Whisky and Words Number 16: The Balvenie Doublewood 12

A tale of two Grants
Balvenie's DoubleWood 12-year-old is tastefully presented.
Balvenie’s DoubleWood 12-year-old is tastefully presented.

The distance from J&G Grant’s Glenfarclas distillery to William Grant & Sons’ Balvenie location is but 13 miles by road; it’s a much shorter distance by helicopter. Both are Speyside distillers, and both offer whiskies finished in sherry casks. Like J&G Grant, William Grant & Sons is an independent company. Both started in the 19th century: William laid down his distillery in 1889 (finished in 1892); John Grant of J&G Grant bought Glenfarclas distillery (built in 1836) in 1865.

However, the William Grant company has since grown into the largest independent distiller in Scotland. In fact, with over 10% market share, William Grant and Sons represents the third largest producer of Scotch, behind Diageo and Pernod Ricard. Not bad for a family company.

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Book Review: Clean Burn

Clean BurnClean Burn by Karen Sandler
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Well, for you VI Warshawsky fans, there is another woman walking in the noir aisle of your local bookstore. Sandler’s Janelle Watkins is darker, more flawed (physically as well as emotionally) than VI, and Sandler milks the genre for all the grittiness and darkness such a character allows. The presentation of the story is interesting as Sandler mixes in first-person with third-person peeks at the antagonist, which she does with a flair that reminds me of early Stephen King (think Dead Zone). For most of the book, Sandler throws enough dust in the readers eyes to keep us guessing, and I enjoyed the tension both in the buildup to climax as well as the romantic tension between a couple of characters (which she handles well, no cringing here). In the end the plot ties itself together a bit more niftily than I expected but there are twists enough to satisfy anyone (such as this reviewer) who has enjoyed Spade, Marlowe, and yes, even Poirot 🙂

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Book Review: Double Cross: The Tue Story of the D-Day Spies

Double Cross: The True Story of the D-Day Spies
Double Cross: The True Story of the D-Day Spies by Ben Macintyre
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Double-cross promises a long scorecard of unusual characters in a trying–and dangerous–game, spying for Britain in WW2. It delivers, both in the selection of outsized personalities and a build of the stories which is clear and engaging. Ben proceeds at a steady pace right to the end of the book, lingering on each personality and their adventures in turn. The individuals involved are shown in the context of an overall arc, the grand deception that led to D-Day. Although I had read much of that time, from diverse histories such as The Rommel Papers, I never knew what a part the British intelligence service played in that success of the Allied landing. Also, I found the denouement quite interesting and fulfilling, as MacIntyre presents the fates of his subjects in detail.

Although I appreciate MacIntyre’s focus, I would have liked more texture about the British minders. There is less about the spymasters than the spies; more detail of the MI5 crew’s day-to-day lives, and indeed some description of setting would have been welcomed. Did they all work in the same building? Share coffee? Did they have class differences or were they a homogenous group? But that would have made the book longer. We have to assume MacIntyre provided as much detail as he had.

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Book Review: The Lives of Tao

The Lives of Tao
The Lives of Tao by Wesley Chu
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

I enjoyed the Lives and thought the premise, of long-lived non-corporeal beings which could survive long-term on Earth only by inhabiting human host bodies, intriguing and presented in a way which is as believable as it can get. I appreciated the way Wesley worked in limitations of these beings: they need to retain their new host-bodies, they can last only so long outside, if the host’s death is under certain circumstances, the parasite/superbeing passes. His action and pace was generally good, though at time I felt it flagged a little, or there were periods which I felt were not as well fleshed out as they could be. I had trouble identifying with some of the characters at times – most likely there is more backstory to this which could have deepened the conflict and brought the reader into the story with more conviction. Overall, a very good airplane book – a bit like a supernatural James Bond adventure at times, light enough yet intriguing enough you can do it in distracting circumstances.

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Book Review: Frank Sinatra in a Blender

Used under Fair Use doctrine.
Used under Fair Use doctrine.

Yes, I have reblogged myself – centralizing all book reviews here at W&W.

Frank Sinatra in a Blender by Matthew McBride
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

Warning: profanity follows. I’m not exactly the epitome of discretion myself when I speak, and I’ve been known to have characters who explode with the occasional socially awkward expression, but usually my expository writing is clean. But there is really no way to write cleanly of this particular novel. Fair warning.

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