Morning Coffee & Afternoon Tea

Jane Austen -- Out Loud

I think I've mentioned here that I love Jane Austen.  Have I mentioned that I also love audio books?  Well combine the two and I'm in a little corner of heaven. 

Over the past few years I've collected most of the Jane Austen books on audio tape or CD, but there has been one version that I was never happy with.  I had a version of Pride and Prejudice that was read by a woman with a deep and gravely voice.  At first listen I thought, oh this will be fun, she can do all the men's voices as well as the women's, but the overall effect was ... well, in a word, awful.  Horrible.  Icky, even. 

The voice and the dramatic ability of the reader is SO important with audio books.  Especially with something in a period piece like the Jane Austen works.  Now, maybe I'm a bit spoiled having listened to Jim Dale do all the Harry Potter books, but honestly, if you're going to have somebody read through a whole book, unabridged, it ought to be somebody who is pleasant to listen to.  It doesn't even have to be Jim Dale quality for me, but it does need to be pleasant, and not overly singsong (don't get me started on having Michael York reading ruining The Lion, The Witch and The Wardrobe from the Chronicles of Narnia boxed set I got -- although I have to say the bad experience was nicely balanced by the heaven of listening to Jeremy Northam reading The Silver Chair - oh yummy yummy, I could just eat him up!)

ANYway, despite the gruff voice that grated on me, I held onto my Pride & Prejudice tapes and listened to them frequently, not wanting to admit that I had wasted money. 

Fate rescued me!  One of the tapes broke.  All gucked up in the tape player!  Whoohoo!!  I was free to order a new copy without guilt.

Shopping with no ability to preview the voice of the reader is majorly frustrating!  That's worth an email complaint or two.  But I'm here to tell you that the new CD version has arrived and is splendid, mahvelous, so soothing to the ear it's brought me back to my full state of bliss, in my little corner of heaven here, with Jane Austen and Pride and Prejudice (read by golden throated Irene Sutcliffe!)

Color me happy!

Victoria Magazine

Happy happy dancing feet!!!  My favorite magazine is being lazarus'd!  Yep it's true.  According to this news release, Hearst, in partnership with Hoffman Media is reviving my Tea Party Lady's most favorite mag, Victoria. 

Color me ecstatic.

If you haven't experienced this magazine, put it on your list.  It was sumptuous! It had the most beautiful photos of antiques, roses, beautiful gardens, silver and china and linens, homes, anything to do with romantic and gracious living.  The articles and features were good, of course, but I have to admit I was addicted to the eye-candy that could be found on almost every page.  I just hope this new Victoria lives up to the standards of the old one.

I still have all my old Victoria magazines, stacked on a shelf.   I confess, not all of them are whole and hale.  Some issues are quite dog-eared from searching for recipes and such.  And some have little teeny cutout holes in the pages. 

I know, I know.  Sacrilege.  But, a few years ago I was decoupaging a tea tray.  Much as I hated to do it, there were no better sources for beautiful pictures of tea things at that time, so I started cutting out little pictures to decoupage onto my tray. GASP.  It seemed vitally important at the time.  Of course I regretted it later, especially when I needed a recipe only to find I had cut out the tea cup on the other side of the page and was missing half the ingredients list! 

There's a url for the mag: www.victoriamag.com, which I assume will have subscription information eventually.  Right now it goes nowhere.  The new Victoria will be coming out in October 2007 (WOOT!), with a Nov/December issue.  Bimonthly just isn't enough for me, but I guess it's better than nothing at all.  (double WOOT!)

Book Review: Coffee

I enjoyed Kenneth Davids' Espresso book so much I decided to sample some of his other work.  This book, Coffee : A Guide to Buying, Brewing, and Enjoying, now in its fifth edition, will probably keep on going like the EverReady bunny.  It's that good.  Not too esoteric, not overloaded with coffee jargon meant only for the most elevated barista, this is a book for the every day joe who likes a good cuppa joe.

It covers a little bit of everything about the holy bean: from growing, to roasting, to grinding and brewing, with a little bit of history, culture and health thrown in for good measure.  There are two chapters on espresso, so if you don't need the kind of in-depth information in the Espresso book, you can get the brief skinny here. 

I highly recommend this book.  I think even coffee experts would find it informative and interesting.  Davids' style is amusing and easy to read.

Next purchase for me will have to be his book on coffee roasting, and that will complete my little collection. 

Espresso: Ultimate Coffee

Espresso : Ultimate Coffee by Kenneth Davids is the almost-ultimate coffee book for anybody who wants to know all about espresso.  From the ground up, Davids explains the history, mythology, and technology of that glorious little shot of heaven: espresso. 

I found Davids' writing style engaging and easy.  I felt like I was reading a story instead of being educated.  He shares his experience as well as his knowledge, and tosses in a dash of the lyrical now and then just to keep you interested.  But it's not the kind of book you can sit down and plow through.  I've had to take it in small chunks, using it as more of a reference book.  And what a great reference book it is!

Not all the information in this book was new to me.  But my explorations online have been jagged, uneven.  This book smooths out all the rough edges in my knowledge and gives me the whole wallapalooza in 180 pages.  All my questions about how different espresso machines work are answered here.  I may actually be able to make a purchase now without fearing that I'm wasting my money.  Don't get me wrong, there's a lot of good information online, but I found I had to wade through a lot of garbage to find the gold, and I was getting confused.  This book was most helpful in clearing up those confused areas. 

I would say it's the ultimate, but for one small complaint.   If you've read any of my other book reviews you'll guess right away what it is. 

No color pictures.  NO COLOR PICTURES! And in a second edition, too.  There are photos, but they're all in antique-style sepia tones.  Cheaper to print no doubt, but very hard to get excited about.  I wonder if Davids' understands the need to see gorgeous full color shots of ... heh ... shots.  I can only hope that these books make enough in sales to warrant a third edition that will include at least a few full color make-you-drool photographs.

A Guide to Tea

This little book came with my Adagio package but I didn't really look at it until yesterday.  I needed some light reading to take with me into the "little room down the hall" and it was handy. 

Lo and behold, I really like it!  It's a great bathroom book, for one thing.  It's not an in-depth book, nothing heavy or lengthy.  Just a little smattering of interesting tea stuff.  And I've really enjoyed the little tidbits and tea stories.  The photos are beautiful, and it's got quite a lot of basic information about tea: types, preparation, history, caffeine, and more.   

It's written by Chris Cason, "Tea Maestro" of Adagio and regular contributor to Tea Muse.  Chris has a light, humorous writing style that makes this a good read.  It's on my recommended list. 

Book Review: Coffee Grounds & Tea Leaf Reading

I gather this book, The Complete Guide to Coffee Grounds & Tea Leaf Reading, is part of a series of "guides".  I hope the others in the series are better than this one.

I bought this book because I thought it would be fun to invite my nieces up for a tea party and do a little foretelling.  They're at an age when tea parties start to lose their childhood shimmer, and I would hate for that to happen.  So, says I, let's do something fun! 

However, since they don't drink tea (they usually drink cocoa at our tea parties) I needed to find an alternative to tea leaves.  Why, then, you're asking, did I buy a book on coffee ground/tea leaf reading?  Because there isn't anything out there on reading cocoa dregs.  The title of this book led me to think it was a little broader in scope than the "traditional" tea leaf reading books. 

And it is.  But it's greatly in want of a good editor.  For instance, the text reads: "The cup pictured on the right is suitable, whereas the one on the left is not."  Followed by this picture:

Now I ask you, how is one to become an expert in tasseomancy given this kind of confusion?

To give credit, this book didn't cost much, and it does have a ton of symbols and meanings.  However, for the newbie, black and white drawings don't really help much.  I would have like to see at least ONE example photograph, and sample interpretation. 

I will probably keep this book on my shelf as a reference, but I'm going to try out some other divination type books before I schedule my tea party.  And since this is all in fun, if I can't find anything good, I'll probably just make up a bunch of stuff.  After all, how hard can it be?  Teenage girls still want to hear about the cute boy coming their way, don't they?

Tea Celebrations: The Way To Serenity

I had one of those "a-ha" moments this morning.  I was paging through the book I wanted to review today - Tea Celebrations: The Way to Serenity by Alexandra Stoddard - looking for something specific I had read earlier and mourning, as usual, the lack of photographs.  Suddenly my pea-brain made the connection between my desire for photographs and what I was reading. 

This book is all about the spiritual aspects of the tea ritual, what the tea-master would call "sacred ceremony" as a means of finding serenity.  Alexandra writes:

Tea is about slowing down, about reacquainting ourselves with our selves.  When is the last time you gave your imagination free rein?  When was the last time you sat and simply daydreamed?  It is these moments of dreaming that bring us in touch, once again, with our earliest goals and fantasies.  ... Spend a few minutes and relax over tea doing nothing.  Think of it as exercise for your spirit.

She suggests that all the rituals and beautifications we perform in preparation for tea are part of the slowing down.  The placement of flowers in a vase, pressing a tablecloth, laying out china... all can be done with a slowness, a living in the moment, and a kind of reverence for beauty and ritual. 

I realized that she's talking about the part I call the Tea Party Lady, the part of us that can stop and smell the flowers... and the tea.  I translate that to be the soul, not the spirit.  To make a bigfat generalization, perhaps coffee feeds the spirit, the mind, the energy, the yang parts of us.  But these kinds of tea rituals and ceremonies - especially in the Asian traditions - feed the soul, the emotions, the yin parts of us.  This is how it feels to me, in my own relationship to coffee and tea. 

This book helped me clarify what it was I was doing.  When I do "tea", I do it from my soul.  And that helped me understand why I long for beautiful pictures in these books.  When I pick up a tea book I'm looking for soothing and beautiful imagery.  I believe the soul speaks primarily in feeling and images, and so for me, the photographs are more than just occasional adornment.  They're necessary!  Primary!!  Or should be.  IMO, talking about tea with wordswordswords just doesn't cut it.  That's why I love the Victoria magazine and The Pleasures of Tea books.  The photographs speak to my soul.

So, pardon me when I complain about the lack of pictures in this book.  It's a lovely book, and the sentiments are well expressed.  She discusses types of tea, etiquette, and rituals, and there are some recipes.  It's a book I would recommend for anybody who wants to understand how a tea-master sees life and relates to the tea ceremony.  But it is just wordswordswords, front to back.  It's not the kind of book that will draw me back again and again.  Unless they republish ... with photos.

Meme - Pick Meme! Let's get bookish

David and peddidle both tagged me for this meme.  So, what the heck, I'll do it twice, once here for coffee/tea books, and "regular" books and once over here, for other books.

Rules (following D's lead, because I like it too!):  Take the top name/link off the list below. Add your blog (with an embedded link) to the bottom of the list and paste the blognames/links into your post.

1. The Glamazon Shoe Diaries
2. regurgitation
3. Soliloquy... one writer's thoughts
4. third world county
5. Morning Coffee & Afternoon Tea

How many books do I own?

Currently, about 450. But only 30-40 are coffee/tea related.

Latest book(s) purchased:

The Tea Companion: A Connoisseur's Guide

Last book read:

Tea with Friends (recently reviewed -- here)


5 Books that I like a lot / read a lot / mean a lot to me:

In no particular order:

• The Best of Coffee - A Cookbook
• The Pleasures of Tea - Sumptuous!
• Tea Gardens: Places to Make and Take Tea
• The New Tea Book: A Guide to Black, Green, Herbal, and Chai Tea
• Espresso : Ultimate Coffee

Five more victims:

Cripes, this is the hard part.  It looks like everybody has either already been tagged or already done it long ago. 

1. Audrey at CoffeeSage
2. Kat of Keep the Coffee Coming
3. Cin of It's Raining Again

I'll just leave the other 2 slots open.  Anybody want to do the meme, let me know and I'll add you here!

Books: Tea With Friends

Tea with Friends is a great little book, chock full of seasonal and themed tea party ideas.

Divided into months of the year, each month's tea party has a theme set to correspond with either a holiday or the season.  February hosts the Not-for-Lovers-Only Dessert Tea. May's tea party has a Mother Goose theme.  December's offering is the St. Nicholas Brunch Tea, of course.  My personal favorite is November (my birth month) and the Victorian Afternoon Tea.

Some great features:

• Complete menus and recipes for each tea party
• Suggestions for music, decoration and "setting the scene"
• Activities for party guests
• History blurbettes and factoids peppered throughout

For such a small book, there's a LOT of stuff packed in here.  I really have only one complaint.  No photos.  The book is nicely illustrated with watercolors by Carolyn Bucha, but I prefer photographs, especially where food/recipes are concerned.  Sorry Carolyn!  I'd really rather see a book devoted just to your tea artwork.  That would be enjoyable in itself.  But if you're looking for ideas for your tea party, this is a must-have for your Tea Party Lady bookshelf.

The Pleasures of Tea

I'm still going through mom's collection of tea books.  There are so many, it's going to take some time, but I'll be sharing them here, at least touching on the best and the worst.  This one is a true gem: The Pleasures of Tea, Recipes & Rituals. 

There are some wonderful-sounding recipes that I plan to try and some cool tidbits of history and info, but mostly I love this book because of the luscious imagery.  I spent an hour browsing through this book, letting my eyes luxuriate in the beautiful photographs, before I even realized there were recipes. 

A feast for the eyes.

Not surprising to discover that it's put out by the editors of Victoria Magazine, the only magazine I actually save and keep.  I've got back issues collected from years ago.  That doesn't make it easy to move, as I found out the hard way, but I refused to throw them away.  Some of the older issues are a bit cut up now.  I needed pictures for a decoupage project I was doing.  But I won't be cutting up this book, that's for sure.  It's a keeper.