Posts published during December, 2009

December 15, 2009

Happy Hannukkah, Chanukah, and Hanukah!

In honor of the fifth day of Chanukah today, it seemed appropriate to share an essay from How to Spell Chanukah . . . and Other Holiday Dilemmas. Edited by Emily Franklin, the book features 18 writers reflecting on the Festival of Lights. Including essays from Steve Almond, Jonathan Tropper, Edward Schwarzchild and Joshua Braff.

Joshua Braff celebrates the holiday in his essay “The Blue Team.”

“What a holiday! No pestilence, no slavery, no locusts, no cattle disease or atonement. No synagogue, no guilt, no mortar, and no real lesson to be absorbed and passed down to my Jewish offspring. Thank God.”

Read the full piece below.

-KatieHow to Spell Chanukah Excerpt

6 comments

December 14, 2009

Lessons for Grown-ups from Children’s Books

We’re pleased to turn today’s post over to our Senior Editor, Amy Gash. Read below as she talks about how she dreamed up the idea for What the Dormouse Said!

I love quotations. I collect them. I share them with friends. I leave them on the desk of my 17-year-old son, Nick, when I think he needs some words of wisdom but not necessarily directly from me. When I was a stay-at-home mother—this was before I worked at Algonquin—reading stories to a then-young Nick, I was surprised to notice that there were lines of great beauty in a many of these children’s books. I would stick the best ones up on the fridge and, when it was pretty much covered in quotations, I realized there were enough to fill a book.

Since What the Dormouse Said: Lessons for Grown-ups from Children’s Books was published, I’ve heard from so many adults who passionately remember their favorite books from childhood. Some of us even continue to read children’s books—and not only to our kids! Reading children’s books as an adult is a different experience; I’m always struck by how much relevance these books can have to my grown-up life. It might be true that everything we need to know we could have learned in kindergarten, right there in the books we were reading, but I was slow and didn’t realize it until 30 years later!

We’d love to know some of your favorite children’s books. You might be interested in taking a look back and see if any particular lines resonate with you. If they do, please share them for an Algonquin compendium. I’ll start us off with a few of my absolute favorite quotations, well worth heeding at any age.

“It is only with the heart that one can see rightly; what is essential is invisible to the eye.”—The Little Prince, Antoine de Saint-Exupery

“So many things are possible just as long as you don’t know they’re impossible.”—The Phantom Tollbooth, Norton Juster

“You don’t need tickets/To listen to crickets”—Insectlopedia, Douglas Florian.

“If you go around thinking you’re being cheated, life becomes very unpleasant.”—Bambi’s Children, Felix Salten

-Amy

16 comments

December 11, 2009

Winter-inspired Book Booty Giveaway!

To celebrate the cold weather and a seasonal excuse to curl up on the couch with a warm beverage and an engrossing novel for hours (and the upcoming big release of the paperback version of A Reliable Wife), we are announcing a new blog giveaway!

In this suspense-driven novel, Ralph Truitt placed a notice in a Chicago paper, an advertisement for a “reliable wife.” She responded, saying that she was “a simple, honest woman.” She was, of course, anything but honest, and the only simple thing about her was her single-minded determination to marry Ralph and then kill him, leaving herself a wealthy widow. Ralph Truitt may regret not being more specific in his advertisement.

If you were searching for a ‘reliable spouse,’ what five features would you be sure to include in your ad?

Let us know in the comments, and you’ll automatically be entered to win one of three great prizes to celebrate the upcoming release of A Reliable Wife in paperback. Responses will be judged based on wit, style, and ability to weed out murderous and deceitful gold-diggers. Winners will be announced on December 18.

One lucky reader will receive an Algonquin fleece blanket, Algonquin travel mug, and a copy of A Reliable Wife before it’s available in stores! The second-place winner will receive a travel mug and copy of the book, and the third-place winner will win a copy of the book.

A paperback copy of A Reliable Wife, Algonquin fleece blanket, and an Algonquin travel mug. Cozy!

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December 10, 2009

Emyl Jenkins’ Algonquin Appraisals

Welcome to the December edition of Emyl Jenkins’ Algonquin Appraisals. We had some great entries from readers this time around, and we hope more of you will be inspired to submit your own treasures (interpret that as you will) for appraisal in January! Just contact me at brittany AT algonquin DOT com for guidelines.

-Brittany

Chuck: The colored portions of my metal vase are painted onto the metal and are in relief. There aren’t any markings on the base, so I haven’t any idea of the age, but because the design is in the “Art Nouveau” style, I’d assume that it is from the early part of the last century.

Emyl: Your very attractive vase was made by applying colorful enamel between thin wire strips (usually brass) called “cloisons” attached to the metal form. After many coats of enamel are applied, the cloisons become almost invisible. This technique dates back to ancient times, but it became especially popular during the nineteenth and early twentieth century when it was used to make everything from decorative plates to lamps to jewelry.

Around the middle of the twentieth century, cloisonné fell out of fashion, but once again I’m beginning to see both vintage and reproduction cloisonné items in antique shops. The absence of any mark on the bottom could mean that it is old, or it could be new and the label identifying its country of origin simply removed. You didn’t mention the size of your vase, but if it is approximately 8 to 12 or 14 inches tall and in perfect condition, comparable vases are selling in the $150-$250 range.

Tip: If considering buying a cloisonné vase or bowl, to be sure it isn’t damaged, run your fingers over both the outside and inside for dents that can be concealed by the design.

Neal: These two paintings are estimated to be from the 1850s. There are no distinguishing marks on either. The dimensions are 8” x 10” and 18” x 24”. What can you tell me about these paintings and their possible value?

Emyl: Over the centuries literally thousands of paintings of the Madonna and Christ Child have been painted—and copied. In fact, an age-old art studio exercise requires students to copy Old Master paintings. As a result, untold numbers of copies of priceless original paintings that hang in museums, galleries, churches, and cathedrals exist.

I’m assuming that when you said the paintings “are estimated to be from the 1850s” that this information came either from someone who has examined these paintings, or from a family member or dealer. It will take an art appraiser to give you a definitive value of the paintings, but when really fine quality 19^th century copies come up at good auction galleries the prices can sometimes sell in the high four-figure range.

Algonquin: My tall chest of drawers has a label in it saying the exterior portions are all solid mahogany. I know my grandparents bought it in 1938 when they were married and it is still in very good condition. The drawers slide better than the ones on a newer chest I bought a few years ago. What style is it and does it have any value today?

Emyl: Your grandparents bought a fine quality chest when they made this purchase. Style-wise, today we would say your chest is in the “Colonial Revival” style, which refers to traditionally styled furniture made following the American centennial celebration (1876) until the mid-twentieth century. Actually, the chest combines two eighteenth-century styles—the body copies the angular Chippendale style, and the curving cabriole-legs and padded feet of the base copy the Queen Anne style. At auction such chests usually sell in the $150-300 range, but in antique shops they are more often priced around $400 to $600.

Duncan: This WWI Marine Corps recruiting poster is in mint condition. It measures 4’ X 3’ and is mounted on a museum-quality mat behind UV protecting glass. It came from the Baltimore, Maryland, recruiting district where I entered the Marines. I’d love to have this item appraised.

Emyl: I’m always delighted to learn that some treasure from the past has been saved, protected for future generations, and has a personal attachment. It’s the stories that make these pieces fun, as well as valuable. As you can imagine, many recruiting posters were produced as the country went into the First World War, thus your poster isn’t really rare, but its mint condition and age make it worth around $500-750, and I’m sure its value will continue to increase through the years.

Emyl Jenkins is a longtime antiques appraiser. She has worked at two auction houses and has written numerous books and articles on antiques and is the author of the Sterling Glass mysteries The Big Steal and Stealing with Style. She lives in Richmond, Virginia.

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Books for the Holiday Season

One of my favorite parts of decorating the house for Christmas as a child was pulling out the stacks of Christmas books we kept with the ornaments. The tales of Clement C. Moore, The Grinch, and Rudolph brought extra joy because they only came out once a year. Here are my favorite titles from Algonquin (and the Workman family) which are best enjoyed now, while carefully decorated Santa sugar cookies and short stories about Christmas dinners gone awry are most appreciated.

Christmas in the South & A Dixie Christmas: Stories set in the heart of the holiday season, from the South’s best writers, including Rick Bass, Ellen Gilchrist, Lynne Barrett, Clyde Edgerton, and more. These two volumes from Algonquin go perfectly with a cup of eggnog and a warm fire.

How to Spell Chanukah: Essays by 18 Jewish writers who extol, excoriate, and expand our understanding of this most merry of Jewish holidays. This little book proves there are as many ways to celebrate Chanukah as there are ways to spell it!

Cookie Craft Christmas: Packed with more than 60 new Christmas cookie designs to brighten up any holiday table. Full-page close-up photography, detailed decorating instructions, and plenty of recipes make this handy little sourcebook a must have for all of your holiday baking.

Christmas Sing-A-Long Car-I-Oke: Its caroling for the car! Complete with 4 sets of lyrics and an enclosed CD to keep everyone caroling in tune. Don’t go over the river and through the snow without it.

NPR Holiday Favorites: If caroling isn’t for you, then take these two disks from NPR, filled with favorite radio moments from the holidays, including David Sedaris’ now classic “Santaland Diaries,” his account of playing Santa’s little helper at Macy’s in New York.

-Katie

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December 8, 2009

Our Fruitcake-Free Holiday Gift Guide

Don’t want to give Dad a pair of GoldToe socks again this year? We don’t blame you. That’s why no matter who’s on your list, Algonquin has the perfect gift…

For Her

Going Away Shoes
By Jill McCorkle

Eleven short stories, full of longing and laughter, from the “guardian angel of short fiction.”

The Dinner Diaries: Raising Whole Wheat Kids in a White Bread World
By Betsy Block

A humorous, life-changing book on mom’s mission to achieve the ultimate of all makeovers: improving the family meal. Complete with helpful charts, food lists, recipes, tips, and suggested culinary and farm programs for kids.

Last Bite: A Novel of Culinary Romance
By Nancy Verde Barr

Casey Costello, an executive chef at morning television show, is too busy for men…that is until she’s unexpectedly whisked off her feet by the adorable Danny O’Shea, a rising chef from Ireland who seems like he may be more trouble than he’s worth.

For Him

Hard Work: A Life On and Off the Court
By Roy Williams with Tim Crothers

An inspiring memoir from the head coach of the UNC Tar Heels Men’s Basketball team.

Boone: A Biography
By Robert Morgan

This rich, authoritative biography offers a wholly new perspective on a man who has been an American icon for more than two hundred years.

Far Bright Star: A Novel
By Robert Olmstead

Napoleon Childs, an aging cavalryman, leads an expedition of inexperienced soldiers into the mountains of Mexico to hunt down Pancho Villa and bring him to justice.

For the Gardener

Wicked Plants: The Weed That Killed Lincoln’s Mother and Other Botanical Atrocities
By Amy Stewart

An A to Z of plants that kill, maim, intoxicate, and otherwise offend.

A Rose by Any Name: The Little-Known Lore and Deep-Rooted History of Rose Names
By Douglas Brenner and Stephen Scanniello

With full-color art throughout, this eclectic little volume is a marvelous miscellany starring what is arguably the world’s most popular flower.

The $64 Tomato: How One Man Nearly Lost His Sanity, Spent a Fortune, and Endured an Existential Crisis in the Quest for the Perfect Garden
By William Alexander

Part humor tale and part garden memoir, The $64 Tomato follows Bill Alexander on his journey from organic idealist to pragmatic food producer, and from eager backyard gardener to tired gentleman farmer–taking time along the way to reflect on ecology, nature, and the meaning of it all.

For the Foodie

The Feasting Season
By Nancy Coons

Meg Parker is a harried mom in a lackluster marriage until she lands a dream assignment: to write a guidebook about French history. Follow her adventures as lamb daube, paella and rosé, bull steak and anchioade, Brebis and strawberries awaken her senses.

Southern Belly: The Ultimate Food Lover’s Companion to the South
By John T. Edge

Spark a delicious road-trip with this guide to savory, Southern restaurants!

Seasoned in the South: Recipes from Crook’s Corner and from Home
By Bill Smith

Structured around the seasons and the freshest seasonal foods, this cookbook offers up marvelously uncomplicated recipes— Tomato and Watermelon Salad, Fried Green Tomatoes with Sweet Corn and Lemon Beurre Blanc, Pork Roast with Artichoke Stuffing, and his signature dish, Honeysuckle Sorbet—the new bistro food of the South.

For the 20-Something

Our Noise: The Story of Merge Records, the Indie Label That Got Big and Stayed Small
By John Cook with Mac McCaughan and Laura Ballance

The exuberant story–in words and pictures–of a much-loved indie record label that, despite the odds, has become a major success story.

Hemingway & Bailey’s Bartending Guide to Great American Writers
Illustrated by Edward Hemingway; Text by Mark Bailey

The perfect blend of classic cocktail recipes, literary history, and tales of the good old days of extravagant Martini lunches and delicious excess.

Rock On: An Office Power Ballad
By Dan Kennedy

Kennedy chronicles his misadventures at a major record label. Whether he’s directing a gangsta rapper’s commercial or battling his punk roots to create an ad campaign celebrating the love songs of Phil Collins, Kennedy’s in way over his head in this power-ballad to office life and rock and roll.

For the Travel Enthusiast

A Thousand Days in Tuscany: A Bittersweet Adventure
By Marlena de Blasi

In search of the rhythms of country living, Marlena and her husband move to a barely renovated former stable in Tuscany with no phone, no central heating, and something resembling a playhouse kitchen. They dwell among two hundred villagers, ancient olive groves, and hot Etruscan springs. Together, they discover the soul of Tuscany and explore all the land has to offer.

Very Washington DC: A Celebration of the History and Culture of America’s Capital City
By Diana Hollingsworth Gessler

A travel guide with character, this fact-filled keepsake offers all the history, beauty, charm, and culture of our nation’s capital city. Also included are an index of sites and a useful appendix of addresses, Web sites, Metro stops, and phone numbers.

New Orleans, Mon Amour: Twenty Years of Writings from the City
By Andrei Codrescu

New Orleans has been author Andrei Codrescu’s hometown for over twenty years. This collection of essays is an epic love song , a clear-eyed elegy, a cultural celebration, and a thank-you note to New Orleans in its Golden Age.

For the Pet Lover

My Therapist’s Dog: Lessons in Unconditional Love
By Diana Wells

An intriguing exploration into the rewards of relationships–both the canine and human varieties–begins when the author agrees to dog-sit for her therapist. What follows is an exploration of our canine connection: what we name our dogs, how we breed them, how we’ve explored the wilderness with them, the kinds of literature we write about them, why we love them, and, most important, what we can learn from them.

First Dogs: American Presidents and Their Best Friends
By Roy Rowan and Brooke Janis

A lighthearted romp through American history, packed with drawings and paintings from early America, plus photographs, starting with Abraham Lincoln’s Fido all the way to Obama’s Bo.

Enslaved by Ducks
By Bob Tarte

Bob gets more than he bargains for when he marries Linda and moves to rural Michigan: there’s Binky, a belligerent rabbit who craves high voltage wires; Ollie, a tyrannical parakeet who brutally attacks the Tartes; and Stanely Sue, the gender-bending parrot; and more. This hilarious account gives us the other side of animal ownership: the complicated logistics of blending species under one roof, the intricate routines that evolve before you realize it, and ultimately, the distinct and insistent personalities of every animal inside—and outside—the house.

-christina

1 comments

December 7, 2009

Short Story Pick-of-the-Month

Flash fiction is a difficult form to pull off, and many times stories in that form can feel more like scenes rather than turning points or moments of recognition. And speaking of difficult forms, stories written from the perspective of second person can seem stagey, or worse, presumptuous. But good writers are always able to defy the rules that you thought had to be followed.

In “Some Thing Blue,” Tayari Jones writes a flash fiction story in second person that is unbelievably moving and full. I’m convinced that were it written in any other form, it wouldn’t have the same power of capturing this moment and making it fully resonate. How she accomplishes this in just eight short paragraphs is something of a miracle. -Kathy

Kathy Pories is Senior Editor at Algonquin and Editor of our annual New Stories from the South series.

In Scottsboro, Alabama, there is a warehouse store that sells everything that people leave behind on airplanes. This is where your mother has found your wedding dress.

You are apprehensive. What ever happened to “something old, something new?” What you have so far is something mortgaged—this would be your childhood home. (Storybook weddings are far more costly than anyone imagined.) There is also something pawned—your engagement ring, one and one third carats, clear as drinking water. (Your fiancé Marcus, being both book-smart and streetwise, haggled with the pawn broker for almost an hour.) And now, there is this lovely gown—something ditched. Because let’s face it. No one just loses a dress like this. (The designer is famous and photogenic; her picture is printed in gossip magazines.)

But how can you complain? Marcus is a good guy. He is a podiatrist. More importantly, your mother is happy and she is alive. Only two years ago, she lay bald and dying, weeping because she would never be a grandmother, never wear the mother-of-the-bride dress she bought six years ago on sale at Filene’s.

Read the rest of this entry »

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December 4, 2009

Introducing the Algonquin Snuggie

On a cold winter night, there really isn’t anything better than a fire roaring in the fireplace, a sleeved blanket (so your arms don’t get cold when you turn the pages), and a copy of Robert Goolrick‘s A Reliable Wife. So, to launch the paperback edition of this ”chillingly good” novel, we decided to create embroidered Algonquin Snuggies for our sales force. Needless to say, they were a big hit!

The Workman Sales Director, CEO, and COO are ready to curl up with a good book in their Algonquin Snuggies.

Click here to read the first chapter. (Snuggie optional. Although recommended.) Watch for the paperback edition of A Reliable Wife in stores on January 5, 2009. (The hardcover is available now, in case you can’t wait that long!)

-Katie

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December 3, 2009

Algonquin Loving from the AHS Book Awards Committee

Scott Calhoun, who sits on the American Horticultural Society’s Book Award Committee, recently announced his top three picks for the 2010 prize — and two of them are published by yours truly! Says Calhoun, “This year, the quality of the writing and depth of the research is shining through.”

Read below for his Algonquin picks and praise, and check out the full article on his site here. -christina

Lucinda Fleeson’s Waking Up in Eden: In Pursuit of an Impassioned Life on an Imperiled Island is vastly different from The Brother Gardeners, but no less compelling. As the print newspaper business enters an uncertain and depressing twilight, Fleeson leaves her successful career as a Philadelphia Inquirer reporter for a job at the National Tropical Botanical Garden on Kauai. Her firsthand personal accounts of garden politics, seemingly doomed native plant conservation efforts, horseback riding, and outrigger canoeing are all top-notch, but perhaps what Fleeson does best is articulate her own emotional terrain. The way she chronicles her transformation from cultured urbanite to a woman who realizes that there is “no enjoyment difference between attending the opera in London or a potluck with friends on Kauai” is fun to witness. For anyone hoping to go fearlessly into middle-age, or boldly navigate a path out it, Fleeson’s memoir could easily serve as a template.

And lastly, we come to the prolific Amy Stewart’s latest work, her smarting little tome of pain and suffering by horticulture: Wicked Plants: The Weed that Killed Lincoln’s Mother & Other Botanical Atrocities. The book is organized reference style, and each plant’s deadly, toxic, or inflammatory qualities are relayed like a well-told campfire ghost story. Consider the way Stewart begins her description of Mala Mujer (bad woman): “A group of teenagers went hiking in the Mexican desert and came back with a mysterious rash. The next day, one girl went to the doctor complaining of red itchy spots on her hand…” Each time I looked up a plant that I knew well in Wicked Plants, Stewart’s research was spot-on and presented in a lively (or should I say deadly?) manner. Such was the case with sacred datura, or jimson weed, a plant whose white flowers Georgia O’Keefe choose as the subject for some of her most sensuous paintings. Because it is so pretty, I sometimes specify this plant for use in clients’ gardens, but every once in a while a story appears in the local paper about some teenagers who were hospitalized after eating its seeds. In the garden outside my office, I have bushel loads of sacred datura growing, but after reading Stewart’s description of the effects of ingesting tropane alkaloids, I lost my desire to experiment. The American colonists fed jimson weed to the British soldiers who were there to put down colonial unrest; Stewart coyly remarks, “The British soldiers did not die, but they did go crazy for eleven days, temporarily giving the Americans the upper hand.” Although the fact-filled writing is the main focus of Wicked Plants, the wonderful etchings and morbid drawings make the package complete.

From Scott Calhoun’s Desert

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December 2, 2009

Southern Belly Redux

John T. Edge, “the Faulkner of Southern food” (the Miami Herald) and author of Southern Belly: The Ultimate Food Lover’s Companion to the South is today’s guest author. He’ll be popping in on our blog from time to time to keep us in the know on all the latest and greatest Southern foodie gems!

It’s been a couple of years since the revised and updated paperback of Southern Belly hit bookstore shelves. Every so often, I come across a few places that should have made the book. Here, and on www.southernbelly.com, I’ll add short updates that I consider to be worthy addendums to a roll call of great eats backed by great stories.

Walker’s Southern Style Bar-B-Que
10828 Haynes Blvd.
New Orleans, LA
504-241-8227

In the early 1990s, while running a catering company, Wanda and Skip Walker began smoking pork for cochon de lait poor boys and selling the sandwiches at rural festivals. By the early years of the 21^st century, they were serving those poor boys at the New Orleans Jazz and Heritage Festival.

The naming of the sandwich was a bit of a conceit. In Cajun Country, to the west of New Orleans, cochon de lait translates from the French as a whole suckling pig, roasted over a wood fire.

The Walkers took what was once a boucherie standard and, by way of cooking bone-in pork butts instead of whole suckling pigs, modernized it. In the process, they codified a new poor boy style.

At Walker’s Southern Style Bar-B-Que, their hutch of a restaurant by the Lake Ponchartrain levee, they cook those pork butts in a Southern Pride brand smoke box, pull the smoky pork into shreds, pile on coleslaw, and — in a tip of the hat to the emerging import of Vietnamese cookery and culture — tuck the whole into pistolettes, sourced from Dong Phuong Oriental Bakery.

Wonder Bar
Bridgeport Hwy.
Clarksburg, WV
304-622-1451

Perched above a 4-lane highway, at the top of a vertiginous road, the Wonder Bar, open since the 1940s and constructed to recall a lodge in the Rocky Mountains, is a steakhouse of the Red Velvet Bordello School.

The walls are flocked with photos of long serving cooks like Sam Hunter, a giant of a man famous for wielding a giant spatula. The wine list is serious, a leather-bound volume with true heft.

The draws are big hunks of meat, swamped in butter, topped with sweet and hot peppers.

Like pepperoni rolls, which are the preferred snack food hereabouts, the Wonder Bar is a vestige of days when West Virginia’s coal mining industry drew scores of Italian immigrants.

Drive the streets of Clarksburg and you’ll spy a number of southern Italian spaghetti and steak restaurants. The Clique Club comes to mind. So does Minard’s Spaghetti Inn. But The Wonder Bar, run by Debbie Folio Cherubino, daughter of founder John Folio, and her husband, Mickey Cherubino, is a true keeper of the red sauce flame.

John T. Edge is director of the Southern Foodways Alliance, an institute of the Center for the Study of Southern Culture at the University of Mississippi. The SFA documents, teaches and celebrates the diverse food cultures of the American South. The SFA has completed more than 400 oral histories and 20 films, focusing on the likes of fried chicken cooks, row crop farmers, oystermen, and bartenders.

Edge writes a monthly column, “United Tastes,” for the New York Times. He writes a restaurant column for Garden & Gun. He is a longtime columnist for the Oxford American. His work for Saveur and other magazines has been featured in seven editions of the Best Food Writing compilation.

Edge is the editor of seven books, including the foodways volume of the New Encyclopedia of Southern Culture. He is the author of six books, including Southern Belly: The Ultimate Food Lover’s Companion to the South, and the James Beard Foundation Award–nominated cookbook, A Gracious Plenty: Recipes and Recollections from the American South. In 2009, he was elected to the Beard Foundation’s Who’s Who of Food and Beverage in America.