tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-73393947665631010072024-10-07T01:46:53.226-04:00thoughts on books and media, food and wine, gardening and other random subjects...Melissahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17464587049135694757noreply@blogger.comBlogger9125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7339394766563101007.post-47416877156567815482010-10-17T16:05:00.000-04:002010-10-17T16:05:38.801-04:00

Based on Cormac McCarthy’s masterful novel, John Hillcoat’s film THE ROAD comes close to depicting the desolate, viscerally post-apocalyptic themes of the novel, but I doubt any filmmaker could perfectly capture McCarthy’s raw, poetic prose.  A father and son (the always-compelling Viggo Mortensen and talented newcomer Kodi Smit-McPhee) are traveling alone after an unnamed cataclysm has

Melissahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17464587049135694757noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7339394766563101007.post-65304413076021260522010-09-15T18:51:00.001-04:002010-09-15T20:58:22.640-04:00

The Best American Essays 2010 Though I love essays, this is my first foray into this annual anthology, and I will certainly be going back for more.  I chose it because of the editor, Christopher Hitchens, whose biting, brilliant prose greets me every month in Vanity Fair.  I also love the fact that he is an unapologetic freethinker, atheist, and all-around curmudgeon.  The

Melissahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17464587049135694757noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7339394766563101007.post-16154545823574182362010-09-11T17:06:00.002-04:002010-09-11T17:13:26.526-04:00

I have always been a fan of Julia Child, not least because we share the same birthday. What a pleasure to read this collection of letters between Julia Child and Avis DeVoto in the 1950s, as Child was working on Mastering the Art of French Cooking with colleagues Simone Beck and Louisette Bertholle.   Background and bridge material is provided by Joan Reardon, but this is all Avis

Melissahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17464587049135694757noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7339394766563101007.post-88220109838363270612010-09-09T19:13:00.000-04:002010-09-09T19:13:47.601-04:00

So, I am one of the last people on the planet to read the Millennium trilogy by Stieg Larsson.  And I loved them – a most pleasant surprise for someone who can’t stand books in translation ( I always feel like there is a ‘distance’ between me and the original language) and prefers not to read international thrillers.   It’s a shame that Larsson died before completing the

Melissahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17464587049135694757noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7339394766563101007.post-43081601593497401672010-09-09T16:19:00.001-04:002010-09-09T17:08:34.255-04:00

  Bruce Machart’s forthcoming novel (to be released in October 2010) has been garnering lots of positive buzz, and it is well-written with some striking imagery, but the themes are so bleak and depressing that I struggled to finish.   Set in a community of Czech immigrants in 1890s Texas, the novel chronicles the struggles of the Skala family, moving through thirty years of their

Melissahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17464587049135694757noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7339394766563101007.post-2627009621997645152010-09-09T16:13:00.003-04:002010-09-09T19:48:28.885-04:00

No, this blog will not be all deep literary thoughts…. Though the summer isn’t quite over, I wanted to chronicle some of the wildlife that visited the Clark-Norton estate over the past few months….. Most interesting was the gray fox (a female, I suspect), which made several appearances in late May/early June.  The first time I saw her, she slipped out from behind the little house, and

Melissahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17464587049135694757noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7339394766563101007.post-66421515652414322212010-09-04T19:10:00.002-04:002010-09-09T16:26:22.391-04:00

This is a great little hidden gem of nature/cultural studies by Stephen Palumbi & Carolyn Sotka from Island Press (forthcoming in December 2010). The book chronicles the natural history of San Francisco’s Monterey Bay from its discovery in the 18th century to the present day, culminating with the construction of the world-class Monterey Bay Aquarium.There is much to like here, and the

Melissahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17464587049135694757noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7339394766563101007.post-20557006367665005462010-09-04T15:40:00.000-04:002010-09-04T15:40:09.783-04:00

Every Reader A Reviewer, Library Journal 9/1/10 What a tremendous article in the 9/1 issue of Library Journal, and timely for the start of this blog, with its focus on sharing media.I have always divided book reviews into two categories in my mind – promotional and critical.  I have written both, and the perspective of each is quite different.  I did promotional, pre-publication

Melissahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17464587049135694757noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7339394766563101007.post-32481113619897234982010-09-03T18:50:00.000-04:002010-09-03T18:50:08.670-04:00

How does one start a blog?  By thinking I have something worth saying? By wondering how this blogging business works? One too many glasses of wine?  (Oh, wait...we'll get to that eventually, I'm sure.) I felt limited by Facebook's short attention span, and didn't want to pollute the 'News Feed' with long-winded musings, to start with.  I love to read, review and share media in

Melissahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17464587049135694757noreply@blogger.com1