The Side Dish Bible
I checked this book out just days before the Falmouth Public Library closed, and soon after that, they asked us not to return items until further notice. There are worse books to be sequestered with.
Janet Gardner
Good Things from the Library
Happily, I got most of these from the public library a day or two before they closed. Now I am gratefully accepting temporary donations from friends.
Nan Casselbury
Zen and Tonic
This is my favorite selection of books - I love everything about plants and what you can do with them.
Annemarie Lemoyne
The Dreamers (e-book)
This novel deals with a strange epidemic caused by a novel virus which suddenly appears in a California college town. It was published in early 2019 (!), but the parallels with this year are sometimes uncanny.
Thanks to the Libby app on my tablet, I was able to borrow the e-book even though the Falmouth Public Library is closed due to Covid-19.
Janet Gardner
Cookbooks
I'm not great at following recipes, but I do love to browse cookbooks looking for inspiration. Some of these are new(ish) acquisitions, other's I've had since the early 1980s.
My shelf space is limited, so at this point when I acquire a new cookbook, I need to let go of an old friend. It makes me pretty choosy.
Janet Gardner
Gertrude
The Making of Americans: being a history of a family’s progress is an astonishing book, and it is also a very, very long book. Gertrude Stein should be on every college & university reading list, and I have no idea why she is not. And, as an aside, there is also a link between Gertrude Stein and Goodnight Moon!
Jill Erickson
Proust
You know you have the time now … read Proust! And if Proust seems too overwhelming … read Thirkell!
Jill Erickson
Library of America
I have a longtime friend who used to be an editor at The Library of America. Thus, I have a shelf that is almost entirely dedicated to LOA volumes. If you have never read anything by William Maxwell, do so! At least read TIME WILL DARKEN IT. (Not only is this a great novel, it also has a great section on house guests, which everyone who lives on Cape Cod should read before the summer hits.)
Jill Erickson
Infinite jest
Here are another couple of shelves of books. If you look closely you’ll see quite a few books by Maira Kalman, and if you look even closer you’ll see a series of books about the Stettheimer sisters. Reynolds Price sits not far from John Cheever, which I think is lovely, but not planned. The truth is, we have all kinds of bookshelves in our house, and need more shelving. Every summer I promise myself I will NOT BUY one more book at the Friends of the FPL book sale! And then I see some tempting book about typewriters or letters or diaries or an Angela Thirkell title I have yet to read. You’d never guess I spend every day in a public library!
Jill Erickson
Less is More
Which you would never know from looking at the stacks of books in my house that are NOT on bookshelves!
Jill Erickson