The Tassajara Bread Book by Edward Espe Brown

The idea of baking bread from scratch had long fallen into the same category as Beyoncé’s abs circa 2004: enviable but intimidating. But The Tassajara Bread Book has gently eased me into the art of breadmaking, revealing its ease and joy.

Tassajara is a Zen monastery in central California, and this book was developed with simplicity in mind. The ingredients lists for most breads feature four to six basic items, and the directions are straightforward and sweetly whimsical. Does this sound a little austere, perhaps a tad precious? Worry not, as there are also recipes for unabashed delights like Butter Kuchen, Turkish Coffee Cake Cookie Bars, and Coffee Liquor Butter.

This book focuses on enjoying the process as it unfolds before you. Contrary to popular belief, bread is quite independent—it does not require full-time nurturing so much as a roll and a jab a few times throughout the day. And in the end, creating something so aromatic and delicious from nearly nothing is hugely satisfying. I’ll leave it to Mr. Brown to explain:

“Bread makes itself, by your kindness, with your help, with imagination streaming through you, with dough under hand, you are breadmaking itself, which is why breadmaking is so fulfilling and rewarding.”

-Megan

The Elegance of the Hedgehog by Muriel Barbery

Muriel Barbery’s The Elegance of the Hedgehog explores the inner lives of Renée, an outwardly inert concierge in a fancy Parisian apartment building, and 12-year-old Paloma, a precocious resident. At work, Renée lives up to the (apparent) stereotype of the philistine concierge, indulging in the French equivalents of Cheez Whiz-covered Doritos and In Touch Weekly. At home, Renée is an entirely different beast, one who devours opera and masticates on long passages of Husserl.

Paloma also has a double-life of the mind. Outwardly, she is the docile daughter of two well-meaning but superficial socialites. Inwardly, she is a cauldron of societal dissection, caustic barbs, and--yes, dear reader--suicide ideation. Much of the novel involves Renée and Paloma wittily discussing their ideas of the world and their isolated places in it until the lovely Kakuro moves into the building and unites the building’s misfits.

This novel succeeds in being philosophically rigorous, inspiring, and genuinely sweet. Highly recommended.

Please note: This title is available on Acorn's Touch Nooks, along with these titles. Call the Library to reserve yours!

-Megan

Best Friends Forever by Jennifer Weiner

Addie Downs and Valerie Adler grew up across the street from each other in the Chicago faux-suburb of Pleasant Ridge, and were, indeed, BFFs until differing high school fates pulled them apart. Whereas Val turned her latchkey childhood into vivacious cheerleaderdom, Addie was surviving her brother’s brain-damaging car accident, the death of both parents, and compulsive overeating.

Ten years later, Addie’s got it together, if not quite got it going on. She’s a successful greeting card illustrator, avid swimmer, and is generally happy. But she’s lonely. So lonely. Imagine Addie’s surprise when Val--now a weather girl/local celebrity--shows up on her doorstep covered in blood after a mishap at the high school reunion. Imagine your surprise when Addie decides to help her former friend conceal her crime by fleecing the hunky, brooding detective and going on a road trip to Florida.

The two reconnect rather seamlessly and with little drama, quickly resolving misunderstandings and bonding over man problems.The weird vigilante subplot then takes over, and you better believe that the detective's interest in the case is not entirely professional. In fact, he’s so smitten with Addie that he chants her name (“Addie...Addie...Addie...”) throughout. Can you handle it? (I could not.)

I listened to this on audiobook, which generally doesn’t work for me in between being cut off by large trucks, avoiding potholes, and berating humanity; but the combination of Weiner’s earnest style and soapy plot made for a good time. Recommended.

-Megan

Downton Abbey, Series One (DVD)

This is British drama at its best -- witty and refined, but never uptight or stodgy. The series takes place at the country home of the fictional Earl of Grantham during the run-up to World War I. Significant time is spent both with the Earl's aristocratic family and their crew of below-the-stairs servants. Much of the series is devoted to the romantic intrigue and familial squabbles, but the series does sometimes delve into more serious issues such as the women’s suffrage movement or the impending Great War. While there are various plots that run throughout the entire first season, each of the seven episodes can also be viewed discretely. Downton Abbey is recommended for those who like their British period pieces with just enough modern sheen to keep things interesting (but not enough to detract from the genre's essential coziness).

-Eric

Eliot Spitzer Double Feature: Client 9 v. Inside Job

The erstwhile “Love Gov” has a new gig: movie star! Maybe that’s a bit of a stretch, but Spitzer has been featured prominently in two recent documentaries.

First up is Client 9, which briefly covers Spitzer’s meteoric rise in New York politics, then drones on an on about his fall. As attorney general, Spitzer earned the nickname "The Sheriff of Wall Street” as he actually managed to fine, imprison, and otherwise unsettle captains of industry for their misdeeds. His work earned him both popular support and powerful enemies; the former electing him governor in 2006 with nearly seventy per cent of the vote, and the latter--the film alleges--leading to his undoing. Spitzer is an incisive, candid interview subject, but he is used sparingly here. The film focuses on the tawdriest elements of the escort scandal and most ridiculous peripheral players instead. Why? I have no idea.

Next is Inside Job, which won the Academy Award for Best Documentary in February. Here, director Charles Ferguson’s surveys the logistics of the global financial near-collapse. The film has a definite, fire-breathing perspective, as Ferguson, Spitzer, and a coterie of others squarely pin the crisis on the shoulders of the world’s financial elite and their governmental enablers.

Inside Job admirably distills the mechanics of the derivatives market, and the revolving door between big banks, the plushest business schools, and government. Ferguson is a fearless interviewer, and most of his interactions end with disdainful glares, embarrassed laughter, or I-wish-I-were-kidding ingenuousness. The result is a suspenseful, darkly comic ride through a subject that people used to think was boring.

-Megan

Science Fair Season by Judy Dutton

Lately, news regarding the state of American education has been decidedly less than rosy. While much of the rest of the world has adjusted to the realities of the twenty-first century with determination and brio, the United States has generally responded with what seems like bewildered complacency. As Bill Gates said, “When I compare our high schools to what I see when I’m traveling abroad, I’m terrified for our workplace of tomorrow.”

Refreshingly, this book explores the stories behind the wildly impressive entries at the Intel Science Talent Search, a sort of American Idol for high school scientists. The entrants come from disparate backgrounds--small-town Texas, the Navajo Indian Reservation, affluent Connecticut, and a juvenile detention center. The projects are just as varied, and include a solar water heater fashioned from the radiator of a 1967 Pontiac, a nanotechnology discovery that led to even smaller and more powerful microchips, a methodology for predicting water tables on Mars which was later proven by NASA, training cockroaches to do the work of drug-sniffing dogs, and pioneering work on the worldwide collapse of bee colonies.

While some of the entrants were science fair veterans, most of them just encountered an interesting problem and then had supportive teachers to foster their curiosity and dedication. Dutton does a great job with the scientific and humanistic aspects of each story. I highly recommend this book to any adult or teen reader looking for an inspiring read.

-Megan

The Beer Trials by Seamus Campbell and Robin Goldstein

Most of this book is devoted to reviews of 250 different beers, using the results from semi-scientific blind-tasting panels. This book is something of a sequel to Goldstein’s The Wine Trials, and the fact that beer is now seen as worthy of the same treatment as wine is an interesting sign of how much perceptions of beer have changed in the past, say, ten years.

The reviews cover beers of all types, from the cheapest mass-produced lager to the most intense craft-brewed India Pale Ale, including brands from Belgium, Britain, Germany, Japan, and more. Each entry is generally concise, informative and witty. While they certainly can’t cover every beer out there, and while they try to stick to nationally distributed beers (thus meaning you won’t find local favorites like Old Style or Alpha King), they still do a good job at covering all the bases.

There’s also about fifty pages of introductory material on beer styles and flavors. All in all, this is an immensely rewarding book for anyone interested in the world of beer.

-Eric

Attention All Movie Fans!

Cinephiles: rejoice! Ebert Presents: At the Movies just got a new, very spirited reboot. Your excellent hosts are now Christy Lemire of the Associated Press and Ignatiy Vishnevetsky of Mubi.com. Each week, they review high-profile theatrical releases, under the radar indies, and their favorite new DVDs and Blu-Rays; and patriarch Roger Ebert drops by to lend his inimitable style to a select film.

Following in the proud footsteps of yin/yang, Hepburn/Tracy, and Jagger/Richards, Lemire and Vishnevetsky’s differences make a potent, delectable brew. While Lemire is an animated, highly knowledgeable movie fan, Vishnevetsky is an encyclopedic, unsparing connoisseur. The result is many zingy, thoughtful discussions and sharply humorous insights. Like this one, on which Vishnevetsky weighs in on the je ne sais quoi of Keanu Reeves (of whom I am a passionate defender, but that will have to wait for another post): “He has this air like he’s an amnesiac who doesn't really remember who he is, but he doesn’t want anybody else to know.”

The show is on WTTW on Friday nights at 8:30, and you can watch all of their reviews here.

-Megan

Recent Staff Picks

We admit it; we have our favorites. Find your next great read with these staff recommendations!

You Are Not a Gadget by Jaron Lanier (Nonfiction)

Lanier is one of the pioneers of the Internet and a contributor to the creation of virtual reality. He passionately argues against online collectivism and the lasting implications it will have on our creativity. He attacks social networking sites, Wikipedia, Creative Commons, and Web 2.0 as a whole.

-Mike, Youth Services

Fingersmith by Sarah Waters (Fiction)

Fingersmith is a Victorian novel of orphans, thieves, bizarre aristocrats, and spiraling betrayals. In short, it's the perfect complement to a cold day and a steaming mug of hot chocolate.

-Megan, Reference

Atlas of Remote Islands by Judith Schalansky (Nonfiction)

This book, at first, seems as if it is just a simple idea elegantly executed: an atlas of fifty tiny islands in the middle nowhere. However, this book is much more than a pleasant novelty. Schalansky has taken the history of these islands and turned each one into a beautiful, disarming gem of a story.

-Eric, Reference

The Way of the World by Nicolas Bouvier (Nonfiction)

Nicolas Bouvier's account of his journey in an unreliable Fiat from Geneva, Switzerland, to Afghanistan expresses the joy of travel. Bouvier deserves a place with Patrick Leigh Fermor, V.S. Naipaul, and Jack Kerouac at the top of the travel writing genre.

-Mike, Youth Services

Freedarko Presents: The Macrophenomenal Pro Basketball Almanac (Nonfiction)

Freedarko is a zany, brainy, basketball-obsessed collective; and their book is full of eclectic portraits of the NBA’s stars and villains, as well as odd and delightful stats and insights.

-Megan, Reference

The 150th Anniversary of the Civil War

150 years ago today, the shots that started the Civil War were fired at Fort Sumter in Charleston, South Carolina. Delving into the history of the people, places and events of the war is a great way to commemorate this important anniversary-- and the Acorn, of course, has plenty of books to help you out!

Take a look at some of them in SWAN, our online catalog. There's also plenty of great information on the web describing the best Civil War books. And remember, there are plenty of great novels about the war as well!

-Eric

Q&A with Pat Kucher, Head of Technical Services

Pat Kucher, the Head of Technical Services, will retire on August 1 after twenty-four years of service. Pat is responsible for processing and cataloging Acorn’s materials, as well as selecting movies, television shows, and paperback books. Here, she shares her Acorn experiences, and tells us about her favorite books, movies, and destinations.

Q: You’ve worked at Acorn for twenty-four years. What an accomplishment! How has your job changed during that time?

A: I started before we were computerized. The computer has certainly made the biggest impact on my job. Also, the types of media the Library offers have really changed. We used to have books on cassette, now we have digital books.

Q: What’s your favorite part of your job?

A: Opening the boxes of new books.

Q: You’re a voracious reader. Who are some of your favorite authors?

A: I love Michael Connelly for the terrific police and courtroom drama. I also love the Stephanie Plum series by Janet Evanovich for laughs. Jodi Picoult is another hands-down favorite. She handles controversial subjects thoughtfully and without bias.

Q: You choose the Library’s feature films and television series. What are some of your favorites?

A: My favorite movies are Gone with the Wind, The Notebook, and The English Patient. The last good movie I saw was Inception.

I really enjoy the some of our television series—especially Mad Men and The Tudors.

Q: I know you love traveling as well. What’s your favorite vacation spot (so far)?

A: Nassau in the Bahamas. I’m planning another visit there in June. Jamaica is great, too! Really, I’m happy anywhere there’s a Sandals Resort.

Q: Is there anything else you’d like to share about yourself or your time at Acorn?

A: I love to read and started coming to Acorn when it was just a small A-frame building. When I decided to get back into the workforce after my children were old enough, I thought it would be the perfect place to work…and it was. I plan to retire this summer, but I’ll never retire from reading!

Thank you for your many years of dedicated service, Pat! You will be greatly missed.

-Megan

The Late American Novel: Writers on the Future of Books Edited by C. Max Magee and Jeff Martin

Magee and Martin have assembled a talented bunch of young, happening authors (including Joe Meno, Benjamin Kunkel, Victor Lavalle, Emily St. John Mandel, Deb Olin Unferth and Reif Larson), along with a few seasoned veterans (David Gates and Jonathan Lethem), to ponder the question of how the book will be affected, in the coming years, by changes in technology and society. The quality of the work here varies quite a bit, as you might expect from this type of anthology – some pieces are affecting and/or exhilarating, some are bland, and there a couple of pieces that are sub-McSweeney’s throw-aways. Overall, however, this collection is extremely interesting and offers a broad view of what some future literary stars think might happen in their future.

One of the more interesting aspects on this book is the confusion displayed as to what it is, exactly, that they are supposed to be writing about. The main divide seems to be between those who focus on the death of the physical book (even if the book lives on in some sort of digital capacity) and those who are focus the death of reading itself. But even within the latter camp, there are many divisions – are we talking about the eradication of all sustained reading? Or just of the “right” kind of reading (i.e. “literature”). Also, many of the authors here seem to conflate the death of the book with the death of the novel, which I suppose is somewhat understandable since most of these pieces are written by novelists.

Each author here seems to be writing about a different thing entirely, as they ponder the future of the book, and some of the individual pieces are filled with all manner of contradictions and ambiguities in themselves. But perhaps this muddle is appropriate when talking about an unknown future, and most likely it is exactly what the editors had in mind – since this confusion is contained right there in the book’s title and subtitle.

-Eric

Talking It Over by Julian Barnes

Julian Barnes takes a go at the alchemy of a particular love triangle in this insightful, witty novel. Sturdy Stuart is an earnest, levelheaded banker (note that the book was published in 1992) and devoted husband to Gillian, a placid, somewhat inscrutable art restorer. Oliver, Stuart’s longtime friend, is a pedantic train wreck (think of an unholy Christopher Hitchens-Russell Brand alliance) whose untethered existence gives him plenty of time to systematically disrupt the happy couple.

Stuart, Gillian, and Oliver take turns narrating; so each character gets a chance to explain--and reveal varying degrees of delusion. This technique shows off Barnes’s deft understanding of human dynamics, as well as an unsentimental objectivity that makes for bracing realizations. Further, his elegantly adventurous facility with language rendered the book a remarkably good time. Highly recommended; and, so far, so is the sequel.

-Megan

Beautiful Books

The internet is abuzz with the fear and/or hope that print books will go the way of the clay tablet and the papyrus scroll, and it is certainly undeniable that ebooks do have certain significant advantages over their physical forebears. However, one of the things books made out of paper have going for them is the fact that they can be pleasurable objects to hold, to look at, to smell. Sometimes, they are even beautiful.

It seems that books were, long ago, always beautiful, sometimes mysteriously so. Today, the attractiveness of their product seems to be, at best, an afterthought for most publishers, but there are exceptions that seem to consistently pay attention to the design and quality of what they put out. For instance, New York Review Books has built an intense cult of followers, partly due to the quality of the work they publish, but also largely due to the sheer delight of handling their volumes. The Library of America puts out authoritative versions of our nation’s greatest literature, and their books are always solid, sophisticated, handsome.

Of course, there are also beautiful libraries and bookstores (such as Buenos Aires' El Ateneo, pictured above), and, while the structures may be magnificent, where would they be, really, without their books? Also, take a look at some of the most beautiful pictures of books and bookshelves you will ever see, at the saucily named (but entirely worksafe) Bookshelf Porn.

And then there are those people who have turned books into art, or even architecture.

-Eric

Movie Review: HeartBreaker

Alex (Romain Duris) is a professional match-breaker in this frothy, giddily entertaining French film. His impeccable record is challenged when he’s enlisted to end the engagement of Juliette (Vanessa Paradis) and Jonathan (Andrew Lincoln). Jonathan’s a philanthropic billionaire (and British, ladies!), but still not nearly good enough according to Juliette’s father, who hired Alex.

So Alex and his suspiciously, ridiculously high-tech associates (his sister and brother-in-law) pull out a variety of amusing stunts to capture Juliette’s aloof heart, and absurd hijinks ensue. Alex uses every weapon in his arsenal, including but not limited to Juliette’s weakness for George Michael and Dirty Dancing.

Much of the movie’s charm can be credited to Duris, a remarkably agile and versatile performer who is something like a French Heath Ledger. It will be interesting to see who will be cast in the impending American remake. My money is on Joseph Gordon-Levitt as Alex and Amanda Seyfried as Juliette. (Kindly spare me your Jake Gyllenhaal and your Scarlett Johannson!) But I’ll savor this delightful original now and save the teeth gnashing for later.

-Megan

Is this the history of science fiction?

Artist Ward Shelley has created a fascinating (and also, perhaps, a little ludicrous) infographic (seen above) that displays the history of science fiction. Shelley portrays SF as something of a many-tentacled blob, which is probably both accurate and appropriate. He starts off with fear and wonder (presumably the basis for science fiction in the human psyche) and then goes on from the Enlightenment, and the Gothic novel to pulp fiction and modern movies.

Apparently Shelly created this map as a submission to the Places & Spaces: Mapping Science Exhibit for 2011, which has the theme "Science Maps as Visual Interfaces to Digital Libraries". This map is amazingly detailed, and you could spend hours and hours wandering through its many back streets and alleys (and if all the names and terms on the map were actually somehow linked to some sort of digital library, or even wikipedia, this could become a never-ending journey). Should you want to investigate this future, there’s a rather enormous image of the map here.

-Eric

Movie Review: Exit Through the Gift Shop

The Oscar-nominated Exit Through the Gift Shop takes an unconventional, entertaining look at a bygone era of street art. Directed by Banksy, the enigmatic (e.g. shrouded in darkness and disguised by a voice decoder) superstar of the movement, the film follows the scene’s most inspired figures as they adorn unsuspecting buildings and billboards with wit and whimsy. Commercialization comes quickly, and with varying results. Banksy cashes in, Sotheby’s style; Shepard Fairey (of the ubiquitous Obama “Hope” image) is promptly sued by the Associated Press; and Thierry Guetta--a wannabe Andy Warhol for the porkpie hat set--goes about industrializing street art’s winking subversion with a team of workers and an Ikea-sized showroom.

Exit Through the Gift Shop effectively explores the wonders of artistry, inevitable commodification of youth culture, and the thin, stubborn line between clever and stupid. Spirited, slightly ridiculous fun.

-Megan

Examined Lives by James Miller

In Examined Lives: From Socrates to Nietzsche, James Miller plucks twelve revered philosophers from the Ivory Tower and places them under the biographer’s unsparing microscope. The findings? There is a blowhard (Socrates), a disgraced politico (Aristotle), a robotic goody two-shoes (Kant), a humorless hypocrite (Rousseau), a humble vagabond (Emerson), and a delicate dandy turned grunting madman (Nietzsche).

Miller skillfully places these men (sorry, no Hannah Arendts here) within their respective ideological and historical contexts, then supplies enough fizzy tidbits to keep it popping. The result is an uncommonly efficient educational experience that somehow has both depth and levity.

-Megan