Book a Week in 2014 - BW6

[Angel]

Robin said back to books....

 

Ok, so I've started Divergent because dd19 asked me to read it.  Dystopian...blah.  I don't know why I can't wrap my head around this genre!  I guess we will see where it goes.  

 

I'm half way through the Introduction to Inferno.  I don't normally read those but as I know virtually nothing about Dante I thought it prudent.  

 

I'm also listening to The Mark of Athena (only my 2nd audio book ever).  I don't know if it's this book or the fact that I'm listening but it's just drivel.  Funny, I enjoyed (not loved) the other ones.  At least I thought I did.  I'm doing that for dd13 as I need to preread the next book in the series to see if she can read it.  

 

Dd19 is reading The Sweetness at the Bottom of the Pie and enjoying it.

 

Dd13 is reading The Time Machine on her Paperwhite, chosen because it is H.G. Wells and she likes the character H.G. Wells on Warehouse 13.  :laugh:   Surprisingly, she is enjoying it!

 

And dd13 is full of funnies this week.  We read about the Epic of Beowoulf in Mystery of History yesterday, and I read an excerpt of it from my old high school English Lit book.  She proceeds to tell me that Grendel is probably a werewolf  :lol:

[Paisley Hedgehog]

.

[ladydusk]

If you have a reader or app that reads e-pub books, you can find a digital edition of Howards End Is On the Landing at Barnes&Noble or Booksamillion.  That's where I got mine and it was cheaper than print.    Oh wow, I typed that out then went to B&N and BAM to link back, and the digital edition of this book is gone.  Whaat?  Can digital books go out of print (they're not IN print!)?  How is that possible??    Totally weird.  I downloaded this book to my Nook at Christmas.  I promise.  I guess I better check to see if it is still there.

 

 

 

Inter-library loan to the rescue ... requested both Howard's End and the copy on the Landing ...

[Onceuponatime]

 .  Kind of like the quote in Jurassic Park where Ian Malcolm says "Yeah, yeah, but your scientists were so preoccupied with whether or not they could, that they didn't stop to think if they should."

 

I love Jeff Goldblum in Jurassic Park. I also love this dialog:

 

Dr. Ian Malcolm: God creates dinosaurs. God destroys dinosaurs. God creates man. Man destroys God. Man creates dinosaurs.

 

Dr. Ellie Sattler: Dinosaurs eat man. Woman inherits the earth.

 

:lol:

[Angel]

I love Jeff Goldblum in Jurassic Park. I also love this dialog:

 

Dr. Ian Malcolm: God creates dinosaurs. God destroys dinosaurs. God creates man. Man destroys God. Man creates dinosaurs.

 

Dr. Ellie Sattler: Dinosaurs eat man. Woman inherits the earth.

 

:lol:

 

This makes me laugh every time!  Do you think Ellie was a feminist?!  :001_tt2:  :rofl:

[Guest]

I finished Behind the Beautiful Forevers last night; I'm still mulling it over but plan to come back and post about it. I downloaded Dante's Inferno and I may read it alongside those of you who are reading that.

[Onceuponatime]

I finished the Rosewood Casket and enjoyed it. My Inferno still hasn't arrived so I've started on A Single Shard, Newberry Award winning juvenile historical fiction set in 12th century Korea.

[mlbuchina]

I finished the Rosewood Casket and enjoyed it. My Inferno still hasn't arrived so I've started on A Single Shard, Newberry Award winning juvenile historical fiction set in 12th century Korea.

I love A Single Shard. I hope you enjoy it, too. I look forward to hearing your thoughts on it.

[CAMom]

Astray is on my tbr list. I like Room by the same author and astray sounded neat. I have to tell you that I keep reading it as asHtray. Apparently, my inner 22 year old self wants a cigarette.

 

I read Room a few years ago and really liked it. I would never know that the two books are by the same author. The flavor is completely different. 

[mumto2]

I finished the Rosewood Casket and enjoyed it. My Inferno still hasn't arrived so I've started on A Single Shard, Newberry Award winning juvenile historical fiction set in 12th century Korea.

I am glad you enjoyed Rosewood Casket. I read it when it first was published and remember it as being sad and a bit odd. That was the one with the arsenic eaters, I think?

[Onceuponatime]

I am glad you enjoyed Rosewood Casket. I read it when it first was published and remember it as being sad and a bit odd. That was the one with the arsenic eaters, I think?

 

It was one with a little girl ghost and an old lady with "the sight."

[mumto2]

One thing positive to be said for James Patterson is I can read his books very quickly. My librarian,that I am hoping is still my librarian when I return home, gave me the latest Private LA to read. Someone else here reads these. Anyway an easy read but his main victims???? are very much like a popular Hollywood couple that even I have heard of. I found that a bit too much...I suspect they aren't pleased.

[Kareni]

My Inferno still hasn't arrived ...

 

This sounds like a good thing to me!

 

 

... I've started on A Single Shard, Newberry Award winning juvenile historical fiction set in 12th century Korea.

 

This was a lovely book that my daughter and I both read when she was in 8th grade studying that time period.  I recommend it.

 

Regards,

Kareni

[mumto2]

It was one with a little girl ghost and an old lady with "the sight."

Just went through all the Sharyn McCrumbs at goodreads and nothing sounds right. This https://www.kirkusreviews.com/book-reviews/sharyn-mccrumb/if-id-killed-him-when-i-met-him/ could be it but I didn't think it was part of her MacPhearson series. Obviously I need to start reading to figure this out. ;)

[Stacia]

 

Finished the latest Flavia de Luce book, The Dead in Their Vaulted Arches by Alan Bradley. This is one of the few series of books that I have read all of the books. (Usually I don't really like series books.)

 

Alan Bradley does not disappoint in this one. I'm not sure if it is the last Flavia book or not -- a long time ago, I read that there were six books slated for this series. (I do hope he will continue Flavia's adventures....)

 

The characters & story arc have grown throughout the series & I think Bradley saved the best for last. This book is a bit more somber in tone (but still has the fun & intellectual Flavia touches we all know & love) & sets the storyline up in a wholly different manner than I expected. Though more serious, it's still cracking good fun. Bravo.

 

It's a great wrap-up to the series & still a perfect segue into another set of adventures for Flavia should Bradley choose to continue the series. A win-win all the way around. If you're a Flavia fan, this one is a must-read.

 

I've now started something I already love (& hope I continue to love), something that seems totally up my alley... a book someone on an around-the-world reading group on GR posted that she was reading. I asked her how it was & she ended up rating it 5 stars. So, I took the plunge & bought the ebook this morning. This one will count as a Japan read. (I'm only a month behind on that, lol.)

 

One Hundred Years of Vicissitude by Andrez Bergen.

 

"First up, a disclaimer. I suspect I am a dead man.

 

"I have meagre proof, no framed†up certification, nothing to toss in a court of law as evidence of a rapid departure from the mortal coil. I recall a gun was involved, pressed up against my skull, and a loud explosion followed."

 

One Hundred Years of Vicissitude is a dark, funny but also subtly serious book set between life and death. It tells the tale of a purgatorial tour through 20th century Japanese history, with a ghostly geisha who has seen it all as the guide and a corrupt millionaire as her reluctant companion.

 

Thrown into the milieu are saké, B-29s, Lewis Carroll, Sir Thomas Malory, Melbourne, 'The Wizard of Oz', and a dirigible - along with the allusion that Red Riding Hood might just be involved.

I liked reading the background page the author wrote. As he discusses how his idea/the story evolved, he says,

Somewhere along the line over the following months the somewhat shallow Iago-Geisha-Medieval potboiler thing spilled over and segued into a neck-deeper tale of love, death, redemption, a famous German dirigible, the rebuilding of Japan, communist insanity, video games, and poor judgment when it comes to marriage partners.

:lol:

[welovetoread]

I was reading James Patterson. ThecWomens Murder Club. I am growing increasingly annoyed with him. I listened to Zoo and it was horrible

[Narrow Gate Academy]

I know I'm joining late, but I'd love to join this group.

 

I'm going to read Five Quarters of the Orange by Joanne Harris for this week. 

Welcome! :seeya: 

 

Love this quote!  Thanks for sharing!

 

Right now I'm suffering from to-many-books syndrome.   :willy_nilly:   I think I have about six books I want to read right this minute, and I can't settle down to a one of them.  *sigh*  What a dilemma.

I'm right there with you.  If I could just get the kids to teach themselves and clean house for a couple of days maybe I could actually make a real dent in my tbr pile.

 

I'm also listening to The Mark of Athena (only my 2nd audio book ever).  I don't know if it's this book or the fact that I'm listening but it's just drivel.  Funny, I enjoyed (not loved) the other ones.  At least I thought I did.  I'm doing that for dd13 as I need to preread the next book in the series to see if she can read it.  

 

Dd13 is reading The Time Machine on her Paperwhite, chosen because it is H.G. Wells and she likes the character H.G. Wells on Warehouse 13.  :laugh:   Surprisingly, she is enjoying it!

I've read through The Mark of Athena last summer.  It took me a little longer to get into that one.  It was OK, but my least favorite of the series so far.  It felt a little disjointed to me in the beginning, and I personally find Piper's character a bit annoying.  It did get better in the second half of the book.  I found The House of Hades much more enjoyable and will read the final book this fall when it comes out.

 

Dd14 couldn't really get into The Time Machine last year but is enjoying The War of the Worlds currently.  All my kids keep asking when the next season of Warehouse 13 starts. 

[shukriyya]

I'm about half way through 'The Shadowy Horses' and enjoying it--again rather a surprise given the fact that I find the writing is only moderately good and there are intimations of a romance building as well as some fairly unimaginative stereotypes. But the story is carrying my interest taking place as it does on the windswept shores of Scotland--love the descriptions of the land. The protagonist, an archaeologist in her thirties, is working for a somewhat eccentric but brilliant boss who has spent his life searching for the resting place of the lost Ninth Roman Legion. He's convinced he's found it for some very unscientific reasons and the story ensues from there. Definitely not my norm for reading.

I'm continuing with Harold Fry though plodding along with him would be more accurate. I find his character depressing, his internal inertia and passivity frustrate me though I suppose the point is the juxtaposition of this passivity with the initiative of his pilgrimage. The premise, I gather, is that he meets various characters along the way of his journey and has his heart and eyes widened, opened. But I feel the hand of the author planting the situations and meetings in a way that detracts from them. Rather than a feeling of serendipity at these comings together I feel a sense of orchestration by the author to create an effect. I will go along a bit more and see if the sun can shine through this but so far I'm not feeling it.

Finally, 'Conference of the Birds' is wonderful. I'm thoroughly enjoying this particular pilgrimage, each of the birds has such resonant qualities. One can so easily find a sense of the personal here despite the feathered, avian bodies. But then what is the soul but a winged breath wanting space and light to unfold it into the untrammeled, widening return that it longs to be.

[Pam in CT]

I loved Single Shard when I read it with my now-19 year old daughter, years ago.  Maybe I'll try to convince my now-10 year old to do it with me  again.

 

I don't think I'll be able to manage another surrealistic Japan novel for a while...  :huh:

[Pam in CT]

Finally, 'Conference of the Birds' is wonderful. I'm thoroughly enjoying this particular pilgrimage, each of the birds has such resonant qualities. One can so easily find a sense of the personal here despite the feathered, avian bodies. But then what is the soul but a winged breath wanting space and light to unfold it into the untrammeled, widening return that it longs to be.

 

I was just looking at this, not more than two hours ago in my library, in a search for Dusty Tomes, not that I need more dust around here.  Were we... talking about it?!  Cuz what're the odds, really.

 

<cue Twilight Zone soundtrack>

[shukriyya]

 

 

Finished the latest Flavia de Luce book, The Dead in Their Vaulted Arches by Alan Bradley. This is one of the few series of books that I have read all of the books. (Usually I don't really like series books.)

 

Alan Bradley does not disappoint in this one. I'm not sure if it is the last Flavia book or not -- a long time ago, I read that there were six books slated for this series. (I do hope he will continue Flavia's adventures....)

 

The characters & story arc have grown throughout the series & I think Bradley saved the best for last. This book is a bit more somber in tone (but still has the fun & intellectual Flavia touches we all know & love) & sets the storyline up in a wholly different manner than I expected. Though more serious, it's still cracking good fun. Bravo.

 

It's a great wrap-up to the series & still a perfect segue into another set of adventures for Flavia should Bradley choose to continue the series. A win-win all the way around. If you're a Flavia fan, this one is a must-read.

 

 

Based on several recs here dc and I will be starting 'The Sweetness at the Bottom of the Pie' this week. I hope it does not disappoint. Dc and I have fairly different tastes in reading so if we can find a place of convergence I'd be delighted.

[shukriyya]

I was just looking at this, not more than two hours ago in my library, in a search for Dusty Tomes, not that I need more dust around here.  Were we... talking about it?!  Cuz what're the odds, really.

 

<cue Twilight Zone soundtrack>

 

I think I mentioned it in one of the previous weeks' threads. Did you end up taking it out?

[Guest]

NM

[trinchick]

 

 

Finished the latest Flavia de Luce book, The Dead in Their Vaulted Arches by Alan Bradley. This is one of the few series of books that I have read all of the books. (Usually I don't really like series books.)

 

Alan Bradley does not disappoint in this one. I'm not sure if it is the last Flavia book or not -- a long time ago, I read that there were six books slated for this series. (I do hope he will continue Flavia's adventures....)

 

The characters & story arc have grown throughout the series & I think Bradley saved the best for last. This book is a bit more somber in tone (but still has the fun & intellectual Flavia touches we all know & love) & sets the storyline up in a wholly different manner than I expected. Though more serious, it's still cracking good fun. Bravo.

 

It's a great wrap-up to the series & still a perfect segue into another set of adventures for Flavia should Bradley choose to continue the series. A win-win all the way around. If you're a Flavia fan, this one is a must-read.

 

 

I loved this one, too. I wondered if it was going to be the last in the series, since it seemed to rest at a decent stopping point, so I did a quick search around. Wikipedia (that most reliable of sources) reports that while the series was originally slated for six books, Bradley has signed on for an additional four. I love that he seems to be sending Flavia on a different path for the next segment of the series.

[shukriyya]

Lunch time!

 

Okay, Behind the Beautiful Forevers: Life, Death, and Hope in a Mumbai Undercity by Katherine Boo.

 

 

 

I still feel like I haven't processed the book thoroughly. I think it is partly because I think the book raises questions that cannot be answered.

 

In many ways this is the best kind of book. Ambiguity, slippery and subtle as silk. To wear that diaphanous fabric with ease is to wade fully into Life.

 

 

[Pam in CT]

I think I mentioned it in one of the previous weeks' threads. Did you end up taking it out?

 

Ah.  It must have seeped into my consciousness, then, if not unto my actual list.

 

No, I didn't take it out, because I decided my list was already too long.

 

But now I've put it on my list!

 

:laugh:

[Pam in CT]

Lunch time!

 

Okay, Behind the Beautiful Forevers: Life, Death, and Hope in a Mumbai Undercity by Katherine Boo.

 

 

I still feel like I haven't processed the book thoroughly. I think it is partly because I think the book raises questions that cannot be answered. I think an even larger part is that I just so cannot even identify with the lives that were described. I have definitely lived quite the sheltered, Western life.

 

A work of non-fiction, Boo actually went to Annawadi, a suburb of Mumbai, and apparently lived among these people for a few years (approx. 2007-2011, I believe) and chronicled their lives through tape recorders, translators, talking with residents (she especially notes how beneficial the children's eyes were), and her own observations. The story she tells follows the lives of a few key people within this "slum" and shows their attempts at rising above. But, the question must be asked, what are they trying to rise above? As her story unfolds, you question - as the characters struggle - are they trying to rise above corruption or is corruption what gets them by?

 

<snip>

 

I felt like another main question she was asking was can these people, who live a life so morally, politically, and financially corrupt have any kind of hope? From a one-legged woman who pours kerosene over herself in what is both a suicide attempt and an opportunity to ruin a neighboring family, to a woman who finds a way to rise above via any means possible, to the family that works attempts an honest living but ends up with three of those family members in prison, being severely beaten - Katherine Boo shows the reader that this kind of horrific lifestyle has not only happened, but that it is current. One of the characters ends up dead due to her morally poor choice. Another character, choosing an equally immoral choice, ends up rising to the very top - in her eyes. So, begs the question, what is hope?

 

<snip>

 

 

"In the age of global market capitalism, hopes and grievances were narrowly conceived, which blunted a sense of common predicament. Poor people didn't unite; they competed ferociously amongst themselves for gains as slender as they were provisional. And this undercity strife created only the faintest ripple in the fabric of the society at large. The gates of the rich, occasionally rattled, remained."

 

I don't know. The book wasn't the best I've ever read, but will it stay with me? Yeah, it's poked me in dusty places and making think about how privileged I am.

 

 

What fabulous insights... I know you've posed them as questions, and feel you're still processing (I sometimes take a verrrrrry long time to work through certain books) but that the book, as you say so wonderfully, "poked" you and sparked the questions is, I think, its own insight.

 

I was talking last night with my kids about both Hunger Games and (ahem) Cloud Atlas (because Stacia made me watch the movie, again) and how both of those books/movies have given us an uneasy poke about the costs to far-away others of the privileges we enjoy.

 

thanks!

[Jane in NC]

What fabulous insights... I know you've posed them as questions, and feel you're still processing (I sometimes take a verrrrrry long time to work through certain books) but that the book, as you say so wonderfully, "poked" you and sparked the questions is, I think, its own insight.

 

I was talking last night with my kids about both Hunger Games and (ahem) Cloud Atlas (because Stacia made me watch the movie, again) and how both of those books/movies have given us an uneasy poke about the costs to far-away others of the privileges we enjoy.

 

thanks!

 

  :smilielol5:

 

Oh that Stacia! Was she going to withhold library privileges until you watched it again?

[Stacia]

  :smilielol5:

 

Oh that Stacia! Was she going to withhold library privileges until you watched it again?

 

Nah, I was going to hire Violent Crown to do my dirty work for me. ;)

 

(For the newbies on here, that typo was my Freudian [?] slip last year to VC once....)

 

P.S. Docking library privileges sounds like an awfully harsh punishment in my book!

[Jane in NC]

Nah, I was going to hire Violent Crown to do my dirty work for me. ;)

 

(For the newbies on here, that typo was my Freudian [?] slip last year to VC once....)

 

P.S. Docking library privileges sounds like an awfully harsh punishment in my book!

 

Cruel and unusual punishment for our gang.

 

But I do like the idea of VC as hit-woman, laying some Thomas Aquinas on us!

[Kareni]

I've been doing some rereading:

 

Oracle's Moon (A Novel of the Elder Races) by Thea Harrison (paranormal romance)

 

Undeniably Yours (The Kowalskis) by Shannon Stacey (contemporary romance)

 

Books 1, 2, and 3 in Pamela Clare's I-Team Series namely Extreme Exposure, Hard Evidence, and Unlawful Contact.  (romantic suspense)

 

I enjoyed them all ... again.

 

Regards,

Kareni

 

 

[Stacia]

...

[Jane in NC]

:svengo:

 

Like this?

 

 

 

Or would we have to actually read it? :blink:

 

:lol:

 

 

I'm envisioning lectures and assignments--or else the book to head bashing as above. She is after all the Violent Crown!

 

ETA:  One would think she would sense that we are talking about her!  :lol:

[Stacia]

ETA:  One would think she would sense that we are talking about her!  :lol:

 

Her internet ears must be burning!

[Pam in CT]

Where do you possibly find these things??!!

 

:svengo:

 

Like this?

 

 

Or would we have to actually read it? :blink:

 

:lol:
 

 

I mean, what exactly did you google?  "Dyed blond gang members in parochial school uniforms bonking each other on the head with Aquinas?"

 

:confused1:

[Pam in CT]

Her internet ears must be burning!

 

Poor Violent!

[Kareni]

ETA:  One would think she would sense that we are talking about her!  :lol:

 

Perhaps she's actually ... gasp ... homeschooling or reading a book!

 

Regards,

Kareni

[Stacia]

Where do you possibly find these things??!!

 

 

I mean, what exactly did you google?  "Dyed blond gang members in parochial school uniforms bonking each other on the head with Aquinas?"

 

:confused1:

 

I think I googled for images of 'hitting with book'. Not many choices came up, but I figured this one would work....

 

:biggrinjester:

[Pam in CT]

I think I googled for images of 'hitting with book'. Not many choices came up, but I figured this one would work....

 

:biggrinjester:

 

Truly, it's a gift, my dear!

[aggieamy]

I'm going to start A Morbid Taste for Bones tonight instead of casually flipping through cookbooks.  I'm in such a reading slump and the best cure for that is to actually read something!

 

When DH is gone for the night I use his side of the bed to pile books I'm reading rather than my nightstand.  I tell him if he ever comes home from a trip and there aren't five or fifteen books scattered on his side of the bed he should start worrying that I'm cheating on him.  

[prairiegirl]

Stacia,  I am happy to hear that you enjoyed the latest Flavia book.  Some of the books were not as good as others and I really wanted this one to be good.  I am also happy to hear that there will be more Flavia to read.  I am just not ready to let her go quite yet. 

 

I finished The Interestings  by Meg Wolitzer.   I did not like it.  It was blah from the beginning but I was hoping it would pick up.  It was a 500 page book, it had to pick up.  No, I guess not.  It was blah from the beginning to the end.  I do not know what the purpose was of this story. 

 

I am now reading  Howards End is on the Landing by Susan Hill.  I think this one will fare better than the one before.

[shukriyya]

I have spent a very enjoyable day reading, knitting and checking out Goodreads, BaW thread and other interesting and *ahem* relevant sites. This all sandwiched in between a long commute to and from home school classes, a quick drive to piano lessons, a trip to the library to pick 'The Sweetness at the Bottom of the Pie', a short grocery shop for chocolate and sushi and supervising music practice.

 

I'm sitting here now sipping some hibiscus kombucha having listened to a spontaneous recorder session from the next room while the player now moves on to the next instrument. The dog is wandering about, the birds are quiet for the night, little heads tucked under little winged dreams, dh is at a meeting and to keep one foot squarely in the realm of the prosaic, a sink full of dishes awaits me. At this time of night I prefer this innovative approach...

 

 

 

[Stacia]

...

[Stacia]

Stacia,  I am happy to hear that you enjoyed the latest Flavia book.  Some of the books were not as good as others and I really wanted this one to be good.  I am also happy to hear that there will be more Flavia to read.  I am just not ready to let her go quite yet. 

 

I finished The Interestings  by Meg Wolitzer.   I did not like it.  It was blah from the beginning but I was hoping it would pick up.  It was a 500 page book, it had to pick up.  No, I guess not.  It was blah from the beginning to the end.  I do not know what the purpose was of this story. 

 

This Flavia book is more somber & is a somewhat different tone than the previous ones. But, I really loved the story & where he's headed with it.... There's a definite evolution there & I'm really excited to see where he goes from here.

 

Glad to know about The Interestings. I had wondered what it would be like.

 

[shukriyya]

Since your dog seems to be free for the moment, maybe...

 

???

 

 

 

:lol:

 

 

The lack of a prehensile thumb could be problematic. Though this cat doesn't seem to find that an issue...

 

 

 

I suspect though that boredom would ensue before the job was done in both instances :lol:

 

[Lakeside]

I finished A Moveable Feast today and I am happy to say that I enjoyed it as much this time as I had hoped I would.  It brought back lovely memories of my time in Paris.  

 

"If you are lucky enough to have lived in Paris as a young man, then wherever you go for the rest of your life, it stays with you, for Paris is a moveable feast." Ernest Hemingway  I think this applies to young women as well. ;)

 

In the spirit of InCoWriMo I started Selected Letters by Madame de Sévigné.  Time will tell if it provides any inspiration!

 

2014 READING LIST

Started This Week

Selected Letters Madame de Sévigné

 

In Progress

The Trojan War Olivia Coolidge

The Hobbit J.R.R. Tolkien

Anne of Avonlea (Read Aloud)

The Complete Stories by Flannery O'Connor

 

Completed

6. A Moveable Feast Ernest Hemingway

5. Rediscover Catholicism Matthew Kelly

4. The Odyssey Homer translated by Robert Fagles

3. A White Bird Flying by Bess Streeter Aldrich

2. Little Men by Louisa May Alcott

1. The Practice of the Presence of God With Spiritual Maxims by Brother Lawrence

[Robin M]

Quite amusing what you can find on Pinterest.  Looked up Italian books and now I'm thinking I need to go find a spaghetti western, preferably with Clint Eastward,  while enjoying some lasagna and Chianti in my garden  and learning how to make appropriate hand  gestures.

 

 

 

Felice Lettura!!!!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[Stacia]

...

[Stacia]

I think we need to go on a field trip to Italy!

 

If you need an antidote book to Under the Tuscan Sun, an Italian book recommendation is Cooking with Fernet Branca. (This is published by Europa Editions, another fave publishing house....)

 

“Provokes the sort of indecorous involuntary laughter that has more in common with sneezing than chuckling. Imagine a British John Waters crossed with David Sedaris.â€â€”The New York Times

Gerald Samper, an effete English snob, has his own private hilltop in Tuscany where he wiles away his time working as a ghostwriter for celebrities and inventing wholly original culinary concoctions––including ice-cream made with garlic and the bitter, herb-based liqueur of the book’s title. Gerald’s idyll is shattered by the arrival of Marta, on the run from a crime-riddled former soviet republic. A series of hilarious misunderstands brings this odd couple into ever closer and more disastrous proximity.

 

ETA: Since I'm obviously no genius in the kitchen, I have to share one of my favorite quotes from this book:

A culinary triumph: the ingenious use of food as an offensive weapon.

 

:laugh:

[shukriyya]

Uhhh. I'm no biology major, but I don't think the dog needs a thumb to lick the plates. ;) :D

 

Of course, I'm not a dog owner either, so what do I know? (Maybe dogs are total wizards in the kitchen!)

 

 

 

:lol:

 

 

Yep, true. However there is the issue of 'residual slime' which contains a certain viscous ingredient that coats the surface of the licked object with a tenacity that boggles the mind  :willy_nilly:

 

That cat on the other lends a certain refinement to the process, those paws seeming to exude an obvious and feline joy.

 

Nevertheless I think the approach of the woman with the power cleaner is the way to go. Clearly she is determined. Her concentration is laudable :smilielol5: