Minette Walters - Disordered Minds

Book Description:

Bestseller Walters (Fox Evil, etc.) delivers another complex tale of murder and deception. In 1970, 20-year-old Howard Stamp is convicted of brutally killing his 57-year-old grandmother with a carving knife; three years later, he commits suicide in prison. In 2002, London anthropologist Jonathan Hughes includes the Stamp case in his book, Disordered Minds, which examines infamous miscarriages of justice. The mentally slow Stamp may have been coerced into confessing to the murder. George (Georgina) Gardener, an elderly councilor living in Stamp's hometown of Bournemouth, has come to believe in Stamp's innocence herself and asks Jonathan for help in clearing the young man's name. The two get off to a rocky start, but they form an uneasy alliance that gradually grows into a deep friendship. Watching this relationship develop is one of the novel's more entertaining aspects. Walters uses to good effect the multiple viewpoints of her numerous characters, as well as flashbacks, letters, newspaper articles and e-mails to reveal the truth behind the decades-old murder. However, as in life, there are no easy answers, and although the ending may disappoint some, it caps perfectly all that has come before it.

Bob Drogin - Curve Ball

Book Description:

In 1999, an Iraqi refugee, soon code-named Curveball, told German intelligence agents of his work on an ongoing Iraqi program that produced biological weapons in mobile laboratories. His claims electrified the CIA, which had little good intelligence about Saddam Hussein's regime and was fixated on the threat of Iraqi WMDs, which later became a centerpiece in the Bush administration's case for invading Iraq. It was only after American occupation forces failed to find any mobile germ-warfare labs—or other WMDs—that prewar warnings about Curveball's heavy drinking and mental instability, and the nagging gaps and contradictions in his story, were taken seriously. In this engrossing account, Los Angeles Times correspondent Drogin paints an intimate and revealing portrait of the workings and dysfunctions of the intelligence community. Hobbled by internal and external turf battles and hypnotized by pet theories, the CIA—including director George Tenet, whose reputation suffers another black eye here—ignored skeptics, the author contends, and fell in love with a dubious source who told the agency and the White House what they wanted to hear. Instead of connecting the dots, Drogin argues, the CIA and its allies made up the dots

Valerie Plame Wilson - Fair Game

Book Description:

On July 6, 2003, four months after the United States invaded Iraq, former ambassador Joseph Wilson's now historic op-ed, "What I Didn't Find in Africa," appeared in The New York Times. A week later, conservative pundit Robert Novak revealed in his newspaper column that Ambassador Wilson's wife, Valerie Plame Wilson, was a CIA operative. The public disclosure of that secret information spurred a federal investigation and led to the trial and conviction of Vice President Dick Cheney's chief of staff, Scooter Libby, and the Wilsons' civil suit against top officials of the Bush administration. Much has been written about the "Valerie Plame" story, but Valerie herself has been silent, until now. Some of what has been reported about her has been frighteningly accurate, serving as a pungent reminder to the Wilsons that their lives are no longer private. And some has been completely false--distorted characterizations of Valerie and her husband and their shared integrity.
Valerie Wilson retired from the CIA in January 2006, and now, not only as a citizen but as a wife and mother, the daughter of an Air Force colonel, and the sister of a U.S. marine, she sets the record straight, providing an extraordinary account of her training and experiences, and answers many questions that have been asked about her covert status, her responsibilities, and her life. As readers will see, the CIA still deems much of the detail of Valerie's story to be classified. As a service to readers, an afterword by national security reporter Laura Rozen provides a context for Valerie's own story.
Fair Game is the historic and unvarnished account of the personal and international consequences of speaking truth to power.

Walter Moseley - Blonde Faith

Book Description:

Set in 1967, Mosley's brilliant 10th Easy Rawlins thriller finds the middle-aged Easy still fighting some of the same battles he fought in his first outing, Devil in a Blue Dress (1990), as an angry young WWII vet trying to make his home in postwar Los Angeles. His family has grown from none to many over the years, and now Easy is dealing with the loss of the love of his life, Bonnie, and his decision to make her leave him. Despite Easy's vulnerability and anguish, he's a staunch friend and a fierce protector of those he loves. Easy's two most dangerous friends, Raymond Mouse Alexander and Christmas Black, have both disappeared and both are being hunted. Easy must find them before those who want to destroy them do. Mosley knows his territory as intimately as a lover knows his beloved, and Easy's tortuous progression from man-child to man may have reached its climax in this searing and moving novel.

Gotham Bar and Grill

We went Gotham Bar and Grll this weekend after a long hiatus (over 15 years for me!). Alfred Portale had pioneered the concept of tall. "architectural" presentations of food. I thought it was too gimmicky and never went back.

However, we were meeting Scott and Jory late Sunday night after they returned from San Francisco and I remembered they had a very nice bar and East 12th Street is convenient to both of us.

The bar is along one wall of this long restaurant. While we were waiting, we enjoyed a Gin Gimlet and some bar 'treats'--wonderful tiny oysters and an order of 'Grilled Octopus' with roasted cherry tomatoes and chick peas. It was as good as any Octopus I have had anywhere - delicate but with good "mouth feel". Chris's 'Raw Oysters' served with onions and vinegar were just like in Paris.

After Scott and Jory arrived we continued with our 'second' starters. I had the excellent 'Yellowfin Tuna Tartare' and Chris had the 'Baby Organic Mixed Green Salad" with Sherry and olive oil. Scott enjoyed the same grilled octopus and Jory opted for the Gotham soup of the day which was a creamy cauliflower. For our main course we both had the 'Heritage Pork' on spinach with a puree of fava beans and plums. We eat a lot of pork. In most restaurants I find they do a better job than with beef (the exception being Sparks and Peter Luger). The chicken on Jory's plate looked great and Scott had a serving of Duck with was perfectly done. We acoompanied the meal with a nice Australian grenache.

Overall, a very pleasant meal. We'll be back.

Gotham Bar and Grill

12 East 12th Street

212-620-4020

Jason Goodwin

Book Description:

Goodwin, the author of a well-received history of the Ottoman Empire, Lords of the Horizons (1999), makes a welcome shift to fiction with this impressive first of a new mystery series set in the empire's declining decades. In 1836, though the corrupt elite troops known as the Janissaries were crushed 10 years earlier, there are ominous signs that their influence still persists in the twisted alleys and secret places of Istanbul. A series of crimes, including the barbaric murders of several soldiers and the theft of some precious jewels, leads eunuch Yashim Togalu to delve into the past in an effort to separate legend from truth. With special access to all areas of the sultan's royal court, Yashim uses his network of contacts to try to solve the crimes. The author, no surprise, does an excellent job of evoking his chosen locale. While his sleuth's character may be less developed than some readers might wish, no doubt Yashim will emerge as a more rounded figure in future entries of what one hopes will be a long-running series.

Minette Walters - The Ice House

Book Description:

Ten years ago, Phoebe Maybury's hateful husband David disappeared from Streech Grange after his wife caught him in bed with their traumatized daughter Jane. Now a naked, unidentifiable corpse has been discovered in the icehouse on the Grange, and Inspectors Walsh and McLoughlin have to decide whose it is, whether he was murdered, and who killed him. The cozy British setup is countered by an unremitting ferocity of tone, as Walsh--who planted the story years ago that Phoebe killed her husband--and McLoughlin slug it out with Phoebe and her aggressively lesbian companions, interior designer Diana Goode and magazine writer Anne Cattrell. For good measure, McLoughlin, stung by Anne's accurate taunts that he's fallen for her, also tangles with unblushing liar Maisie Thompson, whose husband has done a bunk (could that corpse be his?); with his long-unfaithful wife; with the village queer- bashers; and finally with Walsh himself. Unholy passions seethe inches beneath a proper surface: a brutal, literate debut--especially welcome to fans of Ruth Rendell

Minette Walters - The Devil's Feather

Book Description:

British author Walters's harrowing 12th psychological chiller spotlights violent suffering and hard-won triumph for Connie Burns, a 36-year-old Reuters war correspondent who crosses a sadistic mercenary alternately identified as John Harwood, Kenneth McConnell and Keith MacKenzie. When she finds MacKenzie training Iraqi policemen in Baghdad in 2004, she links him to serial killings in Sierra Leone two years earlier. An enraged MacKenzie kidnaps, tortures, rapes and releases Connie, who is then too traumatized to coherently divulge details of her abduction. She retreats to a country house in Dorset, where she puzzles over the troubled past of the house ("a place of anguish") and hesitantly befriends her neighbors, the handsome Dr. Peter Coleman and Jess Derbyshire, a reclusive young woman who helps Connie heal from her ordeal. While she gradually recovers, she also lives with the surety that MacKenzie will come after her again. Walters (Disordered Minds) delivers an intense, engrossingly structured tour de force about survival and "the secret of freedom, courage."

Jack Goldsmith - The Terror Presidency

Book Description:

A central player's account of the clash between the rule of law and the necessity of defending America.Jack Goldsmith's duty as head of the Office of Legal Counsel was to advise President Bush what he could and could not do...legally. Goldsmith took the job in October 2003 and began to review the work of his predecessors. Their opinions were the legal framework governing the conduct of the military and intelligence agencies in the war on terror, and he found many—especially those regulating the treatment and interrogation of prisoners—that were deeply flawed.Goldsmith is a conservative lawyer who understands the imperative of averting another 9/11. But his unflinching insistence that we abide by the law put him on a collision course with powerful figures in the administration. Goldsmith's fascinating analysis of parallel legal crises in the Lincoln and Roosevelt administrations shows why Bush's apparent indifference to human rights has damaged his presidency and, perhaps, his standing in history. 8 pages of photographs

Alan Kramer - Dynamics of Destruction

Book Description:

On 26 August 1914 the world-famous university library in the Belgian town of Louvain was looted and destroyed by German troops. The international community reacted in horror - 'Holocaust at Louvain' proclaimed the Daily Mail - and the behaviour of the Germans at Louvain came to be seen as the beginning of a different style of war, without the rules that had governed military conflict up to that point - a more total war, in which enemy civilians and their entire culture were now 'legitimate' targets. Yet the destruction at Louvain was simply one symbolic moment in a wider wave of cultural destruction and mass killing that swept Europe in the era of the First World War. Using a wide range of examples and eye-witness accounts from across Europe at this time, award-winning historian Alan Kramer paints a picture of an entire continent plunging into a chilling new world of mass mobilization, total warfare, and the celebration of nationalist or ethnic violence - often directed expressly at the enemy's civilian population.

Ruth Rendell - The Water's Lovely

Enjoyable, but just a bit too "crazy" for me. A little too neat.

Doris Lessing - Time Bites

Paul's comments...
I don't like her politics but her writing and commentary are wonderful -sharp and insightful while a delight to read. Her essays show what good writing can be like. It makes me want to erase everything I ever wrote as inadequate.

Book Description
Arguably the grande dame of English letters—the list of her published works comes to 60-plus—Lessing has always been outspoken about literature, politics and social issues. The 65 essays and book reviews collected here range over those topics and others, all declaimed in Lessing's brisk, wry voice and articulated with pragmatic intelligence. Her literary reviews always amplify the book at hand; the pieces on Virginia Woolf, Leo Tolstoy and Jane Austen resonate with fresh insight. Her enthusiastic reconsiderations of authors who are little read today, including Olive Schreiner, George Meredith, A.E. Coppard and Walter de la Mare, may pique readers' curiosity. Another obscure book, about an American prostitute, comes to light in the fascinating "The Maimie Papers." Six essays discuss the writer Idries Shah and his books about the mysteries and consolations of Sufism, which, Lessing claims, were "like a depth charge" and fulfilled all her philosophical and spiritual needs. Not every reader will be convinced. There's a tirade against Robert Mugabe of Zimbabwe (Rhodesia was Lessing's homeland) and a coruscating indictment of American complacency before 9/11. The main theme, whether addressed overtly or underlying her literary criticism, is the indispensable place of books in the life of an educated person and an enlightened culture. Hers is a clarion call

Minnette Walters - The Chameleon's Shadow

Lawrence Block - Hit Parade

A clever new genre - hitman as "hero". Keller is well drawn. Brings new meaning to the banality of evil. Really a series of short stories more than a novel.

Book description
Block's assassin, John Keller (Hit Man; Hit List), returns in these loosely linked, well-crafted vignettes of the protagonist on assignment, blithely but expertly eliminating a grab bag of targets: a philandering pro baseball player, a jockey in a fixed horse race, two women who hire him to put down a neighbor's dog, a Cuban exile and more. Manhattan-based Keller works through his agent, Dot, who assigns murders from her home just north in White Plains.Keller, a loner by temperament and trade, has an easy camaraderie with Dot. The two entrepreneurial colleagues strike a casual tone in conversation—but they're discussing death (sometimes in gory detail). With dry wit, Block tracks the pursuits of the morally ambiguous Keller, who hunts rare, pricey stamps for his extensive collection when he's not "taking care of business." Four-time Shamus- and Edgar-winner Block has the reader queasily rooting for the killer as well as the victims, unsettling the usual point of identification and assumptions about right and wrong

Dennis Lehane - Darness, Take My Hand

Pretty good, but the heavy focus on Boston neighborhoods is off-putting for a NYer.

Book description
In his outstanding second novel, Lehane (whose debut, A Drink Before the War, won a Shamus award) explores horror close to home. Boston PIs Patrick Kenzie and Angie Gennaro agree to help psychiatrist Diandra Warren. Her patient, using the name Moira Kenzie, has said she was abused by Kevin Hurlihy, a sociopathic Irish Mafia henchman who grew up in Angie and Patrick's neighborhood. Hurlihy may have threatened the doctor, who fears that her son, Jason, may be in danger. While Patrick and Angela shadow Jason, another former neighbor, Kara Rider, is found crucified. Sensing a connection, Patrick seeks out a retired cop turned saloonkeeper who recalls a hushed-up crucifixion murder in the neighborhood 20 years ago. The suspect in that killing is in prison, so he can't be murdering again, can he? As Patrick probes painful memories, he faces losing the woman he loves, Grace Cole, who is appalled at the brutality invading their lives. By the time Patrick and Angie realize how the murders relate to their own youth, they are the next targets. The showdown is unpredictable, like the New England autumn which, in Lehane's depiction, is informed by a wind "so chilly and mean it seemed the exhalation of a Puritan god." The story is densely peopled with multidimensional characters; there are no forgettable, walk-on roles on Lehane's stage. Lehane's voice, original, haunting and straight from the heart, places him among that top rank of stylists who enrich the modern mystery novel

Postcards from Paris, another first!

One of the things that has really improved since I first came to Paris in the 70's is the public bathrooms. Back then, 'pissoirs', outdoor urinals, were the preferred venue for Parisian men (I don't know what women did). They were large, round, dark green, steel contraptions not unlike the familiar round advertising locations common now, only larger. Men (up to 10 at a time) would enter and pee against the center wall and it would drain to the sewer. Bathrooms in Cafes were co-ed and featured urinals along one wall and commodes along the other for men and women. Less elegant locations would have neither urinals nor toilets, but rather co-ed 'squatters 'with two raised footprints in the center of a tiled drain.

Today, public bathrooms in Paris are a joy, located in every cafe, restaurant and public facility. There are also high-tech pay toilets located on busy streets. These are well designed commodes that self-clean and disinfect after every use. There's also a mechanism which causes the doors to fly open after a respectable time period. They've been in use for about 5 years and NYC recently agreed to purchase a number of them for use in Manhattan.

As one of his first initiatives, the new Mayor of Paris made all city museums and pay toilets free of charge. This does not include the major museums that are national. To date, we had enjoyed the free museums, but not the toilets. I'm happy to report that they are not to be shunned

- they are clean and well equipped with toilet paper, towels and running water. This is probably more then you ever wanted to know about this topic, but suffice it to say that any remaining hesitations about coming to Paris should now be eliminated.

Postcards from Paris #3

We're eating at home tonight after visiting a great exhibition at the Centre Pompidou all about the sculptor and painter "Giacometti". It was wonderful with over 100 pieces of work beginning with his earliest painting at age 15. You'll recongnize him as the artist who did "Walking Man"--tall skinny sculpted figures that have a 'pinched' look to them. It was particularly interesting as we thought his work was familiar to us but found he had evolved significantlym over the years. He had even been briefly part of the Surrealists, but they threw him out after a few years for unspecified reasons - maybe his work was understandable!

Walking home along rue Rambuteau, we picked out goodies for the evening meal which included stuffed bread and little calimari from an Italians place, pate and some cold salads from the French place and then of course there was the usual cheese, wine and chocolate to round things off!

Yum, wish you were here, Chris and Paul

A Postcard from Paris

A postcard from Paris . . .

I took a French cooking class with Scott and Jory/ We enjoyed experimenting with new ingredients we bought at a local market. The result, at the end of a morning in the kitchen with 'chef Eric,' was a sumptuous lunch of sauteed shrimp on ratatouille and winter veal stew. We finished with cheese and a molten chocolate cake (served with a "surprise" sauce of banana and avocado). All were served with the appropriate wine. All in all a fine morning! Paul was happy to be invited to share the meal even though he did not participate in the preparation.

Wish you all could have been there,

Postcards from Paris

Postcards from Paris: An Unusual Visitation. . .

Christina and Christine went to visit Pere Lachaise Cemetery this week where the line-up of illustrious corpses date back to the 1700's! Here lie Proust, Oscar Wilde, Edith Piaf, and almost anyone French, talented and DEAD that you can think of. They don't discriminate against creed or nationality but space is now at a premium, in fact since 2003 they have introduced 10, 30, and 50 year leases. If you have an existing lease, it buys you about a century and those in 'perpetuelles' may stay until abandoned. Of the one million originally buried here, approximately 200 thousand remain--now that's a lot of souls!

The grounds are beautiful, and you need a minimum of half a day here. Here's just a little snap shot of some of the gravestones we found interesting.

Ooh la la

We have never visited Reims, the Champagne region, just outside of Paris. So we decided that it would be a perfect trip to take when Scott and Jory joined us in Paris this year. Several people had recommended a particular chateau that offered a one day, all inclusive lunch with a champagne tasting menu and a visit to Veuve Cliquot, our favourite 'cave'. Sounds perfect--right????

The day started badly... We had to leave the house at 8:30 am to catch the train. That was aggressive planning on Chris's part since Scott and Jory were still somewhat jet-lagged and not not stirring before noon. I'm normally grumpy about doing anything before I've read the paper. The short train ride put us in Reims at about 9:45 am, giving us what Chris said, would be enough time to explore the city before the designated pick-up by the Chateau. I had been thinking about our visit to Burgundy and the lovely little towns like St. Emilion that we enjoyed so much. Unfortunately, Reims is more New Haven than St. Emilion. As we headed out from the station, Chris was looking for the Cathedral, I was looking for a nice Cafe or tea house for breakfast; Scott and Jory were just groggily following along -- we were hopeful! Quel domage! We were too cold to walk all the way to the cathedral and didn't have enough time to visit the town and still satisfy the need for coffee so..... we stopped at the least offensive place and managed to get warm and raise our blood sugar enough to head back to the station for our designated pick-up.

Eh bien, at the station, with no pick-up in sight there was a certain degree of anxiety. Chris began her efforts to call the Chateau while Scott was looking at the timetable to see the earliest he could get back to Paris - not a good sign! I was thinking about the Rolls Royce that the hotel in Hong Kong had sent to pick us up. Forty-five minutes later with still no car in sight, there was some brief talk about lynching our travel arranger (Chris). Instead we took a cab to the chateau.

As we pulled into the drive, things began to look up. The chateau was lovely. In the garden room the mood quickly changed with our first glass of champagne and a discussion of the menu.

The menu was too complicated and required too many decisions so Scott suggested they just "surprise us". There were four courses. All had a champagne accompaniment except dessert (according to Veuve Cliquot, you "don't drink champagne with chocolate"). Each course had a dominant theme but was broken into 4 or 5 flights, each one presented separately in a dish or cup or bowl or goblet. I couldn't begin to describe them all so I'll just stick to the basic theme. Assume that fresh truffles, foie gras and seasonal mushrooms were

abundant.

Aperitif

1998 Veuve Cliquot Brut

Assorted nuts, flat breads, olives, salmon cake and faux french fries made from whipped potatoes. Not to mention the little glass of deviled egg that was outrageous.

The 'amuse bouche' was a little ball filled with warm champagne, presented atop the neck of a cut champagne bottle. We were told to pop the entire thing in our mouth because there would be a burst of liquid--a surprise!

Fish Course

2002 Veuve Cliquot Rose

Salmon tartare et al for the ladies

Scallops et al for the men.

Meat Course

1999 Veuve Cliquot Brut

Veal for the women on a bed of crisp veggies

Chicken rolled in truffles for the men (Bresse, of course - it is the most prized chicken in France where the markets carry, at least, Cock or Hen for 'traditional', 'farm raised' and 'Bresse') .

Dessert Course

Believe it or not, this was the course where they really outdid themselves. It came in three waves, each having 3-5 components. The first wave was a light puff pastry with cream and fresh raspberries, Next came the chocolate sensations: molten cake, mousse, puddings and ices. The third wave was delivered on a cart, like a cheese selection! At this point we all groaned--it all looked so good and was one of the most interestingly presented carts (Sheila-we were thinking of you!) We declined all but the smallest of tastes.

Coffee course

Served back in the garden room with brandies and chocolate truffles. We could barely finish the coffee--just wanting to be left alone to sleep it off. But no!!! There was more to come. We couldn't believe we were heading off to the caves and MORE CHAMPAGNE!

Our private tour with Fanny as guide, made this a truly deluxe experience. We went through the museum, which had a fascinating discussion of champagne forgery over the years and then went down into the chalk caves to look at the wine. It was interesting to hear about the process and the stories and innovations of Mme Cliquot. There were bottles that dated back almost 100 years. Back in the tasting room, they opened three bottles, all vintage a Brut, a Sec (slightly sweeter) and the flagship of the brand La Grande Dame (at least $150 a bottle retail). They were delicious but we were probably a little over-champagned by that point and not as appreciative as we might have been before lunch. Each couple was sent off with a bottle of the non-vintage Brut and a book of the history of Veuve Cliquot and an invitation to return.

The train ride home was quiet with all of us wishing that we could have gone back to the that lovely garden room for a nap. What an experience!