Vin Scully eats an apple pie

• Radio excerpt of the June 27 Los Angeles Dodgers victory agains the first place San Diego Padres, with the great Vin Scully.

a quickie book review, as i continue to delay my debut Pie post on Pie n' Burger

Ender's Game. I was introduced to this book by my friend Joe Drew. I only got around to reading it a few days ago. I finished it in more or less 24 hours, though not continuously. I never sit down and just read - and even then usually only on the john.

The military side of the book naturally took my fancy. However, I was most fascinated with the idea of displacement which permeated the work; Ender's relationship with others, the emotional and physical distance between the Earth population and the Battle School cadets, the weightless battles between the armies.

The most random surprise was Mazer Rackham, a half-Maori New Zealander, a hero who saved humanity from the alien invasion by destroying their queen during the Second Invasion.

2 books down 1 to go

I've readed 1.5 of my three books. I'll start with how much I liked the first one, and end with a rant about how much the second book annoyed me.

Book 1: Extremely Loud & Incredibly Close by Jonathan Safran Foer
It seemed like it would be a bummer reading about a 10 year old boy wandering NY looking for clues about his father who died on 9/11. Nonetheless, I had heard many good things about this book, and I was happy to discover that it was much better than I imagined. The book was smart, funny, beautiful, and sad. I have a short attention span, so it's hard for me to concentrate on one thing for an extended period of time. Last Wednesday I sat and read this book for 5 straight hours. It was that good.

Book 2: At Home in the Heart of Appalachia by John O'Brien
I read an interview with the author a few years ago and I have been wanting to read this book since then. The book is a memoir of a man whose father was from West Virginia. O'Brien visited WV as a child, went to college at West Virginia University (me too, Go Mountaineers!), and now lives there as an adult. Honestly, I only read the first 3 chapters and skimmed through the rest of the book. My problem with the book is that he doesn't seem to understand West Virginia. Maybe it's because I've seen them and lived within them, but his descriptions of the landscape and people don't have any impact on me. I think his book would be more impressive to someone who didn't know what he was writing about. Also, he spends much of the book trying to understand the "heart of Appalachia" and trying to define the place and the people. The author writes about many things West Virginian and Appalachian, but he doesn't seem to understand what he's writing about.
I've written about my table to give you a sense of how he writes about Appalachia.
"I see the Table at which I'm sitting. It's wooden, and has a flat top and four legs. There are also chairs around it. I like to sit in one of those chairs at this wooden Table with four legs, but I've never understood what a Table really is. What is a Table and what draws me to sit at it every day?"
I didn't read the whole thing, so it may get better. I'll give it another shot in a few years.
I did enjoy when he mentioned the Knights of the Golden Horseshoe. In the early 90s I was dubbed a Knight of the Golden Horseshoe by the Governor of WV. I still have the golden horseshoe to prove it. It's amazing the things people will give you just for knowing all of the counties in the state.

Brains

I was looking for a recipe for meatballs and I found this under "Variety Meats." Miranda shared a pie-crust recipe, so I thought I should share this. The most disgusting part of the recipe for me is the creamed peas. Scrambled with eggs sounds fun. I'm not sure whose brains the recipe is for but here it is.

Brains
Cover with cold water; add 2 tablespoons vinegar. Soak 30 minutes. Drain. Remove loose membranes. Simmer salted water 20 to 30 minutes. Drain; chill in cold water.
Then: Drain; season. Dip into beaten egg, then into cracker crumbs. Fry in hot fat.
Or, dice; add to creamed peas with mushrooms. Or, chop fine, fry in butter, add beaten eggs and scramble.

Pies, Cakes, Cheesecake, and Cookies.

I'd like to make pie for everyone, but I don't make very good pie. I tried to make a cherry pie once, and the crust was so bad that I just scooped out the filling and ate it by itself. I've also tried to make a lemon meringue pie, but the merinque never became meringue and it all turned to slime. It wasn't even good enough to scoop out the filling. If I could make good pie, then I would be fat, so it's probably for the best.
I can, however, make good chocolate cake. I actually use real ingredients too, like flour and cocoa. It's much better than the stuff from the box. I even make my own chocolate frosting for the cake. It's chocolate on top of chocolate and it's great.
I also like to collect old cookbooks. I like the strange recipes that say to add 2 tablespoons of MSG because they think it's a magical and necessary ingredient. What I really like about the cookbooks is the design with their photos of well-posed food and/or funny drawings.

Libraries

I now have 3 library cards for the greater St. Louis metropolitan area, because they haven't figured out a way to connect all the libraries in the area with one card. There is the City library, the County library, and the Municipal Library Consortium of all the cities in the county with their own library. They are all about 5 minutes away, but I still have to get seperate card for each one. I'm not complaining though, because I like libraries. Free books, movies, and CDs.

After my adventures in librarying, I now have 2 weeks to finish 3 books. That's 889 pages. At 63.5 pages a day I can pull it off. It seems like a productive summer endeavor.

My Reading List
Extremely Loud & Incredibly Close: Jonathan Safran Foer
Diary: Chuck Palahnik
At Home in Heart of Appalachia: John O'Brien

Reviews to come.

This is my blog.