Alphabet Book for Adults

Categories Staff Picks

Hiding between the covers of a children's book is a very funny collection of grown-up cartoons. Steve Martin and Roz Chast have teamed up to create a gem, The Alphabet from A to Y, With Bonus Letter Z! (2007). It really almost comes across as a parody of children's alphabet books.

For example, Q: "Quincy the kumquat queried the queen, Cleverly, quietly, without being seen." Or how about, "Amiable Amy, Alice, and Andie, Ate all the anchovy sandwiches handy." The pictures, in classic Roz Chast style, mix the mundane with the weirdly worrisome, putting alligators under coffee tables and eels enjoying eggs at the dinette.

Adults will enjoy this book much more than kids will. It is an alphabet book, yes, but some of the sophisticated humor will go right over their heads. And it might prompt some awkward explanations, while you are trying to catch your breath from laughing as you put it into simple words why it's funny that Tough Tommy wants to try on Tina's tutu. Or that the man on the "D" page is, well, um, "dizzy".

White Bicycles: Making Music in the 1960s

Categories Entertainment , Staff Picks

Joe Boyd has written an amazing book, White Bicycles: Making Music in the 1960s.  Joe Boyd is a music producer, who, in the years 1966-1974 produced records by the following luminaries: The Incredible String Band, Shirley Collins, Pink Floyd, Fairport Convention, Nick Drake, Vashti Bunyan, John & Beverly Martyn, Nico, and Maria Muldaur, among others.  For a bit more information on some of these folks, check out a couple of my other blogs, one about 1960s British folk rock, and another on Syd Barrett, Pink Floyd's original songwriter.  More than a roster of Boyd's accomplishments, White Bicycles is part memoir, part social history, and partly an intimate portrait of some very colorful, talented, and often tragic, individuals.  Due to feeling a strong connection to Sandy Denny and Nick Drake, I was particularly moved by the chapters written about them.  Poignant social commentary permeates the book as well, and he pulls no punches in describing his take on the myriad of differences between the world back then and what it has become. He even gets on the soap box for a superb chapter on the virtues of old school analog recording techniques versus today's omnipresent computer-based music making.  I cannot say enough wonderful things about this book or recommend it more strongly...I was sad to see it come to an end.  If you think you might be interested, put yourself on the holds list.  If you like folk, folk rock, or 1960s/early 1970s music in general, wrap your head, ears first, around the companion cd, White Bicycles: Making Music in the 1960s.  You won't regret either move.             

Charles Schulz and Peanuts

Categories Entertainment , Nonfiction , Arts & Crafts

After the unwrapping of gifts en masse in the basement of my grandparents’ house on Christmas Eve, there wasn’t much left to do.  So I spent the evening in the big red armchair by the fake fireplace reading things in their magazine rack.  The Peanuts comic strip books were my favorites.  I read the same ones year after year.

Little did I know it then, but Peanuts will always be associated with my childhood.  Through Charles Schulz’s strips, I have fond memories of Charlie Brown, Snoopy, and the rest of the Peanuts gang.  But how much do I actually know about Schulz himself?

Author David Michaelis has just written a new book called Schulz and Peanuts: A Biography that traces Schulz’s life from his modest beginnings as the son of a Midwestern barber to an icon of American popular culture.  He realized his dream of creating a newspaper comic strip, yet was lonely and never fully understood by the people who adored him.

Alice Waters and then some

Categories Cookbooks

Alice Waters is the reigning queen of American food since Julia left us. Her philosophy of eating seasonal and local foods has transformed how many of us cook at home and in restaurants.   The Art of Simple Food: Notes, Lessons and Recipes from a Delicious Revolution is the first cookbook she has produced that is not specifically tied to Chez Panisse, her famed Berkeley restaurant.  

Handsome in appearance, the book is well organized and laid out for beginning cooks, with instructions on ingredients and basic equipment.  Menu planning is up front, a nice change from most books that tack it on at the end, so you are inspired to try some of the recipes as you go.   Waters also has chapters on key recipes and techniques such as Four Essential Sauces, Broths and Soups, Grilling and other basics that once mastered, can be taken to different levels of taste depending on available ingredients, appetites and imagination.

The second part of the book goes into more specific recipes where Waters offers some fresh takes on veteran standards such as Nicoise salad  or Leeks Vinaigrette.  The chapter on vegetables is great with at least one recipe for almost any vegetable you can find in a supermarket.

When in Doubt, Choose Simplicity

Categories Parenting & Families

During the holiday season when everything around us screams out, "more, more, more!", it is especially helpful to seek out those still, small voices that say, "simple is best".  Yes, those voices do exist, as I was reminded when I heard a favorite tune on WNKU radio today. "Too Much Stuff" by Delbert McClinton can be found on his CD titled One of the Fortunate Few, and if you listen closely you will discover John Prine and Lyle Lovett on backup vocals.  Anyway, "Too Much Stuff" sums up my sentiments, exactly.

No More Polar Express! And don't even mention The Night Before Christmas!

Categories Parenting & Families , Children's Books

With Christmas right around the corner, you may be getting a bit tired of reading The Polar Express and The Night Before Christmas for the 1,637,461st time. Fear not! There are tons of great Christmas titles out there (new and old!) to share with the young person in your life. Today, we’ll focus on new 2007 titles and next week we’ll revisit some golden oldies.

Moon Women

Categories Rediscoveries , Staff Picks , Fiction

Okay, last week’s entry was about a cool and formal book for readers who like to see how a writer thinks.

This week’s is for readers who like to plunge right into a sympathetic story about likeable characters.

Moon Women, by Pamela Duncan, is the story of three generations of Southern women learning to find peace with each other and with their changing lives. 

Middle-aged, divorced mill worker Ruth Ann Payne is going to pick up her daughter, nineteen-year-old Ashley, from a rehab center.  Ashley, always trouble, is now pregnant, too.  Meanwhile, Marvelle, Ruth Ann’s mother, who has begun to suffer from dementia, has wandered away from her other daughter’s house, determined to stay with Ruth Ann.  So Ruth Ann’s house becomes home for all three of them, and the delicate process of accommodating each other begins.