Questions and Answers

I was tagged from Sarah's blog to fill out one of these things.

"If you were going to allow us to spend a night at your home, we'd like to know the following:
1. What books are on your favorite shelf?

Yeah okay, so I have two books by Hemingway. So WHAT? I love his style. You either love or hate his style. There is no in-between with Papa Hem. However, if you are one of those that hates his style you probably just don't get it. Not that you're stupid or anything. You are simply overlooking its subtly. Papa Hem believed that there should be no wasted words. He painstakingly selected each of his words, weilding them into razor-sharp sentences with an aficionado's clarity. Thus, The Sun Also Rises is about much more than bullfighting and its Spanish setting (though the narrative space provided much of the appeal for me) and A Moveable Feast is not a plot-driven novel, but driven by what the reader is able to pull out of the narrative as meaningful. I love Hemingway's depections of the narrative space in his novels. I was already in Spain when I read The Sun Also Rises and experienced France in A Moveable Feast.

Bless Me, Ultima is the story of a young Mexican boy's coming of age as he struggles whether to associate himself with the Catholic origins of his mother or the pagan roots of his father. It has amazing writing and, of course, your narrative space enthusiast was thrilled by the New Mexico setting. Probably the best part of this book, however, is that it provides such amazing closure. Though open endings are nice, the closure in Bless Me, Ultima has the fuzzy factor; that is, you feel all warm and satisfied inside as you shut the back cover.

JANE EYRE IS FREAKING BOMB. There is fuzzy factor to the max. It's a nice long period piece that sucks you in and makes you wish that you, too, could be as eloquent as the governess Jane Eyre. Such a clever woman, that Jane!

2. What DVDs are on your favorite shelf?

Sabrina and Gigi I grew up watching with my mom. They were the movies that I fell asleep to every night and from which I still can recite every line, including accents. I love Penelope and Almovodar is a pretty neat director, thus, my choice of Volver. Frida I watched in high school. The movie is the biography of artist Frida Kahlo and it has great cinematography. Also, if you're at all interested in the Mexican Revolution, the bouts with Communism in Mexico, or Mexican art, Frida shows how all those things tie together to create the discourse for an avant-garde generation of people and the misguided artists of that generation, such as Frida herself. Frida had such a fascinating life overall.

3. What are your favorite cookbooks?

Definitely this one by Giada di Laurentiis. She now has released many cookbooks, but this was her first and we bought it just after it came out a few years ago. My favorite recipe in it is a pasta with broccoli rabe, orecciette pasta, spicy italian sausage, and tomatoes with an olive oil and garlic sauce. My family has cooked the recipe so many times and we have modified it to our liking. Once for my birthday my parents made enough of this pasta to serve all of my fifteen guests at my party. Everyone enjoyed it.

4. Select 1-3 recipes you will cook for your special guests.
No. Since they're such special guests to me, I'd just ask them what they wanted and then go from there.

5. What will we be drinking that's available?
Water, ginger ale, iced tea, and coffee are a few of my favorites. Also, I love wine. I have developed a taste for it growing up because my step dad LOVES it. We have a wine cellar in our basement, visit wineries around the country, and have wine shipped to the house regularly. A few years ago when my family took a vacation to Sonoma in California, we visited this winery called Imagery, among many other wineries. They have the neatest wine labels that always feature the Parthenon, whether subtely or blatantly.

But yeah, there would definitely be wine at my party. Riesling is my favorite. It's nice and sweet.