Apricots on the Nile: A Memoir with Recipes

by Colette Rossant | Biographies & Memoirs |
ISBN: 0747558167 Global Overview for this book
Registered by mrbaggins1 of Johannesburg, Gauteng South Africa on 12/20/2009
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10 journalers for this copy...
Journal Entry 1 by mrbaggins1 from Johannesburg, Gauteng South Africa on Sunday, December 20, 2009
In 1937, five-year-old Colette Rossant arrived in Cairo from Paris with her Egyptian-Jewish father and beautiful French mother. When her father dies Colette's flighty mother abandons the little girl to her wealthy grandparents. She soon settles into their luxuriant, food-centred lifestyle - spending afternoons in the spice-filled kitchen; accompanying her grandmother to the bazaar and feasting on the delicious food. At fifteen Colette is brought back to Paris with her mother, never to see her grandparents again, and only to return to Egypt thirty years later. In this charming, funny, and moving memoir, accompanied by mouth-watering recipes, she evokes an Egypt lost, to her and to us, for ever.

I bought this years ago but never got round to reading it as this thin little paperback slipped in between other books on my shelf - the bane of a compulsive book-hoarder I supose. I'm letting this go as an RABCK - Drawing on Christmas Day.

Journal Entry 2 by mrbaggins1 at Johannesburg, Gauteng South Africa on Wednesday, January 6, 2010

Released 14 yrs ago (1/6/2010 UTC) at Johannesburg, Gauteng South Africa

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Released to the winner of my Christmas RABCK Anna-O in Argentina (My first book traveling to South America) I hope it arrives safely and that you'll enjoy the money (What does it feel like to be a multi-millionaire?)Please journal on receipt and enjoy.

Journal Entry 3 by Anna-O from Buenos Aires, Ciudad de Buenos Aires (Capital Federal) Argentina on Wednesday, March 24, 2010
yes!! I've just got your beautifull package MrBaggins!! You are great and you made me very happy!! All the books and yummy things and beautiful things are safe home and as far as the money goes I am not feeling so safe knowing that now I am a complete BILLONAIRE!!
thanks a lot, I will enjoy all this a lot!!

Journal Entry 4 by Anna-O at Buenos Aires, Ciudad de Buenos Aires (Capital Federal) Argentina on Monday, August 1, 2011
I've just finished this book, which I found delightful in every sense. The beautiful way it's written and the intrincate recipes, and the description of Cairo are great. The story istelf is lovely, and makes me wonder how some children survive undamaged to very unfortunate childhoods while others crash in confortable situations. I love books about arabic countries, and I enjoyed this a lot. I'll try the apricot pudding as soon as I can.

Journal Entry 5 by Anna-O at Buenos Aires, Ciudad de Buenos Aires (Capital Federal) Argentina on Monday, July 29, 2013

Released 10 yrs ago (7/29/2013 UTC) at Buenos Aires, Ciudad de Buenos Aires (Capital Federal) Argentina

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Sent to someone who has it on her wishlist. I hope it gets there soon and safe.

Journal Entry 6 by Chania at Kokkola, Keski-Pohjanmaa / Mellersta Österbotten Finland on Tuesday, August 6, 2013
From South-Africa to Argentina to Finland! Wow, this book has made quite a journey around the world! Thank you so much, Anna-O, for this great surprise! I will read this soon and then let it continue it's travels!

Journal Entry 7 by Chania at Kokkola, Keski-Pohjanmaa / Mellersta Österbotten Finland on Sunday, August 11, 2013
I had to read this right away :) Very lovely book, I loved to get to know the food in Egypt, and some of the culture too. Of course this book was about wealthy people in Cairo, not most of the population, but it was lovely to see this side of Egypt too.

I am saving this for my rabck in September.

Journal Entry 8 by Chania at Kokkola, Keski-Pohjanmaa / Mellersta Österbotten Finland on Sunday, September 15, 2013
Sending to lukutuoli next, she was the winner of my rabck!

Journal Entry 9 by winglukutuoliwing at Tampere, Pirkanmaa / Birkaland Finland on Wednesday, September 18, 2013
Oh, this well-travelled book looks just lovely, thank you. As I wasn't the only one to wish this in Chania's RABCK, I'll try to be quick with this and then send to someone else, who wished this in the draw, too! What a beautiful cover.

Journal Entry 10 by winglukutuoliwing at Tampere, Pirkanmaa / Birkaland Finland on Thursday, September 19, 2013
I found the lovely bookmark "Chania 7 Years of Bookcrossing" only after started to read this book, it will stay with this book when I let it travel again :)

This was quick read, moving memoir of a lady whose identity is somewhere in Egypt, France or the US, in Judaism or Catholicism! I felt so sorry for the little girl who was left by her mother. The book was an interesting combination of recipes, biography and description of Cairo back in 1940s. I would have liked to read also about other people, than these upper-class Egyptians, but learned many things from this book. Thank you for sharing!

Journal Entry 11 by winglukutuoliwing at Tampere, Bookcrossing Meetup -- Controlled Releases on Friday, September 20, 2013

Released 10 yrs ago (9/20/2013 UTC) at Tampere, Bookcrossing Meetup -- Controlled Releases

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I'll meet a couple of local bookcrossers, who also wished for this book in Chania's RABCK, today at Tampere BC meet-up. Let's see who'll be the next reader...

KTMC 2013 # 109

Journal Entry 12 by wingBookgeowing at Pirkkala, Pirkanmaa / Birkaland Finland on Friday, September 20, 2013
This book looks delicious, thank you so much lukutuoli! I'll read this and reserve this to Tarna next. Wow how wonderful journeys this book has already made!

Journal Entry 13 by wingBookgeowing at Pirkkala, Pirkanmaa / Birkaland Finland on Saturday, October 19, 2013
I expected a lot from this book as I have planned to travel to Cairo for a long time. I liked all the descriptions about the city, its streets and markets and was left wishing even more of those. The mother-daughter relationship was heart-braking but otherwise I felt I was not able to really get a good grip of the described family dynamics and thus did not enjoy them so much. For a food fanatic this book is close to heaven, an occasional cook got a very nice glimpse to the Egyptian culinary culture as well.

Journal Entry 14 by wingBookgeowing at Fellow Bookcrosser, Bookcrossing Meetup -- Controlled Releases on Saturday, October 19, 2013

Released 10 yrs ago (10/20/2013 UTC) at Fellow Bookcrosser, Bookcrossing Meetup -- Controlled Releases

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Next stop Tarna.

2013 Keep Them Moving # 33

Roosa Nauha (2013) -haaste, Geisha chocolate to accompany the book :)

Journal Entry 15 by Tarna at Tampere, Pirkanmaa / Birkaland Finland on Sunday, October 20, 2013
Thanks, Bookgeo, for the book and the chocolate bar. Both look yummy.

Journal Entry 16 by Tarna at Tampere, Pirkanmaa / Birkaland Finland on Wednesday, February 7, 2018
Prix Eugenie Brazier 2010

I’m afraid I was expecting too much. Apricots on the Nile is a nice book and some of the recipes really interesting, but... Just before this book, I finished the memoir of Susanna Moodie and enjoyed it very much. I guess that’s why Apricots didn’t taste so good.
I wanted to find Cairo/Egypt in this book but I didn’t. Admittedly, there were places like the Pyramids, the Nile Hilton Hotel, City of the Dead, and Khan el-Khalili, but I wanted more. I wanted to see, smell, hear, and even remember Cairo while reading but I didn’t. It seemed to me that young Colette stayed mainly inside the house, and Cairo/Egypt stayed outside. As a memoir, the story seems a bit to discursive. I felt I was losing my way several times. More than A memoir with Recipes, the book seemed to me a memoir about recipes. So I felt a bit disappointed. Yet, it is a very nice book. Thank you all for sharing.

Colette Rossant at Wikipedia
Colette Rossant, official website

Journal Entry 17 by Tarna at Tampere, Pirkanmaa / Birkaland Finland on Thursday, February 8, 2018

Released 6 yrs ago (2/8/2018 UTC) at Tampere, Pirkanmaa / Birkaland Finland

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Years ago, Chania celebrated her seven years of BookCrossing offering several RABCK's in Finnish forum. Apricots on the Nile was one of them, and it was also a book that interested quite a few BC'ers. Annimanni was among them, and that's why I offered this book to her. Enjoy, Annimanni!

Journal Entry 18 by Annimanni at Espoo, Uusimaa / Nyland Finland on Tuesday, February 13, 2018
Thank you very much!

Journal Entry 19 by Annimanni at Espoo, Uusimaa / Nyland Finland on Sunday, June 21, 2020
I quite enjoyed this little book although I, too, would've liked to have read more of Cairo as the descriptions of the city were the ones that interested me most. And I must admit reading the book made me hungry. The meals sounded delicious.

Journal Entry 20 by Annimanni at Espoo, Uusimaa / Nyland Finland on Sunday, June 21, 2020

Released 3 yrs ago (6/22/2020 UTC) at Espoo, Uusimaa / Nyland Finland

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Travelling as part of the Bookring with a fruit or vegetable in the title.

Journal Entry 21 by wingrodespringbalwing at Roosdaal, Vlaams-Brabant / Brabant Flamant Belgium on Wednesday, July 1, 2020
thank you for sending this one

Journal Entry 22 by wingrodespringbalwing at Roosdaal, Vlaams-Brabant / Brabant Flamant Belgium on Sunday, December 6, 2020
I've read this one already so sending of to the winner of the chocolate and chiclitsweeps. Maybe not really chiclit but I loved it so much and a lot of recipes inside.

Journal Entry 23 by wingrodespringbalwing at Roosdaal, Vlaams-Brabant / Brabant Flamant Belgium on Sunday, December 6, 2020

Released 3 yrs ago (12/6/2020 UTC) at Roosdaal, Vlaams-Brabant / Brabant Flamant Belgium

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happy winnings, hope you love the chocolate

Journal Entry 24 by hobbit at Poughkeepsie, New York USA on Tuesday, January 12, 2021
Received with thanks! Both the book and the chocolate look delicious.

Journal Entry 25 by hobbit at Poughkeepsie, New York USA on Tuesday, January 19, 2021
I had mixed feelings about this book. I enjoyed the glimpses of everyday life but also felt that it didn't show as much of the Egyptian culture as I'd hoped. I enjoyed the food descriptions but there are only a couple of recipes that I plan to try.

I really enjoyed learning about ta'miyya, as it's one of the dishes that I ate very regularly in my couple of months in Sudan last year. I knew it was a type of falafel but didn't realize that it was made from fava beans instead of chickpeas. It was my most common lunch, as it was available at little street stands right by the university where I was teaching. It was delicious, cheap, quick, and I could pronounce it! They served it on rolls or rolled in flatbreads, with chopped tomatoes, pickles, lettuce, mayonnaise, and hot sauce.

I'm counting this book for Egypt in the 666 Around the World Reading challenge, and for C in the A-Z Authors Reading Challenge.

I'm setting this aside to use in a bookbox of books with colors in the titles, since I've seen Apricot used to describe a shade of light orange. That bookbox is meant to be on its way to me soon.

Journal Entry 26 by rhythmbiscuit at Northglenn, Colorado USA on Monday, February 22, 2021
Wow, this book has already had quite a journey! Thank you for sharing it.

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