What People Are Saying
About Dark Spirits:
"Dear Vodka: Your days are numbered. It's been a good run. Now, make room for rum, whiskey, bourbon, and rye. A.J. Rathbun's got your number." --The Boston Chapter of Ladies United for the Preservation of the Endangered Cocktail
"In an era when countless glasses are burdened with mixtures that are light, bright, and bland, Rathbun fearlessly brings drinkers and their cocktail shakers over to the dark side. This whiskey- (and brandy- and rum-) fueled ride is witty, enlightening, and altogether delicious." --Paul Clarke, Imbibe consulting editor and proprietor of www.CocktailChronicles.com
About Wine Cocktails:
“It's a joy to have this cocktail connoisseur come over to our side to play. Wine lovers everywhere will enjoy mixing up a party with A.J.'s guideance.” --Steve Michener, Trio Vintners
“ . . . Smart intros and footnotes to every cocktail recipe; gorgeous photos; who knew this could sustain a whole book?” --Epicurious.com
About Luscious Liqueurs:
“A.J. Rathbun has provided us with a wonderful collection of recipes for liqueurs that are both easy and satisfying to make at home.”
“Luscious Liqueurs is informative, fun, and more than just a little intoxicating. This book takes the mystery out of infusing booze; everyhome bartender or aspiring mixologist should have a copy. Happy blending!”
About Good Spirits:
“This is not just a drink recipe book. A.J. has managed to combine his extensive bar know-how with wonderfully entertaining prose. After years of hanging out on both sides of the bar, A.J. has created a great bar book—perfect for pros and amateurs alike. I have been bartending for 15 years and I was amazed at the things I learned from this book.”
“Even with my 25-plus years of food and beverage experience, I found this book hard to put down, a definite page-turner…This book screams out to be read from cover to cover and not just for the drink recipes…A.J. Rathbun’s humorously informative approach to the subject is truly an enjoyable and pleasurable experience. The home mixologist will want to refer back to Good Spirits again and again. Like a well-made cocktail, this book appeals to the senses, quenches the soul, and finishes with a smooth aftertaste that the reader will savor long after the first word is read.”
“Rathbun once again proves that drinking can be both fun and educational. Fascinating tidbits of bar lore and cocktail trivia make this book stand out from the rest.”
“With A.J. Rathbun’s Good Spirits, there’s no excuse for any bartender—at home or in a bar—not to take pride in whipping up everything from the perfect Martini to a true Venetian Bellini.”
“While Mr. Rathbun and I might differ on a few minor points of cocktail theology, as gentlemen will, I would much rather debate with someone who can write a book this witty, entertaining, and informative than stand in full agreement with someone else.”
About Party Snacks:
“Rathbun is high-spirited and loves a good party almost as much as he loves people. Since people and parties go together, his philosophy is to treat your guests to the very best. According to Rathbun, the very best should not mean hours in the kitchen that exhaust the host, but imaginative and creative dishes that please both the eye and the taste buds while freeing the cook to enjoy their party.” --In Mama's Kitchen
About Party Drinks:
"Party Drinks! entertains you while teaching you how to entertain with a minimum of hassle. Rathbun’s style and wit make this not only a helpful book, but a fun read, too."
"If this fun, breezy book doesn’t get your party started, you should consider investing in a new set of friends."
"The next time you’re looking to have some fun, turn to Party Drinks! for inspiration. From the classic Martini to a sexy Singapore Sling, Party Drinks! has the recipe to jump start any party."
"It’s so nice to get back to the classic recipes for today’s cocktails. Too many cocktails have been brutalized by know-it-all bartenders who think waving a bottle of vermouth over a glass of gin makes a martini--not! The martini recipe in this book passed the father-in-law test--and my father-in-law is the most discriminating cocktail drinker I know. That says it all."
About Want:
A.J.Rathbun's remarkable poetry is some sort of perpetual motion machine, an unlikely machine with a heart as big and restless and needful as the universe. I wouldn't have believed a poetry this fast and hungry could move so assuredly, so attentively through its emotional traffic, and with such a clear head, but Want is just that poetry. This Want may be the mother and the father and the brother and the sister of us all.
In Seattle, says A.J. Rathbun, it's 85 cents for a busride home. The poems of Want may never get us there: they zigzag out to things and places and people all along the way, Tupac Shakur and Pablo and Ed, Westlake and Francis Ave, Kelly's on 2nd, the world's smallest Ferris Wheel. Or no, they radiate, with a want that is great--not the passive "to lack" but the strenuous verb "to desire," and the even more strenuous noun, heaped up desire.
With a Martian on his teeshirt and a bursting burrito on his mind, A.J. Rathbun lives and lives in the Kansas of uncertainty, moved by rain and garlic and persevering breasts, nudged by the bulldog of need, haunted by the lost sublimity of Jesus Lizard, hooked on "everything I won't believe until it's gone." Comedy turns elegiac, elegy turns comic, and Rathbun must ride on.
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