Book of the Day Roundup: September 2-6, 2024
Leonard Cohen
The Man Who Saw the Angels Fall
Christophe Lebold
ECW Press
Softcover $29.95 (500pp)
978-1-77041-744-1
Buy: Amazon
Christophe Lebold’s biography of one of popular music’s greatest songwriters is outstanding, grounding its subject in the historical times that formed him and his art.
Following Leonard Cohen from his childhood in Canada through to his years as a promising young poet and novelist, the book reveals his emergence as a live musician in the late 1960s. It does so without a reportorial overcast, telling the story in the form of an epic odyssey, with each time and place contained with an eye toward adventure. For example, Cohen’s time living and writing in the Chelsea Hotel earns an extended comparison to Dante’s Divine Comedy: his journeying between floors, and the various artists who come and go, turn the hotel into a way station of inspiration and chance encounters. Snippets of Cohen’s life and relationships that later came up in songs are treated like symbolic and meaningful breadcrumbs, including the loss of his blue raincoat, his famous dalliance with Janis Joplin, and the letters sent to his muse, Marianne, in Greece.
The book ties many of the themes reflected in Cohen’s life and writing to the events of his early years, including his love of women, his Judaism, his mother’s battle with depression, and his fascination with Zen and Catholic symbolism. Lebold combines his own conversations with the artist, extensive research, and myriad references to Cohen’s poems, songs, and literary touchpoints together to form a cohesive whole. “At the heart of it” all is the story of “an undercover poet who tried to revive mass culture and rock music with the art of King David.”
Leonard Cohen is a literary masterpiece—the seminal, comprehensive biography of a multitalented man who wrote more than his share of literary masterpieces himself.
JEFF FLEISCHER (August 14, 2024)
Oaklore
Adventures in a World of Extraordinary Trees
Jules Acton
Greystone Books
Hardcover $24.95 (272pp)
978-1-77164-966-7
Buy: Local Bookstore (Bookshop), Amazon
Jules Acton’s comprehensive and delightful book Oaklore covers the science, history, and mythology of Great Britain’s oak trees.
Noting that only 13 percent of the United Kingdom is covered by trees, this intriguing book focuses on the oak trees characteristic of the remaining woodland. An oak tree can live for hundreds of years, Acton writes, and is essential within thriving, diverse ecosystems at all stages in its life cycle, including its “lingering afterlife.” And an astonishing 2,300 species of plants, animals, and fungi find food and shelter in Britain’s oak trees, including 300 species that depend entirely on oak trees for their existence.
The book is loaded with fascinating insights and anecdotes. Dozens of species are described in detail, from the nuthatch and red squirrel to the spotted longhorn beetle and the elusive purple hairstreak butterfly. There are engaging descriptions of historic oaks across the country, too, including the Bowthorpe, with a girth of forty-two feet and an estimated age of over one thousand years. And an extended discussion of oak galls (small growths on oak buds and leaves that “house” beneficial wasps and their eggs) reveals that oak gall ink was used in writing the Magna Carta, Shakespeare’s plays, and the US’s Declaration of Independence.
The prose is nimble and witty, as when Acton describes the laughing “yaffle sound” of the green woodpecker (“If I’m going to feel mocked I’d like it done by wildlife”) and the advantages of observing lichen (“They don’t whizz about”). Attractive illustrations and practical tips, such as suggestions for identifying bird songs or baking with acorn flour, pair with the book’s consideration of the challenges posed by development and climate change.
Clever and utterly charming, Oaklore is a creative study of one of Britain’s most distinctive and important trees.
KRISTEN RABE (August 14, 2024)
Love of the Half-Eaten Peach
Inspired by a True Story
Lee Wind
Jieting Chen, illustrator
Reycraft Books
Hardcover $18.95 (40pp)
978-1-4788-8187-2
Buy: Local Bookstore (Bookshop), Amazon
Inspired by a true story from Chinese history, this painterly picture book serves as a reminder that queer people—and queer love—have always existed. When Yuan’s advisors tell him he must understand perfection to rule well, Yuan is perplexed, convinced perfection does not exist. His friend, Mi Zi Xia, searches high and low, but Yuan finds fault with even the finest silks and most fragrant teas. Through Zi Xia’s efforts, however, Yuan discovers the closest thing to perfection there is: love.
DANIELLE BALLANTYNE (August 14, 2024)
The Hungry Ghost Bread Book
An Offbeat Bakery’s Guide to Crafting Sourdough Loaves, Flatbreads, Crackers, Scones, and More
Jonathan Stevens
Chelsea Green Publishing
Softcover $24.95 (208pp)
978-1-64502-260-2
Buy: Local Bookstore (Bookshop), Amazon
Jonathan Stevens flavors his sourdough baking book with his unique phrases, wit, and a sprinkle of philosophy, as distinctive as the loaves made in his Northampton, Massachusetts, bakery, the Hungry Ghost. Noting that “bread is the plate, napkin, and the bulk of almost any traditional meal,” he points out that naturally-leavened sourdough bread is an amazing dietary staple, since fermentation from wild yeasts and good bacteria makes it truly digestible.
Experienced bakers will love the book’s advice on flours, essential equipment, and mixing and shaping techniques. Stevens narrates the bakery’s typical day of tending to the starter and wood-fired ovens, transforming dough into a wealth of bread and baked goods. The recipes for bakery-quality sourdough bread require some expertise, but they come with zippy instructions and advice on musical and beverage accompaniments.
There are detailed recipes for sixteen kinds of bread loaves, starting with the simple, crusty French Batard and building toward loaves that require more techniques and ingredients. There is Semolina-Fennel Bread, perfect for “wiping a plate of tomato sauce clean”; Hat Trick Bread full of wheat, oats, and barley, in a nod to one of the Canadian-born author’s hockey heroes; and Fig and Sage Bread “screaming for a schmear of hairy goat cheese and a glass of grappa.” There are also delectable recipes for adjacent flatbreads in a range of appealing flavors, including Beet and Coriander Fougasse, as well as for naan, pizza, crackers, scones, bagels, pasta, and an energy bar stuffed with barley seeds, dates, and cashews. In the unlikely event that one has a sourdough surplus, there are several recipes for tucking leftover bread into casseroles and stuffings too.
As enticing as warm, buttered bread straight from the oven, The Hungry Ghost Bread Book is an alluring and playful invitation to get started on some sourdough.
RACHEL JAGARESKI (August 14, 2024)
Malört
The Redemption of a Revered and Reviled Spirit
Josh Noel
Chicago Review Press
Softcover $19.99 (272pp)
978-0-914091-67-7
Buy: Local Bookstore (Bookshop), Amazon
While some bars in Chicago have served Jeppson’s Malört for nearly a century, in the past two decades, the bitter, wormwood-derived botanical spirit found new life as both a niche favorite and an ironic countercultural drink. That fascinating story is revealed in Chicago Tribune beverage writer Josh Noel’s enjoyable history book Malört.
As Noel chronicles, Malört’s continued existence owes to a series of serendipitous events. Classified as medicinal, the liquor remained in production during Prohibition due to a legal loophole. When its distributor, George Brode, sold his portfolio in the 1950s, Malört was the sole brand he retained. Brode went to great lengths to market the bitter drink (as shown in sample ads) as a so-called “real man’s” beverage for those who “quittheirbellyachin’.” And in recent decades, Brode’s former secretary and romantic partner, Pat Gabelick, who took over the brand after his death, learned that it had taken on a new audience, inspiring parody social media accounts and bootleg merchandise. Herein, interviews with Gabelick and the fans who made the drink popular expand the story.
A Chicago-specific cult favorite among bartenders meets a wider audience in Malört, an entertaining, well-reported, unlikely success tale.
JEFF FLEISCHER (August 14, 2024)
Kathy Young
