Michaele Weissman

“Something fundamental in my thinking shifted when I understood that I, too, was a pain in the ass and that my point of view was only one point of view…That he was as real to himself as I was to me.” This sums up “marriage” in the title of The Rye Bread Marriage. I felt John had more reason to be a pain in the ass than Michaele. To me, what Lina, the guide, told Michaele in Vilnius was true, “I think you acted like a spoiled American brat.” I often found myself becoming extremely angry and disappointed at/with both of them, but then each would do something for which they were exonerated. One could say if the author provided such a reaction from me, she was doing a good job. John’s history was a section of the book that was incredibly sad and I think explained a lot of his behavior. I didn’t really see what explained Michaele’s at times, but then she was put in difficult situations. The tie-in of how rye bread was so important to him and to the Latvian people was most interesting and to me, a major foundation of the book. The information about rye flour was a bit too long and scientific, and could have been shortened or dummied down. Otherwise, I really liked the book and thought it provided a good view of Latvian history during WWII and also, an example of how two people from entirely different backgrounds and mindsets can survive in a marriage. Plus I ordered rye bread from John’s bakery, Black Rooster, and we’re thoroughly enjoying it.… (meer)

GOD IN A CUP offers an energetic international pursuit for the Perfect Cups of Coffee.

Most notable, apart from the actual tasting, is that the growth of super expensive Specialty Coffees
ideally enabled small farmers to regrow their neglected coffee trees and move away from poverty
in both African and Central American countries.

Along the way, readers learn origins, how coffee grows inside a red Cherry and gets washed, fermented
and ultimately shipped away and roasted.

On the down side, "cupping" as a replacement for the layperson's more accessible "Tasting"
is not merely pretentious, annoying, in-group divisive, but just plain goofy:
"Let's go cup a cup of coffee!" or "How does your cup cup?" C'mon.

It's also a definite slow mover through the bios. Photos would be welcome to spice up the cup
as the story finally sparks up when the author travels to Ethiopia, Rwanda, and Burundi.

La Esmeraldo Special Geishas were a lot of new information, as were each of the big player companies in the U.S.

Unfortunately, more variety was needed in with personality burn-out and mucho repletion .

And, from The Norton book of NATURE WRITING comes this:

"Their paintings, according to art historians of the period ((nineteenth century)),
were the inspirations of men and women who "saw the face of God"
in the prairies and mountains and along the river bottoms."

Bet their strong cups tasted pretty fine!… (meer)