Book A Day: The Tenth Muse

Reading about Judith Jones' life in The Tenth Muse: My Life in Food is just fascinating. If you're someone who loves food and editing, like I do, you'll probably grow quite envious while reading this. I wonder why I couldn't have her life.

You'll learn about how Jones became an editor at Knopf and find out interesting things about the authors she worked with. Here's a woman who interacted with Julia Child and Marcella Hazan and Jim Beard. She has had a wonderful life filled with all the things I wish I could do in my life.

And there are recipes at the back of the book. I haven't made any yet, but I have "A Cornish Hen with Herbal Stuffing Under the Skin, Broiled" bookmarked.

There were a few parts I skimmed more than read, but for the most part, I really enjoyed Jones' writing and life story, and I think you will too.

If you have read this book, what did you think?

Remember, I'm away until March 20, so you won't get responses from me until then.

Book A Day: Animal, Vegetable, Miracle

Barbara Kingsolver's Animal, Vegetable, Miracle: A Year of Food Life is one of those books that really gets you thinking. Could I spend a year eating only locally grown food and growing my own food? I doubt it. But Kingsolver's book is inspiring, and I do think I can change some of my food-buying habits based on what she did and her advice.

I'm not doing it here, in the middle of Boston, but when I read about Kingsolver's baby turkeys, I really wanted to raise my own. She writes:

From time to time one of the babies would be overtaken by the urge for a power nap. Staggering like a drunk under the warm glow of a brooder lamp, it would shut its eyes and keel over, feet and tiny winglets sprawled out flat. More siblings keeled onto the pile, while others climbed over the fuzzy tumble in a frantic race to nowhere.

Descriptive passages like this run throughout the book and enable you to picture exactly what Kingsolver is doing and seeing. And among Kingsolver's story is practical and useful advice from husband Steven, another point of view from daughter Camille, and recipes -- wonderful recipes using fresh ingredients!

Chapter 9 - Six Impossible Things Before Breakfast is my favorite part of the book. Kingsolver brings up the effects women's rights had on the kitchen. This is really when prepackaged, prefab foods came into play. As I've said before, I obviously think women should have rights, but we did not compensate for this. We didn't put someone else in the kitchen to replace the wife or mother who had always been there. Who's cooking now? (Obviously, I'm really generalizing here... because plenty of people do still spend time in the kitchen, myself included.) You have to read the passage to really understand the issues here. I don't want to give too much away.

She also talks about lactose intolerance in this same chapter. Many people don't know that we really shouldn't be drinking milk as adults. Our digestive systems were never designed for that. Calves drink milk from their mothers. We should not. And I like that she points out that many people don't realize their lactose intolerance: "Physicians will tell you, the great majority of lactose-intolerant Americans don't even know it. They just keep drinking milk, and having stomachaches."

This book is filled with information about what we eat, where we get our food, and what we can do differently. The writing is informative but also descriptive, narrative, and fun. I call this a must-read for anyone interested in food.

If you have read this book, what did you think?

Remember, I'm away until March 20, so you won't get responses from me until then.

Book A Day: Garlic and Sapphires

Ruth Reichl's Garlic and Sapphires: The Secret Life of a Critic in Disguise is an incredibly funny and interesting read. I originally picked it up because two of my favorite things are in the title: garlic (who doesn't love it?) and sapphires (my birthstone), but beyond that and the knowledge that the book was written by Reichl, I didn't quite know what I was getting into.

Even though Reichl has written other books before Garlic and Sapphires, it was the first of her books I came across. I enjoyed it so much that I've since read a couple others.

Not only does this book share with you some of Reichl's great disguises she used when she was a restaurant critic, but it gives you a lot of insight into her life, and you can see why she's now at the top of Gourmet's masthead.

The book contains the restaurant reviews she wrote, which I find incredibly interesting, as well as recipes, and of course her story. It's interesting to see how differently she was treated at restaurants depending on how she was dressed. It's a reminder to all of us that one visit to a restaurant does not constitute a comprehensive review. The service can change, the food can change, the amount of food can change.

I can say I definitely would have loved to have been dining with her on the days the restaurants saw through her disguises!

If you have read this book, what did you think?

Remember, I'm away until March 20, so you won't get responses from me until then.

Book A Day: Julie & Julia

This is a timely recommendation with the movie version coming out soon. I have to say I was definitely excited when I heard this book was being made into a movie, and even more excited when I saw what an amazing Julia Child Meryl Streep portrays.

I would call Julie Powell's Julie and Julia: 365 Days, 524 Recipes, 1 Tiny Apartment Kitchen a blogger's fairy tale. Powell is at that sort of mid-life crisis (before mid-life) and just decides to cook every one of Julia Child's recipes in Mastering the Art of French Cooking, and then she blogs about it. This book is her personal journey (yes, another one -- you can see what kind of books I'm into). It's funny and fun to read and also inspiring. I wish I had the time (and money) to make all of those recipes too!

If you have read this book, what did you think?

Remember, I'm away until March 20, so you won't get responses from me until then.

Book A Day: Eat, Pray, Love

To get things started, I thought I would write about a book that encompasses food, travel, and relationships. It seemed fitting considering I am traveling to Aruba with my boyfriend and planning to have lots of delicious meals!

I was swept away by Elizabeth Gilbert's Eat, Pray, Love: One Woman's Search for Everything Across Italy, India and Indonesia, as I have heard many were.

Just look at the cover design: Eat is written in pasta, pray in prayer beads, and love in flowers. It's simple, yet it ties in so well with the themes in the book.

It's been a while since I've read it (and actually I may take it on the plane with me to reread it), but I remember being drawn in and affected by so many parts of it. It's always interesting when you read a book and you can really empathize with the author but also feel like she empathizes with you, that she knows you.

The book is divided into three parts (called books) because the number three is important, and Gilbert explains why in her introduction.

I most enjoyed Italy. How shocking that I would be so fond of the "Eat" part. But it wasn't really the food that sucked me in this time. It was Gilbert's relationships.

About her husband, she says, "I equal parts loved him and could not stand him" (12). I think that's something most women who have been in long, and not so wonderful, relationships can attest to.

And then there was her relationship with David. I don't want to tell you too much because I want you to read it and find everything out yourself, but I think this is another of those relationships we may have all been in at one time or another, that we cling to, and Gilbert conveys it so well.

She moves on to India and then to Indonesia, working out her issues along the way. She sees things about herself that when you read them you can determine whether you see those same things in yourself.

There's depression, there's loneliness, there's finding oneself -- through food, prayer, and love -- and there's eventual happiness. This is a travel memoir and a personal journey.

I felt a real connection with this book. It made me laugh and cry, as a good book should.

A book is different to different people, and because I felt like chunks of my life were in this book, I loved it.

One of my favorite quotations comes from this book:

Moreover, I have boundary issues with men. Or maybe that's not fair to say. To have issues with boundaries, one must have boundaries in the first place, right? But I disappear into the person I love. I am the permeable membrane. If I love you, you can have everything. You can have my time, my devotion, my ass, my money, my family, my dog, my dog's money, my dog's time--everything. If I love you, I will carry for you all your pain, I will assume for you all your debts (in every definition of the word), I will protect you from your own insecurity, I will project upon you all sorts of good qualities that you have never actually cultivated in yourself and I will buy Christmas presents for your entire family. I will give you the sun and the rain, and if they are not available, I will give you a sun check and a rain check. I will give you all this and more, until I get so exhausted and depleted that the only way I can recover my energy is by becoming infatuated with someone else. - Elizabeth Gilbert (Eat, Pray, Love)

I hope, that if you haven't already, you will read this book, and maybe feel empowered by it... or at least really enjoy it.

If you have read this book, what did you think?

Remember, I'm away until March 20, so you won't get responses from me until then.