I have always loved books and reading, and never more so than in the summer when I did not have to go to school and I could stay up late reading. Each Summer my sisters and I would spend hours and hours at the library. At the beginning of each summer we joined the Summer Book Club where if you read 5, 10, 15 or 20 books by the end of the summer you could win little prizes. Although that was a great bonus it was not really our incentive, our incentive was adventure. As an adult I still read for the same reasons, to experience the world, to learn about different cultures, to take adventures and to “meet” new characters.
One of my favorite things to read are cookbooks and books about food. As I was looking for information about the Cooks Library bookstore in Los Angeles I came across this wonderful list from the James Beard Foundation. This is a list of 14 books, one for each of the fourteen weeks between Memorial Day and Labour Day. I thought you might find it interesting. and find a few that you may want to add to your own summer reading list. A few I have already read and enjoyed and the rest I am in search of to read this summer.
14 Culinary Adventures for summer by the Jame Beard Foundation 2012.
1.The Art of EatingbyM.F.K. Fisher(John Wiley & Sons)
2.Between Meals: An Appetite for Paris by A.J. Liebling (North Point Press)
3.Blood, Bones & Butter by Gabrielle Hamilton (Random House)
4. Day of Honey: A Memoir of Food, Love and War by Annia Ciezadlo (Free Press)
5. The Debt to Pleasureby John Lanchester (Picador)
6. An Everlasting Meal: Cooking with Economy and Grace by Tamar Adler (Scribner)
7.The Fortune Cookie Chronicles: Adventures in the World of Chinese Foodby Jennifer Lee(Twelve)
8. Heat: An Amateur’s Adventures as Kitchen Slave, Line Cook, Pasta Maker, and Apprentice to a Dante Quoting Butcher in Tuscany by Bill Buford (Vintage)
9. Home Cooking: A Writer in the Kitchen by Laurie Colwin(Vintage)
10. The Man Who Ate Everything by Jeffrey Steingarten (Vintage)
11. Oranges by John McPhee (Farrar, Straus & Giroux)
12. The Oysters of Locmariaquer by Eleanor Clark (Ecco Press)
13. Simple Cooking by John Thorne (North Point Press)
14. The Tummy Trilogy by Calvin Trillin (Farrar, Straus, & Giroux)
I hope that you find something here to enjoy. All of the links above go to Amazon, Barnes and Nobel or directly to the authors web page. I have already tracked down the ones that appeal the most to me and will be enjoying them within the week.
Enjoy your week!
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Hey I've read the Man who ate everything it was very good. I didn't know James Beard put out a book list every summmer, good to know and thanks for sharing Elizabeth.
Enjoy your day!
XX
Debra~
WOW! What a loaded list……..seriously I am bookmarking this, I love food, I love books and travel so I love reading about food in fabulous places! Thanks Elizabeth for putting this together…so sorry I haven't been around as much latley, summers been anything but relaxing so far but hoping to change that soon! Hope alls well:)
OH !!! I have many books on cooking, but I have never even heard of these!
These days while I am home, I am enjoying my French poetry. No matter what the subject, stopping long enough to read is a pleasure and art that must be KEPT ALIVE!!!
How are you dear? Anita
Elizabeth, what a great list! Like you, I love books about food and cooking. One of my favorites is on your list — "Home Cooking" by Laurie Colwin. She was one of my very favorite writers for Gourmet magazine many years ago. She died very young and two books, I think, were made of her many wonderful articles. You will love "Home Cooking." She was an excellent writer and an unpretentious hostess and cook. That is a book you can definitely read from cover to cover. It is also vey funny!
Me too Elizabeth! I have heard of a few of these, but haven't read any of them yet…going on my list!
Thank you always…
Enjoy the books!
xoxo,
– Irina
And I am counting, prayerfully, with YOU.
Anita