Books Read in 2009

Last January I started to keep track of the books I read and in 2009 I surprised myself by reading more than I thought. Somehow, in the reading times squeezed in before falling asleep in mid-chapter in my cozy bed, while waiting for children to emerge from soccer practice and the few decadent days in which I devoured a whole book because I simply had to (and one day when I had a major head cold), I managed to read 71 really good books.

2009 was my Year of the Italian Mystery. I plunged into Donna Leon's excellent Venetian mystery series featuring the philosophical Guido Brunetti and finished the year by discovering the late Michael Dibdin's Aurelio Zen series, featuring another Venetian-born, but peripatetic, Italian police detective. Brunetti is grounded by his morality, his learned wife, interesting children and aristocratic in-laws. Each Leon novel explores a different social issue, from illegal immigration to environmental pollution. Dibdin's detective is a more complicated, existential guy who wanders the Italian peninsula in various police roles, dodging the Mafia, his mother, his lady friends, and demanding bosses. Some of the Zen novels are comic farces, while others remain as hard-boiled as a 20-minute egg.

I attempted to join a few Reading Challenges to expand my predilection for mysteries, and was able to complete one, a Books About Food Challenge, in which I read and reviewed 4 non-fiction books about food, including titles about absinthe, chili, Jordanian-American food and Vietnamese-American food. My intentions to complete the Science Books Challenge were well-intentioned, and I did read and review two very interesting natural history books about ravens and extinct deer for this challenge, but while I did read several other science books, I just never got around to posting a blog review, so this challenge remained incomplete. My self-dictated intent to read more classic literature also went by the wayside in 2009, as only Willa Cather's "O Pioneers" made it to the top of my reading pile.

I did have some fun with an online book club that two other bloggers and I started, the Cook the Books Club. To date, our little band has read seven different novels, children's books, memoirs and other books about cooking and food and every other month we have a roundup of participants' blog reviews and dishes inspired by our reading. We have been fortunate to have many of our featured authors serve as guest judges for our friendly competition to snatch the coveted Cook the Books winner badge for our blogs and it has been a great deal of fun.

I also notice that I have done a great deal of armchair travel in the last year. Aside from traveling around the Italian city-states with Dibdin and Leon, I explored 19th century San Francisco and China, backpacked around various geographic outposts, hit several Caribbean islands, and wandered around Japan, Afghanistan, Pakistan, Ireland, 1960s-70s Czechoslovakia, Mexico City, Mount Everest, France, and New York City in various eras.

Here's the complete list of what I read in 2009:


The Language of Baklava: A Memoir, by Diana Abu-Jaber

Ravens in Winter, by Bernd Heinrich

A Noble Radiance, by Donna Leon

Fatal Remedies, by Donna Leon

Friends in High Places, by Donna Leon

Wilful Behaviour, by Donna Leon

Sea of Troubles, by Donna Leon

Uniform Justice, by Donna Leon

Doctored Evidence, by Donna Leon

Suffer the Children, by Donna Leon

Through a Glass Darkly, by Donna Leon

Blood from a Stone by Donna Leon

Crazy in the Kitchen: Foods, Feuds, and Forgiveness in an Italian American Family, by Louise DeSalvo

The Barbary Plague: The Black Death in San Francisco, by Marilyn Chase

A Bowl of Red by Frank X. Tolbert

Absinthe: Sip of Seduction: A Contemporary Guide, by Betina J. Wittels and Robert Hermesch

Stealing Buddha's Dinner by Bich Minh Nguyen

Boswell's Clap and Other Essays: Medical Analyses of Literary Men's Afflictions, by Dr. William B. Ober

Untangling my Chopsticks: A Culinary Sojourn in Kyoto, by Victoria Abbott Riccardi

Does This Mean You'll See Me Naked? by Robert Webster

A Rotten Person Travels the Caribbean, by Gary Buslik

The Extinction Club, by Robert Twigger

Marco Polo Didn't Go There, by Rolf Potts

Finding Ireland: A Poet's Explorations of Irish Literature and Culture, by Richard Tillinghast

A Rotten Person Travels the Caribbean, by Gary Buslik

The Epicure's Lament, by Kate Christensen

A Pound of Paper: Confessions of a Book Addict, by John Baxter

O Pioneers! by Willa Cather

World of Pies, by Karen Stolz

The Gutenberg Elegies: The Fate of Reading in an Electronic Age, by Sven Birkerts

The Twelve Little Cakes, by Dominika Dery

Evolution of Vertebrate Design, by Leonard B. Radinsky

In the Company of the Courtesan, by Sarah Dunant

The Little White Horse, by Elizabeth Goudge

The Last Chinese Chef, by Nicole Mones

Three Cups of Tea: One Man's Mission to Promote Peace...One School at a Time, by Greg Mortensen and David Oliver Relin

The Food Taster, by Peter Elbling

Heat, by Bill Buford

No Touch Monkey! And Other Travel Lessons Learned Too Late, by Ayun Halliday

The Sunday Tertulia, by Lori Marie Carlson

Rats: Observations on the History and Habitat of the City's Most Unwanted Inhabitants, by Robert Sullivan

Waiting: The True Confessions of a Waitress, by Debra Ginsberg

Why We Hurt: The Natural History of Pain, by Frank T. Vertosick, Jr., M.D.

Why We Run: A Natural History, by Bernd Heinrich

Writing at the Kitchen Table: The Authorized Biography of Elizabeth David, by Artemis Cooper

Surviving the Extremes: A Doctor's Journey to the Limits of Human Endurance, by Kenneth Kamler, M.D.

Deceptive Clarity, by Aaron Elkins

A Glancing Light, by Aaron Elkins

Confections of a Master Closet Baker: A Memoir, by Gesine Bullock-Prado

Trail of Crumbs: Hunger, Love and the Search for Home, by Kim Sunee

French Lessons: Adventures with Knife, Fork and Corkscrew, by Peter Mayle

Braving Home: Dispatches from the Underwater Town, the Lava-Side Inn, and Other Extreme Locales, by Jake Halpern

Darwin, Then and Now: The Most Amazing Story in the History of Science, by Richard William Nelson

The Movement of the 400 Pueblos of Veracruz, by Victor Allen

The Big Oyster: History on the Half Shell, by Mark Kurlansky

Ticknor, by Sheila Heti

Weird Like Us: My Bohemian America, by Ann Powers

The Death of an Ardent Bibliophile, by Bartholomew Gill

Ratking by Michael Dibdin

Vendetta, by Michael Dibdin

Cabal, by Michael Dibdin

Dead Lagoon, by Michael Dibdin

Cosi Fan Tutti, by Michael Dibdin

A Long Finish, by Michael Dibdin

Blood Rain, by Michael Dibdin

And Then You Die, by Michael Dibdin

A Taste for Adventure: A Culinary Odyssey Around the World, by Anik See

Walking a Literary Labyrinth: A Spirituality of Reading, by Nancy M. Malone

Arthur & George, by Julian Barnes

Ex-Libris, by Ross King


If I had to pick my favorite reads, I would have to say that my favorite novel would be Peter Elbling's "The Food Taster", an earthy romp through Renaissance Italy. My favorite non-fiction title was Diana Abu-Jaber's memoir "The Language of Baklava", about growing up with a Jordanian father and American mother around snowy Syracuse in the 1960s-70s.

The Catch of the Day: The Fishermen's Own Book, 1882 Gloucester Mass.

Just landed this book in the shop and it's a beauty, inside and out. It's a great compendium of history, fishing statistics, nautical folklore and a few tall tales, poems, and the most wonderful antique advertisements from the businessmen of 1880s Gloucester, Massachusetts.

The Fishermen's Own Book, Comprising The List of Men and Vessels Lost
from the Port of Gloucester, Mass., From 1874 to April 1, 1882, and a
Table of Losses from 1830, Together with Valuable Statistics of the
Fishers, Also, Notable Fares, Narrow Escapes, Startling Adventures,
Fishermen's Off-Hand Sketches, Ballads, Descriptions of Fishing Trips
and Other Interesting Facts and Incidents Connected with This Branch
of Maritime Industry, Gloucester, MA: Procter Brothers, 1882, presumed
first edition.



Dark brown pebbled cloth binding with gilt design of fishing boat in
harbor stamped on front boards. 274 pages and 34 pages fore and aft
of nautical advertisements with great artwork of boats, cod, rope,
hearses, carriages, machinery, billiard tables, and furnaces. One
reproduction of a 1606 map of Gloucester Harbor, complete with
spouting sea monsters. Several full-page plates of fishermen's nets.
Many engravings and woodcut illustrations of nautical images
throughout text.



In Very Good condition (boards rubbed and moderately worn at corners and spine
extremities, 1/2 inch gash at lower end of spine, "Ref 58" inked on
front pastedown endpaper and top corner of title page, hinges
starting, front free endpaper chipped at top corner, pages toned, gift
inscription on front and rear flyleaves, two pages heavily toned from
laid in papers).



A glorious book packed with data, articles, poems, folklore and other
information about the fishing and whaling port of Gloucester,
Massachusetts in the 1880s. Subjects include historical data for
mackerel prices and catches, hammerhead sharks, fishermen's
superstitions, early fisheries of Cape Ann, stories of shipwrecks,
statistics about catches of various fish species, humorous stories,
and many a tale about "the fish that got away" (a 600 lb. halibut!). For sale at $150, including media mail shipping and insurance, to the U.S. Will ship elsewhere.

I, Libertine: A 1950s Literary Hoax

I just sold a copy of a hilarious literary hoax novel penned by humorist Jean Shepherd and novelist Theodore Sturgeon and am struck with a severe case of bookseller's remorse. The book in question is I, Libertine, by Frederick R. Ewing (the goofball pseudonym for Messrs. Shepherd and Sturgeon), published in 1956.

The story behind this hoot of a novel is quite interesting.
Originally, radio disc jockey Jean Shepherd exhorted his cadre of
"Night People" to come up the title for a book that would be a
sure-fire best-seller. "I, Libertine" was suggested by one of his
listeners as an appropriately ridiculous title for a book about the ribald adventures of an 18th century British roue. Thereafter Shepherd
and Company managed to talk up the "Banned in Boston" book and request
copies of it at enough bookstores to the point where it starting
showing up on best-seller lists and in library card files.

At this time, Shepherd and his publisher, Ian Ballantine had lunch
with sci-fi author Theodore Sturgeon and Sturgeon was hired to bang
out this bellicose "English" master work under the pen name of
Frederick R. Ewing. Shepherd posed as the dyspeptic looking author on
the rear jacket panel and Frear created a nutty illustration for the
front jacket with the book's hero, "Lance" Corday, in ruffled 18th
century gentleman's garb smirking a la Alfred E. Neuman.



Behind him, a bosomy lady with severe decolletage glares at him from in front of a
tavern,The Fish and Staff (Sturgeon and Shepherd). This book was also published as a paperback and the color cover art must really add to the luridness of this Turbulent! Turgid! Tempestuous! literary work. I guess I'll have to go on the hunt....

June Book Giveaway

Last month, I offered a copy of the novel "Medieval in LA" by Jim Paul. The lucky winner is Teresa. Congratulations Teresa! Hope you enjoy your reading.

For the June book giveaway, I took a gander at our books here at used book shop, Old Saratoga Books, and came up with an autographed copy of:



"Women Make the Best Friends: A Celebration", by Lois Wyse (NY: Simon and Schuster, 1995, first printing). This hardcover book is signed by the author on the half-title page and is in gift-giving condition. Wyse's book is a collection of stories, poems, anecdotes and illustrations by Paula Munck that celebrate women's friendships. Perhaps you would like to read this book yourself or present it as a gift to your BFF.

To enter the book giveaway, all you need to do is leave a comment below by midnight, June 30th and I'll randomly pick a winner from all the entries.

Good luck everyone!

Guerrilla Marketing for the Bookshop

Last year Dan and I saw the first signs of an anemic book-buying economy and embarked on a tedious, but necessary project to boost book sales on our used bookstore website by adding photographs to all of our book listings. On any given day, I maintain 7,000 or so book listings online, out of the 50,000 books on our bookshop shelves, so this massive project took a little over a year to complete. I chipped away at it in between customers and when the natural lighting in the shop was best, which was hardest to do in the winter months.

The photos aren't Pulitzer Prize winners, but they convey the books' condition and attributes and our book listings get ranked higher in the search engines because of the photos. I do know that our website sales quadrupled, even in these tough economic times, so I'm happy to have done this task. I did also shake my head at myself for having listed some books that are either really common or beat up or overpriced for the market, so these got deleted, donated, repriced, etc. I would recommend this somewhat Sisyphean project to anyone with online book listings that would like to sell more on their own websites.

Now I just got to get cracking on attaching the photos to my book listings for sale on other book seller sites, but I need a break from boring, long projects for awhile.

Another marketing tactic we undertook for Old Saratoga Books was to make use of a metal sign post that was long-vacant and sticking out of the sidewalk a couple of blocks north of our bookshop. Dan fashioned a sign out of some waterproof plastic board scraps from his pile of recyclables and with a few screws and nuts, we now have a directional sign that a few customers have told me lured them into Old Saratoga Books.




Another monumental project which I started during our annual February break was to update my book cataloguing software. I had been using an old version of Homebase for years and was comfortable with it, but wanted to start listing books on Amazon, which has a whole set of issues associated with that; chiefly, the requirement that books without ISBN numbers (which started only in the 1970s) need to have a specific Amazon identification number attached to them to be listed on the bookselling site.

Again, it's another long and tedious project of going through my book database yet again and finding the correct Amazon id to upload and selecting out heavier books to exclude from international delivery, but I bought a copy of the Booktrakker software, which, as advertised, simplifies many of the dreary tasks associated with online bookselling and has the dynamo time-saving feature of uploading all my book updates to our website, Alibris, Biblio and Amazon with one click. Amazon has quickly grown to be my bestselling used book site and this helps in any economic climate. I got back my purchase price for Booktrakker almost immediately through Amazon book sales and would highly recommend it to my colleagues.

Perhaps some of you out there will be able to make use of some of these suggestions for weathering these tough economic conditions. I would love to hear about your similar experiences or any recommendations you may have for increasing book sales.

Book Review: Elisabeth Hasselbeck's "The G-Free Diet"

The G-Free Diet: A Gluten-Free Survival Guide, by Elisabeth Hasselbeck (NY: Center Street, 2009).

The publisher sent me a copy of this brand-new book by television personality Elisabeth Hasselback, a celiac herself, and here's my thoughts.

A new book about the gluten-free diet is always welcome and having a celebrity author brings extra public awareness to the issues of celiac disease and gluten-intolerance. I applaud Mrs. Hasselback for bringing her own experiences to print (embarrassing digestive disturbances and all) and letting more people know about the symptoms and long-term health effects of celiac disease.

The most useful chapters are the ones in which she describes strategies for food shopping and preparation and ways in which she and her family, a combination of gluten-eaters and "G-free" dieters, avoid contaminating kitchen work surfaces and cooking implements. Hasselbeck also dishes out lots of good advice about how to approach family, friends and restaurant workers when eating away from home. There are many recommendations for specific restaurant chains which offer gluten-free dining options and information regarding certain food brands and products, although this kind of data is so easily changed that the book became dated the minute it rolled off the printing press.



The concerns I have with the way the book is packaged. I assume that is the author's picture on the front dust jacket pushing away a tempting assortment of crusty breads and rolls. Why make these breads so delicious-looking? Why don't they look moldy or misshapen or bad for you, like a squishy, spongy, loaf of supermarket bread? I say, forget the food stylist for that cover photo and just show the sparkling health of Mrs. Hasselbeck next to some unappealing piles of glutenous products.

The dust jacket blurbs are also kind of goofy. The quotes on the rear jacket promote the gluten-free diet as a "lifestyle" option that can help you lose weight, and as the "next big movement in health and wellness". 95% of Americans with undiagnosed celiac disease, suffering from any of the myriad, commonplace and sometimes subtle symptoms, might pick up a copy of this book, scan it quickly and get the wrong idea to self-diagnose and stop eating gluten before being medically tested. The actual text of the book and Dr. Peter Green's foreword do caution against this, but the dust jacket just sends the wrong messages out.

Hasselbeck's book is a nice addition to the gluten-free library and would be good to peruse if you are newly diagnosed as a celiac or want to pass on a copy to a friend or family member who wants to cook for you. For an introduction to gluten-free living, I personally favor the more comprehensive information in Danna Korn's "Living Gluten-Free for Dummies" (2006) and the glorious and delicious writing of Shauna James Ahern's "Gluten-Free Girl" (2007). However, Hasselbeck's "The G-Free Diet" has the opportunity to introduce many more people to the issue of celiac disease and gluten-intolerance because they are familiar with her from "The View" and "Survivor". She has lots of good information to share and is working hard to promote the book and the issue of celiac disease, so it is a welcome book. Just throw away the dust jacket.

May Book Giveaway: Medieval in LA by Jim Paul

Last month, The Book Trout swam through her used book store and selected a copy of D.M. Thomas' "The White Hotel" to give away and the winner is Genevieve from sunny Southern California. Congratulations Genevieve!

For the May book giveaway, I am offering a hardcover copy of the novel "Medieval in LA: A Fiction", by Jim Paul (Washington D.C.: Counterpoint, 1996), which sounds like a funny, philosophical novel about a man visiting Los Angeles and finding illuminating encounters in the most mundane events.



To enter the giveaway, simply leave a comment below by the deadline of Sunday, May 31st, 2009, midnight (Eastern Standard Time) and I will randomly pick a winner. Good luck, everyone!

April Book Giveaway

Last month the giveaway book, plucked fresh from the shelves of our used bookstore, Old Saratoga Books, was the novel "In My Sister's Country", by Lise Haines. The randomly-selected winner is Lady Roxi. Congrats, my Lady! I'll be contacting you immediately after finishing this post to get your mailing address.



For the Rainy Month of April (rainy days = prime reading time, if you ask me), I am offering a gently used hardcover copy of a modern classic novel, D.M. Thomas' The White Hotel (NY: Viking, 1981, second printing). This is the most popular of the writings of the Cornish-born author and relates the story of a woman undergoing psychoanalysis from Dr. Sigmund Freud himself. She is an opera singer suffering from strange psychosomatic pains and fears, and there is a thread of narrative about her visions of the future and the Holocaust. Wikipedia has a longer discussion of the book's themes here.

To enter this book giveaway contest, all you need to do is leave a comment below before the deadline, April 30th, midnight (Eastern Standard Time). Good luck everyone!

Book Reviews: Untangling My Chopsticks & Absinthe

I am squeezing in two short book reviews to complete the Books About Food reading challenge today. Interestingly, both books are centered around green beverages: green tea and absinthe. The first book, "Untangling My Chopsticks: A Culinary Sojourn in Kyoto", by Victoria Abbott Riccardi (NY: Broadway Books, 2003), recounts the author's year spent in Kyoto, Japan, learning about the art of kaiseki. Kaiseki is the traditional and highly ritualized series of foods to accompany green tea ceremonies and involves a series of small dishes of exquisitely prepared and garnished foods.

Riccardi lands in Kyoto without much knowledge of Japanese culture or language, but is fortunate to have some friends of friends to stay with until she finds other lodging, enrolls in language classes and snags a coveted spot in a prestigious tea kaiseki school where there is an American ex-pat to help her navigate the new culinary and language challenges she faces.

The kaiseki banquets she studies sound exquisite; they evolved from Buddhist monastery traditions into highly formal social dining banquets in which tastings of thick and thin whipped green tea are interspersed with samples of the freshest, seasonal dishes, exquisitely garnished. She also provides interesting glimpses of Japanese home cooking and ordinary restaurant fare, and includes many recipes easily adapted to Western kitchens.

Though this book is but a glimpse into a highly complex Japanese culinary tradition, it was a mouthwatering introduction and I will be referring back to it when attempting my own forays into Japanese cooking.



The concluding book for this Books About Food reading challenge is actually about a distilled spirit, and one which not only does not provide any nourishment butwas historically considered quite deadly in large doses. The spirit in question is Absinthe, that green spirit made from wormwood and the favorite tipple of many an artist, writer and dreamer in 19th century Europe, including Toulouse-Lautrec, Baudelaire, Rimbaud and Paul Verlaine.

The fascinating history of this often-outlawed beverage is fleshed out in "Absinthe: Sip of Seduction: A Contemporary Guide", by Betina J. Wittels and Robert Hermesch (Golden, CO: Speck Press, 2008). This revised edition is an entertaining look at the rituals of drinking this bitter spirit, which involve diluting it with water and straining it through an absinthe spoon and sugar cube to produce an opalescent, cloudy cocktail. Absinthe was perhaps the most vilified alcoholic beverage during the temperance movement that swept the West over the last century, associated as it was with the excesses of the bohemian lifestyle, but it has since become legal to imbibe in the United States and Europe again.

The book contains a wealth of illustrations of Art Nouveau posters, postcards, absinthe drinking paraphrenalia and photographs of Absinthe fans from Aleister Crowley to Johnny Depp, so this makes for an entertaining foray into the lore and truths about this infamous beverage.

This concludes my reading for this short but sweet Books About Food Reading Challenge. In addition to the two books reviewed succinctly above, I also enjoyed reading:

The Language of Baklava: A Memoir, by Diana Abu-Jaber

A Bowl of Red:The Classic Natural History of Chili Con Carne with Other Delectable Dishes of the Southwest, with Recipes and a Guide to Paper Napkin Restaurants by Frank X. Tolbert

Stealing Buddha's Dinner, by Bich Minh Nguyen

My original list of Books About Food was changed to suit my mood, but all were enjoyable and recommended reading. Now I am primed to read some more science and classics books. Off to the couch!

More Change at the Bookstore

It must be a sign of the times. Schuylerville, New York is not an economic hot spot, but lately I have more and more customers at Old Saratoga Books paying with coins. Usually it's just kids who come in for one or more of our 25 cent kids books or people killing time in between washer loads from the nearby laundromat. But not lately. There has been a notable uptick in the number of folks forking over handfuls of dimes, quarters and nickels to pay for their paperback and hardcover escapes.

Are they raiding piggy banks for some cheap entertainment? Hunting through couch cushions so as to procure the next installment in their mystery or fantasy series? (note to self: check couch tonite).

Ditto for the surge in phone calls asking if we are buying books right now (answer: VERY sparingly, as I'm trying to balance the yin/yang of the OSB till) and in the number of sales calls for all manner of business services.

Another more encouraging trend is the increase in sales and requests for books about such self-reliant skills as gardening, canning, appliance repair, alternative energy, weatherization and home repairs, and cooking.

I am trying more sale piles of books in the shop and these seem to be selling well and easing the groaning of the shelves. I've been successful with stacks of books by the same author (Stephen King, John Sandford, Doris Lessing and Solzhenitsyn have all been lugged out of the shop to make way for more fiction), and by subject (religious books, gardening and furniture repair have all gone out). If you are one of my regular in-store customers, come on down to see what's stacked up cheap and if you are one of my on-line customers, feel free to call or email to inquire about any inexpensive book lots I might have lying about for sale. Requests for particular authors/titles/subjects also considered.

Gotta go roll some change.