By Tori Haschka. Illustrator – Andrea Turvey; Photographer- Isabelle Wield
Published by Ryland Peters & Small London/New York
This book came up on the spinner and I pretty much got through it in the hour allocated to it.
This book is a mixture of travel writing and cookbook inspired by her journeys around the world. The author shares personal stories alongside recipes that capture the flavours of places such as Venice, Paris, Morocco and Greece.
The best part of this book, in my opinion, is the photography and the illustrations. I really enjoy looking at urban and travel sketches and the food photography is very good. I know how hard it is to photograph food in a lovely setting.
The recipes looked lovely but nothing I would ever make.
The things I liked about the book:
Sketches
Photography
Stories of the travels
The hard cover and binding- very attractive
What I didn’t like as much
Too much meat. I need more balance in a cookbook and I don’t eat a lot of red meat. We also don’t eat lamb or pork.
Too much double cream, cream cheese. Desserts are too rich and complicated.
Book published in 2013 but recipes felt like 1970s and 80s to me. Trying to be a bit trendy I think and would have liked more recipes that are common to the people in those countries instead of the 5 star restaurants.
So with that – enjoy the scatter of photos throughout. Those are very good.
The spinner came up on Photography today so I spent an hour on this book.
Before I start though I’ll mention the randomly picked Penguin Archive book from the Penguin Anniversary challenge that was Night Owl by Nikolai Leskov was a DNF for me. I read half of it and needed to stop. Night Owls” by Nikolai Leskov is a short, sharply satirical Russian story that looks at religious faith, hypocrisy, morality and social pretence. Not for me at this time.
I am just not in the mood at this moment.
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So onwards to Photography.
I have a few favourite street photographers from the past and most were in New York City. Though I have several books that are not located there. In NYC Jay Maisel was my favourite and I see he just died last month at the age of 94. I really liked him. He was very down to earth and lived his entire life with a camera. His main message was, “Street photography is light, colour and gesture” This is what one looks for. You tube has a lot of info on him.
Though originally street photos were all black and white which is also still popular even though colour has now been available for years.
I like Vivian Maier and Dorothea Lange and Saul Leiter. But of course they ate all gone now. Street photos can be edited by balancing the light or removing objects that might detract from the photo. This is different from photo journalism where the photos must only be published as is. Nothing should be changed from the final result.
There are different types of street photos. Urban architecture to the stories of people in the street. Here are a few I like.
GThe photo of the world trade center was taken by Joel Meyerowitz. No one was allowed within the rubble outside of city workers after the event. But he dressed himself as a construction worker and was the only person to reveal those photos. He is still living.
Look at the pictures below. They either tell a story or they feature shadows and light that are quite artistic. Just a few examples.
The above photos were copied from this book.
The following photos are ones I took in Hobart a couple weeks ago.
I sat down and reviewed the pile of books I’m reading from the Australian anniversary books, the spinning wheel and the Fullers Bookshop Reading group.
I’m also looking at my fitness program now spring has arrived. It will no doubt be a bit windy with unpredictable weather but I am determined to get a plan in place that will get me through until summer or I should say 1 Jan. 2027.
So let’s get into it. First off the gym. That has to be priority. Weights are necessary for older people and especially women. On a personal level I still need to improve my fatigue levels. That sounds weird. I don’t want more fatigue. I want less fatigue.
So here is the plan: Twice a week to the gym to do the treadmill 30 minutes. There is a hill climbing program with intervals of hills and flat ground that lasts about 25 min. Then I will do my 15 or 20 min. upper body and leg weights. Then I do my minute plank and will look to increase that and I currently do a 2 minute wall sit but I used to be able to do a 4 minute one. I’d like to get back to that.
Then one day a week I will have “My Day Out”. I have set up a project on Chat GPT and I want to see how it works out. I have asked it to send me a one day plan every Sunday. I will pick a day following that day during the week to take up the suggestion.
Suggestions will include anything from a local cafe for reading and having a coffee, a film maybe, a day out to a local area within 100 kms to do photography. Photography will be either landscape, street or macro. I included visits to art galleries, book shops, parks, nature reserves, historical sites, novelty shops, dog parks, garden centres, you get the idea.
I have given it a compilation of local activities to get out and experience once a week. All of it will include walking and experiencing some creativity.
Now I have no idea how this random Day Out will work but I will take my bag with me of art supplies and journal, my diary, my camera and see what the experience will be. I hear so much about chat GPT organising projects for people at work so I will see what is possible for it to come up for me. I reall enjoy a good project. It could be a total bust but I think the randomness of it will be fun and I may find some local places to go that I’ve not been to before. So stay tuned.
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`BOOKS
Thursday evening was Book group discussion of Wild Dark Shore by Charlotte McConaghy then my friend and I went to a local Nepalese restaurant afterwards for a meal.
What I liked about the book: character development of everyone but one older teenage boy.
The location that took place on an island southeast of Tasmania (based on MacQuarie Island). The animals that lived there.
A bit of suspense
The plot was interesting
What I didn’t care for. The older teenage boy just wasn’t developed nearly as well as his siblings, father or stranger who washed up on the island.
I couldn’t visualise the home they lived in or the surrounding area. The characters went from one place to another, climbed hills but I wasn’t sure how all these places linked up geographically. I need to see that pictures in my head.
One unnecessary relationship that developed that I could see a mile away. Just bored with it.
Ending started sliding into unreality and ending was unsatisfactory, almost too corny and seemed to be wrapped up in a big hurry.
Overall though it was an entertaining read and better than some other books I’ve read this year. Somewhere in the “maybe” recommendation category.
SPINNING A BOOK
(This is where I spin the wheel that lists ten books and I read that selection for one hour.)
So far I’ve read The Red Notebook by Antoine Lauren twice for two hours . I am currently 55% through it. I am really enjoying it and will write more about the story once I’ve finished.
I read a short story one hour. Selected was The Dog of Flanders. It is an 1872 dramatic novel by English author Marie Louise de la Ramée. It is about a Flemish boy named Nello and his dog Patrasche and is set in Antwerp. I am loving it. I’ll share more of the story once finished. I am about 80% through so hope I spin it soon so I can finish it off.
I also spun out an Anita Brookner’s book from my TBR shelf of a book called Misalliance. I am only 20% of this book so will move on here.
If you’re new to my posts you can see the Spinning wheel set up in previous posts.
My next read has come up Photography. I have several large illustrated photography books.
PENGUIN ANNIVERSARY BOOKS CHALLENGE
I have randomly picked Night Owls which is a Penguin Archive book by author Nikolai Leskov. I’ve never heard of this author or book so looking forward to beginning it soon.
That’s what I sorted today as it poured rain outside. It was only 14 degrees C and I towel dried two wet dogs a couple of times as they came in and wanted to shake all over the walls.
Travellin' Penguin 