Nonpareils - 8
Read:
The Paris Library by Janet Skeslien Charles
I came back from Paris with a desire to immediately return, a deep appreciation for Monoprix and an interest in learning more about what life was like in France during World War 2.
Based on the true story of the American Library in Paris (the largest English language lending library on the European mainland founded by American ex-pats including Pete Seeger’s uncle!), this is a beautifully written book which does right by the library’s motto - “After the darkness of war, the light of books.”
Dinner for One by Sutanya Dacres
I also came back from Paris utterly infuriated at my adolescent self for not studying abroad.
I could have had a torrid affair! I could taken up smoking (and immediately quit because y’all, I just cannot with the cigarettes)! I could have learned how to make gougeres!
Sutanya Dacres highlights her hope and heartbreak in this great book and I highly recommend picking it up alongside a bottle of rose so you can read in the sunshine.
Watch:
Under The Banner of Heaven (Hulu)
I read Jon Krakauer’s book last year and it sent me down a compelling (and truly disturbing) hole into the world of the FLDS church. I’m four episodes into the mini-series and the cast is just phenomenal.
Andrew Garfield plays Detective Jeb Pyle with the subtle but encroaching fear of a man slipping from his faith and all he knew straight into the abyss. Wyatt Russell is so goddamn good and terrifying as Dan Lafferty and Daisy Edgar-Jones will just break your heart because you know what’s going to happen and you can’t do a goddamn thing to stop it.
Listen:
Harry’s House - Harry Styles
We listen to this album so much that Will has started requesting Grapejuice and Daylight by name.
Eat/Drink:
Mathews Brewing Company’s Mango Sour + Sprite
Mixing beer with anything might seem like sacrilege, but the Germans mix beer with lemonade, juice or lemon-lime soda and call it a Radler. And we all know that if the Germans do it, it’s probably a good idea (except for a few historical examples I can think of…and schneeball which is just a dessert fail in the land of excellent desserts)
I am not a sour beer kind of girl, but Mathews Brewing Company’s Mango Sour tempered with Sprite is pretty fantastic. Especially when the sun is like, six inches from your forehead and it feels like you’re melting…which I obviously am in the above picture.
Tea is my birthright. My parents, grandparents, aunts and uncles used to drink at least three cups a day, I think I learned how to make tea before I learned how to make food and when I feel low, there’s only one thing that really helps - a pot of Builder’s Tea the color of a brick with enough sugar to make to spoon stand upright.
The coconut gives it a lush creaminess and the almonds remind me of my favorite marzipan cookies. Definitely worth checking out….unless you’re one of my aunts in which case, I’m sorry. This is nothing like chai. Please don’t judge me.
Misc.
I feel like the people who like Jess Janz’ poetry and the people that listen to Kate Kennedy’s Be There in Five podcast is less a Venn Diagram and more a perfect circle.
