Book Log 2007 #18: The Man Who Ate Everything by Jeffrey Steingarten

Steingarten quit his job as an attorney to become the food critic at Vogue, and his lawyerly focus and obsession with food are well documented in this volume of his essays primarly drawn from his work for the magazine. He opens the book by cataloging his own food phobias and his attempts to overcome them, and from there discourses far and wide on food subjects, from his attempts to become proficient at making bread to heading to the four corners of the globe to try something. He doesn't quite go to the cobra heart extreme that closes A Cook's Tour, but Steingarten does go quite a ways to becoming someone who has eaten everything.

That being said, I did find myself getting a little worn out by the end of the book, as there's only so much urbane self-deprecation I can take at one time. There are a few essays whose inclusion confuses me (one on pheremones comes to mind), and some show their age (such as the one on diets which refers the recent Atkins craze - the first one, back in the '80s).

Overall, it's an enjoyable collection, and well-suited to a commute, too.

I'd not really picked a favorite for the Stanley Cup finals, as once my adopted team (Buffalo) went out, I didn't think I had a BU-related rooting interest. Turns out I was wrong; former Terrier Joe DiPenta plays for the Ducks, though given their short bench I don't know how much ice time he saw during the finals. Even better, the Senators have a player from the dreaded rival on their roster. It's not quite win-win-win, but it's not bad. I can only hope Joe brings the Cup to campus when he has his day with it, but I assume he'll take it home.

Book Log 2007 #17: The Book of Lost Books by Stuart Kelly

For every book that's still around there are several that have been lost in the mists of time, and Kelly does his best to mention all of them.

It's not a bad book, but it could have used some focus. I wound up bailing out about three-quarters of the way through, beaten back by the volume of information. In some cases the entry is more about the author and his life and times than it is any particular lost work, and as interesting as that could be, it just added more to a book that could have used a little restraint. It did have the commuting benefit of being broken up by author, so there was very little having to stop in the middle of a section. But still, it's probably a better book for browsing or looking at specific authors of interest than as something to read as a whole.

Book Log 2007 #16: Lost by Michael Robotham

Not related to the TV show, Lost is the story of a London police detective who is suffering from amnesia in the wake of being shot and fished out of the Thames. The only clue to what he was doing comes from a photo he had on him of a girl whose disappearance he investigated years previously - a case for which a man was sent to prison. We follow the detective as he puts together just what he was doing in the time before being pulled from the river, and begins to suspect that the missing girl was not, as previously thought, killed. Even as the girl remains lost and the detectives memory are recovered, we're shown other ways in which the detective is lost - to his fellow officers and to his family.

I really enjoyed this one, from the nicely-defined characters to the pace to an ending that made two or three unexpected jumps. Recommended.

My 20th high school reunion is coming up, and I'm undecided about attending. It's not so much the mixing with former classmates who I rarely see, but the idea that I'd have to pay $110 to do so. With a cash bar on top of that.

There are other logistical issues, too, but I'm finding myself particularly irritated over the cost, perhaps too much so. But comparing this to reunions past (my own and those of friends and co-workers), I think my umbrage is at least partially understandable.

There are a couple of people who I have not seen in ages that I would really like to catch up with, and that would at least give me some justification for coughing up the dough, but there's no guarantee that they'll be there.

So I open the floor to you, dear reader, and your well-crafted and possibly even offered-while-sober advice.

Book Log 2007 #15: The Map that Changed the World by Simon Winchester

Perhaps best known here for his book Krakatoa, here Winchester tells the story of William Smith, whose interest in rock strata led him to create the world's first geological map and helped to found the modern science of geology. A working man, he did much of his work as a side project while building canals or on his own after a rather spectacular fall from grace.

The science in this book is ably supported by its parts on religion (and how Smith's work changed the popular Biblical view of the world's origin) and biography (though I would have liked more personal information about Smith). It can drag a bit - there's a center chapter about a period of Winchester's life as a child which isn't as useful to the overall narrative as I think he believes it is - but it's a decent read, especially if you're interested in geology or the history of science.

From an AP story about Queen Elizabeth II's recent state visit to the US:

"The queen concluded a rigorous schedule of events marked by frequent changes in dress and a series of colorful hats."

I wasn't aware that the queen was here to put on her one-woman show about Bella Abzug.

Book Log 2007 #14: Dies the Fire by S. M. Stirling

The first book in a series that's spun off from the Island in the Sea of Time series, the same event that sends Nantucket a couple of millenia back in time impacts the present day by eliminating electricity (and lessening the effects of combustion on things like explosives). As you can imagine, things go downhill pretty quickly as people realize that the juice isn't coming back.

It does help, apparently, to be a Wiccan, a former Marine, or an academic who has studied the Middle Ages. Communities form around characters who are all three, and their formation, growth, and interaction makes up the bulk of the book.

I was a little dubious going into the book, fearing kind of a nerd utopia vision, but enjoyed it more as it went along. I'm still not clear on what can burn and what can't - gasoline seems to work in bonfires, but steam engines can't get up the requisite pressure to function properly. There are other little bits along the way that I found odd, but overall it's a decent book if you're into this sort of thing.