Sunday Salon

 

I've left this until late, so I guess it will be short...

Bookish

I finished John McGahern's Amongst Women, but only just before I had to return it to the library so no post. I thought it was very good. Briefly, Michael Moran has five children by his first wife who has passed away. He's married a second time. Sometimes he means well, but he's a skinflint and has a ferocious temper; he's managed to completely estrange his eldest son; his youngest, also a boy, is about to go, too. The three daughters in the middle have their lives' prospects limited by him. He fought in the Irish war for independence, and then on the 'wrong' side of the Irish civil war. It's left him estranged from society. Is that enough of an excuse?

Two posts on the blog last week. James Baldwin's Notes of a Native Son from my Classics Club list. Though I had known Baldwin lived in Paris, I hadn't realized until I was well into the book that several of the essays in it described his experiences in Paris in the late 40s and early 50s so it also turned into my contribution to Paris in July. (Maybe I'll manage another; we'll see.)

I also finished Barbara Hamby's book of poems On the Street of Divine Love, and put up a poem from it here.

Those were two books I planned to read over the summer. As for that...

...Twenty Books of Summer list...

...so far I've read 11 books since the start of June. I'm on track, right? But from that list I created in May, I've read 5, which is...pretty good for me following a list? 😉 Also from the list, I'm about half-way through Georgi Gospodinov's Man Booker International-winning Time Shelter, and very much enjoying it.

Foodie

It's still strawberry season here (yay!) though not for much longer I suspect.

I made these lemon custard cups to show off the strawberries. I know I had a recipe for these somewhere, but could not find it, so I made it up as I went along. (More or less the NYT chocolate pots-de-creme recipe, just with lemon juice and zest instead of chocolate.) I overcooked them a bit as a consequence, but strawberries are very good at hiding cracks in your custard... 

How was your week?