Book Chat Issue #44
Short and sweet
Hello reading friends
Thanks for reading Book Chat, a newsletter that helps you find your next great read.
Each edition also has a bonus recipe because people who read well often like to eat good food. There’s nothing like a good book and a piece of home-made cake, don’t you think?
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What I’ve been reading
I’ve never been keen on reading short stories because I often find them annoying or too literary for my tastes. Sometimes they don’t have proper endings (they just trail off), or they have some hidden meaning I can’t quite decipher and that makes me grumpy.
A lot of short stories seem to lack - dare I say it? - any kind of story. They’re well written, but curiously unsatisfying.
So it was with some trepidation that I recently decided to dip my toe in the water again, and what a revelation! Who knew short stories could be so perfect and satisfying? What have I been missing? Quite a lot it seems…
I’ve finally realised that short stories are great for bedtime reading, and also that you don’t have to love every story in a collection. If a story isn’t grabbing you, you can just skip over to the next one.
If you’ve never been a short story reader, here are two collections I recommend to get you started.
There are so many great stories in Intimacies, it’s hard to pick out my favourites, but The Children is probably the most deftly handled. It tells the story of a young mother dealing with a possible breast cancer diagnosis whilst writing an article about Caroline Norton, the English activist and social reformer. The two stories are brilliantly intertwined. I just loved it.
My second recommendation is All the Beloved Ghosts by Alison MacLeod. I especially liked the first story, Thawed and also Dreaming Diana: Twelve Frames, which has an autobiographical feel to it. It tells the story of a young woman queuing to get a snap of the Princess and her subsequent reaction to her death. I am in awe of people who can write so concisely and movingly.
Do you have any favourite short story collections to recommend?
What I’ve been cooking
Vanilla slices are enjoying a renaissance here in Australia. If you’re unfamiliar with this sweet treat, it’s an Australian version of the famous mille-feuille, and features sheets of puff pastry filled with pastry cream.
Vanilla slices are sold in every bakery in Australia (sometimes they are awful) but there are also competitions for the baker who can make the best version.
After reading several articles about where to buy the best vanilla slices, I decided to make my own cheat’s version but was disappointed to find that the main ingredient (Arnott’s Lattice Biscuits) are no longer manufactured in Australia. Crisis!
After spending several days looking for a suitable alternative I decided to stop being lazy and bake a couple of sheets of ready-made puff pastry (not really that hard). I filled this with a delicious creamy filling made from Vanilla Instant Dessert Mix (much nicer than it sounds) and iced the whole thing with passionfruit icing.
They were a big hit. You can find the recipe here.
I promise I will feature something a little bit more healthy in the next edition.
It’s nearly that time of the year
I love this time of the year. I love trips to the beach, sharing good food and catching up with family and friends, but most of all I love book lists, the ones where people tell you their favourite books from the last 12 months.
Increasingly, most of the books aren’t new to me. A lot of people recommend the same titles and it always makes me wonder what books I might have missed that are fantastic, but didn’t get the same amount of hype. So this year, in preparation for my “best books” list, would you like to tell me about your favourite book this year (or from any year)? I’m especially interested in finding more thrillers that aren’t formulaic.
In December, I’ll share my list of favourite books and hopefully it will contain some books you might have missed.
Until then, happy reading and look after yourself,
Marg xxx
They just had a program on the radio about memorable travel food and someone mentioned the absolutely magnificent vanilla slice they make at the hotel in Bled, Slovenia. I had forgotten about it but I concur, absolutely the best.
I really like short stories. I think you have to be a very disciplined writer and choose your words carefully. And you're right - not every story jells with you but there's always another to choose from in an anthology.