TheBookJeanie

COOKIN' WITH THEBOOKJEANIE   It seems appropriate on this Mother's Day to feature books about food, namely cookbooks, since many of our fondest memories of our mothers are associated with favorite meals or special desserts that she made for us.  Even as a fifth grader, my younger daughter was upset when I went back to work full time and did not have chocolate chip cookies fresh out of the oven for her when she got home from school.  My own mother did not like to spend too much time in the kitchen but I remember that she would give me dough to roll up with cinammon and sugar and bake beside her pies and they were the most delicious treats.  My older daughter gave me a cookbook today: Alone in the Kitchen with an Eggplant: Confessions of Cooking for One and Dining Alone edited by Jenni-Ferrari-Adler, a collection of essays by food obsessed writers including my favorites Laurie Colwin, Ann Patchett, and Nora Ephron.  Reading that will be a real treat - plan to take it a

CHILL OUT WITH THEBOOKJEANIE Spring is a great time to head outdoors with a good book.  And what better place to be than a piazza in Italy, with the warm sun on your back and a cup of espresso.  The next best thing to being in Italy is reading about it and here are a few suggestions.  Buena lettura! The Sixteen Pleasures by Robert Hellenga.  The year is 1966 and flood waters have devastated the city of Florence. Margot Harringgton, a twenty-nine year old book conservator, impulsively leaves her job in Chicago and flies to Italy, "to save whatever I could save, including myself."  Feeling her life has reached a dead end, our narrator returns to the city where she spent a year with her mother when she was a teenager, with no real plan in mind.  After a brief stint with a conservation team from Harvard who looked down upon her skills,  Margot volunteers to repair and restore numerous damages manuscripts at a cloistered convent.  The abbess, Madre Bessa, is the c