Book picks similar to
Madeira by Richard Mayson


portuguese-wine
wine
wine-and-spirits
all-wine

Booze: River Cottage Handbook No.12


John Wright - 2013
    With this, the twelfth in the River Cottage Handbook series, the inimitable John Wright shows exactly how easy it is to get started. You don't need lots of space to make alcohol at home, and if you follow the simple instructions, you won't be faced with exploding bottles. But don't forget, it's all about experimentation and finding out what works for you.Booze is divided by alcohol type, from beer, cider, and wine to herbal spirits and fruit liqueurs. Each section starts with an introduction to the basic techniques, methods, and other useful information, before giving recipes for delicious beverages like rhubarb wine, sparkling elderflower wine, mead, cherry plum wine, orange beer, lager, real ginger beer, sweet cider, zubrovka vodka, amber spirits, rose infusions, blackberry whiskey, pomegranate rum, chestnut liqueur, mulled cider, and there's even a hangover cure thrown in for good measure.With an introduction from Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall and full-color photographs as well as illustrations, Booze is a home-brewer's book with a kick.

Thirty Something: Nothing's How We Dreamed It Would Be


Filipa Fonseca Silva - 2011
    Is this as good as it gets when you're thirty something? That's what these three friends from college times will find out at a dysfunctional dinner party. Because life is not always how we dreamed it would be.Considered by some The Big Chill of the 21st century, this debut novel is all about the end of innocence. Funny, clever and real.

Another Night, Another Day


Sarah Rayner - 2014
    As each sinks under the strain, they’re brought together at Moreland’s Psychiatric Clinic. Here, behind closed doors, they reveal their deepest secrets, confront and console one another and share plenty of laughs. But how will they cope when a new crisis strikes?*On sale from May 8 in Waterstones to mark Mental Health Awareness Week.

The Alaskan Bootlegger's Bible


Leon W. Kania - 2000
    The author dusts off over 30 years of experience to tell you how it's done. He not only tells how to make darned near any kind of beer, wine, liqueur and whiskey you can imagine, he also tells you how to make the equipment to do it with. Ever wondered how a still is made? There are 8 types illustrated in this book and though it's illegal to build or possess a still, the illustrations are so complete, you could easily do it! This book includes plans and operating instructions from underground moonshiner manuals used in Mid East oil fields. Some are built with components found in most home kitchens. From moonshine, homebrew, wine and liqueur recipes, to stills, make your own cappers, kegs, scales and even a malt factory from an old freezer, it's all here!Easy to read and humorous, this book entertains you with Alaskan tales and bootlegger's lore while you learn to make everything from beer and blossom wines, to horse turd whiskey and bathtub gin. If you could buy only one "make your own" book for the rest of your life, this is it. It's like getting a whole shelf of books for the price of one!

Shadows in the Vineyard: The True Story of the Plot to Poison the World's Greatest Wine


Maximillian Potter - 2014
    In January 2010, Aubert de Villaine, the famed proprietor of the Domaine de la Romance-Conti, the tiny, storied vineyard that produces the most expensive, exquisite wines in the world, received an anonymous note threatening the destruction of his priceless vines by poison-a crime that in the world of high-end wine is akin to murder-unless he paid a one million euro ransom. Villaine believed it to be a sick joke, but that proved a fatal miscalculation and the crime shocked this fabled region of France. The sinister story that Vanity Fair journalist Maximillian Potter uncovered would lead to a sting operation by some of France's top detectives, the primary suspect's suicide, and a dramatic investigation. This botanical crime threatened to destroy the fiercely traditional culture surrounding the world's greatest wine.Shadows in the Vineyard takes us deep into a captivating world full of fascinating characters, small-town French politics, an unforgettable narrative, and a local culture defined by the twinned veins of excess and vitality and the deep reverent attention to the land that runs through it.

The Right to an Answer


Anthony Burgess - 1960
    Burgess’ humor is a city to which his hero, Denham, J. W., businessman, forty, British, returns on leave from the Far East to find the face of England hardened into a standardized grimace. He is appalled by his observations in all quarters of cheapness, shallowness, vice. He is appalled also by monotony. But monotony reigns only briefly. Soon Everett, the broken-down poet, and Winterbottom, the printer, have involved him in affairs which put a strain on his holiday spirit. And with the appearance of Mr. Raj, Ceylonese gentleman, persistent lecher and unflagging sociologist, speed quickens and control diminishes as Denham is carried helpless down the homestretch of his grueling comic course. Mr. Burgess’ humor stems from the depth of life rather than from its surface. His people are so vividly alive, and the anger, laughter and melodrama of their experiences so affecting that their story takes on dimension rare in novels so thoroughly entertaining.

Summer in a Glass: The Coming of Age of Winemaking in the Finger Lakes


Evan Dawson - 2011
    Filled with fun and likable characters, "Summer in a Glass" brings this burgeoning area to life and captures its exciting diversity--from its immigrant German winemakers to its young, technically trained connoisseurs, from classic Rieslings to up-and-coming Cabernet Francs.

The Vineyard


Barbara Delinsky - 2000
    To her family, Natalie Seebring is a woman who prizes appearances. She is exquisitely mannered, socially adept, a supportive wife, and head of a successful wine-producing enterprise. So when she announces plans to marry a vineyard employee mere months after the death of her husband of fifty-eight years, her son and daughter are stunned. Faced with their disapproval, Natalie decides to write a memoir. There is much that her children don't know about her life -- about her love of the vineyard, her role in fighting to build it up, and the sacrifices she made for her family. Olivia Jones is a dreamer, living vicariously through the old photographs she restores. She and her daughter, Tess, have no one but themselves, so they cling to the fantasy that a big, happy family is out there somewhere, just waiting to welcome them home. When Olivia is hired by Natalie to help with her memoir, a summer at Natalie's beautiful vineyard by the sea seems the perfect opportunity to live out that fantasy -- an elegant home by the shore, a salary that allows her to hire a tutor for her dyslexic daughter, a job that is creative, hours spent with a woman who has led a charmed life. But all is not as it seems, Olivia and Tess discover when they arrive at Asquonset, the vineyard in Rhode Island. While welcoming, Natalie is not quite the mothering type, as is quickly evident in the hostility her daughter and son have toward her -- it's a hostility that Olivia must buffer. Another dose of stark reality comes in the form of Simon Burke, who runs the vineyard's day-to-day operation and sees in Olivia and Tess an unwelcome reminder of the wife and daughter he tragically lost. And then there is the cruel reality of Olivia's own life -- the mother who never wanted her, and a career that has floundered. Natalie's story, intended for her own children, enlightens Olivia as well. The lives of these two women of different generations, parallel in so many ways, become, in The Vineyard, a powerful and moving story as the fantasy of an idealized life, complete with perfect romance, crashes headlong into reality.

Ripley: The Talented Mr. Ripley / Ripley Underground / Ripley's Game / The Boy Who Followed Ripley


Patricia Highsmith - 1992
    

Twisted


Lynda La Plante - 2014
    1 bestselling mistress of suspense 'Please don't let anything bad have happened to her, please don't let anything have happened to my baby…' Marcus and Lena Fulford are the envy of their friends. Wealthy, attractive and successful, the couple, with their strikingly beautiful teenage daughter Amy, seem settled and content. But appearances mask a strained relationship almost at breaking point. Marcus's latest business venture has failed, draining Lena, the major breadwinner, dry. Putting Amy into weekly boarding school and striving to get her own career back on its feet, Lena remains alone in the luxurious family house as her marriage heads towards as amicable a divorce as she and Marcus can muster, and joint custody of their only child. So when Amy arranges a sleepover with a school friend one weekend, neither parent sees the need to be in touch with her. Saturday, Sunday, Monday morning pass before Lena - seething from her first, unexpectedly confrontational, meeting with Marcus's divorce lawyer - phones Amy. Straight to Amy's voicemail. She must be in lessons. Lena sends a text. She waits. No reply, no contact whatsoever. It is only when Amy is reported missing from school and her friend's mother reveals that, instead of staying with them, Amy was visiting her father - a fact vehemently denied by Marcus - that Lena contacts the police. Her daughter has not been seen since Saturday afternoon. As the police intensify their enquiries, their reassurances that Amy will be found safe and well begin to sound increasingly hollow. DI Victor Reid, in charge of the case, fears the worst - abduction or murder. A family under constant police and press scrutiny, a father who has seemingly lied about his alibi for the weekend, a mother whose perfect world is crumbling beneath her feet, a detective under pressure from his impatient superiors to deliver a result, the length of time that Amy has been missing gathering speed… all conspire to make Lynda La Plante's latest thriller her most tense and terrifying yet. Where is Amy? Is she alive or dead? Lies and betrayal mount as the hunt for a missing girl becomes a search for a body…

A Cottage in Portugal


Richard Hewitt - 1996
    34 illustrations.

Taken


Jacqui Rose - 2012
    Since she had to give away her baby at 15, she’s been lost in booze and bad company. But now she wants to find her child and put things right… Perfect for fans of Jessie Keane and Martina Cole‘All she wanted to do was get out of there. Get on a train and head for London, the place she’d been avoiding for so many years. But it was finally time.’Casey Edwards has demons to put to rest. Since she had to give away her baby at 15, she’s been lost in booze and bad company. But now she wants to find her child and put things right. Heading to Soho, Casey meets former gangster Vince Sadler, an old-school hard man who can still handle himself – and anyone else. There’s a spark between Vince and Casey but she can’t let herself get hurt, not again.To find the truth, Casey must enter the dark world of London’s gangland: hard drugs, vice, even people trafficking. Soon she discovers that mob boss Alfie Jennings and sadistic psycho Oscar Hardings are plotting something dangerous, something brutal. Something that puts Casey – and her child – in serious trouble . . .Full of strong women, devious gangsters and compelling twists, Taken is compulsive read perfect for fans of Jessie Keane and Roberta Kray.

Whiskypedia: A Compendium of Scotch Whisky


Charles MacLean - 2009
    Whether it is single malt Scotch whisky, dalmore whisky, or peat whisky, you will learn something about it in this book. This book on scotch is also a compendium of curiosities! Learn about bottles of scotch, including orbit bottle labels, whiskey green labels, and more. Whiskypedia also outlines information about individual distilleries. Each one provides their whiskies with unique characteristics. They are grounded in the craft and custom of the distillery and its district, but the real key influences on the flavor are how the spirit is matured, the distilling equipment itself, and how the distilling equipment is operated. This guide explores all of those influences and more. Whiskypedia is the first comprehensive source of the flavor and character of every malt whisky in Scotland. Written by Charles MacLean, “a world authority on malt whisky” (Daily Telegraph), shares his wisdom throughout this book. The history of Scotch whisky and information on Scotch distilling are also included. John MacPherson’s stunning photos compliment the text well. This is an ideal book about Scotch for any whisky fan. Skyhorse Publishing, along with our Good Books and Arcade imprints, is proud to publish a broad range of cookbooks, including books on juicing, grilling, baking, frying, home brewing and winemaking, slow cookers, and cast iron cooking. We’ve been successful with books on gluten-free cooking, vegetarian and vegan cooking, paleo, raw foods, and more. Our list includes French cooking, Swedish cooking, Austrian and German cooking, Cajun cooking, as well as books on jerky, canning and preserving, peanut butter, meatballs, oil and vinegar, bone broth, and more. While not every title we publish becomes a New York Times bestseller or a national bestseller, we are committed to books on subjects that are sometimes overlooked and to authors whose work might not otherwise find a home.

The Prince and the Singularity - A Circular Tale


Pedro Barrento - 2013
    He always fails until the moment he loses interest and decides to die, which he doesn’t. Instead he is promoted. The Prince and the Singularity – A Circular Tale proposes a fictitious Creation Myth, whisking the readers away on a thought-provoking rollercoaster ride of a story that will make them question as never before what they truly believe about the nature of existence. At once funny and controversial, it can be viewed as a heretical twist on established religious teachings or as a sweet and sensitive depiction of the ascension of a Bodhisattva or as. . . well, it’s up to whoever is reading it, really. You will get out of this story exactly what you put into it. Love it or hate it, though, you will not be able to remain indifferent to the message of this funny, touching, thought-provoking book.

A Better Man


Candis Terry - 2016
    Now he’s back to make amends, which begins with keeping his younger sister from flunking out of school. It’s just his luck that the one person who can help is the girl whose heart he broke years ago.Lucy Diamond has racked up a number of monumental mistakes in her life, the first involving a certain blue-eyed charmer. She has no intention of falling for Jordan Kincade again, but when he shows up asking her to help one of her students, Lucy just can’t say no. Worse, the longer he’s back, the more she sees how much he’s changed. And so when a blistering kiss turns to more, she can’t help but wonder if her heart will be crushed again . . . or if she’ll discover true love with a better man.