Category: Books

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StepFord Files

1970’s literary departure. Robertson Davies’ Fifth Business. The first of his Deptford Trilogy. Pre-WW I through WW II, the evolution of small-town Canadians’ intertwined lives. Sullen narrative with prosaic nuggets.

MarchVanityFair. Rupert Murdoch’s ex-Wendi Deng story. Riveting. Scientology scion wife mystery. Intriguing. How does General Hospital get away with calling its resident nut house ‘Miscavige Hospital for the Criminally Insane’? Hilarious.

Downton finale. Already? SoapOpera digested. Mary has become insufferable as she commands her two suitors to spar for her hand. At least she didn’t spill the beans on Bates. An uneven season ends with royal romance, avenged violation, new baby on the landscape. The Levinson’s tour portends tremors to come. Hughes-Carson liaison doesn’t quite resonate. We wait for Barrow’s next move.

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2013

GOOD

FoxSports1- Reege Crowd Goes Wild
Game of Thrones– Red Wedding
Hotel Giraffe
Gramercy Tavern, Da Silvano
MadDad Photo Contest- Side Trek
Joey3Sticks- 50 Clambake
Book of Mormon, Motown
Fabritius’ Goldfinch at the Frick

BAD

Carnival (Ted) Cruz
Phippy wins British Open
Boston Marathon Djokers
Trayvon Martin jury
Carlos’ undangerous Weiner

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Tartt Tale

Dickens meets Nietzsche meets Dostoyevsky in Donna Tartt’s third novel. Fabritius’ The Goldfinch, is the masterpiece of this tale. It becomes young Theodore Decker’s only glimmer of light as his life is blown to smithereens one afternoon at the Metropolitan Museum post- 9/11. As fate fractures, the tethered finch on a shelf foretells shackles of guilt and self-loathing.

Full review on TrekBooks. Painting at The Frick Collection thru Jan 19. DutchMasters. No. Not the cigars.

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AmaZone

L Tryptophan lingering. It’s December? People are already putting up trees. Lights lining houses. Wreaths on doors. Hanukkah is over. Christmas shopping? Everyone is abuzz about Bezos’ drone delivery idea. NYTimes‘ Dowd says it’s faster to go to the store. I disagree. But, that’s always been me. A woman loathe to shop. Maybe it comes from years of working in Dad’s retail.

Here’s the thing. Called local bookstore for a particular title. Woman said computer down, call back. Did. Didn’t have it, could get it in 4 days. Amazon 2 days, cheaper. Same with clothes. Go to Brooks Brothers et al.  Lousy selection of inventory. Out of your size. Go online. Get your size, color, style. Hits your door in a week. Don’t like it? Free shipping back. No surly sales people, mall rats.

Bye bye bricks and mortar. Who needs headaches and overhead?

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Hampshire Life

RomneyCare working in the BayState. Not nationally. Obama made the case for small government last week. Bloated bureaucracy of federal agencies cannot handle complex programs. Should have gone to private sector tech at the outset. Oops. Merry Christmas, Republicans.

Had dinner in newly renovated Lord Jeffrey Inn on the Amherst Green. Outdoor areas with fireplaces. Chic interior. Fun evening with great friends. Martin Sandler’s new book is an epistolary compilation which tells JFK’s story better than any bio. Sandler taught history at both Smith College and UMass.

Lady Gaga has talent. Too bad she squanders it with copycat twerky SNL stint. Homeland looks to be taking a more interesting turn tonight. Finally. Bon week.

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Quests de Cuisine

As holidays approach, a renewed interest in gift collectibles. Amazon is offering several ways to buy Table’s Edge. All hardcover with photos and illustrations. A nostalgic nod to Pioneer Valley’s culinary history. Tales of creative chefs who came to Paradise City from all over the world. CookBook, too. Their timeless recipes. For more information, check it out here at tablesedge.com.

Meanwhile, in Manhattan the dining scene continues to evolve. One of our faves, Ciano is now CucinaCiano, moved from Flatiron to Upper East Side. Over on York & 73rd, a hole-in-the-wall has become the hottest spot for fish flown in daily from Japan. Tanoshi has 10 seats, so plan ahead. Snow in NYC today. None here!

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Valley Currents

A new neighbor gave me her 2011 book. Finally got to it. Brooke Hauser’s The New Kids tells stories of newcomers to America at a Brooklyn high school for immigrant students. Every adventure could be a novel of its own. Journeys from China, Tibet, Sierra Leone, Burma. Beautifully written and true, it recounts these children’s harrowing paths to our shores and continuing travails. Yet, hope and inspiration prevails as the American dream is unique to each of them.

Northampton’s Peter Kobel finished a 5-year tome, The Strange Case of the Mad Professor: A True Tale of Endangered Species, Illegal Drugs and Attempted Murder. A twisted trail that leads an off-kilter academic to NYU Anthropology Department Chair. He went to jail in the early 1980’s for manufacturing LSD and quaaludes, ostensibly for research on lemurs in his lab there. When paroled, he sent poisoned chocolates to the sentencing judge. Back to jail.

Jason Reitman’s movie Labor Day, filmed in Shelburne Falls, is making its debut at the Telluride Film Festival. Based on Joyce Maynard’s novel, it’s timely for the holiday as her former paramour J.D. Salinger is back in the news.

Braised Hake. RecipeDetours.

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Old New York

Back from a quick round trip. Headed downtown. High-summer fare on Washington Square in Old Greenwich Village. Blue Hill. Not as good as last time. Shockingly short on seasonal produce. Otto Enoteca, Italian train station pizzeria. Gone is the elegant One Fifth, art deco ship’s bar of yesteryear.

New York in the 1860’s, BBC’s second season of Copper is a good one. Five Points, what is now lower Manhattan in the days leading up to Lincoln’s assassination. Corrupt cops, spies, slavery, counterfeiters. Mount Holyoke’s Czitrom historical consultant. Better than Newsroom. Watch that on a different day, as well as Masterpiece’s Endeavour. Sunday nights chock full of choices.

Great reads about old New Amsterdam from 1600’s to the Civil War~ City of Dreams, Beverly Swerling. HeyDay, Kurt Andersen. Downtown, Pete Hamill.

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Brothers Karamaz Off

A tale of brothers struggling with morality, religion, ideology? Or, one brother whose psychology emanated from an unbalanced family dynamic influenced the other? I believe the latter. Russia, Chechnya, Islam are peripheral to this story. Elder son coddled by an obsessed mother, who seems a bit off. Her shoplifting conviction a case in point. As her first born began to behave like an angry bully, she tried to steer him away from evil booze and drugs. He dragged his young brother into an ideological excuse for escalating a violent nature into an act.

It could have been just guns, like other recent mass murders. But, the Boston Marathon Massacre had the added firepower of bombs. Yet, it was still a plot born of psychology and not ideology. Apologies to Dostoyevsky.