State of the Blog: Part Three, the Challenges

This is the last of my three quarterly blog assessment posts.  The first part addressed my book lists. Part Two ran through my author lists.  This part deals with the challenges I joined this year.

Four times a year, I take a look at what books I've read to that point and see what kind of progress I've made on my books lists and reading projects.  I do it mostly to force myself to update my lists, not because these are particularly interesting posts.

The list of all the challenges I joined this year is here.  So far, I've completed 8 of the 24, made progress on most of them, and haven't started one.


First, the three challenges I am hosting here at Rose City Reader.  There is still time to sign up! Click on the title to go to the main challenge page.

EUROPEAN READING CHALLENGE
(finished)

• High Stakes by Dick Francis (UK; reviewed here)
• Serenissima by Erica Jong (Italy; reviewed here) 
• People of the Book by Geraldine Brooks (Bosnia; reviewed here)
• Vie De France: Sharing Food, Friendship and a Kitchen in the Loire Valley by James Haller (France; reviewed here)
  
• Out Stealing Horses by Per Petterson (Norway; not reviewed) 

BATTLE OF THE PRIZES, AMERICAN VERSION

(finished)

• Tinkers by Paul Harding (Pulitzer; reviewed here)
• A Bell for Adano by John Hersey (Pulitzer; reviewed here) 
• The Spectator Bird by Wallace Stegner (National; reviewed here)
• Mr. Sammler's Planet by Saul Bellow (National; reviewed here)

BATTLE OF THE PRIZES, BRITISH VERSION

• The Finkler Question, by Howard Jacobson (reviewed here)

  Second, the challenges I've joined:

AUDIO BOOK CHALLENGE

I've read a lot of book with my ears -- 35 out of my goal of 40 -- but haven't reviewed very many.

• The Coffee Trader by David Liss   
• High Stakes by Dick Francis (reviewed here) 
• The Mysterious Affair at Styles by Agatha Christie (reviewed here) 
• Dracula by Bram Stoker (reviewed here) 
• My Grandfather's Son by Clarence Thomas 
• Shroud for a Nightingale by P. D. James
• Blood Sport  by Dick Francis (reviewed here) 
• Mysteries of the Middle Ages: The Rise of Feminism, Science, and Art from the Cults of Catholic Europe by Thomas Cahill  (reviewed here)
• Half of a Yellow Sun by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie  
• Murder at the Vicarage by Agatha Christie 
• What's So Great About Christianity by Dinesh D'Souza 
• The Black Tower by P. D. James 
• Driving Force by Dick Francis 
• The Body in the Library by Agatha Christie  
• Tinkers by Paul Harding (reviewed here) 
• Doctor Thorne by Anthony Trollope (reviewed here) 
• Dressed for Death by Donna Leon  
• The Finkler Question by Howard Jacobson (Booker winner; reviewed here)  
• Comfort Me with Apples: More Adventures at the Table by Ruth Reichl (reviewed here)  
• Christine Falls by Benjamin Black
• Other People's Children by Joanne Trollope
  
• Social Intelligence: The New Science of Human Relationships by Daniel Goleman 
  
• Spies of the Balkans by Alan Furst 
• The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde by Robert Louis Stevenson 
• Trespass by Rose Tremain
• The Spectator Bird by Wallace Stegner (reviewed here) 
• Starvation Lake by Bryan Gruley 
• The Silver Swan by Ben Black 
• The Edge by Dick Francis 
• Writing Places: The Life Journey of a Writer and Teacher by Howard Zinsser 
• The Brass Verdict by Michael Connelly 
• Brother and Sister by Joanna Trollope 
• Extra Virginity: The Sublime and Scandalous World of Olive Oil by Tom Mueller, reviewed here) 
  
• The Man with the Golden Arm by Nelson Algren (National winner) 
• Back When We Were Grownups by Anne Tyler
   

BACK TO THE CLASSICS and the CLASSICS CHALLENGES

• The Innocents Abroad by Mark Twain (19th Century; reviewed here)
• Dracula by Bram Stoker (horror; reviewed here)
• A Bell for Adano by John Hersey (award winner -- Pulitzer; reviewed here)
• The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde by Robert Louis Stevenson

BIRTH YEAR READING CHALLENGE   
(finished, lamely)

• The Comedians by Graham Greene (not reviewed yet)

BOOKS PUBLISHED IN THE FIRST YEARS OF MY LIFE CHALLENGE

• The Comedians by Graham Greene (not reviewed yet).

CHUNKSTER and TEA & BOOKS CHALLENGES

• World Without End by Ken Follett (1,024 pages); reviewed here; 
• Glittering Images by Susan Howatch (462 pages), reviewed here; 
• The Gate House by Nelson DeMille (800 pages), reviewed here;  
• Witness by Whittaker Chambers (802 pages), reviewed here; 

EASTERN EUROPE READING CHALLENGE

• People of the Book by Geraldine Brooks (Bosnia; reviewed here) 

FOODIE'S READING CHALLENGE   
(finished)

• Comfort Me with Apples: More Adventures at the Table by Ruth Reichl (reviewed here);
• Vie de France: Sharing Food, Friendship, and a Kitchen in the Loire Valley by James Haller (reviewed here);
• On the Town in New York: The Landmark History of Eating, Drinking, and Entertainments from the American Revolution to the Food Revolution by Michael and Ariane Batterberry (reviewed here);
• Extra Virginity: The Sublime and Scandalous World of Olive Oil by Tom Mueller (reviewed here);
• Monsieur Pamplemousse Investigates by Michael Bond (reviewed here)

GRAHAM GREENE READING CHALLENGE

• The Comedians (not reviewed yet)

HENRY GREEN WEEK 
(finished)

•  Living (reviewed here)

I LOVE ITALY READING CHALLENGE
(finished) 

• Serenissima by Erica Jong (reviewed here) 
• The Innocents Abroad by Mark Twain (reviewed here)
• A Bell for Adano by John Hersey (reviewed here) 
• Dressed for Death by Donna Leon (an extra; not reviewed) 

MEMORABLE MEMOIRS CHALLENGE   
(finished)

• My Grandfather's Son by Clarence Thomas 
• Comfort Me with Apples: More Adventures at the Table by Ruth Reichl (reviewed here)
• Vie de France: Sharing Food, Friendship, and a Kitchen in the Loire Valley by James Haller (reviewed here)
• Greene on Capri: A Memoir by Shirley Hazzard  (reviewed here)
• Writing Places: The Life Journey of a Writer and Teacher by Howard Zinsser
• Witness by Whittaker Chambers (reviewed here)

MT. TBR, OFF THE SHELF, and the TBR PILE CHALLENGES

• The Mandelbaum Gate by Muriel Spark (reviewed here)
• Sacred Hunger by Barry Unsworth (reviewed here)
• A Case of Need by Michael Crichton
• Living by Henry Green (reviewed here)
• Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy by John le Carré (reviewed here)
• Mysteries of the Middle Ages: The Rise of Feminism, Science, and Art from the Cults of Catholic Europe. by Thomas Cahill (reviewed here)
• The Innocents Abroad by Mark Twain (reviewed here)
• Serenissima by Erica Jong (reviewed here)
• People of the Book by Geraldine Brooks (reviewed here)
• A Bell for Adano by John Hersey (reviewed here) 
• Murder in Belleville by Cara Black (reviewed here)
• World Without End by Ken Follett (reviewed here)   
• The World of Herb Caen by  Barnaby Conrad (reviewed here) 
• The Black Book by Ian Rankin (reviewed here) 
• A Month of Sundays by John Updike (reviewed here) 
• Vie de France by James Haller (reviewed here) 
• The Finkler Question by Howard Jacobson (Booker winner; reviewed here)
• On the Town in New York: The Landmark History of Eating, Drinking, and Entertainments from the American Revolution to the Food Revolution by Michael and Ariane Batterberry (reviewed here) 
• A Time of Hope by C. P. Snow (reviewed here) 
• Home Truths by David Lodge (reviewed here) 
• Glittering Images by Susan Howatch (reviewed here) 
• Christine Falls by Benjamin Black  
  
• Trespass by Rose Tremain
• Greene on Capri: A Memoir by Shirley Hazzard 
• Paradise Postponed by John Mortimer, reviewed here; 
• The Gate House by Nelson DeMille, reviewed here; 
• Witness by Whittaker Chambers, reviewed here; 
• Mr. Sammler's Planet by Saul Bellow, reviewed here; 
• Swan Peak by James Lee Burke, reviewed here; 
• The Comedians by Graham Greene
• How To Read and Why by Harold Bloom; 
• Parnassus on Wheels by Christopher Morley; 
• The Folks That Live on the Hill by Kingsley Amis; 
• Death at the Bar by Ngaio Marsh, reviewed here;  
• Venetian Mask by Mickey Friedman;  
• The Unpleasantness at the Bellona Club by Dorothy L. Sayers; 
• Monsieur Pamplemousse Investigates by Michael Bond, reviewed here;  
• Back When We Were Grownups by Anne Tyler

NON-FICTION, NON-MEMOIRS CHALLENGE

• Mysteries of the Middle Ages: The Rise of Feminism, Science, and Art from the Cults of Catholic Europe by Thomas Cahill  (reviewed here)
• The Innocents Abroad by Mark Twain (19th Century; reviewed here)
• What's So Great About Christianity by Dinesh D'Souza  
• The World of Herb Caen by  Barnaby Conrad (reviewed here)
• On the Town in New York: The Landmark History of Eating, Drinking, and Entertainments from the American Revolution to the Food Revolution by Michael and Ariane Batterberry, (reviewed here) 
• 
  Social Intelligence: The New Science of Human Relationships by Daniel Goleman;
• Extra Virginity: The Sublime and Scandalous World of Olive Oil by Tom Mueller, (reviewed here)
• How To Read and Why by Harold Bloom

SOUTHERN LITERATURE READING CHALLENGE

None so far.  This is not looking good!

VENICE IN FEBRUARY CHALLENGE 
(finished)

• Serenissima by Erica Jong (reviewed here)

VINTAGE MYSTERY CHALLENGE

• Dracula by Bram Stoker (reviewed here);
• The Mysterious Affair at Styles by Agatha Christie (reviewed here);
• Murder at the Vicarage by Agatha Christie;
• The Rubber Band by Rex Stout (reviewed here);
• The Body in the Library by Agatha Christie;  
• Death at the Bar by Ngaio Marsh (reviewed here);
  
• The Unpleasantness at the Bellona Club by Dorothy L. Sayers

WHAT'S IN A NAME CHALLENGE

• People of the Book by Geraldine Brooks (reviewed here);
• Home Truths by David Lodge (reviewed here);
• A Month of Sundays by John Updike (reviewed here);
• Mr. Sammler's Planet by Saul Bellow (reviewed here);
• Swan Peak by James Lee Burke (reviewed here); 

Four times a year, I take a look at what books I've read to that point and see what kind of progress I've made on my books lists and reading projects.  I do it mostly to force myself to update my lists, not because these are particularly interesting posts. I'm slow on my autumnal posts this time around.

This is the second of three quarterly blog assessment posts.  This second part addresses my favorite authors. Part One covered my lists of Prize Winners and Must Reads.  Part Three will deal with the challenges I joined this year.

My lists of my favorite authors are over in the right-side column. These are now divided into General favorites and Mystery favorites.

NOTE: If you are working on any of these lists, please leave a comment here or on the post for the list (click on the title below or in the right-hand column) and leave a link to any related post. I will add the links on the list post.

So far in 2012, I have read the 19 books by my favorite authors. 

GENERAL FAVORITES

Kingsley Amis

• The Folks That Live on the Hill
  

Saul Bellow 

•  Mr. Sammler's Planet (National winner; reviewed here)

 Susan Howatch

• Glittering Images  (reviewed here)

David Lodge

• Home Truths (reviewed here)

C. P. Snow

• A Time of Hope (reviewed here)

 Anne Tyler

•  Back When We Were Grownups

P. G. Wodehouse

• The Pothunters (reviewed here)
• Ring for Jeeves

MYSTERY FAVORITES

Cara Black

• Murder in Belleville (reviewed here)

James Lee Burke

• Swan Peak (reviewed here)

Dick Francis

• High Stakes (1975) (reviewed here)
• Blood Sport (1967)
• Driving Force (1992) 
• The Edge

P. D. James

• Shroud for a Nightingale (1971)
• The Black Tower (1975)

Donna Leon

• Dressed for Death 

Ian Rankin

• The Black Book

Dorothy L. Sayers 

•   The Unpleasantness at the Bellona Club

Book Beginnings:

Please join me every Friday to 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. Please remember to include the title of the book and the author's name.

TWITTER: If you are on Twitter, please tweet a link to your post using the has tag #BookBeginnings. My Twitter handle is @GilionDumas.

MR. LINKY: Please leave a link to your post below. If you don't have a blog, but want to participate, please leave a comment with your Book Beginning.



MY BOOK BEGINNING

I didn't start this healing process until age 56. Prior to that, I had dissociated my abuser's behavior from the abuser. He was my friend, my mentor and my minister. I could not possibly think of him as a predator, so I detached the behavior from the person.

 

 Boys Don't Tell: Ending the Silence of Abuse by Randy Ellison.  This is the author's own story of a life messed up by childhood sexual abuse and how he healed.  It is an honest and moving account.

Randy is now a strong advocate for abuse survivors, working on his own and with the wonderful organization OAASIS.

Review: Death at the Bar

Ngaio Marsh wrote 32 detective novels featuring British police inspector Roderick Alleyn. Published between 1934 and 1982, most of the novels are set in England, where Marsh lived on and off during her writing career, but four are set in her native New Zealand.

Death at the Bar, first published in 1940, is the ninth book in the series. Inspector Alleyn gets called to an isolated village on the rocky coast of Devon to help the local police solve the riddle of a mysterious death in the local pub. A famous London lawyer died after a dart pricked his hand during a showy bar bet.

As it turns out, plenty of people living or visiting the village wouldn't have minded seeing the lawyer dead. The plot circles around through a long list of possible suspects, including the dead man's traveling companions, an ignored lover, and a hot-headed socialist agitator.

The puzzle is clever and Marsh's writing is intelligent and lively.  Marsh deserves her title as one of the Queens of Crime.

OTHER REVIEWS

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

NOTES

This is the first of Marsh's books that I have read, so I can't compare it to any of her others. It was one of my Golden Age Girls choices for the Vintage Mystery Challenge, hosted by Bev at My Reader's Block. The trouble with this challenge is that it leads to me starting even more book lists! Now I plan to find and read all of Marsh's novels. Good grief!

Teaser Tuesday: The General's Daughter

 

All my instincts said to avoid any cases that involved the rape and murder of a general's daughter. It was a lose-lose situation.

-- The General's Daughter by Nelson DeMille.  DeMille is the best of the best when it comes to writing thrillers and this one is particularly good.  I saw the movie, but long enough ago to enjoy the book.

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, who graciously hosted it for a long, long time, before turning it into a touring event (details here).

Marcia is hosting again in October.  The sign-up post is here, where you can find links for all the participants.


I got two interesting books last week:

 

 Boys Don't Tell: Ending the Silence of Abuse by Randy Ellison.  This is the author's own story of a life messed up by childhood sexual abuse and how he healed.  He is now a strong advocate for abuse survivors.

The goal of his book is to help explain why victims of abuse by trusted adults find it so difficult to "just get over it and move on." 

   

Aurora, Daughter of the Dawn: A Story of New Beginnings by J. J. Kopp, published by OSU Press.

This historical novel is a short book suitable for young adult readers.  It is based on the life of Aurora Keil, a young pioneer girl whose father founded the Aurora Colony, a nineteenth century utopian communal settlement in western Oregon. 

Review Monsieur Pamplemousse Investigates

Michael Bond is best-known for his beloved books about Paddington Bear. But he has also written a series of 16 mystery novels featuring the gourmand sleuth, Monsieur Pamplemousse, and his faithful hound, Pommes Frites.

Monsieur Pamplemousse Investigates is the sixth book in the series and finds Pamplemousse trying to thwart a plot to humiliate his boss, the editor of France's premiere restaurant guide, and ruin the company. He is helped along the way by his clue-sniffing dog and an attractive computer expert who can cook a pot-au-feu just like his mother (including plugging the bones with potatoes to keep the marrow in).

The humor is a little silly (Pamplemousse loses his clothes and has to go in drag, for instance) and the computer crime so dated as to be incomprehensible, but the book has a decently puzzling plot and the charm needed to make a successful cozy, plus a Paris setting and plenty of food talk. Perfect for a chilly autumn afternoon.

OTHER REVIEWS

If you would like your review of this or any other books in the Monsieur Pamplemousse series, please leave a comment with a link and I will add it.

NOTES

This counts as one of my books for the Foodies' Reading Challenge.

WEEKEND COOKING

Hosted by Beth Fish Reads

Book Beginnings:

Please join me every Friday to 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. Please remember to include the title of the book and the author's name.

TWITTER: If you are on Twitter, please tweet a link to your post using the has tag #BookBeginnings. My Twitter handle is @GilionDumas.

MR. LINKY: Please leave a link to your post below. If you don't have a blog, but want to participate, please leave a comment with your Book Beginning.



MY BOOK BEGINNING

 

"Is this seat taken?" I asked the attractive young woman sitting by herself in the lounge.

-- The General's Daughter by Nelson DeMille.  It's a clever beginning, really, because he is approaching an ex-girlfriend who he hasn't seen in a year and he knows won't be happy to run into him.

Teaser Tuesday: The Tangled Bank

To many, a squirrel is a squirrel and by any other name is still just a squirrel. . . .  They are also capable of ravaging birdfeeders worse than jays,  though their brilliant acrobatics to defeat "squirrel-proof" feeders are surely worth the price of a bag or two of the best black sunflower seeds.

-- from "Squirrel Tales" in The Tangled Bank: Writings from Orion by Robert Michael Pyle, published by OSU Press.

Charles Darwin contended that the elements of a tangled bank are endlessly interesting, ever evolving, and can explain the entire living world.  These essays were originally published in Pyle's monthly column for Orion and Orion Afield magazines.  They cover topics from Mexican monarchs to bookstores to the love of hops.

I love that the author's back-cover biography says, "He is often associated with butterflies, slugs, and Bigfoot." That is priceless! Especially when accompanied by a photo of Pyle in a moss coat:

For those in the Portland area, there is a book event for Pyle this Sunday: A conversation, reading, and book launch with Robert Michael Pyle and Orion editor Jennifer Sahn.  Sunday September 30, 7:30 pm Heron Hall, Portland Audubon, 5151 NW Cornell Road, Portland, OR.

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, who graciously hosted it for a long, long time, before turning it into a touring event (details here).

Kristen at BookNAround is hosting in September.  Please visit her terrific blog for reviews of her favorite types of books, mostly contemporary/literary fiction, historical fiction, young adult, narrative non-fiction (travel, cooking, etc.) and memoirs.

I got one book last week:



The Writing on the Wall by W. D. Wetherell.

From the Publisher's Description:

When Vera decides to travel to an old house in the New England countryside for a month-long escape from some devastating news about her daughter, Cassie, she has no idea her life is about to change forever.  It begins innocently enough—peeling the old wallpaper from the walls as a favor to the house’s owner.  What she discovers underneath—written in India ink on the very walls of the house by a woman named Beth, in 1919—is the beginning of the reader’s unsettling crossing into the unknown world underneath the paper.

Wetherell won the Michigan Literary Fiction Award for his earlier novel, A Century in November, which I reviewed here.

Book Beginnings: The Tangled Bank

Please join me every Friday to 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. Please remember to include the title of the book and the author's name.

TWITTER: If you are on Twitter, please tweet a link to your post using the has tag #BookBeginnings. My Twitter handle is @GilionDumas.

MR. LINKY: Please leave a link to your post below. If you don't have a blog, but want to participate, please leave a comment with your Book Beginning.



MY BOOK BEGINNING

For Christmas, Thea gave me a children's book titled The Riverbank, beguilingly illustrated by Fabian Negrin, with words by Charles Darwin.

The Tangled Bank: Writings from Orion by Robert Michael Pyle, published by OSU Press.

This is a collection of essays, originally published in Orion and Orion Afield magazines, exploring Charles Darwin’s contention that the elements of a tangled bank, and by extension all the living world, are endlessly interesting and ever evolving. The essays cover topics from squirrels to bookstores to the love of hops.

I want to read this mostly because the author's back-cover biography says, "He is often associated with butterflies, slugs, and Bigfoot." That is priceless! Especially when accompanied by this photo:

State of the Blog: Part One, The Lists

Four times a year, I take a look at what books I've read to that point and see what kind of progress I've made on my books lists and reading projects.  I do it mostly to force myself to update my lists, not because these are particularly interesting posts.

This is the first of three quarterly blog assessment posts.  This first part addresses the book lists. Part Two, coming soon, will take a look at the author lists.  Part Three will deal with the challenges I joined this year.

My book lists are over in the right-side column. These are now divided into Prize Winners and "Must Reads" and include lists of books I have read or intend to read for some reason or another. Also in the right-side column are lists of my favorite authors. I add to these lists of lists from time to time.

I only listed a list below if I read a book from it this year.


NOTE: If you are working on any of these lists, please leave a comment here or on the post for the list (click on the title below or in the right-hand column) and leave a link to any related post. I will add the links on the list post. 

THE PRIZE WINNERS

EDGAR AWARD

Books read in 2012: A Case of Need by Micheal Crichton (as Jeffery Hudson)

JAMES TAIT BLACK MEMORIAL PRIZE

Books read in 2012: The Mandelbaum Gate by Muriel Spark (reviewed here; read for my 2011 Battle of the Prizes, British Version, challenge).  I need to get chopping on this to read two for the 2012 Battle.

MAN BOOKER PRIZE

Books read in 2012: The Finkler Question by Howard Jacobson (reviewed here)

NATIONAL BOOK AWARD

Books read in 2012: three, two for for the 2012 Battle of the Prizes, American Version

• The Spectator Bird, by Wallace Stegner (reviewed here)
• Mr. Sammler's Planet by Saul Bellow (reviewed here)
• The Man With the Golden Arm by Nelson Algren (not reviewed yet)

NOBEL LAUREATES

Books read in 2012: Mr. Sammler's Planet by Saul Bellow (reviewed here)

ORANGE PRIZE

Books read in 2012: Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie, Half of a Yellow Sun

PULITZER PRIZE

Books read in 2012: two, both for for the 2012 Battle of the Prizes, American Version

• A Bell for Adano by John Hersey (reviewed here);
• Tinkers by Paul Harding (reviewed here)

THE "MUST READS"

ANTHONY BURGESS

This list is from 99 Novels: The Best in English Since 1939 by Anthony Burgess, which I reviewed here. 

Books read in 2012: The Mandelbaum Gate by Muriel Spark (reviewed here; read for my 2011 Battle of the Prizes, British Version, challenge).

BOOK CLUB

Books read in 2012: two

• Half of a Yellow Sun; by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie;
• People of the Book by Geraldine Brooks (reviewed here)

EASTON PRESS

Books read in 2012: two

•  Dracula by Bram Stoker (reviewed here)
• The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde by Robert Lewis Stevenson (reviewed here)

FRENCH CONNECTION

Books read in 2012:

• The Innocents Abroad by Mark Twain (reviewed here)
• Murder in Belleville by Cara Black

OBSERVER'S TOP 100

Books read in 2012: Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy by John le Carré (reviewed here)

VENICE BOOKS

This is a new list that I just created in 2011. I made more progress in 2012 when I participated in the Venice in February Challenge.

Books read in 2012:

• The Innocents Abroad by Mark Twain (reviewed here);
• Serenissima by Erica Jong (reviewed here)

WELL-STOCKED BOOKCASE

Books read in 2012: one, The Man With the Golden Arm by Nelson Algren

Teaser Tuesday: Pure Beef

The first recipe in each chapter is a learning recipe for those who are new to cooking with grassfed -- or any -- beef and want to follow a foundational recipe such as meatloaf, grilled steak, stir-fry, roast beef, or stock. The recipes that follow within each chapter illustrate technique variations for the appropriate beef cut.

-- Pure Beef: An Essential Guide to Artisan Meat with Recipes for Every Cut by Lynne Curry.

The title says it all -- this is an essential cookbook for anyone trying to eat more grassfed beef.  Curry has all kinds of great information in addition to good recipes.

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, who graciously hosted it for a long, long time, before turning it into a touring event (details here).

Kristen at BookNAround is hosting in September.  Please visit her terrific blog for reviews of her favorite types of books, mostly contemporary/literary fiction, historical fiction, young adult, narrative non-fiction (travel, cooking, etc.) and memoirs.

I got two books last week, with an Eastern European theme:



The Tourist by Olen Steinhauer. I've read a couple of his earlier books and thought they were great. This one is supposed to be even better.

 

Three Stations by Martin Cruz Smith. I am a big fan of his Arkady Renko series so am looking forward to this one.

Book Beginnings: Pure Beef

Please join me every Friday to 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. Please remember to include the title of the book and the author's name.

TWITTER: If you are on Twitter, please tweet a link to your post using the has tag #BookBeginnings. My Twitter handle is @GilionDumas.

MR. LINKY: Please leave a link to your post below. If you don't have a blog, but want to participate, please leave a comment with your Book Beginning.



MY BOOK BEGINNING

On a clear September afternoon, I mingled with a crowd dressed in skirts and khakis in an open pasture beneath snow-rimmed mountains.

-- Pure Beef: An Essential Guide to Artisan Meat with Recipes for Every Cut by Lynne Curry, from the Introduction: How a Former Vegetarian Came to Write a Beef Cookbook and Why it Had to be Written.

Pure Beef is my new favorite cookbook.  I have a freezer full of grassfed beef and need some pointers for how to cook it right.  Curry explains everything from the cuts, to how to thaw it, to how to cook it and what to cook with it.  

Lynne Curry also has a terrific blog, Stories that Feed You, that is chock-o-block full of all kinds of interesting recipes and information about many sorts of food. 

Favorite Author: Charles Dickens

Charles Dickens may be the best-known novelist of all times.  Probably everyone has read at least one of his books or at the very least seen a screen adaptation.  He lived from 1812 to 1870 and published 20 novels, as well as short stories, a few plays, non-fiction books, and even some poetry.

I read several of Dickens' more famous novels by the time I finished college, but have been in the mood to read the rest and start re-reading ever since I got a lovely matching set a couple of years ago. 

Dickens' novels are listed below. Those I have read are in red (although I may like to re-read some of them); those on my TBR shelf are in blue.


The Pickwick Papers (1837)
Oliver Twist (1838)
Nicholas Nickleby (1839)
Barnaby Rudge (1841)
Master Humphrey's Clock (1841)
The Old Curiosity Shop (1841)
A Christmas Carol (1843)
The Chimes (1844)
Martin Chuzzlewit (1844)
The Cricket on the Hearth (1845)
The Battle of Life (1846)
Dombey and Son (1848)
The Haunted Man and the Ghost's Bargain (1848)
David Copperfield (1850)
Bleak House (1853)
Hard Times (1854)
Little Dorrit (1857)
A Tale of Two Cities (1859)
The Uncommercial Traveller (1860)
Great Expectations (1861)
Our Mutual Friend (1865)
The Mystery of Edwin Drood (1870)

NOTES

Updated October 14, 2019.

Teaser Tuesday: Tough by Nature

This is 134-year-old tradition in our family -- not for the women necessarily to be part of it, but my dad was blessed with nine children, six of which were girls. So his cowboy crew was made up of daughters.

-- from the chapter on Sara Shields  Tough by Nature: Portraits of Cowgirls and Ranch Women of the American West by Lynda Lanker, published by the Jordan Schnitzer Museum and distributed by OSU Press.

Tough by Nature is a first-rate, gorgeous coffee table book filled with portraits of 49 real women ranchers of the western United States.  Each portrait is accompanied by a  short biography of the woman portrayed. 

Artist Lynda Lanker.  Spent close to 20 years on the portraits and stories that went into this book.  She worked with oil pastels, pencil and charcoal, egg tempura, plate and stone lithography, engraving, and drypoint to capture the personalities of her subjects -- the matriarchs of the West. 

The book features a foreword by Larry McMurtry, an introduction by Supreme Court Justice Sandra Day O'Connor, and an afterword by Maya Angelou.

Tough by Nature would make great Christmas or other gift for anyone with a love of the American West and its feisty, independent people.


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, who graciously hosted it for a long, long time, before turning it into a touring event (details here).

Kristen at BookNAround is hosting in September.  Please visit her terrific blog for reviews of her favorite types of books, mostly contemporary/literary fiction, historical fiction, young adult, narrative non-fiction (travel, cooking, etc.) and memoirs.

Three books came into my house last week:



Room at the Top by John Braine. This is on Anthony Burgess' list of his favorite 99 novels, so I've been looking for it for years.  Mine doesn't have the cool Penguin cover.



My Mortal Enemy by Willa Cather. I really like Willa Cather, but forget to read her books. This is a novella, so it may get me back into practice.

 

Chocolat by Joanne Harris.  This has been on my French Connections list for a long time. 

Review: Swan Peak

Dave Robicheaux and Clete Purcel can never escape their pasts or the angry demons in their heads, even to do a little fishing in Montana. Mobster Didi Gee died in a suspicious plane crash years before, but when his goons turn up in Montana, working for a pair of oil baron brothers, Dave and Clete get sucked into a whirling vortex of violence, sex, booze, and vengeance.

Swan Peak is the 16th book in James Lee Burke's Dave Robicheaux series and exemplifies everything that is good and bad about the long-running saga. Burke is the best there is at writing literary, atmospheric mysteries peopled with complex characters and glorifying their settings (usually Louisiana, occasionally Montana). The stories are dark, sometimes a little twisted, and always exciting, with multi-faceted plots addressing important social issues.

But sometimes Burke lays it on with a trowel, and he does in Swan Peak. In addition to mobsters and crooked oil barons, there's a sadistic prison guard tracking an escaped convict, a self-medicating adulterous wife, a charlatan preacher with an eye for teenage girls, a porn producer and his call girl companion, and a vicious serial killer. That's a lot of bad guys crowded into the Bitterroot Valley. And all of them are deformed, addicted, damaged, particularly cruel, or otherwise extra creepy.

Swan Peak is a page turner, but may leave the reader needing to take a Burke break.

OTHER REVIEWS

My review of Crusader's Cross is here
My review of The Tin Roof Blowdown is here

If you would like your review of this book or any other JLB book listed here, please leave a comment with a link.

NOTES

Swan Peak counts for my "topographical" choice for the What's in a Name Challenge, and as another book for the Mt. TBR and Off the Shelf Challenges.

Book Beginnings: Tough by Nature

Please join me every Friday to 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. Please remember to include the title of the book and the author's name.

TWITTER: If you are on Twitter, please tweet a link to your post using the has tag #BookBeginnings. My Twitter handle is @GilionDumas.

MR. LINKY: Please leave a link to your post below. If you don't have a blog, but want to participate, please leave a comment with your Book Beginning.



MY BOOK BEGINNING

If you've lived in ranch country much, you can tell a ranch woman by the wrinkles -- shallow at first but deepening into arroyos, gullies, little canyons as the wind and sun work on them.

-- from the Foreword by Larry McMurtry to Tough by Nature: Portraits of Cowgirls and Ranch Women of the American West by Lynda Lanker, published by the Jordan Schnitzer Museum and distributed by OSU Press.

Lynda Lenker's book, Tough by nature, is a colorful and impressive look at forty-nine women in our country who have lived their lives is ranchers.

-- from the Introduction by Sandra Day O'Conner.

We was laughing just the other day about when I was sixteen, in the rodeo at Homedale, and my first bareback horse that day stomped on my leg and stomach.

-- from the first chapter, a portrait of National Cowgirl Museum and Hall of Fame inductee, Jan Youren.

Tough by Nature is a gorgeous coffee table book filled with portraits of 49 real women ranchers of the western United States.  Each portrait is accompanied by a  short biography of the woman portrayed. 

The book represents close to 20 years of effort by artist Lynda Lanker.  She worked with oil pastels, pencil and charcoal, egg tempura, plate and stone lithography, engraving, and drypoint to capture the personalities of her subjects -- the matriarchs of the West. 

The book features a foreword by Larry McMurtry, an introduction by Supreme Court Justice Sandra Day O'Connor, and an afterword by Maya Angelou.

Tough by Nature is a first class production and is going straight to the top of my gift-giving list this Christmas. Even if I narrowed my list to spirited, independent women friends with a connection to the American West and a penchant for art, I could come up with over a dozen possible recipients. 

Anyone in Eugene, Oregon this weekend can see the Tough by Nature exhibit at the Jordan Schnitzer Museum.  Sunday is the last day.

GIVEAWAY Winner: Public Trust

I hosted a giveaway for three copies of Public Trust by J. M. Mitchell.  This is mystery with a National Park story-line, a romantic angle, and some great adventure.

Thanks go to book publicist Mary Bisbee-Beek for my copy, and copies for the giveaway!

THE WINNERS

This was a "leap-frog" giveaway, meaning I had three copies to giveaway to Rose City Reader readers.  Mary extravagantly threw in another copy, for a total of four! And each winner will get to host another giveaway for an additional copy. 

Harvee Lau at Book Dilettante
this little life of mine
Sandy & Sandra at I.O.U. Sex (no, it is not a porn site)
Aloi at Guiltless Reading

Congratulations!