The cold weather version of our summer reading poll: tell us about a great book to curl up with on a frosty winter night, and what fragrance we should wear while reading it.
Need more additions to your list? You can also check out last year's winter reading poll.
Note: image is Bianca Cappello De Medici with Her Kindle, after Alessandro Allori by Mike Licht at flickr; some rights reserved.
Happy weekend!
I’ve been “reading” on audiobook this past few weeks Julia Child’s memoir, My Life in France, and very much enjoying it! So many choices for a perfume pairing–something from Paris pre-1960? Something gourmand? I choose something that just brings me joy, since at the heart of her work, Julia seemed to just love the process and the product of cooking great food. Last weekend, it was Ubar.
I *would* be interested in any other food/foodie memoirs folks might have to recommend. I’m in a mood for some vicarious food thrills! 🙂
Absolutely anything by MFK Fisher, if you’ve never read her.
Ruth Reichl — Comfort me with apples, or Tender at the bone, both are wonderful.
Thank you, Robin! I do know Ruth Reichl, but MFK Fisher is new–so on to the list!
Just looked up MFK Fisher at the library–lots of options. Do you have a favorite one or two?
How to cook a wolf is the one that made her famous, very good read. I also loved Long ago in France: the years in Dijon.
Thanks!
I loved ‘How to Cook a Wolf’, which helped me through some VERY lean times about 40 years ago! I seem to recall the title being inspired by “When the wolf is at the door…” and then her reply is to kill it and cook it. The recipes were for impoverished people and some more nutritional than tasty, but as I say, it helped me eat on an almost nonexistent budget back then. The writing is very enjoyable.
mfk fisher is a wonderful writer
In a different, but equally entertaining vein–Bourdain’s Kitchen Confidential.
Agree, that was way more entertaining than I thought it would be, esp. for those of us who worked in restaurants. Quick read too.
Ah yes! I meant to read that some time ago. I waited tables for nearly a decade (how I paid for college and non-profit work post-college), and I often felt that it would make a good reality show or something. Customers *clearly* had no idea what was going on in the kitchen, or they wouldn’t have behaved so badly (and I don’t mean the unsupported spitting-in-the-soup stereotype). Food service is work that is under-appreciated and misunderstood.
Down and Out in Paris and London by George Orwell and the Dishwasher zine are both good reads about another side of restaurants — dishwashing.
Is that Dishwater Pete’s magazine? Only know about him via This American Life.
Yes — that was one of the zines we collected in our youth. I meant to mention that he has a book, too: http://www.amazon.com/Dishwasher-Quest-Dishes-Fifty-States/dp/0060896426. We listened to the Orwell book on tape and years later, we’re still quoting things in the voice of the narrator (no, I don’t think it was Orwell himself).
Thanks! Adding his book to my list.
The Sweet Life in Paris by David Lebovitz is quite enjoyable. Definitely can see some gourmand scent tie-ins with this one!
Love David Lebovitz! He has a great blog too 😀
Yes, really great blog!
For light reading, I love Calvin Trillin’s stuff–Alice, Let’s Eat is the great food one (but About Alice is my favorite!)
Oh, yes!!! CT is the best. And if you can get access to his online archives at the New Yorker, you’re in for a treat.
Second about Fisher, Trillin, Bourdain etc. Also check out Elizabeth David. Beautiful writing and practical sensibility about French cooking.
Marjorie Rose, I’ll recommend “Mastering the Art of Soviet Cooking: A Memoir of Food and Longing”, by Anya von Bremzen.
The tagline says it all: “A James Beard Award-winning writer captures life under the Red socialist banner in this wildly inventive, tragicomic memoir of feasts, famines, and three generations.”
I recommend Laurie Colwin’s essays, collected in the volumes “Home Cooking” and “More Home Cooking.”
Laurie Colwin is major comfort for winter days!
Yes, great books!
Ooh, Julia Child! I currently happen to be reading “Dearie”, Bob Spitz’s April 2013 biography of Julia Child– marvelous. I have no idea what fragrance she would have worn, but I imagine a good ‘bouquet garni’ scent with lots of rosemary, tarragon, or thyme would have fit the menu. 🙂
Definitely Diptyque Virgilio!
I’d also like her to have the crème brûleé and cognac scent of Frapin 1697.
Oh, so hungry now! 😀
Seconding (or thirding, fourthing or farthing?, I don’t know) Elizabeth David, Calvin Trillin, Laurie Colwin and especially, always, the incomparable MFK Fisher. Also putting in a plug for “Between Meals: An Appetite for Paris”, an eating memoir by the great writer for The New Yorker, AJ Liebling, and, any of Sybille Bedford’s books, although they are by no means explicitly “about” food – “A Visit to Don Octavio” is likely the foodie favourite.
Thank you, all, for the suggestions! My library hold list is gonna be full for a while! (As these book polls usually do!) 🙂
There’s a great movie about her too that I really liked 🙂
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1135503/
I’ve read several of these authors, but you’ve all given me new ones to read. Thanks!
Good morning everyone.
I just discovered vintage Bal a Versailles in perfume concentration and I’m head over heels in love with it. Just splashed out (pun intended) for a very large lyre shaped bottle of vintage PdT. I think I’m going to be wearing that one a lot this winter and I would love to find a book that goes with that gorgeous, sexy, mysterious perfume. Some sort of crime/gothic/murder/sex/historic book might be the direction. Any suggestions?
Also, I heard that there is a new perfume coffret available that is based on Patrick Susskind’s book “Perfume, the story of a murderer”. I think the scents were created by Thierry Mugler. Can’t remember where I saw that.
Those came out a bit ago & did not even think you could still buy them, but maybe they’ve been reissued:
https://nstperfume.com/2006/10/06/thierry-mugler-le-parfum-coffret-new-fragrances/
Oh sorry! I thought it was new. I just retraced my steps and remembered that I saw them as a sample set at Surrender to Chance. I believe all 15 are still available in that set, but in sample (not coffret) form.
Ah. Not sure they’re worth trying now since I doubt you can buy them — the website where they used to sell them is gone.
Oh bummer. Some of them look intriguing. I still think they would be worth trying, as a one time experience, in tandem with reading the book, maybe as a book club activity.
Except the samples nearly have to be old by now…right? Those came out in 2006 and I think they probably never made more than one production run.
Oh, right you are. Did you try any of them?
Hi Robin and Sajini – these scents are being revived as part of a special screening of the movie in LA… audience members will be given scent strips of the perfumes during the show. Not sure if that also means the perfumes will be available for sale or not again. Here’s more:
http://perfumeshrine.blogspot.com/2013/11/rewatch-perfume-story-of-murderer.html
Excellent, totally missed that — thanks!
And no, never tried them.
The first book that popped into my mind was The Oracle Glass by Judith Merkle Riley.
Love Bal a Versailles!
Thanks for the book suggestion. I’ll look at that one. Maybe perfume my bookmark with Bal?
I finished the book over the summer and loved it. Now, I have to go seek out the movie!
Good afternoon!
On my reading list are;
Scent and Subversion by Barbara Herman
Dublin by Edward Rutherfurd
Perfume from Provence by Lady Winifred Fortescue
I’ve recently switched to reading on Kindle, as I realised I’ll need to build a library if I were to store all the books I buy. I love the smell and feel of books and thought I was dead against Kindle, but oh well. 😀
SOTD is Bvlgari Black.
I have a very extensive library, and felt the same way about kindles for a long time…but now I wish I had all those books in digital form. Books need to be dusted, plus they take up lots of space, plus when you move house, well, you can imagine. Also, hardback books used to have considerable resale value, & that’s over now.
Gosh, moving can be a pain! The last time we moved, we had about 50 boxes of books. Speaking of the resale value of books, I have first editions of the Harry Potter series in my library, which I believe to have some value. Well, actually, they belong to my daughter! I get immense joy when I find rare books sold by market vendors who have no clue about their value.
I still love having my physical books; they’re like friends who are always with me. Yes, moving them is a pain (which I will experience yet again), but for an old-fashioned soul like me, they represent a bit of stability in a too-rapidly changing world.
I loathe Amazon, so I tried out a Kobo, but found it too clunky to use. I guess I will cave eventually.
Have just finished reading an old Dennis Lehane novel, A Drink Before the War. For a scent, I’m thinking of a fairly recent release that has a gunpowder note. Maybe someone can put a name to it. 🙂
Amour Nocturne by L`Artisan Parfumeur? It’s supposed to have a gunpowder note.
Yes, I think that’s the one.
I recently read Rutherford’s The Forest, and now I want to read London and Paris. How was Dublin?
Rappleyea, I’ve not started yet. Paris and London were both wonderful to read, so I have high hopes for Dublin.
There are still some books that I want the actually book to have on the shelf but for those that I’ll probably read only once or twice, I love the kindle version.
Ugh, I read so little fiction these days. That’s partly because of the whole going back to uni thing which means that my reading list has been dominated by all things biological for a while now. I’m just finishing Lane’s Power, Sex, Suicide (very good) and this winter I want to get through at least Ridley’s Mendel’s Demon, a collection on J.B.S Haldane’s essays, Schrodinger’s What Is Life? and Kahneman’s Thinking Fast And Slow.
For scent, I recommend using sheets of Francis Kurkdjian’s Année Arménie edition of Papier d’Arménie as bookmarks. They make for seriously delicious-smelling books 😀
Has anyone read The Cuckoo’s Calling by Robert Galbraith (aka J.K. Rowling)? I was thinking of getting it for when I finally need a bit of a change.
What a great idea for a bookmark! I keep them all throughout my purse & wallet & yoga bag, and in my nightstand, but never put one in a book.
Give it a go! I first thought to try it when I received a second hand book which was a bit musty, so I stuck it outside to air out and then put a few sheets between the pages. It worked so well that I’ve been doing it ever since.
Oh, I’m so curious about Cuckoo’s Calling as well. Hope someone responds.
I read it recently and quite liked it. I’m not a big mystery fan (and I was annoyed the way the mystery turned out in this one, thought it was a cliche), but the characters were very appealing and it is compulsively readable. She just has a gift for writing books that are pleasurable to read!
I loved “Life After Life” by Kate Atkinson (which surprised me; generally books with a structure like this don’t interest me) and read it in one go this summer.
More recently, I’ve enjoyed “Seven for a Secret” by Lyndsay Faye. A sequel of sorts to “Gods of Gotham” and very, very good historical fiction.
Another excellent work of historical fiction is “The Aftermath” by Rhidian Brook, about a British officer and his family uneasily sharing a home with a German family in Hamburg in the immediate aftermath of WWII.
Life After Life was indeed interesting.
I was the same way – thought I wouldn’t care for such a book (Life After Life), but ended up thoroughly engrossed.
I’m STILL working on the Game of Thrones series, which was what I posted for the summer reading list. LOL. I’ve also been somewhat waylaid by Cassandra Clare’s Shadowhunter Chronicles, which are rollicking good teen paranormal romance fun. I’m also excited to start reading “Schooled in Revenge” which is a novel based off the ABC show “Revenge.” Yeah, I have no taste.
Not sure about fragrance recommendations for any of those. I’ve been really drawn to warm oriental scents lately (that M. Micallef Denis Durand Parfum Couture I posted about last weekend is really begging me to buy it, for one). I don’t have many orientals in my collection.
Have you read the Pretty Little Liars series????? Once I had a dream that a perfume was released for each main character (the tv versions) and they were really generic so my online friends and I imagined what they should be like. When I woke up I couldn’t believe that I dreamed something so…mundane.
No, haven’t read Pretty Little Liars, although it’s definitely on the list of stuff I’ve been considering reading post-Game of Thrones and Shadowhunters. Good? I think I have the TV show somewhere on down in my Netflix queue, too.
I haven’t read the books because I’m lazy. I think for the first season or first two seasons the differences are minor but now they’re totally different. The show is ridiculously addicting. Some of the scenes are really scary too!! I was shocked that it is on ABC Family. I used to watch S Club 7 on that channel!!!
I mean, it’s mindless entertainment so you kind of have to suspend disbelief a lot and let not the question “how is this rational?” get in the way of the questions related to the mystery. But when you surrender to the story you will know true happiness!!!
Slowly am going through “The Classical Tradition”, at a couple of entries per day. Other than having read a couple of Greek plays Classics have been a complete hole in my education. Not sure how much is going to sink in, but lots of interesting factlets. Example: first time baby Jesus is depicted naked? 1325. I will be the life of the party…
In sniffing news, I received a sample of Adam Levine for Her…and it’s pretty nice! A nice, cozy-sweater perfume. Might even think about getting it if the price is not too bad.
Ugh, that’s a huge hole in my education too. I took a class in college on Plato, that’s about it.
What range of texts does the ‘classical tradition’ cover? Sorry if it’s a dumb question!
Hi, Merlin — I think it’s a great question! The St. John’s College (no affiliation, sadly) reading list is a great place to start: http://www.stjohnscollege.edu/academic/readlist.shtml
FearsMice, I think if I finished all of those I would feel very accomplished!
I was wondering if AnnieA was talking about those of ancient Greece and Rome, such as those listed under the ‘Freshman’ or, more generally, all those books that are now termed ‘classics’ – i.e. have a a canonical stature in todays literature.
A girlfriend and I are reading classics together. (This sounds like showing off and probably is.) We re-read Portrait of a Lady. Love how James captures the differences between Europeans and Americans, all still true today. Read Lady Chatterley’s Lover. Did not really like it. DH Lawrence did not understand women. Just finally getting into Balzac’s Lost Illusions, which requires effort but may be rewarding. What a relief to read someone who enjoys people after reading Lawrence, said my girlfriend. If Portrait of a Lady was Europeans vs. Americans and Lady Chatterley’s Lover was mind vs. body, then Balzac is city vs. country. Also listening to Juliet Stevenson read Middlemarch by George Eliot. Stevenson is fabulous. Middlemarch serves as a reminder that we do not need self-help books; literature will help us more with personal relationships. This kind of literature is the best distraction, just what I need right now. I am enjoying wearing Bois de Violette a lot lately…
What fun! Have not read what we used to call ‘Lady Loverly’s Chat’ since college. Have re-read most of James over the years though, and re-read Middlemarch a few years ago.
You are a kindred spirit indeed, Robin! Very few people have read Middlemarch. Or much James.
I come from a family of big readers. Hope Erin will chime in today too, she’s also a big reader.
You must, the heft of Middlemarch (in book form) is intimidating to most.
Hey, my ears must have been ringing! I was just going to leap in and tell my story of how a re-reading of Middlemarch got me through weeks of serious bloodwork when I was pregnant several years ago — just trying to follow a single, 18-line Eliot sentence can distract from any tightening of the tourniquet! — and then my name appeared. Great book, obviously, one of the greatest – and, as you say, C, about how to live, like all the best art.
I knew it, Balzac and Eliot will distract me through yet another round of medical stuff I have to deal with.
Joyce is one of my favorites. Helped dispel the notion that classics are always stuffy when I was in high school.
And Joyce’s short stories are very accessible. “Araby”(from “Dubliners”) is probably my favorite.
Dubliners is great, so is Portrait of the artist as a young man. Other Joyce stuff is obviously harder going 🙂
I love the short story “The Dead” and I love the movie as well. It bored my husband to tears but I get teary eyed every time I see it.
Oh, I love this movie, too! The first time I watched it in a theater, I remember thinking, when the credits were rolling at the end, “Huh? But it never started.” Lol!
Since then, I’ve watched it a couple of more times, and it has taken its place on my “favorite movies ever” list. Angelica Huston’s performance is mesmerizing.
I tend to read classics more than other books. The reason is…I’m not always sure about my own taste, so knowing that it’s been dubbed good by history is reassuring!
Given how bad I am at trusting my taste in literature it’s not surprising how little I trust my own nose, lol!
I’ve been on an Orhan Pamuk kick lately, having gone through The New Life and Silent House & I’m now immersed in his The White Castle. Absolutely loved J. Barnes’ The Sense of an Ending, Ondaatje’s lyricism in Divisadero and The Cat’s Table, but the one that’s been haunting me for months is Wolf Totem!
I adore Ondaatje, everything he’s written, except somehow skipped Divisadero & read Cat’s Table first, so need to go backwards.
Liked the Barnes too.
But made it 1/3 of the way through a Pamuk book (Snow) and realized I should have read it years ago, when I had more mental energy for that sort of thing. Just couldn’t do it. I might try again w/ something easier, if he’s written anything easier.
Oh my gosh, Robin, speaking of kindred spirit, I also adore Ondaatje, though Cat’s Table was my least favorite. Love his memoir Running in the Family and all the rest of his.
Cat’s Table was good but not his best, I agree. They did an excerpt in the New Yorker which I really liked, but later felt like it might have been most of what I needed to read (?)
The English Patient was maybe my favorite, but later got it mixed up with the movie, which was also good but not nearly as good as the book.
I loved what I think was supposed to be the prequel to the English Patient but now I forgot what it was called. Lion something? Skin of the Lion. Also read his one about jazz. And Anil’s Ghost. Someone here said his prose is so beautiful, and it is indeed, I savor it.
I forced myself to finish Istabul by Pamuk, and while it does capture a city in your imagination, it just wasn’t all that incredible. Didn’t he win the Pulitzer or Nobel? I was surprised.
Yep, he got the Nobel.
Ondaatje’s writing style is just so gorgeous. I enjoy Pamuk as well, but he definitely gets pretty heavy.
The Sense of an Ending is very good.
I love Pamuk! A great thrill for me was getting his autograph when he gave a talk and reading from “Museum of Innocence” here in Houston a few years ago. My favorite is “My Name is Red”, also “The Black Book.” I have not read his latest one yet.
Erm, I wouldn’t hold my breath but would say that Silent House is relatively more accessible, unless, of course, you have a problem with swirls of internal monologue. My girlfriend struggled with his Black Book but gave it up in exasperation 🙂
Ondaatje is fast becoming one of my favorites authors (have bought The English Patient and Anil’s Ghost and can’t wait to start reading): I’ve never had the beauty of someone’s prose and imagery move me to tears before.
The first thing I read by Ondaatje was Running in the family — a memoir, made a huge impression on me. Do read it if you can.
It used to be pretty rare that I gave up on a book, esp. once I’d gotten 1/3 of the way through, but as I’ve gotten older I’ve stopped being so dogged about reading. Life is short, LOL…why waste it on a book you’re not enjoying? Probably many of the books I read when I was younger I would not get through now. I used to enjoy long swirls of interior monologue, now, probably not so much.
That might actually be the influence of the internet & more modern ways of taking in information, or it might be age, not sure which it.
Robin, see my above comment on Ondaatje’s memoir. I think you are right about the internet having an effect on our attention span. But it is also true that I am now sure enough of myself not to force myself to read a book I think I ought to read when I know I don’t like it. I have lately left many books unfinished. If I am forcing myself to read a book I don’t like, I don’t read the book at all, just magazines and internet blogs.
That said, can anyone recommend Eleanor Catton? I am interested in her.
And – I love Hilary Mantel’s Thomas Cromwell books. Good winter reading. You must wear something with a bit of skank while reading the first (Wolf Hall) and white flowers while reading the second (Bring Up the Bodies). Don’t ask me why! I guess white flowers for Anne Boleyn. The second one is all about her.
Absolue pour le Soir for Wolf Hall
Olene for Bring Up the Bodies
Perhaps being sure of yourself is also it? But I am glad I used to make myself finish things.
And adore the Cromwell books, can’t wait for the next one. She’s taking too long to write it!
Thought the same thing. Can you imagine the pressure after two Booker Prizes though? She has given some great interviews on NPR
I’m currently on a WWI jag, having just finished Fall of Giants by Ken Follett and getting ready to start A Soldier of the Great War by Mark Helprin.
Scent wise, I’d recommend the classic made for that period – L’Heure Bleue or perhaps the newer Bois d’Armenie, whose smoke and ash seems to suit a war novel.
Ah, “perfumistas” are the best, they are not only literary, they share my literary tastes. Mark Helprin’s Winter’s Tale was quite the book for me, and I hear Soldier of the Great War is very good, I hope you like it. I don’t know what I’d wear for Winter’s Tale. Maybe incense mixed with cold stone, basically one of my church scents like Black Cashmere, to keep me warm through all the winter, cold, snow and ice in that book. They are making a movie of it by the way.
Winter’s Tale is on my TBR pile, which is towering! As is the digital version on my Kindle. Didn’t know about the movie – thanks!
Winter calls for creepy books! I haven’t started reading it yet but I purchased the e-book version of Doctor Sleep by Stephen King and since it had been many years since I read it, I also bought The Shining. As I am writing this, Jack Nicholson’s face with the crazy eyes keeps flashing on my brain.
I would pair this with SSS To Dream.
I don’t know why I don’t read creepy anymore, but I never do! Used to love Stephen King. And ack, don’t even like to think about the Shining, LOL…
I recently read “The Magic Toyshop” by Angela Carter, which I don’t know if I’d describe as creepy. It iss disturbing, but her prose is beautiful. I had to re-read some sentences over and over to keep enjoying her way with words. It was like letting something delicious linger on your tongue.
Just finished David Sanger’s Confront and Conceal, which I very much enjoyed–about Obama’s foreign policy during his first 5 or so years in office. Now on to something light and fun, Orson Scott Card’s Ender’s Game. (I borrowed the book from my 12 year old.) I read somewhere that people were picketing the movie launch because of OSC’s misogyny and homophobia. Have not read anything by Card before, so I will be duly alert. But I am looking forward to a page-turner SciFi.
. . . . on a another subject altogether: I have this annoying habit of feeling pressed to use and use up quickly perfumes that I purchased that I do not love. This extends to samples, even free ones that come in the mail with other orders. As I was putting together my little row of weekend “to use up quickly and first” frags this morning, it struck me how totally weird and unnecessary this is!
Consequently, right now I am wearing Tocca’s Florence and a spritz of Le Labo’s Ambrette 9 today—go figure!
Anyone else do this?
If I don’t like a perfume, I just don’t wear it. Robin mentioned having a freebiemeet in early 2014 so perhaps you can set them aside to give away. Life is too short to suffer, specially if you have a choice to NOT suffer 🙂
I love Ender’s Game – that was my introduction to sci-fi and remains one of my favorites for nostalgic reasons, although it’s been a while since I read it. His other Ender books were very fun reads, too. It was very upsetting and surprising for me when I found out about Card’s homophobia and other views. From his writing, I’d have expected him to be a progressive, open person – in fact, as a young Asian American girl I was touched by the fact that Card actually included explicitly Muslim/Asian/other characters of color in his novels, as well as strong, intelligent female characters. It is difficult for me to separate the author from his/her work in most cases but with Ender’s Game I do my best to.
I am that way with perfume samples too! I usually try to scent curtains, bedspreads and rooms with the fragrances I’m not particularly fond of. I just don’t like things going to waste…
That does make me feel better. But my poor husband has to put up with AG’s Gardenia Passion scented curtains (windows open) and musty attic closets refreshed with L’Artisan Perfumeur’s L’eau du Navigateur!
That is interesting about Card. I thought it was his depiction of women and others in his books that was objectionable… I am glad it isn’t, as I was bracing for being irritated with the book. But I do remember being totally flummoxed by the art vs the artist with Picasso. I grew up with Picasso being constantly proffered as “great art” in school and at home, and I became totally immune to his work– an immunity that grew into dislike the more I learned about Picasso the man… But it must have been about 1988 or 89, and I was in that room off the Prado in Madrid (can no longer remember its name) and was just totally blown away by the Guernica painting. Stupid me stood there crying (ah, the ugly American!) frozen in front of the massive, horrifying, gorgeous painting… all my ambivalence to its maker forgotten!
Ender’s Game is one of my all-time favs! I don’t remember it as light and fun but I guess that’s relative. I’m not sure I want to see the film…
Life is too short to wear perfume you don’t love!
I have a bunch of books on my reading/to-read list, because I have the attention span of a squirrel! Currently about a quarter of the way into The Master and Margarita by Bulgakov – I don’t know, it isn’t quite what I expected, but I’m pushing myself to finish it in the hopes that it gets better. I do like the chess-playing cat, though. 🙂
I’m also nearly done with the first volume of 1Q84 by Murakami, and have been really enjoying it. Beautifully complex story with interesting characters. Murakami’s novels are pretty hit-or-miss for me, but this one’s definitely a hit.
In between those books, I’ve been reading a lot of short stories, mostly via via The New Yorker; loved these pieces by Alice Munro (http://www.newyorker.com/archive/2005/12/05/051205fi_fiction) and Charles D’Ambrosio (http://www.newyorker.com/archive/2004/10/11/041011fi_fiction). Recommendations for short story writers/short story compilations would be great!
I’ve been wearing CdG’s Avignon and Kyoto via recs in my Monday Mail post, and really like them – they’re perfect for the coming winter.
I recently read what I thought was an excellent short story collection called Nothing Right by Antonya Nelson.
Some good collections I have read recently are by Ray Bradbury (best short story: Jack-in-the-box), Charles Bukowski (Tales of Ordinary Madness) and – of course – Dostoevsky (White Nights).
Oh no! You know not what you ask! My short story and short story collection recommendations, many of which you might have already read: for whole collections, definitely “The Collected Stories of Richard Yates” (with the Richard Russo intro), “Selected Stories” by Nadine Gordimer (the edition with the stories she selected), the “Complete Stories” of Flannery O’Connor, either the Collected or New and Selected stories of Evan S. Connell, Lorrie Moore’s “Birds of America” and the new “Tenth of December” (or “Civilwarland in Bad Decline” or “Pastoralia”) by George Saunders (for something a little different). (I tried not to include bona fide classics of the Turgenev or or Joyce or Chekhov variety, since they need no recommendation.) There should probably be a collected stories of Margaret Atwood, Munro’s friend, nemesis and generational Canadian “sister”, but none yet – my favourite stories of hers are “Rape Fantasies” and “Death by Landscape”. For individual stories not included in the above collections: “Helping” by Robert Stone, “Miranda Over the Valley” by Andre Dubus, “Critique de la Vie Quotidienne” or “Me and Miss Mandible” by Donald Barthelme, “The Deacon” by Mary Gordon, “Argument and Persuasion” by Donald Hall, “The Old Forest” by Peter Taylor, etc. etc.
Not long ago I read this book called German Autumn by Stig Dagerman (translated). I picked it up at a 2nd hand bookshop and straight away wanted to read more by him. I was excited to get a kindle because I couldnt find any of his books in book shops – only to discover that there are no digital versions:(
That was a non-fiction but the best fiction I have read in the last while is Dostoevsky’s The Double.
Scarlet City by Hella S. Haasse. Exquisite historical fiction. Lorenzo de Villoresi Donna is perfect for it. Also check out Haasse’s In A Dark Wood Wandering.
Had never heard of her! Love this randomness from Wikipedia: “Haasse is the only Dutch author to have an asteroid named after her”.
Have added a few to my Amazon wishlist, thanks!
Had no idea about the asteroid. Now I want one.
So glad I was able to contribute to your list … we all need something to hold us until Hilary Mantel comes up with her next one!!
I just finished the six spy novels by Dame Stella Rimington, first woman to head MI5, and have her autobiography on the way. In the meantime, I’ve reading The Book of Forgotten Fragrances by M. J. Rose, which I’m enjoying very much. It’s great to have these periodic book posts!
I’m going to have to check out those Rimington novels. I’m a sucker for spy novels! If you’ve read six, they must be good.
I love spy novels too, adding to list.
I like the central character, Liz Carlyle, who is modeled after the author herself and other women whom she knew in the service. They’re not literary masterpieces but seem authentic. Hope you enjoy them, too!
BTW, there’s a perfume reference to Vol de Nuit in the first novel. 🙂
Well, there you go! VdN is the closest I come to an HG!
The recent Booker winner The Luminaries by Eleanor Catton is an engrossing reading pleasure, a dark Gothic puzzle set in New Zealand’s 19th Century goldfields – I’d read it with one of the Histoire de Parfums, perhaps Noir Patchouli, so as to get comfortable in a deep armchair and blanket in front of a fire for a few hours. The book is a massive 800+ pages and evokes the wet misty West Coast of NZ extremely well.
Thanks, I was wondering if anyone had liked Catton
I always try to read the Booker winners but couldn’t decide if I would make it through…glad to hear you found it engrossing.
It is engrossing, especially if you like detective story like puzzles… great characters and atmosphere and a dizzying literary structure. On second thoughts, given the amount of opium that features in the book, perhaps a drop or two or YSL Opium parfum… though something boozy and smoky would be just as nice with the book!
Yes, I love that sort of thing. Will give it a shot, thanks!
I definitely want to read this! Thanks for the information.
Aparatchick mentioned Life After Life by Kate Atkinson and I will second it here. The main character, Ursula, is born in 1910, dies many times at different ages and from different causes, but comes back as herself and retains something of what she learned in her previous go-arounds. Enough so, that she begins to fend off some of her previous lives’ disasters. Sounds kooky, but it’s not. The premise and the character are so well grounded by the author – this book works.
Thanks! I read Case Histories but nothing else by her, will look for it.
PSA for my fellow NST’ers:
The Perfume Collector by Kathleen Tessaro is the Kindle Daily Deal today, just $1.99!
And how appropriate on the Winter Reading Poll weekend! 🙂
Ha, just saw that! I love the Daily Deal.
It’s my favorite email everyday! 🙂
Thanks, Rapple!!
I still have books on my kindle from last years reading list that I need to get to. I would like to have the time to actually read this winter. I like to read cookbooks too and I had a pile of those waiting for me that my aunt was getting rid of. There is an old one called The Art of Serving that I glanced at and there’s a part in it that talks of how a woman should freshen up and look pretty for when her husband comes home from work. She should also have his favorite cocktail ready for him as well and dinner should be ready to serve. I need to read that one for the comedic value alone.
I love reading cookbooks! Have you ever read any by Roy Andries de Groot? His Feasts for All Seasons is one of my favorites.
I haven’t. I’m going to go look it up right now though. A girl can never have too many cookbooks.
I had a great cookbook from around the 1960’s which I recently gave to my close Chinese-American girlfriend. I think the title is “How to Cook and Eat in Chinese”. The recipes are very basic — Chinese dishes adapted to the American kitchen. What is wonderful about the book are the stories about the writer’s family and the literal translations of the recipe names, such as “Shrimps stir fried rice”. I’m doing this from memory.
It’s nearly 1 AM here and I am on a 10-day course of new meds, which are making me very unwell. So I only got out of bed to go to the wc and then thought, as long as I’m up, I’ll take a quick peek at NST. I’ve only read the last two posts — will try to read all and comment tomorrow.
Poodle — private email to you tomorrow.
Jonette, I hope you can adjust to the new meds soon. Thinking good thoughts for you.
Same, hope you feel better soon!
Dear Jonette,
Sending thoughts of health your way…
Sorry to hear you’re not feeling well. Get back to bed and get some rest. I hope your body adjusts to the meds and you don’t feel bad for the whole 10 days.
Thanks to you all for the good wishes. I’m on day 6 of the meds. Ugh! I’m comforting myself with SMN Patchouli and sometimes with Atelier Cologne Oolang Infini.
I recently read a collection of loosely-related short stories that I liked very much: “St. Lucy’s Home for Girls Raised by Wolves” by Karen Russell. Intriguing and weirdly wonderful. I can’t imagine what scent would go well with this book.
I’m reading McCaffery’s Planet Pirates books, starting with The Death of Sleep and going all the way through Generation Warriors, with a pit stop after DoS for the Ireta books (Dinosaur Planet/Dinosaur Planet Survivors.) Should be fun, I haven’t read them probably since high school.
Not wearing anything special today. I had ordered some samples from For Strange Women, but they’re natural oils and/or solids which means that by the time you actually get them on skin, you can’t smell anything (oils) or all you can smell is the beeswax and jojoba in the base (creams.) Which stinks, because the descriptions of the scents are lovely.
Site looks great, Robin!
Thanks so much, glad you like it!