Gone Girl

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I'm a little late to the party when it comes to reading Gone Girl by Gillian Flynn. Chances are you've heard the buzz about this book already. Let me just say that all the buzz is well deserved.

I didn't want to step away from the story. The characters had so much depth and so much of that depth was various levels of crazy. I loved reading them while at the same time I didn't like them. I find that to be a very difficult balance and I'm always impressed with an author who can manage to make it happen.

I opted to listen to this book instead of reading it and I think the narrators did a fantastic job bringing Amy and Nick to life. I actually looked forward to cleaning out my closets over the weekend because I knew it would be my chance to finish the story and I couldn't wait to see how Ms. Flynn was going to end it.

It should go without saying that there are going to be spoilers in this and any review I do, but just in case...

I loved her critique on the roll the media plays in the news and defining what's true. Everything gets sensationalized so much and we look for a good story more than the truth sometimes. At first I just thought Nick was awkward and had some unfortunate moments in front of the camera. I quickly started to think that there was more to his actions than what he was letting on in his narrative since withholding information seemed to be so much of what he was doing.

My jaw hit the floor when I finally grasped the extent of Amy's plan and her repeated pattern of completely destroying those who got in the way of what she wanted and wouldn't force themselves to fit into the role she had designed for them. To take so much time to plan out all the details of the disappearance and to leave so many open options as back up is so far beyond anything that I could imagine. It's like everyone was disposable to her once they no longer fit into her vision.

Poor, Desi. I mean he wasn't exactly a night in shining armor, but I don't think he deserved what Amy did to him. Plus I loved the idea that she was going to fake her own murder and then wind up as Desi's prisoner. Payback being a bitch and all. What I liked about him was that he clearly wasn't afraid of Amy and was willing to make her pay for what she did to him unlike the others from her past. In reality their responses of just moving on and keeping their distance were the right choice, but that doesn't make for very exciting reading.

Not that Nick was perfect. I wanted to like him, and I did for a while. But then we found out about his affair and he was much less likable. I kept waiting for there to be more to it, or for him to turn the tables and actually kill Amy. I like the way it was written much better than what I had in mind, though.

I may be the only one I know who liked the ending. It left me a little disturbed and almost physically feeling cold, which is exactly what I liked about it. Neither one of them is truly happy with how things ended up, and I'm going to assume that both will continue plotting against each other for as long as they can.

I gave this book 5 stars on Goodreads- something I haven't done in a long time.

Inferno: Chocolate-Chili and Cream

After this book, Dan Brown's Inferno, I felt like I needed a drink, and I definitely wanted to have something with a little heat for this cocktail. So I revisited the chocolate-chili liqueur we had in our bar. I've used this one before to make a really tasty martini.

It has just the right amount of lingering heat at the end. It's a great balance to the sweetness of the chocolate flavor that hits you up front. Even with that, I don't think I could drink this one straight, well maybe I could, but I probably shouldn't. So I decided to add a bit of cream to soften the whole thing up a bit.

By cream, I actually mean milk because that's what we had in the fridge at the time. I'd do cream next time, but much less than what you see in the picture. Adding the cream/milk actually gave a pretty cool look to the glass. Where it meets the liqueur and starts to mix on its own you get a smoky effect, which I thought was a happy accident for tying in with the book.

All in, yummy dessert cocktail that actually ties in nicely with the book.

Inferno Thoughts

This is the fourth, and the most recently released book in Dan Brown's Robert Langdon series. In this installment, Robert wakes up in an Italian hospital recovering from being shot, but with no memories of why he was shot and why he's in Italy in the first place. He can't work out the details of his situation on his own so must rely on his doctor, Sienna, to help him first escape the assassin who comes back for him in the hospital and then to evade more pursuers in black SUVs. No one trustworthy ever drives around in black vans or SUVs in mystery novels, have you noticed that, too?

Throughout the chase and the clues and the discovery, one thing really stood out for me. I want to go to Florence. I am more than a little interested in seeing the places and the artwork described in person. It sounds amazing.

Back to the story. Here's where I get a little upset with things. It came too easily again. There was more of a struggle, but not as much as I think there should have and could have been for the plot to be a bit more realistic. I liked the addition of the Provost and his organization aboard the ship The Mendacium. It gave a very 007 feel to what was going on. Modern-day mercenaries are always interesting to me. Their role also gave me multiple instances where I found myself questioning whether I knew who the "bad guys" really were.

As Robert and Sienna move through Florence into Istanbul, they are trying to save the world from a plague that's been developed by our mad-scientist/humanist villain- Zobrist. The driving force behind Zobrist's work is that he sees a need for a major change in humanity and how we treat the planet if we as a species are to survive. His desire is to somehow change the rate at which new people come into the world. He thinks we're breeding to quickly and at a rate that is not sustainable. His plague would put an end to that. It would actually make 1/3 of the world's population sterile. Sterile.

Here's where I got mad at the book. I actually think there is some danger of people causing irreparable damage to our world. However, I think that there are a lot of things we can do that will help mitigate this damage that fall well short of mass-sterilization. What right does someone else have to decide whether or not I should be able to have children? How can someone else dare to assume they know what decisions I would make if given all the options that I have now? At the risk of oversharing, this issue hit a little too close to home for me. The Big Guy and I are trying to expand our family and it's not going quite the way we expected. We thought it would be easier than it is, and it's been the source of a lot of frustration and a lot of tears for me. He's amazing and absolutely my rock in everything, but especially in this. So to think that some lunatic in a lab would make the choice about whether I can have a baby without my knowledge and without my consent makes my blood boil.

Langdon doesn't win this time, the plague is released and the world will forever be changed and I can't say it's for the better. I gave this book 3 stars out of 5 possible on Goodreads.

As much as I disliked what happened, there were a variety of passages that I did like. A few of those that stood out to me are below.

"The decisions of our past are the architects of our present." p20

"Nothing is more creative ... nor destructive ... than a brilliant mind with a purpose." p163

"Only one form of contagion travels faster than a virus. ... And that's fear." p428

"Remember tonight, for it's the beginning of forever." p457

"Dante's poem, Langdon was now reminded, was not so much about the misery of hell as it was about the power of the human spirit to endure any challenge, no matter how daunting." p463

Lost Symbol: Old Fashioned

For this book, The Lost Symbol, I wanted to play off the history and the traditions associated with the Masons. So I went with a traditional Old Fashioned.

Ingredients
1 sugar cube
3 dashes Angostura bitters
2 ounces bourbon
1 tablespoon club soda
1 strip of lemon peel (for garnish)

Directions
In a rocks glass, combine the sugar cube, bitters and club soda. Muddle to a paste. Stir in the bourbon. Add ice cream and garnish with a two-inch strip of lemon peel. I also added a dash of lemon juice, and upped the club soda.

Great bourbon flavor, and a very smooth drink.

The Lost Symbol

In the third book of the Robert Langdon series, we're taken through the streets of Washington DC while the symbology professor solves another mystery. This one felt like a bit of a stretch to me, and it was actually hard for me to put the thoughts together I needed for this review. I couldn't really remember the story line as well as I wanted to, if we're being completely honest. So I went back to the book and did a little research.

One of the things I did like was the transition of the setting from Europe to Washington, DC. I know it's not quite the same, but I do appreciate the links and ties to our American history. The incorporation of the Masons was good too, I felt like it added an interesting level to the details of the story. Secretive groups are always fun to add to mysteries.

As with the other books in the series, there is a religious aspect to the search. The search is not only for the missing man but for the meaning behind what is happening in the moment and what's happened to lay the foundation in the past. There's also a point where the discussion turns to whether or not the Bible can be taken as a literal text or if it's really just an allegory for how people should behave and what they could achieve if they were able to reach their full potential.

It's interesting how the things that happened a few hundred years ago can still resonate with people today. Really it's not like our motivations have changed that much. Sure the specifics have, but the underlying emotions and needs are the same no matter where or when you happen to be.  

I didn't see the twist at the end coming. I totally should have- it's the type of thing I can usually spot in the first chapter or two. Spoiler alert- he's the supposedly dead son of the man he's taken captive. 

Having said that, again this one was a little too far fetched for me. I didn't get a good sense that there was any real logic behind the actions of the main characters. Things just fell into place too easily. It felt like a stretch and it felt like Langdon was able to put things together too quickly. I know that he's good and all, but some of the things he figured out wouldn't have come without copious amounts of research and access to some of the best libraries.

Something kind of interesting that I didn't realize about this book- it was released on 9-15-09, which when added together equal 33. Also the highest level with the Masons, as referenced in the book. Well played Dan Brown and publisher, well played.

Why Have Multiple Copies?

As we continue to build the library within our home, I'm committed to getting beautiful copies of books we love. I love my kindle, especially for books I'm embarrassed to be seen carrying, but for my bookshelves I want books that make a statement. I want mostly hardcover, and I want a lot of them. Occasionally, that means we wind up with multiple copies of a book... or five. There are also other reasons that we wind up with multiple copies of books. Case in point, The Great Gatsby.

I have a hardcover edition that I picked up after reading the book in high school. I've highlighted sections and made notes in the margins. I'm a nerd, I know. You should probably know that by now too, if we're being honest.

I also have a gorgeous art deco style edition that I love. It's the edition that I used in all of the pictures for the Book of the Month posts. I actually have two of that edition. Why two you might ask? Good question. Here's why:

Cute faces right? Not if you happen to be a dust cover that's been removed from the book for easy reading and left on the coffee table while your mom goes into the kitchen to start dinner. In that particular case, the two of you become hostile wrecking machines shredding and chewing the lovely dust cover to pieces. Mom gets mad.

Once I'd calmed down, I went directly to Amazon to order another copy. So now I have two of them, bringing my total copies of Gatsby to three. The one without the dust cover is going to Half Price Books soon though. So I'll be back to two. Completely reasonable.

 

Other books we have multiples of:

Alice in Wonderland: I have a beautiful 1946 edition of this book, combined with Through the Looking Glass. Original illustrations throughout, absolutely gorgeous. I also have the version that's part of the Penguin Clothbound Classics series. I'm trying to collect them all, so I couldn't skip this one. Plus, I love the bright pink flamingoes across the cover.

Dracula- One of our copies is a beautiful edition that's part of the Penguin Clothbound Classics series, designed by Coralie Bickford-Smith who also designed the Gatsby edition with the art deco cover. The other belonged to my father in law. Beauty and sentimentality- two of my favorite things about books.

Les Miserables: One of our copies is from 1890, so I'm actually afraid to read it since there's a good chance I'll damage it. Fortunately we have another copy. It's one of the Penguin Clothbound Classics, and it's beautiful. I'm much more likely to read this one. It's a someday read, just because the length is a bit daunting.

A Little Princess- one has illustrations by Tasha Tudor and I can remember the exact day my parents bought it for me: while on vacation in the Wisconsin Dells at Storybook Gardens, which closed in 2011; kinda makes me sad. The other is part of the Puffin Classics series with cover designs by Jessica Hische.

Little Women- Again, I have a beautiful edition of this book that's part of the Penguin Clothbound Classics series. I have a very difficult time only buying a few books from a series. Once I start I tend to be a bit obsessive about it until I have them all. The other version I have is one that my mom gave me when I was younger. It's a treasure, not one I can give up easily, and one I intend to pass down to my daughter (if/when I have one). You've probably also noticed a pattern of books as gifts when I was growing up. My mom was a first grade teacher and while she could always say no to requests for flashy toys, she could never refuse a book. Between that and my innate nerdiness, books were always happening.

Rebecca: Again, I have an antique copy. I did try to read  this one and discovered that it's a mis-print. about 50 pages appear twice and 50 pages are missing. This one is from 1938. The other is a paperback version that I picked up since I wanted to be able to read the whole thing. Picture me at Barnes and Noble over my lunch break when I realized I was going to have to stop in the middle of a read. It happens.

The Secret Garden: The story behind this one is almost identical to the story behind the double copies of A Little Princess. I even got my first edition from the same little shop in that park.

Most often when we find that we have two copies of a book, one gets sold or donated. Even with that there are still occasions, like the ones listed above, where we keep each copy.

What about you? Do you have multiple copies of anything?

Winter Garden: White Russian Warmer

Let me start by saying that I wept at the end of this book. Not, I cried a little in a glamorous movie sort of way, but wept in a tears covering my face and leaving a puddle on the pillow where I was reading. Kind of freaked out Loki. He hates it when I cry and always comes over to give kisses and make me feel better, although I suppose it's possible he just thinks my tears are tasty. I'm going with the cute cuddly version where he's being comforting.

So I'm crying over a beautiful story about a mother and her daughters and how what has kept them apart ultimately brings them together. Why does this make me cry? It makes me think of my realtionship with my own mother. She's amazing. I'm so lucky to have her in my life and grateful for the influence that she's been in the past and continues to be. I can't imagine having a strained or difficult relationship with her. Sure we had the normal trials during my teenage years and the requisite disagreements over wedding details (ask me about the reception chairs, I dare you). But even with all of that, and in some wasy because of it, she's one of my best friends. This weekend is her birthday, so wherever I am right now, I'm thinking of her. 

So the cocktail had to be something warm. That way it could go along with the heart warming aspect of the book, and it could actually be enjoyed in winter, or in my case in the air conditioning. It's a variation on a traditional White Russian, and a spin on a drink that I make with coffee infused bourbon.

Ingredients
Kahlua (or other coffee liquer)
Vodka (I went with whipped cream flavored, but vanilla would be nice as well)
Cream (half and half in my case)

Directions
Mix 2 parts Kahlua and 1 part vodka with 2 parts very hot water, Use whatever temperature you'd normally use to make a glass of tea. Float cream on top.