Perfect Summer Day

Highly Recommended Reading: "The Particular Sadness of Lemon Cake" by Aimee Bender.

The Particular Sadness of Lemon Cake is about a young girl named Rose Edelstein who, at the age of eight, discovers that when eating food she can taste its maker's emotions.  Suddenly, Rose knows much more than she wants to know about her mother, the baker, the people who picked tomatoes for the pasta sauce, everyone who has a hand in the preparation of her food.

With this unusual hook, author Aimee Bender makes completely fresh and original the well-worn topic of a young girl growing-up.  The book is also the story of Rose's family, each member's strengths, weaknesses and coping strategies.  The Particular Sadness of Lemon Cake is an interesting novel with just the right touch of magical realism to make it unique and absorbing.  It's highly recommended reading.

To Kindle or Not to Kindle . . .

Professor Iain Stevenson, University College London, Centre for Publishing, offers his opinion on the merits of the Kindle:

It is unsurprising that Amazon are pushing the "fact" that ebook downloads for their Kindle reading device have outsold hardback printed books on their site as they have a vested interest in selling more Kindles (Report 21 July). It is also unsurprising that they steadfastly refuse to disclose how many Kindles they have actually sold. However, purchasers of downloaded ebooks from Amazon should be in no doubt about what they are buying compared to hardbacks. If you buy a hardback from them, it is yours to keep for ever, or sell, donate or destroy as you wish. With an ebook download you are only buying a licence to read it on a specified device and Amazon can delete it remotely from your reader at any time. You cannot sell it, give it away, transfer it or (in theory at least) read it in certain parts of the world. Buyer beware, I recommend!

The Guardian.

Music We Like: "Broken Bells".

The Broken Bells self-titled debut album is full of melodic, indie rock.  Very beautiful music.

Movies We Like: "You, the Living".

A 2009 release, You The Living is very, very funny.  It is comprised of about 50 lightly linked vignettes that dramatize the absurdities of life.  I am rarely tempted to buy the DVD of a movie, but this may be the exception.  As soon as You The Living ended, I wanted to watch it again and then show it to everyone I know.  Highly recommended.       

Highly Recommended Reading: "The Thousand Autumns of Jacob de Zoet" by David Mitchell.

David Mitchell is a extraordinary writer and The Thousand Autumns of Jacob de Zoet is a fantastic book.  The story is set in 1799.  Jacob de Zoet is a clerk working for the Dutch East India Company on the island of Dejima, an artificial island in the bay of Nagasaki, Japan.  Japan is in the Edo period, an isolationist, feudal society ruled by the shogun.  The Dutch traders are restricted to Dejima; Christianity is forbidden. 

In the small world of the Dutch traders, Jacob is an honest man encountering corruption and double-dealing as he undertakes an audit of the company's books.  The story draws in Edo society when Jacob meets and becomes infatuated with a beautiful, but scarred, Japanese midwife who has been allowed to receive some training from the Dutch physician.  After the midwife's father dies, she is sold by her step-mother to pay off family debts.  The beautiful midwife is now a prisoner to the abbot of a secretive mountain shrine where some bad stuff is going on.  Can she be rescued?

The Thousand Autumns of Jacob de Zoet is historical fiction at its very best; or if you think you don't care for historical fiction, then just know that it is fiction at its very best.  Often funny and told with rich language and wonderful word choice, the plot flies along with exciting twists and turns all the way to the end.  This is one of those books that completely pulls you into its bubble.  I loved it; I wish the story wasn't over.

The Thousand Autumns of Jacob De Zoet by David Mitchell is highly recommended reading.     

Reliable Author for a Beach Read? Nelson DeMille.

Nelson DeMille writes thrillers that are perfect for reading at the beach, on an airplane, or over the weekend after a long and aggravating week at work.  Check out Plum Island or The Lion's Game.  DeMille also has a new book out, The Lion.

Is this stuff great literature?  Well . . . it's great escapism.



One review of The Lion here.