Tag: memoir

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A Book & A Beer – Roughhouse Friday by Jaed Coffin

We start with a memoir, which are not usually a style I delve into but Roughhouse Friday covers the topic of growing up and understanding your parents in a fresh way.

Part of that is due to the narrative thrust that is learning about yourself through boxing, also not normally a topic I choose to read about, and the setting in Alaska, which makes me shiver in cold just thinking about it.

Coffin made a few young man mistakes, some I recognize that I made, but he does not stray into “Lad” territory where you cringe at the worse aspects of masculinity. You can see as he gains boxing experience, he is gaining life experience outside the ring.

Alaska looms large in this book and the main beer that the “south” will know of and have tasted would be Alaskan Brewing Co. and might as well start with Juneau Juice Hazy IPA or Icy Bay IPA to get the bitterness of youth rolling. You could also pay homage to his mother’s Thai heritage with a Singha, Chang or BeerLao, whichever you can find. Those might be good to quaff after hitting the punching bag.

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A Book & A Beer – Draft # 4

This was going to be the book that I reviewed for March. But then some past events came to light.

So, I went to the next in line book, Draft # 4 by John McPhee.

This book is basically a writing class from an actual professor and actual working writer who published in The New Yorker amongst other gigs.

You get some behind the typewriter scenes about gathering material and how to structure a story but even more fascinating to me were the anecdotes about the fact checkers and the need to have writers green 1 a story, by which McPhee explains, is reducing the story by one line. And you can’t do that by just removing the last sentence.

The section on how he refused to use a regular “Word” program and instead kept a dying specific to just him software program afloat came across as a bit pompous especially when it is of little use to pretty much any aspiring writer.

That being said, it is always interesting to see how a writer builds a story and the pluck and luck needed.

To drink, I would start with a can from Evil Twin, I Plan On Writing An Epic Poem About This Gorgeous IPA. I know that McPhee is primarily non-fiction but that Name would make a writer smile and there are no hop puns.

If you are in Denver, you could just hit up Fiction Brewing and read the book there. Or for us Angeleno’s you could look for Stronger than Fiction from Bottle Logic in Orange County.