book report day

It has been unseasonably cold. For the past 3 weeks daily highs in the 50F's, hard rain every other day, the iron horse is broken beyond repair, nothing to do but spend afternoons curled up with a book or two. Mercifully, this weekend highs are forecast in the 90's.

I'll share my findings with you.


Dead End Gene Pool by Wendy Burden.

I knew nothing of the Burden family before picking this up. It was a surprise to me to learn the mousy little Latin teacher at my high school, was Wendy's uncle, but that is my only connection. Little did I know he was one of the richest men in America.

The Burden family are descendants of Commodore Vanderbilt. By Wendy's birth in 1955 the family had ossified to a group of bright, underachieving misanthropes. Her family memoir, is perhaps unintentionally, the funniest book I'd read in a very long time. The privileged are different, mostly in ways you'd wouldn't even dream of. You wouldn't wish their life on anyone you remotely cared for.

Great beach reading.


Kid Carolina by Heidi Schnakenberg

This is a biography of R.J. Reynolds, Jr. son of the founder of RJ Reynolds Tobacco. After his parents early death, Junior was left a great fortune and little responsibility, never a good combo. The burden of family, money, free time led to a playboy life, and a life long inability to accept personal responsibility for any of his actions. In a phrase, he became a world class drunk. Not much of a story, and feels like it's a morality tale written by or for 12 year olds.

Give it a pass.

How could I not love it? I've had a crush on Dominique since forever.

Perhaps because I'm male, or more likely I was going through my, let me fix it phase, that I got bogged down. It was a tough go for a while for me, before I finally got it .

So I put it down for a day or two, then was able to get into the rhythm of the story. The best review I've read was Sunday in the NYT, I'll let them tell the story. They do it better than I could ever hope to.

Buy 2 copies, and give 1 away.

Were you aware that most of what we conjure up when thinking about French style, its sense of fashion, furnishings, champaign, jewelry, and cafe society, sprung from whole cloth during the reign of The Sun King, from 1660 to 1715? I wasn't.

Prior to his reign, France was barely recognized by Europeans. Venice had style, London had quality, Amsterdam had money. By 1700, Paris was recognized as the world capital of style, a position it still holds.

If you are interested in the history of fashion and lifestyle, I recommend it.




The final installment of Johnny's trilogy of food writing. If like our family, you travel with Apple's America as a guide to good eats, you will enjoy it.

Not a great beach read, but a perfect vacation afternoon read. Its chapters are by geographic area. No need to read it sequentially.

Enjoy your day at your neighborhood independent bookstore. They need your support.

Toad

The Winner & Odds and Ends

I've been remiss.

There were 9 entries to the "have I got a deal for someone" white coat giveaway. My thanks to each of you. Most of the entries were pretty straight forward although there was the odd story or two. A winner was selected by my favorite bride.

I waited until now to publicly announce the winner, because in a dash of gallantry, I wanted to make certain the jacket actually fit the winner. My deal with him was that he would send it on to the first runner up if it didn't fit.

In fact, he claims it fits very well. Congratulations Man of the 50's.

I'm so glad to get this out of my closet. Each spring I would drag it out, notice how I hadn't grown taller over the winter, and face the attendant shame of failure all over again.

II. Hell hath no fury.....

Is anyone driving the bus at Amazon? In the past 10 days I have received 4 emails from them. The first thanked me for my pre-order of Dominique Browning's Slow Love. The next warned me the release had been delayed and I could expect it mid to late May. The next two were nonsense. The book arrived yesterday.

I suspect someone at Amazon got a pair of stiletto heels up their.....

III. Have you ever stopped having a habit?

Have you ever had a habit, which unconsciously you stopped having, and didn't notice you'd stopped for quite a while? Other than say, being married?



For 25+ years, with a few exceptions, I have been a 3 cigar a day man. Get in the car (alone) light up, cut the lawn, light up. There is a motor theme here somewhere. There are a number of triggers.

The man in the brown truck showed up Friday. Mrs. T, not expecting anything that day, inquired if that was my monthly cigar order. It then hit me. I hadn't had a cigar since before Christmas. There are several on my desk, the paraphernalia is all about me. I'm just not tempted. Not to say I've quit, just stopped.

Toad