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MOLTO BATALI

Name: MOLTO BATALI
Author: Mario Batali
ISBN: 978-0062095565

SIMPLE FAMILY MEALS FROM MY HOME TO YOURS

by Mario Batali ‧ RELEASE DATE: Oct. 25, 2011

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Batali (Molto Gusto, 2010, etc.) offers a collection of recipes focusing on simple, delicious, seasonal food.

The author presents 12 exquisite meals in traditional Italian style: a soup, two pasta dishes, a main, four vegetable dishes and a dessert, with each meal intended to feed 8-12 people. “This represents the way I think we should eat with less reliance on proteins at the center of the plate and much more emphasis on a bigger variety of vegetable and grain courses at the table in our daily diet,” writes the author. Despite his best intentions, however, Batali readily admits that readers will unlikely prepare all the components of the meals he outlines; however, the possibilities for mixing and matching individual dishes are endless. His pleasantly conversational prefaces to each set of dishes, paired with the gorgeous full-color photography of Quentin Bacon, highlight the purity of his ingredients and the simplicity of Italian cuisine. Standout recipes include: Green Garlic Soup; Bucatini with Crayfish, Jalapenos and Basil; Porcini-Rubbed Prime Rib Eye; Wilted Arugula with Pine Nuts and Lemon; and Brown Sugar, Almond and Sour Cherry Torta di Uova. A quarter of the profits from the sale of the book will benefit the Mario Batali Foundation, whose mission is to provide hunger relief and nutrition education to children. Exciting recipes and meal-planning advice from an institution of classic Italian fare.

Pub Date: Oct. 25, 2011

ISBN: 978-0062095565

Page Count: 336

Publisher: Ecco/HarperCollins

Review Posted Online: Oct. 1, 2011

Kirkus Reviews Issue: Oct. 15, 2011

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GENERAL NONFICTION

MARTIN LUTHER KING, JR. AND THE MARCH ON WASHINGTON

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MARTIN LUTHER KING, JR. AND THE MARCH ON WASHINGTON

by Frances E. Ruffin & edited by Stephen Marchesi ‧ RELEASE DATE: Jan. 1, 2001

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This early reader is an excellent introduction to the March on Washington in 1963 and the important role in the march played by Martin Luther King Jr. Ruffin gives the book a good, dramatic start: “August 28, 1963. It is a hot summer day in Washington, D.C. More than 250,00 people are pouring into the city.” They have come to protest the treatment of African-Americans here in the US. With stirring original artwork mixed with photographs of the events (and the segregationist policies in the South, such as separate drinking fountains and entrances to public buildings), Ruffin writes of how an end to slavery didn’t mark true equality and that these rights had to be fought for—through marches and sit-ins and words, particularly those of Dr. King, and particularly on that fateful day in Washington. Within a year the Civil Rights Act of 1964 had been passed: “It does not change everything. But it is a beginning.” Lots of visual cues will help new readers through the fairly simple text, but it is the power of the story that will keep them turning the pages. (Easy reader. 6-8)

Pub Date: Jan. 1, 2001

ISBN: 0-448-42421-5

Page Count: 48

Publisher: Grosset & Dunlap

Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010

Kirkus Reviews Issue: Dec. 1, 2000

Categories:

GENERAL NONFICTION

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THE PUCCINI COMPANION

by William Weaver & Simonetta Puccini ‧ RELEASE DATE: Feb. 28, 1994

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Puccini wins the prize for most-maligned great composer. In a fit of depressive self-deprecation, Puccini himself called his own music ``sugary,'' and the persistent popularity of his mature operas at box-offices around the world for nearly a century has too often provoked critical condescension, as if art so well-loved could not possibly be worth much. But that situation, thankfully, is changing, and this much-needed essay collection on Puccini by leading scholars of 19th- and 20th-century Italian opera is worth a good deal more than several new biographies. The volume ranges from a lengthy piece on Puccini's family by his granddaughter (one of the editors) to chapters devoted to Puccini's ``musical world'' and each of his operas by luminaries such as William Weaver, Harvey Sachs, Fedele D'Amico, Verdi heavyweights Mary Jane Phillips-Matz and Julian Budden, and William Ashbrook. A favorite: David Hamilton's expert investigation of the early Tosca recordings, especially the legendary ``Mapelson cylinders'' of live Metropolitan Opera performances from 1902-03, to see what light they shed on Puccini's original interpreters. The editors, perhaps hoping to attract non-musicologist admirers of the Luccan master, issue the disclaimer that ``this is not a work of scholarship'' (even though two of the chapters make a start on an accessible Puccini bibliography). They needn't have worried. Lovers of Puccini and Italian opera at every level of interest and knowledge will want this book. (Photographs—not seen)