Good day for a good book

William (fourth from right) proudly holding his Kindergarten certificate

We've had two days of the tail of a tropical wave (sounds like a cocktail) and apparently now we can expect Saharan dust. Lawd Have Mercy, as we say in the West Indies (a lot). Anyway this has all meant non-stop torrential rain, so we're back to the Mud & Mould Season.

We did get to the beach yesterday afternoon and I managed to hole up at the beach bar and watch the Mens Semi-finals, but today I've surrendered and we are staying at home - partly because I've got a really good book which I'm devouring - whilst the boys entertain themselves. I'll stir myself soon to get on with the never-ending housework - but for a few hours I've felt 'the still point of a book in a turning world" (TS Eliot).

I'm re-reading Gabrielle Hamilton's Blood, Butter and Bones - a beautifully written book about her life growing up in the restaurant business:

"My mother wore the sexy black cat-eye liner of the era, like Audrey hepburn and Sophia Loren...She pinned her dark hair back into a tight, neat twist every morning and then spent the day in a good skirt, high heels and an apron that I have never seen her without in forty years. She lived in our kitchen, ruled the house with an oily wooden spoon in her hand...her burnt orange Le Creuset potspots and casseroles, scuffed and blackended were constantly at work on the back three burnes, cooking things with tails, claws and marrow-filled bones - stewing and braising and simmering to feed our family of seven".

Writing like this actually makes me want to do housework and put an apron on, in the vain hope that the boys would remember me like this, as opposed to the normal short-tempered, rather flighty mother that I am. Now very keen to visit her restaurant in New York, called Prune, and to which we are now considering a small trip too anyway - as we feel we should be taking advantage of our special Marriot staff discounts (50%). I also really need to get to a good hair salon (before I implode) and the boys desperately need some new shoes. In fact the list of things grows by the day. Just to be in a city for a few days would be lovely, with people you don't recognise. Tyler can also look at bakeries.

I really love my Kindle and have read some outstanding books this year. I know that many of you are in the depths of winter (but then yet another excuse to read a good book!) but here are some of my favourites from this year, that I can recommend you add to your summer reading list:

1. Blood, Bones & Butter - Gabrielle Hamilton
2. The Hare with the Amber Eyes - Edward de Waal - not an easy read but haunting and beautifully crafted, just like his pottery. Some very different themes to think about like inheritance and legacy
3. Three Cups of Deceit - Jan Krakauer. I'm a big Krakauer fan, and his expose on the chap who wrote Three Cups of Tea, is brilliant.
4. One Day - David Nicholls. I lived in London at the same time of the book and so the incredible attention to detail is wonderful. I imagined the character as Jonathan Ross.
5. Freedom - Jonathan Franzen. Epic and very good. Good antidote to too much Martha Stewart.
6. Cutting for Stone - Abraham Verghese. An incredible book, lyrically written set in Selassies Ethiopia and NYC.
7. A Short History of Tractors in Ukrainian - Marina Lewycka. Very quirky & funny/sad.
8. The Help - Kathryn Sprockett. Outstanding, charming and awkward. 
9. The Other Hand - Chris Cleave. Startling and set in London & Nigeria.
10. Water for Elephants - Sara Gruen. Gritty and rewarding.

Time to get on with folding the laundry and the washing up, but I'm at 78% on my Kindle  - so think I'll just finish the book first!