Angelology by Danielle Trussoni

“Angelology” is a terrifically clever thriller — owing as much to Umberto Eco as to Dan Brown. Trussoni weaves together angels of the Bible and Apocrypha with the myth of Orpheus and comes up with an elegantly written first novel.
Beautiful, powerful, cruel, and avaricious, the half-human, half-angel Nephilim have thrived for centuries by instilling fear among humans, instigating war, and infiltrating the most powerful and influential families of history. Only a secret group of scholars, the Society of Angelologists, has endeavored to combat the spread of evil generated by Nephilim. Now, a strange affliction is destroying the Nephilim, and the cure is rumored to be an ancient artifact of great power. Sister Evangeline of the St. Rose Convent discovers an archived letter regarding the artifact’s location and is thrust into the race to locate the artifact before the Nephilim do. She uncovers her family’s past as high- ranking angelologists, and their secrets assist in her dangerous hunt.
The contest between good and evil is waged not in the heavens but here on Earth, between warring factions of biblical scholars and heavenly hosts. In the course of Evangaline's work, she stumbles across a mislaid correspondence between philanthropist Abigail Rockefeller and the convent’s founding abbess concerning an astonishing 1943 discovery in the mountains of Greece. Simultaneously, the book introduces Percival Grigori, a critically ill, once-winged member of one of the most powerful families of the Nephilim, and an enemy of humans. “It has been one continuous struggle from the very beginning,” says one of Evangeline’s comrades- in-arms. “St. Thomas Aquinas believed that the dark angels fell within twenty seconds of creation-their evil nature cracked the perfection of the universe almost instantly, leaving a terrible fissure between good and evil.” As Evangeline and Grigori are drawn into conflict over control of a powerful artifact, the lyre of the mythical Orpheus, Trussoni constructs a marathon narrative arc, ending the volume with a satisfying, if startling, transformation.
There are imperfections in the story, but they are trivial, and this is an excellent thrilling novel.

My Favorite Rub

1 1/2 c. paprika
1/2 c. sugar
1/2 c. salt
1/2 c. ground pepper
1/4 c. chili powder
1/4 c. onion powder
1/4 c. garlic powder
Mix and store in a jar. We have used this for almost anything that needs a rub, and it is reliably delicious.

The Art Student's War by Brad Leithauser

'The Art Student's War' is a story richly woven with the details of Italian teen Bianca "Bea" Paradiso's coming of age in World War II Detroit. From the moment we meet Bea on a streetcar where a handsome, wounded soldier gives her his seat, we are settled into a period when a gallant, fervently patriotic America believed that we would survive the war and emerge better than ever (those days, by the way, appear to be gone).
Bea is an art student who is approached about sketching wounded soldiers for the USO by her professor. The men are thrilled to be the subject of a pretty girl's attentions, and the task develops her portrait skills. But she is horrified by their wounds and the abruptness with which they come in and out of her life. No sooner does she meet them than they are dispatched home, back to battle or, in some cases, to psychiatric treatment.
When she is not sketching soldiers she is grappling with a powerful attraction to fellow art student Ronny Olsson, the striking, rebellious heir to a drugstore fortune.
Is it love? Or is love what she feels for soldier Henry Vanden Akker, a well-read mathematician and Dutch Reformed Church member who challenges Bea to think on a different plane? She comes up with the wrong answer, but the pressures of war give her very little time to contemplate her decision.
It will take years for both Bea and Detroit to mature and discover the reserves each has to move beyond the war. This is a tender novel in many ways, a gentle way to return to the past.

The Window (2008)

“The Window” begins with a voice-over narration in which Antonio describes a recent dream that has suddenly come back to him after nearly 80 years. Where had he stored this memory? he wonders. Now that it has returned, he wants to keep her image in his mind lest he lose it forever. It is a foreshadowing of what is to come--he is in the winter of his life, and grasping at his life's beginning. it could also be delirium, but it is a nice way to say that a man's life might be ending.
The film goes on to follow a day — perhaps the last day — in Antonio’s life. His household bustles around him--he does not seem like a forgiving master, and his doctor still makes house calls, so you know he is a man of substance.
On this particular day he is awaiting the arrival of his estranged son, Pablo (Jorge Diez), a renowned concert pianist now living in Europe. To prepare for the visit he has hired a piano tuner to recondition an old upright that hasn’t been touched in years. As the tuner extracts discarded toy soldiers stuck between the strings, it is clear that the instrument, like its owner, is perhaps beyond repair. All of the imagery is infused with Old World charm, and a sense of doom.
Even to the end, Antonio is a stern, imperious, hard-nosed skinflint. He takes a walk outside, onto the pampas, despite his doctor's instructions. It is then that we realize that not only the man is doomed. Life in this place, luxury in the midst of isolation, cannot last, and the son is not likely to come home and carry on for the father. Life as Antonio has built it is over.
When Pablo eventually appears, he is accompanied by his wife (Carla Peterson), an impatient woman chained to her cellphone. The Champagne is poured, and a toast is drunk, but it is just a polite formality, as one generation awaits the passing of the old, and with it, a way of life. The film is bittersweet and beautiful to watch.

Every Man Dies Alone by Hans Fallada

This is the best book I have read in a long time, and certainly the best book I have read about the experience of everyday Germans during WWII (and I think 'The Book Thier' is an exceptionally good book--this one is better though). Do not be put off by the title--while the book takes place during a totalitarian regime, where loyalty to the state is inordinately rewarded, and the baser elements of human behavior are rewarded and kindness is punished, it is not a depressing book to read. There is an undercurrent of hope and humor that runs just underneath the dark story that buoys it up in a way that makes is easy to read. Don't get me wrong, hardly anyone gets out of this book alive. It is not light reading. The quote from Primo Levi, that this is the best account of resistance to Hitler's regime written, is misleading i think. I think this is a book about how to maintain your humanity, your sanity even, in an inhumane situation. These situations exist today--Afghanistan being one that immediately comes to mind--so there is much we can learn from the past.
The author is as enigmatic as the book--how did he write something so devastating and yet so readable? Born Rudolph Dietzen, he changed his name because of the infamy he gained after killing a friend in a duel as a teenager. He became a well known German writer, despite his life-long struggle with drugs and alcohol. He died of a morphine overdose before this book was published. He wrote this book in less than a month, based on the Gestapo files of a real couple who conducted a similar campaign of subtle resistance. It is a remarkably interwoven and complex book and to think he poured it out of himself in such a short period of time is even more remarkable. It was published in East Germany in 1947, but this is the first translation in English. I don't know what took so long, but this is a masterpiece.

Chicken Adobo

1 cup coconut milk
¼ cup soy sauce
1½ cup rice vinegar
12 garlic cloves, peeled
3 whole bird’s-eye chilies or other fiery chili
3 bay leaves
1½ teaspoons freshly ground black pepper
3 to 4 pounds chicken thighs.

1. Combine all of the marinade ingredients in a bowl or resealable plastic freezer bag. Add the chicken and turn to coat. Refrigerate overnight or for at least 2 hours.
2. Place chicken and marinade in a large lidded pot or Dutch oven over high heat and bring to a boil. Immediately reduce heat to a simmer and cook, stirring occasionally, until the chicken is cooked through and tender, around 30 minutes.
3. Heat broiler. Transfer chicken pieces to a large bowl, raise heat under the pot to medium-high, and reduce the sauce until it achieves almost the consistency of cream, about 10 minutes. Remove bay leaves and chilies.
4. Place chicken pieces on a roasting pan and place under broiler for 5 to 7 minutes, until they begin to caramelize. Remove, turn chicken, baste with sauce and repeat, 3 to 5 minutes more. Return chicken to sauce and cook for a few minutes more, then place on a platter and drizzle heavily with sauce.

Scorpions: The Battles and Triumphs of FDR's Great Supreme Court Justices by Noah Feldman

This is the story of the court that FDR inherited, and then follows the nine justices that he appointed to the court (a recrod unlikely to be broken) to the end of their working days. The most important of those appointments—Felix Frankfurter, Hugo Black, William Douglas, and Robert Jackson—are the 'scorpions' of Noah Feldman’s highly readable and often absorbing book: The Battles and Triumphs of FDR’s Great Supreme Court Justices.
The author has a great story and he tells it well. All these men came from obscure backgrounds and rose to great prominence under Roosevelt. With their judicial appointments, they became the core of the liberal bloc that pulled the Court out of the way of the New Deal. Feldman provides vivid biographical portraits of all these men, but what makes this book more than biography is the emphasis he places on the development of the judicial philosophy of each of his subjects.
Hugo Black brought what Feldman intriguingly calls “the distinctively Protestant” method to his reading of the Constitution and became the “inventor of originalism.” To be sure, it was in many ways a crude originalism, particularly with respect to Black’s obtuse no-law-means-no-law reading of the first amendment. Still, Black steered clear of many of the excesses of the Warren Court because of his adherence to constitutional text.
William Douglas pursued the extreme libertarianism that became his hallmark. The problem for him was his abrasive personality, which alienated his colleagues and essentially eliminated any influence he might have had on the direction of the Court. His autonomy-obsessed individualism, however, was later adopted by William Brennan, whose smooth and accommodating personality turned it into majorities during the Warren Court.
Robert Jackson was a pragmatic jurist. His influence was predicated on his ability as a writer and his problem-solving approach to cases. Jackson’s skill is most conspicuously on display in Barnette, the 1943 case that struck down a compulsory flag salute. Moreover, Jackson’s pragmatism made him especially adept at sorting out the nebulous issues of executive power, so compelling in his day--and more recently with the Bush Administration--where is his heir? His concurring opinion in the 1952 steel-seizure case, which thwarted President Truman’s seizure of the steel industry, remains a central precedent on the breadth of presidential authority.
Feldman is best in his analysis of Felix Frankfurter. He correctly sees Frankfurter’s principled judicial restraint as the stumbling block for many in accurately assessing his jurisprudence. Frankfurter—-to his astonishment—-found himself transformed into a conservative. Frankfurter’s critics, then and later, have tried to explain how it could be that the country’s best-known liberal became its leading judicial conservative. But the source of the change was not Frankfurter, whose constitutional philosophy remained remarkably consistent throughout his career. It was the rest of liberalism that abandoned him and moved on once judicial restraint was no longer a useful tool to advance liberal objectives.
Feldman’s book closes with the four scorpions all putting their intense differences aside in order to effect the unanimity of Brown v. Board of Education in 1954.
With the exception of Douglas, all these men made genuine,lasting contributions to constitutional law. Great read!

Ladies No. 1 Detective Agency (2009)

This is a wonderful adaptation of the books of the same name. In the first episode, Precious Ramotswe (Jill Scott) inherits many cattle from her father, making her a rich woman. She sells them and uses the money to start a business called The No. 1 Ladies’ Detective Agency. She hires a secretary, Grace Makutsi (Anika Noni Rose), and slowly they begin to find clients and solve mysteries for them. They’re always working on several cases at once, which makes it more interesting (to me) than your traditional mystery show.
These are two very different women. Mma Ramotswe is gentle, sympathetic and financially privileged. Mma Makutsi is uptight, sometimes harsh, and struggling to make ends meet. It becomes apparent early on that Mma Ramotswe would undercharge clients and overspend income, so Mma Makutsi takes charge of the practical side of running a business while Mma Ramotswe excels at solving crimes. They become true friends over the course of the series, coming to one another’s aid no matter what it takes and sharing their personal troubles (but never dwelling on them – it’s not in their nature).
Mma Ramotswe is a big woman, dressed in wonderful batik dresses, all of the same pattern. Alexander McCall Smith coined the term “traditionally built” to convey to western readers that in Africa, Mma Ramotswe’s build used to be considered the model for female beauty. Mma Ramotswe is not just a detective, she also has a love story that is simple and straightforward. She also experienced an abusive first marriage and lost a baby because of it, but this backstory is simply a part of who Mma Ramotswe is. It’s the type of tragedy that many viewers can relate to, in whole or in part.
As I mentioned, Mma Makutsi is uptight, but with reason. She’s been passed over for many jobs that went to cuter but less qualified women. She’s the sole supporter of herself and her brother, who has AIDS. While she may expect too much of others, she also expects too much of herself. But she’s incredibly loyal, dependable and self-sacrificing – and willing to learn from her mistakes when she judges people too harshly. As her job duties expand into helping with investigations, she receives a new title: “Assistant Detective.”
It has been suggested that McCall Smith idealizes Botswana in his novels, but he believes it really is a special place full of good-hearted people with values. The series is filmed entirely in Botswana, so we get a chance to see the country for ourselves. Mma Ramotswe lives and works in Gabarone, a little town with a fairly modern infrastructure, but none of the cold hustle bustle of North American urban centers. There is an orphanage – based on a real life “children’s village” – for those children who have lost so many relatives to AIDS that there is no extended family left to care for them. There is an ethical diamond trade Botswana is using to develop itself in ways that will benefit its people rather than just its economy. We are dumped into Botswana’s culture and traditions without a special road map for westerners, and in finding our way around, we become enriched.

Something Red by Jennifer Gilmore

This book will make most people feel either better about their family of origin, or not alone. The book begins in late summer, 1979, when the Goldstein family, headed by Sharon and Dennis, have dinner in the back yard of their Chevy Chase house to see Ben, their druggy, athletic son, off to an unexpected choice in colleges--Brandeis. Brainy was not one of his high school characteristics nor was studious, but he is hoping the atmosphere will be good for him. The book is wonderfully funny, a compelling story of a splintering suburban family, an intimate social history of three generations of American Jews.
The story moves seamlessly from one relative to the next, from memory to memory, flashback to flashback, and always in the background is the political climate of the present: the Cold War, the Iran hostage crisis and the grain embargo, which affects the dad's work at the Department of Agriculture. Subtly, this is also a story about espionage, from which the title comes: I spy with my little eye . . . something red.
The nuclear family comes together--without actually being together--in the spring, for Parents' Day at Brandeis. Ben, who never wanted his parents to visit, is busy with demonstrations against the 1980 Summer Olympics in Moscow. The parents find themselves alone for the evening, dinner plans aborted while their children go to (unbeknownst to the parents)an LSD party. As you might imagine, this does not end well, although Sharon and Dennis do find a road to start their lives as parents who have no children at home.
A series of surprising developments carries the story to a disturbing conclusion. Late in the book, Sharon thinks: "They had always believed that what they would pass down to their children was not the good fortune their parents had fought for and handed them readily, but the intangible splendor of hope and dreaming."
Hang onto that thought. Is that what we hope for, and is it possible? Very thought-provoking book.

Spaghetti with Meatballs

My simple Marinara Sauce, which is adapted from Mario Batali, who is my favorite cookbook writer (it's just that sometimes he asks for ingredients that are hard to come by in my small Midwestern town)
2 Tbs. olive oil
1 Spanish onion, diced
4 garlic cloves, crushed
1 Tbs. thyme
2 medium carrots, grated
2 (28-ounce) cans peeled whole tomatoes, crushed by hand and juices reserved
Salt and Pepper to taste
Directions
In a 3-quart saucepan, heat the olive oil over medium heat. Add the onion and garlic, and cook until soft and light golden brown, about 8 to 10 minutes. Add the thyme and carrot, and cook 5 minutes more, until the carrot is quite soft. Add the tomatoes and juice and bring to a boil, stirring often. Lower the heat and simmer for 30 minutes until as thick as hot cereal. Season with salt and serve. This sauce holds 1 week in the refrigerator or months in a freezer that does not have self-defrosting.
When ready to use, the cooked pasta should be added to a saucepan with the appropriate amount of sauce. Top with grated parmesan and meatballs.
The meatball recipe I love is: http://homemadelemoncake.blogspot.com/2010/01/monday-meatballs.html
This is comfort food at it's best, and both the sauce and the meatballs can be frozen, so all you need to do is make the pasta, and a green salad, and it is an easy mid-week dinner. I make several recipes of the sauce at once and freeze it in quarts--which is about what you need for one pound of pasta.