I feel proud

For the first time in a long while I feel proud - not because America elected it's first black President - although that's a good thing. It's because he respects ability and smarts and education. And because he's appointing people who are like that. The agenda seems to be to do the right thing without a social agenda. In a funny way, the economic crisis gives us a chance to rise above the partisan issues and focus on the big - shared - issues. I know it's still early, but I believe Obama is rising to the challenge with his appointments - talented, experienced people who inspire confidence here and in the rest of the world.

I'm a Republican. Not a "Reagan" Republican but a "Rockefeller" Republican. I believe in personal responsibility and personal liberty. But I also believe in shared responsibility, as an American, to help out where it's needed. I was thrilled in the 70's when the traditional liberal, special interest Democrats were swept out of office. Unfortunately, my whole voting life I seemed to be voting AGAINST something - liberals, actors, philanderers, christian conservatives.

Barack Obama was the first time in a long while that I voted for someone who I believed shared my goals and aspirations. John McCain was a huge disappointment to me. I know Obama will do things I disagree with, sometimes strongly. It would be impossible not to in this volatile time. But I believe he is truly trying to do the best for all without exploiting patisan divisions. He may not succeed, but at least he's trying. And the crisis may just be serious enough to give everyone a stake in his success. We all know it's time to do something about the Middle East, healthcare funding, the growing wealth gap and education - we just don't know what to do. But it's time we did something. At least we can move forward and learn from our mistakes. The economy will eventually improve and the war will end. These issues will remain.


Again, I feel proud. Not because Barack Obama is black but because he speaks intelligently and chooses smart, capable people to surround himself with.

Important information from our cruise

We've been on a wonderful cruise in Southern Italy and Sicily. We were with my sister and brother-in-law on a small sailing ship. Chris will write more about the great trip but I couldn't wait to share some important new information. Both Chris and I prefer the basic pizza called Margherita everywhere. I had always wondered why the name was used everywhere. I now have the answer! It was named after Queen Margherita of Italy. She visited Naples in the 19th century shortly after Italy was unified. The pizza was created in her honor using the three colors of the Italian flag, In an expression of solidarity we have had pizza almost every day since we learned about it.

Postcard from Florence

THIS IS JUST A SMALL SAMPLE OF THE TINY VEHICLES WE CAME ACROSS WHILE HERE. THEY'RE ALL ELECTRIC AND MOST ARE USED TO TRANSPORT LOCAL WORKERS AND EQUIPMENT--EVERYTHING FROM BRICKS TO MAIL!

TO MARKET, TO MARKET

In Florence there are two main markets that are open daily to supply the pantry's of the locals. Today, our last day, we visited the Mercato Centrale. It is a covered food market, packed with stalls offering fruit, vegetables, fish, cheese, bread and as you can see a variety of interesting meats. We were amazed there isn't any part of the pig that isn't on display in the various stalls. Want an ear or nose for your stew--no problem, even intestines were readily available, we weren't quite sure for what. Not once have we seen anything that resembles what we saw at the market in any restaurant. Well maybe there were unidentifiable bits in the sopressata that filled our sandwich one day, but aside from that, no trotters, snouts or ears have been visible on any plate that we've seen!

While in Florence we've eaten more pizza in three weeks then in all the years we've known each other! More pizza even then gelatto! Every Enoteca, lunch spot and wine bar features the pizza in all it forms. From a plain margherita to something piled high with salad, veggies and meat of all sorts. Our favourite, and most expensive, was one that featured pecorino cheese and wild boar salami. That with a glass of Chianti Classico and we're set for the day! How will we ever be satisfied with the product we buy from Whole Foods???

As we prepare to leave this city, we're filling up with a last bite of cheese, nibbling on the wonderful foccacia we turned up in a small neighbourhood shop and wondering what delights await us as we head further south. It's been a three week adventure. One filled with incredible art, tasty food and learning about a culture that has surprised us in new ways, gotten us into a couple of real "pasticcios" (big trouble) and made us smile as we watched the interactions of the locals (especially the men); connected with travelers from all over the world especially Canadians and delighted in the sounds of our local church bells to keep the rhythm of our days.

Drinks with the Contessa

Many of you have, I know, experienced Paul's right hook in relation to a glass of wine--especially red wine. If not, just let me say that his 'best shot' occurred across the table from a woman dressed in a white suit--need I say more! It's been a source of many jokes at his expense and it keeps me on my toes trying to anticipate where I should be sitting and how I can best intervene while he's telling stories when there's wine on the table!



Well, the day has finally come, when I will NEVER be able to mention his 'wine shots' again. Yesterday, was a day I'll not long forget and not just because the stock market went down ANOTHER 500 points. We were shopping at a local gourmet store finding goodies for dinner when we ran into our landlady, the Contessa. It was a bit of a walk back to the apartment, she had rather a heavy package, a cane and given how gracious she's been to us, Paul volunteered to carry her groceries back--we were afterall going the same way. Once home, she invited us in for a cocktail and who could resist--I was dying to see her space. This apatment has 15 foot ceilings, a kitchen with a cooking spit large enough to roast a pig and a sink the size of a small bathtub. It's filled with Renisannce art, furnished with antiques and the two dogs who immediately jumped into our laps just completed the picture. Things were going well until I went into the room where I had left our groceries to put something away. A bag slipped and crashed to the floor which was concrete covered in clay tiles. You can probably guess this doesn't have a good ending and that it involves quantities of red wine! Right! Not only did the bottle smash, but the glass splintered and it rolled out of the bag! THE ENTIRE BOTTLE spilled on a rug that looked and probably was hundreds of years old! I WANTED TO DIE! Could I possibly ignore it and just pretend it didn't happen???? Would anyone notice???? NOT! Not only was there a puddle on the rug that looked like someone had been shot and killed on the spot, but there were splashes on the antique chairs she had pointed out that came from France and had been in the family for decades. Well, I was horrified, what to do, how could I begin to appologize??? In the end after picking up shards, sponging the chair (all traces came out--thank gawd), the housekeeper and her daughter carried the rug into the laundry room to try to spot clean what they could. With assurances that "it's alright", "these things happen" and on and on, we went back into the family room for our glass of wine, but I have to say, I was NOT comfortable and could hardly wait to escape.

American students are the new Mexicans

One of the most surprising things we've noticed is all the American "students" we've met working at different places in Florence. I use the term "students" loosely since not all of them are studying in the classical sense. And I also use the word "American" loosely since just today, we met a young Canadian who was working at a bio cheese producing farm.



The first one we noticed was at a farmers market. The butcher's assistant was from NJ, here for two years to study Italian, pig farming and butchering. We've met quite a few others at food related sites and markets, a gelato stand a restaurant and some who work as local tour guides. Most are on student visas and are now "illegal aliens" in Italy.



There are probably as many 'creative' ways to stay in a country as there are people seeking adventure. Where once, parents and/or their offspring spent hard earned cash to escape abroad and experience the Big 3 - wine, women and song, now there seem to be endless possibilities. These kids are working on farms! I assume they still find time for the big 3. One of the kids told us they were WWOOF -ing it - Willing Workers in Organic Farming. I kid you not. Check out their website. They're a global organization and provide inexpensive ways to 'work ones way' across many different countries. Who knows, we just might be tempted to come back to Italy in November -- we'll be just in time for the olive harvest!

A real "fiasco"

A REAL FIASCO

Welcome to the 900 year old Castello Trebbio, the former home of the Pazzi family in the Chianti region. This Castle has a famous and bloody history given that it was the place where the Pazzis tried to do away with the Medicis! The plot involved the Pope, the bishop of Pisa and the local church, but it was not to be. In the end, the entire Pazzi family along with the bishop were either tossed from the windows of the church or hung from the walls by their neck. Only one Pazzi family member, who was married to the sister ofthe Medici prince was allowed to live. Today, the castle houses a young family with two passions: wine making and pressing quality olive oil.

Our visit included tasting some interesting local wines, including a super-Tuscan called Pezzano and an interesting dessert wine called Vin Santo. Here, instead of dipping biscotti in coffee or tea, they dip it into the sweet wine--not a bad idea! This was also where we were surprised to learn of the origin of the word 'fiasco'. It seems that before there was any regulation for wine in the region, farmers blended whatever they had pressed, with whatever was available cheaply and bottled it in a straw covered bottle called the "Fiasco". If you're of the same vintage as us, you might have some fond memories of these straw bottles covered with wax drippings from many burning candles while sitting around listening to Jimmy Hendrix or the Stones. Boy, things sure have changed! The wine is better, not sure about the music.

Here the olive oil is still picked and pressed by hand and stored in large clay pots. Clay pots are now outlawed for mass production, but small boutique producers are still able to use the old methods. The 'extra virgin', first pressing is delicious. We've been amazed at how much olive oil is used here. The average Italian uses a liter a month. It's placed on the table with all food, drizzled on bread, pizza, soup and even some desserts. We've become even greater fans of this golden oil.

We've tasted many varieties, enjoying most; even one special reserve from the "Verrazano" cellars.

Postcard from Siena

When we leave the apartment in the morning, map in hand, there's no telling where we'll end up. The good news is that neither of us get too bent out of shape about losing our way - a good thing because we spend much of our time trying to figure out where we are and how we got there. The most common thing we say to each other is - NO! That's the wrong direction! It's amazing how difficult it is for us to navigate without the familiar grid.

This week, we visited Siena. We found our way to the bus station in time to get our scheduled bus. Once there however, we discovered that the resturant where we had booked lunch was 4 km out of town! They had told us it was across the street from the bus station; we assumed they meant the one where the bus from Florence stops. Wrong! After a ten minute discussion about what to do, we took a cab! The decision was justified because our lunch couldn't have been better: roasted pigeon on polenta and a saddle of rabbit served with local artichokes--delicious.

We really enjoyed wandering the streets of this medieval town. This is the place where the popular horse race the 'Palio' is run each summer. The colorful banners represent the flags of the 17 local neighborhoods or "contrata". People identify with these like a tribe. Each has a coat of arms, a flag, motto and a patron saint. In addition, specific crafts and guilds are associated with each area. The neighbourhoods mark their boundaries with the flag and many will only marry within their associated contrate. But the highlight each year is the Palio and what a race it is. The entire festival lasts for about a week and begins when the Piazza is filled with dirt and the stands are built for the spectators. Lots are drawn to see who will get to ride which horse and strategies and plots begin for how to win a race which runs for approximately 19 minutes! It's a day of pagentry, filled with excitement and the winner gets to proudly fly the winning banner all over their Contrate! We were here during the week of preparations one year and the level of excitement was electric. Our visit this year seemed much calmer.

So, back to our adventures. Heading for the bus we decided we had just enough time for a local Gelato--notice, we believed we were on the right track! It soon became clear that not only were we going in circles, but we were going in entirely the wrong direction. Our hope of catching the 6:10 was lost! Asking directions here didn't get us anywhere, because others like us, were just as perplexed by the twisty windy streets. In the end, we did manage to find the bus station, just in time for the next bus! The adventure continues--stay tuned.

A special meal in Florence

We have been in Florence for a week and I was waiting to write about something special. Well, the time has come--last night was special. Let me start by saying that while I know Tuscan food is supposed to be wonderful, our experience last time and this has been much more ordinary.

Starting with the bread. In NY, Tuscan defines good Italian bread. Our experience has been disappointing. They just don't have freshly made bread with a great crust. Most stores sell manufactured bread in plastic bags. Where they do have "freshly baked" bread it reminds me of the supermarket par-baked bread in NY. Also, the bread is made without salt (because 1,000 years ago, in a war with Pisa, salt was rationed and the Florentines decided to make their bread without salt as spite).

We've eaten mostly at little wine bars or at home. The typical fare is pasta and meat. A large pieces of grilled beef (up to a kilo) is a Tuscan specialty. In Europe that may be special, but to a New Yorker its pretty ordinary. The best meal we had until Sat. was Pizza at a Cafe near the Piazza Signoria. It was made with a thin crust and fresh tomatoes, Pecorino cheese and Boar Salami. It was fabulous. I could eat lunch there every day. From Chris: he's forgotten about the wonderful little wine bar just yards from our front door where the sausage, salami and pecorino are outstanding and provide just the kind of food that we love!

This Saturday night we finally went to a restaurant that was really special:

Cibreo

8 Via Andrea del Verrocchio

This is a small restaurant with a price-fixed menu. The waiter comes to your table to discuss it. There is no printed copy. Just the waiter who sits at your table and discusses what's available and your order. What makes this especially interesting is there is almost nothing on the menu you have ever heard of! They specialize in peasant dishes using unfamiliar ingredients. The picture is of my main course - stuffed chicken neck (like a sausage) and head with homemade mayonnaise. Chris had roasted pigeon stuffed with mustard fruits (in the background); both were delicious.

Our starters were a little more ordinary (we wanted to be sure we had something we could eat). Chris had Polenta with Asiago cheese and I had "pana pomadore" (pureed fresh tomatoes & bread with basil). We thought they worked well together.

The wine was a wonderful Chianti area 2004 Orano. I had never heard of it but they assured me Robert Parker had given it 98 points!

For dessert, we had a lemon tart that was delicious. They were upset we only ordered one dessert so they gave us an extra slice of flour-less chocolate cake. Coffee and a tisane followed--by the way, we've not had a bad cup of coffee here! A memorable meal, served by attentive, friendly staff--we would definitely go back and will try their smaller, less expensive cafe before we go home.

It is possible to see enough art!

It's possible to see enough art!

Florence was the birth of the Renaissance. Giotto, Da Vinci, Michelangelo, Dante....and all of them have their workdisplayed in museums and churches. Unlike chocolate and Gelato, it's possible to see enough religious art! Christina took this picture of me waiting for her at the Bargello sculpture museum. I had quit about half way through - missing "some of the best" stuff according to her!

By the way, do you like my new Italian "Borsalino" hat?

WHAT'S COOKING?

Shoping for a meal in a country where you can't speak the language can be challenging and sometimes mean that you go without! Try navigating a local grocery not being able to read the labels or no pictures to give you a clue to what's inside. You might know the contents to be milk, but, is it whole, skim, sweet, cream or some new drink that you've never seen? Even to a relatively experienced and confident cook, this can be an overwhelming experience. Over the years we've had some funny purchases! I expected that it would be no different when we went to Italy.

This year, our landlady in Florence had invited us to take part in a cooking lesson. Great, I thought, this would be a way to get some first hand advice on shopping from an expert! We were two couples working with a chef and his assistant to make a mouthwatering menu that included a pasta course of 'gnudi' (literaly translated as 'naked' pasta) drizzled with sage butter, a turkey rollade baked in 'white beer', served on baked rounds of thinly sliced potatoes alongside a zucchini pie (no pastry) and a tiramisu to finish of. YUM!

Our table companions included our landlady, a Contessa who was educated at Wellsley in the 40's, a couple from Alaska (they had NO news on Sarah), and the first woman supreme court justice from Australia. Quite a diverse group providing conversation that was as interesting as the food was good. However, shopping tips or advice never came into the conversation so trying to find coffee filters at the grocery the next day became an exercise in creative expression and art--me drawing a picture and using pantomine to explain what I needed! It was, however, easier then how I described 'oxtail' to the butcher in France last year!

Postcards from Florence

Here in Florence there's about as many gelotto shops as there are Korean Nail salons in NYC. Every block has at least one or two and while most of you wouldn't think that to be a problem, consider the size of your hips after three weeks of indulgence. Resistance is NOT my middle name so just imagine what it's like for me seeing beautifully displayed heaps of colourful, mouthwatering confection. And the flavours--from regular chocolate vanilla and pastashio, to tiramisu, ambrosia fantasy, or how about chocolate with pepper, AND that doesn't even begin to describe how they're served! It's been tough, but in my first week I've managed only two visits and one didn't really count because I called it 'lunch'!

The fact is, guide books and regulars give testamony to their 'favourites', each claiming theirs to be the best. My thought is, that the only way to resolve this is to conduct a test beginning immediately and keep you all posted about the results! By the way, it's a fact that geloto, has FEWER calories and a lower fat content then ice cream--what a blessing that is!
Stay tuned,
Christina

A brief interlude in Amsterdam is just about right

Notes on Amsterdam

Four days in Amsterdam is just about right. We would be glad to have another chance to break another trip here. The museums are great but the food is boring. The people are just about perfect; proud of their city, friendly, helpful and fluent in English.

From the "Red Light" district, to the flower market, to the "Coffee shops" (euphemism for marijuana joints--few actually sell coffee!) and museums, we really enjoyed being there. It's a welcoming city with friendly people. It feels a lot like home. As foodies, this wasn't an exceptional experience. The Dutch are really into potatoes pancakes and fish. We did enjoy the smoked eel and tasted the cousin of gin 'gienevre' a tasty aperitif.

The Dutch spend a huge amount of time and money managing 'water' (they are substantially below sea level). They are clearly disparaging of our efforts in New Orleans (we apparently told them it was too expensive to do what they suggested). One of the other most surprising and disconcerting things about Amsterdam are ubiquitous presence of bicycles. There are more bikes per capita here than anywhere else. There are actually more bicycles than cars - and they don't give way to pedestrians! Many apparent "sidewalks" are actually bike paths! They come up on you silently and expect you to get out of the way. It's easier for a pedestrian to stop and dodge than the rider (I am sympathetic given my experience in the Berkshires). Most of the bikes are the oldest and most basic ones that I've ever seen. No gears, no hand breaks, mostly black and rusted. Apparently, about a 1,000 bikes a day are stolen!. Coincidentally, about that many used bikes become available for sale at the flea market. There's a bike for anyone in any situation--we even saw a 'party bike' with over a dozen peddlers sitting around a main table structure, working in unison to stay in motion. Child seats (some with windshields and handle bars) can be in front or in back or in the form of a wheelbarrow to hold more then one child. The Dutch seem to use bicycles as extensions of themselves, learning to ride almost as soon as they can walk! One resident told us that he believes that the reason people ride is because, and these were his words, "Dutch people are basically 'cheap' and if there's a way to save money, well, then that's the choice they make. In a city which is incredibly hospitable to those 'in the saddle', it's the most economical way to go. It's also a quicker and healthier way to get about.

Our visit included time at the Rijks and Van Gogh museums where we lingered in front of some of our favorite Rembrandts and Van Goghs; and discovered some new names. Also on our list was the Anne Frank House--a devastating experience. She was such a vibrant young girl and only died one month before liberation. The museum has been kept very simple. You just tour the empty house and hear excerpts from her diary and interviews with survivors. It's hard to bear especially when you come to her room where she'd pasted postcards and movie star pictures to make the room brighter.

Concluding our time with a morning in the country seemed like a good idea. We hired a guide who took us to the small island village of Marken where the houses are so close on three sides that it seems impossible not to be intimately connected to your neighbour. Walking along a narrow lane, I accidentally brushed against a bell which brought an elderly gentleman to the door looking to see who the 'strangers' were. Chris made friends admiring his 'house sign' which had a verse she was able to translate using her German skills. Marken looks like a town where time stood still. Life seems quiet, garden plots are immaculate and women in town are known for their exceptionally clean windows! Driving back to town, we stopped at the site of the old style windmills which explained just how the water levels were controlled in the early days. Today electric turbines do the job, but the countryside is now dotted with the modern version which generates power for the city.

Confessions of an I-Phone addict.

Confessions of an I-Phone addict.

Hello, my name is Paul and I have a problem.

I've always been prone to trying new things: I get a new computer almost every year, I download the newest versions of favorite applications as soon as they're available (I haven't missed a new version of Quicken in 20 years!) and have seldom had a cell phone for more then a year. I 've tried every new phone and feature as they become available. Invariably they're a disappointment. High speed 3G? There's nothing to download and it eats up your battery. I had a 3G Nokia and it was so bad that it would die overnight if it wasn't plugged in. The internet interface was so clunky it took a minute to load before you could start to download. Then if you got a phone call you lost everything on the browser.

Cell phones are not accidentally bad. They're designed that way by telecom carriers who are schizophrenic about control. They want to advertise cool features but are afraid of losing control and force them to work through their proprietary networks and interfaces. They're designed to work for the carrier not the user. The phones generally work well to make phone calls or get messages; but stink for everything else. The problem with that is you don't need a $500 telephone (which they would like to sell you) to make phone calls. Microsoft colludes with this strategy by making the "smart phone" software clunky and focused on Windows. Blackberry's do a good job in the important, but relatively narrow, realm of email but that's all.

Apple broke the mold by forcing ATT to accept a newly designed phone that would be elegant in design and focused on usability. Everything is big and bright and easy to understand. Apple decided to sacrifice FEATURES to focus on usability. When you look up a phone number on the built-in directory it knows where you are and automatically brings up a map to show you where the address is and asks you if you would like to dial the number. Afterwards it will give you directions to get there from where you are. When you're looking at the internet it automatically re-sizes the page to highlight whatever item you tap on. If the phone rings when you're browsing it lets you answer the phone without losing what you're working on. You can also browse the internet or look up a contact without disconnecting your caller. There's message on the screen reminding you to go back to the call. As great as the phone is, it was still pretty limited in it's uses. After a while, you really don't need to look up addresses all that often or check weather or stock prices.

About a month ago Apple did it again. They introduced the Applications Store that allows you to download I-Phone-specific applications directly on your phone. Within a month there were at least 2,000 applications for the phone - almost all of them free or a dollar; almost none over $10.00. Many of them are devoted to a very small dedicated audience or are really stupid - but some are so elegant and useful it's amazing.

Some of my favorites:

Now Playing - Knows every theater near where you are and what's playing there. You can go either from the theater to the movie to the showtime or from the movie to where it is playing. Includes reviews from two sources. You can array all the movies playing in the area by rating and then find where it's playing. It even has the movie details and trailers. ALL FOR FREE!

Shopping List Manager - One of Chris' favorites. Allows you to maintain multiple shopping lists (Otis and NY!). Includes a dictionary of standard items sorted by store sections that you can add to. It also allows you to email a shopping list to your husband's phone while he's in the store.

MLB At Bat - Has all the baseball games for a three day period. For games underway it shows you the box-score, who's on base and and the status of the at-bat by pitch. Also has video clips of highlights of ongoing games. It ties into MLB and has all the key statistics by team and player. This was expensive at $5. There's nothing free from MLB.

Bloomberg - A great financial site. It has Financial headlines and news stories; On-line market info including Stocks, Commodities, Bonds and Currencies; stock prices (delayed) including charts and summary info. A real powerhouse of financial info when we're travelling. It's also free.
Weather - Current weather and forecasts for a number of locations. Let's us keep track of Toronto (mother), San Francisco (Scott), NY, Otis and Paris. All the essentials. Also free.

Games -A whole slew of games for any taste. Most free or a dollar.

Does it sound like I'm hooked??? You bet. Chris complains that I would be in withdrawal without my phone--she's right! At a recent dinner in Toronto, three I-phone users enthusiastically shared their 'favorite' features! It quickly became clear we were all equally 'in love' with this new technology. Someone pointed out that right there at the table we had our own little 'i-phone' addiction support group! Not a bad idea.

Lucinda Holdforth - True Pleasures

Book description -

The latest from acclaimed Canadian writer Richards (Nights Below Station Street; Mercy Among the Children) offers an uneven but beautifully mournful portrait of life in the unforgiving landscape of postwar New Brunswick. Mary Jameson, the widow of a lumber magnate, hopes to stymie the prophecy she receives from a fortune-teller—that her oldest son will be powerful and her younger son will bring glory upon the family, but they will be the end of the family. When Will Jameson, the brash older brother, suffers a fatal logging accident, and Owen, the intellectual younger son, returns a wounded hero from WWII, it seems the prophecy may come true. Owen assumes leadership of the family business, but faced with stiff competition, he sends men to fell timber deep in hazardous terrain. Logging troubles, combined with Owen's military service with Reggie Glidden, Will's best friend, and a romantic entanglement with Reggie's wife, touches off a devastating sequence of events. The book's most resonant moments spring from Richards's account of Jameson's loggers. Though undercut in places by a thick colloquialism, Richards's work at its best approaches the poetic nuances of Greek tragedy.

David Adams Richards - The Friends of Meagher Fortune

Book description -

The latest from acclaimed Canadian writer Richards (Nights Below Station Street; Mercy Among the Children) offers an uneven but beautifully mournful portrait of life in the unforgiving landscape of postwar New Brunswick. Mary Jameson, the widow of a lumber magnate, hopes to stymie the prophecy she receives from a fortune-teller—that her oldest son will be powerful and her younger son will bring glory upon the family, but they will be the end of the family. When Will Jameson, the brash older brother, suffers a fatal logging accident, and Owen, the intellectual younger son, returns a wounded hero from WWII, it seems the prophecy may come true. Owen assumes leadership of the family business, but faced with stiff competition, he sends men to fell timber deep in hazardous terrain. Logging troubles, combined with Owen's military service with Reggie Glidden, Will's best friend, and a romantic entanglement with Reggie's wife, touches off a devastating sequence of events. The book's most resonant moments spring from Richards's account of Jameson's loggers. Though undercut in places by a thick colloquialism, Richards's work at its best approaches the poetic nuances of Greek tragedy

Tom Perotta - The Abstinence Teacher

Book description -

Campbell Scott's soft but edgy voice, earnest but with a sarcastic undertone, is a supremely apt fit for Perrotta's skewering of modern society. He is equally convincingly whether playing Ruth, a divorced mother and sex-education teacher whose community is becoming increasingly religious, to her transparent disgust, or Tim, Ruth's daughter's soccer coach and a born-again Christian who is dismayed to find himself slipping back to his old drug addict habits. Scott's tone shifts just slightly to distinguish between the deadpan humor of Ruth's gay friend Randall and the pious lack of humor of an abstinence consultant brought in to reform Ruth. The evenness of Scott's voice is a reminder of how similar everyone is on a certain basic level, and it makes for a greater impact when he does raise the volume or change his accent. Though Ruth and Tim oppose each other over religion, their love lives are both damaged, and Scott's quiet, intimate delivery brings out the wounded yet stubbornly hopeful side of both of them. This is an effective, smart and sharp production.

Ian Rankin - Doors Open

Book description -

Ian Rankin - Exit Music

Book description

Insp. John Rebus has just 10 days to solve the apparently motiveless murder of Alexander Todorov, an expatriate Russian poet, before he reaches 60 and mandatory retirement in Edgar-winner Rankin's rewarding 17th novel to feature the Edinburgh detective (after The Naming of the Dead). When the dogged Rebus and Det. Sgt. Siobhan Clarke look into the crime, they find an array of baffling conspiracies involving Russian businessmen, Scottish bankers and local politicians pushing for an independent Scotland. A second murder, of a man who'd taped one of Todorov's poetry readings, ensures the case gets extra resources, and Rebus's own interest is whetted by the possible involvement of Edinburgh crime boss Big Ger Cafferty. Clever, insightful prose more than compensates for the byzantine plot. There's an appropriately wistful tone to this final entry in the series. Fans will miss Rebus and wonder what on earth he'll do in retirement.

Ian MacEwan - On Chesil Beach

Book description

It should not come as a surprise that Florence and Edward, newlyweds who cannot discuss their previous sexual experiences (or lack thereof), do not communicate out loud with one another until all their emotions boil over at the conclusion of the first night of their honeymoon. That their lives are constructed as narratives and memories makes this novella a particularly good choice for McEwan to perform his own work. McEwan provides a deft sense of cadence, timing and emphasis. McEwan reads this poignant, sad and occasionally amusing gem with entrancing skill, precision and perfect pace. In short, McEwan's performance is mesmerizing. An excellent addition to the recording is a thoughtful interview with the author. The conversation provides insight into McEwan's choice of setting, time period (1962) and characters. McEwan reveals that he tries out his works in progress on audiences, a technique that pays off beautifully. This author-read work is outstanding.

Jane Mayer - The Dark Side

Book Description

This hard-hitting expose examines both the controversial excesses of the war on terror and the home-front struggle to circumvent legal obstacles to its prosecution. New Yorker correspondent Mayer (Strange Justice) details the battle within the Bush Administration over a new anti-terrorism policy of harsh interrogations, indefinite detentions without due process, extraordinary renditions, secret CIA prisons and warrantless wiretappings. Fighting with memos and legal briefs, Mayer reports, hard-liners led by Dick Cheney, his aide David Addingtion and then-Justice Department lawyer John Yoo rejected any constraints on the treatment of prisoners or limitations on presidential power in fighting terrorism, while less militant administration lawyers invoked the Constitution and international law to oppose their initiatives. As a counterpoint to the wrangling over the definition of torture and the Geneva Conventions, the author looks at the use of techniques like waterboarding, stress positions, sleep deprivation and sexual humiliation against prisoners by the American military and CIA; her chilling account compellingly argues that this "enhanced interrogation" regimen constitutes torture. The result is a must-read: a meticulous behind-the-scenes reconstruction of policymaking that demonstrates how legal abstractions became an ugly reality.

Thucydides - Landmark Histories

Book description

Thucydides' History of the Peloponnesian War is one of the great books in the Western tradition, as well as its first true historical narrative. Editor Robert Strassler has annotated this classic text to make it more accessible to modern readers and added dozens of maps for easy reference. A helpful introduction places Thucydides in proper historical context and a series of short appendices focus on particular aspects of life and war during the period. But the bulk of the book itself, where Thucydides chronicles the long struggle between Athens and Sparta, enjoys an unexpected freshness on these pages--partly due to Strassler's magnificent editorial labors, but mostly because it's a great story resonant with heroes, villains, bravery, desperation, and tragedy. Every library should have a copy of Thucydides in it, especially libraries on military history, and The Landmark Thucydides is without question the best version available.

Martin Cruz Smith - Stalin's Ghost

Book description

Moscow-based Senior Investigator Arkady Renko, in his outstanding sixth outing (after Wolves Eat Dogs), investigates a murder-for-hire scheme that leads him to suspect two fellow police detectives, Nikolai Isakov and Marat Urman, both former members of Russia's elite Black Berets, who served in Chechnya. Isakov, a war hero, is now running for public office. Renko must also look into reports that the ghost of Stalin has begun appearing on subway platforms and why several bodies of Black Berets who served in Chechnya with Isakov have turned up in the morgue. Despite repeated threats to his life, Renko stubbornly perseveres, seeking justice in a land that has no official notion of that concept. Smith eschews vertiginous twists and surprises, concentrating instead on Renko as he slowly and patiently builds his case until the pieces fall together and he has again, if not exactly triumphed, at least survived. This masterful suspense novel casts a searing light on contemporary Russia

Robert Crais - Chasing Darkness

Description
After the fabulous success of THE WATCHMAN, Crais comes roaring back with his Elvis Cole series. Elvis was a hero when he cleared an innocent man of a murder charge. But when that innocent man is found dead three years later holding photos of the victim, Elvis is the one on trial.

Thomas H. Cook - Master of the Delta

Description
Edgar-winner Cook (Red Leaves) examines the slow collapse of a prominent Southern family in this magnificent tale of suspense set in 1954. Jack Branch, who's returned to his hometown of Lakeland, Miss., and taken a job at the same high school where his father once taught, is dismayed to learn that one of his students in his class on historical evil is the son of the town's infamous Coed Killer. Eddie Miller's father confessed to torturing and killing a local girl when Eddie was five, but died in jail before he could stand trial. Hoping to help Eddie step out of his father's shadow, Jack proposes that the boy write a research paper on the Coed Killer. Eddie is soon immersed in the project, which grows in scope until it encompasses the entire town's sordid past. When Jack's own father's history is brought into question, Jack realizes that he's started a fire he may be unable to control. Excerpts from transcripts of an old trial that slowly unfolds alongside Jack and Eddie's story heighten the drama

Douglas Preston - The Monster of Florence

Book description

United in their obsession with a grisly Italian serial murder case almost three decades old, thriller writer Preston (coauthor, Brimstone) and Italian crime reporter Spezi seek to uncover the identity of the killer in this chilling true crime saga. From 1974 to 1985, seven pairs of lovers parked in their cars in secluded areas outside of Florence were gruesomely murdered. When Preston and his family moved into a farmhouse near the murder sites, he and Spezi began to snoop around, although witnesses had died and evidence was missing. With all of the chief suspects acquitted or released from prison on appeal, Preston and Spezi's sleuthing continued until ruthless prosecutors turned on the nosy pair, jailing Spezi and grilling Preston for obstructing justice. Only when Dateline NBC became involved in the maze of mutilated bodies and police miscues was the authors' hard work rewarded. This suspenseful procedural reveals much about the dogged writing team as well as the motives of the killers. Better than some overheated noir mysteries, this bit of real-life Florence bloodletting makes you sweat and think, and presses relentlessly on the nerves.

Maureen Jennings - A Journeyman to Grief

Book description

The abduction of a young woman in 1858 ends in Toronto thirty-eight years later — in murder.In 1858, a young woman on her honeymoon is forcibly abducted and taken across the border from Canada and sold into slavery. Thirty-eight years later, Detective Murdoch is working on a murder case that will take all of his resourcefulness to solve. The owner of one of Toronto’s livery stables has been found dead. He has been horsewhipped and left hanging from his wrists in his tack room, and his wife claims that a considerable sum of money has been stolen. Then a second man is also murdered, his body strangely tied as if he were a rebellious slave. Murdoch has to find out whether Toronto’s small “coloured” community has a vicious murderer in its midst — an investigation that puts his own life in danger. Maureen Jennings’s trademark in her popular and acclaimed Detective Murdoch series is to reveal a long-forgotten facet about life in the city that dispels any notion that it really ever was “Toronto the Good.” As well, in A Journeyman to Grief, an exceptionally well plotted and engrossing story, she shows just how a great harm committed in the past can erupt fatally in the present

Michael Dobbs - One Minute to Midnight

Book description

Washington Post reporter Dobbs (Saboteurs) is a master at telling stories as they unfold and from a variety of perspectives. In this re-examination of the 1963 Bay of Pigs face-off between the U.S. and the U.S.S.R., Dobbs combines visits to Cuba, discussions with Russian participants and fingertip command of archival and printed U.S. sources to describe a wild ride that—contrary to the myth of Kennedy's steel-nerved crisis management—was shaped by improvisation, guesswork and blind luck. Dobbs's protagonists act not out of malevolence, incompetence or machismo. Kennedy, Khrushchev and their advisers emerge as men desperately seeking a handle on a situation no one wanted and no one could resolve. In a densely packed, fast-paced, suspenseful narrative, Dobbs presents the crisis from its early stages through the decision to blockade Cuba and Kennedy's ordering of DEFCON 2, the last step before an attack, to the final resolution on October 27 and 28. The work's climax is a detailed reconstruction of the dry-mouthed, sweaty-armpits environment of those final hours before both sides backed down. From first to last, this sustains Dobbs's case that crisis management is a contradiction in terms.

Jeffery Deaver - The Broken Window

Book description

In bestseller Deaver's entertaining eighth Lincoln Rhyme novel (after The Cold Moon), Rhyme, a forensic consultant for the NYPD, and his detective partner, Amelia Sachs, take on a psychotic mastermind who uses data mining—the business of the twenty-first century—not only to select and hunt down his victims but also to frame the crimes on complete innocents. Rhyme is reluctantly drawn into a case involving his estranged cousin, Arthur, who's been charged with first-degree murder. But when Rhyme and his crew look into the strange set of circumstances surrounding his cousin's alleged crime, they discover tangential connections to a company that specializes in collecting and analyzing consumer data. Further investigation leads them to some startlingly Orwellian revelations: Big Brother is watching your every move and could be a homicidal maniac. The topical subject matter makes the story line particularly compelling, while longtime fans will relish Deaver's intimate exploration of a tragedy from Rhyme's adolescence

Lawrence Block - Hit and Run

Not worth the time. Keller made an amusing short story, not a whole novel. Tedious, boring.

Book description

Keller's a hit man. For years now he's had places to go and people to kill.

But enough is enough. He's got money in the bank and just one last job standing between him and retirement. So he carries it out with his usual professionalism, and he heads home, and guess what?

One more job. Paid in advance, so what's he going to do? Give the money back? In Des Moines, Keller stalks his designated target and waits for the client to give him the go-ahead. And one fine morning he's picking out stamps for his collection (Sweden 1-5, the official reprints) at a shop in Urbandale when somebody guns down the charismatic governor of Ohio.

Back at his motel, Keller's watching TV when they show the killer's face. And there's something all too familiar about that face. . . .

Keller calls his associate Dot in White Plains, but there is no answer. He's stranded halfway across the country, every cop in America's just seen his picture, his ID and credit cards are no longer good, and he just spent almost all of his cash on the stamps.

Now what?

Alan Furst - Red Gold

Not up to his usual best. Too much atmosphere too little story with less interesting characters.


Book description


From the atmosphere established in his fifth novel's first sentence ("Casson woke in a room in a cheap hotel and smoked his last cigarette") to the knock on the door at the denouement, Furst again proves himself the master of his chosen terrain?behind the lines of Nazi occupation in France during WWII. His previous novel, The World at Night, opened in May 1940, with French film producer Jean Casson setting out to take newsreels of the defense of France's Maginot line and becoming swamped in the German invasion. It is now September 1941, and Casson, broke and hiding under a false name, is about to commit fully to the Resistance. As a man of indeterminate political affiliation, he's chosen to negotiate between the Resistance and the French Communists, who, with the German army on the verge of taking Moscow, have orders from Stalin to sabotage the Nazis in any way possible. The "red gold" SS looters try to steal in Russia is a metaphoric payment in blood, while in Paris informers are everywhere and collaboration is still rampant. Furst's textured plot?exhibiting shifting loyalties and betrayals; lone, often hopeless acts of heroism; and lovers bravely parting?makes for spellbinding drama. (In one scene, a clandestine radio operator broadcasts a few moments too long, and hears soldiers' boots racing up the stairs to get him.) Furst, who deserves the comparisons he's earned to Graham Greene and Eric Ambler, seems to be settling into a franchise here, rather than reaching for the fire he caught in his third novel, The Polish Officer. Casson's story unfolds convincingly, however, and as it continues here to April of 1942, promises a few more episodes to come from this author's tried and true brand of masterfully detailed espionage.

Alan Furst - The Spies of Warsaw

An abso;utely first rate novel for the spie afficianado who likes them complex with no heroes.


Book description
Starred Review. Furst (The Foreign Correspondent) solidifies his status as a master of historical spy fiction with this compelling thriller set in 1937 Poland. Col. Jean-François Mercier, a military attaché at the French embassy in Warsaw who runs a network of spies, plays a deadly game of cat-and-mouse with his German adversaries. When one of Mercier's main agents, Edvard Uhl, an engineer at a large Düsseldorf arms manufacturer who's been a valuable source on the Nazis' new weapons, becomes concerned that the Gestapo is on to him, Mercier initially dismisses Uhl's fears. Mercier soon realizes that the risk to his spy is genuine, and he's forced to scramble to save Uhl's life. The colonel himself later takes to the field when he hears reports that the German army is conducting maneuvers in forested terrain. Even readers familiar with the Germans' attack through the Ardennes in 1940 will find the plot suspenseful. As ever, Furst excels at creating plausible characters and in conveying the mostly tedious routines of real espionage

Joseph O'Neill - Netherland

Book description

Hans van den Broek, the Dutch-born narrator of O'Neill's dense, intelligent novel, observes of his friend, Chuck Ramkissoon, a self-mythologizing entrepreneur-gangster, that he never quite believed that people would sooner not have their understanding of the world blown up, even by Chuck Ramkissoon. The image of one's understanding of the world being blown up is poignant—this is Hans's fate after 9/11. He and wife Rachel abandon their downtown loft, and, soon, Rachel leaves him behind at their temporary residence, the Chelsea Hotel, taking their son, Jake, back to London. Hans, an equities analyst, is at loose ends without Rachel, and in the two years he remains Rachel-less in New York City, he gets swept up by Chuck, a Trinidadian expatriate Hans meets at a cricket match. Chuck's dream is to build a cricket stadium in Brooklyn; in the meantime, he operates as a factotum for a Russian gangster. The unlikely (and doomed from the novel's outset) friendship rises and falls in tandem with Hans's marriage, which falls and then, gradually, rises again. O'Neill (This Is the Life) offers an outsider's view of New York bursting with wisdom, authenticity and a sobering jolt of realism.

Andrew Hodges - One to Nine - The inner life of numbers

Book description

A frank acknowledgment that anything I wrote was bound to resemble Constance Reid's seminal From Zero to Infinity doesn't stop mathematician and biographer Hodges (Alan Turing: The Enigma) from boldly launching into his own rather disjointed explanation of the place of the numbers one through nine in mathematics and (primarily Western) culture. Pop culture references and political topics such as global warming, presumably meant to make terms like quantum of existence a little less scary to the novice, appear alongside subjects of more interest to math nerds (the author debunks the common assumption that mathematicians are male, overweight and perennially single). Some knowledge of mathematical vocabulary and history is necessary to fully appreciate Hodges's merry skipping from one subject to another—a single page mentions Vonnegut's fiction... Plato's aesthetics, Euclid's pentagons, Fibonacci's rabbits [and] the inspiration of Islamic art and its parallels in Kepler—but even the most halfhearted former math major will find a lot of familiar topics, like Schrödinger's cat and the equivalence of 1 with 0.99999.... The result is not entirely satisfying to either numerophobes or numerophiles

Garry Wills - What Paul Meant

Book Description -

This slender volume is something of a sequel to Wills's blockbuster What Jesus Meant; here, Wills defends Paul from detractors who insist that the apostle corrupted Jesus' radical message. Beginning with a reminder that Paul's letters are older than the gospels and therefore may represent the most authentic approximation of Jesus' teachings, Wills argues that Paul was right in line with Jesus. Both men stressed love of God and love of one's neighbor as the two principal commandments. Wills highlights the differences between the Pauline epistles and Luke's later writing about Paul, arguing that the famous story of Paul's road-to-Damascus conversion, which comes from Luke's account in Acts, is flawed, and that Paul himself did not consider his convictions about Jesus a "conversion," but part of his ongoing life as a Jew. Through a reading of Romans, Wills attempts to acquit Paul of the charges of anti-Semitism. And though Paul is often tarred as a misogynist, Wills shows that he "believed in women's basic equality with men." (Since Wills focuses only on the seven letters that most scholars agree were written by Paul himself, the egalitarian Paul becomes credible; some of the most overtly sexist passages come from letters written later and ascribed to Paul.) Provocative yet helpful, this book is sure to create a buzz.

Donna Leon - Fatal Remedies

Donna Leon’s multitude of fans around the world has grown with each new Commissario Brunetti novel, and now mystery lovers in the United States can enjoy another compelling episode. In Fatal Remedies, Brunetti’s career is under threat when his professional and personal lives unexpectedly intersect. In the chill of the Venetian dawn, a sudden act of vandalism shatters the quiet of the deserted city, and Brunetti is shocked to find that the culprit waiting to be apprehended at the scene is a member of his own family. Meanwhile, he is also under pressure from his superiors to solve a daring robbery with connections to a suspicious accidental death. Could the two crimes be connected? And will Brunetti be able to prove his family’s innocence before it’s too late?