of the Pie, both good. Oh and Eating for England by Nigel Slater. I read his Christams Chronicles over the Christmas and loved it so much that I dug out His Kitchen Diaries part 1 to read this year. I love his stye of writing. I've read one book by Ruth Reichl, Garlic and Sapphires, but not the one you have. Look forward to seeing what you read.
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