Books

[JPW]

The other problem is her writing style. I have a friend who assigned parts of 'The Art of Eating' to a college english class and the majority of the younger readers simply could not stand her style of writing and did not enjoy the reading!!! She's dense and wordy and often seems to be declaiming, or singing in full rich tones. This is old-fashioned writing, of a good sort - but you have to be ready for it and in the mood for it or the snooze button sets in.

Ouch. I feel old now, because I like her writing. To me, it's evocative of how she seems to have lived her life -- singing in full rich tones.

The first time I felt old is when I had to explain to some of my undergraduate students what the USSR and the Eastern Bloc were.

[Karen Resta]

Ouch. I feel old now, because I like her writing. To me, it's evocative of how she seems to have lived her life -- singing in full rich tones.

The first time I felt old is when I had to explain to some of my undergraduate students what the USSR and the Eastern Bloc were.

Ha! The MFKF story chosen for the class was chosen particularly to illustrate 'war' from an American ex-pat's viewpoint, interestingly enough - rather than as a focus on 'food and eating'. The student's preferences seemed to lean heavily towards the less personal illustrations - they preferred reading things about straight-up 'blood and gore and guts and veiiiiiins in my teeth' (as Arlo sang it). The combination of food and pain/confusion/alienation/love was not to their liking - they thought it was boring.

Personally I think she should be required reading.

But having said that I tried reading through 'The Art of Eating' for maybe the fifth or sixth time last year and I couldn't slog it somehow. Whereas since then I'm reading straight through Henry James from A to Z and am thrilled no end.

It's a pity Henry didn't try his hand at a little 'food-writing'. Woooo-hoooo that would be fun!

[Barbara]

Ha! The MFKF story chosen for the class was chosen particularly to illustrate 'war' from an American ex-pat's viewpoint, interestingly enough - rather than as a focus on 'food and eating'. The student's preferences seemed to lean heavily towards the less personal illustrations - they preferred reading things about straight-up 'blood and gore and guts and veiiiiiins in my teeth' (as Arlo sang it). The combination of food and pain/confusion/alienation/love was not to their liking - they thought it was boring.

Personally I think she should be required reading.

But having said that I tried reading through 'The Art of Eating' for maybe the fifth or sixth time last year and I couldn't slog it somehow. Whereas since then I'm reading straight through Henry James from A to Z and am thrilled no end.

It's a pity Henry didn't try his hand at a little 'food-writing'. Woooo-hoooo that would be fun!

This discussion has surprised me in that nobody has yet mentioned the book "The Measure of Her Powers: An M.F.K. Fisher Reader" Edited by Dominique Giaioa with an introduction by Ruth Reichl. It came out in 1999 and made my Christmas present from Dame Edna a very simple task. This won't meet Legant's criterion, since there are no recipes here, but as a compendium of her writing (and a road map through her life) this one volume has no equal, IMHO.

[Karen Resta]

This discussion has surprised me in that nobody has yet mentioned the book "The Measure of Her Powers: An M.F.K. Fisher Reader" Edited by Dominique Giaioa with an introduction by Ruth Reichl. It came out in 1999 and made my Christmas present from Dame Edna a very simple task. This won't meet Legant's criterion, since there are no recipes here, but as a compendium of her writing (and a road map through her life) this one volume has no equal, IMHO.

That was a good one! Also, 'A Stew or a Story' (a collection of short works put together by Joan Reardon) was fascinating in parts to read, as there were narratives in this book in which she did not write autobiographically (at least on the page, though the content undoubtedly remained autobiographic at a very short reach of the imagination).

Another option for a book-club idea would be to go retro and hit up some Nero Wolfe. He stands well over time, both in the reading and in the recipes.

[DameEdna]

Surprised no mentions of 'Shell Games' by Craig Welch. I am interested but haven't read it yet. It is mostly about the illegal geoduck business.

At least it would offer a chance to ask (again) "How is Don Rockwell like a Pacific Coast clam?"

[Karen Resta]

Let's see if I can also add to this thread a book I haven't yet read, but which was gifted to me (and which has excellent reviews).

'Eating Animals' by Jonathan Safran Foer.

[Heather]

I was lucky enough to catch Todd's book talk at the Miami Book Fair today, and picked up The Wild Vine. What a fascinating story.

[zoramargolis]

I am currently enjoying, REALLY enjoying Far Flung and Well Fed, a collection of food writing by the recently departed New York Times journalist R.W. "Johnny" Apple, Jr. For all current and aspiring food writers, Apple's prose is the best possible model. In paperback.

[goodeats]

I'm reading through parts of Ratio as I need it, but I really like it because it's logical for my brain to comprehend. The math part, well, I'm still struggling through (after all, my brain blocked out the fact that I took statistics until I looked at my transcript once), but once the calculations set in, the end results have been pretty successful so far.

[John William G]

I’ve been reading “As Always, Julia; the letters of Julia Child & Avis DeVoid.” In 1952 Child wrote a letter to DeVoto’s husband, and DeVoto answered the letter. That was the beginning of hundreds of letters they exchanged. DeVoto encouraged Child to work on the manuscript which eventually became “Mastering the Art of French Cooking”, and served as an informal editor. Over the years they exchanged ideas about the book, and information about what was available in American stores, and how Americans cooked. DeVoto cooked many of the recipes Child and her co-authors had written, and commented on them. As the book neared completion DeVoto helped Child get a publisher. I have found it a very interesting book.

[Barbara]

Three books that are of interest to this crowd--all of which can be found at Amazon:

1) Prohibition in Washington, D.C.: How Dry We Weren't by Garrett Peck (of Arlington); foreword by Derek Brown (!)

A short, very merry book detailing the bootleggers, speakeasies, and corrupt Congressvarmits during Prohibition. Just a blast! It does not, however, cover the kind of ground that Daniel Okrent's Last Call: The Rise and Fall of Prohibition does, but it has a number of very helpful maps. It sure will make you want to take Peck's Prohibition Tour downtown.

2) Dearie: The Remarkable Life of Julia Child by Bob Spitz

I found the first "authorized" biography of Child, Appetite for Life, to be quite enthralling at the time it was first published (a few years before Julia died) and was surprised that she disparaged it. "Made me look like I was dead," she said. The major book reviewers weren't much happier with it.

This one, while about the same length, packs in much more information about Julia's early life, her activities in France, her dealings with Simca Beck and Louisette Bertholle, her financial arrangements, and (especially for me) Paul Child. He had always been a kind of cipher, but not after reading this. I wasn't left with any questions about any of them by the time I was done. Perhaps the fact that all of them are now gone from the scene made publishing some of this info possible?

It was a real blessing to be able to sit down with this after the Olympics were over, PBS was fund-raising, and the Nats were losing. Can't recommend this one highly enough. Have a hanky handy by the end, though, because her death was immensely touching. I only hope I will have the cojones she had to make that kind of decision--should things come to that.

3) The Man Who Changed the Way We Eat: Craig Claiborne and the American Food Renaissance by Thomas McNamee.

This one took my mind off the miseries of flying back in July. Claiborne never held the role in my life that Julia did, but I found this well-written book of keen interest to those interested in the developement of restaurant reviews and the foodie culture in the US.

I have to disagree with the sub-title, particularly after reading the Child bio. I think I've made exactly one of his recipes from The New York Times Cookbook and found it way too complicated and fussy for what it was (a chocolate cheesecake). I've made dozens since then that were much simpler and gave better results. It's Julia I turn to when I want to know how to cook something--and I have a number of her cookbooks. And, it was Julia who came into our living rooms for the better part of 40 years and showed us how to cook. Others may disagree, however.

[Anna Blume]

Barbara: Thanks for the reports! 2) A trusted source who has a thing for Julia and has read them all disliked this book, if this is the new book by a journalist. A different DR says the writer gets culinary terms wrong and doesn't really have the background for his subject. Who knows? FWIW, I loved A for L for the information and at the time, it was the only thing around. Really gave me tremendous respect for Julia Child, if I found the writing style tedious. Favorite of all I read, though, remains the edited letters between JC and the friend she made over a set of knives. 3) I will always love Craig Claighborne for reasons I've related online before: he sent a ms., a typewriter-TYPED ms. of restaurant reviews to a grad student out in the midwest who wanted to to know where to take a brand-new college student out to dinner during a three-day trip to NYC. Never met my mother. Only asked that she return it to The NYT building during our visit, which we did. While she used his cookbook mostly for dinner parties, when passed down to me, I consulted the poultry chapter more than anything else. Okay, buckwheat blini. Thing is, before others in his sphere, he was more open to culinary traditions beyond la belle cuisine, including his own Southern roots.

[thistle]

Wow, that is such a sweet memory of Craig Claiborne- the personal touch between writer & reader is so often absent, especially nowadays when there are tons of food blogs, & although readers might comment, I doubt many of them get the personal touch of a restaurant guide to NY...closest I get is my grandmother's copy of JC's Mastering the Art of French Cooking, given to my Mom, then to me, I think a love for cookbooks & cooking is in my genes....

[Barbara]

Barbara: Thanks for the reports! 2) A trusted source who has a thing for Julia and has read them all disliked this book, if this is the new book by a journalist. A different DR says the writer gets culinary terms wrong and doesn't really have the background for his subject. Who knows? FWIW, I loved A for L for the information and at the time, it was the only thing around. Really gave me tremendous respect for Julia Child, if I found the writing style tedious. Favorite of all I read, though, remains the edited letters between JC and the friend she made over a set of knives. 3) I will always love Craig Claighborne for reasons I've related online before: he sent a ms., a typewriter-TYPED ms. of restaurant reviews to a grad student out in the midwest who wanted to to know where to take a brand-new college student out to dinner during a three-day trip to NYC. Never met my mother. Only asked that she return it to The NYT building during our visit, which we did. While she used his cookbook mostly for dinner parties, when passed down to me, I consulted the poultry chapter more than anything else. Okay, buckwheat blini. Thing is, before others in his sphere, he was more open to culinary traditions beyond la belle cuisine, including his own Southern roots.

Your source may be right; but I wasn't reading it for culinary info and can't think--off the top of my head--of any obvious mistakes. More interesting, to me, was her attitude toward promoting any kind of commercial venture and the lengths she went to (in later years) to dis some underwriters of her program. In that episode with Jacques, where they make a seafood stew, and she insists that they drink BEER, instead of wine--absolutely flummoxing Jacques--I learned that the show's underwriter, Kendall-Jackson winery, had people visiting the set that day. This guy knew Julia years ago and started writing a book about her, but got sidetracked at the time. I suppose that how you feel about this particular bio depends on what you hope to gain from it. Appetite for Life was slammed by one reviewer for not including more recipes!. Huh? This one doesn't include any recipes at all, but so what? Most of the folk looking forward to this book already have one or more of her books.

What I'm most grateful to Claiborne for was his collaboration with and promotion of Pierre Franey. I have many of his books and have used them frequently. Not to mention Jacques Pepin, of course, and his big endorsement of MaFC when I first came out. They were all involved together for years, to everybody's benefit. Both of these are swell reads, though, and worth anybody's time who cares at all about how we got to where we are today food- and cooking-wise.

[SeanMike]

Three books that are of interest to this crowd--all of which can be found at Amazon:

1) Prohibition in Washington, D.C.: How Dry We Weren't by Garrett Peck (of Arlington); foreword by Derek Brown (!)

A short, very merry book detailing the bootleggers, speakeasies, and corrupt Congressvarmits during Prohibition. Just a blast! It does not, however, cover the kind of ground that Daniel Okrent's Last Call: The Rise and Fall of Prohibition does, but it has a number of very helpful maps. It sure will make you want to take Peck's Prohibition Tour downtown.

If you haven't met Garrett, he's an incredibly nice guy. His tour is fun, but geeky, and definitely a lot of walking - we did it last year the morning before the Repeal Day Ball. I tore through his book in about a day, if I remember correctly, and found it a very fun read. It does make you want to look at some parts of DC in a new light!

He just wrote a book on the Potomac River as well, but I haven't read that one yet.

[Anna Blume]

Adam Gopnik, The Table Comes First. Family, France, and the Meaning of Food.

While Gopnik is a favorite writer and

Paris to the Moon

is insightful, eloquent and thoroughly engaging, this recent publication seems forced. You're always very conscious of language when reading this author and usually it's in a good way since he's so versatile and smart. This time around on an intersection of subjects dear to him, the writing gets in the way. Lacks fluidity, organization of thoughts a bit jumbled and sections rather contrived. I couldn't get far into it.

James Hamilton-Paterson. Cooking with Fernet Branca.

Novel. Hilarious.

[DanielK]

Not sure where else to put this, but Ruhlman's Twenty is on sale at Amazon (digital edition) for $3.

[Pat]

Funny this thread got bumped up to the top. I was trying to figure out what to search for to find an appropriate thread for what I wanted to write.

I'm currently reading Pandora's Lunchbox: How Processed Food Took over the American Meal. It was published last month and is a really fascinating book. I'm now on the alert for sodium benzoate, since it's one of the additives that has raised concerns for more than a century. I can't give a full review since (according to my Kindle) I'm only a little more than 10% through it. It's really informative so far.

NB: Does anyone know how to make an Amazon link to a purchase that will have the credit go to dr.com? I see lots of websites set up that way, but I don't know how they do it. It might not be that much money, but it would be something.