Joy to the Shelf: A Quick Holiday Bookish Haul, and Bookish Gifts I Gave my Family!

The holidays have come and passed, and with them, have arrived plenty of new books to fill my shelves! Thankfully, I was in the position to do the same for others, and boy, did I make the most of that opportunity. Care to hear what Santa placed underneath my tree, and what I gift-wrapped for others? Then read on!

what I got 

Becoming, Michelle Obama
I picked this title up with my mom within the first week of November, which is what has made it absolute torture to see spotted across the various desks and Instagram pages of my friends. Now that I've finally gotten my hands on it, it's going to be one of my first reads of 2019!

Around the World in 72 Days and Other Works, Nellie Bly
As someone who believed they'd be going into newspaper for the majority of their high school career, I grew up as a huge fan of the talented and intrepid Nellie Bly, who not only helped carve a place for women in journalism, but changed public perception about everything from world travel, to mental health facilities. (There's actually a Drunk History segment about that second part!). I'm excited to finally get to read a collection of her writings for myself!

Kitchen Confidential, Anthony Bourdain
When the passing of the late, great Bourdain earlier this year hit everyone so hard, one of the most frequent things I saw online was people sharing passages from the works he's created, be it his show, or this seminal culinary memoir. My mom had read the book before, but unfortunately gave away her copy, which is why I'm glad to have one of my own to read.

Over the Garden Wall: Distillatoria, Jonathan Case and Jim Campbell
Actually the only surprise on this list - I had picked out all of the others for myself! - this comic book was purchased by my Dad, who grew to love the series, when we watched it with him this past Halloween season. My sister and I got matching books, while my brother got a different one, and we're all excited to read them, and swap, to see how the characters we enjoy so much have continued onwards.

2019 Day Designer Daily Planner in "Climbing Floral" and planning supplies 
Naturally, I could never start a new year, without yet another iteration of my beautiful, beloved daily planner! Expect another "Just Planning Things" post on this topic sooner after 2019 hits.

Paddywax Library candle in "Jane Austen" 
Smells like gardenia, tuberose, jasmine... as well as social miscommunication, judgmental elderly female relatives, and empire waists!

Powell's Books Mug 
Something else you should be expecting to see on my Instagram very soon... and again... and again...

100 Essential Reads "Millenials" Scratch-Off Book poster
I had bemoaned to my sister how much I enjoy the concept of bookish scratch-off posters, but couldn't fully get behind them, because they leaned a little too heavy towards the "straight, white, male" author side of things, and weren't wholly reflective of what kinds of books existed in the world. This "Millenial" version - charting notable books between the years 2000 and 2016 fixes that issue!

what I gave

my sister, delaney
My celebrity and culture-obsessed younger sister was an obvious recipient for one of my favorite reads of 2017, All the Lives I Want: Essays About My Best Friends Who Happen to Be Famous Strangers, by Alana Massey. She also loves memoirs and humor books, too, which is why I decided to take up a friend's recommendation of Kanye West Owes Me $300 & Other Stories from a White Rapper Who Almost Made it Big, by Jensen Karp. 







my sister, madeline
A theater student, I knew one of the titles I'd be buying her as soon as I read the title Drama High: The Incredible True Story of a Brilliant Teacher, a Struggling Town, and the Magic of Theater, by Michael Sokolove. She also has aspirations of moving to Disneyland and becoming a character performer in the park shows - because she's a collegiate, and who doesn't dream of those sorts of things when you're in college? - so to fill her thirst for contemporary Disney drama, I picked up Keys to the Kingdom: How Micheal Eisner Lost His Grip, by Kim Masters, which I was glad to see she's already started reading!




my mama 
Nothing makes my mama excited quite like the promise of a good food memoir, especially if it's centered around her dream retirement place, which made In a French Kitchen: Tales and Traditions of Everyday Home Cooking in France, by Susan Herrmann Loomis, an easy choice. And over the past year or so, my mom has made a point of bringing up one of her favorite observational humorists of all time, Erma Bombeck, so I trekked my way down to Powell's bookstore in Portland to pick up a compendium of her works, too, in the form of Forever, Erma, by Erma Bombeck. 

What books did you pick up this holiday season? Did you give books as presents this year? Let me know, in the comments below!

Review: Kitchen Literacy

With Christmas bearing down upon us like only the jolliest, well-lit kind of freight trains, I've been putting my fair share of hours into the kitchen at my house. Between family brunches and holiday tea parties, we've made upwards of twelve kinds of cookies, two sets of cupcakes, and plenty of sandwiches, and that's not even counting our annual Christmas Eve dinner. 

So it shouldn't surprise you at all that one of the books I'd reach for this past holiday season, was about that same delicious topic: food! 

Kitchen Literacy: How We Lost Knowledge of Where Food Comes from and Why We Need to Get It Back, by Ann Vileisis, charts the anthropology of production development in the United States and beyond, following the untold story of the relationship between people, and the food they eat. Whether it's precooked or canned, processed or pruned right from the tree, organic or imported, what we eat to live - and do more than live - has significant effects on our surroundings, our ecosystem, and yes, on us.

What follows is a surprisingly enthralling account of "the covenant of ignorance" between modern-day food producers and consumers. Packed with facts and laden with interesting anecdotes - the kind that compelled me to pull out my phone and take pictures of the pages I found particularly notable - this nonfiction chronology of industrial development and consumer demands truly opened my eyes to a lot of the action that goes on behind the scenes of marketing veneer and culinary tradition.

While judging between something as pedestrian as brands in a supermarket might feel as easy to compare as apples and oranges, the ways those foods get there matters... whether those apple were imported from the valleys of my own Washington, or the sunnier orchards of Florida. But it's not just the routes traveled, trucks used, water spent, to bring those fruits to your produce stands: it's the pesticides used to help them grow, the ways the soil used to yield them has been given nutrients, the ways the size and turnover of the farm itself affects the economy of the local landscape at large. It's the way the government has regulated these things, and the ways consumers have demanded some fruits and vegetables over others.

And while you might feel better about yourself and your health, picking up an orange from the supermarket, but how do you feel about the ways that particular industry developed, to bring that fruit all the way to you, even in the dead of winter?

That's the kind of information this book touches on. Things like the anthropology of the canning process - from industrialization to the effects of the war effort in the 1940s - to the legal intricacies of the generation of the "organic" label, or how the government responds to consumer concerns (most disconcertingly, the general answer seems to be that they don't). Covering bases from the transfers of agricultural power from family life to industrial agriculture, to the shadowy marketing processes behind getting consumers to trust things like fake butter or artificially-colored cherries, this book pulls the curtains aside to expose just what kind of machinations keep the shelves you shop at fully stocked.

As you could probably guess, the book is definitely written in a singular perspective: the author, Ann Vileisis, now lives in a house along the Oregon Coast, grows many vegetables in the garden behind her house, and tries shopping as locally as possible when she has to. This might give people pause to consider reading it, especially those who wish to keep that "covenant of ignorance" - the open trade-off of "you don't question, we don't answer" of how food is produced - firmly in place. However, that doesn't mean that Vileisis solely preaches for the sake of believing, but instead, writes in a way that readily considers opposing viewpoints (for instance, the impact of class distinctions) that impact how we buy food.

As a result of reading, I find myself considering the origins of my food - especially the over-processed, murky-ingredients-list kinds of stuff - almost every meal after having read this book.

And in particular, reading while running our family Christmas cookie gauntlet has also been an interesting process, due to the documented history of the evolution of some of the ingredients we use regularly, some of which are touched upon in the book itself:

• how early industrial manufacturers of flour used to "fortify" and bulk up the finely-milled powder with inexpensive chalk,
• how food experts of the 1800s called to avoid sugar produced by slave-owned plantations... not necessarily because of the production habits, but because the pain of slavery influenced the taste of food made with it (which makes me think about the ways slavery continues to impact the chocolate industry today), 
• how sugar and butter rations during the war affected the baking industry, and how it in turn reacted to customer concerns about their homemade goods... aka, why you have to add an egg and oil to your cake mixes, instead of just water. 

Final Verdict: Altogether unique and an effective introductory point into the study of culinary anthropology, specifically from an American viewpoint, Kitchen Literacy is a great read for anyone looking to understand what food is best to buy... and how our perspectives on that have been changed by industry, government, and consumer standards across centuries.

What kinds of culinary non-fiction have you read before? What have you been cooking this holiday season? Let me know, in the comments below!

A Gift for You, a Gift for Me: My Winter 2018 Book Outlet Haul!

I know, I know... we're just a hop, skip, and a jump away from the holidays, and here I am, buying a whole ton of books or myself. But that's not really the case... you see, not only did I place this book order on November 9th, but I did so with the intention of buying books for other people! Sure, I may have picked up *cough* seven *cough* books for myself, but I also bought five for various family members.

Also, one of the ones I bought is to share with my brother. Also, two of them are ones I've read and loved already; I just didn't have a physical copy on my shelves. Also, I fully intend to start clearing out a few off of my shelves in the new year, because I'm super close to 500 followers on Instagram, and really want to do a giveaway soon!

Alright, alright, excuses over. The long and short of it is, at the time of my ordering, Book Outlet had a massive sale going on... the total of 12 books I got, only ended up totaling about $68! So, if you've got anyone left on your holiday shopping list, I'd definitely recommend getting a look at some of what this incredible site has on offer. (And no, this isn't a sponsored post. Though, I mean...)

Not sure what kind of books to check out? Allow me to show you some of my picks...

The Rules Do Not Apply, April Levy
This popular nonfiction pick and Goodreads nominee for Best Memoir in 2017 has been on my radar for a while, but I never picked it up. I really only added it to my cart because it was under $5, and I figured I'd get around to it eventually... but after I started leafing through the pages while I was adding it to my TBR shelf, I decided that "eventually" was going to turn out a lot more like "real, real soon."

The Fate of the Tearling (Tearling #3), Erika Johansen
Have I read the first book in the series, The Queen of the Tearling? Yes, in my senior year of college, and I loved it. Have I read the sequel, The Invasion of the Tearling? Errr... no. But I own it, and totally plan on getting around to it at sometime. And now, on a whim, and because it was under $5, I own a complete trilogy after having only read one of its installments. It's basically the Shades of Magic trilogy all over again... and come to think of it, I should probably thumb through those again soon, too!

Voracious: A Hungry Reader Cooks Her Way Through Great Books, Cara Nicoletti
This is one of those oddball library favorites, that I picked up on a whim in the cookbook section, memoir subsection, and was happily surprised when it totally checked all of my boxes. The author - a butcher, living in New York - is also a total bookworm, who sought out recipes from some of her lifelong favorite reads, and tested them out for herself. The results are present in this lovingly rendered book, including fun food illustrations. Naturally, after checking it out from the library for a third time, I figured I should probably just pick up my own copy.

Dumplin', Julie Murphy
Another library favorite, one I read over the summer in anticipation of the new Netflix movie's release. And it's a good thing I got this copy for myself: not only has the book stuck with me, leading me to think of it in odd moments, but we watched the movie adaptation the day after it came out, and I cried at least three to four times throughout the whole thing. I still have to get around to the sequel, Puddin', but I'm glad that I now have the paperback to reread when I need it (and a new Dolly Parton soundtrack to make my life so, so much better).

Sightwitch: A Witchlands Novella, Susan Dennard
My baby brother - he's seventeen - and I are called the bookends of the siblings, for two good reasons: we're the beginning and end of the kid lineup, and we're both absolute fiends for fiction. One of my favorite things is how we have various YA series in common... and after bullying him into picking up Truthwitch this past summer, Susan Dennard has become of his favorite guilty read authors. I picked up this copy as a special "welcome to Winter Break" present for later this month, but I also grabbed a copy of Windwitch at Powell's this past Fall, as well. Needless to say, the kid's going to have more homework over Break than just what his teachers assigned.

A Square Meal: A Culinary History of the Great Depression, Andrew Coe and Jane Ziegelman 
I've had this book on my radar for a really long time, as it combines my favorite period of American history, with one of my favorite nonfiction topics. Because I was able to get it on Book Outlet's crazy discounts, I finally grabbed a copy of my own, and despite the fact that its price was so reduced, it is in virtually perfect condition! Unfortunately, I have a few more books to finish up before the new year, but after reading Ann Vileisis' Kitchen Literacy, another excellent work of contemporary culinary anthropology, I know I want to make sure it's soon.

If We Were Villains, M. L. Rio
Another longtime want, this book began making the rounds of #bookstagram this past Fall, as everyone fell in love with its gorgeous, lush cover, and enthralling "scholar-gothic" Shakespearean subject matter. Supposedly for fans of Donna Tart's A Secret History - another book I own and haven't read yet, dammit - I've been dying for a copy, but couldn't find it in any of the bookstores I frequent! Naturally, I was delighted to find a copy, and at such a discount, too.

But like I said, this book haul wasn't just an exercise in wanton book-gluttony: I also bought two books for each of my sisters, and one for my mom, all of which you will be hearing about after they are delivered to their intended recipients at Christmas.

Okay, maybe a little bit of book-gluttony was involved.

What was your most recent book order? Which of these would you read first? Let me know, in the comments below! 

Top Ten Tuesday: Favorite Cozy, Wintry Reads

The stockings are hung, the trees are lit, the bells are silver, and Elvis is blue: you know what time of year it is! Bring on the holidays and hot cocoa, because I'm fully ready to ensconce myself in my sweaters, scarves, and post-Thanksgiving blubber, and not leave home again until it's time for Christmas Eve Mass.

Then again, if I'm spending so much time tucked inside, I'm going to need something interesting to keep me entertained. And if it's going to keep raining like it usually does around this time in Washington, I'm going to need it to be as cozy as possible, to contrast with the chilly weather outside.

So, here are my Top Ten picks for warm and wintry read this December! 

1. The Snow Child, Eowen Ivey
Sure, it seems like an obvious pick, because of the title. But the bleak Alaskan wilderness described in this work of magical realism, might just make your own winter weather feel downright balmy! You might be inspired to try your hand at building a little snow girl of your own... but be sure that you're ready for parenthood.

2. East, Edith Pattou
Again, you can't go wrong with a cover that displays a fully grown polar bear and a fur-wrapped girl traipsing through a landscape of white snow. But its that really a polar bear? And is this your average fairy tale retelling? (The answer to both questions is obviously no.)

3. the Harry Potter series, J. K. Rowling
While one might argue that these books fall more into the Fall or October-y category of reading material, I think they serve just as significant a placeholder here. The winter and Christmastime scenes served as some of the most aesthetically pleasing and plot-catalytic for the series as a whole... and yes, I'm still better I never found an Invisibility Cloak in my own pile of presents.

4. A Christmas Carol, Charles Dickens
What just might be the greatest ghost story ever told, is also my favorite Christmas story of all time. Did you know that the stereotype of spirits rattling chains - a Scooby Doo staple, honestly - derives from this book specifically? If you doubt my genre classifications, then check out the first sentence of the whole story... trust me, it doesn't exactly exude Christmas cheer like you remember, but give Scrooge time. He'll get there eventually.

5. Vicious, V. E. Schwab
Sure, it might be cold outside. But you know what else is a dish best served cold? Revenge. And murder. And superheroes. Okay, I made up those last two, but believe me: there's plenty of all three in this action-packed installment, that will keep your blood pumping so fast, you wont even need to turn the fireplace on.

6. the Great and Terrible Beauty series, Libba Bray
This series was a favorite of mine back in my middle school days - because who wouldn't be immediately invested in a boarding-school story of teenage girls with access to a magical realm, right? - but I forgot about it until recently, until my sister and I listened to about five hours of the second installment, Rebel Angels, on a drive to Portland and back. If you've got a holiday road trip to make this year, try your hand at these, in audiobook form!

7. the Game of Thrones series, George R. R. Martin
Sure, winters are long and hard. But so are... swords. But even if you aren't the biggest fantasy fan, there's enough action, political intrigue, and... swords... in this series, to keep you entertained long after March's winds pass. Leaving you fully prepared for the final season of the hit HBO show this Spring!

8. Murder on the Orient Express, Agatha Christie
What better to distract you from the chilly landscape, than a bone-chilling murder? This work is among Christie's finest, and the grand reveal at the end, one of her most expertly crafted. Do yourself a favor, and forgo watching the Kenneth Branagh version if you haven't read it yet. That way, you can judge the movie on its own merits when you're finished... and there's a freebie snow day activity for you! Two for one!

9. the Grisha trilogy, Leigh Bardugo
Nothing gets quite as snowy and dramatic as this YA Fantasy series, inspired by works of Russian folklore. Trust me, once you get into the groove of this fast-paced, masterfully-constructed series, you won't be paying attention to the rain outside.

10. the Narnia series, C. S. Lewis
One of my friends is in the process of rereading this series for a wintertime treat, and honestly, I can't think of anything cozier. Sure, barring the incredibly off-putting rosewater taste of Turkish Delight, I might be convinced to take a trip back to Narnia this winter. Provided, of course, that Prince Caspian's around.

What's in your Top Ten? Let me know, in the comments below!