March 2021
A charming inter-generational novel, a delicious lamb dish, and a few links to empower & delight
Hello from a gray day in Brooklyn. Hope there are some flowers peeping out wherever you are. Enjoy this month’s edition of From Holly.
Bookshelf
It wasn’t exactly a banner reading month — my attention span feels about that of a goldfish these days — but I still got a couple good reads in.
Reads in March
The One Hundred Years of Lenni and Margot by Marianne Cronin | ★★★★☆
*Publishes on June 1, 2021
This charming book follows the friendship of the eponymous women who are both residents in the terminal ward of the Glasgow Princess Royal Hospital. Lenni is seventeen and Margot is eighty-three, making their collective lives span one hundred years; I have a particular soft spot for novels that center on inter-generational relationships. They meet in an art class and end up swapping their life stories as they paint vignettes to match each one. The book structure moves back and forth in time, illuminating bits of the women’s pasts as they both navigate their lives coming to an end (including some light mischief and some funny interactions with the hospital chaplain). I thought this book was so lovely and am excited for it to publish this summer.
Broad Band by Claire Evans | ★★★★★
If it has “untold story” in the subtitle, it’s probably somewhere on my TBR. Especially if it’s about women. That’s what led me to start the Show Me the Women book club & this was our selection for March. I thoroughly enjoyed this book and learned a boatload about the women behind the internet. Claire Evans writes with a bit of a narrative bent, giving the historical reporting a highly readable quality. I was pleasantly surprised that she covered not only the physical infrastructure of computers and the internet, but also the women behind the culture of computing and online community. I wanted to scream at many points — e.g. back during the early computing days, the majority of programming was done by women like ENIAC Six who programmed the computers that were used for the very first military demos and then were not invited to the celebratory banquet afterwards! — but overall just came away thoroughly impressed with the ingenuity and resilience of the women in this field. I’d definitely recommend it, even if you aren’t “tech-y.”
For regular posts & reviews, follow along at @fromhollysbookshelf and in my Bookshop storefront. For my monthly staff picks, visit my WORD page.
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Kitchen
For Christmas, I was gifted The Immigrant Cookbook by a dear friend. It’s packed with magical-sounding dishes. This recipe was the first I tried from it and it turned out so well.
Lamb Fatteh
From The Immigrant Cookbook | Serves 6
Ingredients
• 4-6 lamb shanks (~3-5 lbs total)
• 1 large onion, thickly sliced
• 14 oz can chickpeas
• 5-7 garlic cloves (2 chopped, the rest whole)
• Salt & ground black pepper
• 1 cup plain whole milk yogurt
• 3 Tbsp tahini
• 1 tsp cayenne pepper
• 1.5 tsp Lebanese 7-spice
• 3 Tbsp extra-virgin olive oil
• 1 tsp cumin
• Juice of 1 lemon
• 1 large pita or Lebanese flatbread, toasted and broken into pieces
• 1/4 cup pine nuts
• 1 tsp Aleppo pepper (optional)
Directions
First, cook the lamb: In a large, deep saucepan with lid, heat 2 Tbsp olive oil over medium heat. Season the lamb with salt and brown the meat for about 4 minutes on each side. Transfer to a plate. Note: you may need to do this in batches.
Add the onion to the pan, sprinkle with 1/2 tsp salt, and saute until softened, about 5 minutes. Stir in the chopped garlic and cook for a minute or two more. Return the lamb to the pan. Add a pinch of salt and pepper and 1/2 tsp of Lebanese 7-spice. Add enough hot water just to cover the shanks. Bring to a boil, lower the heat to a gentle simmer, and cook until the lamb is tender and falling from the bone (2-2.5 hours). Transfer the meat to a plate. Note: the stock left in the pot can be saved for use in another dish! When the lamb is cool enough to handle, remove the meat from the bone and pull into bite-sized pieces.
Meanwhile, empty the chickpeas and their liquid into a small pot. Bring to a boil, reduce the heat, and then simmer for 10 minutes to soften. Rinse, drain, and set aside.
Using a mortar and pestle, mash the remaining garlic cloves with a pinch of salt.
In a medium bowl, combine the yogurt, tahini, mashed garlic, cayenne, 1 tsp Lebanese 7-spice, 1 Tbsp olive oil, 1/2 tsp cumin, 1 tsp salt, and half the lemon juice. Whisk until thoroughly combined.
Sprinkle the meat with the remaining cumin and lemon juice. Divide the meat between serving plates, top with the yogurt sauce and sprinkle with chickpeas. Scatter the toasted flatbread/pita and pine nuts on top. Finally, top with a drizzle of olive oil and the Aleppo pepper. Serve.
For snippets of my home cooking with occasional tips & recipes, follow along at @fromhollyskitchen.
Miscellany
Vote Forward is writing letters to voters in Georgia and Virginia to thank them for getting out the vote in November. If you have some free time and an inclination for civic engagement, it’s an excellent organization and an easy way to pitch in.
I am so excited about the Antiracist Book Festival taking place at the end of April. I’ve signed up for a variety of sessions. Seriously, the line-up is bananas amazing, and I’d encourage you to check it out!
I’m honored to be on the launch team for Osheta Moore’s upcoming book, Dear White Peacemakers. If it sounds up your alley, consider pre-ordering! I’ll have a full review for you next month.
Have you considered taking bystander training? It’s an ever-relevant skill, especially in the wake of the recent rise in violence against the AAPI community.
Finally, this month’s moment of delight: 82-year-old La Verne Ford Wimberly of Tulsa has been dressing to the nines for her live-stream church service throughout the pandemic and taking selfies to document it. I want to be La Verne when I grow up.
Thanks for being a part of this little community. See you next month.
Warmly,
Holly