What are you reading these days?

[tsquare]

Finished "On Rue Tartin" and "Feeding Frenzy" - both fun adventures. Picked up "More Home Cooking" and "Endless Feasts" (Sixty years of writing from Gourmet.)

Thinking this train of reading needs a break to something less gastronomic, but why?

[tony h]

Energy Risk Management by Dragana Pilipovic

p. 100 & so far, not one single joke. This is not a fun book.

[mixmaster b]

"Summerland"  Michael Chabon

"The Book of Illusions"  Paul Auster (the greatest living American writer)

Ron: How was "Summerland"? I adored "Kavalier and Clay", but could not get into "Mysteries of Pittsburgh".

I am reading Paul Auster's "Moon Palace" now and enjoying it greatly. What other of his books should I read? The only other one I have read is "Timbuktu".

Food related--recently finished:

Escoffier's memoirs

"The last Days of Haute Cuisine"

I am a one-book-at-a-timer. If I try to read multiple book, I always focus on one, and never finish the other(s).

[torakris]

Not sure how I have done it but I have actually found some time to read.

I just finished Nancy Taylor Rosenberg's Trial by Fire (an old hand me down from a friend) and although no different than any other suspense/law books it was enjoyable

Now I have picked from my bookshelf, The Tears of My Soul by Kim Hyun Hee (1993). I read this ever couple years as it is a fascinating account of the woman (a North Korean agent) who placed a bomb on Korean Air 858 in 1987 causing an explosion that killed all 115 on board. Orginally given a death sentence by the South Korean Government, she was later given a full pardon. This book is part of her atonement to those who lost their lives and it descibes in detail the life of the military/elite in North Korea.

[helenas]

Impatiently waiting for my order of Ripert's and Boulud's latest books to arrive...

In the meantime started "Natasha's Dance" - a cultural history of Russia; it's a great read to whoever wants to understand our enigmatic russian soul.

[snowangel]

I can second Adam's review of Thai Food by David Thompson.

I grew up in Thailand, and watched our succession of Thai cooks cook, watched the ladies at the markets pound their pastes, and ate every possible food from street vendors, hole in the wall restaurants -- both in Bangkok and the rest of the country -- and most everything here is right on the money.

Definitely one to own. I checked it out of the library and renewed it so many times I don't think they'll ever let me check it out again, so it is #1 on my Xmas list. This one may but the other Thai cookbooks I have on that bookshelf at the back of the basement.

And, yes, the cover is cool.

[Ron Johnson]

Ron: How was "Summerland"?  I adored "Kavalier and Clay", but could not get into "Mysteries of Pittsburgh".

I am reading Paul Auster's "Moon Palace" now and enjoying it greatly.  What other of his books should I read?  The only other one I have read is "Timbuktu".

Sorry Mixmaster, just getting back to this thread.

Summerland is a guilty pleasure, as it is technically a "children's book", although Chabon has written a novel to be enjoyed on many levels. The guy is a genius. I am reading bits and pieces of it as I read other books. It is just delightful. True escapism.

Moon Palace and Timbuktu are both good, but not Auster's best or most exemplar. Read Leviathan and the New York Trilogy. You will be mesmerized. Follow those up with Mr. Vertigo. There is something about Auster's work that I find so engrossing.

[bourdain]

"A Return To Cooking" by Eric Ripert and Michael Ruhlman

[Liza]

"20,000 Streets Under the Sky" by Patrick Hamilton and the Gray Kunz book.

[Simon Majumdar]

"20,000 Streets Under the Sky" by Patrick Hamilton

I think I love you too

[Liza]

Amazing to find the seemingly only two other Hamilton fans here on Egullet - Simon and Wilfrid.

Part of me wishes someone would do a decent movie adaption of "Hangover Square". Then the smart part of me slaps the dumb part and I move on.

[Gavin Jones]

Stick me down for the Patrick Hamilton fan club. 'Slaves of Solitude' on the way up to Edinburgh to visit Dr. B was a fortnight ago.

I believe I even nominated George Bone as my fictional alter ego, in the mists of time.

[Liza]

Yes, I do recall the Bone/Jones connection. Most days I feel like Mrs. Plumleigh-Bruce's maid.

[Wilfrid]

Yo, let's hear it for the messed-up Marxist dipsomaniac genius. From 'Tuppeny Coloured' through to the last gasps of ther Gorse trilogy. And 'Rope' is a pretty good movie too.

[Liza]

Yo, let's hear it for the messed-up Marxist dipsomaniac genius.

Oh that's just a signature waiting to happen, Mighty W.

[helenas]

Finally got my order from buy.com containing books by Ripert and Boulud.

But here is a catch: i don't know which one to start reading first, or maybe i should continue with Paris Sweets that i got couple of days ago: also a fascinating read. But i swear - i'm not buying more books this year, unless it will be attractively discounted "Jeremiah Towers Cooks" or Girardet or Patterns of Home: The Ten Essentials of Enduring Design

btw, any other fans of Not So Big House series here?

And since we're on the subject (although seriosly off-topic) what are your favorite interior design books?

[Suzanne F]

From the library, Pickled, Potted, and Canned: How the Art and Science of Food Preserving Changed the World, by Sue Shepard. I'm almost through Drying, and still have Salting, Pickling in Vinegar, Smoking, Fermenting, ...Canning, ...Refrigeration and Freezing, and a couple of other chapters to go. More than one has ever thought about re: putting food by. Quite a piece of work -- it was nominated for the 2001 IACP Jane Grigson Award, which recognizes scholarship in food writing.

I'm also working my way through James Peterson's Glorious French Food, but that's another story entirely.

[snowangel]

Just finished Lovely Bones. Ironic that I was finishing the last few pages as I was monitoring my chicken stock.

Diana is reading Emma for school, so I've picked it up (again).

And, Helena, I am familiar with the Not So Big series. She's Minnesota based, so we knew about her long before she became popular. And, since we live in a Not So Big House, I have read both of her books.

[ranitidine]

"You Ain't Heard Nothin' Yet" by Andrew Sarris

"The Dred Scott Case" by Don E. Fehrenbacher

[Liza]

But i swear - i'm not buying more books this year, unless it will be attractively discounted "Jeremiah Towers Cooks"

I saw it for nearly half price at the downtown Strand...

[tsquare]

But here is my real question:

Has anybody picked In The Image: The Novel yet? Looks like a book to  be read next.

I'm just about through with this one. Thought it was a bit slow starting, but like it alot. Completely different from my usual reads. Many little stories that you know will end up coming together in the end. Wise words from such a young writer.

[Wilfrid]

"Fading Feasts" by Raymond Sokolow, author of "Why We Eat What We Eat" (have I got that right?). I like this guy; clear, unshowy and logical style. The book in question is a series of essays on American culinary traditions which were fast disappearing (when the book was written about ten years ago). No more squirrels in the burgoo, for example; the parlous state of the Kentuckjy moonshine industry; the erosion of artisanal Smithfield ham curing.

One chapter which shocked me was about key limes. He says that whenever we are served something claiming to be made from key limes, like key lime pie, the juice is almost certainly from a different and more readily available kind of lime. I didn't realise. Is that still generally the case? I know I have seen and handled real key limes (distinctive shape and all), but can't now remember where. It may have been in the Caribbean.

[helenas]

Finally got to Aphrodite: A Memoir of the Senses. So far i'm not sure if i like it or not: the language sounds a bit akward, maybe due to translation (although who am i to judge!). The illustrations are hilarious, though!

Also rereading Wolfert's middle eastern books, as well as The Momo Cookbook, in anticipation of

Ziryab: Authentic Arab Cuisine

[Wilfrid]

Re-reading James Villas, Between Bites. So candid and opinionated. It would make a great discussion book, if we ever do that again.

[cabrales]

"Gargantua & Pantagruel" by Francois Rabelais. Very funny it is too.

Adam -- Does this book contain considerable food description?

Also, have members read the following:

"Apicius Cookery and Dining in Imperial Rome", by Joseph D. Vehling (Editor), or

"The Roman Cookery of Apicius", by John Edwards

Edited January 17, 2003 by cabrales (log)