Chilled — But Not From The Snow…

It’s prime time for soup, especially with these book recs. This one is vegan, and Aysha pairs it with a wild, good-looking grilled cheese.

You’ll need: butternut squash, carrots, shallots, rosemary, coconut milk, and a bevy of spices. For a full list of ingredients and instructions, here’s the Instagram video.

In 1908, in Vermont, Sara Harrison Shea’s dead body was found in the field behind her house not long after the death of her daughter. Now, about 100 years later, Alice has moved off the grid to Sara’s house to live with her two daughters, Ruthie and her younger sister. But this comes with a cost. One day, Ruthie wakes to a motherless house, with Alice nowhere to be found. As she searches for her mother, she finds a copy of Sara Harrison Shea’s diary under Alice’s floorboards. The more she learns about Sara, the more she realizes she’s not the only one looking for someone.

There are a couple tales from American settler history that have always intrigued but also kind of haunted me — a few of them being the lost colony of Roanoke, what the Jamestown settlers did during “the starving time” (Google that if you dare), and what happened with the Donner Party. Here, Katsu gives life to the latter — an ill-fated journey made from Illinois to California in 1846. As misfortunes mount, many look at Tamsen Donner with blame. While they explain things away by labeling her a witch, they also can’t shake the feeling that there is something stalking them. As they try to endure the harsh conditions of the journey — from sand-boiling heat to immense cold — a growing evil begins to grow and fester. Around and within them.

As I understand it, the cause of the apocalypse that happens in Moon of the Crusted Snow isn’t explained, only felt one day, when a small northern Anishinaabe community suddenly loses cell service. Electricity is the next to go, which spells grave trouble as a harsh winter approaches. As the town tries to ration out its supplies and hold on, a stranger arrives, having escaped from the south, throwing what little order was left into chaos. As more die and become hopeless, tensions harden, but one person emerges as a leader. Young father Evan Whitesky leads a group of young friends back to the old Anishinaabe ways that looked to the land. This may be the solution to dissolving the chaos, but they aren’t out of the storm yet.

There’s a sequel to Moon of the Crusted Snow that just came out titled Moon of the Turning Leaves, for once you’ve read this one.

This book has beaucoup reviews on Goodreads, which can be good if your book club likes to read books that a lot of other people have read to be part of the conversation. It follows a marriage hanging on by a string. Adam and Amelia are Mr. and Mrs. Wright (I know), a British couple who have decided to go on a trip to Scotland they’ve won, thinking it might fix their marriage. But it’s kind of the worst thing ever. The place they arrive at is a church that’s still mostly in its original form, freezing cold, and has a caretaker who…spies on them a bit. As a snowstorm rages on, their dog goes missing, and, through a narrative that shifts between Amelia and Adam, we find out about their usual traditional anniversary gifts to each other — paper, cotton, pottery, tin — and how Amelia writes a letter to him each year that she doesn’t let him read. Until this year. The year that one of them is lying and 10 years of secrets will finally come to a head.

Side note: but I didn’t understand what was meant by “traditional anniversary gifts,” and looked it up. Apparently, it’s been around since the Victorian era??