A Year in Books: September/October

I've forgotten to post this 2 months in a row, eek!
Sometimes I just get out of blogging mode;
I start to feel like I don't have much to say
or that some things aren't worth sharing.
But the itch to post things inevitably comes back
and once again I start to share my thoughts and whims
with the masses (and by masses I mean friends and family who
happen to read this )

So here we go, this is what I've read

September
Back to Bologna-Michael Dibdin
The Apprentice-Jacques Pepin
Expecting Better-Emily Oster

October
Nasty Bits-Anthony Bourdain
Clementine in the Kitchen-Phineas Beck
Double Cross: The True Story of the D-Day Spies-Ben Macintyre

It's been a good bunch. I plan on making some of the recipes from
Clementine in the Kitchen. French fare is perfect for winter time!
I also really loved at the end of Bourdain's book, which was all different
essays from different points in his career, how he commented on each
of them. Sometimes agreeing with what he said and sometimes
admitting how ridiculous he sounded. That was fun to read.

I also went in to a mystery store that is right by work
and it is floor to ceiling stacked with every mystery writer you
can imagine. and they have TONS of first editions!
(which always come at a price-but how cool?!)
I'll be going back there to find some new authors
and to grab some more Agatha Christie's.

As usual I'd love to hear what everyone is reading.
comment, text, call, email, write a letter. tell me.

A Year in Books: August

I felt like I did  a lot of reading in August, but apparently
I just started a bunch of books but didn't finish any!
So I have nothing to show for the month of August.

I've also been doing a lot of studying for my new job
so that is taking up a lot of treasured subway reading time.
I'm sure that for September I'll have finished the 3
books that I'm currently working on :)

A Year in Books: July

July was not a very epic month in terms of books,
I only read 2, but both were fun and educational.
(and one was wonderfully outdated)

*Animals of the Past-Frederic A. Lucas
*Rasputin and the Fall of the Romanovs

Animals of the Past was printed for the American
Museum of Natural History and I have the 4th edition
which is from 1916.  It's a really interesting read, partly because
a lot of the speculations about the animals is not correct-
or rather has been proven otherwise since 1916. (i.e: dinosaurs
having feathers) But the pictured are beautiful and
who doesn't love reading about dinosaurs?

The husband picked up the Rasputin book for me at the Strand,
and I think he picked the best of the bunch because the author
really tried to be as historically accurate as possible.  So much myth
surrounds Rasputin, it's hard to know the truth but Colin Wilson
really makes a point of getting as close to it as possible.  Noting
the discrepancies in many other books on the same topic.
Another good read, loaded with so much history-not just
on Rasputin but the history of the Czars leading up to the Revolution.
Really fascinating.

A Year in Books: June

The List for June is as follows:

*Sirens of Titan-Kurt Vonnegut
*The Great American Ice Cream Book-Paul Dickson
*The Mysterious Sea- Lester del Rey

One of my wine reps and I will do book exchanges
and he gave me Sirens of Titan and I gave him Galapagos.
We both enjoyed our respective reads, and I'll probably
pick up another Vonnegut book this month.  He's one
of the Husband's favorite authors so I know we've got
a bunch of his books around the house.

The next one on the list probably seems odd, and
I suppose it is.  But I love reading the history of
random things, and who doesn't love ice cream?
It was actually a really interesting book, and you get
a list of sundae and soda fountain recipes at the end.
Bonus.

Finally, I read The Mysterious Sea.  I had happened to
meet a producer from Apuglia right around the time
I had gotten to the part about the plates shifting,
sea mountains forming, and the rise and fall of land
in and out of the ocean.  So this producer says that a few feet
down in his soil there is a calcareous layer-meaning that
his land used to be underwater.  I felt like all of my interests
had come full circle and collided with each other.
Wine felt bigger than it ever had before, and while I always knew
about this layer and what it meant, it felt extremely profound
on this particular day.  Wine is history, and that is amazing.

A Year in Books: May

May was pretty pathetic in terms of finished books, 

there is only one for last month:

Is Everyone Hanging Out Without Me?-Mindy Kaling

I did read a bunch of short stories by H.P Lovecraft, but

definitely did not read through the entire book.  Sometimes

his language can be a little too much for me.  But I really loved

the Dunwich Horror, very creepy, it felt like a mixture of

Rosemary's Baby, the Omen, and the Ninth Gate-for various reasons

not just story-wise.  

I loved Mindy's book as well, definitely had me laughing out

loud and looking like a total weirdo on the subway. The total

gem of her book is located on the back cover- it's a photo of

a young, androgynous Mindy holding a puppet.  It still cracks

me up every time I see it. 

A Year in Books: April

*The Great Gatsby-F. Scott Fitzgerald
I re-read the Great Gatsby because the movie is coming out,
and I always like to revisit. I do this with any movie that has a book.
I also realized recently that I've read Gatsby at 3 different stages of my life
and each time have taken something different from it.
I read it in high school, I don't think that much registered.
College, the symbolism kicked in and I had a better understanding
of who the characters were.
Presently, I'm about the same age as most of the characters.
I see them for the kind of people they really are, and understand
the story much more than the last 2 times. Most of all I found
it to be extremely sad and a cautionary tale about living anywhere
but the present.



*Galapagos-Kurt Vonnegut

Believe it or not, Galapagos was my first Vonnegut experience.
I know, he's one of the husbands favorites and just an awesome
author in general but it just never happened.  I'm slow to read a lot of
the classics, mostly because I seek out either mystery novels or wine books
when I'm in a bookstore.  If you've been keeping up with this list
than you already know this.    I did love this book, it had the magical realism feel
that you find in the Murakami books, and there were so many interesting characters
all woven together in some way (usually through coincidence-another theme that I love)
We have a lot of Vonnegut's books in our library, I'm looking forward to reading more of them.


*How to Love Wine- Eric Asimov

 This is a wine book for everyone. It offers a great way to approach wine,
how to taste, how to learn, and-of course- how to love.  I like reading these
wine memoirs because it's a reminder that most people in the wine world started
in the same place.  The blessing and the curse about wine is that you'll never know everything,
and you'll never know everything.  But it's about finding the relationship that is right for you,
like any hobby or interest.  Highly recommend this one for anyone that is into wine, or wants
to understand it a little better.

A Year in Books: March

*The Battle for Wine and Love-or- How I Saved the World
from Parkerization- Alice Feiring

*Passenger to Frankfurt-Agatha Christie

*Death on the Nile- Agatha Christie

Assorted passages from : Entering the Stream-An Introduction to
the Buddha and his Teachings-Edited by Samuel Berchikz &
Sher Ab Chodzin Kohn

I know you're probably thinking that I read way too much Agatha Christie,
but I haven't read them all yet-so get used to seeing them on the list.
I'm just a sucker for a good Victorian era murder mystery. Even better when
they show up on Masterpiece Mystery!

The Alice Feiring book was a really good read, got me thinking about
how my wine is made. It also made me jealous of some of the things
that she was able to drink!

Finally, if you have any kind of stress in your life you should consider
something like Entering the Stream.  You don't have to follow it exactly
but take what you need from it.  The whole concept is actually fairly overwhelming
(at least to me) but I've been taking baby steps.  We'll see how it goes.

A Year in Books: February

I did a lot of reading last month, but I really only finished one book

The Moving Finger- Agatha Christie.  

Everything else has been sections of  bigger reference books (Vino Italiano and 

other wine books) or it's been from magazines (Living, Bon Appetit, Lucky Peach)

This Lucky Peach issue is especially worth reading.  The article by Michael

Pollan is excellent, and the content is always way more interesting than your

standard food magazines.  Pick it up if you can find it.

A Year in Books: January

I read 6 books in January:

Noble Rot: A Bordeaux Wine Revolution-William Echikson
The 13 Clocks-James Thurber
Mr Wilson's Cabinet of Wonder- Lawrence WeschlerSouth of the Border West of the Sun-Haruki Murakami
Icelander-Dustin Long
Champagne- Don & Pete Kladstrup

I thoroughly enjoyed them all, but I will probably have to
go back and read Icelander again. There is a lot to take in
and things that I'm pretty sure I missed the first time around.
13 Clocks and the Murakami book have their own kind of magic in
them- which is something that I prefer in fiction.
Champagne tells the amazing history of the region and the real
stories behind the famous names (Perignon, Hiedsieck, Pommery, etc.)
Which makes it extra sad that big corporations eventually take over.
le sigh. Still a great read.

What did you read this month???