A lovely, thoughtful book of nourishing recipes.
Lafond offers a menu of recipes to nurture body and soul in this debut cookbook.
The food we eat is not an arbitrary detail of our lives. Rather, it’s the foundation on which our lives are constructed, something that is as metaphysical as it is chemical. So believes Lafond, who writes that “to come to a place of reverence for the daily ritual of preparing and eating I had to learn to recognize what was actually occurring—a divine exchange between living things.” Her philosophy is one part conscientious food culture (eating seasonally and locally; using fresh and organic ingredients; being mindful of dietary restrictions like those regarding gluten, yeast, and candida), one part spiritual consciousness (awareness of and gratitude for the life that goes into and comes from food via the greatest of the Earth’s many cycles), and one part appreciation for complementary flavors. The book is an eclectic mix of recipes spanning the classic (potato gratin with rosemary and sharp cheddar) to the original (“full-meal-deal” Szechuan Brussels sprouts with lamb) to pure comfort food (chocolate-peanut-butter–chip cookies). Many of the dishes—like the sorrel garlic and Gruyere-stuffed tenderloin or the barbecued peach-blueberry crisp—may inspire the reader to start cooking at once. Accompanied throughout by black-and-white illustrations of stems and branches and motivational quotes, the work is both cookbook and manifesto, bidding readers to commune with their food with all the joy and earnestness of a mystic. Lafond writes with an infectious enthusiasm that keeps the pages flipping. Recipes frequently end with a brief paragraph explaining the nutritional properties of the main ingredient or tips for their use: “A good trick for keeping herbs like dill, parsley, and cilantro fresh for a week or more is to put them in a glass of water and cover it with a plastic bag to create a makeshift greenhouse.” The book espouses an open, nondenominational theism that may turn off more secular readers (it concludes with the reminder, “Let us remember that God, Source, Great Mystery, Creator, Universal Intelligence is always willing to meet every need, to fill each void, and to surrender form in order to allow new growth”), but Lafond’s attitude toward the sacredness of food is one that all cooks will be able to appreciate.
A lovely, thoughtful book of nourishing recipes.Pub Date: Aug. 1, 2017
ISBN: 978-0-9972175-0-6
Page Count: 552
Publisher: Greater Nourishment Publishing
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2017
Kirkus Reviews Issue: June 15, 2017
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
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
© Copyright 2025 Kirkus Media LLC. All Rights Reserved.
Follow
Popular in this Genre
We can’t wait for you to join Kirkus!
It’s free and takes less than 10 seconds!
Already have an account? Log in.
OR
Sign in with GoogleTrouble signing in? Retrieve credentials.
Welcome Back!
OR
Sign in with GoogleTrouble signing in? Retrieve credentials.
