Midsummer Reading List

All that plane time and rain time in Italy...

When Will There Be Good News?, by Kate Atkinson. I really enjoyed this mystery that came with a good sense of humor and terrific characters. It's not a sequel, but some characters appeared in an earlier book. That did not cause an issue. The story revolves around a doctor whose family was murdered when she was a child. She escaped, and the story picks up as the murderer is about to be released from prison. I liked this so much I talked Dara, the mystery fan, into reading it. She was not as enthralled as I was. However, I was enthralled enough to hunt down Atkinson's first book, below.

Behind The Scenes at the Museum, by Kate Atkinson. This book was heavier on the characters and lighter on the mystery, but I also enjoyed it very much. It takes place in York (hey, been there!). The main character, quirky Ruby Lennox, provides the voice for the book, ranging from childhood through WWII, with a background side-story of her grandmother. It blends in the family history with a bit of mystery that Ruby has to unravel herself as to why everyone seems to treat her, uh, differently. I am going to see if I will like another Atkinson book now.

Brunelleschi's Dome, by Ross King. Hey, if you're going to Florence and you're an engineer or architect or builder, you must read this book. I liked it so much I had to pose with the guy! When they designed the Duomo in Florence, nobody knew how they would actually build such a large unsupported structure that was so high off the ground. Many years later, Brunelleschi was the guy who figured it out. He managed to do it without any supporting scaffolding! Renaissance intrigue and backstabbing mixed in with engineering.

Every Man Dies Alone, by Hans Fallada. Gotta love that cheery title! A heavy book physically and mentally, following the trials and tribulations of a German couple who resisted the Nazis, inciting people against them by leaving anti-Nazi notes in random places. Although it is fiction, Fallada based it on an actual case. I found it to be a powerful but often frustrating story. I loaned it to Melissa, who gives it a big thumbs up.

Little Bee, by Chris Cleave. I was surprised how much I liked this book, which looked like it would be one of those "African child comes to England and succeeds in spite of long odds" type of things. It wasn't like that at all. It was a complex story about an English couple whose marriage was on the rocks. They go to Africa to reignite their marriage and end up on the wrong end of an armed confrontation with soldiers who were chasing two village girls. Eventually one of them, Little Bee, makes it to England and the story unfolds in interesting ways. Give it a try.

The Girl Who Played with Fire, by Steig Larsson. If you like literary action-mystery stuff, you should read it. The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo was terrific, and this middle book of the trilogy is nearly as good. I'm looking forward to the last book, which is not yet out in paperback.

Helmet For My Pillow, by Robert Leckie. Garrett loaned me this book, which was written by one of the main characters in the HBO miniseries The Pacific. We watched some of the miniseries, but dropped off at some point. The book is a very down-to-earth and real chronology of Leckie's journey from home, through Marines boot camp, and then through many of the absolute worst battles of the Pacific theater. Unfortunately, like they say, a lot of war is hanging around waiting for something to happen, and that is what a lot of the book was like for me. Still, if you want the real story, then here it is.

Dark Places, by Gillian Flynn. I enjoyed Flynn's other book, Sharp Objects, so tried this one and really liked it. The main character is the only survivor of a Manson-style family murder when she was 7, and her brother was the killer. Now at 32, she finds that there are people fascinated with the murders (along with other famous murders), who think her brother is innocent, and they socialize in a "Kill Club". Desperate for money, she agrees to chase down her loser-father and some others for them, and of course, she ends up sorting out what really happened that night. Some surprising twists, and fun reading along the way, just like in Sharp Objects.

Cutting for Stone, by Abraham Verghese. When I got to page 150 and nothing had happened in this book, I put it down. By page 150, an Indian nun who works in a hospital in Africa bears twins and dies during childbirth. Her colleagues pitch in to help. Something more interesting must happen later on for this to be such a bestseller. Too bad. I enjoyed Verghese's memoir, My Own Country.

Everyman's Rules for Scientific Living, by Carrie Tiffany. I read this book at Mom's recommendation, which you can read here. I had looked for it in the bookstore with no luck, but ended up spying it in a bookcase in the villa in Tuscany! For me the book was "just ah-rite", as Randy Johnson would say. The "Everyman's Rules" come from the hubris-filled Australian husband-farmer in the book, who discovers that the rules don't get him through the dustbowl conditions. The wife dutifully stands by him and ends up being the stronger of the pair, not to mention the more interesting character. Too much stiff upper lip and not enough common sense for me.

Starvation Lake, by Bryan Gruley. This book was an enjoyable hockey and journalism mystery set in the frozen north of Michigan's Upper Peninsula. A revered hockey coach died when his snowmobile fell through the ice on the lake. All hell breaks loose, along with lots of buried secrets, when the snowmobile is recovered in a different lake many years later. The writing was breezy and the characters were fun.

Zeitoun, by Dave Eggers. A non-fiction book about the experience of a Syrian-American, Zeitoun, during hurricane Katrina and in the mess following it. Zeitoun was a well-established builder when the hurricane hit, and he stayed behind to watch his house and other properties. After helping rescue people for weeks, he decided it was time to leave and meet his American wife and kids in Phoenix, where they had fled. Unfortunately, through bureaucratic idiocy amidst the chaos, he ended up in a maximum security prison for months before anyone could even locate him and get him out. Eggers writing style is spare (at least in this book) and easy to enjoy. I have a hard time going from this story to some larger indictment of the handling of the whole Katrina mess, personally, and it wasn't told that way. It's just one story among thousands that makes you shake your head.

Await Your Reply, by Dan Chaon. A very clever mystery, told in three separate threads that eventually join. Along the way, you're trying to figure out how they will ever join, because it just isn't obvious. Still, each of the stories is interesting in its own right, with enough action and questions coming up to keep you turning pages quickly. Fun read!

Legislators v. Geologists

I had seen in the SFChronicle a while back that our California legislature, while not being able to pass a budget and preparing for yet another year of handing out IOUs to state workers, is on the verge of removing serpentine as the state rock. After all, if you grind it up and breathe it in, you are being exposed to asbestos. (Lobbing a hunk at a state legislator might also be fatal, come to think of it!) This would all be stupid enough, but via the NYTimes, I see they have picked a battle with geologists they weren't counting on.

Empirically speaking, geologists are not a particularly irascible group. But those who make their living studying rocks, minerals and gems in California — and increasingly those scientists beyond the state’s borders — are enraged over a bill in Sacramento that would knock serpentine, the official state rock, off its mantle.

Under the hashtag — a Twitter identifying phrase that allows easy searching of similarly themed messages — #CASerpentine, scientists and other opponents of the bill are debating the bill’s merits and offering fighting words. One read, “Dear gloria romero, you have picked the wrong nerds to mess with!”

Go geologists!

Killer Tomatoes

After losing the battle of the tomatoes with squirrels a few years back, we gave up on any notion of growing them. Still, hope springs eternal. Our efforts this year have thus far worked out better.

They are small, but I managed to get to them before the squirrels.

A little bit of fresh basil from Dara's handy dandy herb garden topped it off.

Challenging Ice Cream

I loved this NYTimes article about a San Francisco ice cream parlor, Humphry Slocombe, that specializes in, er, unusual flavors. (Why do I have to read this kind of thing in the NYTimes, anyway, when I get two Bay Area newspapers?)

Godby’s palate favors salt, booze and meat. Each day he scoops 10 to 12 of his hundred-plus ice cream flavors, favorites including Jesus Juice (red wine and Coke) and Boccalone Prosciutto. Godby also produces novelties in the what might be called the nose-to-tail dessert paradigm: duck-fat pecan pies, foie-gras ginger-snap ice cream sandwiches, treats that incorporate odd animal parts.

As interesting as the menu is Jake Godby, who creates it, and his conflicts with the local vegan store and a fake Twitter account and web site that mocks his store.

Twitter, the microblogging service, is important to Humphry Slocombe. Nearly 300,000 people follow the store, with Vahey announcing flavors through such edgy confections as “That’s right Rosemary’s Baby is back. Toasted pine nuts and fresh Rosemary . . . a ‘killer’ combination. Muwah-ah-ah!”

Then, in February of this year, “Jasper Slobrushe,” who identified himself as a proprietor of a fictitious and eponymous ice cream shop, began harassing Humphry Slocombe on Twitter. “Makin’ poop shakes. Yeah, that’s right — there’s dookie in ’em! And bacon!” Slobrushe posted. “Ever wondered what a burrito would taste like as ice cream? It’s gross. But we made it anyway.”

The reporter tracks Jasper Slobrushe down and finds out he has something like 15 fake Twitter accounts and just does this stuff for fun.

I hope I can talk our local ice cream expert, Dara, into going to this only-in-San-Francisco store next time we're in the city.

Atheist Gospel

Steve Martin and the Steep Canyon Rangers did this one the other night.