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12
Dec

#Non-fiction The Figure of the Detective

  • Author: Charles Brownson
  • Title: The Figure of the Detective
  • Published: 2014  (216 pg)
  • Purchased: 30 April, 2015
  • Genre: non-fiction
  • Monthly plan
  • #MountTBR Challenge  (01/100)

 

  1. Why is the figure of a detective a cultural icon?
  2. It emerged from a culture of mass literacy, popular media and class difference.

 

  1. How is the existence and changes in the this genre driven by social change?
  2. The genre is driven by PUBLIC TASTE and the reader’s changed values.

 

  1. How has the genre changed?
  2. The classic English detective (cozy, rural settings)
  3. Noir —> morally dark, streaked with emotion and violence
  4. Noir had a short life and the genre broke down into several forms:
  5. Hard-boiled (urban setting)  anti-Hero in a world of Black-and-Gray Morality.
  6. Spys,  Thrillers and
  7. Neoclassic (mixture Hammett’s/Chandler’s hard-boiled and the spy story)

 

  1. Why does the detective story at particular times such a popular broad appeal?
  2. The task of investigation and resolution is comforting!’

 

  1. Why are we entertained by the reading about detective that is beyond simple entertainment?
  2. The essence of success is CF’s  recipe for production
  3. …able to supply readers with more of the same.

 

  1. How does this long-lived, very popular and important sort of fiction work?
  2. A feel good plot intended to assure people that truth is knowable.

 

Personal notes:

  1. One of the first books I can remember was the series of Nancy Drew Mysteries.
  2. I was  probably enticed to read them b/c my name is also Nancy!
  3. But I read all the books and played the ND mystery board game constantly.
  4. I want to discover what the attraction was…
  5. …why I was so enthralled with this series, the detective genre.
  6. Result: it seems even at that young age I was thrilled as
  7. …the pages flew by, justice got done and
  8. …the bad people got what was coming to them!

 

Least interesting chapters:  nr 2, 6, 7 (…the book fizzled out)

  1. Sherlock Holmes…not my kind of detective.
  2. Mr. Brownson…was too long-winded, philosophical in
  3. …the last two chapters.
  4. There were just a few examples mentioned of neo-classic detectives.

 

What can a detective story be about?

  1. False accusations
  2. False identity
  3. Murder
  4. Dangers of love
  5. Strong feeling of class
  6. Locked-room mystery – the thrill of setting up a fiendish crime,
  7. and challenging the reader to solve it. (puzzle)
  8. 21st C the reader is tired of puzzles.
  9. Readers demand rounded characters and plots with some
  10. Psychological complexity, a dash of fate and
  11. a whiff of uncertain self-knowledge on the part of the detective.
  12. In fact  many of these features are found in literary novels!

 

How has CF  changed?

  1. Greatest change is the advancements in science and technology!
  2. Plot changes are required from the “classic detective”.
  3. Now we are confronted with computers,
  4. …DNA forensics and digital communications (cell-phones).
  5. Police/detectives have a private life and it is an integral part of the CF novel.

 

How do detectives work?

  1. The detective does not  discover anything.
  2. It is revealed to him when he presses in the right place.
  3. Confessons (..sometimes forced!)  (Mr. Gryce, Anna Green’s books)
  4. Evidence to validate claims
  5. Deduction (aka cool knowledge)  (Holmes)
  6. Smoke out the true villain…by pointing to an innocent person as  the killer.
  7. NOT looking at the subject of interest (Gryce, Bucket, Cuff, Lecoq)
  8. Disguises (Lecoq)
  9. “The soft walk”  to lull criminals into a false sense of security by playing dumb  (Colombo)
  10. Colombo: “…Just one last thing.”
  11. “Using the little gray cells” (clues and speculation) (Poirot)
  12. Poirot: ” Ah, mon ami! How could I have been so stupid”
  13. Psychological investigations  (aka warm knowledge)
  14. …observes from a distance (Maigret)
  15. Maigret: “Comprendre et ne pas juger”

 

Conclusion:

  1. The book did spark my interest in reading CF.
  2. I enjoyed reading how the detective genre evolved
  3. …driven by social change.
  4. Good book to browse through if you
  5. …see it in the library.
  6. I’m sure there are better reference books out there!
4
Dec

#Kindle TBR …out of control!

  1. According to my KINDLE I have 1352 unread books.
  2. If I want to bring this number down to zero
  3. …I would  have to read 10 books a month for the next 11 years!
  4. It is time to join Bev’s challenge Mount TBR 2022
  5. @MyReadersBlock
  6. You can participate on her blog or via her Goodreads group!
  7. I think the ONLY challenge I will be joining in 2022 is
  8. Goodreads Mount TBR  2022
  9. Challenge runs from January 1 to December 31, 2022
  10. The link provides ALL the information  you need to…
  11. Choose a level,
  12. Open a topic under one of the challenge level folders
  13. Name your climb.
  14. Reviews are optional!
  15. …you can link to the GR bookpage
  16. …use a number score:  i.e.  4/5 stars
  17. (leave a short comment….or not.)
  18. …you can link to your blog review
  19. This gives me the freedom to only review
  20. …EXCELLENT  books I’ve read on my blog.

 

Last thoughts:

  1. I will use the month of December to
  2. plan my 2022 reading
  3. remove books I WILL NEVER  read from my Kindle.
  4. I will update  my progress on twitter with
  5. #MountTBR2022
  6. It is time to prepare for 2022
  7. …before the Xmas Holidays
  8. …get in the way.

 

UPDATE: 06.12.2021

  1. It took me 2 days to look through 1352 books on  my Kindle and
  2. select 300 I need to read.
  3. I had to be savage and permanently deleted some books
  4. …I will NEVER  read.
  5. January 2022:  total 51 books selected
  6. …all purchased in 2015!!
  7. Let’s see how many I can read!

 

Levels from TBR:

  1. Pike’s Peak: Read 12 books
  2. Mount Blanc: Read 24 books
  3. Mt. Vancounver: Read 36 books
  4. Mt. Ararat: Read 48 books from
  5. Mt. Kilimanjaro: Read 60 books
  6. El Toro*: Read 75 books
  7. Mt. Everest: Read 100 books = goal
  8. Mount Olympus (Mars): Read 150+ books
3
Dec

#Play Ayad Aktar Pulitzer Prize 2013 Drama

  • Playwright:  Ayad Akhtar (1970)
  • Title: Disgraced
  • Genre: play (1 act; 4 scenes)
  • Opening night: January 2012
  • Trivia: Nominated  Tony Award for Best Play 2015
  • Trivia:  Winner Pulitzer Prize Drama 2013
  • Monthly reading plan
  • #ReadDiversely 2021

 

Quickscan:

Quote from The Economist:

  • Akhtar’s tales of assimilation
  • “are as essential today as the work of
  • Saul Bellow, James Farrell, and Vladimir Nabokov
  • were in the 20th century
  • …in capturing the drama of the immigrant experience.“

 

  1. Well, this gives you an idea where Ayad Aktar stands compared
  2. to the great writers of the 20th C!
  3. A Pulitzer Prize winning play
  4. …always needs to be researched before reading.
  5. I discovered so much that otherwise would have passed me by

 

  1. Character development: fury –> rage –> violence  (Amir, Isaac)
  2. Characters represent different parts of society:
  3. Amir:  Pakistani muslim lawyer; apostate, abandons Islam
  4. Isaac: Jewish  museum curator; defends Judaism, Israel
  5. Emily: American privileged artist (wife Amir); fervently embraces Islamic art
  6. Abe: Pakistani muslim (nephew Amir); zealot;  uncompromising belief in Islam
  7. Jory: African-American lawyer (wife Isaac) objects to misogynistic Islam
  8. Plot: Volatile combination of characters at dinner party
  9. …that needs just a spark to explode (read play and discover spark!)
  10. Timeline: opening scene, 2 weeks later (SC2), 3 months later (SC3), 6 months later (SC 4)
  11. Location: Amir and Emily’s apartment, East Side New York City
  12. Spin-in-the-web:  Islamic faith, it connects all the actors
  13. Themes: Islamophobia  – racism – tribalism

 

Strong point:  literary device dramatic irony

  1. Aktar arranges the dialogue and exit/entrances of characters 
  2. so  the audience knows more
  3. …than the character they are watching on stage!
  4. #Classic way to create tension and suspense

 

Strong point:  title  “Disgraced”

  1. The title “Disgraced” is the core message of the play.
  2. What it feels like….and what people do as reaction.
  3. Amir learn about 3 shocks in his life:
  4. back round check at law-firm, wife’s affair,
  5. …NO promotion as full partner at work
  6. He feels “disgraced”.
  7. What happens?
  8. Amir reacts with “kick-the-dog effect.”
  9. Anger and frustration leads him to lash out at innocent people….

 

Conclusion:

  1. I’m trying to read 50 Best Plays of the last 100 years.
  2. But there are many plays in the 21st C that are not on this list.
  3. I expect Disgraced to be one on the best of the 2000s
  4. I don’t see many “plays” on reading lists.
  5. Try to think of a play as a “surgically crafted” novella
  6. …extremely accurate and precise.

1
Dec

#Novella Passing

 

Quick scan:

  1. Irene Redfield, a light-skinned African American woman
  2. …prominent member of the Harlem community,
  3. receives a letter from an old friend named Clare Kendry.
  4. Clare is light-skinned, but, unlike Irene,
  5. …Clare has decided to pass as white
  6. …and to make matters more complicated
  7. …is married to a wealthy racist white man.
  8. Their reunion is tense.

 

Conclusion:

  1. Larsen’s works are often classified as “uplift novels,”
  2. the purpose of which was to persuade educated white readers
  3. that the black middle class was, in fact, not unlike them.
  4. There was no need to discriminate against such obviously civilized people.
  5. There are  many kinds of secrets,
  6. …from unspoken feelings and
  7. …quiet anxieties to hushed-up affairs in this small book!
  8. This novella is absolutely worth your reading time
  9. ….3 hrs and you have finished 176 pg of excellent writing!
  10. Strong point: Love the small twist
  11. …Ms Larsen bookends her novella ( part 1 ch 1 -> part 4 ch 4)
  12. See if you can discover how she did it!
  13. Now…time to watch the Netflix version of “Passing” (2021)
  14. with Tessa Thompson and Ruth Negga

 

29
Nov

#AusReadingMonth 2021 Wrap-up post

  1. It has been a long summer…
  2. filled with climate change events COP26  (fires, hurricanes, floods)
  3. ….USA finally ending a 20 yr war….(…exit was messy)
  4. ….battle to control Covid #DeltaVariant  and now
  5. …a new #OmicronVariant continues!!
  6. I always look forward to #AusReadingMonth2021
  7. @bronasbooks (This Reading Life)
  8. ….and want to thank her for doing a wonderful
  9. …job hosting and reviewing!

 

 For #AusReadingMonth2021 I read:

  1. Coda – Thea Astley (1994) (novella)  REVIEW
  2. The Year of Living Dangerously – ( 224 pg) Chris Koch (1978)  REVIEW 
  3. Vertigo: A Novella – (144 pg) Amanda Lohrey (2008) (novella)  REVIEW
  4. The Newspaper of Claremont Street – Elizabeth Jolley (1981) (novella)  REVIEW
  5. Tea and Sympathetic Magic – Tansy Rayner Roberts (novella)  REVIEW
  6. I’m Ready Now – (156 pg) Nigel Featherstone (novella)  REVIEW
  7. Australian Food – Bill Grannger  2020  REVIEW (cookbook)
  8. Always Add Lemon – Danielle Alvarez  REVIEW (cookbook)
  9. In Praise of Veg – Alice Zaslavsky  REVIEW (cookbook)
  10. Basics to Brillance – Donna Hay (398 pg) 2017 REVIEW (cookbook)

 

28
Nov

#AusReadingMonth21 Always Add Lemon

  • Author: Danielle Alvarez
  • Title: Always Add Lemon
  • Published: 2020
  • Trivia: Danielle Alvarez is the chef behind Sydney restaurant Fred’s.
  • Monthly reading plan
  • #NonFicNov 2021
  • #AusReadingMonth2021 @bronasbooks
  • #AWW 2021

 

Quick Scan:

  • Of all the cookbooks I review for #AusReadingMonth 2021
  • Danielle Alvarex is the chef with the most impressive credentials!
  • Born to a food-loving Cuban family in Miami.
  • She trained at some of the most prestigious restaurants in California:
  • The French Laundry, then Boulettes Larder and finally Chez Panisse.
  • She brought these culinary talents with her to Sydney in 2016.
  • Ms Alvarez asked her to head up and design the kitchen the new  restaurant, Fred’s.

 

Conclusion:

  • Ms Alvarez sets the cooking bar very high!
  • I thought I would dip into her book and select a recipe and have
  • ….a meal quickly on the table.
  • Little did I know, the author expects the reader to be a bit more serious!
  • The book is full of beautiful, culinary inspiration,
  • …but I found the recipes somewhat unapproachable.
  • I became anxious just thinking of cooking Ms Alvarez’s suggestions.
  • There are so many ways to go wrong.
  • Funny, I am the only one in the kitchen…and eating my food
  • …but still I feel judged (by myself) when I create a disaster.
  • Looking at the photo’s of perfect food….by a master chef
  • …intimidates me.

 

Personal Challenge:

  • At first glance ….these recipes look  a little too time-consuming.
  • They feel more suited for a restaurant professional.
  • The language felt complicated, ingredients that I had to look
  • up in the culinary dictionary!
  • Every time I decided to cook
  • something I was discouraged halfway reading the instructions!
  • I put the book away for weeks….just postponing the inevitable.

 

Results:

  • Section: salads (17 recipes) I’m making the first 7 salads.
  • As you can see many ingredients are not available for this mere mortal
  • …and that is what makes many delicious recipes feel “unapproachable”
  • I will improvise and do my best!

 

  1. Beetroot (yellow) – persimmons (not available)  – feta, honey, pistachio nuts and
  2. Aleppo chili flakes ( not available..use ordinary flakes)

 

  1. Update: 
  2. Best replacement or persimmon is a peach or nectarine.
  3. It is Autumn and…these fruits are NOT is season.
  4. I just used thinly sliced oranges.
  5. Yellow beets..who would have thought!
  6. My first attempt at Danielle Alvarez’s (top-chef) starters in
  7. …her book Always Add Lemon.
  8. No persimmon in my neck of the woods
  9. …so I just used thinly sliced oranges.
  10. This salad takes planning but is delicious.
  11. You would easily pay 12-15 euro for this starter in a restaurant

 

  1. Fig and goat’s curd salad – smokey paprika vinaigrette
  2. (ingredient for dressing pimentón de La Vera dulce….not available)
  3. Tomato salad with sumac, onions, tahini yoghurt (not avaliable...
  4. I’ll make it with yogurt and sesame paste) – fennel
  5. Tomato and fried crouton salad with olive oil packed tinned tuna – capers
  6. Cucumbers with mustard vinaigrette and dille
  7. Belgian Endive (…radicchio (not available) with bagna cuda
  8. (Ms Alvarez raves about this dipping sauce) and walnut oil
  9. Zucchini with mint, lemon and bottarga
  10. (not available…and it is just as well, sounds vile, see Google)

 

Strong point:

  • The book is a well-made beautiful book
  • …feels luxurious with high quality paper.
  • So impressed the images that I’ll add the links to the
  • photographer Benito Martin
  • stylist Jessica Johnson
  • …just take a look at their portfolio’s ….creative genius!

 

Update:

Pg 16:  How to dress a salad – Chardonnay and honey vinaigrette

  1. I have NO chardonnay or sherry vinegar.
  2. Substitute:  balsamic vinagar
  3. Substitute: Listau Sherry ….made with grapes grown in the Jerez area of Spain.
  4. Lustau sherry is the industry’s gold standard
  5. … a sweet sherry from Pedro Ximenz grapes.
  6. Jury:  unanimous vote…this is a keeper!
  7. Lessons learned: 
  8. I did not know that a salad dressing should marinate 15 min before using!
  9. Always use just-washed hands (not tongs)…you need to feel the dressing coating the leaves!
  10. Taste….more salt? ….more honey?….more vinegar?
  11. Different salad leaves require different amounts of dressing
  12. …bitter radiicchio needs more dressing/salt
  13. …delicate leaf like arugula (rucloa) wants smallest amount of dressing
  14. …gentle touch just to coat them.

 

Update: 

  1. Ms Alvarez challenges me again on pg 17 “Salsa Verde”.
  2. Original recipe was too salty for me (capers and anchovies).
  3. If I make this again I would reduce the acid (vinagar or lemon juice) and oil by half!
  4. I would use 1/2 amount of  the “salty elements”
  5. ..and drain the shallots of vinegar and only
  6. add the shallots to the condiment.
  7. I froze  1 TB portions to be thawed in the fridge…worked perfectly.
  8. I TB is thawed within 5 mi…and I used it mixed
  9. into my mashed potatoes!
  10. Jury: Lovely burst of flavor, dille, chives, honey and parsely.

 

27
Nov

#AusReadingMonth 2021 Cookbook nr 3

  • Author: Alice Zaslavsky
  • Title: In Praise of  Veg
  • Published: 2020
  • Monthly reading plan
  • #NonFicNov 2021
  • #AusReadingMonth2021 @bronasbooks
  • #AWW 2021

 

Award:

  • In Praise of Veg won the 2021 ABIA (@abia_awards)
  • …for the best non-fiction illustrated book.
  • This award is voted on by members of the publishing industry.
  • The longlist is selected by a group of 250 publishers and book-sellers
  • The winner is decided on by an esteemed panel of experts.

 

Quick Scan:

  • 50 favorite vegetable varieties, offering 150+ recipes.
  • The book is  filled with countless tips on flavor combinations,
  • rule-of-thumb buying/storing/cooking methods,
  • shortcuts, and veg wisdom from over 50 of the world’s top chefs.
  • Strong point: Very Educational
  • ...and I thought I knew enough about veggies…but I learned so much

 

Conclusion:

  • After reading  Basics to Brillance by Donna Hay….on black paper
  • …this book is a joy to open!
  • The book is 70% reading….and 30% recipes.
  • Weak point: recipes lacked imagination….
  • I had the feeling I’d read these cooking suggestions in other books!
  • I did find some very good tips about storing veggies and herbs
  • …but the recipes were a big disappointment.
  • Strong point:  book is a visual delight!
  • Within the pages of In Praise of Veg, the recipes  are refreshingly grouped
  • …together according to the color of each vegetable.
  • Strong point: book is about vegetables but NOT purely plant-based
  • Ms Zaslavsky says:  “… it is a “plant-forward” source of inspiration.”
  • The premise is… “to start with veg and build a dish around it”.
26
Nov

#Fiction Jason Mott Winner Nat Book Award 2021

 

Quick Scan:

  1. Hell of a  Book goes to the heart of racism,
  2. police violence, and the hidden costs
  3. exacted upon Black Americans
  4. …and America as a whole.

 

Conclusion:

  1. Tight, intimate, imaginative,
  2. prescient, and completely heart wrenching…
  3. This book has taught me so much and there are things
  4. I’m ashamed of saying I never stopped to think about
  5. …how life can be for an outsider
  6. in a white supremacist land like USA.
  7. This book is brilliant as a talking point on what
  8. is white privilege and
  9. how are many white Americans STILL denying
  10. …that racism exists.
  11. My, God…read this book!

 

25
Nov

#AusReadingMonth 2021 Cookbook nr 2

 

Backround:

  1. Bill Granger is very famous in Australia.
  2. Granger was born to a vegetarian mother and a
  3. father who worked as a butcher.
  4. He lives with his wife Natalie Elliott and their three daughters.
  5. Strong point: the dedication in the book is just so beautiful:
  6. “For Natalie”
  7. Her name might not be above the door,
  8. but the door would never open without her.”

 

  1. With eighteen restaurants around the world, Bill Granger has spread
  2. the Aussie way of dining far beyond the beaches of Sydney.
  3. There are 5 photo’s of Bill in the book
  4. …how approachable he looks and
  5. …how handsome padding across the beach in his bare feet.
  6. Bill’s crinkly smile is infectious…he makes me believe I can really cook!
  7. I was surprised he is photographed with a coffee and newspaper
  8. instead of a huge glass of wine in the kitchen…like me.

 

  1. Sydney-style avo toast, was popularized by
  2. Australian chef-restaurateur Bill Granger,
  3. whose early 90s version…toast, mashed avocado, lime, salt, chilli flakes
  4. …has since taken over the world.

 

Conclusion:

  1. Weak point:  font used in the index is too small…or my eyes are too old
  2. Strong point:  I made 1 recipe from each section except BBQ.
  3. I was introduced to at least 8 ingredients I never used before.
  4. This was because Bill Granger makes many Asian influenced dishes…all new to me!
  5. This aspect of the book makes it so exciting to cook with Bill Granger.

Update: 20.11.2021

  1. Leave it to Bill to come up with
  2. …the answer to my “Christmas Party” prayers!
  3. I’m hosting a 4 course Christmas dinner for friends.
  4. I love wine with my food….but don’t want to send the guests home
  5. and have them washing the wine and champagne out of their hair the next day
  6. …along with a hangover.
  7. So..Bill gave me  the Negroni Spritz on page 174 (Australian Food).
  8. I’ve modified it to replace:
  9. 100 ml wine –> cold water
  10. 30 ml vermouth –>   juice of one lemon
  11. ice cubes, curl of lemon peel and 40 ml Campari
  12. …small squeeze honey if you like a bit of sweetness!
  13. Absolutely a visual refreshing delight in a wine glass!
24
Nov

#NonFicNov 2021 week 4

Week 4: (November 22-26) – Stranger Than Fiction with Christopher at Plucked from the Stacks: This week we’re focusing on all the great nonfiction books that *almost* don’t seem real. A sports biography involving overcoming massive obstacles, a profile on a bizarre scam, a look into the natural wonders in our world—basically, if it makes your jaw drop, you can highlight it for this week’s topic.

 

My choice are: 

 

Atomic Thunder by Elizabeth Tynan (2018)

 

 

  1. Between 1956 and 1963, the United Kingdom conducted
  2. seven nuclear tests at the Maralinga site in South Australia,
  3. The atomic weapons test series wreaked havoc on Indigenous communities.
  4. It  turned the land into a radioactive wasteland.
  5. In 1950 Australian PM  Robert Menzies agreed to atomic tests
  6. …and left the public completely in the dark.
  7. It is the uncovering of the extensive secrecy around the British tests in Australia
  8. ….and many years after the British had departed, leaving an unholy mess behind.
  9. Elizabeth Tynan has brought together a vast array of detail in this book
  10. …that just made my jaw drop!
  11. #MustRead nonfiction
  12. REVIEW

 

————————————————————————-

 

Book nr 2:

Adani:   Following Its Dirty Footprint   by Lindsay Simpson

REVIEW
 

  1. Another JAW-DROPPING  non-fiction book
  2. that is SO  relevant today thinking about COP26 and
  3. the dangers of climate change.
  4. Absolutely disgusting….what is happening in Australia!
  5. Adani’s license to mine 60 million tonnes of coal for 60 years
  6. threatens Australia’s precious ancient source of groundwater
  7. …in the Galillee Basin, a vast underground water reservoir,
  8. part of the Great Artesian Basin, occupying more than 20% of Australia.

 

 

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