Saturday, February 23, 2013

Hiding, Fibbing, and Fobbing Off

The past few weekends I've been running around nonstop. There were endless things that needed to get done, people coming to town, and that hovering feeling of how-do-I-have-zero-time-to-myself. So with a drizzly Saturday in Baltimore and no check lists to speak of, I finally treated myself to a day spent in bed catching up on my reading.
Currently on a chapter detailing how French POWs used wine to blackmail their guards.
I'm juggling a few books at the moment, but the standout is definitely Wine & War by Don and Petie Kladstrup. A self-professed fiction junkie, I tend to steer clear of nonfiction. But this one's been taunting me on my bookshelf for years and it reads as smoothly as the wines it describes. Besides the obvious of bringing two of my favorite topics together, wine and WWII, it's absolutely riveting. There are countless stories of how the French hid their wine from the Nazis or passed off inferior wines as the greats and how the industry itself became essential to the Resistance. Each chapter leaves me feeling a little more tipsy than the last and itching to plan my next adventures in France, perhaps bumping along Burgundy's wine road or swishing reds in the caves beneath Bordeaux. 

Despite being in the middle of a great read, I couldn't help popping over to my local library. While you'll find stacks of books teetering in every nook and cranny of my bedroom (one day I'll house them where they belong... in a library with a rolling ladder in the chateau on my vineyard in la belle France), there's just something about having a few piled up on your nightstand... something about books that don't belong to you. 
What are you reading these days?

3 comments:

  1. UGH. Jellicoe Road. MY HEART. The mere thought of Jonah Griggs gives me major heart spasms. I'm super ready for you to read it, and sincerely hoping that you'll fan flail over it as much as I did. It won its way into my top 10 OF ALL TIME.

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  2. ^ I second that a thousand times.
    I gasped in excitement when I saw your photo. I do hope you get to read it. It will TAKE. OVER. YOUR. LIFE!! But in a good way *evil grin*. I do hope you enjooooyyy.

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    1. Really?! Wow. Mariah's been telling me to read it for aaaaaaages and I finally caved. Fingers crossed, I'll be starting it tonight!

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