Book Update / Dinner Party

Since April, when last I wrote about what I've been reading, I've finished both Sense and Sensibility and Shades of Milk and Honey.  I've also completed the sixth and final book in the Rebecca series, Changes for Rebecca.  It definitely elevated my opinion of the whole series.  Additionally, I've read two of the books that I brought home in my library haul: The Evolution of Calpurnia Tate by Jacqueline Kelly and Odd and the Frost Giants by Neil Gaiman.  Plus, I've listened to two shorter stories: Clockwork by Philip Pullman and Porch Lies by Patricia McKissack.  I've also gotten started on The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn (audiobook) and I'm still working on Discoverers of the Universe by Michael Hoskin (print book).  Also, I finished another season of the BBC Radio series Cabin Pressure.  Also also, I forgot to mention that long, long ago (in February) I listened to Hans Christian Andersen's The Snow Queen. And, I finished the first four episodes/interviews in Michael Ian Black's podcast, "How To Be Amazing."  As predicted, Lin-Manuel Miranda's interview was my favorite of the four.  I admire Miranda's work so much and I really hope to see Hamilton when it hits Broadway. 

In other news, I forgot to mention that last Wednesday, I held a dinner party!  It was so much fun to actually take the time to cook and to have the food appreciated by my friends.  I made an herb tart and a chicken-plum pie, a loaf of cheddar-thyme bread, a lemon-basil pasta salad, a caprese salad, stewed cherries, buttered crab with tortilla chips, Thug Kitchen cauliflower, and syllabub.  In addition to my friends from graduate school, a couple of friends from college dropped by!  I was so excited to see Mel, since she lives in L.A., but we didn't get to talk a lot (we will have coffee when next I am in L.A. to really catch up).  We all gathered round the kitchen island and ate and drank and watched a Bollywood film on Netflix and at the end of the night there were no leftovers, which I say is the sign of a dinner party well done.