Littered With Books

"Always read something that will make you look good if you die in the middle of it" - P J O'Rourke

Yikes! Duncan’s crayons are on strike! What will he do to get his beloved crayons back?

“ Daniel Patterson is the head chef of Coi, a restaurant in San Francisco, California. At Coi, Patterson mixes modern culinary techniques with local, wild and cultivated ingredients to create highly original dishes that speak of place, memory, and emotion. It’s an approach that has won him two Michelin stars and a worldwide reputation for pioneering a new kind of Californian cuisine. Coi, the cookbook, tells the story of the restaurant, its dishes and Patterson’s philosophy. Beginning with a look at California—how Patterson arrived there and its influence on Coi—the book takes the reader into the Coi kitchen, and through an eleven course Coi tasting menu. It does so by way of a series of short essays, each comprised of an engaging text and narrative recipe, which reveal the story and inspiration behind the restaurant’s creative dishes. The stories behind a further fifty selected dishes are also narrated, and are accompanied by conversational recipes. The book includes 150 specially commissioned photographs showing the finished dishes as well as atmospheric images of the restaurant, the California landscape, and portraits of Coi’s staff and suppliers. “

“ On the night of 14 June 2017, a fire engulfed the 24-storey Grenfell Tower in west London, killing at least 72 people and injuring many more. An entire community was destroyed. For many people affected by this tragedy, the psychological scars may never heal. 24 Stories is an anthology of short stories, written on themes of community and hope, by a mix of the UK’s best established writers and previously unpublished authors, whose pieces were chosen by Kathy Burke from over 250 entries. “

“In our world no one ever knows what to do, and everyone’s just as clueless and full of crap as everyone else, and you have to figure it all out by yourself. And even after you’ve figured it out and done it, you’ll never know whether you were right or wrong. You’ll never know if you put the ring in the right volcano, or if things might have gone better if you hadn’t. There’s no answers in the back of the book.”

“There are some awful things in the world, it’s true, but there are also some great books.”

“There are no insoluble problems, only incompetent problem solvers.”

“Scientists have now developed a special pillow which is 100% effective in stopping snoring – provided you hold it firmly enough.”Stephan Fry, (2011). Mrs Fry’s Diary

‘Happily retired in the village of Three Pines, Armand Gamache, former Chief Inspector of Homicide with the Sûreté du Québec, has found a peace he’d only imagined possible.’ Can you guess what the author referred to when he said 'peace’?

‘To last summer, when her grandfather Grey died. To the afternoon she fell in love with Jason, who wouldn’t even hold her hand at the funeral. To the day her best friend Thomas moved away and left her behind with a scar on her hand and a black hole in her memory.’ - Harrie Reuter Hapgood 

“Diseases have a character of their own, but they also partake of our character; we have a character of our own, but we also partake of the world’s character: character is monadic or microcosmic, worlds within worlds within worlds, worlds which express worlds. The disease-the man-the world go together, and cannot be considered separately as things-in-themselves.”

“Her eyes meet mine and she smiles. And I swear it’s like the whole goddamn sun is beaming right out of it.”

“He looked so vulnerable, she thought; like a saint about to be martyred for his faith, offering up his last prayers before execution.”

“As long as their relationship was not poisoned by bitterness and reproaches, they had remained together, nostalgic for their lost happiness, and always ready to believe that some small incident might bring it all back.”

“To choose to write is to reject silence.”

“I detest all books which run chronologically, which commence at the cradle and end with the grave. Even life doesn’t run that way, much as people think it does. Life only commences at the hour of spiritual birth - which may be at eighteen or at forty-seven. And death is never the goal - but life! more life!”

By the time he graduates, he will be a grown-up: exhausted, hideously in debt and unable to imagine going to bed sober.”