Follow Sean Inman to the best in craft beer
During a grocery store run, I saw a Time Magazine – Beer Issue. First thought was that Time is still kicking? Second thought was, should I even look at it?
Well, my judgemental side steered me wrong. Touring through the happier canyons of Twitter, I saw this….
So, I guess both you and I should pick this special issue up.
Yes, it is that David Duchovny of X-Files and Californication. And Miss Subways is his third book but the first that I have read.
The book follows Emer, a teacher in New York City whose romantic life is complicated not only by the usual pressures of life but by the existence of Gods of long ago erase her boyfriend Con, from her life, only for them to re-connect. It is a rom-com mixed with Neil Gaiman lite and chock-filled with contemporary asides.
Overall, I like quite a few of the ideas in the book. Quotes in the subway cars amidst the ads and people on phones is well done. Duchovny has selected telling quotes without being too obvious. I like the school characters as well. From the principal Sidney to her friend Izzy and even the three troublesome students have single but cool dimensions to them. New York is given a lived in and local character as well which adds a nice dimension.
The boyfriend with the weird Gaelic name seems a bit wimpy to me, especially in comparison to Emer. She could do a lot better, is something I uttered out loud on a couple of occasions. And that shortcoming sort of cuts the book’s knees out from under it. Con doesn’t have to be perfect but he seems weak even for someone who has proverbially sold his love.
Now if this blog came to you from New York and not Los Angeles, the beer choosing would be a lot easier. Most New York beer doesn’t really make it out to us but considering the romantic nature of the book, I really do need to pick an Other Half beer, so I will go for Short, Dark and Handsome, their Stout.
In wider release, since their is plenty of Irish in this book, Guinness would be a good choice. Or you could go light and go for Harp instead since that musical instrument has more romance behind it.
More local, head to Ogopogo Brewing in San Gabriel and pick up their stout, Ashrays. Those are mythical water creatures and the book deals heavily in myths but as the kicker, they are sometimes called the water lovers or water ghosts.
I have really only heard Gustavo Arellano before and not read either of his books or his famous “Ask a Mexican” column. That voice is distinctive and opinionated which is why I like hearing his take on everything from Orange County politics on KCRW or tacos on the Netflix show Ugly Delicious with David Chang.
So, after watching the taco episode (finally, I know that I am behind), I picked up Arellano’s book Taco USA to further my knowledge.
And it was a fun survey of Mexican food and its impact on the United States and its food culture and how the tectonic clash has created all sorts of sub-styles across the country. I learned about so many different dishes but more interesting were the little histories of tortillas in a can or the creation of “American” salsa. Remember “get a rope” from the Pace commercials?
And, thankfully, Arellano’s voice comes through loud and clear in print as well. Whether it is a take down of Rick Bayless or describing a trip to see the shards of a tortilla that supposedly had the face of Jesus on it.
To drink while reading the book, it seems appropriate to head to Santa Ana and the Good Beer Company. Maybe have their Senorita Gose or Abuela Wild Ale.
Or you could pick up something from the not-as-hot now Mexican Lager category. Dos Topas from Topa Topa Brewing or Mexican Lager from Ska Brewing come to mind.
Or as an authentic option, pick up a bottle from La Insurgente, a Mexican craft brewery.
A beer with salt? Yup, and it has a crazy timeline in beer history and now Fal Allen who is reinvigorating the style at Anderson Valley Brewing has written the book on the style and will be leading readers from “Goslar through Halberstadt, Leipzig, across the pond to America, and around the world.” The title? Gose.
I will be looking for this book to fill in the gaps of my education of the beer and the history of this lightly sour wheat beer style. And to see what insight Allen has as to where it might go in the future.
I picked up this book at the library based only on the fact that I watched both seasons of Jessica Jones and really liked the show, so with curiosity, I started reading Bonfire by the actress Krysten Ritter.
And despite the book’s subject matter being Sharp Objects Lite, I thought that it could be a thriller for good summer reading. But there were just too many by-the-book plotlines and characters that made it read like something that even Netflix would not stream. The wounded lawyer returning to rural roots, the troubled father, the poisoned water, the sassy gay friend, the cliques of high school, drinking to excess and the the easy sex that inevitably follows. By the time the final plot twist arrives, it is of the “explain everything” variety. Not much nuance to be found.
Since the book is set in Indiana and California doesn’t get much Hoosier beer (even though I saw listings for breweries such as Book & Brew and Burn ‘Em Brewing). It left my choices to smoke beers or to sours from Upland Brewing Co. Cherry and Crimson being two that I have seen on shelves. Or even deeper cuts, if you are into trading like Cauldron Wild Ale or Dark Before Dawn Saison.
Followers of the blog know that I am not a chef, executive chef or anything kitchen related but I do see talent that has that expertise and Melissa Cole has “It”.
And she has a new book with 70+ recipes that just so happen to have beer involved. Pork chops. Blue cheese polenta. Hefeweizen sauce, flatbreads. All there. So if you can move about a kitchen, pick up The Beer Kitchen.
It may seem a mostly fun world of beer but alcohol has some huge downsides. No matter the reports that claim and counterclaim positive benefits. That is why I am always on the lookout for books about the topic, and I found a new one by Leslie Jamison, The Recovering.
And this book, though hard to read and fathom the depths of suffering caused by addiction, is excellent in showing what it is like to go through. It is carefully written and unflinching in detail.
The story weaves the author’s personal journey to sobriety amidst examination of other writer’s depictions and struggles with alcohol and drugs. You also get a mini-History of AA (Alcoholics Anonymous) as well.
You quickly learn that the stories of addiction, while outwardly dis-similar, have many of the same characteristics. Empathy and not stigmatizing those who are caught up in the addiction is key.
Both sides of my family have drinkers and knowing that coupled with a revulsion of that spinning feeling when too much has been drunk has kept me restrained. I have counted ounces and set goals for my beer drinking which I think will serve me well as I grow older. But if I didn’t have that, this book would be a “scared straight” revelation. Drunk me won’t be able to solve problems that sober me is having difficulty with at all.
In the end, get help. Be it AA or medication or therapy. Or ideally, a combination of all three. Jamison has had a turbulent life but her gained wisdom will be of great service.
Browsing the beverages section of the lovely Vroman’s Bookstore one recent day, I saw this on the shelves and snapped a quick pic…
Lager by Dave Carpenter dives into the world of the famous style and gives you history and recipes in one hard-bound book.
Carpenter has the credentials to trust as a “longtime beer and home-brewing writer and the Editor in Chief of Zymurgy magazine.”
Nuggets of wisdom inside the book include:
“Why does lager, not ale, dominate world beer production, despite its comparative difficulty to produce?
Why are certain European styles like Vienna lager more associated with brewing in Mexico than on the Continent?
What does St. Louis have to do with České Budějovice?
What role does lager play in today’s expanding craft beer landscape?”
Setting aside the two big events that happened outside of this true crime book from Michelle McNamara. The author’s untimely death mid-writing and the capture through genetics of the Golden State Killer, what I was left with was a book that is less than satisfying.
Then again, I brought high expectations to I’ll Be Gone in the Dark. And initially as the story interweaves between McNamara and her childhood and accounts of the increasingly horrifying crimes, the expectations are met. But then the book settles down into simplistic recounting of the assaults and murders and theories that range from weird to faintly plausible and it becomes a little too voyeuristic.
By the end, in sections cobbled together by researchers, the book just becomes an outline that, when paired with the actual killer take on a wild guess character.
For a beer to pair with it, since the crimes started in the Sacramento area, I would go with Fieldwork Pulp or Pulp Free or Track 7’s Panic IPA. Bitter beers for a bitter point in California history.
The common wisdom is that the elderly have lessons for us if we can stand still enough to listed. The book, Happiness is a Choice You Make gives you example after example of that but also simply shares the lives of a sampling of people at the twilight of their lives.
Author John Leland has chosen a nice group of people to illuminate both the past and the present and the challenges that occur as we age and our bodies start to wear out and wear thin.
This book could easily get too maudlin or too sugary sweet but Leland, perhaps bringing his middle age angst to the writing, only veers into either side, never staying for too long. Sometimes he tries to shoehorn a life into a general life tip example but mostly he just distills down what is going on and how all ages can be a little happier earlier in life.
Thankfully this also doesn’t become a self-help book either. More a lighted path that you can either take or not.
A happy beer choice would be for you hoarders (myself included) to find a beer from their deep cellar. Maybe even the oldest one and open it! If you can’t bear to do that, perhaps pick up a nice barleywine to sip as you read this engrossing book.