Travelogue meets memoir in this fascinating trot around the world in search of 17 of the world’s most precious ingredients that make up the majority of perfumes on the market.
Dominque Roques is a master sourcer of natural ingredients like rose, vanilla, vetiver, Peru balsam, and frankincense. Each chapter is dedicated to a different country and ingredient: Laos for benzoin, Madagascar for vanilla, Venezuela for tonka bean, India for patchouli, and more. At each stop, Roques introduces the reader to the properties of the ingredient used in perfume and to the politics of the country and to the small communities of people responsible for cultivating these luxury materials.
This is a story of small farmers, tree tappers, distillers, and producers who source the best ingredients, often with traditional tools and techniques. And their counterparts in the luxury food and fragrance industry who create amazing scents based on those source materials. The book is travelogue, history lesson, political science, agriculture and climate science rolled into one.
It’s a beautiful book to listen to, and I must order a print copy for reference.
On the Ball is a masterclass in the mental strategies coaches and athletes can use in sports, but it’s also full of personal anecdotes that resonate with parents of athletes and even working adults. There are tips here that work for work as well as they work for sport.
Michael Lodewyks has spent over 25 years coaching volleyball and tennis and this book is a massive brain dump of everything he’s learned and observed in his time. The book is well organized with key takeaways at the end of each section and a big-picture plan as a final summary of the tips. The strategies are well tested in professional sports beyond volleyball and tennis and again this book really is a resource for anyone wanting to up their game.
The book Bomb by Steve Sheinkin is an absolutely fascinating read about what was going on at Los Alamos during WWII and the mad race for physicists around the world to figure out atomic weapons. Oppenheimer is certainly a presence in the book, but where the film delves into the behind-the-scenes trial, this book digs into the many different personalities working on atomic energy. I wish I’d read this book before seeing the film.
If you like history and spy stories then this is for you. It’s billed for age 10-14 but don’t let that dissuade you. Sheinkin offers up a rich history lesson, in plain language, that is spine-tingling.
Check out the excerpt on the author’s website. Or just go buy the book (Amz).
If you love poetry, philosophy, art history, and personal memoir then this book is for you. It’s a quiet, gentle reflection on what it means to engage with art, why art has the capacity to enchant and haunt us through centuries, and where Renaissance religious art can find relevance in today’s busy, modern world.
I had the pleasure of listening to a conversation between Jeannie Marshall and The Tyee’s culture editor Dorothy Woodend on May 4, 2023 at Upstart & Crow. Jeannie struck me as a gentle yet powerful writer. Full of curiosity but also caution.
Jeannie lives in Rome and for a long time avoided visiting the Sistine Chapel, and yet Michelangelo’s famed ceiling was something her grandmother in Canada wished to see, it’s a place 5 million people a year visit. Her first visit, after the death of her mother, was as frustrating as she imagined. The ceiling is busy, the place is busy, it’s overwhelming. But something kept drawing her back time and again.
This book is really a masterful unfolding of layers of art history, the impact of religious wars and intolerance, and the power the Catholic church had over her family. All Things Move is a remarkable personal journey but also a wonderfully thoughtful, philosophical look at the role of art in our lives.
I find my thoughts returning to Jeannie’s musings and meditations on what it means to create a work of art that transcends time, and what it means to view and engage in that art.
Her publisher Biblioasis has crafted a fine book. It’s glossy pages show off different images of Michelangelo’s frescoes, along with gritty street photos of Rome taken by fellow Canadian and author Douglas Anthony Cooper.
I’d say this is a book about learning to look, taking time to relish small details in order to—over time—see the full picture.
So I was primed for a book on loss, celebration, language, art, philosophy, undertaking intellectual pursuits for the pleasure of it, joy, inner life and cultural constructs for how we should live or what should act as the moral compass. I’m not done with this book. Thank you Jeannie Marshall.
April 21, 2023 marked seven years since Prince’s death and June 7 would have been his 65th birthday. Oh, Prince. Talk about Great Expectations.
Nick Hornby has crafted a wonderful extended essay that looks at two prolific geniuses. I listened to the audiobook hoping for some musical accompaniment, alas no. Thankfully the narrator provides all the quirks and liveliness of Hornby’s turns of phrase. An enjoyable listen.
Hornby draws connections between the two artists. He delves into their trying childhoods, their business acumen, and the excessive amount of content they both created (before age 25 and after).
My friend DaveO gifted me this amazing book about an island that is near to where he lives in Japan. In celebration of Asian Heritage month, I have been eagerly reading about septuagenarian and octogenarians (even nonagenarians) on the tiny island of Shiraishi (population 500 — and dwindling) .
Shiraishi Island is in the Inland Sea of Japan and part of Okayama Prefecture. Author Amy Chavez moved there in 1997 and is charmed by the seclusion and way that the aging population is holding on to its traditions and ways of life. The books offers vignettes of the island’s many charming characters, who each share with Amy their stories of growing up on Shiraishi, the island’s culture, their fishing practices and sacred rituals.
I love being introduced to different people in each chapter. Memorable stories include that of Eiko, the elderly woman whose house Amy rents, Hiro, one of the last two octopus hunters on the island, the four Chinese brides who come to Shiraishi to marry, and Mimiko who runs a little beach shack.
The stories are interspersed with Amy’s observations from her window looking out on the port, her participation in island rituals, and her American perspective as an outsider looking to fit into the community.
Crying in H Mart by Michelle Zauner is an absolutely stunning memoir. The cover is 100% perfect because this is the story of how Michelle and her mother connect through Korea cuisine, the way food acts as a bridge, how Michelle’s Korean and American cultures get tangled together, and the importance of sharing of a meal.
Michelle Zauner, more familiar to music fans as Japanese Breakfast, has been published in The New Yorker, Harper’s, Bazaar, and Glamour. This memoir definitely has a New Yorker vibe with the 20 chapters working almost as standalone chapters.
At a basic level, Crying in H Mart is the story of 20-something Michelle losing her mom to cancer. But the story is rich with food imagery and how Michelle’s Korean mom loves her to no end. I think most readers will recognize Michelle’s struggles to grow up, and to escape the critical eye of her mother, only to find herself as an adult desperately wanting to catch her mother’s eye. The memoir is about forging your own path, while still being true to your roots. It’s a full sensory experience.
John le Carré is a masterful storyteller and listening to his voice telling the stories of his life is epic. In The Pigeon Tunnel: Stories from My Life, he covers his short years of service in British Intelligence and how that paved the way for the writer he became and the opportunities he had to meet politicians and leaders around the world.
This type of memoir could be a bit of a brag but instead it’s like your worldly uncle telling you his crazy stories. I loved it.
There are funny asides and mishaps, like a certain parrot meeting his end due to alcohol in his feed and wrong number phone calls that lead to late-night bar dates. Then there are serious tales of interviewing terrorists and navigating the security around Yasser Arafat. At every turn, le Carré is giving us glimpses into his life and how you might connect real life people to his story characters.
You can hear the wisdom and humility in his voice, along with the cheek.
Description: Macintyre’s real-life spy thriller is a slow start with a fast-paced finish. I loved it. The spy and traitor here is Oleg Gordievksy, a senior KGB officer who spies for MI6 from 1974 . That seems like an understatement. His secrets are priceless. And the book is full of name dropping to demonstrate the breadth of information Gordievsky shared and the impact on bringing the Cold War to its end.
Gordievsky advised Margaret Thatcher, the Iron Lady, on Britain’s Cold War policies. He outted a number of spies and identified networks throughout Europe so those posing as diplomats were ejected. In the end, Gordievsky received the Companion of the Most Distinguished Order of St Michael and Saint George from Queen Elizabeth II at Buckingham Palace where he was recognized for services to UK security.
The book is based on more than 140 hours of taped interviews with Oleg Gordievksy, who appears to have an infallible memory. Names like Putin and Aldrich Ames come up, and it’s easy to see how yesterday’s Russian playbook of fake news and mistrust are still unfolding today.
Favourite moment: Oleg is summoned back to Russia and fears that he has been exposed. The chapter “Cat and Mouse” opens with this:
In Moscow, Gordievsky checked the locks again, praying he might be mistaken. But no, the third lock, the dead bolt he never used and had no key for, had been turned. The KGB was on to him.
chapter 12, The spy & the traitor by ben mcintyre
Perfect read for fans of John Le Carré or In Cold Blood by Truman Capote. The Spy and the Traitor is full of ideologies, betrayal, and intrigue. The glorious days of the Cold War spy — harrowing.
Gui Costin is the founder and CEO of Dakota, an investment services company, and this is his take on how to sell to millennials.
Millennials Are Not Aliens is a super fast read with lots of information for investment firms looking to better understand the millennial customer base, which makes up over 30% of the world’s population.
Let me give you another stat. Millennials are the under 40s, there are about 2.5 billion in this demographic, and they are projected to control $24 trillion of the world’s wealth by 2020. This is a tech-driven generation whose buying habits are different than GenX or Baby Boomers. These are not the kids in college, ok well some still are, but really these are the 22-37 year olds who are running companies and working in management positions now.
If you’re running an investment firm then Gui’s book is a quick look at the changes happening in this industry, the considerations you need to have for today’s buyer, and how to operate in the content economy.
Great quick read. If you’re knowledgeable about digital then this might be a pass, but if you’re running a firm and sending emails with PDF attachments and have no video strategy and a lame website with limited copy then … well get on it.
