A sometimes-dense but essential history for wine aficionados.
An extensive history of Californian wines from their humble beginnings in the 18th century to modern international acclaim.
Briscoe’s (The Lost Poems of Cangjie, 2017, etc.) history of Golden State wine begins with the Franciscan monks who first tended vineyards in the San Francisco Mission and produced wine according to the old traditions that they brought to the New World. These wines were mostly used for religious purposes and were hardly comparable to later, prestigious vintages. Although the 1849 Gold Rush brought a population explosion and international acclaim to San Francisco’s food scene, Briscoe notes that now “California is as renowned for its wines as San Francisco is for its food, though the former arrived much more slowly.” Briscoe examines every detail of that slow progression. Although he rightly focuses mostly on the City by the Bay and its surrounding wine countries, he leaves no stone unturned in his survey of the state as a whole, describing a lost Los Angeles that was filled with vineyards and the numerous efforts to produce a great product across California. Historic events intervened, including devastating pests, Prohibition, and the great San Francisco earthquake of 1906. But Briscoe also tells of the resilience of such figures as Robert Mondavi, who made good on the promise of the West Coast’s grapes, finally earning the recognition of Paris in the late 20th century. Briscoe’s attention to detail is staggering, and as a result, his exhaustive book is filled with tidbits that will make for fine dinner party anecdotes. For example, he notes the extensive efforts to salvage 2 million gallons of wine after the aforementioned quake by pumping it out of wreckage and chemically changing it into a “fortifying brandy.” He also includes small inserts that offer further information about particular people and practices, as well as images of labels from early vineyards. The overall approach is rather dry, which can make the hefty work feel like a textbook at times—or even a bit of a chore. Nevertheless, Briscoe’s passion for California and its wine often shines through, and the book will offer many surprises to patient readers.
A sometimes-dense but essential history for wine aficionados.Pub Date: Sept. 4, 2018
ISBN: 978-1-943859-49-8
Page Count: 368
Publisher: Univ. of Nevada
Review Posted Online: Oct. 25, 2018
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
BOOK REVIEW
Dogged original research and superb narrative skills come together in this gripping account of pitiless evil.
Greed, depravity, and serial murder in 1920s Oklahoma.
During that time, enrolled members of the Osage Indian nation were among the wealthiest people per capita in the world. The rich oil fields beneath their reservation brought millions of dollars into the tribe annually, distributed to tribal members holding "headrights" that could not be bought or sold but only inherited. This vast wealth attracted the attention of unscrupulous whites who found ways to divert it to themselves by marrying Osage women or by having Osage declared legally incompetent so the whites could fleece them through the administration of their estates. For some, however, these deceptive tactics were not enough, and a plague of violent death—by shooting, poison, orchestrated automobile accident, and bombing—began to decimate the Osage in what they came to call the "Reign of Terror." Corrupt and incompetent law enforcement and judicial systems ensured that the perpetrators were never found or punished until the young J. Edgar Hoover saw cracking these cases as a means of burnishing the reputation of the newly professionalized FBI. Bestselling New Yorkerstaff writer Grann (The Devil and Sherlock Holmes: Tales of Murder, Madness, and Obsession, 2010, etc.) follows Special Agent Tom White and his assistants as they track the killers of one extended Osage family through a closed local culture of greed, bigotry, and lies in pursuit of protection for the survivors and justice for the dead. But he doesn't stop there; relying almost entirely on primary and unpublished sources, the author goes on to expose a web of conspiracy and corruption that extended far wider than even the FBI ever suspected. This page-turner surges forward with the pacing of a true-crime thriller, elevated by Grann's crisp and evocative prose and enhanced by dozens of period photographs.
Dogged original research and superb narrative skills come together in this gripping account of pitiless evil.Pub Date: April 18, 2017
ISBN: 978-0-385-53424-6
Page Count: 352
Publisher: Doubleday
Review Posted Online: Feb. 1, 2017
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Feb. 15, 2017
BOOK TO SCREEN
BOOK TO SCREEN
BOOK TO SCREEN
An engrossing, intense, and highly descriptive narrative chronicling the ghastly conditions three pregnant women suffered...
The incredible true story of three Jewish women who survived the Holocaust.
Priska, Rachel, and Anka were married Jewish women in their early 20s when the Nazis took control of Europe. Like millions of other Jews, they were forced to give up their normal lives, all of their belongings, and their homes. Shuttled into ghettos and then off to one of the most notorious camps, Auschwitz II-Birkenau, they suffered through the Nazis’ increasing atrocities. But these three women all held a secret: they were pregnant. They were moved from Auschwitz and ended up in Mauthausen, another notorious death camp. With facing the most horrible conditions imaginable, all three gave birth right before the Allies accepted Germany’s surrender. In this meticulously detailed account, Holden (Haatchi & Little B: The Inspiring True Story of One Boy and His Dog, 2014, etc.) compiles an enormous amount of information from interviews, letters, historical records, and personal visits to the sites where this story unfolded. The graphic history places readers in the moment and provides a sense of the enduring power of love that Priska, Rachel, and Anka had for their unborn children and for the husbands they so desperately hoped to see after the war. Even though it occurred more than 70 years ago, the story’s truth is so chillingly portrayed that it seems as if it could have happened recently. These three women and their infants survived in the face of death, and, Holden writes, “their babies went on to have babies of their own and create a second and then a third generation, all of whom continue to live their lives in defiance of Hitler’s plan to erase them from history and from memory.”
An engrossing, intense, and highly descriptive narrative chronicling the ghastly conditions three pregnant women suffered through at the hands of the Nazis.Pub Date: May 5, 2015
ISBN: 978-0-06-237025-9
Page Count: 400
Publisher: Harper/HarperCollins
Review Posted Online: March 28, 2015
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