Duck's Cottage Newsletter

Between the Lines
Reading Recommendations from the Cottage Shelves

Ian McEwan's latest novel, On Chesil Beach, comes out June 5. His previous book, Saturday, enjoyed spots on both the hardcover and paperback bestseller lists and I think On Chesil Beach will probably enjoy even more time on both. McEwan loves to compress his stories into very small blocks of time. The entire body of Saturday took place during a single day. Most of this latest work takes place on the wedding night of Edward and Florence, two conservative, inexperienced 20-somethings a bit out of their element in 1960. While the book does jump back in time a bit, and eventually forward, most of the emphasis is on the several hours this poor couple spend on their first night as man and wife and all their unspoken dreams, fears and expectations. I probably flew through this one too fast, but I was dying to see what happened! (This will be a fabulous reading group book.) Duck Councilman Denver Lindley also read the advance and seconded my thoughts calling it 'Amazing! Heartbreaking!'; Caroline read it in one sitting and also concurs 'its going to be a bestseller'. A Thousand Splendid Suns (Khaled Hosseini) is out!!! George Keefe from North Beach pronounces it 'moving, better than Kite Runner' and Lisa, who also read the advance, said it was 'awesome; Hosseini is a great storyteller'. Incidentally, the movie version of The Kite Runner is slated for a November 2 release. Maxine Swann is out with a new book- Flower Children. Based on her 1998 O. Henry Prize winning short story of the same name, Swann is a name to remember and watch. Maxine was/is a student of Mary Gordon and I am in pure awe of her honest language and ability to put into words the thoughts, feelings and emotions of her characters. I just read Water For Elephants and it is my latest 'you have to read this' pick. It was recently chosen as the ABA Booksense Fiction Book of the Year and the paperback version (which just came out) will probably spend at least a year on bestseller lists. This is a beautiful, touching story and some people have found it to be an interesting treatise on our attitude towards the elderly. I haven't met a person yet who didn't read and rave about this book. A Mediterranean Summer by David Shalleck was a highly enjoyable read; Shalleck starts off discussing the five years he spent working in Italian restaurants but the rest of the book focuses on a summer during which he served as chef on Serenity, a sailing yacht, touring the Cote d'Azur and cooking for an unbelievably wealthy Italian couple. I love food and travel writing and this was a great combination of the two; a short recipe section at the end has also provided some new summer ideas for my kitchen. Last month I told you about Plenty, the book that emphasizes the importance of eating locally. A good companion to that book is Twinkie Deconstructed, which I'm currently in the middle of. Author Steve Ettinger goes on a mission to trace every ingredient of the infamous snack cake back to its source. Fascinating stuff and definitely making me recommit to getting my essential vitamins through their natural sources (i.e. B1 from rice; B2 from eggs; B3 from fish etc.) as the process undertaken to produce their manmade equivalents is, quite simply, unappetizing. Lots of other interesting facts too- for instance, do you know the difference between a food that is enriched and a food that is fortified? I do, I do! Enriched foods have had nutrients originally found in them but which were lost during processing put back in.... fortified means the food contains nutrients above and beyond what was originally there. All flour in the US is enriched with vitamin B because the vitamin B that naturally occurs in wheat is lost during processing (and bleaching!). Doesn't make the presence of the word 'Enriched!' on packaging look so impressive anymore, now does it? A few more titles to think about adding to your summer list- the current Cottage Reading Group pick, The Highest Tide (Jim Lynch), Sister Mine (Tawni O'Dell), The Camel Bookmobile (Masha Hamilton), The Kabul Beauty School (Deborah Rodriguez), Slow Food Nation (Carlo Petrini), Invisible Prey (John Sandford), The Invention of Hugo Cabret (Brian Selznick)... I have to make myself stop now or I never will! Happy Reading!

Maxine Swann's Prize Winning Short Story: Flower Children