Required Reading

For some reason my mind was wandering today to some of the books I loved as a child. I thought it might be nice to come up with a list of the books that stand out in my mind as having shaped my personality, or whose characters became my imaginary friends, or that spoke to my child-self without condensation. I realized that I was thinking of the books I know I will be sharing with my children, when and if I have them.

• Everything by Maurice Sendak, but especially Higglety Pigglety Pop! Or, There Must Be More to Life, The Nutshell Library, Mickey in the Night Kitchen and Where the Wild Things Are
  
• Harriet the Spy
• A Wrinkle in Time
• The Old Mother West Wind books by Thornton Burgess
• The Snowy Day
• Laura Ingalls Wilder's books
• My Antonia
• Charlotte's Web
• Roll of Thunder, Hear My Cry and Let the Circle Be Unbroken

Obviously, this is an incomplete list, but it's a start. What books from your childhood did/would you share with your children?

Two tomatoes

Can you guess which one I grew and which I bought at whole foods?



My sad little tomato is like a fire hydrant in a dogs' world. Poor guy was tasty, though.

Let me see your lobster roll

Montreal is a city completely devoid of street food. No hot trucks, no Mr. Softie, no one hawking little plastic baggies of nuts and candy on the corner. Street food is strictly forbidden. Except for this little boite, fashioned from a repurposed shipping container, kitted out with a solar power system, a big gas pizza oven and serving the most delicious lobster rolls I've ever tasted. They can be purchased individually or in combination with a bag of chips, a boisson gazeuse and a cup of thick, smoky, bacony chowder.


This one was mine.




And this was Tyler's. Doesn't it look like he got more lobster salad than I did?