For Alice

Simplicissimus

For Alice C

The binding, in natural-colour half-linen imported from the Netherlands, is stamped in dark brown on the shelfback and blind-stamped on the front cover.

Small, monster-like, curly-tailed creatures also adorn the cover!

The end-leaves are a rust laid stock from Strathmore,

echoing the colour used within the book.

First published in 1669,

this is "the earliest work in German literature

to deal with contemporary events in everyday language."

Simplicissimus would have loved blogging.

This would have been his avatar in your comment box:

His comments would have been quite cynical and world-weary.

But written with great wit and humour.

He travelled quite a bit, and met such interesting people

from all over

and under

the world.

He would have adored your beautiful photographs

of food and housewares.

He led a simple life,

fictional,

but based in fact.

Much like all good bloggers do.

___________________

So, dear Alice, I hope you enjoyed Simplicissimus.

It is certainly a huge book,

and I am quite certain that I will never actually read it from cover to cover,

but that is of no consequence.

For Simplicissimus will now always remind me of a dear blogging friend

from England

who knocked on the door of my library,

and spent some time with me.

______________________

Alice is the last borrower of the day.

I hope to be able to share many more of my bookshelves with you in the near future. Until then, I am toying with the idea of starting another short story in installments.

Oh, yes, I should also mention that another Jewish festival is coming up -this Thursday is the most solemn day of the year, Yom Kippur (Day of Atonement). No, this is not the cheesecake holiday, but rather a day of fasting.

Wishing you all a wonderful week! Your book choices have been inspiring, and your comments have been so very interesting!

Eleanor xxxx

Julia's book

The library has officially reopened!

Hooray!

Welcome, welcome, come in, please, make yourself at home.

Today I am pleased to introduce you to a brand-new member of the library. Everyone, please make Julia feel welcome as she browses the bookshelves. Julia has come here all the way from Prague, so she's a little tired and needs some tender loving care and extra attention. What was that Eurolush? You've come all the way from Germany? Now, Eurolush...we've talked about this before...it's not always ALL ABOUT YOU...excuse me...young lady....where do you think you're going with that chocolate croissant??!! STRICTLY NO FOOD ALLOWED IN THE LIBRARY!!! VERBOTTEN!!

There, that's better. What was that Badger? Why, of COURSE you can keep sipping on your cocktail. Dude....alcohol consumption is ENCOURAGED in the library. Now...where was I? Yes. Right. Before we begin our discussion of Julia's book, I'd like to commend the following borrowers for their marvellous book choices last week, as well as the prompt returning of said books - RW, Tuli, Mary and Suse. These four members managed to borrow their books without needing to resort to physical violence, unlike two sisters we all (ahem) remember well from last week. The Unfortunate Incident Involving The Bronte Sisters is a lesson to us all - reading and sibling rivalry is a lethal combination.

Ahem, now Julia, what a wonderful first choice you have made with this simply divine edition of Northanger Abbey. Its multicoloured, striped cloth cover brings to mind the hues of a rainbow, as it subtly makes its way out from behind the dark grey clouds of a winter's day in Prague.

It is not garishly bright, but there are just enough yellow sunbeams in it to bring a smile to your face. Well...at least, I hope so.

I thought you might like to see the decorative line which signals the beginning of each chapter. Also, the simple elegance of the embellishment of the first letter.

You may have noticed that a small connecting flourish is used whenever a 'c' and 't' are printed next to each other

Also between 's' and 't'. I find it quite annoying, actually. Perhaps someone knows the reason for this style of print?

I know you were hoping for an illustration, well...there are many:

What do you think Julia? I was, at first, quite surprised at the darkness of the illustrations. They have a melancholy air about them which is quite beautiful, but unexpected.

Below is the colophon which is found on the very last page of the book. Isn't that simply gorgeous?

I hope you enjoy your choice, and please do return to the library whenever you wish.

Good evening all, and may all your endings be happy.

Rosh Hashanah

My fab friend Sarah lived with us for many months a while back, and she enjoyed the Jewish festivals a great deal. Not being Jewish herself, everything that I completely took for granted instantly transformed into something strange and exotic when viewed through her eyes.

The look on her face when I explained to her "So..this is the milky cutlery, this is the meaty cutlery, these are the meaty dishes, these are the milky dishes" was priceless. The way she deliberately stopped and stared at the handles of the kitchen drawers before she chose one to open in the search for a spoon for her yogurt was a portrait of true true friendship.

In the words of the fabulous Sarah - "So what do we eat on THIS holiday? Is this the one with the cheesecake? Is this the one with the matzah? Is this the one with the fried potato pancakes? Is this the one with the triangular poppy biscuits?" Well..this is the one with the very sweet foods. Sarah liked the fried potato pancake holiday best.

But I digress.

So you all came over to my parent's apartment for Rosh Hashanah dinner, and boy was it crowded. But that's just fine, because my mother always cooks enough food "for an entire army troop" (my father's words). I have been living in a different country from my parents since I was 18, and they only moved to Australia a couple of years ago, therefore my mother and I are making up for lost time. She cooks and I eat. It's a great system.

To bring in the new year, the women of the household light the candles. Two each for me and mum, one for my daughter. Can you see the pomegranates? They are a traditional new year food (lots of sweet little seeds to symbolise a fruitful new year) which my mum is using here for decoration. See the sweetpeas? My mum is unstoppable when it comes to symbolic decorations, just wait and see....

Here is the magnificent table ready for the traditional blessing of the wine and bread (challah). In the centre are the two challahs, but you can't see them because they are covered by a challah-cover. The cover is especially made for Rosh Hashanah and has a decoration of apples on it, apple dipped in honey being a traditional new year food. My mum found a couple of apple candles too!



On Friday nights and Saturdays (Shabbat) we usually have two challahs which are long and plaited, but for the High Holy Days we have round challahs with raisins. My mother even bought one (the one on the left) with sweet streusel topping, mmmmmm......

My mother has a special plate for the apple and honey, can you see the decorative fish motif? Fish is another symbol, fertility I think.

Mr. Commentbox was happy to demonstrate. Oh, by the way, the silverware was my great-grandma's, and it has her initials engraved on it. Yes, this is the meaty set, we're having turkey.

Usually, gefilte fish is made into boiled balls. But that's so last year. My mother made gefilte fish fish molds, with pickle scales and a bed of lettuce "seaweed".

Chicken soup with matzah balls. Mmmmm.....

Potato kugel (pudding) is usually made in a rectangular pan, but again, that's so boring, so my mum made little round kugels. So, so cute.

Spot the apple mosaic! My mother actually made it herself a few years ago. The orange dish on the left is carrot tsimmes (great-grandma's recipe). It has a dumpling-type base (much like the matzah balls) which is sweetened, and then a layer of sweetened, boiled carrots is placed on top, and crisped in the oven. Step away from the tsimmes ladies, it's MINE, ALL MINE.

I took a picture of the HUGE turkey, but it looked kind of....obscene. So here is a very polite picture of my plate with a slice of turkey. After I took the photo I doubled all of the portions, but you can all believe this is the actual amount I ate, because we are virtual friends, so as far as you know I eat like a bird and have a sylph-like figure. I'd like to maintain that virtual image for as long as I can.

I grew up with this china pattern - it was our "meaty set" for as long as I can remember. My mother always insisted that when I set the table the "basket" had to be facing up. My one major rebellion during my teenage years was having the basket facing sideways or even, GASP, down. I was a wild child.

Most honey cakes are square or rectangular, but that's BORING, so my mother's is in the shape of a flower. Of course.

So thanks for joining us, I'm glad you had such a good time, and I hope each and every one of you enjoyed the little "goodie bag" my mother gave you, you know, for your trip back home, so you wouldn't, god forbid, get hungry.

Oh, and a recipe, as promised! This cake freezes very well and, in fact, tastes even better after being frozen and then defrosted. Really!

ELEANOR’S FAMILY HONEY CAKE [rectangular pan 9” x 13”]
4 eggs
1 ½ cups sugar
1 cup honey
1 teaspoon cinammon
1 teaspoon instant coffee
2 rounded tablespoons cocoa
1 teaspoon baking powder
1 tablespoon brandy
½ cup oil (canola/sunflower)
[ 3 cups self-raising flour]

Cream all well **EXCEPT FLOUR** using large bowl of mixmaster.
Then add flour – beat until mixed through.

Last: While beating on lowest speed add: 1 ½ cups boiling water.

Beat till mixed through.

The batter will be very thin. Don’t worry!

Bake slowly – 320 degrees (160 celsius) – for 1 hour approx.

For Suse

Alas, the cover of this book is not knitted. However, it is described thus:

"imported from Italy by Clarence House Imports of New York. Designed by Kazumi Oshida, the Chequered Lady pattern was hand-printed in thirteen colours. Its vine-and-flowers motif could well be that of the parlor curtains of Belle Reve, the old Louisiana homestead where Blanche and Stella lived before coming their separate ways to Elysian Fields - via a streetcar named Desire..."

Illustrations are by Al Hirschfeld "the supreme caricaturist whose drawings have enlivened the drama pages of The New York Times for nearly sixty years....Like the fine actors who have created the roles on the stage, Hirschfeld's drawings for Streetcar evoke the tensions, the surface appearance, the inner psyche of Stanley, Blanche, Stella, Mitch, and the other dramatis personae. And like the craftsmen who manipulate the stage lighting, he has bathed each illustration in glowing color but left one area in stark white to reveal, as with a spotlight, the symbolic crux of the scene."

"Nothing could be more lucid than these text pages, the speakers' names set forth in small capitals, the stage directions in clear but unobtrusive italics, the actors' lines in the expansive fourteen-point size with four points of leading, and - above all - in the use of Times Roman types throughout the book."

All of the above are quotes from the publisher. In addition, there is an introduction written by Jessica Tandy which starts - "Playing Blanche DuBois in 'A Streetcar Named Desire' changed my life...."

I hope you are enjoying this as much as I am Suse. Thanks for encouraging me to take this book off the shelf...sometimes we live with something beautiful but never see it!!

I'm trying to complete my library duties prior to the new year....but am not sure if I will be able to do it, so Northanger Abbey and Simplicissimus may have to wait....

It's strange...each of these books will now forever be connected in my mind to the person who chose to see it. It's quite lovely.

[I shall certainly try to take photos of the Rosh Hashana food (all cooked by my mother, I should add) and perhaps include our family honey cake recipe.]

Mary's book

Hello there Mary!
I have a feeling that this is definitely your type of book.


The "Monthly Letter" which accompanies the book (as it is a Limited Editions Club book) states:

"We think she [Louisa May Alcott] would have liked the flowered brocade that will cover the boards - chosen by Mr. Clarke because it is reminiscent of a period when young ladies plied a needle as adeptly as they now tune in their favourite TV channel."

The Letter is dated September 1967.

The illustrator - Henry C. Pitz - lived "in a community with the charming name of Plymouth Meeting, on a thoroughfare called East Germantown Pike, which is merely the heave of a rock from the birthplace of Miss L. M. Alcott in the Keystone State."

Many of the Club's books have a distinctive colophon which is featured on the last page. The colophons are designed by the illustrators and feature three characters posing with books. The colophon below is described thus:

"In his ingenious variation of our Three Readers symbol on the colophon page, you will recognize Louisa May Alcott, Marmee, and Jo."

Here is the colophon from "White Fang":

Here is the colophon from "Persuasion":

I hope you are happy with your choice Mary!!!

NOTICE TO ALL LIBRARY PATRONS

As you may have noticed, our Head Librarian (Ms. E) has been working extended hours so as to keep up with the growing demand for books. Ms. E. will attempt to finalise all loans by Monday, prior to the closing of the library Tuesday and Wednesday due to the celebration of the Jewish New Year.

Borrowing will resume on Thursday, but only in the afternoon, as excessive consumption of chicken soup, matza balls, gefilte fish, chopped liver, turkey, tsimmes, potato kugel and honey cake is expected.

We thank you in advance for your understanding, and wish you "Shana tova umetuka" - a very good and sweet new year.