8.31.2011
Random Pretty Man
I hesitated to put Paul Newman into the 'Random Pretty Man' category because he wasn't pretty...
He was the most gorgeous thing in the world....
Out and About on Sullivan's Island
When I was a little girl, my mom subscribed to Southern Living and after reading an article about Sullivan's Island, I determined that I wanted to live there when I grew up....
Although I do not live there, I did eat dinner there last week, at Atlanticville - so totally worth it!
We were supposed to go to Fig but we weren't all that taken with the menu that night so we cancelled that and went to Atlanticville instead....
If you are staying out on the Isle of Palms or in Sullivan's Island or if you just want to take a cool drive across the bridge...
Go! Eat! Thank me later....
8.30.2011
This Charming Bookshelf
So, as I've mentioned before my New Year's Resolution to 'read more books' is sort of getting out of control and I'm reading more than I can comfortably blog about!
I think this is a really good thing. I have almost completely eliminated television this summer and last week we didn't even turn the TV on until Thursday night and that was only to watch Hurricane coverage on The Weather Channel.
Here's a list of what's been piling up on my reading table:
I read 'The Adventures of Kavalier and Clay ' for my bookclub and until it showed up on our reading list, I had never heard of it.
It's a long book and I have to say I think it's more of a 'guy' book. I am not and have never been entranced with the world of comic books - as many of my male friends and male cousins have been.
Having said that, this is a good book - a little long in places - and at the end I wished that Chabon had spent more time letting us into the interior lives of Kavalier and Clay and a little less time waxing rhapsodic about the history of the comics.
But it was good and I'm glad I read it.
'Light in August' was my light beach reading this year.... Oh my goodness.... I continue to be blown away by William Faulkner. I could literally cry over the number of years that I lived without him!
This book is dark and its hard and its unsettling. But I loved it. Sex and race and God and love and blood and heat and light and August....
I was hooked from start to finish. And now I just want to read it again.
Having NOT had enough of Southern fiction, I finished 'Light in August' and then picked up 'The Moviegoer'.
This is a relatively short read - and it's a sad, poetic and often funny portrait of a disaffected young man who finds no meaning in the reality of his own life and so turns to movies on his 'horizontal search' for the meaning of life - that is when he's not trying to have sex with a succession of secretaries...
And then I re-read 'To Kill a Mockingbird'. There is NO better way to spend your time and if you are only going to read 5 books in your whole life, this should be number one with a bullet. Its a perfect book. It makes me want to marry Atticus Finch and love him up....
I also read 'American Pastoral' by Philip Roth. I probably should start by saying that I've never read Roth before, which I think may influence my thoughts on this book. He appears to have a cumulative effect on his readers. Having said that, if more knowledge of Roth's work in general would have made me think less of 'American Pastoral', then I'm glad I haven't read him.
The book is about a guy, Swede Levov, who does everything in his life 'right'. He's hardworking, humble, successful, empathetic, kind, monogamous, attentive to his family, gracious to those around him - and his life goes to shit anyway. And the book is about his attempts to cope with it and to understand it.
I was struck by the absence of God in this book. Swede's Jewish-ness is a central theme, yet he is not observant and has little or no relationship with God. As he struggles to make sense of his life, of the loss of his child in a way more painful than death, he has no spiritual life and no spiritual framework within which to gain perspective. I suppose that the absence of God from one's life is not a state to which I can relate, so when Swede had no where to turn except to his own (quite possibly non-existent inner reserves) it was hard for me to relate. Ultimately, there is a hopelessness to this book, the hopelessness which results from the proposition that life and accomplishment may ultimately be without any reward and that pain and suffering are as inevitable as death.
The book itself has a strange structure which I found interesting and yet ultimately flawed. I think the book would have made a stronger impact had it been edited a little differently.
Nevertheless, I found this book deeply affecting and thought provoking.
Next up: 'The Heart is a Lonely Hunter' by Carson McCullers, 'Freedom' by Jonathan Franzen and 'I, Claudius' by Robert Graves.
I think this is a really good thing. I have almost completely eliminated television this summer and last week we didn't even turn the TV on until Thursday night and that was only to watch Hurricane coverage on The Weather Channel.
Here's a list of what's been piling up on my reading table:
I read 'The Adventures of Kavalier and Clay ' for my bookclub and until it showed up on our reading list, I had never heard of it.
It's a long book and I have to say I think it's more of a 'guy' book. I am not and have never been entranced with the world of comic books - as many of my male friends and male cousins have been.
Having said that, this is a good book - a little long in places - and at the end I wished that Chabon had spent more time letting us into the interior lives of Kavalier and Clay and a little less time waxing rhapsodic about the history of the comics.
But it was good and I'm glad I read it.
'Light in August' was my light beach reading this year.... Oh my goodness.... I continue to be blown away by William Faulkner. I could literally cry over the number of years that I lived without him!
This book is dark and its hard and its unsettling. But I loved it. Sex and race and God and love and blood and heat and light and August....
I was hooked from start to finish. And now I just want to read it again.
Having NOT had enough of Southern fiction, I finished 'Light in August' and then picked up 'The Moviegoer'.
This is a relatively short read - and it's a sad, poetic and often funny portrait of a disaffected young man who finds no meaning in the reality of his own life and so turns to movies on his 'horizontal search' for the meaning of life - that is when he's not trying to have sex with a succession of secretaries...
And then I re-read 'To Kill a Mockingbird'. There is NO better way to spend your time and if you are only going to read 5 books in your whole life, this should be number one with a bullet. Its a perfect book. It makes me want to marry Atticus Finch and love him up....
I also read 'American Pastoral' by Philip Roth. I probably should start by saying that I've never read Roth before, which I think may influence my thoughts on this book. He appears to have a cumulative effect on his readers. Having said that, if more knowledge of Roth's work in general would have made me think less of 'American Pastoral', then I'm glad I haven't read him.
The book is about a guy, Swede Levov, who does everything in his life 'right'. He's hardworking, humble, successful, empathetic, kind, monogamous, attentive to his family, gracious to those around him - and his life goes to shit anyway. And the book is about his attempts to cope with it and to understand it.
I was struck by the absence of God in this book. Swede's Jewish-ness is a central theme, yet he is not observant and has little or no relationship with God. As he struggles to make sense of his life, of the loss of his child in a way more painful than death, he has no spiritual life and no spiritual framework within which to gain perspective. I suppose that the absence of God from one's life is not a state to which I can relate, so when Swede had no where to turn except to his own (quite possibly non-existent inner reserves) it was hard for me to relate. Ultimately, there is a hopelessness to this book, the hopelessness which results from the proposition that life and accomplishment may ultimately be without any reward and that pain and suffering are as inevitable as death.
The book itself has a strange structure which I found interesting and yet ultimately flawed. I think the book would have made a stronger impact had it been edited a little differently.
Nevertheless, I found this book deeply affecting and thought provoking.
Next up: 'The Heart is a Lonely Hunter' by Carson McCullers, 'Freedom' by Jonathan Franzen and 'I, Claudius' by Robert Graves.
Husk
Due to Hurricane related cancellations, we were able to score a lunch reservation at Husk in Charleston.
Score one for Irene!
For those of you who haven't heard, Husk was recently named the 'Best New Restaurant in the Country' by Bon Appetit Magazine. I also was particularly proud because their chef (and apparent culinary wunkderkind) is up from my neck of the woods in Southwest Virginia....
In a word - Oh. My. God.
I know - it's three words but I couldn't do it in one.
First of all - they brought us homemade rolls with sesame seeds on top and little bites of salt and the butter! The butter was mixed with rendered bacon fat... That's right - they mixed butter and bacon together! Genius! Why had I never thought of that???
Then for lunch we had a 'cheeseburger' but that title really doesn't do it justice.
Y'all - they grind up bacon and mix it in with the hamburger meat and then fry it... bacon IN the hamburger! Again - Genius!!!
It was so, so good. A bacon extravaganza!
I can't stop thinking about it.... I also basically haven't stopped oozing bacon out of the pores in my face since last Friday. It's a good thing Charleston is 200 miles away - is all I am saying.
But I would eat one every day if I could do it and still, you know, not weigh 400 pounds.
Also, the building was absolutely lovely. Just beautiful -
And the service was amazing.
Go! As soon as possible!
And make sure you make a reservation - well in advance....
Score one for Irene!
For those of you who haven't heard, Husk was recently named the 'Best New Restaurant in the Country' by Bon Appetit Magazine. I also was particularly proud because their chef (and apparent culinary wunkderkind) is up from my neck of the woods in Southwest Virginia....
In a word - Oh. My. God.
I know - it's three words but I couldn't do it in one.
First of all - they brought us homemade rolls with sesame seeds on top and little bites of salt and the butter! The butter was mixed with rendered bacon fat... That's right - they mixed butter and bacon together! Genius! Why had I never thought of that???
Then for lunch we had a 'cheeseburger' but that title really doesn't do it justice.
Y'all - they grind up bacon and mix it in with the hamburger meat and then fry it... bacon IN the hamburger! Again - Genius!!!
It was so, so good. A bacon extravaganza!
I can't stop thinking about it.... I also basically haven't stopped oozing bacon out of the pores in my face since last Friday. It's a good thing Charleston is 200 miles away - is all I am saying.
But I would eat one every day if I could do it and still, you know, not weigh 400 pounds.
Also, the building was absolutely lovely. Just beautiful -
And the service was amazing.
Go! As soon as possible!
And make sure you make a reservation - well in advance....
8.29.2011
Happy Monday
I'm back from the beach! I'm so happy to be home and I so wish I was still there - at the same time. I hope one day to have enough money to go for 2 weeks in a row AND to be able to take the Beans with me.
A girl can dream, right?
I've got court this week, book club and a (much needed) facial on Thursday night.
FUN!
I hope those of you on the East Coast are safe and dry after this weekend's big storm. I was lucky enough to have avoided most of it and I have to say that I enjoyed the part I got. Nature is amazing and sometimes we can be lucky enough to get a glimpse of how powerful it is. I got that peek last week and I am grateful.
xoxo - Tonya
Image: Blush by Vanilla Extinction.
Hurricane Irene
So the week I go to the beach, of course, the first Hurricane of the year hits....
I cannot complain - the dang thing mostly missed Charleston but we enjoyed some wild surf and some really cool skies - here's a little photographic evidence.
This was the most perfect rainbow.
The clouds parted and the sun came out and it lasted for about 1 minute.... and then just a sheet of gray rain blew across like someone drew a curtain and totally drenched us!
And this was the morning after... the most beautiful day!
I cannot complain - the dang thing mostly missed Charleston but we enjoyed some wild surf and some really cool skies - here's a little photographic evidence.
This was the most perfect rainbow.
The clouds parted and the sun came out and it lasted for about 1 minute.... and then just a sheet of gray rain blew across like someone drew a curtain and totally drenched us!
And this was the morning after... the most beautiful day!
8.26.2011
Happy Friday
Hey, everybody!
Have a happy and safe weekend.
I am hunkered down in the low country under a tropical storm warning! Sorta scary.
If you are in the path of this storm, stay safe!
xoxo - Tonya
Image by me!
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