The Athenian Murders

This book by José Carlos Somozo is simply the best I have read in a very long time.

To say too much about the book would be to destroy it completely but you can argue endlessly whether this is a cracklin' mystery story, or a book on philosophical ideas or `ideas', or a meta-fictional philosophical mystery or ...

Incidentally, the original Spanish title La caverna de las ideas (The Cave of Ideas) is far better than the English version in as much as it echoes Plato's cave metaphor.

And it is far far superior to Eco's The Name of the Rose to which it is (very) superficially related. (It is clearly more influenced by Nabokov's Pale Fire than anything else.)

Can we create a "super-impressed" category? This one belongs there.

Slumdog Millionaire

Loved it, loved it, loved it.

Not just because I'm from Bombay (now Mumbai) but because it's a tight, slickly-edited modern day thriller + love story in a Bollywood guise via Lancashire and Hollywood.

It takes immense cinematic talent to not only keep the audience engaged but also on total edge when you know all along how it's gonna end. Danny Boyle pulls out all the stops for this movie which is Oliver Twist in all but name.

It would really help if you understood Hindi/Urdu which are known for their highly "creative" approach to swearing. Extraordinarily creative, Joyce-worthy creative. The subtitles lame out.

But the soundtrack kicks ass.

Bernard-Henri Levy - Left in Dark Times

This is a polemic. Based on the author, that is a given. However, due to Levy's amazingly eventful life and courage, just about everything he writes is worth reading. Particularly, his lucid passage about the conflict between tolerance and secularism (in the "Fascislamism" chapter) is alone worth the time required for the book. It is also interesting to read a perspective informed by the recent history of Europe rather than North America, to see which events resonate in different places.

Once can find many conversations with Levy on CharlieRose.com.

Parker Station 2007 Pinot Noir

I was indifferent to this one, which I picked up at Lazy Acres about a week ago.

Wine tasting at Fess Parker

Ben and I went wine tasting at Fess Parker yesterday. I liked 3/6 of the wines. There was a good Ashley's Vineyard Chardonnay, a great Melange Blanc, and a phenomenal "Big Easy Syrah". The not so memorable ones were the Riesling, the Pinot Noir and the SB Syrah.

A Quantum of Solace

I was very excited to see this film, and in the end it let me down. Daniel Craig was absolutely brilliant in the previous edition, so I had high hopes for this one, but it fell flat for me. The plot was ludicrously simple, the directing was simplistic, the scenes really fragmented, almost to the point where I found myself dissecting the movie into segments and working out the logistics of filming them... The locations were cool, but not enough was done with that. The Bond girl was fantastic, but that was about the highlight of the film. M was quite reasonable, too.

Dissapointing Food Writing

Ever encounter a book (or books) from which you learn a hell of a lot but which leaves you disappointed?

Meet Russ Parsons.

Both his books How to Read a French Fry and How to Pick a Peach have been illuminating but seriously disappointing.

There's always something missing. It's not the knowledge or the writing. It's not the phrasing or the erudition. Perhaps it's the self-conscious effort to get people to buy it by including recipes which are actually seriously crappy.

Either way, if I had bought these books rather than borrow them from the library, I would be seriously pissed off. As it happens, I'm glad to read, learn a few things, and dump.