The Trouble with Truffles: "Black Diamond" by Martin Walker is another fun book in the Bruno, Chief of Police, series.

Black Diamond is the third installment in Martin Walker's entertaining mystery series featuring Benoit "Bruno" Courreges.  Bruno is the police chief (and, in fact, the entire police force) in St. Denis, a small village in France.  In this outing with Bruno, there is so much going on that the plot almost defies summarization.  A key organizational point, however, is the truffle.

Truffles, the black diamonds of the title, are an important commodity in this region of France.  Bruno, Renaissance man that he is, hunts for the fabulous fungus with his dog, cooking with some of those that he finds and selling others in market at the neighboring village of Ste. Alvere.  But there's trouble in the truffle trade.

Bruno's friend and hunting partner, Hercule Vendrot, tells Bruno that big clients in Paris purchasing from the large Ste. Alvere truffle market are complaining that instead of receiving French Perigord truffles, they've been "fobbed off with fakes, cheap sinenis, Chinese black truffles."  Hercule fears that this scam could ultimately cause the French truffle market to collapse.

Although Ste. Alvere is outside of Bruno's jurisdiction, Bruno and Hercule implement a plan to have Bruno conduct a security audit of the truffle market.  Not long afterward, the elderly Hercule is found brutally murdered.  But this is not just a murder:  As a young man, Hercule had been a spy, active 'back in the day' in Viet Nam.

While Bruno investigates the crime and its potential national security implications, he is also busy investigating attacks occurring in St. Denis as a result of a gang battle between Chinese and Vietnamese groups, and keeping an eye on the forth coming local elections in which his boss, the Mayor, faces ouster when two local businessmen - a father and a son - both seek election to the post.  On top of all of this, there is Bruno's tangled love life.

This busy plot, running from matters of the heart, to truffles, and to modern-colonial history and current geo-political problems, somehow all works together.  Black Diamond is an enjoyable immersion into all things French (including a few swear words).  It is entertaining and a nice addition to this series.    

View from the Bridge.

Starkweather Creek.  Madison, Wisconsin

Jolt Your Creative Juices: Read "Wolf Kahn" by Justin Spring.

If you want to get excited about making some art, check out the second edition of Wolf Kahn by Justin Spring.    In addition to the interesting story of Mr. Kahn's life and work as an artist, the book contains many photos of his beautiful and inspiring paintings.  Good stuff.

  

Who won the 2012 Edgar Awards?

Yesterday the Mystery Writers of America announced the winners of the 2012 Edgar Allen Poe Awards.  Mo Hayder won the Best Novel category for his book Gone, and the Grand Master award was given to Martha Grimes.  Check out the full list of award winners at this link.

"Wild" by Cheryl Strayed: A compelling, honest, and inspiring memoir.

A view from my hike of Mt. Wrightson in Southern Arizona.

When Cheryl Strayed was 22-years old, her 45-year old mother died.  This loss is the tinder that fuels Wild, Strayed's memoir about hiking alone on the Pacific Crest Trail (PCT) in 1995, four years after her mother's death.  Wild is a wonderful book.  Strayed's story breaks your heart, inspires your ambition, informs, entertains, and captivates.

What is particularly elegant about Wild is how Ms. Strayed blends together the story of  her life with the story of her experiences on the trail.  She is a novice hiker setting out to walk a stretch of the PCT running from the Mojave Desert through California and Oregon to Washington State.  The trip is not merely an opportunity to see the PCT, but a challenge to meet, alone and on her own, despite the expected fears and unexpected difficulties along the way.

Meeting this challenge is important because Strayed is trying to re-group after getting a number of hard blows from life.  Some of these blows were unforeseen, such as her mom's illness and death, and some blows she walked right into.  Strayed is very honest about what I'll call her youthful 'rock-and-roll lifestyle':  her sex life, experiments with drugs, her early marriage and divorce.  She writes that at the time she decided to walk the PCT, "I was living alone in a studio apartment in Minneapolis, separated from my husband, and working as a waitress, as low and mixed-up as I'd ever been in my life."  Strayed's decision to hike the trail, when set in the context of the rest of her life, makes the trip a real journey. "I'd made the arguably unreasonable decision to take a long walk alone on the PCT in order to save myself," writes Strayed. 

Wild is a terrific memoir which I highly recommend.  In addition to being an great read, Wild is also a documentation of personal freedom.  In Ms. Strayed's book, she is making the choices and decisions, be they wise or not, about her own life.  The publication of her story is exhilarating to consider when, in other parts of the world, speech is censored; women must conceal their bodies in burka and are prohibited from merely driving a car or attending soccer matches.  And when here in the United States, right-wing extremist radio host Rush Limbaugh called a Georgetown University law student who testified before Congress about contraception a "prostitute" and a "slut".  When viewed in this broader context, Wild is heady reading, an inspiring account from one woman about her journey.  Wonderful!





Wild
Knopf 2012

Alternating reading "Wild" by Cheryl Strayed with browsing through a few new cookbooks.

I'm about half finished with Cheryl Strayed's memoir Wild.  It's been enjoyable reading thus far.  Cheryl is often hungry in this book where she recounts hiking on the Pacific Crest Trail.  Maybe that's why I've been alternating reading Wild with looking over three inspiring cookbooks.

The first cookbook I've been looking at is Big Vegan by Robin Asbell.  I'm not vegan, but am always looking for new ways to incorporate more veggies into my diet and this book has fabulous ideas for doing so.  There are hundreds of recipes. I'm already planning to make Asparagus-Quinoa Risotto, Cream of Cremini Mushroom Soup, and Coconut Sorbet.  There are not a lot of pictures in Big Vegan, but the recipes are easy to read, each recipe comes with a brief introduction, and the instructions look comprehensive.  Of the three cookbooks under discussion here, this seems like the one I will use the most.

The second cookbook is Home Cooking with Jean-Georges.  This book has many gorgeous photos of food.  There are also many interesting flavor combinations I want to try, such as butternut squash with balsamic and chile panko crumbs.  Yesterday I made the chocolate cake recipe in the book.  The cake looks like a brownie, but has an extremely light texture.  Interesting, but not really what I want from chocolate cake.  I am looking forward to trying some of the main dishes.  Many of the recipes in this beautiful book look tempting and inspire a bit more creativity in the kitchen.

Finally, the third cookbook I'm been browsing through is Yvette Van Boven's Home Made.  It's a big book with lots of photos and a hip vibe.  This vibe is fun except where it makes a few recipes a bit difficult to read, often because of the choice of font.  Thus far I've made two items from this book: Risotto with Sausage and Bell Pepper and Goat Yogurt Hangop.  The risotto was interesting mostly because of the cooking technique; it was tasty to eat, but if you've ever had stuffed peppers, then you've essentially experienced the flavor profile.  On the other hand, the hangop didn't really suit our taste preferences.  The recipe called for goat yogurt, cream, olives, chile pepper and salt.  All of this sounds great to me, but when combined I found it  -- not great.  Perhaps I need to try again.  This book has quite a few recipes that I found fun to look at but know I am unlikely to try, however I will definitely test a few more, such as Potted Shrimp and  Chocolate-Ginger Fudge Cake.  (It never hurts to try yet another cake recipe.)  As far as which book has the most cha-cha-cha going on,  Home Made is definitely it.

 Now, with a piece of cake and a cup of coffee, it's back to Wild, where Cheryl is hiking and hungry.

2012 Orange Prize Shortlist for Fiction.

No Pulitzer Prize for fiction yesterday.  But today fiction aficionados can enjoy looking over the shortlist for this year's Orange Prize.   The candidates in the running are:

Ann Patchett, nominated for State of Wonder, previously won the Orange Prize for Bel Canto, a book I loved and highly recommended.

Have you read any of the shortlisted books?  If so, let us know what your thoughts are on what you read!