Thank you to publishers Scribner Books and Harper Books for the free books featured in this post.
Anyone in a cool climate they can package up and send my way? Humidity and hot temperatures are no fun but thankfully I’m enjoying some good books and tea this week.
What I finished
The Idiot – There’s a lot of subtly in this book, but overall nothing spectacular happens, just life and those moments of realization you have in the everyday. When I read the last sentence of the book , I realized, I felt like Selin.
“When I got back to school in the fall, I changed my major from linguistics and didn’t take any more classes in the philosophy or psychology of language. They had let me down. I hadn’t learned what I wanted to about how language worked. I hadn’t learned anything at all.”
What I’m reading
Utterly besotted with The Tea Rose by Jennifer Donnelley. This was a title/cover buy. Fiona and Joe, two best friends with the dream of opening their own shop, which of course is to include tea. Their young and ambitious and both work hard to make their dreams a reality although their families are far from well off. I’ve “mashed” (steeped) plenty of tea since this book has consumed the majority of my reading. Set in East London in the Whitechapel district in 1888, the book opens with a brutal murder, by a man who will become known as Jack the Ripper.
East of Eden continues with Week 3’s discussion over on Instagram. Lee is probably one of my favorite characters ever.
“I could be held back just by being needed. Please try not to need me. That’s the worst bait of all to a lonely man.”
Even though I’ve read this book before, I don’t want to leave Lee in the pages of this book again. I find some comfort in knowing I have one more week to read about him and his interactions with the Trask family.
Steep of the week
☕️The Cup: Ginger Peach |🍃Tea Type : Black | ✉️ From: Elmwood Inn Fine Teas
Since I’ve been drinking a lot of iced tea lately, it was nice to switch things up and steep this one stronger but without ice. I relaxed instantly in my chair and read quite a bit as I sipped this delicious tea and immediately steeped again because I couldn’t wait for a cold brew. The peachy flavor makes a Georgia Peach happy and I’m sure would be an ideal as an iced tea too! Thank you Elmwood Teas for this free sample!
Book Mail
I’ve been thinking about adding this section to the weekly post and thought it might be fun to chat about the books I’ve received in the mail.
For Amazon Prime Day, I pre-ordered Colson Whitehead’s new book, The Nickel Boys. I read The Underground Railroad a few years ago and it was one of my favorite. I’ve been thinking of binge reading his books, but after I savor this new one and reread The Underground Railroad with a buddy.
What’s better than books in the mail? Surprise book mail! I have some great book friends, one sent me Madame Bovary (Gustave Flaubert), while another sent a package with Nightingale Wood (Stella Gibbons), The Rainbow (D.H. Lawrence) and The Toll Gate (Georgette Heyer).
I won this reprinted editon F. Scott Fitzgerald’s Tender is the Night in a Goodreads giveaway. I couldn’t believe it since I’ve entered so many times and thought it was never going to happen. I still haven’t read The Great Gatsby!
I’m also excited about Selected Poems of Edith Wharton as a complement to the Seasons by the Book pick this month of Summer. Thank you to the publisher (Scribner) for an opportunity to read this and share something exciting next month about this book. The Dutch House by Ann Patchet and The Survivors by Adam P. Frankel are in my review book stack for fall (Harper Books).
Are any of these books on your radar?
Weekend Shenanigans
Hand Rolled Ice Cream – Who says I can’t have my tea and eat it too? This afternoon an adventure to a place that serves hand rolled ice cream proved to be just what I needed to beat the heat.
It looked a lot of liquid and I wasn’t sure what to expect.
Just look at that, who would have thought you could do this with ice cream!
I had the Hawaiian that has a base of Thai tea, Peach and I added two toppings, almonds and coconut. Hubby is full of surprises!
Books By the Cup 
I’ve never heard of rolled ice cream, either, but I’m still surprised by Dippin’ Dots. I mean, it’s dots, but it’s ice cream! Okay, your posts make me feel low class with my Dippin’ Dots and Crystal Lite tea, lol. That’s okay. I’ll be fancy some day. I just need more practice walking in my heels, that’s all!
This weekend I was reading Zora Neale Hurston: A Literary Biography by Robert E. Hemenway, and I have to say, his discussions of her novels made me want to read ALL of them RIGHT. NOW. But, Zora is no longer with us, so I should be patient. I mean, she can’t have many more surprise novels that will be published. Barracoon was a one-time thing.
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I haven’t had Dippin Dots in years! But ice cream is a must so I’m sure I’ll be going back to the place we found the hand rolled ice cream. I need some practice in my heels too but I’m sure we can help each other with being fancy especially when tea is involved.
I saw your weekend post an it made me think of a book I read a few weeks ago called Zora and Langston. I have a few of her books I need to read that have been waiting on my shelf….oh my! All the books.
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I didn’t realize Zora and Langston was just published. I finished her biography on Monday and got quite a lot of details about their friendship and big fight over Mule Bone, but the biographer summarizes what Langston Hughes says about his side of things from Hughes’s memoir. The biographer also notes evidence that disproves some of what Hughes said. What’s interesting to me is how people are still writing about Hurston. Everyone connected to her is deceased now. Where are they getting new information? She wasn’t super famous during her life — people were pretty torn about her. I actually have a book of letters Zora wrote herself, and I can’t wait to get my eyes on that.
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