8 posts tagged “book”
We love Cook's Illustrated. The magazine is simple in its design - relying on drawings and B&W photos - but what an encyclopedia!
We first learned about CI through their PBS show - America's Test Kitchen. The show is a simple how-to cooking show, but rather just just tell you what to do - they actually explain why you need to take a specific approach. They explain the science behind cooking, or at least what can go wrong if you try something a different way. It's more than just a new source of recipes - it's educational.
Well, CI is like the show, only it's in book form and waaaay more thorough. The editors really do a good job of telling you exactly what can go wrong with a given recipe. And the lessons work. So far, everything we've tried from them has been fool proof - Chinese pork, Rainy-Day BBQ pork chops on the stove top, Chicken Tikka Masala. They even have tricks for perfecting steak!
(For a thick steak, heat it in a slow oven until internal temp reaches 90 Fº then throw it on the grill for a few minutes to char it and finish cooking the inside. The 15-20 minutes of slow cooking helps break down proteins making for more tender meat, and you don't overcook the outside while trying to cook the inside).
They run you through every conceivable part of each recipe - from what cut of meat to choose (and why) to which can of tomatoes tastes best. What more could we want?
So we recently subscribed to the magazine. It hasn' arrived yet, but we also ordered the annual hardcover collected editions for both 2007 and 2008 (they were on 2 for 1, yay!) and they arrived last week, chock full of info!
So much to learn. So much great food to try.
I Just finished the first book in George R.R. Martin's A Song of Ice and Fire. The book, A Game of Thrones, is a big (800 page) fantasy novel, densely packed with battles, political intrigue, well-rounded characters (many, many, many well rounded characters), and loads of great plot twists.
The scope of the series seems even grander than the one by that other author with the middle initials R.R. - and what's more, Martin's writing is less weighted with descriptions of scenery than LOTR; a huge bonus.
Martin plunges the reader into the story, choosing to reveal backstory (and there's lots of it) through the conversations of the main characters rather than through some long slow prologue. For that reason, the first 100 pages are a bit slow going, requiring you to figure out who's who, how they all know each other, and how the realm's politics work. But once you get that straight, it's hard to put down.
I've moved on to the second book and, while I can't say yet if the whole will hold together, the first book has left me hopeful that this series will outshine Tolkien's trilogy in the end. Of course there are still 6 books left to read - 2 of which haven't even been written yet!
I'm not a huge consumer of fantasy books - I haven't been since I was a teenager - but this series has really got me hooked. I just wish I could find someone to talk to about it. Thankfully, it looks set to grow in popularity. Evidently HBO bought the rights to these books and will be turning them into a series. I'm very happy it's HBO that's doing it, too. They've proven to be a reliable source of good drama, and I'm hopeful this series won't be any different. If it takes off, I'm sure others will be reading the books soon enough.
The story is about a young man who sees dead people, and who uses his gift to try to help them move on from this world. Sounds like the premise for a bad TV show, I know, but it's handled really well here. Lots of interesting characters and some nice dark humour that actually had me chuckling out loud a few times.
Odd Thomas is a recurring character - there are four books thus far in the series and likely three more on the way, according to the author. While this first book is by far the best, the series has been reasonably good thus far, but it promises to get better.
The 2nd and 3rd books were stand-alone - and somewhat forgettable - but with the most recent, Koontz seems to be moving the character into a larger story arc that will span across the rest of the series.
I do like a good multi-novel series, so I'll probably stay hooked until the end. But if you're looking for a quick and twisty read, you might give this a shot. And don't worry, everything wraps up nicely by the end of the novel, so there's no committment to continue the series if you don't like the character.
Because I know you're dying to know what I do on my lunch hour, here's a brief vlog entry about where I go to get away from my desk.
And here are a couple of pictures from that spot too. On a nice sunny day, it's just a beautiful spot - even if you are surrounded by concrete!
This Christmas, the Golden Compass is coming to theatres. If you read my review from a few months back, you'll remember I really liked this set of books. They compare very favorably to the Harry Potter Series and get into some really interesting theological stuff. I've even got Mel hooked - and he rarely reads fiction.
In any case, I won't spoil anything in the movie by saying that, in the world of the Golden Compass, a person's soul lives outside their body in the form of a daemon - an animal spirit that accompanies them through life.
While a young person's daemon is changeable, as a person ages their daemon eventually settles into one form, according to their character and nature. A person's daemon is usually of the opposite sex.
Here's my Daemon
You can find your own daemon here.
Joey Slinger's novel Punch Line is short at 230 pages, but it's an entertaining read. A dark comedy for sure - the story is basically about a bunch of geriatrics living in a retirement home who decide to knock off some very bad people. The idea being that their old and close to death - so what can the cops possibly do if they find out?
We get to see their reasoning behind selecting the people they do, and then watch as they follow through with their schemes to kill the baddies; and most of the plans described in the book go awry in the actual execution. That's what makes it so entertaining.
It's mostly vignettes though rather than a fully formed story. While the vignettes are held together by a few things - like the seniors' efforts to stay ahead of an aging cop who starts to suspect them - it's stretching it to call it a novel. I can't help but feel it could have been better if it had been fleshed out a bit more as a single story. But then, I'm not a huge fan of vignettes - that's just me.
I did find the style to be a bit over the top. The world these people live in is just a little 'off' compared to the real world:
- There's the ghost of a dead husband that shouts profanities at his widow over the residence loudspeakers, a situation just accepted by the seniors as normal. The cause is never really explained in the novel.
- There's the plan of one senior to develop a market for replacement bodies (like organ donors, but with the husk of the body instead of the insides) that seems tohave some measure of success - something that wouldn't happen in real life.
- There's the scheme to replace cash with arrowroot cookies which, while hilarious, is too weird to ring true.
But all in all, I have to say I did enjoy this book and it's message that people shouldn't be considered useless just 'cuz they get old. I'd easily recommend this as a read - especially for people who like black humour.
If you're looking for something short and light that's more than just fluff, check out Mark Haddon's The curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-time. It's a crackingly good read about a 15-year-old British kid with Asperger Syndrome.
I know, you're thinking "Why the hell would I want to read something so serious and depressing?!" But it's not presented that way at all. It actually manages to be really imaginative and funny, without being patronizing. It's written from the point of view of the kid, who decides to do some detective work to find out who killed the neighbour's dog. The chapters alternate between moving the plot forward and the protagonist's observations on everyday life.
Anyway, while it's a fairly quick read, you're not gonna find a better explanation of what it's like to live with Asperger's (at least according to what I've read online). Evidently the author worked with autistic children for a few years.
Anyway, you have our recommendation. Just read it. You'll love it.
The first great ipod experiment comes to an end and... Success! Well, aside from the fact that it messed with the shuffle option (which is another reason not to answer the QoTD ipod shuffle horoscope).
Yes, for the past couple of months I've been using my ipod to listen to an audio book - a reading of the "His Dark Materials" Trilogy by Philip Pullman. What a fantastic read, er...listen.
Technically, these are young peoples' fiction, like Harry Potter - but, unlike potter, that title is so undeserved.
While Rowling has created some infinitely interesting characters and a wonderfully imaginative world, my overall sense is that it doesn't go very much deeper than that. There's not much to it in terms of philosophy. It's fun to enjoy while you're in it, but ultimately, it's candy and there's not much more to it than some wonderful empty calories.
On the other hand, the Pullman trilogy - made up of the Golden Compass, the Subtle Knife, and the Amber Spyglass - are huge. It takes place across several worlds, each one, like Rowling's, as interesting and as well thought-out as the last. He's created some wonderful memorable characters that you grow to know intimately, also like Rowling. But unlike her, Pullman has injected this work with a depth of meaning that's truly impressive.
The story is about a girl in another world - a world where people have daemons (no, not demons), which is basically the manifestation of their soul in animal form. So that's where it starts, but you know as you're reading it, and the story is getting bigger, that what Pullman is talking about - how the world fits together and how we all should behave in our own lives - is important - and more than just a morality tale, it's something you can take with you and think about. It deals with themes of consciousness, religion and science, honesty, and family and creativity and if it resonates with you, as it has with me, it might inspire you to make your life a little better.
Anyway, that sounds contrived, but I'd really recommend it to anyone who enjoys the Harry Potter. I think those of us who enjoy Potter enjoy it despite the fact that it's children’s literature. With Pullman, you’ll see why children can enjoy it, but as an adult you'll get way more out of it than they ever will.
Next up... I've started listening to Jonathan Strange and Mr. Norrell. Maybe I'll actually be able to finish this monstrous, dry, massive novel on magic in 19th C. England. I've failed to get more than halfway through in actually reading it. Let's hope the audio book offers some hope.
