An engaging compendium of beer knowledge for the aspiring aficionado.
In Mitchell’s debut beer guide, the longtime brewer considers the beverage’s origins, manufacture, diversity, and health effects.
The author knows a lot about beer. That should come as no surprise, given the 45 years he spent as a brewer, first in South Africa and later in Australia. With this wide-ranging guide for the curious drinker, Mitchell elucidates the brewing process, discussing the revolutionary introduction of pale malt, the backbone of modern beers from lager to India Pale Ale; the irreplaceable element of hops, the “spice” of beer; and the role of yeast, which comes in various strains specific to certain styles (Saccharomyces pastorianus for lagers, Saccharomyces cerevisiae for ales). The author waxes on the subtleties of containers and glassware, shares tips for how to approach beer from a connoisseur’s perspective, explains the best pairings for various types of food, and characterizes the beer preferences of different nations. Readers will learn the cultural aspects of beer, like how the Belgians perfected serving beer at home, and about the various ancient gods, saints, and traditions associated with the drink. Mitchell shares lesser-known information as well, like how alcohol-free beer can reduce cholesterol, or how beer can save a picnic from bees or add a nice shine to wooden furniture. Additionally, he describes numerous styles of beer, from the famous Guinness Stout to Northeast England’s “Bottle of Dog,” to the marzenbier and alt beer of Germany, the Trappist ales and fruity gueuze beers of Belgium, and various Christmas beers from around the world. Mitchell writes with buoyant, clear prose, spreading his pro-beer gospel with every sentence. Here, he cites a Czech study to claim that beer does not cause drinkers to gain weight: “It’s not the beer you drink—it’s the snacks you gobble up with it!” Though the health benefits of beer and alcohol may be disputed, the rest of the material here is persuasively rooted in the author’s deep immersion in the culture of brewing. Those just getting into the world of beer could do much worse than this cheerful primer.
An engaging compendium of beer knowledge for the aspiring aficionado.Pub Date: March 26, 2024
ISBN: 9798369495834
Page Count: 184
Publisher: XlibrisAu
Review Posted Online: Aug. 4, 2025
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
BOOK REVIEW
A virtuoso performance and an ode to an undervalued medium created by two talented artists.
The veteran actor, comedian, and banjo player teams up with the acclaimed illustrator to create a unique book of cartoons that communicates their personalities.
Martin, also a prolific author, has always been intrigued by the cartoons strewn throughout the pages of the New Yorker. So when he was presented with the opportunity to work with Bliss, who has been a staff cartoonist at the magazine since 1997, he seized the moment. “The idea of a one-panel image with or without a caption mystified me,” he writes. “I felt like, yeah, sometimes I’m funny, but there are these other weird freaks who are actually funny.” Once the duo agreed to work together, they established their creative process, which consisted of working forward and backward: “Forwards was me conceiving of several cartoon images and captions, and Harry would select his favorites; backwards was Harry sending me sketched or fully drawn cartoons for dialogue or banners.” Sometimes, he writes, “the perfect joke occurs two seconds before deadline.” There are several cartoons depicting this method, including a humorous multipanel piece highlighting their first meeting called “They Meet,” in which Martin thinks to himself, “He’ll never be able to translate my delicate and finely honed droll notions.” In the next panel, Bliss thinks, “I’m sure he won’t understand that the comic art form is way more subtle than his blunt-force humor.” The team collaborated for a year and created 150 cartoons featuring an array of topics, “from dogs and cats to outer space and art museums.” A witty creation of a bovine family sitting down to a gourmet meal and one of Dumbo getting his comeuppance highlight the duo’s comedic talent. What also makes this project successful is the team’s keen understanding of human behavior as viewed through their unconventional comedic minds.
A virtuoso performance and an ode to an undervalued medium created by two talented artists.Pub Date: Nov. 17, 2020
ISBN: 978-1-250-26289-9
Page Count: 272
Publisher: Celadon Books
Review Posted Online: Aug. 30, 2020
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Sept. 15, 2020
PERSPECTIVES
An impressive, nuanced work of scholarship.
The Nobel laureate’s singular aesthetics.
Award-winning novelist, essayist, and literary scholar Serpell offers a compelling elucidation of Toni Morrison’s notably challenging fiction, criticism, plays, and poetry. “There are passages in Morrison’s works,” she has found, “that no reader I’ve ever met understands on the first go.” The source of Morrison’s “famed difficulty,” as Serpell sees it, was not “her intersectional identity, her prickly personality, or her contrarian politics,” but rather her complicated and sophisticated understanding of Black aesthetics. Serpell’s subtle textual analysis of 11 novels, “Recitatif”—Morrison’s only published short story—and several essays, plays, and poems is enriched by her prodigious literary background and insights she has gleaned from archival sources: letters, diary entries, notes, and manuscripts. Morrison, she asserts, “refused for her work to be reduced to her race and her gender, or to be forced to fit the expectations foisted upon her as a result.” Tar Baby (1981), Morrison’s fourth novel, seems to Serpell the first time in the writer’s career that she “directly addressed the white/black dichotomy” with characters who “are avatars for race.” Serpell gives extensive attention to “Recitatif,” a story in which “all racial codes” are vanished, yet one in which “racial identity is crucial” to its characters. The story emerges as “a kind of asymmetrical, contrapuntal, alternative dialogue” between its two female protagonists, “between an individual voice and the instruments of the social world, or between the reader’s experience and the story’s unresolved chords—or codes.” Celebrating Morrison’s “masterful difficulty and superb wit,” “her inscrutable yet perfect metaphors,” and “her unaccountable rushes of imagination,” Serpell affords ample evidence that she was “a writer whose deliberate difficulty—personal, political, and literary—defied classification…and made for brilliance.”
An impressive, nuanced work of scholarship.Pub Date: Feb. 17, 2026
ISBN: 9780593732915
Page Count: 416
Publisher: Hogarth
Review Posted Online: Sept. 12, 2025
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Oct. 15, 2025
PERSPECTIVES
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