It began fine

Author: Tony Judt

Spence's Memory Palace

The author's inspiration for this book, his thoughts running always in the wake of ALS took me through his childhood, the food, cars and life then. I got lost in the 'Lord Warden' ship chapter wit too many specifics.

The 400 Blows

Birds in their throats

I had read that Meghan O Rourke had written of her grief in poetry form too. I am unwilling to ride the wave of grief with the authors and poets. And so Joan Didion's good prose too loses it lacquer wit no grief to nurse. 

'Red fingernails' in My Aunts

Word play of exist and insist in 'Diagnosis'.

Te poet cant help notice the parallels of gradual decay of a dead squirrel with the effects of chemotherapy.

some poems from Kenyon Review -
in 'Twenty first century fireworks poem -

The future hasn't arrived. It is all still a dream, 
a night sweat to be swum off
in a wonderland of sand and bread


Inventory of grief
poems about her mother and a while after her passing away. While the first is true for ever, the second came into being because of the mothers death.
normal vs complicated grief


A mother makes a daughter
     by dividing
The hands, the nose, the feet
all grow by multiplying
 in 'Inventory' poem

Minced words

Author: Jonathan Galassi

I have tried writing with my left hand. Recently my right hand was aching. While cutting vegetables, I wondered why not cut with the left hand. Such a common place idea, but never thougt about it. Except for the main cuts, I could chop fine with my left hand.

poems from left handed
In Water poem, I love how sometimes the abstract seems more clear and understood than plain facts.
In most poems the line breaks are such that the words are split and spilt into the next line forming internal rhyme. A kind of breaking to form.

In 'Who Remembers', 'The Shorter days', there is a nudge to enjoy the present.

Potentilla

Callipygian

The man with a mask, scissors...

If you want to know the details of an operation, ask your surgeon for an Operative report says Dr. Paul A Ruggieri. 

This book is supported by three pillars of the surgeon's experience, generic details of the surgery world and the patients experience. It is very structured. The text moves in between these three modes unifying them into a good narrative.
When the surgeon zeroes in on his/her area of focus to operate, the description sounds like man is a machine but machines don't go into Hypovolemic shock.

Its interesting how I picked up this book to read. It was on the stack in the library but I didnt feel pressed to read it. My eyes caught another book

. Then I thought why not the 'surgeon memoir'. A note about 'the dark side' of pharmaceutical drugs and the guinea pigs they are tested on, the example of Shoemaker is scary. The text was too scholarly.


Vicryl
resection
scut work
Sword of damocles

Woman: profit and loss

Poet: Carol muske dukes

The 'twin' cities, the bifurcation and the wholeness at the physical as well as in the mind is revisited in many poems. The poet uses this fork element  of conjoining and dividing even in her marriage.

Consistently the author looks at the status of women in different countries. What an unveiled head can bring upon the life. How widows were once treated in India. The poet muses upon mythical strong women too. A poem on Camilla. I wish there was a painting of this.

Neither words nor acquaintances are wasted.

Essence

Author: Rusty Morrison

some poems

A review

Like the blurb 'says 'numb' is what ricochets off the words and lines, but there is a space for every reader to dwell and relate to it.

A cooking life

Author: Marcus Samuelsson

Having read the first chapter, I can now guess that the book cover has Berbere spread, in which the title is written in perfect alphabets. Its a touching search for his mother who passed away when he was 3. I almost teared up at the end of first chapter.

As I read the wordy letters of some dishes, I am reminded that Ikea food too is from the place where the author grew up. The author's first encounter with management of pantry began at his grandmother's house.
Before jumping into cooking dream full time, the author had another dream- soccer. A playground which looks down upon underbuilt even if skilled.

Its the professional kitchens where the interns and the novices are to bow a 'Yes, Chef' for everything, that the title of the book is derived from.

The division of the book into three chapters boy, chef and man says it all. That it’s a bildungsroman. By the end of his boyhood, he owned a coveted set of cooking knives and a kitchen boy experience at a restaurant. That’s telling of where the boy is headed. Geographically, he wanted to get to France. In the meantime, he went to top restaurants in Switzerland, NY.  While in NY, he took the place in. The diversity of NY expanded his palate. From his mentors he learnt how to meld international flavours into existing traditions. With his focus on learning as much as he could, by the age of 24, he became the head of a three star kitchen. He arrived.

Having reached his goal, hurtling through a pregnancy and two funerals that he couldn’t attend, at a QA with cooking students, ‘What are some of the modern cooking trends in Africa?’ was the tipping point. His search to find his roots became his diving board into manhood too where the self he had made until then had a hefty price attached to it as it was under another person’s tutelage. Everywhere he goes, he cooks to show ‘honor, respect and love’. His food was appreciated by awards, TV show win, preparing state dinner. His restaurant ‘Red Rooster’ is about letting the past and present speak from the same place. Just like in his life where he embraced his past by taking up the responsibility of his natural father's family from another marriage.

Chef Samuelsson’s life is similar to the others in the hours that he had to put in scut work. His life is different too from other chefs. We hear how it is tough for chefs to have a life. The author got around it by getting to the top fast and then found time to tie up the lose ends in his life – finding identity, building family bonds.

In the kitchen, he learns of the rituals where mentors let the best stage at other famous kitchens. Demographics in there.

Pig feet Mary

American trait

Author: Jack Hitt

Gungywamp was sought out and placed in history by an amateur.

The author began the book with Ben Franklin and ended with it. Towards the end we are introduced to Claude-Anne Lopez. Her life story summary is interesting enough that we don’t ask why we need to know about her until we recall after few pages that the lady we just read of is a biographer of Franklin. The author is skilled at story telling.

There is a conflict in the book between trying to be exhaustive about a topic – rare birdwatching, race, skywatching and not to forget that all this has to be viewed with the lens of amateurism. The subtitle ‘a search for the American character’ is a catchall for the variety of the book. For the amazing content, I can overlook the ‘the case of curious title’ as miscataloging (who would have thunk that there’s no need of a u).

The first chapter looks at Franklin Vs John Adams that goes like Frederick Vs Voltaire each at odds with the others behavior. When I caught sight of ‘Ivory bill’, I couldn’t brace myself to read about it.  When there is a talk of this bird, fuzzy is not far. It is not clear if this bird is alive or not. The proof is a grainy video which has been questioned by many amateurs. In each chapter the author talks of the reigning theories and the dents made in them by amateurs.

The book is result of Immersive journalism. Where the author follows amateurs – birdwatchers in chase of ivory bill, extracting DNA using cleverly rigged gadgets instead of the expensive equipment used in lab, astronomers in search of a good ‘seeing’ and making lenses with them.

In the race chapter, the author questions flimsy claims and has a paragraph that lists all the biases that we could be prone to while analyzing data. Kennewick man is shown as one such multi-biased case and an example of how floating symbols can be weaved into different cultures to support their ‘manifest destinies’.

Amateurism is not only about clever individuals but collaboration among many of them on a scale made possible by the today’s ‘open-source’ – bioweather maps, Galaxy zoo.

The author has a way of keeping a thread running among the chapters – the power of myth in the Gungywampers case, Native American origin tale involving ice, the myth of Ivory Bill’s continued existence. That said there are some leaps in the narrative that we can overlook for the book’s far reach.

To live in a world where another discovery changes our history, but do we all recalibrate ourselves with that new knowledge? Before I heard of the Clovis, I thought that America was very young and with the pre-Clovis and a harmless T-rex, I can imagine a story with a T-rex in an unlikely friendship with another animal but with the man, we will probably keep looking for an evidence that explains all the migrations of the Neanderthal man or we’ll just look up to the sky until we meet our future – ET.

Hail the people with DIY in their genes!

Becoming of a curator

Author: Darcy Lockman

When we follow famous legal cases, sometimes we hear that the defendant was deemed unfit for trial. It is interesting to know of the procedure used to reach that conclusion. While the author is sharing her experiences in an internship at a hospital, she also supplements the branches of psychiatry with their history.
Most of the book is about evaluations of a patient's mental status. There are two kinds, one which the author calls the talking cases where you talk to the patient to see their readiness for discharge and their assessment of the situation. In the other as a consultant liaison, we learn of cases where the CL has to assess how the mental health of the patient is affecting the medical treatment the patient is undergoing. In some cases, the book does seem like retelling of what happened as an advisor looking for more analysis in the notes complains.
I find that sarcasm being a sign of intelligence in a mental evaluation, points to how our complex talk can reflect the working of our mind.
Throughout the internship, the author is enraged that psychoanalysis is not given its due. She decries the use of meds as they don't make a patient capable of independent life.
An internship is a before-after experience. True to that expectation, when the author enters the Kings County hospital she feels ignorant but at the end of it she realizes that she can make a difference.
The books format of snapshots of the cases leaves the reader looking for closure for each case which does not arrive in all the cases because of the nature of the hospital where discharges happen without psychiatrist's goodbyes.
But what of mind is ever simple and organized, thus goes a memoir like a montage of myriad ways heads can go wrong. Quotes on the mental states by some authors is not surprising considering the inordinate amounts of time they spend thinking about the human condition. I hope the quotes are only for comment sake and not part of the `treatment plan'.

In Indian

the Vietnamese girl

would be called

Meenakshi

-eyes of a fish.

***********

Bunny is a cute cat

with slightly round face

easy to figure skin colors

black and white.

Not the stripes,

no angular face bones.

Humor has its hike boots on

Author: Hape Kerkeling

I have some idea of the pilgrimage to the end of the world from 'Off the road: A modern day walk down the pilgrims route into Spain' by Jack Hitt.
This traveler is having way too much fun - staying at hotels, taking off from the walking for a movie. I have to follow the journey of his self discovery.
He is down to earth in terms of spirituality. Oh oh! This route aint easy with mischievous people giving wrong directions. Now that I have seen the scallop symbol, I will recognise the path. Butterflies as trail markers. whatever works.
I am now lined up with the date at the bottom of the page.

read by June 21, 2010

4/5

After liking this book, I was interested in  reading 

It wasnt captive.

A motley expression

Author: Kristina van dykes

Ladislas Segy, an expert on modern and African art writes in his book African sculpture, that for a background of it, one needs to explore a dozen different branches of science - the history of African kingdoms, archeology, ethnology, anthropology, the study of mythology, folklore, linguistics, ethno- psychology, psychoanalysis.

The objects with their simplicity and unity are well described as for their source and purpose. The fact that contributions are not from a single author goes to show the wide range of expertise required to understand African art.

Kuba cups and Divination pestle from Luba with pictures of real people and their coiffures showing the inspiration point, show how the art derives from their way of life.

When objects serve as authority or status symbol, the rituals involved are explained.

Shoulder masks. Multi- Figure altar. Caryatid stool. Serpent sculpture. Aesthetically these were totally new to me.

Staff from Kongo is a story in wood.


June 27, 2010


5/5

How food moved from hearth to the restaurant

Author: Adam Gopnik

If you look at the contents, there's many emails to Elizabeth Robins Pennell. Initially I thought she might be an expert whose views are welcomed by the author in to his book like a field reporter back to the TV station or the call to the expert on 'who wants to be a millionaire'. This aspect of the book comes into life progressively. Even with the passivity of a relation between an admirer and his dead literary idol, the dissonance of an irredeemable past and the author's reaction to it pulses the one way communication with human pathos.

The author writes about the history of the restaurant not from when it was a restaurant but how preexisting cafe culture had to be merged into it to thrive. He also breaks myths about WW and restaurant timeline.

All appetites have their illusions, which are part of their pleasure. The author feels that the cookbooks stoke a fire in the readers that they know is not a wave that is success-ably ridable.

Is the mystery of good cooking - talent or a secret ingredient and is the chef willing to share it? Being in the critic business, he makes us see the ambiguity of taste and the writing we use to describe food and wine.
 His entry pass takes him to may places where he learns of the latest in modern cuisine. A NZ study about food miles and energy involved is counter-intuitive. What El Bulli is closing?

When you are cooking, do you find yourself capable of anything else? I find myself going back to the recipe to see if I missed anything.

Like species of plants and animals that go extinct, spices like Silphium too face a similar fate.

I hadnt read of Adam Gopnik except for a line of his quoted in How to cook like a man. This book links us to another food author Lisa Abend.

Out of 'The Great Gatsby' what does a daisy mean?

The myths associated with different flowers and their meanings are the crux of this book. The author writes how the flowers get their meaning by their behavior like the Camellia standing for 'an everlasting union between lovers' as its calyx falls with the petals unlike in other flowers where it stays even after the flower dies or by the games played with the flowers. To make the flowers hold so much charm in them, like the gifts given to Perseus, takes us into a magical world. Imagine every Irish girl of a time always remembering to put clover in her shoes before walking down the aisle.
I didnt like a perfume used by an old lady at the apartment office. I think it was Gardenias. But when I get there I might like it too for its help in treating 'menopausal symptoms of insomnia, depression and headaches'.
Thus reading when I came across Carnation, I couldnt wait for its story and significance. Its like waiting for your Zodiac sign. We had them in our house for our baby's cradle ceremony and befittingly they stand for maternal love.
If next time someone attempts to get you to kiss unwillingly  under a Mistletoe, dont forget to look for the berries.
Up until now I thought only Sunflower did the solar blooming. Its a surprise that many others like Heliotrope, Daisy follow the sun.

St Chad of Mercia

From the tagine land

Today I had chicken Fantasia for lunch. It had tomao sauce around brown rice and chicken all over. Mourad says that when Moroccan food is served in big platters, that is how it is. Sauce all around, vegetables at the center and meat underneath. You work into the center finishing the sauce. The author gets us acquainted with how you eat a plate and serve a guest. The spices used in Moroccan spices are used in many other cuisines, so its not the spices, the author says but how they are used that make a dish Moroccan.

Couscous can be made with hands and at home. Warqa

 Bored with the classics, he came up with zaalouk a different way of cooking eggplants than the Baba ghanoush that we are familiar with. The author is not afraid of stirring up things by trying out different ways, but in the end he goes by what his restaurant patrons like.

The author provides us with alternative ways of retaining the essence by urging us to buy Air Chilled Chicken. Meat lovers will find ways of communicating with butcher, if you follow his suggestions of how to order meat. I hadn't heard of lamb chops until I came to the US and the author explains why it might be so. Next time if you are near a hamaam, check if they have tangias cooking away somewhere.

Icecream with fig leaves?

Basteeya at Aziza.

Presentation: Rolling round thick cheese slices in colorful spices on the side.