Exploring Wine Regions - California Central Coast: Discovering Great Wines, Phenomenal Foods and Amazing Tourism by Michael Higgins -- BOOK REVIEW

 

BOOK REVIEW

Exploring Wine Regions - California Central Coast: Discovering Great Wines, Phenomenal Foods and Amazing Tourism by Michael Higgins (2023)

This book about the wines of California's Central Coast is the third book in Michael Higgins's Exploring Wine Regions series. The first two books covered Bordeaux country in France and the wines of Argentina. Like the first two, this California book is a meticulously researched, insider account of wineries and vineyards, as well as a travel guide to the food, special lodging, sights, and history you will find.

This book focusses on the Central Coast of California, specifically Monterey, San Louis Obispo, and Santa Barbara Counties. This coastal area stretches from south of San Francisco to Santa Barbara, just north of Los Angeles. Higgins is familiar with all the wine regions of California. He focused on the Central Coast region because, as he says:

Every type of wine is made here. Terroir is incredibly diverse, allowing for the optimum growing of just about any wine grape. Central Coast wine makers tend to be less rigid, more creative, and inventive. The tourism is better than you can imagine. Restaurants and accommodations at wineries are becoming common here.

Like the other books in his series, Higgins has packed his California book with detailed information about the geography, wines, wine makers, and wineries of each appellation and sub-appellation of the region. He also includes all the information you need to travel to and through the Central Coast's wine country. The book is also gorgeous, filled with amazing photographs. It is a beautiful coffee table book for armchair travel as well as an indispensable guide to a fascinating wine region. 

NOTES

I'm familiar with some of the wineries of the Central Coast, mostly those around Paso Robles, from when I lived in San Francisco. But we never did a deep dive into wines of this area. California is close to me here in Oregon and we have family in the Bay Area and Central Coast, so I plan to use this book to plan several wine-centered road trips.

You can read my review of Higgins's France and Argentina books here. Go to the Exploring Wine Regions website for more information about this book, the series, and Michael Higgins.

FROM THE PUBLISHER'S DESCRIPTION

Most everyone knows of Napa Valley and Sonoma County; however, the Central Coast Wine Regions are producing top-level, high-quality wines, and the tourism is extraordinary.

Twenty million years ago, the Pacific Plate arose from the Pacific Ocean hitting the North American Plate (Canada, United States and Mexico) leaving a sliver of land above the water along California’s coast south of San Francisco. This sliver of land has its own very special terroir highly conducive to making high-quality wines. This book takes you on a journey to discover these amazing wines.
Also, the tourism along the central coast of California is unmatched. The beaches, mountains and valleys are ever so enchanting. The wineries are engaging, have lots of tourism activities available, and are especially inviting and friendly, unlike other wine regions. It’s not uncommon to find the vintner or winemaker at the tasting room wanting to share their stories and their love of wine with you.

Need Blind Ambition by Kevin Meyers -- BOOK REVIEW

BOOK REVIEW

Need Blind Ambition by Kevin Meyers (2023, Beaufort Books)

Need Blind Ambition is the second novel from Kevin Meyers, a former journalist turned college administrator. I love the play on words in the title, the moody cover, and the whole college noir atmosphere of the book.

As with his first novel, Hidden Falls, this story deftly balances action, ideas, tension, and humor. The protagonist Peter Cook, having landed a public relations job at a prestigious private college, finds himself torn between protecting the college and exposing its illegal activity. Peter is a sympathetic hero who also wrestles with his own past trauma. Woven into the story are reflections on the state of college education, its cost, admission policies, and the fallout from the pressure created by our higher education system.

I love campus novels and I love mysteries, so a novel of suspense set on a college campus is my cup of tea on any day. That this one is set in my town of Portland, Oregon, made it even more tantalizing. With a complex plot, realistic characters, and exploration of relevant issues, Need Blind Ambition is an excellent read.


FROM THE PUBLISHER'S DESCRIPTION

The desire for relevance—and to save his marriage—is ultimately what pushed Peter Cook to leave his beloved Alaska for the prestigious Parker College. Lured by the chance to work with his childhood political idol turned college president, Peter moves his family to Portland, Oregon to help promote his hero’s fundraising initiative that would eliminate financial status from the college’s admissions process.

Peter arrives on campus as the Great Recession looms, the stock market is trending toward disaster, and the opioid crisis has breached the walls of the privileged college. He quickly learns the reality of Parker College strays far from its professed idealistic mission after discovering a plot to cover-up felonious drug activity in return for a seven-figure payday to the Need Blind Campaign.

While plumbing the depths of his conscience for the conviction to do the right thing, Peter’s untreated childhood trauma resurfaces, threatening to cloud his perception when it needs to be at its sharpest. Peter must stabilize his mental health while also trying to parse competing versions of “the truth” as law enforcement investigates the criminal conspiracy.

The Martian Chronicles by Ray Bradbury -- BOOK BEGINNINGS

 

BOOK BEGINNINGS ON FRIDAYS

Thank you for joining me for Book Beginnings on Fridays! Share the first sentence (or so) of the book you are reading, along with your initial thoughts about the sentence, impressions of the book, or anything else the opener inspires. You can also share from a book you want to highlight, even if you are not reading it right now.

MY BOOK BEGINNING

One minute it was Ohio winter, with doors closed, windows locked, the panes blind with frost, icicles fringing every roof, children skiing on slopes, housewives lumbering like great black bears in their furs along the icy streets.

-- from The Martian Chronicles by Ray Bradbury, a sci-fi classic published in 1950. 

Do you read sci-fi? I don't, as a general rule. But there are a few sci-fi classics lurking on my TBR shelves. The Martian Chronicles is one of them. Have you read it?

This is the year I finish my Classic Club list. The Classics Club invites readers to create their own list of 50 "classic books" (defined for the project as any book older than 50 years that has some lasting literary merit) and read them all in five years. I'm on track to wrap up my first Classics Club list by December 31, 2023. I am already of thinking of what books to include on my second Classics Club list and The Martian Chronicles would be a good pick. 

YOUR BOOK BEGINNINGS

Please share the pink to your Book Beginnings post in the box below. If you share on social media, please use the hashtag #bookbeginnings.

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THE FRIDAY 56

The Friday 56, a natural tie in with Book Beginnings. The idea is to share a two-sentence teaser from page 56 of your book, or 56% of the way through an e-book or audiobook. Freda at Freda's Voice is taking a break from hosting her weekly blog event, but many people are still posting Friday 56 teasers. Please visit her Freda’s Voice blog even if there currently is no place to link your post.

MY FIRDAY 56

-- from The Martian Chronicles: 

He wondered where the people had gone, and what they had been, and who their kings were, and how they had died. And he wondered, quietly aloud, how they had built this city to last the ages through, and had they ever come to Earth?

Three Fires by Denise Mina -- BOOK REVIEW

BOOK REVIEW

Three Fires by Denise Mina (2023, Pegasus Books)

With Three Fires, Denise Mina returns to the novella form she used so masterfully in Rizzio, her earlier book of historical fiction. Three Fires is the story of Girolamo Savonarola, a Dominican frier in 15th Century Florence. Savonarola rose as a puritanical leader of Florence after his preaching against the greed and vice of the ruling Medici family led to their loss of power.

Savonarola’s hellfire preaching inspired a series of fires around Florence lit to publicly burn books, fancy clothes, art, playing cards, musical instruments, and other symbols of immorality. These fires became known as the Bonfire of the Vanities.

While Three Fires is a quick and entertaining read, Mina packs a lot of information and ideas into this short book of 138 pages. She, as the omniscient narrator, uses modern language and modern similes to describe the historical details in a way that makes them immediately understandable. For example, when she describes a civil war between rival aristocratic families in the wealthy city of Ferrara, she says, “It’s the Vietnam War taking place in Monte Carlo.” These historical anomalies could feel like stylistic gimmicks, but in Mina’s hands, they work to convey complex ideas in an efficient and engaging way.

FROM THE PUBLISHER'S DESCRIPTION

From the award-winning master of crime fiction, Denise Mina re-imagines the "Bonfire of the Vanities,” a series of fires lit throughout Florence at the end of the fifteenth century—inspired by the fanatical Girolamo Savonarola.

* * *

Railing against the vice and avarice of the ruling Medici family, [Savonarola] was instrumental in their removal from power—and for a short time became the puritanical leader of the city. After turning his attention to corruption within the Catholic Church, he was first excommunicated and then executed by a combination of hanging and being burned at the stake.

Just as in Rizzio—her latest novel with Pegasus Crime—Denise Mina brings a modern take to this fascinating historical story, drawing parallels between the febrile atmosphere of medieval Florence and the culture wars of the present day. In dramatizing the life and last days of Savonarola, she explores the downfall of the original architect of cancel culture and, in the process, explores the never-ending tensions between wealth, inequality, and freedom of speech that so dominate our modern world.

Blood From a Stone: A Memoir of How Wine Brought Me Back from the Dead by Adam McHugh -- BOOK REVIEW

 

BOOK REVIEW

Blood From a Stone: A Memoir of How Wine Brought Me Back from the Dead by Adam McHugh (2022, InterVarsity Press)

Blood From a Stone is an excellent memoir by a regular guy struggling with finding his true calling. McHugh was a hospice chaplain, burnt out at work and going through a rough patch in his marriage, when a trip to France taught him to appreciate wine in a new way. Eventually, he takes the big step of giving up his calling to work in the wine industry. It wasn't a smooth transition, and his story takes several detours before McHugh finds his place and peace.

McHugh has a self-deprecating tone and lively sense of humor, which makes the book a joy to read. Like all engaging memoirs, it is thoroughly entertaining and also makes you think. I plan to give this one to several people I know will love it as much as I do.

FROM THE PUBLISHER'S DESCRIPTION

"This is the story of how wine brought me back from the dead."

Thus begins Adam McHugh's transition through the ending of one career—as a hospice chaplain and grief counselor—into the discovery of a new life in wine among the grapevines of the Santa Ynez Valley of California.

"This is the corkscrewing tale of how I got to Santa Ynez, eventually, and the questions that came up along the way," he continues. "You and I are going to take a long wine tour together on our way there, and we will make plenty of stops for a glass and some local wine history. As you will see, I reached into the old, old story of wine in order to find my new story, which begins, as so many wine love stories do, in the French countryside."

With warmth and wit, Adam tells the story of what happens when things fall apart and when where you live no longer feels like home. From the south of France to Champagne to the California central coast, the trail winds toward new life and healing through the good gifts of wine, friendship, and a sense of place. Pour a glass and join the adventure.