Book's I'm Reading
Books I'm Reading - May 2021
Books I’m Reading
David B Hazelwood
May 2021
May was a busy month around here with all of the spring chores calling for me, so only two of the 3 Rs got much attention. The big news was that we sold Parish Patch Inn and are now fully retired. That created some Rithmatic attention. I’ve also been working on the final edits on the two books I want to get published by the Fourth of July, so that has taken my Riting attention. Here’s my Readin’, such as it is.
IRS Publication 17 by The U.S. Department of the Treasury
Tax filing got a COVID delay until May 17, so I did my annual read of this thrilling mystery. A page turner it is not but I recommend everyone read it at least once even if someone else prepares your taxes. After all, you send more money to these folks than any of the authors and book publishers you support. It will give you new ideas about how to structure your finances during the year. By April 15 it is too late for that kind of planning. The tax preparer can only work with what you give them. Just one tip can earn you hundreds of dollars. I do know now to hold my stocks one year and one day, not just one year, to avoid paying short term gains tax. What’s one day?
DR Horton Company prospectus by David V Auld, CEO
I read this one and several others in the genre of companies whose stocks are investment prospects. Thirteen years ago, all of my investments were in mutual funds, which are fine, but index funds are better. One cold winter morning I read several of my mutual funds annual reports. Ever read one? I recommend reading at least one in your lifetime. I did and decided to invest in individual stocks instead. That may not be your conclusion, but at least one will know what they are doing with your hard earned money. Oh, by the way, I decided to buy some DR Horton stock.
Animals Who Own Us by David B Hazelwood
This book will remind you to be careful what you own; it will eventually own you. You don’t own an animal. It just lets you think you do. At first, you’re putting them in their proper place, making them look the way you want, and training them to obey your wishes, but soon they are telling you what to do and when to do it. Then they punish you when you don’t.
This book is for all lovers of animals and those who willingly become servants of their pets and livestock. This collection of twenty-eight narratives chronicles my fifty-years of remarkable, but true, experiences in “owning” animals. While the cows, horses, pig, turkeys, mules, goat, ducks, chickens, and peacocks are from our Tennessee farm and country inn, the dog and cat episodes could have happened in a Manhattan high rise studio. I have owned a lot of animals, but never had to say, “I’m owned by a monkey.”
Book of the Month
Cooking Southern: Recipes and Their History by David G Smith
and David B Hazelwood
My third cookbook is more than a collection of historic recipes from the nineteenth and twentieth centuries. It explores the reasons why Southerners ate and cooked the ways they did in early America. Without the enslaved Africans cooking for them, the Southerners would not have learned to eat turnip greens, okra, sweet potatoes, benne seed cakes, or grits. The European immigrants were added to this menagerie of Southerners and brought with them jambalaya, roux, syllabub, scones, shortnin’ bread, and chocolate to make a meal.
Without the Civil War, cornbread, black eyed peas, and hominy wouldn’t have become Southern staples, even though some swore never to eat them again. We are glad for all of the contributions and you will be too, when you discover more of the history of these eighteen hundred historic recipes and make your own version of Cooking Southern.
In preparation for our annual Kentucky Derby Party, I used the Frozen Custard recipe on page 425 as the base for a Kentucky Derby Bourbon Pie. (The ¼ cup Bourbon I added prevents homemade ice cream brain freeze.)
