Quaintrelle Weekender

16 summer books, 10 TBR & 2 easy, summer cocktails

Welcome to Quaintrelle Weekender.

This is a short list of things I am currently loving to make eating, drinking, and hosting easier and a lot more interesting.

This Land is Your Land…

Do you know that 47% of Quaintrellians are based in the US?

Of course you don’t, because those stats are private and only available to me. Unless, of course, something goes very, very wrong. Knock on wood, everything is still tightly kept under the password-protected and Microsoft Authenticator lock and key.

So almost half of the people here are American, reading Quaintrelle across 47 states. Mostly California. Hello, Golden State! 👋

Not North Dakota, though. Zero people in North Dakota read Quaintrelle. Not sure what I did to offend the North Dakotians, but, as a chef I used to work with always said, “fuck ’em if they can’t take a joke.” Not that I would ever joke about North Dakota, its tourism board says it’s one of America’s friendliest and safest states and is also the nation’s largest producer of honey.

If you know anyone in North Dakota, please pass this along, I’m sure they’d find Quaintrelle to be equally friendly and safe – and equally in favour of honey.

We’re two days into the first long weekend here in Canada. Or maybe one? Technically the holiday is on Monday, and technically Friday was still a work day… but you know what the chef I used to work with said.

So depending on how seriously you take your work schedule, we’re either one or two days into the long weekend.

I’m nursing a broken back. Well, not really, but I did plant most of my garden yesterday and, oy vey, that was a workout! And I actually workout! Like super heavy weights three days a week, but the iron dumbbells are no match for dirt that’s been untouched for an entire winter.

My valiant effort did not go in vain, as the lanai is looking super-duper, with only a few more plants to place in the centre, and then we are blissfully ready for our close-up.

I am nursing my broken body poolside this weekend with loads of fresh cocktails and enticing reads. Doctor’s orders.

Before we get into it… please leave your summer books in the comments below. New or old, it doesn’t matter, I’m sure every Quaintrellian needs to build their TBR list for pool floatie season. Maybe it will convince the good people from North Dakota to join us.

Lanai life with wine, cheese, and a great read (not pictured)

Easy-Breezy Beach Reads

This category is pretty self explanatory, but I’ve never met a microphone – or keyboard – I didn’t like. So let me explain further: these are the enticing reads that will make you LOL on a crowded beach, or openly weep poolside. But they’re not so precious they demand your full attention: distractions from the cabana boy handing you a frozen piña colada, or a surprising splash from a cannonball that got too close won’t ruin the crucial moment.

The Husbands by Holly Gramazio I just finished reading this. It’s a terrific little beach read in the soft, sci-fi vibe of The Midnight Library or The Invisible Life of Addie LaRue. Though if I were the editor I would have axed about 15% out of it. Like, ya, we get it, husbands are falling out of the attic, move it along. However, The Husbands is an NYT bestseller and The Washington Post called it “delightful,” so I guess I’m the only one with this minor criticism. It’s possible the combination of social media and perimenopause has killed any attention span I once had. But truly, my current brain dead-ness aside, I liked it.

Valley of the Dolls by Jacqueline Susann There’s no shortage of mean things said about this book, the nicest of which I saw was “entertaining trash.” But according to Amazon, this 1960’s cult classic has sold over 31 million copies. Take that, you erudite stuffed shirts. It’s about three impressionable young women trying to make it in the glitzy, disorienting world of the entertainment industry. Of course compromises have to be made, but as anyone knows, trade-offs are manageable, even agreeable, when chased by pills and booze.

Me Before You by

Jojo Moyes

Holy smokes, I sobbed in the best possible way. You probably know this book well. You’ve probably seen the movie. But I would be a liar if I didn’t put it in this category. I literally read it on my lawn chair on my lanai a few summers ago in the sun, snot and tears dripping into my margarita. And I would do it all over again. In fact, I think I will.

Provençal Mystery Series by M.L Longworth. This is for anyone who’s desperate to travel to France, but sadly will not make it there this season. Look, Hemingway this is not, but surely not everything requires metaphorical prose of the literary kind? Especially not summer reads destined to be stained by suntan lotion and dark rum. That’s why this is in the “easy-breezy” category. But the descriptions of Provence, the food, the wine… I dare you to read one of these mystery-lite books and not immediately crave moules et frites or salad Niçoise.

Engrossing for Rainy Days and Cozy Bed Time Stories

This is a category of highly entertaining novels, with just a tad more attention requirement. You might have to keep track of a large cast of characters or the occasional word needs looking up, but ultimately these books will change the way you consider yourself in the world – or, at the very least, your drink order and wardrobe.

Demon Copperhead by Barbara Kingsolver Full disclosure I am mid-way through this novel right now. If I were a true and proper book reviewer it would be frowned upon to mention a story before the conclusion. But I’ve never been a proper anything so I can break the rules. It’s a long-ish read, and many times I get anxious over the tough subject matter (a kid who winds up in the foster system thanks to his addict-teenage-mother breaking her sobriety and an abusive stepfather.) I’m a real sucky baby when it comes to these things but so far there’s been nothing graphic or exploitive, so totally doable.

Rules of Civility by Amor Towels I LOVE THIS BOOK! Word on the street is this was Amor Towels’ first book. Well, what a debut grand slam! Set in NYC in the 1930’s, some sophisticates draw parallels to The Great Gatsby, and, ya, I guess, if you want to, go for it. I think it’s got stronger parallels to Valley of the Dolls, but I’m not a proper book reviewer, so what do I know? The story revolves around a working-class secretary whose chance encounter with a handsome, upper-crust fella shoots her into the city’s dazzling social scene. Take notes when the martini-making descriptions come about.

The Henna Artist by Alka Joshi This book is one of my all-time favourites. I read it a few years ago and I still think of the characters and story. It’s just so vivid! The follow up, The Secret Keeper of Jaipur is excellent, as well. The characters are many, and there are wildly tangling subplots to support the main event, but if you keep your rosé to a minimum you can get swept along with pure joy and fully know exactly where – and with whom – you are at all times.

The Obituary Writer by

Ann Hood

Initially I put Ann (I think it’s cool if we’re on a first-name basis) in the “Can’t Miss Authors” section, which is true, but then I reasoned, perhaps unreasonably, that while I did talk about The Stolen Child not long ago, I did not talk about The Obituary Writer which is my favourite book of her’s, but also in my Top 10. It’s a novel about parallel lives – one in the 1960’s after JKF’s inauguration and the other at the turn of the century after the San Francisco earthquake. It follows two women and the choices they make, the choices they didn’t get a chance to make, and their roles in marriage, loss, and hope.

It was on this very beach that I learned about Truman Capote and his Swans. One can never be too educated.

Prep for School

Sorry to drop the S word before the summer break has even properly begun, but for the true nerds out there, these are some books that may keep your brain from totally melting over the next few months.

The Psychology of Money by Morgan Housel It’s all there in the title, but I think one of the most important books you could ever read. We all know save more, spend less, yada, yada, yada, but as Housel, kindly and without judgment, points out, it’s far more complicated than that. Through a series of incredible true stories of rags to riches and vice versa, Housel lays out how you can make better choices, that suit you best, for your own financial future.

The Slight Edge by Jeff Olson & John David Mann I read this book when I first began my company, The Wine Sisters, and was utterly stunned to find out there wasn’t a line of people waiting to throw their cash at me. Frankly, it was rude. Once I got over my shock of not being an overnight millionaire, and desperate for answers, this was one of the resources I found. Basically, the book outlines how small efforts, made consistently will bring success, while small neglects, made consistently, will bring set backs. Think about Person A going for a walk everyday and Person B taking the car everyday. At the end of the year their outcomes will be a bit different; at the end of a decade their outcomes will be significantly different. Once again, it’s kinda all there in the title, but it’s a helpful reminder. If you have college-bound kids, this might be a good one to tuck into their care packages.

Last Call at the Hotel Imperial: The Reporters Who Took on a World at War by Deborah Cohen A winner of a million literary prizes, this is a recount of the “gutsy and glamorous” cub reporters roaming war-torn Europe in the 1920’s. With the famous names of Knickerbocker, Gunther, Sheen, and Thompson, these mesmerizing journalists became superstars, just as renown as the world leaders they interviewed. Of course this elite group all, at various times and in various combinations, made a home base at Vienna’s Hotel Imperial, where, as the world was bombed and gutted, this irreverent club shared hard drinks and amusing (amusingly terrifying?) stories.

The Surrender Experiment by Michael A. Singer Honestly, kind of annoying in its New Age superciliousness, but still worth considering. Basically Singer goes through his own year of saying yes and enjoying the good things that happen to him. He attributes it all to divine intervention, though the cynic in me says he was rich and things worked out because of it. It’s good dinner party debate, though. Let me know what you think.

Past years on the lanai with Taylor

Can’t Miss Authors

This is the category of the authors I will always read, even if I know nothing about the book. The reason why their individual books are not listed in the categories above, is because I’ve already talked about at least one or several of their novels in past editions, and I’m trying too woo the people of North Dakota, here, so I’ve got to be on my A Game.

• J Courtney Sullivan. I would read Maine first and The Cliffs second. They’re not a series, but that’s how I would do it.

• Taylor Jenkins Read. The Seven Husbands of Evelyn Hugo. Daisy Jones and The Six. I rest my case.

• Catherine Newman I would probably read Sandwich on a poolside or on the dock, since it is about a family’s summer vacation. I would read We All Want Impossible Things cozy in bed, with a big box of Kleenex beside me, listening to the crickets and scaring them off by oscillating between screams of laugher and wailing sobs.

• Nora Ephron. I mean, duh.

On My Nightstand…

No spoilers, please!

• The Plagiarist in the Kitchen by Jonathan Meades

• One More Croissant for the Road by Felicity Cloake

• No One Tells You This by

  Glynnis MacNicol

• The Editor by Steven Rowley

• This Time Tomorrow by Emma Straub

• How to Kill Your Family by Bella Mackie

• The Mitford Murders by Jessica Fellows

• National Dish by Anya von Bremzen

• Table for Two by Amor Towles

• Dream Count by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie

I’ve shown you mine …

This is neither of the cocktails outlined below, this is another excellent hot weather treat, the Hibiscus Collins

Great Cocktails for Reading

Ok, in this category we have booze. Booze for reading.

These drinks can take the heat should you get absorbed in something particularly steamy and shockingly forget about your cocktail. Because they’re both served neat, after a thorough spanking in an ice-filled shaker, they’re nice and cold. But, if time ticks on and they start to wilt, a simple refresh in a shaker over fresh ice is all they need to perk back up. Like a nice slap in the face to someone dozing off at dinner.

I also think both have ties to the literary world. One perhaps more than the other, but I will let you decide which is which.

Cosmopolitan

I don’t want to hear any back talk on this one! Despite a shallow reputation, the Cosmo, which, FYI, is so much more considered than just vodka and cranberry, is layered, delicious and refreshing.

Ingredients:

• 2 oz vodka (you could also double down by using either citrus or cranberry flavoured vodka, but that’s just an option)

• ¾ oz oz orange-flavoured liqueur

• 1 oz cranberry cocktail

• ½ oz lime juice

How to Make It:

1. Add all ingredients into a shaker filled with ice. Shake well until chilled (a good 30 seconds) and strain into a chilled coup.

Hemingway–Ish Daiquiri

Ok look. I was going to put the recipe for Ernest Hemingway’s favourite Cuban tipple here. But as liquor.com brilliantly wrote, “trusting Hemingway on cocktail quality is like trusting an NFL linebacker on how to make pasta.”

I agree with the astute observer on that one. Hemingway, balance be damned, preferred a mainline of booze. Grapefruit, rum (lots), maraschino liqueur, and lime was all that was required to please dear Papa.

Here, we go for something a little gentler.

Ingredients:

• 2 oz gold rum

• 1 oz fresh grapefruit juice

• ½ oz lime juice

• ¾ oz maraschino liqueur

• ¼ honey simple syrup, optional, to taste

How to Make It:

1. Add all ingredients into a shaker filled with ice. Shake well until chilled (a good 30 seconds) and strain into a chilled coup.

My nails were in quite the state after yesterday’s planting (a manicure immediately followed.

Next Week

Honestly… it all hinges on North Dakota.

Right now, I’m thinking about giving you a garden tour of Le Clos Condo on Wednesday.

Because we’re in my private parts (not like that, weirdos) this will be a tour for premium members. But if you want to upgrade, it’s only $6 Cdn a month, which works out just over $4 USD, if anyone wants to tell the Rough Rider State.

And if that’s not something you can swing right now, no sweat. I am grateful to all of you. Thank you for your attention.

See you soon.

xo – Erin