Books & Food & Books

Some books are to be tasted, others to be swallowed, and some few to be chewed and digested…

--Francis Bacon

My latest adventure as one of the Library’s Facebook contributors is to institute a new (and fun!) recurring weekend post. Beginning on February 22, Saturday mornings on the WCPL Facebook page will now showcase a recipe from or a food mentioned in a book. Literary nibbles that you can make during your free time! The first recipe was for the seed cake referred to in Jane Eyre. The recipe was found online from an avid reader—not one disclosed in the book. However, as many of you know, full recipes can be found in many literary masterpieces. To help me with this venture, I have recently procured The Book Club Cook Book: Recipes and Food for Thought from Your BookClub’s Favorite Books and Authors. It seemed like a good reference material. (Currently, you can only request a copy through SearchOhio, but WCPL will soon have copies on the shelf!)

I know many (maybe all) of you have read a book and been overcome with the description of a particular food. When I was child, it was the description of Wilbur’s buttermilk bath in Charlotte’s Web that got me. My father, with mild hesitation and a warning, bought me buttermilk so I could experience the same enjoyment Wilbur did when he drank the buttermilk running down his face. As many of you can guess, the description far outweighs the taste of that stuff—yuck! Buttermilk pancakes? Sure. Straight buttermilk? I never relived that mistake. Later, Adriana Trigiani’s descriptions of down home food in The Big Stone Gap series also resonated with me. Her descriptions of Iva Lou’s macaroni and cheese, the Chocolate Coca-Cola Cake, and various other potluck offerings sounded like something out of a dream (or a book)!

In addition to the random recipes in books, there is also the big wave of foodie mysteries hitting the shelves. For instance, Joanne Fluke’s Hannah Swensen mysteries are all aptly named with a delectable dish and feature a sleuthing small-town Minnesota baker. The online resources and blogs devoted to foodie themed books and literary recipes are endless. I encourage everyone to take the challenge to make a tempting recipe from a book to see if it lives up to the description. You might be pleasantly surprised or completely horrified (re: the buttermilk incident).

 

Go for the Gold with One of These Books!

Well, now that the winter Olympics are over--we just wish winter was over.  Try some of the following books and DVDs about the former Olympic games (mostly summer) and experience the triumphs and tragedies of our past sports history.

Ancient Olympics--Fierce contests and bloody battles between bitter rivals that sometimes ended in disgrace or death.

The Ancient Olympics by Nigel Spivey

The Real Olympics (DVD)

The First Olympics: Blood, Honor, and Glory... (DVD)

Athens 1896--A ragtag group of fourteen men who won gold and paved the way for generations of athletes.

Igniting the Flame: America's First Olympic Team
Jim Reisler

London 1908--The epic clash that jump-started the first marathon mania.
 
Showdown at Shepherd's Bush: the 1908 Olympic Marathon...
David Davis


Paris 1924--Story of two English runners, Eric Liddell and Harold Abrahams, that were both driven by different means to win the Olympics.
 
Chariots of Fire (DVD)

Los Angeles 1932--Texas girl, superstar athlete, and gold medalist who co-founded the LPGA. 

Wonder Girl: the Magnificent Sporting Life of Babe...
Don Van Natta

Berlin 1936--Stories of an African-American son of sharecroppers who won a four gold medals and crushed Hitler's myth of Aryan supremacy and of nine working-class boys from the American west who showed the world what true grit really meant.

The Boys in the Boat: Nine Americans...
Daniel James Brown

Hitler's Olympics: the 1936 Berlin Olympic Games
Christopher Hilton

Flight from Berlin: a Novel
David John

Triumph: the Untold Story of Jesse Owens...
Jeremy Schaap

Rome 1960--portraits of decathlete Rafer Johnson, sprinter Wilma Rudolph, Ethiopian marathoner Abebe Bikila, and Louisville boxer Cassius Clay plus changes that were going on around the world.

Rome 1960: The Olympics that Changed the World
David Maraniss

Munich 1972--Gold medal performances by American Mark Spitz (7), Soviet Olga Korbut (3), and Australian Shane Gould (3) were overshadowed by the murder of 11 Israeli athletes by terrorists.

Striking Back: the 1972 Munich Olympics Massacre...
Aaron J. Klein

Munich 1972: Tragedy, Terror, and Triumph...
David Clay Large

Munich (DVD)

One Day in September: the Full Story...
Simon Reeve

Los Angeles 1984 and Seoul 1988--Four-time Olympic diving champion's memoir.

Breaking the Surface by Greg Louganis

Barcelona 1992--the untold story of the greatest team ever assembled: the 1992 U.S. Olympic Men's Basketball Team.

Dream Team: How Michael, Magic, Larry, Charles...
Jack McCallum

Atlanta 1996--the Centennial games were marred by a deadly bombing but winning performances by Michael Johnson, Karl Lewis, and an injured Kerri Strug helped make some good memories too.

Olympic Portraits by Annie Leibovitz

Dare to Dream: the Story of the U. S. Women's Soccer Team (DVD)

Beijing 2008--At the age of thirty, elite triathlete Kathryn Bertine was just about to renounce her athletic dreams when ESPN The Magazine made her an offer: make the 2008 Summer Olympic Games by any means necessary as long as she survived to tell the tale.

As Good As Gold: 1 Woman, 9 Sports, 10 Countries, and...
Kathryn Bertine

London 2012--Phelps completes his journey from the youngest man to ever set a world swimming record in 2001 to the most decorated Olympian in 2012.

Gold: a Novel by Chris Cleave

Beneath the Surface: My Story by Michael Phelps

80's Nostalgia and Cyberpunk

Ready Player One by Ernest Cline

Simply put, Ready Player One is a cyber punk, no holds barred, adrenalin- fueled nostalgia ride of the 1980’s. It follows Wade Watts, with the gamer tag of Parzival, in the near future as he goes to school, scrounges for power, and practically lives in OASIS, a huge virtual world. Most of Wade’s time is spent his quest to solve the riddle, the golden ticket of his generation. A series of clues and journeys created by James Halliday, the inventor of OASIS, which will give the winner a massive fortune and the keys to the kingdom, control of the entire OASIS network. Halliday was obsessed with 80’s culture, so every hint and puzzle are intrinsically tied into the arcade games, TV shows, movies, and music of the 1980’s.

Admittedly, large chunks of the effort on scene development and descriptions seem to largely be aimed at dropping as many references to 80’s sci-fi, pop culture, and video games as physically possible. While this can sometimes get a bit out of hand, Cline does provide some interesting social commentary with his descriptions of the OASIS system, specifically how many people are using it as an escape from the world, almost to the point of being a drug addiction. Cline also presents an interesting take on free speech versus advertising as a motivation for a number of players in Halliday’s quest.

While Ready Player One does not dig overly deeply into many issues present in cyberpunk, he certainly manages exhibit them in an entertaining, albeit heavily fan-serviced, manner. You do not need to be incredibly well versed in the 80’s to enjoy this book. Cline makes so many references, that you are bound to come across one that you like.

Mystery Novels, Part I

Everybody loves a good mystery. I'm not sure why that is,...I guess it is simple that people are curious by nature and trying to solve a crime or murder stokes the curiosity of almost anyone.  I guess that is why I enjoy mystery novels. Mystery novels have an abundance of labels attached to them. There are thrillers, whodunits, mysteries, crime fiction, lock door puzzles, cozy mysteries and even forensic crime stories.  Alas although there are specific categories of mystery writing, people often have trouble stating exactly what makes a mystery novel, a mystery.  In this blog I will delve into two of the sub genres: locked room mysteries and cozy mysteries.

Locked Room Mystery 

Locked room mysteries became popular during the Golden Age of Mysteries (1920s and 1930s). Simply defined this sub-genre is any crime that is committed in a room or enclosure with no apparent exit, leaving the detective to determine how the crime was committed or how the killer escaped.  This sub-genre was first introduce in Edgar Allan Poe's, The Murders in the Rue Morgue.  However John Dickson Carr became the master of this type of detective story. Here are a few of the best.

Three Coffins by John Dickson Carr
Adventures of Sherlock Holmes by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle
Rim of the Pit by Hank Talbot
The Mystery of the Yellow Room by Gaston LeRoux
The Big Bow Mystery by Israel Zangwill
The King is Dead by Ellery Queen
Killed On the Rocks by William L. DeAndrea
Cover Her Face by PD James
A Traitor to Memory by Elizabeth George
And Then There Were None by Agatha Christie
The Tokyo Zodiac Murders by Soji Shimada
Spies of Sobeck by P.C. Doherty

Cozy Mysteries

Cozy mysteries are often considered traditional mysteries and have a small town feel. They are characterized by a small town rural setting; an amateur sleuth (usually female) leads a cast of quirky, friends or coworkers and there is usually a hobby or activity hook (like knitting, baking, cats, etc). The writing is not filled with profanity and the good guys always win and there is very little description of violence or sex. A good example of this genre is Agatha Christie's Miss Marple series. The following titles are also cozy mysteries.

 

Murder at the Vicarage by Agatha Christie

The Cat Who Could Read Backwards by M. C. Beaton

Aunt Dimity's Death by Nancy Atherton

Chocolate Chip Cookie Murder by Joanne Fluke

Catering to Nobody by Diane Mott Davidson

On What Grounds by Cleo Coyle

One for the Money by Janet Evanovich

Mum's the Word by Kate Collins

The Cat, The Quilt and The Corpse by Leeann Sweeney

Knit One, Kill Two by Maggie Sefton

The Long Quiche Goodbye by Avery Aames

The Beautiful Mystery by Louise Penny

Three Day Town by Margaret Maron

The Penguin Who Knew Too Much by Donna Andrews

The Trouble with Magic by Madelyn Alt

Grave Sight by Charlene Harris

Secondhand Spirits by Juliet Blackwell

Thyme of Death by Susan Wittig Albert

The Big Read is fast approaching!

It might seem a little early to start pumping The Big Read, but why not let the excitement build?!

If you aren’t familiar with The Big Read, it is intended to bring the community together by reading and discussing the same book over a six-week period. The community event is sponsored by local libraries and businesses to encourage literacy and community interaction through the common thread of a single book. The Big Read strives to involve the community every step of the way by having the public vote for the book from a group of committee selected texts in October. Once a winner has been decided, the work of planning multiple events across several library systems begins. The intent is to make sure the calendars are filled so anyone can find a discussion or event to attend. In the past, author visits have also been scheduled, but (sigh) the 2014 Big Read will not include a visit from Cheryl Strayed. Speaking of Cheryl Strayed…

Wild: from lost to found on the Pacific Crest Trail is the 2014 Big Read winner! Many of you might have already read Wild or at least heard of it. Oprah selected this to be her first book for the Oprah Book Club 2.0 in 2012, and the book continued to build momentum. The story recounts Cheryl Strayed’s eleven-hundred-mile solo hike on the Pacific Crest Trail (PCT).  At twenty-two, Strayed thought she had lost everything. After her mother's death, her family scattered and her own marriage was soon shattered. Four years later, she made an impulsive decision to hike the Pacific Crest Trail from the Mojave Desert through California and Oregon to Washington State all on her own. She had no experience as a long-distance hiker, and the trail was little more than "an idea, vague and outlandish and full of promise." But it was a promise of piecing back together a life that had come undone. Strayed weaves heartache, addiction, grief, and humor into her memoir to create a memorable experience for all readers.

Whether you are an avid reader or a dabbler, consider participating in The Big Read. You stand the chance of making new friends, potentially finding a long-term book group to fit your schedule, or just having a great book discussion. Also, don’t be afraid to attend more than one event! Just because it is the same book does NOT mean you will encounter the same discussion in more than one place. The Big Read begins on March 10 and runs through National Library Week until April 19. Here are some important links to keep you connected:

www.bigread.org

https://www.facebook.com/DaytonBigRead

www.wclibrary.info/bigread (for events sponsored by WCPL)

www.cherylstrayed.com (the author’s official website)

The Don Tillman Project

Australian author Graeme Simsion's debut novel, The Rosie Project, is an absolute gem. Where else can you find a well-written story packed with romance, questionable paternity, Asperger's Syndrome, lobster death, and a $1200 scarf? 
The narrator, Don Tillman, is a professor of genetics and a social pariah. To friends and family (as well as readers), Don exhibits textbook signs of Asperger's Syndrome. There is no question that Don is  incredibly intelligent, but he cannot conduct himself in simple social settings and he lives by an incredibly strict routine of exercise, repetitive meals, and easily predicted outcomes. For Don to function, he creates a strict schedule for all daily events computed down to the minute to maximize his time and create a safety net. Don is also repulsed by physical contact with other humans. All of this aside, Don decides it is time for him to find a wife. Don is aware of his inability to fit in socially, so he creates a 16 page questionnaire for all of his potential mates. He doesn't want to risk wasting time with unqualified women...until he meets Rosie Jarman. Rosie doesn't meet a single qualification on Don's list, but he decides to  put The Wife Project, as Don dubs the search, on hold until he helps Rosie locate her biological father through the magic of DNA. The journey begins with a man, a woman, and several DNA swabs.
Simsion won The Victorian Premier's Unpublished Manuscript Award in 2012 for The Rosie Project. The award was created by the Victorian Government, a state in southeast Australia, with the aim of raising the profile of contemporary creative writing and Australia's publishing industry. Simsion is a worthy recipient for his blend of humor, matter-of-fact handling of neurologically different people, and his ability to demonstrate the common needs, insecurities, and concerns we all share. 

What price wonderland?

The great gray beast February had eaten Harvey Swick alive. Here he was, buried in the belly of that smothering month, wondering if he would ever find his way out through the cold coils that lay between here and Easter.

He didn't think much of his chances.

Oh, we've all been there, Harvey. In fact, we're there right now. But in Clive Barker's fantastic fable, The Thief of Always, ten-year-old Harvey Swick is offered an escape from the doldrums of winter when a strange little man named Rictus flies through Harvey's bedroom window and invites him to a place "where the days are always sunny and the nights are full of wonders."

Holiday House.

After being assured that he can stay for as long--or as little--as he likes, Harvey accepts the invitation and off he goes. Boy, is it beautiful there when he arrives, the cold, suffocating gray of February magically replaced by the sunny warmth of summer. And the house? It's like something out of a dream, full of wonders inside and out. After settling in and befriending fellow visitors Wendell and Lulu, Harvey learns why Holiday House bears its name: "each day is a cycle of seasons: morning offers the first day of spring, while afternoon is hot with summer, evening brings shadowed autumn, a full moon and Hallowe'en, while night is chilly winter, warmed by a Thanksgiving feast and the delights of Christmas."

Sounds awesome, doesn't it? Heck, this is a place any kid would love, but you know as well as I do that this sort of magic comes at a price--the most valuable possession a person has, in fact. Harvey learns this and aims to reclaim what was stolen from him and his friends--and visitors past, too--but the mysterious proprietor of Holiday House, Mr. Hood, has other plans for this clever boy.

I have loved The Thief of Always since the very first time I read it years ago, and it's a book that I return to often when I'm looking for an all-ages, well-written, whimsical sort of tale of dark wonder. A fairy tale, in other words. Some might be surprised that Clive Barker, one of the heavyweights of horror literature, wrote it, but he'd long wished to write just such a book not only to shake off the straitjacket of genre but to fulfill his mother's fondest wish that he compose a tale in the vein of those she once told him when he was a boy. So should you find yourself in the belly of that great gray beast known as February, bored out of your mind and looking for something to satisfy your inner ten-year-old (or any other ten-year-old driving you up a wall with cabin fever), give The Thief of Always a try.

And lock your windows.

Eleven Days by Lea Carpenter

Eleven Days by Lea Carpenter

Carpenter deftly weaves the past and the present in this debut novel about a single mother waiting to hear news about her son, a Navy Seal who has been reported missing after a mission. Sara, the single mother, waits at home, occasionally working and running, trying to get through the days as she waits to hear news about Jason, her son that has been missing for nine days already. As she goes about her day, little things cause her to go on tangents, about raising Jason, about his father, about her perceptions of those in special operation warfare. The past and the present are intermingled with descriptions of Jason’s training, experiences, and decision process all the way up to the mission where he went missing.

There are naturally elements of the Seal training and an interesting exploration of the mentality of those that choose that training and that life. Yet, these descriptions do not come off as proud or as militaristic, but more as a mother describing a trying line of work that her son has chosen.  But is it not just a surface skimming, Carpenter digs deep into the lives and the lore of Special Forces and into the politicians that are behind them.

Not only is Eleven Days one of the best debut novels that I have read, I would argue that it is one of the best literary fiction novels I have read. Carpenter’s elegant, simple style belies the complexity of scholarship, experience, and drama of the subject matter. I strongly recommend this book to anyone.

February's In the Queue

Tired of the cold?  Find a nice warm spot on the sofa and sit down with one of these great books. The cold will soon be forgotten as you turn the pages of these exciting new books.

The Counterfeit Agent by Alex Berenson
John Wells is Called in to investigate a tip that there is a radioactive package headed to the US from Dubai. As the threat level jumps, Wells' mission is to find out what's going on and fix it.

Deepest Secret: A Novel by Carla Buckley
The Deepest Secret is part intimate family drama, part gripping page-turner, exploring the profound power of the truths we are scared to face about our marriages, our children and ourselves.

Twisted Sisters by Jen Lancaster
A charming comedy that will make you laugh and cry as sibling rivalry goes public.

The Red Road by Denise Mina
Alex Morrow faces her toughest opponents yet, in this brilliant new thriller about criminals, consequences, and convictions.

Bark Stories by Lorrie Moore
The eight stories in Moore's latest collection are laugh-out-loud funny, as well as full of pithy commentary on contemporary life and politics.

Doing Harm by Kelly Parsons
A chilling and compelling debut thriller that takes you into the hospital and details the politics and hierarchy among doctors. Add a psychopathic med student and chaos begins for the chief resident, Steve Mitchell. His life is torn apart as his patients begin to die. Can he find the next victim and stop the killer before it is too late? 

The Good Luck of Right Now by Matthew Quick
A quirky coming-of-age story about an earnest, guileless 38-year-old man who has never lived alone, when his mom passes away he finds a mysterious letter that was sent to her. This sets in motion his plan to find himself. This is a funny and tender story about family, friendship, grief and acceptance.

Like a Mighty Army by David Weber
Weber's seventh far-future Safehold novel is a complex and fascinating epic about change, identity, and the nature of faith.

HRC: State Secrets and the Rebirth of Hillary Clinton by Jonathan Allen and Amie Parnes
A riveting political biography that journeys into the heart  of "Hillaryland" to discover a brilliant strategist at work. Masterfully unfolded by Jonathan Allen and Amie Parnes.

Glitter and Glue: A Memoir by Kelly Corrigan
A funny and thought provoking memoir, which illuminates the changing relationships between mothers and their children.

The Race Underground: Boston, New York and the Incredible Rivalry that Built America's First Subway by Doug Most
The Race Undergound is a great American saga of two rival cities, their rich, powerful and sometimes corrupt interests, and an invention that changed the lives of millions.