Bloggery

Friday 3rd Feb 2012

Becky Milford

Resolutions – can they survive their second month?

Well, the warming, cinnamon scent of mince pies have well and truly been blown from the shop by cruel winter winds, the comedy Christmas jumpers are languishing at the back of the wardrobe for another year, and we’re all bringing limp lettuce rolls for our lunches in an attempt to curb spending. January didn’t have the highest rate of things to be excited about – even going bargain shopping results in huffing, red-faced discomfort akin to rifling through a jumble sale.

But enough negativity! It’s still a new year – and many of you will have decided it was time to blow off the 2011 cobwebs and emerge, phoenix like, from 2012 flames. So, after a month of good intentions, how are you doing? I thought it time to appraise the most common New Year Resolutions, offering books to keep you on the straight and narrow (and also a little book-monkey devil on our shoulders to try and tempt you into breaking them!)

Resolution Number One: Eat Healthier

It’s very rare to find anyone who doesn’t suffer from a bit (make that ‘massive and bloated’) post-Christmas gastro-guilt. It’s not only the turkey that got thoroughly stuffed – if only it wasn’t for pigs-in-blankets, or the fact that suddenly polishing off the box of Ferrero Rocher before the seasonal episode of Dr Who finishes becomes imperative. So why not cleanse your body and loose a few inches from your waistline with a thorough detox? In this chilly weather it’s all about the healthy soups, and who better than the Covent Garden Cookbook to help you blend some delicious and nutritious recipes that can be easily taken into work so as to avoid the temptation of the stodgy canteen. Try the delectable pea, mint and leek super-soup to feel healthy again. And if you want something that may in fact put you off reaching for the MacDonalds, then try Eating Animals, an eye-opening investigation that explores where our meat really comes from. As for fiction, why not try What’s Eating Gilbert Grape by Peter Hedges? A huge fan of the film recently said the book was even better – an absolute triumph of human emotion, and the obese mother may have you reaching for the celery sticks rather than the jaffa-cakes.

But then again… it’s only the beginning of February! There still may be the odd Christmas treat to get through, and eating snowman-shaped chocolate will just be wrong in a couple of weeks. What with all the freezing weather then who wants cucumber batons when all you’re really craving is a Pie-minster beef and ale pie with rich gravy and cheesy mash? And another way to beat the February blues is surely to hole up in a warm, steaming kitchen with friends and bake some sweet-treats. The Art of French Baking has some ludicrously tasty recipes to make the perfect cream-filled croquantes, and comes complete with adorable hand-drawn illustrations. Or indulge in some mouth-watering and stupidly chocolaty Brooklyn Blackout Cake courtesy of the Hummingbird Bakery. And if you’d rather laze around in an armchair with a cheese-board of walnut-studded brie and read about other gastronomic adventures then it’s all included in Jeffrey Steingarten’s It Must Have Been Something I Ate - his search for the perfect meal that is essentially a collection of essays that have him hunting down the ideal braised ribs and elusive blue-fin tuna. Also, why not check out one of the amazing new literary journals we’ve just acquired at the shop – Fire and Knives. An adorable little collection of food writing and articles, the latest bright edition has a marvellous article about nostalgia for beefburgers, and another about the effect of fruit in fashion. The book equivalent of a bowl of luxury mixed nuts – something you want to dip into again and again with a glass of wine. And for a bite of fictional food-fantasy then why not try The Gourmet, where a dying food-critic reflects on all the amazing meals he’s partaken of over the course of his career. So go on, ditch the Special-K for one more month and treat yourself to that yummy belly of pork.

Resolution Number Two: Drink Less Alcohol

There’s something about December that makes it seem perfectly acceptable to indulge in a snifter of  Hazelnut Baileys at 3pm, or to share three bottles of wine over dinner with a friend (when there’s only two of you). Several of you will have woken up with pounding, cotton-wool heads over the festive season and then sworn off the demon-drink throughout Jan, purifying yourselves by drinking a bath-tubs worth of green-tea. But can you sustain this effort throughout Feb? In an effort to help then may we suggest the Juice Master Juice Yourself Slim book, which has fabulous recipes to detox and cleanse the system. Try the Cucumber, Apple and Kiwi cooler instead of reaching for a gin and tonic, and feel the benefits. Or, if you’re feeling really hard-core, there’s always the 7lbs in 7 days Juice Diet, which will have you fitting into those snug trousers before you can say ‘blenders on sale!’ And for a bit of fiction that will encourage the abstemious life, try our new book The Misfortunates by Dimitri Verhulst – a hilarious and touching novel about a boy growing up with his pub-worshipping, alcoholic relatives.

Alternatively… didn’t someone once say that a glass of wine a day is good for you? And if we’re trying to have 5 fruit and veg  then surely the tomato juice in a Bloody Mary counts. Once you’ve managed to justify this to yourself then it’s only a short leap across to assurances that cider is made from apples and therefore the pint is strictly for keeping the doctor away. There are several gorgeous cocktail books on the shelves, including The Cocktail: 200 Fabulous Drinks, from which you can be the host(ess) with the mostess by shaking up exotic treats with the names of the ‘Sit Back and Relax’ (a head-spinning concoction of whisky, Grand Marnier, mint and lime). Or if it’s vino you’re craving then read Natalie MacLean’s Red, White and Drunk All Over, a mixture of travel blog, history, and interviews, all centred around the revered grape. For those with a propensity towards the keg then how about Pete Brown’s Hops and Glory, a rollicking piece of travel writing about recreating the finest beer that ever existed. And if, when you’ve poured yourself a martini, you fancy a bit of liquor-loving literature, how about plunging into The Paris Wife – a fictional biography of Hemingway’s first wife Hadley. A beautifully evocative tale of life among the literati in smoky, jazz era France, it’s easy to see why her husband eventually had the rum-heavy Hemmingway Daiquiri named after him. Or if you fancy something a bit more on the ‘neat’ side, then another recent publication, Ed’s current fave of the hardboiled crime genre – Quarry’s Ex. Not only does it have a fab pulpy cover, but goes down as smoothly as a short bourbon on a cold day.

Resolution Number Three: Exercise More

If we’re making plans to turn our bodies into temples, then it makes sense that we should additionally tone them to reflect the Adonis-like figures that’ll soon be racing up and down the tracks in our very own East End. But running doesn’t have to be a dull chore designed only to banish the bulge – in his highly acclaimed What I Talk About When I Talk About Running, the Japanese master of mind-bending fiction, Haruki Murakami, discusses what this hobby means to him – not only the fitness aspect, but a chance to clear his mind and centre himself. Not just for those with a penchant for jogging, this little piece of non-fic is a hugely enjoyable and interesting read. And if you want a piece of fiction that may inspire you to get up off the couch and take up an active hobby, may I suggest reading the book that is the talk of the moment – The Art of Fielding. Mr B was raving about this baseball inspired book, set in an American college, just before it truly erupted onto the literary scene (Mrs B craftily spotted it as a Christmas present, actually), and he is touting it to be one of his highlights for 2012. But don’t be put off if baseball isn’t your thing – Kate has also read it and, despite a mini amount of confusion as to why there would be a telephone on a baseball sideline, she thoroughly enjoyed it, saying the well-constructed characters and marvellous plot made for fantastic reading. And who knows, it may inspire you to grab a bat, or some other form of sports paraphernalia, and get yourself to the local leisure centre. Speaking of which, one of our hugely popular Christmas books which is still selling fantastically is the Story of Swimming – a glossy and glorious look at this aquatic sport which works every muscle in your body – great incentive for a dip.

Still, it’s all very well to be a keen sportsman when the sun is shining – who doesn’t quite fancy themselves as a bronzed beach-volleyball player, even though the reality would probably have them lounged on a towel munching Cornetto? Winter is a time to stay INSIDE, and perhaps a bit of armchair sportsmanship is the way to go, particularly if it demonstrates that too much adventure can be bad for your health. In the extraordinary new book Unbroken, Laura Hillenbrand tells the true story of Louis Zamperini, the athlete who competed in the Berlin Olympics and went on to become an Army Air Force Bomber. But in 1943 his plane crashed into the Pacific, leaving him and two other men clinging to a raft to survive… this amazing story or struggle and survival will surely raise your heart rate as much as ten minutes on the cross-trainer would.  And let’s not forget that it isn’t just the calf muscles that need exercising –the old brain needs to be strained too, and for this why not dip into one of the newest translations of a wintery scandi-crime, Between Summer’s Longing and Winter’s End. Promising to be as taunt and well-written as the offerings from Larsson, this is sure to test your mental prowess to the max, with no need to brave the icy park in order to feel tested.

So there you have it. February is stretching ahead, and it’s up to you to decide which path to head down – all the while assisted by a host of books to support your decision! Soon spring will be in the air and we can all start planning holidays away and what books to cram into suitcases… but I’m getting ahead of myself. There’s still heaps of fun to be had in between, not least the Lit Fest, which kicks off at the beginning of March and promises to be two weeks of interesting debate, talks, and question-answer sessions. If you haven’t got your timetable yet then come grab one from us and flick through some of the cool stuff on offer. And for those of you that received a Reading Year for Christmas and have opened your gorgeous brown paper parcel then Feb has hopefully already got off to an exciting start. We had so much fun choosing them, let us know how they go down so we can begin preparing for next month!

So until next time, I wish you a happy February – be it sober, slimming and sporty, or just full of delightful, deserved decadence.