Running With Books

84, Charing Cross Road

2009-07-09T18:39:00.003-05:00

Not long ago Citizen Reader blogged about her joy of finding 84, Charing Cross Road by Helene Hanff and instructed her readers to "GO READ THIS BOOK IMMEDIATELY." Ok, so I didn't read it immediately, but this book has been on my list for a while, and since CR spoke so highly of it (and I usually agree with her picks), I decided to move it up on the priority list. And once again, she's right. What a lovely way to spend a morning. The book is a compilation of letters passed between Helene Hanff in New York City and a used bookstore in London over the course of twenty years. Helene is quite a character, and the relationship between her and the employees of this bookstore (one in particular) is quite humorous and even touching. The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society is definitely reminiscent of 84, Charing Cross Road, so if you enjoyed Guernsey, you should not overlook this one. I also see there is a movie version, starring Anne Bancroft, Anthony Hopkins and Judi Dench, so you know what I'll be doing this weekend.

Covers can be deceiving

2009-07-08T14:29:00.003-05:00

Sometimes I judge a book by its cover. When I pick up a book with a cover that has shoes, clothes, diamonds, or "girly" colors, I'm expecting chick lit. To me, chick lit is a light-hearted, rom-com that may have a bit of conflict, but everything turns out all right in the end. The characters tend to be in their 20s and single, but there are beginning to be more featuring married women in their 30s. A few months ago I blogged about Candace Bushnell's latest novel One Fifth Avenue. From the cover, it looked to be chick lit, but it certainly wasn't. The same thing happened to me recently when I picked up Hedge Fund Wives by Tatiana Boncompagni. The cover shows a diamond in a Tiffany box (diamonds + pastel colors = chick lit). So, I figured fun chick lit with wealthy young married women. There was nothing fun about this book. The characters all seemed miserable, and just like with Bushnell's book, I have a hard time empathising with millionaires. Or in this case, billionaires. But at least I might find out what a hedge fund is, right? Alas, no. The author spent way too much time trying to explain hedge funds and hedge fund managers, and I still don't get it. The difference between this non-chick lit book and Candace Bushnell's non-chick lit book, is that I had no problem putting this book down.

What are you really reading?

2009-07-01T10:11:00.003-05:00

If you come over to my house, you will see on my coffee table The Brothers Karamazov, East of Eden, and several issues of National Geographic and Smithsonian. What you won't see are Hedge Fund Wives, Nice Girls Don't Have Fangs, Pretty in Plaid, and numerous issues of Health and Real Simple magazines, which are hidden under the coffee table. These are the books and magazines that I'm actually reading, but what I put on the coffee table is what I want you to think I'm reading. Now, I am reading (slowly but surely) the things on the top of my coffee table, but certainly not with the voracity with which I read the others. Do you do this?

PK in the Terrarium recently blogged about what he tells people he is reading versus what he is actually reading. Check it out. It's pretty funny. I love that he includes Muriel Barbery's The Elegance of the Hedgehog. I'm working on that one too. It's not an easy one, but I like telling people I'm reading it. It makes me feel smart. I'm intrigued by Grow Your Own Pharmacy by Linda Gray, which makes his "what I'm actually reading" list. I'll have to check this one out. Here's my list....

What I tell people I'm reading...
The Brothers Karamazov by Fyodor Dostoyevsky
The Elegance of the Hedgehog by Muriel Barbery
Kitchen Literacy:How We Lost Knowledge of Where Food Comes From and Why We Need to Get It Back by Ann Vileisis
National Geographic and Smithsonian magazines

What I'm actually reading...
Health, Body & Soul, and Real Simple magazines
Harry Potter
Pretty in Plaid: a Life, a Witch, and a Wardrobe, or, the Wonder Years Before the Condescending, Ego-maniacal, Self-Centered, Smart-Ass Phase by Jen Lancaster
How to Cook Everything Vegetarian by Mark Bittman
the JC Penny fall catalog (hey, it came in the mail and I'm easily taken in by shiny pictures)

What are on your lists?

Not Touched By Hand

2009-06-27T16:31:00.002-05:00

Frequently my grandmother will give me recipes that include "oleo" amongst its ingredients. While I inferred that this was some type of margarine-like substance, I always thought it was a particular brand that she favored. But I have just learned from Ann Vileisis's Kitchen Literacy, oleomargarine is what they originally called fake butter when it was first produced. It was initially developed in France as a cheap substitute for butter, but we started producing it in the U.S. in order to transform the waste fats (yum) of our growing meat industry into a profitable product. When oleo first came out, people were beginning to be concerned about germs, so advertisements for oleo boasted that it was "not touched by hand."

An afternoon with Lisa See

2009-06-25T13:23:00.005-05:00

Yesterday I had the pleasure of attending a book talk and signing with Lisa See for her new novel Shanghai Girls. Unfortunately I wasn't able to finish the novel before her talk, but I am thoroughly enjoying it. The story begins in 1937 in Shanghai. Two sisters, May and Pearl, think of themselves as modern girls; girls who will marry for love rather than in an arranged marriage like their parents. But desperate times force their father to arrange marriages for both girls and soon they are on their way to Los Angeles to live with husbands they don't even know. Lisa is a wonderful story-teller, which she has proven once again. The vivid descriptions of Shanghai and the tragedies the girls live through when Japan invades, makes this a heart-wrenching story.

I have heard Lisa speak before, and she always talks about the history behind her stories, which is always interesting. She also talked a little bit about her own family history, which I never get tired of hearing about. The biography that she wrote about her family history, On Gold Mountain, is just fantastic and well worth reading. Lisa said that Shanghai Girls is the story closest to her heart and her next novel will be a sequel to this lovely story.

Books I Didn't Finish

2009-06-23T09:36:00.006-05:00

I know I've been totally slacking on the posts lately. Sorry about that. I've been spending my time listening to all the Harry Potter audiobooks, trying to make it through The Half-Blood Prince before the movie opens. And I've been slowly trudging through The Brothers Karamazov for a book group, which despite its dense prose and unlikable characters, is thought-provoking.

In the latest issue of Bookmarks magazine, the editor Jon Phillips, discusses books he didn't finish. He mentions Then We Came to the End by Joshua Ferris, which I also gave up on, even though so many others raved about it. There have been a number of new books that have gotten good reviews that I started and never finished. Jeff in Venice, Death in Varanasi by Geoff Dyer (sorry Jody), How to Buy a Love of Reading by Tanya Egan Gibson, Sweetness at the Bottom of the Pie by C. Alan Bradley, The Ballad of Trenchmouth Taggart by M. Glenn Taylor, and The School of Essential Ingredients by Erica Bauermeister. Most of these I didn't bother posting reviews on, because as Phillips points out, "since we didn't make it to the end, we don't fully know what we're talking about." I heard Nancy Pearl speak recently, and when she was asked if she finishes a book she doesn't like, she said that she will read just enough of it to get a sense of who she would recommend it to. I like that. So many times I'll quit reading a book, feeling that I've wasted all that time. But if you look at it like Nancy does, then it's not so much a waste of time. Have there been any books that people have raved about that you just couldn't finish?

Two books that I have finished recently were The Tortilla Curtain by T. C. Boyle and Olive Kitteridge by Elizabeth Strout. These are both great reads; compelling stories with interesting, yet flawed, characters. Read them-and finish them!

The Food of a Younger Land

2009-06-11T15:49:00.004-05:00

In the 1930s, President Roosevelt created the Works Progress Administration, which was charged with finding work for unemployed Americans. The WPA created the Federal Writers' Project for unemployed writers. After creating hundreds of guidebooks on America, writers were asked to contribute to a project called America Eats. The plan was to produce a book of compiled essays and recipes that would describe the various traditional foods eaten throughout the U.S. Unfortunately, the project was abandoned when the U.S. entered WWII. The essays and recipes that were written were archived in the Library of Congress, but never published until now. Mark Kurlansky has compiled these documents, adding his own commentary, in The Food of a Younger Land. The book is broken down by region: the Northeast, South, middle West, far West, and the Southwest.

What a fantastic book. I've been reading so much about industrialized food lately that it was so refreshing to read about what people ate before frozen foods and McDonald's became the norm. But I will admit that I was surprised at how unhealthy those foods would be considered by today's standards. People sure liked pork fat. And lard, lots of it. And while I couldn't say whether it's healthy or not, they also liked animals' testicles. From Rocky Mountain oysters (sheep) to Prairie oysters (cow), Kentucky oysters (hog), and lamb fries (duh), testicles seemed to be popular in just about every region in the country. What I found interesting was that while women typically were responsible for preparing food, in the case of testicles, this was considered a man's job. There were many food traditions described that I had never heard of before: sugaring-off parties in Vermont, Coca-Cola parties in Georgia, and chitterling struts in North Carolina. The eggless, butterless Depression Cake shows how people made do with the few ingredients they had during the Depression. But the beginning of convenience foods are evident in some of the essays. When one woman remembers her childhood on a Nebraska farm in the 1890s, she says that in the '90s, calories were unheard of. But today (1940s), many farm women have become more calorie conscious and are replacing heavier dishes with salads. They are also less dependent on home-made foods, getting their bread, cream and butter from a grocer and using canned vegetables. Although I don't think I'll be trying any of these recipes, it was fun to read them. It definitely made me hungry for some cornbread though.

Author Visits!

2009-06-10T14:08:00.003-05:00

On Thursday, June 11th at 7 p.m. at the Barrington Public Library, Elizabeth Berg will sign her new novel, Home Safe.

On Friday, June 12th at 6 p.m. at the Bookstall in Winnetka, Tania James reads from and signs her critically acclaimed debut novel, Atlas of Unknowns, a poignant and funny novel about sisterhood, the tantalizing dream of America, and the secret histories and eccentricities of families.

On Saturday, June 20th at 2 p.m. at the Warren Newport Public Library in Gurnee, Jamie Freveletti will discuss her new thriller Running from the Devil.

On Tuesday, June 23rd at 7 p.m. at the Borders in Oakbrook, C. J. Box will sign his latest mystery Below Zero.

On Wednesday, June 24th at 4 p.m. at the Bookstall in Winnetka, Lisa See, author of the bestsellers Snow Flower and the Secret Fan and Peony in Love, signs her new novel, Shanghai Girls, about two sisters who leave Shanghai to find new lives in 1930s Los Angeles.

On Thursday, June 25th at 6 p.m. at the Borders on Michigan Avenue in Chicago, Janet Evanovich signs her new novel Finger Lickin' Fifteen.

Reading at the Table: The End of Overeating

2009-06-05T14:17:00.008-05:00

Just last week I was berating myself for giving into a craving and eating something I shouldn't have. I battle with this frequently, as I know many others do. I have always thought that I was just weak or lazy, but it turns out that our desire for certain foods is a habit that has been ingrained in our brain chemistry (thanks to the food industry), and is extremely difficult to change. Dr. David A. Kessler, a former commissioner of the F.D.A., examines the cycle of overeating in The End of Overeating: Taking Control of the Insatiable American Appetite. Kessler explains how the right combination of sugar, fat and salt creates foods with "hyperpalatability," meaning they stimulate the appetite. When we eat these foods, our brain chemistry changes, causing these foods to become highly rewarding stimuli, which reinforces our desire for them. The more we eat, the more our desire is reinforced, until eventually a habit is formed and we become stuck in a cycle of overeating. The food industry knows this and specifically engineers food to manipulate our desire. He speaks with numerous people involved in the food industry who readily admit this. It is frightening to realize that the food industry has essentially trained us just like lab rats are trained to go after food pellets. In the second half of the book, Kessler explains that in order to break this cycle of overeating, we must reverse the habit, which is extremely difficult to do. He outlines the steps necessary to achieve this and provides tips for "food rehab."

While the book is very "science-y," citing many animal studies and discussing brain chemistry, it is fascinating. For people who think that turning down a Twinkie is just a matter of willpower, this book explains how wrong that idea is. Understanding the science behind why we overeat is very empowering and will help people think about food in a new way. I do wish that the Food Rehab section had been a little clearer and more accessible, but readers will pick up some good tips. I've read a lot of books about food, so the evils of the food industry were not entirely new to me. But this book really made me angry. Big Food: you are now on my List!

What the Dead Know

2009-06-04T14:44:00.002-05:00

The plot of Laura Lippman's novel, What the Dead Know, is a good one. When a woman is arrested for a hit-and-run accident, she identifies herself as Heather Bethany. But Heather and her sister Sunny disappeared 30 years ago from a shopping mall. When questioned further, "Heather" refuses to provide any more information on what happened to her or where she has been. Detective Kevin Infante, assigned to investigate the woman, is skeptical of her claim that she is the missing girl. The little information Heather provides Infante leads to nothing but dead ends. With the help of the retired cop who originally worked the case, and Heather and Sunny's mother Miriam, Infante slowly begins to put the pieces of the puzzle together. This is certainly an edge-of-your-seat story. I listened to the audiobook version, so I didn't have the ability to peak at the ending, which I would have done if I had the print version. I could not wait to find out who this mysterious woman was, where she had been, and why she had never come forward. I was disappointed with the level of character development though. Lippman does a good job with the girls' parents, but none of the other characters really stand out. The narrative also moves back and forth in time, which was a bit confusing. When Heather finally reveals what happened to her, the story is a little far-fetched, but overall this is a gripping story.

Put the candy bar down!

2009-06-03T15:04:00.002-05:00

David Zinczenko's latest book in the Eat This, Not That! series is the Supermarket Survival Guide. The first book in this series, which mainly focused on restaurant food, was a huge eye-opener. The Supermarket Survival Guide also provides some shocking information that will really make you take another look at the foods you are buying. When analyzing foods, Zinczenko not only looks at calories, fat, sodium, sugars, etc., but also at other added ingredients, such as colorings and other additives. To put things in perspective, he also provides food equivalents for many items. For example, did you know that a Twix candy bar is equivalent to 11 strips of bacon!! And 1 can of Arizona's Kiwi Strawberry juice is equivalent to 7 bowls of Fruit Loops! I know I will think twice the next time I'm drooling over the Twix bars in the checkout line. He also has a section titled "Making Sense of Meat" which explains the numerous claims on our packages of meat, such as "air chilled" and "organic." There is also a chapter on fruits and veggies-when they are in season, how to pick good ones, how to store them, and the health benefits of each. The food additive glossary at the end also explains what all those additional ingredients in your food really are, and what kind of effect they have on your health. This is an extremely useful book for those who want to know what is really in the foods they are buying from the grocery store. I'm going to buy this one for my personal collection.

All the latest...

2009-06-02T15:32:00.001-05:00

I hope everyone will take a moment to send out some good thoughts for writer Frank McCourt, who is undergoing treatment for melanoma. His brother Malachy says his cancer is in remission and he is doing well. I love love love Frank McCourt and I hope he is well.

Alice Munro was the 2009 Man Booker International Prize winner. This award is given every two years and is based on the author's entire body of work rather than a single title.

Fox is acquiring rights to Patricia Cornwell's Kay Scarpetta series to develop as a vehicle for Angelina Jolie. Angelina Jolie as Kay Scarpetta? I'm not sure I see it.

Miramax and Focus have acquired rights to remake the French version of Tell No One, based on the novel by Harlan Coben.

A TV series is being developed based on the books Eat This, Not That! I thought the first book, a guide for restaurants, was fantastic and I'm currently reading the supermarket version, so I'm excited to hear about this show. I think it's a great idea.

The Illinois Senate unanimously passed the Elected Officials Misconduct Forfeiture Act and the bill is headed to Governor Pat Quinn to sign. The bill requires elected officials to "forfeit any monetary rights derived from any book, movie, television, radio program, or Internet depiction or detailing of the crime for which he or she was convicted." This means former governor Rod Blagojevich will be prevented from using his six figure book deal with Phoenix Books, if he is convicted for misconduct. Now, I'm no fan of Blagojevich, and I'm not a legal expert, but can they do this? It doesn't seem like this would be constitutional or legal or kosher or whatever. But this raises a good question-should criminals be allowed to profit from their crimes by selling their stories?

Mating Rituals of the North American W.A.S.P.

2009-06-01T14:59:00.000-05:00

Sometimes, nothing hits the spot like a good predictable chick lit novel. Mating Rituals of the North American W.A.S.P. by Lauren Lipton is just that. When Peggy wakes up one morning in the Las Vegas hotel room of a stranger after a drunken night of partying, she hopes to forget the whole incident. Not so fast...after she gets home to New York, she receives a call from Luke, the man from Las Vegas. It turns out that Peggy and Luke, under the influence of a lot of alcohol, tied the knot. Both hope that a quick and quiet annulment can be arranged, but when Luke's aging great-aunt finds out about the marriage, she is determined to keep the two together. Luke is the last member of the Sedgwick family, an old Connecticut family that can trace its roots back to the Pilgrims. Aunt Abigail desperately wants Luke to marry and have children to carry on the family name. Abigail offers Luke and Peggy a deal: stay married for one year, then Luke will inherit the 200+ year old family home (which he can sell for a nice profit). Luke, desperate to sell the family home, and Peggy, who needs the money to keep her fledgling business afloat, decide to pretend to be married just long enough to get the home, after which they will sell the home, split the profit and each go on their own way.

You can see what's coming. It's completely predictable, but it's a fun romance, with endearing characters, a charming small-town setting, and a sticky love triangle. This was a great book to spend a day on the couch in my PJs with. And since this is the first fiction book that I've finished in a while, I consider it a success.

Wisconsin Death Trip

2009-05-22T13:22:00.001-05:00

I mentioned in an earlier post that Robert Golrick's new novel A Reliable Wife was influenced by a photo essay he read in the 1970s called Wisconsin Death Trip by Michael Lesy. Golrick's description of the book as "a haunting, cinematic portrait of a small town in Wisconsin at the diseased end of the nineteenth century" really intrigued me. His book left such an impression on me, I was eager to see these images that inspired the story.

Lesy's book consists of photographs that were taken by Charles Van Schaick of the residents of Black River Falls, Wisconsin over the period of 1885 to 1899. According to the introduction, many historians believe that a major psychic crisis was occurring in Americans' lives during the 1890s. There was a surge in suicides, murders, fires, and overall "degeneracy." Lesy includes clippings from the local paper as well as records from the state insane asylum reporting these events. The combination of the photos and the clippings are meant to illustrate the psychology of the people in this particular time and place.

The news clippings are quite extraordinary. So many notices of deaths, murders, suicides, arson, bankruptcies, layoffs, crimes, and people committed to the asylum. It is definitely haunting. What is interesting is how matter-of-fact the notices were. Consider:

"Charles Gregory of Sheboygan Falls, while jumping on a moving freight...was run
over...the top of his head [was] taken off and his brains strewn on the track."

That's it. No added commentary. No interviews with bystanders. When something like that happens today, it's the highlight of the nightly news. Bystanders are interviewed. Experts are questioned. Drama is encouraged. But these notices seem to indicate that these were everyday occurrences and people were not shocked by them. The photos are also fantastic. Women in their austere clothes and hairstyles. Men with their crazy beards and mustaches. I love looking at old photos. While I liked both the photos and the clippings on their own, what I really would have preferred were descriptions of the people in the pictures. Who were these people? What were they doing? Why were they getting their picture taken? Or pictures of the people mentioned in the clippings. What did the window-breaking woman look like? Or how about some pictures of the asylum? Lesy's combination of these particular photos with these stories were not as effective as I had hoped, but still an interesting portrait of life during this time.

Graphically Challenged

2009-05-21T13:22:00.000-05:00

I've never really understood the appeal of graphic novels for adults. I can understand why kids like them. I read a few as a kid, but as I got older I became less and less interested. Nevertheless, in an effort to broaden my reading, I read my first adult graphic novel. Bill Willingham's Fables series can be described as a darker, more adult take on the classic fairy tales we grew up with. This is exactly why I loved Gregory Maguire's Wicked and Mirror, Mirror, so this sounded like a good fit for my tastes. The series is about the characters (or Fables) of Fairyland, who have been driven out of their homeland by the evil Adversary. The Fables are living in exile in a clandestine community in Manhattan. In 1001 Nights of Snowfall, Snow White visits Arabia as an emissary to convince the Sultan to stand with them against the Adversary. Snow entertains the Sultan with stories about the Fables. We hear stories about the Big Bad Wolf, King Cole, the frog prince and even Snow White herself. I enjoyed it. I did have some difficulties figuring out how to read it. Do I look at the pictures first or do I read the print first? It was a little distracting, but I understand that's common for people who aren't used to reading graphic novels. But the stories were interesting. Quite dark, which I liked. The stories were fairly short, so you can read one in a sitting. The artwork was fantastic. Each story was illustrated by a different artist, so each one has a very different feel and style of its own. I think it's an interesting concept and I'd like to read the first book in the series, in which the characters must adapt to life in 21st century Manhattan.

The last refuge of the mentally destitute...

2009-05-12T11:29:00.003-05:00

I'm re-reading W. Somerset Maugham's The Painted Veil for a book discussion and just came across what I think is the best line...

"A bird in the hand was worth two in the bush, he told her, to which she retorted that a proverb was the last refuge of the mentally destitute."

Is that not the best line ever? I have got to get that embroidered on a pillow.

Reading at the Table: The Hungry Planet

2009-05-11T11:28:00.001-05:00

One of my favorite parts on MTV Cribs was when the celebrity would show the contents of their refrigerator(s). I liked to see what the super-fit athletes and the super-skinny actresses were eating. Peter Menzel and Faith D'Aluisio's Hungry Planet: What the World Eats is like a look inside the refrigerators of the rest of the world. The authors visited 30 families in 24 countries to explore the differences in the way we eat. Each family was photographed with a display of all the foods they eat in an entire week. The book is a compilation of these photographs, as well as brief descriptions of each family's daily life. As Marion Nestle points out in the Foreword, the pictures clearly reflect that although the world produces more than enough food for everyone, its distribution is anything but equal. The photo of the Sudanese family living in a refugee camp in Chad with their meager rations is shameful. The contrasting pictures of the families in rural and urban China also show how diets change as people acquire more resources. But it's also quite a eye-opener to see how differently we eat from most of the rest of the world. While we buy a lot of packaged foods and go for the cheap, easy, fast options, people in other countries rely primarily on fresh fruits and veggies, grains, and home-cooked meals. No wonder why the U.S. is known for its obesity problems. The book also contains a lot of statistics which are fascinating to compare. While I thought the U.S. would be the clear winner when it came to obesity, Kuwait actually beats us by about 2%. What's going on there? It's definitely not a country I had pegged for obesity problems. But the U.S. has the highest rate of meat consumption and the highest sugar/sweetener supply. Aside from the food, the book also gives a good sense of how people in other countries live and what their daily lives are like. It is such an interesting read and well worth a look.

And the winner is...

2009-05-07T18:37:00.003-05:00

A number of book awards have been given out recently.

The Los Angeles Times Book Prizes were announced in April. Marilynne Robinson's Home won the fiction award and Zoë Ferraris's Finding Nouf won the first fiction award.

Ursula K. LeGuin won the Nebula Award for her novel Powers.

Cormac McCarthy won the PEN/Saul Bellow Award for lifetime achievement in American literature. This is the second year the PEN American center has given the $25,000 award, which recognizes excellence, ambition and scale of achievement over a sustained career.

Carol Ann Duffy was recently named the new poet laureate in England. Over its 340 year history, Duffy is the first woman to be given the honor.

The James Beard Foundation recently announced its 2009 book awards. The cookbook of the year went to Jennifer McLagan for Fat: An Appreciation of a Misunderstood Ingredient, with Recipes. Martha Hall Foose won in the American Cooking category for Screen Doors and Sweet Tea: Recipes and Tales from a Southern Cook.

Ian R. MacLeod won the Arthur C. Clarke Award for Science Fiction for his novel Song of Time.

The Mystery Writers of America presented the 2009 Edgar Award to C. J. Box for his novel Blue Heaven.

Louise Penny's The Cruelest Month won the Agatha Award for best novel.

Reading at the Table: Food Matters

2009-05-03T13:21:00.002-05:00

In Michael Pollan's latest book, In Defense of Food, he sums up his advice for the proper diet: "Eat food. Not too much. Mostly plants." Mark Bittman's new book Food Matters: A Guide to Conscious Eating espouses essentially the same thing, except it includes a few recipes. Bittman is a New York Times columnist and has written several cookbooks, such as How to Cook Everything. But his latest book seems like it was just an attempt to jump on the Green food bandwagon and publish a book. His message is basically the same as Pollan's (and many others): Americans eat too much meat and refined carbs which has a negative impact on our health and weight, and the mass production of meat has a negative impact on the environment. He briefly covers how the industrialization of food production has led to overconsumption (which has been aided by our government). He proposes that if Americans cut 1/3 of the meat they currently eat, eliminate junk foods, eat fewer refined carbs, and eat more veggies/fruits/grains, we will loose weight, become healthier and our environmental impact will be lessened. While I don't disagree with anything he is saying, there really isn't anything new in this book. This is a very basic introduction to "food politics" and would be perfect for anyone that has been living in a cave for the last few years. If he had published this book 3-5 years ago, he would have been bringing something new and fresh to readers, but if you've read Pollan or Nestle or any of the many other books on this topic, this one really isn't worth your time. The recipes seem a bit mundane also, but Bittman's recipes tend to be very basic and low-frill anyway. I did learn one cool thing: Did you know that you can pop regular popcorn in a brown bag in your microwave? He has a recipe for Brown Bag Popcorn, which I'm excited to try. I always figured you had to have one of those special poppers to pop plain corn, so I've been using those microwaveable bags with all the additives and fake flavors. But no, just some plain corn, a little salt and oil, and small brown paper bag is all you need. Cheaper and healthier-a very good tip.

Country Businessman Seeks Reliable Wife

2009-04-28T14:59:00.001-05:00

I love historical fiction, but the early 1900's in a remote Wisconsin town in the dead of winter didn't really sound like my cup of tea. But Robert Goolrick's novel A Reliable Wife is quickly becoming the book to read this spring. It has gotten a lot of buzz and good reviews, so I figured I ought to see what all the fuss is about. And...wow.

Set in northern Wisconsin in 1907, Ralph Truitt has been alone for 20 years. Plagued by despair and loneliness, Truitt decides that he does not want to be alone anymore. He places a personal ad for a wife and chooses Catherine Land from the responses. When Catherine steps off the train, Truitt knows immediately that she is not who she claims to be. I will not say any more so as to not give away too much of the plot, but it was a fantastic read. There is a beautiful paragraph towards the end that I think really sums up the feeling of the novel without giving anything away:

"It was a story of people who don't choose life over death until it's too late to know the difference, people whose goodness is forgotten, left behind like a child's toy in a dusty playroom, people who see many things and remember only a handful of them and learn from even fewer, people who hurt themselves, who wreck their own lives and then go on to wreck the lives of those around them, who cannot be helped or assuaged by love or kindness or luck or charm, who forget kindness, the feeling and practice of it, and how it can save even the worst, most mishappen life from despair. It was just a story about despair."

While I usually prefer happier fair, this was such an absorbing story. The characters are so flawed, but so real. And despite their flaws, they are incredibly interesting. The plot is unpredictable and the writing is quite good (see paragraph above). There is also some good fodder here for book groups, but there is quite a bit of sex, so keep that in mind. Goolrick says in the author's note that this book was influenced by a photo essay he read in 1973 called Wisconsin Death Trip by Michael Lesy. He says this book paints "a haunting, cinematic portrait of a small town in Wisconsin at the diseased end of the nineteenth century." You know I'll be checking that out. Stay tuned.

Reading at the Table: The Compassionate Carnivore

2009-04-27T14:39:00.000-05:00

Just like Nina Planck's Real Food, Catherine Friend's The Compassionate Carnivore: Or, How to Keep Animals Happy, Save Old MacDonald's Farm, Reduce Your Hoofprint and Still Eat Meat will not be earth-shattering information if you've been keeping up on food politics. Much of the information about factory farming practices was not new to me, but it is still heavy reading. I had to take a break while reading because I just couldn't stand to read anymore about it. But what I loved about this book is Friend's perspective on ethical eating is much more realistic than many others. First off, Friend is firm in her decision to continue eating meat. She readily admits that she enjoys meat and has no plans to quit eating it, while many others think that vegetarianism is the only way to fight factory farming. Friend also recognizes that eating "happy meat" is difficult. She recognizes that it is more costly and more difficult to find and sometimes it's just easier to close your eyes and buy the cheaper meat. She also recognizes that there will be times when we must eat factory meat, like at a restaurant or a family gathering. She admits that she doesn't eat this way all the time, but makes an effort to eat this way most of the time. She and her partner have their own small farm, where they raise sheep and chicken, so she is familiar with farming practices and lingo and she explains the differences in labeling terms (organic, free-range, vegetarian-fed, pastured, finished, etc). She also provides suggestions on how to find sources for happy meat and what questions to ask the farmers and butchers. A good resource for those who are interested in eating ethically.

Reading at the Table: Real Food

2009-04-23T15:58:00.000-05:00

If you've read Michael Pollan's The Omnivore's Dilemma, much of Nina Planck's Real Food: What to Eat and Why will not be new information. But I did pick up a few new things and it is an interesting read, even though I'm skeptical about some of her beliefs. Planck argues that much of the food we eat today is "industrialized food." Industrialized food is a replica of real food, such as margarine, high fructose corn syrup, etc. Eating all this industrialized food has led to health issues and obesity. She argues that we should be eating "real" meat such as real beef from cows that have been grass-fed as opposed to grain-fed. Again, nothing new here. But, I did learn that the term "cage-free" and "vegetarian-fed" with regards to chicken is very misleading. Chickens are not naturally vegetarians because they eat grubs and worms when they are allowed outdoors. If a chicken is labeled as vegetarian-fed, it usually means they have not had access to the outdoors. And "cage-free" does not necessarily mean they have been allowed access to the outdoors either. They may all be cageless, but still kept in a large building. The key is to look for "pastured" chickens, meaning that they have been raised with access to the outdoors. Good to know. I also learned that salmon farming in Alaska has been banned, so all Alaskan salmon is wild, which is useful information when I'm trying to remember what fish is ok to eat. She provides a great list of which fruits and vegetables you should buy organic and which ones are ok to buy conventional. She also provides several resources for finding "real food." Where I disagree with Planck is her aversion to low-fat dairy. She believes that raw, unpasteurized, unhomogenized milk is the way to go. No low-fat milk or cheese for her. While I agree that the taste is far superior than the low-fat versions, I'm not convinced that it is healthier. And if I lived on a farm, raw milk would be ideal, but I would be really hesitant to drink raw milk otherwise. She's also a proponent for using real lard, which makes my arteries constrict just thinking about it.

All the Latest...

2009-04-22T11:42:00.000-05:00

Elizabeth Strout's novel Olive Kitteridge has won the Pulitzer Prize for fiction. Annette Gordon-Reed's book The Hemingses of Monticello has won the Pulitzer Prize for nonfiction.

The America Booksellers Association has announced the winners of its Indies Choice Awards. For Best Indie Buzz Book (Fiction): The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society by Mary Ann Shaffer and Annie Barrows. For Best Conversation Starter (Nonfiction): The Wordy Shipmates by Sarah Vowell. For Best Author Discovery: The Story of Edgar Sawtelle by David Wroblewski. For Best Indie Young Adult Buzz Book (Fiction): The Graveyard Book by Neil Gaiman.

British novelist J. G. Ballard died this Sunday, April 19th. Ballard was probably best known for his novel Crash, an exploration of sexual fetishism connected to automobile accidents, and his semi-autobiographical novel Empire of the Sun, about his childhood internment by the Japanese during World War II.

The American Library Association has released its list of most challenged books of 2008. Khaled Hosseini's The Kite Runner makes the list and Tango Makes Three tops the list again.

In publishing news...Dan Brown's long-awaited continuation of the Robert Langdon series will be released September 15th and is titled The Lost Symbol. The publisher will print 5 million copies in the first printing. Kate Jacobs' third novel in her Knitting Club series will be released in November and is titled Knit the Season. Stephen King's next novel will also be released in November. Under the Dome is a story about a small town in Maine that is mysteriously sealed off from the rest of the world by a dome. The novel comes in at about 1000 pages and took King 25 years to write. Hugo Award-winner Greg Bear will be writing a trilogy based on the popular video game Halo. Margaret Drabble claims she is retiring from writing.

In movie news...film rights for Aravind Adiga's The White Tiger have been sold. Nicole Kidman is said to be bidding on rights to Chris Cleave's Little Bee. Brad Pitt's production company is producing the adaptation of Elizabeth Gilbert's Eat Pray Love, starring Julia Roberts. Peter Jackson is directing the adaptation of Alice Sebold's The Lovely Bones. He says that this is one of his most difficult movies to date. Really? More difficult than all the orcs, elves, hobbits, wizards and magical rings? Warner Brothers decided to give Harry Potter fans a break and release Harry Potter and the Half Blood Prince two days early. The film will now open July 15th instead of the 17th. The Soloist, based on Steve Lopez's novel, will open this weekend, starring Robert Downey Jr. and Jamie Foxx.

How dysfunctional is your reading? Take this quiz at the Guardian to find out. I'm borderline.

Reading at the Table: Bottomfeeder

2009-04-21T15:39:00.003-05:00

The popularity of the Green movement has led to a huge increase in "green" books, especially regarding food. In the past few years, books like Michael Pollan's The Omnivore's Dilemma, Marion Nestle's Food Politics and Eric Schlosser's Fast Food Nation have become incredibly popular and have led to the publication of many other titles that examine the physical, ethical and environmental impact of food. In preparation for an upcoming book talk, I have been reading quite a few of these books, so I will be blogging about them over the next few weeks.

When it comes to seafood, I know there are some fish you should avoid, but I can never remember which ones. Or why. Taras Grescoe covers everything you need to know about seafood in his book Bottomfeeder: How to Eat Ethically in a World of Vanishing Seafood. Grescoe explains the various reasons we need to be careful about the type of fish we consume. With regards to environmental impact, many species have been overfished and many methods of capture are harmful to the ocean. Farmed fish often have a very negative impact on the environment as well. With regards to health, some species have higher levels of mercury, and some farmed fish have high levels of antibiotics and other contaminants. Grescoe very clearly outlines the issues and at the end provides a breakdown of what is and is not OK to eat.* Fascinating information about the seafood industry and fishing practices. The figures and statistics are staggering and will surely make you think twice the next time you eat fish. This is a great read for someone who wants to eat more conscientiously. And if you don't care, then you really need to read this book.

*Basically: the larger, longer-lived species of fish such as grouper and swordfish have been overfished and have higher levels of mercury. These are big no-no's. Most of the fish in the Atlantic ocean has been overfished as well, so go with Pacific. Farmed fish is usually ok if it's organic. Wild-caught is often ok if it is "local," meaning North America. Many other countries continue to overfish and use catch methods that are destructive to the ocean environment. The good news: the wild-caught Alaskan salmon is all good.

Ice Ice Baby

2009-04-20T13:11:00.000-05:00

Since the 1100's, the Thames River has frozen solid 40 times. Each chapter in Helen Humphreys's short book The Frozen Thames tells a brief story about each occasion of freezing. Humphreys imagines the people who lived and worked on the river over the centuries, as well as the people who profited from and found enjoyment in the freezing of the river. Although the stories are fiction, Humphrey mentions that most of the incidents she fictionalizes are based on documented events. I loved the pictures of what life was like throughout the centuries, and the descriptions of the ice and the freezing temperatures were enough to make me shiver. Believe me, the irony here is not lost on me. For all the complaining I have been doing about the lingering winter, I realized how odd it was that I was reading a book about a frozen river. But her images of birds dropping frozen and dead out of the sky and families with little or no heat reminded me that it could have been worse. In the author's note, Humphreys points out that because of climate change, we are in danger of losing ice from our world. Which may be the case, but it doesn't sound like that is the reason why the Thames has not frozen since the 1800s. The construction of the old London Bridge was such that it created an environment more susceptible to freezing. Whereas, when the Bridge was rebuilt in 1831, its new design enabled water to flow more freely and quickly, which made it less likely to freeze. Anyhow, it's a quick read with interesting stories and wonderful descriptions. Maybe save this one for a hot July day.