Tuesday, December 20, 2011
Teaser Tuesday: The Oregon Experiment
As he turned towards the courthouse and drove along Central Park, a figure shot out in front of him. He slammed on the brakes as the hooded man punched down on the front of the car and rolled on one hip up and over the fender, then sprinted off between two houses.-- The Oregon Experiment by Keith Scribner, published by Alfred A. Knopf. This is quite a story about a professor and his wife who move to Oregon and he gets involved with an anarchist group.
Jeff Baker wrote a terrific profile and interview of Scribner for The Oregonian.
Teaser Tuesdays is hosted by Should Be Reading, where you can find the official rules for this weekly event.
Monday, December 19, 2011
Mailbox Monday
Lady Q at Let Them Read Books is hosting in December. Be sure and visit her terrific blog!
I got two books last week:
Alfred Edelman: Urban Compositions, photos by Alfred Edelman, essay by Kathleen Dean Moore, poetry by Paulann Petersen (Oregon's poet laureate), published by Pacific Northwest College of Arts.
Edelman was a Portland-based architect, photographer, and founder of Hotlips Pizza (yummmmmmmmm). This beautiful books features Edelman's photographs of urban fragments, coupled with Peterson's poems. It is lovely.
Urban Compositions is available at The Gallery at Museum of Contemporary Craft in Portland (or on line), Broadway Books, or directly from Jeana Edelman.
Murder on Board, three novels by Agatha Christie, an omnibus edition containing The Mystery on the Blue Train, Death in the Air, and What Mrs. McGillicuddy Saw.
This one is going to kick off my Vintage Reading Challenge. I still need to do my sign up post, but I am going to sign up to read 8 pre-1969 mysteries by women authors.
Sunday, December 18, 2011
Review of the Day: Delights and Prejudices
James Beard was the "Dean of American Cuisine." Before Alice Waters was even born, he was championing regional, seasonal cooking. Long before his buddy Julia Child, he had a televised cooking program -- the first ever, starting in 1946, when home televisions were a great rarity and most of audience was men in bars (his show came on after the boxing match).
He wrote more than 20 cookbooks and became famous for his New York cooking schools. After his death in 1985 at age 81, Julia Child wanted to preserve his home, school, and memory, leading to the creation of the James Beard Foundation, still located in his Greenwich Village brownstone. Every year the foundation honors cookbook authors, chefs, restaurateurs, food writers, and other culinary professionals with the James Beard Award.
Beard published Delights and Prejudices: A Memoir with Recipes 1964 to explain his own food loving history from toddler-hood to his New York cooking school days. He bounces around from his childhood in Portland to Les Halles in Paris to Mid-Century Manhattan and beyond.
It is absolutely wonderful, particularly for a Portlander like me. Beard highlights Portland's rich culinary roots, with lengthy chapters on the farmers' markets, local procuce, and abundant seafood that we here in the Rose City still enjoy. His remembrances of childhood weeks spent in Gearhart on the Oregon coast would make anyone want to head for the drizzly beach, build a huge bonfire, and roast oysters and Dungeness crabs.
What makes the book stand out is that Beard's bigger than life, kind of oddball personality shows through. For instance, despite launching his career with a catering company featuring canapes and the resultant first cookbook, Hors D'oeuvre and Canapes, he was ambivalent about finger food, coining the name "doots" for all little passed tidbits. Doots? Now, that's funny.
He had strong opinions about food and cooking -- many inherited from his strong-willed mother -- and laid them all out. For example, he hated chicken livers, but loved gizzards (and included plenty of recipes to prove it). He was an ardent Francophile and particularly favored bistro cooking, but could not stand Caribbean food.
When it came to holiday traditions, he loved his mother's Christmas fruitcakes (made a year in advance), but thought cranberries were an "abomination," homemade candy "really unsavory," and Christmas cookies only good if you make them yourself and eat them right away, exhorting well-wishers to "have pity on us, all you bakers -- the spirit of Christmas notwithstanding -- and deliver us from cookies that have crumbled or gone stale."
Delights and Prejudices is outstanding among food memoirs because James Beard is a giant and, therefore, learning what shaped his talent is fascinating, but also because it inspires an examination of your own food delights and prejudices and where they came from.
RECIPE
Huckleberry Cake
(Beard, like most Oregonians, loved the wild, dark huckleberries that grow here, particularly those that grow in the hills near the Oregon coast.)
Cream 1 cup butter and 1 cup granulated sugar together until the mixture is very light. Add 3 eggs, one by one, beating after each addition. Sift two cups flour and save 1/4 cup to mix with 1 cup huckleberries. Add to the rest 2 teaspoons baking powder and a pinch of salt, and fold this into the egg mixture. Add 1 teaspoon vanilla and, lastly, fold in the floured huckleberries. Pour the batter into a buttered, floured 8-inch-square baking tin. Bake at 375º for 35 to 40 minutes or until the cake is nicely browned, or when a tester inserted comes out clean.
Serve the cake hot with whipped cream, or cold.
OTHER REVIEWS
If you would like your review of this or any other James beard book listed here, please leave a comment with a link and I will add it.
NOTES
This is my sixth and final book for the 2011 Foodie's Reading Challenge. I can't wait to sign up again for the 2012 version.
WEEKEND COOKING
Saturday, December 17, 2011
2012 Challenge: Non-Fiction Non-Memoir
FINISHED
Julie at My Book Retreat is hosting her first challenge, geared towards reading more nonfiction. To make it more of a challenge, her Non-Fiction Non-Memoir Reading Challenge will exclude memoirs, which seem to be the most read type of nonfiction among the book blogs she follows. Instead, the focus is on learning about a variety of different topics and discovering new facts. The challenge will run from January 1, 2012 through December 31, 2012.
What Counts:
- Books can be any format (bound, ebook, audio) but must be written for adults or young adults.
- Books can cover many different topics, including science, technology, religion, sociology, business, biography, politics, economics, history, food, art/design, etc.
- How-to, self-help and travel books are permitted, as long as you actual read them cover to cover, and don't just use them as a reference.
- Crossovers with other challenges are permitted.
What Does Not Count:
- Reference books, cookbooks and instruction manuals that are not meant to be read cover to cover
- Essays and articles (individual -- bound collections count)
- How-to, self-help or travel books that are not read cover to cover
- Memoirs, journals and autobiographies
- Books written for children
- Re-reads don't count since the point is to learn something new
Levels:
Elementary - 5 nonfiction books
Diploma - 10 nonfiction books
Bachelor's Degree - 15 nonfiction books
Master's Degree - 25 nonfiction books
Details:
See Julie's challenge post.
I signed up for the Diploma level to read 10 books. I thought I read a lot of qualifying books in 2011, but when I go back and look, sure enough, most were memoirs.
MY BOOKS READ AND REVIEWED
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, Vol. 1, by Mark Twain, reviewed here;
What's So Great About Christianity by Dinesh D'Souza, great book but not reviewed;
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;
Evolutionaries: Transformational Leadership: The Missing Link in Your Organizational Chart, by business strategists Randy Harrington and Carmen E Voillequé, reviewed here;
Fierce Conversations: Achieving Success at Work and in Life One Conversation at a Time by Susan Scott;
The Five Dysfunctions of a Team: A Leadership Fable by Patrick Lencioni.
LIST OF POSSIBILITIES
I am going to stick with books on my TBR shelf, to maximize cross-over potential with the Mt. TBR Challenge. Possibilities, in no kind of order, include:
The Raw Milk Revolution: Behind America's Emerging Battle Over Food Rights by David E. Gumpert (a Foodie Challenge book)
The Well-Educated Mind: A Guide to the Classical Education You Never Had by S. Wise Bauer
Because He Could by Dick Morris
Roads to Santiago: Detours and Riddles in the Lands and History of Spain by Cees Nooteboom (which could count either as my Spain book or my Holland book for my European Reading Challenge)
Oscar Wilde: A Certain Genius by Barbara Belford (a UK book for my European Reading Challenge)
The Skeptical Environmentalist: Measuring the Real State of the World by Bjørn Lomborg (which I've been meaning to read forever, would count as one of my Chunkster Challenge books, and is another possible Holland book for my European Reading Challenge)
Frank Lloyd Wright by Ada Louise Huxtable
French Women Don't Get Fat: The Secret of Eating For Pleasure by Mireille Guiliano (a Foodie Challenge book)
Ronald Reagan and Margaret Thatcher: A Political Marriage by Nicholas Wapshott (a possible UK book for my European Reading Challenge)
Alice Waters and Chez Panisse: The Romantic, Impractical, Often Eccentric, Ultimately Brilliant Making of a Food Revolution by Thomas McNamee (a Foodie Challenge book)
How To Read and Why by Harold Bloom
Feng Shui Your Life by Jayme Barrett
Brunelleschi's Dome: How a Renaissance Genius Reinvented Architecture by Ross King (an Italy book for my European Reading Challenge)
Silent Spring by Rachel Carson
Working with Emotional Intelligence by Daniel Goleman
The Map That Changed the World: William Smith and the Birth of Modern Geology by Simon Winchester (a UK book for my European Reading Challenge)
Godless: The Church of Liberalism by Ann Coulter
The City in History: Its Origins, Its Transformations, and Its Prospects by Lewis Mumford
The Journalist And The Murderer by Janet Malcolm
Voodoo Vintners: Oregon's Astonishing Biodynamic Winegrowers by Katherine Cole (a Foodie Challenge book)
Uncommon Arrangements: Seven Portraits of Married Life in London Literary Circles 1910 - 1939 by Katie Roiphe (a UK book for my European Reading Challenge)
Epicurean Delight: The Life and Times of James Beard by Evan Jones (a Foodie Challenge book)
NOTES
Last updated on December 28, 2012. I read 11 books, so completed the challenge.
Friday, December 16, 2011
Opening Sentence of the Day: The Oregon Experiment
Naomi awoke to mint.-- The Oregon Experiment by Keith Scribner, published by Alfred A. Knopf. I don't really know what to expect from this new novel, but it looks intriguing. Naomi was a "nose" for perfume makers, but had lost her sense of smell in an accident. So smelling mint is a big deal.
Read the Kirkus Reviews review of The Oregon Experiment.
A Few More Pages hosts Book Beginnings every Friday. The event is open for the entire week.
Thursday, December 15, 2011
Opening Sentence of the Day: Sacred Hunger
The ship he meant was the Liverpool Merchant, Captain Saul Thurso, and he had never seen her, though she carried the seeds of all his dreams in her hold.-- Sacred Hunger by Barry Unsworth.
This sprawling novel about the British slave trade in the 1700s won the Booker Prize in 1992.
I am reading it as my second Booker winner for the 2011 Battle of the Prizes, British Version. It also counts as one of my Chunkster Challenge books.
Wednesday, December 14, 2011
Tuesday, December 13, 2011
Teaser Tuesday: The Luminist
He returned to Dimbola to find Catherine in Holland House with Sir John, sipping tepid tea and bemoaning the imperfections in her photographic plates. White lines had mysteriously appeared across some of the prints.-- The Luminist by David Rocklin. This is a really wonderful historic novel set in 19th Century Ceylon (now Sri Lanka). As a bonus, it is one of the beautiful editions with French flaps published by Hawthorne Books.
Rocklin is on tour with this book, in New York this week:
Wednesday, 14 December (check website to confirm time)
192 Books: 192 10th Avenue, at 21st Street, New York
Teaser Tuesdays is hosted by Should Be Reading, where you can find the official rules for this weekly event.
Monday, December 12, 2011
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).
Lady Q at Let Them Read Books is hosting in December. Be sure and visit her terrific blog!
Thanks to Mary Bisbee-Beek, book publicist extraordinaire, I got a timely Christmas book. It is darling!
The Lighthouse Santa by Sara Hoagland Hunter (author) Julia Miner (illustrator).
Sunday, December 11, 2011
Saturday, December 10, 2011
Opening Sentence of the Day: Delights and Prejudices
When Proust recollected the precise taste sensation of the little scalloped madeleine cakes served at tea by his aunt, it led him into his monumental remembrance of things past.-- Delights and Prejudices by James Beard.
Proust's madeleine is such a cliche now that I was a little disappointed with this opening sentence. But maybe back in 1964 when Beard wrote this memoir, the Proust reference was fresher.
My disappointment disappeared in an instant because by the second sentence, Beard is deep into his own food history and the book is a real delight from then on. He bounces around from his childhood in Portland to Les Halles in Paris and beyond.
I love it! Particularly the parts about Portland's rich culinary history.
His chapter on his family's holiday traditions, which I just read this morning, is wonderful. He describes many delights, including his mother making fruitcakes a year in advance and a ginger shortbread recipe (see below) that sounds amazing, but he also had a lot of holiday prejudices, like thinking cranberries were an "abomination," homemade candy "really unsavory," and Christmas cookies only good if you make them yourself and eat them right away, exhorting well-wishers:
But have pity on us, all you bakers -- the spirit of Christmas notwithstanding -- and deliver us from cookies that have crumbled or gone stale.Amen!
Ginger Cakes
Mix 2 cups sifted flour, 1 firmly packed cup brown sugar, 1 tablespoon ginger and 1 teaspoon soda thoroughly, and then combine them with 1 cup butter until the ingredients are well blended and crumbly. In 6- to 8- inch layer cake pans, put 1/2-inch thickness of the mixture and bake in a 325[degree] oven for 45 minutes to 1 hour. Cut the ginger cake into finger-shaped pieces while it is still warm. Remove the pieces carefully with a spatula and store them in covered tins.
This is my sixth and final book for the 2011 Foodie's Reading Challenge. I can't wait to sign up again for the 2012 version.
WEEKEND COOKING
Friday, December 9, 2011
Opening Sentence of the Day: The Luminist
The noised outside her window were of wind and the near sea, of clay chimes kilned to crystalline tones.-- The Luminist by David Rocklin. Illicit love and photography in 19th century Ceylon -- sounds good to me!
Photography in its infancy was a dangerous game.-- from the Introduction by Jacquelyn Mitchard, author of The Deep End of the Ocean. One of the many things I love about these beautiful Hawthorne Books editions, in addition to the fancy French covers, is that they commission famous authors to write really good introductions.
Rocklin is on tour with this book, with the following appearances scheduled for next week:
Monday, 12 December 2011 (check website to confirm time)
The Makeout Room with The Rumpus: 3225 22nd Street, San Francisco
Wednesday, 14 December (check website to confirm time)
192 Books: 192 10th Avenue, at 21st Street, New York
A Few More Pages hosts Book Beginnings every Friday. The event is open for the entire week.
Thursday, December 8, 2011
2012 Challenge: Venice in February
February 1 to February 28, 2012
FINISHED
Snow Feathers and Dolce Bellezza, are hosting a short, simple, and marvelous reading challenge: read one, two or how many books you would like and have the time for, that are related to and/or based in Venice.
They chose Venice "because it's a unique city, with a dreamlike atmosphere and yet, with secrets to discover. Whoever visited Venice once still wishes to go back and this challenge may be the next best thing."
Like so many people, I love Venice. And since it doesn't look like I'll be going back any time soon, I am always in the mood to read books about La Serenissima.
Ideas
I made this list of Venice books a while back. There is also a list on the Venice in February site. And there is a much lengthier list of Venice books on a great website called Fictional Cities.
BOOK POSSIBILITIES AND REVIEWS
I ended up reading two books for this challenge, but I only reviewed one of them:
- Serenissima by Erica Jong (novel), reviewed here
- Dressed for Death by Donna Leon (third in her Commissario Guido Brunetti series)
Wednesday, December 7, 2011
2011 Battle of the Prizes, American Version -- Wrap Up Post
I finished the 2011 Battle of the Prizes, American Version (click here for the 2012 challenge). The challenge runs through January 31, 2012, so I finished early this year. I still have to finish the British Version.
This challenge pits winners of the Pulitzer Prize for fiction against the winners of the National Book Award.
I did not draw any grand conclusions from a comparison of the books that won the Pulizter compared to those that won the national, but I have a half-baked theory: I think that Pulitzer winners tend to be more accessible, more in the "good yarn" category; and National winners tend to be a bit more challenging, more willing to take chances. Because of this split, I think it is more likely that a random Pulitzer winner will still be enjoyable, while any given National winner may not have aged so well -- what may have seemed commendably edgy when it first came out now can be just trying to a reader.
Like I said, this theory as, at best, half baked. I'd say it holds true for the two Pulitzers I read and, somewhat, for the two Nationals. Both Nationals were more challenging and had experimental components to them, but The Hair of Harold Roux was knockout entertainment.
Here is my list of books -- links click to my reviews:
Breathing Lessons by Anne Tyler on Rose City Reader (Pulitzer)
All the King's Men by Robert Penn Warren on Rose City Reader (Pulitzer)
Cold Mountain by Charles Frazier on Rose City Reader (National)
The Hair of Harold Roux on Rose City Reader (National)
Please visit the main challenge page to see the 2011 list of other participants and their reviews.
Please visit the 2012 Battle of the Prizes, American Version, to sign up for the 2012 challenge.
Tuesday, December 6, 2011
Teaser Tuesday & GIVEAWAY: Who in This Room
At home you study the report, looking up words online that you don't know. It is good news, but you feel heavy, tired.-- Who in This Room: The Realities of Cancer, Fish, and Demolition by Katherine Malmo, published by Calyx Books.
This is the very personal, but still vary readable, account of the author's (successful) battle with inflammatory breast cancer.
GIVEAWAY
THE GIVEAWAY: Thanks go to Mary Bisbee-Beek, an incredibly diligent book publicist, for providing two copies of Who in This Room for a "leap-frog" giveaway.
The leap-frog part is that I have two copies to giveaway. The winners will each get to host another giveaway for one additional copy.
The contest is open until next Monday, December 12, 2011. To enter, do any or all of the following, but you must leave a separate comment for each one:
1. Leave a comment on this post. You must include a way to contact you (email or website address in your comment or available in your profile). If I can't find a way to contact you I will draw another winner. (1 entry)
2. Blog about this giveaway. (Posting the giveaway on your sidebar is also acceptable.) Leave a separate comment with a link to your post. (1 entry)
3. Subscribe to my rss feed, follow me on blogger, or subscribe via email (or tell me if you already are a subscriber or follower). Leave a separate comment for this. (1 entry)
4. Tweet this post on Twitter. Leave me a separate comment with your twitter user name. (1 entry)
5. Stumble this blog, digg it, technorati fave it, or link it on facebook. Leave a separate comment. (1 entry)
There are a lot of ways to enter (maximum of five entries), but you must LEAVE A SEPARATE COMMENT for each one or they will not count. I will use random.org to pick the winners from the comments.
This contest is open to entries from the U.S. and Canada only. The deadline for entry is 9:00 PM, Pacific Time, on Monday, December 12, 2011. I will draw and post the winner's name in my Teaser Tuesday post for December 13, 2011.
Teaser Tuesdays is hosted by Should Be Reading, where you can find the official rules for this weekly event.
Monday, December 5, 2011
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).
Lady Q at Let Them Read Books is hosting in December. Be sure and visit her terrific blog!
I got two books last week, both on a whim:
The Gospel According to Chanel: Life Lessons from the World's Most Elegant Woman by Karen Karbo. This looks like a great first choice for the Non-Fiction Non-Memoir Challenge I am going to sign up for.
The Ghosts of Belfast by Stuart Neville.
This is his debut novel, published by Soho Crime, publisher of several great series set in foreign lands. Neville's series (two now) is set in Ireland, other series are set in Greece (Jeffrey Siger), Iceland (Yrsa Sigurdardottir), London (Dan Waddell), and Paris (Cara Black) -- any of which would be great picks for the European Reading Challenge.
Sunday, December 4, 2011
Review of the Day: The Hair of Harold Roux
Thomas Williams won the 1975 National Book Award for The Hair of Harold Roux, a novel within a novel about balancing a writer's creative impulse with the domestic needs of family life. Specifically, Williams wrote a novel about a college professor writing a semi-autobiographical novel about a college student writing a novel about a man who wrote a novel.
It sounds more confusing – and more experimental – than it is. Williams uses this nested structure to ponder big issues like love, fame, violence, responsibility, and madness, and fills in the spaces with anecdote, humor, and astute observations. But the story rattles right along and makes perfect sense as it goes.
The main story takes place over two days, as professor Aaron Benham struggles to write his novel while his family is out of town without him. Telephone calls, a friend in trouble, guest teaching a creative writing seminar, a motorcycle crash, memories of old loves, current flirtations, and a faculty meeting distract him from his work. The short story he reads the seminar students, memories of a long fairy tale he told his children, the first chapter of a novel by Harold Roux (the toupee-wearing character in his novel), and other stories deviate from the plot, but, along with the plot of his novel, combine to tell a full story of Aaron's closely examined life.
Williams is an incredible writer. This is a first-rate novel that deserves a wider audience. Kudos to Bloomsbury USA for reprinting 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.
NOTES
I got my copy from LibraryThing's Early Reviewer program. It counts as one of the two National Winners I am reading for the Battle of the Prizes, American Version, Challenge.
Saturday, December 3, 2011
2012 Challenge: Battle of the Prizes, British Version
This is the third year Rose City Reader has hosted the Battle of the Prizes, British Version, Challenge.
This challenge pits winners of the English Man Booker Prize against winners of the Scottish James Tait Black Memorial Prize in a British Version of the Battle of the Prizes. (Click here for the American Version.)
Does one prize have higher standards than the other? Pick better winners? Provide more reading entertainment or educational value? Maybe challenge participants will be able to answer these and more questions – maybe they will simply read three or four great books!
For details and sign up, please go to the challenge page, here, or use the challenge page tab in the bar at the top of the blog.
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