Booklists: suggested reading

 

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Drink Up Stars

 

Books about drinks, drinking, drinking establishments, drinkers and a variety of beverages.

 

Annotations are from Advance, the Ingram Book Magazine, unless noted.

Fiction

• Carson Valley
  Author: Barich, Bill
  Publisher: Pantheon List Price: $ 25 ISBN: 0679442103 Date: 1997
  Publishers Weekly Kirkus
  A richly drawn novel of love, loss and redemption by the author of Big Dreams. Since 1893, the Torello clan has owned 100 vineyard acres in Carson Valley, California, but the traditions tying them to the land are now in flux. Returning to her family home, Anna Torelli is filled with an emotional awakening as she embarks upon an affair of the heart.
  
• Havana Room
  Author: Harrison, Colin
  Publisher: FSG $ 24 ISBN: 0374299862 Date: 2004
  Kirkus PW
  In his gripping new thriller, Harrison tells the story of a man who falls from the heights of power and wealth in New York, and finds himself in a dangerous and potentially lethal state of affairs.
  Suggested Reading: Psychological Suspense Stars
  Updated 10.7.03
• Beware the Solitary Drinker
  Author: Lehane, Cornelius
  Publisher: Poisoned Pen $ 24.95 ISBN: 1590580168 Date: 2002
  PW
  Worlds within worlds -- enter into a very special culture with unwritten rules... Brian McNulty, veteran bartender at Oscar's on the Upper West Side, respects his customer's privacy. And their space. But when one -- a tarnished but innocent young woman seduced by New York's bright lights and glitter -- is murdered, and another battered innocent charged with killing her, he reluctantly begins his own investigation. Brian's enthusiasm for the chase is given a boost with the arrival of the dead girl's sister, a young business woman from Massachusetts, equally bent on uncovering the killer. She's put off by his jaded attitude and offbeat lifestyle, but comes to rely upon his familiarity with the city's darker underside. Brian, in turn, enlists the aid of a cadre of neighborhood cronies. The suspects: all of the regulars at Oscar's, each with more to hide than the next. A leftist politcally, a dedicated union man, Brian learns that when you dig into people's lives, rich or poor, you find things kept hidden for good reason. By stirring up these ghosts, you change the shape of the landscape and put your friends in harm's way. This special first novel comes wrapped in art work created for it by famed artist Fritz Scholder. - Publisher Marketng.
  Suggested Reading: First Fiction & Mystery Debuts
  Updated 11.05.02
• The Coffee Trader
  Author: Liss, David
  Publisher: Random $ 24.95 ISBN: 0375508546 Date: 2003
  PW
  With wit, imagination, and mystery, Liss depicts a world of subterfuge, danger, and repressed longing, where religious and cultural traditions clash with the demands of a new and exciting way of doing business. Readers of historical suspense and lovers of coffee will be up all night with this intriguing novel.
  Suggested Reading: Historical Fiction Stars
  Updated 1.28.03

Nonfiction

• Emperor of Wine: The Rise of Robert M. Robert M. Parker, Jr, and the Reign of American Taste
  Author: McCoy, Elin
  Publisher: Ecco $ 25.95 ISBN: 0060093684 Date: 2005
  LJ
  The first book to chronicle the rise of Robert M. Parker, Jr., the world's most influential and controversial wine critic, who, over the last twenty-five years, has dominated the international wine world and embodied the triumph of American taste. - Publisher Marketing.
  Updated 7.12.05
• Emperor of Wine: The Rise of Robert M. Robert M. Parker, Jr, and the Reign of American Taste
  Author: McCoy, Elin
  Publisher: Ecco $ 25.95 ISBN: 0060093684 Date: 2005
  LJ
  The first book to chronicle the rise of Robert M. Parker, Jr., the world's most influential and controversial wine critic, who, over the last twenty-five years, has dominated the international wine world and embodied the triumph of American taste. - Publisher Marketing.
  Updated 7.12.05
• Tender Bar: A Memoir
  Author: Moehringer, J.R.
  Publisher: Hyperion $ 23.95 ISBN: 1401300642 Date: 2005
  Kirkus Booklist LJ
  The author's vivid memoir about a boy striving to become a man, and his romance with a grand old New York saloon that was sanctuary for all types of men--cops and poets, actors and lawyers, gamblers and stumblebums--is told with heart, drama, and exquisite comic timing.
  Updated 8.15.05
• The History of the World in Six Glasses
  Author: Standage, Tom
  Publisher: Walker $ 25 ISBN: 0802714471 Date: 2005
  PW
  Throughout human history, certain drinks have done much more than just quench thirst. Six of them have had a surprisingly pervasive influence on the course of history, becoming the defining drink during a pivotal historical period.
  Updated 4.19.05
• Untrodden Grapes
  Author: Steadman, Ralph
  Publisher: Harcourt $ 35 ISBN: 0151011672 Date: 2005
  PW
  From Chile to California, South Africa to Alsace, Steadman has seen the best of the world's wine-producing regions. On a search for the unique and original, he brings the landscape and its people to life with pictures and prose.
  Updated 10.11.05
• Out of It: A Cultural History of Intoxication
  Author: Walton, Stuart
  Publisher: Harmony $ 24 ISBN: 0609610449 Date: 2002
  Kirkus
  In this engaging and often surprising consideration of intoxication, Walton shines a heterodox and penetrating light on the history and spectrum of psychoactive drug use, from ancient Greece and Rome to the Victorian era to modern times, from alcohol, caffeine, and tobacco to opiates, amphetamines, and hallucinogens.
  Updated 8.28.02
• Smashed: Growing Up A Drunk Girl
  Author: Zailckas, Koren
  Publisher: Viking $ 21.95 ISBN: 0670033766 Date: 2005
  Kirkus PW
  From earliest experimentation to full-blown abuse, 24-year-old Zailckas leads readers through her experience of binge drinking in this vivid cautionary tale.
  Suggested Reading: Memoir Stars
  Updated 12.6.04