Lineage, Life and Love and Six Generations in California Wine

Lineage, Life and Love and Six Generations in California Wine
Author: Steven Kent Mirassou
Publisher: Val de Grace
Total Pages: 206
Release: 2021-09-07
Genre: Cooking
ISBN: 9780984884957

Winemaker Steven Kent Mirassou has brought forth a jewel of a book, one that will have a unique place in the literature of American wine. With his decades of winemaking expertise, and with his extraordinary gift for evocative writing, Steven takes us straight into the heart of his calling: how it looks and feels to be in a vineyard heavy with grapes, awaiting the dawn and the throbbing pulse of a harvest about to begin. It's a magical moment, and it's the beginning of a journey deep into the art, the craft, the passion, and the 8,000 years of history that lie inside the finest of wines. This is not glossy PR copy. This is raw truth, dirty jeans, arms deep in crushed grapes, heart pounding, dust in your nose, spirit in your mouth writing, flowing from a winemaker who sees crafting beautiful wines and combining them with healthy food as a way to serve others, to bring people together in joy and common cause, a noble calling that Steven Mirassou aptly terms "the true north" of our civilization. And every step of the way, Steven helps us feel his connection to the six generations that the Mirassou family has been growing grapes and crafting wines in California, the last thirty years in the Livermore Valley. It's a region that struggles, image-wise, in the shadow of the Napa Valley but holds fast to its belief in the virtues of its hills and valleys and fertile soils, and to its unshakable faith that crafting beautiful wines and sharing them with others is, at its core, good for the heart and pure tonic for the soul. There is high drama too. Like all family-owned wineries, Steven's faces a mountain of challenges: rough growing seasons, business mistakes, the loss of cherished vineyards and more. And Steven loses something larger too: his beloved wife, from a terrible illness. But as Steven shows us, with the proper attitude every loss can be a new beginning, an opportunity to live more deeply, and, with luck, to improve the character of the wines you craft and the enduring wisdom you can pass along to the next generation. In the literature of American wine, there is nothing quite like what Steven Kent Mirassou has brought us. Come feel the spirit, come share the wine.

Between the World and Me

Between the World and Me
Author: Ta-Nehisi Coates
Publisher: One World
Total Pages: 163
Release: 2015-07-14
Genre: Biography & Autobiography
ISBN: 0679645985

#1 NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER • NATIONAL BOOK AWARD WINNER • NAMED ONE OF TIME’S TEN BEST NONFICTION BOOKS OF THE DECADE • PULITZER PRIZE FINALIST • NATIONAL BOOK CRITICS CIRCLE AWARD FINALIST • ONE OF OPRAH’S “BOOKS THAT HELP ME THROUGH” • NOW AN HBO ORIGINAL SPECIAL EVENT Hailed by Toni Morrison as “required reading,” a bold and personal literary exploration of America’s racial history by “the most important essayist in a generation and a writer who changed the national political conversation about race” (Rolling Stone) NAMED ONE OF THE MOST INFLUENTIAL BOOKS OF THE DECADE BY CNN • NAMED ONE OF PASTE’S BEST MEMOIRS OF THE DECADE • NAMED ONE OF THE TEN BEST BOOKS OF THE YEAR BY The New York Times Book Review • O: The Oprah Magazine • The Washington Post • People • Entertainment Weekly • Vogue • Los Angeles Times • San Francisco Chronicle • Chicago Tribune • New York • Newsday • Library Journal • Publishers Weekly In a profound work that pivots from the biggest questions about American history and ideals to the most intimate concerns of a father for his son, Ta-Nehisi Coates offers a powerful new framework for understanding our nation’s history and current crisis. Americans have built an empire on the idea of “race,” a falsehood that damages us all but falls most heavily on the bodies of black women and men—bodies exploited through slavery and segregation, and, today, threatened, locked up, and murdered out of all proportion. What is it like to inhabit a black body and find a way to live within it? And how can we all honestly reckon with this fraught history and free ourselves from its burden? Between the World and Me is Ta-Nehisi Coates’s attempt to answer these questions in a letter to his adolescent son. Coates shares with his son—and readers—the story of his awakening to the truth about his place in the world through a series of revelatory experiences, from Howard University to Civil War battlefields, from the South Side of Chicago to Paris, from his childhood home to the living rooms of mothers whose children’s lives were taken as American plunder. Beautifully woven from personal narrative, reimagined history, and fresh, emotionally charged reportage, Between the World and Me clearly illuminates the past, bracingly confronts our present, and offers a transcendent vision for a way forward.

That Time of Year

That Time of Year
Author: Garrison Keillor
Publisher: Simon and Schuster
Total Pages: 398
Release: 2020-12-01
Genre: Biography & Autobiography
ISBN: 1951627709

With the warmth and humor we've come to know, the creator and host of A Prairie Home Companion shares his own remarkable story. In That Time of Year, Garrison Keillor looks back on his life and recounts how a Brethren boy with writerly ambitions grew up in a small town on the Mississippi in the 1950s and, seeing three good friends die young, turned to comedy and radio. Through a series of unreasonable lucky breaks, he founded A Prairie Home Companion and put himself in line for a good life, including mistakes, regrets, and a few medical adventures. PHC lasted forty-two years, 1,557 shows, and enjoyed the freedom to do as it pleased for three or four million listeners every Saturday at 5 p.m. Central. He got to sing with Emmylou Harris and Renée Fleming and once sang two songs to the U.S. Supreme Court. He played a private eye and a cowboy, gave the news from his hometown, Lake Wobegon, and met Somali cabdrivers who’d learned English from listening to the show. He wrote bestselling novels, won a Grammy and a National Humanities Medal, and made a movie with Robert Altman with an alarming amount of improvisation. He says, “I was unemployable and managed to invent work for myself that I loved all my life, and on top of that I married well. That’s the secret, work and love. And I chose the right ancestors, impoverished Scots and Yorkshire farmers, good workers. I’m heading for eighty, and I still get up to write before dawn every day.”

Gracianna

Gracianna
Author: Trini Amador
Publisher: Greenleaf Book Group
Total Pages: 0
Release: 2013
Genre: Historical fiction
ISBN: 9781608325702

The gripping story of Gracianna a French-Basque girl forced to make impossible decisions after being recruited into the French Resistance in Nazi-occupied Paris "

Visa

Visa
Author: Paul Chutkow
Publisher: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt P
Total Pages: 0
Release: 2001
Genre: Bank credit cards
ISBN: 9780159004791

A brilliant visionary named Dee Hock then followed in Giannini's footsteps and turned the BankAmericard into the powerful partnership that Visa is today. With grit, clarity, and a remarkable power of persuasion, Hock built Visa into a vast global family that today draws together 22,000 banks and financial institutions from nearly every corner of the globe.".

The Immigrants

The Immigrants
Author: Howard Fast
Publisher: Sourcebooks, Inc.
Total Pages: 482
Release: 2010-03-01
Genre: Fiction
ISBN: 1402247028

"A most wonderful book...there hasn't been a novel in years that can do a job on readers' emotions that the last fifty pages of The Immigrants does."—Los Angeles Times The first book in bestselling author Howard Fast's beloved family saga, The Immigrants is a transcendent work of historical fiction. In this sweeping journey of love and fortune, master storyteller Howard Fast recounts the family saga of roughneck immigrants determined to make their way in America at the turn of the century. Quick to ascend from the tragic depths of the 1906 San Francisco earthquake, Dan Lavette becomes the head of a powerful shipping empire and establishes himself among the city's cultural elite. But when he finds himself caught in a loveless marriage to the daughter of San Francisco's richest family, a scandalous love affair threatens to destroy the empire Dan has built for himself. The first novel of a compelling family saga, The Immigrants is fast-paced, emotional historical fiction that captures the wide range of relationships across Immigrant America during the tumultuous defining events of the early twentieth century. NOW A MOTION PICTURE

The Italian Winemaker's Grandson

The Italian Winemaker's Grandson
Author: James ZIRKELBACH
Publisher:
Total Pages: 323
Release: 2019-01-25
Genre:
ISBN: 9781795003803

This tale ends with one family member killing a young innocent family member in the unimaginable horrific painful way. It is a charming coming of age story set in the picturesque Napa Valley. A tale full of laughter, tears mystery, and startlng discoveries. The story centers on Salvatore and Rose Curtoni, their journey from Gerola, Italy in 1910 across America to the heart of Napa. Salvatore worked his fertile vineyards and was a winemaker. Rosie was known as the great cook in the valley and hostess of their Big Pink House that was the center of social activity for a raucous and fun loving group of characters that were always hanging around. A big part of the story is seen through the eyes of the Curtonis cherished grandson. The boy learns the legends and stories of how they suffered and prospers, yet he searches out the dark disturbing secrets of their past. Truly an immigrant story full of birth and re-birth. Heartbreaking tragedy and celebrations of life. It is rich with adventures, mystery and, intrigue It is a story of characters some humorous, some heart warming, a few mysterious and dangerous.A gripping saga set in the beauty of California's wine country, a feast for the senses a celebration of vibrant colors the lush purple, yellow and green grapes, vibrant vines in rows that stretch almost as far as the eye can see and the variety of distinct aromas that fill the air through every season.Almost six decades later The grandson returns to his grandparents old home and participated in the new version of harvest, crush and bottling.Filled with laughs, warmth, joy, love, mystery and adventure.This tale leaves you wishing you could have been there, tasting the wonderful meals and listening to the cheerful banter, the stories fills the senses. The vivid descriptions tell who all these family members and strange friends were, how they intertwined and the reader is drawn inInto the enchantment of a time when the burgeoning wine country was growing towards greatness.A look back to what life was like in Napa Valley from 1925 to now.

The Angel in My Pocket

The Angel in My Pocket
Author: Sukey Forbes
Publisher: Penguin
Total Pages: 258
Release: 2015-05-19
Genre: Children
ISBN: 0143127578

After losing her daughter Charlotte to a rare genetic disorder, life for Sukey Forbes is completely shattered. As devastated as she is, Forbes searches for ways to deal with her grief. She wants desperately to recover a full, meaningful life on the private island of Naushon where she and her family live. Forbes begins exploring her family's rich history of spiritual seekers, including her great-great-great grandfather, Ralph Waldo Emerson, who similarly lost a young child.

All the Flowers in Paris

All the Flowers in Paris
Author: Sarah Jio
Publisher: Ballantine Books
Total Pages: 306
Release: 2020-08-04
Genre: Fiction
ISBN: 1101885076

“Sarah Jio weaves past and present in this eminently readable novel about love, gratitude, and forgiveness. I tore through the pages!”—New York Times bestselling author Christina Baker Kline Two women are connected across time by the city of Paris, a mysterious stack of love letters, and shocking secrets sweeping from World War II to the present—for readers of Sarah’s Key and The Nightingale. When Caroline wakes up in a Paris hospital with no memory of her past, she’s confused to learn that for years she’s lived a sad, reclusive life in a sprawling apartment on the rue Cler. Slowly regaining vague memories of a man and a young child, she vows to piece her life back together—though she can’t help but feel she may be in danger. A budding friendship with the chef of a charming nearby restaurant takes her mind off her foggy past, as does a startling mystery from decades prior. In Nazi-occupied Paris, a young widow named Céline is trying to build a new life for her daughter while working in her father’s flower shop and hoping to find love again. Then a ruthless German officer discovers her Jewish ancestry and Céline is forced to play a dangerous game to secure the safety of her loved ones. When her worst fears come true, she must fight back in order to save the person she loves most: her daughter. When Caroline discovers Céline’s letters tucked away in a closet, she realizes that her apartment harbors dark secrets—and that she may have more in common with Céline than she could have ever imagined. All the Flowers in Paris is an emotionally captivating novel rooted in the resiliency and strength of the human spirit, the steadfastness of a mother’s love, and the many complex layers of the heart—especially its capacity to forgive. “Heart-stopping . . . Fans of emotional, romantic stories set during World War II will enjoy this heartbreaking tale of love and loss.”—Booklist