Nancy Rommelmann

The New Year Begins (-5)

To you and yours in 2012: health, courage, the unexpected*.
*drink in photo: Ransom gin, Antica Formula, my husband's hand.

The Older I Am, The Older I Get

Here is my end-of-year gift you, an essay so funny, and so wise, I could not even read it out loud to my husband but for the tears streaming down my face. Thank you, courageous Chagrin and Bear It!

American Enclave Stands Up to Extremists – Forward.com

American Enclave Stands Up to Extremists – Forward.com. From my Wesleyan classmate Allison Kaplan Sommer

Ristretto Nicolai Opens

We will be open today, 8am-6pm, pulling shots, selling beans, letting you bask in the gorgeousness. Want to shop? We have Hario kettles and pourover systems, and Schoolhouse Electric, well, I want everything. 2181 NW Nicolai St., PDX, 503-227-2866. More info at www.ristrettoroasters.com. See you there.

David Swinson, "A Detailed Man"

Dymaxicon author David Swinson gets a fantastic review of his new crime noir novel, A Detailed Man in the Press-Telegram of Long Beach. A former booker of punk bands in 1980s Los Angeles, as well as the producer of the iconic punk flick Roadside Prophets (starring X's John Doe and Beastie Boy Adam Horovitz), Swinson ditched the scene, and LA, to become a detective in Washington DC. For his third act, he's writing noir. A clip from today's review:

"And there's no reason to think that Swinson won't be as successful as a writer as he's been at everything else. While it's difficult to find a retired cop who hasn't written a book, it's rare to find one as beautifully written as 'A Detailed Man.'

"It doesn't fit cozily into any of the established subgenres of crime writing. It's not a stringing together of bawdy capers, that's for sure. It's as detailed (naturally) as police procedural novels, though without the maddening mystery. It's closer to the newish genre called Nordic crime, which has expanded beyond the geographical realms of Per Wahoo/Maj Sowell, Henning Mankell, Jo Nesbo and, sigh, Stieg Larsson...

"Swinson writes with the soul of a poet more than a policeman mining memories. His style is fluid and sharp, his protagonist, Detective Ezra Simeon, is, in the Nordic style, complicated, brooding and introspective."

A Detailed Man is available now on Kindle, early next year in paperback. I have a few of the latter for review copies. Let me know if you want one. And congratulations to David.