Mailbox Monday

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).

MariReads is hosting in April. Please stop by her blog for some great reviews and other fun bookish posts.

Three books came to me out of the blue last week:



On the Level: A Mystery of Suspense, Romance, and Home Improvement by David Edgar Cournoyer.  The mystery involves restoring an old Queen Anne on Long Island Sound. It looks great!

The author sent me this at the suggestion of Carolyn J. Rose because we are in the middle of remodeling the kitchen in our 100-year-old house.



Direct Hit! How Facebook Destroyed My Marriage and How I Healed by Caroline Sutherland.  Sutherland is the popular author of The Body "Knows" books.  This book is the story of how her husband betrayed her, stole her identity, and tried to ruin her life.  Timely and riveting!


 

On Mount Hood: A Biography of Oregon's Perilous Peak by Jon Bell.  This is the new paperback edition, just in time for graduation of Father's Day gifts. It's the nicest feeling paperback I've ever come across because it has a wonderful, suede-like, thick cover. 

Jon Bell will be reading and signing books at Powell's on Wednesday, April 24, 2013 at 7:30.

What books came into your house last week?

Kitchen Remodel, Week Seven: Cupboards and Kitchen Revitalization

The cupboards are here. They are not installed yet, just crammed into the kitchen space all higgledy-piggledy. But they are here so we can see them for the first time.

We went with natural-stained fir, a less-expensive option than oak, which had been my first choice.  Fir is also an appropriate choice for a 100-year-old Oregon house because they most likely used fir in the original kitchen. 

My favorite bit is how our builder matched the inside moulding of the doors and drawers with the moulding in our dining room paneling. Kind of hard to see here, but cool in real life.

I am still reading Alice Waters and Chez Panisse: The Romantic, Impractical, Often Eccentric, Ultimately Brilliant Making of a Food Revolution by Thomas McNamee and am just at the part where Chez Panisse burned almost to the ground in 1983.  Alice Waters used the tragedy as an opportunity to rebuild with a better and more beautiful design more suitable to her evolved vision for the restaurant. 



Although our kitchen remodel was, thankfully, not necessitated by tragedy, I am trying to channel Water's optimism about a better, more harmonious, future kitchen.

Sadly, Chez Panisse suffered another fire last month and is closed for renovation until mid-June.  Hopefully this recent misfortune will also result in improvements for this California icon.

 

WEEKEND COOKING

Hosted by Beth Fish Reads