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Doug Hoffman

Goodreads Author

Born

The United States

Website

http://ballsandwalnuts.com

Member Since

February 2012

URL

https://www.goodreads.com/dshoffman

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Doug Hoffman's Blog: Balls and Walnuts

Those of you who are Balls and Walnuts stalwarts know that published recipes are for . . . jeez, almost said peasants, but that’s pretty classist of me. Published recipes are for beginners. WE ARE NOT BEGINNERS. We are intuitive, creative daredevils in the kitchen. Sometimes you end up with a disaster. And sometimes you end up with a masterpiece.

BEHOLD.

Now stroll on over to the inspiration re

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Doug Hoffman’s books

Average rating: 4.06 · 160 ratings · 10 reviews · 8 distinct works

	Parker's Folly (The T'aafhal Inheritance Book 1) 3.94 avg rating — 86 ratings — published 2012	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	M'tak Ka'fek (The T'aafhal Inheritance Book 3) 4.24 avg rating — 50 ratings — published 2013	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	Starflake (T'aafhal Legacy, #3) 4.50 avg rating — 10 ratings	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	Gator & Shark Save the World 3.64 avg rating — 11 ratings — published 2013 — 2 editions	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	Fatal Trust by Allen Simmons, Eleanor Simmons (Editor), Doug Hoffman (Goodreads Author) (Illustrator) it was amazing 5.00 avg rating — 2 ratings — published 2013	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	The Energy Gap by Doug Hoffman (Goodreads Author), Doug Hoffman (Goodreads Author) liked it 3.00 avg rating — 1 rating — published 2010	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	Nothing But Light 0.00 avg rating — 0 ratings — published 2013	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	Wyoming: 1996 Cowboy baseball 0.00 avg rating — 0 ratings	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars

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Doug is Currently Reading

Doug Hoffman is currently reading

Claire DeWitt and the Bohemian Highway (Claire DeWitt Mysteries, #2)

by Sara Gran (Goodreads Author)

bookshelves: currently-reading

read in June 2013

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Doug Hoffman said: " There's so much goodness in this novel, it's hard to know where to begin. First, as in Claire DeWitt and the City of the Dead, this is a novel of obsession. In high school, Claire Dewitt and her friends Kelly and Tracy are transformed by a book on de There's so much goodness in this novel, it's hard to know where to begin. First, as in Claire DeWitt and the City of the Dead, this is a novel of obsession. In high school, Claire Dewitt and her friends Kelly and Tracy are transformed by a book on detection by (fictional author) Jacques Silette. Silette's book is far more a metaphysical treatise than a how-to manual; Silette's is a philosophy that forever marks its believers. Silette's students are like shepherding bodhisattvas whose role is to bring not enlightenment but truth to their clients. Claire is monomaniacal in pursuit of the truth, and in the world of this novel (as, I suspect, in the real world), this is a torturous monomania that's at least as savage to the detective as it is to the client.

Second, this is a hellish love story -- not a "Silly Love Songs" kind of love story, but a "Love Will Tear Us Apart" love story. Claire has long since broken up with musician Paul Casablancas when she finds out from the police that he has been shot to death in his home. The police want Claire involved not for her badass detection skills, but to handle the distraught wife, Lydia, also a musician, also a friend/acquaintance of Claire's. The story of Paul's relationships with these women is heartbreaking.

Third, this is a novel of subculture: not just the musicians' subculture, but also the drug subculture. Some readers might find Claire's drug use a turnoff, but this is only a modern-day riff on a very old genre trope (think of Philip Marlowe and his bottle of rye). Anyone who thinks Gran is glamorizing drug use must have read this novel half asleep. In any case, Claire's drug use is absolutely true to character. I found it an extremely effective means for showing Claire's internal pain.

A big part of Bohemian Highway is a flashback to Claire and Tracy's investigation of the missing teenager, Chloe. Gran has a blast turning the YA girl detective genre on its head: young Claire as Nancy Drew, if Nancy were a borderline alcoholic truant. Its connection to the main plot-line? Both relate strongly to the novel's core conflict, which is Claire's destruction or redemption.

This novel brought me to tears a few times, and choked me up more times than I could count. Maybe that doesn't sound like much fun to some readers, and if you're more into the bonhomie of an Agatha Christie protagonist, Claire may not be your thing. But it's very cool when an author can make me feel that deeply about a character. It really doesn't happen that often, and I think it has some kinship with real magic. Just technique, but awesome technique. So few authors pull it off.

I've been reading Sara Gran ever since her 2003 novel Come Closer. Dope (2006) was better, and Claire DeWitt and the City of the Dead (2012) better still. Clearly, this is an author who is as dedicated to her craft as her newest protagonist is to detection -- each novel has been better than the last. So I guess I shouldn't have been surprised that Ms. Gran's second Claire Dewitt novel affected me so deeply.

Gran is an author who understands the tropes of the hard-boiled genre well enough to play with and milk those tropes for all they're worth. "Hard-boiled" doesn't begin to describe Claire, by the way. She's more like an egg fried on a hot sidewalk. ...more "

Feb 17, 2015 10:23PM · see review

Doug’s Quotes

“So many books, so little time.”
― Frank Zappa

tags: books, humor

151678 likes

“The truth will set you free. But not until it is finished with you.”
― David Foster Wallace, Infinite Jest

tags: freedom, truth

3020 likes

“Everybody is identical in their secret unspoken belief that way deep down they are different from everyone else.”
― David Foster Wallace, Infinite Jest

5101 likes