Tag: A Book & A Beer

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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.

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A Book & A Beer – Fairy Tale by Stephen King

Stephen King made his mark with horror but he has a firm grasp on many genre styles including pot boiler, thriller, crime. The dude could probably write books for toddlers and sell them like hotcakes. He is back into fantasy with the somewhat blandly named Fairy Tale.

It takes awhile to get to the tale and the action as King patiently sets up the main character that you will be following through the journey, Charlie Reade. Unless you are a dog person, then the main character might just be Radar.

As usual King books move. Even the early pages turn quickly. But I felt the book tried too hard to make Charlie a saint by his actions but a flawed one by his early teenage bad days which were continually brought up again.

And I almost preferred the front half story about the father and the son and the mysterious man in the crumbling house. The fairy tale land is purposefully pale but that makes it less interesting.

To pair with a book with such a there and back again quality, I would go for a one beer, then a variant of that beer. A pilsner, then an Italian Pilsner, West Coast IPA then Cold IPA or maybe a Pale ale with a past like Sierra Nevada paired with a Belgian Pale ale

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In the Tap Lines for January 2023

Welcome to 2023! Are the years moving fast for you as well? I know time is a construct of humans but boy does it move fast at times. This blog now enters its 14th year!! Crazy. Let’s start strong with….

~ e-visits to (3) breweries from the Hop Culture Best New Breweries list of 2022 like Fox Tale Fermentation Project, Bizarre Brewing and Mahalo Ale Works

~ special featured reviews of ciders received for Christmas from Portland Cider Co.

~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 Fairy Tale by Stephen King

~ A Podcast & A Beer listens to Seen Through a Glass

~ 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 Revolutionary Samuel Adams by Stacy Schiff

Samuel Adams has a beer connection, you might have heard of it. Now I got the chance to read Stacy Schiff’s take on The Revolutionary, Samuel Adams.

This is an atypical biography for sure. It does not march lockstep from birth to death with hearty doses of familial backstory. Nope, Schiff has Adams on the run from the very start. A trio of Adams, John Hancock and Paul Revere are wanted whether thet be on land or on sea.

Adams comes across as a prodigious writer. His hand must have hurt all the time. Penning tracts for newspapers, writing correspondence and then almost as quickly destroying it lest it fall into wrong hands. His true strength also lay in his thinking about how to outwit the British governor and Lieutenant governor in Boston. He was a prime antagonist.

He seemed built for this particular slice of American history. To joust with words over the definition of liberty and freedom. As Schiff points out, his life had been just kinda normal before and them quiet again after the revolution. Almost a designated hitter for the birth of America.

For beer, I would lean towards something that was revolutionary for craft beer when microbreweries and brewpubs were starting out. Look for an amber ale, a fruity wheat ale or a brown ale. They are not in supply at some breweries and you probably won’t find a 16oz can but maybe on tap and maybe you can read the paper (on your phone) and see what the city, state and world is up to.

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In the Tap Lines for December 2022

Congratulations! You made it to month 12! Some people are into Easter eggs, some love a BBQ on the 4th while others love a costume and scares. Me, I like Christmas even in Southern California. There will be holiday beer fun all month so get ready…

~ e-visits to (3) breweries from Western New York where the snow is as deep as I am tall

~ special featured reviews of Winter Seasonals

~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 Revolutionary Samuel Adams by Stacy Schiff

~ A Podcast & A Beer listens The Sunshine Place

~ 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 – Endless Night by Agatha Christie

My parents had the full collection of Agatha Christie books. I never really got into them but I saw a lonely book of hers in a Little Free Library so I picked it up as a change of pace.

The book is Endless Night…

It was not what I expected. Yes, there was an heiress, greedy relatives, a curse and a few scattered murders but it was set in a more modern ’60s-’70s England and there was no detective to gather all the suspects around a fire. I guessed half correctly but I liked the rather fierce ending to the tale and the landscape conjured by Christie.

This was an excellent fall read and so I would recommend a couple beers to pair with this. Specific to Los Angeles choices but similar beers can be found in your area.

First is Foliage, an Autumn Lager from Enegren Brewing. Here are notes about the beer, “German malts give this lager its copper color and full body, while American Chinook and Cascade hops add a snappy pine and citrus kick.”

Then to Beachwood for Freudian Sip which “is brewed with toasty Vienna malt & floral German hops. This crisp amber lager is no slip of the palate.”

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In the Tap Lines for November 2022

Halloween just passed, Turkey Day a’comin quick and before you can blink, Christmas. All of that means holiday beers and winter warmers and IPAs dressed up cold for the snow. Plus, this…

~ e-visits to (3) breweries from the Brewseum Breweries

~ special featured reviews of the Sierra Nevada Bourbon Barrel Bigfoot Barleywine

~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 Endless Night by Agatha Christie

~ A Podcast & A Beer listens to The Briefcase featuring Casey Holdahl

~ 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.