How’s your summer reading going?
We at Bex are a literary sort. There’s something about the cafe environment and European style that lends itself to the life of the mind. Chef Becky is reading The Devil in the Kitchen: Sex, Pain, Madness, and the Making of a Great Chef by Marco Pierre White. White was the youngest chef ever, at 34, to win 3 Michelin stars. “There is definitely a lot of pain and madness in the kitchen,” Chef Becky laughs. Even when the Chef takes a rare day off, she is still thinking – and reading – about cooking.
That’s what passion and dedication look like.
Genre Explosion
There has been a genre explosion in literature in the wake of the internet and our history-making tumultuous times. One of the newest is Dark Academia, an intriguing genre that is also a fashion aesthetic, and came about from the popularity of Harry Potter books and movies – and how the pandemic caused young people to feel nostalgia for their school lives and environment. The internet has created a vibrant community of readers, especially women, who send books to each other and connect. People are reconnecting via good old-fashioned books.
Poetry Moves to the Fall
A heads up that our Poetry Readings at The Gallery at Bex are being moved to a quarterly schedule, with the next one scheduled for November 14th – mark your calendar. There will also be a new artist’s work in The Gallery around October, so stay tuned. Chef Becky is always working to support the community and the arts. Thank you, Chef!
Fall Reads
We took a look at Fall 2024’s most anticipated books and are excited about Polish author Olga Tokarczuk’s The Empusium. Tokarczuk won the Nobel Prize in 2018 for the amazing Drive Your Plow Over the Bones of the Dead. Summer brain rust is real, so keep your mind active during the dog days of summer. Remember those iconic Judy Blume books like Are You There God? It’s Me, Margaret, and (for the lads) Then Again, Maybe I Won’t? Learn about the mind behind those classics with The Genius of Judy: How Judy Blume Rewrote Childhood for All of Us by Rachelle Bergstein.
Our tech-heavy world has opened up amazing doors for creativity, communication, and culture, but there’s still nothin’ like reading and making your own mental images.
Our collaboration with Howling Basset Books is in summer mode as they travel and are only open on select days (check their schedule here) but we look forward to working with them in the future. Pick up a book at Howling Basset and read it at Bex with our amazing Black River Roasters Bex blend coffee.
Keep reading, keep cooking, and keep Bex in mind for your cafe and catering needs. Happy National Book Lovers Day on August 9th– stop by and let us know what you’re reading!
Bex Cafe
52 Main Street, Califon, NJ 07830
Open weekends 9 - 2
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