Book Rec of the Day 12/4-12/6/2008

FOOD FOR THOUGHT

“Food is about agriculture, about ecology, about man’s relationship with nature . . . and at times, even about sex,” James Beard Award-winner Mark Kurlansky writes in his introduction to more than 200 essays on food, cooking, and eating. The pantheon of writers is impressive, their approaches dazzlingly diverse: Plato, Neruda, Alice B. Toklas, Balzac, Virginia Woolf, Chekhov. They write about French fries, bachelor cooking, Turkish desserts, English food, culture, politics, and, of course, sex. Where to start? It’s a wonderful feast.

CHOICE CUTS: A SAVORY SELECTION OF FOOD WRITING FROM AROUND THE WORLD AND THROUGHOUT HISTORY, by Mark Kurlansky (Ballantine Books, 2002)

THE SPORTING LIFE
Comprehensive, well organized, easy to read, packed with tables and charts . . . That’s what fans are saying about this book. Includes histories for each of the Division 1-A programs, Ivy League Schools, and the historically black colleges. Plus lively essays by Dan Jenkins, Beano Cook, and Chris Fowler, among others. This irreplaceable, long-awaited, and beautifully researched reference book has even hooked quite a few wives and girlfriends.

ESPN COLLEGE FOOTBALL ENCYCLOPEDIA: THE COMPLETE HISTORY OF THE GAME, by Michael MacCambridge (ESPN Books, 2005)

FAVORITE AUTHOR

“Scott Turow at the very top of his form.”—Alan Furst

Stewart Dubinsky (last seen in Presumed Innocent) is a retired newspaperman who comes across letters his late father wrote during World War II. What unfolds is a complex, tightly wrought tale that includes a love triangle, a spy, and, above all, a son’s search for his father.

ORDINARY HEROES, by Scott Turow (Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 2005)