kidzdoc's Books, Theatre, Music and Recipes in 2015: Act Two

These are several buildings that comprise the Hospital de la Santa Creu i Sant Pau, which I saw during my visit to Barcelona last summer. It was designed by the noted architect Lluís Domènech i Montaner and was built between 1901 and 1930 to replace the old Hospital de la Santa Creu, which was completed in 1401. The hospital was in operation until 2009, when it was replaced by the new Hospital Sant Pau, which can be seen at the rear of this photograph. The complex is now a UNESCO World Heritage Site, and many of the buildings are being renovated or have been leased to nonprofit international health organizations.

Currently reading:

    

Obabakoak by Bernardo Atxaga
The Gray Notebook by Josep Pla
When Doctors Become Patients by Robert Klitzman
Selected Poems of Corsino Fortes by Corsino Fortes

Completed books: (TBR = book acquired prior to 1/1/14)

January:
1. Clock Without Hands by Carson McCullers (TBR) (review)
2. Men We Reaped by Jesmyn Ward (TBR) (review)
3. A Golden Age by Tahmima Anam (TBR)
4. A Distant Father by Antonio Skármeta
5. Moon Tiger by Penelope Lively
6. The Calcutta Chromosome by Amitav Ghosh (TBR)

February:
7. In the City By the Sea by Kamila Shamsie (TBR)
8. The Work: My Search for a Life That Matters by Wes Moore
9. I Called Him Necktie by Milena Michiko Flašar
10 Blackballed: The Black Vote and US Democracy by Darryl Pinckney

March:
11. Grady Baby: A Year in the Life of Atlanta's Grady Hospital by Jerry Gentry (TBR)
12. The Sellout by Paul Beatty

April:
13. Such a Long Journey by Rohinton Mistry (TBR)
14. March: Book One by John Lewis
15. Nada by Carmen Laforet (TBR)
16. Outlaws by Javier Cercas
17. Stone in a Landslide by Maria Barbal
18. The Plague of Doves by Louise Erdrich (TBR)
19. Blank Gaze by José Luís Peixoto (TBR)
20. The Education of the Stoic by Fernando Pessoa (TBR)
21. Time Ages in a Hurry by Antonio Tabucchi
22. Navidad & Matanza by Carlos Labbé

May:
23. The Theft of Memory: Losing My Father, One Day at a Time by Jonathan Kozol
24. Fear and Loathing in La Liga: Barcelona vs Real Madrid by Sid Lowe
25. Can't We Talk About Something More Pleasant? by Roz Chast
26. The Good Doctor: A Father, a Son, and the Evolution of Medical Ethics by Barron H. Lerner
27. Barcelona Travel Guide: A Weekend in Barcelona by Gerry Kerkhof
28. Guide to Troubled Birds by The Mincing Mockingbird

June:
29. The Time of the Doves by Mercè Rodoreda
30. Edinburgh: A Cultural History by Donald Campbell
31. Rick Steves' Pocket Amsterdam by Rick Steves and Gene Openshaw
32. No Word from Gurb by Eduardo Mendoza

Books purchased or received in 2015: (Bold = book purchased this year)

January:
1. Station Eleven by Emily St. John Mandel (2 Jan, Kindle e-book)
2. The Lathe of Heaven by Ursula Le Guin (2 Jan, Kindle e-book)
3. The Center Cannot Hold: My Journey Through Madness by Elyn R. Saks (11 Jan, Kindle e-book)
4. A Useless Man: Selected Stories by Sait Faik Abasiyanik (12 Jan, Archipelago Books subscription)
5. The Work: My Search for a Life That Matters by Wes Moore (20 Jan, LT Early Reviewers book)
6. DownBeat: The Great Jazz Interviews, edited and compiled by Frank Alkyer and Ed Enright (20 Jan, free book as part of 2015 DownBeat subscription)

February:
7. The Turn of the Screw by Henry James, (1 Feb, Kindle e-book)
8. Bedlam: London and Its Mad by Catharine Arnold (4 Feb, Kindle e-book)

March:
9. Less Medicine, More Health: 7 Assumptions That Drive Too Much Medical Care by H. Gilbert Welch (2 Mar, LT Early Reviewers book)
10. Time Ages in a Hurry by Antonio Tabucchi (2 Mar, Archipelago Books subscription)
11. The Sellout by Paul Beatty (3 Mar, Kindle e-book)
12. A Man of His Word by Imma Monsó (29 Mar, Kindle e-book)

April:
13. Stone in a Landslide by Maria Barbas (1 Apr, Kindle e-book)
14. March: Book One by John Lewis (2 Apr, Kindle e-book)
15. The Bees by Laline Paul (2 Apr, Kindle e-book)
16. Selected Poems of Corsino Fortes by Corsino Fortes (3 Apr, Archipelago Books subscription)
17. The Lost Child by Caryl Phillips (3 Apr, Barnes & Noble)
18. Fresh from the Vegan Slow Cooker by Robin Robertson (5 Apr, gift from Karen W.)
19. Paris by Marcos Giralt Torrente (8 Apr, Kindle e-book)
20. Things Look Different in the Light & Other Stories by Medardo Fraile (8 Apr, Kindle e-book)
21. Tristana by Benito Perez Galdos (8 Apr, Kindle e-book)
22. Bearing the Cross: Martin Luther King, Jr., and the Southern Christian Leadership Conference by David J. Garrow (8 Apr, Kindle e-book)
23. I Never Had It Made by Jackie Robinson (8 Apr, Kindle e-book)
24. The Discreet Hero by Mario Vargas Llosa (10 Apr, Barnes & Noble)
25. My Struggle: Book Four by Karl Ove Knausgaard (22 Apr, Archipelago Books subscription)
26. Life Embitters by Josep Pla (22 Apr, Archipelago Books subscription)
27. This Life by Karel Schoeman (22 Apr, Archipelago Books subscription)
28. Amsterdam: A Brief History of the City by Geert Mak (24 Apr, Kindle e-book)
29. The Ministry of Pain by Dubravka Ugrešić (24 Apr, Kindle e-book)
30. The Theft of Memory: Losing My Father, One Day at a Time by Jonathan Kozol (25 Apr, LT Early Reviewers book)

2015 Reading Globally Themes and possible reads from my TBR collection:

First quarter: Indian subcontinent



Aravind Adiga, Between the Assassinations
Tariq Ali, Night of the Golden Butterfly
Tahmima Anam, A Golden Age
Vikram Chandra, Red Earth and Pouring Rain
Vikram Chandra, Sacred Games
G.V. Desani, All About H. Hatterr
Roopa Farooki, Bitter Sweets
Amitav Ghosh, The Calcutta Chromosome
Amitav Ghosh, The Hungry Tide
Intizar Husain, Basti
Rohinton Mistry, Such a Long Journey
Uday Prakash, The Girl with the Golden Parasol
Salman Rushdie, The Moor's Last Sigh
Salman Rushdie, The Satanic Verses
Kamila Shamsie, In the City By the Sea

Second quarter: Iberian peninsula



António Lobo Antunes, Act of the Damned
António Lobo Antunes, Fado Alexandrino
António Lobo Antunes, The Land at the End of the World
Bernardo Atxaga, Obabakoak
Juan Goytisolo, Forbidden Territory and Realms of Strife
Juan Goytisolo, Landscapes of War: From Sarajevo to Chechnya
Juan Goytisolo, The Marx Family Saga
Almudena Grandes, The Frozen Heart
Carmen Laforet, Nada
José Luís Pessoa, Blank Gaze
Fernando Pessoa, The Book of Disquiet
Fernando Pessoa, The Education of the Stoic
Mercè Rodoreda, Death in Spring
Mercè Rodoreda, The Selected Stories of Mercè Rodoreda
José Saramago, Baltasar and Blimunda
José Saramago, The History of the Siege of Lisbon
José Saramago, Manual of Painting and Calligraphy
Llorenç Villalonga, The Dolls' Room
Carlos Ruiz Zafon, The Angel's Game

Third quarter: Nobel Prize winners writing not in English

  

Knut Hamsun (1920), Hunger
Thomas Mann (1929), Death in Venice
Halldór Laxness (1955), Independent People
Albert Camus (1957), The First Man; Exile and the Kingdom
Ivo Andrić (1961), The Bridge on the Drina
Jean-Paul Sartre (1964), Nausea
Miguel Ángel Asturias (1967), The President
Yasunari Kawabata (1968), Beauty and Sadness
Pablo Neruda (1971), The Essential Neruda; Canto General
Isaac Bashevis Singer (1978), Collected Stories, Volume 1
Gabriel García Márquez (1982), One Hundred Years of Solitude; Of Love and Other Demons; The Autumn of the Patriarch
Claude Simon (1985), The Trolley
Naguib Mahfouz (1988), Midaq Alley; Rhadopis of Nubia
Octavio Paz (1990), The Labyrinth of Solitude; In Light of India
Kenzaburō Ōe (1994), The Changeling
José Saramago (1998), Raised from the Ground; Baltasar and Blimunda; The History of the Siege of Lisbon; Manual of Painting and Calligraphy; Journey to Portugal
Günter Grass (1999), The Tin Drum
Gao Xingjian (2000), One Man's Bible; Soul Mountain
Orhan Pamuk (2006), Snow; My Name Is Red; The Museum of Innocence; Other Colors
J.M.G. Le Clézio (2008), Terra Amata; The Giants; War; Fever; The Book of Flights; The Flood
Herta Müller (2009), The Land of Green Plums
Mario Vargas Llosa (2010), Captain Pantoja and the Special Service; The Green House; The Way to Paradise; The Bad Girl; The Dream of the Celt
Mo Yan (2012), Life and Death are Wearing Me Out; The Garlic Ballads; The Republic of Wine

Fourth quarter: Women writing not in English

  

Isabel Allende, The House of the Spirits
Simone de Beauvoir, The Mandarins; She Came to Stay
Assia Djebar, Algerian White; Children of the New World; The Tongue's Blood Does Not Run Dry
Diamela Eltit, E. Luminata
Annie Ernaux, Cleaned Out
Sylvie Germain, The Song of False Lovers
Marlene van Niekerk, Agaat
Miral al-Tahawy, Brooklyn Heights
Delphine de Vigan, No and Me

2015 American Author Challenge

  

January: Carson McCullers, Clock Without Hands
February: Henry James, The Turn of the Screw
March: Richard Ford, Independence Day
April: Louise Erdrich, The Plague of Doves
May: Sinclair Lewis, Arrowsmith
June: Wallace Stegner, Crossing to Safety
July: Ursula Le Guin, The Lathe of Heaven
August: Larry McMurtry William Faulkner, The Sound and the Fury
September: Flannery O'Connor, The Complete Stories
October: Ray Bradbury, Fahrenheit 451
November: Barbara Kingsolver, Flight Behavior
December: E.L. Doctorow, The March

2015 British Author Challenge



January: Penelope Lively, Moon Tiger
January: Kazuo Ishiguro, Never Let Me Go
February: Sarah Waters, The Paying Guests
February: Evelyn Waugh, Brideshead Revisited
March: Daphne Du Maurier, ?Rebecca
March: China Miéville, The City & the City
April: Angela Carter, ?Nights at the Circus
April: W. Somerset Maugham, Of Human Bondage
May: Margaret Drabble, ?The Radiant Way
May: Martin Amis, The Zone of Interest
June: Beryl Bainbridge, Master Georgie
June: Anthony Burgess, ?Earthly Powers
July: Virginia Woolf, The Voyage Out
July: Aldous Huxley, Brave New World
August: Iris Murdoch, The Sea, the Sea
August: Graham Greene, The Quiet American
September: Andrea Levy, Fruit of the Lemon
September: Salman Rushdie, The Satanic Verses
October: Helen Dunmore, The Siege
October: David Mitchell, The Bone Clocks
November: Muriel Spark, Loitering with Intent
November: William Boyd, An Ice-Cream War
December: Hilary Mantel, A Place of Greater Safety
December: P.G. Wodehouse, Love Among the Chickens

Books about Medicine:



1. Grady Baby: A Year in the Life of Atlanta's Grady Hospital by Jerry Gentry

TBR Books to Read in 2015:



Tomes (500 pages or more):
      Nicole Barker, Darkmans
      Simone de Beauvoir, The Mandarins
      Douglas Brinkley, The Great Deluge: Hurricane Katrina, New Orleans, and the Mississippi Gulf Coast
      Saul Bellow, The Adventures of Augie March
      Ralph Ellison, Three Days Before the Shooting...
      Ian Gibson, The Shameful Life of Salvador Dalí
      David Grossman, To the End of the Land
      Lawrence Hill, Someone Knows My Name
      George E. Lewis, A Power Stronger than Itself: The AACM and American Experimental Music
      A.J. Liebling, Just Enough Liebling
      David Macey, Frantz Fanon: A Biography
      Hilary Mantel, A Place of Greater Safety
      Paul Murray, Skippy Dies
      Patrick O'Brian, Picasso: A Biography
      Roy Porter, Flesh in the Age of Reason: The Modern Foundations of Body and Soul
      Salman Rushdie, The Satanic Verses
      William Trevor, Selected Stories
      Patrick White, The Vivisector

Non-tomes (less than 500 pages):
      Stuart Altman and David Shactman, Power, Politics and Universal Health Care: The Inside Story of a Century-Long Battle
      Kwame Anthony Appiah, Cosmopolitanism: Ethics in a World of Strangers
      Bernardo Atxaga, Obabakoak
      Amiri Baraka, Tales of the Out & the Gone
      Eleanor Catton, The Rehearsal
      Patrick Chamoiseau, Texaco
      Jean Echenoz, I'm Off and One Year
      Percival Everett, Percival Everett by Virgil Russell
      Ralph Ellison, Invisible Man
      Louise Erdrich, The Plague of Doves
      Paul Farmer, Haiti After the Earthquake
      Juan Eslava Galan, The Mule
      Eduardo Galeano, Open Veins of Latin America
      Jerry Gentry, Grady Baby: A Year in the Life of Atlanta's Grady Hospital
      Amitav Ghosh, The Calcutta Chromosome
      Juan Goytisolo, Forbidden Territory and Realms of Strife
      Juan Goytisolo, Juan the Landless
      Alistair Horne, Seven Ages of Paris
      Jonathan B. Imber, Trusting Doctors: The Decline of Moral Authority in American Medicine
      Robert Klitzman, When Doctors Become Patients
      Karl Ove Knausgaard, My Struggle: Book One
      Charles Lemert, Why Niebuhr Matters
      David A. Mendel, Proper Doctoring: A Book for Patients and their Doctors
      Simon Mawer, Mendel's Dwarf
      Claire McCarthy, Everyone's Children: A Pediatrician's Story of an Inner City Practice
      Ian McEwan, Atonement
      Andrew Miller, Pure
      Vladimir Nabokov, Lolita
      Ngũgĩ wa Thiong'o, Petals of Blood
      Reinhold Niebuhr, The Irony of American History
      Laura Katz Olson, The Politics of Medicaid: Stakeholders and Welfare Medicine
      Brian Orr, MD, A Pediatrician's Journal: Caring for Children in a Broken Medical System
      Orhan Pamuk, Snow
      Roy Porter, Madmen: A Social History of Madhouses, Mad Doctors and Lunatics
      Graham Robb, Parisians: An Adventure History of Paris
      Edward W. Said, Out of Place: A Memoir
      Mario Vargas Llosa, The Green House
      Richard Wright, Black Boy

Literature from the African diaspora:
The Sellout by Paul Beatty
March: Book One by John Lewis

Nonfiction from the African diaspora:
Wes Moore, The Work: My Search for a Life That Matters
Jesmyn Ward, Men We Reaped
Darryl Pinckney, Blackballed: The Black Vote and US Democracy

Planned reads for April:

Javier Cercas, Outlaws
Louise Erdrich, The Plague of Doves
Carmen Martín Gaite, The Back Room
F. Xavier Hernandez, The History of Catalonia
Marlon James, A Brief History of Seven Killings
Carmen Lafloret, Nada
John Lewis, March: Book 1
Rohinton Mistry, Such a Long Journey
Patrick O'Brian, Picasso: A Biography
Fernando Pessoa, The Book of Disquiet
Carlos Rojas, The Ingenious Gentleman and Poet Federico García Lorca Ascends to Hell
José Saramago, The History of the Siege of Lisbon
Scott Stossel, My Age of Anxiety: Fear, Hope, Dread, and the Search for Peace of Mind
Sarah Waters, The Paying Guests

As you may know, I've volunteered to lead the upcoming second quarter theme in the Reading Globally group, which will focus on The Iberian Peninsula (click on the bolded hyperlink to get to the thread). So, the majority of the reading I'll do from April through June will focus on literature, poetry and nonfiction from Spain and Portugal.

This is a list of books I've read and would stongly recommend:

António Lobo Antunes, The Fat Man and Infinity: And Other Writings
Elia Barceló, The Goldsmith's Secret
Javier Cercas, Soldiers of Salamis; The Anatomy of a Moment; The Tenant and the Motive
Miguel de Cervantes, Don Quixote
Unai Elorriaga, Plants Don't Drink Coffee
Gijs van Hensbergen, Gaudí: A Biography
Robert Hughes, Barcelona
Javier Marias, A Heart So White
Juan Marsé, Lizard Tails
Quim Monzó, A Thousand Morons
George Orwell, Homage to Catalonia
Jordi Puntí, Lost Luggage
Manuel Rivas, The Carpenter's Pencil: A Novel of the Spanish Civil War
José Saramago, Blindness; Cain; Death at Intervals; The Elephant's Journey; The Gospel According to Jesus Christ; The Stone Raft
Gonçalo M. Tavares, Jerusalem
Colm Tóibín, Homage to Barcelona
Giles Tremlett, Ghosts of Spain: Travels Through Spain and Its Secret Past
Richard Wright, Pagan Spain
Carlos Ruiz Zafón, The Shadow of the Wind

This is a list of selected unread books that I own by Iberian authors that I'll consider reading:

António Lobo Antunes, Fado Alexandrino; The Inquisitors' Manual
Bernardo Atxaga, Obabakoak
Jesús del Campo, A History of the World for Rebels and Somnambulists
Camilo José Cela, The Family of Pascual Duarte
Javier Cercas, Outlaws
Carmen Martín Gaite, The Back Room
Juan Eslava Galan, The Mule
Ian Gibson, The Shameful Life of Salvador Dalí
Juan Goytisolo, Forbidden Territory and Realms of Strife
Almudena Grandes, The Frozen Heart
F. Xavier Hernàndez, The History of Catalonia
John Hooper, The New Spaniards
Carmen Laforet, Nada
Julio Llamazares, The Yellow Rain
Federico García Lorca, The Selected Poems of Federico García Lorca
Sid Lowe, Fear and Loathing in La Liga: Barcelona vs Real Madrid
Elizabeth Nash, Madrid: A Cultural and Literary Companion
Cees Nooteboom, Roads to Santiago: Detours and Riddles in the Land and History of Spain
Patrick O'Brian, Picasso: A Biography
José Luís Peixoto, Blank Gaze (alternate title: The Implacable Order of Things)
Fernando Pessoa, The Book of Disquiet; The Education of the Stoic
Josep Pla, The Gray Notebook
José Maria de Eça de Queirós, The Maias
Alice Leccese Powers, Spain in Mind
Paul Preston, The Spanish Holocaust: Inquisition and Extermination in Twentieth-Century Spain
Mercè Rodoreda, Death in Spring; The Selected Stories of Mercè Rodoreda
Carlos Rojas, The Ingenious Gentleman and Poet Federico García Lorca Ascends to Hell
José Saramago, The History of the Siege of Lisbon; Journey to Portugal
Colm Tóibín, The South
Llorenç Villalonga, The Dolls' Room
Carlos Ruiz Zafón, The Angel's Game

As part of the Reading Globally theme I wanted to highlight notable contemporary authors from the Iberian peninsula whose work has been widely translated into other languages. The first one will be about one of my favorite international authors.

Iberian Author Spotlight: Javier Cercas (1962-)



Javier Cercas was born in Ibahernando, a village in the province of Cáceres in western Spain. His family moved to the Catalonian town of Girona when he was four, and he was educated at the Autonomous University of Barcelona. He was a teaching assistant at the University of Illinois for two years before returning to Spain. Since 1989 he has been a professor at the University of Girona, and he also writes a regular column for the Catalan edition of the prominent daily newspaper El País. He currently lives in Barcelona with his wife and son.

Cercas's first published works were the darkly humorous novellas El móvil (The Motive, 1987) and El inquilino (The Tenant, 1989), which were published together in English translation as The Tenant and the Motive in 2005. He achieved worldwide recognition in 2003 after the release of Soldados de Salamina (published as Soldiers of Salamis in 2004), a historical novel about the Spanish Civil War which won several awards including the 2004 Independent Foreign Fiction Prize. His subsequent novels La velocidad de la luz (The Speed of Light, 2006), Anatomía de un instante (The Anatomy of a Moment, 2011), and Las leyes de la frontera (Outlaws, 2014) have all been translated into English.

Cercas's novels are expertly rendered narrative works of historical fiction that involve the lives of real characters, some of whom were known to him. Soldiers of Salamis is centered around a prominent nationalist leader at the end of the Spanish Civil War who was imprisoned by Republican soldiers and condemned to be executed, but he was only wounded by the bullets that struck him. He escaped and was later discovered by a Republican soldier (Cercas's grandfather in the actual event) who spared his life, which allowed him to return safely and become a prominent member of the Francoist government. The Speed of Light concerns the relationship between a Spanish professor in the Midwest and a troubled Vietnam veteran, and The Anatomy of a Moment recounts the failed 1981 coup of the Spanish government by soldiers of the old regime.

His latest novel, Outlaws, is narrated by a middle class teenage Gironan boy,who is lured into a gang by the leader's alluring girlfriend. The members move from petty crimes to more serious ones, and the leader and the narrator are captured. The influential father of the narrator encourages the policeman holding his son to release him, so that he can learn from his mistake and make something of his life. The leader, who came from a poor family, was given a long prison sentence, which became a cause célèbre in Catalonia. Twenty years later the narrator, now a prominent lawyer, is persuaded to take on the case of the former gang leader (who is based on a real person).

I have read, and would recommend, The Tenant and the Motive, Soldiers of Salamis, and The Anatomy of a Moment, and I'll read Outlaws in April.

I've finished my difficult work stretch from January through mid-March, so I should be a much more reliable participant here. I've only read two books this month and 12 for the year so far, so I should pick up my reading pace starting this week and next, as I don't have to go back to work until the Monday after next.

Happy new thread! Here's to a period of uninterrupted reading of great books! (And more tasty home-cooked food, too!)

Thanks, Claire! I'm currently reading Such a Long Journey by Rohinton Mistry for the first quarter Reading Globally theme (the Indian subcontinent), which I'm enjoying so far. I should finish it no later than tomorrow, and hopefully I'll be able to fit in three or four more books before the month is out.

That reminds me...although I haven't cooked anything in nearly two weeks I don't think I posted any recipes here this month, especially the delightful huevos rancheros and the pollo ciudad with pickled tomato salsa. I'll do that later today or tomorrow. Fortunately I made so much food at the beginning of the month that I still have plenty of leftovers, and I could probably go for another week before I completely run out of food!

Sad news: the Swedish poet Tomas Tranströmer, the winner of the 1990 Neustadt International Prize for Literature and the 2011 Nobel Prize in Literature, died yesterday at the age of 83 after being ill for many years after he was disabled by a stroke in 1990. He was best known for his evocative, atmospheric and accessible short poems about nature and everyday life. I own two of his books, The Sorrow Gondola (which I read and enjoyed) and The Half-Finished Heaven: The Best Poems of Tomas Tranströmer.

Apparently this news has just been released within the past hour or so, so there aren't many reports about his death in the English speaking world yet.

Iberian Author Spotlight: Matilde Asensi (Spain) (1962-)



The best selling historical novelist Matilde Asensi, who has been named the 'Queen of the adventure novels', was born in 1962 in the city of Alicante, located in the province of the same name. She was educated at the Autonomous University of Barcelona, and worked as a radio and print journalist before she began writing novels. Her best known work is her 2001 novel El último Catón, published in English as The Last Cato in 2006, which won the 2007 International Latino Award for Best Mystery Novel. Described as a "masterful blend of Christian scholarship and thrilling adventure, The Last Cato is a novel about the race to find the secret location of the Vera Cruz, the True Cross on which Christ was crucified, and the ancient brotherhood sworn to protect it."

Asensi's books have been translated into several languages, including English, and have sold over 20 million copies. At least four of her other books are available in the US and UK: Checkmate in Amber, Iacobus, The Lost Origin, Everything Under the Sky, all of which are available as e-books for less than $5 or £5.

Hi Darryl, what a delight to step back into your threads! I learn so much just from reading your lists, never mind your essays. Love your photos too. I have not been on LT much of late, but am hoping to begin reading and writing again. I'm sorry you have not been reading much so far this year, and I hope it is only due to a busy schedule and not from something more unpleasant.

Thanks for visiting and for the lovely compliments, Lisa! You're right, my lack of reading so far this year is entirely due to my busy work schedule and chronic tiredness from lack of sleep, as everything else is going well, thank God. I'm finally starting to catch up on sleep, and I'm off from work until the Monday after next, so I hope to knock out a few books over the next nine days, and catch up with other Club Read threads.

I hope that you're also doing well.

Iberian Author Spotlight: Mercè Rodoreda (Catalonia) (1908-1983)



Mercè Rodoreda was one of the most influential Catalan authors of the 20th century, and she is widely considered to be the best one of the post-Civil War period. She was born in the Eixample district of Barcelona and was largely self taught, as she only received three years of formal education. She married her mother's brother, who was 17 years her senior, and after her only child was born she sought to become an independent, modern woman and to pursue her passion of writing, beginning with short stories in magazines. She published her first book, Aloma, in 1938, which she rewrote 30 years later, even though it won a major local award, the Crexells Prize, upon its initial release. Her writing interests shifted after Franco came to power in 1939 and after she spent two decades in exile in France and Switzerland, beginning in 1957. Her best known and most critically acclaimed novel, La plaça del diamant The Time of the Doves was written in 1962, which is a stream of consciousness novel about the struggles of a working class woman in Barcelona before, during and after the Civil War, and her growth from a submissive girl to a mature and independent woman. Her later novels are colored by her experiences in exile, and focus primarily on the effects of the war on families and individuals. She returned to Barcelona after Franco's death, and died of cancer in the Catalonian city of Girona at the age of 74.

Several of Rodoreda's novels, including The Time of the Doves, have been translated into English and are currently available: the novels El carrer de les camèlies (Camellia Street), Mirall Trencat (A Broken Mirror), and La mort i la primavera (Death in Spring}, along with two collections of short stories, My Christina and Other Stories and The Selected Stories of Mercè Rodoreda.

Books I own by Mercè Rodoreda: Death in Spring, The Selected Stories of Mercè Rodoreda.

Thanks for the author spotlights, Darryl.

You're welcome, Rebecca.

>7 kidzdoc: I see Darkmans is on one of your TBR lists (tomes). It's been in my TBR pile since I read other Nicola Barker work and it was enthusiastically recommended to me by LT author Robert Shearman.

>20 kidzdoc: Glad to see Rodoreda is getting some attention.

>23 avaland: That's good to hear about Darkmans, Lois. I've had my copy since it was longlisted for the Booker Prize in 2007, so I'm long overdue to get to it, which I hope to do this summer.

I bought those two books I own by Mercè Rodoreda a couple of years ago, after the Kindle editions of them were put on sale after Open Letter Books released them in English translation in 2011. I'll read them in June, during my trip to Europe.

I looked through back issues of Belletrista a couple of days ago to look for books written by Iberian women authors who aren't as well known in the English speaking world but who have multiple novels readily available in English translation. Other than my review of The Goldsmith's Secret by Elia Barceló and possibly one other review by a far better known author (possibly María Dueñas?) I didn't find any other ones. If you're aware of any such authors please let me know, either here or in the Reading Globally thread. (And that goes for everyone else as well.)

ETA: So far I've found one other book by Elia Barceló, Heart of Tango, and one by Elvira Navarro, The Happy City. I'll take a look at the Hispabooks web site, as it's a new publisher that is putting out translated books by Spanish authors for an English speaking audience of readers.

Well, that didn't take long. Hispabooks has published books by 17 authors, although only two of them are by women: The Happy City by Elvira Navarro, and A Man of His Word by Imma Monsó. Monsó is a Catalan author who has won numerous literary awards in Spain, so I'll plan to read the Kindle version of her book (which I just bought) in June.

Lost track of you for a bit here! I'm definitely making a note of some of these Spanish and Portuguese authors.

Hi, Meredith! I also lost track of me over here. I'm now finished with my intensely busy winter work schedule, so I'll have much more time to read and be more active in Club Read, at least until November.

I forgot to post two outstanding Mexican themed recipes that I made earlier this month and absolutely loved: pollo ciudad with pickled tomato salsa, which I had for lunch yesterday, and huevos rancheros, which I just had for breakfast.

Pollo Ciudad with Pickled Tomato Salsa (courtesy of a nurse practitioner who works at the same children's hospital as I do)



Ingredients:

4 large, boneless chicken thighs or leg and thighs, with skin
Salt and freshly ground black pepper, to taste
1 tablespoon vegetable oil
2 tablespoons unsalted butter
3 shallots, diced
3 large mushrooms, thinly sliced
1 to 2 jalapeños, chopped with seeds
1 tablespoon ground cumin
1 cup chicken stock
3/4 cup half-and-half or heavy cream
1/2 bunch cilantro, stems and leaves separated
2 egg yolks
1 1/2 tablespoons brown sugar
2 tablespoons red wine vinegar
3 cups cooked rice, for serving
4 grilled scallions, for serving
Pickled Tomato Salsa, recipe follows, for serving

Pickled Tomato Salsa:

1 pound tomatoes, diced
1/2 bunch scallions, white and green parts, thinly sliced
2 to 3 serrano chiles, with seeds, thinly sliced in rounds
1/2 cup white vinegar
2 1/2 tablespoons brown sugar
2 teaspoons salt
4 teaspoons freshly grated ginger
1 tablespoon minced garlic
2 teaspoons yellow mustard seeds
2 teaspoons cracked black peppercorns
2 teaspoons ground cumin
1 teaspoon cayenne
1/2 teaspoon turmeric
1/2 cup extra-virgin olive oil

Directions:

Season chicken liberally with salt and pepper. Heat a large saute pan over medium-high heat, add oil, and place chicken in pan skin side down. Sear for 4 minutes, then reduce heat to medium and continue cooking for another 8 minutes. Turn chicken and cook another 4 minutes, or until just cooked all the way through.

Meanwhile, make sauce by melting butter in a medium saute pan over moderate heat. Cook shallots and mushrooms until soft and golden, about 10 minutes. Add jalapenos and cumin, lower heat, and cook for 5 minutes. Add chicken stock. Turn heat to high and cook until liquid is reduced by half. Add cream or half-and-half and cilantro stems and return to a boil. Remove from heat. Puree in a blender, pass through a wire mesh strainer, and return to heat.

Whisk egg yolks, sugar, and vinegar together in a small bowl. While continuing to whisk, pour one cup pureed cilantro sauce into egg mixture to temper. Then combine egg mixture with puree and cook over low heat, stirring constantly, until sauce is thick and smooth.

Arrange grilled chicken over a bed of your favorite rice and spoon sauce over all. Garnish with cilantro leaves, grilled scallions, and Pickled Tomato Salsa. Serve immediately.
Pickled Tomato Salsa:

In a large bowl, toss tomatoes with scallions and serrano chiles.

In a medium saucepan, bring vinegar to a boil. Add sugar and salt, and cook until dissolved, about 1 minute. Remove from heat and reserve.

Measure ginger, garlic, mustard seeds, cracked peppercorns, cumin, cayenne, and turmeric onto a plate and place near stove. In another medium saucepan, heat oil over moderate heat until just smoking. Add spices and cook, stirring constantly with a wooden spoon, until aromas are released, about 2 minutes. Remove from heat and stir in vinegar mixture. Immediately pour over reserved tomato mixture. Stir to combine, cover with plastic wrap, and refrigerate 3 to 4 hours or several days. Makes 2 cups.
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I used two jalapeños and three serrano chiles, and it was right at the edge of the amount of spiciness that I can comfortably handle. It tasted amazing, with a rich mixture of spices, and the chicken thighs were juicy and tender (I'll keep that method for cooking them in mind). I'd highly recommend using far less peppers than I did, especially the serrano chiles, and taking out the seeds. I didn't use a wire strainer after I puréed the cilantro sauce, as it was already thick and homogeneous. The one major disagreement that I have about this recipe, which is actually a good thing, is the comment that the recipe for pickled tomato salsa makes two cups. Wrong; it makes far more than that!



The salsa and cilantro sauce hold well in the refrigerator, and even though the recipe says that it serves four I've had 10 chicken thighs so far, and I have enough for two more. I'd say that this is the best chicken and rice recipe I've ever had, in someone's house or in a restaurant, and I'll probably make more salsa and cilantro sauce in the next week or two.

Huevos rancheros (courtesy of the fabulous web site Budget Bytes)



Ingredients:

1 lg. tomato $1.15
½ med. Vidalia onion $0.25
1 bunch cilantro $0.69
1 small lime $0.32
½ Tbsp olive oil $0.06
1 tsp (1 clove) minced garlic $0.12
1 med. jalapeno $0.09
2 cups (or a 15 oz. can) cooked black beans $0.40
½ tsp cumin $0.03
to taste salt $0.05
6 small corn tortillas $0.39
6 lg. eggs $1.40
1½ cups shredded cheddar $1.49

Instructions:

Prepare the pico de gallo by dicing the tomato and ¼ of the onion. Rinse about ⅓ bunch of cilantro under cool water and shake to remove as much water as possible. Remove the leaves from the stems and then coarsely chop. Combine the tomato, onion, and cilantro in a bowl. Squeeze the juice from half the lime over top. Stir to combine and then season with salt to your liking.

Finely dice the other ¼ onion and the jalapeno (remove seeds if you don’t want it very spicy). Add the onion, jalapeno and minced garlic to a small pot with ½ tbsp of olive oil. Cook over medium heat until softened (2 minutes). Add the beans, season with cumin and salt and let simmer while you prepare the rest of the meal.

Heat a skillet over medium heat. Once the skillet is hot, add a corn tortilla and let it toast (about 2 minutes). Flip it over and toast on the other side. Remove the tortilla to a plate after it has toasted on both sides. Cook your egg in the already hot skillet.

Top the hot tortilla with ¼ cup shredded cheese. Top the tortilla and cheese with seasoned beans, the cooked egg and then some pico de gallo.

__________________________________________________________

This was a moderately labor intensive recipe, but it's well worth it. It makes six huevos (eggs), so you can have one huevo ranchero, and save the leftover pico de gallo (salsa) and spiced black beans for future meals. All you would have to do is heat a corn tortilla, fry an egg, then combine the ingredients per the recipe. I would think that you could use store bought salsa in place of pico de gallo, and a can of spicy black beans, to save time. The salsa and beans also keep well in the refrigerator, but I would suggest using three cups of black beans instead of two.

Our recipe for Huevos Rancheros is much different from yours, but it has become a family favorite over the years. My grandson love it! It is very easy to make. Leftovers keep well in the frig. Serve it over hot, cooked rice.

Huevos Rancheros
Yield: 6 servings

3 Tbsp. butter
1 onion, chopped
1 green pepper, chopped.
1 clove garlic, minced
1 28-ounce can diced tomatoes
1 Tbsp. flour
1 tsp. salt
1/4 tsp. ground black pepper
1/2 tsp. oregano
6 eggs (I sometimes use 8 eggs)
8 oz. grated cheese (Mexican blend, Monterey Jack, or cheddar are good choices)
sliced pitted olives (optional)
hot, cooked rice

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Grease a 9x12 baking pan. Melt butter in large skillet. Add onion, green pepper, garlic and sauté over medium heat for 5 minutes. Add tomatoes, flour, salt, black pepper, oregano. Stir and simmer for 5 minutes. Transfer vegetables into baking dish. Open each egg and place it over different areas of this vegetable mixture (I don't break the egg yolk, but you can lightly beat the egg first if you prefer scrambled over hard-boiled eggs). Sprinkle the top with grated cheese. Place the sliced olives on top (if using them). Bake for 35 minutes or until the cheese on top becomes lightly browned. Serve over hot, cooked rice.

Adapted from a recipe found in America Cooks: The General Federation of Women's Clubs Cookbook (1967)

>30 SqueakyChu: Thanks, Madeline! That sounds like a very tasty recipe, and I'll have to give it a try. You're right, it is quite different from Beth's version of huevos rancheros in Budget Bytes (the photo in message #29 is one I took a couple of weeks ago).

>31 kidzdoc: This is my "go to" dish if I have no time to cook and want something delicious!

This is a pretty old recipe because it's in a cookbook whose original copy I inherited from my mom. When my roommate's dog chewed up the first cookbook, I had to search all over town for a used bookstore that had the same cookbook. :/

>32 SqueakyChu: Nice. I've seen several variations of huevos rancheros, which all look good to me. I may give your recipe a try this weekend.

I know you're very thorough, so the absence from your lists of several contemporary female writers who are quite big on the Spanish literary scene could only mean one thing...so I checked, and yes, not much has been translated (I regularly see French translations of Lucia Etxebarria's books, and I just assumed she'd been translated into English too, along with several others).

There seems to be a translation of one novel by Rosa Montero, Tears in Rain, but it's not one I've read. What I can offer you, though, is The Scent of Lemon Leaves by Clara Sanchez, which I read several years ago and really enjoyed (it deals with a real but little-discussed aspect of recent Spanish history, the fact that various Nazi war criminals found a hiding place there).

You were looking for female writers with multiple books translated, I think - what about the Petra Delgado series by Alicia Gimenez-Bartlett? They have a very Spanish flavour.

>34 rachbxl: That's what I've found so far as well, Rachel, and your example is a perfect one. I had heard of Lucía Etxebarría, assumed that she had been widely translated into English, and was surprised and disappointed to not find one English language book by her in the US or UK so far.

I'm still looking for Iberian women authors who works have been translated into English, both authors with multiple books, for Author Spotlights (although the highlighted authors don't necessarily have to have more than one English language book available), or recent single books, for a subtopic on "under the radar" or "up and coming" authors. Within the past hour I found out the Peirene Press has published at least one such book, Stone in a Landslide by Maria Barbal, which is supposedly a classic of Catalan literature that was originally released in 1985. The Kindle version only cost $6.59, so I just bought it.

This is a very incomplete list of living and recently deceased 20th and 21st century Iberian women authors that I've found on my own so far:

Matilde Asensi, Checkmate in Amber, Everything Under the Sky, Iacobus, The Last Cato, The Lost Origin
Maria Barbal, Stone in a Landslide
María Dueñas: The Time In Between
Elia Barceló, The Goldsmith’s Secret, Heart of Tango
Carmen Martín Gaite, The Back Room
Alicia Giménez-Bartlett: Death Rites, Dog Day
Almudena Grandes, The Ages of Lulu, The Frozen Heart, The Wind from the East
Carmen Laforet, Nada
Imma Monsó, A Man of His Word
Elvira Navarro, The Happy City
Mercè Rodoreda, A Broken Mirror, Camellia Street, Death in Spring, My Christina and Other Stories, The Selected Stories of Mercè Rodoreda, The Time of the Doves

Thanks for recommending Tears in Rain and The Scent of Lemon Leaves. I'll add those books, ones that others have recommended, and ones I've discovered to a list of contemporary Iberian women authors in the Reading Globally theme, which will be a work in progress.

Just now catching up on LT, though I've been tracking you on FB. It's been a busy semester, so my LT presence has suffered. Intriguing lists of Iberian authors.

>36 janeajones: Good to see you here, Jane! I've had a very slow first quarter, due to an exceptionally busy work schedule, as I only read 12 books in all, which is probably the lowest number I've read in a three month span in at least 10 years. I did just finish my first book of the second quarter, Such a Long Journey by Rohinton Mistry, and hopefully my reading output will improve dramatically now that winter is behind me.

I'm glad that you like the list of Iberian authors, and I hope that you participate in the Reading Globally theme this quarter.

Book #13: Such a Long Journey by Rohinton Mistry



My rating:

This novel about family relationships, friendship, and the benefits and dangers of loyalty is set in 1971 Bombay, during the brutal Bangladeshi Liberation War and President Indira Gandhi's increasingly corrupt and repressive rule. The central character is Gustad Noble, a proud and respected middle aged bank clerk, who lives with his wife and three children in an apartment complex in a crumbling middle class neighborhood. Despite an outward appearance of stability, the Noble's domestic calm has been disrupted by the decision of Sohrab, the eldest child, to forego a scholarship to the prestigious Indian Institute of Technology, which would likely ensure his and the family's financial stability, and a serious illness that has afflicted Roshan, the youngest child and only daughter of the family. Gustad also remains hurt by the decision of his best friend and beloved neighbor, Major Jimmy Bilimoria, to leave the Khodadad Building where they lived suddenly and without warning one year earlier. Jimmy's absence has left a large void in Gustad's life, particularly at a time when he faces trouble within and outside of home.

One day Gustad receives a mysterious letter from Jimmy. The Major has joined the Indian Secret Service, and he asks Gustad to grant him a very important favor. After he deliberates on it and consults his family, Gustad agrees to help Jimmy. However, once he realizes what Jimmy has asked him to do he soon realizes that his friend has put him, his family and his career in danger. He is caught between a rock and a hard place, as Jimmy's colleagues make it clear that he may suffer repercussions from them if he doesn't fulfill Jimmy's request, which adds more stress and uncertainty to his already troubled life.

Although I found Such a Long Journey to be a well written novel, filled with interesting characters, I didn't enjoy it nearly as well as I did his two other novels, A Fine Balance and Family Matters. Several key characters, particularly Sohrab and Dilnavaz, Gustad's wife, were thinly portrayed, Sohrab's decision to forgo his scholarship to IIT remained a mysterious one, given the lack of opportunities for young men with BA degrees in India, and the story ended in an abrupt and unsatisfying manner. I'm still glad that I read it, and I would recommend it, but mainly to those who have already read his previous books.

Enjoyed your review of Such a Long Journey

I thought the plot around Jimmy and his work as an agent for the Indian Secret Service did not work so well as the rest of the novel. The best bits of the novel were when Mistry focused on the lives of the people in the crumbling apartment building.

>35 kidzdoc: - Appreciated the list of women writers and also the impressive prep for the theme read. Off the top of my head - I have several books by Ana Maria Matute, although they're not exactly easy to find (one I would have had to get from the university library in translation - I guess it's probably easy to buy stuff from Amazon, but I try to avoid them). I'll hopefully be able to read some for the group read - will have to do some digging as the pile is all boxed up and disorganized. I've been looking for The Back Room for awhile but haven't found it in the used bookstores so will be interested in your review if you read that one.

>38 kidzdoc: - A good review of Such a Long Journey, but I will keep in mind the note to read something else first - A Fine Balance is on the pile so that one will probably be the first.

>39 baswood: Thanks, Barry. I agree with your assessment of Such a Long Journey, on both counts.

>40 DieFledermaus: Thanks, DieF. Amazon US has four of Ana María Matute's books in English translation for sale: School of the Sun, Soldiers Cry By Night, The Heliotrope Wall and Other Stories, and Celebration in the Northwest. All of them seem to be out of print, though.

I bought The Back Room at City Lights Bookstore in December; City Lights Books published it in English translation in 2000. I hadn't heard of the book or its author, Carmen Martín Gaite, but I searched the European Literature section for works by authors with Spanish or Portuguese names and found it. I plan to read it this month, and I'll certainly review it after I'm finished.

BTW, I'm nearly finished with Nada by Carmen Laforet, which has been very good so far.

Despite my somewhat lukewarm review of Such a Long Journey I did like it, but A Fine Balance and Family Matters are considerably more developed and compelling novels. It's a shame that Mistry has only published three novels to date.

I know I should read some Rohinton Mistry but I already have too many books on the TBR . . .

>42 rebeccanyc: If you read one book by Mistry, I'd read A Fine Balance, Rebecca. I gave it 5 stars when I read it, in 2013 I think, and it would have been one of my top 5 books that year.

Book #14: March: Book 1 by John Lewis, Andrew Aydin and Nate Powell



My rating:

John Lewis (1940-) is the only surviving member of the Old Guard of the U.S. Civil Rights Movement in the 1950s and 1960s, the others being Martin Luther King, Jr. (chairman of the Southern Christian Leadership Conference (SCLC)), James Farmer (founder of the Congress on Racial Equality (CORE)), A. Philip Randolph (head of the Brotherhood of Sleeping Car Porters and influential labor union leader), Roy Porter (executive director of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) from 1955-1977), and Whitney Young (executive director of the National Urban League from 1961-1971). He, like my mother, was born in Troy, Alabama, and he graduated from the American Baptist Theological Seminary and Fisk University, both in Nashville, Tennessee. He was an active participant in the Nashville Student Movement, whose sit-ins, nonviolent protests, and subsequent arrests led to the desegregation of that city's public lunch counters and other public facilities. Lewis was one of Dr. King's most trusted advisers during the 1960s, and he was the youngest speaker at the March on Washington in 1963. He was seriously injured on March 7, 1965, "Bloody Sunday", when dozens of participants in the Selma to Montgomery March in Alabama were brutally beaten by state and county police officers as they left Selma, but he made a full recovery and contributed to be an active participant and leader in the Movement.

Since 1987, Lewis has been the Representative for Georgia's Fifth Congressional Distinct, which covers most of the city of Atlanta, where I live, and its immediate suburbs.

March: Book 1 is the first of a trilogy of graphic novels about the life of John Lewis, which begins on the day that Barack Obama was inaugurated as President of the United States in 2009. Lewis tells the story of his life to a mother and two young African American boys who visit his office in Washington, starting with his childhood on a farm in Pike County, Alabama, and ending on "Bloody Sunday".



Lewis recounts his love of preaching the Gospel, first to the chickens on his family farm who fell under his care and love, and later to his congregation as a teenager. He describes the tenets of nonviolence, and recalls some of the key members of the early years of the Movement, including Jim Lawson, the divinity professor at Vanderbilt University who served as an advisor to the Nashville Student Movement. The simple but powerful black and white illustrations are perfectly complemented by similarly crafted text, which makes this book a good choice for older children and adolescents, as well as adults, and it is available in printed and electronic versions. This was an excellent effort by John Lewis, his co-author Andrew Aydin, and illustrator Nate Powell, and I look forward to reading the next two novels in the trilogy soon.

Book #15: Nada by Carmen Laforet, translated from the Spanish by Edith Grossman



My rating:

This semi-autobiographical bildungsroman, written in 1943 when the author was 22 years of age, is widely considered to be one of the best novels of the post-Spanish Civil War period. It was largely unknown in the English speaking world until Edith Grossman's translation of it was published in 2007. It won the inaugural Premio Nadal, one of the oldest and most prestigious Spanish literary prizes, in 1944, and it continues to be widely read more than 70 years after its initial publication.

The novel opens in Barcelona in 1939, shortly after the Civil War has ended, as Andrea, an 18 year old orphan from the country who has won a scholarship and a small stipend to the Universtat de Barcelona, arrives in the city. She intends to stay with her grandmother on Carrer d'Aribau in the city's well to do L'Eixample neighborhood, in a home that she remembers fondly from her stay there as a young child.

The Civil War has been devastating to the residents of Barcelona, including Andrea's grandmother and her family. What was once an opulent and spacious apartment is now one half of its original size, decaying and filthy, and filled with decrepit relics from her grandparents' former wealth. Andrea provides a powerful description of the main bathroom on the night of her arrival, as she prepares to take a shower:

That bathroom seemed like a witches' house. The stained walls had traces of hook-shaped hands, of screams of despair. Everywhere the scaling walls opened their toothless mouths, oozing dampness. Over the mirror, because it didn't fit anywhere else, they'd hung a macabre still life of pale bream and onions against a black background. Madness smiled from the bent faucets.

The sense of claustrophobia and inhospitality is intensified by Andrea's extended family, and their struggles with poverty and hunger. Her grandmother, once a proud and virile matriarch, is now a senile and frail old woman, who doesn't recognize Andrea at first, and she confuses her with Gloria, her beguiling but maddening daughter in law. Gloria is tormented by her abusive and domineering husband Juan, his musically talented but shady and mentally unstable brother Román, and their suffocatingly devout and controlling sister Angustias. The family members routinely engage in bitter and sometimes violent arguments, similar to the characters in Jean-Paul Sartre's existentialist play No Exit, and Andrea is frequently dragged into the middle of these heated battles.

Andrea finds respite from this house of horrors in her studies, and especially in the company of her classmate and best friend Ena, a beautiful girl from a merchant family whose wealth and social standing have not been adversely affected by the war. Their relationship is occasionally fractious, due to Andrea's diffidence and to Ena's desire to know more about her friend's family and particularly her uncle Román, who Ena is strangely attracted to.

As the novel proceeds, Andrea's sense of independence grows, while at the same time she recognizes that she needs intimacy and friendship as an essential balance to the chaos and increasingly disturbing behavior of her family and her best friend. However, she is caught in the middle of a contracting whirlwind surrounded by these characters, one that she has little control over and that threatens her own sanity.

Nada is a fascinating and superbly written novel about adolescence, despair and escape, set in a city under siege that is attempting to regain its footing and former glory after a crippling war. This insightful debut novel reminded me of Carson McCullers's first book The Heart Is a Lonely Hunter, and Laforet's effort is nearly as good as that masterpiece.

I just finished making Creole Andouille sausage pastalaya, a variation on traditional jambalaya, which uses penne pasta instead of parboiled rice:



Here's the recipe, from Budget Bytes (http://www.budgetbytes.com/2015/02/pastalaya/):

Ingredients:

1 Tbsp vegetable oil $0.02
½ lb. smoked sausage (preferably Andouille) $3.67
2 cloves garlic $0.16
1 10oz. bag frozen "seasoning mix"* $1.39
1 15oz. can diced tomatoes $0.79
½ Tbsp Creole seasoning** 0.15
½ tsp oregano $0.05
½ tsp smoked paprika $0.05
¼ tsp thyme $0.02
Freshly cracked pepper $0.05
2 cups chicken broth $0.24
1 cup water $0.00
1 lb. penne pasta $1.49
2 Tbsp half & half or cream $0.19
½ bunch fresh parsley $0.45
½ bunch green onions $0.38

Instructions:

Slice the smoked sausage into thin rounds, then cut any larger pieces in half. Add the sausage and vegetable oil to a large pot and cook over medium heat until the sausage is well browned (about 5 minutes).

Mince two cloves of garlic and add them to the pot. Sauté for one to two minutes, or until the garlic is soft and fragrant. Add the bag of frozen seasoning mix and sauté until heated through (3-5 minutes). Finally, add the can of diced tomatoes (with juices), Creole seasoning, oregano, smoked paprika, thyme, freshly cracked pepper (about 20 cranks of a pepper mill), chicken broth, 1 cup of water, and pasta to the pot. Stir until everything is evenly combined.

Place a lid on the pot and turn the heat up to medium-high. Let the pot come to a boil. As soon as it reaches a boil, remove the lid briefly to stir, then replace the lid, turn the heat down to low, and let the pot simmer for 12-15 minutes, or until the pasta is tender. Stir the pot once every few minutes as it simmers to prevent the pasta from sticking. Replace the lid as quickly as possible after stirring to avoid heat loss.

While the pasta is simmering, pull the parsley leaves from the stems and give them a good chop, and slice the green onions. Once the pasta is tender, most of the liquid in the pot should be absorbed. If it's still a bit soupy, let the pot simmer for one to two minutes without the lid to allow some moisture to evaporate.
Turn off the heat and stir in the half & half or cream. Stir in most of the chopped parsley and green onions, reserving some to sprinkle over top. Serve hot with a pinch of fresh parsley and green onions on top of each bowl.

Notes:

*The "seasoning mix" used is a pre-chopped and frozen blend of onion, bell pepper, and celery, also known as "trinity". If you prefer to use fresh, chop one yellow onion, one green bell pepper, and two stalks of celery.

**Creole seasoning can be found in most major grocery stores, but you can make your own using this blend of spices. Store bought Creole seasoning blends usually contain a lot of salt, so you may need to add extra salt to the final product to compensate.
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This turned out very well, and it makes for a nice alternative to traditional Creole jambalaya. The green bell pepper I had intended to use for the holy trinity (bell pepper, onion, celery and garlic) had gone bad, but fortunately I had three jalapeño peppers, so I used those instead. I only had a small amount of green onions, so I used two shallots in addition.

Nada sounds fascinating.

Hmmm...I expect jambalaya to be redder than that. My mother made one version when I was a kid, and the California Pizza Kitchen pasta version is red. Have I been misled?

Robert

Enjoyed your excellent review of Nada

Looking at your recipe for Creole Andoiulle sausage Pastalya I am intrigued by the Andouille sausage as it is something I always avoid here in France as it tends to be made up of bits of lung, sweetbreads, and intestines wrapped up in a course sausage skin.

>47 janeajones: It definitely was, Jane, and it was a great book to start for this quarter's Reading Globally challenge.

>48 Mr.Durick: Good question, Robert. That question would be best answered by Jane (@janepriceestrada), who is from Louisiana, but I'll do my best. (Feel free to chime in and correct me if you're around, Jane!)

First, a little background. I lived in New Orleans for the better part of 3 1/2 years in the late 1970s to early 1980s, while I was a mostly wayward and love stricken student at Tulane University, majoring in what I and a couple of friends I still keep in touch with refer to as "Creole women's studies" (unfortunately that was not a recognized major at Tulane at that time). I had three sets of relatively close maternal relatives who lived nearby who I visited often, particularly my maternal great aunt, who was the younger sister of my maternal grandmother. She was clearly the best cook in our entire family, and I often visited her home, not far from campus, on Sundays to have dinner there. So, between having meals with my relatives, my girlfriend (who was also from New Orleans), and my friends, along with visits to NOLA in the past few years, I've been exposed to, and a huge fan of, the city's cuisine for most of my adult life.

There are many variations on Louisiana cooking, but standard dishes like jambalaya, gumbo and étoufée are all based on the trinity, which consists of bell pepper, onion and celery; in the holy trinity, garlic is added. All three of those dishes also include rice, and seafood can be found in each of them, especially étoufée and gumbo. As I understand it, Creole cuisine tends to have more tomatoes or tomato sauce, whereas Cajun cuisine may or may not have any, but usually lesser amounts. Because that pastalaya contains a can of diced tomatoes I think of it as a Creole recipe, along with the jambalaya recipe that came from Heather, my group's former administrative assistant, who grew up in the Crescent City. However, her recipe for crawfish étoufée was a Cajun one, with a blonde roux, as compared to the (tomato based?) brown roux that I'm used to having.

Several years ago when we first met in NYC I asked Jane where she went to get authentic Cajun and Creole food in the city. Her answer, if I remember correctly, was "My place." Although I was disappointed by her answer I completely understood it, as for some reason it seems to be hard to properly duplicate Louisiana cuisine outside of the state. The only full service restaurant outside of New Orleans that I've been very pleased with so far is Angeline's Louisiana Kitchen in Berkeley, CA, which is on Shattuck Avenue close to the Downtown Berkeley BART station and the campus of the University of California, Berkeley.

>49 baswood: Thanks, Barry.

That's interesting to hear about the composition of Andouille sausage in France. I'll look this up now, but I'm under the impression that the versions sold there are different from the ones that are commonly made in Louisiana. I've been getting Savoie's Hickory Smoked Andouille Sausage, which my local supermarket chain (Publix) sells and comes from Opelousas, Louisiana. I'd be surprised if it was made from sweetbreads (which I love, BTW), lungs and intestines, though. Off to check...

I couldn't find information about the ingredients in Savoie's Andouille sausage, but I did find information about the difference between the Louisianan and French versions on Wikipedia's Andouille page:

In the US the sausage is most often associated with Louisiana Creole cuisine, where it is a coarse-grained smoked sausage made using pork, garlic, pepper, onions, wine, and seasonings. The pork used is mostly from a smoked Boston shoulder roast. Once the casing is stuffed, the sausage is smoked again (double smoked).

In France, particularly Brittany, the traditional ingredients of andouille are primarily pig chitterlings, tripe, onions, wine, and seasoning. It is generally grey in colour and has a distinctive odor. Also, a similar sausage is available called andouillette, literally "little andouille".

I think I'll stick with the Creole version of it.

Iberian Author Spotlight: António Lobo Antunes (Portugal, 1942-)



António Lobo Antunes is widely considered to be the best living novelist in Portugal after the death of Nobel Prize laureate José Saramago. Many of his novels have been translated into English, but he remains largely unknown and underappreciated outside of his own country. He was born in Lisbon, decided that he would become a writer at the age of seven, but attended medical school at the University of Lisbon at the behest of his father, a respected neurologist. Antunes specialized in psychiatry, and after his graduation he served in Angola during his country's war with its former African colonies Angola, Mozambique and Guinea-Bissau, which lasted from 1961-1974. His experiences in Angola during the war and in the years that followed, when Portugal underwent a transformation from the authoritarian dictatorship of the Estado Novo under António de Oliveira Salazar and his successor Marcelo Caetano to a democratic state after the Carnation Revolution in 1974, serve as the primary inspirations of his novels.

In Knowledge of Hell (1980), a physician named António Lobo Antunes reflects on his medical career in the jungles of Angola and an insane asylum in Portugal, his failed marriage, and his estranged relationship with his daughter. Fado Alexandrino (1983) is a complex individual and societal psychological portrait set in Lisbon as five former soldiers reunite on the 10th anniversary of their troop's return from Mozambique, and reflect on the disillusionment they experienced during the war and during the coup that overturned Portugal's right wing government. In Act of the Damned (1985), a formerly wealthy Portuguese family is forced to flee the country in the face of accusations against it, and as the patriarch lies dying the "depraved and the retarded" heirs turn on each other to lay claim to the remains of his former estate.

My favorite book by Antunes so far is his recent collection The Fat Man & Infinity: And Other Writings (2009), which consists of humorous and insightful personal chronicles that he wrote for newspapers and magazines in Portugal, along with short but evocative fictionalized accounts of working class people in Lisbon, which I found to be touching and, at times, almost unbearably sad.

Antunes continues to write and to work in a clinic in his native Lisbon.

Books I've read by Antunes: The Land at the End of the World; The Fat Man & Infinity: And Other Writings

Books I own and plan to read: Knowledge of Hell; Fado Alexandrino; Act of the Damned; The Inquisitors' Manual; An Explanation of the Birds

This year's Best Translated Book Award for Fiction longlist was announced earlier this week:

Baboon by Naja Marie Aidt, translated from the Danish by Denise Newman (Denmark, Two Lines Press)

The Author and Me by Éric Chevillard, translated from the French by Jordan Stump (France, Dalkey Archive Press)

Fantomas Versus the Multinational Vampires by Julio Cortázar, translated from the Spanish by David Kurnick (Argentina, Semiotext(e))

Pushkin Hills by Sergei Dovlatov, translated from the Russian by Katherine Dovlatov (Russia, Counterpoint Press)

1914 by Jean Echenoz, translated from the French by Linda Coverdale (France, New Press)

Street of Thieves by Mathias Énard, translated from the French by Charlotte Mandell (France, Open Letter Books)

Those Who Leave and Those Who Stay by Elena Ferrante, translated from the Italian by Ann Goldstein (Italy, Europa Editions)

Things Look Different in the Light by Medardo Fraile, translated from the Spanish by Margaret Jull Costa (Spain, Pushkin Press)

Monastery by Eduardo Halfon, translated from the Spanish by Lisa Dillman and Daniel Hahn (Guatemala, Bellevue Literary Press)

Letters from a Seducer by Hilda Hilst, translated from the Portuguese by John Keene (Brazil, Nightboat Books)

Harlequin’s Millions by Bohumil Hrabal, translated from the Czech by Stacey Knecht (Czech Republic, Archipelago Books)

Rambling On: An Apprentice’s Guide to the Gift of the Gab by Bohumil Hrabal, translated from the Czech by David Short (Czech Republic, Karolinum Press)

The Woman Who Borrowed Memories by Tove Jansson, translated from the Swedish by Thomas Teal and Silvester Mazzarella (Finland, NYRB)

Works by Edouard Levé, translated from the French by Jan Steyn (France, Dalkey Archive Press)

Faces in the Crowd by Valeria Luiselli, translated from the Spanish by Christina MacSweeney (Mexico, Coffee House Press)

Adam Buenosayres by Leopoldo Marechal, translated from the Spanish by Norman Cheadle and Sheila Ethier (Argentina, McGill-Queen’s University Press)

Last Words from Montmartre by Qiu Miaojin, translated from the Chinese by Ari Larissa Heinrich (Taiwan, NYRB)

Winter Mythologies and Abbots by Pierre Michon, translated from the French by Ann Jefferson (France, Yale University Press)

Our Lady of the Nile by Scholastique Mukasonga, translated from the French by Melanie Mauthner (Rwanda, Archipelago Books)

Talking to Ourselves by Andrés Neuman, translated from the Spanish by Nick Caistor and Lorenza Garcia (Argentina, FSG)

Granma Nineteen and the Soviet’s Secret by Ondjaki, translated from the Portuguese by Stephen Henighan (Angola, Biblioasis)

La Grande by Juan José Saer, translated from the Spanish by Steve Dolph (Argentina, Open Letter Books)

Paris by Marcos Giralt Torrente, translated from the Spanish by Margaret Jull Costa (Spain, Hispabooks)

Snow and Shadow by Dorothy Tse, translated from the Chinese by Nicky Harman (Hong Kong, East Slope Publishing)

The Last Lover by Can Xue, translated from the Chinese by Annelise Finegan Wasmoen (China, Yale University Press)

The shortlist will be announced on May 5th, and the winning book on May 27th. More info here: http://www.rochester.edu/College/translation/threepercent/index.php?id=14022.

I just put March on my wishlist after reading your review. Great reviews of Such a Long Journey and on Nada (although your last sentence on Nada makes me want to read McCullers instead of Laforet)

>54 dchaikin: Thanks, Dan. I loved Nada and would highly recommend it, but The Heart Is a Lonely Hunter is an astonishing accomplishment, and very few books I've read match up against it.

>53 kidzdoc: The only one I've read is Pushkin Hills, which I definitely enjoyed, but some of the others on the list sound intriguing. However, I must confess I stopped reading Can Xue's earlier book, Vertical Motion, a collection of stories.

>56 rebeccanyc: I read 1914 last year, and enjoyed it, and I own Things Look Different in the Light, Our Lady of the Nile, and Paris.

I must have liked Vertical Motion, as I gave it 4 stars, but I don't remember anything about it.

I read 1914 last year, as well and that is, sadly, the only one of the longlist that I've read although the Ferrante is on my list -- after I read the two preceding books.

Glad you're back and have survived a very busy schedule!

Glad you liked Nada. Your review reminded me of how good it is.

I agree with your take on the Mistry - Such a Long Journey is good, but disappointing compared to A Fine Balance and Family Matters.

And the discussion of andouille made me laugh, as 'je veux de l'andouille!' (I want some andouille) is something of a catchphrase in my (French-speaking) family; it comes from a decades-old radio sketch which captured my stepkids' imagination a few years ago when my husband played it for them. (It's also a word that gets regular use in our house as a gentle insult meaning something like 'twit').

Book #16: Outlaws by Javier Cercas, translated from the Spanish by Anne McLean



My rating:

A Spanish journalist decides to write a biography about Antonio Gamallo, better known by his nickname of Zarco, a boy from a broken home in a poverty stricken neighborhood who led a gang of teenage bandits in the Catalonian city of Girona in the years immediately following Franco's death in 1975, until he was finally caught and imprisoned after a failed bank robbery. He spent the remainder of his adult life in prison, where he continually tormented his guards and the Spanish legal system as he publicly denounced his lengthy prison sentence in interviews and the two books he wrote. In doing so his case because a cause célèbre throughout Spain, as he brought to light the appalling conditions of Spanish prisons and the harsh sentences that were meted out to poorer Spaniards who could not afford the best legal representatives. Zarco developed a heroin addiction during his wild teenage years, which continued in prison, and it led to his death from AIDS in the early 2000s.

The unnamed journalist decides to interview those who knew Gamallo best, in an effort to distinguish between Antonio, the flawed man, and Zarco, the legendary persona adored by many. His primary source of information is Ignacio Cañas, a well established criminal defense lawyer in Girona. Unbeknownst to most people, Cañas was a member of Zarco's gang in the 1970s, as he was led into it, and out of his comfortable middle class existence, by Zarco and his alluring female companion Tere, but he managed to escape from the police chase that led to Zarco's capture. Cañas became Zarco's defense lawyer more than 20 years after his arrest, on the request of Tere, and the two men resumed their strong yet distant and troubled friendship, as Cañas attempts to gain Zarco's release from prison, and reestablishes his relationship with Tere after his divorce.

Many unanswered questions and mysteries about what happened on the day of Zarco's capture and the events that led up to it have persisted in each of the three main characters' minds for two decades. Each of them holds onto their secrets tightly, and what is divulged to the other two, and ultimately to the journalist, is often dubious and unreliable. In chapters that consist of transcribed interviews of Cañas and others who knew him well, the stories of Zarco, Tere and Cañas. who was known as Gafitas during the time he spent in Zarco's gang, unfold like a matryoshka doll, yet many unanswered questions and the essential truths about Gamallo/Zarco remain elusively out of reach to each of them, and to the journalist.



Similar to Javier Cercas's other novels, Outlaws is based on a real person, in this case Juan José Moreno Cuenca (1961-2003), who led a teenage gang in Barcelona until his capture in the late 1970s. Similar to Zarco, "El Vaquilla", who embodied a generation of Spanish youth lost to heroin in the 1970s and 1980s, wrote two books about his life and imprisonment, Yo, El Vaquilla (I, El Vaquilla) and Hasta la Libertad (Until Freedom) and his life was the basis of the movie Perros Callejeros (Stray Dogs). Numerous songs were written in honor of him after his death as well.

Outlaws is an outstanding page turner of a novel, filled with twists and unexpected revelations around sudden turns in the narrative. Although Zarco is the focus of the book, the lives of Gafitas and Tere are just as captivating, and the mysterious and uncertain relationships between the three held my interest from the first page to the last. In keeping with my other most favorite novels I could easily start reading it again now, and I certainly will do so in the near future.

>58 RidgewayGirl: Thanks, Kay. This has been a busy work well as well, but after Sunday I only have two backup shifts for the next nine days, and hopefully I won't be needed then. I'm off from work today, and hopefully I'll be off tomorrow as well.

>59 rachbxl: Ha! That's interesting that andouille is synonymous with twit in your household, Rachel. After Barry's description of the French version of it I've become curious about it, especially in comparison to the Louisiana variety that we eat here. Have you (or anyone else) tried it? What does it taste like?

Book #17: Stone in a Landslide by Maria Barbal



My rating:

This novella is set in a small Catalonian town in the early 20th century, narrated by a young woman in a farm town who is sent to live with her childless maternal aunt and her husband as a 13 year old girl. She works hard for them, marries the love of her life, and lives contentedly with her husband, children and her aunt and uncle until tragedy befalls them during the Spanish Civil War.

I found Stone in a Landslide to be an evocative description of life in a small Spanish town, which was well written and mildly interesting but ultimately forgettable.

>60 kidzdoc: Outlaws sounds great!

>63 rebeccanyc: It was, Rebecca. I bought my (signed) copy at the London Review Bookshop last year, but it's available in the US as well.

Iberian Author Profile: Almudena Grandes (Spain, 1960-)



Almudena Grandes is one of the best selling and most widely respected contemporary Spanish writers. Born in Madrid in 1960, she read geography and history at the Universidad Complutense de Madrid, and after graduation she worked primarily as a journalist. Her first novel, Las edades de Lulú (The Ages of Lulu), was published in Spain in 1989, which received wide acclaim after its release. A modern erotic novel about a young Frenchwoman who is seduced by the butcher whose shop she works in during one hot summer, it won the La sonrisa vertical literary award, was translated into multiple languages, and was the basis of a movie of the same name directed by Bigas Luna.

Her second novel Te llamaré Viernes (I'll Call You Friday) received little attention, but her third book, Malena es un nombre de tango (Malena), which concerns a young woman from Madrid who rebels against her wealthy family and her beautiful older sister, was also a critical and commerical success, and a movie was based on it as well.

Grandes's most accomplished and ambitious work is El corazón helado (The Frozen Heart), an epic novel in which two families reflect on their combined histories, and in doing so the history of their country, from the Spanish Civil War to the present, and the far reaching impact that the war and life under Franco had on ordinary citizens. This book was reviewed in Belletrista in 2010, which you can read here: http://www.belletrista.com/2010/issue7/reviews_19.php.

Almudena Grandes has won numerous literary awards and accolades, and she continues to write books and frequent columns in the national newspaper El País. Her latest two novels, El lector de Julio Verne (2012) and Las tres bodas de Manolita (2014), have not yet been translated into English, but hopefully will be soon.

Books by Almudena Grandes available in English translation: The Ages of Lulu; The Wind from the East; The Frozen Heart.

>61 kidzdoc: "Have you (or anyone else) tried it? What does it taste like?" - It usually smells so bad you would not want to taste it.

>66 baswood: Thanks, Barry. The photos I saw of the French Andouille sausage showed it to have a sickly grey color, as opposed to the light red color of Louisiana Andouille sausage. I shall be sure to avoid the French version if I ever run across it.

>53 kidzdoc: Fascinating long list of Best Translated Books. Had no idea there was an award. I share your interest in the problems of translation.

Also enjoying your author profiles and the various reviews.

>68 Poquette: Thanks, Suzanne!

The Uruguayan journalist and author Eduardo Galeano died on Monday at the age of 74. He is best known for his book Las Venas Abiertas de América Latina (Open Veins of Latin America), a powerful account of five centuries of explotation and political dominance of the region by Europe and the United States, and his trilogy Memoria del fuego (Memory of Fire), which describes the ruthless colonial rule of Latin America. Galeano's name became familiar to many Americans after former Venezuelan President Hugo Chávez gave a copy of Open Veins of Latin America to President Barack Obama at the Summit of Americas conference in 2009.



I own three books by Eduardo Galeano, Open Veins of Latin America, Voices of Time: A Life in Stories, and Genesis: Memory of Fire, Volume 1, but I haven't read any of them yet.

The Guardian: Eduardo Galeano, leading voice of Latin American left, dies aged 74

Thanks for the profile of Galeano! Open Veins sounds like just the book I've been looking for.

You're welcome, Meredith. I'm long overdue to read Open Veins of Latin America, so I'll add it to my list of TBR books to read this year.

I have the entire Memory of Fire trilogy, but have yet to read any of it.

>70 kidzdoc: I'm really enjoying your reviews and the little profiles you're posting. Like you, I own several books by Galeano but am yet to read them, so putting Open Veins on my TBR too.

>73 rebeccanyc: I doubt that I'll read Genesis, the first book in the Memory of Fire trilogy, this year, but I'll try to get to it next year.

>74 reva8: Thanks, Reva. I'll probably read Open Veins of Latin America in the summer.

This year's Pulitzer Prizes were announced earlier this afternoon:

FICTION: All the Light We Cannot See by Anthony Doerr

DRAMA: Between Riverside and Crazy by Stephen Adly Guirgis

HISTORY: Encounters at the Heart of the World: A History of the Mandan People by Elizabeth A. Fenn

BIOGRAPHY: The Pope and Mussolini: The Secret History of Pius XI and the Rise of Fascism in Europe by David I. Kertzer

POETRY: Digest by Gregory Pardlo

GENERAL NONFICTION: The Sixth Extinction: An Unnatural History by Elizabeth Kolbert

Here are the lists of finalists in each category:

Fiction:
Let Me Be Frank With You by Richard Ford
The Moor's Account by Laila Lalami
Lovely, Dark, Deep by Joyce Carol Oates

Drama:
Father Comes Home from the Wars (Parts 1, 2, 3) by Suzan-Lori Parks
Marjorie Prime by Jordan Harrison

History:
Empire of Cotton: A Global History by Sven Beckert
An Empire on the Edge: How Britain Came to Fight America by Nick Bunker

Biography or Autobiography:
Louis Armstrong: Master of Modernism by Thomas Brothers
Stalin: Volume I: Paradoxes of Power, 1878-1928 by Stephen Kotkin

Poetry:
Reel to Reel by Alan Shapiro
Compass Rose by Arthur Sze

General Nonfiction:
No Good Men Among the Living by Anand Gopal
Age of Ambition: Chasing Fortune, Truth, and Faith in the New China by Evan Osnos

http://www.pulitzer.org/node/8501

Book #18: The Plague of Doves by Louise Erdrich



My rating:

This semi-autobiographical, semi-historical novel is set in the fictional town of Pluto, North Dakota, which sits on the edge of a Native American reservation and is dying a slow death due to its isolation and lack of well paying jobs. Pluto contains a blend of German-Americans descended from 19th and 20th century settlers, Ojibwe (Chippewa) people, and the mixed race offspring of both groups. An underlying tension is present between the older members of the white and Native American residents, as the Ojibwe hold a longstanding resentment over the land that was taken from them by the settlers, and stories about Pluto's history and its former occupants hover nearby like ever present ghosts. The town's families have lived there for generations, and disagreements from decades past lie just beneath the surface and are not easily forgotten or forgiven.

Evelina is a teenage girl of mixed descent, with a German-American father and an Ojibwe mother, who lives with her parents, younger brother and grandfather Mooshum, a fantastic storyteller whose tales have at least some basis in truth. She attends the local Catholic school, and her agreeable and obedient nature belies her rebeliousness and lustful nature. One day when her father is away and her mother is conversing with her sister, Mooshum tells Evelina and her brother about a tragic event that took place in 1911 that still haunts the town nearly a century later. A family of white farmers were slaughtered in their home, save for a baby who managed to survive thanks to a group of four Ojibwe who rescued the child. A group of prominent men in Pluto learn that the young men were the first ones to discover the massacre, and they accuse them of the murders. They are taken into custody by the town's sheriff, but the townsmen overcome him and take the four into their own hands. They are all strung up to be hung for their crimes, despite their protests of innocence. Three of them are lynched, while a fourth manages to escape. Later the townspeople realize that the Ojibwe youth were not the culprits, but the identity of the actual killer is never discovered.

The novel consists of a series of chapters, in which past and current residents of Pluto provide first person accounts that cover the century from the period just prior to the massacre and subsequent lynching to the current day. In the process, the history of the town and its people are laid down like pieces of a complicated puzzle, although some of the pieces remain missing at its conclusion.

The Plague of Doves is based in part on the 1897 massacre of the Spicer family in North Dakota, and the subsequent lynching of several innocent Ojibwe, and the character of Evelina is heavily but not entirely based on Louise Erdrich's childhood, family and education. Some of its chapters were initially published in The New Yorker, and perhaps as a result this novel for this reader felt disjointed and lacked a smooth flow from one segment to the next. The middle third was the weakest segment by far, but overall this was a very good novel, filled with elements of magic realism and interesting characters, and I look forward to reading more of Erdrich's work in the near future.

Enjoying your author profiles. Great reviews of Plague of Doves and Outlaws. Outlaws sounds terrific.

>78 dchaikin: Thanks, Dan. Outlaws was superb, and I've enjoyed the three other books I've read by Javier Cercas as well.

The Plague of Doves is the near the top of my TBR list (3 weeks until retirement) -- Erdrich is one of my favorite writers.

Congratulations on your impending retirement, Jane! I imagine that Deborah also has less than a month to go before she says goodbye to academia for good.

I look forward to your comments about The Plague of Doves when you get around to it.

Great review of Nada - that one definitely had a memorably claustrophobic atmosphere.

Outlaws sound interesting - I have Soldiers of Salamis by Cercas, although I'm not sure where in the boxes it is. I'm reading Tomorrow in the Battle Think on Me by Javier Marias for the theme read right now.

I had never heard of Almudena Grandes before, but The Frozen Heart sounds like something I'd like to read. Will have to add it to the list.

I read The Plague of Doves when it came out and liked it. I had a decades-long gap in my reading of Erdrich, and I've enjoyed her more recent work.

Iberian Author Profile: José Luís Peixoto (Portugal, 1974-)



José Luís Peixoto is one of Portugal's literary stars, as his books have won or been nominated for numerous literary awards in his home country and abroad, and the late Nobel Prize writer José Saramago referred to him as “the most surprising revelation in recent Portuguese literature.” Peixoto was born in a small village in the Alentejo region of Portugal, received degrees in Modern English and German Literature at the Universidade Nova de Lisboa, and taught for several years before he became a full time writer.

Peixoto's first published work was Morreste-me, which was written in 2000 and is a tribute to his late father. It was translated into English with the title You Died on Me, and it appeared in the December 2010 issue of The Warwick Review. Peixoto first gained literary attention later that year with the release of his first novel, Nenhum Olhar, which won the Prémio José Saramago, the biennial award for the best novel published by a Portuguese writer, and it received critical acclaim after it was published in English translation as Blank Gaze in the UK in 2007 and The Implacable Order of Things in the US the following year. This surreal and bleak but richly imaginative novel is set in a poor village in the Alentejo region in the days before the world ends.

To date, Peixoto has written nine works of fiction, four of which have been translated into English, including The Piano Cemetery, three poetry collections, and three plays. His most interesting work was a collaboration with the Gothic metal band Moonspell, which resulted in a collection of short stories titled Antidoto, published as Antidote in English translation, along with an album with the same name. His visit to North Korea in April 2012 for a 15 day "Kim Il-Sung's 100th Birthday Ultimate Mega Tour" was published in two parts in the American literary journal Ninth Letter last year.

Excellent review of The Plague of Doves

Book #19: Blank Gaze by José Luís Peixoto (US title: The Implacable Order of Things)

  

My rating:

I think: perhaps the sky is a huge sea of fresh water and we, instead of walking under it, walk on top of it; perhaps we see everything upside down and earth is a kind of sky, so that when we die, we fall and sink into the sky.

I think: perhaps suffering is tossed by handfuls over the multitudes, with most of it falling on some people and little or none of it on others.

This surreal, haunting and bleak novel interspersed with glimpses of tender beauty is set in an unnamed small town in the arid interior region of Alentejo in southern Portugal. Life is a daily battle for its poor residents, who battle poverty and the whims of nature to eke out a hardscrabble existence in a village beset with jealousy, violence and tragedy, with little hope for a better future.

Blank Gaze is centered around several memorable and sometimes fantastic characters over two generations of village life. The most influential character is the devil, who conducts infrequent services and occasional weddings at the abandoned and decrepit town church, while taunting several men in the local bar run by Judas about the infidelities of their wives while the men are working away from home. Gabriel is an ever present 120 year old wise man, whose good advice is rarely followed. Moíses and Elias are Siamese twins joined by a common pinky finger. An old blind prostitute whose mother and grandmother are similarly afflicted services men on a regular basis, and a giant regularly torments a sheepherder and his wife.

The novel consists of snapshots of these characters over a 30+ year period, and consists of third person observations and first person accounts, which resemble haunted confessions by people who are overwhelmed by the untoward events affecting their lives and the ones of those closest to them. Brief periods of tenderness and joy are soon squelched by tragedy, which ultimately consumes everyone, including the devil, under an unforgiving blazing hot sun.

I found Blank Gaze to be a stunning and unforgettable novel, whose rich images outweighed the ethereal portrayals of its characters. Reading this was akin to watching a play on a stage covered in fog, as characters spoke initially hidden from sight, who subsequently appeared and were sometimes different from the one I thought was speaking. Although the points and themes that Peixoto were trying to express eluded me, I enjoyed reading this short book, and I will definitely look for more of his work in the near future.

>82 DieFledermaus: Thanks, Stephanie. I agree with your comment about Nada being claustrophobic.

I enjoyed Soldiers of Salamis, so I hope that you're able to find your copy of it soon. I look forward to your comments about Tomorrow in the Battle Think of Me.

I hope to read The Frozen Heart in June, when I'll be on holiday in Barcelona, London and Amsterdam. It's a monster of a book, though; the UK paperback version ends on page 774.

>83 rebeccanyc: Have you read The Round House, Rebecca? If so, what did you think of it? I'll buy and read it relatively soon, as Judge Coutts, his wife Geraldine (who both appear in The Plague of Doves) and their son are key characters in that book.

>85 baswood: Thanks, Barry.

My planned reads for May:

Martin Amis, Lionel Asbo: State of England
Bernardo Atxaga, Obabakoak
Marlon James, A Brief History of Seven Killings
Jonathan Kozol, The Theft of Memory: Losing My Father, One Day at a Time
Sinclair Lewis, Arrowsmith
Sid Lowe, Fear and Loathing in La Liga: Barcelona vs Real Madrid
Geert Mak, Amsterdam: A Brief Life of the City
Cees Nooteboom, Roads to Santiago
Fernando Pessoa, The Book of Disquiet
Josep Pla, Life Embitters
Mercè Rodoreda, The Time of the Doves
Karel Schoeman, This Life
Kamila Shamsie, A God in Every Stone
Dubravka Ugrešić, The Ministry of Pain
H. Gilbert Welch, Less Medicine, More Health: 7 Assumptions That Drive Too Much Medical Care

>87 kidzdoc: I really liked The Round House; the 13-year-old son is the focus of it.

>89 rebeccanyc: Right, Rebecca. The 13 year old, from what I understand, is the son of Judge Coutts and his wife Geraldine, who are two of the major characters in The Plague of Doves.

I'll look for something by Peixoto. He sounds like someone to read.

I'll be interested in your impressions of A Brief History of Seven Killings. I heard a lot about it when it was in The Tournament of Books and I'm on the fence about reading it.

The Round House is excellent and I think you'll really enjoy it. The Plague of Doves is one of Erdrich's I haven't read, but it is on my TBR.

I still haven't read anything by Erdrich. Your comments make me want to get to her sooner rather than later.

>91 RidgewayGirl: I'd definitely recommend Blank Gaze, Kay. I'll be on the lookout for The Piano Cemetery and Antidote in the next month or two.

I keep putting off reading A Brief History of Seven Killings, but I plan to bring it with me the week after next, which I'll spend with my parents who live just north of Philadelphia.

I'll definitely read The Round House, and other works by Louise Erdrich, in the near future. I'm not that fond of contemporary American literature, but I did enjoy The Plague of Doves.

>92 NanaCC: I hope you do, Colleen. I was encouraged to read a book by her for the American Author Challenge that is being hosted by Mark (@msf59) in the 75 Books group. I've owned The Plague of Doves for several years, and I doubt I would have read it this year without this challenge. Next month's American author is Sinclair Lewis, and that's why I'll read Arrowsmith, another novel that I've been wanting to get to for years, in May.

For dinner tonight I made bœuf bourguignon, courtesy of a recipe from Caroline (@cameling) in the 75 Books group:



Here's the recipe. I followed it almost to the letter, except that I used sliced bacon instead of a half pound slab of it, and I substituted egg noodles in place of croutons. I let the beef marinate overnight, and put it in the slow cooker this morning. My Bouquet Garni consisted of thyme, sage, basil and a bay leaf, which I inserted into the crevice of half of a celery stalk and secured with string.

Bœuf Bourguignon

Marinade:
2 garlic cloves, crushed
2 onions, sliced
2 carrots, sliced
10 parsley stems
Bouquet Garni
handful of peppercorns, crushed
4 tbsp cognac
1 bottle dry red wine, preferably Burgundy
2 tbsp olive oil

3 lbs lean stewing beef (chuck), trimmed of excess fat and cut into 1 1/2" cubes
Salt & freshly ground pepper
6 tbsp olive oil
2 tbsp all-purpose flour
1 tbsp tomato paste
3 tomatoes, quartered

Garnish
1/2 lb slb bacon, sliced about 1/4" thick
4 tbsp olive oil
30 pearl onions
3 tbsp butter
1 tbsp sugar
3/4 lb button mushrooms, trimmed, rinsed and dried

Croutons
6 slices firm white bread, crusts removed, cubed
3 tbsp butter
2 tbsp chopped parsley

Prepare marinade: combine all ingredients except the oil. Add the meat (it must be completely submerged n the liquid) and then sprinkle the surface with the oil. Cover and marinate for 12 hours.

Remove beef from the marinade and drain well. Remove the garlic and bouquet garni; set aside. Strain and reserve the marinating liquid. Drain the marinated vegetables, set aside.

Heat 1/4 cup of the oil in a large pan over high heat until very hot. Season the beef with salt & pepper and ad to the pan, a few pieces at a time. Sauté until evenly browned. Remove beef from the pan and discard the oil. Add the remaining 2 tbsp of oil and reduce heat to medium. Add the marinated vegetables and cook until lightly colored. Add the beef, sprinkle with flour and stir well. Stir in the tomato paste and cook for about 1 min.
Add the reserved marinating liquid along with the garlic, bouquet garni and quartered tomatoes. Add water as needed to just about cover the vegetables and bring to a boil. Place in slow cooker on low for 8 hours.

*alternatively, you can put it all in a dutch oven with a buttered round of parchment paper and then the lid, and place it in a 375F oven for about 3 hours or until beef is tender.

Prepare the garnish: Cut the bacon into lardons, blanch and drain. Heat the oil in a frying pan, add the lardons and sauté until golden brown. Drain and set aside.

Melt 1 tbsp butter, add the sugar and pearl onions and caramelize them.

Add 2 tbsp oil and 2 tbsp butter in a large frying pan over high heat. Add the mushrooms and cook until moisture has evaporated. Season to taste. Set aside.

Melt 3 tbsp butter, and add the bread cubes to the pan. When well coated, remove and transfer to a baking sheet. Bake in a 425F oven until golden. Set aside.

When the beef is tender, remove the beef and strain the cooking liquid. Discard the solids. Add beef to a large pot, add the strained cooking liquid to the beef, add the lardons, onions and mushrooms and cook over a medium heat for about 10 mins.

To serve, top the stew with the croutons and sprinkle with chopped parsley.
_________________________

This tastes absolutely fabulous! It was labor intensive, but it was absolutely worth it.

I also tried another new recipe on Friday, mujaddara, an ancient Turkish dish, using a recipe I found on the web site Budget Bytes:



Here's the recipe:

Ingredients:

2 Tbsp olive oil $0.32
4 yellow onions $1.59
1 tsp cumin $0.10
1 tsp allspice $0.10
¼ tsp ground cloves $0.03
2.5 cups vegetable broth $0.30
1 cup long grain white rice (or jasmine) $0.33
1 cup brown lentils $0.68

Instructions:

Thinly slice the onions and add them to a large pot with the olive oil. Cook over low heat, stirring frequently for one hour, or until they are deeply golden brown, sticky, and caramelized. Remove half of the onions and set them aside to top the pilaf after cooking.

Add the cumin, allspice, and cloves to the pot with the remaining onions. Sauté for about one minute to lightly toast the spices. Add the vegetable broth and stir the pot well to dissolve any browned bits stuck to the bottom of the pot.

Add the rice and lentils to the pot. Cover the pot with a lid and turn the heat up to high. Allow the contents to come up to a boil. As soon as it reaches a full boil, turn the heat down to low and let it simmer for 30 minutes. After 30 minutes, turn the heat off and let it rest for 10 minutes without removing the lid. Finally, remove the lid, fluff with a spoon or fork, then top with the reserved caramelized onions. Serve warm.

Notes:

If your vegetable broth is low sodium or sodium free, you'll likely need to add some salt when cooking the rice and lentils. Taste the broth before setting the pot to boil and add salt as needed.
____________________________

This recipe reminded me of adas polo, a Persian dish made with lentils, basmati rice, caramelized onions, potatoes, raisins and dates, which my mother learned from an Iranian friend of hers many years ago (although she probably hasn't made it in 20 years or more). Sohaila, my mother's friend, makes her adas polo with chicken, so I pan fried chicken thighs and had it along with the mujaddara. Very tasty!

An enormous pleasure to sit and catch up with you Darryl. Just love your reviews, and the Iberian author profiles are great. Take a look at my recently added books, and you'll see the collateral effect you've just had on my wishlist!

Thanks for the mini-obit on Galeano. I have a few of his books on my wishlist, including the Memory of Fire trilogy which I really hope to get to one day. You may also be interested in Soccer in Sun and Shadow - his take on the meaning of football.

I've enjoyed reading the food stuff too - as one who enjoys his sausages I've learnt the not insignificant difference between a French and Creole Andouille! I think you should sample a French Andouille now, and report back, in the interests of your readership's collective culinary education.

>61 kidzdoc: Ha! That's interesting that andouille is synonymous with twit in your household, Rachel. After Barry's description of the French version of it I've become curious about it, especially in comparison to the Louisiana variety that we eat here. Have you (or anyone else) tried it? What does it taste like?

Catching up on your thread here. I know I'm late to comment, but I just have to . . .

When my now-husband and I were travelling through Europe in 1992 we made a point of trying the regional delicacy of every place we visited. In Rennes, it was andouille and I was very excited to try it, although I"m not sure why because I'm not usually fond of sausage in general. We went to a quaint restaurant with loads of atmosphere so it was promising. But it turned out to be the biggest culinary disappointment of my life--not only did it taste disgusting, it smelled disgusting, it looked disgusting, and when I cut into it, it made a disgusting noise. And yes, it had a disgusting texture. So it offended all my senses. Fab didn't like it either, but he was a sweetheart and swapped meals with me. I got his mussels. Mussels kind of squick me out, at least they were edible. We did have a lovely apple pie with ice cream to finish the meal though. I was less keen on the local delicacies after that.

I've never had the Louisiana version, but from what I can see of what they call andouille in North America, it's a very different thing.

I should add that after I came home from that Europe trip, I didn't eat meat for 18 months. But I did know how to order "ham" in 10 different countries.

>66 baswood: & >67 kidzdoc: It usually smells so bad you would not want to taste it. Okay, it wasn't just us then. Thank you.

Yes, Darryl, stay far, far away.

>98 Nickelini: Great to read your own Andouille experience! I'd still love to read Darryl's description of the little stinky though...

>96 Polaris-: Good to see you here, Paul! I'm glad that you enjoyed my flurry of reviews and the Iberian author profiles; I'll continue to submit profiles on a roughly weekly basis for the next two months.

Thanks for mentioning Soccer in Sun and Shadow; I'll add that to my wish list. Speaking of football, I plan to read Fear and Loathing in La Liga: Barcelona vs Real Madrid by Sid Lowe next month. Have you read it?

Funny that you mention sausage; I'm heating up a batch of chicken and Andouille sausage Creole jambalaya now. Where did you have the Louisiana version? Can you buy it in London? I would assume that there must be at least one NOLA themed restaurant in the capital.

After Barry's comment and the following one I just found online I think I shall stay far, far away from the French variety of it:

there are a half-dozen regional variations of andouille, each (naturally!) claiming to be the original and/or the best.

It's judged to be be best when smelling of manure. (and it does...enough to permeate an entire building.)

Absolutely not!

>97 Nickelini:, >98 Nickelini: Given the description above and Barry's comments I can see why you would have hated the French version of Andouille sausage, Joyce! Here's an old photo of a batch of chicken and Andouille sausage Creole jambalaya that I took earlier this year, as a comparison to the sickly grey one you presumably had (or didn't):



It has a very pleasant and moderately flavor, though not as strong as chorizo, and it's more similar to a Polish sausage than anything else. I get my Andouille from Savoie's, which is a long standing food producer in Opelousas, Louisiana, and it describes its sausage as a "coarse-grained pork sausage mixed with garlic, pepper, onions and special seasonings." The description of it on Wikipedia is the same: "In the US the sausage is most often associated with Louisiana Creole cuisine, where it is a coarse-grained smoked sausage made using pork, garlic, pepper, onions, wine, and seasonings. The pork used is mostly from a smoked Boston shoulder roast. Once the casing is stuffed, the sausage is smoked again (double smoked)." The French version is definitely different: "In France, particularly Brittany, the traditional ingredients of andouille are primarily pig chitterlings, tripe, onions, wine, and seasoning. It is generally grey in colour and has a distinctive odor."

The Wikipedia page for Andouille also includes this sentence: "Andouille is also an insult in French, designating an imbecile, or a rascal." Could that be because only imbeciles or rascals eat it?

>99 Polaris-: I'd still love to read Darryl's description of the little stinky though..

Yeah Darryl -- try it! Video tape the event and post it here so we can all share the experience with you (insert evil laughter here).

>100 kidzdoc: That looks better! When my husband makes gumbo or jambalaya, he uses chorizo just because it's easy to come by.

>99 Polaris-: I'd still love to read Darryl's description of the little stinky though...

Not. Gonna. Happen.

>101 Nickelini: Yeah Darryl -- try it! Video tape the event and post it here so we can all share the experience with you

Hmph! I thought all of the meanies were in the 75 Books group. Clearly I was mistaken. No jambalaya for the two of you!

>102 Nickelini: I think that chorizo would taste good in jambalaya (Creole rather than the Cajun version), although the taste might overpower the other ingredients.

I can find authentic Andouille in my local supermarket, along with a surprisingly good version made by Johnsonville, which is based in Wisconsin. Oddly enough, one of the 75ers, who lives in Christchurch, New Zealand, found Cajun Andouille sausage that was made locally. My parents want me to make it when I visit them next week in the Philadelphia area, so I'll have to see if they have it available there; otherwise I'll make chicken and shrimp jamb instead, or use Polish sausage.

>100 kidzdoc: Ah no! I'd love to try some jambalaya some day!

I haven't actually tried the Creole Andouille ever, but I'd like to now. I wouldn't know where to look for it to be honest. (In London I'd give it a good go looking, but not in Wales forget it!). If there is a NOLA themed restaurant in London, and there really oughta be, then I don't know where it is, but if you find out about it I'd love to go there maybe when you're in the country?

No, I haven't yet read Fear and Loathing in La Liga but it's on the wishlist. I look forward to your comments on it when the time comes.

>105 Polaris-: I took a quick look, and as I expected there are several restaurants in London that offer food from the Deep South and from New Orleans, including The Bayou Soul in Camden. I'd certainly be up for going there or a similar restaurant the next time we're able to meet up.

I'll probably start on Fear and Loathing in La Liga next week, when I visit my parents. I wasn't able to find it in London, but Llibreria anglesa, an English language bookshop in Barcelona's Eixample neighborhood, did have it in stock when I went there last summer.

As a French person I feel I must chime up. Andouille is certainly an acquired taste but its flavor is highly dependent on where you get it. I can eat it but it's not my favorite but when my family got the andouille from one particular region, it was amazing. So really, as with all things meat-related, who your butcher is, is key. If you've ever had cow kidneys, then the smell is similar to that. Or, you could compare the smell to Mexican menudo.

(And my cousin is stupid and I don't like him so I definitely call him the andouille.)

>107 lilisin: Excellent perspective - merci beaucoup! I think I can safely say, that I've read more about sausages on this page than any other I've ever seen on the world wide web! (But I do really love hearing about how other nationalities talk about their food, so interesting.)

>106 kidzdoc: It's such a shame, but there used to be the best sports bookshop in the land on Charing Cross Rd until a few years ago -Sportspages. Did you ever hear of it? It was an early favourite bookshop of mine. I used to go in there all the time (working on nearby Fleet Street, or in Soho) for fanzines and to check all the latest selections of the kind of titles that would be shortlisted for the William Hill Sports Book of the Year - but then it closed some time in the '90s (I think) while I lived abroad. It continues today as a web based shop. I've found a really nice Guardian article - Confessions of a sporting bibliophile - from 2011 that gives the vibe from someone who worked there a decade. (And I can second the recommendations for Paul Kimmage's and Eamon Dunphy's memoirs - landmark sports writing from the British Isles.) The Helter Skelter shop mentioned near the end was another standout independent gone from Denmark Street round the corner - but they were music books and a different thing...

>107 lilisin: Thanks for your comment about (French) Andouille sausage, lilisin. I doubt that I'll ever visit the French countryside, so I probably won't ever get the chance to try it (and I can live with that).

Does the insult have anything to do with the name of the sausage?

>108 Polaris-: I hadn't heard of that bookshop, Paul. I'm very familiar with Charing Cross Road, but my first visit to London was in 2007, so it would have been closed by that time. Thanks for posting that article and the recommendations for those memoirs; I'll take a look at them later today.

Speaking of sports, and Charing Cross Road, I bought a copy of Sol Campbell: The Authorised Biography last year at Foyles, but I haven't read it yet. Have you?

Book #20: The Education of the Stoic by Fernando Pessoa



My rating:

This short work is a collection of observations and reflections of life by the Baron of Tieve, the fictional "quasi-author" who contributed to Pessoa's famous novel The Book of Disquiet. The baron was a sensitive and tortured soul, who spent much of his life in solitude and ultimately committed suicide due to his immense unhappiness and inability to find love with a woman. Although this book has a high rating on LT I could not connect with it, as I found the baron's comments to be obtuse, morbid and banal. Your mileage may vary with this one.

Book #21: Time Ages in a Hurry by Antonio Tabucchi



My rating:

This collection of nine short stories written toward the end of the author's career all concern the passage of time, and how the different characters in them confront significant life challenges and overcome them. I only liked one of the stories, "Clouds", in which a young girl and a former military man both on holiday have a conversation about his past while sitting on a beach. I found the other stories to be unfocused, uninteresting and lacking in insight.

Hope your next one is a good one. Terrific review up there of Blank Gaze.

And i do not want to try French andouille sausage.

>112 dchaikin: I did finish a much better book this afternoon, Navidad & Matanza by Carlos Labbé, which I gave 3½ stars, Dan.

I'm generally a fearless eater, as long as there aren't eyes on my plate looking back at me, but I have no desire to eat French Andouille sausage, or have it anywhere nearby.

Enjoyed the discussion of andouille. I didn't realize it was such a polarizing food - like lutefisk or durian or something.

Too bad about the Pessoa and Tabucchi, glad to hear that your latest book was better!

A couple random recipes that I tried recently -

Sesame Maple Tofu -

http://www.eatingwell.com/recipes/sesame_maple_roasted_tofu.html

INGREDIENTS
1 14-ounce block extra-firm water-packed tofu, rinsed, patted dry and cut into 1-inch cubes
1 medium red onion, sliced
2 teaspoons canola oil
2 teaspoons toasted sesame oil
1/4 teaspoon salt
1/4 teaspoon freshly ground pepper
1 tablespoon tahini, (see Tip)
1 tablespoon reduced-sodium soy sauce
2 teaspoons pure maple syrup
1 teaspoon cider vinegar
3 cups sugar snap peas, trimmed
1 tablespoon sesame seeds

PREPARATION
Preheat oven to 450°F.
Toss tofu, onion, canola oil, sesame oil, salt and pepper in a large bowl. Spread on a large baking sheet and roast until the tofu is lightly golden on top and the onions are browning in spots, 15 to 20 minutes.
Whisk tahini, soy sauce, maple syrup and vinegar in a small dish until combined. Remove the tofu from the oven, add snap peas and drizzle with the maple sauce; stir to combine. Sprinkle with sesame seeds. Return to the oven and continue roasting until the peas are crisp-tender, 8 to 12 minutes more.

Cauliflower Broccoli Gratin

INGREDIENTS
1 broccoli crown, trimmed and cut into 1-inch florets (about 4 cups)
1/2 head cauliflower, trimmed and cut into 1-inch florets (about 4 cups)
2-3 tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil, divided
1 medium onion, thinly sliced
3 tablespoons all-purpose flour
3/4 teaspoon salt
1/4 teaspoon white or black pepper
2 1/2 cups low-fat milk
1 1/2 cups fresh whole-wheat breadcrumbs (see Tips) or 1/2 cup shredded or crumbled cheese

PREPARATION
Position racks in upper and lower third of oven; preheat to 425°F.
Toss broccoli and cauliflower in a large bowl with 1 tablespoon oil until well coated. Divide between 2 baking sheets and spread in an even layer. Roast the vegetables, stirring once and rotating the pans top to bottom about halfway through, until tender and beginning to brown, 20 to 25 minutes.
Meanwhile, heat 1 tablespoon oil in a large saucepan over medium heat. Add onion and cook, stirring frequently, until very soft and golden brown, 5 to 8 minutes. Add flour, salt and pepper; cook, stirring, for 1 minute more. Add milk and continue to stir, scraping up any browned bits. Cook, stirring, until the sauce bubbles and thickens enough to coat the back of a spoon, about 4 minutes. Remove from the heat. (See Tips.)
When the vegetables are done, remove from the oven. Preheat the broiler.
Transfer half the vegetables to a 2-quart, broiler-safe baking dish. Spread half the sauce over the vegetables. Add the remaining vegetables and top with the remaining sauce.
Combine breadcrumbs and the remaining 1 tablespoon oil in a small bowl (skip this step if you are topping with cheese).
Sprinkle the breadcrumb mixture (or cheese) over the gratin. Place under the broiler and broil, watching closely, until the gratin is bubbling and beginning to brown on top, 1 to 5 minutes, depending on your broiler. Let stand for 10 minutes before serving.

I added bacon on top of this one.

I'll have to look up some recipes for adas polo, as that sounds tasty.

>109 kidzdoc:

It seems definitely that the insult comes from the sausage: saying someone is as soft and limp as the sausage implies they are a bit lazy and thus inept and then well, stupid.

Perhaps you guys would be interested in andouillette. Andouille and andouillette are the same thing except that andouillette is eaten warm while andouille is eaten cold. Eating it warm, for me, changes the flavor profile and makes it much more inviting to eat. Although once again, you need a good butcher.

Also, you guys might be interested in the saucisse/boudin noir. Black sausage! This one is also very interesting but I can't remember if I like it or not. I used to (and still) get boudin and andouille mixed up so I always have to retry them when they show up on the dinner table.

>114 DieFledermaus: Thanks for those recipes, Stephanie! I'll definitely try the tofu, but I'd have to modify the second one, as my GI tract doesn't tolerate broccoli well and I'm significantly lactose intolerant. I could substitute broccolini and soy or almond milk.

I'll probably make a veganized version of xi jong shi chao that I saw on the One Green Planet web site thi afternoon or tomorrow before my night shifts in the hospital (http://www.onegreenplanet.org/vegan-recipe/chinese-tofu-scramble/)

INGREDIENTS

1 Tbs. peanut oil
1 medium onion, sliced
1 tsp. fresh ginger, grated or minced
2 cloves garlic, minced
1 block extra-firm tofu, pressed and drained
1 tsp. turmeric
1 tsp. black salt
4 scallions, finely chopped, whites and greens divided
1 medium or large tomato, cut into chunks
Toasted Sesame Oil, for garnish

PREPARATION

Heat the oil in a deep skillet or sauté pan over medium heat. Add the onion, garlic and ginger and cook until the onion is softened and translucent, about 4 minutes.

Break the tofu into chunks and add to the pan. Mix the tofu into the onions and let the tofu cook until it browns a bit, about 5 minutes.

Add the turmeric and the black salt to the pan. Toss the tofu so the spices cover it completely and turn all pieces of the tofu yellow. Pour 1/3 cup water into the pan and mix the tofu well. This helps the spices to distribute more evenly.

Add the scallion whites and the tomatoes to the mixture. Stir and cook until the tomatoes are heated through, about 2 minutes. Turn the heat off. Add a drizzle of toasted sesame oil and garnish with the scallion greens.

I've had Louisiana Andouille sausage for years, but I had no idea that there was a French version until Barry mentioned it.

Fortunately the books by Pessoa and Tabucchi were short ones.

>115 lilisin: Thanks for mentioning andouilette, lilisin. I'll look for it the next time I dine at a French restaurant.

I've had boudin (blood sausage) a number of times, in paella in Barcelona and at a restaurant in Atlanta named Barcelona most recently, and in New Orleans restaurants in the past, as it is art of Louisiana cuisine. I like it.

I noticed that your recipe said to break the tofu into chunks. I have cut it and that works too. You will need a sharp knife, but if you have to coat the tofu it is easier to do that when it is in squares rather than chunks.

>117 benitastrnad: Thanks for that tip, Benita. I'll probably make this dish this coming week when I visit my parents.

The shortlist for this year's Best Translated Book Award was announced yesterday:

The Author and Me by Éric Chevillard, translated from the French by Jordan Stump (France, Dalkey Archive Press)

Fantomas Versus the Multinational Vampires by Julio Cortázar, translated from the Spanish by David Kurnick (Argentina, Semiotext(e))

Pushkin Hills by Sergei Dovlatov, translated from the Russian by Katherine Dovlatov (Russia, Counterpoint Press)

Those Who Leave and Those Who Stay by Elena Ferrante, translated from the Italian by Ann Goldstein (Italy, Europa Editions)

Things Look Different in the Light by Medardo Fraile, translated from the Spanish by Margaret Jull Costa (Spain, Pushkin Press)

Harlequin’s Millions by Bohumil Hrabal, translated from the Czech by Stacey Knecht (Czech Republic, Archipelago Books)

The Woman Who Borrowed Memories by Tove Jansson, translated from the Swedish by Thomas Teal and Silvester Mazzarella (Finland, NYRB)

Faces in the Crowd by Valeria Luiselli, translated from the Spanish by Christina MacSweeney (Mexico, Coffee House Press)

La Grande by Juan José Saer, translated from the Spanish by Steve Dolph (Argentina, Open Letter Books)

The Last Lover by Can Xue, translated from the Chinese by Annelise Finegan Wasmoen (China, Yale University Press)

The winning book will be announced on May 27th. More info here: http://www.rochester.edu/College/translation/threepercent/index.php?id=14392

Another literary prize announcement: The Meursault Investigation by Kamel Daoud, an Algerian journalist, won this year's Goncourt du premier roman, the "first prize" Goncourt. It's narrated by the brother of the unnamed Arab that Meursault from Camus' The Stranger killed on a beach in Oran, and this novel provides a perspective of the day's fateful events from the murdered man's standpoint. It will be published in the US next month and in the UK in July; I'll definitely read it this summer, after I re-read the new translation of Camus' classic by Sandra Smith, which was released as The Outsider.

NYT: Goncourt First Novel Prize Is Awarded to Kamel Daoud of Algeria

Thanks for the list, Darryl. I've read, and loved, Pushkin Hills, which introduced me more fully to Dovlatov, and some of the others sound intriguing as well, especially the Cortazar. I have La Grande on the TBR, from my Open Letter subscription.

You're welcome, Rebecca. The only book I own from the shortlist is Things Look Different in the Light, which I'll probably read on my Kindle next month. The Cortázar definitely sounds interesting, and I'll probably buy it and La Grande.

>115 lilisin: Boudin or what we might call blood sausage is a wonderful thing. Both Boudin blanc and boudin noir are quite popular in my region of France.

Andouillette is to be avoided whenever you see it on a French Restaurant's menu, because warming it up releases the smell. Seriously though Lillisin I take your point that it depends on the quality of the butchery.

Book #23: The Theft of Memory: Losing My Father, One Day at a Time by Jonathan Kozol

  

My rating:

Jonathan Kozol is a noted American author, teacher and speaker, who is best known for his books about the failure of the public education system in the US, including Death at an Early Age: The Destruction of the Hearts and Minds of Negro Children in the Boston Public Schools, which won the National Book Award in 1968, Savage Inequalities: Children in America's Schools, and The Shame of the Nation: The Restoration of Apartheid Schooling in America. In his latest book, Kozol writes about the life of his father Harry, a noted neuropsychiatrist and forensic psychiatrist at Harvard Medical School, his relationship with him and his mother, and his slow decline toward death after he was diagnosed with Alzheimer's disease.

Harry Kozol, born in 1906 to Ukrainian parents of Jewish descent who had emigrated to Boston four years earlier, was an example of a classic immigrant success story. He grew up in South Boston, worked his way through Harvard, attended Harvard Law School on the behest of his mother, then transferred to Harvard Medical School after he completed a fellowship in Europe and spent time with several noted specialists in the burgeoning field of psychiatry. He was trained as a neurologist, but he devoted most of his career to the study and care of psychiatric patients, including noted figures such as the playwright Eugene O'Neill, Patty Hearst, and the man who was accused of being the Boston Strangler. Much of the book is a description of Harry's fascinating life, along with his relationship with his son Jonathan, who initially was a disappointment to him after he participated in the Civil Rights Movement and decided to pursue a career in the Boston Public School system in the mid 1960s rather than embarking on a more lucrative career. Harry eventually came to respect and admire his son, particularly after his books became popular and highly regarded.

Harry Kozol continued to actively practice medicine well into his eighties, when he, his wife and son began to recognize that his razor sharp memory and ability to form coherent thoughts and sentences was beginning to deteriorate. Jonathan, who is unmarried and childless, takes over the day to day management of his father's health, and he describes in detail the difficult decisions he faces in managing his parents' health while maintaining his own speaking, teaching and writing schedule, the great cost and challenge of providing both parents with end of life, and the mistakes made by his father's medical team, particularly the internist whose lack of attention to detail on several occasions led to his decline and ultimate death at the age of 102.

The Theft of Memory is a compelling and touching memoir to the author's father, an insightful examination of the relationship between a famous and highly respected man and his equally laudable son, and the triumphs, failures, joys and despair the author experiences as his parents slowly decline at the end of their lives. It is a quick read and is filled with wisdom that anyone who cares for an aging parent or relative would be wise to heed, and I would highly recommend it to everyone.

>123 baswood: I love Boudin in Louisiana recipes or paella, Barry. I haven't heard of or tried boudin blanc, though.

Thanks for the warning about andouillette. I shall avoid it like the plague, barring any specific recommendations from lilisin.

Book #24: Fear and Loathing in La Liga: Barcelona vs Real Madrid by Sid Lowe



My rating:

Dear sports fans: what are the most intense rivalries you can think of? Those in the US would list the Yankees versus the Red Sox or the Giants versus the Dodgers in baseball, Ohio State versus Michigan or Alabama versus Auburn in American college football, and Duke versus North Carolina in college basketball. European football fans would claim that the derbies between Arsenal and Chelsea, Olympiakos vs Panathinaikos, and Juventus and Internazionale are even more passionate. Rubbish! These rivalries are all playground dustups compared to El Clásico, the century long hate fest between FC Barcelona and Real Madrid, the two premier teams in La Liga, the Spanish football first division.

  

Both teams are among the best in Europe, and their rivalry is enmeshed in the history of the two main Spanish cities; the difference in languages and cultures, with Madrid being the capital of Castilian Spain and Barcelona the capital of Catalonia, a region whose residents want nothing more than its independence from Spain; the suppression of Catalans during the nearly 40 year reign of Generalísimo Francisco Franco; and the meaning ascribed to the two teams by its followers throughout history. A win by FC Barcelona, known casually as Barça, over Madrid during the years of fascist rule meant a victory for the Catalan people over Franco and the Falangists, who were based in Madrid, whereas a win by Real Madrid meant, for some supporters, a victory for the Fatherland and Franco. That's right, isn't it?

Well, not entirely. Sid Lowe, a Madrid based English journalist who writes about football for The Guardian and other publications, does a masterful job in looking underneath the myths and claims by supporters of each side to find the truth about both clubs, and in doing so he has written a very readable and interesting story about the teams, their players and owners, and their often rabid fans. The book covers the teams' combined histories through the 2011-2012 seasons, and every important player and influential coach and owner is given due treatment, including László Kubala, the fun loving Hungarian who was one of Barcelona's first star players; Alfredo Di Stéfano, Madrid's Blond Arrow; Johan Cruyff, the Dutch footballer who changed Barça's approach to the game and turned it into a winner; Madrid's galácticos, the superstars whose egos got in the way of their successes; and the two best players in the world, Madrid's Cristiano Ronaldo and Barcelona's Lionel Messi, who are pictured on the cover of the book.

Fear and Loathing in La Liga would be best appreciated by football fans, especially those who know something about these two clubs. However, I thoroughly enjoyed reading this book despite my relative lack of knowledge about Real Madrid, FC Barcelona and La Liga, and it kept my interest throughout its 400+ pages.

The Theft of Memory sounds fascinating, but I wonder at the idea of medical lack of attention leading to a death at 102. Please whatever powers that be, let me slip away in my sleep before I lose all my cognitive and physical powers.

>127 janeajones: Right, Jane. Harry Kozol suffered from dementia and was slowly declining, but his physical health was surprisingly good until his last few days. He could have conceivably lived for a year or two longer, but the quality of his life would have been fair, at best.

Perhaps one of the fiercest rivalries in football (soccer) was in Glasgow: Celtic v Rangers which was based on religious differences.

Redsox aren't holding up their end of the rivalry lately. The La Liga sounds fun even if I'm also clueless about European football in general. I don't even know what the religious differences are between the Celtics and the Rangers, although I'm guessing the Celtics aren't Druids.

>126 kidzdoc: Darryl, I have to share another story with your from my 1992 trip through Europe with my now-husband. We were in Barcelona, and walking back to our hotel room in the late afternoon. All of a sudden, through doorways and open windows, we heard people cheering, then cars started honking. Fab went into a bar we were passing and learned that Barcelona had just beat Real Madrid to win the Spanish cup. We got back to our hotel and took a nap, but we could hear the hum of the city getting louder and louder. A few hours later we went out and the streets were full of people partying (the only time in Europe I've seen drunk people puking in the street). At one point we came around a corner to see a line of police in riot gear half a block away. They came running in our direction and we ducked into a doorway. I've been caught in actual riots before and it's a terrible experience, but this was sort of fun and exciting. And we have a unique memory of our time in Barcelona. We had one more day there, and the atmosphere was very lively, happy and friendly.

>129 baswood: I had heard a little bit about the Celtic-Rangers rivalry, but I didn't know that it was based on religious differences. I just read the Wikipedia page about the Old Firm, which describes the two teams and their combined histories.

>130 dchaikin: I haven't been following baseball closely this season, as the Phillies are playing like the teams of old, so I didn't know that the Red Sox were also floundering. I'm surprised to see that the Houston Astros are playing so well; weren't they the worst team in baseball last year?

I'll start paying more attention to La Liga after reading Lowe's book. I'll arrive in Barcelona on Friday, and I was tempted to see the Copa del Rey final next Saturday night between FC Barcelona and Athletic Bilbao at Camp Nou, FCB's massive home grounds. However, the cheapest ticket I could find was selling for 280 €, or just over $300 USD; I'll see the Barcelona Guitar Trio perform at the Palau de la Música Catalana that night instead.

According to the Wikipedia page I read Celtic supporters are traditionally Catholic, and Rangers fans are Protestant, although those differences have become less defined in recent years.

>131 Nickelini: Nice story, Joyce! There is a great chance that I'll get to see two similar celebrations during my stay in Barcelona (I arrive on May 29th and leave for London on June 10th). FCB have already won first place in La Liga, and next Saturday's Copa del Rey final is for the championship of all the football divisions in Spain. The following Saturday FCB play Juventus in the Champions League final in Berlin; the winner will be the European champion, and FCB are favored to win, even though Juve are the champion of Serie A, the top Italian football league.

The Astros were the worst team in baseball the last three years. : ) They and the Cubs are kind of like the Kansas City Royals this year...or hope to be. The Red Sox have started winning and the Yankees losing a bit, so suddenly there is potential for a rivalry again and my comment looks a bit premature. And so sorry about your Phillies. It looks like a long low road for them, with crappy management.

I also noticed that the Royals are also playing well, but they had a good season last year as well (they qualified for the postseason as a wild card, right?).

I don't care who wins the American League, as long as it's not the Yankees.

The Phillies were doomed to failure this season, and they'll continue to be until there is a shake up in the management, and possibly the ownership, of the team. Rubén Amaro, Jr., the team's general manager since 2008, should have been fired years ago.

Royals were the most fun team to watch at the end of last year. They are playing great so far, best bullpen in mlb. Wish it had been that fun when I was at KU in the late 1990's.

Nice. I wish the Royals well, and I hope that the Cubs continue to contend for the pennant all season.

134> root for the Rays!

>126 kidzdoc: Great review of Fear and Loathing in La Liga Darryl. I look forward to reading it one day. One small point of order though - the big derby in London football (unless you're West Ham United like me - and then it's Millwall) is Arsenal versus Tottenham, not Chelsea. They are both north London - and their fans often live in the same neighbourhoods as each other, or are often in the same family (kids rebelling against Dad's club, etc.)

Yes, Chelsea v Arsenal is always a big fixture - especially in the 21st century, since when Chelsea have been owned by Russian oligarch Roman Abramovich and essentially bought all of their success - but in terms of London rivalries Chelsea are complete Johnny-come-latelys to the equation... I can remember very well when they were shit. Me - bitter and jealous of the just crowned English champions? Not remotely...

I'd have to agree with Barry that in terms of all-out intensity and irrational hatred, and the power of the matchday atmosphere, THE biggest rivalry in British football, and arguably European football, is Rangers v Celtic in Glasgow. But from articles I've read, and from football fan friends' own accounts of the experience - the biggest rivalry of them all, anywhere on the planet would be in Buenos Aires: Boca Juniors v River Plate. I had an Argentine pal in Israel once who taught me one of the Boca songs about River Plate which I can still sing...Something about Boca not being married, but having instead a casual acquaintance with a passing lady of the night, whose name is... - well, you get the picture!

According to Wikipedia - In April 2004, the English newspaper The Observer put the Superclásico at the top of their list of "50 sporting things you must do before you die", saying that "Derby day in Buenos Aires makes the Old Firm game look like a primary school kick-about." Wow!

>137 janeajones: No way, Jane! My favorite AL team since the early 1970s has been the Oakland A's, due to colorful players like Vida Blue, Catfish Hunter, Blue Moon Odom, Rollie Fingers, Reggie Jackson, and Coco Crisp, and their even more colorful uniformss, especially the sweet yellow jerseys of past and present.

  

>138 Polaris-: I'm glad you liked my review of Fear and Loathing in La Liga, Paul; I think you'll like the book as well. Thanks for clarifying which match constituted the North London Derby; Arsenal vs Tottenham makes more sense. No, I don't detect a whiff of anti-Chelsea sentiment coming from you...

I read somewhere recently about the intensity of the Boca Juniors vs River Plate rivalry. The English language football coverage on US television is mainly limited to the English Premier League, Major League Soccer (US) and the World Cup, while the Spanish language stations (Univision and Telemundo) are more likelt to broadcast matches of clubs in México and other Latin American countries, so that Argentinian rivalry is essentially unknown here.

My nearly five week long non-vacation holiday began yesterday, as I'm off from work until July 1st. I earned this break from work as a result of working extra shifts during our busy winter months (November-February). Those extra days will be given back to me as PTO (paid time off) days in June, and those days combined with my usual days off next month means that I don't have to work, and don't have to use any vacation days. I was supposed to have left for Barcelona yesterday, but I was felled by a nasty viral bug this past weekend, so I'll leave for Barcelona on Wednesday. I'll make stops in London, Edinburgh and Amsterdam before I fly back to Atlanta on June 30th. I have lots of plans already made, many with the LTers based in and outside of London and Amsterdam, and I should have plenty of time to read.

Here are my planned reads for June (subject to change):

António Lobo Antunes, Fado Alexandrino
Bernardo Atxaga, Obabakoak
Donald Campbell, Edinburgh: A Cultural History
Juan Goytisolo, Forbidden Territory and Realms of Strife
Laila Lalami, The Moor's Account
Sinclair Lewis, Arrowsmith
Geert Mak, Amsterdam: A Brief Life of the City
Imma Monsó, A Man of His Word
Josep Pla, The Gray Notebook
José Saramago, The History of the Siege of Lisbon
Wallace Stegner, Crossing to Safety
Marcos Giralt Torrente, Paris
Dubravka Ugrešić, The Ministry of Pain
Llorenç Villalonga, The Dolls' Room
Evelyn Waugh, Brideshead Revisited

I'll bring paper editions of Fado Alexandrino, Edinburgh: A Cultural History, Forbidden Territory and Realms of Strife and The Gray Notebook with me, and possibly Obabakoak if I don't finish it by Wednesday. All of the other books are on my Kindle.

Enjoy your time off, Darryl. You've certainly earned it. And I hope your trip to Europe is perfect. I recently went to Berlin for the first time and found it fantastic - full of museums and friendly people.

So my daughter came home from two weeks in the hospital. Her first dinner request was for Moroccan Vegetable Stew. It's been a reliable hit in our house. Thanks for sharing the recipe.

Happy travels!

>141 RidgewayGirl: Thanks, Kay. You may be the only person besides me who thinks that I've earned this vacation, though!

I'm glad to hear that you enjoyed Berlin. I definitely plan to explore of Europe on future trips, and Berlin is definitely on the list of places I'd like to visit soon, along with Prague, Vienna and Budapest.

I'm glad that you enjoyed the Moroccan stew! I made a batch on Sunday and shared it with the nurses on the 3rd floor of the hospital I work at, as it was Memorial Day and the team that has to work on holidays in that area always bring in food for a nice feast and invites the doctors to join them. They liked it, too; one of the older nurses said that it was the first recipe that had lentils in it that she actually liked.

Here's the recipe again, if anyone would like it and didn't see it the first time I posted it:
http://www.budgetbytes.com/2014/11/moroccan-lentil-vegetable-stew/

I've still been cooking on a regular basis, but I've been generally using the same recipes that I've posted in the past. After I return from holiday I'll try some new recipes and post them here. Hmm...I see that I didn't post two recent recipes I've tried and liked on this thread, bœuf bourguignon and Chinese tofu scramble, so I'll do that shortly.

I hope that your daughter is doing well after her hospitalization.

>142 janeajones: Thanks, Jane!

A couple of literary prize announcements from Wednesday: The End of Days by the German author Jenny Erpenbeck, translated by Susan Bernofsky, won this year's Independent Foreign Fiction Prize. Here's a description of the book from The Guardian:

The End of Days is a bleak meditation on the possible lives of a girl born in Austro-Hungary at the beginning of the 20th century. In one of the alternative destinies Erpenback sets out, she meets an almost immediate end in a cot death. Her bereft mother is driven to prostitution, while her father flees to a desperately insecure life as an emigrant to America. In another version of her life, she grows up through the rise of fascism, famine in Vienna and culminating in her suicide. In a third incarnation she sees out the traumas of the century, living to watch the fall of the Berlin Wall, but still facing a bleak conclusion to her much-troubled life.

Despite its gruelling subject matter, Independent columnist and longtime prize judge Boyd Tonkin said: “This is a novel to enjoy, to cherish and to revisit many times. Into its brief span, Erpenback packs a century of upheaval, always rooted in the chances and choices of one woman’s life.”

I enjoyed her novel Visitation, and I'll buy this book next month.

The Guardian: Jenny Erpenbeck wins Independent foreign fiction prize

Also on Wednesday Can Xue's novel The Last Lover, translated from Mandarin by Annelise Finegan, was awarded this year's Best Translated Book Award for Fiction:

Published by Yale University Press, the book “takes readers on a journey through a dream world as strange yet disquietingly familiar as Kafka’s Amerika,” said Monica Carter, chair of the BTBA fiction committee. If Orientalists describe an East that exists only in the Western imagination, Xue describes “its shadow, offering a beguiling dream of a Chinese West. In addition, Annelise Finegan Wasmoen’s translation succeeds in crafting a powerful English voice for a writer of singular imagination and insight,” said Carter.

The jury also named three runners-up in fiction: Harlequin’s Millions by Bohumil Hrabal, translated from Czech by Stacey Knecht and published by Archipelago Books, for the “wonderful lyricism” of its winding sentences; Faces in the Crowd by Valeria Luiselli, translated from Spanish by Christina MacSweeney and published by Coffee House Press, for the “exceptional promise demonstrated by its young author”; and Those Who Leave and Those Who Stay by Elena Ferrante, translated from Italian by Ann Goldstein and published by Europa Editions, for its “vibrant characters and sweeping narrative power.”

The poetry collection Diorama by the Mexican author Rocío Cerón, translated from Spanish by Anna Rosenwong, won the Best Translated Book Award for Poetry.

The University of Rochester: Can Xue, Rocío Cerón win 2015 Best Translated Book Awards

>140 kidzdoc: I'll look forward to reading your review of Brideshead Revisited. Listed as one of my favourite books, it's probably due for a re-read as it's been many years since I last read it.

>145 VivienneR: I'm glad to read that Brideshead Revisited is one of your favorite books, Vivienne. One of the members of the 75 Books group has set up a British Authors Challenge, highlighting two prominent writers from the past or present every month, and Evelyn Waugh was one of the choices for February, and since I own the Kindle version of it I hope to read it next month.

Here's the recipe for bœuf bourguignon that I made several weeks ago, courtesy of Caroline (@cameling), who got the recipe from the grandmother of a former French boyfriend of hers. The photo is my version of it.



Here's the recipe. I followed it almost to the letter, except that I used sliced bacon instead of a half pound slab of it, and I substituted egg noodles in place of croutons. I let the beef marinate overnight, and put it in the slow cooker this morning. My Bouquet Garni consisted of thyme, sage, basil and a bay leaf, which I inserted into the crevice of half of a celery stalk and secured with string.

Bœuf Bourguignon

Marinade:
2 garlic cloves, crushed
2 onions, sliced
2 carrots, sliced
10 parsley stems
Bouquet Garni
handful of peppercorns, crushed
4 tbsp cognac
1 bottle dry red wine, preferably Burgundy
2 tbsp olive oil

3 lbs lean stewing beef (chuck), trimmed of excess fat and cut into 1 1/2" cubes
Salt & freshly ground pepper
6 tbsp olive oil
2 tbsp all-purpose flour
1 tbsp tomato paste
3 tomatoes, quartered

Garnish
1/2 lb slab bacon, sliced about 1/4" thick
4 tbsp olive oil
30 pearl onions
3 tbsp butter
1 tbsp sugar
3/4 lb button mushrooms, trimmed, rinsed and dried

Croutons
6 slices firm white bread, crusts removed, cubed
3 tbsp butter
2 tbsp chopped parsley

Prepare marinade: combine all ingredients except the oil. Add the meat (it must be completely submerged n the liquid) and then sprinkle the surface with the oil. Cover and marinate for 12 hours.

Remove beef from the marinade and drain well. Remove the garlic and bouquet garni; set aside. Strain and reserve the marinating liquid. Drain the marinated vegetables, set aside.

Heat 1/4 cup of the oil in a large pan over high heat until very hot. Season the beef with salt & pepper and ad to the pan, a few pieces at a time. Sauté until evenly browned. Remove beef from the pan and discard the oil. Add the remaining 2 tbsp of oil and reduce heat to medium. Add the marinated vegetables and cook until lightly colored. Add the beef, sprinkle with flour and stir well. Stir in the tomato paste and cook for about 1 min.
Add the reserved marinating liquid along with the garlic, bouquet garni and quartered tomatoes. Add water as needed to just about cover the vegetables and bring to a boil. Place in slow cooker on low for 8 hours.

*alternatively, you can put it all in a dutch oven with a buttered round of parchment paper and then the lid, and place it in a 375F oven for about 3 hours or until beef is tender.

Prepare the garnish: Cut the bacon into lardons, blanch and drain. Heat the oil in a frying pan, add the lardons and sauté until golden brown. Drain and set aside.

Melt 1 tbsp butter, add the sugar and pearl onions and caramelize them.

Add 2 tbsp oil and 2 tbsp butter in a large frying pan over high heat. Add the mushrooms and cook until moisture has evaporated. Season to taste. Set aside.

Melt 3 tbsp butter, and add the bread cubes to the pan. When well coated, remove and transfer to a baking sheet. Bake in a 425F oven until golden. Set aside.

When the beef is tender, remove the beef and strain the cooking liquid. Discard the solids. Add beef to a large pot, add the strained cooking liquid to the beef, add the lardons, onions and mushrooms and cook over a medium heat for about 10 mins.

To serve, top the stew with the croutons and sprinkle with chopped parsley.
_________________________

This was the most labor intensive dish I've ever made, by far! It tasted great, but I'll only prepare this again on special occasions.

This is Xi Jong Shi Chao ‘Jidan’ (Chinese Tofu Scramble), an adapted recipe featured on the One Green Planet web site which I made on the day before Mother's Day when I visited my parents' home:



INGREDIENTS:

1 tbsp peanut oil
1 medium onion, sliced
1 tsp fresh ginger, grated or minced
2 cloves garlic, minced
1 block extra-firm tofu, pressed and drained
1 tsp turmeric
1 tsp black salt
4 scallions, finely chopped, whites and greens divided
1 medium or large tomato, cut into chunks
toasted sesame oil, for garnish

PREPARATION:

Heat the oil in a deep skillet or sauté pan over medium heat. Add the onion, garlic and ginger and cook until the onion is softened and translucent, about 4 minutes.

Break the tofu into chunks and add to the pan. Mix the tofu into the onions and let the tofu cook until it browns a bit, about 5 minutes.

Add the turmeric and the black salt to the pan. Toss the tofu so the spices cover it completely and turn all pieces of the tofu yellow. Pour 1/3 cup water into the pan and mix the tofu well. This helps the spices to distribute more evenly.

Add the scallion whites and the tomatoes to the mixture. Stir and cook until the tomatoes are heated through, about 2 minutes. Turn the heat off. Add a drizzle of toasted sesame oil and garnish with the scallion greens. Enjoy!
_________________________________

This was my first time making a recipe with tofu in it, and my parents and I were very pleased how it turned out. I've made it once more since then, and I'll probably make it again this coming weekend.

>140 kidzdoc: I agree with Kay about you deserving this time off! Have fun! And, as always, I'm impressed by your reading plans!

>149 rebeccanyc: Thanks, Rebecca. Unfortunately my travel plans for next month will definitely be altered, and possibly scrapped altogether. I developed atrial fibrillation last night, which I also had in 2008, and I was admitted to the hospital that I usually go to just past midnight today. Fortunately I'm now back to having a normal sinus rhythm, but I'm still on a heparin drip and will spend a second night in the hospital. Hopefully I'll be discharged on Sunday, but I'll almost certainly have to cancel my plans to visit Barcelona. Hopefully I can still visit London, Edinburgh and Amsterdam next month.

So sorry about the loss of Barcelona. I know you were looking forward to it. But your health is the most important issue.

I have attended several productions of plays at the Alabama Shakespeare Festival. The facility is outstanding and the productions that I have seen were well done. Ticket prices are very reasonable. They have a permanent company and seem to be well funded so have a variety of plays done there every year. Montgomery is an easy drive from Atlanta so if you can get down for a play it would be worth it.

The amateur production of All's Well That Ends Well was very nice. It was threatening to rain so the usual outdoor production was moved inside and the theater was freezing. The group did a good job. The two comic leads were very good. They played their parts exactly right and had the comic timing down pat. This is the 13th year this group has been doing these minimalist productions and they are so much fun to attend. I have thought of volunteering with this group but don't know in what capacity they could use me. I have sen costumes for theater and done props but since these productions are done with minimal costuming and props I am not sure what I would do. But it is a group I would like tok support as I think that grassroots theater is so important.

>151 janeajones: Thanks, Jane. You're absolutely right; my health far outweighs any travel plans. If all goes well I can still make it to Barcelona in October.

I'm doing well today, as I'm still in normal sinus rhythm, although my BP has increased significantly from last night. I may be able to go home today if I can get a stress test today. It's Sunday, though, so I may have to wait until tomorrow to have that done.

>152 benitastrnad: I've heard good things about the Alabama Shakespeare Festival. I'll see what's on there for the remainder of the year, and let you know if and when I would be able to go.

I'm glad that the local performance of All's Well That Ends Well was a good one.

Sorry to hear about your health problem, and glad you are doing better.

>150 kidzdoc: Oh no! I am sorry to hear that you are unwell enough to postpone some of your travel plans. I hope you continue to improve and are back home tomorrow and in Europe next month.

Darryl - please take care and get well soon. We're all looking forward to seeing you over here on this side of the pond, but London, Edinburgh, Amsterdam, etc will still be here if you have to postpone your plans.

Speedy recovery, Darryl. I've been looking forward to your travelogue. Your health definitely outweighs the trip, and hopefully the delay will not be long.

>154 rebeccanyc: Thanks, Rebecca.

>155 ELiz_M: Thanks, Liz. I just met with the cardiologist, and I will get an exercise stress echocardiogram later this morning. If it looks good then I'll be discharged home this afternoon.

>156 Polaris-: The cardiologist said that it would be okay for me to travel, assuming that the stress echo doesn't show anything worrisome. I'll let you and the others know how this plays out.

>157 NanaCC: Thanks, Colleen!

So sorry to hear about your medical problems and canceled travel plans - that sounds really stressful! Glad to hear there's been some improvement, and I hope you continue to improve.

Get well soon doc.

>159 DieFledermaus:, >160 baswood: Thanks, Stephanie and Barry. I was discharged from the hospital last night, and I'll see the cardiologist in his clinic on Wednesday. I changed my travel plans this morning; I'll fly from Atlanta to London on June 9/10, and keep my plans for London, Edinburgh, Amsterdam and Utrecht intact.

So sorry to hear you had to be in the hospital, even if it was a short stay. Glad you're only losing one destination at least.

>162 mabith: Thanks, Meredith. I'm planning to return to Spain in autumn, and if I go I'll visit Barcelona then.

Glad your stay in the hospital was brief and that you're able to salvage some of your travel plans.

Book #29: The Time of the Doves by Mercè Rodoreda, translated from the Catalan by David H. Rosenthal

(Original title: La Plaça del Diamant; alternate title: In Diamond Square)



My rating:

This novel is widely considered to be one of the greatest works of Catalan literature, and an evocative portrait of life in Barcelona during and after the Spanish Civil War. It is set almost entirely in the city's Gràcia neighborhood and is narrated by Natalia, a simple and attractive young woman who works in a small shop there. She lives from day to day, with little concern of her future or the larger world outside of Gràcia, as she is largely unaware of the political turmoil and imminent danger facing the citizens of Barcelona and Catalonia as those loyal to the government and nationalists led by Francisco Franco begin to take sides against each other.

Natalia meets Quimet, a spirited young carpenter, on La Plaça del Diamant, who doggedly pursues and ultimately weds her. The marriage is a not completely blissful one for Natalia, as Quimet is a paternalistic, dismissive and unaffectionate husband, although he is apparently loyal to her and loves the two children she gives them. Quimet insists that raising doves will be their ticket out of poverty, and he builds a dovecote on the top of their apartment to the chagrin of Natalia, as the doves' home comes as the expense of her private work space. She tolerates this intrusion with resentment, which is followed by a surprising act of silent protest.

Quimet joins the Nationalists as war breaks out, and Natalia is left to fend for herself and her children. As the stress of poverty and the uncertainty of Quimet's fate haunts her, she realizes that no one will come to her aid in the besieged city where everyone is struggling to find enough food to eat. At her most desperate moment she is rescued by a kindly older man who takes her and her children under his wing. She is driven nearly to madness, but the experience emboldens and matures her, yet it is one that scars and continues to disturb her for the remainder of the story.

The Time of the Doves is largely narrated by Natalia, in a breathless manner of a woman who is overwhelmed by life, yet manages to overcome obstacles and survive tragedy. Hers is a sad and tragic story, but through it Rodoreda permits the reader a look at the lives of ordinary citizens helplessly caught up in political events, war and its aftermath. I found the first half of the book mildly interesting at best, but the second half was a much more compelling read, as Natalia's personal misfortunes threaten her sanity and the lives of her children. I was sorry to see this novel come to an end, and I will likely get to it again soon, as I suspect that it will be considerably more rewarding on a second reading.

>164 rebeccanyc: Thanks, Rebecca. I have a couple of appointments this week, and if all goes well I'll leave for London next Tuesday.

Glad to hear you are feeling better and still able to travel. I'm especially looking forward to reading about your London trip. Isn't it a blessing that reading is not detrimental to health?

>167 VivienneR: Thanks, Vivienne. I'll have a CT angiogram of the chest tomorrow afternoon and see the cardiologist I saw in the hospital on Friday. If he gives me a clean bill of health then I'll leave for London next Tuesday.

Yes, reading is not detrimental to health, as long as I continue to eat right and exercise!

Glad reading is not unhealthy.

>165 kidzdoc: this was a nice lesson on Barcelona and Catalan literature. Enjoyed your review.

>169 dchaikin: Thanks, Dan!

Darryl, is that only 29 books for the year, you are going to have to increase your pace a little to get to 75. Excellent review of The time of the Doves.

Congratulations to Ali Smith, whose novel How to Be Both was awarded this year's Bailey's Women's Prize for Fiction earlier this evening. I bought it last year after it made the Booker Prize longlist (and shortlist), and I'll read it in July or August.

>171 baswood: Right, Barry. It's been a slow start to the year, but I'll be off from work for the entire month of June, and I'll be off more than I'll be working from July through October, so my reading output should pick up significantly.

I'm glad that you liked my review of The Time of the Doves.

Since I got out of class on May 1, I have been burning through the books. I think I have read and listened to 6 books this last month. That high of a number is unusual for me.

>140 kidzdoc: Catching up on your thread after a while, and your June reading list sounds very interesting. I'm looking forward to your comments on The Ministry of Pain in particular. Loved your review of The Time of Doves, it sounds intriguing.

>173 benitastrnad: Well done, Benita! I hope to read 12-15 books in June, if not more.

>174 reva8: Thanks, Reva. I'll probably read The Ministry of Pain while I'm in Amsterdam at the end of this month.

I'm glad that you liked my review of The Time of the Doves. If you decide to read it, you'll probably find it listed as In Diamond Square, which is the UK title.

>165 kidzdoc: I too enjoyed your review of The Time of the Doves.

>175 kidzdoc: I had mixed feelings about The Ministry of Pain so I'll be interested in your thoughts also.

>176 rebeccanyc: Thanks, Rebecca.

I just read (and thumbed) your excellent review of The Ministry of Pain. I'll let you know what I think of it.

BTW, my CT angiogram of the chest was completely normal, with normal coronary arteries and no radiographic evidence of coronary artery disease. I'll see the cardiologist later this afternoon, and I assume that nothing will change my ability to fly to London on Tuesday.

That's good news! Enjoy your trip.

>178 RidgewayGirl: Thanks, Kay. I'll switch to a stronger medication tomorrow morning, as my BPs are improved but still high, and thankfully I'll still be able to fly to London on Tuesday.

Great news, Darryl. Now you just need to relax and enjoy your trip.

Enjoyed your review of The Time of the Doves Darryl, and am very glad to hear your trip goes ahead. I just realised I had added Rodoreda's book to the wishlist in June 2013, but had forgotten. Can't remember where I heard about it...the wonders of LT!

>180 NanaCC: Right, Colleen. I have plenty of time to prepare for my trip, as I don't leave Atlanta until Tuesday night. It will be a busy but fun filled trip, as I'll meet up with LibraryThing friends every day that I'm in London, and for most of the days that I'll be in Amsterdam.

>181 Polaris-: I'm glad that you liked my review of The Time of the Doves, Paul. I have two of her other books on my Kindle, Death in Spring and The Selected Stories of Mercè Rodoreda, and I plan to read at least one of them later this month.

Book #30: Edinburgh: A Cultural History by Donald Campbell



My rating:

This book is part of the Cities of the Imagination Series, which explores the cultural and literary history of some the world's great cities, including Buenos Aires, Calcutta, Madrid, Rome and San Francisco. The author is a well known poet and playwright who was born in Edinburgh, and he shares his knowledge and love of the city in creating this excellent book, which serves as a guide for the first time traveler, and a detailed exploration of the city's history, its neighborhoods, most prominent buildings and major figures, and a guide to further reading about the Scottish capital. With the use of a map this book allowed me to get a good feel for Edinburgh in advance of my visit there in a few days, and I'll bring it with me and refer to it while I'm there.

Book #31: Rick Steves' Pocket Amsterdam by Rick Steves and Gene Openshaw



My rating:

This is an excellent shorter version of Steves' book on Amsterdam, which is packed with practical information about the city, walking tours and maps, descriptions and photographs of the major neighborhoods and museums, and guides on where to stay and to eat. I was mildly annoyed at his somewhat condescending and heavy handed view of the city's Red Light District and the legal marijuana shops, and I felt as if I was a potentially wayward teenager getting advice from a church elder. Ignoring that, this is an excellent guide book to the Amsterdam, and I'll refer to it heavily when I go there.

#183
This series sounds somewhat like the National Geographic Society series about cities and places that I read. The series title is National Geographic Directions. I have read several of them. They are written by a famous or well known citizen, or expatriate, of the area. I seldom get to travel overseas and these books are a way to feel like I am "in the know" and get the feeling of being there.

#184
I read someplace that Steve's was criticized by some people who use his guide books that he was not explicit enough about the "Red Light" areas common in Europe. I watched one of his older TV programs about Amsterdam and thought his treatment of the coffee shops was well done. He went to one and talked to the owner about the different kinds of marijuana that were for sale and what a person got when they ordered one. He did not smoke it but I am sure that he inhaled while in the coffee shop! This was all pre Colorado and Washington legalizing the use of MJ. He is based in Seattle so I am sure he has made his peace with the new laws.

I also remember reading somewhere that he had to make sure that it was very clear that his favorite spa in Baden-Baden, Budapest, and some other European countries was nude. It is amazing how many people don't understand that. At UA our Europeans are surprised to learn that our steam rooms require clothes and the students are surprised to learn that in Europe that don't. My former boss was born in Iceland and she would blithely enter the steam room and strip off her swimsuit to the horror of many in the room with us. She thought they were all prudes - even if they were under 21 and thought that she was old and therefore conservative.

I read his book about travel and why more American's should do it and found it thoughtful and thought provoking.

I bought Madrid: A Cultural History last year, probably from Idlewild Books in NYC, Benita. When I saw that there was a book in the series about Edinburgh I ordered it last month, so that I could read it in advance of my trip there later this month.

I enjoyed Rick Steves' Pocket Amsterdam overall, would highly recommend it, and I'll definitely look for more of his books and audio/video guides when I visit other European cities. I took away ½ star from my rating because of his comments about the Red Light District and the marijuana shops, though. I certainly don't plan to frequent sex shops or purchase cannabis while I'm in Amsterdam, but I would have appreciated a less judgmental approach. I found it ironic that he routinely encourages visitors from the US to be open minded when they travel through Europe, yet was mildly but repeatedly condemnatory of the sex trade and cannabis use, which of course are legal there. This is a minor criticism of the book, and overall it is a very well written and useful compact guide to the city.

I made a new recipe for lunch, a modified version of African Peanut Stew from the Budget Bytes web site.



Here is Beth's original recipe:

Ingredients:

1 Tbsp vegetable oil $0.02
4 cloves garlic $0.32
1 inch fresh ginger $0.15
1 medium (1 lb.) sweet potato $1.32
1 medium onion $0.42
1 tsp cumin $0.10
¼ tsp crushed red pepper $0.02
1 (6oz.) can tomato paste $0.59
½ cup natural style chunky peanut butter $0.93
6 cups vegetable broth $0.81
½ bunch (2-3 cups chopped) collard greens $0.75
¼ bunch cilantro, garnish (optional) $0.21

Instructions:

Peel and grate the ginger using a small holed cheese grater. Mince the garlic. Sauté the ginger and garlic in vegetable oil over medium heat for 1-2 minutes, or until the garlic becomes soft and fragrant.

Dice the onion, add it to the pot, and continue to sauté.

Dice the sweet potato (1/2 inch cubes), add it to the pot, and continue to sauté a few minutes more, or until the onion is soft and the sweet potato takes on a darker, slightly translucent appearance. Season with cumin and red pepper flakes.

Add the tomato paste and peanut butter, and stir until everything is evenly mixed. Add the vegetable broth and stir to dissolve the thick tomato paste-peanut butter mixture. Place a lid on the pot and turn the heat up to high.

While the soup is coming up to a boil, prepare the collard greens. Rinse the greens well, then use a sharp knife to remove each stem (cut along the side of each stem). Stack the leaves, then cut them into thin strips. Add the collard strips to the soup pot.

Once the soup reaches a boil, turn the heat down to low and allow it to simmer without a lid for about 15 minutes, or until the sweet potatoes are very soft. Once soft, smash about half of the sweet potatoes with the back of a wooden spoon to help thicken the soup. Taste the soup and add salt if needed (will depend on the brand of broth used).

Serve the stew hot with a few cilantro leaves if desired.

Notes:

Mustard greens or lacinato kale can be used in place of the collard greens.

You can eat this stew on its own, or add a scoop of rice (I used brown jasmine rice) for more texture and filling power. I added peanuts as a garnish in the photo so that people would know what they are looking at, but they’re not necessary for the soup. I used chunky peanut butter and that provides all the peanut flavor and texture you’ll need.
___________________________

I used kale instead of collard greens and twice the amount of red pepper flakes, substituted a large Vidalia onion for a medium yellow onion, and added jasmine rice and cashew halves to the stew when it was finished (as I forgot to buy peanuts when I went to Publix this morning). This was a very tasty and filling one course meal, and I'll add this to my list of favorite recipes.

On Friday I cooked a "low fat" version of Penne Pasta With Bacon And Cream for lunch, as I wanted to use up the leftover bacon, mushrooms, half & half and Parmesan cheese I had in my refrigerator.



The recipe originally came from Southern Living magazine:

INGREDIENTS:

15 bacon slices
1 (8oz) package sliced fresh mushrooms
2 garlic cloves, minced
16 oz penne pasta, cooked
1 cup freshly grated parmesan cheese
2 cups whipping cream
1/2 tsp pepper

DIRECTIONS:

Cook bacon in a large skillet over medium heat until crisp; remove bacon, reserving 2 tablespoons drippings in skillet.

Coarsely crumble bacon.

Saute sliced mushrooms and garlic in reserved drippings 3-5 minutes or until tender.

Stir in pasta and next 3 ingredients; simmer over medium-low heat, stirring often, until sauce is thickened.

Stir in bacon and green onions. Serve hot.
____________________________

My version is a "low fat" one, as I only used six strips of bacon instead of 15(!) and I substituted half & half for heavy whipping cream. It tasted great, but I don't think I'll make this too often.

>185 benitastrnad: & >186 kidzdoc:
I'm really puzzled by your comments on Rick Steves and drugs. In his book Travel as a Political Act in the intro to Chapter 7, "Europe: Not "Hard on Drugs" or "Soft on Drugs" ... but Smart on Drugs" he says

"Because of my travels, I find myself one of the most high-profile people in the country advocating the reform of our nation's marijuana laws. I've produced a TV show on the topic with the ACLU, and have been a board member of NORML, the National Organization for the Reform of Marijuana Laws, since 2003. But I am certainly not "pro-drugs." I simply appreciate how most of Europe treats its drug problems in a pragmatic way, with success measured by harm reduction rather than incarceration. ...... I speak out on this issue, in part, because most Americans cannot--out of fear of losing their job or reputation or both. Of the countless good causes I could get involved in, drug policy reform is a high-risk choice . . . "

One thing that Steves is really against is travellers showing up in a country and acting like buffoons. Is it possible that what he's getting at is "don't go acting like an idiot just because it's legal" ?

#189

I think that is exactly it.

I read that book by Steve's and loaned it to somebody. Never got it back.

As I recall Steve's also encourages American's to travel to Iran. I know he has done several shows on traveling there.

>187 kidzdoc: I'm trying hard to imagine collard greens and peanut butter together. I'd love to try it, but my wife would never go for it.

>189 Nickelini:, >190 benitastrnad: These are some of the comments in Rick Steves' Pocket Amsterdam about the Red Light District that rubbed me the wrong way:

And although I encourage people to expand their horizons, it's perfectly OK to say, "No, thank you."

Really? I don't have to respond to a prostitute's solicitations or try cannabis at a coffeeshop? Thanks, Rick!

On our walk, we'll see history, sleaze, and cheese

*shudder*

Congratulations. You've survived. Now, go back to your hotel and take a shower.

Thank you, Pastor Rick. I'll do just that.

I'll say again that these are very minor criticisms of what I thought was an excellent travel guide.

One thing that Steves is really against is travellers showing up in a country and acting like buffoons. Is it possible that what he's getting at is "don't go acting like an idiot just because it's legal" ?

That's very possible, Joyce. I still felt as if I was being talked down to by a Lutheran preacher.

>191 StevenTX: I used kale, but I think collard greens would taste just as good. Maybe you could try the recipe, if it appeals to you, and see if your wife likes it? If not, more stew for you!

>192 kidzdoc: Yeah, that would rub me the wrong way too - sleaze and having to take a shower afterwards? I visited Amsterdam with my daughter (19 at the time) and we walked through the red light district. *shrug* We figured we might as well check it out. No showers were required. (I mean, honestly, it was a weekday afternoon and most of the women were texting or flipping through magazines and looked bored out of their minds.)

>193 ursula: I can believe that, Ursula. I would imagine that the Red Light District has a different feel at night. If I visit the neighborhood I'll go during the day as well, but that district is at the bottom of my priority list.

While I can understand being annoyed by Rick Steves's comments about the Red Light District, I'd probably chalk it up to his dorky sense of humor rather than condescension. As you said, Darryl, overall his travel books are really helpful.

I think you're right, Jennifer. Reading those comments a second time made them seem more playfully humorous and less condescending than they did the first time.

Yeah, those are not his best moments, but I'd put them down to his dorkiness, as Jennifer suggested. I wonder what type of feedback he's had in the past that prompted him to make those comments in the first place.

I haven't been to Amsterdam since 1992, but we were warned to stay out of the Red Light District at night --and ignored it. It was very touristy and there was a large group of sightseers and their tour guide from Japan walking through. We laughed and left.

Those statements by Rick Steves were dorky, awkward and off-putting, but the vast majority of the book is free of similar comments.

I see very little reason for me to visit the Red Light District, and since there are plenty of other places I'd like to visit in and outside of Amsterdam I probably won't go there. I made dinner for two friends of mine last night, who travel far more widely than I do, and neither of them liked going to that district.

>198 kidzdoc: Amsterdam is confined to a small area (at least it was in '92), so our 20 min (max) in the Red Light District wasn't much of an effort. From what I remember, I wouldn't cross the street to go there other than to say I'd been, but on the other hand, to get there pretty much all you have to do is cross the street. As I see it, it's sort of nothing and not even worth the effort we've put into typing this conversation! ;-)

>199 Nickelini: Good points, Joyce. I'm staying in Dam Square, at the Grand Hotel Krasnapolsky, which looks to be literally across the street from the Red Light District, as you mentioned. If it only takes 20 minutes to walk through it then I can easily fit that into my plans.

I agree; we've beaten this topic to death. Onward!

At 200 unread posts, it was definitely time to catch up on your thread. Love the author profiles from the Iberian peninsula. I'm looking forward to your Edinburgh experience. It's one of my favourite cities, often underrated.

>129 baswood: I briefly lived in Paisley, across from a Celtics pub. The next block had the Rangers' pub. Relations between the two were pretty cordial, but trains, or the roads to the train station on game day were a completely different matter. Then there was the St Mirren's stadium a brief walk away. I never could quite keep track of their fortunes/ misfortunes.

>201 SassyLassy: Hi, Sassy! I leave for London tonight, and I'll travel to Edinburgh by train on Monday, returning to London that Thursday.

Have fun, and safe travels.

Glad to hear you had a clean bill of health and enjoy your trip!

>189 Nickelini: - Yup, Rick Steves is well-known around here for being pro-pot even before the legalization. I think he made appearances at Seattle Hempfest before the bill passed.

I'm wondering if his comments about sex work/pot were trying to be snappy + addressing what he thought would be common American attitudes towards those things (everything from "Prostitutes! The horror! The horror!" to "OMG, Red Light district....must go and gape!").

Darryl, when I saw this on Facebook I thought of you.

http://www.economist.com/blogs/gulliver/2015/06/tourism-barcelona?fsrc=scn/fb/wl...

Have a trip!

Robert

>203 rebeccanyc: Thanks, Rebecca.

>204 DieFledermaus: Thanks, Stephanie!

You may be right about Rick Steves' comments. I definitely think he was trying to be funny, especially on a second reading of the book, but his comments, at least to me, fell flat.

>205 Mr.Durick: Damned tourists!

#204
I agree that Steves' is often a dork. He even pokes fun of his own ways of doing things in the clips at the end of his TV show. However, I like his travel show better than Burt Wolf.

>207 benitastrnad: Who is Burt Wolf?

Another public television travel guy--watch a few minutes of one of these, and you'll get the idea:

http://www.burtwolf.com/watch-current-programs/

>209 kac522: I see what you and Benita mean. I nearly fell back to sleep while watching the first part of his Amsterdam to Cologne segment.

I'm back in my hotel room after I had lunch with Rachael (@FlossieT), who some of you may know, at the London Review Cake Shop, the small but lovely café within the splendid London Review Bookshop. It's on Bury Place in Bloomsbury, within eyesight of the British Museum and a short walk away from the offices of the London Review of Books, where she works. We each had the quiche and salad special, which was a bargain at £6.25 each with her employee discount:



Unfortunately I probably won't get to see her at any other time during this trip, so we were both glad that we could catch up, although we would have liked to have more time to chat.

While I was waiting for Rachael I bought seven books:

Ring Roads by Patrick Modiano: This is a novella by last year's winner of the Nobel Prize for Literature, set in Paris during the Occupation by the Nazis, in which a Jewish man looks for the father who abandoned him a decade before, and finds him living a dangerous and unsavory life amongst the enemy.

No Word from Gurb by Eduardo Mendoza: "A shape shifting alien named Gurb has assumed the form of Madonna and disappeared in Barcelona's backstreets. His commanding officer and best friend has set off in pursuit, scrupulously recording his observations of human life in the city while munching his way through vast quantities of churros." How could I pass that book up?

Rituals by Cees Nooteboom: A philosophical novel set in Amsterdam narrated by a man who failed in his attempt to commit suicide, and uses the gift of life he has received to observe and explore the lives of some people who surround him.

Faces in the Crowd by Valeria Luiselli: An inventive novella about a young woman living in Mexico City, who is obsessed with an obscure poet from the Harlem Renaissance and begins to write a novel about him. In the process of writing her book her life and the one of the late poet converge and merge into a joint existence in NYC.

Scars by Juan José Saer: A modern classic of Latin American literature, which explores a crime committed by an Argentinian laborer, and the circumstances of the laborer and three other people who have some connection to this act of violence.

A God in Ruins by Kate Atkinson (no introduction needed)

Flood of Fire by Amitav Ghosh: The long awaited final novel in the Ibis Trilogy, which is set in 1839 at the start of the First Opium War between Britain and China, as a ship sails from Bengal to China, where the conflict between the two nations is underway.

While I was waiting for Rachael I bought seven books

I have nothing to add. I just really like that sentence.

Me too.

Me three!

(Had to be done! It's a quintessential kidzdoc sentence!)

I had a splendid and very full day with two LT friends yesterday. Paul from Club Read and I met in Golders Green, a traditionally but not entirely Jewish residential neighborhood in North London. From the Golders Green Underground station on the Northern Line we walked on Finchley Road and visited Café Also and the affiliated Joseph's Bookstore next door. They are owned by Michael Joseph, a Polish-born Jewish lawyer, and Ali Al-Sersy, an Egyptian chef who runs the café. The vegetarian café is filled with books, and it is connected to the bookstore by a small set of doors.

We had breakfast in the inviting and comfortable café, which was served to us by an attractive and very friendly woman. Paul recommended shakshouka, a Tunisian dish that is also popular in Israel, which consisting of "eggs poached in a sauce of tomatoes, chili peppers, and onions, often spiced with cumin." It is "traditionally served in a cast iron pan or tajine with bread to mop up the sauce." I hadn't heard of it before but it sounded good, and I wasn't disappointed.



We both had freshly made juice with the shakshouka; Paul had a mixture of oranges and carrots, and I had pomegranate and beetroot, which tasted as good as it looked:



After breakfast we crossed over to Joseph's Bookstore. Paul said that it's his favorite bookshop in London, and I could see why. It had a very nice selection of new and secondhand books, and within half an hour I came away with seven books:

The Assassination of Margaret Thatcher by Hilary Mantel: Her latest book, a collection of short stories about the former Prime Minister and other topics that has received good reviews.

The Trial by Franz Kafka: I purchased this because I wanted to reread it before Fliss and I see the play on the 23rd at The Young Vic; Rory Kinnear will appear as Josef K.

Dearest Father by Franz Kafka: This is an open letter to his father, which was never sent to him, in which Kafka discusses his troubled soul and his obsessions while indicting his father for his lack of empathy toward his extremely sensitive son.

Panther in the Basement by Amos Oz: A short novel about a 12 year old boy living in Jerusalem in 1947, who dreams of being an underground fighter in the active Israeli campaign against British soldiers in Palestine.

The English by Jeremy Paxman: This is supposedly "an insightful portrait of what makes the English quite so, well...English. It asks such questions as: why do the English enjoy feeling persecuted? What is behind their obsession with games? Where did the funny attitudes to sex and food come from? And how does hypocrisy comes so naturally?"

The End of Days by Jenny Erpenbeck: The winner of this year's Independent Foreign Fiction Prize, which is a novel about the 20th century as seen through the various lives of one woman. As mentioned earlier, it has been compared to Kate Atkinson's Life After Life, but this novel was published in Germany before that novel came out.

Youth by J.M. Coetzee: This was a surprise find, as I had been looking for this book for a few years. It's a semi-autobiographical novel about a young South African man in the 1950s who seeks to escape his native country, and moves to London in the early 1960s to experience life to its fullest intensity, but finds boredom and experiences a series of failed relationships instead.

After our visit to the bookstore we visited the Wellcome Collection, a museum about medicine run by the Wellcome Trust located on Euston Road close to Euston Station and Univeresity College Hospital. We saw the exhibition Forensics: The Anatomy of a Crime, which was a superb examination of the history of forensic medicine. For good reason no photography was allowed in that exhibition. We were there for nearly two hours, and we both enjoyed it. It's a free exhibition, but it's only on until next Sunday.

The Wellcome Collection has a small branch of Blackwell's within it, and I bought the three books shortlisted for the Wellcome Book Prize that aren't available in the US:

Bodies of Light by Sarah Moss
The Incredible Unlikeliness of Being: Evolution and the Making of Us by Alice Roberts
The Iceberg: A Memoir by Marion Coutts

After we left the Wellcome Collection we took the Underground to Whitechapel Station, and walked through the heart of London's diverse East End, which used to be a largely Jewish community but has now become the home of a sizable segment of the city's Muslim population. We walked the length of Brick Lane, made famous by Monica Ali's novel of the same name, and stopped at Beigel Bake for salt beef beigels (bagels):



As Paul said, they couldn't have fit any more salt beef into our beigels!

Paul and I parted ways on a westbound District Line Underground train. I went back to my hotel, and after a quick shower and change of clothes I was back on the Underground, as Fliss (@flissp) from the 75 Books group and I had tickets to see the evening performance of "The Motherf**ker with the Hat" at the National Theatre. It was raucous, vulgar, quite funny, and enjoyable, but it wasn't profound, although the actors in it were very good. I'll write a review of it later this weekend, as I'm getting sleepy again.

I'll have an easy day today, and tomorrow a group of six of us will meet in Saffron Walden, about 40 miles north of London, for a Sunday roast and a day in the country.

>212 RidgewayGirl:, >213 rebeccanyc:, >214 Polaris-: Ha! That was a very typical lunch date with Rachael: I go to the London Review Bookshop a few minutes before we're supposed to meet, buy a few books in a very short period of time, and get praised and/or fussed at by Rachael for these purchases (she called me "incorrigible" last year).

Now you're making me drool with that shakshouka. Great selections of books.

Oh, now I have to find that café in Golders Green! Those eggs look so good!

Sounds like the trip is really fun so far! Looking forward to your theater reviews.

The book list is pretty impressive. I have Visitation on the pile, so will have to check out The End of Days. Also, I agree that

"A shape shifting alien named Gurb has assumed the form of Madonna and disappeared in Barcelona's backstreets. His commanding officer and best friend has set off in pursuit, scrupulously recording his observations of human life in the city while munching his way through vast quantities of churros."

sounds tempting.

Hope you had a great trip and that the reading is going well!

Apologies for letting this thread lapse over the past month! I had a great vacation in June, with stays in London, Edinburgh and Amsterdam, and day trips to Saffron Walden, Thaxted, Winchester (UK), Utrecht (Netherlands) and Cologne (Germany), followed by a moderately busy work month in July. I finished my last work day of the month yesterday and I'm off for the next four days, so I'll create a new thread this afternoon, after my appointment with my internist, and catch up with everyone else's threads later this week.

>218 dchaikin: The shakshouka was very tasty, and I look forward to returning to Café Also and Joseph's Bookshop when I visit London in September.

>219 Sakerfalcon: Café Also was easy to get to, Claire, and Joe & Debbi Welch, who will be in London at almost exactly the same time as I (Sep 10-25/26), want to go there, too, so maybe we can get a group to go; hopefully Paul can join us as well. I met Paul at the Golders Green station on the Norhern Line, and from there we walked for about a mile north on Finchley Road until we reached the café, which is on the left of Finchley Road in the direction of travel.

>220 DieFledermaus:, >221 DieFledermaus: Thanks, Stephanie! I'll have to write reviews of the plays I saw; I haven't done that yet. If I don't get to it this week I'll do so next month, as I'll be off from work for four weeks starting on August 7th. I saw four plays: The Motherf**ker with the Hat and Everyman at the National Theatre, Oresteia at the Almeida Theatre, and The Trial at The Young Vic. I'll also post my book purchases, and selected photos from my trips and meet ups with LTers.

No Word from Gurb was a fun read. I gave my copy to Claire before I wrote a review, but I think I can summarize it adequately without the book.