(no subject)

[decemberthirty]

Since one of my problems with Amsterdam seemed to be its completely and utterly masculine perspective, I've decided to try a book that is the antithesis of that: Anita Diamant's The Red Tent. It's the story of Dinah and her mothers, the wives of Jacob in the Old Testament. The book's premise is basically that the lives of these women were all but ignored in the Bible, and so Diamant relates the biblical stories from their point of view. I'm only about a quarter of the way into it, but I really love it so far. I'm just totally engrossed by her descriptions of what daily life was like for women during those times. And it's interesting to see all that biblical grandeur as being connected to the every day stuff like baking bread and having babies. I have more thoughts about this book, but not much more time or energy, so hopefully I will remember them tomorrow...

Oh, and I also wanted to inaugurate a new feature of this journal! In addition to discussing the books I read, I'm going to experiment with recording the food that I cook. Since I enjoy cooking almost as much as I do reading, I thought this would be appropriate. Plus, it might be fun to have a good record of the different things I try. Anyhow, I made several different things this weekend, but by far the best of them was a Tuscan white bean soup with tomatoes and leeks. It had great flavor-deep and complex yet homey and rustic. Oh yeah, and if anybody who reads this wants the recipes for anything I mention, just ask...