THE MODERN MINT BLOG
Kavalier and Clay
This is an extended quote from a Michael Chabon book, The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier and Clay – it is …
Terry Pratchett
This week novelist Terry Pratchett passed away. He had been suffering with a rare form of early onset Alzheimer’s disease since 2007, a major health issue he called ‘an embuggerance.’ I met Terry Pratchett around 1990, when he came to a school close to ours. Our school were walked over there to sit in the assembly hall and listen to him speak. I had no idea who he was at the time, though I have a peculiar memory of him telling us how much money he made from each book. (It wasn’t a lot, but then he was selling a huge …
Michael Pollan – Cooked
Michael Pollan, in Cooked: “As I grew more steadily comfortable in the kitchen, I found that, much like gardening, most cooking manages to be agreeably absorbing without being to demanding intellectually. It leaves plenty of mental space for daydreaming and reflection.” This post is about the Michael Pollan book Cooked: A Natural History of Transformation. In our exploration of gardening and how it affects our lives we have found ourselves reading deeper and deeper into the connection gardening has with food – so this Michael Pollan book seemed a good choice to read, and are we glad we did…! He looked …
Last American Man
Elizabeth Gilbert wrote the huge bestseller Eat, Pray, Love: One Woman’s Search for Everything but, as much as we liked that book here at Modern Mint, we think her book The Last American Man is far more thrilling. It explores an incredibly complex character – huntsman, teacher, craftsman, farmer, horse rider and (somewhat incredibly) astute businessman – Eustace Conway, and his relationship to the world, which by sheer force of his own will and personality he has shaped to be what he wants. Or, as the book progresses, we find out he has shaped a world he thinks he wants. …