WE by Yevgeny Zamyatin

January’s book group selection.

This book is considered a classic science fiction book. In fact, on the cover it is touted as "The most influential science fiction novel of the 20th century". Up until we picked this for book group, I had never heard of this selection, keeping in mind that I’m sure there are many "classical scifi" books I have never heard of.

Welcome to the One State. The Great Benefactor sees all, controls all. D-503 rises when the bell rings, chews his breakfast exactly 50 times before swallowing, don’s his unif for the day and is the Builder of the spaceship Integral. He takes his exercise in his allotted time. He walks four abreast in step during the daily walks. When the bell rings, he lies down and sleeps a dreamless sleep. His world is one of logarithms and mathematical problems. His world is the One State.

Then he meets I-330 and falls madly in love. But there is no place in the One State for love. His pleasant feelings for the other two partners in his triumvirate evaporates as we watch D-503 shoves aside the pleasant O-90 and turn on his freind R-14. As D-503 discovers he has a "soul" he also feels the ravaging effects infatuation and intense jealousy. D-503 discovers there is more to life than the glass walls, the chiming of the bell, the marching four abreast during walks. D-503 discovers emotions and it is the inability to deal with these emotions that eventually bring about his, and the ones he loves, downfall.

This is a dark book. The prose and mental reasoning the main character move through is amazing. It is a look at a different kind of utopian society, where even happiness is dictated and defined by those in charge. I found it to be a fascinating tirade against communism and I wondered if most readers in another 20 years would even understand the passion and conflict that brought about such a story. I now feel and urge to go out and read Brave New World and 1984 - which I confess I have not yet read. Sometimes one just needs a little push to read some of the classics.

Recipes from 1/25/08

An extra recipe review posting this week. I somehow got a week behind and need to play catch up!

Well, the Husband was on a roll last week (ha! no pun intended!) Thanks to his efforts on the last day of the month, we ended January at 18 new recipes. What a great start to the year. The incredibly cold weather has kept us inside and what a better way to warm up a chilly house that to do a little baking. I know come July and August we certainly won’t be making anywhere near this many new recipes.

Low-Risk Sourdough Bread (The Bread Bible by Ruth Levy Beranbaum, pg 473) 4.5
The Husband really branched out into some artisan bread making with this recipe. It is a more "delicate" dough, in that you let it rise in a special basket called a banneton, then gently roll it onto the baking sheet. We do not have such a special basket, but the recipe noted a bowl lined with a flour dusted towel works as a good substitute. According to the Husband, not so much. The bread stuck to the towel where he had missed flouring it and when he rolled it out onto the cookie sheet, it oozed across the parchment like some living amoeba.

Then partway through baking one is supposed to remove the bread from the cookie sheet and place it directly on the baking stone. This was also reported to be easier said than done, as he was leaning over a 425* oven trying to get the bread to turn and slide off and somehow in the process he burned his bicep.

The bread didn’t poof up as much as he thought it should have (think back to the oozing amoeba) and we ended up with two disk shaped loaves of different sizes. Despite the bicep burn, losing a tuperware lid (still not sure how he did that), and thinking he had ruined my cookie sheet, he made two absolutely fantastic loaves of rustic sourdough bread. The smaller one of the two was eaten in one sitting. I think with some work on technique, he would make this again.

French Country Sourdough Bread ( The Bread Bible by Ruth Levy Beranbaum, pg 478) 3.5
After the near disaster of the aforementioned bread, he decided to make a second bread where he did a few thing differently. This produced a beautiful small boule with a nice crisp crust. Unfortunately, I cannot comment on how it tastes, as it will be given away to a co-worker of the Husbands. The Husband is already talking of making this one again, but for us.

Leek and Potato Soup (Irish Pub Cookbook) 3
And after all the bread was done, he turned his attention to soup! Pretty basic recipe: leeks, potatoes, butter, onions, half-n-half; cook, simmer and puree. He had a bit of trouble in the puree department, but I think it was because his potatoes chunks were too larger for the immersion blender. This wasn’t as flavorful as other leek and potato soups I’ve had and I’m not sure why. I even garnished our bowls with chopped parsley, salt and fresh ground pepper. I’m thinking for leftovers frying up some of the leftover pancetta I have in the fridge and serving that on top. Still, served with a bit of the sourdough bread, it was great supper.

Escape from Kathmandu by KS Robinson

If you’ve read any KSR (Mars Trilogy, Wild Shore series, Years of Rice and Salt), this is absolutely NOTHING like those. Nada. Not even close.

Escape from Kathmandu is a engaging romp through the bureaucracy, cities and world of Kathmandu and the Himalayas as seen through the eyes of three young fellows. The book is actually broken down into a four smaller novelettes. In book one we are introduced to our characters: Freds, George and Nathan. On a previous trip to Nepal, Nathan has discovered a Yeti while part of a graduate student scientific research team while in the mountains of Himals. He finds out that part of the team has now come back and they have kidnapped the yeti with the intent of revealing him to the world. With the help of his newfound freind George and old climbing partner Freds, they set off to save the Yeti from certain exploitation.

In book two, Freds meets back up with George while guiding hikers up various mountains out of Kathmandu. Freds is leading a couple of Brits and talks them into saving the now exposed body of Mallory. However, plans are being foiled by a earnest and doltish photographer in Georges group. George is forced to go after his missing hiker and suddenly finds himself hiking to the summit of Everest with Freds and the monk Kombu.

In book three, the point of view shifts from George to Freds, who now talks George into helping him save Shangri-La. Freds has found out about a project to build a road that would lead right into this famous valley. However, after his last two adventures with Freds, George is less than willing to believe or help Freds and Freds has his work cut out for him in enlisting his friend.

By book four, George wants nothing to do with Freds, but much to his surprise, Freds has shown up on George's threshold. Freds talks George into a "vacation" to the warmer climes of Nepal and a very reluctant George agrees to go with...buy why? What is Freds motivation for involving George this time?

The first two stories were definitely the stronger of the four. I found the third novelette was a bit slow to develop. With the POV change from George to Freds, it took some mental gymnastics to change the characters around and made moving into the story a bit more difficult. Robinson’s imagery was enough to pull into the reader into the plunging valleys and rocky heights of the Himalayan mountains. He added just enough splash of color to see the vivid greens of the vegetation and the bright blue of the sky...and the less pleasant side of country life in a third world country as well. By book four we are back to Georges POV.

The writing was quirky and the characters engaging and numerous. There were only a couple of times my subconscious went..."nah...not plausable..." but not enough to really pull me out of the story. And it is that, a fun, easy story...after all, yetis do exist....

Recipe review from 1/21/08

Sorry, not as many pictures this week! The camera battery died and I kept forgetting to put it on the charger. It was quite the chilly week: highs right about 0*, lows consistently hitting -30* then throw on the windchills at -35* and that combination just calls for warm, spicy food.

Squash Curry Soup (Co-worker Kate) 3.5Last fall a co-worker gave me a couple of great looking recipes. It took me a little while, but I’ve finally gotten around to making one of them. The need to use up my butternut squash was behind this recipe, and I’m glad I tried it. Pretty simple recipe, and I modified it a bit. Instead of boiling my squash with the sauteed onion, I decided to oven roast it with ½ of the curry powder, salt, pepper and splash of olive oil for about 20 minutes. With the exception of a few of the larger pieces of squash, it baked up nice and golden. I then sauteed the onion and tossed in the other ½ of the curry powder. To this I added to roasted squash, vegetable broth (instead of water) and milk and brought to a boil. I let is simmer for just a bit then removed from heat and pulled out my FAVORITE kitchen tool, my immersion blender. A few buzzes around and it was pureed nice and thick. Almost too thick. I have had to add some milk upon reheating. I also skipped added the cashews directly into the soup and blending with everything else, opting instead to add the cashews more as a condiment. Love the curry taste against the rich squash with a splash of salty nuts.

Roasted Onions and Grilled Tuna (Giada Family Dinners, 122) 3

This recipe was modified quite a bit. First, I decided to use up a slightly freezer burned bag of pearl onions rather than buying some cippolini onions. I would have preferred the cippolini's, but I'm still working on that pantry reduction project.

Next, I missed the bit where I was supposed to roast the onions in the oven for an hour before prepping the fish. With the Husband due home for dinner in a half an hour and it takes a half an hour just to get the oven up to temp an alternative was needed. I heated up a generous amount of olive oil and tossed them in a pan to caramelize with a bit of salt and pepper.

And with temps well below reasonable, there was no way I was going to try and fire up the grill. If it was 30* above 0*, yes. 30* below...no way. I still marinated them in olive oil and tossed them in the pan with the onions.

All in all, this turned out pretty tasty. I over cooked my tuna just a tich so it ended up being well done rather than the medium well I prefer. Should have pulled them off the heat a bit sooner. I served roasted asparagus along side for a lovely green counterpoint. And I guess I would consider making this dish again, but perhaps waiting till I can grill again and doing everything outside.

Cranberry Scones (Everyday Food, Nov or Dec 2003) 4
I want to say I’ve made these before, but I can’t find when I did so. I know I’ve had them before because I got the recipe from the Mother. These are very tasty and so easy to make. Simply combine flour, sugar, baking powder and salt. Cut in the butter and add half and half to make a moist, dough-like batter. Fold in the cranberry’s and form into a 1" thick disk. Bake for about 15 mintues. To me, these are the quintencential scone - a light, coarse crumb that is delicately sweet without being heavy on the tummy. I may have to make these again so I can start to use up the second bag of cranberries in my crisper drawer.

Photo from Pinterest via Food Network

Cheesy Baked Tortellini (Everyday Pasta by Giada Di Laurenttis, pg 171) 4This was a great dish. The reason it isn’t receiving a 5 is because of the chemicals in the packaged tortellini. Still, so very easy to make and incredibly tasty. Store bought tortellini (I used cheese) is cooked according to the directions on the package. Two cups of marinara are combined with 1/3 cup marscapone cheese and beaten till smooth. To this fresh thyme can be added, but as I was using homemade marinara that was already plenty seasoned I skipped the thyme. Add the sauce to the rinsed tortellini and put in a lightly greased 8x8 dish. Top with smoked cheese - recipe called for mozzarella but I couldn’t find any, so I subbed smoked gouda - and some grated parmesan. Bake covered for about 15 minutes, then uncover and bake for an additional 10 minutes more. Honestly - that’s all there was to it! I served this with some roasted asparagus. This made a very generous 4 servings.

Siddhartha by Herman Hesse

For me, Siddhartha was a fascinating look at yogic and Buddhist philosophy as told in story form. The story starts with young Siddhartha and his friend Govinda as they enter their teen years while living as Brahmans in India. They have learned the ancient texts, they have made offerings to the gods, the make daily ablations in the river, they meditate and pray daily. But young Siddhartha is restless and unhappy and with his fathers grudging permission, he and Govinda leave to follow the Sarmana’s of the forest.

For many years they forgo everything, contenting themselves with meditation, begging, and sleeping on the ground in the woods. Siddhartha learns much from the elder Samnara’s, but again he grows restless, wanting something more, something else that he can’t quite define. It is at this juncture Govinda and Siddhartha go see Gotama, or the Buddha and listen to his dharma talks. Govinda is transformed by Gotama’s words and immediately converts and dons the yellow robe of monkhood. He pleads with Siddhartha to do likewise, but Siddhartha says he cannot learn anything from a teacher anymore, and they part ways.

Instead, Siddhartha decides to learn what it is to love, and his travels take him to the beautiful courtesan Kamala. She agree’s to teach him the ways of love, if he baths and perfumes and oils his hair and treats her to beautiful things. This means that Siddhartha must now find gainful employment and he becomes apprenticed to a wealthy trader. Siddhartha boasts that he only needs to know how fast, meditate and be patient to obtain what he needs.

But things don’t go the way Siddhartha expects and after many years he finds himself staring into the river in abject despair contemplating suicide, but the river speaks to him with the universal sound and Siddhartha enters into a third stage in his life. It is here with the river and an old ferryman that Siddhartha learns the meaning of life, and death.

This is not a very long book, but it covers a lot of ground. I think it helped that I understood many of the Buddist and yogic terms and concepts because they are so integral to the story - knowing those concepts really helped to fill out the characters and what Hesse was attempting to convey. Hesse wrote one phrase in particular that has stuck with me: "Wisdom cannot be learned. Knowledge can be, but not wisdom."

Knitting Project #8 and #9

In between work, yoga, cooking, visits to the vet, and reading, I’ve been busy knitting. I’ve delayed posting this project report because some of these projects were intended as gifts, and I didn’t want to spoil the surprise, as small as it is. For the holidays I did several gift bags with 2, 3 or 4 cloths and included some homemade kitchen soap. Next year I may have to get creative and find a hand towel pattern to compliment dishcloths.

I enjoy doing dishcloths in between other projects or when we’re on the road, and I found the perfect pattern publication. It’s a small publication, only about 5 pages, but it has 15 variations on basic dishcloths. I took inspiration from here and made one pattern. I wanted to do more, but I ran out of time.

Pattern: (I'll have to re-look it up)
Yarn: Sugar and Cream, Olive and self-striping, ~2.5oz skein
Needles: #7
Finished Size: ~ 9"

I found this pattern on Dee’s blog and loved it! Though she had some blog troubles recently so I don't know if the link is still there.

Pattern:
Yarn: Sugar and Cream, Twists, ~2.0oz skein
Needles: #7
Finished Size: ~ 9"

I had also promised the parents I would do a couple more London Beanie hats for them. The Dad requested one a couple inches longer and the Mom just requested one. I mentioned in a previous post about my trip to the Yarn Works where I bought the yarn - I am under a bit of a deadline as they are getting ready to head for Arizona and I want to have them done before then.

Unfortunately I hit a bit of a snag. I finished this one and realized I had made it out of the wrong weight yarn! I inadvertently bought 4 ply when I needed 6 ply. Darn it. The Mom still preferred a heavier weight and the Dad thought it was just fine so he got it. I made a quick trip up to Knife River and Playing with Yarn on Saturday to buy the right ply and I have started another one. I should be able to get it done before the beginning of the New Year.

The Sister's Gift - Sourdough Bread

I celebrated another birthday this year (darn it!) and my Sister and her Husband sent me a fantastic birthday present: two loaves of San Fransico sourdough bread from the Boudin Bakery. The Sister discovered this bread about 15 years ago and back then I was the happy recipent of 6 loaves! For some reason as the years passed we forgot about this tangy, crusty, soft bread until recently when we both began to reminice about the loaves of days gone by.


This bread is good broken off in chunks and eaten with soup or chili, it's great warmed up with a bit of butter slathered over it and it adds great flavor to sandwiches of all kinds. What more can I say about such yummy bread. Check out the website and order some!

Thanks Sis! The bread is as good as we remember!

Recipe Review 1/14/07

So, it's Saturday morning, 3:30am, and I am on the phone to the furnace guy because I have no heat. Outside temp: -20* with a -23* windchill. By 4:45am I am in my basement with the furnace guy while the Husband is upstairs sleepily wondering what is going on. Fast forward to Monday morning. I go out to start the car. But the car won't start. My battery was shot. There goes my noon yoga class and lunch with a friend. When the tow guy shows up it's the same fellow who came out two years ago when both my vehicles were dead on the same day. Funny how life works. The only appropriate action in this case is to bake chocolate chip cookies. After consuming several warm, soft, gooey cookies, I was quite content and rather full.

Here's last weeks recipes. Enjoy!

Chicken Caccatorie with Orzo (Every Day with RR, pg 66) 4

While this was listed as 30 minutes plus 10 minute prep, as usual it took a wee bit longer. For me, it was the initial cooking time for the chicken parts. In part that was my fault as I mixed four chicken thighs with two big boobies. In hindsight, I should have stuck with just thighs or all boobies.

However! This was a very tasty dish. I used homemade chunky tomatoes with garlic (thanks Kate!) and I had to sub dried basil for fresh because I forgot to buy some. Prep was pretty simple: prepare bone-in chicken (for extra flavor), fry in olive oil till nicely browned and nearly done. Remove to warm oven. Add onions and thickly sliced mushrooms and saute until soft but not mush. Stir in chunky tomatoes, tomato sauce, capers, salt and pepper. Bring to a nice simmer and add chicken back in. Simmer till ready to serve.

Meanwhile, prepare orzo pasta. Arrange nicely on plate and eat! As Rach would say, Yum-O!

Pretty simple really. This dish would be great for company because of its simplicity yet great flavors and it looks impressive. A salad and some crusty bread would round out the meal.

Sourdough Whole Wheat Bread (Bernard Claytons New Book of Breads) 3.5

The Husband has been a baking fiend lately! Back at the end of December he created his sourdough starter and lucky me, I get great fresh bread every couple of weeks. This is his forth creation off of "Harold".

Once again, the recipe starts with a "sponge" which is allowed to sit overnight. This is then combined with a mix of whole wheat flour and bread flour. The loaves are actually shaped after the dough has been mixed and kneaded and allowed to rest for 15 minutes. The one and only rise happens right in the pan - for two hours - and then into the oven for an hour.

We're still not noticing a tremendous "sourdough" taste, more of a very subtle tang, to our breads. This was also a bit on the dry side. The Husband noted that for 7 cups of flour it called for 1 1/4 cup of liquid. We did have to add more water at the end of the initial mixing process to get the rest of the flour added. The crust was a beautiful golden color and nice and crispy from the water glaze, and the crumb a medium density and texture - not real light, not really heavy. If we were to make this again, I think I would decrease some of the WW flour and up the bread flour.

Cranberry Orange Muffins (Fine Cooking, Nov?, 2007) 3.5

The Mother made the blueberry version of these back in December and they were so delicious that decided I needed to make these myself. I had some cranberries in the fridge and it was no matter to buy an orange for the zest so it was the cranberries and orange version for us. The ingredients and directions seem complicated at first glance, but as with most muffin recipes it comes together rather quickly. The neat thing about these is you intentionally fill the muffin cups very full to create the classic "coffee house" muffin where it's mostly top. Really, how can you go wrong with a muffin that's all top?

Yet, both the Husband and I thought these lacked something in the flavor department - we both thought they would be a bit sweeter or tangier between the cranberry and the orange. If I were to make these again I would probably do the blueberry version...unless I still have those cranberries to use up!

Recipe Review 1/7/08

Sourdough Waffles (The Bread Bible, Beth Hensperger) 5!
These were excellent. The Husband made the sponge the night before and put it into the fridge to ferment. He timed this so he could feed Harold at the same time. The next morning I added 1 cup whole wheat flour (AP was optional), baking soda, eggs, and oil and blended ever so gently. These baked up light, slightly crisp and very flavorful. I’ve made three or four different kinds of waffles so far and this recipe was the best. The downside is you have to have sourdough starter in the fridge. The upside, we have Harold. We will be making these again. Made 12-6" waffles.

Addendum: before we headed out of town last weekend, we made a batch of pancakes using the same recipe (Harold needed to be fed again). The pancakes didn't cook up as light as the waffles and the taste was a bit nuttier. I think the whole wheat aspect came through more. While these were tasty, the Husband and I agreed we think the waffles were better.

Southwestern Pork and Sweet Potatoes (CL Jan/Feb 08, pg ) 3
This looked good on paper, and with some significant modifications (recipes are just guidelines, right?) it turned out okay. My main conundrum was what to serve it with or over. A Boston Pork Butt (or modification #1: a center cut pork loin) is seared in a lightly oiled pan and set aside. The sauce is a pureed mixture of onion, ancho seasoning (modification #2: adobo seasoning), garlic, and a pickled jalapeno pepper. This is sauteed until fragrant and the pan deglazed with a bottle of beer. The pork is returned to the pan and simmered for two hours (modification #3: it was done after an hour).

The pork is then removed and shredded (modification #4: cubed) and cubed sweet potatoes are added to the pan and everything simmered for another 20 minutes (modification #5: I tossed the potatoes in before I removed the meat).

Once everything was done, I realized some white rice would have been perfect to serve this over to soak up the spicy chili sauce. What I ended up serving along side was leftover black bean and squash tamale filling - which was just as tasty but made for a lot of "orange" on the plate. This dish made four meals worth, too much for two people.

Raspberry Almond Shortbread Thumbprints (Culinary in the Country Blog) 4

When Joe posted these over on his blog and I knew I just had to make them. These bake up as a light buttery cookie infused with the essence of toasted almond that is countered by the sweetness of raspberry jam. I omitted the fancy glaze - the Husband was inhaling them too quickly and I thought the glaze would be too much sweetness against the butter. I did make one mistake (I was impatient): the recipe indicates that the dough needs to be frozen for at least one hour. I didn't do that and my cookies ended up a bit on the flat side. Still, they tasted darn good and I would make these again.

Midi's Restaurant

Before the Parental Units departed for warmer climes, the Husband and I decided it would be a nice bon voyage! to go out for an evening of Jazz at the ‘Toga and dinner afterwards. Inspiration struck and I remembered Midi’s was now open at the Fitger’s complex and most of the first month bugs should have been worked out.

http://www.midirestaurant.net/

We arrived in a very happy state at about 6:30p on a Saturday evening. The place was busy, but by no means packed. It had been remodeled during its transition, but the remodel seemed to have forgotten the carpet – it was frayed in several obvious spots (the pass through) and showed its age. But we were not here to critique the carpet as much as those frayed spots fascinated us.

Midi’s is owned by the same people who own the Winzer Stubbe in Hudson, WI, which I reviewed here. When I heard they were opening a restaurant up here, I was hoping for a German one, but alas, they decided to go with a Mediterranean theme and offer a German menu a couple nights a week. Saturday must have been one of those nights, lucky me!

While we were deciding, our appetites were whetted with a lovely selection of what looked and tasted like homemade rustic bread served with whipped butter and hummus. Nothing annoys me so much than to have those little metallic butter packages plunked down on the table only to find them still frozen. This butter was presented in a small ramkins at room temperature and perfect for spreading. The hummus was creamy, smooth and in no way garlicky.

The Mother had the rouladen, served with spatzel and red cabbage. I picked the Jagerschnitzel (breaded pork cutlet pounded thin) also served with spatzel and red cabbage. The two gentlemen chose prime rib. The two German dishes were very tasty (really, I would have been very happy with just a big plate of spatzel…). My pork cutlet was a tich on the dry side, but again, I was in a very happy state and didn’t mind. The spatzel was fantastic. They must do a quick pan sauté after it comes out of the water or maybe it’s fried to start with. What ever they do is delicious. Reports from the prime rib side of the table were complementary, though the Father would have preferred his cut a bit thicker.

We concluded dinner by sharing a crème brule (melted sugar was a bit thick and bitter, but the crème underneath delicious) and crepes served with ice cream and berry topping.

Prices ranged from $13.00 for my plate to $18.00 for the prime rib. $4.00 for the brule and $5.00 for the crepes.

The wait staff was prompt, polite and attentive throughout the entire meal.

For a lovely evening out with simple ambiance and good food, I would recommend Midi’s.

Lucifer's Hammer by Larry Niven and Jerry Pournelle

This was December’s book group selection. I thought I had already read it…it was on my book shelf which means I must have, right? Wrong. As book group meeting approached and I got to talking to the Father (who I talked into joining book group), I realized I had not read the book as I had initially thought. A quick search through the last two years of blogs didn’t turn up anything either. So it was with much embarrassment that I had to confess to my group that I had not read the book - but they are a forgiving group and I only had to promise to bring munchies to another meeting as my penance. Mortified, but undaunted, I started the book immediately that night.

Lucifer’s Hammer falls into the “End of the World/Catastrophic Event/How Will the Human Race Survive” category, and it can be further broken down into those niche genres in SF which wipe California off the face of the map then discuss how Earth will survive.

Destruction of California aside, this was a really good book. Tim Hamner discovers a comet, which upon further investigation will be moving through Earths solar system in the immediate near future. Chances of it hitting are a million to one…nope, better make that 100,000 to one. Oops! Slight miscalculation, 10,000 to one. Wrong again! 1000 to one. Oh, drat! It hit in 6 places!

The first third of the book establishes the characters and how people react to the news of impending doom. And there are a LOT of characters. Some don't believe it, some go all out in their preparations, some wait till the very last day.

The second third of the book deals with impact and the days immediately after impact: how huge tsunamis wipe out any coastal area, cities and islands; the force of impact drives sea floor mud and ocean water far into the atmosphere and rains down upon the land causing huge flood events; mega-hurricanes are spawned affecting weather patterns over tremendous areas; earthquakes shake the continents and Russia and China launch nuclear weapons at each other. It looks at how people respond both individually and as small groups. It gets a bit gruesome, but I like that look at reality.

The third part of the book speculates what people would do to survive, how would they react to this new state of survival and I have to say the authors did a pretty good job on touching on a bit of every part of humanity, the good, the bad and the very ugly.

But I do have a few complaints, mostly with the third part of the book. This was written in the 70's and the 70's attitude toward women was still prevalent. Women were to be protected, took subservient roles to the men (housewives who volunteered, secretaries, accountants, cooks). What really got my goat was for one small group trying to survive, when the current leader died (predicted to happen anytime in the next "year") the new leader of the valley would be determined by whomever his daughter married. Three guys were posturing for her "attentions" while she was sneaking off to sleep with a fourth. Gimme a break!

It was also brought to my attention that blacks are stereotyped in this story as the poor inner city types who continue to rob, pillage, and rape both before impact and after. The authors attempted to counter this by sending a black man into space and have him return a hero, but his part is rather minor compared to the gangs roaming the countryside.

Still, if one can put aside some of the quirks and if you like end of the world type stories, this one was pretty darn good.