The Librarian

I finished The Paris Wife, by Paula McLain, over a week ago, but every time I think of it my throat constricts, my eyes get smudgy, and I realise I'm still a little bit heartbroken. The story, written as fiction, and told in the voice of Hadley Richardson, Ernest Hemingway's first wife, is based on known facts about their relationship. It's a love story, but as far as love stories go, it's pretty devastating. Hadley and Ernest meet at a party in Chicago, when he is only 21, and she six years older. Each carrying sadnesses and baggage, they fall in love. They marry and move to Paris, where, spurred on by new friends such as Ezra Pound and Gertrude Stein, Hemingway begins to make tentative steps towards fiction writing. They become parents, he becomes famous, and they come apart. I cried. x Library Girl PS I feel abit guilty. I got a recommendation for this book from a friend, and rushed out to get it from the library. Somehow, in doing so, I actually p...

Memoirs involving New York, good food, and colourful women definitely go to the top of my book pile, and I haven't been disappointed so far. I have just finished Blood, Bones and Butter by Gabrielle Hamilton and really loved it.  Hamilton's chapters are almost like stand-alone essays on different aspects of her life, from her idyllic childhood, through her tumultuous teenage, to her unexpected and unconventional marriage to an Italian doctor, and the equally unexpected adventure of opening her now well-acclaimed restaurant Prune (at the same time as juggling the demands of becoming a parent).  It's gritty and real, the writing is quirky, and the storytelling very honest. It's full of life . (Postscript: this book was recommended to me by the lovely author of the food blog pass the salt . If you haven't already discovered her, take a peek, she's a clever one!) My other favourite New York based memoir is Madeleines in Manhattan written ...

Some days I just can't wait for bed time, especially with a pile of books like this waiting for me. I was recommended The Paris Wife by a friend, it is about Hemingway's wife. I have followed Rachel Allen's cooking career a bit since I have been helping out a friend opening a cook school here in Hawke's Bay, so it was a treat to find this book Home Cooking at the library. Fairytale Food by Lucie Cash, looks cute but not very practical. And, finally, ah sweetness, the latest Country Living magazine.