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Reading about food
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
I wanted to make sure that no one missed Elizabeth Lee’s great interview Sunday with author Barbara Kingsolver, which is linked here.
Kingsolver, of course, is known mainly as a novelist, for “The Poisonwood Bible” (all together now … wow), and other fictions. But earlier this year she published “Animal, Vegetable, Miracle,” a personal, non-fiction account of her family’s experiment with eating only food grown close to their home in Virginia for one year. (Yes, the family included a teenager.)
Coincidentally, Wordsmith Books is welcoming Jenni Ferrari-Adler and Phoebe Nobles (great names!), food writers whose latest collection of essays is titled “Alone in the Kitchen With an Eggplant.” It’s a book about the “terror, excitement, trials and tribulations” of cooking for one and dining alone.
Both foodie appearances are Thursday night. Kingsolver will be speaking at Emory and that lecture is already sold out, I’m sorry to report, but the “Eggplant” authors will be at Wordsmith in Decatur at 7:30 p.m. Thursday to talk, sign and maybe, who knows, nosh a little.
I haven’t had the pleasure yet of reading either book, although Kingsolver’s is working its way to the top of my pile. But they put me in mind of one of the best books I read last year, Michael Pollan’s “The Omnivore’s Dilemma.” It is a fascinating tour of what and how we eat in America today, from those “free-range, organic chickens” some restaurants love to tout to the differences between real organic and faux organic. From where McDonald’s gets its meat to how to forage for wild mushrooms, it’s a book everyone who loves good food should eat.
Books about food seem to be more popular than ever. Not counting cookbooks, what is your favorite food book and why?
Comments
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By Jeff
September 17, 2007 8:57 AM | Link to this
I actually read about Kingslover’s experiment about a month or two ago, though I haven’t read her book. It was in an AP news report on Yahoo news about a “growing trend” called the 100 Mile Diet. The basic idea is that you eat NOTHING produced outside of 100 miles from where you live. While there are purists to this, the article also mentioned several variations on it that could suit virtually anyone.
While interesting in concept, and I like the idea of returning to a more 19th century concept, the article linked it to Global Warming, stating that many people who are doing it are the eco-freaks (the article didn’t call them that). That comment pretty well killed the idea for me.
HOWEVER, if any of you are within about 100 miles of Albany, there is a GREAT place on the highway between Albany and Columbus between Dawson and Albany (about 20 miles outside Albany) called Mark’s Melon Patch. Quite possibly one of the BEST places in the state to get fresh seasonal fruits and veggies, and they have virtually anything you want that can be grown in South GA.
By Pink Sherbert
September 17, 2007 11:41 AM | Link to this
Any Tyler Florence or Ina Garten cookbook…..everything I make from them turns out prefect. Worst? Any book by Paula Deen….nothing turns out right.
By Anna Burke
September 17, 2007 4:43 PM | Link to this
I’m a big fan of The $64 Tomato because it combines three things I love: cooking, gardening and fixin’ up a lost-cause house. Website is here: www.64dollartomato.com You can see the actual garden! I also love A Year in Provence because it introduced me to truffles. Yum!
By Anna Burke
September 17, 2007 4:50 PM | Link to this
I also like Julia’s Kitchen Wisdom and Julia & Jacques: Cooking at Home which are both fun combinations of recipes AND memories. (And I love Barbara Kingsolver and thought Ms. Lee’s story yesterday was excellent.)