Teaser Tuesday: Angler Management

I was raised by a PhD research scientist, and I can tell you firsthand that he viewed liberal arts majors as ethereal slacker stoners with no real understanding of how the world works, let alone how to turn on a Bunsen burner or create penicillin in a petri dish (when I was a child, my dad once gave me some penicillin that he personally created -- I can't even make a Manhattan without consulting the Internet). One way that we've figured out how to make ourselves feel, well, more scientific, is to inject science into art -- specifically, the art of fly fishing.

-- Angler Management: The Day I Died While Fly Fishing and Other Essays by Jack Ohman.

This is the perfect book to get for any fisherman dad for Father's Day! I may get it for my dad, even though he hasn't fished since he bought me a Popeil Pocket Fisherman for my eighth birthday and helped me catch bluegill using hot dogs for bait.


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

Mailbox Monday

Last week was a busy book week. I met a friend for lunch in Lake Oswego, and had time to browse around Booktique while I was there -- always a fruitful activity -- and I went to the Rose City Used Book Fair this weekend. So I have another long list for Mailbox Monday.

The Big Squeeze by Jim Cirni (cool, Soho Crime edition)



A Sand County Almanac and Sketches Here and There by Aldo Leopold (Where did I just read about this? Was it in The Echo Maker by Richard Powers?)



My Petition for More Space by John Hersey (I keep collecting Hersey novels, but I don't even remember if I like them)



Cities of the Plain by Marcel Proust (which has both volumes of what is also called Sodom and Gomorrah. One of these days, I am going to read the whole thing)



The Summing Up by W. Somerset Maugham (nonfiction, commentary and memoirs)

The Glass-Blowers by Daphne Du Maurier (I have also been collecting her books without reading them -- better get started)



The Great American Novel by Philip Roth



Wild Flowers of the World by Brian Morley (really beautiful -- this bad picture of the cover doesn't do it justice)

Opening Sentence of the Day: Up in the Old Hotel

"McSoreley's occupies the ground floor of a red-brick tenement at 15 Seventh Street, just off Cooper Square, where the Bowery ends."

Up in the Old Hotel by Joseph Mitchell.

This book has been on my TBR shelf for years, ever since I read about it in a couple of other books (which ones, I can't remember now), wanted to read it, and found a very nice hardback copy at Green Apple. And it has sat on my shelf for six years. That is such a typical example and explains why there are over 900 books on my TBR shelves.

But I am excited to read this now. It is an omnibus collection of Mitchell's best pieces -- non-fiction and fiction -- originally published in the New Yorker from the 1930s to the early 1960s.

Cocktail of the Day: The Lucky Jim

Sort of in the spirit (so to speak) of my goal of making one new recipe from every cookbook, I also like to try new cocktail recipes.

Kingsley Amis offered several choices in Everyday Drinking: The Distilled Kingsley Amis, but the one that appealed to me the most was for a cocktail of his own invention that he called the Lucky Jim after his most famous character.

Essentially, the Lucky Jim is a vodka martini with a splash of cucumber juice. Amis provided proportions for making a pitcher of the drink, but who makes an entire pitcher of martinis these days? To make just a single drink, make a dry vodka martini, adding approximately twice as much cucumber juice as vermouth. We are only talking about a very small amount of cucumber juice.

But where to get cucumber juice? Amis suggests peeling a cucumber, chopping it in approximately two-inch lengths, and squeezing it in a lemon juicer. I think he meant an old-fashioned lemon reamer, but I put it in my modern squeezer kind and it worked fine. Then strain the juice to remove the seeds. I forgot this step and the sticky seeds stuck to the side of my martini glass in an unappealingly gooey way.

Garnish with a thin slice of cucumber with the peel on.

The drink is a little bit cloudy, with an almost imperceptible green ting and a refreshing hint of cucumber. Definitely worth a second round.

Cheers!

Opening Sentence of the Day: Angler Management

"After I finished An Inconvenient Trout, which I recommend highly for its technical information and helpful how-to hints, such as not drowning, I decided almost immediately that I had more to say about fly fishing."

-- From the Introduction

"If I really want to get rid of someone, I bring up fly fishing in conversation."

-- From Chapter One, "The Conversation."


Angler Management: The Day I Died While Fly Fishing and Other Essays by Jack Ohman.

This is a book I have been meaning to read for a while -- almost as long as my husband has been talking about cleaning up his fishing gear and going fly fishing again. At least one of us will accomplish our goal this summer.  


NOTE
Book Beginnings on Fridays is a Friday "opening sentence" event hosted by Becky at Page Turners.

Review of the Day: Clown Girl

Clown Girl by Monica Drake (published by Hawthorne Books & Literary Arts).

Monica Drake writes about a city very much like any city – except that in her city, clowns really matter. Although her clowns share a level of urban society with dope dealers, prostitutes, and sundry petty criminals, they play an extraordinarily large role in society. Not only do they provide entertainment at children’s parties, corporate shindigs, and street fairs, the police deal with a rash of clown bashing – blame the coulrophobes – and other clown-related crimes, and the clowns themselves are constantly on the alert for overly-zealous coulrophiles who could quickly turn from innocent fetishists to stalkers. For apparent reasons, clown prostitution is a temptation as well as a civic problem.

Nita – or Sniffles, to use her clown name – is Clown Girl, the heroine of the piece. She works soul-killing corporate gigs to fund her boyfriend’s clown college try-outs, and tries to focus on her [clown] art, find her missing dog, not get evicted, and shake an overly-friendly policeman.

There are a couple of negative aspects to the book. The first is a matter of preference and has nothing to do with the quality of the writing or the story. Nita is dirty – not in a metaphysical sense, but physically dirty. She is always in greasy clown make-up, it is hot and she is sweaty, and she spends a lot of time pawing through or lying in piles of unlaundered costume parts. The need for her to have a good scrubbing is distracting.

The second is a matter of editing. There is one too many of every scene. There is one too many scenes involving the cop rescuing Nita, the cop trying to convince Nita that they are both outsiders, Nita’s neighbors ostracizing her because she is spending time with a cop, and Nita denying that she is dating a cop. There is one too many scenes of Nita arguing with her clown agent about selling out as a sexy clown and denying that she is a clown prostitute. There is one too many scenes where Nita removes her clown i.d., picture of her dead parents, and/or picture of her clown boyfriend, Rex Galore, from her sweaty, polka-dot bra. The whole thing needed a stricter hand with the red pen.

Despite these flaws, Clown Girl is quirkily entertaining. Drake is clever and she has created a self-contained world where her story makes sense. She is also very funny. She is funny with words and with the way she juxtaposes her clown-world with the real world. There is a dark edge to her humor, though, and it is touch and go whether the book will end in smiles or tears.

OTHER REVIEWS

(If you would like your review listed here, please leave a comment with a link and I will add it.)

Teaser Tuesday: The Count of Monte Cristo

Morrel took the purse, and started as he did so, for a vague remembrance reminded him that it once belonged to himself. At one end was the receipted bill for the 287,000 francs, and at the other was a diamond as large as a hazelnut, with these words on a small slip of parchment: Julie's Dowry.

-- The Count of Monte Cristo by Alexander Dumas

A diamond the size of a hazelnut! That is fantastic.

I cannot believe that I am only now reading this book. I got the audiobook from the library -- all 35 discs of it -- and never want to stop listening to it. So far, the hero has only repayed his friends. He is about to start seeking revenge against his enemies.

This is like the story from which all adventure stories came from. It has everything in it. 


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

Mailbox Monday

I had a busy book week, so my Mailbox Monday list is long (so long, I'm putting it up early).

First, Unbridled Books sent me A Geography of Secrets by Fredrick Reuss and, even though it is going on my Guilt List, it looks terrific. I can't wait to get to it.



Then, I went to the Great Northwest Benefit Book Sale and ended up with a crazy mix of books:

The Scottish Novels by Robert Lewis Stevenson (because I recently read Treasure Island and want to read more RLS)



Poems of John Donne (because I liked them in college -- at least that one about the flea -- and the cover was so adorable)



The Unconsoled by Kazuo Ishiguro (because he is a genius)



A Time of Hope by C. P. Snow (because I am gathering this edition of the Strangers and Brothers series)



Human Croquet by Kate Atkinson (because she is a new favorite)



Dancing at the Rascal Fair by Ivan Doig (because I've always meant to read at least one of his books)



Let the Great World Spin by Colum McCann (because it won the National Book Award)



Making It Up by Penelope Lively (because she is an old favorite)



The Pursuit of Love by Nancy Mitford (because I want to re-read this one and I loved the cover)



World Without End by Ken Follett (because I loved Pillars of the Earth and it is time for me to get to the sequel)



That Old Cape Magic and Bridge of Sighs by Richard Russo (because I liked Empire Falls and want to read more of his books)

Opening Sentence of the Day: A Week in December

"Five o'clock and freezing."

-- A Week in December by Sebastian Faulks.

Grrrrrr . . . A book pet peeve of mine is opening sentences that are incomplete sentences. It may be irrational of me, but there you have it.

Good thing the story takes off right away. I am sucked in.

This book is on my LibraryThing Early Reviewer list. I am determined to get caught up on that list.

Review of the Day: Missing Mom

Missing Mom is the story of how an adult daughter copes with the unexpected death of her widowed mother. Nikki Eaton is 32, single, involved with a married man, and seems barely ready for adulthood. Her mother’s death knocks her off her pins.

Coping is the best way to describe what Nikki goes through in her first year of mourning. She and her older sister, the bossy, no-nonsense Clare, realize that their mother was the only real bond between them as they work together to organize the formal ceremonies, sort through their parents’ belongings, and try to keep their personal lives intact.

Through this process, as Nikki comes to understand more about her mother, she understands more about herself. Nikki is not the most admirable of heroines – she has a whiney, self-indulgent streak and spends more time than an insecure teen-ager worrying about what outfit to wear – but she starts to mature as, groping for a way through her grief, she takes on some of her mother’s habits and social obligations.

Oates is unflinching in her portrayal of both the heartbreak and banality of losing a mother. Scenes such as Nikki reading her mother’s old love letters are all the more poignant for being balanced by scenes of cleaning out the freezer or filling bags for the Goodwill. Oates manages to make the story emotionally authentic without being gooey or maudlin.

NOTES

Somehow, although she is prolific, this is the first Joyce Carol Oates book I have read. It really hit me and I keep thinking about it, weeks after I finished it.

OTHER REVIEWS
(If you would like your review of this book listed here, please leave a comment with a link and I will add it.)

The Long and Short of It

This week's Booking Through Thursday question asks:

Which do you prefer? Short stories? Or full-length novels?

I much prefer novels to short stories. I know the old truism about stories being harder to write than novels, and that is probably true, but that doesn't make them easier to read.

It is usually the pace and rhythm of short stories that puts me off. I prefer the longer, steadier pace of a novel.  Too often, short stories either build to a big payoff that feels manipulated, forced, or just unsatisfactory -- like the story arc was truncated.  Or the story arc is too flat and just peters out in a way that is supposed to signify something important but just leaves me bored.

I'm afraid I had this reaction even to several of Earnest Hemingway's stories (see here) and John Cheevers's (see here), although both are revered for their short stories and I am a fan of their novels.

There are exceptions, of course. Roald Dahl is a master of short stories (see here for one review). I have read almost all of them and some are all-time favorites, such as "Taste" about a wine bet gone wrong and "The Great Automatic Grammatizator" about a machine that writes novels.



And I am just starting with Somerset Maugham's short stories, but they are very, very good.

As a rule, I will read short stories by an author who's novels I enjoy. But I won't start with a collection of short stories by an unknown (to me) author.

 

Review of the Day: Everyday Drinking

Everyday Drinking: The Distilled Kingsley Amisis a compendium of Kingsley Amis’s previously published “dipsography”: On Drink, Every Day Drinking, and How’s Your Glass? Amis was well known both on the page and off as a drinking man, so was uniquely qualified to tackle his subject.

On Drink was first published in 1972 as a stand-alone book. It is the best of the collected bunch, as Amis is fresh and on his game, often snarky, always opinionated. He covers beer, wine, spirits, general principals of drinking, drinking literature, tips for hosts, hangovers, and drinks recipes. Chapters on “The Mean Sod’s Guide” to being a stingy host and how to sooth a "metaphorical" hangover are fiercely entertaining.

Every Day Drinking is a collection of articles Amis wrote in the early 1980s on the same booze-related topics, many of them re-workings of chapters from On Drink. Despite the Editor’s argument Amis’s second takes are like enjoying a Laphroig after a Glenfiddich , several of these essays are more like the warm half of a large martini.

How’s Your Glass? is the oddest of the bunch. Again a collection of articles from the early 1980s, these take the form of a series quizzes on wine, beer, and hard liquor, with the answers printed further back. It is fine for what it is, although probably appeals to a limited audience.

Because the independent volumes are out of print and difficult to find, Everyday Drinking is a reasonable way to get On Drink into your library – a worthwhile purchase for those who prefer their drinking companions in printed form.

OTHER REVIEWS

(If you would like your review of this book listed here, please leave a comment with a link and I will add it.)

Teaser Tuesday: Clown Girl

"One-Night Stan's ice-cream truck, the neighborhood drug mobile, still played nearby. Drugs, ice-cream, balloon toys and prayer -- these are the things you sell when there's nothing else left."

--  Clown Girl by Monica Drake (published by Hawthorne Books & Literary Arts)

 

As of right now, this one could go either way for me. I may love it, or I may curse the day it came into my house. I'll know in another 180 pages. 

 

 

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

Happy Memorial Day!

WE HAVE A WINNER!

June at Writing is a Blessing is the winner of A Small Fortune!

Thanks for everyone who participated in my first book giveaway. And huge thanks to author Audrey Braun for providing the book.

A Small Fortune is a sexy, exciting thriller with a sparky heroine. I highly recommend it. In fact, I thought it was "unputdownable." My full review is here.  The book is available on-line from Powell's and amazon.

For those in the Portland area, Braun will be reading and signing at Broadway Books tomorrow night, June 1, 2010 at 7:00 p.m.

Mailbox Memorial Day

If I hadn't done a quick swing past the dollar shelf at Powell's, I wouldn't have had anything to show for Mailbox Monday! Lucky for me, Powell's is only a short, rainy walk from my office.

Dolly by Anita Brookner (continuing on my habit of collecting, but not often reading, Brookner's novels)



Grand Cru by Barney Leason (continuing my streak of wine-related books)



HAPPY MEMORIAL DAY!

Opening Sentence of the Day: Clown Girl

"Balloon Tying for Christ was the cheapest balloon manual I could find."

--  Clown Girl by Monica Drake (Independent Publishers Book Award winner; introduction by Chuck Palahniuk)

Hawthorne Books & Literary Arts sent this one to me.  I don't know if I would have picked it myself, and it has more of an an edge to it than I am really comfortable with, but it is incredibly clever and pretty funny.

Hawthorne is a Portland-based, independent publisher specializing in literary fiction and narrative non-fiction.   

Review of the day: Indian Summer

John Knowles is still famous for his debut novel, A Separate Peace, although his other novels never caught on with any enduring popularity.  Indian Summer , his third book, is the story of Cleet Kinsolving’s struggle to grow up after returning from WWII.

Cleet spends the summer working as a general assistant for his best friend, Neil Reardon, and his wealthy family. The Reardons – a Kennedy-style Irish Catholic clan living in a sprawling compound on the Connecticut River – have plenty of their own problems to deal with.

Neil toils at make-work projects like current affairs commentary in order to justify living off his father’s fortune. He is heading for a crack up unless he can find a way around his Catholic conviction that he can only have sex with his wife for procreation – now that she is pregnant, he is out of luck.

Neil’s wife Georgia is a fish out of water. Having grown up on the wrong side of the tracks, she is not comfortable with the Reardon’s wealth. Having grown up Protestant, she is not comfortable with her husband’s religion, especially when he brings it into the bedroom.

Neil’s robber baron father, austere mother, and divorcee sister; Georgia’s sad sack father, blousy mother, and floozy little sister; Cleet’s apple pie little brother; and other assorted relatives and hangers-on serve as foils for the main characters. But none of the people are sympathetic or even all that interesting. Cleet and Neil are both despicable in their ways, with nothing very redeeming in their stories.

The theme of the story, repeated several times, seems to be that people are never ready for the phase of life that they are in – they are like actors playing last week’s play in front of this week’s stage set. Is that as simple as “things change”? If so, that is pretty trite. Towards the end, Georgia suggests something only marginally better: that everyone gets stuck with an idea of himself that he cannot grow out of. She cannot get past the idea of herself as a struggling young actress. Her father cannot shake the idea that he is 19 and setting out to conquer the world. And Neil still thinks he is a schoolboy being bullied by other kids. In contrast, Cleet lives in the moment.

Knowles has a smooth way with words and offers some keen observations on family relationships and the influence of money. Because of his prowess as an author, the book is entertaining and speeds by quickly enough. But it does not hold up well to analysis.

OTHER REVIEWS

(If you would like your reviews of this book, or any other book by John Knowles, listed here, please leave a comment with a link and I will add it.)

NOTES

This is the first book I read for the Hotchpot Cafe's Birth Year Reading Challenge.

Today is the Deadline to Win A Small Fortune!

LAST DAY TO ENTER THE GIVEAWAY!

Thanks to the author, Audrey Braun, I have a brand new copy of A Small Fortune to give away.

Please go to the main contest post for rules on multiple entries, etc., and to sign up. Please only sign up on the contest page, not here. Thanks!

And good luck! This is a fun, exciting book from a very talented new author. 

And thanks to anyone who stopped by because of the Book Blogger Hop. I will be hopping around myself. It seems that I find a couple of new-to-me blogs every week!

Opening Sentence of the Day: Everyday Drinking

"Anthropologists assure us that wherever we find man he speaks."

-- On Drink

"There's a certain satisfaction to be got from bringing out a book of collected journalism."

-- Every Day Drinking

"Although drink is a contentious subject -- I have seen grown men close to blows over whether you should or should not bruise the mint in a Mint Julep -- there are a lot of facts connected with it, some well known, some less so, and some on the fringes which may have their own appeal."

-- How's Your Glass?

All by Kinglsley Amis, published as a compilation, Everyday Drinking: The Distilled Kingsley Amis.

I didn't realize when I bought this book that it is a re-publication of three separate Amis books on alcohol and drinking -- what he might call his "dipsography," a word he uses in one of the essays. This was a pleasant surprise, because Amis is a favorite author of mine and I would like to read all his books, but the individual volumes are hard to come by. 


NOTE
Book Beginnings on Fridays is a Friday "opening sentence" event hosted by Becky at Page Turners.

Review of the Day: Short Stories by Anton Chekov

Short Stories by Anton Chekhov, produced and read by Max Bollinger

This audio collection of six lesser known short stories by Anton Chekhov made for an entertain hour, but was an oddball introduction to Chekhov's short stories. The stories were captivating in that they packed a lot of cultural observations, emotions, and human dynamics into short little bits. However, they all seemed to end abruptly, without resolution. I have not read enough of Chekhov to know if these are typical of his short stories.

I enjoyed the production. Listening to the stories told in narrator Max Bollinger's Russian accent brought them to life for me the way a flat, anglicized version would not have. There were a few times his accent was obtrusively thick -- mostly with proper names. But his phrasing was good, especially when dealing with both external and internal dialog. The sound effects were annoying, although fairly easy to ignore.

Mostly, I got a kick out of the whole project. I like the idea that this "Russian-born British actor" decided to find some public domain stories by an old master, produce an entertaining audio version of them, and start selling it on amazon. What a great idea! I hope other entrepreneurial actors follow his example.  

OTHER REVIEWS

(If you would like your review listed here, please leave a comment with a link and I will add it.)

NOTES

I got this audiobook through the LibraryThing Early Reviewer program.  I am pleased to be able to scratch it off that list, although Volume II is supposedly on its way and I am looking forward to that.

Review of the Day: The Grail

The Grail: A Year Ambling & Shambling Through an Oregon Vineyard in Pursuit of the Best Pinot Noir Wine in the Whole Wild World by Brian Doyle

Brian Doyle spent a year hanging around one of Oregon’s premier wineries, getting to understand the winemakers, the process of making wine, and the almost mystic quest for The Best Pinot Noir Wine in the World. The result of his observations and pondering is The Grail.

Doyle focused on pinot noir because it is the wine that Oregon is famous for. The well-drained, volcanic soil of Yamhill County is capable of producing pinots to rival wines from the Burgundy region of France. Oregon wineries produce a wide variety of wines, but pinots can make a winery famous – or drive the winemaker crazy. As Doyle learned, pinot noir grapes are the divas of the vineyard.

Doyle’s pinot schoolhouse was Lange Estate Winery and Vineyards in the Red Hills of Dundee, Oregon. Winemakers Jesse Lange and his father Don were patient and erudite teachers who explained to Doyle, not only the technical side of how to grow grapes and make wine, but the poetic and personal side of their business as well. Doyle augments their information with chapters on various related topics such as the history of the region, pinot noir from around the world, and his own musings on words, wine, dogs, friends, and spirituality.

One key theme Doyle plays on is the idea that, while good pinot must have structure, balance, and texture, there is a wide range of “pinotpossibility” for any pinot noir – from strong, heavy, substantive wines to lively, minerally, bright wines. This range makes it impossible to definitively decide what the “best” pinot noir is, any decision being, at best, an educated opinion. Thus the search for the Best Pinot Noir Wine in the World is as elusive a quest as for the Holy Grail itself.

It is good to keep this theme in mind when assessing Doyle’s writing style. Just as “good” pinot depends in large part on personal preferences, so good writing. Doyle is a good writer – a very good writer – and an accomplished wordsmith who takes obvious pleasure in the play and flow of words. But those who prefer non-fiction written in a crisp, journalistic style may find Doyle’s prose to be overly flowery. There are times his wordplay, elaborate descriptions, and alliteration get a little sing-song – like Peter Cottontail describing how to make wine. But his exuberant style always conveys Doyle’s good-natured enthusiasm for the stories he delights in telling.

OTHER REVIEWS

(If you would like your review listed here, please leave a comment with a link and I will add it.)

NOTES

The Grail was a Book Sense Pick (now called the Indie Next List)

Brian Doyle is the editor of Portland Magazine at the University of Portland. He also compiled the list of The 20 Greatest Oregon Books Ever that I am working on.

The Oregon State University Press sent me this book, along with several others, to review. So far, I have been very impressed with both books I have read. My review of City Limits: Walking Portland's Boundary, by David Oates, is here.