I have always been a fan of Henry Rollins from back in his Black Flag days, but I really love the voice that comes out through his words. This book is not for lightweights. It tells the cold, hard truth of Henry's life and times. It is a must read for any Rollins fan.

I read this little gem and re-read it a few more times, I was doubled over in pain from the laughter each time. Henry Rollins captures Los Angeles by the throat in this book and shakes it for dear life. He probably wouldn't have any remorse about it either. My favourite piece was #111, describing his feelings toward other famous musicians. This man should allow himself expansion into longer works though. He would become the Henry Miller of the next millenium.

His 'familial hate-fuel' never resolves itself in this, neither does he run short on truth and Angelino angst. But something tells me that's how he wants it. Don't expect him to whisper sweet-nothings into your ear with this. Expect only the sole of his boot. Because Rollins delivers.

This was my 1st Henry Rollins book. Henry gives you the world in your hands through his eyes. Abuse,Drugs,Heartache,and everything else is in this book, on the last page the poem "I KNOW YOU" is so true, he really knows me, read it and then you'll know me. 124 worlds are worlds you think you live in but realized that they are the world He lives in. i loved this book and will continue to love Rollins' writing and music.

If you have tasted the coffee at Vivacci, you know this guy is serious. It's the best I've had anywhere in the known world. The book is extremely detailed, just like his training for his Baristas. Go drink. Read. Buy. Enjoy the best.

I'm sorry about the four stars David, because this is an essential book and indeed it gives the reader most of what he needs to make a truly excellent cup of espresso. Buy it folks. My problem is that this is a very short book and could have been a lot shorter. There is considerably more redundancy than is necessary to get the points across. Otherwise, it's well written and illustrated, providing the insider information you need. However, in the espresso blending section David spends almost two pages avoiding telling you what coffees make good espresso blends. Sure it's subjective, but I guess I felt I was paying for his opinion (which he gives copiously on other espresso issues.) He alludes vaguely to Brazilian and low acid (Brazil has very a wide range of possibilities, only a few of which I think make good coffee of any sort) and that's about it. I'd hoped for more. But there can be no doubt that David knows espresso in every detail. He's spent a lot of time and effort collecting the unique and necessary information he imparts. Plus, he and I agree that the best espresso is made in northern Italy and that most US espresso is charcoal water. So, this is a very expensive book for it's length, but it's definitely worth the price if you want to really understand espresso.

David Schomer is the owner/chief roaster at Vivace! in Seattle. His methods (particularly concerning the proper temperature for brewing) are the subject of much discussion, even derision, in the coffee community, because it is hard to get consistent results using his methods. That may be true, but his approach allows you to achieve near perfection about a third of the time, and decent results the rest of the time, while other methods will produce more consistent results, without ever equaling the best he can achieve.

If you want to get artistic about your espresso, learn some of the many variables involved, and commence your search for the perfect cup, this is the book for you. Schomer has studied espresso making for decades, with a degree of attention to detail that borders on the fanatical, and his key conclusions are described here in detail.

My only complaint is that Schomer doesn't even minimally discuss his techniques for producing rosettes on top of his lattes. I've taken the pilgrimage to Vivace! a few times, and watched how it's done, but after several years of trying a couple of times a day, I'm still not able to get results as good as the people at Vivace! can.

I did, however, manage to coerce a few nearly-perfect cups out of my Gaggia Paros before it died, and I have this book to thank for the experience.

I never knew the extent of coffee on the economy until I read this book. Not only did it include statistics and graphs, it also included little pictures and quotations that were insightful. I learned about the process of coffee harvesting, roasting, blending and the marketing of it in the U.S. Also there were quirky and cool little facts on coffee's impact on our history. I mean, who knew that the Green Dragon coffeehouse in Boston and Merchant's coffeehouse in New York became meeting houses for the angry American colonists who planned and protested against imported British goods in the midst of the Boston Tea Party?? Overall a good and enjoyable book!

If, while drinking a pot of Joe, you have ever wondered to yourself "What the hell is this stuff, and how did it get here?" then you need to read this wonderfully entertaining book. Incidentally, by "Joe" I mean "coffee."

Mr.Dicum and Ms.Luttinger have writtne a phenomenal book. From their obsure historical facts to their pinpointing the origin of coffee, 6th century Ethiopia, you will be riveted to your seat as if you were reading a fictional novel.

They put coffee, the coffee industry, and global coffee politics under a microscope and often times it fails to hold up to the scrutiny. No matter what your political affiliation is you can't help but be immediately shocked and awed and the incredible amount of sociopolitical machinations that go on for you to have that morning sip of java.

For 11 years I have been a futures investor, broker, and author. One of the preferred futures contracts that I trade is coffee. This book has provided me with an indepth background and perspective on coffee that I never had before. This is now one of my reference books. For those that are interested in investing in coffee either actual grounds or in futures this book is for you and for those that can go a day without the original "liquid gold" you have got to read it. At the end of the day you will appreciate that Starbuck's "venti mocha grande" just a little bit more.

It's a good book to read and enjoy. Has good recipes too...

This book contains 4 suggested menus, 7 pages of history and customs, and 5 pages of quotes about tea.

teas & beverages: 11 recipes / breads & spreads: 16 recipes / light servings: 13 recipes / sweets: 11 recipes

The recipes are easy, some as simple as "Marinate fresh mushrooms in Italian dressing" if you don't have time to make their marinade.

It's an attractive book with delicate watercolors on every page. If you only want one book of tea-type recipes, I prefer "The Book of Afternoon Tea" by Lesley Mackley or "Totally Teatime Cookbook" by Helene Siegel.

This is a great book with a lot of helpful recipies. I enjoy it immensly.

The author is a British chef who was the culinary advisor to the PBS Masterpiece Theater series "Upstairs, Downstairs" and "The Duchess of Duke Street." The first 80 pages contain information about tea -- its history, how to make it, how to serve it, the names and uses of every type of implement, and so on. The subsequent 174 pages consist of recipes, and are followed by 15 pages of index. The entire book is sprinkled with amusing anecdotes, some from his childhood.

I found the book fascinating, but I don't know that I'll ever try any of the recipes. These are authentic British recipes (this man has cookbooks dating from the 1700's, and he quotes from them!). The recipes have all been updated for the modern American kitchen and are easy to follow, but I'm not sure how many will appeal to American tastes. I know I'll never convince my family and friends to eat sandwiches containing minced tongue! I couldn't wait to check out the recipes on potted meat because I'd read about it so many times in novels, but discovered it's boiled, shredded meat turned into a paste via melted butter! And there are 8 different potted meat recipes!

If you are interested in history, authenticity, and details, this is the book for you. If, on the other hand, you just want to have a lovely party with foods that more Americans are familiar with, try "Tea with Friends" by Elizabeth Knight (for how to give a tea party), and "The Book of Afternoon Tea" by Lesley Mackley or "Totally Teatime Cookbook" by Helene Siegel (for recipes).

Over all, I thought it was a good book. But if you are looking for ideas on how to throw your own tea parties, this probably isn't what you want (SEE "Tea with Friends," "Country Tea Parties," and "If Teacups Could Talk"). If you are looking for a history lesson on tea (first 81 pages) and a whole ton of recipes (next 178 pages) then this is your book. Or, if you are looking for a lot of tea recipes, it is well worth your money to buy this book (I would take it back if it didn't have all those recipes!) This book reads like a history book, and me having little interest in history, found this part of the book a little boring, but it is a wealth of knowledge on the subject and has tons of useful recipes.

As far as I'm concerned, this book is the definitive book on tea, its history, and authentic tea-time recipes. Many of the recipes may not seem appealing to our American palates, but they are nonetheless authentically British. The author shares a wealthy of knowledge on the history of tea, tea customs and maners, as well as a robust section of recipes. If you're interested in having an "authentic" tea, you can't possibly go wrong in purchasing this book!

This book was okay if you are looking for a wide range if information. But if you are looking for specifics on reading coffee grounds, this, for me, was not helpful at all. Sorry.

This book offers those novices in Magic an opportunity to practice anytime the wonders of the most powerful things in the universe... A wish book for all times... I highly recommend this book...

I am a coffee addict. I admit it. But Ms Posey has got me beat hands down.

This book covers the history of coffee. From the myths and legends surrounding coffee, to the different types of coffee, this release is similar to many other coffee books. There are even some wonderful recipes for distinctive coffee brews. Yet how many of these other books cover coffee divination? This is quite unique. There are instances in myth where coffee is used as a divination tool, but Ms. Posey introduces us to her version of scrying the beans.

I was pleasantly surprised by this book. She presents us with her own original material and gives us a new twist on the magic of coffee.

If you are a coffee fanatic, or into different typs of divination, take a look at this book. It will grab you and make you rethink tea leaves. It would make a wonderful gift for that special coffee lover.

While you're at it, take a look at the website for Cafe Nation,... The site offers much more there than just a cup of coffee and a book.

Interesting book but would be a mistake think it's just a collection of Yixing teapots'photos.
Author develops his ideas about an "affinity" between teas and "not glazed" teapots like Yixing's.
Some ideas are good some others arguable but this book worth a reading.

This is a real stunner for anyone who has a penchant for YiXing teapots. When I received this lovely work as a Christmas gift, I was so stunned, I almost cried. Lim Kean Siew is obviously a great lover of these unique teapots and this book does a beautiful job of displaying that love. The photos are perfectly lit, show fine detail and make you really want each teapot! But, sorry, all of the teapots pictured are from his private collection. He does a nice job of describing his early tea experiences, his budding appreciation of YiXing teapots and the history of where they originated. I found the duel printing of his words in both english and chinese very welcome and helped to set the 'atmosphere' of this book. And, since you purchase one of these teapots for both use and artistic beauty, he displays gorgeous teapot images from his private collection with a recommendation of the precise tea best enjoyed in that teapot. While not all that useful (the recommendations), the photos are certainly stunning 'eye candy'. From the very first teapot pictured, I simply wanted to own each and every one. After his gallery of teapots he describes how to enjoy tea properly. He goes into enough detail to satisfy any YiXing teapot enthusist. My only complaints (if you can call them that): the teapots pictured are one of a kind so tea recommendations are not very helpful, the translation from Chinese to English could be a little bit better and I think the editor should have pared some of the rambling (the tests at the end maybe?). But, I assure you, this is a very nice book that would make a great conversation piece.

Beautifully produced volume with quality paper and superb photography of very numerous,well chosen Yixing teapots. The author explores the relationship of teas and how the taste is effected by specific teapots. Quite a revelation. One can return to it over and over. If drinking tea and viewing masterfully produced Yixing teapots are meaningful to you, this volume is a must.

18 bittersweet tales of careers doomed by bad timing, bad luck and in some cases just plain bad play.

A welcome reminder that even those who play at sports highest levels are, at the end of the day, just plain Joes (and Janes).

The tales here are worthwhile and often touching (such as the pitcher who used his signing bonus to pay for running water for his family) but the author decided to serve merely as a court reporter providing near verbatim transcripts of the interviews. This makes the reader wade through unecessary pages of exhanges punctuated by "yes" and "no" answers. This slows the overall flow of the book to a snail's pace at times reducing impact and enjoyment of the book. In short, it's a subperb 200 page book that unfortunately goes on for 400+ pages.

The author/stenographer would have been well served to read and follow the example set by Lawrence Ritter in his classic "The Glory of Their Times" -- still the Gold Standard for baseball oral histories.

And what about the story of Larry Yount, the best "short career" story ever. Was introduced as pitcher(thereby registering officially as a player) pulled a muscle during his warm up pitches, was pulled before facing a batter and never made it back to the Bigs. Plus he was Robin Yount's brother. Now that's a story!

I enjoyed the book and I would highly recommend it to anyone who wants to read about the "average joe baseball player". However, the tense it was written in is positively annoying and makes it hard to read some of the time. Instead of writing how real people would talk, like, "So when you were in high school, what types of pitches were you throwing?" he writes, "You're in high school. What types of pitches are you now throwing?" It's written as if you're in a hypnotherapy session and you're regressing your memories.

Bottom line: Good book. Get a real editor.

If you like stories about average people with big dreams, and you like baseball, this book is a perfect read. The book is written interview-style, and Rob Trucks asks the players questions that tell stories from the heart. There is a piece of inspiration in each story. I recommend this book to student athletes who are serious about their sports.

Stewart Lee Allen theorizes in THE DEVIL'S CUP that coffee launched history out of the slowly moving, drunken Middle Ages (where each man woman and child consumed the equivalent of a six pack a day) to our current, sober and caffeinated instant. Stewart Lee Allen begins with coffee's obscure beginnings as an Ethiopian religious drug. The legend goes, "an Ethiopian goatherd named Kaldi one day noticed his best goat dancing about and baaing like a maniac," and the goatherd noticed the berries the goat had eaten, ate them himself, discovered coffee, and forever altered history. This goatherd's bean gradually stimulated history through the industrial revolution and spread of capitalism through the institutions of coffeehouses. Some of the world oldest and most powerful business, such as the East India Company and Wall Street, began as coffeehouses.

Much has changed in the actual preparation of coffee from its pre-historic role as a religious drug to it's present role as a vital nutritional supplement. The Ethiopian perfect cup is prepared in an elaborate coffee ceremony. The hostess roasts green beans at the table, passing around the freshly roasted beans for the gusts to enjoy the aroma, an ode to friendship is offered, the beans are powdered in a stone mortar and then brewed. In the last chapter, Stewart Lee Allen hits the highway, passing through the truck stop riddled South in search of the perfect American cup. He isn't looking for the carefully ground Italian knock-off coffee found in your local strip mall, but true black and palette scalding American Joe. The single most influential coffee recipe in American history involves egg shells and several stages of savagely boiling the beans. He finds this coffee, dumped piping hot out of a round glass carafe drip brewed hours maybe days before, slung down in a porcelain mug and saucer by a dog-tired waitress.

Stewart Lee Allen as the guide along the byways and dead-ends of coffee's scattered trajectory out of Africa develops as a disturbing narrator, off handedly recalling in one scene, in a side track to Calcutta, why he loves the city because when he was working for Mother Teresa, "hand feeding emaciated men one day, carrying out their corpses the next... most people don't understand why I love Calcutta... cheap, dirty, and full of poorly washed people sitting about babbling nonsense." But despite his penchant for observing poverty and human suffering as delightful examples of local color, Steward Lee Allen does dig up many pieces of odd coffee trivia. For instance Steward Allen Lee writes that Japanese companies purchase the entire crop of Blue Mountain Coffee and another high quality specialized ground called Monkey Coffee collected from the droppings of a palm toddy cat that lives mostly an alcoholic bean but also particularly ripe and succulent coffee and its acidic bowls produce a very high grade ground. While THE DEVIL'S CUP is neither a travelogue or coffee history, it has changed the way I drink a cup coffee.

This is a quick and enjoyable book. Although I actually did learn quite a bit about an interesting subject, the book is as much of a travel story as it is the history of a foodstuff that has only become ubiquitous during the last several centuries.

I suspect that the search for the roots of coffee is just an excuse for a jaunt around the world, from the rain forests of Africa, to the bleakest coast of the Arabian peninsula, to an art scam in India, across the Atlantic in a tramp steamer and finally a road trip across America. Well, actually, that's a bit of a simplification--I missed a couple of continents.

It is an entertaining book. The author has a wry sense of humor and is an astute observer of human diversity. He's also something of a free spirit, and I have to wonder if his being stopped by Southern Patrolmen looking for drugs came as more of a surprise to him than to the reader.

The book really does operate at two levels, providing an interesting and informative story about the history of coffee, viewing it through contemporary eyes in the many locations where coffee made its way through history, eventually culminating in Starbucks.

Looking for the perfect cuppa joe? Sounds like a good story. Yeah. We can have some fun with that. Ask the barista for another latte grande and enjoy.

Author Stewart Lee Allen takes a wild romp through remote parts of the world in chase of the perfect cup of joe. From Yemen, Ethiopia, to Calcutta and Mysore, to Turkey, Europe, Brazil and finally the US, he takes us on a wild adventure. He proposes that Europe woke from being a backwater with a six-pack a day ale habit when coffee became the drink of choice. Did coffee alter history as well as grumpy morning moods? Well, the American colonists dumped their tea in Boston Harbor, brewed up a cup of caw-fee, and a successful revolution was underway shortly thereafter.

There is a lot about coffee in this book I sure didn't know (like related drinks made of the leaves and cherry husks, monkey dropping coffee and more.) The writing is funny, funny stuff, a lot like Bill Bryson. I recommend this book highly.

If you have other books by the same author,
pass this one. Roasting techniques and styles
are to be found on various web sites with much
greater detail.

I found this book to be very informative and useful for a novice about to start home roasting his own coffee. However, the equipment and resource sections are woefully out of date. This book was published back in 1996 and it shows; there have been many products and resources for the home roaster released into the market since then.

If you are interested in roasting your own coffee, read this book. Even though it is slightly out of date, it is full of useful information, well-written and well-presented.

This book is worth several times its purchase price for the two-page roasting chart alone. As a technically-oriented (read: nerd) amateur roaster with three (3) roasters (a Hearthware Precision, an Alpenrost, and the fabulous Coffee Kinetics - Syd & Jerry fluid bed) I am constantly referring to this book to improve my art and understanding.

But, amazingly, the book -- only a few years in print -- is now dated, because the equipment options for the home coffee roaster have increased so much. My three roasters (or the types they represent) are not covered. That's the only reason that I gave this 4 stars instead of 5. But if you roast coffee at home -- regardless of your equipment -- you need this book.

What else is missing? I'd love to see a table in the appendix covering the top 50 (or so) growing regions and rating the AVERAGE bean on acidity, sweetness, body, finish, etc, so that one has a clue where to begin when making a blend. The professional coffee roaster is cupping samples all day long, and quickly learns the characteristics of the world's coffees. But we amateurs, buying 1, 2, or 5 lbs at a time could use a secret decoder ring that would tell us in advance what variety we should order that has a good chance of rounding out that blend that is "not quite there yet." Short of that, David's excellent narrative coverage in the book of different coffee characteristics will have to do.