Listen up, Bushwick, because Tuesday is a big day. A BIG day, as in the Seattle Foundation’s Give BIG 2014, a one-day online giving frenzy where donations received by participating organizations qualify towards a pro-rated matching fund. If you’ve been looking for ways to help out your favorite nonprofit, now is the time.
https://thebushwickbookclubseattle.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/05/give-big-post.jpg6271200Cassie Crosshttp://thebushwickbookclubseattle.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/08/2018_BBCS_Logo_900x360_v2-300x120.pngCassie Cross2014-05-04 18:31:412014-05-05 22:32:325 Reasons to Give BIG to Bushwick Seattle
Tonight is the night! The Bushwick Book Club Seattle Presents:A Homemade Life is only moments away, but before the show begins we thought we would check in with the author, Molly Wizenberg. (We’re so excited to have her at the show tonight!) She shared with us the books and music she currently has on her list.
“I am the world’s slowest reader, and I only make it through a handful of full-length books a year. But a few months ago, some of us ladies at Delancey started a book club, and it’s been a great way to force myself to speed up a bit. (I can get really bogged down in details, analyzing a writer’s language and style. No fun for anybody.) A couple of months ago, we decided to tackle Madame Bovary. I was glad to finally check it off my list, though it made me feel like throwing myself out of a window. But this past month, man oh man, we read a great one: The Fault in Our Stars, by YA author John Green. It was so good that I haven’t been able to start another book since I finished it. I’m not ready to move on. I had read Green’s earlier novel Looking for Alaska a number of years ago, and I liked it, but TFIOS really knocked me out. The characters felt so true, so fully realized, so clever and smart and lovable. They felt like characters in one of those ’80s high school movies starring Molly Ringwald. I had been warned that TFIOS would make me cry, but I doubted that it really would (up until this point, only one book had ever made me cry: Plays Well With Others, by Allan Gurganus), but I wound up crying semi-hysterically for a good half hour or so at the end. My daughter’s babysitter arrived while I was still mopping up my face, and I scared the crap out of her as I clutched the book and weepily tried to explain myself. Anyway, all of this to say that I am now a giant John Green fan. Me, and about a million teenage girls.
I should add that I also read the New Yorker. In general, I tend to gravitate more toward nonfiction than fiction, and The New Yorker is my favorite place to read nonfiction.
And as for listening, well, to be perfectly honest, lately I’ve been revisiting stuff from the early- to mid-90s, like Hole’s Live Through Thisand all the Fugazi albums I used to listen to in high school. I remember being at a Fugazi show when I was 21 and thinking, I hope I’m never too old to like this, and it makes me very happy to see that I still do, 14 years later. I also dug out Sleater-Kinney’s One Beat the other day – I can’t believe it’s already 12 years old – and Ted Leo’s Shake The Sheets. Ted Leo’s songs are so catchy, and he seems to just keep churning them out. Very inspiring.”
So you devoured A Homemade Life and loved the prose-filled stylings of Molly Wizenberg’s cookbook/memoir. Here are five other text-heavy cookbooks that you might enjoy.
This text-heavy giant is a workhorse in the kitchen. If it was a player on your favorite NFL team, it would be the veteran center. A quiet and stable leader on the field, it knows its job and works hard to protect you, the kitchen quarterback. This book doesn’t include stories for each recipe and is instead laden with the steps the masters in the Cooks Illustrated test kitchen took to insure that these recipes really are the best. I’ve had people tell me that my chocolate chip cookies are “effing delicious.” Here is my secret: follow the recipe in this book exactly as printed.
https://thebushwickbookclubseattle.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/04/cookbooks_bushwick.jpg6271200Kerry Garvinhttp://thebushwickbookclubseattle.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/08/2018_BBCS_Logo_900x360_v2-300x120.pngKerry Garvin2014-04-18 14:54:162014-04-18 17:36:305 Fantastic Cookbooks You Should Know About
Are you in need of an easy homemade dish to bring to a party or potluck? Do you want to try a uniquely delicious take on a classic quick bread? If so, then Molly Wizenberg has a perfect recipe for you. Her take on banana bread in A Homemade Life is well-written and easy to follow and, as I found as I tested it, very delicious.
A Homemade Life is not your typical cookbook. You won’t find recipes with numbered steps or tons of full color photographs. Instead you’ll find short stories from Wizenberg’s life followed by a recipe relating to that story. These recipes are the heart of the book and are used to connect the readers to the stories. Prose-filled cookbooks are my jam so I’ve been enjoying it immensely. To get the full book experience, I felt I had to try out at least one recipe for myself.
I asked my awesome Mom, Sue Garvin, to write a little update on how things are going with her Little Free Library since she last wrote. You can read the initial post about it here.
During the crisp fall weather, the park was busy with kids. For Halloween this year, I made 80 tootsie roll pop ghosts with a little free library ad attached. It was a good way to get the word around in the neighborhood. Then, I loaded the library with lots of kids books. One day, after the Girl Scouts delivered their fundraiser candy, they stopped at the library and picked out some selections.
Whenever I’m asked to join a book club, I can’t say no. It’s not a politeness handicap, it’s a preference. I love book clubs. Want to come and talk about books? Yes, please! I’ve always identified as a reader, ever since my tiny clumsy fingers opened The Berenstain Bears. And now I’m a member of six different book clubs.
To be fair, two of those book clubs are not currently meeting. One is just a downloadable Word file of all the books Rory Gilmore mentioned reading in seven seasons of Gilmore Girls, and yet another is just me finding out what my 12 year-old niece is reading so I can read it too (I call it the secret bonding book club.) Read more
https://thebushwickbookclubseattle.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/12/bookClubGuilt_v01.jpg200630Cassie Crosshttp://thebushwickbookclubseattle.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/08/2018_BBCS_Logo_900x360_v2-300x120.pngCassie Cross2013-12-12 13:38:262014-01-28 14:10:55How to Beat the Guilt of Book Club? Surrender!
Last April at Town Hall Seattle, Bushwick undertook our most ambitious show to date when we presented original music inspired by the most popular book of all time… The Bible. This show had everything… a full gospel choir, a live jazz band, amazing music inspired by the Old Testament, prayers, sing alongs, blasphemy, the ten commandments polka… and also special appearances by Jesus, God, and the Devil himself (Gasp!). Read more
https://thebushwickbookclubseattle.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/10/bibleBushwick.jpg200630Mike Votavahttp://thebushwickbookclubseattle.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/08/2018_BBCS_Logo_900x360_v2-300x120.pngMike Votava2013-10-31 12:55:402014-01-28 14:21:05Bushwick is on the TV: original music inspired by the Bible
Most people remember at least a few stories from those early years of reading that stick out as something special. The pool of childhood storytellers is wide and deep, from Maurice Sendak to Dr. Seuss, Roald Dahl to Madeleine L’Engle, J.K. Rowling to Mark Twain, and more and more and more. What are the first three books that influenced your distinct perspective?
Today, Bushwick reader and performer, Debbie Miller, shares her memories of the first books on her shelf. Debbie is a clever singer-songwriter originally from Long Island, and has written and performed 5-star hits at Bushwick Book Club shows inspired by books such as Alice in Wonderland, 1984, A People’s History of the United States, and The Wonderful Wizard of Oz. Read more
https://thebushwickbookclubseattle.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/10/firstBooks_v02.jpg200630Amanda Sue Winterhalterhttp://thebushwickbookclubseattle.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/08/2018_BBCS_Logo_900x360_v2-300x120.pngAmanda Sue Winterhalter2013-10-09 17:56:222014-01-28 14:30:19My First Books: Reminiscing with Debbie Miller
In honor of our upcoming partnership event this Thursday with Book-It Repertory Theatre where we will be presentingoriginal music inspired by Wally Lamb’s She’s Come Undone, here are ten of our favorite inspirational quotes from the book.
