Book Description
Josephine Tulip is definitely a smart chick, a twenty–first century female MacGyver who writes a helpful hints column and solves mysteries in her spare time. Her best friend, Danny, is a talented photographer who longs to succeed in his career...perhaps a cover photo on National Geographic?
When Jo’s next–door neighbor is accused of murder, Jo realizes the police have the wrong suspect. As she and Danny analyze clues, follow up on leads, and fall in and out of trouble, she recovers from a broken heart and he discovers that he has feelings for her. Will Danny have the courage to reveal them, or will he continue to hide them behind a façade of friendship?
Customer Reviews:
Mystery with some fun quirks.......2007-05-28
Jo Tulip writes a household advice column, "Tips from Tulip", where she answers questions from fairly clueless housewives about household cleaning and clues them in on what they are obviously overlooking. (Not that nice about it either- saying "Be a Smart Chick!" duh your real problem is...) In the wee hours of the morning of her wedding to Bradford, a real dud, she happens upon a neighbor arguing loudly and then a car parked in the middle of the road. In a few hours she is called to that house, now a scene of a murder! The victim happens to be a fan of Jo's column; feeling an affinity for the poor old woman, Jo morphs from Suzie homemaker/MacGuyver to Nancy Drew. Conveniently enough, the woman's daughter hires Jo to clean up the house- the perfect opportunity for digging around.
Danny Watkins is in love with Jo and really doesn't want her to marry Bradford, who she has only known for six months. Danny and Jo have been best friends since they were kids. He is a sweet guy, who looks out for Jo and comes to her rescue. I'm looking forward to seeing if more develops or "blossoms" in their relationship.
A bit slow in the beginning but then the plot picks up and is a quicker read. An interesting mystery with a not too obvious culprit. Overall a pleasant surprise and I'm interested to read what more adventures are in store for Jo!
not for me.......2007-04-16
I'm not a terribly demanding reader, but I couldn't make it through this. The characters are self-consciously cutesy -- early in the story the heroine (Jo), a writer of a household hints column (think "heloise") impresses a lot of cops at the scene of a possible murder by explaining all of the seemingly odd circumstances as the deceased having used various household remedies. ("Why, chief! That green stuff on her face -- it's a homemade cucumber facial!") In theory I wouln't mind this, but for me, it just doesn't come off; the cops are too dumb and Jo is too much like a parody of a 50s housewife. When her beautiful wedding dress is badly ripped and dipped in automotive grease, she perkily sends someone for the proper ingredients for a proper home remedy. Ugh.
Then -- I don't like being preached at. It's fine if Jo and friends want to pray -- they are religious characters. But I don't need to be hit over the head with it every couple of pages. Jo's friend Danny, who thinks her planned marriage is a mistake, asks her whether she knows enough about her prospective husband's spiritual path. Do people really do this? I guess they must, but not anyone I've ever met.
Great Fun!.......2007-02-15
Mindy Starns Clark has delivered a funny, witty story with an unforgettable character.
Josephine Tulip struggles to keep her grandmother's hint column alive, dealing with issues of the modern woman. When a neighbor winds up dead, confusing the police with the abundance of shower caps, tomato juice and cucumber paste, Jo is called in to advise. Reeling from the shock of being stood up at the altar, Jo dives in to solve the case with her bestfriend, Danny.
Eternal life, empty promises, the search for love, a dog who loves throw pillows...all these and more make up this delightful and suspenseful read. I recommend Mindy's books to anyone who enjoys a quirky heroine and a sweet love story.- Cynthia Hickey, author
It's a Smart Chick Mystery.......2007-01-22
After being dumped at the altar on her wedding day and finding a dead body next door, Jo Tulip's world turns up side down. Danny Watkins, Jo's friend, and Josephine Tulip, Jo, have been friends since they were kids. And now, when it's the hardest time for her, Jo is glad to know he is there for her. Jo has a helpful hints column in several newspapers, which provides helpful information for people. Danny, who was hired by the police to take pictures of Edna Pratt's death, realized that there were a lot of weird things around the house. For example, shower caps under potted plants, a lamp turned on in a drawer, and tomato juice in the woman's hair. He called up Tulip on the day of her wedding to come and take a look. Jo had an explanation for everything because she had written about it in her column. Another thing, which she had written about in her column, was not to mix bleach and ammonia because it was fatal, but there in the house was a bucked full of it. Jo was convinced it was a murder.
So after her "almost" wedding, Jo decides to devote herself to finding evidence. She starts to clean out Edna's house for Edna's daughter. Along the way she stumbles upon some shocking evidence. Danny and her investigate further to find that the man in some of the pictures, reaching back to the early 1900's, was her brother. They did more investigating to find his name was Simon and that he and Edna were responsible for a con that was taking place. In the meantime Jo received a dog she and Bradford, her not so fiancé, had picked out together. She finally is able to convince the police chief that Edna's death was a murder. At a press conference, Jo didn't show up because she was caught by the murder, a professor from the local college. Jo was able to escape and find Danny, who provided transportation. The professor was caught and Simon died of a heart attack. I enjoyed this immensely.
Jo seemed to have an explanation for everything happened, that is one reason why I liked this book. For example, when Danny found the weird things at Edna's house he called Jo, who could explain what everything was for. Then when she found some old pictures in a secret compartment that she believed could help explain the mystery. Lastly, when a realtor was selling a house that needed serious repair, Jo suggests some things that could help the appearance.
Another reason why I liked this book was because it was full of suspense. For example, when Bradford leaves Jo at the altar and made a get away in his car and doesn't talk to her for a while. Then when Danny and Jo think Simon killed Edna, but it turned out not to be and they didn't have another lead. Finally, when Jo wakes up in her home office to her dog growling and someone trying to brake in to her house. She called the police and Danny and found out the person who had tried to brake in was an acquaintance.
This book also had lots unexpected twists and turns. First when Jo and Danny thought Simon was the one who killed Edna and everything starts to point to him and then don't. Then the story switches to Simon's point of view and he is sad and didn't know his sister died and started to remember their childhood. In the end the one person no one suspected to have murdered Edna caught Jo and held her captive `til he got what he wanted.
Lastly, I loved this book because I enjoy murder mysteries. Edna was finally done justice when they caught Keith McMann, the murder and professor. Danny and Jo's relationship didn't change, but Jo said she would give up dating for a while. The Trouble with Tulip was so good I want to read more books by this author.
H.Wissmann
Martha Stewart meets Nancy Drew.......2006-12-18
Jo Tulip has just been jilted at the altar and been involved in murder investigation, all in the same day. Her best friend Danny (who's secretly in love with her) gets Jo to come to the crime scene of an elderly woman who turns up mysteriously dead in her own home. The police rule it as an accident but with Jo's knack for household tips, she discovers it to be a murder. Theft, fraud, the deceiving of old ladies, and alchemy all come into play to as Jo and Danny try to discover the truth about really happened.
This was my first Mindy Starns Clark book and I really got a kick out of it. I loved all the household advice spread throughout the novel. Very interesting techniques given how to combat any home problem. I have yet to try out any but I may do so in the future. The murder investigation was really gutsy of Jo to do it mostly by herself. There were a lot of twists I wasn't expecting. I really Jo's character. I do hope we get a full confrontation with Bradford. The guy is a jerk. She should be happy she didn't marry him, what a wimp. I also hope Jo can work out her relationship with her parents. It'll also be interesting to see how Jo's and Danny's future will work itself out.
I really liked the letters from the advice column. I found it funny that the writers of the letters always seemed to be clueless about the situations they were writing about. I guess housewives from back then really were in the dark? Great book, great mystery, and good fun read.
Product Description
A Closer Examination of The Five Points of Calvinsim
Customer Reviews:
Not worth reading,,,,.......2007-01-13
I read this book recently. Dr. Page demonstrated throughout this book that he really doesn't understand the theology of Calvinism. This book is comedy, not an honest logical critique of Reformed Soteriology.
Product Description
This is a work of fiction. A smart chick mystery.
Average customer rating:
- Conclusion
- Exiles Challenge
- Great Conclusion and Sequel
- A Excellent Conclusion...
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Exile's Challenge (Wells, Angus. Exiles Saga, Bk. 2.)
Angus Wells
Manufacturer: Spectra
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback
 British | World Literature | Literature & Fiction | Subjects | Books | 18th Century | 19th Century | 20th Century | Classics | Contemporary | General | Historical | Humor | Letters & Correspondence | Middle | Old | Poetry | Renaissance | Shakespeare | Short Stories
Wells, Angus | ( W ) | Authors, A-Z | Science Fiction & Fantasy | Subjects | Books
General | Fantasy | Science Fiction & Fantasy | Subjects | Books
General | Series | Fantasy | Science Fiction & Fantasy | Subjects | Books
ASIN: 0553378120
Release Date: 1996-11-01 |
Book Description
The masterful conclusion to the Exiles saga:
Angus Wells is one of today's masters of epic fantasy. Now, continuing the thrilling new adventure begun in Exile's Children, he weaves his beguiling powers of magic into an unforgettable tale...
Escaping a life of servitude under the evil Autarchy, a warrior, his beautiful wife, and a gifted Dreamer are refugees from the war-ravaged prison colony of Salvation. It was the young Davyd's dreams, magically bound to those of a far-off Seer, that guided their perilous flight to the land of the Matawaye. But even now they might not be safe. For a man whose gifts are eclipsed by Davyd's is looking for the perfect vengeance. Meanwhile, a renegade band of the Matawaye, forced out by their peaceable leaders, is wreaking havoc on Salvation. And there's worse to come. For the real threat has yet to descend on Salvation--and when it does, its bloodlust and magic could well mean the end of them all.
From the Paperback edition.
Customer Reviews:
Conclusion.......2006-12-30
The sequel and conclusion of the two book series Exiles Saga. The story that began in Exile's Children continues immediately in this book. This book sees the rise of Davyd as a prominent character. We learn more about the Breakers and their evil leader. All of the lose ties are wrapped up, though I would have liked and epilogue telling what happened to the characters that survive to final battle. That little quibble aside, another fine book by Wells. Only wish he would write them faster.
Exiles Challenge.......2004-01-24
This book is amesome. It is about an enslaved warrior that escapes and runs away with his wife and his best freind Davyd, who is a dreamer. Davyd makes contact with a metawaye warrior named Morrhyn. Morrhyn leads them through a secret passage and to his camp. They come apon many obstacals and defeat them all.
This is a verry good book and i would recomend it to all readers.
Great Conclusion and Sequel.......2000-05-17
This book provides in terms of action, adventure and pure science fiction this book was a great ending to a great story. it really had a lot of twists in plot. i thought that Angus Wells could have put more emotion to work with but i may be wrong.
A Excellent Conclusion..........1998-07-05
I picked up the first book and a whim, and loved it. The second is just as good as the first. I am not this man who will write up a HUGE review on all the details of the book. All I can say is as I read the book, I actually felt the impending doom.. and at times, I even wondered if this was truly the last book. I read alot of fantasy, so, most of the time, I know the good guys will win.. but, this, even though I knew they would, I was still guessing. If you like the first, you'll love the second. My only complaint, I honestly think Mr. Wells could have made this into a trilogy.. :)
Book Description
This book is an attempt to document the lives of members of the exiled Tibetan community in India and elsewhere. A revised and enlarged edition of the German publication (Tibet im Exile) this text focuses on two main themes: how Tibetans in exile preserve their culture, and how the community prepares itself for the return to Tibet. This itself is done through a series of interrelated papers that include chapters which trace the history of Tibet, analyse the legal issues involved in the dispute over her territory and sovereignity, document the reforms and changes introduced at social and political levels, and also an interview with His Holiness the Dalai Lama.
Average customer rating:
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Beyond Integration: Challenges of Belonging in Diaspora and Exile
Manufacturer: Nordic Academic Pr
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover
General | Race Relations | Sociology | Social Sciences | Nonfiction | Subjects | Books
General | Sociology | Social Sciences | Nonfiction | Subjects | Books
Culture | Sociology | Social Sciences | Nonfiction | Subjects | Books
General | Social Sciences | Nonfiction | Subjects | Books
Emigration & Immigration | Administrative Law | Law | Subjects | Books
ASIN: 9189116178 |
Average customer rating:
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The Future of Tibet: The Government in Exile Meets the Challenge of Democratization (Asian Thought and Culture, Vol. 55)
Helen R. Boyd
Manufacturer: Peter Lang Publishing
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover
Tibet | Asia | History | Subjects | Books
General | China | Asia | History | Subjects | Books
General | Politics | Nonfiction | Subjects | Books
History & Theory | Politics | Nonfiction | Subjects | Books
Practical Politics | Politics | Nonfiction | Subjects | Books
General | Political Science | Social Sciences | Nonfiction | Subjects | Books
Democracy | Political Doctrines | Political Science | Social Sciences | Nonfiction | Subjects | Books
All Titles | Qualifying Textbooks - Fall 2007 | Stores | Books
ASIN: 0820457272 |
Book Description
This book discusses the emergence of democracy's modernizing force in an exiled community with a political history based on a feudal theocracy. Since his exile almost forty years ago, the Dalai Lama and his government-in-exile have steered this fledgling democratic community toward the fulfillment of his dream of converting a theocracy to a democracy. The establishment of a tripartite government with separate powers and the development of a framework for a future democratic polity-if and when Tibetans regain their land-is a testament to the ongoing democratizing revolution.
Average customer rating:
- Not Quite What I Had in Mind
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Seeing Red: Hungarian Intellectuals in Exile and the Challenge of Communism
Lee Congdon
Manufacturer: Northern Illinois University Press
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover
Austria | Europe | History | Subjects | Books
General | Europe | History | Subjects | Books
Hungary | Europe | History | Subjects | Books
General | Philosophy | Nonfiction | Subjects | Books
General | Politics | Nonfiction | Subjects | Books
Communism & Socialism | Ideologies | Politics | Nonfiction | Subjects | Books
General | Political Science | Social Sciences | Nonfiction | Subjects | Books
Marxism | Political Doctrines | Political Science | Social Sciences | Nonfiction | Subjects | Books
ASIN: 0875802834 |
Customer Reviews:
Not Quite What I Had in Mind.......2005-01-09
I bought this book in the hope of learning more about the intellectual development of Karl Polanyi and his philosophical and economic thought. The author basically dismisses Karl Polanyi as a naive--but well meaning--dupe of the Communists. The author's views appear to be that Marx and Marxism is the root of all evil in recent 19th and 20th century history. Both Communism and Fascism are the scourge of the political left. The idea that Fascism is a product of the right seems incredible to him--despite all evidence to the contrary. Additionally, he appears to view the dreadful concept of "Equality" with great horror. American Democracy appears to disappoint him as well.
I was hoping for a less conservative agenda driven examination of the 20th century Hungarian left.
My view of the author is that he appears to be something of a plutocratic royalist or elitist. His views are informed by a strong Christian belief system. However, I doubt if he would be overly comfortable with the teachings of Jesus concerning the need to sacrifice one's riches to the poor in order to gain entry to heaven. Rather, I believe he thinks that the our modern market system is God given and permeated with the sacred.
He does write well and the book is very well footnoted. I especially enjoyed his portrait of Arthur Koestler.
If you're of conservative persuasion, then I think you would find this a very worthwhile book. However, if you are leftist--or even moderate--you may very well be put off by the author's very strong ideological biases. It's too bad, because the subject is very interesting--and the book does hold one's interest.
However, I simply cannot agree with many of the author's basic conclusions.
Book Description
This digital document is an article from Studies in the Literary Imagination, published by Thomson Gale on September 22, 2004. The length of the article is 6949 words. The page length shown above is based on a typical 300-word page. The article is delivered in HTML format and is available in your Amazon.com Digital Locker immediately after purchase. You can view it with any web browser.
Citation Details
Title: Re-negotiating racial identity: the challenge of migration and return in Michelle Cliff's No Telephone to Heaven.(Caribbean Women Writers in Exile)(Critical Essay)
Author: Shirley Toland-Dix
Publication:
Studies in the Literary Imagination (Magazine/Journal)
Date: September 22, 2004
Publisher: Thomson Gale
Volume: 37
Issue: 2
Page: 37(16)
Article Type: Critical Essay
Distributed by Thomson Gale
Book Description
This digital document is an article from Studies in the Literary Imagination, published by Thomson Gale on September 22, 2004. The length of the article is 8337 words. The page length shown above is based on a typical 300-word page. The article is delivered in HTML format and is available in your Amazon.com Digital Locker immediately after purchase. You can view it with any web browser.
Citation Details
Title: Theorizing spirit: the critical challenge of Elizabeth Nunez's When Rocks Dance and Beyond the Limbo Silence.(Caribbean Women Writers in Exile)(Critical Essay)
Author: Melvin B. Rahming
Publication:
Studies in the Literary Imagination (Magazine/Journal)
Date: September 22, 2004
Publisher: Thomson Gale
Volume: 37
Issue: 2
Page: 1(19)
Article Type: Critical Essay
Distributed by Thomson Gale
Customer Reviews:
My eyes have been opened.......2007-10-01
This is a great resource for those concerned with their annual loss of vision. Stop losing out on good vision and improve it today by reading this book.
its ok, stuff works but boring read.......2007-03-19
Not the best book about improving your vision but it does give some decent exercises. I have improved my vision using methods from the bates book and this one and and know these methods do work.
I guess I'm giving it kind of a low review because the writing style didnt hold my interest very well and I found it hard to plow through this book.
Maybe I expect too much in that I want my books to be a good read as well as informative.
This method works for some people.......2006-12-03
This is the cheap alternative to the "See Clearly Method" kits that sold for $350 apiece consisting of manuals, charts, video and audiotapes describing eye exercises until November 1 when the operation was shut down by a court order due to a judgement of false and deceptive advertising against the seller. I did the eye exercises described in the book and noticed some improvement in my farsightedness. But let's face it, I'm almost 50 and I'll probably always need glasses for close work - there's no conspiracy among the optometrists to get me to spend money on them. I've heard of other people getting tremendous improvements using these same exercises and other people having no change at all. For the cheap price of the book it might be worthwhile to see if it works for you. The problem with the "See Clearly" system was (1) It PROMISED to improve your vision and have you throwing away your glasses. (2) The price was ridiculously high.
Concise summary of many natural vision exercises.......2006-11-26
Yes, the book is low on detail. But if you're looking for a summary on what to do, how to get going *immediately* on natural vision improvement, this is it. I recommend it to my friends who ask me about natural vision improvement, I have never heard a negative word.
As for my own experience, I have read many, many more than just this one book on natural vision improvement. However, using basically the steps outlined in this book, I was able to improve my own vision from -11 and -10 to -4.5 and -4. Unfortunately, when I stopped doing the exercises, my vision rebounded to around -6, which is still and improvement over where I had been.
I, too, have heard repeatedly how there is no empirical evidence to suggest that Bates method works, including from my best friend the neurovision scientist (how ironic is that!) who will denounce it in a heartbeat. But then how do you account for my results, which are very real? Even my neuroscientist friend cannot explain it.
If it sounds too good to be true - it probably is..........2006-11-12
If you're wondering if this method really works, please search the literature (try Pubmed). I guarantee that you will not find a single well-designed scientific study that shows even an ounce of proof that this works. While you're at it, search for papers that prove that glasses and contacts harm your vision.
Optometrists and ophthalmologists are not just trying to make money off of you by prescribing glasses and contacts. Withholding information or treatment that would benefit you would go against medical ethics. Take these reviews with a (large) grain of salt.
Book Description
Calvin Trillin has never been a champion of the “continental cuisine” palaces he used to refer to as La Maison de la Casa House. What he treasures is the superb local specialty. And he will go anywhere to find one. As it happens, some of his favorite dishes can be found only in their place of origin. Join Trillin on his charming, funny culinary adventures as he samples fried marlin in Barbados and the barbecue of his boyhood in Kansas City. Travel alongside as he hunts for the authentic fish taco, and participates in a “boudin blitzkrieg” in the part of Louisiana where people are accustomed to buying these spicy sausages and polishing them off in the parking lot. (“Cajun boudin not only doesn’t get outside the state, it usually doesn’t even get home.”) In New York, Trillin even tries to use a glorious local specialty, the bagel, to lure his daughters back from California.
Feeding a Yen is a delightful reminder of why New York magazine called Calvin Trillin “our funniest food writer.”
Customer Reviews:
Food Writing Without the Recipes.......2004-07-28
One of the things I like about Trillin is that he is not a cook. There are no recipes in this book. Although I do enjoy reading food books by people who cook, it's nice to get the view from an unadulterated eater now and then.
Trillin uses this book to highlight foods that he can't get at home in Manhattan, and that is a list that is getting shorter all the time. In fact, you can get exotic foods almost anywhere now. And that is just why he has a hard time luring his daughters back to New York from the West Coast. They can get New York bagels and anything else in California.
I love Trillin's dry humor and skepticism. This is my first Calvin Trillin book (although I have enjoyed his magazine essays) and I'm looking forward to reading his past works.
A Delicious Book.......2004-04-30
I have a soft spot for food writers. Maybe it's because I enjoy a good meal, perhaps too much, but I think it's because I've found food writers to be charming in their obsession with food related minutiae. No one is more charming than Calvin Trillin whose "register of frustration and deprivation" leads him to travel the world seeking those foods that he can't live without. the result of this is Feeding a Yen. I can't put this book down. He's like an adventurous and kindly uncle. It's a treat.
*munch* *munch* *gulp*.......2003-07-30
I began reading The New Yorker in college, back in the early `60s -- mostly for the cartoons, I admit, but it wasn't long before I discovered the often witty and always beautifully written essays of Calvin Trillin. As a food-lover, I especially enjoyed his culinary pieces, since collected in three volumes beginning with American Fried in 1974. The last, Third Helpings, appeared in 1983, so it's been along dry spell, but now he's back with a new series of adventures that will make you salivate. The chapter in which he tries to get his daughter to promise she'll move back to New York from San Francisco if he can find a dependable source of pumpernickel bagels makes him sound Manhattan-centric, but he also writes a paean to boudin (which, even living in south Louisiana, I confess I don't care for at all), and another to the posole found in Taos (which I like very much). And there's a chapter on nutria sauce piquante that's a real hoot (think sheep-sized rodents). And there's San Francisco burritos, and Casamento's oyster loaf, and fried fish in Barbados, and pimientos in Galicia, and a number of other foodstuffs to be considered. This is a great book to read when you're sitting in the staff room at work, munching mindlessly on a homemade tuna sandwich and a bag of Fritos.
A Delicious Book About Simple and Honest Food.......2003-06-14
The United States is a nation covering more than 3.5 million square miles, measuring nearly 2,800 miles from Battery Park in Manhattan to the Santa Monica Pier just west of Los Angeles. According to current Census Bureau figures, more than 290 million people live in the U.S., most of whom don't have to trace their roots back too far to find relatives who arrived on American soil from elsewhere. As a nation we are a diverse and interesting bunch. But if you look at what we eat, it is apparent that the great melting pot has been simmering for perhaps too long and is now yielding an increasingly bland porridge. From sea to shining sea, a nation populated by people from all points of the globe has become a gigantic, generic food court that threatens to erase the vast national cornucopia of ethnic eats and local treats. It's a creeping culinary crime that, if left unchecked, may one day turn the entire planet into an Applebee's. But all is not lost.
FEEDING A YEN, the latest effort from the prolific and always entertaining Calvin Trillin, offers an escape for those who have grown tired of food that has suffered a spectrum of indignities, from gentrification to generification. Each of the fourteen chapters in FEEDING A YEN covers a different local specialty, from pumpernickel bagels in New York City, to pimientos de Padron (a dish made with tiny green peppers) in Galicia, Spain, to boudin (a kind of Cajun sausage) in New Iberia, Louisiana, to ceviche (a cold fish soup) in Ecuador --- and plenty more along the way.
If you're looking for a book on pricey eateries, find something else to read. FEEDING A YEN is about simple, honest food, often made from recipes that have been passed down for generations. In describing these various treats and his efforts to find them, Trillin exhibits a palpable glee, particularly when skewering some of the more pretentious aspects of the business of feeding people.
In a chapter on Napa Valley wines, Trillin plays on his own ignorance of the vintner's art as he investigates a test that reputedly proves that even the experts can't really tell a red from a white. Another chapter deals with the good-natured squabbles within a Web community that has emerged via chowhound.com, a Web site devoted to ferreting out great ethnic food in the neighborhoods of New York and Los Angeles.
If you're a fan of Anthony Bourdain's A Cook's Tour on the Food Network, you'll enjoy FEEDING A YEN. Trillin and Bourdain share a passion for the food purveyed in small shops and by street vendors. But Bourdain, who apparently will eat just about anything, has the more adventurous palette. The various treats Trillin describes are often exotic, but never involve anything that you'd keep as a pet or that might buzz around your porch light on a warm summer night. Trillin writes about good, simple food, food rooted to specific locations by tradition as much as by the availability of the necessary ingredients.
Technology has made the world a much smaller place. Mere hours stand between the cargo of fishing boats and the dinner table and, by virtue of the same technology, the idea of a growing season is rendered a moot point. You can get nearly anything you want, anytime you want it. But that abundance and convenience risk the very essence of the local specialty. If you've had the good fortune to travel in the U.S. you've surely noticed that, with the exception of geography and climate, the differences that existed between various points on the map are eroding. And the same thing is happening around the world (for a different take on that issue read William Gibson's PATTERN RECOGNITION). Food is a basic and visceral expression of local and regional culture. If that expression is lost, if people no longer seek out unique dishes like those so vividly described in FEEDING A YEN, then the creeping blandness that has already claimed so much of what makes the world interesting will have achieved another milestone in mediocrity. But if Calvin Trillin has his way, that sad and flavorless day will never arrive.
--- Reviewed by Bob Rhubart
better than XO Sauce.......2003-06-09
I read this book on a recent trip to Los Angeles, where I regrettably realized that Nate and Al's in Beverly Hills had better whitefish salad than Murray's in NYC. When Calvin Trillin would visit his daughters in California, he used to take a dozen or two bagels with him from NYC, to tempt them back to the capital of authentic bialys and appetizing stores from the Southern California wastelands of sun dried tomato and bee pollen bagels. What can one make of a world where a London fish and chips salesman uses matza meal to batter coat his fish, San Francisco style burritos are sold in Manhattan, NY Bagels are in LA, and great Chinese food can be found in Paris? Calvin Trillin, in a series of essays ("Magic Bagel", "Grandfather Knows Best", "Chinatown, Chinatown", etc), takes the reader on a very funny and enlightening trip around the world, as he finds the best local foods. My faves were, he eats Chinese from Paris to Prague, he searches for the bagels of Hyman Perlmutter's Tanenbaum's bakery, and he explores the fish taco.
Books:
- The Unfinished Clue
- They Came to Baghdad
- Those Who Trespass: A Novel of Television and Murder
- TOO MANY CROOKS SPOIL THE BROTH (Pennsylvania Dutch Mysteries with Recipes)
- Trails of the Frank Church: River of No Return Wilderness
- Vengeance Is Mine
- Water Touching Stone (Inspector Shan Tao Yun)
- Witch Hunt: A Novel
- A Darkening Stain
- A Knife to Remember (Jane Jeffry Mystery Series #5)
Books Index
Books Home
Recommended Books
- My Name Is Child of God...Not "Those People": A First Person Look at Poverty
- History: Fiction or Science
- Dirty Virtues: The Emergence of Ecological Virtue Ethics
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- Hank Rosso's Achieving Excellence in Fund Raising
- Joy of Persian Cooking
- Tidewater Maryland Architecture and Gardens
- Conservation and Restoration of Glass, Second Edition
- The Mephisto Club: A Novel
Blind Dates Can Be Murder (Smart Chick Mysteries, Book 2)
Elementary, My Dear Watkins (Smart Chick Mysteries, Book 3)
A Penny for Your Thoughts (The Million Dollar Mysteries, Book 1)
The Buck Stops Here (The Million Dollar Mysteries, Book 5)
A Dime a Dozen (The Million Dollar Mysteries, Book 3)
