Saturday, April 27, 2013

Saturday's Sentence

I ran across an interesting post last weekend at Lynne's Book Notes. She says, "Author David Abrams has started a marvelous idea on his blog, The Quivering Pen. Each Sunday, he posts, without explanation, the best sentence he has read during the week."

Isn't that a great idea? As luck would have it, there is  a single sentence that really stood out in my reading this week. And since it happens to be about food, I'm linking up to Weekend Cooking, too.

"While the Burgesses seemed to have no knowledge of, or interest in, food (there were meals of scrambled hamburger covered with an unmelted sheet of orange cheese, or a tuna casserole made with canned soup, or a chicken roasted without any spices, not even salt), Pam discovered that they loved baked goods, and so she made banana bread and sugar cookies, and sometimes Susan stood in the small kitchen and helped her, and whatever was baked was eaten hungrily, and this touched Pam as well - as though these kids had been starved all their lives for sweetness."
The Burgess Boys
by Elizabeth Strout
page 107



Weekend Cooking, hosted at Beth Fish Reads, is open to anyone who has a food-related post to share: Book (novel, nonfiction) reviews, cookbook reviews, movie reviews, recipes, random thoughts, gadgets, fabulous quotations, photographs. If your post is even vaguely foodie, feel free to grab the button and link up over the weekend.

22 comments:

  1. I agree! That is a great idea for a post. I'm always highlighting sentences that move me and though I sometimes share them on my FB page, I always think its a waste that more people don't recognize them. Now I'm off to check out your book! Enjoy your Saturday!

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  2. Oh dear. I make tuna casserole with canned soup (and fresh mushrooms and sherry), and I proudly stand behind it. :) I like this idea! All those sentences need a home.

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    1. Audrey - I make a tuna casserole with canned soup, too, but I think the addition of fresh mushrooms and sherry add a certain legitimacy ;-)

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  3. I love this! The bit about them eating hungrily b/c of starved of sweetness is lovely. I always love sentences about food! :)

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  4. I agree with the Burgesses - the baked food sounds much much more appetising.

    I also think it's a good idea for a post - I might try it.

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  5. What a fun idea, I love that. I have The Boys of Burgess, and am looking forward to reading it.

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  6. Fantastic idea, there are so many good passages I highlight in a book, usually foodie parts :-)

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  7. You have got me thinking -- I do a weekly book post and I might just add a sentence of the week on....

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  8. golly, chicken with no salt?? how awful.
    although the banana bread sounds delightful.

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  9. Hi JoAnn,

    That was certainly a long sentence, a very rare thing these days, it would seem. I find that I struggle to find a couple of sentences that work as teasers in my 'Tuesday Teasers' posts, authors tend to use a lot of clipped sentences, or so it seems.

    I tend to highlight a few worthy words from a book, in my final review and I also believe that the first few sentences of a book can give great credence as to whether I am going to enjoy a book, or not. I generally share those first lines from each of the books I read, on my 'First Lines' page and in my posts for the 'Book Beginnings' meme.

    I do use lots of herbs and spices in my cooking, but I never add salt to a dish, nor do we have it on the table (in fact I don't have salt in the house). There is just so much salt added to just about every food product that we buy, that I don't feel the need to add extra.

    An interesting and different post for 'Weekend Cooking' this week.

    Yvonne

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  10. I like the favorite sentence idea...and that is a whopper of a sentence you picked! Says a lot. I just don't think I've ever written a sentence that long before. Interesting.

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  11. scrambled hamburger and a slice of cheese. I think I love her writing. I have Olive Kitteridge on the shelf to read. I might have to move it up on my list!

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  12. "... starved all their lives for sweetness." love that. We weren't allowed sweet things as children ... I think that's why I have such a sweet tooth now, making up for lost time lol

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  13. Great sentence -- and great idea for a meme. I still haven't read this one yet.

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  14. That's a great excerpt - I especially liked the ending, "as though these kids had been starved all their lives for sweetness."

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  15. This is a wonderful idea - thanks for passing it on. I think I'm going to participate next week. :-)

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  16. I received this book a while ago and have been meaning to pick it up! Great sentence and a fabulous reminder for me to get off my butt and start reading away.

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  17. What a fun idea for a post. I confess to using canned soup for tuna casserole too :)

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    1. Stacybuckeye - I think canned soup in tuna casseroles tastes pretty good ;-)

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  18. Definitely going to borrow this meme idea!

    Think I'll pass on the tuna casserole, though. ;)

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    1. Les - Be my guest! I'll keep the tuna casserole to myself ;-)

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