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

Review of the Day: Cold Mountain

 

Charles Frazier won the National Book Award for Cold Mountain, his Civil war novel about a Confederate deserter and the woman waiting for his return.

Most of the book follows the two stories separately. Innman musters himself out of the army after he was injured in battle. Working his way home to Cold Mountain, he encounters Federal raiders terrorizing women and children, Home Guard vigilantes hunting deserters, remnants of families trying to survive the war, and a few misfits and eccentrics whose off-kilter lifestyles seem unaffected by the conflict. The damage inflicted on his soul and psyche as a result of these adventures is profound.

Playing Penelope to Innman’s Odysseus, Ada Monroe keeps the home fires burning back at her Cold Mountain farm. Left helpless by the death of her courtly father, Ada learns the value of hard work from her new companion, the no-nonsense Ruby. The story of the two women raising crops, making cider, trading for supplies, splitting firewood, and generally preparing for a long winter is deeply satisfying to anyone with a nesting instinct.

Both the characters and the themes are thorny, making the story one worth pondering. Frazier’s writing is graceful, even lyrical, and he has an ear for rural analogy that brings life to the setting. Part adventure story, part romance, and part moral treatise, Cold Mountain is an incredibly good book.

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.

NOTES

This was one of my National Book Award choices for the 2011 Battle of the Prizes, American Version, challenge.

Opening Sentence of the Day: Cause Celeb

It used to seem extraordinary to me that someone like Henry could actually exist, extraordinary that a person could be transported into an environment so alien to his own, and remain so utterly unaffected by his surroundings.

-- Cause Celeb by Helen Fielding.

This was her first book, before Bridget Jones.  It was published in England in 1994, but not in America until 2001.

It is more serious than Bridget Jones.  It is still lighthearted and has funny bits, but it has, so far, a more substantive plot.  The heroine is a relief worker in Africa, facing a flood of new refugees because of a pending famine. But I suspect she is going to get her celebrity connections involved, and there will be much comic skewering of celebrity culture.

Teaser Tuesday: With a Jug of Wine

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.

--  With a Jug of Wine by Morrison Wood, "well known food columnist" -- it says so right on the cover.

Now that fried calamari is a pretty standard restaurant appetizer, I don't think squid causes the shudders Wood predicted when he wrote these words back in 1949.  However, the comparison to frogs' legs might raise some eyebrows now.

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

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 got some great books last week:

The Thunder Tree: Lessons From an Urban Wildland by Robert Michael Pyle (from OSU Press)

Cimarron Rose by James Lee Burke (for which he won the Edgar Award)

The Private Patient by P. D. James (a very nice hardback I found at a book sale at the history museum in Shelton, WA)

Principle-Centered Leadership by Stephen R. Covey (author of 7 Habits of Highly Effective People)

Rebus: The Lost Years by Ian Rankin (a three-novel omnibus that includes Let It Bleed, Black & Blue, and The Hanging Garden). I'm on a Rebus tear now that I finished listening (out of order) to Strip Jack and went back and read the first one, Knots and Crosses. 

What books came into your house last week?

Review of the Day: The Losing Role

The Losing Role is a WWII espionage story from the German point of view, based on an actual German spy mission in which English-speaking German soldiers were sent behind American lines.

Steve Anderson was drawn to the story because, although the operation took on legendary status, it was really a debacle. Most of the soldiers recruited for the effort had been actors, waiters, or sailors – exposed to some American English, maybe, but not really fluent and not capable of pulling off such an audacious campaign of wartime terrorism.

Max Kaspar gets plucked off the Eastern Front and into the operation because he is an actor who spent years in New York. As the official plans go awry, Max forms his own plan, one that finds him at cross-purposes with everyone he encounters.

Telling the story from Max's perspective gives it an edge not possible with an American narrator. The Nazis and their SS goons are the real bad guys. Max is stuck in the middle, with mixed feelings for America where he failed as an actor, and grieving for his country and its inevitable destruction. His is a story of thwarted ambition, personal identity, lost love, divided loyalty, and, above all, the striving for freedom.

Anderson's journalism background reveals itself in the clear way he tells the story, with descriptive details instead of leaden explanations. He understands the rule that it is better to show the reader than tell the reader.

He also has a great ear for dialog, which is crucial in a story about language and linguistic subterfuge. Again, without telling, simply by doing, Anderson subtly distinguishes between Germans with varying levels of fluency in English -- from those who have mastered American slang, to the hero who is fluent but too formal, to those who get it all wrong.  Much of the plot turns on these distinctions.

The Losing Role is a terrific book that deserves a wide audience. It is exciting and funny and keeps you thinking long after the action is over.

OTHER REVIEWS

Man of la Book (review, author interview)

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

NOTES

My interview with the author is here. You can read more about Steve Anderson and his other books on his website.

Opening Sentence of the Day: With a Jug of Wine

"Once upon a time there was a DELUXE young lad by the name of HORACE, who was classified 3F."

-- from the Introduction to With a Jug of Wine by Morrison Wood, "well known food columnist" -- it says so right on the cover. I have no idea where that story is going.

"It is, of course, possible to cook without wine."

-- from Chapter 1. I have a better idea what he's getting at here, especially when he goes on to compare cooking without wine to wearing clothes made out of gunny sacks -- possible, but not pleasant.

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.

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

Opening Sentence of the Day: Cold Mountain

"At the first gesture of morning, flies began stirring."

-- Cold Mountain by Charles Frasier.

This has been sitting on my TBR shelf since it won the National Book Award in 1997.  There are many reasons why I haven't read it -- none of them necessarily compelling.

First, my then husband was reading it while we were going through our divorce and he told me I wouldn't like it.  He was wrong about a lot of things, but he did know my taste in books.

Second, I saw the movie, which I thought was a little slow and boring.  So I wanted to wait to read the book until I had forgotten enough of the story that the book had a chance to grab my attention.

Finally, I've come to a point where I am just not interested in Civil War books.  As I discussed in my reviews of Geraldine Brooks’s Pulitzer-winning March (reviewed here) and Hallam’s War by Elizabeth Payne Rosen (reviewed here), I get tired of the hoop skirts, hollerin’, and hacksaws that make up most Civil War novels.

But the power of the list has finally motivated me to read this.  So far, I find it to be slow and a little boring, but it is keeping my attention.  It starts closer to the end of the war, so the hoop skirt and hollerin' phases were already over.  There were some gruesome battle and injury scenes and a story of progressive amputation, but not with a hacksaw at least.

It may grow on me.

This will count as one of my National picks for the 2011 Battle of the Prizes, American Version, challenge.  There is still LOTS of time to sign up.  Click the link or the picture to go to the main challenge post.

 

Teaser Tuesday: The Losing Role

"Espinoza and a crowd of prisoners were waiting for Max, Zoock, Felix, and Braun in front of Barrack 13.  On the front steps were a bundle of baseball bats, a bucket of balls, and a duffel bag."

-- The Losing Role by Steve Anderson.  

 

Uh-oh.  Will the Germans pass a baseball test? This is a WWII espionage story from the German point of view -- an intriguing idea.

 

I am halfway through and enjoying this very much. English-speaking Germans are recruited for a secret mission behind American lines. It's exciting and funny and very interesting. 

Anderson has a great ear for the dialog, subtly distinguishing between Germans with varying levels of fluency in English -- from those who have mastered American slang, to the hero who is fluent but too formal, to those who get it all wrong. 

 

See my interview of the author here. 

 

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 got two books last week both from Second Hand Prose, one of my favorite library book stores:

Chasing Cezanne by Peter Mayle.  This one is on my French Connections list. I thought I already had it, maybe even read it, but apparently not.




In Their Wisdom by C. P. Snow. I started his Strangers and Brothers series (first book reviewed here), so thought I'd try this one which is not part of the series.

Opening Sentence of the Day: The Losing Role

"Max lay flat on his back, in the mud."

-- The Losing Role by Steve Anderson.  This is a WWII espionage story from the German point of view -- an intriguing idea.

I got it for Hubby but am going to read it myself first. 

See my interview of the author here.

Review of the Day: Started Early, Took My Dog

Started Early, Took My Dog is the fourth and latest in Kate Atkinson's series of super smart mysteries featuring Jackson Brodie. Like the other Brodie books, this one involves several disparate stories that more or less come together. Like the other Brodie books and her earlier literary fiction, Atkinson's droll commentary and crackling wit make every page a delight.

There is a theme throughout the books of the series (stemming from the murder of his own teen-aged sister when he was a child) of Jackson trying to rescue lost girls. This book narrows that idea to missing children – children kidnapped, sold, murdered, snatched by estranged parents, aborted, abandoned, or erased from the system.

The title may refer to Atkinson's process of writing this book: She started the story early, with the 1975 murder of a Leeds prostitute; and she brought along dog in the form of an abused little terrier Jackson rescues and sneaks into hotels in his rucksack.

The narrative moves back and forth between the earlier murder and Jackson's present-day efforts to locate the birth parents of his client – a woman adopted when she was a toddler. Running roughly parallel, with occasional intersections, is the story of Tracey Waterhouse, a newly retired Leeds police officer who finds herself on the lam with a four-year-old girl in a fairy costume.

The point of Atkinson's Brodie books is not to follow a linear string of clues to a logical solution to the mystery. Indeed, two of the main storylines in Started Early are left unresolved in the end, which is disconcerting, but hopefully signals a sequel in the works.

These are in no way conventional mysteries. They are – like all great novels – stories about people facing conflict, struggling with relationships, finding their place, and trying to understand life. That they have a few dead bodies thrown in make them "mysteries," but they are no less literature. Started Early, Took My Dog is a gobsmacker of a good book.

New Blog Theme

Every year about this time, I get an urge to make over my blog.  Maybe it is that Spring is in the air -- there is a spirit of rebirth all around me.  I want change.

So I have decided to follow my latest passion and am going to convert Rose City Reader to a blog about UNICORNS.

I am working now on a list of books about unicorns.  Must go get to work on that . . .

Favorite Author: Ian Rankin

It took me a long time to stumble across Ian Rankin's Inspector John Rebus series, but now I am hooked. I have also started his Malcolm Fox series. Someday I'll get to his other books as well.

I first encountered Rebus when I tried to watch the television adaptation of the Rebus books staring Scottish cutie John Hannah.  But I couldn't understand a word they said!  And no subtitles for the Scottish impaired.  Then I finally figured out that the show was based on the book series and my problems were solved.

Normally, I am fiendish about reading a series in order.  But when I found the audio version of Strip Jack at my library, I decided to test it to see if I would like the series.  I did and now I am committed.

Those I have read are in red.  Those on my TBR shelf are in blue.  This is a list only of his Rebus and Fox books.

Knots and Crosses

Hide and Seek

Tooth and Nail

A Good Hanging (short stories)

Strip Jack

The Black Book

Mortal Causes

Let it Bleed

Black and Blue

The Hanging Garden

Death is Not the End

Dead Souls

Set in Darkness

The Falls

Resurrection Men

A Question of Blood

Fleshmarket Alley

The Naming of the Dead

Exit Music

The Complaints (Malcolm Fox)

The Impossible Dead (Malcolm Fox)

Standing in Another Man's Grave (Rebus and Malcolm Fox)

Saints of the Shadow Bible (Rebus and Malcolm Fox)

OTHER RANKIN FANS

If you have Rankin-related posts that you would like listed here, please leave a comment with a link and I will add it.

NOTES

Last updated on August 24, 2014.

Teaser Tuesday: My Cousin Rachel

"The spell of the hushed garden had held me for a brief moment only, the scent of roses and the glow of the setting sun, but it was over now.

 

"'Who is Signor Rainaldi?' I asked."

-- My Cousin Rachel by Daphne du Maurier.

This is the second book I am reading for the the Daphne du Maurier Challenge hosted by Chris at book-a-rama. My challenge post is here.

I've read Rebecca (reviewed here) and still have The Flight of the Falcon left to go if I am to finish the challenge by the April 19 deadline. Better get cracking.

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).

I'm Booking It is hosting in March.

I got a short stack of books last week:

Potluck: Community on the Edge of Wilderness by Ana Maria Spagna (essays about "the enduring human connection to place" from OSU Press)



One Small Step Can Change Your Life: The Kaizen Way by Robert Maurer, Ph.D. (because I heard Kathie England give a Time Management talk based on Maurer's principles)

The Art of Fiction by David Lodge (because I'm a Lodge fan and Michael5000 recommended it)



The Women's Health Big Book of Exercises (because my friend Cynthia recommended it)

 

State of the Blog: Part Three, the Challenges

Spring has sprung -- not that it feels like it today -- and it is time for me to see if I've made any progress on my lists. 

This is the third of my quarterly blog assessment posts.  This one takes a look at the challenges I'm working on in 2011. The first part addressed my lists. Part Two dealt with my author lists.

NOTE: If you are working on any of these same challenges, please leave a comment here on on my main challenge post. I would like to read your main challenge pages and any reviews.

2010 CHALLENGES

There are a few challenges that overlapped from 2010. I finished two of these in January, the two "Battle of the Prizes" challenges that I hosted in 2010.  Both started on February 1, 2010 and didn't end until January 31, 2011. 

2010 Battle of the Prizes: American Version

National Book Award winners v. Pulitzer Prize winners, rules here. There are two ways to participate -- either read one book that won the Pulitzer Prize, one that won the National Book Award, and one that won both; or read two Pulizer winners and two National winners.

I've finished three of my four books in 2010:

1. The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao by Junot Diaz (Pulitzer)
2. Olive Kitteridge is Elizabeth Strout (reviewed here) (Pulitzer)
3. Let the Great World Spin by Colum McCann (reviewed here) (National)

I finished my fourth, and favorite book in 2011: Lord of Misrule by Jaimy Gordon (reviewed here) (National).

2010 Battle of the Prizes: British Version

Man Booker Prize v. James Tait Black Memorial Prize, rules here.  This has the same set up -- either read one winner of each prize and a double-dipper, or read two of each.

I read two of my three in 2010:

1. The Secret Scripture by Sebastian Barry (reviewed here) (James Tait Black)
2. The Sea, the Sea by Iris Murdoch (reviewed here) (Booker)

I read my third book, my double dipper, in 2011: G by John Berger (reviewed here).  

Daphne du Maurier Challenge

This Challenge is hosted by Chris at book-a-rama and goes through April 19, 2011.

I signing up for the "Dreaming of Manderley" category, to read three novels. Since I am still new to du Maurier, I'll am starting with the greatest hits.

Books read so far: one: Rebecca (reviewed here)

Books I plan to read, although I don't know it I can get the third one done by the deadline:

1. The Flight of the Falcon;
2. My Cousin Rachel (I am reading this now)

2011 CHALLENGES

CHALLENGES HOSTED BY ROSE CITY READER

I am hosting the two Battle of the Prizes Challenges again in 2011. The challenges run from February 1, 2011 to January 31, 2012. 


2011 Battle of the Prizes: American Version

 

Like in past years, this challenge pits National Book Award winners against Pulitzer Prize winners. There are two ways to participate -- either read one book that won the Pulitzer Prize, one that won the National Book Award, and one that won both; or read two Pulizer winners and two National winners.

I don't know yet whether I will do the 3-book or the 4-book option, or which books I'll pick, but I have the following in mind, only one of which I have read so far: Breathing Lessons by Anne Tyler  (reviewed here).

Possible National Award winners:

1. The News from Paraguay by Lily Tuck
2. Them by Joyce Carol Oates
3. Morte d'Urban by J.F. Powers

Other Possible Pulitzer winners:

1. One of Ours by Willa Cather
2. Arrowsmith by Sinclair Lewis

2011 Battle of the Prizes: British Version

Just as in 2010, this challenge is to read books that won the Man Booker Prize and the James Tait Black Memorial Prize.  This has the same set up -- either read one winner of each prize and a double-dipper, or read two of each.

I will have to go with the 4-book option, because I've read all three of the double-dippers. So far, I've read Wolf Hall by Hilary Mantel (reviewed here).

Other possible Booker picks are:

1. How Late it Was, How Late by James Kelman 
2. Shindler's List by Thomas Keneally

Possible James Tait Black picks are:

1. Brazzaville Beach by William Boyd
2. White Teeth by Zadie Smith

2011 CHALLENGES I AM PARTICIPATING IN

The challenge titles link to my main challenge posts.

Foodie's Reading Challenge

Margot at Joyfully Retired is hosting a challenge for 2011 that I am very excited about: The Foodie's Reading Challenge!

I signed up at the "Bon Vivant" level to read four to six books.  My plan is to read books that are already on my TBR shelves.

So far, I've read The Food of France by Waverley Root (reviewed here).

Others in the running include (in no particular order):

• James Beard on Food Delights and Prejudices by James Beard
• On the Town in New York by Michael Batterberry
• Stuffed: Adventures of a Restaurant Family by Patricia Volk
• The Tuscan Year: Life and Food in an Italian Valley by Elizabeth Romer
• Comfort Me with Apples: More Adventures at the Table by Ruth Reichl
• Alice Waters and Chez Panisse by Thomas McNamee
• Epicurean Delight: The Life and Times of James Beard by Evan Jones
• American Terroir: Savoring the Flavors of Our Woods, Waters, and Fields by Rowan Jacobsen
• Vie De France: Sharing Food, Friendship and a Kitchen in the Lorie Valle by James Haller
• French Spirits: A House, a Village, and a Love Affair in Burgundy by Jeffrey Greene
• A Cordiall Water by M. F. K. Fisher
• The Feasting Season by Nancy Coons
• Dumas on Food: Selections from Le Grand Dictionnaire de Cuisine by Alexandre Dumas

And it might be a good idea to include this one:

French Women Don't Get Fat: The Secret of Eating For Pleasure by Mireille Guiliano

Chunkster Reading Challenge 

 

Wendy at caribousmom is hosting this fun challenge again this year.  The challenge sign-up post is here.

Since I didn't reach my chunkster goal in 2010, I am scaling down a bit in 2011 and signing up for the "Chubby Chunkster" level this year.  That means reading four books over 450 pages long.

I overlapped with the Foodie challenge because The Food of France by Waverley Root (reviewed here), is quite the Chunkster.

The only other book I am currently planning on is Anna Karenina by Leo Tolstoy.  That's my "big book" for 2011.  I don't know which others will strike my fancy.

The Vintage Mystery Reading Challenge

The Vintage Mystery Reading Challenge is hosted by My Reader's Block.  The goal is to read mysteries written before 1960.  I signed up at the "In a Murderous Mood" level with the goal of reading four to six books, by at least two different authors, by the end of the year.

 

So far, I have read three, but haven't reviewed any of them yet:

• A Study in Scarlet by Sir Arthor Conan Doyle;
• The Sign of the Four by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle; and
• The League of Frightened Men by Rex Stout.

Next up is Clouds of Witness by Dorothy L. Sayers.