I imagine Liza Dalby writing this book in an ancient library, a lion sleeping at her side, as in the paintings of Saint Jerome. As she collects and layers arcane and fascinating pieces of knowledge, she builds her own very personal almanac packed with the wonder of loving two cultures, the intense inner life of each season, and boundless curiosity of the scholar /child. This is a book to dip in and out of throughout the year.
Under the Tuscan Sun
To read East Wind Melts the Ice is to slip into a time stream that is both as long and sinuous as history and as ephemeral as the present moment. Drawing inspiration from the thousand year old history of Japanese poetic diaries, and form from the ancient Chinese almanac
that she uses to contain her musings, Liza Dalby has accomplished the seemingly impossible task of translating the sensibility of the Heian Court of 11th century-Japan into the context of contemporary America.
The result is a stunning chronicle of the beauty of time passing and an evocation of the transient and whimsical nature of all things.
All Over Creation
This beautiful book awakens the senses. A journal, an almanac of the
seasons, and a series of reflections on ancient Eastern Chinese and Japanese
cultures, here you will find subtle observations of rain and heat,
tangerines, mulberries and paulownia trees, crickets and doves forming a
rich tapestry as they are woven with evocative fragments of history—
stories of geishas, of salesmen who sold bulk fireflies, of the wood that
was used for kimono chests, of emptiness in the tea ceremony. Like a lush garden, this book is meant to savor.
The Book of the Courtesans