Archive for » December, 2009 «
23
Dec 2009
Because of the holidays and all that good stuff, I have decided to extend the Wednesday book game for another week. There are six titles up there already… This could be another winner.
Category: Announcements
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20
Dec 2009
When my husband and I travel, we don’t like to get stuck into any one place for food. We like to explore the area and take our chances. However, there are times when we find a place that is so good that we can’t resist breaking our rule and going there as often as we can until we have to move on…
Batemans Bay Bakehouse is a lovely corner deli style café on the main street of Batemans Bay you will likely drive or walk on if you’re touring around or looking for something to eat in town.
Gorgeous floor to ceiling windows around a modest eating area means being able to enjoy the sunshine and foot traffic while keeping away from the occasionally chilly breezes or rain while you eat.
There is also the outdoor seating option, well protected from the sun by large café umbrellas with the added cool bay breezes and a quiet courtyard to gaze out at if you sit at the edge. Though a smidge crowded at times, this is my favourite option.
Fresh squeezed delicious juices and delicious build-your-own focaccias are my personal favourites off the delicious menu and open cakes/pies selections.
If you’re going to stop here, you simply must build your own foccacia (or roll). With fresh, quality ingredients including many things from chicken to tasty cheese, you’ll be sure to get a foccacia (fresh or toasted) that you won’t forget any time soon. I went for a chicken, cheese and avocado fresh foccacia that I still drool about.
Of course, you can get savoury pies, rolls, croissants, cakes, gelati, tarts, sandwiches, wraps… Do I really need to go on? It is a bakehouse, after all.
Of course, a café review wouldn’t be complete without a bit about the coffee.
A good measure of a barista is how well they can follow directions when you’re specific about how you like your coffee. At Batemans Bay Bakehouse, they listen to what you want and follow directions to a ‘t’. A strong cup of coffee with a strong 4 cups rating, it was worth coming back for the coffee if nothing else.
Speaking of coffee, one thing my husband noticed while we were there is the barista on duty obviously knew what she was doing.
It’s easy to see this is a popular meeting as well as takeaway place. Prams and conversation a’plenty, I would be shocked if you ever found yourself sitting in the bakehouse alone. And, even then, I have no doubt that the staff would be great for a conversation.
Not only that, they remember what you like when you come in the next day. There isn’t much that will make you feel more valued as a customer than that.
I could definitely spend the morning or afternoon there enjoying the food and reading my novel.
***
Coffee Rating: 4 Cups
Coffee Price: $3.00
Reader Rating: Novel
Batemans Bay Bakehouse
Shop 6, Blandford Plaza
Orient Street
PO Box 1174
Batemans Bay, NSW 2536
(02) 4472 3999
Category: Café Reviews
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20
Dec 2009
Things have been busy but calm all at the same time this past week. It’s quite strange, but I take it to mean that I am finally getting the hang of the thing I want so much – balancing my time. Work, creative writing, reading… I’ve actually done it all this week. Weird.
Recently my reading focused has honed in on a non-fiction book: The Cult of the Amateur – How Today’s Internet is Killing Our Culture and Assaulting Our Economy by Andrew Keen.
Long title. Interesting subject.
As complicated as the title may make it sound, Keen actually does a good job of making himself clear on what he is saying and what his position is. I won’t get into it any more than that because I don’t want to write a review until I’m done.
One way I know a book is a good one is if it moves me to feel something. Even if that something is a hatred of the book, it’s still a ‘good’ book because of the lack of apathy on my part.
I already know this is a good book. I’m only fifty pages in and twice already I’ve gotten into a deep conversation with my husband about certain aspects of the book. I nearly preached to him as we talked about it last night.
Why do I have so much to say about this book? Because I feel Keen ignores key things, but on the other hand, I can understand why he does. But the very fact I am so impassioned about this book and this subject to actually go on and on about it makes it a good book no matter how I feel about it at the end.
(Mind you, the case would be different were it a fiction book. Bad endings can turn good books bad.)
What I’m wondering is if you have ever gotten so wrapped up in a book that you couldn’t help but go on and on about it. That you couldn’t help but talk with anyone who would listen to you go on about it.
Category: Sunday Salon
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18
Dec 2009
About the Book
The Jewish Lady, The Black Man and the Road Trip celebrates race relations while serving as a poignant travelogue. The reader rides shotgun as this interracial couple embarks on a five-week action packed road trip from Miami to Montreal in her hot yellow Mustang convertible. They visit her dynamic family and discover a level of intimacy that neither has ever known.
Women of all ages will emerge enlightened and relieved to learn that sex later in life still smolders with passion, remains spicy and is here to stay!
The Long Story
I love biographies and memoirs. I love reading about the life lessons and experiences other people have so I can learn to live my life in a more satisfying, fulfilling way.
Yet, it’s almost always hard to review biographies and memoirs because it feels like you’re judging their life instead of their writing, but I assure you I focus on the latter.
Carol Sue Gershman is, beyond anything else, utterly Carol. No apologies or excuses, she is who she says. She embodies what many women would love to be: confident, happy and living life on her own terms. Though we are separated by many years, those aspects of Gerhman’s personality are what kept me reading her book.
If you’re looking for a US travelogue, than this probably isn’t the book for you. While it is about a road trip, the focus is not so much where they go but the relationship Carol and Xavier explore as well as the conversations they have. However, it is that aspect – besides Gershman’s personality – that I liked. I suppose I’m a bit of a voyeur, and you don’t get much more voyeurism than with this book. You can almost feel like you are in the back seat of the car, listening to Gershman and her lover Xavier having these conversations.
Getting lost in the book is spoiled slightly by the occasional typo. Missing or misplaced quotation marks can make for rereading short sections, detracting from what is happening in the scene. If this book is going to be rereleased, I highly recommend at least one more thorough edit. Despite this, I kept reading on, loving the leisurely pace of not only their trip but of the book.
All in all, there is something to reading about other people’s lives that truly grabs me, and this book is no exception. I have never read a memoir that gets as intimate as this book feels, full of conversation and honesty no matter what the consequences.
The Short Story
You will know from the synopsis and my longer review if this is the book for you. If you’re even a smidge interested, I recommend you wait for the re-release that, as far as I know, is coming out and pick up a copy. It’ll introduce you to a whole new world.
***
Rating: 3 Stars
[What do the ratings mean?]
***
The Jewish Lady, The Black Man & The Road Trip
Carol Sue Gershman
http://jewishladyblackman.com/
ISBN: 9780615242880
Length: 324 Pages
Category: Book Reviews
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17
Dec 2009
Suggested by Barbara H:
What do you think of speed-reading? Is it a good way to get through a lot of books, or does the speed-reader miss depth and nuance? Do you speed-read? Is some material better suited to speed-reading than others?
Ah, speed reading. I would love to be able to speed read. I’m a slow reader, and it would be so nice to be able to zoom through a book while still comprehending it so I can catch up on my TBR shelf.
I don’t know if there is a ‘good’ or ‘bad’ way to read books. You read according to your own pace, time limits, etc. If you think you get more from reading something slowly, then you probably do. If you think you do just fine and get just as much enjoyment from speed-reading a book, then you probably do.
Just like people prefer running to walking (or vice versa), you can prefer speed reading to regular reading.
In regards to material… Well, I think that comes down to why you’re reading. If you’re reading for pleasure, then do what you like. If you’re reading for comprehension, then it comes to your comprehension levels at the various rates of reading.
Category: Booking Through Thursday
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16
Dec 2009
Welcome to this week’s (and the first ever) By Any Other Name book game!
**First off, I’m so sorry this is going up late. But, I do have a good reason for why I’m late.
We didn’t quite get to the goal number of titles last week, so the goal stays the same…
If you’re new to the challenge, this is a game from my dear friend Calliope that gets us to play with book titles.
The game works like this:
1. Each week I will choose and a book title that features that word.
2. Then it’s your turn to come up with book titles containing the same word, without duplication (yes, that includes my titles). The author would be nice, too, in case I want to check it out.
3. If you make it to the challenge number of titles (make sure you read the challenge section each week because it can change), then I will draw one name from all the participants and that person wins!
It’s really not complicated. I pick a word and you list titles with that word. Easy peasy.
The current challenge:
Titles to Reach: Nineteen
Titles Per Person: Two
What can you win? The winner receives any one of the books on this page along with a bookmark (or two!).
I’ve decided this is a much better way of doing things rather than offering the SAME book over and over. Plus, I will be adding to the giveaway shelf as much as I can, so keep checking in to see what’s on offer.
So if you’d like a chance to win, join in!
If you don’t reach the goal, we’ll try again next week. If you reach the goal, I’ll have a brand new challenge for you next Wednesday where you’ll get another chance to win a book – regardless if you have won a book previously!
The word this week is:
City
I Say: The City & The City by China Mieville
You Say…
Category: Wednesday Book Game
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11
Dec 2009
About the Book
Jonathan Fitch is distraught when his girlfriend, Serafina, leaves him. And so desperate, in fact, that, when the peculiar Mr Rinyo-Clacton makes him an offer of one million pounds with only one year to live, he agrees to the proposal. But soon both Fitch and Serafina find themselves embroiled in Rinyo-Clacton’s strange sadistic games, and Fitch begins to wonder quite what it is that he has agreed to…
The Long Story
Have you read or watched something that, when you were done, you sat and stared blankly for a moment, wondering what you had just experienced? If you have, then you’ll know exactly how I felt when I finished reading this book.
I cannot describe this book better than calling it an ‘experience’. One of the first notes I made while reading this book was about the lack of description and how it felt abrupt, leaving me disappointed in some areas. However, the author decided to have a little fun with me then as he proceeded to describe many things that left me wondering what the point of the description was.
A lot of the book was like this – giving me something and then changing it the moment I made a note (mental or paper) about it. In that, the author was completely successful. While reading, I felt in a nearly constant state of ‘what’s going on’ and ‘what’s going to happen next’. That sort of seemingly aimless confusion won’t be appealing to all readers, though.
In fact, it didn’t particularly appeal to me either, but this book is akin to a car crash which you can’t quite bring yourself to look away from even though ‘polite society’ says you should.
The Short Story
In the end, I’m not sure whether I recommend this book or not. As you may have guessed by the review, I can’t even decide whether or not I like it. Perhaps I will leave it as something you might like to read if you’re looking for something a little out of the ordinary and ‘dark’ in quality. It’s also not too long, so you won’t feel cheated of your time if you decide you don’t like it.
***
Rating: 3 stars
***
Mr. Rinyo-Clacton’s Offer
By Russel Hoban
http://www.ocelotfactory.com/hoban/
ISBN: 978-0747561651
Length: 192 Pages
Category: Book Reviews
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10
Dec 2009
Suggested by Tammy:
What items have you ever used as a bookmark? What is the most unusual item you’ve ever used or seen used?
Don’t forget to leave a link to your actual response (so people don’t have to go searching for it) in the comments—or if you prefer, leave your answers in the comments themselves!
Ah, bookmarks. I’ve used…
1. Actual bookmarks
2. Post-it notes
3. Bottle caps
4. Pens/pencils
5. Train tickets
6. Rubber bands/hair bands
7. Money
8. Photos
I suppose the most unusual item I have used for a book mark – not unusual in and of itself but as a book mark – is…
Another book.
How about you?
Category: Booking Through Thursday
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