New in the stacks:
Incarceron by Catherine Fisher.
“Incarceron is a prison so vast that it contains not only cells, but also metal forests, dilapidated cities, and vast wilderness. Finn, a seventeen-year-old prisoner, has no memory of his childhood and is sure that he came from Outside Incarceron. Very few prisoners believe that there is an Outside, however, which makes escape seems impossible.

And then Finn finds a crystal key that allows him to communicate with a girl named Claudia. She claims to live Outside—she is the daughter of the Warden of Incarceron, and doomed to an arranged marriage. Finn is determined to escape the prison and Claudia believes she can help him. But they don’t realize that there is more to Incarceron than meets the eye, and escape will take their greatest courage and cost more than they know. Because Incarceron is alive.”

The Fireside Cook Book by James Beard.
(Warning: this cookbook was first printed in 1949; if you’re afraid of actual food like butter and lard, don’t bother.)

“The Fireside Cook Book is designed for people who are not content to regard food just as something one transfers periodically from plate to mouth. It is for those who recognize that a simple family meal (as well as a dress-up dinner party) can be a pleasure and a special event.

The wide variety of I-can’t-wait-to-try-it dishes in the book are presented according to a new and different theory. You will find here no attempt to overwhelm the cook with all the recipes ever concocted. Instead, you will find clear, easy-to-follow instructions for the basic preparation of every food, followed in each case by fascinating variations. The basic recipes and variations add up to 1,217 tested dishes — simple enough for the novice, delicious enough for the most meticulous master chef, complete enough for the most imaginative menus without a repetition.

A detailed chapter is devoted to the art of outdoor cookery, another to the preparation of hors d’oeuvres, cocktail snacks, and supper snacks. There is an entire section of suggested menus subdivided into cold weather meals and summer doldrum hints. There is also a complete section on wines and liquors.

The 36 full-color pictures and the nearly 400 other color pictures are themselves full of helpful invention. Handsome double-page spreads employ visual-aid methods to give practical details about, and special uses of, cuts of meat, varieties of wine, and types of fish.

Here, in short, is a book that is an indispensable addition to every American home in which good food is appreciated. It is a book to use constantly, to pore over with delight, and give to all friends from whom you can reasonably expect a future dinner invitation.”

Wishlisted:
Linger by Maggie Stiefvater.
“In Maggie Stiefvater’s Shiver, Grace and Sam found each other. Now, in Linger, they must fight to be together. For Grace, this means defying her parents and keeping a very dangerous secret about her own well-being. For Sam, this means grappling with his werewolf past . . . and figuring out a way to survive into the future. Add into the mix a new wolf named Cole, whose own past has the potential to destroy the whole pack. And Isabelle, who already lost her brother to the wolves . . . and is nonetheless drawn to Cole.

At turns harrowing and euphoric, Linger is a spellbinding love story that explores both sides of love — the light and the dark, the warm and the cold — in a way you will never forget.”

Permaculture: A Designer’s Manual by Bill Mollison and Rena Mia Slay.
(From a review at Amazon:) “This is the definitive Permaculture design manual in print since 1988. It is the text book and curriculum for the 72-hour Certificate course in Permaculture Design. Written for teachers, students and designers, it follows on and greatly enlarges on the initial introductory texts, Permaculture One (1978) and Permaculture Two (1979) both of which are still in demand over twenty years after publication. Very little of the material found in this book is reproduced from the former texts. It covers design methodologies and strategies for both urban and rural applications describing property design and natural farming techniques.”

The Contrary Farmer by Gene Logsdon.
“Gene Logsdon has become something of a rabble-rouser in progressive farm circles, stirring up debates and controversies with his popular New Farm magazine column, The Contrary Farmer. One of Logsdon’s principle contrarieties is the opinion that—popular images of the vanishing American farmer, notwithstanding—greater numbers of people in the U.S. will soon be growing and raising a greater share of their own food than at any time since the last century. Instead of vanishing, more and more farmers will be cottage farming, part-time.

This detailed and personal account of how Logsdon’s family uses the art and science of agriculture to achieve a reasonably happy and ecologically sane way of life in an example for all who seek a sustainable lifestyle. In The Contrary Farmer, Logsdon offers the tried-and-true, practical advice of a manual for the cottage farmer, as well as the subtler delights of a meditation in praise of work and pleasure. The Contrary Farmer will give its readers tools and tenets, but also hilarious commentaries and beautiful evocations of the Ohio countryside that Logsdon knows as his place in the universe.”

What I’m Watching:
All In a Night’s Work starring Dean Martin and Shirley MacLaine.
“After the sudden death of magazine publisher Colonel Ryder, his nephew, Tony (Martin) inherits the magazine and has big plans to expand it. While negotiating a loan from the bank, Tony gets a call from a detective surrounding his uncle’s death. It turns out Colonel Ryder died in his hotel room with a smile on his face and a young woman (MacLaine) was seen fleeing his room wearing only a towel. Suspicious of this woman and afraid the magazine’s wholesome image may be tarnished and their loan denied, Tony asks the detective to stick around and find her. What ensues is a series of misunderstandings.”

Shirley MacLaine is such a cutie in this, and knowing she had a real-life crush on Dean Martin makes this film even more adorable. As a Dean Martin fan, this is one of my favorite films of his; I like him as a romantic lead better than as Sinatra’s sidekick (I have this feeling that in real life, it was the other way around.)

What I’m Reading:
Incarceron by Catherine Fisher.
I’m only a few chapters in and not sure what to make of it. At first I thought the female protagonist was going to be one of those “I’m living in a patriarchal pre-modern society but I’m not a priss so there!” sorts of characters that I am oh-so-sick of, but she may turn out to be more complicated than that. The setting is unusual and the story is intense so far.

What I’m Writing:
As usual, as soon as I started working on Foxglove, I started getting ideas for Evening Primrose (aka Amaranth; I’m not sure I should have changed the working title.) The main character’s personality is dramatically different now, which is a good thing as she was pretty dull before. I’m getting back to Foxglove now though. Mostly I’ve been sorting through old notes for my setting, Searoyal, getting them ready to go into VoodooPad.

What I’m Revising: Still working through Dogwood, but I haven’t picked it up in a bit. I’m starting to feel less intimidated by it, so I’ll tackle it again soon.

Around the House:
On Valentine’s Day, my dad gave me a beautiful miniature rosebush. I’ve transferred it into a pot, and it seems to be doing all right.

I also got a bunch of herb seeds in the mail, and I’m waiting for a few more: spearmint, catnip, California Poppy, Hungarian Breadseed Poppy (a culinary poppy), chervil, garlic chives, Purple Opal Basil, and others. The plan is to set out a small greenhouse on my deck to keep the ground squirrels and deer away.

Cooking:
Heading over to a friend’s for potluck dinner and hanging out tonight, and I’m making Cheese and Broccoli soup. Other than that, haven’t been cooking much.

Spirituality:
I’m trying to enjoy being at home more. I need to not spend every second busy and wrapped up in activity in an effort to keep the loneliness away.

New in the stacks:
Nothing. Isn’t that sad? ;)

Wishlisted:
The Night Fairy by Laura Amy Schlitz.
“From 2008 Newbery Medalist Laura Amy Schlitz comes an exhilarating new adventure — and a thoroughly original fairy who is a true force of nature.

What would happen to a fairy if she lost her wings and could no longer fly? Flory, a young night fairy no taller than an acorn and still becoming accustomed to her wings — wings as beautiful as those of a luna moth — is about to find out. What she discovers is that the world is very big and very dangerous. But Flory is fierce and willing to do whatever it takes to survive. If that means telling others what to do — like Skuggle, a squirrel ruled by his stomach — so be it. Not every creature, however, is as willing to bend to Flory’s demands. Newbery Medal winner Laura Amy Schlitz and world-renowned illustrator and miniaturist Angela Barrett venture into the realm of the illustrated classic — a classic entirely and exquisitely of their making, and a magnificent adventure.”

Where Everything Ends by Ray Bradbury.
“In 1949, a struggling writer—a man very much like the young Ray Bradbury—boards a late night trolley in Venice, California and hears a disembodied voice murmur the words: ‘Death is a lonely business.’ Shortly afterward, that same young man discovers a body trapped in a cage beneath the waters of the local canal. Convinced of a connection between these events, the narrator/hero—together with a wonderfully characterized detective named Elmo Crumley (named in a nod to noted mystery novelist James Crumley) begins to investigate a series of suspicious deaths among the disenfranchised population of Venice.

Death is a Lonely Business was Ray Bradbury’s first book-length foray into classical detective fiction. Two others followed: A Graveyard for Lunatics, in which Crumley and our hero (now a gainfully employed scriptwriter) join forces with special effects wizard Ray Harryhausen, and Let’s All Kill Constance, a tale of mystery and suspense set against the faded backdrop of Hollywood’s Golden Age. All three, together with Where Everything Ends, the never-before-published title story that preceded and inspired them, are now gathered together in a single generous volume that should prove indispensable to Bradbury’s large and loyal readership.

Freely acknowledging the influence of the genre’s masters (Hammett, Chandler, MacDonald, and Cain), all of these stories successfully transcend those influences, filtering them through their author’s wholly unique sensibility. The result is a powerfully nostalgic evocation of time and place, and an unforgettable portrait of a writer in love with language, with movies, and with the transformative power of stories themselves.”

How to Read a Book by Mortimer J. Adler and Charles Van Doren.
“How to Read a Book, originally published in 1940, has become a rare phenomenon, a living classic. It is the best and most successful guide to reading comprehension for the general reader. And now it has been completely rewritten and updated.”

You are told about the various levels of reading and how to achieve them — from elementary reading, through systematic skimming and inspectional reading, to speed reading, you learn how to pigeonhole a book, X-ray it, extract the author’s message, criticize. You are taught the different reading techniques for reading practical books, imaginative literature, plays, poetry, history, science and mathematics, philosophy and social science.”

The Case For a Creator by Lee Strobel.
“A Journalist Investigates Scientific Evidence That Points Toward God. ‘My road to atheism was paved by science . . . But, ironically, so was my later journey to God.’—Lee Strobel. During his academic years, Lee Strobel became convinced that God was outmoded, a belief that colored his ensuing career as an award-winning journalist at the Chicago Tribune. Science had made the idea of a Creator irrelevant—or so Strobel thought. But today science is pointing in a different direction. In recent years, a diverse and impressive body of research has increasingly supported the conclusion that the universe was intelligently designed. At the same time, Darwinism has faltered in the face of concrete facts and hard reason. Has science discovered God? At the very least, it’s giving faith an immense boost as new findings emerge about the incredible complexity of our universe. Join Strobel as he reexamines the theories that once led him away from God. Through his compelling and highly readable account, you’ll encounter the mind-stretching discoveries from cosmology, cellular biology, DNA research, astronomy, physics, and human consciousness that present astonishing evidence in The Case for a Creator.”

Concise Guide to Self-Sufficiency by John Seymour.
“Teaching all the skills needed to live independently in harmony with the land, from harnessing natural forms of energy and raising crops to keeping livestock and preserving foodstuffs, this new format of John Seymour’s classic is still the most practical guide for realists and dreamers alike.”

What I’m Watching:
Arranged – Pretty cute, even if it (I think intentionally) glosses over some of the cultural issues women of these two religions face. I found it interesting to see a film that is positive towards arranged marriages, an unusual stance to take in the West though it’s a reality for many people in the world.

What I’m Reading:
The Sheen on the Silk by Anne Perry.
Still reading this one, and enjoying it.

What I’m Writing:
Worked a little on Foxglove, but not much. Thinking about setting up a small setting “bible” so I can keep all my world-building straight. I have stuff written all over legal pads, notebooks, sticky notes, graph paper, etc., some of it probably in triplicate or more. It would help to have it all in one place.

What I’m Revising:
I haven’t touched Dogwood in awhile. This stage of the process is just mentally exhausting.

Around the House:
Spent some time this past weekend going through old papers, receipts and mail. Threw a bunch of stuff away so now I can really start sorting through my writing. Messed with my jewelry making some more, and found out that the antique brass headpins don’t match the wire I’m using and there’s no way to fix it. I’m sick of dealing with the pre-antiqued wire so I may switch to copper and learn to antique it myself. Sounds kind of fun, honestly.

Cooking:
Not much cooking lately. Made some chicken salad with homemade mayonnaise made by a friend which turned out lovely.

Spirituality:
I just keep trying to make time during the day for prayer, reflection and Bible reading. Sadly, my attention span is shorter than it once was. I feel overwhelmed by too many choices each day, and it’s hard to sit quietly without thinking about everything I have to do.

Also, apparently, not being able to find something when I know where it should be is enough to throw me into an unmitigated rage. This is something I must work on.

(I’m calling this series of posts “Monday Reflections”, at least until I think of a better title)

Recently added to my stacks:
The Thirteenth Tale by Diane Setterfield.
“Sometimes, when you open the door to the past, what you confront is your destiny.

Reclusive author Vida Winter, famous for her collection of twelve enchanting stories, has spent the past six decades penning a series of alternate lives for herself. Now old and ailing, she is ready to reveal the truth about her extraordinary existence and the violent and tragic past she has kept secret for so long. Calling on Margaret Lea, a young biographer troubled by her own painful history, Vida disinters the life she meant to bury for good. Margaret is mesmerized by the author’s tale of gothic strangeness — featuring the beautiful and willful Isabelle, the feral twins Adeline and Emmeline, a ghost, a governess, a topiary garden and a devastating fire. Together, Margaret and Vida confront the ghosts that have haunted them while becoming, finally, transformed by the truth themselves.”

The Sheen on the Silk by Anne Perry.
(An ARC sent to me courtesy Marcia at The Printed Page.)
“Arriving in the ancient Byzantine city in the year 1273, Anna Zarides has only one mission: to prove the innocence of her twin brother, Justinian, who has been exiled to the desert for conspiring to kill Bessarion, a nobleman.

Disguising herself as a eunuch named Anastasius, Anna moves freely about in society, using her skills as a physician to manoeuver close to the key players involved in her brother’s fate. With her medical practice thriving, Anna crosses paths with Zoe Chrysaphes, a devious noblewoman with her own hidden agenda, and Giuiliano Dandolo, a ship’s captain conflicted not only by his mixed Venetian-Byzantine heritage but by his growing feelings for Anastasius.

Trying to clear her brother’s name, Anna learns more about Justinian’s life and reputation—including his peculiar ties to Bessarion’s beautiful widow and his possible role in a plot to overthrow the emperor. This leaves Anna with more questions than answer, and time is running out. For an even greater threat lies on the horizon: Another Crusade to capture the Holy Land is brewing, and leaders in Rome and Venice have set their sights on Constantinople for what is sure to be a brutal invasion. Anna’s discoveries draw her inextricably closer to the dangers of the emperor’s treacherous court—where it seems that no one is exactly who he or she appears to be.”

The Cavalier Poets: An Anthology by Robert Herrick, Thomas Carew, Sir John Suckling, Richard Lovelace et al.
“Rich sampling of more than 120 works—characteristically charming, witty and graceful—by poets associated with the court of Charles I of England: Robert Herrick, Thomas Carew, Sir John Suckling and Richard Lovelace. Includes such gems as Herrick’s ‘To the Virgins to Make Much of Time,’ Suckling’s ‘Why so pale and wan, fond lover?’ and many more. Reprinted from standard editions.”

Shadow & Claw: The First Half of ‘The Book of the New Sun’ by Gene Wolfe.
From the Amazon.com Review: “This is the first-person narrative of Severian, a lowly apprentice torturer blessed and cursed with a photographic memory, whose travels lead him through the marvels of far-future Urth, and who–as revealed near the beginning–eventually becomes his land’s sole ruler or Autarch. On the surface it’s a colorful story with all the classic ingredients: growing up, adventure, sex, betrayal, murder, exile, battle, monsters, and mysteries to be solved. (Only well into book 2 do we realize what saved Severian’s life in chapter 1.) For lovers of literary allusions, they are plenty here: a Dickensian cemetery scene, a torture-engine from Kafka, a wonderful library out of Borges, and familiar fables changed by eons of retelling. Wolfe evokes a chilly sense of time’s vastness, with an age-old, much-restored painting of a golden-visored “knight,” really an astronaut standing on the moon, and an ancient citadel of metal towers, actually grounded spacecraft. Even the sun is senile and dying, and so Urth needs a new sun.

What I’m Watching:
The Twelve Kingdoms Complete Collection
“Upon being confronted by a mysterious stranger, Youko is told of her destiny and pulled away into another world. Thus begins Youko’s perilous journey to the Kingdom of Kei on an epic road of espionage, terror, and betrayal. The mystic world of The Twelve Kingdoms assails her with one challenge after another. Will Youko embrace her destiny?”

What I’m Reading:
I haven’t read as much as I would have liked so far this year. I’m working to remedy that.

The Sheen on the Silk by Anne Perry.
(An ARC sent to me courtesy Marcia at The Printed Page. See plot summary above.)

The Mind of the Maker by Dorothy L. Sayers.
“This classic, with a new introduction by Madeleine L’Engle, is by turns an entrancing mediation on language; a piercing commentary on the nature of art and why so much of what we read, hear, and see falls short; and a brilliant examination of the fundamental tenets of Christianity. The Mind of the Maker will be relished by those already in love with Dorothy L. Sayers and those who have not yet met her.

A mystery writer, a witty and perceptive theologian, culture critic, and playwright, Dorothy Sayers sheds new,unexpected light on a specific set of statements made in the Christian creeds. She examines anew such ideas as the image of God, the Trinity, free will, and evil, and in these pages a wholly revitalized understanding of them emerges. The author finds the key in the parallels between the creation of God and the human creative process. She continually refers to each in a way that illuminates both.”

What I’m Writing:
I’m flitting between three or four projects right now, and trying to choose one to really focus on. I think the Searoyal novel is probably in the lead, if only because I’d developed the plot more before I began to really discover my process.

What I’m Revising:
Dogwood (working title)
Revisions are coming along, but more slowly now. I’m going through the manuscript and looking for promises I’ve made and failed to keep, and the process is a lot more difficult than the first time through for general revision notes. I’m getting a feel for what needs to be expanded and what needs to be removed. Read-through 2/pg. 15 out of 158.

Around the House:
The housework has been slipping a bit, but I’m getting back into it. I’m just trying to do a little each day and develop a routine that includes writing, reading and jewelry-making. I was doing better when I was focusing solely on the housework, and adding creative work into my schedule is disrupting things. But it’s past time for me to accomplish something in my life.

Cooking:
Working through Mastering the Art of French Cooking by Julia Child with a friend. I’ve been using the cookbook for awhile but now we’re going through it more systematically so we can both learn. Tonight we’re making poached red snapper with Sauce Béchamel in a sort of casserole. And unrelated to that, I’m also getting ready to learn to sprout grains and use them in cooking.

Spirituality:
“And Jesus answered and said to her, ‘Martha, Martha, you are worried and troubled about many things. But one thing is needed, and Mary has chosen that good part, which will not be taken away from her.’” Luke 10:41,42

I’m frequently anxious, and I’m going to make sure to put regular prayer time into my routine. I used to feel more content and peaceful when I was praying regularly. Praying for a few minutes each night before conking out is just not sufficient anymore.