The Best of It: New and Selected Poems

#698
Title: The Best of It: New and Selected Poems
Author: Kay Ryan
Publisher: Grove/Atlantic
Year: 2011
288 pages

At their best, Ryan's poems are gem-like, with astounding observations that give a brilliant little flash as you examine them: Oh! At worst, they are doggerel, sing-songly little nothings with no point beyond description (in the manner of giraffe...carafe, though that isn't actually one of her rhymes). This collection includes both and allows a longitudinal look at how Ryan has streamlined and improved her work over time. Her rhymes are less clangy; her abstractions less pronouncements than observations; her descriptions more emblematic or symbolic. This is a very good volume for seeing both ends of her capacity as a poet.

The Son of Neptune (Heroes of Olympus #2)

#697
Title: The Son of Neptune (Heroes of Olympus #2)
Author: Rick Riordan
Publisher: Disney/Hyperion
Year: 2011
513 pages

Yes, it's a little repetitive in some ways, in part because of the previous Percy Jackson series, in part because it's the meanwhile, on the other coast at the other demigod camp story that parallels The Lost Hero. Like Jason of that narrative, Percy has had his memory erased in order that Juno may manipulate events to try to save the world from Gaea. This volume seemed more self-conscious to me, with joking cultural references (such as Amazons who work at Amazon) that were slightly entertaining. I acknowledge that if I were 12, I might have found them hilarious. This read like a bridging volume to get the heroes from point A to B, setting the scene for the third book.

Journey to the Western Islands of Scotland and The Journal of a Tour to the Hebrides

#696
Title: Journey to the Western Islands of Scotland and The Journal of a Tour to the Hebrides
Author: Samuel Johnson & James Boswell
Publisher: Audible
Year: 1775 (original)
~160 pages
Audiobook

Read as an audiobook. Audible (the edition I listened to) claims it's unabridged and it clearly is abridged. They've intercut Boswell and Johnson's narratives and included what I'd estimate from the length of the recording as perha;ps 160 pages. The 2-memoir set tends to run 300-something to 400-something in print editions.

I like Boswell less the more I read of his sycophantic fawning on Johnson. As to the journals themselves, I enjoyed both men's descriptions and explanations of daily live, scenery, and history. I'd have liked to hear more about whiskey, this being my greatest preoccupation with Scotland, but perhaps this topic is better represented in the version that's actually unabridged.

Rat Girl: a Memoir

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Title: Rat Girl: A Memoir
Author: Kristin Hersh
Publisher: Penguin
Year: 2010
336 pages

A smart, engaging memoir that includes bipolar disorder, music, and much more. Smart writing and choice of details make this a literary memoir of greater interest than many reports of mental illness. Plus it's by Kristin Hersh of Throwing Muses. Plus it's fun to revisit all those Rhode Island and Boston venues and think about what I was doing there while Kristin was doing what she was doing.

The Bagel: A Cultural History

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Title: The Bagel: A Cultural History
Author: Maria Balinska
Publisher: Yale University Press
Year: 2008
288 pages
Audiobook

Despite some mispronunciations by the reader, this is an engaging history of the bagel, though it's really a history of the bagel, Jews in Poland and elsewhere in Eastern Europe, and the Jews and labor unions in the US. Really, there isn't a lot to say about the bagel itself, but the bagel as an organizing strategy for a social history works well.

In Papua New Guinea

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Title: In Papua New Guinea
Author: Christina Dodwell
Publisher: Picador
Year: 1983/1985
Country: Papua New Guinea
256 pages

Like Rita Golden Gelman,  the author of Tales of a Female Nomad, Christina Dodwell is some combination of adventurous, naive, lucky, and skillful. This narrative of her two years in Papua New Guinea provide evidence for all of these interpretations. I enjoyed Dodwell's descriptions and musings and have a much better on-the-ground sense of the country than I often have after reading travel memoirs. On the other hand, I was more consistently alarmed than usual. It might have helped to have a better sense of Dodwell's thoughts and emotions, but this is the least revealed aspect of the book.

The Man Who Ate Everything

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Title: The Man Who Ate Everything
Author: Jeffrey Steingarten
Publisher: Vintage
Year: 1987/1988
528 pages

Steingarten's essays on food, more or less, from Vogue.

Steingarten has a great ear for detail and makes many clever asides. He's funny when you agree with him, annoying when you don't. He has strong opinions about food, nutrition, and diets, often expressed in extremes, sometimes inaccurate (e.g., the man can assert all he wants that lactose intolerance doesn't include cheese, but he's never had to sprint with me to the bathroom after a nice Quiche Lorraine consumed sans Lactaid). The tone is usually genial, at least some of his over the top assertions are clearly tongue in cheek, and one admires his willingness to devote himself utterly to a recipe or process for weeks at a time.

I admit to skimming some of his recipes, since I know I'll never make them and I'm not that interested in, say, the perfect apple pie.

Sho's Apple Pie
Remove one frozen pie crust from the package. Fill with thinly sliced apples. sprinkle with cinnamon and a little lemon juice. Cover the edges with foil if you like, but I hate crust, so I just break it off before eating. Bake at around 350F until the apples are cooked through and the crust is brown.

There, that was much easier than Steingarten's 10 page (I kid you not) apple pie recipe, which may be delicious but perhaps not in proportion to the effort required.