# Read any good books lately?



## mezzaluna (Aug 29, 2000)

Music... films... ok, now it's time for books. I read "Appetite for Life", the Julia Child biography by Noel Fitch. Totally amazing woman, Julia. I'll also admit to enjoying Harry Potter books- sort of literary junk food. I wonder if anyone is actually going to try to manufacture Bertie Bott's Everyflavor Beans, especially the earwax flavored ones.


----------



## m brown (May 29, 1999)

mmmm.... what about the vomit flavor?

Complete and Utter Failure. Just started it and it looks pretty good.


----------



## cookm (Aug 8, 2000)

Great topic. I recently read Harry Potter 4. Couldn't put it down, but I was up at a Buddhist retreat in silence for 3 days. Funnily, my acupuncturist told me that a lot of her clients' pulses were off because they all stayed up late reading Harry Potter. I'm also reading a Photoshop book, all of Charlie Trotter's cookbooks, and "The Earth Shall Weep: A History of Native America". I want to get Ken Wilber's new book, The Theory of Everything (don't quote me on the title). Too many books? I was an English major in college...


----------



## nicko (Oct 5, 2001)

A couple of good books that I have read recently are:

*Kitchen Confidential* by: Anthony Bourdain

*Way of the Scout* by: Tom Brown Jr.

*Tender at the Bone* by: Ruth Richel

*London* by: Edward Rutherford

*The Lord of The Rings* by J.R. Tolkien (I am re-reading this to gear up for the up-coming movie).

------------------
Thanks,

Nicko
[email protected]

[This message has been edited by Nicko (edited September 14, 2000).]


----------



## bayou (Jul 30, 2000)

Books that I've found interesting are:

Death in the Afternoon, Earnest Hemingway

Ishmael, by Daniel Quinn

Dancing in the Paths of the Ancestors, by Thomas E. Mails, and

Snow falling on cedars, by David Guterson.









[This message has been edited by Bayou (edited September 14, 2000).]


----------



## judy (Jul 6, 1999)

Nicko, I too enjoyed London. Have you read Sarum? I ratr that even better.
Usually I read trash and owning a book shop that is a pretty sad statement


----------



## augiewren (Aug 27, 2000)

Anything by John McPhee, Barbara Kingsolver, E. Phillips Oppenheim and of course....David Sedaris.


----------



## shroomgirl (Aug 11, 2000)

I've read the Harry Potter series...usually in 1-2day marathons.....what an amazing writer.
Hmmmm books...well I read 2 newspapers a day, NYTIMES and Local, several local rags a week, Food Illustrated from England (incredible) Bon Appetit, Gourmet, Food Arts, The new Organic mag. 
Cook Books....Brodys are good reading.
Guess it's been a long time since I've actually read an adult novel. Well guess I need to get past the periodical and Starbucks kiosk at Barnes and Noble.


----------



## mezzaluna (Aug 29, 2000)

Nicko, I also re-read LOTR to rev up for the films and also to get a student hooked on them. (He loves them!!) I always wanted to see if I could make up a recipe for lembas... Reading Dune gave me a hankering for cinnamon. I also read cookbooks, cover to cover. I've enjoyed Craig Claiborne's NYTimes Cookbook and have two editions of it. Also liked his International Cookbook from the '70s. A favorite is an 1897 book called Poetry in Cookery. Has some very interesting recipes, plus directions for making ink and soap.


----------



## nick.shu (Jul 18, 2000)

I have a tendency to go for Tom Clancy novels because they pass a good amount of time while travelling. 

Last cooking books read is "The Essential Mossiman" and "the Roux Brothers on Patisserie".


----------



## nicko (Oct 5, 2001)

Hey Mezzaluna,

I am really pumped about the new LOTR movie coming out, but there is a big question as to whether director Peter Jackson can pull it off. His track record of movies had been rough to say the least (Meet the Feebles, Bad Taste, Evil Dead, and Frightners to name a few). It may be though that his quirkiness will lend to make the movie a success. There have been several attempts to try to adapt the novel to the big screen, and all were utter dissapointments to most Tolkien fans. I don't want to get my hopes up like I did for Star Wars epidsode I only to end up walking out of the theatre saying "what the heck was that?".

------------------
Thanks,

Nicko
[email protected]


----------



## cape chef (Jul 31, 2000)

I recommend, Becoming a Chef by Andrew Dornenburg and karen Page. Written by Chefs for Chefs. The book will make you smile with pride


----------



## chef david simpson (Sep 25, 2000)

"The Soul of a Chef" Michael Ruhlman is a very good book that I highly recommend for for all.


----------



## chef david simpson (Sep 25, 2000)

Oh, I forgot one, "If You Can Stand the Heat"
I can't remember who wrote it. But it's a good one.


----------



## chef mark hayes (Aug 21, 2000)

A PIRATE LOOKS AT FIFTY-JIMMY BUFFET

I am a major parrothead, any one else?

------------------
M.W.H.


----------



## nicko (Oct 5, 2001)

Judy,

I just saw your post about reading Sarum, and no I haven't. Have you, and is it good? I thought London was a great book it reminded me very much of Irving Stone's Agony and The Ecstasy in terms of being a novel based on historical facts. Actually I found that the Agony and The Ecstasy was a very inspiring book for me as a chef. Reading on the life of Michael Angelo and his pursuit of perfection in his art was incredible. It really had meaning for me when I travelled to Italy and saw the Sistine chapel first hand for myself.

Love to hear about Sarum if you have read it.

------------------
Thanks,

Nicko
[email protected]


----------



## chef david simpson (Sep 25, 2000)

Has anyone seen a book called "All The Truffles I've Seen" by Lang?


----------



## mezzaluna (Aug 29, 2000)

I read House Atreides, too, and I hear House Harkkonen is out now. Nicko, I think Peter Jackson will succeed because he and so many others attached to the project are devotees of Tolkien. I believe it made the top 100 books of the century, and is one of the most widely read in the world. As for Phantom Menace: a sixth grader could have written a better story than that. I'm sorry, because I loved the early Star Wars films. Hope the next one is better. (Say, wasn't I talking about books??!!)


----------



## lynne (Oct 6, 2001)

I have a tendancy to read to escape the real world and just finished a wonderful book by Harry Turtledove, The Two Georges. Turtledove writes alternative histories; pretty neat, the world if different powers had come into play in the world wars, or how it would be different if the south had one the civil war, or if Canada and the US had different relationships (the 2 Georges). One of his series has an army legion that somehow got transported to ancient Rome. Really interesting food for thought.

I love sci-fi and fantasy and love the books of Mercedes Lackey--I can really disappear into her Valdemar books. Enjoyed Anne McCaffreys Pern books and enjoyed the early Xanth books by Piers Anthony. 

My favourite book of all time is A Tale of Two Cities .


----------



## isa (Apr 4, 2000)

The Winner by David Baldacchi. A good escapism book. Nice thriller, very entertaining and at time hard to put down. 

Sisi


----------



## isa (Apr 4, 2000)

Opps that's David Baldacci...


----------



## judy (Jul 6, 1999)

Yes Nicko I read Sarum and as Stonehenge is near the part of England I come from I was fascinated. I liked the way it focused on the same families all the way through the ages. My only complaint was he seemed to get tired of it and to rush the latter part of the book. You have to experience the power standing in the circle of Stonehedge gives out. As a child I was taken there a few times but now I believe it is cordoned off and you can only view from a distance.That is a great pity.


----------



## bevreview steve (Jan 11, 2000)

I just finished "Work in Progress" the bio of Michael Eisner, of Disney lore. Very good read.


----------



## judy (Jul 6, 1999)

Maryeo, I worked in an hotel not too far from the rollright stones when I first left college. On midsummers eve a few of us went there just before midnight as weird things are meant to happen. We were scared witless and left very quickly. The power of the mind or the stones, I don't know!


----------



## shroomgirl (Aug 11, 2000)

UGGGGGGHHHHHHH>>>>>>so any of the caramels?


----------



## shroomgirl (Aug 11, 2000)

UGGGGGGHHHHHHH>>>>>>so any of the caramels?
And does this mean we can bypass getting sick and just eat a jelly bean? OMG
MY stomach is flip flopping as I type


----------



## nicko (Oct 5, 2001)

Judy and Mareyo,

I was very disappointed to hear that you can no longer stand in the center of the stones at Stonehenge. Much like the acropolis in Athens, Greece visitors used to be able to walk in and about the acropolis. Now it is sectioned off







. My father also told me that when he was in the navy years ago you could actually touch Michelangelo's Pieta in the Vatican. Now after someone attacked it with an axe many years ago, it is behind bullet proof glass.

Have either of you read Irving Stone's classic "The Agony and the Ecstasy". It is a great book about the life of Michelangelo. Little slow in the first 100 or so pages, but really gets going.

By the way, Welcome prairiegyrl glad to have you.

------------------
Thanks,

Nicko
ChefTalk Cafe Administrator
[email protected]
www.cheftalk.com "A food lover's link to professional chefs!"


----------

