So I finally succeeded in making edible canelés! Not only were they edible - they were tasty! As if bathing in the accolades I received from the host brother and host father weren't enough, I decided to make a video to share the experience with all of you!
I'm always looking for ways to take culture with me, without submitting to the typical pack-rat tendencies of souvenir gathering, which gets tacky quickly. Reading, learning recipes and sharing them, conversating, and writing have become my preferred forms of imbibing, processing, and regurgitating culture.
I also thought I'd fill you in on a tentative summer reading list. Upon speaking with many international people about literature, I realized how little justice I had done my native language, English! I can't begin to tell you how guilty I felt to be lectured on Virgina Woolf without having read a single thing she had written. In a perfect world, I suppose, we would be able to read everything ever written in every language ever extant. That could prove for quite boring conversations, however.
Would love for people to join me in reading them so we could discuss some of the themes! Also free to post stuff in the comment box if you have suggestions! Especially poetry.
The Sun Also Rises, by Ernest Hemmingway
Leaves of Grass, by Walt Whitman
A Tale of Two Cities, by Charles Dickens
Letter to a Young Poet, Mrs. Dalloway, by Virginia Woolf
The Great Gatsby, The Short Stories of F. Scott Fitzgerald, by F. Scott Fitzgerald
Ulysses, by James Joyce
The Gift, by Toni Morrison
A Heartbreaking Work of Staggering Genius, by Dave Eggers
Alice's Adventures in Wonderland, by Lewis Carroll
Howl, by Allen Ginsberg
Jane Eyre, by Charlotte Brontë
Mansfield Park, by Jane Austen
The Complete Poems of Emily Dickinson, by Emily Dickinson
The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock, by T.S. Eliot
A Raisin in the Sun, by Langston Hughes
The Yellow Wallpaper, by Charlotte Gilman
The Good Earth, by Pearl S. Buck
By the way, I fully recognize that getting through all these books while working full-time and installing a raised bed in my mom's backyard is going to be a challenge! Let's just say I'd like a wake-up call after life in the slow lane following two months of strikes here in Bordeaux.
Bisous,
Ben
5 comments:
kudos to the vid. can't wait to try a canelé of yours, i hope you have extra :)
on the reading list... i'm going to pick up The Great Gatsby. i'll be working full-time, too..so not sure how much time i'll have to read (but def more than in bdx, no school/studying/traveling to worry about)
hold me to it!!!
yum! the caneles look mighty, mighty scrumptious. and it was cool to hear from the host dad and hear the french.
your mom must be psyched about her forthcoming raised garden bed.
great book list--i think of my lists as lifetime lists--no rush, no deadline. just savor. you might consider steinbeck if you're looking for classic american writers. so many books, so little time! i'm working on a Farewell to Arms at the moment! As for poems, well, Kay Ryan is our current poet laureate and a fellow SF bay resident. she's got some good stuff. If you're seeking older, classic American, perhaps Dickenson, Hughes...there's so many good ones.
P.S. to add a few more women to your list of classic american, perhaps Edith Wharton and Kate Chopin (not summer list, just general lifetime list)! though you maybe didn't include them bc you've read em. happy reading! and building!
Ben,
I have most of these books in my collection - like that you added the Dave Eggers - it's a good one and a lot of it took place right near us in Albany!
Can't wait to taste a canele - they look delicious!
Your host daddy speaks in such a clear French... he must not usually speak that way.
Mrs. Dalloway is one of my all-time fav. books. If you were able to read only one of those books that you listed, you would have to choose that one!!!
Will you by any chance be in SoCal anytime during the summer? Has anyone mentioned a big get-together?
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