The Lady and the Unicorn

Another book of historical fiction, this one by Tracy Chevalier, who previously wrote Girl with a Pearl Earring. In The Lady and the Unicorn, Chevalier once again builds a fictional story around a work of art; this time, the Lady with the Unicorn tapestries, a set of six pieces that were designed by an unknown French artist and woven in the late 1400s in Brussels. So little is known about the origin of the tapestries that Chevalier had little to constrain her. She makes up for the lack of facts with a good story, full of romance, sex, and social/class struggles. Most of the story takes place during the weaving of the tapestries, which in itself is very interesting and gives a glimpse into the lives of working class people, set against the life of the upper class patron (and his family) who ordered the tapestries. The stories of how all four central women characters struggle to make their own choices in life is timeless and fascinating. Woven into this story is the story told by the tapestries themselves, or at least the story that Chevalier imagines the artist to have intended.

I listened to rather than read this book. All in all, a good choice for an audio book, with the one exception that I would have liked to see the French words in print so I could understand what they actually said. Funny how that works.

So you want to be a chef?

Seeing as how I love food and cooking so much, I've often fantasized about going to culinary school and becoming a chef. One of the reasons I have never acted on this fantasy is because I know I don't want to work that hard. I know this now with even more certainty after reading Anthony Bourdain's Kitchen Confidential. Bourdain's climb to the top of chefdom (well, it's not really the top since he points out that he isn't even a 3-star chef) is filled with drugs and debauchery, particularly in the early years. After going through drug rehab, he gets his act together and starts living the life he loves, which means working 16 hours a day planning, choreographing a large staff, cooking, and responding to big and small emergencies, eventually as the executive chef of Brasserie Les Halles in New York City.

There are a couple of things I really like about this book, although Boudain can at times get rather annoying, something he freely admits to (I guess that's part of his charm). First, I learned a lot about eating in restaurants. For instance, never order fish on a Monday (it isn't fresh). Tuesday is when both the food and the chef are at their freshest. And specials? I always thought they were dishes that the chef really wanted to make, but according to Bourdain, they are often a way to get rid of food that hasn't been moving. But what I liked most about this book are the life lessons it contains -- lessons about how important it is to do whatever it is you have a passion for, about the value of hard work, and about taking what may be a more difficult, and less lucrative, path if you want to reach the top.

Kitchen Confidential might make scare some people away from restaurants, but not me. It gave me a greater appreciation for the enormous amount of work that goes into producing a wonderful meal, like the ones we had last night at Mosaic. I had a delicious pork mignon with blue cheese mashed potatoes (sorry I can't give a better description, but believe me when I say it was great); Garrett had a black angus sirloin in a black & tan marinade with onion straws and roasted shallot sauce. With these dishes we enjoyed an excellent bottle of wine from our trip to California: a Warrior Fires Zinfandel from Karly Wines. Everything was fabulous.

The Colour

I love historical fiction and am always blown away by the amount of research that must be required to recreate the sounds, smells, and look of times past. Rose Tremain has mastered the form as well as anyone and amazingly, she also writes beautifully crafted, rich, and thoughtful contemporary novels. I have enjoyed every one of her books that I have read, including her most recent, The Colour. In this novel, she transports us to the New Zealand gold rush of the 1860s. It’s a dark book, peopled by unhappy, emotionally stultified, and desperate characters who struggle to escape the transgressions and failures of their lives prior to coming to New Zealand. For the most part, what they experience is misery, horror, and even more intense failure. But there is also redemption, at least for the central character, Harriet. In Harriet, Tremain has given us a memorable character of astonishing strength and good will, who after many setbacks, experiences a sensual awakening, material success, and the realization of her dreams of independence and discovery.

My Brother’s Keeper

About five years ago, I wrote an article about Matthew During, a gene therapist at The Jefferson Medical College in Philadelphia, who was working on several novel experimental therapies for a range of diseases including ALS (Lou Gehrig’s disease), stroke, and Parkinson’s disease. I had previously encountered During at a meeting I was covering for the Hereditary Disease Foundation, so I knew he was somewhat of a “cowboy,” full of energy and impatient with the slow pace of and restrictions on research. At one of the HDF meetings, I also met Jamie Heywood, who had founded a non-profit drug development foundation to find therapies for ALS. Another “cowboy,” Jamie (who is an engineer by training) was even more impatient, since his brother, Stephen, had been diagnosed with ALS in 1998. Thus, I was really interested in My Brother’s Keeper, which chronicles Jamie’s story as he tries to circumvent the normal scientific process with the help of Matt During. The story is so compelling, as Jon Weiner found while doing research for an article for The New Yorker, and subsequently for this book. It was hard for everyone (Weiner included) not to get caught up in Jamie’s passion and his belief that he could do anything with enough money and effort. In the end, however, science refuses to yield. The complexity of ALS and other neurodegenerative diseases seems to always overcome quick and easy solutions. Jamie continues his somewhat manic pursuit of solutions but sacrifices his family, while Stephen lives his life as best he can (he marries and has a child, despite his worsening disability). While there are no answers for the frustrated and impatient people who suffer from these terrible diseases, the book confirmed for me that the slow but steady pace that research normally follows is necessary and valuable; and that the human spirit survives even in the face of horrible circumstances.

So many books, so little time

I mentioned earlier that I was listening to Ruth Reichl’s Garlic and Sapphires. I really enjoyed it. The person reading the book, Bernadette Dunne, does a great job of changing voice and inflection to capture the personalities of different characters. And Reichl is as entertaining as ever, with funny and interesting stories about her family, friends, and people she meets through her work. But there’s even more… this is a story about the choices we make in our lives, about taking risks, and being willing to change things when the choices turn out to be wrong. The only problem with listening, rather than reading, is that I don’t have a copy of all the recipes. Fortunately, Josh has the book and will make me photocopies so I can try them out.

Since I was listening to Garlic and Sapphires in my car (on CD), I started listening to another book on my iPod. Nick Hornby’s A Long Way Down is read by three actors (performing four voices): Scott Brick, Simon Vance, and Kate Reading. I thoroughly enjoyed their performances. The book itself, however, I thought was just okay. Four people meet on the rooftop of a London house on New Year’s Eve, all of them preparing to commit suicide. They change their minds, and then continue to meet over the next few months as they try to find reasons to live. The characters are interesting, but none of them are particularly likable. And the story doesn’t really go anywhere.

The process of listening rather than reading is interesting. Based on my limited experience, I suspect it works for some books and not others. Of course, there are many many books that aren’t available in audio format, so I will always be reading even when I’m listening. Because I am a writer, when I read I pay a lot of attention to the written words, and I often read sentences that I like over and over. Listening is a completely different experience, where I get a lot more involved in the story without paying nearly as much attention to the writing. Garrett and I often read out loud to one another, which in some ways is the best of both worlds; but even then I experience the same book differently depending on whether I am reading or listening. The best thing about listening, I think, is that I can consume even more books than I could before because I can listen while walking, driving, etc.

California Dreamin

At 3:30 this morning, Garrett and I finally made it home from California. It was a LONG day; but other than the multiple problems with American Airlines, a great vacation.

The main event was Brendan and Dawn’s wedding on Saturday, and a chance to see almost the whole family.


After the wedding, we hung out at Julie’s for awhile and then had a fantastic dinner at the Santorini Grille in Auburn, complete with belly dancing.


On Monday, Mitch, Garrett, and I visited the Malakoff Diggins, where the land was stripped in the search for gold back in the 1800s.


After that, we headed for Lake Tahoe. We stayed in Tahoe City at the vacation home of our friends, Greg and Irene. The place was huge… plenty of room for the whole family so it was a shame no one else could make it. The weather was gorgeous… cool nights and warm days. We rented bikes one day and rode along the lake for a couple of hours; then went out to dinner at Gar Woods Restaurant, where two of us had wonderful dinners (Garrett’s was just so-so) and watched the sun go down over the lake.


I was hoping to kayak in Emerald Bay the next day but it turned out you needed to make reservations ahead of time, which I hadn’t done. So we decided to hike down to Emerald Bay. What would, for most people, be a fairly easy 1.7 mile hike (each way) took us a long time as it was a hot day and we had to stop frequently to cool off in the shade. But it was very pretty.


Thursday found us heading to the Sierra Foothills for some wine tasting. Our hosts, Sandy and Chuck at the Eureka Street Inn in Sutter Creek, said that we had just missed the beautiful weather. Instead, we endured 100+ degree days, which meant that we did a lot of driving in an air conditioned car and then bee-lined for air conditioned tasting rooms.


Zinfandels predominate in that part of California and we had some great ones, as well as a few excellent Sangioveses, Barberas, Syrahs, and Sauvignon Blancs. Among our favorites were the wines at Karly, Vino Noceto, and Renwood. We’re hoping that the case-and-a-half that we shipped home will make it and we will be able to share them with our friends here. Next time we go to Sutter Creek will not be in July, but we would definitely go back to Eureka Street for Chuck’s delicious breakfasts and the pleasure of sitting around chatting with Sandy and Chuck.

We were wined out by the time we left Sutter Creek for the Bay Area, where we visited with my old high-school friend, Carol.


But, of course, we managed to quaff a few more wines with her before heading home. It was a great way to end a fantastic vacation, but we’re happy to be home again with Ellie and Patches.