Reading Roundup and date nut official trials

 Quite a bit of my reading these days is electronic, what with the bother of having to make appointments to pick up physical books, and then driving a fair distance to pick up, just lazy, me.

So, Jonathan Strange and Mr Norell is back off my Kindle and at the library again. I already borrowed and renewed twice and I'm still only halfway through.

 I'll have to try again when I get to the top of the waitlist again. Can't renew when others are waiting. This book is good, but long enough it feels like a part time job.

Meanwhile, The Gown, Jennifer Robson, thank you, Dogonart, was very good. It's a really well written, easy read, taking in post ww2 britain, embroidery for Princess elizabeth's wedding dress, with forays into Toronto, some streets I knew, having been there, occupied France, sad reflections on Jewish suffering, all woven together very well. A bit of a quest and a mystery, too. Plenty of triumph. A couple of unlikely scenarios, but even if unlikely, they're things that ought to happen, so there! The history and social life are very well researched, I do like accuracy. I read this as an ebook.

And The Amateur Marriage,an Anne Tyler from quite a while ago, is as engrossing as she always is, based, as often,  in Baltimore with a bit of California thrown in, and a three generation saga.  The characters are never confusing even though we end up with many of them,  very well written. Audiobook, well performed.

And I continue with the audiobook Spoils of Poynton, a long, leisurely Henry James, unfolding slowly and you have to slow down to match the pace. Worth it. One of the classics I'm catching up on. Since I read print at warp speed, it's good to be slowed down to really appreciate the writing. 

Speaking of slowing down, that date nut bread has definitely improved with sitting. I made labneh for a spread, to be authentic, since it used to be a New York favorite with cream cheese. 

The tartness of the labneh is really good against the sweetness of the dates.

Still not sure all the prep was worth it, nearly as much fuss as a Christmas fruit cake. It did however use the little container of good leftover coffee I'd frozen a while back thinking there would probably eventually be a cake to use this in. I found the container when I did the Freezer Winnowing. So there's that.

If you have books to recommend, please do! Always open to suggestions.