Wordless Wednesday 166

The Two of Us, January 2012

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Review: The Whistleblower (Movie)

When Lincoln, Nebraska, cop Kathryn Bolkovac (Rachel Weisz) accepts a temporary position in Bosnia as part of the U.N. peacekeeping team, she knows it will be tough work but she needs the money so she can fight for custody of her kids. Once on the job, Bolkovac is told to interview two young women who are in Bosnia with fake passports. When Bolkovac discovers they were victims of a sex-trafficking operation, she vows to protect the girls. The deeper Bolkovac digs, the more dangerous it becomes, not only for herself but also for the victims.

The Whistleblower, directed by Larysa Kondracki, is based on a true story. Although the beginning of the film, when we are introduced to the principal characters, is a bit slow, once Bolkovac arrives in Bosnia, the action picks up, and I was totally hooked. From the moment the sex ring is uncovered to the twists and surprises that are revealed as Bolkovac continues her investigation, I couldn't look away.

It's not an easy film to watch, but it's an important film. The women are tricked into prostitution, and the way they are treated is almost incomprehensible; the movie doesn't sugar-coat the situation. Suspense is high because, like Bolkovac, we don't know whom to trust on the U.N. team or which of the civilians hired to help rebuild Bosnia's infrastructure are good guys. Some the men Bolkovac worked with were willing to go to any extreme to keep the sex ring thriving and bringing in money. Bolkovac's determination and personal dedication to the victims were acts of bravery.

David Strathairn, Benedict Cumberbatch, Monica Bellucci, David Hewlett, and Vanessa Redgrave also star in the film, which came out on DVD and BluRay last week. The bonus material includes interviews with the cast and crew and the real-life Kathryn Bolkovac.

This is not a movie for the whole family, but it's one I recommend. Note that some of the movie is subtitled, but most of it is in English.

Thanks to Twentieth Century Fox Home Entertainment for the review copy of the BluRay.

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Book Club Booster Giveaway: The Art of Fielding by Chad Harbach

The Book: I'm sure you've been hearing the buzz surrounding The Art of Fielding by Chad Harbach. The novel made many, many best-of-2011 lists. Just in case you aren't quite sure what the book is about, here's the publisher's summary:

At Westish College, a small school on the shore of Lake Michigan, baseball star Henry Skrimshander seems destined for big league stardom. But when a routine throw goes disastrously off course, the fates of five people are upended.

Henry's fight against self-doubt threatens to ruin his future. College president Guert Affenlight, a longtime bachelor, has fallen unexpectedly and helplessly in love. Owen Dunne, Henry's gay roommate and teammate, becomes caught up in a dangerous affair. Mike Schwartz, the Harpooners' team captain and Henry's best friend, realizes he has guided Henry's career at the expense of his own. And Pella Affenlight, Guert's daughter, returns to Westish after escaping an ill-fated marriage, determined to start a new life.

As the season counts down to its climactic final game, these five are forced to confront their deepest hopes, anxieties, and secrets. In the process they forge new bonds, and help one another find their true paths. Written with boundless intelligence and filled with the tenderness of youth, The Art of Fielding is an expansive, warmhearted novel about ambition and its limits, about family and friendship and love, and about commitment--to oneself and to others.

So far, I've read only the first 50 pages of The Art of Fielding, so I can't review the book, but from the description and from reviews I've read on other book blogs, I can tell that it would have wide appeal. I'm usually attracted to books about relationships of all kinds, and Harbach's novel has promise.

To learn more about the The Art of Fielding and author Chad Harbach, you can check out the Facebook page or read an excerpt.

The Giveaway: If you are a resident of the United States and belong to book club, then I have great news. Little, Brown & Company's Book Club Booster promotion is sponsoring a fantastic giveaway of the Art of Fielding for your group. Yes, I said group.

One of you has a chance to win up to 10 copies of The Art of Fielding for your book club. All you have to do is fill out the following form and I'll pick a winner via random number generator on February 7. Little, Brown will send all the books to you or will send one book (up to 10) to each member of your book club--you can pick whichever method would work best for your group.

Now wait! That's not all! This giveaway is being hosted by different bloggers. Once all the winners are picked, Little, Brown's marketing department will use a random number generator to pick one book club that will also win a Skype chat (or call-in) with author Chad Harbach. That's right, one of the winning book clubs will be able to chat with the author.

I'm pretty excited about being one of the hosts of this Book Club Booster giveaway because I think the book will make a great book club selection. To help you get the conversation started you can check out the Reading Group Guide, available through the publisher's website.

Don't hesitate to enter here even if you've entered on another blog. Entering in two places increases your book club's chance of winning! Please remember that this giveaway is open only to those with a U.S. mailing address.

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Weekend Cooking: Mourad: New Moroccan by Mourad Lahlou

Weekend Cooking is open to anyone who has any kind of food-related post to share: Book (novel, nonfiction) reviews, cookbook reviews, movie reviews, recipes, random thoughts, gadgets, quotations, photographs. If your post is even vaguely foodie, feel free to grab the button and link up anytime over the weekend. You do not have to post on the weekend. Please link to your specific post, not your blog's home page. For more information, see the welcome post.

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When a cookbook opens like this:

Some people set out to learn to cook. They pursue it. They look for teachers. They go to cooking school. They practice and study. I became a cook in a way that could scarcely have been more different from all of that, in a place so far from where I ended up that it feels like a beautiful, brightly colored dream. I learned to cook from memory. Let me tell you how. (p. 1)

How can you not fall instantly in love? Mourad Lahlou's Mourad: New Moroccan, is a gorgeous cookbook: glossy paper with full-page photos that capture the food, colors, and ambiance of Morocco. It has everything that helps a cookbook stand out from the crowd, such as descriptions of ingredients, suggested brands, personal introductions to most recipes, mail-order sources, "Chef-to-Chef" tips, and a well-thought-out index.

And Mourad is a winner, but it's a winner mostly for ambitious cooks who live in California or a big city or who have the funds and inclination to mail order uncommon ingredients. I absolutely love the flavors in Lahlou's recipes: aromatic chiles, preserved lemons, cumin, seeds, and fresh herbs. In addition, this is a book I'll turn to again and again to learn about Moroccan cooking, dishes, techniques, and spice mixtures.

On the other hand, although I would order a dish like Steamed Lamb Shoulder with Saffron Butter and Cumin Salt in a heartbeat, I don't think I'd ever make it, despite the fact that I always have lamb in my freezer. And here's why.

The recipe is well written and very easy to follow, and Lahlou provides ample information about the hows and whys. But before I can make this recipe, I first need to make

• Aged Butter
• Lamb Stock
• Clarified Butter
• Chicken Stock
• Cumin Salt

No matter how willing I am to spend a day or two in the kitchen, I'm not going to make five recipes before I can make one dinner. Many recipes rely on preserved lemon (yum!), but you must prepare the lemons a month in advance before you can use them. Yikes! I don't plan a day ahead, let alone a month.

Other recipes call for particular types of fresh figs and peppers, things like yuzu juice and liquid glucose, lovely citrus such as Meyer lemons and blood oranges, and other wonderful ingredients unavailable in my small town. It's a shame, really, because if I lived in New York or San Francisco, I'd be more inclined to give many of the recipes a try.

To be fair, if you were going to make a study of Moroccan cooking, then the time spent up front to make stocks, spice mixtures, and preserved lemons would be well worth it. You also would be willing to ship in what you couldn't get at home. But for a cook (like me) who wants make a Moroccan dish maybe every other month, the payoff drops off quickly.

Again, let me stress that Mourad is jam-packed with great information about Moroccan traditions and cuisine. It's a book I'll cherish because of the personal writing style and the look into a culture I know little about. Further, there are, in fact, a number of recipes that are straightforward and use readily available ingredients. The bread chapter calls to me, as do the soups and salads.

Here's a yogurt spread that looks delicious and easy to make.

Yogurt-Herb Spread
Makes 2 cups

• 2 cups (476 g) whole-milk Greek yogurt
• 1 small or ½ large cucumber, preferably Armenian
• 1 tablespoon (15 g) fresh lemon juice
• 1½ teaspoons (4.5 g) kosher salt
• 1½ teaspoons (2.2 g) grated nutmeg
• ½ teaspoon (1.5 g) ground white pepper
• 1 garlic clove, grated on a microplane
• 2 teaspoons (2 g) chopped dill

To drain the yogurt: You'll need a deep bowl or other container and a wooden spoon or dowel. Line the bowl with a double thickness of cheesecloth. Spoon the yogurt into the center of the cloth and pull up the edges to form a pouch. Tie the ends around the spoon or dowel, adjusting the length so that the pouch is at least 2 inches above the bottom of the bowl. Refrigerate overnight to drain the excess liquid.

For the spread: The next day, remove the yogurt from the cheesecloth and put it in a large bowl. Discard the liquid.

Peel and seed the cucumber. Grate it on the medium-fine holes of a box grater to produce a pulpy mush. Put the cucumber pulp on a piece of cheesecloth, pick up the edges, and twist the cloth over the sink to remove as much liquid as you can.

Stir the cucumber into the yogurt, along with the rest of the ingredients. Refrigerate for at least 1 hour or up to 3 days before serving.

To serve: [Lahlou] likes this best with warm grilled flatbread or pita chips.

Mourad was an Indie Next pick for December 2011. For more on Mourad Lahlou's type of cooking visit the website for his restaurant, Aziza.

Mourad: New Moroccan at an Indie

Mourad: New Moroccan at Powell's

Mourad: New Moroccan at Book Depository
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Published by Workman / Artisan, 2011
ISBN-13: 9781579654290
Source: Review (see review policy)
Rating: C+
Copyright © cbl for Beth Fish Reads, all rights reserved (see review policy)

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Imprint Friday: Ten Thousand Saints by Eleanor Henderson

Welcome to Imprint Friday and today's featured imprint: Ecco books. Stop by each week to be introduced to a must-read title from one of my favorite imprints. I know you'll be adding many of these books to your wish list.

After Jude Keffy-Horn loses his best friend to a drug overdose, he gets clean but ultimately finds a way to use his new lifestyle as an act of rebellion. Eleanor Henderson's Ten Thousand Saints, out this week in paperback, focuses on Jude's discovery of straight edge and much more.

Here's the publisher's summary:

Adopted by a pair of diehard hippies, restless, marginal Jude Keffy-Horn spends much of his youth getting high with his best friend Teddy in their bucolic and deeply numbing Vermont town. But when Teddy dies of an overdose on the last day of 1987, Jude’s relationship with drugs and with his parents devolves to new extremes. Sent to live with his pot-dealing father in the East Village, Jude stumbles upon straight edge, an underground youth culture powered by the paradoxical aggression of hardcore punk and a righteous intolerance for drugs, meat, and sex. With Teddy’s half-brother Johnny and their new friend Eliza, Jude tries to honor Teddy’s memory through his militantly clean lifestyle. But his addiction to straight edge has its own dangerous consequences. While these teenagers battle to discover themselves, their parents struggle with this new generation’s radical reinterpretation of sex, drugs, and rock ‘n’ roll and their grown-up awareness of nature and nurture, brotherhood and loss.

Moving back and forth between Vermont and New York City, Ten Thousand Saints is an emphatically observed story of a frayed tangle of family members, brought painfully together by a death, then carried along in anticipation of new and unexpected life. With empathy and masterful skill, Eleanor Henderson has conjured a rich portrait of the modern age and the struggles that unite and divide generations.

Because I haven't lived in a city in a long time, I was never that familiar with straight edge, which seemed a strange way to rebel and find a place separate from one's parents. Curiosity about that odd combination of teen anger and clean living will bring readers to the door, but it's Henderson's writing and characters that will draw them inside and keep them there until they've learned the whole story.

Henderson's skill at characterizations is evident in this brief reading. In just a couple of minutes, we already have a sense of Jude's mother:

As you can tell from the reading, Ten Thousand Saints is about more than Jude and his friends and straight edge. One of the major themes of the novel is parent-child relationships and way different generations struggle to find their unique place in the world. Henderson also explores grief, young love, fitting in, growing up, and how the decisions we make every day can have far-reaching effects.

Ten Thousand Saints has been showered with praise. Here are just a few examples (click the links for the full reviews):

• Stacey D'Erasmo writing for the New York Times: "Henderson does not hold back once: she writes the hell out of every moment, every scene, every perspective, every fleeting impression, every impulse and desire and bit of emotional detritus."
• Adam Langer writing for the Washington Post: "Her characterizations demonstrate Henderson’s greatest skill. Even the ones who receive comparatively little stage time are always precisely defined."
• Diane writing at BookChickDi: "Great fiction can open up your mind and heart to characters and new ideas, and Ten Thousand Saints is great fiction."

The hardcover edition of Ten Thousand Saints was an Indie Next pick for July 2011 and made it to many best-of-2011 lists. To learn more about the Eleanor Henderson, visit her website.

Beth Fish Reads is proud to showcase Ecco books as a featured imprint on this blog. For more information about Ecco, please read the introductory note from Vice President / Associate Publisher Rachel Bressler, posted here on July 15, 2011. Find your next great read by clicking on Ecco in the scroll-down topics/labels list in my sidebar and by visiting Ecco books on Facebook and following them on Twitter.

Ten Thousand Saints at an Indie

Ten Thousand Saints at Powell's

Ten Thousand Saints at Book Depository
These links lead to affiliate programs.

Published by HarperCollins / Ecco, 2012
ISBN-13: 9780062021212

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