The 2020 Nonfiction Challenge Part III: Food, Glorious Food!

I confess that I stole the title for this month's challenge from the musical "Oliver!", which has a great song early on about how wonderful it is to discover all kinds of tasty food.

That said, this month's challenge isn't just confined to the eating of food! Go off in search of books about how food is grown (GMO? non-GMO?), about the politics and economics of food (food subsidies; food scarcity as in the Soviet-era famines in the Ukraine due to collectivization); about food "deserts" -- areas where it's impossible to buy fresh food -- and the people who are trying to fix that; about ideas about how to consume food (vegetarianism, veganism, etc. as well as medical issues, like gluten-free and how that came to be widely accepted.) Read about those who mess with food supplies, about the fast food industry (Super Size Me comes to mind...) about the restaurant business (books by Anthony Bourdain?) and culinary tourism. Read about the concept of terroir, or the environment in which specific crops are grown. Read about the slow food movement. Memoirs by chefs, by those fighting hunger, by gardeners trying to provide adequate food supplies to people... Or read a book about how the Romans threw great feasts, or Edwardian dinner parties. Read Mark Kurlansky about the humble cod, or about milk. Or Giles Milton, about the spice trade in Southeast Asia.

Two twists on this. You MAY read about drinks as well. So, if you want to read a book about the champagne wars. about the evolution of Coca Cola, the history of Bacardi rum (yes, there's a book about that), about wineries -- go for it. So that's what you CAN do. I know this next part will make me unpopular, but you may NOT read a book that is primarily a cookbook. So, it's a yes to Julie and Julia, in which Julie Powell writes about her effort to emulate Julia Child and follow her recipes; but a "no" to reading a Julia Child cookbook. The reason for this? One of the overall goals of the nonfiction challenge as I conceived it was to deliver book bullets to other readers. Many participants are interested in cooking; some aren't. But a recommendation of a good cookbook to check out doesn't rise to the level of a non-fiction tome, unless it's heavily weighted away from cooking ingredients, techniques, directions & plating suggestions. By all means, refer to your favorites along the way, but this is a challenge focusing on food and related issues (growing, distribution, marketing, availability, etc.) and not the art of cooking. I'd love a great suggestion about a book addressing the ways that new foods from the new world made their way to Europe, but cookbooks containing potato and tomato recipes won't be hard for most of us to identify and locate.

As always, please do come back and tell the rest of us what you're reading and what you think of it! (And whether you're combining your reading with new adventures in eating...) And hopefully by the end of March, those of us in the northern hemisphere will once more be looking forward to eating fresh-grown local fruit & veg.

What we're reading this month:

(Cover images TK)

Coming up in the rest of 2020!

*APRIL
Migration, Nationalism and Identity: New category dealing with emigration, immigration, nationalism, refugees, national identities, etc.

MAY
Books by Journalists

JUNE
Science & Technology: From medicine to Galileo. History or current breakthroughs/research.

*JULY
The Long 18th Century (1688-1815) (anywhere in the world...): The term is a British one, stretching out the 18th century to cover the period from the Glorious Revolution (which brought William & Mary to the throne but also sealed a new balance of power between the crown and Parliament) and the battle of Waterloo. The period saw the birth of capitalism as a concept, of colonialism, the end of China's status as an independent empire (ahead of the 19th century wars), the collapse of the Moghul empire, the birth of "reason", revolutions and the birth of the concept of the rights of man.

AUGUST
Books About Books (and Words, and Language, and Libraries)

*SEPTEMBER
The Byzantines, the Ottomans and their empire(s): The Ottomans took over from the Byzantines in 1453, and the former's empire collapsed circa 1915/1918, after WW1. Read anything set in this era, and about the region covered. So, you can read about Byron at Missalonghi, or the attempts to push the Turks back from Vienna. But not about Crete or Athens during the classical era (pre-Byzantine.)

*OCTOBER
Group Biography: you can read about a family, about a mother/daughter relationship, about a literary group, etc.), about siblings or a family.

NOVEMBER
Comfort Reading

DECEMBER
As you like it… A catch-all category for the end of the year.

* -- a new category this year!

Some suggestions for this month's reading:

Darjeeling: the Colorful History and Precarious Fate of the World's Greatest Tea by Jeff Koehler

On the Noodle Road: From Beijing to Rome, with Love and Pasta by Jen Lin-Liu

Tomatoland: How Modern Industrial Agriculture Destroyed Our Most Alluring Fruit by Barry Estabrook.

A History of the World in 6 Glasses by Tom Standage

Milk!: A 10,000-Year Food Fracas by Mark Kurlansky

Home Cooking: A Writer in the Kitchen by Laurie Colwin

Chop Suey: A Cultural History of Chinese Food in the United States by Andrew Coe

Fast Food Nation by Eric Schlosser

Bottled and Sold: The Story Behind Our Obsession with Bottled Water by Peter Gleick

Hog and Hominy: Soul Food from Africa to America by Frederick Douglass Opie

Comfort Me With Apples by Ruth Reichl

The Man Who Ate Everything by Jeffrey Steingarten

The Sushi Economy: Globalization and the Making of a Modern Delicacy by Sasha Issenberg

Candyfreak: A Journey Through the Chocolate Underbelly of America by Steve Almond

The Scavenger's Guide to Haute Cuisine by Steven Rinella

The Taste of Conquest: The Rise and Fall of the Three Great Cities of Spice by Michael Krondi

Hunger: A Memoir of (My) Body by Roxane Gay

Food in History by Reay Tannahill

An Edible History of Humanity by Tom Standage

Chocolate Wars by Deborah Cadbury

Enough: Why the World's Poorest Starve in an Age of Plenty by Scott Kilman & Roger Thurow

The World According to Monsanto by Marie-Monique Robin

Feeding the Future by Andrew Heintzmann

Three Famines by Thomas Keneally

The Omnivore's Dilemma by Michael Pollan

Billionaire's Vinegar by Benjamin Wallace

Champagne, Uncorked: The House of Krug and the Timeless Allure of the World’s Most Celebrated Drink by Alan Tardi

Shadows in the Vineyard: The True Story of a Plot to Poison the World's Greatest Wine by Maximilian Potter

Four Fish: The History of the Last Wild Food by Paul Greenberg

Extra Virginity: The Sublime and Scandalous World of Olive Oil by Tom Mueller

Recipe for America: Why Our Food System is Broken and What We Can Do To Fix It by Jill Richardson

Gulp by Mary Roach

Organic Inc.: Natural Foods and How They Grew by Samuel Fromartz

The Drunken Botanist by Amy Stewart

Twain's Feast: Searching for America's Lost Foods in the Footsteps of Samuel Clemens by Andrew Beahrs

The Immortal Evening: A Legendary Dinner with Keats, Wordsworth, and Lamb by Stanley Plumly

Notes from a Young Black Chef: A Memoir by Kwame Onwauchi

Some ideas for fictional side dishes:

The School of Essential Ingredients by Erica Bauermeister

Kitchen Chinese by Ann Mah

The Chef's Apprentice by Elle Newmark (also titled The Book of Unholy Mischief

Like Water for Chocolate by Laura Esquivel

In the Kitchen by Monica Ali

Crescent by Diana Abu-Jaber

Chocolate by Joanne Harris

The Chef's Secret by Crystal King

Feast of Sorrow by Crystal King

Queen of Subtleties by Suzannah Dunn

Gourmet Rhapsody by Muriel Barbery

The Book of Salt by Monique Truong

Kitchen by Banana Yoshimoto

Chef: A Novel by Jaspreet Singh

Fried Green Tomatoes at the Whistle-Stop Cafe by Fannie Flagg

The Devil's Feast by M.J. Carter (a historical mystery shedding light on the evolution of the restaurant)

The Tea Girl of Hummingbird Lane by Lisa See

Cooking with Fernet Branca by James Hamilton-Paterson

There are multiple chick lit books revolving around food/cooking (check out Jenny Colgan's novels, which involve chocolates, cupcakes and other goodies); also, there are LOTS of cozy mystery series.

My son gave me a copy of The Starch Solution by John McDougall for Christmas. I've only read a few pages, so I think I will make it my March book.

I might try to read The Flavor Thesaurus by Niki Segnit which I’ve had on my shelf for years.

I'm going to read Bon Appetit by Peter Mayle. I read A Year in Provence last month and loved it (a large % of that book was about food and wine too, if I'm honest!).

I'd also love to read Hunger: A Memoir of (My) Body, but I think I've overcommitted myself with reads and don't think I'll have enough time. We'll see...

>4 Chatterbox: Wow Suzanne, that is a great list. You have done your homework! There are many temptations there.

I'm reading LIFE IN THE GARDEN by Penelope Lively.

"The two central activities of my life - alongside writing - have been reading and gardening."

I'll be reading We are The Weather: Saving the Planet Begins at Breakfast by Jonathan Safran Foer.

I'll be reading The Great Irish Famine, edited by Cathal Poiteir; these are essays and lectures given in 1996, the 150th anniversary of the beginning of the famine.

I have several on my shelf that I could choose from for this month but I think I will start with either Salt by Mark Kurlansky or In The Devil's Garden - A Sinful History of Forbidden Food by Stewart Lee Allen.

I’m going to listen to Where I Come From: Life Lessons from a Latino Chef by Aarón Sánchez

I plan to read Edible Memory. I picked up a free ebook copy sometime in the last couple of years.

I am going to read Crazy in the Kitchen by Louise DeSalvo for this month's challenge.

I'm going to dip into Cooked: A Natural History of Transformation by Michael Pollan. I started it years ago and never finished it.

I have been interested in how we grow our food for a long time as well as why we eat what we eat, so I am going to try to read two books this month. I am going to read Lentil Underground: Renegade Farmers and the Future of Food in America by Liz Carlisle. If I don't finish this one this month it will work for the category the month we read books by reporters. My second book will be American Way of Eating: Undercover at Walmart, Applebee's, Farm Fields and the Dinner Table by Tracie McMillan. This one is also written by a reporter,, so I can hang it over without guilt.

If I get time this month I will read an autobiography of Marcella Hazan - Amarcord: Marcella Remembers. In many ways this is a biography of a celebrity chef. This by one of the first people to popularize the cooking from Italy.

I have a cookbook I downloaded years ago but never read, Pennsylvania Dutch Cooking. I think I'll give it a try.

I agree that Suzanne's list of books that will work for this month is very impressive so I have add my endorsement for two of the titles she mentioned.

I first joined this challenges several years ago when I ran across the thread and the topic was food. I picked up the book Tomatoland and read it. It was a very good book and the subject ended up being about so much more than tomatoes. In fact, this book could be used for next month's challenge on immigration and migration because a great deal of the book is about how we get all of those tomatoes to the supermarket. It could also fill the month for books by reporters since that is Estabrook's profession. I learned so much from this book that I was inspired to read a book for the next month's challenge - which I am sorry to say I don't remember what it was. Neither the category or the book I read to meet that challenge.

Likewise, History of the World in Six Glasses by Tom Standage is about so much more than imbibing.

>13 jessibud2:
I read Salt: A World History when it first came out and it is a good read. You will enjoy it. Kurlansky is an excellent author. You might also enjoy his book Cod: A Biography of the Fish That Changed the World and/or Food of a Younger Land. (I didn't bother to type out the entire title of the last title listed as it is lengthy - but very interesting and therefore enticing.)

>17 mdoris:
I read - rather - listened to the recorded version of Cooked: A Natural History of Transformation by Michael Pollan and enjoyed it. I think I would have preferred to read it but the recorded version was well done and narrated by the author.

>4 Chatterbox:

John McPhee's ORANGES is another great NF one that I will now read again.

Timber Press also just released The Earth in Her Hands - 75 Extraordinary Women Working in the World of Plants.
(No Touchstone yet.)

A few years ago, I read Swindled: The Dark History of Food Fraud, from Poisoned Candy to Counterfeit Coffee and last year I read Twinkie, Deconstructed. Both were good but potentially disturbing. It's amazing what we ingest on purpose, whether we're aware of it or not.

I pulled An Edible History of Humanity from my shelves. Seems like it should fit the category. (Touchstones not working again.)

I read A Year in Provence, and it was delightful.

>26 Crazymamie: I read that last month, and agree completely! For this month's challenge I'm reading his Bon Appetit, which will pretty much be more of the same, I expect, given that A Year in Provence featured so much food!

This is a challenge I can get behind - I love reading about the food industry, restaurants and food issues! I'm currently reading Grocery the Buying and Selling of Food in America by Michael Ruhlman.

I'm not entirely sure what I'll end up reading, but it might be a book about famous meals (The Course of History: Ten Meals That Changed the World by Struan Stevenson) and/or a book about a particularly famous literary dinner party in London that brought together many of the era's luminaries, The Immortal Evening: A Legendary Dinner with Keats, Wordsworth, and Lamb, that has been sitting on my Kindle unread for Far Too Long.

And yes, I will get around to doing the covers! It has been (another) tricky week, and any time I've been at home, I've been asleep!

Done!


Pennsylvania Dutch Cooking

This book is full of fairly simple recipes that sound absolutely delicious. Included is a traditional recipe for Sauerbraten, which I intend to try in the future. There's also a nice introduction to the origins of the culture. I wouldn't recommend this for a beginner cook due to some of the instructions being vague as far as measurements.

I recently finished The Fate of Food. Aquaculture, vertical farming, GMO crops, lab-produced meat, etc--this book covered a lot of topics. Given global climate change, how are different aspects of agriculture already being impacted by climate change, and how are they adapting or preparing for a hotter climate? The author did a great job of keeping her writing interesting while also interviewing people and observing farms or labs around the world. It was informative and entertaining. I don’t think I had any huge aha moments reading this book, but I did learn quite a bit about possible food/agriculture trends.

I am going to start reading Lentil Underground today and looking forward to it. Wheat, Montana is one of my favorite tourist sites.

On Friday I finished listening to Where I Come From: Life Lessons from a Latino Chef by Aaron Sanchez
I enjoyed it.

Since I still have plenty of time in the month I checked out the audio of Kitchen Confidential by Anthony Bourdain out from the library. I've been wanting to read this for ages and decided I wanted the audio. So far I'm liking it.

>33 SuziQoregon: - I loved the audio of Kitchen Confidential. My husband and I listened to it on a road trip a few years ago.

Possibly a good place to share any recipes for those of us on corona-lockdown/sheltering in place??

>35 Chatterbox: - This came to my attention through an email from the Montclair Bread Co., whose owner had a recipe included. I'm a fan of smashed chick pea salad sandwiches, too, so thought I'd share...

https://nypost.com/2020/03/17/gourmet-level-recipes-for-your-coronavirus-pantry-...

>36 katiekrug: Ooooh, thanks! I just upgraded my NY Times subscription to include their recipes. Desperate times, desperate measures.

>36 katiekrug: I am also a fan of smashed chickpea recipes. Thanks for passing along the recipe, Katie.

>39 alcottacre: Sadly, chickpeas are completely unavailable in Providence; LOL.

>40 Chatterbox: I don't understand the chickpea shortage at all! Here (Stirling, Scotland) I couldn't find any for love nor money last week, although I did my weekly shop this morning and did find some today. Still no ****** toilet paper though :(

I have a more recent Ruth Reichl - Delicious maybe - on the shelf somewhere. I will try to find it. In need of a comfort read for sure.

>41 Jackie_K: It's bizarre. That said, I did score some garbanzos this week! I suppose it's the fact that they keep forever and can be turned into all kinds of things.

I finally got my book for this month's challenge, Crazy in the Kitchen, completed today, thanks to the Readathon. I thought it was a well-done memoir.

Finished a second book for this month’s category. I listened to Kitchen Confidential be Anthony Bourdain. Enjoyed it.

I’m probably going to skip next month. My reading these days needs to be pretty light in order for me to have any hope of concentrating on it.

I am making fine progress on Lentil Underground and am enjoying it. I have found the "news" so disturbing that I had to quit watching it - especially in the mornings. Instead I put on some music on the CD player (remember those?) and and read for one hour. Then I get dressed and start my work-at-home day. Since I started doing that my lie ha gotten so much better.

In case nobody noticed it the title of the book I am reading is a pun. Lentils are a legume. They do some work producing seeds we can eat above ground and they take nitrogen from the air and fix it in the soil underground where it becomes a natural fertilizer. Underground also refers to social, cultural, and political movements that take place under the surface of established protocols and procedures. In this case the book is about a small group of Montana farmers who bucked the system and established "organic," "natural," farming and in the process changed laws about food all across the US. I found it comforting to learn that there are people who are willing to challenge the status quo and in the process move policy forward, or backward, in this case for the good of mankind.

I've just finished Bon Appetit! Travels through France with knife, fork and corkscrew by Peter Mayle. Another fun romp through the richer bits of French gastronomy, via food festivals and other events. I think I still prefer A Year in Provence, but this did provide some good light relief from the current news cycle.

I enjoy reading about history and, since this month’s theme was about food, I thought I would combine the two. An Edible History of Humanity looked at the history of man from when they were predominantly hunter gatherers to the development of agriculture and beyond. I had no idea how much of history was influenced by food and how we got it, or not.

>46 benitastrnad: I am going to have to see if I can find a copy of that one. Thanks for the mention, Benita!

I didn't get the second book I was going try to read this month. Amarcord: Marcella Remembers is the autobiography of the famous Italian chef and teacher Marcella Hazan. In a strange coincidence - this month my supper club was to meet and the theme was Italian food. The host had selected recipes from one of the first cookbooks authored by Hazan. I am going to try to finish this book for next month because Hazan immigrated to the US when she married her US citizen husband. I know it is a stretch for the theme but I do want to read this book and I have another one planned for next month that is really about immigration.

Well, for the first time ever, I failed to finish reading even a single book for this challenge. Shame on me.

Meanwhile -- I have set up the April thread. Don't forget to drop a star on it, as unless/until we hit 150 posts, I can't create an automatic link that will carry over your existing stars.

Happy reading!
https://www.librarything.com/topic/318377

Giggling at myself because I completely forgot that Delicious was a novel. Oh well. Better luck next time.

>53 nittnut: Easy to do. I have to keep reminding myself the criteria for the challenge that I am reading for.

Way late, but finally finished The Great Irish Famine, which was a series of academic lectures in 1995 given in Ireland to commemorate the 150th anniversary of the famine. Given the intensity of the topic, I could only read 1 essay at a time, hence it took months to finish. But I think it was easier to take in pieces.

Some of the essays were a bit hard to understand, as they were given as academic topics and used colloquial language to describe agricultural and economic terms. Later essays in the book were more accessible; I enjoyed the essay on the famine through literature, an essay on the famine in cultural memory, and a comparison of the Irish famine to more recent famines.

Two major points for me: 1) an estimated 1 million died, and 2 million emigrated during the famine years; I had not realized that emigration reduced the population more than the famine. And 2) that most people died of disease (fever, dysentery, typhus, cholera, etc.), with malnutrition/starvation as the "co-morbidity" (to put it in COVID-19 terms).