Orchids, a Mystery & French Food - What More Could You Want?

This book says it is fiction. But the subtitle says it all. Deadly Slipper: A Novel of Death in the Dordogne by Michelle Wan, is a great beginning to what will hopefully be a series. The next book is out this month.

This is a well written mystery that explores its surroundings - the Dordogne region of southwestern France, and some of the locals and expats who live there. And then there are the orchids. Yes, I admit the reason I read this, was for the orchids, but they are a important part of the search for the missing hiker who disappeared 19 years ago.

The leads are Mara - a twin who is obsessed with her sister's disappearance, and Julian the orchidologst that she gets to help her with her quest. She has a series of photos of what appear to be the last roll of film that her sister took. Can Julian identify the orchids and the landmarks in the shots? And what about those stories of other missing women?

Wan gives us intimate details of the countryside, and has us peeking in to the lives of the villagers and along the way - the reader gets to savor the local bistro's menu. I am eagerly awaiting the next book!

What do we really know about Shakespeare?

Will in the World: How Shakespeare Became Shakespeare by Stephen Greenblatt, is one of those biographies that truly change the way you think about the subject. Everyone thinks they know a bit about Shakespeare, but what do we really? The imaginings of various 19th and 18th century biographers? The myths? The rumors that it was "really someone else" who wrote all those plays? (Let me be fair and declare that to be bunk in my opinion - straight away here!) Greenblatt takes the latest known scholarship and turns it into readable prose that attempts to dig away at the secrets of Shakespeare.

He gives us the Catholic background of Will's family, and their lives in a Protestant world. And Greenblatt manages to explain how this religious struggle effected the way Shakespeare viewed the world.

The details of Shakespeare's fellow playwrights and what everybody was reading at that time, is very fascinating when you discover that Will had a habit of borrowing bits and pieces from all over the place as he was perfecting his style.

Some of the conclusions may be conjecture, but until we find something else - meet Mr. Wm. Shakespeare - actor, playwright, and gentleman.

Julia and Her Love Affair with France

I don't remember watching Julia Child regularly (that was in my pre-Food Network obsession days,) but when I did, it was just as much fun - to watch her in action as it was to see what was cooking. And when I had the pleasure of seeing her kitchen at the Smithsonian - yes, they have the whole thing!- it was interesting to realize what a true pioneer she was. If you want to recapture the essence of Julia then try the book, My Life in France by Julia Child and her grandnephew Alex Prud'homme. Her voice and enthusiasm come across loud and clear.

Julia had quite a few adventures before becoming a cooking goddess. She went with her husband Paul to Paris in 1948, when he got posted there for his government job. And there she discovered Paris and French food. She got started at Le Cordon Bleu, made friends with future collaborator Simone Beck, and discovered the job of sharing her cooking techniques. And if that were not enough, the Childs got posted to Germany and Norway and got involved with McCarthy politics, as the senator attempted to "clean up" the government. All that and she wrote a monumental cookbook too! What a life!

Discover the joy of Julia once again! Bon Appetit!

And if you want to try her famous French cookbook vicariously, try Julie and Julia: 365 Days, 524 Recipes, 1 Tiny Apartment Kitchen by Julie Powell. A thirty-something's culinary challenge, and obsession with Julia and the art of French cooking. Pretty funny writer and an equal part of this book is about life and how to live it, and yes - food.

Sweet Poison - Sayers read alike

Read alikes. This is a library term for books that remind one of, have similar topics of, or the same writing style as other well known books and authors. Sometimes these reading suggestions work, sometimes not - it really depends on what qualities the original book/author/story has for you, the reader. In this case I just finished Gaudy Night and had gotten the read alike suggestion of reading the David Roberts' mystery series featuring Edward Cornith and Verity Brown. The first book in the series is Sweet Poison.

Is it Sayers? - No. But is it good? Yes. Roberts' focuses on the same time period 1930's England, and has a male and female lead characters that are working together to solve murders. Roberts actually has a good grasp of the complicated politics that England went through before WWII. Most popular stuff glosses over the fact that there were communists and fascists throughout English society before the war. Many folks did not think Hitler was that bad. Yeah - they don't like to mention that - a bit of embarrassment, really. Regardless, Roberts make the story interesting by having Edward as the aristocrat and Verity is the middle class, communist journalist and in 1935 politics are all over the place and contribute to the tension surrounding the murder.

This book has the classic murder at the grand estate, but after that it shows the much grittier - "real" side of that time period. It wasn’t all glitter and bright young things. Politically, people were still sorting out what it meant to be a communist and how these ideals would play out on the world stage. And the author shares my theory of communism at that time - which if you have ever read Doris Lessing - communism seems like a better system for men than women.

Verity and Edward make a great team, and I look forward to their other adventures…

The Fixer-Upper

Judith Arnold's The Fixer-Upper is a great "real" contemporary romance. The set-up is this. Libby - a divorcee with a teenager - is a private school admissions director in NYC. She gets an application from a youngster himself - Eric. In a world where parents send her massive boxes of chocolates and the kids have taken every lesson known to man, this kid stands out. She wants to meet this applicant. Eric finally mentions to his dad, Ned, a widower, that he has applied. Ned goes in to meet the admissions director and likes what he sees. Ned is an architect - but has just moved to NYC to work in rehabing and restoration. He ends up seeing Libby's pre world war II apartment and offers to strip the battered but potentially beautiful fireplace.

You will fall in love with the characters because they feel like people you might know. Libby's ex's family hangs around - she claims she got them in the divorce - and her ex is around too. Ned and Eric have problems adjusting to the new city and being without their former family support. Libby's daughter is thirteen, smart and her current fascination is with a street musician she discovered with her girlfriends. And Libby is dealing with the fact that her apartment is going condo! And she starts to question herself, is Ned is just seeing her so that Eric can get into school?

Arnold writes very well developed characters and they have everyday problems - from the problems of dating as a single parents, trying to put the kids first even when it may threaten the relationship, and to learning to move on with one's dreams. Again, Arnold has written a winner. Very enjoyable characters that you will root for!

A Classic Rereading - Gaudy Night

Every so often, one must reread a book to see if it is indeed as good or great as you have remembered. Or maybe you are going to the movie and want a refesher on how the book really is better. Or in this case a play. I just finished Gaudy Night by Dorothy L. Sayers. I can not remember how many times I have reread it, but each time I get something else out of it. It still is a mystery in the Lord Peter Wimsey series, but mostly with Harriet Vane and not so much Lord Peter. The book still assumes that everyone has taken Latin and knows where all the starting chapter quotations are from. And there is that annoying Latin bit at the very end of the story - that no matter how many times I have had it translated - it does not satisfy me. But get past all that, and there is a story of the love of scholarship and a university setting. Education for education's sake. And a bit of a mystery tossed in for good measure.

Sayers was a scholar herself - Dante - and this book shows her love of the place that got her started - Oxford. And who doesn't remember their college days as sometimes wondrous and brain expanding times (knowledge - folks, not drugs!) The feeling that you have just been shown/taught the concept that runs the rest of the world or, that will become your personal mantra, is a feeling that is suppressed when you have been out of academia for awhile in the "real world." Perhaps that is why so many people choose academia?

Harriet Vane and Sayers get caught up in the questions that are still being debated over 100 years since women have been admitted to higher education. Should a woman have a career or a family? What will higher education do to her place in the world? What would Sayers think - she being in the group of the women graduates that first went to Oxford- of today's graduates? The irony is that in 2006, more women are going to college than men. Now if we can figure the rest of it out...

Enjoy the read.

What if you're the normal one in the family?

Cathie Linz's book, Good Girls Do, is a contemporary romance that asks the question - what if you're the "normal" one in the family? Julia is enjoying the small town life as the local librarian, when her mother, sister and niece move in. Her wandering mother is an hippie/new ager, her sister is the wild one of the family- following in mom's footsteps, and her niece - well let's just say she's not a average kid. And then she meets the former bad boy of the town - Luke who comes back to take over his dead dad's bar. Julia has spent a lifetime trying to recover from a chaotic childhood and enjoys being part of this settled community. Luke has had a crummy childhood and it not sure he wants to come back to the place he started from. Julia and Luke both learn about each other and a bit of perspective on their pasts and how they fit in the community. Fun read, nice twist on the characters- worth a look. Hope the sequel with the sister is just as good.

Various mysteries - Wedding Planners & Edwardians

And now it it time for some mysteries...

Deborah Donnelly has created a great character in wedding planner Carnegie Kincaid. Her latest in the series is You May Now Kill the Bride. This mystery is set in in Puget Sound's San Juan Islands with Carnegie trying to arrange the wedding of her best friend. Carnegie sounds like a great wedding planner (having been a professional bridesmaid, she rings true to me...) who just has a problem with corpses falling in her path. Her best friend's future husband is a cop so that helps with the current batch of deaths, and she has a great cast of characters surrounding her - the on and off again boyfriend, the ex military man for a secretary/assistant and her mom who is thinking of remarrying. I have not read the past ones in the series, but am looking forward to exploring/reading those. A good read which falls into the "read it for character - not a intense and intricate plot" - mystery.

-----

Having a historical setting for a mystery series can backfire - especially if the author does not do their research. The Edwardian England mystery series by Marion Chesney is a nice glimpse into the past. Marion Chesney is another writing name for M.C. Beaton who has written several other series. This series is about Lady Rose Summer and Captain Harry Cathcart. The latest book is Our Lady of Pain. Again the emphasis is on the characters, before concentrating on the mystery.

This is the fourth book in the series and Chesney is continuing to develop the relationship between the two leads. Lady Rose, who her father claims is over educated and that is why she is not getting any marriage offers, is now in a engagement with Cathcart - because otherwise her parents were going to send her to India. Cathcart, who is a veteran of the Boer war is trying to create a business of his private investigations. Rose and Harry like each other, but their timing seems off in their relations with each other, and their status in this society keeps causing misunderstandings. The other fun characters are Daisy - the dance hall girl/maid that Rose has taught to become her assistant/chaperone, and Superintendent Kerridge of Scotland Yard, a man of the people, who is not a fan of the aristocracy.

If the bodies and cases don't get in the way, Rose and Harry may prosper yet! Start with the first in the series - Snobbery with Violence. A fast & fun series.

Behind the Scenes in a Professional Kitchen

Addicted to the Food Network? Always wanted to be a chef? Been dreaming about finding out about the action behind the scenes of a three star restaurant kitchen? Read Heat: An Amateur's Adventures as a Kitchen Slave, Line Cook, Pasta-Maker, and Apprentice to a Dante-Quoting Butcher in Tuscany by Bill Buford. Buford is a writer with the New Yorker magazine who was curious about what kind of cook he would be in a professional kitchen. He met Mario Batali, and the opportunity arose to work in the kitchen of Babbo, Batali's three star restaurant in New York City. This begins a series of apprenticeships that Buford takes on to expand his culinary knowledge of Italian cooking.

Buford starts at the bottom as a prep cook - cutting, dicing and more cutting and moves up the line, eventually to the grill and the pasta station. He writes really well and you join him in his fascination on why things work in a kitchen, and why things don't. The events taking place at Babbo, become a drama with characters that travel through the entire book.

His culinary explorations are interesting as well - did you know that polenta was originally made from barley? And polenta can cause a vitamin deficiency - if it is the ONLY thing that you eat? He tries to get at the heart of what Batali learned in Italy about cooking - and goes to some of Batali's teacher's to learn with them. While in Italy, Buford trains with a pasta maker and butcher to learn the their art of Italian food. And he comes to realize the differences between the small restaurateur/home cook of the Italian regions and the variations that Batali has made for the fancier New York City restaurant customer.

This is a great book and well written. He gives you some knowledge of Italian cooking, a background on Mario Batali, the ins and outs of a busy restaurant kitchen and he makes you think twice about ordering in a restaurant after 10:00 pm! Enjoy.