Author: allison burris

• Women Writers Reading Challenge #29: Academy Street by Mary Costello

  July 28, 2015

  Reading Challenge

  Academy Street, America, fiction, Ireland, literary fiction, Mary Costello, reading challenge, women writers

  Mary Costello’s book follows a similar path as the last one I read by Cynthia Ozick. They are both books that detail the trajectory of a single life. But Costello’s book is much quieter and much sadder. The events that occur in Tess Lohan, the protagonist’s, life are not driven by herself. Tess allows life…

• Baking for Bookworms: Sugared Biscuits from Eleanor Catton’s The Luminaries

  July 21, 2015

  Baking for Bookworms

  baking for bookworms, cookie recipes, dessert, Eleanor Catton, sugar cookies, sugared biscuits, The Luminaries

  There’s not much food mentioned in The Luminaries, and most of it revolves around tea, a tradition observed even in the sparse, rustic setting of gold rush era New Zealand. The rest of the food mentioned is alternatively gruel type porridge dishes and various camp stews, neither of which is as appealing as a cookie… The…

• Women Writers Reading Challenge #28: The Puttermesser Papers by Cynthia Ozick

  July 21, 2015

  Reading Challenge

  Cynthia Ozick, golem stories, novel, reading challenge, The Puttermesser Papers, women writers

  Some books rush by, leaving little impression. Others linger, force you to examine them a bit more slowly. Cynthia Ozick’s book demands this consideration. It somehow manages to be a recounting of the most mundane and the most fantastic and surreal, where golems are mentioned in the same breath as city corruption and Russian immigration.…

• My First Calligraphy Class

  July 16, 2015

  Calligraphy

  art class, Boise, Boise art class, Boise calligraphy, Boise Moms, calligraphy, Idaho, Meridian calligraphy, The Coffee Studio

  On July 9, I was fortunate enough to teach my first ever calligraphy class with some wonderful ladies. I was contacted about setting up a class via Etsy, and was able to set up a lovely night out for some great gals at The Coffee Studio in Meridian. We had six women show up to…

• Women Writers Reading Challenge #27: Where’d You Go, Bernadette by Maria Semple

  July 16, 2015

  Reading Challenge

  epistolary novel, Maria Semple, mother daughter, reading challenge, summer reading, Where’d You Go Bernadette, women writers

  I must apologize for the relative quiet around here…it’s been a crazy month, and things are only just beginning to simmer back down to their normal temperature. I promise Baking for Bookworms will be up next week. But on to the book: Maria Semple’s book is the quintessential summer reading material, light, vaguely related to…

• Women Writers Reading Challenge #26: Get in Trouble: Stories by Kelly Link

  June 22, 2015

  Reading Challenge

  fantasy, Get in Trouble, Kelly Link, reading challenge, short stories, story collection, women writers

  I’m always a little wary when it comes to short stories (probably holdover trauma from getting a writing minor and reading the same kinds of short stories over and over again…). I’ve only recently discovered a love for stories that feature the fantastic. If it’s based on a fairy tale, is dark and twisted, or…

• Women Writers Reading Challenge #25: The Luminaries by Eleanor Catton

  June 10, 2015

  Reading Challenge

  Eleanor Catton, historical fiction, literature, reading challenge, The Luminaries, women writers

  I don’t know what I expected this book to be when I picked it up. I read part of the New York Times book review, enough to be interested, and I added it to my to-read list. I never expected to be so enchanted with this book. Twenty pages in, and I still had no…

• Women Writers Reading Challenge #24: Is Everyone Hanging Out Without Me by Mindy Kaling

  June 9, 2015

  Reading Challenge

  comedian, comedy, Is Everyone Hanging Out Without Me, memoir, Mindy Kaling, reading challenge, women writers

  If I could choose any cool older sister I wanted, it would definitely be Mindy Kaling. This outspoken, charming, witty woman totally won over my heart with her show The Mindy Project before I ever watched her in the show she’s most famous for, The Office, in which she acted, produced, and wrote. Her tone…

• Baking for Bookworms: Shirley Temples from Charlotte au Chocolat by Charlotte Silver

  June 5, 2015

  Baking for Bookworms

  baking, baking for bookworms, Charlotte au Chocolat, Charlotte Silver, cooking, dessert, grenadine, homemade grenadine, memoir, restaurants, Shirley Temple

  Charlotte Silver’s memoir has an extremely close relationship to food because it is the memoir of her childhood spent at her mother’s restaurant in Boston. She was, in fact, named after the French dessert Charlotte au Chocolat. Her favorite drink as a child was a Shirley Temple, and while as an adult she lost her…

• Women Writers Reading Challenge #23: Under the Tuscan Sun by Frances Mayes

  June 3, 2015

  Reading Challenge

  food, Frances Mayes, History, house restoration, Italy, memoir, reading challenge, Tuscany, Under the Tuscan Sun, women writers

  I’m constantly intrigued, fascinated, and captivated by Italy. I have never been there, though I hope someday soon that will change, and yet I’m in love with the culture and the landscape. It’s a place, in other words, that calls to me. Frances Mayes’ memoir enabled me to deepen my understanding of the Tuscan landscape.…