time was soft there by jeremy mercer

"Hope is a most powerful drug."

It's no surprise that I love memoirs. People telling their stories, sharing and reflecting the most intimate details of their lives... Something I appreciate not only in literature, but in my daily existence. 

In Time Was Soft There by Jeremy Mercer, a Canadian man finds himself wandering the streets of Paris and into a bookstore where he is invited to stay. The memoir takes you through what life was like living in the little bohemia of Shakespeare & Co, and all the adventures in between. 

Shakespeare & Co. is just off Paris' Left Bank, steps away from la Seine and Notre Dame de Paris. I was fortunate to visit the bookstore a few years back during a backpacking trip through Europe. It was raining the day that I poked my head into the shop. I was feeling grumpy after having had a fight with my boyfriend at the time about the downfalls of my rain jacket. After hearing stories about this mythical English bookstore in Paris, often housing vagabond writers and artists, I was curious.

Clearly in a cold, damp haze, we ventured into the store. I felt hesitant to touch anything or look closely at books since I was dripping wet. Being in the shop felt like being transported into one of those movies with the old fashioned libraries—bookshelves from floor to ceiling, notes from visitors plastered onto the walls—leaving me with a sense of nostalgia for a place and time I had never been. I didn't end up purchasing anything, but experiencing the ambiance of the store left me longing to "be free". To be a drifter with no care in the world. To be forever barefoot and lusting after a romanticized vagabond experience. It certainly helped that I spent the rest of the trip sleeping outdoors in parks, exploring unknown places and drinking too much red wine.

Jeremy Mercer was invited to live at Shakespeare & Co., ultimately ending up as a sort-of make shift staff member. The romanticized experience I was longing for is what he lived and wrote about. I read this memoir during an outdoor music festival, and was instantly transported back to my travels and to my vagabond longing. I may never be a drifter, but for those moments, I got to feel like I was. 

You can read more about Time Was Soft There on Amazon.

- g 

A special shout out goes to Hannah for editing this post! Thank you!

book review - cooked: a natural history of transformation

The first I heard about Cooked was on ABCs The Chew, a daytime television show that is part The View and part Rachael Ray. As a longtime Michael Pollan fan, I must admit that at first the context of the book didn’t interest me. Reading a book that investigates the history of food? No thanks. While most of my reading does revolve around food, it encompasses the topics of food politics and sustainable agriculture than anything else. Nevertheless, eventually I decided to give Cooked a read despite my convictions.

I’m glad that I did. Cooked takes a look at how the elements—Earth, air, water, and fire—are involved in the intricacies that take place in our kitchens. Beginning with barbeque, Pollan’s investigations continue on to stocks, perfecting the perfect loaf of bread, and mastering the art of fermentation. Cooked is part recount of Pollan’s investigation and part history lesson. True to his form, Pollan’s stories are thorough, witty, and will keep you turning the pages yearning for more.

What struck me in particular, and was ultimately the selling point for picking the book up in the first place, was the chapter about bread making. Learning to make beautiful breads is a personal goal of mine this year, so I enjoyed reading about Pollan’s journey, but more so the science and history that went along with it. As an avid baker, I know that baking is so intertwined with science, but most of the reactions and processes are unknown to the average home-baker such as myself. Cooked provides a thorough overview of just how the whole thing works, and it is much appreciated.

Cooked is a great read for anyone who is interested in food, but perhaps not a super-nerd such as myself who wants to take a thorough look at the politics. While the book does encompass a bit of this, it is more so a fantastic look at community building that making and sharing food is built on, both through history and the present.

- s

norwegian wood by haruki murakami

“I want you to always remember me. Will you remember that I existed, and that I stood next to you here like this?”

The first time I read Norwegian Wood was on a Greyhound bus going from Ottawa to Montreal. I had started reading it on my e-reader, until halfway through I realized that the copy I was reading was missing a bunch of pages and the story was not following. The book had totally and completely sucked me in and there was no way I could stop reading, so I immediately located a Chapters. Being in a predominantly francophone city, the giant bookstore we were in had only one copy of Norwegian Wood. I never buy books with movie covers on them, but I was so desperate to get back into the story that I purchased the copy.

I remember sitting on the grass in front of a small church on St. Catherine street in Montreal becoming completely encompassed by this novel. By feeling like I was every single of the characters, and my heart breaking slowly but surely. There is nothing I love more than feeling like I am a part of a book, and nothing else exists. That I am the characters, and this is not somebody telling me a story; but that it is my life and my reality. 

I finished the book the next day. At the end, the book had become such a part of me that I sobbed when reading the last chapter and continued crying once I was finished. That is the beauty of books—they become such a part of you. I have since purchased another copy so that the original cover edition is in my collection, and passed along my original copy. My second time reading it was just a couple weeks ago, and my feelings towards the novel and the characters have only grown stronger.

Norwegian Wood can be classified as a coming-of-age story and was incredibly popular in Japan when it was first published. Reviews have called it a “Japanese Catcher in the Rye”—while I understand the comparison, the two novels are two entirely different worlds for me. Norwegian Wood is told in the eyes of Toru, who shares with us his story of love and loss. I quite honestly cannot say more about this novel, and will let you read the plot synopsis via Amazon. All I can say is that this book is one that will stay in my heart. 

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