The Drunken Botanist: The Plants That Create the World’s Great Drinks
by Amy Stewart
Narrated by Coleen Marlo
Genre: Non-Fiction
Publisher: HighBridge Company
Publish Date: March 19, 2013
Format: Audio, 10 hours | 15 minutes
Audio Listening Level: Intermediate
Rating: 4½ of 5
Publisher’s Synopsis:
The Drunken Botanist uncovers the surprising botanical history and fascinating science and chemistry of over 150 plants, flowers, trees, and fruits (and even a few fungi). Some of the most extraordinary and obscure plants have been fermented and distilled, and they each represent a unique cultural contribution to global drinking traditions and our history.
My Thoughts:
The Drunken Botanist is well-researched and consists of a through discussion of the plants, the drinks and their history and is packed full of interesting facts, stories and anecdotes. You know that tradition of adding a wedge of lime to your beer? It’s a marketing ploy to disguise the skunky flavor of a beer bottled in clear glass. Why use clear glass? Because it’s cheaper. And how about the worm at the bottom of a bottle of Tequila? More marketing. “Bugs in Booze” is a subtopic we learn about with more than a few plants as they are transformed into alcohol.
I thought I knew a lot about apples and apple trees but I found there was always more to learn. Apples have been around for 50 million years. The DNA of apples is more complex than our own with twice as many genes as a human possesses. This causes an apple’s offspring to be extremely diverse, a new tree will be nothing like its parent with a fruit that will look and taste different. To grow a particular variety, trees need to be grafted to rootstock. Somewhere along the line our ancestors figured out any kind of apple makes great liquor.
The audio production was read at a lively pace by Coleen Marlo. Her pronunciation of the various plant names and drinks was flawless and was an advantages of listening rather than reading. Little sound effects were used when the narrative shifted from discussing a plant to a drink and recipe.
My only quibble, as with so many non-fiction audiobooks, is the lack of an accompanying pdf file. Photos, maps, drawings or in the case of The Drunken Botanist, the more than 50 drink recipes plus sketches of plants and a charts contained in the book are not available. And that’s a shame. There is a webpage for the book, drunkenbotanist.com, but if the information was available there, I couldn’t find it.
You don’t need to be a big drinker, or even a drinker at all to enjoy reading The Drunken Botanist. Although organized in an encyclopedia-type format, this is a very readable book put together in an entertaining and at times humorous style and reads like a narrative. Highly recommended for anyone curious about the plant world and the drinks we create from them.
——————————–
Source: Review copy through Audiobook Jukebox.
© 2013 Under My Apple Tree. All rights reserved.
For the month of April The Last Policemen is discounted to only $2.99 on all eReaders.
I know everyone likes a good deal and when I saw this favorite of mine was not only nominated for an Edgar Award but is also being offered at a special price, I had to share.
And it has a spiffy new cover too.
A Pre-Apocalyptic Detective Thriller
What’s the point in solving murders if we’re all going to die? Detective Hank Palace has asked this question ever since asteroid 2011GV1 hovered into view. Several kilometers wide, it’s on a collision course with planet Earth, with just six precious months until impact.
The Last Policeman presents a fascinating portrait of a pre-apocalyptic United States. Industry is grinding to a halt. Most people have abandoned their jobs. But not Hank Palace. As our story opens, he’s investigating the latest suicide in a city that’s full of suicides—only this one feels wrong. This one feels like homicide. And Palace is the only one who cares. What’s the point in solving murders if we’re all going to die?
The Last Policeman offers a story we’ve never read before: A police procedural set on the brink of an apocalypse. What would any of us do, what would we really do, if our days were numbered?
Click for My Review
Publisher by Quirk Books, July 10, 2012
——————————–
© 2013 Under My Apple Tree. All rights reserved.
Almost wordless: I’ve been seeing a lot of Bluebirds this past week. This little guy seemed happy that spring weather is almost here. And that makes me happy too.
——————————–
More Wordless Wednesday. © 2013 Under My Apple Tree. All rights reserved.
Life After Life
by Kate Atkinson
Genre: Historical Fiction / Fantasy
Publisher: Reagan Arthur Books
Publish Date: April 2, 2013
Format: Hardcover | 529 pages
Rating: 4 of 5
Publisher’s Synopsis:
What if you could live again and again, until you got it right?
On a cold and snowy night in 1910, Ursula Todd is born to an English banker and his wife. She dies before she can draw her first breath. On that same cold and snowy night, Ursula Todd is born, lets out a lusty wail, and embarks upon a life that will be, to say the least, unusual. For as she grows, she also dies, repeatedly, in a variety of ways, while the young century marches on towards its second cataclysmic world war.
My Thoughts:
I loved this book for its cleverness and beautiful writing. Ursula lives and dies many, many times over the course of the novel. Maybe even too many times. Ursula is always born in 1910, and with each rebirth we pick up the story at some point in her life. Sometimes it is years earlier, sometimes it’s near the point where she last died. The time shifting was part of the brilliance of the novel but it also required more than the usual amount of concentration to follow.
The author’s frequent use of The Butterfly Effect, where one small difference such as a fall down the stairs will cause an entirely different chain of events, was clever and inventive. At times Ursula’s lives overlapped. In one part, my favorite, she relives the Blitz in WWII over and over again, each time with a slightly different outcome derived from previous events in that life. Fantastic. Other times her life seemed to drone on and on and I wanted her to die already so we could get to something more interesting.
This is not a story about reincarnation. Ursula is reborn as the same person in the same time period over and over. Then what is it? She does have occasional feelings of déjà vu and in several lives sees a doctor about it but it’s all very vague. The author never addresses the how and the why. That is left up to the reader.
I read a lot of science and speculative fiction. I’m always looking for the explanation. Why is this happening? What is the purpose. Are these parallel universes, all existing at the same time or are they alternate histories, any one of which is what actually happened? Is she caught in a time loop like in Groundhog Day or is she fated to live her life over and over until she gets it right, like in Replay? And if she was fated to live her life again and again until it was right, the ending only left me confused.
It’s difficult to discuss this book without giving away spoilers. It’s complex, multi-layered and thought-provoking. This would make a great choice for a book club and the questions raised could spur a lot of interesting discussions.
In spite of the issues I had with the book, my expectations being a little too high, I did enjoy it a lot and highly recommend reading it. I was expecting speculative fiction and while the author does delve into the science fiction genre, she treats it as a historical novel with a twist.
——————————–
Source: Review copy.
© 2013 Under My Apple Tree. All rights reserved.
Mailbox Monday
Mailbox Monday was created by The Printed Page. It is the gathering place for readers to share the books that came into their home last week.
Mailbox Monday is currently on tour, hosted by a different blog each month. The April host is Mari @ MariReads
One print book and one audiobook last week ….
For review from Gotham Books:
The World’s Strongest Librarian
by Josh Hanagarne
An inspiring story of how a Mormon kid with Tourette’s found salvation in books and weight-lifting
The World’s Strongest Librarian illuminates the mysteries of this little-understood disorder, as well as the very different worlds of strongman training and modern libraries. With humor and candor, this unlikely hero traces his journey to overcome his disability— and navigate his wavering Mormon faith—to find love and create a life worth living.
For review from Penguin Audio:
Bristol House
by Beverly Swerling
In the tradition of Kate Mosse, a swiftly-paced mystery that stretches from modern London to Tudor England.
This riveting dual-period narrative seamlessly blends a haunting supernatural thriller with vivid historical fiction. Beverly Swerling, widely acclaimed for her City of Dreams series, delivers a bewitching and epic story of a historian and a monk, half a millennium apart, whose destinies are on a collision course.
————–
It’s Monday! What Are You Reading?
It’s Monday! What Are You Reading? is hosted by Sheila at Book Journey.
Share what you read last week and what you are currently reading.
Last week
I finished The Drunken Botanist by Amy Stewart and Something About Sophie by Mary Kay McComas.
I posted two reviews:
Something About Sophie
How to Get Filthy Rich in Rising Asia
Weekend Birding
Photos from my visit to a Great Blue Heron Rookery.
This week
I’m reading Snapper by Brian Kimberling and listening to The Unfinished Work of Elizabeth D. by Nichole Bernier followed by Written in Red by Anne Bishop.
Giveaways
For readers with a US mailing address:
A print copy of the memoir by child star Melissa Francis of Little House on the Prairie, Diary of a Stage Mother’s Daughter, through April 5th.
What are you reading?
——————————–
© 2013 Under My Apple Tree. All rights reserved.
Great Blue Herons usually nest in colonies with multiple nests per tree. A colony can have only a few or hundreds of nests. There are two rookeries in my area and I stopped by each of them to see what the birds were up to.
Nests are constructed of sticks which are collected by the male and woven together by the female. She then lines the nest cup with with pine needles, moss, reeds, dry grass, leaves, or small twigs.
It can take up to two weeks to build the nest. When complete they are about 2 feet across and can be as large as 4 feet across and 3 feet deep. The female will lay from 2 to 6 eggs which will hatch in about 4 weeks. Nestlings will remain in the nest for about 2 months.
This is the perfect time to observe the nests. Once the leaves are on the trees it becomes difficult to see them.
Saturday Snapshot is hosted by Alyce at At Home With Books. Visit her blog to see more great photos or add your own.
© 2013 Under My Apple Tree. All rights reserved.
How to Get Filthy Rich in Rising Asia
by Mohsin Hamid
Read by the author
Genre: Contemporary Fiction
Publisher: Penguin Audio
Publish Date: March 5, 2013
Format: Audio, 4 hours | 34 minutes
Audio Listening Level: Easy
Rating: 5 of 5
Publisher’s Synopsis:
The astonishing and riveting tale of a man’s journey from impoverished rural boy to corporate tycoon, it steals its shape from the business self-help books devoured by ambitious youths all over “rising Asia.” It follows its nameless hero to the sprawling metropolis where he begins to amass an empire built on that most fluid, and increasingly scarce, of goods: water. Yet his heart remains set on something else, on the pretty girl whose star rises along with his, their paths crossing and recrossing, a lifelong affair sparked and snuffed and sparked again by the forces that careen their fates along.
My Thoughts:
This rags to riches tale was brilliantly wrapped in the guise of a self-help manual. It is written in the second person about a nameless boy referred to as ‘You’. We are never told the name of the city or country the story is set in, only that you are in Asia. An entire life time passes, about 80 years, as we learn to live and do business in this unnamed foreign country.
It took me a few chapters to get oriented to the style of the book but it was well worth the effort. Each chapter is titled as if it were an instruction manual; for example: “One: Move to the City”, “Two: Get an Education”, Three: Don’t Fall in Love”. Second person narrative, nameless characters and an unknown setting serve to distance the reader and create an impersonal feeling, but as I delved into the story I became more and more interested in what happens to ‘You’ and I began to like him.
There is a lot more to the story than our character learning his way around the corruption and business world to become successful. We also learn about class and social structure and how difficult it is to rise beyond what is expected of you from your family. While ‘You’ fall in love with ‘the pretty girl’, you are expected to marry another, one that has been arranged for you. We learn about love, obligation, family, and choices as it relates to You’s life.
The audio was read by the author and while I am often critical of authors reading their own books, in this instance it worked well. The production was nicely paced and the author’s native accent gave the book an authentic feeling and the reminder that this was a foreign country.
I was pleasantly surprised at how much I liked this book and highly recommend this unique and original novel.
——————————–
Source: Review copy.
© 2013 Under My Apple Tree. All rights reserved.
**Any advertisements appearing below are placed by WordPress, not me. I have no control over their placement nor do I endorse or derive any income from them.**
Under My Apple Tree 