Book Description
Expatriates in Africa find themselves in morally ambiguous territory in this atmospheric tale of passion.
Prizewinning story writer Rosa Shand makes an impressive debut with a novel lushly set in the tumultuous Africa of the 1970s. Agnes is a dissatisfied wife who has come with her husband, a minister, to teach in Kampala, Uganda. The disintegration of their marriage and Agnes' ecstatic affair is played out against this dangerously unsettled atmosphere, taking the reader on a sensuous and unforgettable journey.
Customer Reviews:
Weak, uninspired. Don't buy........2003-09-24
This book was bursting with amateurish problems that should have been removed by any good editor or omitted by any good writer. The story was tasteless and banal, like eating cream of wheat every day of your life. You could say it was rather without substance. The language, not poetic as some claim, is simply gimicky and distracting. The language pulls away from any forward movement in the novel and makes some passages painful. And I'm not somebody who dislikes language heavy work (as an example, I enjoyed Ulysses' use of language for the most part).
Praises about the love story are in total disregard of the stylistic errors and cheesy genre orientation of this fiction. This is Danielle Steel in a cheap, gimicky disguise. The characters and setting took a back seat to the heavily plot and language. There is not a reason to read this book (which I say of few books), and this is the only book I have thought of jamming into the paper shredder at work.
While reading, I threw the book across the room and refused to read past the half way mark of the book. If you buy this, consider yourself warned.
Hot & Sensitive: Romantic Tensions in African Setting.......2003-01-13
Beautiful and flowing. Rare. Shand is a masterful writer. She captures the universalities of tensions in marriage, yet draws vivid pictures of the disappearing mixtures of subcultures in a Uganda in turmoil a generation ago. The lessons are subtle and still relevant.
A story of many layers.......2002-02-18
Rosa Shand's first book is filled with simple but beautiful language, description of the physical and the emotional experience of living in Uganda during the time right before and during Idi Amin's political coup. As the story unfolds, Shand manages to very gently capture the very complicated relationships between husband and wife, wife and lover, amidst the rhythms of life in a foreign land, all which help make this a very successful debut novel.
Agnes is our narrator, and she, her husband John and their young children have moved to Uganda. John is a professor teaching at the college; Agnes teaches part-time at the lower school. Each of them is lost in their respective idealisms, and their relationship is suffering for it, as they don't seem to have an intimate connection on any real level. Agnes, who is always searching to fulfill what she feels is a lack of meaningful attachment to her husband, meets Wulf, who is also teaching at the university, and is a friend of her husband's, they embark on a tentative relationship.
What works about this novel, is that this affair, in all its various stages and with all its various consequences, is written in a way that echoes the lifestyle and the political uncertainties of the country. Shand weaves Agnes' story with an intimate look at a society very different from Agnes'and our own, and these dual storylines are revealed piece by piece to the reader as the circumstances of Agnes' daily life allows. She uses deceptively simple language to tell a story of many layers, each one as lush and as precarious as the next. A fine book to curl up with on a wintry weekend, which is about how long it will take to read.
Bask in this 'Sunlight'.......2000-09-13
This is simply a beautiful book with well developed characters, scene setting that makes you want to hop a jet to Africa, real emotion, and a wonderful story of love and longing, betrayal, adventure and everyday life. I love this book! With apologies to Barbara Kingsolver, it's similar in that it's set in Africa, it's about a minster, his wife and their children and their time in that strangely intoxicating country, but it's so much more readable than Kingsolver whom I never finished. One of the most interesting aspects of Rosa Shand's novel is the beginning paragraph of each chapter in which she sets a scene or merely ponders on something unrelated to the action. These pieces are so very poetic in themselves. And then there's the story -- Agnes, who many women will relate to, who cannot "will herself" to love her unconnected husband, fantasizes about a man who she becomes inevitably bound with. But enough of that, read it yourself, you won't regret it. (And who in their right mind would call this book racist? The "reviewer" clearly missed the point if he/she even read beyond the first chapter...) Rosa Shand, please write more!
Review of The Gravity of Sunlight.......2000-09-09
In The Gravity of Sunlight, Rosa Shand explores one woman's desires for a fulfilled life beyond her marriage and motherhood. Set in Africa in the 1970s, The Gravity of Sunlight provides a look into the heart of an American woman who comes to terms with her own desires. Agnes remains true to her self while feeling torn between her wanting to do what is right and what will allow her to best express her needs. She chooses the latter. She does this at some expense to her family. However, the reader will want to cheer this character on. One cannot help but feel connected to her. Rosa Shand does a beautiful job with this novel. I especially enjoyed the exerpts at the beginning of each chapter. They helped create set the mood and provided me with an insight into the true heart of the novel. On the down side, I did not find the love scenes between Agnes and Wulf to have much substance. They should have maybe been more vivid, not graphic. But more descriptive. They seemed a bit abrupt in the novel and I know there was more to them than that. Overall, I do recommed this book. Both men and women would enjoy it.
Customer Reviews:
a solid Darkover offering.......2006-08-31
This Darkover novel written by Marion Zimmer Bradley begins a couple of years after the events of The Heritage of Hastur. Lew Alton, now somewhat disfigured because of his use of the Sharra Matrix, is recovering offworld with his father and is a bitter young man. Everything that he cared about was taken from him, including his wife and unborn child, and he is partially responsible for the destruction of a city by the Sharra Matrix. The Sharra Matrix is a focus for incredible and ancient power and has been used as a nearly uncontrollable weapon in the past. Lew is one of the handful of men and women who rediscovered the matrix and through betrayals sought to use it, though with one final betrayal he helped to stop the destruction. Sharra's Exile covers several years that Lew spent off world in possession of the Matrix (he is so strongly linked to the Matrix that if he gets too far from it he may die), and then covers the events that follows his return to Darkover carrying the forbidden Matrix.
Sharra's Exile is told in alternating chapters between the first person perspective of Lew Alton and the third person perspective dealing with other characters, mostly Regis Hastur. This is a novel rife with conflict. Lew is emotionally a wreck and has a very difficult time controlling his emotions after the Sharra incident and because he is a telepath in a caste of telepaths, he is unintentionally broadcasting his pain to anyone nearby. Lew is also half Terran, so there are some in the Comyn ruling class who look down on Lew and his family even though he is the heir to his family's Domain. This is another conflict. Yet another has to do with the Sharra Matrix. In the Regis chapters there are conflicts regarding his views about Terran Culture and that Regis is far more progressive than his grandfather as well as most of the Comyn.
Sharra's Exile is a complete rewrite of one of Bradley's earliest novels The Sword of Aldones and while I haven't read that first book I thought this was a very solid entry into the Darkover Chronology. Bradley has multiple conflicts and plot points going and there is plenty of intrigue and even some action. The novel flows well and because of all of the conflict, Darkover is a conflicted society, there was plenty to hold my interest as she moved the primary story along of the re-emergence and fear of the Sharra Matrix. There is a bit of absurdity (The Sword of Aldones, the Terran woman) and Bradley has recycled a couple of story techniques she has used in the past but this time it is more dues ex machina than necessary plotting, but overall Sharra's Exile is a good Darkover story and an entertaining read. That's all I really ask for out of a book.
-Joe Sherry
The Love of Power or the Power of Love?.......2000-10-02
Like The Heritage of Hastur, Sharra's Exile is told in chapters that alternate between the first-person narrative of Lew Alton, and the third-person focus on other characters (Diotima Ridenow and Regis Hastur, in particular). It takes up where the previous book left off, where struggles between birth family and chosen family are concerned. On a larger scale, there is also the battle between those who want to preserve the traditional culture of Darkover "by any means necessary" (including use of the Sharra Matrix, which is definitely against the Compact), and those who wish to become part of the Terran Empire.
The central characters become caught up in this struggle, while also dealing with the conflicting loyalties in their personal lives. Regis Hastur has to face his grandfather's disapproval of his lover Danilo, Lew Alton is haunted by the last words of his dead father, and Diotima Ridenow has to sort through her feelings for Lew when their marriage ends in disaster following the premature birth of their horribly deformed son.
Those who were touched by the madness of the Sharra Circle are drawn back to it, and the attempts to harness Sharra's power could easily spell disaster for Darkover.
Excellent, but original edition better........1998-02-16
An outstanding expedition into the power of emotions and the internal struggles faced by Lew Alton in returning home to his native Darkover. The author has "tidied up" a number of time lines from the original publication. However, I found the original to be both more enjoyable and imaginative. While the reader can understand the desire of Ms. Bradley to have her work reflect a more mature self, the naivete of Lew and Marjorie is exchanged for a less dedsirable physical lust. While both versions entertain, and are excellent presentations of the Darkover venue, the original holds a special place in my childhood memories.
Product Description
Multiple books shipped as one item for your convenience. Save on Shipping/Handling charges.
Product Description
Set of 5 novels from the Darkover series: Sharra's Exile, The Forbidden Tower, Free Amazon's of Darkover, StormQueen!, City of Sorcery.
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Sharra's Exile
Manufacturer: D A W Books, Incorporated
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Mass Market Paperback
ASIN: B000GSI508 |
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Daikan
Steven Carlton
Manufacturer: Black Dove Pub
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback
 General
| Science Fiction
| Science Fiction & Fantasy
| Subjects
| Books
ASIN: 0971530505 |
Book Description
What if you grew up never knowing who you really are?
It's not that hard to imagine. A woman marries a man she barely knows, but thinks she loves. A child is born. The marriage fails. And the father fades into memory, leaving the child to be raised by the mother and her new husband.
That is this story. Of a man who has grown to adulthood, with a family of his own, but never knowing his heritage. Never knowing what legacy he might belong to. And when, at last, he finds out, it is far more unreal than any imagining could ever have been.
Here, the main character is a man named Jacob. He is, by his own account, a simple, humble man. Ordinary. And then one day a sister he's never known calls him, launching him down a crooked path to adventure, self-discovery, and the terrifying realization that he is anything but ordinary. He is the Daikan. And what that means will make the difference between Earth's salvation,
or its ultimate destruction.
This is a science-fiction novel about the culmination of ten thousand years of alien genetic manipulation, of a galactic war which has raged for millions of years, and of the ultimate destiny and purpose of mankind. Where did we come from? What is our purpose here? As Jacob discovers, biogenetically modified people have become a subset of humanity, secretly bred for combat prowess and psionic ability.
Pitted against immortal aliens with god-like power, they are in desperate need of a champion, a person in whom the genetic strains have reached their peak and produced the ultimate weapon. Jacob is that weapon. And he must learn to embrace his destiny in order to discover his true potential, to be the salvation of mankind.
Customer Reviews:
Great Read!.......2004-09-17
I have got to say that this was a excellent read. Normally, I don't get into Sci-fi, but the author had a way of drawing me in and I didn't want to put the book down. Great plot, great characters, wonderful action, and great adventure. I read his book Legion and thought it was phenomenal and I was scared that Diakan would be boring, but boy was I wrong! I can't wait till he puts more books on the market for me to read. I went to his website and was very impressed with what he has written. I am looking forward to more works by him in the near future!
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Gekitsui: Daikan kokuki jiken
Kunio Yanagida
Manufacturer: Kodansha
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Unknown Binding
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Burakku bokkusu: Tsuiseki Daikan kokuki jiken
Kunio Yanagida
Manufacturer: Kodansha
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Unknown Binding
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Daikan gorin
Tadashi Kamada
Manufacturer: Taishukan Shoten
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ASIN: 4469031550 |
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Daikan kyoho shugi no seisui
Masatake Okumiya
Manufacturer: Asahi Sonorama
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Unknown Binding
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ASIN: 4257032731 |
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Dewa bakuryo shihai no kenkyu: Yuri, Shonai bakuryo no shihai daikan o chushin ni
Katsuyoshi Honma
Manufacturer: Bunken Shuppan
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ASIN: 4830511869 |
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Edo Bakufu daikan rireki jiten
Atsuo Nishizawa
Manufacturer: Iwata Shoin
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ASIN: 4872942213 |
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Edo Bakufu Daikan Takegaki Naokiyo nikki
Naokiyo Takegaki
Manufacturer: Shin Jinbutsu Oraisha
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ASIN: 4404014872 |
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Edo Bakufu no daikan gunzo (Doseisha Edo jidaishi sosho)
Tadashi Murakami
Manufacturer: Doseisha
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ASIN: 4886211399 |
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- The Good Eating Bible
- WHEN THE VERY BEST MAKES SENSE
- Proves There's Always Room For Another Book
- Simply delicious read!
- Good eating
|
Zingerman's Guide to Good Eating: How to Choose the Best Bread, Cheeses, Olive Oil, Pasta, Chocolate, and Much More
Ari Weinzweig
Manufacturer: Houghton Mifflin
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback
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The Cheese Lover's Cookbook and Guide: Over 150 Recipes with Instructions on How to Buy, Store, and Serve All Your Favorite Cheeses
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Essentials of Cooking
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Cheese Primer
ASIN: 0395926165 |
Amazon.com
Located in Ann Arbor, Michigan, Zingerman's is a food emporium specializing in top-quality products. One of the store's founding partners, Ari Weinzweig, is also the author of Zingerman's Guide to Good Eating, a key to the pleasures of the best breads, cheeses, olive oil, chocolate, and more, complete with 130 recipes. Like his store (whose name is a fanciful evocation of old-world delis), Weinzweig is committed to the best. Why? "Ultimately, I could care less whether food is fancy," he writes. "I just want it to taste good." The better food tastes," he says, "the more zing [in your] daily routine." A too modest claim for the pleasures of getting to know your food
Beginning with an exploration of the why and how of better ingredients (if you think you can't recognize them, Weinzweig offers "eating experiments," such as trying supermarket Swiss cheese versus a well-aged Gruyère), and other help (like "Saffron Superstitions Skewered"). He then presents food profiles--such as those for oils, olives, and vinegars, and grains and rices--with notes on production and exemplary types, brand information and other what-to-look for info, plus suggestions for use. For example, readers learn about Italian rices such as arborio and carnaroli; discover how to recognize their impostors (look for the seal of the rice growers consortium); take a visit to a venerable rice grower; then receive thorough advice on risotto making. Simple, flavorful recipes that highlight food items, such as Roquefort and Potato Salad, Pasta with Pepper and Pecorino, and Buckwheat Honey Cake, follow. In addition, Weinzweig also offers timelines like that for chocolate, plus technical tips such as those for brewing tea successfully. As sensible as it's informative, the book's a true blueprint for discovery. --Arthur Boehm
Book Description
Hailed by the New York Times, Esquire, and the Atlantic Monthly as one of the best delicatessens in the country, Zingerman's is a trusted source for superior ingredients and an equally dependable supplier of information about food. Now, Ari Weinzweig, the founder of Zingerman's, shares two decades of knowledge gained in his pursuit of the world's finest food products: oils, vinegar, and olives; bread, pasta, and rice; cheeses and cured meats; seasonings like salt, pepper, and saffron; vanilla, chocolate, and tea.
Customer Reviews:
The Good Eating Bible.......2007-02-12
When it comes to food and cooking, this is one of my top 3 favorite and most used books. Though this has recipes, that is not where its value lies. This book is a guide to understanding and appreciating quality in your food. Some of the foods covered are olive oils, vinegars (balsamic and others), cheese, bread, pasta, chocolate, etc. Each section tells you what makes for quality and recommends brands to try. If you love good food, this is a MUST HAVE!
WHEN THE VERY BEST MAKES SENSE.......2004-07-15
Zingerman's Guide to Good Eating:
A Zinger from Zingerman
(When the very best makes sense)
"How to choose the best bread, cheeses, olive oil, pasta, chocolate and much more ..."
By Marty Martindale
Illustrations by Ian Nagy and colleagues
This book is a foodie's joy and a hoot! It's also a very quick catchup if you have been totally out of the kitchen for the last decade or two. It's the Mediterranean scene, not the Asian scene, however. The book contains many recipes, great ones, too.
Author, Ari Weinzweig, no not Ari Zingerman, taught himself to be very food savvy, and he's graciously willing to share his self-taught connoisseurship methods through this book. Though a Chicago native, Ari went to the University of Michigan at Ann Arbor, Michigan where he had to decide on a major and stumbled into the food business at a the lowest end. Finally he and a partner thought the Ann Arbor area could support another deli, for who doesn't hate to leave their college town!
Many think the original delicatessens were markets selling Jewish/Kosher foods, the loxes, earliest sour creams, delightful pickles and to-die-for hot pastrami. Not so. It seems Germans, not Eastern European Jews, opened New York's earliest deli. Actually, the dictionary definition of a deli is: "a small shop that sells high quality foods, such as types of cheese and cold cooked meat, which come from many countries."
Naming the new Ann Arbor deli was a challenge for the new partners. Ari knew "Weinzweig" would be difficult for customers to pronounce much less remember. After a fashion, they agreed on "Zingerman's" for their Jewish-sounding store name, vendor of Mediterranean delights. They laughed, because the name had, "Zing," and they opened their new market in 1982.
When Weinzweig works to make you a greater discerning connoisseur, he calms you with, "How to overcome your fear of the guy behind the counter." Most of this means, "feel entitled to the sample you are offered," or downright ask for one (else how will you ever learn?). Then he gets scientific and devotes sections to:
1. Introduce yourself to the new food (this can be done silently)
2. Look at it, describe its color (privately).
3. Smell it, "The nose knows what it's doing," he claims.
4. Taste it. Move it around in your mouth, discover how it tastes differently in different part of your mouth. (think like a wine taster ... Legs? Woody? Bold?)
5. Next he admonishes, Afford the best"," (he's not paying).
Weinzweig winds up his connoisseur training with, "Go wild. Taste early, taste often, and above all, have fun!" He then gets serious and confesses, "I'm convinced that smaller quantities of better-tasting raw materials will buy you more satisfaction for the same, or even less, outlay."
Ari devotes 23 pages to olive oils opening with a Greek proverb: "Without oil, without vinegar, how can we take a trip?" His quick olive history is a world adventure. Nut oils are also in, and he gives careful particulars for Pumpkin Seed Oil "Green Gold from the Austrian Alps." His recipes for Tuscan Pecorino Salad with Pears and Provencal Mashed Potatoes are only two of the recipes in this chapter.
When it comes to breads, Ari Weinzweig waxes almost romatically. Crusts are a big thing with him, and he's totally opposed to plastic bags for bread. He even lines out all the basics and fixin's for a fun bruschetta party. His defense of anchovies (two pages) is noble. He offers his Bread and Tomato Salad recipe. It calls for pine nuts, sea salt, Banyuls wine vinegar, toasted almonds, piquillo peppers and other delicious ingredients. Of the special vinegar from French Pyrenees, he states, "It's subtly sweet, softly spicy with a touch of almond, almost a whisper of dark chocolate and a hint of aged sherry."
Ari's section on pasta is as entertaining as it is informative. He ponders your choices between dried pasta and fresh pasta. All pasta shapes have a reason, and he helps you decide what you need for a particular dish. His visual glossary is handy, too. He explains pasta's cousin, polenta, and his recipes take the mystery out of it. No lesser cousin is risotto, or Spanish rices, and he detours a bit for Minnesota's Ojibway wild, wild rice compared with latter-day paddy rice.
Cheeses run the gambit from parmigiano-regiano, cheddar, mountain, blue and goat cheeses. He looks at "Cows and Curds," and the knotty area of aging. He explains Mountain cheeses as "... were created out of a common struggle to deal with the difficulty of life at high altitudes, ... huge snowfalls in Switzerland, Italy eastern and western France and Greece." He expounds on their personality and character. He also answers that thorney question, "What makes blue cheese blue?" He defines many blues from many countries.
Ari's big on Prosciutto de Parma and Spanish Serrano Ham. Besides these and Salamis, he addresses salmon, both of farmed and non-farmed origins. He defines Lox and smoked salmon, as well.
When it comes to seasonings, Zingerman's gets very basic: Pepper-milled pepper, sea salt and that very expensive stuff, Saffron. That's it. Ari makes Saffron read lore like an Italian fairy tale: "Seeing the Saffron harvest..." "Field of Dreams, From Bulb to Stigma, Culling the Crocus, At Home with the Strippers, Toasting" and finally, "Lunch With the Man Of Lamancha."
Vanilla and chocolate get their due. The book includes a very interesting two-and one-half-page chocolate timeline and a section, "Turning Beans into Bars: How Chocolate is Made." Zingerman's Guide to Good Eating gives us much to digest. At the end Ari Weinzweig teases the teas he mentions with three trendy Chai recipes. The recipes in the Guide are excellent and earn their own index.
Zingerman's: www.Zingermans.com
You can contact Marty Martindale at www.FoodSiteoftheDay.com.
Proves There's Always Room For Another Book.......2004-07-06
As a buff who hunts down ingredients and luxury foods in order to get out of the house, Ari Weinzweig's compendium of product lore is an invaluable asset. It is true that the availability of high-end, interesting prepared foods and ingredients is exploding in the United States, and Ari goes a long way toward making sense of them. There is nothing like treatment in depth when it comes to the foods that make our lives so much richer. We need that kind of detail in order to fill both our larders and our bellies with the best.
Food writer Elliot Essman's other reviews and food articles are available at www.stylegourmet.com
Simply delicious read!.......2004-05-20
When you are bought up on packaged mac and cheese, Wonderbread and Twinkies it's hard to know what good food really is.
But after you have experienced a balsamic vinaigrette salad with pine nuts and smoked chicken or a pan seared tuna glazed in fresh orange and basil you realize that there is a wealth of delicious food out there once you start looking past the boxes of Hamburger Helper and Lucky Charms.
That's where Ari Weinzweig author of Zingerman's Guide to Good Eating comes in. Ari doesn't care about fancy food. He cares about simple, good tasting food. And the best food begins with the freshest ingredients.
In this book Ari shares his wealth of knowledge about food. He teaches you how to select the best food items and how to really experience your food by learning how to taste.
Yes he teaches you how to taste. You will fine tune your palate.
But think about it, many of us gobble our food so quickly we don't taste it. So we eat more. We eat processed foods rats would turn away from. And some of us become fat and unhealthy.
In this book Ari educates us. You will learn how to select the best bread, cheese, olive oil, pasta, chocolate and more. Take chocolate for example. Ari explains how to check the sheen of the bon bon, the sound of it breaking, the texture of it and the ingredients to look for, so your selection is a delicious choice. He goes on to give the history of cocoa and describes how chocolate bars are made. He also names specific brands to look for like Valrhona, Scharffen Berger and Michel Cluizel. He even details how to taste chocolate so you can truly assess the flavors. Yum. Ari, I think I will try to figure that one out myself!
The book also includes a number of tasty recipes such pasta with pepper and percorino, mashed sweet potatoes with vanilla, dark chocolate granita and miguel's mother's macaroni.
Other tidbits in the book include brewing tea for the best cuppa, when to buy certain cheeses , spotting a good wine vinegar, and much more.
A fabulous read, one you will savor and learn from.
Lee Mellott
Good eating.......2004-04-21
Nestled in one of the cooler parts of Ann Arbor, on a brick-covered road near some little shops and slightly peeling houses, is deli/restaurant Zingerman's, known for its amazingly high-quality food. Now in "Zingerman's Guide To Good Eating," Ari Weinzweig offers a glimpse into the best foods available.
"Guide" is half cookbook, half gourmet bible. Weinzweig offers some good recipes (like gazpacho with sherry vinegar, or grilled Tuscan pecorino cheese), but the core of this book is what goes into those. And it's enough to drive a devoted foodie insane -- olive oils, vinegars and oils; pasta and grains; meats; cheeses, and seasonings.
And Weinzweig doesn't skimp on the details either. Within every chapter, he describes the different kinds of... whatever he's talking about. For cheeses, he provides a buying guide, then the different kinds: Parmigiano-Reggiano, cheddar, mountain, blue, et cetera. For deli meat, it's salami, Serrano ham, prosciutto, and smoked salmon. As a bonus, he describes the history and making-of each product.
Warning: Do not read this book on an empty stomach. The descriptions of food will make you drool -- especially the people who have tasted Zingermans' food before. Even the less savory ideas (salmon anemia) can't kill the response this book will provoke. (And a certain feeling of confidence is inspired by the radio hosts and cookbook authors quoted on the back, as well as restauranteur Mario Batali of "Babbo")
A lot of food books can be condescending to the non-gourmet. But Weinzweig avoids that. His style is almost conversational, like having a chat with a gourmet chef. He talks about his own experiences, his own likes, and descriptions of his chats with people who know best. (Including a conversation that compares selecting prosciutto-pigs to dating)
So for those who can't experience Zingerman's itself, the "Zingerman's Guide To Good Eating" is a must-have -- both for recipes and info about fine food in general. Just don't read through on an empty stomach.
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