A Book & A Beer – Tilt by Emma Pattee

Being from Portland, I have heard the warnings about the big one in Cascadia and going through earthquakes in Los Angeles gives me a tiny bit of experience so I was primed to read what Emma Pattee imagined could happen to the City of Roses and to one heavily pregnant woman walking through the aftermath and aftershocks, in Tilt.

Annie is our guide through this landscape and at best she is real, in the sense that she is working through shit now and from the past in messy real-time.  She is no hero, though her stamina is damn impressive throughout. But a lot of the time she is so annoyingly millennial.  

Now I can live with that type of character in a novel but when the other main character is her husband Dom, who if you can’t tell by the name is a selfish ass who would not be as far as he is without Annie.  Which, spoiler, ain’t that far. It makes a reader start looking for anyone to latch onto.  For me, it was Taylor, the Ikea employee who is there at the start and then re-appears later.  She has an arc and emotions to wrestle with. Or I could root for the earthquake.

It is a propulsive read and I liked the alternating chapters and the way the timelines came together and though some may not like the ending, I thought it was kinda inevitable and hit the mark. Overall, I was hoping for at least some revelation but I fear that Annie and Dom are still in Portland and stuck in their lives and in their heads.

For beer, instead of something specific, I would recommend s bit of a crawl through Portland’s Eastside beer haunts that you should check out like Belmont Station or Beermongers both excellent bottle shops and tap rooms that could easily provide an overview of Portland beer or you could swing by Living Haus beer which is right near the bridges that span the Willamette River that Annie is trying so hard to reach.

In the Tap Lines for May 2025

You may be asking yourself why there is a green glow around May. Surely, March would be a better month to talk toasties and spice bags. The reason behind the Irish centered posts this month is that, I will be there on the Wild Atlantic Way seeing what places like Galway, Limerick and Tullamore ( home of the D.E.W.) are like in 2025.

~ e-visits to (3) breweries from the Emerald Isle

~ special featured reviews of Irish beer

~Heads-Up on Los Angeles Beer Events

~ Three suggested beers to buy this month. One light, one medium and one dark

~ A Book & A Beer reads Tilt by Emma Pattee

~ A Podcast & A Beer listens to Stakeknife

~ Sports & A Beer returns with the sports of Ireland

~ New Beer Releases and Best Beers of the Month

~ I will tap the Firkin and give my no holds barred opinion on the craft beer world.

A Book & A Beer – Project Hail Mary by Andy Weir

Andy Weir is back in space with Project Hail Mary has the feel of two book ideas jammed into one.  The initial premise of a person waking up to find himself on a spaceship is a great start.  Remembering slowly how he got there is another good bit.  But about halfway through, the hero, the badly named Ryland Grace encounters another ship and the sci-fi novel turns into a buddy film.  

Will keep spoilers to a minimum since this is being made into a film like Weir’s previous book, The Martian which also had a lead character MacGyver’ing.  This time it is two.  Guess the next book will have three.

This is a book that had me spinning possible better book ideas once the Rocky character shows up.  Part of the issue is that, as opposed to the Martian, this plot is stuffed to the gills.  The Martian was simple.  Survive on Mars.  This was the sun going out, earth is in danger and must figure out why but have to figure that out light years away.  And when the stakes are that high the problems become larger and larger and the solutions to those problems become more and more implausible.

How Grace and Rocky can fix all the issues seems way past the grasp of two beings no matter how smart or resourceful.  I wish the book has just stayed with the amnesiac astronaut plot all the way through.

For beer, since the book is about, ostensibly, two different cultures working together.  See if you can find worldwide collaboration beers.  Or barring that, finding an East Coast meets West Coast on a beer style that is not often seen like an altbier or a beer with a strange adjunct.

In the Tap Lines for April 2025

Heading into the 2nd quarter of a truly horrendous 2025 here in America. If you are reading this in an airport or dock as you make your escape Casablanca style from this country, I will keep you updated on the beers of SoCal and the rest of what’s left and I hope I will hear about wonderful beers from other countries.

~ e-visits to (3) breweries from Vinepair’s Breweries to Watch list

~ special featured reviews

~Heads-Up on Los Angeles Beer Events

~ Three suggested beers to buy this month. One light, one medium and one dark

~ A Book & A Beer reads Project Hail Mary by Andy Weir

~ A Podcast & A Beer listens to Setting the Table

~ Sports & A Beer returns with NBA tanking

~ New Beer Releases and Best Beers of the Month

~ I will tap the Firkin and give my no holds barred opinion on the craft beer world.

A Book & A Beer – Watford Forever

Before Welcome to Wrexham, there was the yellow brick to Watford.  Elton John a lifelong Watford fan was owner of Watford back when they were really struggling back in the days before the Premiere League.  The book by John Preston in collaboration with Sir Elton covers the time frame of when the club started a truly meteoric rise under the watchful eye of manager Graham Taylor.

This was such a fun and joyful read.  Obstacles are overcome.  Even truly harrowing ones such as racism and drug addiction.  Players who may have not made a mark are vindicated and a town finds itself back on the rise.  But the moments that really stuck with me are tinier.  The friendship between Elton and the manager’s wife, Elton racking up long distance charges just to listen to a game, the introduction of statistical analysis to football.

This is one of the rare books that you wish did not end.  And now I do want to watch a Watford game from either the Graham Taylor Stand or the Elton John Stand.

For beer, since Watford has a connection to the Bee nickname, let’s look to honey ales as they are usually quite sessionable for when you are watching a 90 minute game.

In the Tap Lines for March 2025

Spring sprang into summer in February so lighter, crisper beers are already in season as it were. Also in season is basketball and soccer plus….

~ e-visits to (3) breweries that will be pouring at the Firestone Walker Invitational Beer Festival

~ special featured reviews

~Heads-Up on Los Angeles Beer Events

~ Three suggested beers to buy this month. One light, one medium and one dark

~ A Book & A Beer reads Watford Forever

~ A Podcast & A Beer listens to Good Hang with Amy Poehler

~ Sports & A Beer returns with Why does March Madness not seem a sell-out but College football does?

~ New Beer Releases and Best Beers of the Month

~ I will tap the Firkin and give my no holds barred opinion on the craft beer world.

A Book & A Beer – Our Share of Night by Mariana Enriquez

This is my first real big book in a while. Nearly 600 pages for Our Share of Night by Mariana Enriquez.

This is a supernatural / horror genre book with locales in South America and England and Africa for a tiny bit too. For a long novel, it moves pretty swiftly snd considering the time jumps from section to section and lead voice changes, is easy to follow along with.

The book is centered on Juan and his son Gaspar in the days and then years following the death of the wife and mother., Rosario who was born into a truly weird cult whose members thinks they can find eternal life from the Darkness. But you do not want to mess with the manifestation of it because it will take fingers, arms or eat you alive.

Juan is the medium from which the Darkness is summoned but being that middle man is killing him and he does not want that for his son which is the main plot driver.

I would give Our Share of Night a mild recommendation. If you can get past the inescapable fact that the father does not communicate to his son anything that would help him against the cult then you will be OK. So many events could have been avoided with a simple five minute conversation. The other big issue for me was the rushed ending. A book this long shouldn’t have to speed through the action at the end and then just abruptly end.

You will need a few different beers for this one and my main choice would be to try a couple things. First, look for a raspberry or cherry chocolate stout. Blood and darkness. You could also do a Guinness blend with the Irish stout with a fruited wheat beer or if you want to get experimental, a fruited sour.

In the Tap Lines for February 2025

My favorite month is here. Mostly ’cause it is my birthday month and I use all 28 or 29 days that I get to the point of exhausting everyone else. For this blog, I will do my best to exhaust you with beer news.

~ e-visits to (3) breweries from Oregon

~ special featured reviews

~Heads-Up on Los Angeles Beer Events

~ Three suggested beers to buy this month. One light, one medium and one dark

~ A Book & A Beer reads Our Share of Night

~ A Podcast & A Beer listens to An Arm and a Leg

~ Sports & A Beer returns with How to Fix the Blazers

~ New Beer Releases and Best Beers of the Month

~ I will tap the Firkin and give my no holds barred opinion on the craft beer world.

A Book & A Beer – Knife by Salman Rushdie

Memoirs are not usually my cuppa but after hearing Salman Rushdie talk about his scary new book, Knife about his near fatal stabbing, I added it to my library list and I was quite taken by the thoughtfulness and openness displayed. It could have been easy to be simplistic about such a horrifying attack recounting events in a rote fashion but Rushdie plumbs deeper and looks at the whole picture and not just one victim and one attacker and the medical consequences.

Such a violent and bloody book make for a much harder beer choice. But I will lean into the word meditations in the sub-title and suggest finding comfort beers. Nothing hoppy or bitter because that is not what this book is about. Find a lovely brown ale like Figueroa Mountain’s Davy Brown or look for a nice porter from your local brewery.

In the Tap Lines for January 2025

Strap in folks, there is gonna be some turbulence in 2025. I have mentioned, just yesterday in fact, that economics are going to be bad and the now annual Dry January will not help the beer world so be kind and helpful to counteract the bad vibes that are sure to be spinning.

~ e-visits to (3) breweries from Hop Culture’s Best of List

~ special featured reviews

~Heads-Up on Los Angeles Beer Events

~ Three suggested beers to buy this month. One light, one medium and one dark

~ A Book & A Beer reads Knife by Salman Rushdie

~ A Podcast & A Beer listens to Sherlock Holmes Short Stories

~ Sports & A Beer returns with teams that are easy to hate

~ New Beer Releases and Best Beers of the Month

~ I will tap the Firkin and give my no holds barred opinion on the craft beer world.