I am about two-thirds through this book and it's another good one. It continues in the line of my interest in the monarchs of England in the age of absolute monarchs (although Queen Victoria's reign drops out of that quickly as Britain becomes a constitutional monarchy).
The first half of the book delves into the life and tragic death of Princess Charlotte, who everyone looked forward to having as their future queen. Unfortunately for them and for Charlotte, she dies before this can happen. There is all the usual family scandal you'd expect to find in a royal family, twisted around with fascinating characters, people struggling for their own grasp at power, royal butt kissing, playing your cards right and a peek at the lifestyles within the era.
We are then introduced to Victoria and her uber-controlling spaz mother whose main goal in life is to manipulate her child into thinking she is a pathetic dope who is so incredibly lucky to have her as a mother so that she may guide her (read: be her regent and rule the country through her) and lead her into whither she ought go. Victoria has to distance herself from her crae crae uncles who everyone hates since they are out of touch loonies in order to be seen as a welcomed and viable option for next sovereign. The irony and stick of it is that the hour she becomes queen, Victoria decides that her mother is bye-bye now, moves her room out of her mother's (yes, she was that controlling - she even told her to write a diary of the thoughts and events of the day so that she could read through it at night, nice, baby, nice) and her first command as queen is to spend one hour alone.
The story fascinates from there, contains her thoughts as she had recorded them and her search for her prince, and I'm guessing their married life and (9!) children (I can't say for sure, I'm not done with the book yet). If you like biographies and you like reading about monarchs and crazy court life, this one will keep your attention.
I know that I generally have a favorable opinion regarding many of the books I read. (I mean, hey, it's a book. Most of them have something of worth to extract.) As a result, you are probably thinking that I am just going to say good things about everything and yada yada yada.
But this book, dearies, this book is one you MUST get and read from cover to cover. MUST. This is not one that I am just haphazardly suggesting you read, this one I am telling you to go get - you won't regret it. It is brilliant and worthy of your time.
Michael Pollan is the famous author of The Omnivore's Dilemma. If you're into reading about food, it is likely you've read that book. It is thought provoking, as his work generally is. This book, if I must say, is even better.
Mr. Pollan sections the world of cooking into the classical elements: fire, water, air and earth, and explores their influence in the realm of cooking.
Fire, as you may guess, is the manly act of grilling (mainly a manly task - he tackles why through history). He goes deep south to explain to (especially us) northerners what the real definition of barbecue is (and according to his research and those he's apprenticed under - it is NOT a verb). He brings you into the lives of the grill masters, their pit crew and their beginnings, and somehow makes you want to tackle roasting a whole hog in your yard (even if you keep kosher).
Water is his exploration into what we generally think of as homemade, from scratch, fancy cooking. If you've read David Tanis - that kind of cooking. He makes you want to linger over a pot of onions, slowly releasing sweetness over the course of 45 minutes, not being quick about any of it - but reminding you of being purposeful and taking it easy. I would say in one way, it is carefully and artfully making every single bit of the meal perfect. Not skimping and grabbing Pillsbury pre-made dough, rather making your own. Not using anything that came from a box or a bag (unless your veggies and fruits and herbs come in a bag, I mean). It is the satisfying taste of braised meat in a stew or a homemade spaghetti sauce that you took the whole day (on purpose) to make from scratch. The section on air is the world of baking. When you are not even halfway through the section, you may find yourself figuring out how you too can get yourself into making a sourdough starter, tossing that granulated store-bought yeast by the wayside. The feel of the bread, the quest for baking perfection - using white flour vs. using stone milled whole wheat (and he explains just what qualifies as "whole wheat" here in these United States...I bet you can guess...it doesn't mean a whole wheat berry ground up, sorry for the spoiler...), who bakes, how they do it, and his experimentation with it all. Then comes the section I was most excited about. Earth. What on earth is earth in cooking, you say? Oh my dears, it's fermentation, of course! Without this section there would be no yogurt, kombucha, kimchi, sauerkraut, beer, mead, cheese and on and on. You know - the things your modern mind tells you that you couldn't POSSIBLY make yourself. He throws that idea in the garbage as he meets and mingles with Sandor Katz, the guru of fermentation (and author of Wild Fermentation, ever heard of it?). He makes beer in his basement. He hangs out with a nun who makes cheese and spanks the FDA with her wooden paddle (okay, not literally, but if you read it you know what I mean). He peeks at the philosophy of the grossies and our fascination with it. He goes to a convention for fermentos who ask Sandor Katz for his autograph. Even though you hate sauerkraut, you kind of want to make it anyway, just to see. If you have any interest in food or in cooking whatsoever, you will want to pick this book up. If you want to see how far we have come as a society in our definition of what cooking actually means, go get this book. If you want to be inspired toward perfection in your kitchen, look no further. This is one of the best books I have read in several years. I rank this up there with the likes of Food is Your Best Medicine (Dr. Henry Bieler) and Nutrition and Physical Degeneration (Dr. Weston A. Price). Easy to read, spiked with humor, and overflowing with wonderful and interesting information and research - you are missing out if you miss this one. Keep on reading, Ms. Daisy
Yes, I suppose these two may be just a weensy bit unrelated (although you could argue that both of these people have made their mark on the world). Nevertheless, I think these are a pair of books you ought to get your hands on. As far as the Jamie's America goes, if you've ever read any of his cookbooks, you'll know that if it's from Jamie, it's going to be good. He sections off his recipes based on different areas of the U.S. of A. and writes in those themes. Jamie does food the real deal way. If you have any interest in food at all, you should check this out. (And the pictures and visual quality is eye-catching and equally delicious.) The next book, Anne Boleyn (by Norah Lofts) is a quick course through the life of one of the most mysterious, ambitious, and passionate queens in the world. I have read Alison Weir's work on Anne Boleyn and in comparison with Weir's work, the work of Lofts is less-detailed. This is not a bad thing, however, as Weir knows every detail about everything! She is the go-to for Anne, but Lofts walks you through her life in an interesting way. If you aren't too familiar with Queen Anne, Henry VIII's second queen, I'd recommend this to give you the quick and dirty deets. It's summer (or winter in the southern hemisphere), so READ! :) Ms. Daisy
I've been reading a bit here and there, picking through some books, reading chapters of some and then forgetting them.
In fact, this post was originally a draft for when I was reading the biography of Alexander the Great probably sometime in December, and has now been adopted to another book I'm tearing through. Seriously. I had never heard of this person before and was just wandering around the library shelves when the title stood out to me so much that I picked it up with a , "WHAT?" It's a bit of a shocking title. This one is called, The Nazi Officer's Wife: How One Jewish Woman Survived the Holocaust. Now, you will sometimes find a striking title and then the inside of the book will be nothing to write home about. It was a trick, a lure to pull you in and leave you unimpressed. I can assure you that this is not the case at all with this autobiography. I opened the book to the middle and read a page, flipped to the front and read another, and then I got sucked in. I was looking forward to starting it last night before bed. I opened to the first page and didn't look at the time or stop once until it was 12:45 a.m. and I was on page 145. This is the story of a Jewish girl in the time of the Holocaust. She has a boyfriend who is a combination of a genius, a wuss bucket, a mama's boy, and a fantastic manipulator. It walks with her through her adapting to someone else's name, and an entirely new identity. She walked out of her life of a university educated lawyer and sunk down to silencing herself to survive, pretending she was a non-opinioned, quiet mousey younger woman. She is sent off to work in asparagus fields, starving, cold and enslaved. Through providential circumstances, she is able to adopt her Aryan friend's identity and papers and moves away. She is terrified of everyone and everything, and the story weaves together the unlikely but fascinating story of how she met and married a Nazi officer. I'm 80 pages to the end and I can't put it down, but I had to get on here to tell you about it. If you want to get into the life of a fascinating person in frighteningly wild circumstances, hop over to your library and pick up a copy of this book. Or get it on Amazon, however you like to, but get it. This one is HIGHLY recommended. Peace, love and read! Ms. Daisy
The next book on the docket is Salt, Sugar, Fat: How the Food Giants Hooked Us by Michael Moss. This is a great book! I am very impressed with the amount of research that Michael Moss does on behalf of this book. He goes inside the depths of the industry to mine out the truth of what is behind the obesity epidemic that is flooding the United States and the world. It begins with the scene of a meeting where the heads of the largest processed food companies got together to discuss the obesity epidemic and how the blame was about to be laid at their feet. They walked away and decided that they weren't going to do anything about it, whether or not they would be blamed for causing everyone to become Fatty McGhee's. The book is split up into several sections - salt, sugar and fat. Moss goes through the industry leaving no stone unturned to find out what happened when and shows us that the industry cannot survive if they would be made to remove their cheap sugars, hydrogenated fats and synthetic salts. They would essentially collapse. It also follows the life of different and interesting people who were giants within the powerhouse companies (like General Mills, Post, Kellogg's, Pepsi-Co, Coca-Cola, etc.). One man was in the running to be the president of Coca-Cola when he found himself in the middle of a personal sea of upset because of his changing view on the product he was selling, promoting and representing. He began to have a heart change and realize that what he was doing was wrong and not the best thing for society and the world. He was one of the most powerful men of all of these companies and he got fired (by a man who was also in the running for president). He left that industry and started working on something he could believe in: selling baby carrots as snack foods. As you read this, if you grew up in America throughout the 50's, 60's, 70's, 80's or 90's, you will recognize and reflect on the marketing campaigns that were targeted at you and you will get to see their backstory. You will go behind the scenes to find out what was going on and why the chosen techniques were selected to be marketed at you. I remember the commercials for Frosted Lucky Charms (they're magically delicious!), Hi-C (and the big glass pitcher dancing around with children), Gushers, Jiff, Coke, Keebler products (with their little elves in the tree), Juicy Fruit, and "Yipes, stripes! Fruit Stripe Gum!" It was the world of sugar. You get to check out behind the scenes of the marketing arms of the companies who put out the chemicals and how they got away with it. It's quite a history and with this knowledge you are able to become a more aware consumer. I would absolutely recommend that you check it out and read it. You won't look at the processed food industry the same after you do. And it is written in a style that is easy to tear through - you won't be bored and you'll feel like you're getting insider information (because you are!). The video is an excerpt about how we got pushed into to eat a zillion jillion pounds of cheese each year. The narrator is Michael Moss. This gives you just a glimpse of some of his reporting and research.
Go get it! Check it out! Keep on reading, Ms. Daisy
Woah, long title. But the book is easy and interesting reading. Here's the deal. You know Genghis (that's actually his last name), don't you? He's the dude who started off in the steppes of Asia and took over local clans, then went for empires. He claimed more land than anyone thought possible. How did he do this? The book starts out by explaining his family and his history and then goes in to his thought on this subject. The guy was genius. Here's what he did. When he would conquer some land, he would leave his daughters or his wives (he had 4 at a time) there to rule it. Then he would take the leading men with him to fight and campaign. The bonus in this is that the women have their own power and do not generally seek to usurp more for themselves as they are inherently tied to Genghis himself (and thus intricately tied to the power anyway), which would be a danger in having headstrong and energetic men in charge. The daughters married tribe leaders so that there would be peace between groups and then those groups would be brought under the ruling power of Genghis. He would then take his new son-in-law (who had no ruling power of his own, he was known more as the prince consort) to battle with him. Won't the group left behind be more likely to adapt into his empire when their own prince's neck is on the line? He quite thought so, too. The women of the empire (his daughters) didn't sit around in fluffy robes and pick their noses all day. They were in charge, under their father, and at times also took up their bow and arrows to fight. They were not wussy little maidens. Their father charged them to be true to their three "husbands" - their reputation, the land they ruled and finally, the human man he wed them to. He said that they were intertwined and would all be mutually beneficial to them if they were faithful to all three. I look forward to hearing more about their secret history (apparently someone thought it was needed to cut out a section of the Mongol history - literally - within their records that spoke of women being in a place of power). Berry eenteresting, no? Ms. Daisy
This book was an overwhelming example of strong determination and perseverance. The women who trekked thousands of miles and cared for each other and the men were so strong and so devoted to their cause. I am glad to see that they were so devoted, but their extreme devotion ruined many aspects of their lives (and was horrific and disturbing at times). The women who got pregnant on the Long March were forced to leave their babies behind - some in empty huts, hoping a family would be back soon to help and be willing to adopt the child into their own life; some were left on the side of the road. This is the tragic side of devotion to a cause. Their own family and futures were drastically harmed as they saw the group as more important than their own life and children. Reading about the Long March did open up that unfamiliar aspect of thought, though. Western society thinks inherently more about the individual than the whole. Each person must fulfill their "own destiny", regardless of what that may come. The people who marched called one another "brother" and "sister" and thought of their own group as a family. This group-think can certainly get things done, but throws your individual life on the altar to the gods of the cause. (Which reminds me of the group-think lauded in books like 1984 and Brave New World , showing the loss of freedom and thought that such a lifestyle brings.) The physical difficulties are incomprehensible - up mountains in the snow with sandaled feet, shreds of clothing, as the wind and the snow rips through your skin and face. At the end of a long day enduring the tortures, stopping too soon or at the wrong place would leave you dead and frozen by morning. I cannot think of a more grueling physical and emotional experience than this, as these were experienced along side of all of the perils of war. If you're looking for a read that will take you to the extremes of human capability, this is a great book for you. It is beyond anything you can imagine. Keep on reading! Ms. Daisy
