What are you reading these days?

[challah-baker]

I am reading:

Several back issues of Gastronomica (I bought myself a complete set as a present after settling a 4-year old lawsuit. Whopeee!)

Bittersweet by Medrich

Home Baking byAlford and Duguid

Of course, this brings up the culinary equivalent of "fish or cut bait".

Do I read or do I bake now?

[tsquare]

A Fine Balance by Rohinton Mistry.

I'm late to this - got a couple of recommendations recently, but also a pan from an avid reader. She said it was the last 150 pages that were too much. Do I stick it out for all 600?

[suzilightning]

just finished laurie colwin's "home cooking" and have "more home cooking" on order with interlibrary loan. oh my god - what a wonderful book. i was laughing hysterically at some of the things and reading them aloud to my culinarily challenged workmates. i can't wait to get more...

finished "booty food" jacqui malouf's book - eh. half realtionships, half recipes and advice about condoms

read the wine pairing book that amy zavatto helped write(she's from the same small town i am and i knew her dad and mom growing up). interesting with some great interviews with rick moonen, daniel bouloud, and others. definitly a bias towards european red wines. would have liked to see more stuff with the new world wines.

and finally i have been assigned "to kill a mocking bird" to read since i have successfully avoided it for 49 1/2 years. then i am to report on it on another forum.

[pattimw]

just finished laurie colwin's "home cooking" and have "more home cooking" on order with interlibrary loan. oh my god - what a wonderful book. i was laughing hysterically at some of the things and reading them aloud to my culinarily challenged workmates. i can't wait to get more...

I just read Home Cooking myself for the first time and found it wonderful to read. I am definitely going to read More Home Cooking.

I just started Near a Thousand Tables and absolutely love it- it is more scholarly than I was expecting, but completely engaging and thought provoking.

I just ordered Joanne Weir's cookbook Cooking in the City and am going through that. I made a fantastic salad - Duck Salad with Pecans and Kumquats - I've never eaten kumquats before - they were so tangy and delicious, and duck, well, anything with duck I love.... I have found fewer recipes in this book that I like, compared to More Cooking in the Wine Country, however, I really like Weir's style of cooking.

[ms. victoria]

I read Near a Thousand Tables over Christmas. So good. I just bought Baking Across American from the used bookstore and got Hardtack to Home Fries and Eat My Words through interlibrary loan. I'll be busy reading for a bit. I keep drifting into the kitchen to try out recipes from the baking book. I want to make Boston brown bread. Being a southerner, I've never encountered it. Can you really steam it in a can?

[Mabelline]

Two great scififan books: Latro In the Mist by Gene Wolfe

Last of the Amazons by Steven Pressfield

Two great real stuff books: The Soul of the Indian by Charles A. Eastman(1911)

Jean-Georges Cooking at Home with a Four-Star Chef, by J.G.V. and Mark Bittman

[NeroW]

Am I mistaken, or are there numerous "Book" threads?

EDIT to say: I meant, are there numerous "what are we reading?" threads? I know there are Cookbook threads innumerable.

Edited February 23, 2004 by NeroW (log)

[Mabelline]

Dunno. It just showed up, so I put down on it what I was reading (see daddy, you are right after all about being about as smart as a cow in a herd).

[tsquare]

Am I mistaken, or are there numerous "Book" threads?

EDIT to say: I meant, are there numerous "what are we reading?" threads?  I know there are Cookbook threads innumerable. 

yes - numerous threads.

no - not mistaken.

[chow guy]

I just returned a borrowed copy ot "The Making of a Chef" by Michael Ruhlman". It's a good choice for someone who wants an inside look into the Culinary Institute.

I am reading Trillins' American Fried again for a good chuckle.

I'm Looking fo books on Tuscany (not just guidebooks). There are none in the used book stores these days since "Tuscan Sun" (the movie) opened. Any recommendations?

[Jensen]

A Fine Balance by Rohinton Mistry.

I'm late to this - got a couple of recommendations recently, but also a pan from an avid reader. She said it was the last 150 pages that were too much. Do I stick it out for all 600?

That depends on how you are about Indian novels; they really do have a whiff of fatalism about them and "A Fine Balance" is no different in that respect.

I thought it was a stunning novel but, if you don't like that Indian mindset, then you probably won't like the ending.

[suzilightning]

I read Near a Thousand Tables over Christmas. So good. I just bought Baking Across American from the used bookstore and got Hardtack to Home Fries and Eat My Words through interlibrary loan. I'll be busy reading for a bit. I keep drifting into the kitchen to try out recipes from the baking book. I want to make Boston brown bread. Being a southerner, I've never encountered it. Can you really steam it in a can?

i really enjoyed Hardtack to Homefries, especially the chapter on the FDR's - or should i say Eleanor's - cook. my god no wonder they served the king and queen of england hotdogs at hyde park.

we used to use 1 pound coffee cans growing up to do our brown bread

[NeroW]

"Reefer Madness: Sex, Drugs and Cheap Labor in the American Market" by Eric Schlosser, the Fast Food Nation dude.

It's exactly the kind of incendiary polemic I love!

And have a biography of Julia Child next, by Noel Fitch, who also wrote a book about Anais Nin.

[bloviatrix]

I have pile of books sitting on a shelf. For every one book I finish, it seems that two more get added to the pile.

Right now I'm reading The Russian Debutant's Handbook by Gary Shteyngart.

[42feed]

Salt, A World History, by Mark Kurlansky (again, it's fascinating)

Failure Is Not An Option, about the history of NASA, also fascinating

[Mabelline]

Hi, 42feed, and welcome. Do you like Douglas Adams? And have you read the other books like Salt? Cod, or one by a different author, Caviar? Sorry about the lack of proper literary protocol; I am tired this morning and /or lazy.

[suzilightning]

Failure Is Not An Option, about the history of NASA, also fascinating

gene kranz is my hero and good looking to boot. i'm of a certain age that grew up with the space program and remember the things he is writing about firsthand. since johnnybird is a safety engineer i really identify with the engineers who worked their butts off to solve the problems after apollo 1 and 13...

[Mabelline]

suzilightning, there is a another book, related, but in a different vein, that I'm waiting to read-- "High Calling: The Courageous Life and Faith of Space Shuttle Columbia Commander Rick Husband" by Evelyn Husband andDonna VanLiere. Have you heard of it? It was only released Jan. 13.

[reverendtmac]

Very little actual food writing in my bedside table, I'm embarrassed to admit - unless Henry Hill's "Wiseguy's Cookbook" counts. That's more of a re-read, though, after watching Casino last weekend.

Otherwise - "The Life and Times of Michael K" and "Elizabeth Costello" by J.M. Coetzee, a book of Peter Carey short stories; non-fiction's been based towards ramping up for golf season - David Leadbetter's "Faults and Fixes", Dave Pelz's "Short Game Bible", Tom Doak's "The Anatomy of a Golf Course", Donald Ross's "Golf Has Never Failed Me".

[suzilightning]

suzilightning, there is a another book, related, but in a different vein, that I'm waiting to read-- "High Calling: The Courageous Life and Faith of Space Shuttle Columbia Commander Rick Husband" by Evelyn Husband andDonna VanLiere. Have you heard of it? It was only released Jan. 13.

yeah- saw the release info about 4 months ago. it is on my radar and have submitted my request for purchase( it is soooooo cool working for a library). i fully expect to be cring my way throug this book. there was another title that was released last month about the last flight of the shuttle - sorry i'm senioring on the title. i'm on the waiting list at work.

i as actually in the screening of apollo 13 and was laughing hysterically when they said "failure is not an option" since johnnybird was in the middle of horrible stress designing safety features into something the army would not build (wasting 10 years of peoples time and millions of taxpayers dollars - editorial on my part) and this was their mantra.

while i appreciate and revere the early scientists at nasa since columbia when the safety guys were poo-pooed for the sake of the schedule (feynman was not a nice guy but a phenom at debunking bs in the upper levels of admin)i don't trust the upper levels of management

[suzilightning]

non-fiction's been based towards ramping up for golf season - David Leadbetter's "Faults and Fixes", Dave Pelz's "Short Game Bible", Tom Doak's "The Anatomy of a Golf Course", Donald Ross's "Golf Has Never Failed Me".

yeah it is coming - just spend more time in the gym so you are limber enough not to wreck your back, rev

[lleechef]

Reading The Da Vinci Code. Good read. The girl is a little too "Nancy Drew-ish" for me but that's ok. Still a great book.

[tsquare]

A Fine Balance by Rohinton Mistry.

I'm late to this - got a couple of recommendations recently, but also a pan from an avid reader. She said it was the last 150 pages that were too much. Do I stick it out for all 600?

That depends on how you are about Indian novels; they really do have a whiff of fatalism about them and "A Fine Balance" is no different in that respect.

I thought it was a stunning novel but, if you don't like that Indian mindset, then you probably won't like the ending.

I did read the whole book. I didn't find it as grim as one led me to think. Glad to have read it, not sure if I'll get to his other books.

On a lighter note, am reading "Untangling My Chopsticks, a Culinary Sojourn in Kyoto" by Victoria Abbott Riccardi. She may have gone a bit overboard in her descriptions of food - but I know I am now craving Japanese food, particularly "kaiseki".

[NeroW]

I am reading "The Lexus and the Olive Tree" by Thomas Friedman. And I just read this odd book called "Kooks" by Donna Kossey.

Food-wise I am working my way through "Food: A Culinary History" ed. Jean-Louis Flandrin and Massimo Montanari. Heavy stuff.

Have been on a kick reading young-adult novels over the past month or so, the fantastic "His Dark Materials" series by Philip Pullman, and "The Chocolate War " by Robert Cormier, which is one of my favorite books of all time.

Next I am going to read "The Stand."

[PopsicleToze]

Just finished The DiVinci Code, and it was one of the most intriguing books I've read in a long time. Truly could not put it down.