47.0°,
Fair Fantasize your way through February's fury
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Start today with “State of Wonder” by Ann Patchett. It takes place in the Amazon; the humidity and heat are palpable and suffocating. The mosquitoes are intense. You’ll need to run outside into the snow just for relief.
Then move on to “Jeff in Venice, Death in Varanasai” by Geoff Dwyer. Ah yes, India in July on the Ganges River, breathing in the fumes from the funeral pyres. You will so appreciate the crisp, clear air of February in New York.
Next is “Fifty Shades of Kale” by M.D. Ramsey Drew and Jennifer Iserloh. No joke, here are 50 great recipes that are actually fun to read. The payoff is that you get to eat a hot dish as well, pun intended, which surely will free you from the deviant relationship you’ve had this winter with Chinese takeout.
Read “Waiting for Sunrise” by William Boyd. The first page will reach out and pull you right in, right out of your midwinter miasma, and transport you to pre-World War I Vienna, spies, hot chocolate, Freud’s salon and cookies mit shlag.
After that, go directly to “Arcadia” by Lauren Groff. The conditions in Groff’s fictional upstate hippie community are so appalling that even if you’re sleeping in your backyard in a snowdrift, you’ll feel comparatively lucky. The bonus is, “It’s not possible to write any better without showing off,” according to fellow writer Richard Russo.
For total immersion, paddle into “The Wave” by Susan Casey, a meditation on the thrilling power of the sea from every angle — especially atop a surfboard. For an alternate universe, it’s a great choice.
Another nonfiction must-read is “The Revolution Was Televised” by Alan Sepinwall. In bright, compelling prose, the author explains cable TV to us: why we fell in love with a chemistry teacher-turned-drug lord, a bunch of bad boys in the Baltimore hood and a mafia chief in the suburbs of New Jersey.
Finally, read or re-read “The Birthday Boys” by Beryl Bainbridge, the extraordinary, fictionalized account of the doomed expedition to Antarctica led by Capt. Robert Scott in 1912. Believe me, you’ll count every icy blessing in your life, especially central heating and the existence of scurvy-preventing oranges, even in February.
If you eat soup while you read, you’re golden. Spring is only a month away.
Then move on to “Jeff in Venice, Death in Varanasai” by Geoff Dwyer. Ah yes, India in July on the Ganges River, breathing in the fumes from the funeral pyres. You will so appreciate the crisp, clear air of February in New York.
Next is “Fifty Shades of Kale” by M.D. Ramsey Drew and Jennifer Iserloh. No joke, here are 50 great recipes that are actually fun to read. The payoff is that you get to eat a hot dish as well, pun intended, which surely will free you from the deviant relationship you’ve had this winter with Chinese takeout.
Read “Waiting for Sunrise” by William Boyd. The first page will reach out and pull you right in, right out of your midwinter miasma, and transport you to pre-World War I Vienna, spies, hot chocolate, Freud’s salon and cookies mit shlag.
After that, go directly to “Arcadia” by Lauren Groff. The conditions in Groff’s fictional upstate hippie community are so appalling that even if you’re sleeping in your backyard in a snowdrift, you’ll feel comparatively lucky. The bonus is, “It’s not possible to write any better without showing off,” according to fellow writer Richard Russo.
For total immersion, paddle into “The Wave” by Susan Casey, a meditation on the thrilling power of the sea from every angle — especially atop a surfboard. For an alternate universe, it’s a great choice.
Another nonfiction must-read is “The Revolution Was Televised” by Alan Sepinwall. In bright, compelling prose, the author explains cable TV to us: why we fell in love with a chemistry teacher-turned-drug lord, a bunch of bad boys in the Baltimore hood and a mafia chief in the suburbs of New Jersey.
Finally, read or re-read “The Birthday Boys” by Beryl Bainbridge, the extraordinary, fictionalized account of the doomed expedition to Antarctica led by Capt. Robert Scott in 1912. Believe me, you’ll count every icy blessing in your life, especially central heating and the existence of scurvy-preventing oranges, even in February.
If you eat soup while you read, you’re golden. Spring is only a month away.
Copyright ©2014 Randi Kreiss. Randi can be reached at randik3@aol.com.
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