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Dear friends,
The Outer Banks is getting ready to go
BLOOM!
Winter is nice-it gives us a chance to
slow down and regroup, relax a bit, maybe do
some traveling but finally a day comes when
we say 'Enough already!' and here at Duck's
Cottage that day was this past Tuesday. We
can't wait for that first welcome breath of
summer to hit us in a few days when
the Easter holidays arrive with two
weeks of hustle and bustle! Spring is also a
big publishing season so every day
brings boxes of new books and cards! With
time on our hands we created a new 'Staff
Picks' wall where you'll find lots of great
reading ideas- always changing, always fresh!
Suffice it to say, Spring has officially sprung in
Duck!
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Between the Lines
Reading Recommendations from the Cottage Shelves
The latest buzz in books is actually a secret!
Really,
it's Rhonda Byrne's book The Secret-
a new
treatment that lays out the power of positive
thinking
and its connection to the law of attraction.
My kids
and I watched the DVD and though much of it
should
feel inherent, it is a good refresher course on
maintaining a 'glass is always half full!'
mentality. I just
finished Virginian Jerry Radford's new book-
Captured
Audience- a good thriller with a lot to think
about
regarding the current state of the Social
Security
system (and a jellybean popping character
named Jamie!). Look for Innocent Traitor
by
Alison
Weir to become the next Other Boleyn Girl.
Weir takes
a look at the life of Lady Jane Grey in this
historically
accurate novel. I just read Merrill Markoe's
Walking in Circles Before Lying Down
and
loved it! Laugh out loud funny and the perfect
read for
dog lovers! Hot news- both Lisa See
(Snow Flower and the Secret Fan)
and Khalad
Hosseini (The Kite Runner) have
books
coming out soon. Look for Peony in
Love
(See) in July and A Thousand
Splendid
Suns (Hosseini) in May! Chris' stack is
currently
topped by
several business-related titles. Now,
Discover
Your Strengths (Marcus Buckingham)
explores
the concept of management by enhancing
individual strengths versus eliminating
weaknesses;
and Bo Burlingham's Small Giants:
Companies
that Choose to be Great Instead of Big- is
just out
in paper and sure to be the next Good to
Great. Our current book club selection has
been a real pleasure. The Awakening and
Other Stories by Kate Chopin is a classic
collection of short stories. A few of them blew
me away and I have read more than my share
of short fiction. Chopin's notions of
independent women were way ahead of her
time to the point that when first published
The Awakening faced harsh criticism
and was taken out of print for several
decades.
Grace (eventually) Thoughts on Faith
is Anne
Lamott's follow up to Plan B and
Traveling
Mercies. I love Lamotte. Her book on
motherhood,
Operating Instructions ,was the
most powerful book I read as a new mom and I
still
give it to anyone who's just had their first child.
Lamott
has a wonderfully unvarnished perspective
thanks
to her 'frayed, consignment store faith'. In her
latest
dispatch of essays she covers parenting, war,
anger,
loss and more, all in her inimitable style of
irreverent
wit backed by reverent faith. I highly
recommend this
and any of her previous collections.
Try Anne Lamott on for size with this Salon essay
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Going Over the Bridge
Eating Your Way Through Charleston
Chris and I recently spent a long
weekend in
Charleston to attend a cousin's wedding. It had
been years since I last visited the Holy City
and then only for
an afternoon of touring with a 1
year old. Needless to
say, I was completely awestruck by
the multitude of
wonderful eating establishments
tucked among the
historic streets and byways of this
fabulous town. I
had made reservations for both
lunches and dinners
and I strongly suggest doing the same. One
spot took my lunch reservation although they
said 'you
really don't need one'
yet when we arrived the wait time
for walk-in's was
over an hour. Make reservations!
Restaurants I can
personally recommend without any
hesitation are: 82 Queen- the
seating outside
in the courtyard and gardens is
delightful; our lunch
fantastic- try the lobster ravioli
appetizer! Just down the
street is Poogan's Porch
which takes its
name from a local stray, making it a
sure hit with
Chris. We had dinner here on
Thursday evening and I
have two tips to offer- A. you must
have a French
Martini and B. ANYTHING on the menu
is superb. We
tried the Plantation Chicken- a
variation on cordon
bleu utilizing white cheddar, pesto
and country ham;
the Low Country Pasta- a delicious
blend of penne,
cajun sausage, shrimp and sweet corn
succotash
(mmmmm!); Tomato Pie that I'm still
dreaming
about, and a Shrimp and Grits that
passed muster
with my Dad, a Yankee expert.
Another day took us
into the Swamp Fox restaurant
at the Francis
Marion Hotel for lunch. Not quite as
much atmosphere
but again, the food was great- fried
green tomatoes
with goat cheese and red pepper
jelly, PoBoys, buffalo
shrimp wrap and other sandwiches-
all terrific!! Our
next trip will encompass at least a
week so that we
can try Pearlz (a favorite of the
wedding couple!),
Cintra (40 martinis!), Cordavi
for
the tasting menu,
Magnolias, Tristan's,
SNOB... my
list goes on and on.
Thanks to Jason and Natalie,
the new Mr. and
Mrs. Jones, for giving us such a
beautiful reason to head
south to this epicurean
mecca!! (and
many, many best wishes!)
Check out the Poogan's Porch dinner menu!
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Flotsam & Jetsam
Footnotes from life at a coffeeshop
A big WELCOME to Kyle Smoot.. Kyle
recently
moved to the area from Fredericksburg, VA
and will be
graduating from his home school studies this
year...
he's a great addition to the store but, alas,
DC males are still a minority... the
Duck Park is open for business! (see
photo at top)... stop by and check out the
great playground, trails, eco friendly parking
and more... A few new drinks at the
Cottage include the Cricket- a latte
featuring
white chocolate, mint and vanilla syrups and
the CoCoDuck which combines
coconut and caramel!
Important
Service Announcement: Are you
overwhelmed by 4pm Easter
afternoon with eggs? Are there only so many
hard-boiled egg based recipes in your
repertoire? Here's a tradition that's been in my
family for I can't even remember how long:
once we've hidden and hunted and hunted
and hidden until everyone's tired of the game,
my cousin dives into the garage for his old,
trusty water balloon launcher. (*I must point
out here that they do live on a farm!)
Into the
pouch of the launcher goes an egg, two
people grab the handles, one person pulls
back as far as possible and WHOOMP! An egg
is launched into the great blue yonder. We
have a wonderful time seeing which one goes
farthest, pancaking them on the nearby road,
trying to hit the younger cousins who have
been told to head out into the field and 'catch'
the eggs (this is usually the part where we
throw in one or two RAW eggs) and then,
when we get bored of even that, we start
shooting them straight up into the air and
running like crazy for the closest cover.
Seriously, make an extra dozen eggs this year
and TRY THIS AT HOME. It's a blast....
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Four Years of Books: the Short Stories
Duck's Cottage Reading Selections 2002- present
The Duck's Cottage Reading Group
began
meeting in
November of 2002, just several
months after
the store
opened. In the ensuing four years we
have
read a
wide range of books from all genres-
short
stories, memoirs, classics,
historical fiction,
essays,
and more. We choose our books every
six
months
from a list of twelve (or more)
possibilities and
most
every meeting finds a group member
declaring 'I didn't
vote for this book, but I'm so glad
I read it!'.
Reading
Group lists are a great source of
potential material for
avid
readers and in that spirit we are
delighted to
share
ours with you! For the next several
issues, we
will be
presenting you with selections (by
genre) of
the
Duck's Cottage Reading Group. This
month....
short
stories! A personal favorite of
mine, short
stories are a
great choice for book clubs because
they offer
such a
variety of topics for discussion.
Whether a
single-author collection or a mixed
anthology,
everyone will
find a favorite story or character
to identify with
or
common theme to defend or argue
against.
Short
story collections read by our group
(and
without
exception, highly recommended) are:
Children
Playing Before a Statue of Hercules
(edited by
the very funny David Sedaris);
Interpreter
of
Maladies
(Jhumpa Lahiri); Nine Stories
(J.D.
Salinger),
and The Awakening and Other
Stories
(Kate
Chopin).
Classic Short Stories.... read them online!
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Thumpity, thump, thump... in our town the
Easter Bunny doesn't just leave eggs, she also
leaves
ducks of all shapes and flavors- white,
dark and milk chocolate). We hope
you'll slip on down to the northern Outer Banks
soon for your own little Spring Break; when
you do please
stop by and check out the latest books,
our new staff wall, GREAT sale boxes, friendly
faces and, as always, the BEST coffee in Duck!
Happy Easter!
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