The Secret History of Food

 The Secret History of Food (The Tribute Series) by Susan Tomnay and Nadine Wickenden
1998
Weight: 14 oz
Method of Disposal: Donating

This was a small, quick and fun read about food.  It has an English focus, but it covers food all over the world.  There are interesting tidbits all throughout, such as the first English Wedding Cake.  It was broken over the bride's head to represent the ending of her maidenhood.  An unmarried woman might sleep with a slice of the wedding cake underneath her pillow in hopes it would help her get married.  For awhile in history, the French thought you could get leprosy from potatoes and would not grow them.  All sorts.

Today, I ate an egg and cheese croissant, blueberry beignets, grits, and later chili.  Surely, trying to eat away my sorrows and worries, much to my later dismay.  I would like to do the usual resolution and make a vow of good health, but 2021 is already off to such an odd start that I have not even considered making or disavowing any resolutions.

With the exception of making sure that Harriet knows how much I love her on a daily basis.  While this is something I have always strived to do, I feel it even more important now after someone intentionally and directly threatened her life with a gun on the first of January.  I was at once so grateful to still have the love of my life in my life, not injured, and safe, while also despairing the fact I knew she would suffer trauma and cringing at the fear she must have experienced.  She was flitting about, trying to do nice things for everyone that morning and, yet, just like that, she was forced into a situation where she had to make fast decisions and hope for the best.  Thank God, she found her way back to me.  I force myself to stop thinking of what could have happened the second I start thinking it, but I start thinking about it all the time.

Frommer's The Carolina's and Georgia

 Frommer's The Carolina's and Georgia
2007
Weight: 1.1 lbs
Method of Disposal: Recycling

This is being recycled because it is a now dated travel guide to two beautiful states, one of which I have lived in my whole life and the other one a place I have visited often.  There is still so much I am eager to see, but I have so many other (lighter and more current) sources of information when I want to venture out into the world.  

As of now, some of my recommendations of things to see/do in Georgia are:

Black Rock Mountain

Panther's Creek

Amicalola Falls

Tallulah Gorge

Gibbs Garden

6 Feet Under

Kimball House

Garden Lights, Holiday Nights at the Botanical Garden

Center for Civil and Human Rights

Krog Street Tunnel

Find the Tiny Doors!

Charis: Feminist Bookstore

Videodrome

Regal Tara Cinemas

The Cartersville Abandoned Plane

Sister Louisa's Church of the Living Room and Ping Pong Emporium

Joystick Gamebar

PAWS Atlanta

Columbus, GA Riverwalk

Classics Donation

 The Awakening by Kate Chopin
Cat's Cradle by Kurt Vonnegut, Jr.
2 x Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead by Tom Stoppard
Weight: 1.5 lb
Method of Disposal: Donated

The time has come for another big push to release books.  This always means giving up some classics I have multiples of.  The only shocking thing is that there are any left after the last couple moves.  I love all of these books, and I hope they are rehomed with people who find them equally important and meaningful.

We will soon be buying a home and, while it may be far too early to be packing up this home, that is not something that would stop us.  Also, who knows what the future might bring and when?  Clearly.

The Testaments

 The Testaments by Margaret Atwood
2019
Weight: 1.7 lbs
Method of Disposal: Donating

It would be a real challenge to write a book that would always be held up next to The Handmaid's Tale, an unexpected sequel to a book that was so powerful on its on.  So, I understand those that are disappointed or expected something else, but I also understand those that loved it.  I thought it stood well on its own, which was a relief after having read the book several times but many years ago and having recently watched the tv series.  I was afraid I would be utterly confused if I did not re-read the first book, but I was fine.  

It was interesting to switch perspectives.  It is not that I did not miss Offred.  I really did.  It was still a unique experience to be in the mind of an Aunt, amongst others.  The only thing I was not keen on was the ending, but I cannot really talk about that here, can I?

The Moth Presents Occasional Magic

 The Moth Presents Occasional Magic: True Stories About Defying the Impossible Edited by Catherine Burns
2019
Weight: 1.05 lbs
Method of Disposal: Giving Away

I accidentally picked up the first Moth book while in Santa Rosa, Florida at a wonderful little bookstore called Sundog Books.  I have no idea what drew me to it, but I picked it up last minute while waiting in line for the register.  I was buying an absurd amount of greeting cards, as usual, and a few books.  There were a lot of people in there, and the downtown Square was much more popular and populated than I had ever remembered seeing it.  The small city had really grown in the years I had been away.  It is hard to imagine all the things we did on that trip now.  Covid would have changed everything, as it has done this year.  I am so glad we already had so many of the times we've had.  I know the present and future have so much to offer also, but it is not terrible to reflect on the past.

Moth has these incredible, sometimes unbelievable, personal stories, like the piece by a teenager about her experience saving a shooting victim.  She used skills she learned from Umedics, a black grassroots group that teaches people how to medically respond in emergency situations.  Not only does she save him, as a child, but then she goes on to help get his family trained to also respond in similar situations.  Those kind of stories make you wonder about your own mettle.

There was another story about a young, gay man, growing up in a homophobic landscape, trying to find himself.  Trying to win over and then ultimately deciding to emulate a young man he had been seeing in the bar only to find out much later that the man he had been hyping up was Jeffrey Fucking Dahmer.

There are also stories about what one woman wore to her divorce, what it was like to meet President Obama while working for his team, an adult son finding a relationship with his dad, and so many others.  It is good stuff.