CP LITERATURE DRAFT - (Rapid Fire Free For All Round)

[RougeUnderoos]

Food and Drink Category

The Food Lover's Companion



I'm not much for chefery, but I do like food and I do have this book and I look at it fairly often. Unfortunately, my skills dictate that if I have to look up something in this book it means that the recipe is too advanced for me. But it's still cool.

[Eastern Girl]

In Euro lit, I will take City, Sister, Silver by Jachym Topol.

[Bobblehead]

In World Lit, I choose One Thousand and One Nights(Arabian Nights)



http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Boo...and_One_Nights
http://www.amazon.ca/gp/product/0393...ref=sib_rdr_dp

The main frame story concerns a Persian king and his new bride. The king, Shahryar, upon discovering his former wife's infidelity has her executed and then declares all women to be unfaithful. He begins to marry a succession of virgins only to execute each one the next morning. Eventually the vizier cannot find any more virgins. Scheherazade, the vizier's daughter, offers herself as the next bride and her father reluctantly agrees. On the night of their marriage, Scheherazade begins to tell the king a tale, but does not end it. The king is thus forced to postpone her execution in order to hear the conclusion. The next night, as soon as she finishes the tale, she begins (and only begins) a new one, and the king, eager to hear the conclusion, postpones her execution once again. So it goes on for 1,001 nights.

[driveway]

In the category of Food and Drink, Team Discovery Channel is proud to select:


The Art of the Bar: Cocktails inspired by the Classics.
By Jeff Hollinger and Rob Schwartz

Hollinger and Schwartz are the head bartenders at Absinthe Brasserie and Bar in San Francisco, CA. Absinthe takes the cocktail as seriously as most restaurants take their food. Using only fresh ingredients (no pre-made juices, mixes etc.) Absinthe is leading the way in the cocktail revolution.

The Art of the Bar is a magnificent book, full of lavish images and awesome information. It explains exactly what a cocktail is: a spirit, bitters and sugar stirred or shaken and served - the history of the great cocktails, the first important cocktail in america being the Sazerac which came from New Orleans and pre-dates the Civil War. Originally made with Cognac, today the Sazerac consits of rye, bitters, an anise flavoured liquor (Absinthe, Herbasaint or Pastis) and a sugar cube.

In addition to startlingly exciting cocktail recipes, the book contains instructions for making your own simple syrups (sugar solutions), bitters (alcoholic herbal concoctions) and garnishes like brandied cherries. It also explains why high-end cocktails are almost never shaken and why Absinthe Brasserie and Bar does not have a blender.

Anyone who considers themselves a beverage connoisseur should own this book.

Some recipes:

The Opera
1 1/2 ounces Gin, 1/2 ounce red Dubonnet, 1/4 ounce maraschino liqueur, dash of orange bitters, orange twist for garnish.

In an ice-filled cocktail shaker, combine all the liquid ingredients. Stir for 20 to 30 seconds, until cold and then strain into a chilled champagne flute. Garnish with the orange twist.

Havana
1 1/2 ounces Gosling's Rum, 3/4 ounce Cointreau, 1/2 ounce fresh lime juice, 1/4 ounce simple syrup, splash of orange juice, dash of orange bitters.

Combine all the ingredients in an ice-filled cocktail shaker. Shake until cold and then strain into a sugar-rimmed cocktail glass. If available, garnish with edible flowers.

Sherry Twist Cocktail No. 1
1 ounce sherry, 1/2 ounce brandy, 1/2 ounce french dry vermouth (Noilly Prat), 1/4 ounce cointreau, 1/4 ounce fresh lemon juice, pinch of ground cinnamon, cinnamon stick for garnish.

Combine all the ingredients except the cinnamon stick in an ice-filled cocktail shaker. Shake until cold then strain into a chilled cocktail glass. Garnish with the cinnamon stick.

[troutman]

Originally Posted by driveway

In the category of Food and Drink, Team Discovery Channel is proud to select:


The Art of the Bar: Cocktails inspired by the Classics.
By Jeff Hollinger and Rob Schwartz

Thanks.

You may also enjoy:

http://www.diffordsguide.com/

[rogermexico]

I had to check a few times to make sure this hadn't already been taken - can't believe I get to pick it up this late.

In the Food & Drink section (I know, it probably ought to go in Memoir, but hey, it's about Food & Drink) I'll take Kitchen Confidential: Adventures in the Culinary Underbelly by Anthony Bourdain.



Bourdain was a chef from long before chefs were famous, and had achieved some success as a hardboiled mystery writer. Which makes him the perfect person to tell his own story, which is the hardboiled & mysterious tale of a young chef moving up in the New York restaurant world.

There is more sex, drugs and rock and roll in this story than a Led Zeppelin biography. Bourdain doesn't flinch from any of the grimmest details of his own life, but manages to equally infuse the blow by blow lower eastside junkie stories with his actual passion for food.

Thanks to this book, I now use twice as much butter in everything I cook. Whenever I'm standing at the stove, I always imagine Tony behind me, chainsmoking, saying "Why the **** are you doing that?"

[kermitology]

I swear I've heard that somewhere.. must not have been in this thread.

I loved the short lived TV show that was made from the book. Totally hilarious. It was like Waiting, but on TV.

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0460654/

[rogermexico]

Yeah, I thought someone had picked it, but it isn't in the Spreadsheet. If someone already has it, I'll repick.

[octothorp]

Originally Posted by rogermexico

Yeah, I thought someone had picked it, but it isn't in the Spreadsheet. If someone already has it, I'll repick.

There was a cookbook discussion in a thread on the main OT forum. I think it sprung up there. Good pick though.

[Iowa_Flames_Fan]

Whoops, didn't realize my turn was coming up.

In the category of Fantasy, Bartleby and the Scriveners is pleased to select Jonathan Strange & Mr. Norrell, by Susanna Clarke.


I read this book while recovering from pneumonia in Invermere... so that may colour my perception of it a little! But I remember is as a compendious and deeply absorbing tale of a rivalry between two magicians in an alternate 19th-century England, filled with faeries, magic, spells, politics and intrigue. It's baroque form is just the tip of what is fascinating about this book, which takes place against a profoundly rich backdrop of an alternate "England" more multifarious and fascinating than the real one could ever be--and while it may not rise to the level of high pastiche like Tristram Shandy, it's in that vein in the sense of being a novel that turns its eye to the serious and mundane as well as to the fantastic, and beyond that is a novel that is highly interested in its own form, in the nature of narrative, in Englishness, in fantasy, in utopia and in the political problems of today.

In short: great book. You should read it.

[liamenator]

For my pick, I'll move Fear and Loathing on the Campagin Trail into the Humour/Satire category, in order to select in Historical/Political.... A great book about lives affected by the GDR, on both sides of the wall - before and after the fall.

One of those books that helps put a human face on a part of history that often gets glossed over by stats. Also makes for a great companion piece with the film The Lives of Others, if you have seen that.

Stasiland by Anna Funder

[Aeneas]

Originally Posted by Iowa_Flames_Fan

Whoops, didn't realize my turn was coming up.

In the category of Fantasy, Bartleby and the Scriveners is pleased to select Jonathan Strange & Mr. Norrell, by Susanna Clarke.


I read this book while recovering from pneumonia in Invermere... so that may colour my perception of it a little! But I remember is as a compendious and deeply absorbing tale of a rivalry between two magicians in an alternate 19th-century England, filled with faeries, magic, spells, politics and intrigue. It's baroque form is just the tip of what is fascinating about this book, which takes place against a profoundly rich backdrop of an alternate "England" more multifarious and fascinating than the real one could ever be--and while it may not rise to the level of high pastiche like Tristram Shandy, it's in that vein in the sense of being a novel that turns its eye to the serious and mundane as well as to the fantastic, and beyond that is a novel that is highly interested in its own form, in the nature of narrative, in Englishness, in fantasy, in utopia and in the political problems of today.

In short: great book. You should read it.

Seconded. Really enjoyed his one.

[troutman]

I select in the Canadian Lit category, The Apprenticeship Of Duddy Kravitz, by Mordecai Richler (1959):



Duddy Kravitz is a brash Jewish kid from Montreal who is determined to "make it": whatever "it" is, and whatever "it" takes. Taking to heart his grandfather's maxim that "a man without land is nothing", Kravitz schemes and dreams and hits on his idea: a lakeshore property in the Laurentian mountains. To become successful, he often betrays the people who have loved and helped him. He finally gains the land he wants, but loses love and friendship.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_App..._Kravitz_(book)

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mordecai_Richler

Richler's career took off with the publication of his fourth novel The Apprenticeship of Duddy Kravitz in 1959. The book featured a frequent Richler theme: Jewish life in the 1930s and 40s in the neighbourhood of Montreal east of Mount Royal Park on and about St. Urbain Street and the Main (Boul. St. Laurent). Richler wrote poignantly of the neighbourhood and its people, chronicling the hardships and disabilities they faced as a Jewish minority.

To a middle-class stranger, it is true, one street would have seemed as squalid as the next. On each corner a cigar store, a grocery, and a fruit man. Outside staircases everywhere. Winding ones, wooden ones, rusty and risky ones. Here a prized lot of grass splendidly barbered, there a spitefully weedy patch. An endless repetition of precious peeling balconies and waste lots making the occasional gap here and there.[2]

The 1974 movie version was directed by Richler's friend Ted Kotcheff and starred Richard Dreyfuss in his first leading role. Richler and Lionel Chetwynd co-wrote the screenplay.

We gave a class-mate in Law School the nick-name "Duddy", because he was always cooking-up some kind of money-making scheme.

[troutman]

Is half the draft AK'd now?

Come on folks, step your game up.

[Aeneas]

Is there really only 1 person picking between Liamenator (I think) in #12 and me in #20? No wonder it always gets to me so quick.

Pick up in a few...

[Burninator]

Originally Posted by troutman

Is half the draft AK'd now?

Come on folks, step your game up.

I've been slacking, but I am also running out of picks really fast. I should probably start trading.

[Aeneas]

I will pick "The Eyre Affair" by Jasper Fforde.


There is a whole series that I suppose precedent has been set that I may take....so, I also draft:

"Lost In A Good Book"
"The Well Of Lost Plots"
and
"Something Rotten"

I see there are some Shakespeare fans in this draft, you really should read Fforde's take on Hamlet in "Something Rotten". It's just excellent.

What's the book (Eyre Affair) about? Well, I suppose it is all about literature, and the characters who inhabit literature taking on a life of their own outside of the novels in which they dwell. The heroine "patrols" works of fiction to make sure all is correct and consistent within, and investigates when inconsistencies arise.

http://www.jasperfforde.com/
Better explained above I imagine.

"Fforde's books are noted for their profusion of literary allusions and wordplay, tightly scripted plots, and playfulness with the conventions of traditional genres. His works usually contain various elements of metafiction, parody, and fantasy. None of his books has a chapter 13."
--from wiki

A plot summary:
In a parallel universe, England and Imperial Russia have fought the Crimean War for more than a century; England itself is a police state run by the Goliath Corporation (a powerful weapon-producing company with questionable morals); and Wales is a separate, socialist nation. The book's fictional version of Jane Eyre ends with Jane accompanying her cousin, St. John Rivers, to India in order to help him with his missionary work. Literary questions (especially the question of Shakespearean authorship) are debated so hotly that they inspire gang wars and murder.
Single, thirtysix, Crimean War veteran and literary detective Thursday Next lives in London with her pet dodo, Pickwick. As the story begins, Thursday is temporarily promoted to investigate the theft of the original manuscript of Charles Dickens's Martin Chuzzlewit because she is one of the few people able to identify the thief, Acheron Hades. She comes close to capturing him during a stakeout, but is badly injured, saved by a copy of Jane Eyre that stops Hades' bullet. A mysterious stranger aids her until the paramedics arrive, leaving behind only a monogrammed handkerchief and jacket. Next recognizes these items as those of Rochester, a character from Jane Eyre, because she entered the novel as a child and briefly became acquainted with Rochester himself while she was there.

The book comes complete with advertisements. The Goliath ads for toast, and the Socialist Republic of Wales inviting tourism are particular favorites.

It really is an unusual book, and worth reading.

[Aeneas]

Originally Posted by Burninator

I've been slacking, but I am also running out of picks really fast. I should probably start trading.

I'll trade you my World Literature...or bio/memoir?

[icarus]

Originally Posted by rogermexico

Woah, that came up fast.

Alright. For the third round, team "Maybe you'll learn to drive in Hell" picks, in the Canadian Lit category, What The Crow Said by Robert Kroetsch.

I got to see Kroetsch read from this back when I was in university and it blew me away. This is a book I go back to whenever I need inspiration, whenever I need my head cleared, or if I'm a long way from home.

Kroetsch has a lot of great novels (The Studhorse Man and Gone Indian are my other favorites) and his poetry is a great way to get people who don't like poetry to see the other side. But this novel is the winner. It's the best novel about Alberta out there.

Hmmm... maybe we were in the same class. I remember in one of my university classes Robert Kroetsch came into our class of about 20 one day and just chilled out and chatted. I had a pretty good chat with him actually and honestly I totally forgot about it until I saw his name on this list.

[icarus]

Originally Posted by jammies

For the non-fiction category Historical/Political, jammies' Fahrenheit 451 would like to pick The Gulag Archipelago by Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn.

Solzhenitsyn himself is not a particularly sympathetic character, and the books are definitely not light reading, yet I think they are and were important, even in an era where Stalinist Communism has been discredited (other than in North Korea), for the world they describe is the one where "the ends justify the means" has been taken to its furthest extreme and the inhabitants of that world are much the same whether Stalinist, nationalist, fundamentalist, or proponents of any other creed where the "elect" are separated from the "other".

What do you mean Solzhenitsyn is not a particularly sympathetic character? In the book or in real life? He hardly ever appears in the volumes, most of the time he's talking about other people. I think that alone makes him sympathetic, the fact that he doesn't moan about his lot but rather describes the worse injustices that so many others endured.