Tuesday, April 3, 2007

some books I've liked

Several years ago, I found a book at the library called English Cottage Gardening for American Gardeners by Margaret Hensel. The foreword was written by Tasha Tudor, who I had never heard of before. The book included photos of her incredible gardens in Vermont at Corgi Cottage.

Recently I saw Tasha Tudor's Garden on someone's blog and decided to check it out - and found out part of her story. She's a famous author and illustrator of children's books primarily, and her artwork is as beautiful as her gardens.

This book has really wonderful photos of her gardens and includes some of her illustrations as well.




Because I was curious about her other books, I also checked out these two - A Time to Keep and The Tasha Tudor Cookbook. Her drawings are simply wonderful. Her trademark seems to be drawing very intricate borders around each illustration.
I have now put all of her children's books on my list at the library and will order them up a few at a time. The stories are written for the 4-8 age group (at least ones I've seen), but the illustrations make them keepsake books, and I may have to watch e-bay and amazon to see if I can afford any for my own collection!







The cookbook has old-fashioned recipes that most of us probably grew up with. I'm going to try some that sounded particularly yummy. She illustrates each page of the book and tells a little story about each recipe - like describing holidays and family events that the recipes were favorites for her childen and friends.
Her home is called Corgi Cottage because she has several Corgyn (her term for plural corgi dogs). The buildings are newer but built to look old and she lives a very simple, old-fashioned lifestyle. I really found the story of Tasha Tudor to be fascinating.



I am about half-way through Come Back to Afghanistan by Said Hyder Akbar. It's very well written and tells a story of post 9-11 Afghanistan, after the Taliban was ousted from power there, through the eyes of a California teenager. It's very interesting.


I also recently read two books by Masha Hamilton - Staircase of a Thousand Steps and The Distance Between Us. They are both interesting - telling stories about the Middle East. I liked her writing style a lot
.

4 comments:

Kitt said...

Oh, I love Tasha Tudor! She illustrated some of my favorite childhood books, by Frances Hodgson Burnett: "A Little Princess," "The Secret Garden."

Glad you like Masha's books. "The Camel Bookmobile" is out now, too, I think. It's good.

kris said...

I have a paperback copy of "The Secret Garden" - and, yes, it is illustrated by Tasha Tudor! Not as beautiful as color illustrations, but the detail is still very nice. (Can't believe I hadn't even thought to check that out, with the research I've done on her work lately!!)

I'm #5 on the list for "The Camel Bookmobile" at the library, and they've ordered 5 copies - so should get it as soon as their copies arrive. Thanks for reviewing her books on your blog.

Anonymous said...

HI,
Had to come on and tell you about a new series of books I am reading:

"THE MITFORD SERIES"

Seven books in all:
AT HOME IN MITFORD
A LIGHT IN THE WINDOW
THOSE HIGH, GREEN HILLS
OUT TO CANNAN
A NEW SONG'
A COMMON LIFE
IN THE MOUNTAINS

Written by Jan Karon----they are so good, set in North Carolina. Lots of flowers!!!!!!!!

I am on the 4th one, if you havn't read them and would like to let me know and I'll bring them along in May.

Later,
THE TEXAS CONNECTION

kris said...

Sure - bring them - we can pass them around up here. I haven't read her books, but saw something about them recently - can't remember where. (If you find the motor home is OVERfull, though, I can check them out of the library, of course!)