Delicious Reads
Feast on the abundance of books!
Food and writing go together like cheese on a charcuterie board. I was fortunate to grow up in a home where reading was encouraged and from-scratch meals were served nightly, so it is no surprise that some of my favorite books involve food. Below is a selection of my favorite foodish books. Many are older titles so they will be easy for you to request from the library or look for at used book stores.
Nonfiction-Memoir
I consider Ruth Reichle the current dame of food writing. I love everything she has written. Tender at the Bone starts with her childhood growing up where she is drawn to all things culinary but her mother thinks nothing of serving moldy food to guests. This book is funny and fascinating. Garlic and Sapphires covers her time as food critic for the New York Times and gives the inside baseball on high end restaurants. Her third memoir, Save Me the Plums was just published last year and chronicles her time as the final editor of Gourmet Magazine. This is bittersweet as Gourmet was a staple at my home growing up.
My Life in France by Juia Child is the serendipitous story of Child’s time in Paris. She started attending the Cordon Bleu to stave off boredom and found a passion that is celebrated around the world. Though mostly her own words from diaries and writings, her great-nephew is a co-author. It goes into depth on writing Mastering The Art of French Cooking, as well as detailing her life in Paris. This is a story of love - between Julia and Paul and between her and French food. Note: Julia Child’s kitchen is on display at the Smithsonian so if you come visit me we can go see it in person!
Delancy by Molly Wizenburg is the story of opening a wood fire pizza place in Seattle with her husband. I loved the moment by moment struggle of determining how to make the perfect pizza dough, then the complications of opening a restaurant. This is a great book for anyone who nurtures the dream of opening a cafe. Much has changed in Wizeman’s life since she wrote this book in 2014 but this holds up as an absorbing and fun story.
Lunch in Paris is about a woman who stays in Paris after meeting the love of her life. It goes through the challenges or creating a new life (and learning to cook) in a foreign place. By the time the book is through, she has woven beautiful stories or family, love and grief. It also contains a recipe or two at the back of each chapter. And don’t we all have a fantasy about shopping at a French market and coming home to our small Parisian apartment to make a delicious dinner?
In April, I listened to Finding Freedom, a new memoir by self-taught chef and owner of The Lost Kitchen, Erin French. This is one of my favorite books of the year! Erin is an incredible writer; her descriptions of preparing eggs over easy and hash make me want to drive straight to a diner. The story of her dysfunctional family, teen pregnancy, and other hurdles, all while pursuing her passion for food is riveting. I am in awe of how determined French is as a person and a chef. Note: She reads the audio version of the book and it is outstanding!
Fiction
The Chicken Sisters - My sister and I just did a buddy-read of this story involving a reality TV restaurant competition and two feuding families with their respective fried chicken recipes. This book wasn’t perfect, but it did grow on me as the two sisters found themselves dealing with much more than who has the better chicken.
Kitchens of the Great Midwest - A uniquely structured book where each chapter follows the background story of a specific ingredient or dish of the Midwest. Eva is the gifted chef that pulls all the pieces together in the end as she creates a food experience unrivaled by anyone. The author’s follow up book more - The Lager Queen of Minissota.
Delicious - Ruth Reichl can even write fiction for goodness sakes! This story follows a woman who, after finding the perfect job as a magazine editor in NYC, is left jobless when the magazine abruptly closes. She find meaning in answering customer letters and working at an Italian deli to pay the bills. Delicious is filled with charming characters, a great setting, and a side story involving lost letters from James Beard.
Chocolat (and her 3 follow ups) - I love Joanne Harris’ series that involve food, France, and just the right amount of magical realism. If you vaguely remember the movie “Chocolat” but never read the book- go back and try it. She writes beautifully of a small town that is turned upside down when Viviane, a single mom opens a small chocolate shop.
I will end this long list of delicious books with a simple, yet perfect coleslaw recipe for the summer. You will never buy pre-made again.
Taken from a charming book: Sacramental Magic in a Small Town Cafe.
Coleslaw - for 6-8
1 large head of cabbage
½ cup finely diced onion
1 ½ cups mayonnaise
¼ cup apple cider vinegar
½ cup granulated sugar
½ tsp black pepper
Grate or shred cabbage as thinly as possible. Combine in bowl with onion. Then add the rest of ingredients. Depending on size of cabbage you may need to adjust amouts of other ingredients. Let sit an hour minimum - should be sweet, sour, peppery, and creamy. Can last up to a week in the refrigerator.
Here is a fun link for inspiration - where people share their home librarys. I love the variety of book shelves from around the world. We all want a home for our books and to be at home with our books.
And I am obsessed with Saint Rita’s Amazing Bookstore - this may be my new dream:
Recent Reads
I sped throught When Stars Go Dark - a just-released mystery set around the Mendicino area of Northern California in the early 1990’s. The main charachter, Anna, a detective specializing in missing children, is running from her own tragedy. When she heads to the place she knows best, Anna finds herself involved in the hunt for a missing teen the adopted daughter of a former television star. Mclean weaves real cases of missing children into the narritive, giving it a sense of true crime rather than fiction. This is her first mystery and I hope she continues with this genre. (Note: Warning for topics of child abuse and childhood trauma)
Taking its launching point from Charlotte Bronte’s Jane Eyre, The Wife Upstairs is not a retelling, but more an updated reimagining. File this under domestic suspence. Our main protaganist, Jane, is struggling in life when she finds a job walking dogs in a very upscale neighborhood in Birmingham, Alabama. Everything may look perfect on the outside but there is a lot is going on behind closed doors. She gets involved with a recent widower and things go from there - I don’t want to give away anything. I am not a huge fan of this genre but enjoyed this fast paced novel that has gotten a lot of buzz this year.
I really loved this middle grade book about three siblings who are evacuated from London to the countryside during World War 2. I was unable to put it down because I wanted to know what was going to happen next. This is a great book for kids interested in history but the subject isn’t light. It is WW2, things are scarce and people are traumatized by events going on. But the author does a great job of balancing this - giving us things to root for and feel good about while covering a difficult subject. It is hard to imagine that people sent their young children away to live with strangers for years. Sometimes it is easy to gloss over the outcome of WW2 but it wasn’t guaranteed. The English expected to be invated and/or bombed and sending children away from major cities was one of the strategies for keeping them safe.
One last mystery recommendation:
I was excited to find the final Ruth Rendell Inspector Wexford novel at Compass Books at the San Francisco Airport last month. Rendell is master of the British crime novel; she wrote 25 mysteries in this series from 1963 - 2013. No Man’s Nightingale reminded me why I enjoy her books so much. The pacing is great; no bursts of action but a steady stream of characters and information to uncover. She usually has a few different story lines going on. They will cross and conect with each other at some point, but you are never sure how or why. Her books are stand alones so no need to start at number one. Rendell also writes under the pen name Barabar Vine - where she is a master of psychological suspense.
Thank you for sticking with me to the end. I will be back in June with some recommendations for fun Summer reading!