How did William Alexander have time to bake, let alone travel when he was dealing with renovating the big brown house in the town that time forgot and tending his 22 beds of vegetables. Well, the horticulture does recur in this book when he decides to grow the wheat, to grind the grain, to build a brick oven to bake the perfect loaf of bread. Ah come on, talk about obsessive compulsive. Even rereading Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance to not settle him down. It is only when he goes to Normandy to a monastery built around 635 AD does he come close to his perfect boule, actually a more communal bastarde, given that the monks want each of them to have a slice that is equal to everyone else's.
While I laughed by the first few pages of The $64 Tomato, I was tearing up in the last few pages of this book. His critiques from his children who only want him to make croissants, his outlay of huge amounts of money to learn how to make restaurant quantities of bread at Escoffier in Paris, and his side trip to Morocco, all come together to have taught him what he needs to know to reintroduce home or in this case abbey baked bread to the monks. Only to return home to miss the regime of vigils to complines and to receive an email that the monks will vote on whether to continue to use his recipes.
I think I have another one of Alexander's books on reserve but it seems a long time in coming in from the hinterland branches. Will head over tomorrow to return this one and collect another, I hope. Otherwise, I think I will start another alphabet sequence of biographies.
Saturday, March 14, 2015
Sunday, March 8, 2015
The $64 Tomato by William Lawrence
The best book so far in 2015. Do not rely on NYT's review ... rely on the Hammagrael kid. When your college roommate says a book reminds her of you, you take the bait. OMG, it's me, it's my yard, my garden, my water bill, and on and on. On a snowy day, a day early in March when I should be thinking about hiring someone to till out the blackberry roots so the deer won't have a maternity ward, this book reminds me that spring will eventually come, with weeding and mowing and vermin control.
As much as I'd like to, I am not about to prepare a 2,000 square feet vegetable garden, although I probably will look to winter over my thyme and find some wild aggressive arugula seeds. I loved this book because it is set in the Hudson River valley, because Mr. Lawrence seems to have all the parallel experiences of a long married couple with two aloof children, a house with never-ending annoyances (yesterday, the newly installed back door knob came off in my hands, leaving the screws in the door and a gaping hole for the drafts to come through. I can relate to inexplicably high water bills, unhandy repairmen, and purslane.
At my advancing towards retirement age, I also chide myself from trying to maintain beds of flowers that are an unending cycle of tending, dead-heading and babying. And like WL, this is a hobby of only one person in the household, me, the rest just enjoying the bouquets and seasonings.
Besides laughing reading whole paragraphs out loud, there is one page worth quoting at length:
"...In short, I am an Existentialist in the Garden. Camus in chamomille, Satre in the salad. How on earth did I get here, and how do I get out? Do I want to get out? If I leave, where to I go? ... What I've been doing is rewarding, nourishing, and reflective of a philosophical belief in self-sustenance and healthy, fresh food -- but how do I make it fun again. This is supposed to be a hobby, not a burden ... a lesson in how quickly novelty becomes ritual becomes chore. The great, terrifying existential question: If you were doomed to live the same life over and over again for eternity, would you choose the life you are living now? The question is interesting enough, but I've always thought the point of asking it is really the unspoken, potentially devastating follow-up question. That is, if the answer is no, then why are you living the life you are living now? Stop making excuses, and do something about it."
I thought I mentally debated this during my two bouts of cancer and resolved the issue once and for all, Not. My daily life comes under continuous reassessment. Garden is the least of it.
As much as I'd like to, I am not about to prepare a 2,000 square feet vegetable garden, although I probably will look to winter over my thyme and find some wild aggressive arugula seeds. I loved this book because it is set in the Hudson River valley, because Mr. Lawrence seems to have all the parallel experiences of a long married couple with two aloof children, a house with never-ending annoyances (yesterday, the newly installed back door knob came off in my hands, leaving the screws in the door and a gaping hole for the drafts to come through. I can relate to inexplicably high water bills, unhandy repairmen, and purslane.
At my advancing towards retirement age, I also chide myself from trying to maintain beds of flowers that are an unending cycle of tending, dead-heading and babying. And like WL, this is a hobby of only one person in the household, me, the rest just enjoying the bouquets and seasonings.
Besides laughing reading whole paragraphs out loud, there is one page worth quoting at length:
"...In short, I am an Existentialist in the Garden. Camus in chamomille, Satre in the salad. How on earth did I get here, and how do I get out? Do I want to get out? If I leave, where to I go? ... What I've been doing is rewarding, nourishing, and reflective of a philosophical belief in self-sustenance and healthy, fresh food -- but how do I make it fun again. This is supposed to be a hobby, not a burden ... a lesson in how quickly novelty becomes ritual becomes chore. The great, terrifying existential question: If you were doomed to live the same life over and over again for eternity, would you choose the life you are living now? The question is interesting enough, but I've always thought the point of asking it is really the unspoken, potentially devastating follow-up question. That is, if the answer is no, then why are you living the life you are living now? Stop making excuses, and do something about it."
I thought I mentally debated this during my two bouts of cancer and resolved the issue once and for all, Not. My daily life comes under continuous reassessment. Garden is the least of it.
Saturday, March 7, 2015
The Room by Jonas Karlsson
Let me say this yet again: I have been duped too often by NYT review. The Room is not a funny book. Despite being Swedish, it does not rise to The Girl with the Dragon Tatoo.
It is a book about a man who is a delusional paranoid, who unfortunately reminded me of someone at work. Bjorn retreats to a "room" that no one else can see, a room that does not exist, but a mental state where he can produce work that far exceeds his fellow workers.
The NYT said this was funny. It's not. It's a quick read so you won't waste more than an hour should you decide to try it, but I would say not.
It is a book about a man who is a delusional paranoid, who unfortunately reminded me of someone at work. Bjorn retreats to a "room" that no one else can see, a room that does not exist, but a mental state where he can produce work that far exceeds his fellow workers.
The NYT said this was funny. It's not. It's a quick read so you won't waste more than an hour should you decide to try it, but I would say not.
Redeployment by Phil Klay
A couple of Sundays ago, it finally got warm enough to venture out of our igloo and feet of snow to have a late lunch with one of our book club founders. She asked me point blank why I hadn't attended any meeting in months, probably going on a year. She speculated that it was because of one particular member who stiffed my on decorating advise. I said no, but would not admit the real reason why: I cannot stand reading and then talking about books that are either on Oprah's list or the best seller fiction list, essentially books about dis-functional families, frustrated women, or biased views of historical events. So to satisfy my rebellious spirit, I read Redeployment, a recent National Book award winner, written by a former Marine who fought in the Mid-East wars, I believe had graduated from an Ivy and got his MFA from Hunter after the war. I needed to read a "male" book.
While I have suggested to some of the men who work for me that they might want to read it, I can only give it a B-/C+. I am not widely read in war recollections, I feel this was just an updated version, a tad less forceful, than others I have read, Such books almost have to be written by survivors. The lessons they learn are universal, applicable to any war. (I compare this to a memo I was asked to edit this week at work about the difficulty of program managers talking to computer geeks, a topic that echoed all my experiences from the mid-70s). All that was different between Redeployment and Nam was there was no fracking. Thank God for an all volunteer/no draft military.
A collection of stories with different characters, the one I liked best was Money as a Weapons System, a story with MASH-like humor and one that had all the absurdity of governmental best intentions to far from the ground: widows becoming beekeepers, a water purification plant with an overseer on the take and pipes with too much pressure, and a women's health care center that was a success but funding ineligible. Reading it was like a day at work.
I was thinking about telling the book club to read this. At least it did not have "discussion questions" included in the back of the book. But I can't and so my absences continue
While I have suggested to some of the men who work for me that they might want to read it, I can only give it a B-/C+. I am not widely read in war recollections, I feel this was just an updated version, a tad less forceful, than others I have read, Such books almost have to be written by survivors. The lessons they learn are universal, applicable to any war. (I compare this to a memo I was asked to edit this week at work about the difficulty of program managers talking to computer geeks, a topic that echoed all my experiences from the mid-70s). All that was different between Redeployment and Nam was there was no fracking. Thank God for an all volunteer/no draft military.
A collection of stories with different characters, the one I liked best was Money as a Weapons System, a story with MASH-like humor and one that had all the absurdity of governmental best intentions to far from the ground: widows becoming beekeepers, a water purification plant with an overseer on the take and pipes with too much pressure, and a women's health care center that was a success but funding ineligible. Reading it was like a day at work.
I was thinking about telling the book club to read this. At least it did not have "discussion questions" included in the back of the book. But I can't and so my absences continue
Sunday, January 4, 2015
The End of Normal by James Galbraith
Surprise, this is not yet another Lasher review. I actually read, understood and enjoyed a book about economics! Galbraith debunks the mathematical model rigor of collegiate and post-grad courses and puts economics back where it is often missing, asking such questions as what happens to buying and selling when resources are scant or disappearing; is the value of every dollar spent by a government worth the same amount; and how can capital investments in production increase coincident with a shrinking need for human labor?
His questions, which I have probably paraphrased into kindergarten-like simplicity, certainly merit serious discussions between individuals and by those who aspire to elected government.
the best chapter in the book is called "The Fallout of Financial Fraud." If I were to quote at length, I would be retyping pages. Let's just start with control fraud:
"... control fraud is fraud committed on organizations by those who control them ... building the problem of crime into the study of organizations ... organizations that are most vulnerable to being taken down from the top, through devices that transfer funds to persons who are in control ... from the simple device of overpaying top executives ... left unchecked, fraud grows to the point where self-dealing exceeds the amount the amount that the corporation can extract from its environment ... stock options ... diluting shares or otherwise stealing from investors ... separating the top executives from operating management ... and no reason to care about the firm's long term prospects ..."
"... looting as the fourth phase ... just beyond Ponzi .. by this time, criminal misrepresentation has already occurred .... legal exposure is already there ... the executive has nothing more to lose ..."
"... in financial firms, the temptation to loot must be ever present ... the Gresham dynamic: selling good securities is excellent training for selling bad ones .. looting has its impresarios who can take a firm that has not yet doomed itself to failure and drive it over the edge ... develop an entire repertory of skills to enhance and prolong their success."
Galbraith is describing the housing crisis and the firms that lent mortgages to people without means to pay them. These passages nonetheless resounded with me as I learn of firms coming in to "manage" organizations through bankruptcy and from control frauds and looters I find even in governmental positions.
Well, these are thoughts to digest and use as arguments before falling asleep. Still reading Lasher for entertainment and exposure to great writing. Also trying to get through Empire of Cotton which was reviewed by the NYT today and which I snatched off the library new books shelf before someone put it on hold. Otherwise, a wonderful day to read, dark, dank and 5 hours of football pending. Will rouse myself from the recliner only to make chicken in mole sauce.
His questions, which I have probably paraphrased into kindergarten-like simplicity, certainly merit serious discussions between individuals and by those who aspire to elected government.
the best chapter in the book is called "The Fallout of Financial Fraud." If I were to quote at length, I would be retyping pages. Let's just start with control fraud:
"... control fraud is fraud committed on organizations by those who control them ... building the problem of crime into the study of organizations ... organizations that are most vulnerable to being taken down from the top, through devices that transfer funds to persons who are in control ... from the simple device of overpaying top executives ... left unchecked, fraud grows to the point where self-dealing exceeds the amount the amount that the corporation can extract from its environment ... stock options ... diluting shares or otherwise stealing from investors ... separating the top executives from operating management ... and no reason to care about the firm's long term prospects ..."
"... looting as the fourth phase ... just beyond Ponzi .. by this time, criminal misrepresentation has already occurred .... legal exposure is already there ... the executive has nothing more to lose ..."
"... in financial firms, the temptation to loot must be ever present ... the Gresham dynamic: selling good securities is excellent training for selling bad ones .. looting has its impresarios who can take a firm that has not yet doomed itself to failure and drive it over the edge ... develop an entire repertory of skills to enhance and prolong their success."
Galbraith is describing the housing crisis and the firms that lent mortgages to people without means to pay them. These passages nonetheless resounded with me as I learn of firms coming in to "manage" organizations through bankruptcy and from control frauds and looters I find even in governmental positions.
Well, these are thoughts to digest and use as arguments before falling asleep. Still reading Lasher for entertainment and exposure to great writing. Also trying to get through Empire of Cotton which was reviewed by the NYT today and which I snatched off the library new books shelf before someone put it on hold. Otherwise, a wonderful day to read, dark, dank and 5 hours of football pending. Will rouse myself from the recliner only to make chicken in mole sauce.
Friday, January 2, 2015
Lasher Bridging 2014 to 2015
Falls the Shadow was probably my least favorite Lasher mystery so far. It must have been written during the height of that stupid tee shirt craze where all that was written on them was Bob. Bob is a personification of six degrees of separation, the dentist to all the main characters, but also the source of good intentions gone bad. Maybe Victor Carl looks heroic because he is surrounded by such nasty supporting characters. In addition to pain inflicting Bob are his thug of a dental assistant, a corrupt defense attorney from the convicted killer who Victor is representing in his retrial, that "killer" Francois who makes porno movies, his wife who was the victim and her best friend who were party girls at a club owned by another disreputable slug. Oh and I left out the three drug addicted teenagers.
A cast of thousands of intertwining stories is what Lasher orchestrates the best, well, maybe a close second to his masterful nuanced humor. Even a bad Lasher is better than 99% of the mysteries on the library shelves.
On to Past Due, speaking of libraries.
A cast of thousands of intertwining stories is what Lasher orchestrates the best, well, maybe a close second to his masterful nuanced humor. Even a bad Lasher is better than 99% of the mysteries on the library shelves.
On to Past Due, speaking of libraries.
Sunday, December 14, 2014
Nancy Drew Mutates into Victor Carl
I am back into my murder mystery addiction, something that started when I was 12 and decided to read every Nancy Drew. Now I have discovered William Lasher's Victor Carl series. So far, I have finished Bag Man and Marked Man. Bag Man is better, but maybe the first encounter with any author is always the most memorable. Lasher evokes Dashiell Hammett and Mickey Spillane. His throw away paragraphs, scene setters or Victor's internal musings, are forte performances in noir fiction.
I am about to start A Killer's Kiss. These books call to me ... interfering with my best intentions to chop ice in the driveway and back Christmas cookie dough. Ah well, the temperature is above freezing and I don't have to drive tomorrow and the garbage cans are out by the curb already, and four batches are in the refrig and another just waiting for its flour so some day after work when I have energy, ha, I will bake them all.
More Carl to follow,
Today is Christmas and my drive to read all Lasher continues. I finished Fatal Flaw and actually said Wow out loud when the final page was turned. Both A Killer's Kiss and Fatal Flaw have main characters juxtaposed against Victor: a former lover who is the murderer in the former, a a current lover who is the victim in the second.
In addition to the power-house writing style, I enjoy how Lasher has echo or parallel themes in all his books: Other minor characters whose lives mirror his own as in Bag Man and especially in Fatal Flaw where the intrigue is compounded by the prime suspect also being the lover of the victim and the motive of giving it all up or bargaining for love seeps through all characters in the story, some more creepy or opportunistic than the others.
I am moving on to Lasher's first book from 1995, Hostile Witness.
In the meantime, today was reading day since all the gifts were open last night, the tree trimmed days ago, and no fancy cooking planned. Read cover to cover American Catch - The Fight for Our Local Seafood by Paul Greenberg. He has three major sections on NYC former oyster beds, there destruction and attempts at regeneration despite Chris Christie and Hurricane Sandy; the decline of shrimping in Louisiana as much attributable to the Army Corps of Engineers channeling the Mississippi as to the oil industry and spills (both oysters and Louisiana topics I wrote about previously); and threats to wild salmon fishing in Bristol Bay Alaska from mining for gold and copper. Overlaying the State issues is the unsophisticated pallet of Americans, choosing farm bred imported low nutritional value fish over Atlantic and Pacific fishermen. Rededicates my purchases to Fin, long live Fin.
I am about to start A Killer's Kiss. These books call to me ... interfering with my best intentions to chop ice in the driveway and back Christmas cookie dough. Ah well, the temperature is above freezing and I don't have to drive tomorrow and the garbage cans are out by the curb already, and four batches are in the refrig and another just waiting for its flour so some day after work when I have energy, ha, I will bake them all.
More Carl to follow,
Today is Christmas and my drive to read all Lasher continues. I finished Fatal Flaw and actually said Wow out loud when the final page was turned. Both A Killer's Kiss and Fatal Flaw have main characters juxtaposed against Victor: a former lover who is the murderer in the former, a a current lover who is the victim in the second.
In addition to the power-house writing style, I enjoy how Lasher has echo or parallel themes in all his books: Other minor characters whose lives mirror his own as in Bag Man and especially in Fatal Flaw where the intrigue is compounded by the prime suspect also being the lover of the victim and the motive of giving it all up or bargaining for love seeps through all characters in the story, some more creepy or opportunistic than the others.
I am moving on to Lasher's first book from 1995, Hostile Witness.
In the meantime, today was reading day since all the gifts were open last night, the tree trimmed days ago, and no fancy cooking planned. Read cover to cover American Catch - The Fight for Our Local Seafood by Paul Greenberg. He has three major sections on NYC former oyster beds, there destruction and attempts at regeneration despite Chris Christie and Hurricane Sandy; the decline of shrimping in Louisiana as much attributable to the Army Corps of Engineers channeling the Mississippi as to the oil industry and spills (both oysters and Louisiana topics I wrote about previously); and threats to wild salmon fishing in Bristol Bay Alaska from mining for gold and copper. Overlaying the State issues is the unsophisticated pallet of Americans, choosing farm bred imported low nutritional value fish over Atlantic and Pacific fishermen. Rededicates my purchases to Fin, long live Fin.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
