Mailbox Monday

Thanks for joining me for Mailbox Monday! MM was created by Marcia, who graciously hosted it for a long, long time, before turning it into a touring event (details here).

It looks like Bob from Beauty in Ruins has stepped in as substitute host for September.  Please visit his blog, where he specializes in reviewing and posting on science-fiction, fantasy, and horror books.

We just got back from our annual road trip vacation.  I spent two fabulous weeks disconnected from the social network, exploring the Canadian Rockies.  We did nothing but hike, read, and relax.  I saw six bears! Including this gal who was walking along beside our car.

 

One of my favorite things about car vacations is how they offer opportunities to collect new books.  I love the Take-One-Leave-One shelves at B&Bs, Friends of the Library shops at local libraries, and used book stores in little towns.  I passed along the paperbacks I read while on vacation, but I brought back an enticing little stack of books for my own TBR shelves:



Field of Blood by Denise Mina.  I recently went to a book reading by Jump the Gun author Zoe Burke. who said she loves Mina's Glasgow mysteries.  This is the first of a trilogy I was happy to find.



Deadly Appearances by Gail Bowen.  It was fun to find this mystery by a Canadian author when I was on vacation in Canada.



MacPherson's Lament by Sharyn McCrumb.  This caught my eye even though it is the seventh book in a series I've never read. If I like it, I will go back and fill in.



A Mixture of Frailties by Robertson Davies. This is the third book in his Salterton Trilogy.  I have the first one, Tempest-Tost, so now only have to find the middle volume, Leaven of Malice.  I am on a Davies roll, having just finished, loved, and reviewed What's Bred in the Bone.



The Thanatos Syndrome by Walker Percy.  I enjoyed The Moviegoer, but haven't read any of Percy's other novels.  I intend to change that.



Bonjour, Happiness! by Jamie Cat Callan.  Might be fun. Might be stupid. 

Kitchen Remodel, Week Thirty-One: Bella Cucina!

The kitchen is finally done! I haven't posted about this remodel for a couple of weeks because the final process slowed to a crawl waiting on a few punch list items and landscaping. Also, we were on vacation, so the kitchen was out of sight out of mind for me.

But now we are finally finished! Right down to the (removable) Italian tile backsplash that my sister designed and had made in Italy from her drawing. "Bella Cucina" translates to either Beautiful Kitchen or Beautiful Cooking.  I hope to do some beautiful cooking in this beautiful kitchen for years to come.

Since our summer weather has disappeared and we are in the midst of one heck of a rainstorm, all my nesting instincts are raging. I just want to light a fire in the fireplace and curl up with the Ngaio Marsh mystery I am close to finishing.  And I've been trying to add all seven of my winter pounds in one weekend, craving nothing but casserole and cookies.

I've got some kind of chuck roast in the oven I plan to serve with roasted potatoes and a salad tonight.  I say "some kind of" because it is part of the grass fed cow from my freezer and all the package said was "beef roast" with no information about the particular cut.  Until I unwrapped it, I didn't know if I would be cooking it in a hot oven for a short time, like an old fashioned roast beef,  of in a warm oven for a long time, like a pot roast.

I still can't really tell what cut it is -- maybe shank? But it looks like the low-and-slow kind.  I turned to Lynn Curry's Pure Beef: An Essential Guide to Artisan Meat with Recipes for Every Cut, which I reviewed here, and followed some of her basic suggestions.

Most important according to Curry, is to rub grass fed beef with salt and let it sit for a while before cooking, to improve the flavor and make it more tender.  The idea is that the salt pulls the moisture from the meat, but then the meat reabsorbs the moisture, drawing the salt back in with it to flavor the meat all the way through.

We'll see if it works.  In the meantime, maybe I have time to make a pan of bar cookies. Right after I find out who killed Lord Robert Gospell on the night of Lady Carrados' ball.

WEEKEND COOKING

Hosted by Beth Fish Reads

Book Beginning: Pacific Northwest Cheese by Tami Parr

Please join me every Friday to share the first sentence (or so) of the book you are reading, along with your initial thoughts about the sentence, impressions of the book, or anything else the opener inspires. Please remember to include the title of the book and the author's name.

EARLY BIRDS: I am experimenting with getting this post up Thursday evening for those who like to get their posts up and linked early on. We'll try it this way for a couple of months to see if people like the option of early posting. If you have feelings one way or the other, please comment.

TWITTER, ETC: If you are on Twitter, Google+, or other social media, please post using the hash tag #BookBeginnings. I am trying to follow all Book Beginning participants on whatever interweb sites you are on, so please let me know if I have missed any and I will catch up.

MR. LINKY: Please leave a link to your post below. If you don't have a blog, but want to participate, please leave a comment with your Book Beginning.



MY BOOK BEGINNING

If you've visited a farmers market lately you have probably come across more than one local cheesemaker selling their wares.

From the author's introduction to Pacific Northwest Cheese: A History by Tami Parr.

Beginning as early as the fifteenth century a succession of European explorers sailed up and down the west coast of North America, searching for a variety of things including the elusive Northwest Passage, a sea route connecting Europe and Asia.

From Chapter 1, "Furs, Cattle, and Empire: English Cheese in the Pacific Northwest."

Tami Parr dug deep in the history of the Pacific Northwest to research her engaging history of regional cheesemaking, from pioneers making fresh cheese while en route on the Oregon Trail, to the renaissance of small-scale cheesemaking in the 60s and 70s, to today's artisanal cheesemaking scene.

As the author of Artisan Cheese of the Pacific Northwest and the creator of the Pacific Northwest cheese project, Parr knows of what she writes and she writes it well. She incorporates the stories of local cheesemakers and industry innovations that bring to life evolution of the cheese business in Oregon, Washington, and Idaho.

This is a fun and informative history that will please Pacific Northwesterners and foodies farther afield.

Review: What's Bred in the Bone by Robertson Davies

 


Francis Cornish was an eccentric Canadian art collector who, in The Rebel Angels, died and left his enormous, disorganized, uncatalogued, and partially pilfered art collection to be sorted through by three co-executors of his estate. What's Bred in the Bone is the second book in Robertson Davies’ “Cornish Trilogy,” which concludes with The Lyre of Orpheus.

This second volume tells the remarkable, and stand-alone, story of Cornish’s life. Born to affluence in a backwoods Canadian town, Cornish was the poor little rich kid bullied by his roughneck schoolmates, all but abandoned by his politically influential parents who spent their time in Ottowa, and raised by an eccentric bunch of relatives and family retainers. While studying art and philosophy in pre-war Oxford, Cornish was recruited to act as an unpaid British spy and sent to Bavaria to report on Nazi concentration camps with the cover of working as an apprentice for a master art restorer.

As if all this wasn’t plot enough, the art restoration project turns out to be an elaborate swindle to undermine the Nazis and save European art treasures. Cornish is in it up to his eyeballs, wrestling with his conscious as an artist as well as the international art community.

Davies wraps the compelling story in bigger ideas about human nature, art, religion, and family. It’s a book to recommend to anyone looking for a ripping yarn, but also one to stand up to multiple readings.

OTHER REVIEWS

If you would like your review of this or any other Robertson Davies book listed here, please leave a comment with a link and I will add it. 

NOTES

I read What's Bred in the Bone as one of my books for two of the TBR challenges I am doing this year: The MT. TBR CHALLENGE (hosted by Bev on My Reader's Block) and the OFF THE SHELF CHALLENGE (hosted by Bonnie on Bookish Ardour).

Teaser Tuesday: Death in a White Tie

He had placed his chair carefully, leaving a space between himself and the left-hand arm of the sofa. Into this space the shadowy figure now moved.

-- Death in a White Tie by Ngaio Marsh, one of the Queens of Crime from the Golden Age of mysteries. I need to get a list of her novels posted because she is a new favorite of mine.

This is the seventh book in Marsh's Inspector Roderick Alleyn series. It was first published in 1938. I've only read one other book in the series, Death at the Bar, which I thought was terrific. Normally, I read a series in order, but there are so many in this one and I do not have them all, so I am reading them as I come across them.

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 this holiday weekend! MM was created by Marcia, who graciously hosted it for a long, long time, before turning it into a touring event (details here).

Yolanda at Notorious Spinks Talks is hosting in September.  One of my favorite things about participating in blog events is finding new-to-me blogs, like Yolanda's. Please pay her a visit!

I got one book last week, from the LibraryThing Early Reviewer program:



Red Fortress: History and Illusion in the Kremlin by Catherine Merridale, author of Ivan's War.

Red Fortress looks terrific.  From the description, I take it that the author had access to newly-available primary source material to write a history of Russia using the Kremlin as the organizing tool. Hubby already has his eye on this one.

Book Beginning: Parachutes & Kisses by Erica Jong

Please join me every Friday to share the first sentence (or so) of the book you are reading, along with your initial thoughts about the sentence, impressions of the book, or anything else the opener inspires. Please remember to include the title of the book and the author's name.

EARLY BIRDS: I am experimenting with getting this post up Thursday evening for those who like to get their posts up and linked early on. We'll try it this way for a couple of months to see if people like the option of early posting. If you have feelings one way or the other, please comment.

TWITTER, ETC: If you are on Twitter, Google+, or other social media, please post using the hash tag #BookBeginnings. I am trying to follow all Book Beginning participants on whatever interweb sites you are on, so please let me know if I have missed any and I will catch up.

MR. LINKY: Please leave a link to your post below. If you don't have a blog, but want to participate, please leave a comment with your Book Beginning.



MY BOOK BEGINNING

Isadora, separated from Josh, is like a kid in her twenties.

-- Parachutes & Kisses by Erica Jong.  This is the third book in Jong's Isadora Wing trilogy that started with the terrifically good Fear of Flying (almost reviewed here) and How to Save Your Own Life (reviewed here).

Teaser Tuesday; The Child in Time by Ian McEwan

Now he was taking long strides, bawling her name as he pounded the length of an aisle and headed once more for the door. . . .  His fear was too evident, too forceful, it filled the impersonal, fluorescent space with an unignorable human warmth.

-- The Child in Time by Ian McEwan. This is the horrifying scene when the hero's three-year-old daughter is snatched from him in the grocery story.  That McEwan can get the reader through it without breaking down -- to get to the story of how the parents deal with their unimaginable grief -- proves what a marvelous writer he is.

The Child in Time won the 1987 Costa Book of the Year Award. 

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 this holiday weekend! MM was created by Marcia, who graciously hosted it for a long, long time, before turning it into a touring event (details here).

Yolanda at Notorious Spinks Talks is hosting in September.  One of my favorite things about participating in blog events is finding new-to-me blogs, like Yolanda's. Please pay her a visit!

My wonderful friend and renaissance woman Kirsten Rian gave me two books of poetry.  An accomplished poet herself -- along with being a writing professor, painter, and jazz singer -- Kirsten has been expanding my limited poetry horizons since we were roommates in college.



Journeyman's Wages by Clemens Starck.



Portland: Alive at the Center: Contemporary Poems from Portland, Oregon, published by Ooligan Press as part of the Pacific Poetry Project. Kirsten's poem "Night Landing" is included in this collection, which was edited by Susan Denning, Jesse Lichtenstein, and Leah Stenson.

Book Beginning: The Child in Time by Ian McEwan

Please join me every Friday to share the first sentence (or so) of the book you are reading, along with your initial thoughts about the sentence, impressions of the book, or anything else the opener inspires. Please remember to include the title of the book and the author's name.

EARLY BIRDS: I am experimenting with getting this post up Thursday evening for those who like to get their posts up and linked early on. We'll try it this way for a couple of months to see if people like the option of early posting. If you have feelings one way or the other, please comment.

TWITTER, ETC: If you are on Twitter, Google+, or other social media, please post using the hash tag #BookBeginnings. I am trying to follow all Book Beginning participants on whatever interweb sites you are on, so please let me know if I have missed any and I will catch up.

MR. LINKY: Please leave a link to your post below. If you don't have a blog, but want to participate, please leave a comment with your Book Beginning.



MY BOOK BEGINNING

Subsidizing public transport had long been associated in the minds of both government and the majority of its public with the denial of individual liberty. The various services collapsed twice a day at rush hour and was quicker, Stephen found, to walk from his flat to Whitehall and then to take a taxi.

-- The Child in Time by Ian McEwan. That is not the kind of beginning you would expect for a book about a couple whose life is shattered when their toddler is snatched from them.

The Child in Time won the 1987 Costa Book of the Year Award. The subject is horrifying, but McEwan is such a master storyteller that reading it is bearable. It is really a beautiful story.

Teaser Tuesday: The Edwin Drood Murders by Christopher Lord

"Welcome, Droodists," Bettina said from the dais. The 17th Triennial Conference of the United States Chapter (Western Sector) of the International Society of Droodists came to order.

-- The Edwin Drood Murders by Christopher Lord, to be released later this month.  

This is the second in Lord's series of mysteries set in the fictional Oregon town of Dickens Junction, featuring book store owner and amateur sleuth Simon Alastair.  Here, Alastair finds adventure while co-chairing of the regional Droodist convention celebrating Charles Dickens' unfinished last novel, The Mystery of Edwin Drood.

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 this holiday weekend! MM was created by Marcia, who graciously hosted it for a long, long time, before turning it into a touring event (details here).

Yolanda at Notorious Spinks Talks is hosting in September. Please pay her a visit!

I got two super cool books last week. Both would fall into the "novelty" category, but I don't mean that in a disparaging sense. They are just unique.

Both would make excellent gifts.



Nietzsche's Angel Food Cake: And Other "Recipes" for the Intellectually Famished by Rebecca Coffey.  This is an irreverent collection of literary riffs in the form of "recipes" inspired by authors and their works.  Full of puns and witty allusions, augmented by the author's line drawings and other illustrations, this would make a great gift for a bibliophile cook.

PUBLISHER'S DESCRIPTION: For those who like cookery to insinuate the hard questions, it offers a funny, surprisingly informative, and entirely whirlwind tour of civilization. Not really a cookbook, it is for lovers of literature, history, art, music, and philosophy, for foodies, and for anyone with a good liberal arts education, no matter how vaguely they remember it.



The Wandering Goose: A Modern Fable of How Love Goes by Heather L. Earnhardt, illustrated by Frida Clements.  This is a beautiful little hardback from Sasquatch Books, with a tactile, letter-press type cover.  The illustrations are gorgeous and the fable is poignant and tender, reminding us that we are surrounded by enduring love, even in loss.

This is the perfect gift for anyone going through a breakup or other heartache.  It is wonderful.

Kitchen Remodel, Week Twenty-Eight: Bricks and Mortar

The bricks finally got here! So we now have the proper brick foundation in the new kitchen bump-out. I was a long time to wait for a small part of the project.

Now we can get the ugly blue tarp out of there and work on getting the new landscaping in. Then it will look as good on the outside as it does on the in.

Next up on the food book list is The Whole Fromage: Adventures in the Delectable World of French Cheese by Kathe Lison. I look forward to reading it this weekend, although it makes me hungry just looking at the cover!

WEEKEND COOKING

Hosted by Beth Fish Reads

Book Beginning: The Edwin Drood Murders by Christopher Lord

Please join me every Friday to share the first sentence (or so) of the book you are reading, along with your initial thoughts about the sentence, impressions of the book, or anything else the opener inspires. Please remember to include the title of the book and the author's name.

EARLY BIRDS: I am experimenting with getting this post up Thursday evening for those who like to get their posts up and linked early on. We'll try it this way for a couple of months to see if people like the option of early posting. If you have feelings one way or the other, please comment.

TWITTER, ETC: If you are on Twitter, Google+, or other social media, please post using the hash tag #BookBeginnings. I am trying to follow all Book Beginning participants on whatever interweb sites you are on, so please let me know if I have missed any and I will catch up.

MR. LINKY: Please leave a link to your post below. If you don't have a blog, but want to participate, please leave a comment with your Book Beginning.



MY BOOK BEGINNING

Simon Alastair pushed away the barely touched breakfast that houseboy/chef Jude Hexam had laid before him.

-- The Edwin Drood Murders by Christopher Lord, to be released later this month.  

This is the second in Lord's series of mysteries set in the Dickens Junction, Oregon.  The hero, Simon Alastair, is the owner of the local book store, Pip's Passage, and an amateur sleuth.  Here, Alastair is the co-chair of the Droodist convention -- a celebration of Charles Dickens' unfinished last novel, The Mystery of Edwin Drood -- when murder and chicanery visit Dickens Junction.

The Christmas Carol Murders kicked off the series. I confess that I started the book, but have hit a snag. I don't like that Simon Alastair only sells books in his bookstore that he has read himself.  I know it is fiction, but the arrogance of the idea appalls me.

Teaser Tuesday and GIVEAWAY Winner

GIVEAWAY WINNER

 
Freda at Freda's Voice is the lucky winner of Vacationland by Sarah Stonich, her new collection of connected short stories, all set at Naledi Lodge, a former lake resort in northern Minnesota.

Stonich is the author of two earlier books, both great reads, These Granite Islands and The Ice Chorus, which I reviewed here.  Vacationland looks equally compelling.

TEASER TUESDAY

If anything, she was even more vehement then he against the old people (people over thirty) who had made such a mess of affairs. Of course, they dressed their ideas up in language more politically resonant than this, and they had plenty of books – or Ismay had – that supported their emotions, which they called their principles.

-- What's Bred in the Bone by Robertson Davies.  This is a great yarn kind of book -- my favorite kind.

This is the second book in his "Cornish Trilogy," following The Rebel Angels. The trilogy concludes with The Lyre of Orpheus. The three books are separate stories but all related to the life and influence of Francis Cornish, an eccentric Canadian art collector. Or art forger? I am just getting to the good part!

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

Mailbox Labor Day

Thanks for joining me for Mailbox Monday this holiday weekend! MM was created by Marcia, who graciously hosted it for a long, long time, before turning it into a touring event (details here).


Yolanda at Notorious Spinks Talks is hosting in September.  One of my favorite things about participating in blog events is finding new-to-me blogs, like Yolanda's. Please pay her a visit!

I got two books last week, both sort-of-cosy mysteries with Oregon connections.



The Edwin Drood Murders by Christopher Lord, to be released later this month.  This is the second in Lord's series of mysteries set in the fiction Oregon town of Dickens Junction, featuring book store owner and amateur sleuth Simon Alastair.   The Christmas Carol Murders kicked off what hopefully will be a long and enjoyable series. 



Jump the Gun by Zoe Burke.  This is the first of a series featuring Annabelle Starkey, movie buff and publicity manager for a self-help book publisher.  Kirkus Reviews describes Jump the Gun as "mystery meets romance meets noir meets caper."  Sounds great!

I got my copy when I went to Burke's recent book event at Powell's.  Burke has written two children's books and Jump the Gun, in the making for 15 years, is her first adult book.  She owns Pomegranate Communications, publisher of art books, calendars, and the like, which she recently moved from San Francisco to Portland.

Happy Labor Day!