Welcome to Litsy!

As it's Sunday, I made Dutch Sunday Soup, from the tagged book. It is made with whatever vegetables are in season (I used leek, carrots, celeriac, celery, Jerusalem artichokes and romanesco), small pieces of beef, veal meatballs flavoured with nutmeg, and vermicelli. Perfectly fine.
#Netherlands #FoodandLit
@Catsandbooks @Texreader

I don‘t know exactly what this #snowycover has to do with the book I just read, but it was a very interesting story. #25alive

The details aren‘t clear, neither is the setting, and readers are left to wonder along with the characters (who are all women, stuck in a cage.) The main character is substantially younger than the other women, who all remember a time before they were imprisoned. One day, they are mysteriously freed and venture out to find others. Simple yet I was hooked. I‘m left with more questions than answers which is what I imagine the point of it all.

Thanks for the giveaway opportunity @wanderinglynn Hope your birthday is filled with delight 🎂

The tagged book has lots of great reviews and is one I‘m looking forward to reading.

#49bdaygiveaway

I Who Have Never Known Men is not a book on female rage. Neither does it ask for women‘s rights to the exclusion of men‘s.

The book asks for one thing - the opportunity to love - irrespective of gender.

The women in this book don‘t hate or fear the men - rather they fondly remember their pasts where men and women explored love and life together.

I did like the book. But, I found the obscurity of time to be jarring in placing the narrative.

2024 was kind of an odd reading year for me in terms of headspace for large portions of the reading year. And while I‘m hoping to feel more connected and present in my reading in 2025, I still read some absolutely fabulous titles. Did any of these make your top reads of 2024 and what were your favorites?
More thoughts: https://youtu.be/fCvaUqADor0

I made the tagged book's chervil pie. Nice. The dough was a bit hard - not surprising given that it called for just 50g of butter for 200g or flour - but at least, that made it a lot less caloric than regular shortcrust. The filling was cream cheese (I used fromage frais), eggs, chervil, chives (I used a bit of leek) and tarragon.
#Netherlands #FoodandLit
@Catsandbooks @Texreader

Picked up the tagged book on Jan, 1st. It opened of its own accord on page 100: fosco (cold chocolate drink) and poffertjes (drop scones/thick pancakes made with plain & buckwheat flour), which apparently “were a traditional New Year treat in North Holland“. That was fate & obviously, I had to try them. Very nice! Will definitely make them again 👍

#Netherlands #FoodandLit
@Catsandbooks @Texreader

#12Booksof2024 August
I read or heard an interview with Arden somewhere that this book came about when she started thinking about how this time period changed so many of our perceptions of the world and she decided to write about how it might have changed our perception of the devil. I deal with WWII a lot for work and the idea of this - the devil finding a new calling in WWI France - really spoke to me.

4.5 ⭐ This is the story of Maurice, a young man who had to flee his home when Nazis took over. He had a dream all his life to become a lawyer. Because lawyers helped people. But life moving from place to place to stay away from the war and death took its toll on Maurices education. As a refugee in Jamaica, he wanted to continue his education, but the refugees were not even allowed out of camp without a day pass. So instead of going to school,