HAPPY LITERACY MONTH FROM TEA.O.GRAPHY!
While September was National Literary Month, it’s never too late to celebrate books & TEA!
As the crisp air of fall settles upon us, we, the TEAm, have gathered a handful of our favorite books and tea pairings for you to cozy up with.
These perfect pairings - both fiction & non-fiction - will enhance your experience of both the stories and the steeps, the tales and the tea, the books and the brews…
So, steep calm and read on! ;)
OUR FANCIFUL FICTION RECS:
The Mists of Avalon by Marriane Zimmer Bradley
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TEA PAIRING: PEPPERMINT ROSE CHAI
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TEA PAIRING NOTES: Beautiful and a little spicy just like the women of the book
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FROM THE PUBLISHER:
"In Marion Zimmer Bradley's masterpiece, we see the tumult and adventures of Camelot's court through the eyes of the women who bolstered the king's rise and schemed for his fall. From their childhoods through the ultimate fulfillment of their destinies, we follow these women and the diverse cast of characters that surrounds them as the great Arthurian epic unfolds stunningly before us.
As Morgaine and Gwenhwyfar struggle for control over the fate of Arthur's kingdom, as the Knights of the Round Table take on their infamous quest, as Merlin and Viviane wield their magics for the future of Old Britain, the Isle of Avalon slips further into the impenetrable mists of memory, until the fissure between old and new worlds' and old and new religions' claims its most famous victim."
The Fellowship of the Ring by JRR Tolkien
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TEA PAIRING: FOREST FLOOR
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TEA PAIRING NOTES: A series that venerates forests and celebrates trees + the natural world. What a better way to evoke the feelings of the forest than with the aroma and taste of the Forest Floor?
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FROM THE PUBLISHER:
“The Fellowship of the Ring is the first volume in J.R.R. Tolkien's epic adventure tale, The Lord of the Rings.
One Ring to rule them all, One Ring to find them, One Ring to bring them all and in the darkness bind them.
In ancient times the Rings of Power were crafted by the Elven-smiths, and Sauron, the Dark Lord, forged the One Ring, filling it with his own power so that he could rule all others. But the One Ring was taken from him, and though he sought it throughout Middle-earth, it remained lost to him. After many ages it fell into the hands of Bilbo Baggins, as told in The Hobbit. In a sleepy village in the Shire, young Frodo Baggins finds himself faced with an immense task, as his elderly cousin Bilbo entrusts the Ring to his care. Frodo must leave his home and make a perilous journey across Middle-earth to the Cracks of Doom, there to destroy the Ring and foil the Dark Lord in his evil purpose.”
Dune by Frank Herbert
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TEA PAIRING: GOLDEN SPICE
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TEA PAIRING NOTES: The golden path is named in the book and Spice is the chosen drug/export of Dune!
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FROM THE PUBLISHER:
“Set on the desert planet Arrakis, Dune is the story of Paul Atreides—who would become known as Muad'Dib—and of a great family's ambition to bring to fruition humankind’s most ancient and unattainable dream.
A stunning blend of adventure and mysticism, environmentalism and politics, Dune won the first Nebula Award, shared the Hugo Award, and formed the basis of what is undoubtedly the grandest epic in science fiction.”
A Wizard Of Earthsea by Ursula K. LeGuin
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TEA PAIRING: COCONUT CHAI
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TEA PAIRING NOTES: A magical Island feeling of the archipelago in a cup, complex full of flavor!
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FROM THE PUBLISHER:
“Ged was the greatest sorcerer in Earthsea, but in his youth he was the reckless Sparrowhawk. In his hunger for power and knowledge, he tampered with long-held secrets and loosed a terrible shadow upon the world.
This is the tumultuous tale of his testing, how he mastered the mighty words of power, tamed an ancient dragon, and crossed death's threshold to restore the balance.”
Practical Magic by Alice Hoffman
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TEA PAIRING: BLACK MAGIC
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TEA PAIRING NOTES: Mystical, surprising, strong, witchery, dreams...wait, did i just describe the book or the tea? ;)
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FROM THE PUBLISHER:
“For more than two hundred years, the Owens women have been blamed for everything that has gone wrong in their Massachusetts town. Gillian and Sally have endured that fate as well: as children, the sisters were forever outsiders, taunted, talked about, pointed at.
Their elderly aunts almost seemed to encourage the whispers of witchery, with their musty house and their exotic concoctions and their crowd of black cats. But all Gillian and Sally wanted was to escape. One will do so by marrying, the other by running away. But the bonds they share will bring them back—almost as if by magic…”
Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen
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TEA PAIRING: ENGLISH BREAKFAST
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TEA PAIRING NOTES: A classic pairing for a classic love story
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FROM THE PUBLISHER:
“When Elizabeth Bennet first meets eligible bachelor Fitzwilliam Darcy, she thinks him arrogant and conceited; he is indifferent to her good looks and lively mind. When she later discovers that Darcy has involved himself in the troubled relationship between his friend Bingley and her beloved sister Jane, she is determined to dislike him more than ever.
In the sparkling comedy of manners that follows, Jane Austen shows the folly of judging by first impressions and superbly evokes the friendships, gossip, and snobberies of provincial middle-class life.”
The Princess Bride by William Goldman
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TEA PAIRING: FLEURS DE PROVENCE
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TEA PAIRING NOTES: Delightful, bright, romantic, & playful as a book and tea alike!
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FROM THE PUBLISHER:
“A tale of true love and high adventure, pirates, princesses, giants, miracles, fencing, and a frightening assortment of wild beasts—The Princess Bride is a modern storytelling classic.
As Florin and Guilder teeter on the verge of war, the reluctant Princess Buttercup is devastated by the loss of her true love, kidnapped by a mercenary and his henchman, rescued by a pirate, forced to marry Prince Humperdinck, and rescued once again by the very crew who absconded with her in the first place. In the course of this dazzling adventure, she'll meet Vizzini—the criminal philosopher who'll do anything for a bag of gold; Fezzik—the gentle giant; Inigo—the Spaniard whose steel thirsts for revenge; and Count Rugen—the evil mastermind behind it all.
Foiling all their plans and jumping into their stories is Westley, Princess Buttercup’s one true love and a very good friend of a very dangerous pirate.”
Deathless by Catherynne M. Valente
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TEA PAIRING: RUSSIAN CARAVAN
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TEA PAIRING NOTES: A deep, smokey, nostalgic tea for a complex and dark novel
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FROM THE PUBLISHER:
“A glorious retelling of the Russian folktale Marya Morevna and Koschei the Deathless from Catherynne M. Valente, set in a mysterious version of St. Petersburg during the first half of the 20th century
Koschei the Deathless is to Russian folklore what devils or wicked witches are to European culture: a menacing, evil figure; the villain of countless stories which have been passed on through story and text for generations. But Koschei has never before been seen through the eyes of Catherynne Valente, whose modernized and transformed take on the legend brings the action to modern times, spanning many of the great developments of Russian history in the twentieth century.
Deathless, however, is no dry, historical tome: it lights up like fire as the young Marya Morevna transforms from a clever child of the revolution, to Koschei's beautiful bride, to his eventual undoing. Along the way there are Stalinist house elves, magical quests, secrecy and bureaucracy, and games of lust and power. All told, Deathless is a collision of magical history and actual history, of revolution and mythology, of love and death, which will bring Russian myth back to life in a stunning new incarnation.”
OUR NOTABLE NON-FICTION RECS:
Earth to Moon by Moon Unit Zappa
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TEA PAIRING: EARTH TO MOON UNIT® TEA
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TEA PAIRING NOTES: A tea blend made exclusively to pair with Moon’s book! With new book feels this tea is cozy & comforting with a clean, burnt sugar finish
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FROM THE PUBLISHER:
"From Moon Unit Zappa, the daughter of musical visionary Frank Zappa, comes a memoir of growing up in her unconventional household in 1970s Los Angeles, coming of age in the Hollywood Hills in the 1980s as the “Valley Girl,” gaining momentum as an accidental VJ on a new network called MTV, and finding herself after losing her father, then her mother, and the testing of her most important relationships...
How can you navigate life as the “normal” child of an extraordinary creative? What is it like to live in a hothouse of individuality that on one hand fosters freedom of expression, and on the other tamps down the basic desires of a child for boundaries and affection? Should you call your parents Frank and Gail from birth?...
With love, humor, and humility, Earth to Moon reminds us that every family is faced with problems that are unique to their particular makeup, but the journey to growing into yourself with grace is as universal as it gets."
A Walk in the Woods by Bill Bryson
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FROM THE PUBLISHER:
“Back in America after twenty years in Britain, Bill Bryson decided to reacquaint himself with his native country by walking the 2,100-mile Appalachian Trail, which stretches from Georgia to Maine. The AT offers an astonishing landscape of silent forests and sparkling lakes—and to a writer with the comic genius of Bill Bryson, it also provides endless opportunities to witness the majestic silliness of his fellow human beings.
For a start there’s the gloriously out-of-shape Stephen Katz, a buddy from Iowa along for the walk. But A Walk in the Woods is more than just a laugh-out-loud hike. Bryson’s acute eye is a wise witness to this beautiful but fragile trail, and as he tells its fascinating history, he makes a moving plea for the conservation of America’s last great wilderness. An adventure, a comedy, and a celebration, A Walk in the Woods is a modern classic of travel literature.”
The Botany Of Desire by Michael Pollan
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TEA PAIRING: APPLE DELIGHT
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TEA PAIRING NOTES: One fourth of the book is just about APPLES! An homage to the Apple both on the page and in your cup - as a standing for the fruit industry and the human desire for sweetness!
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FROM THE PUBLISHER:
“Every schoolchild learns about the mutually beneficial dance of honeybees and flowers: The bee collects nectar and pollen to make honey and, in the process, spreads the flowers’ genes far and wide. InThe Botany of Desire, Michael Pollan ingeniously demonstrates how people and domesticated plants have formed a similarly reciprocal relationship.
He masterfully links four fundamental human desires—sweetness, beauty, intoxication, and control—with the plants that satisfy them: the apple, the tulip, marijuana, and the potato. In telling the stories of four familiar species, Pollan illustrates how the plants have evolved to satisfy humankind’s most basic yearnings. And just as we’ve benefited from these plants, we have also done well by them. So who is really domesticating whom?”
Braiding Sweet Grass by Robin Wall Kimmerer
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TEA PAIRING: FOREST FLOOR (yes, again! it is just so pair-able!)
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TEA PAIRING NOTES: A reciprocal relationship between humans and the Earth...books & tea - this tea harkens grandmother cedar and the rich loamy soil to which we are all connected
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FROM THE PUBLISHER:
“As a botanist, Robin Wall Kimmerer has been trained to ask questions of nature with the tools of science. As a member of the Citizen Potawatomi Nation, she embraces the notion that plants and animals are our oldest teachers. In Braiding Sweetgrass, Kimmerer brings these two lenses of knowledge together to take us on “a journey that is every bit as mythic as it is scientific, as sacred as it is historical, as clever as it is wise” (Elizabeth Gilbert).
Drawing on her life as an indigenous scientist, a mother, and a woman, Kimmerer shows how other living beings—asters and goldenrod, strawberries and squash, salamanders, algae, and sweetgrass—offer us gifts and lessons, even if we’ve forgotten how to hear their voices. In a rich braid of reflections that range from the creation of Turtle Island to the forces that threaten its flourishing today, she circles toward a central argument: that the awakening of a wider ecological consciousness requires the acknowledgment and celebration of our reciprocal relationship with the rest of the living world. For only when we can hear the languages of other beings will we be capable of understanding the generosity of the earth, and learn to give our own gifts in return.”
All About Love by bell hooks
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TEA PAIRING: CHOCOLATE ROSE OOLONG
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TEA PAIRING NOTES: The taste of love
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FROM THE PUBLISHER:
“The word ‘love’ is most often defined as a noun, yet we would all love better if we used it as a verb,” writes bell hooks as she comes out fighting and on fire in All About Love. Provocative and intensely personal, renowned scholar, cultural critic and feminist bell hooks offers a proactive new ethic for a society stricken with lovelessness—not the lack of romance, but the lack of care, compassion, and unity. People are divided, she declares, by society’s failure to provide a model for learning to love.
In this landmark book, bell hooks explores the question “What is love?” Her answers strike at both the mind and heart. Disputing that the ideal love is infused with sex and desire, she provides a new path to love that is sacred, redemptive, and healing for individuals and for a nation. All About Love is a powerful, timely affirmation of just how profoundly love and community can change hearts and minds for the better.”
Here's to finding the peace & quiet in a good book & relaxing cup of tea!
