I’m in the middle of writing a food book and am loving reading about other food adventures. Here are my top five foodie books. Nothing better in the summer than reading about other people cooking – except eating other people’s cooking.
1. Animal Vegetable Miracle – A Year of Food Live by Barbara Kingsolver
Barbara Kingsolver is one of the most well-respected fiction writers in the US. (Being a writer I’m suppose to swoon at her books but after reading The Poisonwood Bible, I decided I like my fiction a little more peppy…) However, it is this, her non-fiction turn, sharing her year of eating locally, that has really changed my life.
From turkey husbandry to her disgruntled children begging for fresh fruit, I love their commitment to supporting local farmers and creating a life they want to live. If it weren’t for this book, our back patio would not look like a miniature version of green acres.
One of my favorite parts of this book is the recipes that family members have contributed using their local foods. You can check out the recipes here.
2. Plenty: Eating Locally on the 100-Mile Diet by Alisa Smith
OK – so I may be slightly addicted to books about local eating. This time, it’s a pair of Canadian writers who, let’s just say, are a little bit more on the fringe of the local eating movement.
It’s been about a year and a half since I read the book, but I loved the aspect of having to to work with your partner in changing the way you eat – inevitably, one person is going to be more reluctant about the changes than the other – and that’s where the drama begins.
3. The $64 Tomato: How One Man Nearly Lost His Sanity, Spent a Fortune, and Endured an Existential Crisis in the Quest for the Perfect Garden by William Alexander
The best way to describe this book is how The New Your Times Book Reviewed summed it up : “Gardening as extreme sport. . . . ”
Since Roger and I have become almost full-time gardeners this year I can identify with the authors trials and tribulations when it comes to having a crop of tomatoes that gets completely out of hand.
4. Tender at the Bone : Growing Up at the Table by Ruth Reichl
I am a sucker for anything by Ruth Reichl. She has held every possible position in the book industry. (Line cook to food reviewer for The New York Time, to editor of Gourmet.) Here is the memoir of her growing up and her food adventures with a mom who had a more that liberal use of the term “good” when it came to iffy looking/smelling food.
5. Garlic and Sapphires: The Secret Life of a Critic in Disguise by Ruth Reichl
Ruth is all grown up and is now the food reviewer for The New York Times. Because Ruth wants to review the way that a resturaunt would treat you or me going in (not the most famous reviewer in the world) she works with a New York costumer to disguise herself. Her cast of characters – and her handling of the sometimes overworked NY food scene, make for some hilarious reading.
Now it’s your turn – tell me the food memoirs you love – I need to refresh my summer book bag!
Have you read Stealing Buddha’s Dinner? If not, it’s about a girl from vietnam who moved to the United States when she was 8 months old and her fascination/desire for “real” American food while growing up in a home that tries to stay connected to their vietnamese roots. Lots of 70’s/80’s pop culture references. Fun read with insights into the vietnamese culture.
You know how I live to eat! Am now reading Living in a Foreign Language: A Memoir of Food, Wine, and Love in italy by Michael Tucker, lately of LA Law fame. He and his wife, Jill Eikenberry, buy a house in Umbria and travel the eating establishments of Italy in the process. Every word he writes is so captivating I can actually smell the strengozzi al tartuffo when I’m reading!
My two favorites:
My Life in France by my homegirl Julia Child.
Under a Tuscan Sun by Frances Mayes (not strictly a food memoir, but I would argue that the food is at the heart of this book. I discovered Tuscan Bread Salad through this book.)
I’m a sucker for Ruth Reichl’s books too! Read Molly Wizenberg’s “A Homemade Life,” you’ll like it. Back when I worked for a food magazine, I read Michael Ableman’s “Fields of Plenty.” Interesting read and the photos were lovely.
There’s a food memoir about a young woman eating in Paris, I wish I remember what it was…