Tag: A Book & A Beer

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In the TapLines for April 2022

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One quarter of the year gone by in a flash.  Now it is time for spring-y beers or as they should be called in SoCal, early summer ales.

~ e-visits to (3) breweries that will be pouring at the return of the Firestone Walker Invitational
~ special featured reviews of press review beers from Figueroa Mountain, Stone and Firestone Walker
~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 South to America by Imani Perry
~ A Podcast & A Beer listens to History Hit with Dan Snow
~ Great Beer names 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 Anomaly by Hervé Le Tellier

Lost meets Fringe and X-Files is how I would elevator this Goncourt winning novel by Hervé Le Tellier. The Anomaly is about one flight that is more than one.

Stop here if you are not a fan of fast paced, sci-fi. Because this book is a page turner. It practically is a sub prestige level TV show a’la Manifest that (may) still be on. But it talks chance, science, scenario 42 and is both fun, smart and a touch poignant as well.

I am talking around the plot since it is best to enjoy it in the moment. So let’s turn to the beer choices…

This will involve a little legwork to accomplish. Find a beer that has an easy to find canned on date. Then get two of them but with different dates. If you can, get one that is two or three months older. Then try both and compare.

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In the Tap Lines for March 2022

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Out of Birthday Month and into a mask free world?  Not quite in L.A. County but it regular life is looming, does that mean regular beer life is here, or did I miss its re-introduction?

~ e-visits to (3) breweries that you may look past because they are “old”
~ special featured reviews of classic dark beers from yesteryear
~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 Anomaly by Hervé Le Tellier
~ A Podcast & A Beer listens to Plain English with Derek Thompson
~ Great Beer names 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 Love Songs of W.E.B. DuBois by Honorée Fanonne Jeffers

Honorée Fanonne Jeffers has achieved quite a feat. Going from poetry to a 790 page novel and making it interesting all the way through. The Love Songs of W.E.B. Du Bois is a Book with a capital B.

Jeffers is adept at pulling the tangled strings of personal history of individual members of an extended family tighter and tighter until the point where each step becomes a boom throughout the genealogy.

Our lead is Ailey, the youngest daughter. But all the characters get a moment in the sun, hence the length of the book. She is fierce and smart in equal measure but she like most of the characters has lived with weight saddled on them and then they add more with their life choices.

This book has garnered all sorts of accolades but I wish that there was less tripping of one’s self going on. Early pregnancy and drugs are there but at times the book is just too much. A little nod to balance would have highlighted the rocky times in sharper focus especially considering the slavery and Native American darkness of early Georgia that flashes throughout the book. I thought, more than a few times, “don’t do that, it is not going to end well.”

I am going to go the really obvious route here. For those of us in Los Angeles, Crowns & Hops is a brewery coming to Inglewood in the next year or two. They first and foremost a quite good beer maker and second are a black run business. Get a mixed 4-pack if you haven’t had their beers before.

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In the Tap Lines for February 2022

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It is birthday month!  That means special reviews and fun.  Also a head to head battle of beers, the Premier League and a big ol’ doorstop of a book.  And a white tiger too.

~ e-visits to (3) breweries from Premier League locales
~ special featured reviews of beers bought from City Beer Store
~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 Love Songs of W.E.B Dubois
~ A Podcast & A Beer listens to Wild Things
~ Great Beer names 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 – Beautiful World, Where Are You by Sally Rooney

I really quite liked Normal People by Sally Rooney plus the NY Times book crew really liked her latest book, so I picked up Beautiful World, Where Are You at the library.

And it was not to my liking.

I did not like any of the four main characters. Nor did I find their choices very smart. The last sixty pages or so were a slog. There were a couple times where I wished there would be some extraordinary outside event happen, like a car crash or illness. Anything to pull the novel out of the rut it was in.

I think Rooney has a style and characters that are just on the tipping point for me in terms of likability. Normal People stayed at the point but Beautiful World and Alice, Eileen, Simon and Felix fell over.

For this novel, pick two beers from breweries that you don’t normally like and do the same and pick two styles that you don’t like and taste them and try to match them to the four main characters.

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In the Tap Lines for January 2022

header_attractionsWelcome to 2022!  I have a feeling that it will be a better year than the two previous.  Maybe that is optimism or just that I keep seeing new beers pop up and it makes me hopeful.  Have a blessed new year!

~ e-visits to (3) breweries that I would like to visit in 2022
~ special featured reviews of beer brewed in LA
~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 Beautiful World, Where Are You by Sally Rooney
~ A Podcast & A Beer listens to Close to Death
~ Great Beer names 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 – Foundation by Isaac Asimov

I have not read a lot of old school Sci-Fi. A bit of Heinlein, Dick and Asimov. But I was so taken by the visuals and dual (if not more) story arcs in the TV show version of Foundation that came out this year, that when I saw a pair of used Foundation books, I snapped them up.

First, I had to wrap my head around the amount of changes from page to streaming screen. Once, that was done, I needed to try to figure out why the additions and alterations were made. In that, I was less successful.

The book (one of a trilogy that spawned sequels then prequels) is very spare. Even Asimov admits that there is a lack of action. The fact that these stories were individual first then collected together shows a bit. There does seem to be a lack of spine down the center.

And yet, the world building is enchanting and the people sure but flawed since they are part of a multi-generational plan that you start to root for them and hope that they are indeed following Seldon’s plan.

To drink, I would suggest, since, we cannot drink beers from other planets that you instead lay in a supply of different beers from Ecliptic Brewing from Portland. Perhaps Starburst IPA or Orange Giant Barleywine. Suitably space themed for your own journey to Terminus.

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In the Tap Lines for December 2021

header_attractionsThis is where the Christmas rubber meets the holiday road.  This month we dive into seasonals every day until Christmas plus Christmas beer reviews.  Get your tinsel out.

~ e-visits to (3) breweries that made the Craft Beer & Brewing Best Of List
~ special featured reviews of beers with a touch of the Christmas.
~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 Foundation by Isacc Asimov
~ A Podcast & A Beer listens to My Dad Wrote a Porno
~ Great Beer names 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 – Normal People by Sally Rooney

Sally Rooney has gotten a lot of press for her books but it took me awhile to hear about her, and so instead of picking up her latest book ” Beautiful World, Where Are You?”, I chose an earlier one, Normal People.

It follows Marianne and Connell two high schoolers about to leave County Sligo for college in Dublin and how they weave in and out of each other’s lives as the years pass.

Normally, I am not fond of the will they – won’t they being stretched past all reasonable bounds. If you can’t write past meet cute then I lose interest. But the two leas characters in this book are moving, both through life and emotionally and by making them three-dimensional, what could be contrived re-meetings are more akin to two people orbiting each other. I thought the book ended well and would be up to have Rooney re-visit these characters when she and they are older.

Because this book moves through the lives of it protagonists, a flight of beers from your cellar might be in order. Maybe a flight of Anchor Christmas or the Anniversary beers from Firestone Walker.