Book Chat Issue #140

Hello friends, I hope you are travelling well and thanks for being here.

Every now and then I feel like I should re-introduce myself so you know who is behind this newsletter, so today I thought I’d provide a bit of my backstory.

I’m Australian and live about an hour north of Sydney in a fairly large regional centre. I’m semi-retired, but during my career I worked as a documentary film editor, an adult educator, a learning consultant, a presentation designer, and as an evaluation manager.

Throughout my working life, the thing I enjoyed most was helping people express their ideas clearly. This involved reading and editing thousands of reports, project plans and proposals. I have an editor’s eye and an appreciation for clear writing.

These days I edit narrative non-fiction (including memoir) and essays on a fee-for-service basis and I am especially interested in helping new writers find their voice. If you’re struggling with where to start or you’ve gotten bogged down with something you’re working on, maybe I can help?

If you’re interested in working with me, please email me directly at designbasics@icloud.com and we can chat about where you are with your writing, and what assistance you need.

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What I’ve been reading

It probably goes without saying that I read a lot of books, in fact that’s quite the understatement, but only the best ones get featured in Book Chat. I haven’t read anything outstanding in the last couple of weeks, so I’m sharing some of my favourites instead. (I’m halfway through Whistler, so look out for that in the next issue).

There’s always something shiny and new on the bestseller list, but they aren’t always readily available, so here are some older books you should be able to find in your library.

Let me know if you have read any of these. I love comparing notes.

In the last issue I promised I would share my reserve list at the library, so here it is:

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Is social media bad for you?

I frequently hear people talking about how bad social media is for your mental health, and I agree it has the potential to be very damaging. If you’re obsessed with the news you will undoubtedly fall into despair (with good reason) and if you spend too much time comparing yourself to younger, more attractive people, you will no doubt judge yourself too harshly and end up feeling terrible.

But if you curate your feed very carefully, you might find yourself being delighted by small furry animals or being inspired by some great food ideas.

Here are some cute little orphaned joeys to warm your heart.

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What I’ve been eating

Regular readers will know that I am somewhat obsessed with using things up. It runs in the family and I don’t feel the need to apologise. In my family we all feel tremendously pleased with ourselves when we find a use for every little bit of food in the fridge. This is the result of being raised by a parent whose mother lived through the Great Depression. (As a child I always wondered what was so great about the Depression). Her frugality was compounded by the early death of my father, which resulted in us being very short of money.

So when I discovered I had a tiny amount of rice left over from our meal the night before, I conjured up a kind of hot rice salad involving tomato, halloumi, mint and zucchini. All the elements were fried together and dressed with some leftover sauce made with marmalade and soy sauce.

Weird, but strangely delicious.

Another cooking adventure involved using up a single orange and some cream cheese that looked like it needed using. I have a wonderful recipe for orange cake but it requires two oranges and I only had one, so I weighed it and adjusted the recipe accordingly. Some quite complicated maths were involved.

Here’s what I came up with:

Ingredients

1 large orange (mine was around 275g)

80g butter

150g sugar

2 eggs (large)

1½ cups self-raising flour (or all purpose flour with a heaped teaspoon of baking powder)

½ teaspoon ground cardamom

Method

1. Remove the rind of the orange with a sharp knife or peeler and set aside.

2. Remove the white pith and discard.

3. Chop the flesh of the orange into small pieces.

4. Process the flesh and rind in a small food processor then scrape into a mixing bowl.

5. Without cleaning the food processor, cream the butter and sugar, then add the eggs.

6. Add this mixture to the mixing bowl along with the flour and cardamom.

7. Mix together until combined. Do not over mix.

8. Line a cake tin with baking paper, pour in the cake mixture and bake for 35 mins at 180 degrees or until golden.

9. When completely cool, ice with a mixture of cream cheese and icing sugar. Add a squeeze of lemon or a teaspoon of orange marmalade. Icing recipe here.

   

   Easy orange cake

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Book Club

I hope to see some of you at Book Club which is happening this week:

August 6 in the USA and Canada, and August 7 in Australia and New Zealand (9am Australian Eastern Standard Time).

Here’s the Zoom link:

We’ll be chatting about Sleepless by Annabel Abbs.

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That’s all for this issue my friends.

Until next time, take care of yourself and read as much as you can.

Cheers,

Marg xx