What might the green be roasting with these baby potatoes? If the Creative Cooking Group is serving rack of lamb, the answer is rosemary and mint straight out if the garden.
All posts by MJS
Fifty Inventions That Shaped the Modern Economy, by Tim Harford
Jeanne C’s Comments: The book is a series of short essays in which the author explains how each invention came to be and how it has changed the lives of its readers. For example, we learn that passports were originally letters of permission to travel and were provided by nobility to their subordinates. In 1920, after World War II, The League of Nations formally standardized passports and contributed to making them widely required. Another topic of interest is barbed wire and how its invention in 1876 shaped the European settlement of North America and the notion of private ownership of land. Topics are diverse and times span far into the past and right up to today’s technological achievements.
The Book Was Better
Check out the new section on our website called Our Reviews. Books and more! Jean F’s bag caption has the right idea!
Five Wives by Joan Thomas
Leslie L spoke of three books she recently read but particularly wanted to highlight Five Wives by Joan Thomas, which won the Governor General Award a couple of years ago.
The events at the centre of this book took place in 1956 in Eastern Ecuador. A group of evangelical American missionaries was trying to make “friendly” contact with an isolated tribe of indigenous Ecuadorians living in the Amazonian basin.
Five young men with their wives and children arrive and settle in with different personalities and backgrounds and different attitudes towards their mission. It is a doomed attempt and the five husbands/fathers are killed. The wives and a sister of one of the men continue the mission with predictably unsettling results. The author has fictionalized much of the story and has added a modern twist. An excellent and compelling read! Joan Thomas is a Canadian author living in Winnipeg. published 2019.
Touring Local
In addition to reviewing a book, Norah O brought brochures about things to do locally. Wine and cheese go together so this pic shows her holding the most recent brochure for wine tours in the area and also cheese tours. She said that the Wayne Gretzky Sports Complex has a good selection of brochures for local activities.
The Personal Librarian
Jeanne C’s description of The Personal Librarian by Marie Benedict and Victoria Christopher Murray had us all wanting to read it!
Here’s her review:
J.P. Morgan, the famous New York City financier of the early 1900s chose Belle da Costa as his personal librarian to help him locate and acquire the masterpieces of the celebrated Pierpont Morgan Library. Throughout the book, Belle struggles to hide her origins as the daughter of Richard Greener, the first Black graduate of Harvard and to pass as White. The story follows her as she navigates through upper-class society and outmaneuvers her colleagues to negotiate for valuable artworks. The reader catches glimpses of well-known historical figures as they are portrayed in Belle’s own writings from the time.
Local history treasure by Brian Dawe
Jean F’s eyes sparkled with enthusiasm as she regaled us with anecdotes and historical tidbits from Old Oxford is Wide Awake! Pioneer Settlers & Politicians in Oxford County 1793-1853 by Brian Dawe. She got it for a steal at a used book sale but the question is, will she ever lend it out? Likely not!
Here’s her review:
THE BOOK I HAVE BEEN READING – Jean Farquharson
Old Oxford is Wide Awake: Pioneer Settlers & Politicians in Oxford County 1793-1853. Privately published by Wm Brian Dawe. c1980. This book is an absolute treasure I found at the Symphony Book Sale.
This local historian researched deeply about the opening up of Oxford County and local struggles for power and wealth, and follows through the War of 1812 and the 1837 Rebellion. Actors in the performances were the Tories and Reformists; Loyalists and Americans; the British settlers and officers who made up the local militias; the would-be aristocrats, including the military officers who were retired on half pay and Family Compact members. Those who settled in Oxford County faced deterrences when the isolated backwoods of newly formed Upper Canada was being settled with mills and connecting roads being cut out from Indian paths and military surveys; inns, industries and businesses created; schools founded; church groups struggled with domination by UC’s official Anglican church favoured with land grants by those in power.
The growth of settlements depended on the policies of Lieutenant-Gov. John Graves Simcoe who believed in loyally following the British aristocratic system. He created boundaries and assigned townships in Oxford, Middlesex and Norfolk Counties to favoured developers requiring them to survey lots and develop roads to bring in settlers to his newly named communities. He appointed his associates to be local magistrates, justices of the peace, roadmasters, etc.
From primary sources – letters, reports, personal papers, government documents, maps, portraits, paintings from archives and libraries, Dawes found the stories describing squabbles, threats, bribes, self-serving antics of the people vying with each other to get control and the government fumbling and uncommunicative. Does it sound familiar?
Because Brant County did not yet exist, the story includes Burford and Oakland (Burford Gore) Townships which were part of Oxford. The book filled in a lot of details for me about their history as well as Oxford, where I grew up.
Passionate Mothers, Powerful Sons by Charlotte Gray
Marion W brought her signed edition of this fabulous book by Charlotte Gray.
Cold by Drew Hayden Taylor
What could be more Canadian than a wendigo killer and an Indigenous hockey player hero? Wry, amusing, and so entertaining — this isn’t the usual description for a larger-than-life-horror-thriller but it fits Drew Hayden Taylor’s Cold perfectly. I loved the tight writing and the tension of this page-turning thriller. I also appreciated the homage to so many great Indigenous Canadian writers. This refreshing and entertaining novel will amuse every reader who is willing to suspend their disbelief for just a few hundred pages.
Strange Sally Diamond — review by Marsha S
What a story! Almost like The Maid meets Room. The layers peel back so breathlessly that I read this straight through. My heart went out to Sally, her mother and Lindy. Given all that she went through, Sally was the least strange character of all. Uplifting, brutal, humorous and sad.