Bibliophile's Non-Fiction Reviews
Posted: 02.07.05 (3:56 pm)
Author: Maryjo Koch
Year published: 1998
Genre: Art, nature study
I first came across Maryjo Koch’s nature study books on a visit to the USA. All four books, Bird Egg Feather Nest, Seed Leaf Flower Fruit , Pond Lake River Sea, and Dragonfly Beetle Butterfly Bee were available, but I had already spent all my shopping money on Christmas presents and decided to put them on my whish list and buy them later. Sadly, since then they have all gone out of print, which is why I was happy to find Seed Leaf Flower Fruit and Bird Egg Feather Nest at a second-hand store recently, in near perfect condition and at a great price. I bought them both. I had to flip a coin to decide which one I would review here, but I will review the other one after the challenge ends. I hope I will be able to get my hands on the other two before too long. They come up occasionally in auctions on Ebay, and I have every intention of aquiring them both.
Seed Leaf Flower Fruit is a sumptuous collection of beautiful illustrations, information and thoughts about plants, all hand-lettered and looking like the sketch book of an artistically talented gardening enthusiast.
Review:
Posted: 02.15.05 (2:19 pm)
This is a gorgeous book, an eccentric, rambling and captivating nature study. As the title suggests, the theme is plants. Instead of concentrating on one aspect or type of plant life, Koch has chosen to go for the pick-and-mix method, and has produced a book that jumps from one plant type/species to the next, while still managing to convey the basics of plant biology in simple and concise language. The book is hand lettered, which may make it difficult for younger children to read, but children and adults of any age can enjoy the glorious pictures. The main text is written in capital block letters, while the names of plants and other things in the pictures are written in near-illegible longhand that sometimes is so faint that coupled with the bad handwriting it is almost impossible to read (probably a printing error). This is the only real complaint I have about the book.
Rating: A gorgeous book for nature and art lovers. 5+ stars.
Maryjo Koch's website
not including travel
Posted: 07.15.04 (4:41 am)
I’ve been on a reading spree lately – a book per day on average – mostly books I'm too lazy to review, but here’s one I recommend.
Year published: 1939
Pages: 140
Genre: Autobiography, memoir
Story:
This is Monica Dickens’ memoir of her one-and-half years as a cook general and housemaid in the 1930’s. She started this work because she was bored and didn’t have anything to do with herself, rather than from any real need for money. This is quite a funny glimpse of a profession that doesn’t exist any more in Britain. Dickens mostly worked for respectable middle class families that today would at the most have someone come in to do the cleaning, but she also got a taste of working as a cook at a country manor. She tells of her own kitchen accidents, sloppiness and incompetence with good humoured sarcasm, and doesn’t spare her employers or coworkers either, but also gives praise where she feels praise is deserved. She gets fired when her first employer's boyfriend gets grabby, resigns from her country manor job when the butler tries to blackmail her, and goes through many misadventures which can’t have seemed funny at the time, but certainly gave her material for a very entertaining book.
Review:
Written in an easy, humourous style with a light touch of sarcasm. Dicken’s character studies are funny and well-drawn, and she has a good eye for the absurd.
Rating:
Quite a funny look at life in service in 1930’s England. 4 stars.
Posted: 01.18.05 (2:57 pm)
Year published: 1958
Pages: 180
Genre: Biography, animals and animal collecting
This is a collection of essays about animals that naturalist Gerald Durrell recorded for the BBC in the 1950’s. Some of the essays are original material, and some are about animals he had written about before in his books, so this will be partly a new reading experience for me and partly a return visit to old friends (I've read about 90% of Durrell's non-fiction books). Part of the book is about animal habitat and animals in general, part is about specific animal characters (some or all of which he has written about in his other books), and part is about interesting people.
Review:
Posted: 01.25.05 (7:39 am)
Contents: As I mentioned earlier, this is a collection of essays/scripts for talks which Durrell recorded for the BBC. It is about animals, places and people that he has come across, and starts out with two descriptions of animals and their habitat, goes on to discuss animal courtships, architecture, warfare, inventions and endangered animals, specific animals Durrell met and liked, like The Bandits (kusimanses), Sarah Huggersack (anteater), Wilhelmina the whip-scorpion and Pavlo the marmoset, and ends with two portraits of people Durrell met on his travels.
Technique: Durrell was a born storyteller. He wrote beautifully and evocatively about subjects dear to him, among which were animals, nature and nature conservation and interesting people. This book gives a taste of each subject, and would, I think, make a nice introduction to Durrell for someone who has not read anything by him before. It is the best of his collections that I have read, as it has a theme even if it is not a single story. The other collections contain essays and short stories that have too widely different subjects to be really good.
Rating: A good introduction to Gerald Durrell’s writings and a good read for amateur naturalists and children who are interested in nature and animals. 4 stars.
Posted: 03.11.05 (10:43 am)
84 Charing Cross Road has been described as a “love affair between a woman and a book-shop”. For 20 years, Helene Hanff conducted a business correspondence with a second-hand bookshop in London, that developed into a deep friendship between her and the bookshop staff, especially between her and Frank Doel (and later his wife and neighbour as well).
The two main correspondents, Hanff and Doel, quickly seem to have reached an understanding of each other, and one sees in their correspondence a pair of people with a similarly witty sense of humour, although Doel is more restrained (for obvious reasons).
This is one of those books in which nothing much happens on the surface, it is just a little slice of life, as is the companion story, The Duchess of Bloomsbury Street, Hanff’s journal from her visit to London. She had been planning the visit more or less for nearly 20 years, but which always kept getting put off, usually because of financial troubles.
84 Charing Cross Road was made into a charming movie, which is how I first learned about it. I had planned to include the book in my original reading challenge, but it is a popular book and it was never available when I went to the library. Now that I have finally read it, it seems almost amazing how such a good movie could be made from so little material, but when I started thinking about it, there is actually plenty there to work with, and of course the movie was fleshed out a bit (e.g. the scene where Hanff gets arrested).
Rating: A great book that should especially appeal to bibliophiles. 4+ stars.
Posted: 03.17.04
Author: David Hughes
Published: 1997
Genre: Biography, memoir, character portrait
Cover image
This week's book is about one of my favorite authors: Gerald Durrell. David Hughes, a longtime friend of Durrell's, wrote the book as a tribute to his friend back in the seventies, but it wasn't published until after Durrell's death. It's more a portrait of the man than a regular biography - I guess it should be called a memoir rather than a biography.
Today's reading
Posted: 03.19.04
Haven't made any progress with my book of the week, but have been reading one of Durrell's books instead. It's one of only a few I haven't read before: The Picnic and Suchlike Pandemonium. It's a collection of short pieces in the same vein as Fillets of Plaice and the "human animals" section of Encounters with Animals. The stories are all about people and human nature, told with Durrell's usual flair and the hyperbolic style he likes to use when telling humorous stories. I haven't laughed so hard since I read Terry Pratchett?s The Wee Free Men last year.
This one is definitely going on my whish list.
Review:
Posted: 03.23.04
Finished it last night. The book is well written and set up as a busy week in the life of Gerald Durrell, back in the 1970's when it was originally written. Interspersed with descriptions of Gerry's daily routine, character and moods are comments and reminiscences of himself, his friends and his family. He is shown in different environments and interacting with different kinds of people and what emerges is a portrait of a man who was contradictory in many ways.
Strong willed and selfish, generous, charming, moody and used to having his own way, yet admired and loved by people who knew him, Durrell was no ordinary person. His upbringing was eccentric and his education sporadic and specialized: he basically read a lot of books, studied everything to do with animals and nature, and didn't bother much with the rest. Yet he emerged as a fine writer and an enthusiastic nature lover and conservationist who was capable of sweeping other people along with his writing. After all this, it's hard to believe that he was shy and retiring when it came to meeting the public or standing up to make speeches.
This books only gives snippets of biographical information, mostly concentrating on Durrell's personality. I really think I will have to read his biography now to get the whole picture.
Rating: A biographical appetizer that one might follow up with Durrell's own autobiographical books for the main course, followed by his official biography as a dessert to complete the meal. 3 stars.
Posted: 03.01.05 (11:11 am)
Persepolis is a memoir, a look under the veil and behind the high walls and shuttered windows of post-revolution Iran. Parts of it are very shocking, parts are funny, and the stark black and white graphics make it play almost like a movie before your eyes. The drawings are dark – there’s a lot of black – and simple, but they are simple enough to appeal to they eye and the emotions and there are no unnecessary details to draw the eye away from the main points.
Rating: A stark, strong, insightful memoir of life in Iran in the years after the revolution. 4 stars.
I'm hoping the library will also get part 2. I want to know what happened next!
Posted: 02.28.05 (4:47 pm)
I don’t think I would recommend this book to anyone who isn’t a James Herriot fan, although it does give some fascinating insights into life in Glasgow in the years between the two great wars, and into veterinary practice and education in the years just before, during and after World War II. For the most part you really have to have read Herriot’s autobiographical fiction/fictionalised autobiographies (they are rather difficult to classify) in order to enjoy reading about his life. Jim Wight shows promise as a writer, but if he ever decides to start writing books like his father, he should take a course in creative writing. He has a tendency to repeat himself, and his overuse of some cliches is really annoying (I didn’t count how often the phrase “the happiest time of his life” and versions thereof occurred, but it was too often). However, biographers are not expected to write beautiful prose (although it is a great bonus when they do).
Rating: An interesting look at the life of the world’s most famous vet. 3 stars for content, 2 for literary merit = 2,5 stars.
including printing and book history
Posted: 06.13.05 (3:00 am)
Sat down after work on Tuesday and can't say I looked up much until I had finished At home with books. It's a gorgeous, big book with oodles of pictures and chapters on various millionaires, aristocrats, collectors and designers and their libraries, interspersed with advice on how to care for and display books. The libraries range from small and cosy to huge and imposing, but all the owners are real bibliophiles who read their books and obviously love them. The only thing that was missing, in my opinion, were the libraries of some ordinary people. Cool coffee table book.
I was inspired by this book. My library only contains about 1200 volumes at the moment, but I can foresee it getting a lot bigger – maybe even as big as my grandmother’s library which at it’s biggest contained at least 10 thousand volumes. This means that one day I will have to seriously think about getting fitted floor to ceiling bookshelves. When I do, I can definitely look to this book for ideas.
I was also inspired to make a reading nook for myself. At the moment, I either lie in bed when I read, or lounge in the living-room sofa, but what I really would love to have is a big, chunky upholstered chair and an adjustable reading stand, preferably attached to the chair.
Rating: Big and gorgeous, perfect for the coffee table, but don’t be surprised if you guests actually start reading this fascinating book. 5 stars.
Posted: 06.27.05 (8:58 am)
This slim volume is a collection of essays by journalist Anne Fadiman, originally published in a literary magazine, but adapted and in some cases rewritten for the book. It was recommednded to me by several people who know I love reading, and I would just like to say thanks to them for the recommendation. I have been trying for ages to find the book – according to the library database it was always in, but I couldn’t find it where it was supposed to be shelved. I finally came across it where it had been filed on the wrong shelf.
The book is basically about several different aspects of reading and owning books, and an analysis of the author’s reading habits. She discusses, among other things, the problems of uniting libraries, her addiction to collecting books about doomed polar expeditions, her habit of proofreading everything she reads, those pesky gender pronouns that turn everyone into a man, pokes fun at plagiarists and plagiarism, and other subjects related to books, etc., all in a personal vein.
Rating: Fun reading for bibliophiles and an insight into the bibliophiliac mind for non-bibliophiles. 4 stars.
Posted: 04.24.05 (5:08 pm)
I read these two books by Lawrence and Nancy Goldstone one after the other. The first, Used and Rare: Travels in the book world, is about why and how they started accumulating a library of used books, how they gradually began to understand the language of book collecting and recognise the value of books, and how their collecting escalated until they were buying expensive first editions, and how they finally came to their senses and decided it was more important to get good reading copies of many favourite books than to spend thousands of dollars on a few first editions.
This is a charming book about the development of a hobby that the authors show can be both affordable and enjoyable, even for people of modest income, as long as they don’t get carried away with first edition fever.
The second book, Slightly Chipped: Footnotes in booklore, which on the dust jacket is somewhat pretentiously called a “companion piece” to the previous book (it is fact an ordinary sequel), is about their continuing interest in books, friendships made through book-collecting, and adventures, such as when they attended the Edgars (mystery book awards) and the auction of the estate of the Duke and Duchess of Windsor. This book is padded with pages upon pages of information about authors and book trivia, and one gets the impression that it was written in haste. Some of the charm of the previous book is still there, but this book is not as solid a piece of work.
Note:
Call me grumpy, but I thought books had to be proofread before going into printing. I have never in my book-reading life come across as many typing and spelling errors in any book as I have in those two, errors that any decent computer proofing tool would have found. It is all the worse in book one because it is not a first edition and someone should have corrected the spelling errors before it went into paperback.
The second book has rather fewer proofing errors, but the ones that there are, are much worse, terrible typing errors that have gone unnoticed at the proofing stage. Of course, should this book ever become collectible, this will probably make the first printing of the first edition more valuable, but that is no consolation to the poor reader who has to put up with the errors. For this reason I am withholding one star from each book, and giving Used and Rare 3 stars and Slightly Chipped 2 stars.
including hair, cosmetics and accesories
Posted: 07.08.05 (2:18 am)
This is a humorous tribute to that much maligned hairstyle, the mullet (ape drape, mud-flap, neck warmer, etc.). For someone who remembers when it was actually cool to sport one (yep, I was a teenager in the 1980’s), this was a great discovery. The book manages to be both affectionate and mocking, and I had a good laugh at all the pictures of famous people that I once thought were incredibly cool and cutting-edge but now, in retrospect, just had really bad hairstyles and a lousy dress sense.
Rating: A funny book for both admirers and enemies of the mullet. 4 stars.
Posted: 07.08.05 (2:18 am)
A short history of perfume, with an overview of the sources for scents and processing methods, an introduction to some of the most famous perfume manufacturers and perfumes, and a showcase of collectible perfume bottles. This is a coffee-table book, full of gorgeous photography and interesting information. 4 stars.
Posted: 01.31.05 (4:40 pm)
Editor: Natalie Rothstein
Text: Madeleine Ginsburg, Avir Hart, Valerie D. Mendes, et al.
Photographs: Philip Barnard
Year published: 1984
Pages: 176
Genre: Costume history
I was planning to read a Danish book titled Krop og klær: Klædedragtens kunsthistorie (Body and clothes: The art history of dress) for this week’s review, but leafing through it I realised I could never finish it in one week AND enjoy it, because it’s been a while since I’ve read anything more complicated than craft magazines in Danish, and there is a fair amount of technical vocabulary in it that requires the use of a dictionary. I did want to read something about textiles, and picked up this overview of dress history as seen in the Victoria and Albert Museum’s Dress Collection. It is published by the museum and contains a large number of photographs of clothes from the collection, with historical overview, description of each item of clothing, and a glossary of clothing terms.
During my last two visits to London I had plans to visit the V&A, but both times I had to cancel. This book will hopefully compensate just a little.
The Victoria & Albert Museum fashion collection
Review:
Posted: 02.06.05 (4:14 pm)
First of all: I was unable to read the entire book. Some #$%&$ biblioclast has torn out several pages, which is always a risk with library books.
The book is a museum catalogue of sorts, a description of fashions in clothing and accessories as seen in the V&A’s costume collection. The photographs are beautiful and the text describes the general fashions of each time period and specifically the clothes in the photos. What I missed were close-ups of details in the clothes, like stitching, embroidery and trimmings, but the book is not meant to be a precise costume history, but merely an overview. I have learned a whole new vocabulary from reading it, all words descriptive of clothing and parts thereof.
This book is interesting for people who would like to know more about costume history in general, and may be of some help to people who like to make accurate reproductions of historical costumes, as there is information on the fabrics and materials used for the clothing. The best thing about the book (in my opinion) is the photographs of the costumes. They are shown to advantage, but unfortunately each costume is only shown from one angle, so that while you can admire a dress from the front, back or side, you don’t get to see it from other angles. The manikins the clothes are hung on are a bit spooky: expressionless and ivory white, they stare into space with empty eyes, but they do add verisimilitude by filling out the clothes and displaying the appropriate accessories, such as shoes, fans, parasols, hats and jewelry, and also hairstyles. It’s a pity they are so ghostly - but they do look slightly more normal in the black and white photos.
Rating: A beautiful coffee-table book for costume enthusiasts.
including history
Posted: 12.06.04 (1:48 pm)
Series: British Film Institute Cinema Series
Year published: 1982/1993
Pages: 154
Genre: Cinema history and criticism
Sub-genre: Musicals
I came across this interesting volume while browsing at the library. As someone who possesses a growing collection of musicals on video and DVDs and watches them frequently, I am naturally interested in the subject, which is why I picked it as the book of the week.
Review:
Posted: 12.12.04 (5:41 am)
This is a critical and analytic look at the Golden Era Hollywood musical as a genre. Feuer examines some conventions and formulas of the genre, how the earlier musicals refer back to stage shows, vaudeville and revues, while the later ones refer back to the earlier ones. She examines the importance of the songs, the standardized romantic storyline of the musical comedy, and in a postscript chapter takes a brief look at some post-Golden Era musicals and gay readings of the old musicals (especially those starring Judy Garland).
When I started reading this book I expected to find some insight into the musical genre and what makes musicals enduring and endearing to audiences. What I found was an attempt to analyse certain isolated themes and techniques of the genre.
The book is an academic work written for academics, and therefore full of academic and technical jargon. For persons who have read little or nothing about literary analysis and literary theory, it is – I wouldn’t say exactly useless, but rather not as useful as it could be. For film students it gives a valuable insight into the genre, albeit not a very complete one.
For me, it has mostly been useful in drawing my attention to musicals I would like to watch.
Rating: An academic look at the movie musical as a genre. Not rated.
P.S. I am quite surprised that neither Grease nor Saturday Night Fever - both very popular musicals that have attained cult status - rate a mention in the text, as the former is so clearly both a parody and a celebration of the genre, and the latter subverts and deviates from many of the genre’s conventions.
Posted: 09.19.04 (10:44 am)
Year published: 1998
Pages: 466
Genre: Screenwriting, practical film theory, story structure
Large cover image
This is apparently one of the best books available to people who want to learn screenwriting, and is required reading for many courses on the craft. And no, I’m not about to run off to Hollywood to become a screenwriter. This is one of two set books for the university course I’m taking on media translation. Since a lot of media translation consists of translating movies and TV series the teacher thought it would be a good idea if we were well acquainted with the way such material is built up. In order to become a good screen translator, one needs to be aware of the extra-linguistic content of the story one is translating, not just the linguistic aspects. This is why I’m reading the book.
Reading progress:
Posted: 09.26.04 (2:20 pm)
Story is proving to be a harder read than I thought it would be. It is educative, but unfortunately it’s also about 100 pages too long. McKee seems to be the writing equivalent of those talkers who drone on and on, using 10 words where 2 would suffice, loving the sound of their own voices. Even though I’m learning a lot about screenwriting and story structure from reading the book, I can only read about a chapter before my thoughts begin to wander and I either start to yawn or become filled with a longing to skim, which is something that does not reflect well on the writing style.
I have therefore decided to give this book another week before I review it.
Review:
Posted: 10.02.04 (11:13 pm)
Subject:
Screenwriting. Story structure. Things to keep in mind when attempting to write a good movie script. The author delves deep into the subject of ”story”, and lays out the basic principles of movie storytelling. This is not about the practical sides of screenwriting, how the typed manuscript should look like, how to submit a manuscript, finding an agent and so on, but rather about the necessity of knowing the craft and knowing your story well enough to tell it to others in an impressive way. Movie scenes are analysed in order to deepen the reader’s understanding of the subject, and scenes from many movies are mentioned as examples of what McKee is talking about.
My impressions:
I have no doubt that to someone truly interested in screenwriting, this is a very useful book. I even found it useful, and I have never seen myself as someone who could (or would) write a movie script. My interest in the subject is twofold: one is the interest any moviegoer has in the mechanics of movie storytelling, and the other is as a student of translation. Should I ever go into translating for subtitles or dubbing, I will have to be familiar with this subject, because screen translation is not just about the words, it’s about a lot more than that. Screen translators do not earn a lot of money for their craft, and being familiar with story structure enables them to translate better and faster. But I digress.
I have already stated that I found the reading slow going. That is not to say it was boring, but the text is wordy. Not only does McKee like to see his words on the page – the more the better – he is also fond of overstatement, and his self-confidence is such that it borders on being arrogant.
Rating:
Good guide to the principles of movie storytelling and script structuring, with a little bit of advice on working methods thrown in for good measure. Will not attempt to give stars.
including cookbooks, memoirs and history
Posted: 11.25.04 (11:26 am)
Year published: 2001
Pages: 274
Genre: Travel, food
I’ve wanted to see the TV series ever since I read about it on a cooking website, but for now I will have to make do with the book.
Story:
Bourdain’s round-the-world journey in search of interesting food and eating situations. This was first just supposed to be a travel-foodie book, but then Television got involved, and he ended up traveling around with a TV crew in tow. Some of the visits yielded plenty of delicious food, like the visit to The French Laundry in California, others were nostalgic and unfulfilling like the trip to France, and still others pointless, like the journey to Pailin in Cambodia.
The dining experiences were sometimes exotic, often delicious, at other times scary or just horrible. Some brought the intrepid chef face to face with his food, still on the hoof, or swimming, crawling or slithering around, others brought him into situations where he whished he had never ordered the dish in question, and still others where he had to eat something he never wanted to eat in the first place but had to because it made good television. He found several “perfect” meals on the journey, but, as he remarks: “’Perfect’ …. Once you find it… it’s gone.”
Technique:
Bourdain is still as profane, self-deprecating, honest and likeable as he was in his previous bestselling book, Kitchen Confidential (see below for review). The style is somewhere between a hard-boiled detective novel and a regular travel book, full of hyperbole and good humour. Unlike Kitchen… the narrative does not jump from one subject to another, which makes the narrative more structured.
Rating: My two favourite non-fiction genres – food and travel - combined in one great book. 5 stars.
Posted: 02.16.04 (7:39 pm)
Published: 2000
Genre: Autobiography, food (I've filed it umder the food section because it is a food memoir)
Cover image
I first got wind of this book shortly after it was published in 2000, when, browsing on Salon.com, I came across an excerpt from it. I liked the style which is refreshingly honest and has great descriptions of people, and I immediately decided I wanted to read it. Below is a link to that excerpt.
Note: Salon has now made it mandatory for anyone wishing to look at its contents to view an advertisment first.
Kitchen god
Kitchen Confidential: Another extract
Posted: 02.18.04 (7:48 am)
Some Bourdain links:
Posted: 02.20.04
Powells.com interview
Bourdain's top 10 books about food
Review:
Posted: 02.21.04
Kitchen Confidential is for the most part a memoir, but one which is interspersed with anecdotes and advise and littered with profanity. This funny and entertaining account of Anthony Bourdain's progress from dishwasher to chef is written in a tough and macho tone and sprinkled with inventive vulgarisms that might offend some readers and make others laugh out loud. In between the autobiographical stuff and accounts of people he's met is useful information about kitchen tools, what foods to avoid in restaurants and even a chapter on kitchen jargon.
Bourdain freely admits to having been a drug addict for many years, but somehow you never feel sorry for him, maybe because he obviously doesn't feel sorry for himself. One of the things you catch onto quickly is that he obviously loves food. Right from his childhood experiences with raw oysters in France and all the way to his visit to the sushi place in Tokyo, you sense that here is a man who first and foremost does what he does because he loves food.
I'm not going to go into the "don't order fish on Mondays" thing, as it has already been discussed to death (it was the thing most media latched onto when the book became a hit), but I am going to mention one chapter that will be useful to anyone who thinks they need a kitchen full of gadgets to be able to cook like a professional. To condense it somewhat: You don't!
As if the excerpts weren't enough to give an idea of the writing style, here is a quote that made me laugh. Bourdain has reached the bottom, is recovering from heroin addiction and still doing other drugs, is thin as a rake, nervous and generally not in good shape, when he gets a call from Bigfoot, an old employer. To begin with, the guy lends him 200 $:
"Looking at me, and hearing the edited-for-television version of what I'd been up to in recent years, he must have had every reason to believe I'd disappear with the two bills, spend it on crack and never show up for my first shift. And if he'd given me the twenty-five instead two hundred, that might well have happened. But as so often happens with Bigfoot, his trust was rewarded. I was so shaken by his baseless trust in me - that such a cynical bastard as Bigfoot would make such a gesture - that I determined I'd sooner gnaw my own fingers off, gouge my eyes out with a shellfish fork and run naked down Seventh Avenue than ever betray that trust."
Rating: Recommended read for anyone who is interested in the restaurant business, and especially what happens on the other side of the kitchen doors. 4 stars.
Comment from an anonymous reader:
Kitchen... is really great, and according to a few chefs I know a real hit with the pros as well as normal folk. A Cook's Tour is also really good, taking Anthony out of his kitchen and into the kitchen of others. In the US they occasionally show the companion TV program and it is one of only a few shows of its type that really shows the bare knuckle version of cooking in many countries. It is also probably the only cooking show I have seen where the host was obviously and happily drunk, and I wish I was there with him to share in the food and booze
Bibliophile's reply:
Thanks for the recommendation. Looks like I'll have to get a hold of A Cooks's Tour as well. I'll probably have to wait for the TV series to come out on DVD if I want to see it.
Posted: 05.05.04
Year published: 2002
Genre: Food, recipes, social history
Cover image
Nanna Rögnvaldardóttir is, at the moment, Iceland's most famous non-chef cookery book author. Her previous two cookery tomes, Matarást (Love of Food) and Matreiðslubók Nönnu (Nanna's Cookbook) are veritable food bibles. The first is an encyclopedia of food, ingredients, cookery methods, kitchen science, cookery terms, food history etc. etc., and the second is a collection of over 3000 recipes from all over the world. Both are unfortunately only available in Icelandic.
Icelandic Food and Cookery is Nanna's first cookery book written in English (to my knowledge). It focuses on food that may be called Icelandic, both traditional and modern. This book is of special interest to me because what Nanna is doing with this book is exactly what I have been doing with my cooking website, namely introducing Icelandic cuisine to an international audience.
Here is one of the downsides to library books: you never know what condition they're going to be in. Every time I open this particular copy, the stink of stale cigarette smoke wafts up to meet me. Not the nicest thing when you're thinking about food.
Aaaaaaaaaaaarrrrrrrrrrrrrgggggggggggghhhhhhhhhhh!
About the book of the week:
Posted: 05.07.04
This is more than just a regular cookbook. The first section offers a short history of food and eating habits in Iceland, an introduction to Icelandic festive food and a listing of many of the festive occasions available to Icelanders and the traditional foods that go with them. A second section lists some of the ingredients in the recipes and in the case of ingredients largely unknown to Americans (the book is written for the American market and uses American measures), like skyr and hartshorn, there are suggestions as to where they can be got from and also what substitutes can be used.
The recipe section is divided into the usual categories. With each recipe there is a short text where the author explains why the recipe was chosen for the book and in the case of traditional recipes she often recounts some memories she has about the dish.
Review:
Posted: 05.08.04
This is by far the best and most representative Icelandic cookbook for foreigners I have seen. The recipes are a mixture of traditional and modern recipes, and the author never forgets that it is supposed to represent Icelandic home cooking. Too many Icelandic cookbooks for foreigners are full of fiddly "nouvelle" recipes that can only be called Icelandic - and not French, Italian or international - because they were invented by Icelandic chefs and use some supposedly unique Icelandic ingredient like rhubarb or fresh fish.
The recipes in this book are for the most part easy, although users in the USA may in some cases find it difficult to hunt down some of the more obscure ingredients. Hartshorn (ammonium carbonate) will certainly be hard to find, and even mundane (to Icelanders) ingredients like fresh haddock or a leg of lamb can be difficult to find. (I once searched supermarkets in North Dakota from the Canadian border and all the way down to Fargo for both these ingredients and found neither. People who live in cities like New York will not have any trouble finding this stuff.)
The book was specifically written for the American market, and so the measures are American. The book is widely available from Internet bookstores, such as Powell's, Amazon.com and Barnes & Noble, and I have no doubt that many of the bigger bookstores in the USA will carry it.
Some recipes include:
Icelandic halibut soup, langoustines (scampi) with garlic butter, cocktail sauce, grilled salmon, leg of reindeer with rosemary, flamed puffin breasts, glazed potatoes, velvet pudding, bilberry soup, crullers, vínarterta and leaf bread.
Rating: Great cookbook, full of easy and tasty recipes for homemade Icelandic-style food. 5+ stars.
Posted: 06.25.05 (10:00 am)
I am an avid tea drinker and have been ever since I drank my first cuppa around age six. I enjoy tea in many of its incarnations: the sweet, spicy chai of India and Pakistan, the minty green tea of Morocco, strong and sweet Turkish tea, delicate Darjeelings, robust Kenyans and iced tea with slices of orange and lemon, to name some examples. I have never been much fond of fruit teas or plain green teas – the first I can tolerate iced, but the second tastes to me like freshly mown grass: the smell is nice and refreshing but the flavour is less than pleasing. I guess it’s an acquired taste and no doubt I will learn to drink it if I ever visit Japan or China.
I am not what you would call a tea snob – you are just as likely to find me slurping sweet milk tea made with a tea bag (oh, my!), from a chipped and stained old mug (horror of horrors!), as you are to find me sipping milkless FTGFOP Darjeeling from a bone china cup. Each has a suitable occasion. Maybe "tea nerd" would be a better description of my relationship with the beverage.
But let’s turn to the book. It’s a large-format book of the kind often referred to as coffee-table books, although in this case maybe tea room book would be more appropriate. It features some gorgeous photography and artwork, and has chapters on tea growing and processing, tea history, tea drinking habits the world over, types of tea, statistics and even recipes for food such as tea sauce and tea ice, and a list of tea houses and tea shops in the USA, London and Paris. It was published in France and is a translation from French.
This is a lovely book for tea enthusiasts and foodies who want to have some knowledge of the subject but do not want to become experts. For those interested in more information, there is a bibliography of books they can turn to for more in-depth reading.
A touch of snobbery surfaces here and there – one author suggests that it is criminal to use either milk or lemon in tea, and that sugar is only acceptable in a few types of tea (as if it wasn’t simply a matter of personal taste). All skim over the subject of flavoured teas – you get the feeling they do not approve of anything beyond Earl Grey or Russian citrus tea, and those only because those blends are old enough to count as traditional. Tea in bags is universally denounced – which is perhaps not surprising as it is a fact that many tea companies use sub-standard leaves to fill their tea bags, but it is also true that you can get quite decent bag tea if you know where to look. Minor snobbery of this kind is forgivable when you really don’t care what others think of your tea drinking habits, but it is unfortunate that it may influence impressionable people who are new to tea drinking and liable to think they must follow the rules implied by the book in order to enjoy their tea.
Rating: A lovely book for tea enthusiasts. 4 stars.
Finally, here is a tea that I often enjoy, especially on cold winter’s evenings when I want something warming.
Pakistani cardamom chai:
3 bags unflavoured black tea, or 3 level tablespoons of robust black tea leaves. The best tea for chai is broken leaves, dust or fannings (the kind used in tea bags), as they make stronger tea.
6-8 green cardamom pods
1/2 litre water
1/2 litre whole or condensed milk
sugar to taste
Bring the water to the boil. Bruise or lightly crush the cardamoms and cook in the water for 5 minutes. Add the tea leaves and cook for about 2 minutes (I prefer using tea bags - it's less messy). Add the milk. Remove from heat when the mixture boils, strain out the cardamoms and tea leaves and serve with sugar to taste. If you want a more intense cardamom taste, pour the chai into a thermos flask with the cardamoms and leave it to steep for about an hour (do not steep with the tea bags/leaves as it will make the chai bitter).
that doesn't fit into the other categories
Posted: 04.21.04
Year published: 1958/1981
Genre: USA social history, women pioneers
Cover image
This looks like a promising piece of women's history. If we were to go by the history books we read in school, it would seem that men single-handedly settled the western parts of the United States. This is of course not so - women did their share of the work and had a great deal of civilizing influence on the men. I'm looking forward to exploring the west with them, through this book.
Written by the author of Bury My Heart at Wounded Knee
Review:
Posted: 04.25.04
The Gentle Tamers is a collection of true stories about the women of the wild west. Some who are included are true pioneers, like Janette Riker, who survived a harsh Montana winter alone in a covered wagon, others are included because a history of women in the Wild West wouldn't be complete without them, like Calamity Jane. The stories are not told in a straight timeline, but are collected into themes which include chapters on the dangers of the pioneer trails (which included bad weather, food shortages, epidemics and attacks by natives), fashion and finery, gatherings and entertainment, to name a few. Some of the women in the book are heroines while others are victims. There are army wives, wild women, educators, settlers, entertainers, suffragettes, prostitutes and various other kinds of women. Some have a remarkable history of their own, others are included because their experiences are representative of the general experiences of women of the time. All of them are treated with respect, although the author does make the occasional subtly sarcastic remark about some of them. Their stories are told in a simple, straightforward style with a number of quotations from the original sources that give the narrative colour and depth.
The text is well written and informative, and there is an extensive bibliography at the end for those who whish to do further research into the subject. No attempt is made to put forward any kind of thesis on the subject - this is simply a collection of stories about real women, a popular history that is first and foremost meant to entertain.
Rating:A fun and interesting read about the lives of women, ordinary and not so ordinary, in the Wild West. 5 stars.
----
I can't leave out one endearing thing about this particular copy: it has an inscription in it. I bought the book in a second-hand shop in Hamburg, Germany. On the inside front cover there is a sticker indicating that it was originally bought in the Boot Hill Museum in Dodge City, Kansas, USA.
The inscription is as follows:
My dearest woman of the new Wild West, Maybe you find the time in the Old World to read this book, to help remind yourself that the women of the New World had the same problems and struggle, like you may have. But of course they havenot had me.
Yours (The signature is unreadable)
I love books that have a past.
Posted: 04.15.04
Year published: 2002
Genre: Sport history
Cover image
This book is about a famous American racehorse and the men whose belief in him took him from the lowest rungs of the racing world and right to the top.
I am not particularly interested in sports, and know next to nothing about horse racing, so this is not a book I would have picked up if it had not been for the fact that it has been made into a film.
As a teenager I enjoyed a film about another famous racehorse, Phar Lap, and so when Seabiscuit hit the cinemas I decided this was a film I wanted to see.
Well, somehow I managed to miss it. However, after watching a National Geographic documentary about Seabiscuit, I decided I would read the book to tide me over until the film comes out on video. So far I have not been disappointed.
Review:
Posted: 04.18.04
It's rare to find a history book that is as readable as Seabiscuit. One history book I have already reviewed, Cod: A biography of the fish that changed the world, tries and fails, perhaps because the author simply isn't as accomplished a writer as Laura Hillenbrand. Hillenbrand's writing seems effortless and she manages to hold the reader's attention throughout the book.
Of the two parts of the book, the second is the most gripping. In the first part Hillenbrand introduces the people and animals involved in the story and lays out a description of American society in the first decades of the 20th century. This will at first seem somewhat longwinded, simply because of the wealth of information she has chosen to bring into the narrative.
In the second half of the book, which is mostly about the preparation for Seabiscuit's greatest race, it becomes clear that without all the information in the first half of the book, it would not have been as good a narrative. Her detailed descriptions of the racing practices of the era and the horrible situation of the jockeys (who had no union and hardly any human rights), of Seabiscuit's noble lineage and the character portraits and short biographies of Seabiscuit, owner Howard, trainer Smith and jockey Pollard before they came together, bring into the narrative a sense of continuity and a deeper understanding of what the race meant to these men and to the thousands of admirers of the "Cinderella horse".
There are some profoundly sad moments in the book, but also occasions for laughing out loud - especially in the description of Seabiscuit's appearance and habits and Smith's mischievous sense of humour and his war with the press.
Rating: Very well written biography of a horse and the men who believed in his abilities and made him a star among racehorses. Recommended for anyone with an interest in American history, sports or horses. 5 stars.
P.S. I saw the movie some time after I wrote the review, and didn't like it much. Although it sported good actors, there was no depth in it. Of course, it is usually better to see a movie before you read the book.
Posted: 02.29.04
Published: 1997
Genre: History
Cover image
I decided it was time to learn more about the fish that can, with some justification, be called the basis of Iceland's economy. I have always liked haddock better. Maybe this book will change that.
Review:
Posted: 03.07.04
After all the rave reviews and accolades, I expected Cod to be something more than just an ordinary history book. It isn't. Like many other history books I've read, it's well researched, informative and well written, if somewhat journalistic at times, but by far the best thing about it is the quotes and recipes, for which Mr. Kurlansky is not responsible. The writing failed to get me interested in the subject and about the only thing I found interesting was chapter 2 which gives information about the biology and ecology of the cod, and chapter 10, which gave me a new angle on the cod wars between Iceland and Britain, which in retrospect seem funny but at the time were dead serious.
I can only surmise that the praise the book has received was for the idea itself, of writing the history of the commercial exploitation of a seemingly mundane natural food resource, and furthermore one that few people outside the fishing communities of the Atlantic ocean ever give thought to. Of course, it has been done before, but mostly about more exotic foods like chocolate.
Rating: 1 star for an unusual subject, 1 star for good research and good writing, 1 star for great choice of quotes and recipes. In other words: 3 out of 5.
Kurlansky links:(there used to be three, but two "died")
Eclectica Magazine review
Posted: 05.20.04
Published: 1998
Genre: History, biography, lexicography
Cover image
This book is about two men who worked on the making of the OED (Oxford English Dictionary) and their longstanding relationship. What got me interested in it was the title. We will have to see if the book lives up to it.
Review:
Posted: 05.25.04
Story:
The book touches upon several subjects, but the core story is that of two men who were influential in the creation of the Oxford English Dictionary. One was Professor James Murray, the longest-serving editor of the OED, and the other was one of the most useful contributors of quotations to the book, Dr. William C. Minor, an inmate in a lunatic asylum (as they were called in those days). The life stories of both men are told in brief, showing how Prof. Murray rose from humble origins to become a philologist and a professor, and looking at Dr. Minor's career as an army surgeon in the American civil war and exploring the possible causes of his insanity. The history of British lexicography is touched upon, and also the conception and launching of the biggest lexicographical project ever undertaken: the Oxford English Dictionary. The storylines all come together in the second half of the book and we follow the relationship between Murray and Minor to the end, look at Minor's final years when he was finally released and sent home to the USA, and the OED's history is followed (in brief) up to modern times. It's really amazing how so much material made it into so short a book without becoming superficial: it is only 242 pages, including the preface, postscript and other end material. The only thing I missed was a bibliography.
Technical points:
This is another brilliantly written popular history book that reads like a novel (see my review of Seabiscuit). The narrative method takes some getting used to - at one point I became rather annoyed with the author for what I saw as over-usage of flashbacks, taking the reader back in time and to a different subject in every chapter and sometimes within chapters - but of course he had a good reason for telling the story in this way: There are so many narrative strands that have to be explored before they all come together that it would have been impossible to do it differently. I love the way each chapter is prefaced with one or more entries from the OED, explaining words that are pertinent to the subject of the chapter.
Rating: A fascinating snippet of history that is quite capable of gripping the reader until the end. 4 stars.
including history
Posted: 07.12.04 (3:13 pm)
Year published: 1991
Pages: 429
Genre: Literary theory, literature
Large cover image
I had considerable interest in vampire stories when I was studying English literature at university, and even wrote an essay on Dracula for an interesting course I took on horror literature. I used this book as one of my sources, but never read it all the way through, only concentrating on the first part, which traces the history of vampires in literature.
The teacher was tall, rather thin but good looking and always wore black. He was genuinely interested in the subject he was teaching, and I think the course was one of his pet projects. Some of the students affectionately called him “Dracula” behind his back. He mentored me when I was writing by B.A. thesis, and thanks to him, what began as a muddled jumble of ideas ended up being an essay I can be proud of. I was shocked to hear of his death recently, from cancer, at the relatively young age of 50.
Review
Posted: 07.20.04 (4:09 am)
Contents:
The first part of the book is Frayling’s dissertation on the vampire in literature. Although vampire stories owe much to folktales, they made the jump into literature when authors started playing with the idea of a human (or human-looking) parasite that preyed on humans and got the brilliant idea to make that person a gentleman, someone who has much more access to society than, say, a peasant. By making the vampire a gentleman (and later on a lady), the creature was made exciting and dangerous. Frayling mentions four main vampire types that appeared in 19th century literature, and gives examples of each in long excerpts and short stories that take up a good 2/3 of the book. These types are the Satanic Lord, the Fatal Woman, the Unseen Force, and the Folkloric Vampire.
The stories are chosen for how well they represent a particular vampiric subgenre, rather than for any literary consideration. Yet some are quite good, for example A Kiss of Judas by ‘X.L.’ and The Family of the Vourdalak by Alexis Tolstoy. The most famous stories in this book are John Polidori’s The Vampyre (in its entirety), James Malcolm Rhymer’s Varney the Vampyre (excerpts) and Bram Stoker’s Dracula (excerpts). A couple of interesting if rather academic parts of the book contain excerpts from Stoker’s plans and research papers for Dracula, and some attempts at psychological analyses of what Frayling has chosen to call “haemosexuality”, the sexual desire for blood.
Comments:
This is not a book for casual readers. Those merely looking for scary stories will end up reading less than a third of the book. The approach to the subject is academic, and the reader needs to be interested in the subject on an academic level in order to appreciate Frayling’s essay on the literary vampire, and some of the excerpts and short stories. It is a good introduction to the vampire genre, and will make good research material for students of horror literature. I am rather put out by the fact that Sheridan Le Fanu’s famous vampire story Carmilla (which happens to be a favourite of mine) was left out of the book, seeing that Frayling mentions it on several occasions, but it is perhaps because he thought the stories of female vampires that he did include were more representative of the genre.
Rating:
An interesting in-depth look into the genesis and evolution of the vampire in literature. 4 stars.
Posted: 01.02.05 (4:33 am)
Review:
Posted: 01.09.05 (2:41 pm)
Contents:
In this book, Eco discusses translation as a kind of negotiation: between translator and author, between languages, and so on. He mostly discusses what is known as translation proper, i.e. the translation from one language (source) into another (target). He also mentions other kinds of translations, like intersemiotic translation or transmutation, which is the translation from one form of art into another, e.g. a novel into a film or a poem into a painting, and intralinguistic translation or rewording, but the main focus is on translation proper. Many of his examples are taken from his own books, and from books he has translated, so he has a unique insight into the problems he discusses.
Eco discusses his own work in some detail, and gives some insights into why he loads his novels so much with allusions and quotations from other literary works, and discusses the problems translators have run into when attempting to make translations that have the same effect on readers in other languages as they do in the original Italian.
In the first chapter, in an attempt to explain a particular translation problem, he takes some rather funny examples of machine translation that anyone can repeat with similar results by running a text through any of the translation machines available on the Web (see footnote).
He goes on from there to discuss translation of poetry (meter and rhyme vs. accuracy), modernization of old texts, effect vs. exact meaning, and several other things that need to be taken into consideration in literary translations, and ends with the problem of accurately translating colour terms.
Technique:
I must say that Eco’s non-fiction is rather easier to read than his fiction. The ideas he expresses are put forward in a readable style and while linguists or translation theorists will undoubtedly have a deeper understanding of the text - if only because they’re likelier to be familiar with certain theories he mentions without further explanation - it is clear enough for an interested non-linguist to understand. He uses numerous examples in several languages, and while it isn’t absolutely necessary, it helps to know some Italian, French and German in order to better appreciate the examples, but it is quite possible to get along without knowing any of those languages, because he explains the pertinent parts in English as well. I for example, have learned both French and German (4 years of each), and can not say I understood much in the examples he used in those languages, because much of it is in highly literary, poetic or archaic versions of those languages.
Rating: An interesting insight into some of the problems translators meet with in translating literature and poetry. 4 stars.
Footnote:
Here’s an example, this paragraph run through Bablefish, English to German to French, and back to English. You can still get the sense of what I’m saying, but it looks like it was written by someone who doesn’t know any English and constructed the sentence using a dictionary.
"Towards first chapter certain translation problem to explain (that of l'équivalence), it has to take some examples rather merry that of machine translation which can repeat all the world with similar results, while making run a text by translation the apparatuses which exist on the network."
If you want to have some fun, here’s a link to Babelfish
dictionaries, glossaries, thesauri, etc.
Posted: 03.28.04
Published:1986 (as The Insomniac's Dictionary)
Genre:Dictionary, glossary
Cover image
I'm studying for exams and writing final essays for the next three weeks, so during that time I'm going to review some of the reference books I use in my field of study. To make it more fun, I'm going to pick some of the more unusual reference books in my library.
As a student of translation I am naturally interested in etymology, semantics and semiotics. This book is not only a nice way of finding unusual words, their meanings and origins, but it is also quite short for a dictionary and fun to read.
About The Book of Intriguing Words:
Posted: 03.31.04
Being a confirmed logolept, I like to collect words, and this dictionary was a windfall for me because it has plenty of unusual ones. Unlike regular dictionaries, it is not one long alphabetized list, but rather a series of chapters containing glossaries of words relating to a specific subject or theme. Naturally enough, the first chapter is all about "word" words, all of them beginning, naturally enough, with the prefix "logo".
It goes on from there, covering insomnia words, phobias and manias, "killing" words, types of divination, forms of government, eponyms, portmanteaus and acronyms, long and short words, interesting words no longer in use, consonant only words, word play, love, sex and marriage words, unusual words that don't fall into any specific category, and three chapters on animal words: animal adjectives, names for baby animals and collective nouns for groups of animals.
It was in this last chapter that I found out that a group of ferrets is known as a "business" and a group of ravens as an "unkindness". I don't know when I'm going to be able to put this knowledge to use, but never mind, it's still fun to know.
Seriously, the book HAS come in handy, especially the chapters on phobias and manias, and it is valuable for Scrabble players when all they have left is consonants.
Speaking of reference books: I recently discovered Brewer's Dictionary of Phrase and Fable, and am planning to dupe my parents into giving me the updated Millenium Edition for my birthday. This wonderful book is full of fascinating and often completely useless information.
Review:
Posted: 04.03.04
Rating: A fun and fascinating collection of eclectic glossaries. Especially interesting for people who love unusual words, and handy for those who whish to increase their vocabulary. Too bad it's so short. 4 stars.
Posted: 04.07.04
Published: 1993
Genre: Dictionary, reference
Cover image
Every translator needs to own at least one dictionary of idioms. This is mine.
Idiomatic expressions number in the thousands in the English language, and new ones are being crafted all the time. Without them the language would be poorer and not nearly as colourful. Many idioms of course have become clichéd and bother some people endlessly, but the fact is that sometimes it's better to resort to a well chewed cliché everyone knows, rather than try to explain something in twice as many words and only have half of your listeners understand what you're talking about.
Review:
Posted: 04.14.04
A dictionary of idioms is essential (in my opinion) for learners who want to become truly proficient in a new language, to translators like myself, and to native speakers who whish to enrich their language and avoid constantly repeating the same clichés. The last group will benefit most from a dictionary of idioms that is organized like a thesaurus where you can look for meanings as well as the expressions themselves. This book is not for them.
The organisation is that of a regular dictionary, except it isn't always the first word in an idiomatic expression that is indexed, but rather what the editors thought was the word people were most likely to look for in an expression. In cases where there is some doubt as to what word people are likely to look for, cross-references are provided, which makes it easy to find the expressions you are looking for.
Apart from some rather unfortunate omissions - there is no explanation of "the whole nine yards" for example - this is a good basic dictionary of idioms that that is small enough to be easily slipped into a school backpack or a briefcase for reference or casual browsing.
On the downside, as a translator I feel I need to get my hands on a thesaurus of idioms in order to enable me to translate Icelandic idioms into English, but apart from that little detail, this is a good dictionary that has been of invaluable help in explaining some baffling English idioms.
Rating: Good, basic dictionary of idioms, suitable for translators and ESL learners. 3 stars.
Posted: 11.06.04 (11:05 am)
Year published: 1993
Pages: 416
Genre: Social history, reference
I put this book here and not under the history heading because it really isn't a history book as such, it is much more a reference book, handy to have lying around when reading British historical novels about the 19th century.
I’ve read quite a number of novels set in 19th century England, and have often asked myself certain questions about the stories. One of those questions was “why did Mr. Darcy hand-deliver his letter to Elizabeth - surely he could have sent a servant with it?”(Pride and Prejudice) and another formulation of the same question was “why did Elinor think Marianne and Mr. Willoughby were engaged just because Marianne sent him letters?”(Sense and Sensibility). I had also wondered about certain social rules, like the order of precedence, which titles belonged to the nobility and which to the gentry, what was the definition of a gentleman, and when was the “season” and the “little season”. In all of these cases I could make educated guesses, based on the text and other books I had read, but I didn’t get my guesses confirmed until I read it in this book. It is an overview of 19th century English society, its social rules and costumes, the social and seasonal calendar, money matters, the judicial system, games, government, travel, servants, food, clothing, etc.
Review:
Posted: 11.08.04 (2:12 am)
Apart from the cheesy title this is a good reference book. It covers 19th century English society in several well-laid out chapters. From page 255 onwards there is a glossary of terms people are likely to find in books from or about that century in England, and at the end there is a bibliography for those who want to do more reading on the subject. I am told by connoisseurs of English 19th century literature that they found the book lacking in some areas, but for most readers this is a good guide to English 19th century society as seen in literature.
Rating: A guide to all the things that might puzzle readers when reading about 19th century England. 4 stars.
If you were wondering about the answer to my question about the letters: It was considered improper for unrelated, unmarried men and women exchange letters unless they were engaged, and if respectable young people openly exchanged letters, it was considered proof of their engagement.
including travel history and expatriot memoirs
Posted: 03.21.05 (4:15 pm)
This is a wonderful, sweet memoir about mature love, between Marlena, a divorced American food writer and chef, and Fernando, a Venetian bank worker who fell in love with her from afar but only found the courage to approach her when she returned to Venice a year later. Within a few months she had tied up her life in the USA and moved to Venice to be with him. The book tells of their first three years together, getting to know each other, marriage preparations, their life together, adjustments to a new culture, and Marlena’s other love affairs, namely with Venice and with food.
At the end there is a chapter of recipes for some of the food she mentions in the books, with some truly mouth-watering recipes.
Rating: A lovely, tasty combination of true romance, travel and food. 4 stars.
Posted: 07.05.05 (7:09 am)
American title: In a Sunburned Country
This is the account of Bill Bryson’s (broken up) journey around Australia, to visit its biggest cities and some interesting sights, natural and man-made.
Bryson is obviously an australophile. This book is a virtual love letter to Australia, especially its natural beauty, and in a lesser way to its people. Even though he writes in his usual humorously mocking style, and criticises certain things, especially environmental policies and the less than helpful staff at hotels in a certain city, the book is for the most part a very positive and affectionate, sometimes glowing, account of this interesting country. Besides covering his impressions and travel experiences, Bryson gives some account of Australian history and the country’s attractions, and the book can, in fact, be used as an informal guide to some of the places he visited. He seems to have been very diligent in hunting down and exploring unusual little museums and sights, some of which may not even be mentioned in guide books.
I have previously read four of Bryson’s other books: Made in America and Mother Tongue, both of which are about the history of the English language, and two travel books, Notes From a Small IslandThe Lost Continent and . I liked the language books – they were funny and good reads, even if some of the etymology was a bit suspect, but I didn’t particularly like the travel books. Notes… I found to be so overloaded with Bryson’s signature self-deprecating humour that it went over the top and started sounding like whining. I would also have liked to read less about him and more about the country he was supposed to be writing about. There was something, some spirit or spark that was missing from The Lost Continent (not to mention the hostile undertone) and I had to force myself to finish it.
Here, finally, is a travel book from Bryson that deserves all the praise that has been heaped on him as a funny travel writer. He writes about the country and people and has toned down the self-deprecation to an acceptable level so that it is actually funny instead of “here-he-goes-again” tedious, but it is rather sad that he should feel the need to make some rather mean-spirited comments about people who are supposed to be his friends. Don’t get me wrong, I sometimes couldn’t help laughing, but I still think they are mean. Of course, I don’t know what the people in question are like – maybe they are mean right back at him, but it doesn’t feel very friendly to me. But these are minor faults in an otherwise good book.
Rating: A great and sometimes funny introduction to Australia, its people, cities and sights. 4 stars.
Excerpt from Down Under
Posted: 06.08.05 (3:38 am)
I chuckled when I first came across this book. The title, plain and serious as it is to an outsider, is unintentionally funny to an Icelander. Little Lava is the abandoned farm in NW-Iceland where Charles Fergus, his wife Nancy and son William spent the summer of 1996. But Little Lava, or Litla Hraun as it is known in Icelandic, is also a prison in southern Iceland. In fact, it’s THE prison – the one where the majority of Icelandic criminals are sent to serve out their sentences. Fergus even mentions it in the book, and it is probably the reason why he chose to translate the farm’s name into English, in order to distance it from the prison image. I can’t say he has quite succeeded, but gives the reader who's in the know something to smile about.
Fergus’ original plan had been to write a simple nature study, but when he found his mother murdered in her home, the plans changed. Instead of becoming just a place to stay for the summer, somewhere to live and take notes for the book he was going to write, Litla Hraun became a refuge from the world, a place where he could heal in peace and work to distance himself from the shock and his anger over his mother’s death.
The book is not what I would really call a travel book, and neither is it one of the “good life” books. The “simple life” would be nearer the mark, but even that doesn’t quote describe it. It is a combination of nature observations and the story of a psychological healing process, interspersed with observations on Icelanders, their language, literature and folklore. It has some of the best descriptions of Icelandic nature and weather that I have read by a foreigner.
Rating: Recommended reading for anyone who wants to see a side of Iceland foreign visitors don’t often see. 4 stars.
Posted: 12.18.04 (3:24 am)
Year published: 1998
Pages: 261
Genre: Historiography, criticism and history
Sub-genre(s): Travel writing
At first I wasn't certain if I should include this non-review in the archive, but as it is a part of the 52 Books challenge, I decided to include it.
Whenever I go browsing at the National/University Library I come across books on all sorts of interesting subjects. One of my haunts is the travel and geography section, where I have found many great reads about travel, which is without doubt my favourite genre. The last time I visited the library I ventured into the literary theory section, where I found this interesting book about travel writing and writers. The bibliography alone has given me a substantial number of books to add to my TBR list.
Reading progress
Posted: 12.22.04 (8:05 am)
Try as I may, I can’t get into this book. I read a few pages and find myself dozing off. In 5 days I have only got as far as finishing the introduction and chapter 1.
I may have to declare my first failure of this challenge – but first I’m going to browse a few pages of each chapter and see if it gets better.
It’s not that it isn’t interesting – it is – but it’s so dry, it’s like being in the desert with only salt water to drink: you desperately want it, but it isn’t good for you.
I’m giving up on Tourists with Typewriters...
Posted: 12.24.04 (7:30 am)
I’ve decided to drop the book of the week because I just can’t concentrate on it.
It’s unfortunate when such an interesting subject gets written about in a less than interesting way. No subject needs to be boring if the writer knows her/his craft. Even economics can be made interesting to a layperson by a skilled writer, but if the writer is not able to write interestingly, the text can turn out dry as a mummy.
For some reason, academic writers seem to especially adept at writing boring texts. It’s almost as if in the land of Academia it is forbidden to write texts that can keep a person’s attention for more than five minutes at a time. In my opinion, academic writers should take lessons from writers of popular non-fiction, because it is definitely not serving Education when the text books are so boring that the students fall asleep reading them.
I plan to try again on my summer vacation when I have more time and fewer other things on my mind, and will review it if I get round to it.
Posted: 05.23.04
Year published: 1989
Genre: Memoir of living abroad
Cover image
The book describes the first year Mayle and his wife spent in their Provence farmhouse in the 1980's. The story is set up in 12 chapters, each of which covers one month of the year. The two main threads that hold the story together and prevent it from being just a rambling collection of anecdotes are on the one hand their relationship with their rascally old neighbour Massot and his fight to keep tourists away from what he considers to be his land (actually part of a national park), and on the other the alterations being made to the house to make it fit for the Mayles to live in (i.e. installing modern conveniences like central heating) and their relationship with the workmen. Pesky summer visitors make their appearance and are so sarcastically described that one wonders if they were likely ever to come back again after recognising themselves in the book (not that it would be a loss to the Mayles), delightful restaurants are visited and delicious meals consumed, and in the background the seasons change, each bringing its share of problems and delights. Even the travails of having a noisy crew of workmen apparently dismantling and reassembling the house on an irregular basis is made out to be not too bad - the Mayles are either a very tolerant couple or else Mr. Mayle has an exceedingly bad memory.
Rating: A nice, light read that would be suitable for taking along to while away time during a long-distance flight. Interesting enough that I have now got hold of the sequel and will review it later. 3 stars.
Posted: 06.24.04 (6:24 am)
Year published: 1991
Genre: Memoir of living abroad, collected articles
Cover image
Story:
Unlike the first book in the series, there is no story this time, just chapters on various subjects, ranging from the truffle business, to singing toads, to being a celebrity, wine tasting, turning fifty, eating wonderful food, living in a tourist area and so on.
Technique:
Written in the same light and humourous style as the previous book, but in some ways a better book. There is no attempt at telling a story, this is just a collection of anecdotes. In A Year in Provence, Mayle connected the chapters together by telling the story of the renovations being made on his house, and it made the book ramble a bit. Here, he is writing for people who have read the first book and know who the people he’s talking about are, so there is no need to introduce any of them, and it makes for a more flowing narrative.
This book did for me what the other one couldn’t: It made me want to visit Provence.
Rating: The charming second installation in Peter Mayle’s saga of life in Provence. 3+ stars.
Posted: 11.24.04 (12:48 pm)
Year published: 1994
Pages: 64
Genre: Humour, travel guide
I was thinking about reviewing a full-fledged guide book about Iceland, but realized I would never be able to finish one in only a week (actually I could, but it would not be much fun). Instead I picked up this slim volume that contains a humourous profile of the Icelandic nation. It remains to be seen if it’s accurate…
Review:
Posted: 11.27.04 (5:17 am)
This is basically a brief portrait of the Icelandic nation, it’s behaviour, sense of humour, traditions, beliefs, food, drinking habits, etc. Don’t expect a deep analysis of the national psyche – this is purely humorous and on the surface. Apart from a few small errors and atrocious spelling of Icelandic names and words, I would say this is a pretty accurate, if rather exaggerated, description of Icelanders as a group. The outsider often sees things that a member of a group does not, but in this case there is hardly anything in the book that Icelanders have not said about themselves over the years. The edition I read dates back to 1994, and so is somewhat dated, but there is a newer one from 2000.
Rating: A tongue-in-cheek description of Icelanders as a group that is guaranteed to make you smile. 3+ stars.
P.S. Mr. Sale, next time you update the book, you might want to reconsider the turkey joke - it doesn't work in Icelandic.
Posted: 03.19.05 (4:36 am)
I picked up Chris Stewart's book because I liked the title. After a couple of chapters it was obvious that this would be a fun read, and I enjoyed it enough to make a night of it.
The book tells the story of how Stewart and his wife, Ana, bought an old farm in Andalucia in Spain, packed their belongings into a trailer, hitched it to an old Range Rover and left their old life in England behind. What followed were several hard years of repairing and partially rebuilding the house, laying a road, building a bridge, getting the land in shape and getting drinkable water into the house. Stewart describes his friendships with local farmers and the expatriate community, which includes some genuine eccentrics, and tenderly describes the birth of his daughter Chloe and her first years. It is a charming book, and there is none of the arrogance that occasionally surfaces in Peter Mayle’s Provence books. If anything, it reminds me most of the first book I read in this particular sub-genre of travel literature, Eric Newby’s A Small Place in Italy.
Rating: A lovely book to read and dream over. 4 stars.
Posted: 10.28.04 (2:58 am)
Year published: 1960
Pages: 160
Genre: Travel, non-fiction
This is the second time I cheat and read an author I’ve read before. Early on in the challenge I reviewed a novel by Waugh, and now I’m reading one of his non-fiction books.
I had decided to read Eric Newby’s A Short Walk in the Hindu Kush as the travel book of the challenge, but then I came across this one. Because I have read very few travel books about Africa, I decided it would be in better keeping with my mission statement.
Review:
Posted: 11.04.04 (2:19 am)
Story:
This is Waugh’s journal of his two month’s stay in Africa in 1959. He escaped the English winter, feeling rather decrepit, and returned feeling much better after a sojourn under the African sun. Hating air travel, he took the long route, first by train to Italy and then by ship to Tanganyika (now mainland Tanzania), stopping in Egypt, Kenya and Zanzibar on the way. The land journey took him around Tanganyika and Rhodesia (now Zimbabwe), and he returned by ship from South-Africa.
Technique:
This is of course, a travel diary, but it is edited and Waugh has clearly added things afterwards. Like most diaries that are written for others to see, it is impersonal, but Waugh’s sense of humour shines through. On the cover is a Waugh quotation: “As happier men watch birds, I watch men”, and he has, indeed, a good eye for human folly and idiosyncrasies.
His take on African history is interesting – he is obviously saddened by the treatment of the natives by outsiders but still manages to see the humour in some situations, like when discussing the theories about the origins of the Great Zimbabwe. At the time, many thought that the natives were simply too primitive to have been able to build such a structure, and Waugh subtly pokes fun at the theories. Although Waugh sometimes makes subtle fun of the people he meets, there is never any meanness in it, and his wit sometimes had me chuckling.
Rating: An interesting view of British Africa with some information on interesting places to visit. 3 stars.
Miscellanea I doubt I will read more than one book about
Posted: 11.28.04 (4:53 am)
Year published: 2003
Pages: 303
Genre: Popular science, biology
Mom, Dad, what happens to our body after we die?
This is a classic question most parents dread having to answer. While this book doesn’t answer the philosophical/theological part of the question – what happens to the soul? - it does claim to contain answers to the biological part, namely: what happens to the body?
Reading progress
Posted: 11.30.04 (5:14 am)
Stiff is proving to be an interesting read. Roach writes in a matter-of-fact journalistic style that makes the subject seem less grim than it really is, but she does on occasion become a bit too flippant about it, I guess in an attempt to distance herself. Although she uses humour to ease the grimness, the jokes – which, by the way, are never about the dead, only the living, especially Roach herself – often fall flat. Perhaps it’s just me, but this is a serious subject and I’d like to see it handled as such, even in a popular science book like this one.
Roach is careful not to be overly descriptive or overly scientific, which makes the book (at least those chapters I’ve read) accessible to people who want to know about these things, just not in too much detail. Even so, I have been very careful not to read the book just before or during meals, as there are limits even to what my strong stomach can take.
Stiff links
Posted: 12.01.04 (3:40 am)
These links are to articles on Salon.com. You have to watch a a short commercial before reading the whole text.
Excerpt: Dead man decomposing
Interview with the author: Over your dead body
Review:
Posted: 12.04.04 (5:16 am)
Contents, technique and effects:
This isn’t a scientific book. Roach writes from the point of view of an informed and slightly prejudiced layperson about the natural and “unnatural” things that can happen to people’s bodies after they die. The description of what happens if nature is allowed to take its course – decay - is brief and tied in with the use of human cadavers in forensics research. The treatment of cadavers in mortuaries – cosmetic touch-ups and embalming - is discussed in the same chapter and there is also a chapter on methods of disposal, other than burial, such as cremation, liquification and composting. The rest of the chapters are about how scientists and doctors use donated cadavers and body parts in such varied fields as life saving body-part transplants, plastic surgery courses and anatomy classes, automobile and air-crash research, forensics and ballistics research. Other chapters contain historical accounts of all kinds of crazy and weird (and occasionally quite useful) stuff – including body-snatching and mellification - that people got up to with cadavers in the name of science, medicine and religion. As far as I can see, the only widely known practice that is not discussed is mummification, although the (stomach-churning) use of mummies in medicine is mentioned.
All in all, this is good reading for people who are curious about these things, but not curious enough to want pictures and details. Roach speaks of the dead with respect and has a few words of sarcasm for people who mistreat (by that I mean "use them unnecessarily or disrespectfully") dead bodies and/or torture animals in the name of research.
As I said earlier, Roach writes in a journalistic style that fits the subject and makes the book more accessible to the public than a purely dispassionate and dry scientific style would have. There is humour in the book which sometimes comes across as flippant, but also breaks the seriousness of the text. The flippancy seems to be mostly in the first chapters, but there is humour throughout the book, although not the laugh-aloud kind. Roach is not afraid of revealing her own preconceptions and prejudices and makes fun of herself and her near obsession with morbid subjects throughout the book.
Although the subject is morbid at first glance, there is actually nothing morbid about the book. It is, in fact, strangely upbeat and enlivening, especially for someone like me who is going through the grieving process for a loved one. Knowing what happens to the body after death is helping me to let go, which is a good thing, a part of the healing process.
Rating: An interesting and enlightening look at what can happen and what does happen to our bodies after we die. 3+ stars.