In My Life This Week

Source: Fiona Katauskas in the Guardian

Escape Watching

“Willy Wonka” — a very silly and watchable film from 1971.

“The Battle of Algiers” a very serious Italian film from 1967, which we had always wanted to see.
The colonial war in Algeria is mostly forgotten by now, at least by Americans (if we ever heard
of it in the first place). The horrors of war and politics never seem to change. 

Escape Reading 

Here are the books I’ve been reading during the past week, along with a quote from each that shows how the authors use food to create characters and atmosphere.

Ann Cleves: The Long Call. A good police procedural.

Quote from The Long Call — “The house felt different without Simon. Empty. Quieter. It wasn’t that he’d made much noise, except when he was cooking and those had only been good sounds: the rhythmic beat of a knife on the chopping board, the sizzle of searing fish in a pan, the rattle of pots. He’d given up drinking quite so much recently and so even those noises had been calmer, less frenetic.” (p. 333)

Alice Munro (1931-2024) has recently become notorious for being a hideously cruel mother.
Despite this, I decided to read some of her stories, which I didn’t find especially wonderful.
If they had to find a Canadian woman for the prize, I wish it had been Margaret Atwood.

Quote from “The Progress of Love” short story by Alice Munro — “I didn’t have a problem right away with Beryl’s story. For one thing, I was hungry and greedy, and a lot of my attention went to the roast chicken and gravy and mashed potatoes laid on the plate with an ice-cream scoop and the bright diced vegetables out of a can, which I thought much superior to those fresh from the garden. For dessert, I had a butterscotch sundae, an agonizing choice over chocolate. The others had plain vanilla ice cream. Why shouldn’t Beryl’s version of the same event be different from my mother’s?” (p. 44)

Every story in this collection of the best from last year seems better to me than the
stories I read by Alice Munro. Sad.

Quote from  “Democracy in America” short story by Allegra Hyde — “I turned onto my back, my hands behind my head, pretending to ponder Honey’s question. The rented room was above a local grocer and below us the register clanged with the afternoon rush, shrill with its clattering belly of coins, the swish of paper money, credit card beeps, as locals purchased pumpkin pie filling, mint ice cream, meat, for one of their culture’s holidays. This was the kind of American town I had come to see, but it had not yet shown me what I wanted to know.” (p. 146)

I keep trying to read fantasy and si-fi, but it rarely speaks to me.
Definitely this well-regarded novel did not speak to me.

Quote from Binti — “I stood up, realizing that my time of death was not here yet. I took a quick look around the giant hall. I could smell dinner over the stink of blood and Meduse gases. Roasted and marinated meats, brown long-grained rice, spicy red stews, flat breads, and that rich gelatinous dessert I loved so much. They were all still laid out on the grand table, the hot foods cooling as the bodies cooled and the dessert melting as the dead Meduse melted.” (p. 30)

Escape Eating (In Real Life)

Lots of Clementines and Mandarins.

I made Beef Bourguignon according to the recipe of Julia Child (which I know by heart).
We enjoyed it with a salad and some of Len’s bread.

A light dinner salad. Farro and arugula are under the apples.

Mugs from the past.

 Blog post shared with Deb at Readerbuzz — © 2025 mae sander