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dogmatix

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Posts posted by dogmatix

    An Instance of the Fingerpost by Iain Pears

    in General Fiction

    Posted

    In addition to the wonderful and gruesome descriptions of 16th century medicine I am fascinated by the way the characters discuss the law as "having little to do with reason". The struggle betwen the importance of evidence vs the importance of motive. The newness of the jury system and the spectacle of trial. Very antiquated and yet striking a very contemporary cord. Section 2 is beginning to to seemlessly interdigitated into the first section and my mind is beginning to whirl with "who done it" and why? I guess section three, when I get there, will spin me in a completely different direction. Pears is clearly a gifted author.:018: :018: :011: I may have to read more of him in the future.

    Cookbooks

    in Food, Cooking & Recipes

    Posted

    I pour over mine all the time for inspiration and new ideas. My hubby loves the results and I love the creativity it affords me in the kitchen. Good cooking, especialy with fresh ingredients is a bit of an art form...but of course you get to eat it at the end.

    Country Ham

    in Food, Cooking & Recipes

    Posted

    Andy you rock!!!! I use pancetta, parmaham and other cured italian meats all the time. Usually with fresh mozarella, tomtoes and fennell. Salty cured ham-------I just never put two and two together. You've opened an whole door of possibilities for me. Thanks so much.

     

    Picatta, I love picatta.......

    Cookbooks

    in Food, Cooking & Recipes

    Posted

    I'm on a cokbook jag. Started collecting about a year ago. Have em' all lined up in the kitchen on the top shelf of the cabinets. I love a combination of gorgeous pictures (one for every recipe please!), fresh ingredients heavy on the veggies and grains, also some good food history. Plus I love to cook!!!!!

     

    Right now my favs are the Naked Chef Series by Jamie Oliver but I also love Kitchen of Light by Andres Viestad.

     

     

    I'm interested in Kylee Kwong's book Heart and Soul, but don't have it and my favorite chef is Alton Brown because he's just so nerdy and adorable.

     

     

    Who else is into cookbooks and what are your favorites?

    An Instance of the Fingerpost by Iain Pears

    in General Fiction

    Posted

    Well I've just started this one and it's turning out to be a real page turner. An historical fiction with science, intrigue and of course murder; it's Ecco meets Conan Doyle (not entirely my idea there but I agree).

     

    The prose is well constructed but unlike Jonathan Strange and Mr Norrell, which bored many readers, the plot keeps moving quickly along and I've not found myself "measuring" the edge of the book to see how far I've got to go (come on we all do it!)

     

    The plot centers around the murder of a college official in the 1600's and although I'm not far enough in yet I believe the story is to be told from multiple character's perspectives which intriguingly and enticingly don't match up very well.

     

    I love the characers and also the raw and often bloody medieval style of medicine practiced throughout the story. The book is graphic but apropriately and not to excess and the descriptions really add to the grity ambiance of this great story.

     

    Anyone else read this?

     

     

    Here's a brief review from Amazon

     

    An Instance of the Fingerpost is that rarest of all possible literary beasts--a mystery powered as much by ideas as by suspects, autopsies, and smoking guns. Hefty, intricately plotted, and intellectually ambitious, Fingerpost has drawn the inevitable comparisons to Umberto Eco's The Name of the Rose and, for once, the comparison is apt.

     

    The year is 1663, and the setting is Oxford, England, during the height of Restoration political intrigue. When Dr. Robert Grove is found dead in his Oxford room, hands clenched and face frozen in a rictus of pain, all the signs point to poison. Rashomon-like, the narrative circles around Grove's murder as four different characters give their version of events: Marco da Cola, a visiting Italian physician--or so he would like the reader to believe; Jack Prestcott, the son of a traitor who fled the country to avoid execution; Dr. John Wallis, a mathematician and cryptographer with a predilection for conspiracy theories; and Anthony Wood, a mild-mannered Oxford antiquarian whose tale proves to be the book's "instance of the fingerpost." (The quote comes from the philosopher Bacon, who, while asserting that all evidence is ultimately fallible, allows for "one instance of a fingerpost that points in one direction only, and allows of no other possibility.") Like The Name of the Rose, this is one whodunit in which the principal mystery is the nature of truth itself. Along the way, Pears displays a keen eye for period details as diverse as the early days of medicine, the convoluted politics of the English Civil War, and the newfangled fashion for wigs. Yet Pears never loses sight of his characters, who manage to be both utterly authentic denizens of the 17th century and utterly authentic human beings. As a mystery, An Instance of the Fingerpost is entertainment of the most intelligent sort; as a novel of ideas, it proves equally satisfying

    Country Ham

    in Food, Cooking & Recipes

    Posted

    My father in law just gave me 1/2 of a country ham (this is an uncooked salt cured ham) it's sliced. What the heck do I do with it? I love traditional style ham (you know like Honey Baked Ham) but I've never had a country ham before.

     

    The only application I know of are the southern style ham biscuits which are fine but I'm looking for some recipes. If you have any suggestions lay em' on me. Apparently this stuff will last about forever so I need a few ideas.:018:

    Everything Wine

    in Food, Cooking & Recipes

    Posted

    Sophia, havent been around to congratulate you...so Congrats!!

     

    Speaking Champange, I've never had a good one and I've never learned to enjoy it. Gimmee some suggestions guys. Reasonably priced please! My preference is always dry, not sweet and I dislike a finish that lingers too long.

     

    Cheers!

    The Catcher in the Rye by J.D Salinger

    in The Classics

    Posted

    it was akin to chewing glass. :smile2:

     

    But fine crystal.....not ordinary glass. :lol:

     

    :lol: :lol: :lol:

     

    I loved Holden and I loved this book. It was so long ago that I read it, in high school like many of you, that I'm really fuzzy on he details. Anyways a great classic IMO. Glad you read it Pontalba.

     

    I love sort of "going back" and filling in the "should have reads". Earlier this year I read One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest and Farenheit 451. Still need to read The Red Badge of Courage though.....

    Vladimir Nabokov - Speak, Memory (Discussion)

    in General Fiction

    Posted

    AWK!!:D That thread was the most fun I'd had on a forum!

    And more insight into Lolita than I ever could have imagined on my own. :blush:

     

    Really Timofey Pnin is the antithesis to Humbert Humbert. :)

     

     

    Don't get me wrong it did look fun just, a bit intimidating to the uninitiated. Now that I'm such a VN EXPERT:lol: I could rock on that thread!!!!:)

    Slow Cookers

    in Food, Cooking & Recipes

    Posted

    I leave mine on all day while I am at work. You can cook about anything in them. If cutting up veggies bores you to tears then just chuck in some frozen ones, some meat and some broth. You'll have soup when you get home from work!

    Vladimir Nabokov - Speak, Memory (Discussion)

    in General Fiction

    Posted

    I do think If I'd warmed up with something else VN irst I may have enjoyed Lolita more. I just felt over my head and couldn't appreciate the book. I knew it was something great but I just wasn't up to par. Would have been a great college read and I may yet read it again once my level of sophistication rises to a more appropriate level.

     

    Plus the B&R thread was too intimidating.

    Vladimir Nabokov - Speak, Memory (Discussion)

    in General Fiction

    Posted

    Dogmatix, I have thought about that, and you could go a couple of different ways, one being to start at the beginning with Mary then King, Queen, Knave and down the chronological line. That is what I decided to do and I am enjoying myself, BUT OTOH.....

    You could read The Real Life of Sebastian Knight which is Nabokov's first novel written in English, a sort of detective story about a writer that is dead. A quest by his half brother to find the real brother, with a twist--of course. :D

    Or, Pnin a story about a professor that is a bit like Nabokov himself, but not. Timofey Pnin was one of Nabokov's most charming and sweet natured characters.......ever. He is in fact my favorite character in any Nabokov novel so far.

     

    If I have to recommend only one.....it'd be a toss up between The Real Life of Sebastian Knight and Pnin. Weighted in favor of Pnin.

     

    I hope that helps.

     

    How completely decisive of you:friends0: BTW got to play with some more lions the other day.

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