100 New Classics

Earlier this summer, Entertainment Weekly published a fun list of 100 New Classics, the best books of the past twenty-five years. I'm a sucker for lists, and this one is no exception. Only, the summer has been very busy, as it always is. So just as summer is now almost over—or it is if you count Labor Day and the return to school as the end—I'm finally getting around to studying the list.

It's hot and humid here, and all I feel like doing is curling up with a glass of chilled white wine and this list—languidly bolding those titles I have read, occasionally adding commentary, italicizing those books I would like to read, and striking through those I plan to never read. I'd love to see your list.

Would you like to play a game?

1. Just copy from below, or seek the source.
2. Bold the titles you have read.
3. Italicize the books you would like to read.
4. Strike through those you'll never read.
5. Annotate as needed.
6. We're not done yet. Provide your personal top 10 new classics (books published between 1983-2008, fiction and nonfiction, not necessarily from this list).
7. If it's not too much trouble, put a link to your list in my comments. Thx!

1. The Road , Cormac McCarthy (2006)
2. Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire, J.K. Rowling (2000)
3. Beloved, Toni Morrison (1987) [never say never]
4. The Liars' Club, Mary Karr (1995)
5. American Pastoral, Philip Roth (1997)
6. Mystic River, Dennis Lehane (2001) [all my mystery guys raved about Lehane for years before Mystic River]
7. Maus, Art Spiegelman (1986/1991) [own it; what am I waiting for?]
8. Selected Stories, Alice Munro (1996)
9. Cold Mountain, Charles Frazier (1997)
10. The Wind-Up Bird Chronicle, Haruki Murakami (1997) [I would like to read something by Murakami]
11. Into Thin Air, Jon Krakauer (1997)
12. Blindness, José Saramago (1998)
13. Watchmen, Alan Moore and Dave Gibbons (1986-87)
14. Black Water, Joyce Carol Oates (1992)
15. A Heartbreaking Work of Staggering Genius, Dave Eggers (2000)
16. The Handmaid's Tale, Margaret Atwood (1986) [will be re-read one day]
17. Love in the Time of Cholera, Gabriel García Márquez (1988)
18. Rabbit at Rest, John Updike (1990) [my window of opportunity has passed]
19. On Beauty, Zadie Smith (2005)
20. Bridget Jones's Diary, Helen Fielding (1998)
21. On Writing, Stephen King (2000) [maybe]
22. The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao, Junot Díaz (2007)
23. The Ghost Road, Pat Barker (1996)
24. Lonesome Dove, Larry McMurtry (1985) [do I get any credit for reading the first 50 pages?]
25. The Joy Luck Club, Amy Tan (1989)
26. Neuromancer, William Gibson (1984) [I will re-read, one day]
27. Possession, A.S. Byatt (1990)
28. Naked, David Sedaris (1997)
29. Bel Canto, Anne Patchett (2001)
30. Case Histories, Kate Atkinson (2004)
31. The Things They Carried, Tim O'Brien (1990) [stunning title story]
32. Parting the Waters, Taylor Branch (1988)
33. The Year of Magical Thinking, Joan Didion (2005) [unabridged audio, moving]
34. The Lovely Bones, Alice Sebold (2002)
35. The Line of Beauty, Alan Hollinghurst (2004)
36. Angela's Ashes, Frank McCourt (1996)
37. Persepolis, Marjane Satrapi (2003)
38. Birds of America, Lorrie Moore (1998)
39. Interpreter of Maladies, Jhumpa Lahiri (2000)
40. His Dark Materials, Philip Pullman (1995-2000)
41. The House on Mango Street, Sandra Cisneros (1984)
42. LaBrava, Elmore Leonard (1983)
43. Borrowed Time, Paul Monette (1988)
44. Praying for Sheetrock, Melissa Fay Greene (1991)
45. Eva Luna, Isabel Allende (1988)
46. Sandman, Neil Gaiman (1988-1996)
47. World's Fair, E.L. Doctorow (1985)
48. The Poisonwood Bible, Barbara Kingsolver (1998)
49. Clockers, Richard Price (1992)
50. The Corrections, Jonathan Franzen (2001)
51. The Journalist and the Murderer, Janet Malcom (1990)
52. Waiting to Exhale, Terry McMillan (1992)
53. The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier & Clay, Michael Chabon (2000)
54. Jimmy Corrigan, Chris Ware (2000)
55. The Glass Castle, Jeannette Walls (2006)
56. The Night Manager, John le Carré (1993)
57. The Bonfire of the Vanities, Tom Wolfe (1987)
58. Drop City, TC Boyle (2003)
59. Krik? Krak! Edwidge Danticat (1995)
60. Nickel & Dimed, Barbara Ehrenreich (2001)
61. Money, Martin Amis (1985)
62. Last Train To Memphis, Peter Guralnick (1994)
63. Pastoralia, George Saunders (2000)
64. Underworld, Don DeLillo (1997)
65. The Giver, Lois Lowry (1993)
66. A Supposedly Fun Thing I’ll Never Do Again, David Foster Wallace (1997)
67. The Kite Runner, Khaled Hosseini (2003)
68. Fun Home, Alison Bechdel (2006)
69. Secret History, Donna Tartt (1992)
70. Cloud Atlas, David Mitchell (2004)
71. The Spirit Catches You and You Fall Down, Ann Fadiman (1997)
72. The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time, Mark Haddon (2003)
73. A Prayer for Owen Meany, John Irving (1989)
74. Friday Night Lights, H.G. Bissinger (1990)
75. Cathedral, Raymond Carver (1983)
76. A Sight for Sore Eyes, Ruth Rendell (1998)
77. The Remains of the Day, Kazuo Ishiguro (1989)
78. Eat, Pray, Love, Elizabeth Gilbert (2006)
79. The Tipping Point, Malcolm Gladwell (2000) [I have read so many reviews and commentary that I feel I've already ready it]
80. Bright Lights, Big City, Jay McInerney (1984)
81. Backlash, Susan Faludi (1991) [see #79]
82. Atonement, Ian McEwan (2002)
83. The Stone Diaries, Carol Shields (1994)
84. Holes, Louis Sachar (1998)
85. Gilead, Marilynne Robinson (2004)
86. And the Band Played On, Randy Shilts (1987)
87. The Ruins, Scott Smith (2006)
88. High Fidelity, Nick Hornby (1995)
89. Close Range, Annie Proulx (1999)
90. Comfort Me With Apples, Ruth Reichl (2001)
91. Random Family, Adrian Nicole LeBlanc (2003)
92. Presumed Innocent, Scott Turow (1987)
93. A Thousand Acres, Jane Smiley (1991)
94. Fast Food Nation, Eric Schlosser (2001) [see #79]
95. Kaaterskill Falls, Allegra Goodman (1998)
96. The Da Vinci Code, Dan Brown (2003)
97. Jesus’ Son, Denis Johnson (1992)
98. The Predators' Ball, Connie Bruck (1988)
99. Practical Magic, Alice Hoffman (1995) [listened to unabridged audio]
100. America (the Book), Jon Stewart/Daily Show (2004) [Of course I've paged through this. Who hasn't?]

My top 10 New Classics
1. Handmaid's Tale, Margaret Atwood (1985)
2. Home Cooking, Laurie Colwin (1993)
3. Behind the Scenes at the Museum, Kate Atkinson (1995)
4. Jitterbug Perfume, Tom Robbins (1984)
5. House, Tracy Kidder (1985)
6. Pillars of Hercules, Paul Theroux (1995)
7. London Fields, Martin Amis (1989)
8. The Eight, Katherine Neville (1988)
9. Cowboys Are My Weakness, Pam Houston (1993)
10. Soul of the Chef, Michael Ruhlman (2001)

FINISHED: Crime Brûlée

“Life doles out the most amazing surprises, not all of them pleasant.”

Needing to increase my reading average so that I might hit my target of 20 books read between Memorial Day and Labor Day, I have turned to cozy mysteries. Nancy Fairbanks, author of the comic police procedural series featuring Elena Jarvis, also writes this culinary series, featuring Carolyn Blue. I have enjoyed a few others in the series (French Fried and The Perils of Paella) and find them mildly addictive. I believe the culinary analog is profiteroles. The covers are well designed, setting the mood for a light, fun mystery.

Crime Brûlée is set in New Orleans and, as the first in the series, introduces Carolyn Blue, a forty-something homemaker who takes on a dream job as a food writer. If you ask me, it's a great premise! Carolyn has accompanied her husband, Jason, a chemistry professor, to an academic conference in New Orleans. She's also writing a book on eating in the Big Easy. Ostensibly, while Jason is occupied with lectures and plenary sessions and doodling molecular bonds on cocktail napkins, Carolyn is combing the city, sampling its culinary treats. When Carolyn's close childhood friend, Julienne—also an academic attending the conference—goes missing, and no one seems to care, including Julienne's husband, Carolyn investigates.

Occasionally, I found the plot to stagnate a bit, which I didn't notice in subsequent books, which leads me to believe that Fairbanks has work on the pacing and settled into Carolyn Blue's voice. And, occasionally, I found it hard to suspend disbelief necessary to accept that our protagonist would get involved with the sleuthing.

But, Fairbanks gets the foodie bits down, which more than make up for the rest. I find this series far more interesting and more delicious than Diane Mott Davidson's caterer Goldy Bear series. Often while reading Davidson's books, I'd feel the guilt that comes from empty calories. Sure, I keep reading them, but I prefer Fairbanks. And, no matter how formulaic Fairbanks' series may get, I'm committed to reading more titles. Up next: New York-set Truffled Feathers.

souvenirs from a trip

One of the best things about Blue Hill, Maine, is the fantastic indie bookstore on Pleasant Street. I could move to this community for the bookstore alone! Okay, the lobster, coastline, and New England charm help. Blue Hill Books is in a cozy (former) house with an inviting front porch, where the store’s bestsellers are proudly announced. And, it's a really good, obviously independent list.

Once you enter, all vestiges of the building’s former function are stripped away, and, as Alice through the rabbit hole (apologies for the cheesy cliché), you’re standing in a clean, well-lighted space, filled with books. To me, that’s heaven. The store highlights for me are new releases, fiction, and local authors/interests up front, as well as the various nonfiction sections and the fabulous, cozy alcove devoted to children’s books, found on the lower level.

Naturally, I selected a few souvenirs from among the many books that caught my eye:

The Edge of Maine by Geoffrey Wolff
Part of the National Geographic Directions travel series written by leading literary authors, this book explores Down East Maine. I’ve never read a travel essay that more precisely describes the area where I was standing than this one. This series is so well done, especially matching author to subject, that I could—and hopefully will—make a challenge out of reading all of the titles in it. I have also read Oliver Sacks’ Oaxaca Journal and William Kittredge’s Southwestern Homelands.



Homer Price by Robert McCloskey
In this little family, we’re all nutters for Robert McCloskey. While I was pregnant with son number one, I purchased Make Way for Ducklings as "baby’s first book," and it has always been a favorite. Blueberries for Sal is, disputably, set on Blue Hill, the small mountain after which the town was named. I'm not here to argue the claim, but, make no mistake, One Morning in Maine, chronicling Sal’s further adventures, is set in nearby Bucks Harbor. Five years ago, when we visited the area, Mr. Bibliotonic and I rode the Brookville Loop on bike, making a pilgrimage to Condon’s Garage in Bucks Harbor. So it should follow, that five years later, the little Bibliotonics would be ready for McCloskey’s tales of a ten-year-old boy.

Slipknot by Linda Greenlaw
When we visited this area five years ago, I read Linda Greenlaw’s Lobster Chronicles, her memoir of being a Maine lobster fisher. Slipknot is the first book in a mystery series, also set in the region. I enjoyed Greenlaw’s storytelling in Lobster Chronicles and look forward to seeing how she handles fiction writing.

vacation reading

When I left off here, I was getting ready for a week in Maine (which was wonderful and restful and fun, btw). Packing reading material for any trip is a challenge. In typical fashion, I agonized over which books to bring, knowing full well that I’d bring too many.

Elsewhere I’d written this:

Books. Well certainly you need something for the plane and something to span the time until your return flight. Maybe there’s a long car ride from the airport to your destination so you’ll need something to read aloud to the driver. Mass-market mysteries are perfect for leaving in plane seat pockets if you finish in-flight or if the book is too unbearable stinky to finish. A book related to the place you’re visiting can be nice. Something literary can keep you busy for a while, especially if you like to re-read stunningly written passages. Story collections or essays serve up short pieces, ideal for short attention spans and for when you’re short on time. No hardcovers, as they’re too heavy in the carry-on and can be too unwieldy to hold.

Am I able to head my own advice? Hell, no.

I wanted this trip to be different from the trips where I bring more books than I can possibly read, what with sightseeing and general vacation busy-ness. Couldn't one book sustain and entertain from door to door? With this fresh idea in mind, I purchased Tim Weiner’s National Book Award-winning Legacy of Ashes. It's sort of a door-stopper at 812 pages, but it would last the week (and then some). Best, even in paperback, this fat book fit comfortably in my hand.

In the weeks leading up to my trip, I felt pretty good about knowing what I was going to read while on vacation. I could skip all the late-night drama over choosing books. Yet, as I packed, I must have picked up Legacy of Ashes, placed it in my carry-on, and pulled it out, at least five or six times. Ultimately, I just couldn’t commit to just one book. Nor could I leave a novel out of the mix of reading material. So what did I bring? An ARC, a slim novel, and some magazines in my carry-on, as well as a few mass markets (tucked into my checked luggage).

What did I read?

On my departing flight to Maine, as a warm-up to cracking a book's spine, I read the July Vogue. And, a week later, on the flight back to St. Paul, I read the August Vogue. As far as books go, I started Apologize Apologize, a first novel from Twelve (a Little Brown imprint) coming in April ’09. For some reason I expected the protagonist/narrator to be female so I was a little thrown when I realized, a few pages in, that the protagonist was very much male. Starting the book again helped. The first thirty-eight pages of this family drama drip with faux quirky and feel overwritten, but it’s promising. Something about the protagonist is very likeable.
I also had an opportunity to dip into Tove Jansson’s The Summer Book. Just before my trip, my friend Caryl and I had a chance to pop into indie bookseller Magers & Quinn, where I spotted this title in a beautifully packaged edition from NYRB. I could not resist buying this novel that follows the relationship between a grandmother and her granddaughter, who spend the summer on a small island in the Gulf of Finland. The setting seemed to match the area in Maine where I would be spending vacation, and the story, told in vignettes, seemed heartwarming. In a word, perfect vacation reading.

We did a lot of driving on this trip. Well, I should say: my husband did a lot of driving. First, there was the five-hour drive from Boston to Blue Hill, Maine. Conversely, there was the return drive from Blue Hill to Boston. In between, we commuted from the inn, on one side of Blue Hill, where we were staying, to Gruesome Gables, my in-laws’ rental on the other side of Blue Hill. One day we drove over an hour, each way, to Acadia. All of which yielded ample car time during which I could read a book aloud to the driver.

Mr. Bibliotonic and I tend to gravitate toward mysteries when we read-aloud. Mysteries and thrillers give us a chance to visit favorite characters, as well as offer short chapters, which suit frequent interruptions from the junior Bibliotonics in the back seat. On this trip, we cozied up with Daniel Silva’s A Death in Vienna. Art restorer and ex-Mossad agent Gabiel Allon is summoned for another mission. This time in Vienna, under cover of authenticating a painting, Allon identifies a man in a photograph who may have been a key player in the Nazi’s Master Plan, as well as having brutalized Allon’s mother during the Death March from Auschwitz. The mystery is clever and suspenseful, successfully enriched by historical events.

Mr. Bibliotonic covered the boys’ bedtime reading with the second book in the Ranger’s Apprentice series, but I got to sneak in random tales from Homer Price. We loved Homer for his ingenuity, curiosity, and adventurous spirit, and we’re grateful to Robert McCloskey for the wonderful illustrations that impeccably capture the characters from Centerburg. I chose this book mostly for the local connection to the author. McCloskey lived in Blue Hill, Maine, not far from which is Bucks Harbor, the setting for One Morning in Maine. Homer Price’s Centerburg is probably found in Ohio, where McCloskey spent his formative years. There is, however, a universal appeal to the town. Substitute the small town or suburb where you grew up, and you’re likely to feel a connection.

As is typical, I packed too many books and could have used Nancy Pearl's advice for choosing a carry-on book, which came a moment too late for this trip. Next time!

gone fishing

Tomorrow morning, I'm flying to Maine, with my little family, for a week. We hope to have quality family time that includes seeing siblings/in-laws and cousins, as well as eating our fair share of lobsters and blueberries. As I will be without a computer while away—horrors, I know—details about my trip will have to wait until my return.

It's almost midnight and there's still much to do, such as selecting my vacation reading.

Ciao!

HAPPY BIRTHDAY! MFK Fisher

Few would argue against the wide-held belief that M.F.K. Fisher was the greatest food writer or that she effectively established the culinary essay as a genre.

I first encountered M.F.K. Fisher in 1989, while working as a professional bookseller. The bookstore where I was employed gave me a section to maintain: cookbooks. My first thought was that the assignment was a serious mistake—I didn't cook. Why should I be expected to become an expert on cookbooks if I didn't use them?

I'm here to tell you that, in any self-respecting independent bookstore, there's more to the cooking section than cookbooks. So I didn't cook, but I did love to eat, and the culinary essay subsection whetted my appetite for any author with the sort of descriptive powers to make me feel like I was eating a fine meal. Enter M.F.K. Fisher.

Shortly after a trip to Burgundy in 1998, I lost myself in Long Ago in France, her memoir of living in Dijon, which took me right back to the France I had just visited. Still I had not read her food writing, despite owning most of it. For years, The Art of Eating, the massive multiwork volume of M.F.K. Fisher's early food writing, has been taunting from the foodie shelves of my personal library. This morning, in honor of Fisher's birthday, I pulled down AoE and dipped into Consider the Oyster (1941):

There are three kinds of oyster-eaters: those loose-minded sports who will eat anything, hot, cold, thin, thick, dead or alive, as long as it is oyster; those who will eat them raw and only raw; and those who with equal severity will eat them cooked and no way other.

and

There are several things to do with oysters beside eat them, although amny people believe firmly in that as the most sensible course.

I'm hooked on her lavish descriptions of food, her presentation of the social, historical, cultural, and political aspects of food, as well as her personal experiences and observations.

Here is Garrison Keillor's very brief tribute from "The Writers Almanac":

It's the birthday of food writer M.F.K. Fisher, (books by this author) born Mary Frances Kennedy in Albion, Michigan (1908). She's the author of many books about food and eating, and best known for The Gastronomical Me (1943). During World War II, she published How to Cook a Wolf (1942), which suggested all kinds of ways people could eat well on food rations. She wrote, "When the wolf is at the door one should invite him in and have him for dinner.

You can read more about M.F.K. Fisher here and here.

Summer Reading

Summer is here! Pull out your flip-flops and swimsuits, the water sprinklers and popsicles.

Sure, the season officially began a few weeks ago—I recall something about a solstice—but I hardly noticed. Mid June, at high noon, here in Minnesota, we were still wearing jeans and cotton sweaters. Today, however, the thermometer hit 90 degrees F, and with it came the brilliant and intense sunlight only experienced during this time of year.

This kind of summer heat zaps my energy and my appetite. Consequently, I lighten the menu by preparing tossed green salads and keep the kitchen cool by grilling meat and vegetables outside. Wearing lightweight cotton skirts and sundresses helps me keep my cool throughout the day. Do you see where I am going with this?

I like my summer reading lite.

Certainly, summer reading means different things to different people. I have even heard of folks who dig into chunksters—such as Anna Karenina, The Stand, or Cryptonomicon—during the dog days. But not me. I like easily consumed—but high quality—literature. You know—the kind of reading that doesn’t make you break a sweat.

Some of my favorite summer reading memories happened during high school when, by day, I read and read and read. I read books to prepare myself for the upcoming debate season, which, the summer before my junior year found me gorging on criminal justice topics and developing an obsession for Truman Capote’s In Cold Blood and biographies about the Rosenbergs.

The summer before senior year, I ardently devoured classics in a last-ditch effort to be well-read by the time I started college. My American Studies literature teacher created a reading list for me that included Henry James, Mark Twain, Theodore Dreiser, among many others. Since none were required reading, it was a pleasure to work my way, methodically, through the list. That is, until the day I impulsively picked up a horror novel at the library and dove headlong into Stephen King’s backlist (as it existed in 1984). Carrie, Cujo, Pet Sematary, The Shining, Christine, Different Seasons were just a few of the titles that kept me company as I worshipped the sun, flipping from back to stomach with the same frequency as I flipped my Duran Duran cassettes from Side 1 to Side 2.

There was that summer after sophomore year of college, when I was sharing a house with friends, working in a bookstore, waiting to leave for my London JYA. That summer, I read biographies of rock musicians—Stardust, a mediocre bio about Davie Bowie—and purely escapist fiction—like Anne Rice's Vampire Chronicles—stripped copies of which I would bring home from the bookstore.

In summers since, I have tried to recreate that same spirit of entertaining, carefree, non-taxing reading. And, since I'm not working this summer, I have an opportunity to read more than usual. Dipping into my archives for the past 12 years, I have some recommendations for perfect summer reading:

Biographies and memoirs—live someone else’s life or take inspiration from the subject’s great character and deeds
~ Katherine Lanpher’s Leap Days
~ Jill Ker Conway’s True North
~ Julia Child’s My Life in France
~ Elizabeth Gilbert’s Eat, Pray, Love
~ Alexandra Fuller’s Don’t Let’s Go to the Dogs
~ Elizabeth Arthur’s Looking for the Klondike Stone (about summer camp)
~ Katherine Graham's Personal History

Escape with a travel narrative
~ Bill Bryson’s A Walk in the Woods (Appalachian Trail)
~ Bill Bryson's In a Sunburned Country (Australia)
~ Polly Evans’s It’s Not about the Tapas (Spain)
~ Linda Greenlaw’s The Lobster Chronicles (Maine)
~ Tim Moore’s French Revolutions (cycling in France during the le Tour)
~ Sara Wheeler’s Terra Incognita (Antarctica)
~ MFK Fisher’s Long Ago in France (Burgundy; read while there in '98)
~ Paul Theroux’s Pillars of Hercules (European Mediterranean and Northern Africa)

Food narratives stimulate the appetite when the rising mercury strips away hunger
~ Fuchsia Dunlop's Shark’s Fin and Sichuan Pepper
~ Mark Kurlansky’s Big Oyster (microhistory w/marine biology and geography, too)
~ Steve Almond’s Candyfreak
~ Tony Bourdain’s A Cook’s Tour (also qualifies for travel narrative)
~ Calvin Trillin’s Feeding a Yen
~ Laurie Colwin’s Home Cooking and More Home Cooking

Slim novels, under 300 pages, can be read quickly for a great sense of accomplishment
~ William Bennett’s The Uncommon Reader
~ Winifred Watson’ Miss Pettigrew Lives for a Day
~ Jonathan Lethem’s Girl in Landscape
~ Mark Dunn’s Ella Minnow Pea
~ Elinor Lipman’s The Inn at Lake Devine
~ Elaine Dundy’s The Dud Avocado

Mysteries and thrillers set in exotic locales transport me
~ Lyn Hamilton’s archaeology series (Thai Amulet)
~ Donna Leon’s Venice-set Commissario Brunetti books
~ Julia Smith’s New Orleans mysteries
~ John Burdett’s Bangkok 8, Bangkok Tattoo, and Bangkok Haunts
~ Nancy Fairbanks’s foodie mysteries (Perils of Paella, French Fried)
~ Trevanian’s The Eiger Sanction
~ Katherine Neville’s The Eight

Short story and essay collections are the ultimate when I’m short on reading time—or attention span
~ Steven King’s Skeleton Crew
~ Sleepaway (essays about summer camp)
~ Nick Hornby’s Polysyllabic Spree
~ Shirley Jackson’s Just an Ordinary Day
~ everything by David Sedaris

I hope you find something new, old-but-never-read, or inspiring from this list.

What sort of books are part of your summer reading?

what I'm reading now

in the car: Kitchen Confidential
À bas la gas prices [pardon my French]. Mr. Bibliotonic and I are the team managers for Son #1’s soccer team, and, as such, need to be at all his games. The away games are in far-flung East Metro suburbs so we spend quite a bit of time in the car, which is, for me and Mr. Bibliotonic, a perfect read-aloud opportunity. At the moment, I’m reading Tony Bourdain’s first literary success, Kitchen Confidential. Back in 2000, I was given a manuscript of Kitchen Confidential to read in preparation for selling it to bookstore buyers. I knew we had something well written and entertaining, but I had no idea the book would hit the NYT bestseller list or that Bourdain would become a household name as a result. This collection of essays is one part memoir, one part no-holds-barred professional chef expose. Bourdain is foul-mouthed, funny, and honest as he explores his career in the kitchen, as well as all the characters involved in running a restaurant.

in the den: Hens Dancing
I’ve read about a quarter of this delightful British comedy of manners, a classic example of what we called—when I was repping at St. Martin’s Press in the days before chicklit was its own genre—women’s fiction. Raffaella Barker's novel, Hens Dancing, is set in romantic rural England and features a mother of three, whose husband has recently left her. The story is told in journal form, which allows for reading in chunks.

on my bedside table: Petite Anglaise
Plain and simple, this is a memoir of a blogger. Catherine Sanderson is a Brit living in Paris with her French boyfriend (Mr. Frog) and their daughter (Tadpole). Sanderson started blogging in 2004, detailing the frustration with her relationship and her subsequent affair. I know that she will lose her job for blogging at work, but I haven’t gotten that far in the book yet. It’s a quick, juicy read.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY! Salman Rushdie

I had the pleasure of meeting Rushdie in 1998, shortly after he emerged from nearly a decade of hiding under threat of death. He was a special (and secret) guest at the sales conference I attending when I repped for Holtzbrinck (now Macmillan USA). Henry Holt was about to publish The Ground Beneath Her Feet and brought Rushdie to a company dinner to launch the book. At the time, Rushdie traveled with a heavy security detail. It was widely believed that the bathroom attendants on duty that evening weren't employees of the hotel, if you catch my drift. I never, in a million years, thought I would get to meet Rushdie, whom I'd admired as a writer since the early 1980s. Needless to say, it was quite a treat for me to eat dinner at his table. But Rushdie had a present for us, too—a very rough studio cut of the song "The Ground Beneath Her Feet," performed by Rushdie's friends, U2.

Happy Birthday Salman Rushdie!

It's the birthday of Salman Rushdie, (books by this author) born in Bombay, India (1947), two months before India's first day of independence. He comes from a wealthy Muslim family. His father had a huge library and was a wonderful storyteller. He told Rushdie stories every night, many of them fairy tales inspired by One Thousand and One Arabian Nights.

As a teenager, he started going to an elite high school in England where he didn't get along with his classmates, who made fun of his accent.

Home from a school vacation, he found out that his parents were moving to Pakistan as part of a large Muslim exodus, and Rushdie was crushed. He didn't like England, he didn't like Pakistan, and now he couldn't go home to Bombay. He tried working as a journalist in Pakistan, but there was too much censorship, so he went back to England and tried to become a writer. When he told his father his plans, his father said, "What on earth would you write about?"

He spent a year as an actor at a fringe theater in London and then supported himself in England by writing for advertising. His first assignment was to write a jingle about the merits of car seat belts, to the tune of a Chuck Berry song. While he was working there, he wrote a science fiction novel called Grimus (1975) that didn't do well. Then he decided to write a book about India, the country that he hadn't seen in years.

Rushdie's novel was called Midnight's Children (1981), the story of a man born the same day India gained independence. The book was a huge success, among both Westerners and Indians. It won the Booker Prize, and Rushdie became the leader of so-called "post-colonial literature." Only Rushdie's family hated the book. He had revealed a lot of family secrets in the novel and nobody appreciated it.

When Rushdie published The Satanic Verses in 1988, most Western critics didn't notice that it would be offensive to Muslims. In the book, Rushdie makes a lot of obscure jokes about the Islamic religion, he names the whores in a Mecca brothel after the Prophet Muhammad's wives, and he suggests that the Koran is not the direct word of God. The book was banned in India the month after publication and then subsequently in other countries. It was also publicly burned. There were bomb threats called in to the publishing house. Translators of the work suffered assassination attempts; the Italian translator was wounded, the Japanese translator killed, and the fire set by Islamic extremists to the Turkish translator's hotel left 40 people dead.

There was a riot in Kashmir over the book, and the Ayatollah Khomeini saw scenes from the riot on Iranian television in which police shot demonstrators. After that, the Ayatollah announced that "all zealous Muslims of the world" should try to find Rushdie wherever he was and kill him. The order of death came from Iran's leader on Valentine's Day, 1989. The Ayatollah promised martyrdom for any Muslim who was successful in killing Rushdie, and another religious leader promised a million-dollar reward, doubled if the killer was Muslim.

Rushdie had to go into hiding for nine years. On the first anniversary of the fatwa, he wrote, "I feel as if I have been plunged, like Alice, into the world beyond the looking glass, where nonsense is the only available sense."

The death sentence was finally lifted in 1998. Rushdie later said, "The experience taught me ... a lot about the human capacity for hatred. But it also taught me the opposite: the capacity for solidarity and friendship. ... My Norwegian publisher was shot three times in the back and ... his first reaction, upon recovering from the bullet wounds, was to reprint the book. That's courage." After the fatwa was lifted, Rushdie decided to leave London and move to New York City. He was attracted to New York because he said, "A lot of people had a lot of stories not unlike mine. Everybody comes from somewhere else." His most recent book is The Enchantress of Florence (2008).

Read a Book, Save the World

A great reading list via this morning's Shelf Awareness:

Read Orwell, save the world. SciFi channel's Visions for Tomorrow initiative asked fans to pick the "Top Things You Must Read, Watch and Do to Save the World." Wired reported that the "top three planet-saving activities were reading, recycling and registering to vote."

And what should you read?

1. 1984 by George Orwell
2. The War of the Worlds by H.G. Wells
3. Dune by Frank Herbert
4. The Time Machine by H.G. Wells
5. I, Robot by Isaac Asimov
6. The Stand by Stephen King
7. Fahrenheit 451 by Ray Bradbury
8. 2001: A Space Odyssey by Arthur C. Clarke
9. Brave New World by Aldous Huxley
10. The Andromeda Strain by Michael Crichton

I would revisit any of the books that I've already read (bold red). Dune captivated me in high school. In fact, I somewhat regret only making it through the first three books in the series because I don't think I'll ever take an opportunity to dedicate myself to it again. I read Orwell and Huxley while in college, studying British writers, and I thought they were each so profound. Just after I graduated college, when I was working in a bookstore and had just met the future Mr. Bibliotonic, who bought a copy of Brave New World to catch my attention. Very romantic.

I have just added all of these titles to my TBR list, and I think I'll start with some H.G. Wells. Plus, I've got the new TV movie of The Andromeda Strain queued on my DVR.

Which of these books have you read?

FINISHED: Devil May Care

Earlier this week I finished Devil May Care, the new James Bond novel by Sebastian Faulks. It was, at best, entertaining in a page-turning sort of way. I could recommend it to anyone who looking for a beach or airplane read.

Faulks is the author of such highly acclaimed works as Charlotte Gray, Birdsong, and On Green Dolphin Street, the Cold War novel that allegedly inspired the Bond estate to handpick him as Ian Fleming’s latest successor. When I was in high school, I read the John Gardner Bond books, which were pretty stinky so I was thrilled to learn that Faulks had been selected to write the franchise’s new adventures. Needless to say, I had pretty high expectations for Devil May Care, hoping that Faulks, who is an approachable literary writer, would have infused a little more substance into this novel.

Devil May Care picks up where Fleming left off, skipping the intervening adventures. The year is 1967. Bond is on a three-month sabbatical—he’s off adventure, cocktails, and women. That is, until he’s summoned back to London for a new mission: Stop an Eastern Bloc plot to destroy Great Britain by flooding it with heroin.

From here, the novel skips along predictably so there’s little point in examining the plot. There are no intricacies or nuanced elements. Occasionally Faulks delights with a zesty passage, such as this:

Silver screamed in anger and raised his gun to fire at Felix’s heart, but before he could pull the trigger, part of the contents of his head shot through his nose, as Hamid crashed a heavy white rock down on to his skull, with a crack that echoed round the foothills of Noshahr.

My biggest complaints: stagnant dialogue, sparse but inelegant prose, awkward stabs at writing historical references, a milquetoast Bond girl, and a freakish but not scary villain (Julius Gorner, a bad guy whose right hand is a monkey’s paw). There are frequent smaller problems with the book. As I read Janet Maslin’s NYT review, I found myself wanting to quote rather extensively. Instead, I’m linking here. She’s spot on in her assessment, and far more articulate than I have the energy to be.

That said, last night I picked up Casino Royale, the novel that introduced the world to James Bond. Granted, I have only read the first chapter, but I love what I have read. Here’s the opening paragraph:

The scent and smoke and sweat of a casino are nauseating at three in the morning. Then the soul-erosion produced by high gambling—a compost of great and fear and nervous tension—becomes unbearable and the senses awake and revolt from it.

Ian Fleming has a casual and suave style, which is exactly what I want in a Bond adventure. I can only imagine what it was like for a reader in 1953—with no predisposition to any movie-screen Bond!—to have met this character.

FINISHED: Shark's Fin and Sichuan Pepper

Over the weekend, I finished reading Shark’s Fin and Sichuan Pepper, British food writer Fuchsia Dunlop’s delectable memoir of eating in China. The Guardian called this book a “cultural immersion,” which is apt, as the memoir entails much more than food.

Beginning in the early 1990s, Dunlop lived in China, off and on, for over a decade. As a student—and as a professional writer—she has traveled to remote corners of the country, engaging every person she could in conversation. That rich experience certainly imbues her writing with great depth. Between descriptions of food and meals, Dunlop dazzles with history, geography, modernization, growth, and more.

In the early 1990s, Dunlop lands in Chengdu in Sichuan province—the area recently devastated by earthquakes—where she researched Chinese policy on ethnic minorities. She falls for street food, as well as the incendiary food of Sichuan province and the snout to tail eating of China. When her visa expires, she enrolls in a professional training school for chefs, as the only Western student and one of three women.

As a student of Sichuan cookery, Dunlop learned about mastering the arts of flavor, starting with fu he wei, the complex flavors. Sichuan cuisine boasts twenty-three official complex flavors, one of which is “home-style”—salty, savory, and a little hot. In her travels, she had an opportunity to challenge her culinary comfort zone by eating a lot of truly exotic foods, including civet cats, goose intestines, and more. The chapter on food textures and mouth-feel—an integral part of Chinese cooking—is eye opening.

All is not delicious. Dunlop explores the SARS health crises, which temporarily put a damper on eating in restaurants, where the risk of disease transmittal was high, especially with such practices as “public” chopsticks. She also looks at other issues, such as food safety (use of toxic food additives is rampant) and the controversial consumption of endangered species (shark’s fin and bear paws, to name a few).
In addition to Shark's Fin, Dunlop has written two authoritative cookbooks, one of which—Revolutionary Chinese Cookbook—was nominated for a James Beard Award (Asian Cooking) this year.

If you’re interested in China, food, or travel—or if you simply appreciate sparkling prose—this book is for you.

tidbits

Just a few more items for the “so many books, so little time” column:
~ NPR’s Alan Cheuse, who always makes reliable recommendations, presents his summer picks.

~ Also at NPR.org, Emily Wylie takes a turn at Three Books—cowboys and indians, which includes Sherman Alexie's wonderful The Absolutely True Story of a Part-Time Indian

~ The LA Times offers a nice, annotated round-up of summer releases. I've added the following to my TBR list: Come on Shore and We WillKill and Eat You All (Christina Thompson, Bloomsbury, 7/08), What I Talk About When I Talk About Running (Haruki Murakami, Knopf, 7/08), Man in the Dark (Paul Auster, Henry Holt, 8/08)

Three Books

Here’s something you’ll want to add to your RSS feed. National Public Radio has a fantastic new feature—Three Books, in which a writer recommends three great reads on a single theme. So far, the books chosen run the gamut from popular to lesser known, hot-off-the-press to classic, as well as literary to lighter fare.

Sloane Crosley, author of the much-buzzed I Was Told There'd Be Cake, riffed on the theme of sun and sand. Diane Abu-Jaber weighed in with three books about blood and brains.

Truth to Power

The NYT recently asked a handful of writers to recommend books to the presidential candidates. The survey results were published in the Book Review this past Sunday. Many of the responses were remarkably astute, but my favorite recommendations, which spoke most directly to each candidate, were made by John Edgar Wideman:

Thanks for an opportunity to school the stars. As required reading for Obama I assign “The Prince” (Machiavelli), a manual detailing strategies for handling situations when turning the other cheek won’t do; for McCain “The Little Prince” (Antoine de Saint-Exupéry), a lyrical narrative about loving that’s not taming but loving by letting go; and in the spirit of gender equity, since there is only one female candidate, two books for Clinton — “Black Beauty” (Anna Sewell), a tale from the horse’s mouth about the trials and triumphs of being a dark horse; and any volume by Miss Manners that reminds a reader civility matters, even in presidential campaigns.

Which books would you recommend that the presidential candidates read?

HAPPY BIRTHDAY! Ian Fleming

With apologies to Fred Chappell and Walker Percy, whose birthdays are also May 28.

Today marks the 100th birthday of Ian Fleming, creator of James Bond and author of the children's class, Chitty Chitty Bang Bang. My favorite brief bio comes courtesy of Garrison Keillor's staff writers:

It's the birthday of the man who created James Bond, novelist Ian Fleming, (books by this author) born in London, England (1908). He wanted to be a diplomat, but he failed the Foreign Office examination and decided to go into journalism. He worked for the Reuters News Service in London, Moscow, and Berlin, and then during World War II, he served as the assistant to the British director of naval intelligence.

After the war, he bought a house in Jamaica, where he spent his time fishing and gambling and bird watching. He started to get bored, so he decided to try writing a novel about a secret agent. He named the agent James Bond after the author of a bird-watching book. Fleming said, "James Bond is ... the feverish dreams of the author of what he might have been — bang, bang, bang, kiss, kiss, that sort of stuff. It's what you would expect of an adolescent mind — which I happen to possess."

The first Bond novel, Casino Royale (1953), sold about 7,000 copies, and Fleming followed it with four more that sold less and less well. Critics said he was good at writing about places, but that was about it. Fleming had a newborn son at home, and he was disappointed that these books weren't making more money to help support the family, so for his next Bond story, he wrote the book specifically for the movies. He filled it with more psychopaths and beautiful women than usual. No one in the movie industry was interested at the time, but the novel From Russia, with Love (1957) became a huge international best seller.

In celebration of this day, Doubleday is releasing Devil May Care, the latest Bond novel, written by literary novelist Sebastian Faulks. Here an exclusive online review from Publishers' Weekly:

Set not long after the action in the last Fleming Bond novel, The Man with the Golden Gun (1965), Faulks’s much anticipated James Bond thriller captures the spirit of the original better than any pastiche to date. America is involved in Vietnam, drug trafficking is on the rise and the cold war is as hot as ever. Bond, who’s been on a “three-month sabbatical” imposed by his superiors, is called back to London for a new assignment involving Dr. Julius Gorner, a heroin trafficker. A classic Fleming villain, Gorner wants to destroy British civilization, and he’s physically marred by “an extremely rare congenital deformity” of his left hand (his so-called “monkey’s paw,” of course, is always gloved). He even has a deadly sidekick, Chagrin. Bond travels to Paris, where he hooks up with beautiful Scarlett Papava, whose sister, Poppy, is Gorner’s drug-addicted slave. After Bond and Gorner meet for a particularly dramatic tennis match, the action accelerates into overdrive, moving to Persia, Russia and, ultimately, back to Paris. Gorner’s scheme is as far-fetched as that of any Bond villain, but Faulks (Birdsong) gives it a ring of plausibility (and he fashions a great twist for one of the characters). The author’s real accomplishment is in recreating the tone and feel of the Fleming novels: the travelogue is terrific, and Bond’s confidence in his mission is part of the character’s enduring appeal. This may not be a James Bond for fans of the movie franchise, but it’s a great new addition to the “Fleming” canon—and should encourage readers to rediscover James Bond.

I'm off to buy my own copy right now!!

Bonus: Check out CBS News' Bond-o-Rama.

FINISHED: a bunch of books

Taxonomy of Barnacles

I first read about The Taxonomy of Barnacles in the New York Times. Not in the Book Review, as one might imagine, but I read an interview with Galt Niederhoffer in the “Fashion and Style” section, in which she reveals her eccentric family, the basis of her first novel. Her family story was deliciously odd. I finally got around the purchasing the book when it was released in trade paper. Niederhoffer wows with a confident comedy of manners, as well as a nod to Charles Darwin and Shakespeare’s King Lear. The patriarch of the Barnacle family presents his six daughters with a challenge: produce a male heir, and win the family fortune. The others get nothing. The characters are richly drawn (two of the sisters have “befriended” twin brothers who live in their building). The setting—New York City—is delightfully rendered. This is for anyone looking for something that reads like Wes Anderson’s Royal Tenenbaums. Or you could wait for the movie.

The View from the Seventh Layer

Last April I read Kevin Brockmeier’s brilliant, bestselling novel The Brief History of the Dead. Before I even finished the book, I promised that I would read any future book that he wrote. Imagine my surprise when I stumbled upon his follow-up, hot off the press, at the library. The View from the Seventh Layer is a collection of thirteen stories, all of which have previously appeared in print. The very first story—“A Fable Ending in the Sound of a Thousand Parakeets”—knocked my socks off. It had all of the playful qualities of Brief History, as well as an ending with a big payoff. Many stories have a fantastical, surreal, speculative feel to them, which appeals to me. I found myself setting the book aside after reading many of the stories so they could linger, like a long finish on a fine wine. Another story, “The Human Soul as a Rube Goldberg Device,” is a clever Choose Your Own Adventure for adults. This is for anyone who liked early Jonathan Lethem, Judy Budnitz, or Borges. Can’t wait to read more Brockmeier.

Miss Pettigrew Lives for a Day
Some time ago, in anticipation of the forthcoming move, my friend Caryl kindly loaned me her beautiful copy of Miss Pettigrew Lives for a Day. The idea was that I would read the book in time to see the movie. But as fate would have it, I didn’t manage to get past the first chapter. Just bad timing with other reading engagements. We went to the movie, and I loved it. Then I read the book, and I loved that too.

Written by Winifred Watson, Miss Pettigrew was first published in 1938. The novel is currently in print from Persephone Books, the super-cool British publisher that specializes in reviving lost twentieth-century classics, mostly written by women. Miss Pettigrew is sent by an employment agency to the wrong house. Instead of the governess job she was expecting, Miss Pettigrew finds herself thrust into a new role as social secretary to a nightclub singer, Miss LaFosse. And hijinks ensue. I loved Watson’s wit, humor, and carefree storytelling. Lighthearted line drawings make a charming package, immediately drawing the reader into the period and spirit of the novel.

I’m pleased to say that the movie stood alone quite nicely, and I was glad not to feel fierce loyalty to the novel. Amy Adams was spectacularly dramatic in the role of the Miss LaFosse, while Frances McDormand played Miss Pettigrew with great pathos. The movie follows the novel’s plot, adding a number of embellishments—most of which work, some of which are inexplicable (such as newspaper headlines of WW2's approach and air-raid drills, which I'm sure were meant to establish the time period, as if costuming were insufficient to the task).

I urge you to see the movie and read the book. Doesn’t matter in which order. Simply enjoy each on its merits.

las vegas reading postmortem

I’m back from Las Vegas. As always, my reading intentions were overly ambitious. I had purchased a few books specifically for Las Vegas—Casino Royale, The Emperor’s Children, and On a Hoof and a Prayer. As always, when planning a trip, I lost sleep over which would be the best book(s) to bring. Practicing some restraint, of these books, I only packed the Ian Fleming, for obvious thematic reasons.

In my carry-on, I included Death in a Strange Country, by Donna Leon. I read for almost every minute of the three-hour flight and knocked off about two-thirds of the mystery. Determined to finish this book by the return flight, three days later, I schlepped it with me everywhere, mostly to the pool. My suitcase, which had ample room, carried Then We Came to the End and Casino Royale. Neither saw the light of day.


The Mirage’s pool proved to be a difficult place to read. Pictured above is a view from the Dolphin Bar—seems almost postcard perfect, doesn't it? Usually, I would suit up and head down to the pool with a friend. The process of locating two empty lounge chairs, setting up towels, and getting situated with a tropical drink (pina colada is my poolside poison of choice) was exhausting. I would turn to chit-chat. And peoplewatching. Conclusion: the pool is not such a good place to read.

Here is a brief list of books other people were reading:
~ traveling companions: Lamb (Lisa, the birthday girl) and Eat, Pray, Love (Bonnie)
~ select books, poolside: Temptations by Douglas Kennedy (doesn't seem to be available in the U.S.), Certain Girls by Jennifer Weiner, and, on a heavier note, Dreams from My Father by Barack Obama

Bonnie, the most social of the group, was on my return flight. Although I only had fifty or so pages remaining in my mystery, the only reading I managed was the InStyle magazine—the biggest waste of money, but a ritual when I fly.

Viva Las Vegas

I’m off to Vegas for the weekend to help a girlfriend celebrate a milestone birthday. It’s my first visit, and aside from neon and casinos, I don’t really know what to expect. I’m not a gambler but I am a keen observer. My flight lands at McCarran at 10:30 a.m., which gives me just enough time to get to the hotel and be poolside with a cocktail and a book by noon.

As far as my book wardrobe goes, I’m having a difficult time choosing which titles to bring. I’m a few chapters into Death in a Strange Country (Donna Leon) and stand a fair chance of finishing the book on the plane. I’ve made some good progress on the next book group title, Then We Came to the End, which could be perfect poolside fare. Since learning I have a conflict and can’t attend the next book group, there’s no need to finish it soon.

I’ve already ruled out my recent hardcover purchases (Jhumpa Lahiri’s Unaccustomed Earth or Geraldine Brooks’ People of the Book) owing to bulk. Michael Pollan’s In Defense of Food is too nutritious for vacation reading.

Here are the contenders:

~ On a Hoof and a Prayer—Polly Evans’ tour of Argentina on horseback
~ Death by Pad Thai and Other Unforgettable Meals (edited by Douglas Bauer)—short in length, essays are good bedfellows when faced with the distractions of travel
~ Sound Bites—one part foodie, one part travel, essays written by Franz Ferdinand lead singer, Alex Kapranos
~ Casino Royale—James Bond, gambling, classic Ian Fleming, no brainer
~ Emperor’s Children—Claire Messud’s critically acclaimed novel

Back Monday...

tidbits for the first monday in may

~ Last week, the NYT reported that for the first time in 10 years, Harry Potter is missing from the bestsellers list. Unreal. I've traveled in my wayback machine to recall how ten years ago, while working as a rep for Holtzbrinck, it was difficult to get a book on The List because Potter was on the adult list. Yes, there wasn't even a separate children's list then. It's hard to deny that J.K. Rowling's series has had an incredible influence over the public's reading habits, but also on the publishing industry and other venerable institutions, such as the The List (a measure of a book's success).

~ The National Book Critic Circle (NBCC) announces their Good Reads list for Spring '08. A few of these—Price, Lahiri, and Baxter, for sure—are on my TBR list. Read more here.

FICTION

1. Richard Price, LUSH LIFE, Farrar, Straus & Giroux
2. Jhumpa Lahiri, UNACCUSTOMED EARTH, Knopf
3. Steven Millhauser, DANGEROUS LAUGHTER, Knopf
*4. Charles Baxter, THE SOUL THIEF, Pantheon
*4. Peter Carey, HIS ILLEGAL SELF, Knopf
*4. J. M. Coetzee, DIARY OF A BAD YEAR, Viking
*4. James Collins, BEGINNNER’S GREEK, Little, Brown
*4. Brian Hall, FALL OF FROST, Viking
*4. Roxana Robinson, COST, Farrar, Straus & Giroux
*4. Owen Sheers, RESISTANCE, Nan A. Talese: Doubleday

NONFICTION

1. Nicholson Baker, HUMAN SMOKE: THE BEGINNING OF WORLD WAR II, THE END OF CIVILIZATION, S. & S.
2. Drew Gilpin Faust, THIS REPUBLIC OF SUFFERING: DEATH AND THE AMERICAN CIVIL WAR, Knopf
3. Mark Harris, PICTURES AT THE REVOLUTION: FIVE MOVIES AND THE BIRTH OF THE NEW HOLLYWOOD, Penguin Press
4. Honor Moore, THE BISHOP’S DAUGHTER: A MEMOIR, Norton
5. Susan Jacoby, THE AGE OF AMERICAN UNREASON, Pantheon

POETRY

1. Grace Paley, FIDELITY, Farrar, Straus & Giroux
2. Frank Bidart, WATCHING THE SPRING FESTIVAL, Farrar, Straus & Giroux
3. Eric Gansworth, A HALF-LIFE OF CARDIO-PULMONARY FUNCTION, Syracuse University Press
4. Marie Howe, THE KINGDOM OF ORDINARY TIME, Norton
5. Robert Pinsky, GULF MUSIC, Farrar, Straus & Giroux

nuggets

~ Pulitzer Prizes were awarded earlier this week. You can see a list of winners here. I think it's finally time to read the wondrous Junot Diaz.

~ As I was cleaning off my desk, I found a printout of an old article, dated July 11, 2007, announcing an official new James Bond story. Marking the centenary of Ian Fleming's birth, Doubleday will release Devil May Care on May 28, 2008. I'm pretty excited for many reasons, the approaching release date chief among them, but also because Sebastian Faulks, author of Birdsong and On Green Dolphin Street, has written it. Viva le Bond!



On a related note, check out Penguin's Bond reissues. Their retro appeal is perfect. I just purchased Casino Royale (1954) to read, appropriately, on a flight to Las Vegas next month.

Get a Bond fix:
Commander Bond
Ian Fleming Centre, the official site of Ian Fleming Publications, the Fleming literary estate
Which Bond are you? Take a quiz.

~ Are you ready for a new Carlos Ruiz Zafon? Doubleday will publish the English translation of The Angel's Game, a prequel to Zafon's wildly bestselling The Shadow of the Wind, in summer 2009. According to Publishers' Lunch, the novel is set in 1920s Barcelona, combining a love story, a mystery, a fantasy and an exploration of literature. I've read elsewhere that there was, not surprisingly, "an intense seven-figure auction."

catching up

When I left off here, I was fiercely determined to finish The Omnivore’s Dilemma before my book group met. I wish that I could have continued to write my impressions as I was reading, but with only four days to read two hundred pages—did I mention I am a s-l-o-w reader?—I gave myself over to the book. I’m pleased to say that I came within thirty pages of finishing. Book group met, six members strong, and we had a very good discussion—each of us equally horrified where appropriate, motivated to make the best food choices for ourselves and our families, and wowed by Pollan’s talent.

Where was I, then?

In the last half of the second section, Pollan continues writing about the animals on Joe Salatin’s farm, specifically about the rich symbiosis shared between the cows and the chickens. The cows produce manure. Three or four days later, the chickens eat fat, protein-rich grubs out of the cow manure, which not only produces rich and tasty eggs, but sanitizes the pasture so Salatin doesn’t need to use toxic dewormers or antibiotics on his cattle. I can’t get over how cool that is. Why can’t more farmers do this?

Pollan also details chicken slaughter, which Salatin is allowed to conduct on his farm. He visits Bev Eggleston, who markets Polyface meat and eggs, and he tags along with Joel’s brother, Art, as he delivers Polyface items to local restaurants that endorse farm-to-table menus. In the spirit of eating locally, the third of four meals is eaten in Charlottesville, before Pollan’s return to California. Pollan roasts chickens, which he helped slaughter, as well as corn, picked from Salatin’s hoop house. Pollan also prepares a soufflé from Salatin’s eggs and serves local wine, a Virginia-state viognier.

The book’s final section—the forest—was my favorite. Pollan examines the ethics of eating animals juxtaposed against a vegetarian diet. He also forages for mushrooms (morels), hunts wild boar, and harvests salt. For his fourth meal, Pollan establishes the following rules:

1. Everything on the menu must have been hunted, gathered, or grown by me.

2. The menu should feature at least one representative of each edible kingdom: animal, vegetable, and fungus, as well as an edible mineral (the salt).

3. Everything served must be in season and fresh. The meal would reflect not only the places that supplied its ingredients, but a particular moment in time.

4. No money may be spent on the meal, though already purchased items in the pantry could be deployed as needed.

5. The guest list is limited to those people who helped me in my foraging and their significant others. . . . There would be ten of us in all.

6. I would cook the meal myself.

Here is his menu:

Fava Bean Toasts and Sonoma Boar
Pate Egg Fettuccine with Power Fire Morels
Braised Leg and Grilled Loin of Wild Sonoma Pig
Wild East Bay Yeast Levain
Very Local Garden Salad
Fulton Street Bing Cherry Galette
Claremont Canyon Chamomile Tisane
2003 Angelo Garro Petite Syrah

Ambitious and a little (intentionally) pretentious. If you’d like to know the meal's outcome, I’d strongly suggest you read this book. It’s worth it for Pollan’s richly detailed writing.

Pollan concludes that without the fast food we wouldn't be able to appreciate the slow food fully, but ultimately argues that it would be nice to get to a point where food is food. He would like to enjoy food for food's sake and leave the politics out of the meal. Amen.

Thumbing through the book, trying to refresh my memory, I’ve read random, impeccably constructed sentences that remind me how much I enjoyed reading The Omnivore’s Dilemma. I know I’ll read it again, but in the meantime I’m passing along the book to my sister because I know she’ll appreciate it and we’ll have a good conversation later. I love Michael Pollan's dense narrative style, which pretty perfectly blends factual information with his personal experience. I have added some of his backlist to my TBR list—The Botany of Desire (another book that weaves science with anecdotes to explore the relationship between people and plants) and A Place of My Own (in which Pollan explores home construction through history and personal experience). And, I'd like to read the provocatively titled In Defense of Food: An Eater's Manifesto, his continuing discussion about what we eat.

The next selection for our book group is Joshua Ferris’s critically acclaimed Then We Came to the End, an office dramedy described as such by Publishers Weekly:

This wickedly funny, big-hearted novel about life in the office signals the arrival of a gloriously talented new writer. The characters in Then We Came to the End cope with a business downturn in the time-honored way: through gossip, secret romance, elaborate pranks, and increasingly frequent coffee breaks. By day they compete for the best office furniture left behind and try to make sense of the mysterious pro-bono ad campaign that is their only remaining "work."

Substitute "architecture magazine group" for the protagonist's "ad agency" and "gut-wrenchingly stressful" with "wickedly funny," and Ferris's little novel strikes too close to home. Which may explain why I haven't started it yet. This book has been on my radar since I received an insider tip before it was published, but the glowing reviews for the hardcover, the nomination for a National Book Award, and making it to the semi-final round of the '08 Tournament of Books certainly boosted TWCTTE up my TBR list.