Life on the Vine

With only 10 days to spare I finished the 2021 Read Harder Challenge , making this the fourth year in a row that I've completed the challenge.  I've also been doing the monthly Unread Shelf challenge and Liz Gilbert's Onward Book Club .  At times it's felt like a lot of assigned homework but I've read some really great books.  I tried to read books that checked the block on more than one challenge but that only turned out to be a few.       So here are the 24 books I read for the Read Harder challenge with a bit of commentary below.  I hope that you'll be inspired to read a book or two.  If so, please leave me a comment and let me know which one you plan on reading.   Read Harder Challenge 2021 Read a book you've been intimidated to read: 'A Problem From Hell': America and the Age of Genocide by Samantha Power.  This book also took care of the Unread Shelf challenge in October:   Read a book you're secretly afraid of . ...

It has been a very long time since I've done a wine-focused blog post.  Once again it's a holiday weekend and movement is restricted to essential travel (i.e. work, food shopping, medical, etc.).  So it seems like a good time to write a blog post and I thought it would be fun to do a wine post. My last blog post was about books keeping me sane in 2020.  Well I know one other thing that probably bonds us all in 2020 and that is alcohol.  We all probably imbibed a bit too much.  Living in Italy, I have certainly been drinking more than usual for 3.5 years.  But you toss in lockdown and the numerous challenges of 2020...I was having a drink nearly every night.  Although one of my co-workers laughed at me when I talked about how much I was drinking.  She said she was drinking a bottle every night!   So tell me...did you drink more in 2020?  Which camp were you in?  A glass a night or a bottle a night?  Inquiring minds wan...

I share this post today in full recognition that there are VERY serious things happening back home in the United States.  This is a time that requires honesty, truth tellers and some serious soul searching.  I have really thought of nothing else for days.  But today is Saturday and movement restrictions remain in place so what's a girl to do?  I'm going to finish up this blog post, which I began writing before the new year. So, like I said, restrictions continue here in Italy and for well over half of 2020, we were in varying degrees of lockdown.  MVPs of 2020 were certainly our medical professionals but the MVO (Most Valuable Object) has to be BOOKS!   With months of stay at home orders I delved into books.  That's probably evident when you look at my blog posts in 2020.  They are nearly all about books.  In 2020 I read more books from my personal library than ever before.  38 to be exact.  For comparison, I read a whole whopp...

Despite the fact that we have been living overseas for 3.5 years now, I follow the news back home in the United States pretty closely and regularly.  I've been thinking a lot about race and class and our American society.   For me, the word that comes to mind is "reckoning."  My nation is being reckoned with.  I am being reckoned with.  One of the ways the American Heritage Dictionary defines 'reckoning' is "a settlement of accounts."  The United States of America has been building on a debt that goes all the way back to 1619.  Can we settle the account?  Can we face the truth of our origins and address it so that we can move forward -- together -- as a country?  A few days ago I finished reading Isabel Wilkerson's book " Caste: The Origins of Our Discontents ."  A book that will help you delve into those questions.  An Essential Read It is a powerful book that explores the United States as a caste society.  When some of u...

Escaped into any good books lately?  Has reading helped you survive 2020?  With two months to spare, I finished the Book Riot 2020 Read Harder Challenge .  Completing all 24 challenges for the third year in a row.  I'm already stalking the Book Riot website waiting for the 2021 challenge to be posted.  It usually goes up in early December. I enjoy looking over the new challenge.  Identifying books I might read for each category.  My process remains unchanged.  I look first at the books I own.  Then I review my "Wish List" of books I want to read and then ultimately do internet searches. This year I had to do a fair amount of online research.  My searches included: Read a play by an author of color and/or queer author.  Read a debut novel by a queer author.  Read a food book about a cuisine you've never tried before.  Read a book about climate change.  Read a sci-fi/fantasy novella (under 120 pages).  Read a pictu...

Life has changed the world over.  For more than two months I've been teleworking and leaving the house by car only once a week.  We haven't bought gasoline since early March and I still have over a half a tank of fuel in my vehicle.  I'm driving less -- this is not unique.  It's the same for millions across the globe.  The crisis response to COVID-19 has demonstrated that we -- the citizens of planet Earth -- are capable of drastically changing behavior when life is on the line. I thought about this as I finished reading Hope Jahren's new book The Story of More .  A book about climate change.  She explores the drive for 'more' and its contribution to increased climate change.  She highlights what's changed the past 50 years -- since 1969 -- the year of her birth. A scientist, Jahren has converted decades of research and data into a highly readable 200 page book on what is a complex topic.  In the appendix, she shares 11 pages of sources...

Early last year Tom and I started researching some of the chefs highlighted in Netflix's show Chef's Table .  We know a few people who have journeyed to Modena, Italy to dine in Massimo Bottura's Osteria Francescana .  It is a three-star Michelin restaurant and Chef Bottura was the very first chef featured when Chef's Table premiered.  While researching Hiša Franko , the restaurant that features Ana Roš's artistry as a self-taught chef, featured in Season 2 of Chef's Table, we discovered it was less than three hours away.  We devised a plan to visit her restaurant in October as our anniversary gift/trip/experience.  We made reservations in March and waited in anticipation for seven months! Hiša Franko is located in the Soča Valley and is less than 8 kilometers from the Italian border of Udine province -- closest good-size Italian town is Cividale del Friuli.  The restaurant has its own hotel so we were able to stay onsite the night of our reservation...