A collection of strong writing on fascinating topics that will appeal to foodies and essay lovers alike.
A delicious anthology of the best American food writing from 2012.
Hughes once again pulls together the year’s tastiest examples from the growing field of food writing. The editor has chosen wisely from an abundance of blogs, magazine articles and books, and this collection presents an eclectic mix of food experiences. In an era of celebrity chefs and much-hyped restaurants, this collection is thankfully absent the pretentious musings of restaurateurs and TV stars. It’s the unexpected approaches to the genre of food writing that are the most appealing. Take, for instance, Rowan Jacobsen’s “Gumbo Chronicles,” about searching for the ingredients to make gumbo in post–oil spill Gulf waters. In “A Matter of Taste,” Barry Estabrook exposes readers to the fascinating world of tomato cultivation. “Still Life with Mayonnaise,” by Greg Atkinson, is an ode to the ubiquitous yet rarely appreciated condiment. In “On Killing,” Hank Shaw presents a meditation on hunting, and John Birdsall explores the production of pastrami as a lost (and very expensive) art form. Kevin Pang’s “A Chef’s Painful Road to Rehab” gives readers a disturbing taste of the darker side of being a professional chef. Some of the best essays explore the emotional connections between food and memory. Elissa Altman ruminates on family relationships in her short but powerful “Angry Breakfast Eggs,” and in one of the most moving essays, “They Don’t Have Tacos in the Suck,” Katharine Shilcutt layers a visit to taco trucks in Houston over a visit with a long-lost friend, an explosives expert stationed in Afghanistan.
A collection of strong writing on fascinating topics that will appeal to foodies and essay lovers alike.Pub Date: Nov. 1, 2012
ISBN: 978-0-7382-1603-4
Page Count: 336
Publisher: Da Capo
Review Posted Online: Sept. 24, 2012
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Oct. 15, 2012
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
An autobiography as toxic and addictive as any drug its author has ever ingested.
The legendary booze-addled metal rocker turned reality-TV star comes clean in his tell-all autobiography.
Although brought up in the bleak British factory town of Aston, John “Ozzy” Osbourne’s tragicomic rags-to-riches tale is somehow quintessentially American. It’s an epic dream/nightmare that takes him from Winson Green prison in 1966 to a presidential dinner with George W. Bush in 2004. Tracing his adult life from petty thief and slaughterhouse worker to rock star, Osbourne’s first-person slang-and-expletive-driven style comes off like he’s casually relating his story while knocking back pints at the pub. “What you read here,” he writes, “is what dribbled out of the jelly I call my brain when I asked it for my life story.” During the late 1960s his transformation from inept shoplifter to notorious Black Sabbath frontman was unlikely enough. In fact, the band got its first paying gigs by waiting outside concert venues hoping the regularly scheduled act wouldn’t show. After a few years, Osbourne and his bandmates were touring America and becoming millionaires from their riff-heavy doom music. As expected, with success came personal excess and inevitable alienation from the other members of the group. But as a solo performer, Osbourne’s predilection for guns, drink, drugs, near-death experiences, cruelty to animals and relieving himself in public soon became the stuff of legend. His most infamous exploits—biting the head off a bat and accidentally urinating on the Alamo—are addressed, but they seem tame compared to other dark moments of his checkered past: nearly killing his wife Sharon during an alcohol-induced blackout, waking up after a bender in the middle of a busy highway, burning down his backyard, etc. Osbourne is confessional to a fault, jeopardizing his demonic-rocker reputation with glib remarks about his love for Paul McCartney and Robin Williams. The most distinguishing feature of the book is the staggering chapter-by-chapter accumulation of drunken mishaps, bodily dysfunctions and drug-induced mayhem over a 40-plus-year career—a résumé of anti-social atrocities comparable to any of rock ’n’ roll’s most reckless outlaws.
An autobiography as toxic and addictive as any drug its author has ever ingested.Pub Date: Jan. 25, 2010
ISBN: 978-0-446-56989-7
Page Count: 320
Publisher: Grand Central Publishing
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Dec. 1, 2009
IN THE NEWS
Stricter than, say, Bergen Evans or W3 ("disinterested" means impartial — period), Strunk is in the last analysis...
Privately published by Strunk of Cornell in 1918 and revised by his student E. B. White in 1959, that "little book" is back again with more White updatings.
Stricter than, say, Bergen Evans or W3 ("disinterested" means impartial — period), Strunk is in the last analysis (whoops — "A bankrupt expression") a unique guide (which means "without like or equal").Pub Date: May 15, 1972
ISBN: 0205632645
Page Count: 105
Publisher: Macmillan
Review Posted Online: Oct. 28, 2011
Kirkus Reviews Issue: May 1, 1972
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