The publisher’s description of 99 Drams of Whiskey: the Accidental Hedonist’s Quest for the Perfect Shot and the History of the Drink as “part travelogue, part distillery guide, and part history book” is accurate but lacking. This book is fun! It is a great idea for a vacation, to visit whiskey distilleries. Ms. Hopkins kept her book an easy read by balancing the density of history with whiskey tasting notes and anecdotes from her visits to renowned distilleries. I thought I knew about the different whiskeys until I read this book. I need to further my education. Check out her blog where she reviews beer, foods, and all other things.
Category: Staff Picks
Soul of a Dog by Jon Katz
Do animals have souls? Jon Katz grapples with this question, which has intrigued philosophers through the ages, in his newest book Soul of a Dog. Katz studies the animals on his Bedlam Farm, especially the dogs but also the sheep and donkeys, Mother the cat, Elvis the Snickers-eating steer, hens and goats. Katz comes to see each of them as unique individuals, capable of great feeling and understanding.
Katz’s stories about animals are a joy to read – humourous, thoughtful, unsentimental. Each animals’ personality shines through without anthromorphization. They are complete as they are, they support their humans and allow them to live their fullest life. There is Rose, the single-minded work dog, Izzy, who visits the local hospice, bringing smiles and peace to troubled minds, Fly the rescue dog who nearly died, and Lenore who is all about love and affection. A keen observer, Katz notes how his animals interact with each other and with humans and finds self-awareness and admirable qualities again and again.
For anyone who has owned a pet or loved an animal, this book is a must-read.
The White Queen by Philippa Gregory
Full of lusty kings and beautiful ladies, political intrigue and devastating battles, Phillipa Gregory begins her next collection of historical fiction stories with the triumphant The White Queen. Following the generation before the Tudors (which Gregory brought to life in her popular The Other Boleyn Girl and others), The White Queen is the first in a series of three books and delivers exactly what Philippa Gregory fans expect: excellent writing, fast-paced stories, complex characters. As always, Gregory never forgets the human side of the stories; these are great men and women who will alter the course of history yet they are also just people, with very human faults and virtues.
With the bloody War of the Roses – where cousin was set against cousin – as a backdrop, The White Queen follows Elizabeth Woodville, a beautiful widow who catches the eye of Edward of York, the new King of England. Despite her being a commoner and from the rival Lancaster family, they marry and Elizabeth – and her family – rise to power and influence with the young king. There is no fairy tale ending though – men who once supported Edward now seek to overthrow him, more battles are fought and the country, already weary with war, is fighting again.
There are many mysteries and intrigues here including what became of Edward and Elizabeth’s oldest sons, the infamous “Princes in the Tower”, whose fate is still unknown today. Gregory takes us into this world, introduces us to its customs and makes us care. It is historical fiction at it’s best.
The Night Bookmobile by Audrey Niffenegger
You may have noticed that many librarians have a love affair with Audrey Niffenegger’s The Time Traveler’s Wife (case in point, Lynn just blogged about it and here I am blogging about it again). This is mostly due to the book’s bookiness–it is swelling with libraries, librarians, book artists and historical typefaces. Lucky for us, Ms. Niffenegger seems to have a love affair with Libraries, and thus continued her theme of bookiness in a graphic story titled The Night Bookmobile published in The Guardian last Autumn. The story revolves around a young woman who stumbles onto a bookmobile that holds every bibliofile’s deepest desire and a very personal collection of books:
You can find out what magic this bookmobile holds by reading it online via The Guardian or keeping your fingers crossed that a book version will be published in the US next fall!
P.S. Audrey Niffenegger’s newest novel, Her Fearful Symmetry, comes out at the end of September so better hurry and get your reserve on it!
My Cousin Rachel by Daphne DuMaurier
Every once in a while I get a hankering for the classics. Okay, I’ll confess — it’s usually in the wee hours of the morning and the only books on my shelf that I haven’t read are the classics. So it was with My Cousin Rachel by Daphne du Maurier.
I’d loved the author’s Rebecca which I’d read many years ago, but somehow this one had escaped me. For those of you not already familiar with the book, it relates the story of Philip Ashley, whose privileged life on his ancestral Cornwall estate is turned upside-down by a sophisticated and mysterious older woman. Orphaned at a young age, Philip was raised by his bachelor uncle Ambrose, who falls in love and marries while traveling in Florence. When Ambrose dies under suspicious circumstances, Philip is determined to hate “his cousin” Rachel forever — that is until she shows up at the estate and Philip, too, falls under her spell.
If you enjoy historical fiction, and a little romance with your mystery, then this is a good fit for your late-night or rainy-day reading.
The School of Essential Ingredients by Erica Bauermeister
In today’s fast food world full of instant puddings and potatoes, it is refreshing to read a book featuring real food. But The School of Essential Ingredients also features real people. Each chapter focuses on a different student in Lillian’s cooking class, revealing not only their own particular foibles and dilemmas, but also how they each contribute something satisfying and indelible to the mix. There’s Claire, a mother struggling with the demands of her young children; Tom, a young widower still grieving over the loss of his wife to breast cancer, and Isabelle, an elderly woman tentatively dealing with the confusion of memory loss, to name but a few.
The book is satisfying on many levels. First, it just made me want to bake something — at times it seemed I could almost smell what they were cooking, even though my kitchen was very vacant. Then, I got nostalgic, remembering favorite dishes from my childhood, and relishing how food often brought family together. Finally, in a very subtle way, I witnessed the characters forming lasting relationships with each other and realized what a difference one person can make in another’s life.
In this first novel (but third book) by Erica Bauermeister, it’s obvious that she has a “love of slow food and slow life instilled by her two years living in northern Italy.” She’s whipped up a delightful, delicious dessert of a book.
Iowa’s unfortunate export
Iowa. Midwestern values. Bridges of Madison County, Postville, The Life and Times of the Thunderbolt Kid.
Salt of the earth people in an idyllic pastoral setting.
Juxtapose this with the harrowing, gory details of the crystal meth epidemic and you have Methland: The Death and Life of an American Small Town.
It’s a problem we somewhat comprehend due to the occasional headline-evoking mental images of skinny wound-up kids. Enter Oelwein, IA near Waterloo. Although, with the population of roughly 6000, and a tiny barbershop/greasy spoon Main Street, on the surface it could just as easily be called Eldridge, LeClaire, Wilton, or Maquoketa. For a time, Iowa was a national power in this citizen stopgap solution to high unemployment and corporate agribusiness.
Methland functions as a primer featuring real people of this cottage industry that operates out of backwoods trailers and gravel-road labs, letting the reader become intimately acquainted with the toothless, burned-up shells of former townspeople and the futile management efforts of local powers.
If you’d like a local nonfiction version of your favorite gruesome primetime CSI fare, here it is.
Frugal Librarian #15: Incredible Bulk
This is not a health blog. Check here for the endless amounts of oatmeal benefits.
It’s funny how I used to view A.M. food as competition for coffee space. Now I wouldn’t know what to do without a trough of it on the passenger side floormat.
Steel cut oats have a whole slew of advantages, the most important of which, they taste absolutely nothing like the stuff that comes in the cardboard tube with the old man on it. They’re actually…awesome.
Here’s the frugal part. If you’re willing to pay what everyone else forks over, the lowest you’ll find in town is $3.20 a pound for a 24 oz. bag of Bob’s Red Mill. This is America, and middle America at that. We should be able to buy it by slow-moving-vehicle. After much Internet scouring, I feel foolish to admit the final stop was the QC’s own Greatest Grains store. For maximum chagrin, say the business name slower.
If you’re willing to buy them in silo-sized amounts, they knock the already attractive $1.49 down to $1.19 per pound. Use that savings to find yourself some big tupperware containers. With 25 pounds of “organic” horse feed in your closet, you’ll need it.
The Weight of Heaven by Thrity Umrigar
After their only child, 7-year-old Benny, dies unexpectedly of meningitis, Frank and Ellie Benton find their once perfect life in Ann Arbor empty and unbearable. When Frank is subsequently offered a new job in Girbaug, India, they grasp at the opportunity for a fresh start. Ellie adapts beautifully, volunteering as a counselor in a free clinic, and relishing in the vibrant color and boisterous activity that is India. Frank, on the other hand, struggles, never quite fitting in or understanding the vast cultural differences. He does, however, befriend a young boy, Ramesh, and becomes consumed with offering this child every opportunity, despite the father’s jealous objections. In the meantime, as Frank neglects his business, labor difficulties continue to fester into riot proportions.
As a ready, I could viscerally sense impending disaster, and even partially predict it. Still, I was caught unawares at the ending and left to marvel at this storyteller’s technique. The Weight of Heaven would make an excellent book club choice. As there are several issues with varying viewpoints presented, the book certainly promises to reap a wealth of healthy discussion.
Sacred Hearts by Sarah Dunant
Set in 1570 in northern Italy, Sacred Hearts by Sarah Dunant gives us a fascinating look inside the fictional convent of Santa Caterina. The typical image of a nunnery may be of silence and quiet contemplation, but within those walls there is a community with it’s own secrets, intrigues and power plays.
While many women entered the convent voluntarily either as a religious calling or a refuge from a demanding father or husband (in many ways, convents allowed women a level of independence they could never enjoy in the outside world with time to pursue their interests in art, literature, science and education), many were forced to take the veil. In Italy in the late 1500s, the price of a wedding dowry had become so high that most noble families could only afford to marry off one daughter; the only alternative for an unmarried daughter was the convent. When one of these women is sent to Santa Caterina against her will, her fierce determination to escape shakes the very foundation of the power structure within the convent, creating new alliances and seismic shifts in fundamental beliefs.
Dunant is an excellent storyteller, peopling her novel with fascinating, complex characters, from Suora Zuana the convent’s apothocary who takes the heartbroken and angry novice Serafina under her wing, to the Abbess whose power – and secrets – are challenged. Readers will quickly become immersed in the politics and customs of 16th century Italy. There is – perhaps surprisingly – a lot of action and many tense moments; this book is a page turner. And finally, at it’s very center, it’s a love story – fierce and steadfast against great odds.