# What are you reading?



## chef ladybug (Aug 14, 2007)

I'm reading "The Unbearable Lightness of Being." Haven't gotten to the supposedly erotic part yet... but I assume good things come to those who wait :lips:

What have you guys been reading lately? Recommend it?


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## free rider (May 23, 2006)

I was going to post about the book I finally started reading last night... Kitchen Confidential. It's super! Not at all like what the reviews said (perhaps the reviewers only read other reviews). I really like the book and, in fact, would like a chat with the author.

One of my favorite sets of books are The Emigrant books by Vilhelm Moberg: The Emigrants, Unto a Good Land, The Settlers, and The Last Letter Home. Should be read in order, about Swedish immigration into Minnesota.


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## mezzaluna (Aug 29, 2000)

The last book I read was the final Harry Potter book. I have re-started London by Edward Rutherford, which I began years ago but never had the chance to finish. I have The Martian Chronicles by Ray Bradbury from audible.com | Download books, magazines, newspapers and radio shows on my MP3 player as well.

Then there are the culinary-related books. I recently bought The Art of Eating by M.F.K. Fisher.


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## foodnfoto (Jan 1, 2001)

I'm currently reading Imperial Life in the Emerald City by Rajiv Chandrasekaran about life in Baghdad's Green Zone. OMG could anything have been bungled so completly?

I'm also reading Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows. Really good and very entertaining.

I keep jumping back to 1491 by Charles Mann-fascinating! I especially like reading sections about what foods the indigenous peoples of the Americas grew and ate. I'm trying to grow my beans and corn in the same way they did, by letting the beans climb up the corn stalks while improving the soil that the corn depletes-seems to be working.


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## chef ladybug (Aug 14, 2007)

I read "The Martian Chronicles" back in high school. I love Ray Bradbury. Saw the movie "Fahrenheit 451," based on his book with the same title (which I also read), not too long ago... probably last month. Didn't like the casting though I understand the logic behind it.


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## shroomgirl (Aug 11, 2000)

short humorus stories throughout the 20th century from the New Yorker.....
Pajamas something or other....

The other book I'm picking up and putting down is a compliation of speeches verbatium from again the 20th century. This book is outstanding. 
RFK's speech to 600 African Americans 3 hours after MLK was killed, followed by Ted Kennedy's eulogy of RFK several months later.
Orson Wells apology for his War of the World's show
Mai Lei Masacre trial shtuff
Helen Keller's praise of communism
etc...what I really love about the book is that it's not someone's paraphrasing but the original speech. I'll get the title tomorrow


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## muskyhopeful (Jun 16, 2006)

Not long ago I finished *The Pest House,* by Jim Crace. It's a love story of sorts set far in America's future. The main characters are walking across a rather blighted landscape hoping to get to the coast where they find a ship to take them to glorious Europe. They find more hope in each other.

Now I'm reading *Mara and Dann, *by Doris Lessing. It's the story of a brother and sister making their way north across a blighted and drought stricken Africa thousands of years in the future. I have the sequel, also, and my go right into that.

Both were written by highly skilled English authors and are not your run of the mill science fiction. Some feel that Doris Lessing is deserving of the Nobel Prize for literature.

Throw in *The Road* by Cormac McCarthy, and you have a heck of pessimistic trilogy.

I have *1491 *by Charles Mann, and need to dig into that one. That's a bruiser, though, and I'll need to be ready. I also want to read *Collapse *by Jared Diamond. Non-fiction next on the list I think.

Kevin

Reading Is FUNdamental.


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## allie (Jul 21, 2006)

I'm reading A Breath of Snow and Ashes by Diana Gabaldon. It's currently the last book of the Outlander series. I have really enjoyed these books and already can't wait for the next one!

Next on my list are: 
The Maytrees by Annie Dillard
The Last Summer (of You & Me) by Ann Brashares
Once Around the Track by Sharyn McCrumb


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## mezzaluna (Aug 29, 2000)

Wow.... a lot of us share interest in the same genres. Kevin, the Crace and Lessing books sound very good.

I just downloaded the final Jane Austen title I didn't have: Northanger Abbey. I don't really like gothic novels, but this is supposed to be her send-up of them. (I can't wait to see "Becoming Jane", the movie about Austen.)

I wasn't much of a reader until I found the Tolkein books. After that I couldn't get enough. Except for cookbooks, historical biographies and historical narratives, I don't read much non-fiction.


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## chefraz (May 10, 2007)

Being a ROCKER,( its in my blood ) So the book I read on the plane ride home. was "Inside Out " a personal History of pink floyd.by nick mason.what a suprising book. Not only does it explain a lot of things that I've always wondered about.It is funny and has lots of great photos. If you like rock, and wonder why the band broke up, or want to see some old pictures of the band I'd check it out.









*Nick Mason says:* 'I started making notes for this book in 1994. We had just finished a world tour, and for the first time in many months I was not involved in trying to stuff another bundle of free T-shirts, tour jackets, hotel soaps and towelling robes into my suitcase. With a certain amount of leisure time beckoning, I thought it might be time to start dealing with the questions I'd been asked for thirty-odd years - "How did the band get its name?", "Where's Syd?" and "What's it really like?". It's only taken ten years to come up with some answers.
kudos NICK.


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## foodnfoto (Jan 1, 2001)

Hey Musky
The great thing about 1491 is that is was originally written as a series of editorial articles, so each chapter is kind of self-containing; meaning, it's not important that you read it from beginning to end. It helps, but is not necessary.
I have read most of the book, but largely out of sequence and it's still fascinating.
Pick it up and start reading anywhere.
Your whole notion about pre-Colombian life will be turned on its head.


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## chef ladybug (Aug 14, 2007)

I wonder if this thread has already been started by someone else. I hope the moderators take care of this and combine this thread with the original one if another one like it exists. Wasn't too sure if my renewing an old thread would go over OK with you guys.


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## mezzaluna (Aug 29, 2000)

Chef Ladybug, it's fine to resurrect older threads- we do it often. This may have been discussed earlier, but this community is constantly growing, so "old" threads are "new" again. Whether you re-start an existing thread from long ago or start a new one, either way is fine.


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## shel (Dec 20, 2006)

What did the reviews say?

I read Kitchen Confidential a couple of months ago. While it was an interesting biography of Anthony Bourdain, it was also rather eneven in its editing and the way it was written. Much of the book seemed to drone on about Bourdain's personal problems and demons (which, while not very well written gave good insight into the guy). However, there were a few chapters that really gave a good feel to the action in the kitchen. I could feel the tension and pressure and excitement in those chapters and passages - it was as if someone else was writing those parts of the book.

KC is a worthwhile read, that's for sure.


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## shroomgirl (Aug 11, 2000)

July 2000, Tony was our featured celebrity on Cheftalk....we had Q & A about Kitchen Confidential.....initially it was written for people in the industry who were in the NE....small regional book.....

I hosted an industry only potluck in STL while he was tourring....he is a gem.
Amoungst the food writers, tall white hat CC chefs, ball cap wearring independent chefs there was an adoring dishdog who was a total groupie.
Anyway Tony invited this older lifer (appearred mid-50's but looked like he'd lived hard) to NYC, showed him around town for a few days etc...just treated him royally. That was HUGE. Just magnaimus. This man will have that adventure to tell the rest of his life. I'll never forget the act of kindness....
he can do no wrong in my book.


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## ishbel (Jan 5, 2007)

I'm just finishing Alexander McCall Smith's 'The World According to Bertie'. This is the fourth in his '44 Scotland Street' series. He happened to be speaking to the editor of The Scotsman newspaper a few years back and said how he had often wanted to try a daily chapter article, like Charles Dickens did.... The editor said 'OK' and the first daily chapters appeared!

This one seems weaker than the previous three in the series - but his 'Edinburgh' books are great - wish I could 'get' his No1 Lady Detective books, though.... I haven't been able to finish one of them!


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## mezzaluna (Aug 29, 2000)

Shroom, I can see that in Bourdain. He gave a book talk in Milwaukee once and I went to hear him. He was very encouraging to the culinary students who came in good numbers. He never forgot that his audience was mostly people who'd never worked in restaurant kitchens and kept his language appropriate to the crowd. I was charmed, to be honest, the more so because I expected a rough-edged guy.


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## shel (Dec 20, 2006)

Betty Smith's "_A Tree Grows in Brooklyn_." I've been reading it every five years or so since 1965. I guess that means I'd recommend it.

Also reading "_Rouge Regime: Kim Jong Il and the Looming Threat of North Korea_." Just started it. The first three chapters are real eye-openers,

Finally, "_Cookbook of the Jews of Greece_" by Nicholas Stavroulakis. I love the history lessons he includes, and many of the recipes are interesting, especially when comparing them to similar recipes in Copeland Mark's book on Jewish Indian cuisine, and some old recipes found in "_The Cooking of the Jews of Italy_."

Shel


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## free rider (May 23, 2006)

The reviews said that KC was a book about the horrors of what goes on in restaurant kitchens and that one would never want to enter a restaurant after reading it. I found what you did, that it was nothing of the sort. It was an autobiography focusing on Bourdain's career as a chef. 

The editing was awful, but Bourdain has a natural style to his writing. I imagine he speaks in about the same way he writes except nobody would notice the spelling mistakes.


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## free rider (May 23, 2006)

I started a collection of essays by Salman Rushdie last night, "Imaginary Homelands". The first essay started out nicely, but I have a feeling the rest are going to be a little more like critiques of other's work rather than an essay on the life of an immigrant.


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## shel (Dec 20, 2006)

Just recently I learned that Salman Rushdie was married to Padma Lakshmi, who's on the Top Chef program. She was his fourth wife.

Shel


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## free rider (May 23, 2006)

Was?! oh my oh my


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## shel (Dec 20, 2006)

I understand that they are now divirced, or in the process of getting a divorce.

Shel


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## free rider (May 23, 2006)

4th wife!!!! and now onto the 5th???? Yikes. Either he's horrid to live with or he keeps picking badly. Can't imagine that the underground life was easy, but I thought that was over by now.


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## chef ladybug (Aug 14, 2007)

I just finished "Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl" by Harriet Jacobs. Now I'm on to Nancy Woloch's "Women And the American Experience" and John Keep's "A History of the Soviet Union, 1945-1991."


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## chrose (Nov 20, 2000)

Currently Barbara Shers "Refuse to choose" (Second time around)
Refuse to Choose!: A Revolutionary ... - Google Book Search
And "The Complete Idiots Guide to Music Theory".
The Idiots guide apparently wasn't enough  I need the "Complete Idiots" guide!


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## pastrymanjosh (Feb 13, 2008)

Currently reading "The Making Of A Pastry Chef" by Andrew MacLauchlan (who apparently is a famous American chef but as I don't live in USA I haven't heard of him. I also am reading "Escape From Alcatraz" by J. Campbell Bruce which is mostly about the Alcatraz escape of Frank Morris & the Anglin brothers who escaped in 1962.


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## rouxtheday (Jan 5, 2008)

Um... food-related message boards?


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## remie (Feb 18, 2008)

I am reading a book of dan brown called Angels and Demons. This novel is so good it is a guaranteed page turner.


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## allie (Jul 21, 2006)

I read Angels and Demons a while back. I enjoyed it but then I've enjoyed all of Dan Brown's novels I've read to this point.

Right now, I'm reading On Call in **** by Cdr. Richard Jadick. He was a battalion surgeon during the Battle of Fallujah and this book tells about his experiences in Iraq. Not being familiar with the military, this one is a bit rough for me to follow but I'm persevering out of curiosity for what it is like for our men fighting over there.


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## automatic slim (Jan 31, 2008)

David Lee Roth "Crazy From the Heat". He's crazy alright. Still can't put it down!


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## gummy-bear (Oct 27, 2007)

I am reading the Anita Blake series by Laurel K. Hamilton. The series is about a zombie raising, vampire killing, necromancer and her life protecting St. Louis from monsters. The series is around 14 books and is a very humorus, exciting book that will keep you awake during boring classes. I highly recommend this book and so do reviewers who said it was "An R rated Buffy the Vampire Slayer".

Wow, I write book reports too often.


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## phatch (Mar 29, 2002)

I'm re-reading Cryptonomicon. It's a tale set in WWII and the late 1990s with the events interweaving in the different families lives. Plus you learn a whole bunch about cryptography along the way. One of my favorite books.

Cookbook-wise, I have a stack from the library on Korean, Veitnamese and Indonesian food.

PHil


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## mezzaluna (Aug 29, 2000)

I was given a copy of Infidel by Ayaan Hirsi Ali. She was born in Somalia, sought asylum in the Netherlands, and eventually became a member of the Dutch Parliament. According to the book jacket, her goal is to balance western Democratic ideals with Islamic ideals. I've been told it's a quick read but lately I've not been much in the mood for reading. 

Still, the book looks very interesting and worth reading.


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## andyg (Aug 27, 2007)

I haven't read this book, but saw the movie, and it's one of my favorites.

On the other hand, I read the book Congo and it's one of my 2 favorite novels. Later the movie came out and it wasn't that great, so I heard, so I didn't see it. I didn't want to tarnish the book experience.

My other favorite book is Shibumi, by Trevanian.


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