Wednesday, April 13, 2011
Where's My Paragraphs?
Wednesday April 13th. The paragraphs in my last blog were removed automatically as soon as I pressed the 'publish' button. I don't know why this should happen but I will try today to remember to note the end of a paragraph with some dashes and willpress the enter button twice between paragraphs. If someone can give me the answer to this problem, I would be very grateful.----------- For those of you who might be worrying about the safety of sea food, especially crabs, shrimps and oysters, as a result of my last blog concerning Dave Robicheaux, I can reassure you that there doesn't appear to be any danger to health. By a strange coincidence there was an article in the New England Journal of Medicine April 7th. which gave numerous references to the Louisiana Department of Health Websites in an article on the Gulf Oil Spill. From the safety point of view most of the deaths and casualties resulted from the original explosion. The health of the animals living in the oily water is a very different matter, but if shrimp and crab is on sale in restaurants in New Orleans and environs, it is probably quite safe though apparently the taste may not be quite right! The Guardian had an article on the oil spill today so this blog is way ahead of the media--as usual.------------- I have just finished the latest Michael Connelly thriller to appear in paperback called 'The Scarecrow'. I suppose it is quite good because there were a couple of moments when I had to stop reading because it became rather scary and I knew that something unpleasant was about to happen. I felt I needed to be in a different frame of mind to continue. I don't remember anyone eating a proper meal in the space of about a week's action (hamburgers don't count). Connelly's leading men all have a problem with women. There is always a lack of trust beteen the couples and you never get the feeling the relationships are going to last! ---------- War and Peace has arrived. Nearly two thousand pages of small type and no pictures is going to tax my powers of concentration and memory. Stanantel think I should have got it on tape to listen to on my way to and from work but so far the journey has been quite enjoyable and will probably remain so provided I don't have to drive by night. The Brecon beacons look magnificent even on a windy day in rain. The only problem I encountered was that the car heater wouldn't work today and by the time I reached Brecon, the water temperature gauge was at maximum. It has never crossed my mind to check the water in the overflow bottle as I thought it was a closed system that couldn't use up water. How wrong I was! The system was almost completely empty so I poured in about five pints of water and also a couple of pints of oil into the approprate reservoirs and got home without a hitch. I hope there isn't a slow leak in the system which will cause another unexpected panic. I plan to take extra supplies of water in the car from now on. Its been rather embarrassing because I have lectured various children about the importance of proper car maintenance. Thank goodness that a nice lady in a Brecon petrol garage knew what the problem was likely to be and then having proved her point, knew the cure. The car heater was then working normally.----------- It has been very satisfying to have the first crop from the asparagus bed. I like to think that it tastes better than anything one can buy in the shops but actually all asparagus tastes the same to me. The broccoli season will not last much longer but it has been very productive for the past month. After all the effort its nice to discover that it is well worth growing from a financial point of view. The other good crop on the allotment now is rhubarb which is tender and sweet(ish) at this time of year.----------
Tuesday, April 05, 2011
Cakes can fail
Tuesday April 5th. I haven't repeated the pate because it dictated my meals for too long a time. I worried that it would not keep for too long and it didn't seem to be the the sort of substance that would freeze well or perhaps unfreeze well. There have been a few more cakes but the problem is that it is difficult to judge how long to cook them and it seems easy to burn the ouside without the core being fully cooked. They are of course completely delicious and don't last long. It is possible that my baking endeavours will cool down when I return to work in the near future though I won't be working at weekends or covering nights so a weekly cake is still very likely. Gardener is a mystery to me so I dont know who to ask to borrow 'The Missing Head of Damasceno Monteiro'. I have to admit that I have never heard of the author Antonio Tabucchi. He may love food but is his work crime or detective fiction? Anyway its nice to know that someone is reading the blog. It is interesting that there is now a heading on the page after signing in that reveals the number of hits the blog gets; very few actually. A rather meanspirited review in the Guardian of Henning Mankell's latest Wallender thriller called'The Troubled Man' went out of its way to slag off other long running detective series. It included comments about James Lee Burke's Dave Robicheaux whom I must defend if only because it all takes place in and around New Orleans and regular meals are eaten which clearly reflect the cuisine of that locality. I don't know how much the oil leak in the gulf will have affected the crab and shrimp catches in that area but they feature regularly through his stories,eaten with 'dirty' rice. Other favourites are 'beignets' (doughnuts) and 'boudin' (sausages of cajun rice). The setting of these stories makes a refreshing change from most of American crime fiction which seems to be mainly based in NY, Boston, Chicago and Los Angeles. Furthermore they are quite good stories though I don't know why so many detectives seem to be flawed in some way, in Robicheaux' case by an alcoholic binge in every tale. I have commented in the past in these blogs about Scandinavian crime fiction and my comments have been recently reiterated in the press apropos 'The Killing'. However, John Crace's dissection of the latest Mankell in the'Digested Read' article in the Guardian made any further review superfluous. I have continued to read the only Australian crime writer I know, namely Peter Temple. His investigators also seem to carry some deep scars from their previous occupations in the army or the police. I have one major complaint about his works and that is that there are too many characters with similar names and I have to keep looking back to see who is who. This doesn't bode well for my plan to read 'War and Peace' which has a cast of hundreds often with several names each! Return to work will inevitably affect the time I spend reading and on the allotment but perhaps I will just become more efficient. The allotment is in good condition and I am now digging parts that have been under thick black polythene sheeting for several years. I have peas in pots in a friend's greenhouse which will be planted out in a week or two and then it will be time to plant some early runners in pots. I hope to cut some asparagus this week and there is a great crop of purple sprouting broccoli. Rhubarb is very tender and quite sweet and plentiful and the recent rain has worked wonders on the spinach. All things therefore are looking very encouraging there which is more than I can say for my weight.
Tuesday, March 15, 2011
Cakes and Ale
Tuesday March 15th. 2011
The pate was a disaster and was binned after a couple of days. It was too salty, probably because I used far too many anchovies, but it really just seemed to be a wodge of undercooked liver. I explored various recipes for pate and most of them seem to begin with cooking the liver before it is minced up and mixed but I stuck to the original recipe when I made my second pate the other day. The raw liver was minced very much finer than the first time and more garlic was used. I feel that it was a resounding success but there are then some rather predictable sequelae. The consumption of this delicious pate calls for quantities of crusty French bread.
Not only has the weght loss been damaged by the pate but it hasn't been helped by my latest cooking adventure - cake baking. I have always been particularly fond of fruit cake and I now realise that baking cakes oneself is the best way of getting exactly what I want. Mixing the ingredients oneself of course makes one realise just how unlikely it is that Bob will lose weight! I have tried to burn off a few more calories by some extra heavy digging on the allotment where I am entering a new phase of digging an area that has been covered by thick black polythene and hasn't been dug at all for at least five years. I had thought that I had plenty of time to do this deep digging but I am probably returning to work fairly soon. After two months since I stopped work it is striking how much less active I have become simply because at work one is on the move all day long whereas at home there is hardly any reason to move more than a few yards and on rainy days there isn't any inclination to head for the allotment.
Apart from the new phase of digging, the allotment is under control, tidy, weed free and pruned. Today I had the first picking (and meal) of purple sprouting broccoli. There are still leeks to be harvested and some spinach. The Italians seem to already have rows of peas and broad beans that are both several inches high and rows and rows of onions and garlic so I have some catching up to do. I have learned what not to try and grow, so I shall not under any circumstances grow cabbages, broad beans, tomatoes or carrots. I shall concentrate on French and runner beans, cucumbers, beetroot and lettuce. I may try courgettes again but mainly because other people like them and they dont really take any effort once they're planted. I also plan to grow parsley and rosemary and mint. I used to have mint at home but it grew like a weed and spread everywhere. I managed to clear it completely but now regret it.
I don't know of anyone else who reads Maugham these days. In fact nobody seems even to recognise the title 'Cakes and Ale' or the others that I thought were quite well known such 'The Moon and Sixpence' or 'Of Human Bondage'. I can understand why he's no longer read; the style seems very dated but I'm surprised that nobody to whom I've spoken recently has heard of them. I abandoned Cakes and Ale after about twenty pages. The latest Donna Leon and the latest Robert Crais to appear in paperback didn't disappoint but further reading of Peter Sallis has convinced me that I wont try any more. As it happens I have been reading Simenon and Elizabeth David recently. I hadn't expected a cookery book such as 'French Provincial Cooking' to be so readable; more like a novel or a travelogue than a recipe book. I feel that I have rather neglected her cookery books though perhaps she was more widely read in the seventies and eighties when I wasn't really interested in cooking. Her name was recently an answer to a question on University Challenge which the students didn't get!
I shall move on to another by Philip Kerr and another Peter Temple and another James Lee Burke but have decided that Simon Kernick is simply dull and the plot too improbable to hold one's interest. Perhaps nobody is reading this but I would still welcome suggestions for detective/crime fiction that I haven't yet come across.
The pate was a disaster and was binned after a couple of days. It was too salty, probably because I used far too many anchovies, but it really just seemed to be a wodge of undercooked liver. I explored various recipes for pate and most of them seem to begin with cooking the liver before it is minced up and mixed but I stuck to the original recipe when I made my second pate the other day. The raw liver was minced very much finer than the first time and more garlic was used. I feel that it was a resounding success but there are then some rather predictable sequelae. The consumption of this delicious pate calls for quantities of crusty French bread.
Not only has the weght loss been damaged by the pate but it hasn't been helped by my latest cooking adventure - cake baking. I have always been particularly fond of fruit cake and I now realise that baking cakes oneself is the best way of getting exactly what I want. Mixing the ingredients oneself of course makes one realise just how unlikely it is that Bob will lose weight! I have tried to burn off a few more calories by some extra heavy digging on the allotment where I am entering a new phase of digging an area that has been covered by thick black polythene and hasn't been dug at all for at least five years. I had thought that I had plenty of time to do this deep digging but I am probably returning to work fairly soon. After two months since I stopped work it is striking how much less active I have become simply because at work one is on the move all day long whereas at home there is hardly any reason to move more than a few yards and on rainy days there isn't any inclination to head for the allotment.
Apart from the new phase of digging, the allotment is under control, tidy, weed free and pruned. Today I had the first picking (and meal) of purple sprouting broccoli. There are still leeks to be harvested and some spinach. The Italians seem to already have rows of peas and broad beans that are both several inches high and rows and rows of onions and garlic so I have some catching up to do. I have learned what not to try and grow, so I shall not under any circumstances grow cabbages, broad beans, tomatoes or carrots. I shall concentrate on French and runner beans, cucumbers, beetroot and lettuce. I may try courgettes again but mainly because other people like them and they dont really take any effort once they're planted. I also plan to grow parsley and rosemary and mint. I used to have mint at home but it grew like a weed and spread everywhere. I managed to clear it completely but now regret it.
I don't know of anyone else who reads Maugham these days. In fact nobody seems even to recognise the title 'Cakes and Ale' or the others that I thought were quite well known such 'The Moon and Sixpence' or 'Of Human Bondage'. I can understand why he's no longer read; the style seems very dated but I'm surprised that nobody to whom I've spoken recently has heard of them. I abandoned Cakes and Ale after about twenty pages. The latest Donna Leon and the latest Robert Crais to appear in paperback didn't disappoint but further reading of Peter Sallis has convinced me that I wont try any more. As it happens I have been reading Simenon and Elizabeth David recently. I hadn't expected a cookery book such as 'French Provincial Cooking' to be so readable; more like a novel or a travelogue than a recipe book. I feel that I have rather neglected her cookery books though perhaps she was more widely read in the seventies and eighties when I wasn't really interested in cooking. Her name was recently an answer to a question on University Challenge which the students didn't get!
I shall move on to another by Philip Kerr and another Peter Temple and another James Lee Burke but have decided that Simon Kernick is simply dull and the plot too improbable to hold one's interest. Perhaps nobody is reading this but I would still welcome suggestions for detective/crime fiction that I haven't yet come across.
Tuesday, February 15, 2011
Pate, Obituaries,Allotment
February 15th 2011
Using the recipe that was sent by Kit in summer 2006, I have just cooked and re-cooked a pate. Without the acute accent pate looks completely wrong, but there's nothing I can do about it on this computer. I couldn't find pigs liver in Tesco so lamb's liver was used. I had trouble mincing it through the pasta machine and I wonder whether this was due to it being the wrong type of liver or the wrong mincer which is meant to be versatile. I used a number of anchovies and lots of bacon but after cooking in a bain-marie for hours it still seemed rather raw and very salty. I cooked it again for forty minutes in the oven without the bain marie and I'm waiting for it to cool down. If I have to throw the whole lot away, I willo at least have learned what to do or not do next time. Does it matter that it wasn't pigs liver?
As I explained in an earlier blog, I have been fortunate to be introduced to or reminded of authors whose works I have subsequently greatly enjoyed in the obituary column of the Guardian. I discovered Stuart Kaminsky in this way. Considering the large number of books he has written and the filmscripts to which he contributed, I am surprised that he is not better known here. He has four detectives based in different cities including Moscow where Porfiry Rostnikov is based. Toby Peters is his detective in LA/Hollywood and is possibly the least interesting of the four. Lew Fonesca is based in Florida and is a rather odd chap but the best is Abe Lieberman who is actually in the police department. Food plays no part in these novels except with Abe always wanting food which is denied to him for the sake of his heart by an over-protective wife.
American crime fiction cotains very little reference to food though in James Sallis's Turner series, there is mention of cooked racoon! This is another writer I discovered through Amazon shopping which seems as good a way as any of finding new or possibly old authors that are not well known here. Some of these books can be bought second hand for one penny so you don't lose much even if you feel they are unreadable when they arrive. I had thought that the latest Kate Atkinson ' Started Early,Took My Dog' would be OK but I abandoned it after about thirty pages when it became far too silly. I was also irritated to such an extent by the latest William Boyd novel/thriller that I gave up about half way through. It seems that recognised writers can often produce a real dud so perhaps I shouldn't have been surprised that Jacobson won the Booker Prize for 'The Finkler Question' which is in my view much inferior to 'Kalooki Nights' or 'The Mighty Walzer'. Perhaps the jury awarded the prize as much for his past work as for the latest novel.
In spite of the racoons, the 'Turner ' trilogy is rather different from most crime stories and I am now going to read some of his others. I know that Ed McBain was around for a long time and also published many others under a different name, but I have recently enjoyed the '87th Precinct series which are interesting because one gets to know most of the detectives working in that precinct rather than just one main character as for example Harry Bosch in the Michael Connolly series.
I realise that in a few months I will celebrate the fifth anniversary of the blog and I think I will reveal then whether I have actually lost any weight. The allotment is rather quiet at present and I have only recently returned to it because of the long cold wet winter but it is under control now and I will be ready to plant seeds as soon as some warmth comes. I still have leeks to harvest and I am hopeful that the perpetual spinach will perk up. There is a lot of purple sprouting brocoli which will be ready to eat in a few weeks and I hope to get a crop of asparagus
for the first time this year.
I am planning to resume this blog on a regular basis from now on; I have more time available. New ideas for detective fiction/ crime would be welcome.
Using the recipe that was sent by Kit in summer 2006, I have just cooked and re-cooked a pate. Without the acute accent pate looks completely wrong, but there's nothing I can do about it on this computer. I couldn't find pigs liver in Tesco so lamb's liver was used. I had trouble mincing it through the pasta machine and I wonder whether this was due to it being the wrong type of liver or the wrong mincer which is meant to be versatile. I used a number of anchovies and lots of bacon but after cooking in a bain-marie for hours it still seemed rather raw and very salty. I cooked it again for forty minutes in the oven without the bain marie and I'm waiting for it to cool down. If I have to throw the whole lot away, I willo at least have learned what to do or not do next time. Does it matter that it wasn't pigs liver?
As I explained in an earlier blog, I have been fortunate to be introduced to or reminded of authors whose works I have subsequently greatly enjoyed in the obituary column of the Guardian. I discovered Stuart Kaminsky in this way. Considering the large number of books he has written and the filmscripts to which he contributed, I am surprised that he is not better known here. He has four detectives based in different cities including Moscow where Porfiry Rostnikov is based. Toby Peters is his detective in LA/Hollywood and is possibly the least interesting of the four. Lew Fonesca is based in Florida and is a rather odd chap but the best is Abe Lieberman who is actually in the police department. Food plays no part in these novels except with Abe always wanting food which is denied to him for the sake of his heart by an over-protective wife.
American crime fiction cotains very little reference to food though in James Sallis's Turner series, there is mention of cooked racoon! This is another writer I discovered through Amazon shopping which seems as good a way as any of finding new or possibly old authors that are not well known here. Some of these books can be bought second hand for one penny so you don't lose much even if you feel they are unreadable when they arrive. I had thought that the latest Kate Atkinson ' Started Early,Took My Dog' would be OK but I abandoned it after about thirty pages when it became far too silly. I was also irritated to such an extent by the latest William Boyd novel/thriller that I gave up about half way through. It seems that recognised writers can often produce a real dud so perhaps I shouldn't have been surprised that Jacobson won the Booker Prize for 'The Finkler Question' which is in my view much inferior to 'Kalooki Nights' or 'The Mighty Walzer'. Perhaps the jury awarded the prize as much for his past work as for the latest novel.
In spite of the racoons, the 'Turner ' trilogy is rather different from most crime stories and I am now going to read some of his others. I know that Ed McBain was around for a long time and also published many others under a different name, but I have recently enjoyed the '87th Precinct series which are interesting because one gets to know most of the detectives working in that precinct rather than just one main character as for example Harry Bosch in the Michael Connolly series.
I realise that in a few months I will celebrate the fifth anniversary of the blog and I think I will reveal then whether I have actually lost any weight. The allotment is rather quiet at present and I have only recently returned to it because of the long cold wet winter but it is under control now and I will be ready to plant seeds as soon as some warmth comes. I still have leeks to harvest and I am hopeful that the perpetual spinach will perk up. There is a lot of purple sprouting brocoli which will be ready to eat in a few weeks and I hope to get a crop of asparagus
for the first time this year.
I am planning to resume this blog on a regular basis from now on; I have more time available. New ideas for detective fiction/ crime would be welcome.
Sunday, May 17, 2009
A blog at bedtime
May 17th. 2009.
It is now nearly a year since my last blog. I hadn't realised that it had been so long. I was full of good intentions but have been easily distracted from ordering my thoughts and typing them in the blog by other activities, the allotment, a novel or even snoozing which is one of my favourite hobbies though perhaps it isn't an activity. Recently several people have asked about the blog so I have decided to restart. The response from any reader is of course a strong stimulus to keep going and as before the blog is really an open letter to friends and family. As before, there will be an emphasis on three subjects:-1. weight loss (easily disposed of as there has been none),
2. books, especially detective fiction
3. the allotment
I have thought of introducing a new category known as Bob's Hit List for the most tiresome people in public life drawn mainly from the world of 'Celebrities'.
The last comment on my blog suggested a book called 'Cooking with Fernet Branca' by James Hamilton Patterson which I did find very amusing and thanks to the comment I realise I have not returned it. It occurs to me that I don't think I have ever tasted Fernet Branca and it isn't something I would ever think of having though perhaps I will now try it once. Some drinks seem to have gone out of fashion : I cannot remember anyone asking for, or offering a glass of sherry in the last few years. Perhaps I don't move in the right circles any longer.
I had thought that I would try and explore Japanese detective fiction but it has not been a rewarding experience, largely because I found that the relationship between the detectives and all the other characters was so different from what we are used to, that they all seemed completely un-natural.However, during the past year I have greatly enjoyed the following:-
251. Kate Atkinson
252. James Crumley
253. Dennis Lehane
254. Adrian McKinty
255. Stieg Larsson
Kate Atkinson might be better known for 'Behind the Scenes at the Museum' and may not be generally considered as a writer of detective fiction but the Jackson Brodie novels are very definitely police/crime/detective fiction.
I first heard of James Crumley when I read his obituary in the Guardian. I find it quite extraordinary that a writer can be well enough known to justify an obituary in the Guardian but is a complete stranger to everyone to whom I have mentioned him. I'm glad that I read the obits or I would never have discovered Milo Milodragovitch or C.W.Sugrue, his detectives. 'One to Count Cadence' is not a detective story but about the Vietnam war.
Dennis Lehane may sound Irish and may well have Irish ancestors but his action is in Boston where his detectives, Patrick Kenzie and Angela Gennaro shoot drink and have sex. They are a bit like Elvis cole and his side-kick Pike, all of them trying to out-Marlowe Marlowe and not quite succeeding but its all good fun. Adrian McKinty is Irish and the action is in the States and in Ireland.
Stieg Larsson was Swedish but now unfortunately dead. His books are only now being translated into English and I've only read 'The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo' so far. It's quite a good tale though a bit long and like so much of Scandinavian crime fiction the crimes are really quite unpleasantly violent. I have referred to this tendency in previous blogs. Does it reflect the writers' personality or the Scandinavian character or is it because of the weather? Quite different from the Camilleris, Montalbans, and Paduras.
There have been some major disappointments in the last year and I will single out the following :- 1. Philip Roth - Indignation
2. Philip Roth - Exit Ghost
3. Ford Madox Ford - The Good Soldier
4. Robert Bolano - The Savage Detectives
5. Donna Leon - About Face
6. Junot Diaz - Drown
7. Junot Diaz - The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao
8. Aleksandar Hemon - The Question of Bruno
9. Aleksandar Hemon - Nowhere Man
10. Ernest Hemingway - A Farewell to Arms
I really feel that it is time for Roth to hang up his pen. I cannot understand the reputation of Ford Madox Ford; I forced myself to finish the book hoping for some redeeming features but there were none. Robert Bolano(Chilean) has been praised by the critics, as has Junot Diaz( Dominican) and Aleksandar Hemon(Bosnian). Nobel Prizes and Literary Awards are mentioned in reviews and in the blurb on the covers though thank goodness have not yet been awarded. Bolano's characters are wrapped up in rivalry over poetry but mainly sex. If Diaz wants to write in English he should stop putting crucial passages in Spanish. Hemon writes as though he has learned English from a dictionary.
Much as I like Guido Brunetti, Donna Leon isn't producing good enough plots any longer to sustain him and his wretched wife is becoming more tiresome. Is she perhaps how Leon sees herself?
I'm sure the Food Police will be unhappy about the inclusion of Hemingway in this list but I just couldn't get to like Henry, drunken, immoral, possibly not even too upset by Catherine's death and Catherine herself never has a sensible thing to say. Irritatingly she keeps asking "Darling, you do love me don't you darling?" Did people ever talk that way?
Allotment news will have to wait for another day as my typing hasn't got any faster and it is getting late.The hit list can also wait; it doesn't change much form week to week that some characters rise up the charts when they have been exceptionally obnoxious.
It is now nearly a year since my last blog. I hadn't realised that it had been so long. I was full of good intentions but have been easily distracted from ordering my thoughts and typing them in the blog by other activities, the allotment, a novel or even snoozing which is one of my favourite hobbies though perhaps it isn't an activity. Recently several people have asked about the blog so I have decided to restart. The response from any reader is of course a strong stimulus to keep going and as before the blog is really an open letter to friends and family. As before, there will be an emphasis on three subjects:-1. weight loss (easily disposed of as there has been none),
2. books, especially detective fiction
3. the allotment
I have thought of introducing a new category known as Bob's Hit List for the most tiresome people in public life drawn mainly from the world of 'Celebrities'.
The last comment on my blog suggested a book called 'Cooking with Fernet Branca' by James Hamilton Patterson which I did find very amusing and thanks to the comment I realise I have not returned it. It occurs to me that I don't think I have ever tasted Fernet Branca and it isn't something I would ever think of having though perhaps I will now try it once. Some drinks seem to have gone out of fashion : I cannot remember anyone asking for, or offering a glass of sherry in the last few years. Perhaps I don't move in the right circles any longer.
I had thought that I would try and explore Japanese detective fiction but it has not been a rewarding experience, largely because I found that the relationship between the detectives and all the other characters was so different from what we are used to, that they all seemed completely un-natural.However, during the past year I have greatly enjoyed the following:-
251. Kate Atkinson
252. James Crumley
253. Dennis Lehane
254. Adrian McKinty
255. Stieg Larsson
Kate Atkinson might be better known for 'Behind the Scenes at the Museum' and may not be generally considered as a writer of detective fiction but the Jackson Brodie novels are very definitely police/crime/detective fiction.
I first heard of James Crumley when I read his obituary in the Guardian. I find it quite extraordinary that a writer can be well enough known to justify an obituary in the Guardian but is a complete stranger to everyone to whom I have mentioned him. I'm glad that I read the obits or I would never have discovered Milo Milodragovitch or C.W.Sugrue, his detectives. 'One to Count Cadence' is not a detective story but about the Vietnam war.
Dennis Lehane may sound Irish and may well have Irish ancestors but his action is in Boston where his detectives, Patrick Kenzie and Angela Gennaro shoot drink and have sex. They are a bit like Elvis cole and his side-kick Pike, all of them trying to out-Marlowe Marlowe and not quite succeeding but its all good fun. Adrian McKinty is Irish and the action is in the States and in Ireland.
Stieg Larsson was Swedish but now unfortunately dead. His books are only now being translated into English and I've only read 'The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo' so far. It's quite a good tale though a bit long and like so much of Scandinavian crime fiction the crimes are really quite unpleasantly violent. I have referred to this tendency in previous blogs. Does it reflect the writers' personality or the Scandinavian character or is it because of the weather? Quite different from the Camilleris, Montalbans, and Paduras.
There have been some major disappointments in the last year and I will single out the following :- 1. Philip Roth - Indignation
2. Philip Roth - Exit Ghost
3. Ford Madox Ford - The Good Soldier
4. Robert Bolano - The Savage Detectives
5. Donna Leon - About Face
6. Junot Diaz - Drown
7. Junot Diaz - The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao
8. Aleksandar Hemon - The Question of Bruno
9. Aleksandar Hemon - Nowhere Man
10. Ernest Hemingway - A Farewell to Arms
I really feel that it is time for Roth to hang up his pen. I cannot understand the reputation of Ford Madox Ford; I forced myself to finish the book hoping for some redeeming features but there were none. Robert Bolano(Chilean) has been praised by the critics, as has Junot Diaz( Dominican) and Aleksandar Hemon(Bosnian). Nobel Prizes and Literary Awards are mentioned in reviews and in the blurb on the covers though thank goodness have not yet been awarded. Bolano's characters are wrapped up in rivalry over poetry but mainly sex. If Diaz wants to write in English he should stop putting crucial passages in Spanish. Hemon writes as though he has learned English from a dictionary.
Much as I like Guido Brunetti, Donna Leon isn't producing good enough plots any longer to sustain him and his wretched wife is becoming more tiresome. Is she perhaps how Leon sees herself?
I'm sure the Food Police will be unhappy about the inclusion of Hemingway in this list but I just couldn't get to like Henry, drunken, immoral, possibly not even too upset by Catherine's death and Catherine herself never has a sensible thing to say. Irritatingly she keeps asking "Darling, you do love me don't you darling?" Did people ever talk that way?
Allotment news will have to wait for another day as my typing hasn't got any faster and it is getting late.The hit list can also wait; it doesn't change much form week to week that some characters rise up the charts when they have been exceptionally obnoxious.
Friday, June 13, 2008
Return of the fatty
Friday June 13th. 23.56
It is not entirely obvious why there has been no blog for nearly six months or why I have chosen this moment to resume. I have been busy with other things, particularly the allotment and reading. I am of course still working and I do have a contract to work for another year at least.
First things first; has Bob lost weight? The answer is no, but he hasn't gained either. It is very nearly two years since the first blog and the weigh in at the service station on the M5 just north of the junction with the M50. I was then on my way to Kegworth the day before the Moto GP. I hope to repeat that journey for the same reason in a week's time. I haven't really been trying very hard to lose weight and my latest food enthusiasm is croissants. According to the blurb on the box, they are the best that Raymond Blanc has tasted outside his own kitchen! I wonder if that is really true. Does he really go shopping in Tesco stores? Unfortunately for the the keen slimmer, there are six in each box and they don't keep well overnight.
I was recently accused by the Tel part of StanandTel of reading only detective fiction and perhaps therefore of needlessly restricting the pleasures of reading, but there have been quite a number of novels and even short stories that I have consumed. Perhaps the most interesting short stories were two collections by Amy Hempel. 'The Dog of the Marriage' and 'Reasons to Live'. They are both quite short collections which come to an end far too quickly so I feel I can recommend them. I have a third collection of her's that came in the latest Amazon parcel.
I also greatly enjoyed Terry Pratchett's 'Making Money' but I can't warm to any of the other
Discworld Novels - or at least the ones I have tried so far. I believe that he thinks he has Alzheimer's Disease but how can he tell? I have also not enjoyed a biography of Max Perutz who won a Nobel Prize for his work on the structure of Haemoglobin and a biography of J. Robert Oppenheimer. The former irritated me because it portrays a man who seemed to be upset that he was not recognised sooner and that all he wanted was a Nobel Prize and derived no satisfaction from his work. He probably wasn't like that at all but that was how he was portrayed. The Oppenheimer book was simply too long and I lost the will to grind on long before the end. I have recently been informed that reading biography is a definite sign of ageing ' if not senility, so I won't be reading any more of them.
I had recently tried to ask Tel if he knew the stories of Ring Lardner which nobody but me ever seems to read but we had a rather confusing conversation about American short stories as we couldn't remember whether it was Robert Carver or Richard Coover. I have since found a collection of stories by Raymond Carver which is very readable and a book called 'Pinocchio in Venice' by Robert Coover which is quite unreadable incomprehensible tosh. No wonder that authors such as Anthony Burgess are quoted, praising this awful book. Anyway, I was told that Ernest Hemingway paved the way to the style of much of the American writing of the second half of the twentieth century so I am now reading 'Men Without Women' and have others lined up the second half of 2008. Would Elmore Leonard have been able to write his wonderful books if Hemingway had not been born before him? Did he really influence Philip Roth whose latest work was one of the great disappointments of the last six months ('Exit Ghost')?
I am always on the lookout for new and entertaing detective fiction but there is always a temptation to stick to one's favourites, Camilleri, Montalban, Garcia-Roza, Padura, Leon, Carofiglio, and even re-read Simenon and Chandler, so I'm always ready to try something new if recommended. I am trying some Chinese and Japanese detectives but they are fairly standard 'police procedurals', and although quite different froom the American or European police procedurals, there is no real excitement or thrill. Has anyone out there disovered anew and exciting detective fiction writer?
Since I first gave news of my allotment, there has been a lot of publicity for allotments and encouragement for people to dig up their lawns and plant vegetables instead of grass. I'm not sure if this is prompted by the price of food or simply by the enthusiasts for gardens and 'green' issues. I should point out that it takes quite a lot of time to look after a standard sized allotment and to make it productive. I have noted that a recent allotment holder on the site feels that it is perfectly OK to allow quite a lot of weeds and wildness on the allotment and sort of live in harmony with a balance of weeds and vegetables, but it seems to me that although he can do whatever he likes with the ground he rents, its against the principle of the allotment not to use it for cultivation of plants that aren't weeds. Furthermore it is rather anti-social to let the seeds from all his weeds blow on to other peoples' patches. Fortunately his plot is some way away from mine. I am expecting good crops this year, particularly of beans and raspberries. I have started an asparagus bed and when the digging is finished I plan to add a strawberry bed.
Congratulations to my sleeping partner who has recently fathered a baby girl. He visited the allotment once this year to look at it rather than do anything such as digging or hoeing. I can't see him actually doing anything there at least until I have finished the digging.
I hope to resume regular blogs from now on, so watch this space.
It is not entirely obvious why there has been no blog for nearly six months or why I have chosen this moment to resume. I have been busy with other things, particularly the allotment and reading. I am of course still working and I do have a contract to work for another year at least.
First things first; has Bob lost weight? The answer is no, but he hasn't gained either. It is very nearly two years since the first blog and the weigh in at the service station on the M5 just north of the junction with the M50. I was then on my way to Kegworth the day before the Moto GP. I hope to repeat that journey for the same reason in a week's time. I haven't really been trying very hard to lose weight and my latest food enthusiasm is croissants. According to the blurb on the box, they are the best that Raymond Blanc has tasted outside his own kitchen! I wonder if that is really true. Does he really go shopping in Tesco stores? Unfortunately for the the keen slimmer, there are six in each box and they don't keep well overnight.
I was recently accused by the Tel part of StanandTel of reading only detective fiction and perhaps therefore of needlessly restricting the pleasures of reading, but there have been quite a number of novels and even short stories that I have consumed. Perhaps the most interesting short stories were two collections by Amy Hempel. 'The Dog of the Marriage' and 'Reasons to Live'. They are both quite short collections which come to an end far too quickly so I feel I can recommend them. I have a third collection of her's that came in the latest Amazon parcel.
I also greatly enjoyed Terry Pratchett's 'Making Money' but I can't warm to any of the other
Discworld Novels - or at least the ones I have tried so far. I believe that he thinks he has Alzheimer's Disease but how can he tell? I have also not enjoyed a biography of Max Perutz who won a Nobel Prize for his work on the structure of Haemoglobin and a biography of J. Robert Oppenheimer. The former irritated me because it portrays a man who seemed to be upset that he was not recognised sooner and that all he wanted was a Nobel Prize and derived no satisfaction from his work. He probably wasn't like that at all but that was how he was portrayed. The Oppenheimer book was simply too long and I lost the will to grind on long before the end. I have recently been informed that reading biography is a definite sign of ageing ' if not senility, so I won't be reading any more of them.
I had recently tried to ask Tel if he knew the stories of Ring Lardner which nobody but me ever seems to read but we had a rather confusing conversation about American short stories as we couldn't remember whether it was Robert Carver or Richard Coover. I have since found a collection of stories by Raymond Carver which is very readable and a book called 'Pinocchio in Venice' by Robert Coover which is quite unreadable incomprehensible tosh. No wonder that authors such as Anthony Burgess are quoted, praising this awful book. Anyway, I was told that Ernest Hemingway paved the way to the style of much of the American writing of the second half of the twentieth century so I am now reading 'Men Without Women' and have others lined up the second half of 2008. Would Elmore Leonard have been able to write his wonderful books if Hemingway had not been born before him? Did he really influence Philip Roth whose latest work was one of the great disappointments of the last six months ('Exit Ghost')?
I am always on the lookout for new and entertaing detective fiction but there is always a temptation to stick to one's favourites, Camilleri, Montalban, Garcia-Roza, Padura, Leon, Carofiglio, and even re-read Simenon and Chandler, so I'm always ready to try something new if recommended. I am trying some Chinese and Japanese detectives but they are fairly standard 'police procedurals', and although quite different froom the American or European police procedurals, there is no real excitement or thrill. Has anyone out there disovered anew and exciting detective fiction writer?
Since I first gave news of my allotment, there has been a lot of publicity for allotments and encouragement for people to dig up their lawns and plant vegetables instead of grass. I'm not sure if this is prompted by the price of food or simply by the enthusiasts for gardens and 'green' issues. I should point out that it takes quite a lot of time to look after a standard sized allotment and to make it productive. I have noted that a recent allotment holder on the site feels that it is perfectly OK to allow quite a lot of weeds and wildness on the allotment and sort of live in harmony with a balance of weeds and vegetables, but it seems to me that although he can do whatever he likes with the ground he rents, its against the principle of the allotment not to use it for cultivation of plants that aren't weeds. Furthermore it is rather anti-social to let the seeds from all his weeds blow on to other peoples' patches. Fortunately his plot is some way away from mine. I am expecting good crops this year, particularly of beans and raspberries. I have started an asparagus bed and when the digging is finished I plan to add a strawberry bed.
Congratulations to my sleeping partner who has recently fathered a baby girl. He visited the allotment once this year to look at it rather than do anything such as digging or hoeing. I can't see him actually doing anything there at least until I have finished the digging.
I hope to resume regular blogs from now on, so watch this space.
Monday, December 31, 2007
The Unstable Sandwich
December 31st. 2007. 9pm.
I am resisting any idea that I should go out to celebrate and have decided to avoid the inevitable disappointments of NY's eve by posting the last blog of the year. I hope to be a more regular blogger in the coming year though this is not a resolution.
To celebrate the imminent return of Charlie Resnick I have been eating a quadriple decker sandwich -turkey, lettuce, tomato and cucumber. Unfortunately these sandwiches are rendered unstable by slippery salad ingredients and there is often enough spillage to start up another sandwich. This is unfortunate for the weight losing blogger! Another snag in the sandwich department is the rind on salami, which, if not severed by the first bite, then drags out the rest of the slice plus or minus the other contents if its a double or triple decker. Resnick never encountered this problem which is strange because he often had the extremely slippery pickled cucumber as one of the ingredients. Maybe he used tooth picks to nail them together. We will soon be able to discover whether this is a problem for him as he will return next month and we have to hope that the disappointed and disappointing retired Inspector Elder has retired for ever.
It is a rather comforting thought that there will be a new Camilleri and a new Padura coming out soon. There is also a new Hakan Nesser though I have reservations about the Scandinavian (and Icelandic) detectives- I think that the cold and damp somehow gets into their bones and makes them pessimistic and depressed, though Van Veeteran seems a bit more cheerful than the rest. Martin Beck has his moments of lust but you don't get the feeling that its much fun! Is that possible? The mood definitely changes amongst the detectives of Europe as you go further south and although they may be cynical they have normal appetites around the Mediterranean.
The biggest reading disappoinment of the year was Philip Roth's 'Exit Ghost' though the follow up to John Farrow's excellent 'City of Ice' featuring Cinq-Mars called 'Ice Lake, was poor. I used to think that Elmore Leonard couldn't put a foot wrong but 'Up in Holly's Room' was too silly to be fun. I chose to read Upamanyu Chatterjee's 'Weight Loss' for obvious reasons but it also got a good review in either the Guardian or the Observer but it was unpickupable.
There have been some great delights to more than make up for the disappointments. Perhaps rather late in life I read Harper Lee's 'To Kill aMockingbird' during a brief holiday in the sun during which it was only the sun and the books I took with me that afforded any pleasure. I had made the major error of going to an "all inclusive" hotel where the food and drink was plentiful but uninteresting. I have to thank a Liverpool girl for insisting that I read Mockingbird and indirectly and mistakenly another daughter for introducing me to Terry Pratchett. I laughed aloud at 'Going Postal' which I obtained after seeing a brilliant review for 'Making Money' by the same author . I thought that I would read them in the right order and also await the paper back version of his latest. I discover that there many many of his novels and wonder if I will have the inclination or the time to read them. Another daughter must be thanked for introducing to Michael Chabon's 'The Jewish Policemen's Union' which was a delight to brighten the all inclusive day. I don't think that Chabon will produce further novels in the same setting but I will give his others a chance.
My trawl through the world of detective fiction has been fun and unearthed real gems. I have repeatedly praised Camilleri, Montalban, Padura, Leon and Luiz Alfredo Garcia-Roza ( detectives Montalbano, Carvhallo, Conde, Brunnelli and Espinoza) but have also found Carlo Lucarelli who offers a completely different atmosphere and excitement and Colin Cotterill's stories which are set in Laos and seem to emanate a Bhuddist calm and conjure up the hot and steamy atmosphere that I would expect on the banks of the Mekong. I have also found Dominique Manotti and Gianrico Carofiglio and none of their stories have been less than excellent. It is a shame that 'Night Bus' seems to be the only book from Giampiero Rigosi.
There have as always been many newly dicovered pleasures during the past year which must include the visit to the Food Police in New Zealand and almost on our doorstep- or at least only a train ride away- Provence. I have also discovered the joys of youtube.com. If you just type in Billie Holiday you can see the whole eight and a half minutes of her recording 'Fine and Mellow ' with Coleman Hawkins, Ben Webster, Gerry Mulligan, Roy Eldridge etc.! Or you could see the scenes from Bugsy Malone, or Laurel and Hardy singing the Lonesome Pine etc. etc. Its brilliant.
I am sure you will want to know about the allotment but there's not much happening at the moment though there has been a surprisingly good crop of sprouts. Unfortunately nobody seems to like them though it is possible that the sleeping partner will eat them.(Allotment-wise, he sleeps on).The bad weather has made the ground either too frosty or too wet to work but when I last looked the weeds were not a problem on the ground that has been dug so far, which is about two thirds finished now.
Finally, the crucial question; willbobobloseweight? Yes, he will but I dont think he has, yet!
Happy New Year to you all. Bob
I am resisting any idea that I should go out to celebrate and have decided to avoid the inevitable disappointments of NY's eve by posting the last blog of the year. I hope to be a more regular blogger in the coming year though this is not a resolution.
To celebrate the imminent return of Charlie Resnick I have been eating a quadriple decker sandwich -turkey, lettuce, tomato and cucumber. Unfortunately these sandwiches are rendered unstable by slippery salad ingredients and there is often enough spillage to start up another sandwich. This is unfortunate for the weight losing blogger! Another snag in the sandwich department is the rind on salami, which, if not severed by the first bite, then drags out the rest of the slice plus or minus the other contents if its a double or triple decker. Resnick never encountered this problem which is strange because he often had the extremely slippery pickled cucumber as one of the ingredients. Maybe he used tooth picks to nail them together. We will soon be able to discover whether this is a problem for him as he will return next month and we have to hope that the disappointed and disappointing retired Inspector Elder has retired for ever.
It is a rather comforting thought that there will be a new Camilleri and a new Padura coming out soon. There is also a new Hakan Nesser though I have reservations about the Scandinavian (and Icelandic) detectives- I think that the cold and damp somehow gets into their bones and makes them pessimistic and depressed, though Van Veeteran seems a bit more cheerful than the rest. Martin Beck has his moments of lust but you don't get the feeling that its much fun! Is that possible? The mood definitely changes amongst the detectives of Europe as you go further south and although they may be cynical they have normal appetites around the Mediterranean.
The biggest reading disappoinment of the year was Philip Roth's 'Exit Ghost' though the follow up to John Farrow's excellent 'City of Ice' featuring Cinq-Mars called 'Ice Lake, was poor. I used to think that Elmore Leonard couldn't put a foot wrong but 'Up in Holly's Room' was too silly to be fun. I chose to read Upamanyu Chatterjee's 'Weight Loss' for obvious reasons but it also got a good review in either the Guardian or the Observer but it was unpickupable.
There have been some great delights to more than make up for the disappointments. Perhaps rather late in life I read Harper Lee's 'To Kill aMockingbird' during a brief holiday in the sun during which it was only the sun and the books I took with me that afforded any pleasure. I had made the major error of going to an "all inclusive" hotel where the food and drink was plentiful but uninteresting. I have to thank a Liverpool girl for insisting that I read Mockingbird and indirectly and mistakenly another daughter for introducing me to Terry Pratchett. I laughed aloud at 'Going Postal' which I obtained after seeing a brilliant review for 'Making Money' by the same author . I thought that I would read them in the right order and also await the paper back version of his latest. I discover that there many many of his novels and wonder if I will have the inclination or the time to read them. Another daughter must be thanked for introducing to Michael Chabon's 'The Jewish Policemen's Union' which was a delight to brighten the all inclusive day. I don't think that Chabon will produce further novels in the same setting but I will give his others a chance.
My trawl through the world of detective fiction has been fun and unearthed real gems. I have repeatedly praised Camilleri, Montalban, Padura, Leon and Luiz Alfredo Garcia-Roza ( detectives Montalbano, Carvhallo, Conde, Brunnelli and Espinoza) but have also found Carlo Lucarelli who offers a completely different atmosphere and excitement and Colin Cotterill's stories which are set in Laos and seem to emanate a Bhuddist calm and conjure up the hot and steamy atmosphere that I would expect on the banks of the Mekong. I have also found Dominique Manotti and Gianrico Carofiglio and none of their stories have been less than excellent. It is a shame that 'Night Bus' seems to be the only book from Giampiero Rigosi.
There have as always been many newly dicovered pleasures during the past year which must include the visit to the Food Police in New Zealand and almost on our doorstep- or at least only a train ride away- Provence. I have also discovered the joys of youtube.com. If you just type in Billie Holiday you can see the whole eight and a half minutes of her recording 'Fine and Mellow ' with Coleman Hawkins, Ben Webster, Gerry Mulligan, Roy Eldridge etc.! Or you could see the scenes from Bugsy Malone, or Laurel and Hardy singing the Lonesome Pine etc. etc. Its brilliant.
I am sure you will want to know about the allotment but there's not much happening at the moment though there has been a surprisingly good crop of sprouts. Unfortunately nobody seems to like them though it is possible that the sleeping partner will eat them.(Allotment-wise, he sleeps on).The bad weather has made the ground either too frosty or too wet to work but when I last looked the weeds were not a problem on the ground that has been dug so far, which is about two thirds finished now.
Finally, the crucial question; willbobobloseweight? Yes, he will but I dont think he has, yet!
Happy New Year to you all. Bob
