Mailbox Labor Day

Thanks for joining me for Mailbox Monday! MM was created by Marcia, who graciously hosted it for a long, long time, before turning it into a touring event (details here).

Kristen at BookNAround is hosting in September.  Please visit her terrific blog for reviews of her favorite types of books, mostly contemporary/literary fiction, historical fiction, young adult, narrative non-fiction (travel, cooking, etc.) and memoirs.

I got two books last week, both with Northwest connections:



Pure Beef: An Essential Guide to Artisan Meat with Recipes for Every Cut by Lynne Curry.

I've had my eye on this one because I have a freezer filled with grass fed beef.  It promises to help me cook this entire cow: "With chapters organized by cooking methods and corresponding beef cuts, its 140 recipes are customized for leaner, heat-sensitive grassfed beef and model a healthful and sustainable approach to meat eating."

Lynne Curry is a food writer and former vegetarian who now lives in Joseph, Oregon, in the Wallowa Valley -- one of my favorite places in the world. 



The Tangled Bank: Writings from Orion by Robert Michael Pyle, published by OSU Press.

This is a collection of essays, originally published in Orion and Orion Afield magazines, exploring Charles Darwin’s contention that the elements of a tangled bank, and by extension all the living world, are endlessly interesting and ever evolving. The essays range from hops to independent bookstores to the monarchs of Mexico.

I want to read this mostly because the author's back-cover biography and picture compel me to:

Robert Michael Pyle dwells with his wife, Thea, a botanist and weaver, in an old Swedish farmstead in southwest Washington. His sixteen books include the John Burroughs Medal-winning Wintergreen, The Thunder Tree, Sky Time in Gray’s River, and Mariposa Road. A Guggenheim Fellow and founder of The Xerces Society, he is often associated with butterflies, slugs, and Bigfoot.

 "He is often associated with butterflies, slugs, and Bigfoot."  That is priceless! Especially when accompanied by this photo: