e game. Not sure when the last time the Vikings came to Foxboro (it must be ten years or so), but the local Viking fans came out in droves. Probably the biggest showing for a visiting team after the Dolphins, who always have a ton of fans at the game. 
Solar by Ian McEwan
My rating: ★★★✩✩
Solar was a very strange book. It tells the story of Michael Beard, a dissolute former Nobel Prize winner late in life, just floating along between speaking gigs, government panels and spots on company boards. He's gaining weight, getting divorced (for the 5th time) and finds it impossible to get motivated. A few things happen (good and bad) and his life is chronicled. I almost gave up on this book, deciding to follow Hank Stuevers' 50 page rule but before the 50 pages were up, he traveled to the Arctic for some pretty interesting comic (mis)adventures and so I stuck with it. Still not sure why, as Beard isn't that attractive, interesting or clever a character. I guess I just wanted to see what happened to him next, and was wondering if it would ever be explained why an aging, overweight, egotistical blowhard like Beard could keep finding women, especially attractive women (it wasn't).
L.A. Outlaws: A Novel by T. Jefferson Parker
My rating: ★★★★✩
L.A. Outlaws is the first in a series by crime fiction veteran T. Jefferson Parker. The series features LA County Sheriff Charlie Hood and in this one, his path crosses with Suzanne Jones, a teacher by day and car thief / holdup artist / Jesse James-like Allison Murietta at night. Told both from Hood's and Jones/Murietta's point of view (plus a few slightly jarring other first person bits), it was a good ride, telling an interesting story of robbery and redemption, with plenty of blood and violence as well. I listened to it "on tape" (actually, MP3s burned to CD from my library) and it was really well done, with a male and female reader who both did a great job. Pretty good story marred by an all too predictable and far too clean ending. I'm anxious to try the second in the Hood series, The Renegades.
Quicksilver by Neal Stephenson
My rating: ★★★★✩
Quicksilver is a book I've been reading for quite some time - according to Goodreads, I started this book on April 29, 2009! I'm not sure why it took so long. I guess it is pretty dense and it is a very big book (about 1,000 pages), but I really loved every minute of it. What a wonderful cast of characters, great writing and some exciting scenes. Hard to really describe in a nutshell. A very meandering book, written in many different styles. One chapter could be a mini-play, another chapter written as a letter, yet another a normal 3rd person chapter, it basically tells the story of three people - Daniel Waterhouse, an English intellectual who is a close friend and supporter of Isaac Newton; Jack Shaftoe, a swashbuckling adventurer and "King of the Vagabonds"; and the very pretty and whip smart Eliza, rescued by Jack from a Turkish harem. The first of a monstrous trilogy, I can't wait to get started on The Confusion!
The Breach by Patrick Lee
My rating: ★★★✩✩
The Breach was an interesting sci-fi'ish thriller, the first in a series, about a weird "breach" from which strange and almost magical artifacts come through, and how these powerful items, in the "wrong" hands, could destroy the world. It started of well, with the usually very compelling "average" man thrust into a situation where he needs to adapt (rapidly!) or die, but then it wanders off into some pretty weird territory. It includes some pretty hard to swallow scenes of total urban destruction, with little or no repercussions. In many ways, The Breach reminded me of Suarez's Daemon, with its near future plausibility and pretty mixed up storyline (both were first novels as well). It was a page turner though and I am looking forward to the next one.
The Shot by Philip Kerr
My rating: ★★✩✩✩
The Shot is a Philip Kerr thriller about an assassination attempt on John Kennedy and the efforts of the Mob (!) to thwart it. A very odd book, with mostly repugnant characters, made it one of my least favorite Kerr books. It has a problem it shared with The Day of the Jackal, about de Gaulle getting assassinated - you know it isn't going to happen (well, tragically in Kennedy's case, not yet). Although he does make it all plausible in the end, and even hints of a conspiracy on the real assassination, it still wasn't a very compelling book. When your "best" character is a corrupt ex-cop hired by the Mob, you know you have problems.
The Beatles: The Biography by Bob Spitz
Image via Wikipedia
Image via Wikipedia
Image via Wikipedia
We had our weekly cocktail & computer gaming session last night and we opened with a cocktial found in the latest issue of imbibe magazine, which showed up in the mail yesterday. While many of the cocktails in this magazine tend to use fancy, custom syrups (like this month's The Witch Hunt, which wants you to make "apple-cardamom syrup" ), there's always a few that are useful. In this case, we tried the The Kilted Pistolero, which is a very nice tasting mixture of tequila & Drambuie. It says the recipe was created to bring the bottle of Drambuie from the back of the bar (guess no one likes Rusty Nails or Stingers any more!)The Kilted Pistolero
Shake in ice-filled shaker and strain into a chilled cocktail glass.
- 1.5oz blanco tequila (I actually used my favorite reposado, Cazadores
- 3/4oz fresh lemon juice
- 3/4oz Drambuie
- 2 dashes Angostura bitters (I used the Fee Brothers Whiskey Barrel Aged Bitters)
Rusty Nail
- 1.5 oz Scotch (I'm a Dewar's White Label fan)
- .5oz Drambuie
Pour Scotch and Drambuie over plenty of ice in an Old Fashioned glass. Stir well, and serve with stirrer.
Stinger
- 1.5oz Drambuie
- .5oz white Creme de Menthe
Same as above - pour liquors into Old Fashioned glass with plenty of ice. Stir and server with stirrer.
We followed that with a full icey mug of Sierra Nevada North Hemisphere Harvest beer, one of imbibe's 50 Best Brews for Every Season, in this case, the Fall beers. I went on a quest for the fall beers last month and found a couple. The Brooklyn Brewery Oktoberfest beer was only okay - nothing too memorable. The Ayinger Oktober Fest-Marzen was realy good while the Aecht Ochlenferla Rauchbeir was a truly strange tasting "smoked" beer.
I was also able to find the Southern Hemisphere Harvest beer (which was pretty good) but it wasn't until Michael found it that we got to try the Northern Hemisphere. A very hoppy beer. I liked the Southern Hemisphre better, as it was smoother but with as much character as the Northern.
Four guys have been going to the same deer camp together for years. A couple of days before they plan to leave, Ron's wife puts her foot down and tells him he isn't going.

 Ron's friends are very upset that he can't go, but what can they do?
Two days later, the three men arrive at the campsite only to find Ron sitting there with a tent set up, firewood gathered, and dinner cooking on the fire.
"Whoa man, how long have you been here? How did you talk your wife into letting you go?"
"I got here last night. Yesterday evening, I was sitting in my chair and my wife came up behind me, put her hands over my eyes, and said, 'Guess who?' I pulled her hands off, and she was wearing a brand new nightie. She took my hand and pulled me to our bedroom. The room had candles and rose petals all over. On the bed she had handcuffs, and ropes! She told me to tie and cuff her to the bed, and I did.

 And then she said, 'Do whatever you want.'
So, here I am."
Beautiful Maria of My Soul by Oscar Hijuelos
