LOVE LOVE LOVE

I just finished reading Bringing up Bébé, by Pamela Druckerman and adored it! (A great travel read)  It is a fun mix of self-depreciating humor, an exploration of cultural differences and some actually sociological research thrown in there for good measure.  Most of all it talks about the balance of parenting, raising a happy self-confident child and being able to enjoy a nice dinner out with child in tow.  Makes me want to raise my daughter as a good little gourmet eater who says bonjour, au revoir, s’il vous plaît, and merci…well at least the English equivalent.  Don’t want her sounding too pretentious.

I dogeared many a pages, and am going to try this recipe this weekend.

The Greater Journey

I had a long, hot week in Atlanta working on a project, so I was thrilled when my weekend calendar included almost nothing.  Dinner with friends, naps, walks around the city and lots of reading; it was the perfect rainy recovery weekend.  I picked up this book in the airport and have been devouring it.  Written by the same author of, John Adams, which was made into that amazing HBO mini-series, The Greater Journey, is history for sure, but it follows the lives and experiences of individuals being inspired by Paris.  I am in love with it.

The Greater Journey: Americans in Paris, by David McCullough

“Between 1830 and 1900, hundreds of Americans–many of them future household names like Oliver Wendell Holmes, Mark Twain, Samuel Morse, and Harriet Beecher Stowe–migrated to Paris. McCullough shows first how the City of Light affected each of them in turn, and how they helped shape American art, medicine, writing, science, and politics in profound ways when they came back to the United States.”