Two very different books but both celebrations of our senses while exploring the essential question of what is love.

The Book of Everlasting Things is a story that I enjoyed taking my time with. I can’t say for sure whether it was me or the slow paced plot of the book. It reminded me of the comfort that can come from returning to characters for more than just a week. It is a story about a perfumers family and a calligraphers family and all that changes due to the Partition of India in 1947. My appreciation of essential oils and the power of scent added extra enjoyment to this read for me. It is an ambitious first novel by Aanachal Malhotra that tackles heavy issues of religion, life meaning and love. I highly recommend this book.

I had some resistance to reading Love & Saffron despite it being highly recommended by my co-workers at Books & Company and my mom. Cooking isn’t really my thing so I wasn’t sure I would enjoy a book that I knew cooking and even recipes were a big part of. I’m glad I got over my resistance because this is a gem of a book about a friendship cultivated through letters and recipes. Kim Fay shares her goal in writing this book was to write a gentle story about friendship, food and love. She absolutely met her goal. It is a gentle story with bite size bits of wisdom. One of my favorite bite size bits: “The less we cement ourselves to our certainties, the fuller our lives can be.” (Pg 91) Such a good reminder!

Both of these books are about arts that are becoming more and more rare in our fast paced society - calligraphy, perfumery, cooking and letter writing. They are both worthy of the read and perhaps they will inspire us to cook something with saffron, blend a perfume with essential oils or write a letter with our best penmanship or at least slow down enough to enjoy reading a good book.