Tag: A Book & A Beer

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A Book & A Beer – Lone Women by Victor Lavalle

Old West and secrets, Victor Lavalle has found a good combination in his new book, Lone Women.

Lavalle is a Stephen King fan but this book is completely unlike anything King would write. Setting is one reason. This is post gold rush time in Montana when our protagonist, Adelaide Henry leaving California and a burning family home for a new homestead. She is carrying a large and heavy box which contains multiple secrets that will get you sitting upright real quickly. The book moves along and shows how different people react to Henry. Surprising all the way through and that is all I can really say without spoilers.

I would pair this with either an Anchor Steam or California Common or maybe just a straight up German-styled lager. But for the last few chapters, you might want to find a real hoppy and bitter red ale to get you to the final pages.

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In the Tap Lines for June 2023

June is a special month on the calendar. You have the Firestone Walker Invitational, you have L.A. Beer Week and the weather ain’t like a pizza oven yet here in Los Angeles. This month plenty of posts about the festivals and less about the weather.

~ e-visits to (3) breweries from the Central Coast

~ special featured reviews of beers to and back from Paso Robles

~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 Lone Women by Victor Lavalle

~ A Podcast & A Beer listens to Vinfamous

~ Sports & A Beer returns with the transfer portal

~ 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.

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A Book & A Beer – Stella Maris by Cormac McCarthy

I am a bit of a completist but I also do not like being told what to do, so when Cormac McCarthy wrote a duo of novels with one being a clear addendum to the main book, I was attracted more to that addendum than the main book.

The books in question are The Passenger and Stella Maris. The latter being the name of a psychiatric hospital that a woman named Alicia turns herself into for care. She is a mathmetician with a complicated past with her brother who headlines Passenger.

The year is 1972 and twenty year old Alicia starts talking to her therapist. The book is basically just the conversations between the therapist and Alicia. It is a testing set of exchanges as they verbally circle each other. Her life is slowly teased out over the pages.

At first it worked for me but the reveals were slow for me and a little drastic especially at the end but it was enough for me to grab the other book to read in backwards order.

For beer, I would look to finding beers thar you can blend. Maybe a Radler or a Black and Tan or whatever half and half pairing that you think would work. Experiment a bit like a scientist, test your math as well with what percentages work well.

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In the Tap Lines for May 2023

It has been a colder than usual spring here in L.A., heck the whole West Coast. No joke but it snowed in Portland on April 1st. Let’s dive into a month of beer fun with shorts on.

~ e-visits to (3) breweries from the upcoming Firestone Walker Invitational

~ special featured reviews of whatever is new in my ‘fridge

~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 Stella Maris by Cormac McCarthy

~ A Podcast & A Beer listens to Doctor Dante

~ Sports & A Beer returns with the proliferation of team jerseys

~ 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.

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A Book & A Beer – Dr. No by Percival Everett

The book for April is not by Ian Fleming, it is by Percival Everett, and it is a clever modern day re-imagining of the old take over the world plot.

Dr. No introduces us to three main characters, Wala Kitu, Eigen Vector and villain John Sill) plus a very important dog named Trigo. And it is a rollicking read about nothing. More specifically, finding nothing and the power of nothing.

Now I am no philosopher nor do I like math but Everett makes both really interesting and thought provoking. And his dive into the character of Wala is fascinating because you don’t get a lead who is on the spectrum get to be both broad but also deep.

The elevator pitch for this book would be Bond meets Dr. Strangelove with a hearty dose of metaphysics. And I highly recommend it.

This would be the perfect time to break out the N/A beers since they are both beer and not beer at the same time. I would suggest finding the weirdest beer you could like a glitter N/A beer.

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In the Tap Lines for April 2023

We just have to get few the April Beer Fool’s Day and then we can re-focus on the search for great beers here in Los Angeles and beyond, along with the following…

~ e-visits to (3) breweries from the State of Washington

~ special featured reviews of whatever is new in my ‘fridge

~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 Dr. No by Percival Everett

~ A Podcast & A Beer listens to Ringer Food News

~ Sports & A Beer returns for month three with Tanking talk

~ 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.

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A Book & A Beer – How to Be Eaten by Maria Adelmann

Faux celebrity and fifteen minutes of fame is the underlying theme of How to Be Eaten by Maria Adelmann and the author goes to some dark and stark places to bring a new perspective to popularity and its side effects.

Here is the GoodReads synopsis, it’s a doozy, “In present-day New York City, five women meet in a basement support group to process their traumas. Bernice grapples with the fallout of dating a psychopathic, blue-bearded billionaire. Ruby, once devoured by a wolf, now wears him as a coat. Gretel questions her memory of being held captive in a house made of candy. Ashlee, the winner of a Bachelor-esque dating show, wonders if she really got her promised fairy tale ending. And Raina’s love story will shock them all.”

This was a wild book. Just weirdness on every page. The fairy tale aspects didn’t work for me as much as the more reality show aspects. But it sure wasn’t a dull read at all. And I will certainly be on the lookout for future work when wandering in a bookstore.

On to the beer choices, I would try to find beers for each of the women in the group. Maybe something with rose hips or hibiscus for Ashlee. A dark Czech lager for Ruby. A pastry stout for Gretel. A black IPA for Bernice. And for Raina, maybe a beer with the label removed so you don’t know and have to guess.

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In the Tap Lines for March 2023

March, where the national holidays are sparse but a big ol’ beer drinking holiday is smack dab in the middle of the month. Also smack dab is the California Craft Brewers Conference. I will be in Sacramento covering CA Craft from my point of view.

~ e-visits to (3) breweries from around the Golden State

~ special featured reviews of Sacramento brewery beers

~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 How To Be Eaten by Maria Adelmann

~ A Podcast & A Beer listens to Let’s Make a RomCom

~ Sports & A Beer returns for month three with

~ 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.

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A Book & A Beer – The Three Musketeers by Alexandre Dumas

I do not actively hate books that I read. I may think a writing style is poor, or there is a character that I don’t like but I can usually ferret out a good component of a book.

Yet, I pick up a supposed classic. One that has a new two-part movie coming out and has had multiple movies made from it that is just crap. None of the three titular heroes are worth a damn. They drink and eat, to excess. They are offended and ready to duel at the drop of a hat and they have the money management skills of a toddler.

And yet, they are paragons compared to the complete asshole that is D’Artagnan who tries to have an affair with a married noble, then falls for the female villain while ignoring the servant girl who does everything he asks her to.

There is barely any action really. Mostly horse riding and a little sword play. The villainy is pretty cartoonish and the pacing of the book is painfully dull. I stopped reading two separate times and came back to it thinking that the kernel of a story or a character arc would arrive, but alas, it was not to be.

If you dare to read this mess or another howler of a book, I would recommend finding a beer that you thought was bad from your drinking past or a beer with bad marks on Untappd. The goal being to find out what flaws that the beer has thar are most offensive and if it could be saved.

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In the Tap Lines for February 2023

Technically the shortest month of the year, unless you know me, then it is sooo long because I really do like my birthday month and I like to find a really cool beer to have for that special day. So there’s that and…

~ e-visits to (3) breweries from the Sacramento area in preparation for the California Craft Beer Summit in March.

~ special featured reviews of my birthday 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 The Three Musketeers by Alexandre Dumas

~ A Podcast & A Beer listens to Let’s Make a Sci-Fi

~ Sports & A Beer returns for month two with All Star Games

~ 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.