Books. Food. Comfort. Culture.
In Janet Goss’s Perfect on Paper, Dana Mayo is a woman finally getting back into dating after realizing that she has carried the torch for an inappropriate man for far too long. She meets two men, both of whom may be inappropriate for their own reasons, but that doesn’t stop her from diving right in to try [...]
Eowyn Ivey’s The Snow Child takes place in 1920′s Alaska. The main characters, Jack and Mabel, are having a difficult time in their marriage, and an even harder time taming the Alaskan wilderness to create a successful homestead. Most times they have to turn to nature to supplement their diet. Thankfully, though, they had rhubarb [...]
Naomi Benaron’s Running the Rift takes place in Rwanda and a lot of the staple foods were unfamiliar to me, with the exception of a few vegetables. All of the food sounded delicious, and I took to the internet to look some of it up. Isombe is a stew made of cassava leaves, fresh vegetables, peanuts and peanut [...]
Food in books usually serves a purpose greater than just the delight of my food loving heart. What people eat and how they react to it gives insight into their socio-economic status, tastes and preferences and character. In The Beginner, by Rebecca Wolff, Ginger’s mother has a view of food the informs the way you [...]
I always feel like I have hit the jackpot when a character in a book is a chef. Yummy things are usually in store, and that is definitely the case in The First Husband by Laura Dave, due out next week. The novel is a delightful read, all about trying to figure life out in [...]