Reading

Better than pumpkin spice

Dear Bread Pals,

Reading is one of the main reasons I write. The immersion in another world, a brain and heart so close to mine or so far that I can’t imagine and must meet on the page — this is so satisfying. As I settle into another bout of Covid, my second this year — I slide deep into the company of books.

I’ll tell you about two novels that are gripping me: Willa Cather’s Lucy Gayheart, and Shirley Jackson’s Hangsaman. I’m turning to Cather because she worked in the early 20th century, and because she writes about Nebraska and the Plains. Jackson caught me first with “The Lottery,” and I think my short stories live on her edge of surprise, too. But two years ago, I read an article about this novel, which was loosely based on the disappearance of a young woman from Bennington College in the 1940s, and I’m so glad to return to it.

The book is funny and mysterious, bringing me close to the emerging consciousness of Natalie Waite, the main character, and echoing some of my own late teenager thoughts. I wish I knew how Shirley Jackson so successfully renders worlds. What sentences!

“The wet raincoat smell was exciting, carrying with it remotely the institutional smells of the college, a faint echo of a cologne Natalie had never worn in her life; near the pocket was a cigarette burn she had not made; the raincoat was in itself a symbol of going and coming, of wishing and fearing, or, precisely, the going out of a warm, firelit house into the heartbreaking cold.”

What a tour of an emerging consciousness!

Also, what a commentary on Bennington College in the 1940s. Jackson wrote the novel when she was at Bennington, not as a student but married to Stanley Edgar Hyman, who taught there. The book was published in 1951, and my mother-in-law attended from 1956-60. My husband and his sister went there in the 80s and 90s. Jack is friendly with his classmates, so they dot our life, and I’m curious about this place. But no, I’ve never read Donna Tartt’s A Secret History.

Ruth Franklin has written a great biography, Shirley Jackson: A Rather Haunted Life, and I’m happy to have stumbled across a lecture series she’s doing right now. I suggest you kit yourself out for spooky season, and grab any of Jackson’s books — short stories, novels, and even her essays about family life, although they’re not haunting. Reading her is cozier than pumpkin spice, I’d say.

Other books I’ve also read and loved recently:

The Manicurist’s Daughter by Susan Lieu

The Giant’s House by Elizabeth McCracken

All This Could Be Yours by Jami Attenberg

Little by Edward Carey

Anything by McCracken & Carey is just delicious — if you haven’t yet me this power couple of fiction, please find them.

In cookbooks, I’m loving Dawn Woodward’s beautiful book, Flour is Flavour (https://goodeggto.com/products/flour-is-flavour) Ever since I began baking her recipes, first after a session at The Kneading Conference and then after a class at The Grain Gathering, I’ve been a huge fan. This book gathers them — nice to have this to page through rather than class handouts — and her philosophy, of using whole grain flours from small farms, for flavor & in favor of the environment. Soon as I get my strength up I’ll be baking her oatmeal cookies again, and her digestives.

My friend Crystal is at the library fetching me a fresh round of books, but my appetite is endless. What books are grabbing your attention?

Before I go, I want to tell you about a few grainy opportunities: the first, is to listen to Beer Sessions Radio, where Ellie Markovitch and I recently talked all things corn. Jimmy Carbone runs this podcast, and he’s been a huge friend to regional grains. My keyboard is acting up, so I’m going to drop the link right here:https://heritageradionetwork.org/episode/everybody-loves-corn/

Next, is two rye events in NYC: on Sunday, the one and only Laura Valli, who wrote a PhD on rye and whose bread is in Dawn’s book, is teaching a class at the Essex Market. I bought a ticket to the class, so if you want to take my place, please let me know.

Monday, Rye Revival & Glynwood are hosting The Taste of Rye, an industry symposium. The indomitable Heather Darby, agronomist and head of the Crops & Soils Team at UVM will be speaking, and so will Laura Valli. If you are curious about rye, please go, and tell me all about it!

Well, I’m back to resting. Stay safe our there, get your vaccines, and make sure you’re registered to vote.

Yours,

Amy