Tag: book lust ii

7 1/2 Cents (with Spoiler)

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Bissell, Richard.  71/2 Cents. Boston: Little, Brown & Co., 1953.Bissell

This was a fun read. I loved the wit, the humor of Bissell’s main character, Sidney Sorokin. He’s the new superintendent of the Sleep Tite Pajama factory in lovely, just-not-Chicago, Junction City, Iowa. With a sharp sense of humor he tells his story of romance and industry, ulcers and alcohol.  
The “gun on the table” in 7 1/2 Cents  is an unavoidable strike if the workers don’t get a 7 1/2 cent raise. At the center of the controversy is Sid’s girl, Babe. She’s a worker in the Sleep Tite factory and the ring leader for a industry-ending slow down. She’s beautiful, smart and funny. Of course she leads Sid around by the you-know-what. He’s so smitten he not only gets her her 7 1/2 cent raise he proposes to her in the end. You many think I spoiled the entire story, but I didn’t. There’s more to the book that inspired the musical “The Pajama Game.”

BookLust Twist: From the chapter “The Book Lust of Others” in More Book Lust (p.34). 7 1/2 Cents was mentioned as an aside. Bissell’s other book, “High Water” was the featured read in the chapter.

Amy & Isabelle

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Strout, Elizabeth. Amy & Isabelle. New York: Vintage Books, 1998.

Amy & IsabelleBy sending me a copy last year, my sister introduced Amy & Isabelle way before Nancy did. An advanced reader copy, in fact. This was a BookLust reread because I couldn’t remember how it ended (one of the book lust rules is remembering the story). I think I read it too fast the first time around. That always happens to me with the really good ones. I tear through words and pages and chapters because I need to know What Happens Next. And Next. And Next. I think I’ve said it before, but I sift through words, looking for phrases that catch my imagination, rattle my heart. I underline them to lay claim to them. My favorite from Amy & Isabelle is from page 232, “…and then roof of her life collapsed…” I also to admit I was excited to see the words ‘jesum crow’ (p.224). I spell it j-e-e-z-u-m but I think the phase is a Maine thing through and through. (Amy & Isabelle takes place in Maine.)

Isabelle and Amy are in a typical mother-daughter relationship. Amy is a coming-of-age 16 year old. This is the story of her alienation from her mother, thanks to an exploration of sexuality that her mother, Isabelle is not ready to admit her daughter is capable of, much less ready for. They live alone with each other and must deal with their love/hate struggles without the distraction or guidance or stability of a man to call husband or father. The psychology of this story runs pretty deep. When Amy gets her period for the first time her mother shoves pamphlets at her, thinking it’s better than how her mother handled it by not saying anything at all.

BookLust Twist: From More Book Lust in the chapter, “It was a Dark & Stormy Novel” (p128).

Breads

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Clayton, Bernard. Bernard Clayton’s New Complete Book of Breads.New York: Simon & Schuster, 1987.

I wish I baked more. When I was a teenager my mother taught me how to make a white bread with a cup of mashed potatoes that was amazing. It was the most perfect carb I could create. Grilled cheese sandwiches were heaven with this bread. I always pictured my adult wholesome self, kneading and sifting on a Sunday morning, flour dust rising in clouds around me. I don’t know what happened to that “from scratch girl” but, Clayton’s book makes me want to jump in the car, rush to the baking aisle and buy dry yeast. In bulk. This 748 mammoth of a cookbook is cover to cover baking knowledge. There are no glossy photos to fill space. Even the illustrations are small and unobtrusive. It’s all about the bread. And Bread there is. From rye bread to crackers and everything in between. My favorite chapters were, “baking for dogs” (p 715), “little breads” (p 517), and “vegetable breads” (p 409). But, I can’t forget my other favorites like potato, croissant and cheese. Of course Clayton goes over equipment, technique, ingredients, and what went wrong should something go wrong, but he also includes storing, freezing, and there’s even a chapter on homemade ovens.

I would even go so far as to say this book demonstrates culture. In addition to all the different recipes Clayton gives a little history on the more unique ones, “…In Portugal, the bread is served warm or cold with a famous dish of peas and eggs, and a potato- sausage soup” (p 183). Now I want to go out and find that recipe for the soup!

BookLust Twist: One of the reasons why I love reading Book Lust and More Book Lust is quotes like this, “For me the best part of baking bread is theupper-arm exercise involved with kneading, and the times that you can curl up on the couch with a good book while the dough is rising.” Pearl goes on to say, “I’ve used Bernard Clayton’s bread books since the first one was published in 1973, and have never found a bad recipe” (More Book Lust p72).

Africa News Cookbook

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Africa News Service, Inc. The African News Cookbook: African Cooking for Western Kitchens. New York: Penguin, 1986.African cookbook

Another BookLust pick. There is something magical about this book. Maybe it’s from the introduction, “Cooking by the book is not the African way” (p.xiii). It’s romantic to learn the ingredients, forget the recipe and go with the heart; that’s what this book seems to be telling me.
On a serious side it’s crammed with interesting facts usually not associated with a cookbook. For starters there is a list of African nations and their capitals. Because this cookbook focuses on a geographical location there are maps. Because it focuses on a culture there are stories about African Women and food, and even how to eat with joy.
Probably my favorite aspect of this cookbook is the recognition of the origin of each recipe. From Malawi comes Masamba; from Algeria comes Dess b’l-besla. I think of Aubrey from Malawi who would write letters on onion paper and dream of traveling to Algeria.

BookLust Twist: From More Book Lust under the category of, “Africa: A Reader’s Itinerary” (p.2)

All Souls’ Rising (with Disappointments)

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Bell, Madison Smartt. All Souls’ Rising. New York: Vintage Books, 1995.

I’m having a love/hate relationship with this book. Only 110 pages into it I waiver between devouring it and chucking the whole thing across the room. The first chapter opens with a description of a women nailed to a pole. She is being punished for killing her child. She drove a nail through her newborn’s skull. Lemme back up – she’s a slave and she was raped on a ship bound for Haiti. The year is 1757. Need I say more? When the woman finally dies, her feet, hands and head are chopped off and displayed as an example for other slaves. Some example! As a rule, I don’t get “into” historical fiction, especially those with such a political, violent underbelly. However, this is a Booklust book and I’m bound to at least give it a try. When I started this venture I agreed to Pearl’s 50 Page Rule (stop reading if by 50 pages you can’t get into it). In All Souls’ Rising‘s case, when I got to page 50 I was in the love phase and couldn’t put it down. C’est la vie.

Booklust Twist: Pearl labels this, “novelistic history” of Haiti (More Book Lust p55)

12/30/06: Update~ I am admitting defeat with Bell’s book. After the slave uprising it has been nothing but vivid descriptions of violence. I think this book is responsible for my week’s worth of nightmares about war. Here’s an excerpt. I warn you, this is one of the tamest scenes of cruelty!

“He cut a bracelet all around Maltrot’s wrist, just above the thong that bound it to the branch. He made a vertical incision into the palm and turned back the flaps of the skin from the whitish fatty layer underneath and began peeling it back towards the fingertips as if he were slowly taking off a glove…” (are you getting the picture?)…”Maltrot ground his teeth and bit his lips until the blood ran freely, but finally he could not contain the scream and when it came it was large and loud enough to split the sky.” (p235)

I realize flaying, raping, torturing, murdering, baby impaling, etc is common in times of war. It’s happening today. My problem is Bell. He is such the amazing storyteller that not only do I believe every eye gouging, I can almost feel it too!

BookLust Twist: Found in Pearl’s More Book Lust under the chapter, “The Contradictory Caribbean: Paradise and Pain” (p.55). She wasn’t kidding.

Travels with Charley

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Steinbeck, John. Travels With Charley: In Search of America. New York: Viking Press, 1962.

Charley This could easily be my favorite Steinback story. Maybe because it’s a true one. Maybe because it hasn’t left me wanting to slit my wrist by the last page. Maybe because Steinbeck writes about something I am interested in: traveling the country. His humor and DownToEarth voice make reading easy. I was thrilled when, by the 26th page, Steinbeck had already mentioned Deerfield, MA and my father’s school (the Eaglebrook School). His own son had attended there, hence the shout out.
Steinbeck does a wonderful job describing the small towns, the set-in-their-ways locals who inhabit each place, and the passing autumn into winter scenery. Like all his other tales (fiction or not), he makes the people and places come alive with vivid realism. My favorite part: Steinbeck wants to see the birthplace of Sinclair Lewis. He asks some locals about finding the small town of Sauk. They know the sign, “Birthplace of Sinclair Lewis” but it’s obvious they have no clue who Lewis was.

Booklust Twist: Pearl hides this gem in a chapter called ‘The Beckoning Road”, (More Book Lust, p.20)