Loved this book. Well written and entertaining, the descriptions (which are lists of the components) of the local environments are excellent. Julia remembers her life with husband Paul, their love of France and struggles in the diplomatic service and writing of the cookbook and the making of the TV shows. The details apparently gleaned from the volumes of correspondence written by both Julia and Paul to their siblings.
I really sympathized with the struggle to find accurate descriptions of cooking techniques and ingredients, missing in nearly every other cookbook. I find the same problems writing my cooking blog and teaching myself methods and how to judge ingredients. So many cook books and online recipes and instructions are written with little detail or with needless complexity.
The 5th book in Smith's Isabel Dalhousie series. At first, I was frustrated by this series, as nothing happens, but I do like the character Isabel, who is secretly very wealthy, but lives a fairly ordinary life in Edinburgh. She is a philosopher and so dwells on the ethics and morals of every thought and non event, much like we all do. Mostly confident and only slightly neurotic, she is a hero in a way.
One of those books that slows you right down, not only to savour the writing and language and to appreciate the poignant and humorous twists, but also to think about the meanings of the stories. Breathtaking and heartbreaking, you can't stop reading.
The book is composed of numerous chapters representing strains of several men and women of various religions and stations in life, living in what is now Fethiye in southern Turkey. The book spans Turkey's history from the rise of Ataturk, Gallipolli, and various exchanges of Greeks and Turks people between Greece and Turkey until the final wholesale expulsion of these peoples. It describes the impact of ridding the population of Armenians and Greeks, leaving the remaining population without doctors, most trades and merchants, and anyone who can read or write.
No dates are mentioned, which gives you the feel of the events from the point of view of the mostly illiterate characters. Interspersed is a terse biography of Ataturk himself as forms his views on modernization of Turkey and positions himself to take control of the country. A vague knowledge of history is helpful for orientation.
A must read from every point of view.
Recommended by Loris. Started Feb. 4, 2010, finished Feb. 9, 2010. Must read for anyone interested in the world history, economics, environment, and social issues.
Really interesting and well organized, a mixture of common sense, startling statistics, and optimism. I found the chapters on the economic crises in Poland, China, etc. extremely enlightening (didn't pay attention at the time). He describes the roles of the IMF, World Bank and the US, who are the culprits in many cases.
Sachs defines three types of poverty and explains how nations can eliminate extreme poverty (life itself is precarious). 500 hundred years ago everybody was extremely poor, except for a tiny elite. At this time there are 1 billion extreme poor, less than 20% of the world's population, which has declined in the last two decade from 50%. Put this way, one can't help but have a good feeling that progress is being made quite rapidly.He explains in detail all the factors that lead to extreme poverty, including politics and disease and geography. He has a plan for eliminating "extreme" poverty that certainly sounds doable to this cynic. He debunks every possible excuse for not doing it. He is most harsh on the US for giving the smallest GDP percentage of foreign aid of all countries in the world (by far).
Great book, very entertaining, over too soon.
Two sisters try to deal with their elderly father's Ukrainian girl friend, who is using him to stay in England.
Any woman with a sister or father will identify with the resentments that infest the irrestible need to do one's duty with family. Lewycka has great insight into family dynamics and the immigrant survivor's motivation. I especially appreciated the description of her father's attitude toward his daughters --- they are not real women, too independent and bossy. At the same time, she skewers everyone including herself. I chuckled everytime Crap car was mentioned.
Once, while between jobs, I attended a trial in Vancouver, and thereby briefly became a follower of William Deverell. He was very dashing and came over to kibbutz with us young girls.
A few weeks later, I sat in on the historically important Papajohn trial, where he defended Papajohn for rape and won using the defense of mistaken consent, setting a precedent in law, although a shameful one. I watched one whole day of his destruction of the victim.
Another degree of separation --- friend of a friend had an affair with him, which ended badly evidently, and was in heartbroken recovery at the time.
He retired and started writing mysteries and other books, based on his criminal law practice, and I have read all his novels and true crime books.
The Vancouver city and island settings and characters are good and always have the ring of truth (autobiographical I assume). His writing has improved over the years, most notably his female characters.
I find the plots a bit wearying but enjoy the descriptions of court and island life, and his descriptions of male/female relationships from the male point of view. The male characters are always hopelessly directed by sex, and even the best of them are clumsily doing the minimum to keep their women from leaving them. The women live with these weak rays of goodness.
Kill All the Judges is a good light read. The novel within a novel technique however is boring and irritating.
