True Stories to Savor

If you liked Donia Bijan’s Maman’s Homesick Pie, you might also dip into these other memoirs of women and the connection to food in their lives.

Amarcord, Marcella remembers : the remarkable life story of the woman who started out teaching science in a small town in Italy, but ended up teaching America how to cook Italian Amarcord-Marcella Hazan 641.5092

Credited with introducing classic Italian cooking to an American audience, Hazan traces her life: childhood in northern Italy, teaching science, marrying, living in the United States and Italy, coming full circle to teach cooking. Her cookbooks and cooking classes opened a new world to postwar home chefs looking to explore other cuisines.

Blood, bones, & butter : the inadvertent education of a reluctant chef - Gabrielle Hamilton 641.5092

Hamilton has a passion for food and a passion for writing. She grew up in rural Pennsylvania with a French mother and a father who designed sets for the circus. Read on to discover how an MFA graduate created the successful restaurant Prune, with all her trials and triumphs along the way beautifully transcribed.

Climbing the mango trees : a memoir of a childhood in India - Madhur Jaffrey 641.5092

The food writer/actress paints a glowing portrait of her childhood in India in the 1930’s and 1940’s. Treasured memories combine with recipes from her extended family to entice the reader.

The tenth muse : my life in food - Judith Jones 641.59

The editor for many prominent authors (Julia Child, Anne Tyler , John Updike) Jones is passionate about food. Although she has a great appreciation of food from other cultures, she deeply regrets the decline of good American home cooking and abhors the use of additives. She shares memories of the authors and recipes from her past as well.

A tiger in the kitchen : a memoir of food and family - Cheryl Lu-Lien Tan

Born in the Year of the Tiger, Tan grew up in Singapore and moved to the United States to work in journalism. She missed the food of her childhood; she began commuting between New York and Singapore to learn from her aunties and her mother how to recreate their dishes in her American kitchen. Recipes are included.

What We're Reading Now

CALL # 702.812 DELANY Peacock

The Paper Garden : An Artist {Begins Her Life's Work} at 72 by Molly Peacock.

I LOVED this book , and actually bought it. Mary Delaney had a terrible first marriage to a man much older than she and a lovely second one.

She was brought up to be lady in waiting at Court in England, and never achieved that, but in her 70's, she starts on a project of botanical collages, a technique she invented.

At the end of her life, she was befriended by King George III, who shared Mary's passion for botany. Molly interweaves Mary's story with her own memoir of a happy second marriage and a career that blossoms later in life.


 

Adult Mysteries - 2nd Floor M Billingham

Detective Tom Thorne returns in top form in Mark Billingham’s The Demands. Policewoman Helen Weeks stops at a small shop for gum and chocolate and ends up as a hostage. Shop owner Javed Akhtar demands justice for the death of his son Amin in prison. Akhtar thinks his son was murdered and he wants Thorne to prove it. Akhtar has a gun and two hostages; Thorne has to find the truth while balancing the lives of the hostages and his investigation of  the prison system.   

I read and I cook: Gourmet Italian

I read and I cook: Gourmet Italian


A columnist in the San Jose Mercury News last month noted that new cooks would benefit from using the library for cookbooks before purchasing one themselves. I think this is a great idea -it saves lots of shelf space at home. Normally I check out a cookbook and try one thing-in Gourmet Italian, I tried six. I’ve been trying to expand my vegetable repertoire in particular and it came in handy. (The recipes for carrots with shallots and sage was a particular standout.) The amount of prep and cooking time listed in most recipes ran true, very important when you want to eat the food rather than just visualizing it. Most recipes have less than 10 ingredients, many have fewer. Good tips abound: basics (sauces for salads and pasta) and menus for that special occasion when you’re going all out to create a feast are included.

The recipes are on one page, with a color picture of the finished product on the facing page. It’s visually attractive and not physically too large (pages are 9 by 7, and the book is little more than ½ inch thick) so it’s not overwhelming to browse or follow recipes for the new cook or those more experienced.

I would have tried more things, but other people are waiting their turn and I’m betting they will enjoy it too. Buon appetito!

What We're Reading Now

I just finished reading “Quiet: the power of introverts in a world that won’t stop talking” by Susan Cain. The book is as much about extroverts as it is introverts. The author points out how the two types react and behave differently due to genetic differences, and that there is value in our differences and in understanding each other. 

Prior to that I read “Two graves” by Douglas Preston and Lincoln Child. The book is #12 in the Pendergast series, Pendergast being the somewhat mysterious New Orleans born FBI agent who has an even more mysterious family background. This installment is one of his best, weaving his own personal heartbreak with a murder mystery along the lines of the Boys from Brazil. It’s a fast-paced, multi-faceted page turner. 

Currently I’m reading “Geek wisdom: the sacred teachings of nerd culture,” edited by Stephan Segal. It’s an unusual book, each page with comments on a particular quote from a sci fi book, comic book, or movie to create a kind of guide for living. It’s probably best enjoyed by those who know the source of the quotes, but I think it would be enjoyed by anyone who’s a bit geeky.

Laura Shea-Clark, Library Services Manager

What We're Reading Now: Easter

The Book of Job: When Bad Things Happened to a Good Person 
by Harold S. Kushner
223.106 Kushner


Draws on lessons from the Book of Job to offer advice on how to retain faith in the face of adversity and explains how to recognize controllable and uncontrollable factors.
http://tinyurl.com/cf5cqlc

             

      Help, Thanks, Wow
by Anne Lamott 242.4 Lamott

What does it mean to pray? Author Anne Lamott explores three key elements: be able to ask for help; be grateful for all things, always; and never lose the sense of awe at life’s wonders. She encourages readers on their own journey to prayer with her funny down-to-earth observations and recounting her own life experiences.
http://tinyurl.com/cg6lf7q

James Cagney and Dennis Lehane

What links actor James Cagney and author Dennis Lehane? I always thought they both had typical Irish faces, but there is more than that. In a recent magazine interview about his latest book, Live by Night, Lehane explained it was the easiest book he’s written. Main character Joe Coughlin is a bootlegger who first appeared in Lehane’s prior novel Given Day, about Boston’s 1919 police strike and the flu epidemic. The character he created intrigued him and drove him to expand on Coughlin.

What’s the connection to Cagney? Lehane grew up watching Cagney movies- the gangster genre became a favorite. Cagney’s persona of a tough guy who gave no quarter exploded on the screen in Public Enemy, Angels with Dirty Faces, Roaring Twenties, White Heat, and Love me or Leave Me. Lehane relished the characterization and put it to good use in his historical fiction.

What We're Reading: Persian authors in honor of the upcoming Persian New Year

Happy New Year!  No, it’s not too late. Persian New Year, marking the first day of spring according to the Persian calendar, is March 20 this year.  The Library is celebrating with a reading of the classic Persian poet Rumi’s words with music, Persian tea and small treats on Sunday, March 10 in the Library Community Room, 2-4 pm. 

In addition to Rumi’s poetry, Mountain View has a small but growing collection of books (and dvds) in Persian for customers.   

Persian reader Mary recommends the following titles:
 

“Masnavi Manavi” by Molana Jalaluddin Rumi comes in 7 series. These books are all written in beautiful and meaningful poems and teach people the lessons of life. They cover every aspect of people’s life and have answers for almost all of your questions in  day to day life.

FYI, I read this book a while ago with a group of my friends (Persian book club) for about five years, and now we have started again a year ago to read the whole series.        

“Soheila” by Hamideh Vahidi is a romance novel about a girl, Soheila, who is forced by her family to marry her cousin. What makes it interesting is that Soheila and her cousin grew up together and have disliked  each other ever since they were kids. In addition to that the jealousy of a female cousin who is in love with Soheila’s husband almost ruins her life. Despite their differences, Soheila and her husband learn how to forget their differences and love one another.

Persian reader Soussan recommends the following titles:

 
Soleymani, Belgheys.

    Khalih Bazi ( Playing Auntie). Tehran : Nashr-i Quqnūs, 1387 [2008 or 2009].  240 p.

Khalih Bazi ( Playing Auntie) by Belgheys Soleymani examines the personal and political past and present from the viewpoints of two women friends who haven’t seen each other in sixteen years. The main protagonist is a scholar and writer, married with kids. The other friend, a former party girl in college, is a brilliant woman.

خاله بازی نوشته بلقیس سلیمانی به بررسی مسایل  شخصی و سیاسی و گذشته و حال از دیدگاه دو زن دوست قدیمی دانشگاهی که یک دیگر را بعد از شانزده سال می بینند می بردازد.  شخصیت اصلی، یک محقق و نویسنده بچه ها ازدواج کرده و دو فرزند دارد. دیگری بسیار با هوش ولی بیشتراهل خوشگذرانی بود. بلقیس سلیمانی یکی از قویترین وبا مطالعه ترین نویسندگان زن معاصر ایران می باشد.

Qods, Saideh.

Kimiya Khatun. Tihrān, Irān : Chashmah, 1386 [2007]

 Kimiya Khatun by Saideh Qods gives the reader a behind the scenes look at the life of two icons of Iran’s mysticism, Rumi and his mentor Shams. The protagonist, Kimiya Khatoon is the daughter of Rumi whom he gives in marriage to Shams, almost forty years her senior.  This book has been translated into English.

نوشته سعیده قدس در رمان بر فروش و جنجالی  کیمیا خاتون  پشت صحنه هایی از زندگی دو سمبل عرفان ایران، مولوی و شمس مراد وی رابه خواننده نشان می دهد.. شخصیت اصلی، کیمیا خاتون، دختر  مو لا ناست  که وی او را به ازدواج شمس  که تقریبا 
 چهل سال از اوبزرگتر است در می آورد. این کتاب به انگلیسی هم ترجمه شده است.