Cookbooks and mystics: The cookbook collector

I have just finished reading the Cookbook Collector by Allegra Goodman. I really enjoyed the book. She makes beautiful use of language, weaving words together to create vivid mind pictures for her readers. The book focuses on the lives of two sisters, Emily and Jessamine Bach. Emily is practical, intellectual and business minded.She is engaged to a fellow dot com entrepreneur. Jessamine is studying philosophy and is dating a tree hugger.

The book is about cookbooks and cooking, mysticism, finding love in very unexpected places and putting your life together again when it does not go as planned. This is the first of Allegra Goodman's books that I have read but it will not be the last.She has a lovely way with words and she transported me to a very different world from my own

So sweet

It is seldom that one gets to combine sweetness so well in a book blog. For those of you who love sentimental stories and have a sweet tooth, look no further than today's installment of Bookmark That.

Here is another of my favourite children's books. Guess how much I love youhttp://www.amazon.com/Guess-How-Much-Love-You/dp/076360013X, written by Sam McBratney and illustrated by Anita Jeram, tells the charming story of Little Nutbrown Hare trying to outdo his dad in telling him how much he loves him as a stalling technique before bedtime. Big Nutbrown Hare always manages to go one better in his declaration of love for his son. Children need to be reassured of their parents love and this book gives this reassurance abundantly. It is charming and beautifully illustrated and you should have it on your bookshelf if you are a parent or grandparent. It makes a lovely gift for a young family as well.

I found this  birthday cake on one of the baking blogs I follow and thought I would add it, as it combines two of the things I enjoy the most, namely reading and cakes. The cake was baked by Anne Heap of the Pink Cakebox and I think it is gorgeous. If you are looking for some inspiration, you have to visit her blog. Jacob is definitely a lucky birthday boy.

A sweet book and an even sweeter cake. Two of life's greatest pleasures. Enjoy!

Where to put my books?

Here are one or two bookshelves/bookends that I found on the net and thought I would like to share. Don't you just love the books "falling" over. Just putting a book on a shelf is never quite as interesting a finding somewhere quirky or unusual to store them. See if you can spot what is so different about the bookshelf on the left. If you can, let me know what it says.While my books line shelves in our home, I am always trying to find new and unusual book shelves or bookends. Do you have any quirky bookcases to share? Please send in the photo's.