Welcome to bookchat where you can talk about anything...books, plays, essays, and books on tape. You don’t have to be reading a book to come in, sit down, and chat with us.
To be honest, I know nothing about fine wine. Once a year on New Year’s Eve, hubby and I indulge in a bottle of Martini & Rossi Asti Spumante. It is OK to laugh and yet from reading, I retain the idea of fine wines mentioned by the characters who enjoy them.
A site on types of wine:
http://www.frenchscout.com/...
wiki explains the history of wine:
http://en.wikipedia.org/...
Archaeological evidence suggests that the earliest known production of wine, made by fermenting grapes, took place from the late Neolithic or early Chalcolithic, possibly as early as the sixth millennium BC, between the Caucasus and the Middle East, with clues of winemaking in different sites dated from 6000 BC in Georgia, 5000 BC in Iran, and 4100 BC in Armenia. During an extensive gene-mapping project in 2006, archaeologists analyzed the heritage of more than 110 modern grape cultivars, and narrowed their origin to a region in Georgia, where wine residues were also discovered on the inner surfaces of 8,000-year-old ceramic storage jars.
Chemical analysis of 7,000-year-old pottery shards indicated early winemaking in the neolithic village of Hajji Firuz Tepe in Iran's Zagros Mountains. Other notable areas of wine production have been discovered in Greece and date back to 4500 BC. The same sites also contain the world's earliest evidence of crushed grapes. A wine making press was found in 2011 in the Areni-1 site of Armenia, and dated around 4100 BC.
Literary references to wine are abundant in Homer (9th century BC, but possibly composed even earlier), Alkman (7th century BC), and others. In Ancient Egypt, six of 36 wine amphoras were found in the tomb of King Tutankhamun bearing the name "Kha'y", a royal chief vintner. Five of these amphoras were designated as from the King's personal estate with the sixth listed as from the estate of the royal house of Aten. Traces of wine have also been found in central Asian Xinjiang, dating from the second and first millennia BC.
Somehow, I have an image in my mind of books that are like fine wine. The kind of book, short story, poem or play that makes us sit back and relax and say, “ah…perfect!”
These books may have dry wit, bubbling dialogue, a fine bouquet of phrase, a robust plot, harmonious tone, or clarity of expression.
We award these literary offerings the highest praise and often re-read them with great pleasure.
We all have different books that touch a chord in us which makes for good discussions.
Whether it is a tiny gem of a book, a huge behemoth, or a series; whether it is an adventure, a travel story, a memoir, a mystery, a romance, a fantasy or several types all together; the memory of the book stays with us and we yearn to find more like it.
This is why I used to say that if we can get a student to read one truly fine book, he will go looking for more. Readers have complained bitterly about books they had to read in school, but there must have been some that were put into our hands that we never forgot.
I hope.
Perhaps, the tales we love best were stories we found all by ourselves, unknown, unheralded, and that discovery has never been forgotten. The finding of the book was part of the memory that we cherish. Because of that we still prowl book stores, used book stores and libraries looking for books that qualify as special and rich.
I can only mention a few so I hope you will fill in with your favorites.
Fantasy
The Night Circus by Erin Morgenstern
Mary Doria Russell
The Sparrow
Children of God
The Cygnet and the Firebird by Patricia McKillip
Winter’s Tale by Mark Helprin
Tigana by Guy Gavriel Kay
Janny Wurts
Wars of Light and Shadow series
Curse of the Mistwraith
Ships of Merior
Warhost of Vastmark
Fugitive Prince
Grand Conspiracy
Peril's Gate
Traitor's Knot
Stormed Fortress
Iniate’s Trial
Robin Hobb
Farseer Trilogy
Royal Assassin
Assassin's Apprentice
Assassin's Quest
Liveship Traders series
Ship of Magic
Madship
Ship of Destiny
Tawny Man series
Fool's Errand
Golden Fool
Fool's Fate
The Rain Wilds Chronicles
Dragon Keeper
Dragon Haven
City of Dragons
Dennis L. McKiernan
Dragondoom
Lloyd Alexander
Chronicles of Prydain
The Acts of King Arthur and his Noble Knights by John Steinbeck
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Historical Fiction
The Lymond Chronicles by Dorothy Dunnett
Killer Angels by Michael Shaara
A Very Long Engagement by Sebastien Japrisot
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Non-fiction
Our Choice by Al Gore
Bill of Wrongs by Molly Ivins and Lou Dubose
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Fiction
Amazing Adventures of Kavalier and Clay by Michael Chabon
The Street of a Thousand Blossoms by Gail Tsukiyama
The Charioteer by Mary Renault
Losing Battles by Eudora Welty
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Memoir/Autobiography/Story based on a real person
Cat from Hue by John Laurence
Ghost Rider: Travels on the Healing Road by Neil Peart
Mrs. Mike by the Freedmans
Homer Hickam
Rocket Boys
The Coalwood Way
Sky of Stone
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Biography
Mountains Beyond Mountains by Tracy Kidder about Dr. Paul Farmer
Taylor Branch
Parting the Waters: America in the King Years 1954-1963
Pillar of Fire: America in the King Years 1963-65
At Canaan’s Edge: America in the King Years 1965-68
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True adventure
River-Horse by William Least-Heat Moon
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Essay/Diary
The Intimate Merton: His Life from His Journals ed, by Patrick Hart and Jonathan Montaldo.
Night Country by Loren Eiseley
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Short Novel
Shane by Jack Schaefer
Of Mice and Men by John Steinbeck
The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society by Shaffer
and Barrows
Einstein’s Dreams by Alan Lightman
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Play
A Man for All Seasons by Robert Bolt
The Glass Menagerie by Tennessee Williams
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Short Story
The Devil and Daniel Webster by Stephen Vincent Benet
A Worn Path by Eudora Welty
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Mystery
Falco series by Lindsey Davis
The Likeness by Tana French
The Todd series with Inspector Ian Rutledge
The Louise Penny series with Inspector Gamache
The Andrea Camilleri series with Inspector Montalbano (except the first one)
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Poem
Fern Hill by Dylan Thomas
The Highway Man by Alfred Noyes
A Child’s Christmas in Wales by Dylan Thomas
Out of the Cradle Endlessly Rocking by Walt Whitman
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DVD/Film
Vivere: Live in Tuscany with Andrea Bocelli
Firefly series
Lark Rise to Candleford series
The Red Violin
Educating Rita
Children of a Lesser God
Ladyhawke
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What books are like fine wine for you?
Diaries of the Week
Write On! Editors
by SensibleShoes
http://www.dailykos.com/...
Thursday Classical Music OPUS 91: Karl Weigl Symphony #5 "The Apocalyptic Symphony"
by Dumbo
http://www.dailykos.com/...
NOTE: plf515 has book talk on Wednesday mornings early