Opening Sentence of the Day: We Have Always Lived in the Castle

My name is Mary Katherine Blackwood.

-- We Have Always Lived in the Castle by Shirley Jackson. This is a crazy weird book. Very funny in a creepy way.

This is on Erica Jong's list of Top 100 20th Century Novels by Women.

Opening Sentence of the Day: Locations

It is a truism that the world grows smaller, and a truism especially obvious to anyone like me, who earns a living by perpetual wandering and writing.

-- Locations by Jan Morris.

Her book on Venice, The World of Venice: Revised Edition, is my favorite armchair travel book of all times.  Oxford was also quite good.

This, instead of Morris's usual exhaustive analysis of one city, is a collection of pieces about 13 separate places.  Her unrivaled eye for detail and willingness to render judgment make each essay a treat.

Teaser Tuesday: The Master Butcher's Singing Club

After a few days of shock and strangeness, days in which people in Argus could talk of nothing else and strained after each detail, explanations stalled.  Just as Roy predicted, Clarisse had disappeared.

-- The Master Butchers Singing Club by Louise Erdrich. How's that for a tease!

Teaser Tuesdays is hosted by Should Be Reading, where you can find the official rules for this weekly event.

Mailbox Monday

Thanks for joining me for Mailbox Monday! MM was created by Marcia at A girl and her books (fka The Printed Page), who graciously hosted it for a long, long time, before turning it into a touring meme (details here).

MariReads is hosting in May. Please visit her wonderful blog, where even the banner picture will inspire you to read a good book.

I hit a couple of library sale shelves when I was out and about last week, snagging an Anthony Powell I've been searching for, filling in some of my books lists, and finding some new mysteries to try:

Afternoon Men by Anthony Powell. His Dance to the Music of Time is my favorite "book" if you can call a 12-volume series one book. I've been looking for this non-Dance book for quite a while.




Death of an Expert Witness by P. D. James (the 6th Adam Dalgliesh mystery; mine has a different cover than the one below).



Death in Holy Orders by P. D. James (the 11th Adam Dalgliesh mystery).



Hangman's Holiday (1933) by Dorothy L. Sayers (published in 1933; short stories, 4 with Lord Peter Wimsey).



Rough Country by John Sandford (a new one for me; I know nothing about it or the author).



Arctic Chill by Arnaldur Indridason (another new one for me; part of a series set in Reykjavik, Iceland).

Happy Mother's Day, Mom!

Bayerische Bücher

I am in love with Bavaria and all things Bavarian, right down to the Griebens in the Schmalz. My Grandpa Fritz came over to America in the 1930s, but we still have many relatives living in Bavaria, including my sister, who is working as a chef at a fancy hotel in Bad Wörishofen.

I'm working on my final plans for our upcoming vacation to beautiful Bavaria.  I've got housesitters lined up, the car rented, and hotels books, now it is time for the really fun stuff of planning activities and sights to see.

It will be my husband's first visit, and it ends with a big family reunion at the mountain inn my Dad's cousin still runs.  That's a lot of family time for Hubby, so I am planning the things he likes to do for the others days -- lots of alpine hikes, charming villages, and a couple of spa days.

So I have my books out today and am planning. I don't have as many travel guides to Bavaria as I thought I did.  These are the books I have, but suggestions would be welcome:

Bavaria by Rodney Bolt.  Mine is an outdated copy of this Cadogan guide, but I don't mind outdated. How much can a Baroque chapel or an Alp change in 10 years?



Karen Brown's Germany: Exceptional Places to Stay and Itineraries.  Brown's guides are always my first place to start when planning a trip, so I did this time too, even though only one of her itineraries covers Bavaria.  We are spending three nights at one of her recommended hotels.



Germany's Best-Loved Driving Tours, published by Frommer's.  Eight of the 25 tours are in Bavaria.  This one has given me several ideas.



Germany, an Eyewitness Travel Guide.  Another great source for what to see in the villages where we will be. I love all the pictures.  

Review of the Day: A Plague of Secrets

A Plague of Secrets is John Lescroart’s latest Dismas Hardy book in a series that keeps getting better and better.

As with most of the books, San Francisco lawyer Dismas Hardy is hired to represent a client accused of murder and, in the course of proving his SODDIt defense (Some Other Dude Did It), must find the real killer before the jury returns its verdict. In this case, the politically connected and wealthy Maya Townshend is on trial for two murders following the deaths of her pot-dealing coffee shop manager and another of her old college buddies.

There is a lot of meat on the bones, with multiple leads, suspects, motives, and possible outcomes, all culminating in an edge-of-the-seat finale. It also has more than great action and a complicated mystery – Lescroart weaves in some bigger ideas about marijuana use and trade, civil forfeiture law, and the scope of personal responsibility.

Lescroart presents portrait of San Francisco that, although run by an imagined cast of politicians, police, judges, lawyers, and civic leaders, is absolutely believable. The same characters people 19 books so far, with Chief of Homicide Abe Glitsky, Hardy's law partners Wes Farrell or Gina Roake, or private investigator Wyatt Hunt stepping into the spotlight in six of them.

Aficionados will appreciate the further development of Lescroart's fictional network. Newcomers can jump right in and enjoy the story even if they haven't read the other books in the series. The mystery stands alone, and Lescroart weaves in just enough background to bring new readers up to speed without spoiling the earlier stories or bogging down the narrative for seasoned fans.

OTHER REVIEWS

If you would like your review of this or any other John Lescroart book listed here, please leave a comment with a link and I will add it.

Author of the Day: John Lescroart

John Lescroart (pronounced "less-kwah") writes intelligent mysteries set in San Francisco. The series features Dismas Hardy as the lawyer/bartender protagonist, but involves an elaborate cast of regulars.

There are even a couple books where Dismas steps aside and other characters take the protagonist role.  These are not technically part of the series, but I include them because they are spin-offs and Dismas always makes a cameo.

These are meaty, character-driven stories with strong plots. Definitely enjoyable.

As a bonus, Lescroart uses San Francisco as more than a pretty backdrop for his stories.  The city -- and its fictionalized but realistic politics, foibles, and history -- plays a major role.  Characters eat at real restaurants, live in real neighborhoods, and drink at real bars, including the Little Shamrock partly owned by the protagonist.  Anyone who knows San Francisco will appreciate the details.

I have read all but the last two. The list starts with the first book in the series:

Dead Irish (Dismas Hardy)

The Vig (Dismas Hardy)

Hard Evidence (Dismas Hardy)

The 13th Juror (Dismas Hardy)

A Certain Justice (starring Abe Glitsky and Wes Farrell)

Guilt (starring Wes Farrell)

The Mercy Rule (Dismas Hardy)

Nothing But the Truth (Dismas Hardy)

The Hearing (Dismas Hardy)

The Oath (Dismas Hardy)

The First Law (Dismas Hardy)

The Second Chair (Dismas Hardy)

The Motive (Dismas Hardy)

The Hunt Club (starring Wyatt Hunt)

The Suspect (starring Gina Roake)

Betrayal (Dismas Hardy)

A Plague of Secrets (Dismas Hardy) (reviewed here)

Treasure Hunt (starring Wyatt Hunt)

Damage (starring Abe Glitsky and Wes Farrell)

The Hunter (starring Wyatt Hunt)

NOTE
Last updated on April 19, 2012.

Opening Sentence of the Day: The Man Who Knew Too Much

Harold March, the rising reviewer and social critic, was walking vigorously across a great tableland of moors and commons, the horizon of which was fringed with the far-off woods of the famous estate of Torwood Park.

-- The Man Who Knew Too Much by G.K. Chesterton.

I downloaded this to the kindle app on my iPhone as my "emergency" book, so that I would never be without something to read in a pinch.  It is free on amazon.

This is a collection of eight related short stories, all mysteries featuring an amateur sleuth named Horne Fisher. I read the first one today and, although I thought the plot was rushed, it was still entertaining.  Chesterton is better known for his Father Brown series, which I haven't read, but think I would enjoy.

I'm on a vintage mystery jag.

Teaser Tuesday: The Autobiography of Alice B. Toklas

In those days Picasso having lived rather sadly in the rue Schoelcher was to move a little further out to Montrouge.  It was not an unhappy time for him but after the Montmartre days one never heard his high whinnying spanish giggle.

 -- The Autobiography of Alice B. Toklas by Gertrude Stein.

This book is terrific for giving the feel of being part of the avant-garde in Paris before WWII. But it is all little snippets like this in an endless stream: a dinner party in Montmartre, a house party in England, a painting exhibition of the new school, afternoon tea with a famous person whose name no longer rings a bell . . .

It is entertaining, but too rich to read more than a few nibbles at a time.  

This book is on several of the lists I am working on: Erica Jong's list of Top 100 Novels by Women, the Radcliffe list of Top 100 Novels of the 20th Century, and my own French Connections list. 

Teaser Tuesdays is hosted by Should Be Reading, where you can find the official rules for this weekly event.

Mailbox Monday

Thanks for joining me for Mailbox Monday! MM was created by Marcia at A girl and her books (fka The Printed Page), who graciously hosted it for a long, long time, before turning it into a touring meme (details here).

MariReads is hosting in May. Please visit her wonderful blog, where even the banner picture will inspire you to read a good book.

Last week was an exciting week for me because my complete set of Kate Atkinson's Jackson Brodie books arrived.  Thanks go to Hachette Book Group for such a wonderful giveaway.

Case Histories (2004)



One Good Turn (2006)



When Will There Be Good News? (2009)



Started Early, Took My Dog (2011) (reviewed here)

Non-Bookish Stuff

My blogger silence the last couple of days is because I am under the gun to get out some invitations to my parents' 50th wedding anniversary celebrations.  The whole family is going to Bavaria, where my father's family came from or still lives. 

Inspired by a collection of scrapbooking and card making books, I came up with these two invitations. One is for a formal dinner on the Friday night.  That will take place at the restaurant at Berggasthof Geiß, the mountain inn still owned by my dad's cousin.

 

The second is for an informal "grillfest" on the Saturday night.More of our Bavarian friends and relatives are coming that night, so the invitation is in German.  My sister, who is working as a chef at a fancy hotel outside of Munich, had to help me with this one.

It doesn't show in the scan, but the words of the invitation are the same green and blue as the front of the card. And, yes, that is my thumbnail in the scan. Oops.

As soon as I get the rest of the envelopes printed, I am hitting the books!

Opening Sentence of the Day: The Master Butchers Singing Club

Fidelis walked home from the great war in twelve days and slept thirty-eight hours once he crawled into his childhood bed.

-- The Master Butchers Singing Club by Louise Erdrich.

That sentence grabbed me because family lore has it that my great uncle Georg also walked home to Germany when WWI finally ended. Poor Georg -- although he was too young to fight in WWI (only 14 when the war started), he was conscripted and, although to old to fight in WWII, was conscripted again. He walked home to his farm in Bavaria again after WWII.

So I am sucked into this story from the get go. And even deeper when Fidelis goes to America and finances his immigration by selling sausages to New Yorkers. Mmmmmmm . . . sausages . . .

Favorite Author: Dorothy L. Sayers

Dorothy L. Sayers (1893 – 1957) was a renowned English author, best known for her series of mysteries featuring amateur sleuth Lord Peter Wimsey. She also wrote plays, essays, and poetry and translated classic works, including Dante's Divine Comedy. 

I am reading her LPW series and enjoying it very much.  Wimsey has a lot of Bertie Wooster in him and Sayers can be very funny.  I don't have plans to read her other books, but I do plan to read all the Wimsey books.

Those I have read are in red.  Those on my TBR shelf are in blue.

Whose Body? (1923)

Clouds of Witness (1926) (reviewed here)

Unnatural Death (1927).

The Unpleasantness at the Bellona Club (1928) (reviewed here)

Lord Peter Views the Body (1928) (short stories)

Strong Poison (1930)

Five Red Herrings (1931)

Have His Carcase (1932)

Hangman's Holiday (1933) (short stories, 4 with Lord Peter)

Murder Must Advertise (1933)

The Nine Tailors (1934)

Gaudy Night (1935)

Busman's Honeymoon (1937)

In the Teeth of the Evidence (1939) (short stories, only 2 or 3 with Lord Peter)

Striding Folly (1972) (short stories)

NOTES

If anyone else is working on Sayer's Lord Peter Wimsey series and would like related posts listed here, please leave a comment with a link and I will make a list.

Last updated on February 17, 2015.

Opening Sentence of the Day: Clouds of Witness

Lord Peter Wimsey stretched himself luxuriously between the sheets provided by the Hotel Meurice.

-- Clouds of Witness by Dorothy L. Sayers.

This is the second of her Lord Peter Wimsey series.  I like it much better than the first, although I liked that one well enough.  The characters have better developed personalities in this one and it is funnier.

Teaser Tuesday: A Pelican at Blandings

And he was so young. . . .  She had no objection to some men being young -- waiters, for instance, or policemen or representatives of the country in Olympic Games -- but in a man whose walk in life was to delve into people's subconscious and make notes of what came up one expected something more elderly.

A Pelican at Blandings by P. G. Wodehouse.

I am always trying to figure out why Wodehouse is so funny.  It's the way he turns a phrase and the words he uses, but what about those things makes them funny?

Here, I think it is using "representatives of the country in Olympic Games" instead of "Olympic athletes" and "something" instead of "someone" more elderly.  Both relate the statement more closely to Constance, Lord Elmsworth's battle ax of a sister, by reflecting her personal point of view -- she likely doesn't care about athletes or athletics, but does care about who represents England in public events, and since it is the appearance of the psychiatrist she worries about, she considers him an object rather than a person.

So Wodehouse's word choices bring the reader right into Constance's brain in a way that makes the sentence funny.

Or I'm overthinking it.


Teaser Tuesdays is hosted by Should Be Reading, where you can find the official rules for this weekly event.

Empty Mailbox Mondy

Thanks for joining me for Mailbox Monday! MM was created by Marcia at A girl and her books (fka The Printed Page), who graciously hosted it for a long, long time, before turning it into a touring meme (details here).

Passages to the Past is hosting in April. Please visit Amy's entertaining and comprehensive blog devoted to historical fiction.

My mailbox was empty last week.  Not a single book came into my house all week.

Although disappointed, I consider this a blessing.  It is the rare week when I actually pay down some TBR principal and not add to my net TBR debt.

Happy Easter!

Opening Sentence of the Day: A Pelican at Blandings

The summer day was drawing to a close and dusk had fallen on Blandings Castle, shrouding from view the ancient battlements, dulling the silver surface of the lake and causing Lord Elmsworth's supreme Berkshire sow Empress of Blandings to leave the open air portion of her sty and withdraw into the covered shed where she did her sleeping.

A Pelican at Blandings by P. G. Wodehouse. Is that a great way to start a book, or what? It starts in the heavens and funnels down from the celestial grandeur of the dusk sky, to the architectural magnificence of the castle, to the ground-level beauty of the lake, to a pig shed. And with that soft landing, we are in the middle of the action at Blandings Castle.

I haven't read any of the other Blandings Castle books and this is penultimate book in the series.  But I don't think it is necessary to read them in publication order.  They are all funny.

This is one of my favorite Overlook Press "Collector Editions" of Wodehouse's books.  I treasure the ones I have and covet the rest of them.  I kind of wish Overlook had re-published it with its original American title, No Nudes is Good Nudes.  How hilarious!

Review of the Day: Banker

Dick Francis is an all-time favorite of mine.  So when I say that he had a formula for his novels, I don't mean to deride the quality of his writing or the entertainment value of the books. He had a winning formula:

His novels seem to always involve a protagonist (usually a man) in a job not known for its pizazz (insurance, wine selling, horse training, or meteorology, for example), with some connection to British horse racing, and a mystery to solve. This general outline works because it brings in a huge part of the story that is independent of horse racing and, because the gentlemanly heroes always enjoy and take pride in their work, the reader is left with a greater appreciation for the profession involved.

Banker follows this formula with great success. Tim Ekaterin is a merchant banker in London, responsible for making loans and raising investments for all sorts of private business ventures. One of his deals is to finance a stud farm's purchase of a champion horse, but things go horribly wrong.

The story is complex, involving a charismatic horse healer who uses herbal remedies and laying on of hands; horse-buying swindles; teratogens; and a depressing love triangle with the hero, an older woman, and her husband, the hero's professional mentor.

This romantic storyline is the weak part of the book. It never feels integrated into the main story and its resolution is too quick and too pat, although this does not detract from the overall enjoyment of a terrifically satisfying mystery.

Opening Sentence of the Day: The Autobiography of Alice B. Toklas

I was born in San Francisco, California.

 -- The Autobiography of Alice B. Toklas by Gertrude Stein.

This is one of those books that I have always meant to read but never have. The title is misleading.  Obviously, it is not an "autobiography" because Toklas didn't write it, her partner Stein wrote it. It is about both of their lives, not just a biography of the one. And it may be partly fictional, I'm not sure.

I am only about 50 pages into it and I love it.  It's like falling down a rabbit hole and waking up in pre-WWII Paris -- Montmarte, to be exact.  Here's Picasso and Cezanne and Duffy and they are all gathering at Stein's atelier and looking at paintings at salons and having dinner parties.

This book is on several of the lists I am working on: Erica Jong's list of Top 100 Novels by Women, the Radcliffe list of Top 100 Novels of the 20th Century, and my own French Connections list.

Teaser Tuesday: Banker

All the snooty teenage scorn I'd felt for "money-grubbing," all the supercilious disapproval of my student days, all the negative attitude bequeathed by my failure of a father, all had melted into comprehension, interest and finally delight. The art of money management now held me as addicted as any junkie, and my working life was as fulfilling as any mortal could expect.

--  Banker by Dick Francis.

This quote epitomizes what I enjoy about Francis's novels: he takes someone in a job no known for its pizazz (merchant banking in this case), creates a gentlemanly hero who enjoys and takes pride in his work, and weaves an exciting story around all of it, so that the reader comes to find the profession to be very interesting. 

I also like how he says the hero is as fulfilled by his work as any mortal "could expect" -- not going to to go overboard and say the guy is as fulfilled as any mortal could wish or hope. It is fiction, not fantasy.



Teaser Tuesdays is hosted by Should Be Reading, where you can find the official rules for this weekly event.

Mailbox Monday

Thanks for joining me for Mailbox Monday! MM was created by Marcia at A girl and her books (fka The Printed Page), who graciously hosted it for a long, long time, before turning it into a touring meme (details here).

Passages to the Past is hosting in April. Please visit Amy's entertaining and comprehensive blog devoted to historical fiction.

I went to Idaho last week for work and came back with a suitcase full of books.

First, the waiter at my dinner restaurant in Sandpoint turned out to be an author named Sandy Compton who has self-published several books. We had an interesting conversation about self-publishing and he gave me copies of his books:

Side Trips from Cowboy (his most recent book, a collection of personal essays, which looks very interesting)

Archer MacClehan & the Hungry Now (an earlier novel, sort of a contemporary Western adventure)

Jason's Passage: From the Blascomb Family Chronicles (his first book, a collection of three related short stories)

Second, I went to the main library in Coeur d'Alene where they had a great library book store:

The Group by Mary McCarthy (on Erica Jong's list of Top 100 novels by women)




The Golden Compass by Philip Pullman (on the BBC Big Read list)



Overdrive by William F. Buckley, Jr. (an early memoir)




Corridors of Power by C. P. Snow (one of the Strangers and Brothers series)

Cookbook Library: With a Jug of Wine

With a Jug of Wine: An Unusual Collection of Cooking Recipes by Morrison Wood, "well known food columnist" -- it says so right on the cover.

I added this book to my cookbook library several years ago, excited to have found it at the big San Francisco library book sale at Ft. Mason (my favorite book event of the year when I lived in SF).  It is vintage and kitschy and I am excited to finally read it.

The book is organized like a regular cookbook, but pulls heavily from Wood's newspaper columns, which seem to have been written in the 1940s.  It was first published in 1949.  Mine is a 1961 "printing," but I do not think the content changed.

The recipes are short and simple, but interesting.  These are not the typical church supper recipes so prevalent in vintage cookbooks.  They are recipes Wood gathered from famous restaurant chefs of the day, caged off his friends, or concocted himself.

Wood introduces each recipe with a short essay describing the history of the dish or an amusing anecdote about the recipe.  The essays are full of high spirits and WWII-era joviality.  For example:

I think most Americans would shudder at the thought of eating squid, although the meat is twice as sweet as lobster and as delicate as frogs' legs. Let me urge you to unshudder and take a chance on squids a l'Amoricaine.

I'm a big fan of squid myself, and frogs' legs for that matter.  So he caught my attention with this one.  I love fried calamari (of course -- it's fried) and grilled, and have tried both at home without much success.  Braising squid is a much easier way to prepare this creature at home.

I have a basic braised calamari recipe from Cucina Rustica by Viana La Place, that is very tasty and easy to make, but I wanted to try something new.  Wood's recipe is similar, but uses white wine, a little brandy, and calamari steaks instead of tubes and tentacles.

I cut the recipe in half.  Here it is as in the book. 

SQUIDS L'AMORICAINE 

3 lb. squids
4 tbsp. olive oil
3 ounces brandy
2 cloves garlic
1 onion
3 carrots
1/2 bay leaf
pinch thyme
pinch oregano
1 cup solid-pack tomoatos
salt
pepper
1 cup dry white wine

INSTRUCTIONS (paraphrased): Start with three pounds of cleaned squid. Cut into "small cubes or strips."  I cut the steaks into 2" squares that did a shrinky-dink thing when cooked -- they shrunk to 1" square but plumped up to about three times as thick.

Lightly brown the chopped garlic in olive oil, then add squid, cover, and saute for about 10 minutes. Uncover and pour the brandy over the squid.  Light the brandy, let it burn out, then simmer for about 3 minutes.

Add chopped onion, chopped carrot, herbs, tomatoes, salt and pepper. Stir in the wine, cover, and simmer until squid is tender when tested with a fork (30 to 45 minutes).

Serve over boiled rice. Although I think toasted Italian bread is also very good.

NOTES:  This was delicious.  The steaks worked better for me than rings.  The calamari was very tender and sweet.  Yummy!  The only thing I didn't care for was that I used dry vermouth for the wine because I didn't have any other white wine and it made the dish slightly bitter. Hubby didn't notice, but I did.


This is the second of the books I'm reading for the Foodie's Reading Challenge, hosted by Margot at Joyfully Retired.

Thanks go to Beth Fish Reads for hosting a very fun weekly event:

WEEKEND COOKING

Hosted by Beth Fish Reads