Winstein’s (Your Fertility Signals, 1991) two-volume work will teach readers how to make the cheeses they know and love—and probably some they’ve never heard of.
The author first experienced fine cheese while traveling to Denmark as a teenager but didn’t try making it until many years later. In 1993, she took a one-day cheese-making class and was frustrated when she couldn’t replicate the strong tastes that she remembered. She began taking more advanced classes in Massachusetts and Vermont with a number of master cheese makers. In these volumes, Winstein hopes to convey the tips that she picked up from them in addition to her own knowledge from years of trial and error. Cheeses are helpfully grouped by order of complication to allow beginners to start small and then challenge themselves as they gain more experience. The photos in the book are in black and white; the author explains that monochromatic images show better detail about texture, that the ink will fade less over time, and that, in her opinion, the style is more aesthetically pleasing. The design is sparse and simple, with large pictures of each step. The recipes are very wordy, however, and color photos might have been preferable for readers who absorb information more readily from images or have poor vision. It’s possible that a reader may look at these texts and think that they contain much more information than they want about cheese making; however, the perspective of this book indicates that cheese is a precise undertaking and that if a person is truly hoping to make quality product, they’ll need to know everything here. In addition to recipes and an index of terms, there’s information about milk choice, starter cultures, rennet, cleanliness, safe cooking procedures, and equipment. It’s clear that the book is meant for people who are serious about taking on cheese making as a hobby or as a small business venture. Potential readers should also note that they may need to find a local source of raw milk, as Winstein explains that supermarket milk has limited functionality for cheese creation.
A massive wealth of knowledge for dedicated cheese-making students.Pub Date: Jan. 1, 2018
ISBN: 978-0-9985959-5-5
Page Count: 670
Publisher: Smooth Stone Press
Review Posted Online: July 12, 2018
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
Categories: GENERAL NONFICTION
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Noted jazz and pop record producer Thiele offers a chatty autobiography. Aided by record-business colleague Golden, Thiele traces his career from his start as a ``pubescent, novice jazz record producer'' in the 1940s through the '50s, when he headed Coral, Dot, and Roulette Records, and the '60s, when he worked for ABC and ran the famous Impulse! jazz label. At Coral, Thiele championed the work of ``hillbilly'' singer Buddy Holly, although the only sessions he produced with Holly were marred by saccharine strings. The producer specialized in more mainstream popsters like the irrepressibly perky Teresa Brewer (who later became his fourth wife) and the bubble-machine muzak-meister Lawrence Welk. At Dot, Thiele was instrumental in recording Jack Kerouac's famous beat- generation ramblings to jazz accompaniment (recordings that Dot's president found ``pornographic''), while also overseeing a steady stream of pop hits. He then moved to the Mafia-controlled Roulette label, where he observed the ``silk-suited, pinky-ringed'' entourage who frequented the label's offices. Incredibly, however, Thiele remembers the famously hard-nosed Morris Levy, who ran the label and was eventually convicted of extortion, as ``one of the kindest, most warm-hearted, and classiest music men I have ever known.'' At ABC/Impulse!, Thiele oversaw the classic recordings of John Coltrane, although he is the first to admit that Coltrane essentially produced his own sessions. Like many producers of the day, Thiele participated in the ownership of publishing rights to some of the songs he recorded; he makes no apology for this practice, which he calls ``entirely appropriate and without any ethical conflicts.'' A pleasant, if not exactly riveting, memoir that will be of most interest to those with a thirst for cocktail-hour stories of the record biz. (25 halftones, not seen)
Pub Date: May 1, 1995
ISBN: 0-19-508629-4
Page Count: 224
Publisher: Oxford Univ.
Review Posted Online: May 20, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: March 1, 1995
Categories: GENERAL NONFICTION
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This early reader is an excellent introduction to the March on Washington in 1963 and the important role in the march played by Martin Luther King Jr. Ruffin gives the book a good, dramatic start: “August 28, 1963. It is a hot summer day in Washington, D.C. More than 250,00 people are pouring into the city.” They have come to protest the treatment of African-Americans here in the US. With stirring original artwork mixed with photographs of the events (and the segregationist policies in the South, such as separate drinking fountains and entrances to public buildings), Ruffin writes of how an end to slavery didn’t mark true equality and that these rights had to be fought for—through marches and sit-ins and words, particularly those of Dr. King, and particularly on that fateful day in Washington. Within a year the Civil Rights Act of 1964 had been passed: “It does not change everything. But it is a beginning.” Lots of visual cues will help new readers through the fairly simple text, but it is the power of the story that will keep them turning the pages. (Easy reader. 6-8)
Pub Date: Jan. 1, 2001
ISBN: 0-448-42421-5
Page Count: 48
Publisher: Grosset & Dunlap
Review Posted Online: May 20, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Dec. 1, 2000
Categories: GENERAL NONFICTION
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