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Dilara

Dilara

Joined July 2019

LibraryThing member Dilara86

TinyCat library

Literary fiction, poetry, social sciences, food, nature writing, art. Oh and cookbooks. All the cookbooks... #Litsolace #naturalitsy #foodandlit
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Dilara
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For #Bolivia #FoodandLit, I made sopa de maní (Bolivian boiled peanut soup, normally with meat, but mine was all veggie)
based on https://boliviancookbook.com/soups/sopa-de-mani/ Sorry the pictures and collage are a bit rubbish this month...
It is served with a tomato, cilantro, oregano & chili salsa, and topped with fries (that got cheers in my house!) ⬇

@Catsandbooks @Texreader

Dilara Opinions were divided. 1 of us liked it. I was disappointed. I thought it was a bit 1-note, and I think maybe I am not a fan of mixing cilantro and oregano? Oh well, better luck next time! 4h
Soscha I was going to ask how it was. I‘m meh on veggie dishes that taste bland. 4h
Texreader I love seeing all the dishes!! And I also liked hearing the family‘s reviews! 😂 4h
Dilara @Soscha It wasn't bland as such, but I think if I make it again, I'll add a bit of lime juice to the salsa to give it a bit of a lift, and omit the oregano (personal preference - it sort of overpowered everything and fought with the cilantro). And also, I'd use a chili that has a bit of heat to it. 4h
Dilara @Texreader Thanks! 😊 4h
10 likes5 comments
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Dilara
Notebook | Agota Kristof
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For some reason, this is my 2nd book in a row that features twins, but they're v. different books. This one is set (probably) in #Hungary, near an unspecified border during WWII (again, probably), with twins that harden themselves to survive all the hardships they may encounter. None of the characters are likeable. Warning for cruelty, abuse (including sexual), murder - all the wartime horrors and more. Thankfully short & sparsely-written. ⬇

Dilara Written in French, the author's 2nd language she learned as an adult after fleeing Hungary for Switzerland.

Pic of Kőszeg, a town near the Austrian border where the author went to school, by Pan Peter12, CC BY-SA 3.0 , via Wikimedia Commons
(edited) 1d
rebcamuse I‘ve been to Kőszeg! Thank you for the review! 23h
Dilara @rebcamuse I'm envious, it looks very quaint and pretty! All I've seen of Hungary is Budapest. Fingers crossed, one day, we'll go back and venture outside of the capital 😋 23h
rebcamuse @Dilara Budapest is pretty great too! 🙂 14h
29 likes4 comments
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Dilara
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Halfway-through La petite Fadette (Fanchon the Cricket in English), a 19th-c classic about Sylvinet & Landry, twin boys from a well-off farming family, and Fanchon, nicknamed “the cricket“ because she is scrawny & ugly, and “fadette“ (little fairy in Berrichon dialect) because she comes from a line of women half thought to be witches (they know about plants and people). It's quite modern in its outlook and I am enjoying it very much.

Dilara I was inspired to read it after seeing the play advertised by the poster above. The play was also very enjoyable and moving. It contained some of the original text and also, a number of folk songs from Berry (the traditional region in central France were the novel is set). 2d
26 likes1 stack add1 comment
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Dilara
The Nine Cloud Dream | Kim Man-Jung
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I found this Korean tale set in China about a young monk who dreams that he is reincarnated into a golden boy who a) aces his exams, b) gets & beds 8 fairy wives 😱, c) wins all his battles & d) becomes the Emperor's favourite minister, all as a *punishment* for drinking wine, quite funny. It's possible that the serious Buddhist sub-text went over my head... I will say it is a surprisingly easy read for a 17th-c classic.

Dilara This picture of the Chinese garden in Chaumont taken last June felt quite apt. I loved this garden! (edited) 3d
lil1inblue @Dilara Great photo! 😍 3d
Dilara @lil1inblue Thanks! I'll tell the photographer (my other half, who likes to take arty photos) 3d
dabbe @Dilara L💚VELY. 🩶🤍🖤 3d
21 likes4 comments
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Dilara
The Casual Vacancy | J.K. Rowling
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I actually was pleasantly surprised by this novel. Its writing style grew on me & it was quite keenly observed and very relatable, if rather ungenerous to some of the adult protagonists. Shame the author turned into one of her more unpleasant characters...

Pic of Woborn's Almshouse Bond Street, Yeovil by Sarah Smith from geograph.org.uk via Wikimedia CC BY-SA 2.0

23 likes2 stack adds
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Dilara
The Nine Cloud Dream | Kim Man-Jung
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I meant to read this for #FoodandLit #SouthKorea but never did! I was slightly apprehensive about keeping people & events straight (it is a 17th-c. novel with stories inside stories). It's still early days, but it's been fine so far. Even fun! The end-notes are quite helpful...

Butterfinger It's so pretty. 3w
Dilara @Butterfinger It is! That was a good choice of cover art. Unfortunately, the name of the artist isn't given in the book. 2w
29 likes1 stack add2 comments
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Dilara
Cerco de penumbras | Oscar Cerruto
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Cerco de penumbras (circle of shadows?) by 20th-c. Bolivian author Óscar Cerruto is a collection of short stories, mainly with fantasy or ghost story flavours. They were not necessarily very memorable, but I definitely enjoyed them.

#Bolivia #FoodandLit
@Catsandbooks @Texreader

Pic of a church in Corocoro, where 1 of the stories is set, by Olga Lidia Paredes Alcoreza, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons

review
Dilara
La dfaite des mres | Adrienne Yabouza, Yves Pinguilly
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Pickpick

La défaite des mères is Yabouza's 1st book, co-written w/ Pinguilly. It tells the story of Niwalie, born in the DRC of Centrafrican parents, & living in the #CentralAfricanRepublic in the 60s/70s. The novel is as much, poss. more, about geopolitics than her life as a woman & mother in an unstable, machist & undemocratic country. Lots of allusions to songs, literature, past events. Very interesting, but the humour is laid on a bit too thick for me.

33 likes1 stack add
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Dilara
Food Culture in South America | Jos Rafael Lovera
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I discovered a Netflix documentary series called Street Food: Latin America. I started with the last episode because it is on #Bolivia. Quite interesting and enjoyable! I really want to taste cinnamon sorbet now, although I shudder to think of the amount of colouring in it, given that it is bright red! There's also a lot of deep-fried food, as in the screenshot above 😁

#FoodandLit
@Catsandbooks @Texreader

Texreader Awesome! I‘ll have to look for the documentary 3w
TheBookHippie Ooooooo. Wonderful!!! 3w
Catsandbooks Great find! 👏🏼 3w
Dilara @Texreader They're on Netflix, and about half an hour each, which is perfect! They don't give recipes, though, so it's more for drooling over than anything. Or for writing down food names for googling later... 3w
32 likes5 comments
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Dilara
Cerco de penumbras | Oscar Cerruto
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My book haul for #FoodandLit #Bolivia
-Tagged book is a short story collection by 20th-c. Bolivian author/journalist/poet Óscar Cerruto. I'll start on it as soon as I've finished my current novel.
-Affections, which I've already read & reviewed
-A South-American cookbook. Let's hope there's lots to choose from for Bolivia!

@Catsandbooks @Texreader

TheBookHippie Oh wow! 4w
Catsandbooks Yay! 👏🏼 🇧🇴 3w
38 likes2 comments
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Dilara
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Just finished this biography of Jacqueline Manicom, midwife, writer, feminist, pro-choice & anti-colonial activist (pictured here w/ Simone de Beauvoir). She was born in #Guadeloupe in a mixed Indian/Black/White family. 1st in her family who learned to read, she wanted to become a doctor but had to settle for midwifery for external reasons. She took her own life in 1976, writing in her suicide note that she was tired of being poor, Black & female.

Dilara Tagging the novel of hers I read earlier this year: Mon examen de blanc (My whiteness exam) 4w
Jari-chan Need to check if there's something by/about her in German translation 4w
Dilara @Jari-chan Let me know if you find anything: I'm curious! 4w
See All 6 Comments
Jari-chan @Dilara doesn't seem like 😕 and my French is too poor to be able to read it in original language 🙈 4w
Dilara @Jari-chan That's a shame. Let's hope a German publisher decides to remedy this! 3w
Jari-chan @Dilara I really hope they do! 3w
34 likes6 comments
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Dilara
Affections | Rodrigo Hasbn
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My 1st book for #FoodandLit #Bolivia is a novel based on the life of the Ertl family: former nazi Hans (Leni Riefenstahl's cameraman), & his 3 daughters Heidi, Trixi & Monika, revolutionary with Che Guevara. It's all told in alternate viewpoints with no clear delimitation between narrators - you just have to go with the flow & trust things will fall into place (which they do)!

@Catsandbooks @Texreader

Pic from https://mubi.com/en/cast/hans-ertl

Dilara Foods mentioned in the novel: sauerkraut and tortillas (fusion food for German Bolivians!), sopa de maní (peanut soup), majao (a rice, dried beef and vegetable dish), churrasco (grilled meat) and yucca fries. 4w
Texreader Great review and even better--a list of the food!! 4w
Catsandbooks 👍🏼🇧🇴 4w
Dilara @Texreader Thanks! 😁 4w
33 likes1 stack add4 comments
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Dilara
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Still on my #Doubs Challenge. Tagged book is a play imagining a conversation between Napoléon Bonaparte and Toussaint Louverture right before his death at the Fort de Joux where he was imprisoned following the Haiti Revolution. I wish it had been a bit better. This is the only fiction work I found about Toussaint Louverture in Joux, which is surprising but there you are. Beggars can't be choosers.

Dilara Pic composite with the Fort de Joux (Doubs, France) and a bust of Toussaint Louverture in his cell in Joux 1mo
24 likes1 comment
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Dilara
Tecserion | Marie-Madeleine de Lubert
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I came across this thanks to @swynn & remembered the author was featured in Libération & Gallica's list of female writers in history https://gallica.bnf.fr/accueil/fr/html/fieres-de-lettres-une-chronique-gallica-d... & that I meant to read them all, so I downloaded the pdf of a 1st edition, complete with long s, 17th-c spelling, etc. Very much of its time: the Enlightenment. Delightful, eye-roll-worthy & slow-going all at the same time.

Dilara Pic of the park in Richelieu, created by Cardinal Richelieu a century before the publication of Tecserion, but I thought it illustrated the text rather well. (Taken in July when I spent the afternoon there.) 1mo
swynn Delightful and eye-roll-worthy for sure. And I swear the pic looks just like Venus. 😄(Well, Mme. de Lubert's version of it anyways.) 1mo
Dilara @swynn That planet Venus with its well-tended gardens and pretty shepherds and shepherdesses wearing gauzy outfits was something! 😂 1mo
18 likes3 comments
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Dilara
Race et Révolution française | Jennifer L. Palmer, Karine Rance, Éric Saunier, Ian Coller, Guillaume Aubert, Cécile Vidal, Manuel Covo
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I learned in the tagged book that First Nations people were enslaved before & alongside African & Malagasy people in Canada in the 17th & 18th centuries. I shouldn't have been surprised - after all, I already knew colons had done it in Central & South America - but because my mental picture of Canada re slavery is the 19th c. Underground Railroad, it passed me by. Another rabbit hole to explore...

#readingispolitical

24 likes1 comment
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Dilara
Race et Révolution française | Jennifer L. Palmer, Karine Rance, Éric Saunier, Ian Coller, Guillaume Aubert, Cécile Vidal, Manuel Covo
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I thought I'd finished my deep dive into the French Revolution for the foreseeable 😔future, but then my library got Race et Révolution française (Race and the French Revolution) which ticks so many boxes for me I had to borrow it 😍
Incidentally, I am pretty sure I saw those Equality between the races playing cards at an exhibition and took photos, but I absolutely cannot find them again

#readingispolitical

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Dilara
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Not from the tagged cookbook but from a local Peruvian Nikkei (somewhat) upmarket fast food place: Donburi Crispy Chicken Nikkei with rice, chicken karaage, about 10 ( 🙄) individual choclo kernels (white corn), deep-fried Padrón peppers, fried eggplant & 3 sauces (ají mayo, ají panca, ají miso). Japanese cheesecake for dessert. Very nice. Could have been cheaper!

#Peru #FoodandLit
@Catsandbooks @Texreader

Dilara Other half had the salmon deluxe plate (various salmon-based sushis/makis, some with maracuja sauce), which he found too busy and disappointing compared to normal, plainer sushi. His lemon and yuzu meringue pie was delicious, though. 1mo
Texreader This is wonderful!! 1mo
Catsandbooks Looks great! 🇵🇪 1mo
27 likes3 comments
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Dilara
Ceviche: Peruvian Kitchen | Martin Morales
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European cooks (outside of Spain) will probably find this cookbook more useful because it is less likely to call for ingredients that are difficult to get here than The Fire of Peru, but it is less informative and probably - inevitably - less authentic. I read it in the French translation (from the original English) which adds a layer of obfuscation.
#Peru #FoodandLit
@Catsandbooks @Texreader

Dilara Picture of grandkid holding the book and wearing a lovely llama top found by her other grandma. 1mo
Catsandbooks Lovely! ❤️ 1mo
33 likes2 comments
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Dilara
Bahadir et Sona | Nariman Narimanov
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I discovered this 1896 novella thanks to academic Matthieu Renault who mentioned it in an interview. This love story between an #Azeri Muslim student and an #Armenian Christian young woman who meet in Mengilis, #Georgia (Russian Empire) is a vehicle for discussing progressive ideas about religion, education, etc. Interesting but under-developped. Written in Azerbaijani by a famous Azeri author who - briefly - was a gvt official in the USSR. ⬇

Dilara ⬇ I bought it b/c with the recent events in Nagorno-Karabakh between Armenia and Azerbaijan, a love story across these religions and ethnicities seemed timely.

Pic of the K. Filippov painting Religious festival in Manglisi, 1871 (Pushkin State Museum, Moscow)
Konstantin Filippov, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons
(edited) 1mo
ManyWordsLater I love these kind of books! 1mo
Dilara @ManyWordsLater Thanks! Looking forward to your review 😁 1mo
28 likes4 comments
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Dilara
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September 1944 in a village in Eastern France: nazis are retreating & neverending columns of soldiers pass through Ferdinand's village. One soldier commands him to give him his bicycle. Only he needs it, worked hard for it. In the heat of the moment, he injures & ties up this almost child. The book describes the quandary & subsequent actions. An easy read (linguistically, not psychologically) that makes you think.
1 for the 2025 #Doubs challenge

Dilara Pic of lock, Doubs river and bridge, Roset-Fluans (JGS25, CC BY 4.0 , via Wikimedia Commons) that to my mind, looks very much like what is described in the book 1mo
35 likes1 comment
review
Dilara
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Pickpick

I did it! I finished it! Granted, it's short (33 typewritten A4 pages) but it still took me 6 days. The language (syntax & vocab) was relatively simple, give or take a Quechua word or a peruanism. It's a tale of resistance to invasion, greed, love & deception set in the Cuzco area at the time of conquistadores - the villains of this 19th-c play by a trailblazing woman writer famous in #Peru but not elsewhere.
#FoodandLit
@Catsandbooks @Texreader

Dilara Pic of the Inca city of Ollantaytambo by FLASHPACKER TRAVELGUIDE, CC BY-SA 2.0, via Wikimedia Commons 2mo
Texreader That‘s awesome!! Way to go! 2mo
Suet624 👏🏼👏🏼👏🏼👏🏼 2mo
Catsandbooks Yay! 👏🏼🇵🇪 2mo
Cortg Congrats! That‘s fantastic! 2mo
43 likes1 stack add5 comments
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Dilara
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A vegetarian version of ceviche with charred eggplant instead of fish? I'm definitely trying it as soon as I have access to a barbecue...
#Peru #FoodandLit
@Catsandbooks @Texreader

Catsandbooks Interesting! 2mo
Bookwormjillk That sounds good! 2mo
25 likes2 comments
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Dilara
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In 2 minds about this cookbook: it's interesting, but I find the narrative voice irritating - waffling & feels phoney. And too many ingredients are unavailable where I live: I'd have to buy them online or travel to Paris or Barcelona to find them. Anyway, I'll plough on, even though I am not the book's ideal reader - it's clearly aimed at Californians...

#Peru #FoodandLit
@Catsandbooks @Texreader

Catsandbooks Disappointing 2mo
29 likes1 comment
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Dilara
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Halfway through a 19th-c. play by Peruvian author Clorinda Matto de Turner about Inca Princess Hima-Sumac's love triangle with Tupac-Amaru (pictured) and Gonzalo, a Spanish youth. As I am interested in female writers from the past & this work is not available in translation, I bit the bullet & am reading it in Spanish. It's difficult but doable.
It probably can count for #classicschallenge2025 @Lunakay
#Peru #FoodandLit
@Catsandbooks @Texreader

Texreader Impressive!! A goal of mine is to read a whole book in español (edited) 2mo
Catsandbooks 👏🏼🇵🇪 good job to you! 🎉 2mo
Lunakay Amazing, so many challenges in one!🤩 2mo
38 likes3 comments
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Dilara
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Today is the 233rd anniversary of the Baiser Lamourette (Lamourette Kissing), where priest and representative Lamourette enjoined his colleagues to make peace with each other after some stormy debates in Parliament. Hence the hugs and kisses portrayed in this ink drawing kept in the Louvre museum. I cannot picture the same thing happening today 😁
#readingispolitical

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Dilara
Peruvian coffee | Peru. Ministerio de Relaciones Exteriores
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We had Peruvian-style coffee after lunch today.
You start by making a strong cold-brew coffee extract. It needs to steep for 24 hours. You can then strain it & keep it in the fridge. When you want coffee, you pour some of the extract in a cup, dilute it to taste with hot (or cold) water. It is typically served with condensed milk. Very nice, very smooth. Will make again.

#Peru #FoodandLit
@Catsandbooks @Texreader

kspenmoll Sounds like great coffee! 2mo
TheBookHippie I‘m planning to do this too!! 2mo
Dilara @kspenmoll It is! 😁 2mo
See All 6 Comments
Dilara @TheBookHippie That's great! I look forward to your post. Making the extract was a bit of a faff, but I really liked the finished product. I hope you do too. 2mo
Texreader Nice!! 2mo
Catsandbooks Yum! 🇵🇪 2mo
33 likes6 comments
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Dilara
Deep Rivers | Jose Maria Arguedas
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José María Arguedas was a Peruvian teacher, writer, musicologist and ethnologist. He wrote in Quechua and in Spanish. Deep Rivers is a semi-autobiographical novel mostly set in & around Abancay, & told through the eyes of Ernesto, a young boarder whose dad is an itinerant lawyer (didn't know that was a thing!) It shows how violently hierarchical #Peru was at the start of the 20th c. A classic for good reason.
#FoodandLit
@Catsandbooks @Texreader

Dilara Pic of Central plaza in Abancay, Apurímac, Peru by AgainErick, CC BY-SA 3.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=2397373 2mo
Catsandbooks 👏🏼🇵🇪 2mo
33 likes2 comments
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Dilara
The Neighborhood: A Novel | Mario Vargas Llosa
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I finished the book, but I didn't like it much. I think I see what the author tried to do: denounce corruption, esp. the collusion between rich/business people, politicians, police & gutter press by writing a novel that uses some of the same tricks that the gutter press uses, but it was very “blokey“ IYYWIM & I didn't enjoy the dated, male-gazey aspect of it, nor the undeveloped characters.
#Peru #NobelPrize #FoodandLit
@Catsandbooks @Texreader

Dilara pic of the Palacio ejecutivo del Peru by fortes, CC BY-SA 2.0, via Wikimedia Commons (edited) 2mo
Catsandbooks 👍🏼🇵🇪 2mo
29 likes1 stack add2 comments
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Dilara
The Neighborhood: A Novel | Mario Vargas Llosa
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Tagged book mentions Peruvian singer-songwriter Felipe Pinglo Alva so I had to look him up and now I'm on Deezer, listening to a scratchy 78 rpm disc recording 😂 instead of reading the book (probably because I am finding it underwhelming so far).
ETA: the translators translated real song titles! Who does that? It takes some retroengineering and knowledge of Spanish to find them online.

#Peru #FoodandLit
@Catsandbooks @Texreader

Catsandbooks So cool! 🇵🇪 2mo
23 likes1 comment
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Dilara
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Veeeery late, here is a version of faluda, a Bangladeshi / South-Asian dessert, perfect in hot weather. I used mango, pistachios, homemade pistachio-flavoured agar jelly, tapioca pearls, chia seeds (I was out of tukmaria), kewra water, condensed milk, and milk. Delicious!

Thermometer shows 27.7°C (81°F) inside and 37°C (98.6°F) outside. It's going to go up in the next days too. 😲 🔥 😎
#Bangladesh #FoodandLit
@Catsandbooks @Texreader

Eggs Looks yummy! 2mo
Texreader That‘s hotter than Texas right now!! 2mo
Catsandbooks Yum! 2mo
Dilara @Texreader Oh wow! I looked up the climate in Texas, and there's not one place that's not desert, semi-arid, subtropical or mediterranean🌞. The climate is supposed to be oceanic (so, mild all year-round) where I live, but you couldn't tell right now... 2mo
Dilara @Catsandbooks @Eggs Thanks! It definitely was yum! 2mo
39 likes5 comments
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Dilara
The Cloud Messenger | Kālidāsa Kālidāsa
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Sounds painful! 😖

IriDas Wait. So a skinny woman with what?!?!?! 2mo
Dilara @IriDas I know! In the poet's defense, it was the 4th/5th century, but still... 2mo
24 likes2 comments
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Dilara
The Cloud Messenger | Kālidāsa Kālidāsa
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In preparation for reading The Cloud Messenger by Aamer Hussein, I am reading the lyrical poem of the same name by 5th-century author Kalidasa in which a yaksha (nature spirit) asks a cloud to travel to his beloved. It's been a surprisingly fluid & delightful read so far, with so many mentions of flora & fauna I have to look up.
https://www.flowersofindia.net/mythology.html https://www.wisdomlib.org & wikipedia are all helpful.
#poetry

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Dilara
Another Gulmohar Tree | Aamer Hussein
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This novella was recommended by Everand because I'd read Next World Novella. It describes the life and relationship of a mixed couple (British wife, Pakistani husband) who meet in London & make a life together in 1950s/60s Karachi. It starts with a folk tale that made me wonder whether there was a pb with the book's description, but it all made sense later on! I wish it had been a tad longer.
pic by Salil Kumar Mukherjee, CC BY-SA 4.0, wikimedia

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Dilara
Le vote des femmes | Hubertine Auclert
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This is our last day of (relative) cool weather before another heatwave. I am having breakfast before 7 AM with all the windows open to let the cool air in before temps creep up. I want to finish Le vote des femmes, published in 1908 to advocate for women's vote, then make inroads into Producteurs et parasites (non-fic ab. the far right) which I started months ago then put aside b/c of its tortuous prose.

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Dilara
Next World Novella | Matthias Politycki
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Hinrich finds his wife Doro dead at her desk, with an annotated manuscript of his in front of her. She had things to say about his embryonic novel, about him and about their life together, and it's not pleasant. It's also at odds with his view of himself and his own memories (although those are unreliable too). This definitely wasn't a feel-good novella, but it made me think.
#Germany

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Dilara
The Princess and the Pea | Hans Christian Andersen, Kari James
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The Princess and the Pea, featuring a fantastic glasshouse bed, but no pea plants as far as I can tell 😁

TheBookHippie 🤣💚 2mo
31 likes1 comment
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Dilara
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And not directly literary, but as I accidentally stuck my hand in poo when taking this photo of a frog in one of the gardens, I feel I paid too high a price not to share it with as many people as possible...

Jess861 Oh my - well it is a good photo of the frog!! 2mo
Texreader 😝🤣 2mo
Dilara @Jess861 Thanks 😁 2mo
dabbe 😳🤣🐸 2mo
29 likes4 comments
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Dilara
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The Lady of the Lake in the Jardin Korriganezed (korrigans are Breton leprechauns)
https://domaine-chaumont.fr/en/internationalgarden-festival/2025-edition-once-up...

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Dilara
Pinocchio | Carlo Collodi
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Dilara
Baron in the Trees | Italo Calvino
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Contemporary art in the Chaumont park. This one is inspired by Calvino's Baron in the Trees.

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Dilara
Alice in Wonderland | Lewis Carroll
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I went to The Chaumont Garden Festival on Sunday & had a fantastic time walking through all the gardens inspired by works of fiction (and all the others too!) This is the Alice in Wonderland one: not the greatest photo, unfortunately...
https://domaine-chaumont.fr/en/international-garden-festival

Texreader Great photos!! 2mo
IriDas Looks like a neat place to visit. 2mo
Dilara @Texreader Thanks! 😁 2mo
Dilara @IriDas It is! It was my first time there, but definitely not my last 😁 2mo
26 likes4 comments
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Dilara
Lajja | Taslima Nasrin
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Catching up on #Bangladesh reading for #FoodandLit which I almost completely missed. Lajja (also titled Shame) is a recount of the 1992 anti-Hindu riots that took place in Bangladesh after the destruction of Babri Masjid & anti-Muslim riots in India, through the eyes of a culturally-Hindu atheist family. I am on page 112 & it is relentless.
@Catsandbooks @Texreader

Pic of Burigonda River by Jubair Bin Iqbal, via wikimedia ⬇

Dilara ⬇ not directly relevant to the story and therefore a lot less depressing 😊 2mo
Texreader Oh dear. That sounds pretty rough to read. 2mo
Dilara @Texreader It is! I am reading it in small chunks - I need regular breathers - and also, I try not to look at the cover, which for my edition, is a young man clearly upset and crying. 2mo
23 likes3 comments
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Dilara
The American Quarter | Jabbour Douaihy
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I'll be honest, I took this book out of the little free library because I thought it was set in Tripoli, Libya, and I could do with a couple more books from this country. Turns out there is another Tripoli in #Lebanon and this is where this novel is set (and also in Paris & Iraq). The story is heartbreaking.

32 likes1 stack add
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Dilara
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I made a version of suaasat - originally a seal meat stew/soup - using beef, onion, carrots, potatoes and a handful of pearl barley (also a bay leaf, some thyme & stock cubes). It feels odd having a winter stew in the middle of a heatwave, but it was nice, although prob. quite different from the authentic dish 😊 I guess I'll just have to visit #Greenland for that!

#FoodandLit
@Catsandbooks @Texreader

Texreader Now I‘d definitely eat that!! 3mo
Dilara @Texreader Yes, that's pretty safe! 3mo
32 likes2 comments
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Dilara
Climate Change: The IPCC Response Strategies | Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change
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In may, #Greenland's ice melted 17 (17!) times faster than average, with temperatures up to 13°C higher than usual, which poses all sorts of challenges for the environment, sanitation, health, people's livelihoods, etc.
https://www.worldweatherattribution.org/climate-change-drives-record-breaking-he...
#FoodandLit
@Catsandbooks @Texreader

Butterfinger Heartbreaking 3mo
Texreader 😭 3mo
TheBookHippie 😭😭😭😭 3mo
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Dilara
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I made Kalaallit Kaagiat, a raisin and cardamom bread, using the automatic translation of this page: https://mamarisavut.gl/da/opskrifter/groenlandsk-kage-med-aeggepulver/ The English recipes I found online were a lot sweeter, which didn't appeal as much. It was like a slightly cardamom-scented pannetone & perfect with coffee.
#Greenland
#FoodandLit
@Catsandbooks @Texreader

Dilara I had iced coffee because we're in a heatwave right now & Greenlandic coffee (whiskey, kalhua, grand marnier and coffee) looks like overkill to me 😂 3mo
Bookwormjillk That looks great! 3mo
Texreader Fantastic!! 3mo
TheBookHippie Oh must make! 3mo
29 likes4 comments
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Dilara
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Literary memoirs are my favourite: I am halfway through Laure Murat's essay on Proust's In Search of Lost Time, which she realised when she read it aged 20, described her milieu (the French aristocracy), was partly based on members of her family, & is as relevant now as it was then. She walks us through the parallels & is pitiless about their flaws. She was rejected when she came out as lesbian & feels a kinship with Proust, who was gay.
#LGBTQ

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Dilara
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This is a huge coffee-table book about Malaurie's stays in various places in the Arctic, from #Greenland to Canada to Alaska and finally, to Chukotka, from the late 40s to the 90s. His outlook can be a bit dated sometimes, but his love for the people and the friends he made there over the years is obvious.
#FoodandLit
@Catsandbooks @Texreader

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Dilara
Mon passé eskimo | Georg Quppersimaan, Otto Sandgreen, Catherine Enel
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Researching food has been rather frustrating so far: I found info about ingredients, cheffy Greenland-inspired recipes, and world food bloggers' identikit recipes for suaasat, a traditional soup originally made with seal meat, which they typically sub with another read meat. In the meantime, I made myself some tea with juniper berries, which I know are used in #Greenland, but no info on how they are used there.
#FoodandLit
@Catsandbooks @Texreader

Dilara I'll probably go with suaasat made with beef or lamb, just like all those non-Greenlandic food writers, unless something else - with actionable information and available ingredients - crops up. 😔 3mo
Texreader Yes. This country is going to be difficult for food options!! 3mo
Cortg I‘m thinking boiled cod with a mustard sauce I saw online and a Greenlandic bread. Definitely a tough one. 3mo
Dilara @Cortg
I saw a “recipe“ for “fish on a stone“: freshly-caught fish boiled in seawater then slapped on a stone to be sliced and shared. I'd definitely do that if I lived close to a (clean) sea, which I don't...
Is that Greenlandic bread Kalaallit Kaagiat? Sweet raisin and cardamom bread? I am actually looking forward to trying my hand at it 😃
(edited) 3mo
Cortg @Dilara Yep, that‘s the bread I‘m looking at. This is the cod recipe I‘m thinking about with warm potato salad https://travelbystove.blogspot.com/2013/10/recipes-from-greenland.html?m=1 Looks interesting and fortunately my peeps are pretty adventurous with food 😆 3mo
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Dilara
Mon passé eskimo | Georg Quppersimaan, Otto Sandgreen, Catherine Enel
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Found at the library: the life story of an East Greenlander shaman at the end of the 19th century & 1st half of the 20th - hence the use of a now-deprecated word - as told to a local Danish cleric in the 60s.
It starts with violence & descriptions of v. harsh conditions, but things get better for Georg later in life, thankfully.
#Greenland #FoodandLit
@Catsandbooks @Texreader

Pic Helheim Fjord eastern Greenland by NASA/Jim Yungel, PD, Wikimedia C

Catsandbooks 👏🏼🇬🇱 3mo
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