Every once in awhile I go on a spree of visiting my old home of France in my mind by reading a bunch of books about it. I did this over the summer again by finally picking up Peter Mayle's A Year in Provence, the book that kicked off the trend in recent decades of... Continue Reading →
Storytelling Cookbooks: The Queens Night Market and Miracles After Grief
The Queens Night Market has become a beloved summertime institution since its founding by Texas native John Wang, who modeled it on the night markets he discovered as a child while visiting family in Taiwan during the summers. Up to 100 vendors (historically from over 90 countries) gather from 5 pm to midnight at the... Continue Reading →
Recent Foodie Reads: Food as Philosophy, Healing Technique, and Revolution
Great British Bake Off contestant and Guardian columnist Ruby Tandoh's book melding food, memoir, and life philosophy, Eat Up: Food, Appetite and Eating What You Want, has been a UK bestseller since its 2018 release, and apparently is getting a US release next month, although the Queens Public Library already had it. I read it... Continue Reading →
Restaurants and Feeding Families: Two on Foodways
An important flip side to foodie lit are books looking at the ethics of the food business, foodways, the food supply chain, and aspects of the food industry. Two recent books take deep dives into the rapidly evolving future of the restaurant and delivery industries post-Covid, and how different families eat at varying income levels.... Continue Reading →
Two Looks At American Cuisine
As I mentioned in Nonfiction November, one of my favorite reading categories -- food history and foodoirs -- has been one of my least-read genres this year, and I ended up abandoning most of the titles I picked up. Nevertheless, I did read a few good ones, especially looking at American cuisine. Let's discuss! The... Continue Reading →
Three New Foodoirs
I only finished two of these, but I'm going to tell you about all three anyway. First up is a new release that's a read-in-one-sitting deal, in case you want a quick but fairly intense and even gritty read: Phyllis Grant's Everything is Under Control. Grant was a dancer training at Julliard, living in New... Continue Reading →
Pre-2019 Favorites
If new nonfiction this year was a little lackluster, I did feel more enthusiastic about the backlist titles I read throughout the year. It was one of these that was my absolute favorite and the best book I read this year: Border: A Journey to the Edge of Europe, by Kapka Kassabova - Kassabova returned... Continue Reading →
14 New Nonfiction Releases Coming in 2020
2019 hasn't shown itself out quite yet but I'm already looking forward to what new nonfiction 2020 has in store. Here are some upcoming new releases from the new decade that I have my eye on. F*ck Your Diet: And Other Things My Thighs Tell Me, by Chloé Hilliard (January 7) --Hilliard was cursed with... Continue Reading →
Ruth Reichl On Her Gourmet Days
Book review: Save Me the Plums, by Ruth Reichl (Amazon / Book Depository) Chef and restaurant critic Ruth Reichl was surprised to find herself being offered the position of editor-in-chief at the storied Gourmet magazine, tastemakers in the foodie world. She felt like an unlikely candidate for a number of reasons, including that as a... Continue Reading →
Two Looks at Italian-American Food and Families Around NYC
Crazy in the Kitchen: Food, Feuds, and Forgiveness in an Italian American Family, by Louise DeSalvo In our house, no one ever went with the flow. There was no flow. There were only dangerous rapids, huge whirlpools, gigantic waterfalls. In our house, you had to be wary, vigilant. To stop paying attention, even for a... Continue Reading →
Nonfiction November Week 5: New to My TBR
This is it: already the final week of Nonfiction November! Did you find lots of new recommendations for your reading list? Tell me about them! Week 5: (Nov. 25 to 30) – New to My TBR - Rennie (that's me!) @ What’s Nonfiction (that's here!): It’s been a month full of amazing nonfiction books! Which ones... Continue Reading →
Nonfiction November Week 4: Nonfiction Favorites
Week 4: (Nov. 18 to 22) –Nonfiction Favorites (Leann @ ThereThereReadThis): We’ve talked about how you pick nonfiction books in previous years, but this week I’m excited to talk about what makes a book you’ve read one of your favorites. Is the topic pretty much all that matters? Are there particular ways a story can... Continue Reading →