The Common Reader

The Year’s Best Cookbooks and Food Writing

January 8th, 2010 § Dustin

by Cheryl Pearl Sucher

I’ve lost weight this year, mostly because I wasn’t able to eat for a week after my 5 1/2 hour back surgery, but also because I’ve sated my appetite by reading a selection of this year’s extraordinary books on the culinary arts. The diversity is explosive. On the one hand, there is a popular trend towards veganism in all its incarnations from urban to skinny bitch; and on the other hand there is a spate of texts by accomplished chefs who have moved beyond the scientific mastery of molecular gastronomy to creating recipes utilizing every edible part of humanely slaughtered animals. There have been cookbooks that describe how to transform chocolate into purses and others that describe how to make delicious bread without kneading. Memoirs have described how to cook one’s way back to health, out of depression, and into sado-masochistic obsession while others bemoan the dearth of contemporary Kosher delis, the importance of wine and the mastery of international cuisines. Mouth watering, I read many of these extremely literate books that wore me out to the point that I forget my hunger and fell asleep. While there are numerous food writing books of extraordinary merit, these are my favorites for giving and keeping.

1) CLEAVING by Julie Powell – (Hachette, $24.99) Alternately hilarious and shocking, Julie Powell lets go of the ghost of Julia Child to tell her compelling tale of what happens when your dreams of becoming a famous celebrity writer comes true. Tempted by the ferociously brutal seductiveness of a former boyfriend, she shatters the shell of her outwardly perfect marriage to pursue a compulsive, unhealthy affair while encouraging her husband to do the same. When it all turns to custard, she decides to transform her violent longing into the violent craft of butchery. Yes, the book can be cut by the last 100 pages, but until then you will be riveted.

2) LA MAISON DU CHOCOLATE by Gilles Marchal (Stewart, Tabori, Chang, $40.00) There is chocolate, and then there is CHOCOLATE. The famous Parisian chocolate shop, La Maison du Chocolate, produces CHOCOLATE. Now Gilles Marchal, who has recently taken over the helm of this sacred institution, has produced THE chocolate cookbook. Not only will you learn how to make black and white cookies and divine chocolate mousse, you will learn how to make chocolate fettucine and chocolate handbags. And, of course, the layout and the photographs are divine.

3) MY BREAD by Jim Leahy – (W.W.Norton, $29.95) The other day, two former employees of the Sullivan Street Bakery came into the store to buy this book by their former boss. They told me that customers used to rave about Jim Leahy’s secret bread recipe, and now it’s been published. My Bread explores his revolutionary no-work no-kneading technique. So for those of you who have been afraid to knock yourself out over a yeasty loaf, here’s your opportunity to bake delicious homemade bread in your own kitchen without the fuss and bother.

4) THE CRAFT OF BAKING: Cakes, Cookies & Other Sweets with Ideas for Inventing Your Own by Karen de Masco and Mindy Fox – (Clarkson Potter, $35.00) Karen de Masco was the beloved pastry chef at Tom Collichio’s Craft and now holds the same position at Andrew Carmellini’s Locanda Verde. In this wonderfully illustrated and described cookbook, she helps you develop your craft while relaying her own recipes for such delights as Devil’s Food Cupcakes with Cream Filling, Jasmine Rice Pudding and that all-time favorite, Chocolate Babka.

5) THE ENCYCLOPEDIA OF PASTA by Oretta Zanini de Vita – (University of
California, $29.95) This is a truly original and creative encyclopedic research effort. Senora Zanini de Vita, a respected Italian food critic, describes 310 different types of pasta in alphabetical order, utilizing lovely line drawings to illustrate their creation. Not only does she provide their specific geographic derivation, she tells us the perfect sauce to align with each unique pasta.

6) AD HOC AT HOME by Thomas Keller – (Artisan, $50.00) We all know that America’s home-grown Thomas Keller is one of our greatest chefs, and now he has written a cookbook filled with family recipes for those home cooks who worship at the altar of Ad Hoc, Per Se, The French Laundry and Bouchon. Inspired by his late-in-life reunion with his long lost father who he cared for until his recent death, Keller has written a beautiful, accessible primer for those of us who weren’t born to aspic or are fortunate enough to possess sous vide equipment. Merci, Maestro Keller.

7) HOW TO ROAST A LAMB by Michael Psilakis – (Little Brown, $35.00) I don’t know if I love this cookbook so much because Chef Psilakis is the culinary mastermind behind my favorite Upper West Side eatery, the fabulously successful Kefi, or because he demystifies the art of preparing elegant lamb, or because the photographs of his Greek family’s dining room in the 90’s is identical to images of my Jewish family’s dining room in the 70’s. This isn’t Zorba the Greek makes moussaka and baklava, this is a truly wondrous exploration of the new, healthy classic Greek cooking. It might be my favorite cookbook of the year.

STIR: Mixing It Up in the Italian Tradition by Barbara Lynch – (Houghton Mifflin, $35.00) Lynch is the self-taught chef who created the landmark Boston restaurant #9 Park. It’s hard to imagine the Academia della Cucina de Italia ever believing that regional Italian cooking would disappear after the Second World War, what with the current profligacy of amazing Italian cookbooks, but Stir is unusual for it is truly intuitive and creative. Who would ever imagine a tomato tarte tatin, chicken and vegetable soup with caraway gnocchi, fritto misto with caramello sauce? This isn’t innovation for the sake of originality, these recipes are the result of a refined technique and a gorgeous palate. Well worth the wait.

9) MOMOFUKU by David Chang and Peter Meehan – (Clarkson Potter, $40.00) David Chang is the Mary J. Blige of ramen. Peter Meehan is the scribe who managed to tell this tale of the Trinity College graduate who transformed his Korean heritage and love of Asian cuisine to a New York noodle phenomenon. The hit of the season.

10) LIQUID MEMORY: Why Wine Matters by Jonathan Nossiter – (Farrar, Strauss & Giroux, $26.00) Everyone has a friend, a cousin, an uncle, a husband or a wife who is mad for wine. This beautifully written exposition by this acclaimed filmmaker traces his lifelong obsession with the art of terroir and the making of magnificent wine. A treasure.

Tweet This Post!

§ 0 Comments

Sabotaging Our Own Readers

December 29th, 2009 § Dustin

Also this month we have Julie Powell coming in. That’ll be the evening of January 12th. Can you tell I’ve been working on our event publicity today? Anyhow, I want to link to this not-altogether-favorable review of Powell’s Cleaving by Rebecca Marx, not because I agree with it (I haven’t read the book) but because I think it’s interesting. And because I think you, readers of our blog, are smart enough that a bad review won’t make you dismiss a book, or a reading for that matter, but will may actually stoke your curiousity.

Tweet This Post!

§ 0 Comments

Mlinko on Susan Wheeler

December 29th, 2009 § Dustin

Mary Jo Bang and Susan Wheeler will be reading for us on January 14th, about two weeks from now. Bang was just reviewed in the NYTBR, but more interesting, to me, is this piece from a summer issue of Bookforum about Wheeler’s recent Assorted Poems. Ange Mlinko, the reviewer, proves herself again and again to be my favorite critic of poetry.

Tweet This Post!

§ 0 Comments

I’m Going to Confuse a Stranger, and I Need Your Help.

November 9th, 2009 § Dustin

So here’s the deal. As I type this, our store has has 996 fans on our Facebook page. I know, that’s so so close to an even thousand. And actually, so many people in general. I don’t think we could fit you all into the store at once.* We’ll probably pass the 1K mark today, maybe early tomorrow. So I thought I’d do something to celebrate. First, I plan to high-five all the booksellers around me, maybe whoop a little. But that seems, I don’t know, unrewarding for all you fans whose clicks put us over the top. After all, you could have de-friended (un-friended?) us at any point, and you were either too lazy or too enthusiastic about the store to do that. That deserves something in return, right? It’s a shame, then, that you live in Alaska and Bangalore, isn’t it? Not too many ways for me to reward our far-flung fans.

Right, of course, I could choose a few of you at random and send out prizes, but that seems too logical, doesn’t it? No, here’s what’s going to happen instead: once we hit our thousandth Facebook fan, I’m going to get up out of my little office chair, head out onto the store floor, buy a book and give it to a stranger. That’s it. Nothing to do with Facebook at all, really. Everything to do with what our store is about: bringing good, overlooked books to the people who need them.

And here’s where you come in. I want you to choose the book. What book would a stranger like to receive? I thought to get something Facebook-related at first, but that seems too limiting. Maybe it should be a book that every person should own but probably doesn’t – a nice copy of Carver or Akhmatova? Maybe something absurd? A field guide to fungi? I want your votes on this. Consider it the perfect act of charity – your chance to do something nice for a stranger without having to actually pay any money or meet that person.

For those schemers among you with far too much free time, you can try your hand at being the person to win the prize. Just be in our store at any point today from around noon to 10 pm, or perhaps tomorrow morning, and watch for me, Dustin, on the store floor. I’ll be the one carrying a book. Good luck!

Lastly, if you’ve made it this far down, let me get a little too sincere for a moment. You, our online community, are one of the single greatest resources this store has. I really do depend on you to tell me what you like or dislike, what you find interesting and what bores you. You often feel like accomplices to me, like we’re colluding in this great scam: a functioning vibrant bookstore in the 21st century. So thank you.

* I want to try this so badly. Dear everybody, let’s make my dream a sweaty fire-code-breaking reality!

Tweet This Post!

§ 11 Comments

Mr. Uppity

November 4th, 2009 § Dustin

by Rebecca Armstrong

I was standing at the register the other day, and, as I sometimes do, picked up the nearest book. It happened to be Little Miss Whoops. It’s small. While standing there, I read the whole thing. And then, I got to the end. Inside the back cover, as one might expect, is the copyright for the series. Two big circles with huge grins and legs, one bald and one with pigtails and freckles, stand over the words MR. MEN and LITTLE MISS. Under that it says “Mr. Men and Little Miss ™ and C THOIP (a chorion company)”.

For an instant my head filled with steam. I grumbled at the gender disparity. MR. versus LITTLE MISS!? Are you kidding? Then I looked to where I had found the book. Mr. Busy was there too. Hmmm. Whoops versus Busy, I thought. Incompetent (female) versus over-competent (male). Grrrrr.

I decided to do a little comparison. On the back of the books are gender specific lists of other characters in the series. Were all the Little Misses incompetence-based, and all the Misters competence-based? I wanted to know. I hoped to be pleasantly surprised.

Instead, what I discovered was more disturbing than I could have imagined. I read through the whole first row of men (tickle, greedy, happy, nosey, sneeze, bump, snow, messy, topsy-turvy, silly) and got to the second row.

Now, a little visual background, in case you’re not familiar with the series. The Misters are mostly brightly colored bald blobs, sometimes with hats, less often with shoes. They’re orange, yellow, green, blue, magenta, purple.

And, on line two, brown. The Mister most like the color of a person, a lovely dark brown color, has a very disturbing name. Mr. Uppity. He’s grinning, and wearing a top hat. I nearly fainted. I fumed. Racism, like sexism, is ubiquitous, and often disturbingly blatant. But Mr. Uppity? I was and am appalled that in the over thirty years this series has been in print, not one editor, not one publicist, not one designer, has noticed that right on line two on the back of the MR. MEN series, there is, among the rainbow of Mr. Daydreams and Mr. Happys, a caricature that would be completely at home in the racist propaganda of a century ago.

It gets even worse. Hang on here.

I shared my shock and fury with a co-worker. “Look at this! Can you believe it!” She took the book from my hands, also shocked, and, being more generous and less pessimistic, tried to find a way that this glaring example of racism could be somehow mitigated. Something, anything, would reveal itself to make this better. Ah-ha! The price sticker was covering the last character. Maybe, just maybe….

Nope. No mitigation or softening here. Under the price sticker, the last character is Mr. Good. He’s white.

It seems that Mr. Uppity is not, thankfully, the most available of the Mr. Men books. I searched for him on both the Penguin Young Readers site and the Mr. Men website. Also, Mr. Good appears only on some, not all, of the Mr. Men covers. I haven’t yet found one without Mr. Uppity on it, however. And though a search for the title Mr. Uppity didn’t turn up his own book, the Mr. Men appear regularly in each other’s books, like a little community. They help each other out, spill things on one another’s furniture, play pranks on each other. Perhaps, in his story, Mr. Good tells Mr. Uppity how to behave properly, how to be more like him.

I was so enraged and distracted by the racism that I forgot about the sexism which had originally inspired my scrutiny. I looked again. The gender disparity is not just in the titles but throughout. The Little Misses are mostly gender-coded female—giggles, helpful, ditzy, fickle, scatterbrain, bossy. The men are clever, busy, brave, rude, perfect, tall, quiet. And, of course, Uppity or Good.

Though I always thought these familiar square books were bright and innocuous, I’ve now changed my mind. They’re yet one more vehicle for the confusion that we pass down, hopefully in ever-lesser degree, generation to generation. I would think twice before I read these to a kid.

Tweet This Post!

§ 0 Comments

Have You Chosen Your Costume for Halloween This Year?

October 25th, 2009 § Dustin

Here are some ideas I’m brewing up just now, as I type this. You’re welcome to them if you like:

A. Gregor Samsa’s sister from The Metamorphosis. What was her name again? Ah, yes, Grete. Thank you internet. I don’t really know what that would look like, but I think it’d be brilliant.

B. One of the men – there are three iterations – that Jacques imagines to be sleeping with his estranged wife back in Spain while he languishes (and gets in way over his head) in London in Javier Marias’ Your Face Tomorrow trilogy (the third book is out this winter). These would be easy costumes, you’d just have to look brutish or callous or entirely too respectable , and perhaps vaguely Spanish.

C. You could be A Film Adaptation of Your Favorite Book. So: shorter, dumber, but also sexier, with more kicks to the face, more explosions, and maybe a happier ending. (Don’t take the “more explosions” bit too literally, eh?)

D. A sexy cat!

E. A young John Ashbery, in a convex mirror. Wow, I love that one. Maybe I’ll do that. You can still do it, too. I think the more of us there are, the funnier it would be.

F. A giant heart, looking a bit sad, with a bow and quiver. Get it? You get it.

Man, I’m good at this. I’m so lucky that random overly-complicated Halloween costume ideas is such a growth business, right? It’s the new plastics. So, just humor me here, which of these do you think you’re most likely to use? Did you choose D? Awesome. Good choice. Say, why don’t you click on this adorable photo of the kitten?

Are they gone? Awesome. Okay, all you readers who picked the other letters, here’s the deal. This year we’re hosting another Halloween party and you are very much invited. It’ll be fun. We’re having food, drinks, a costume contest, a scary voice contest, a horror reading, paper crafts and more. There will be prizes! Even the Desk Set, the coolest librarians you know, are getting in on the party. The full event listing is here, but just remember this: Halloween party at McNally Jackson, Saturday, 10/31 at 7:00 PM. I’ll see you there. And remember, if you really must be a sexy cat, be a film adaptation of Bulgakov and impress the hell out of us all.

Tweet This Post!

§ 2 Comments

Blumenthal Protesters: Please Come! I Find Your Dramatically Misplaced Outrage Entertaining!

October 6th, 2009 § Dustin

Tonight’s author, Max Blumenthal, was met at his last meeting by a delegation of angry College Republican protesters, holding onto large placards and morally bankrupt ideologies. Color me excited.

Tweet This Post!

§ 1 Comment

What We’ve Been Mumbling About This Week

October 2nd, 2009 § Dustin

Thus my favorite authors right now: Caryl Phillips and Patrick McGrath. Dislocated fiction or nothing at all! #
I'm such a pushover for the spoken word. After almost every reading, that night's author is, for a few moments, my utter favorite. #
Tonight at McNJ: New York State farmers and the writers who love them. #
RT @nyrbclassics: rt @creativecommons Check out Jonathan Lethem's great Creative Commons–licensed Philip K. Dick essay http://bit.ly/3y5Dhu #
Meet a real live farmer (two!) at tonight's panel about the future of small agriculture. Apparently that is still a job? Our cafe; 7PM. #
Yes, we're excited! RT @loganberrybooks: @mcnallyjackson David Small AND Jules Feiffer? What a fantastic event! #
A secret for our followers: David Small has his unseen graphic version of Freud's Civilization to show us tonight, too. Curious? #
Have you read David Small's Stitches yet? Amazing graphic memoir. Ridiculous talent. He's in tonight to read and talk to Jules Feiffer. 7PM #
It's a cute-off: Josh Kilmer-Purcell (tonight's reader) v. his goats. http://bit.ly/C4uWH #
Swoonfest '09: John Krasinksi (from The Office & Away We Go) here TONIGHT at 5 pm to discuss Brief Interviews #
Best customer comment this week: "This is the bookstore from the show!" #

Tweet This Post!

§ 1 Comment

What We’ve Been Mumbling About This Week

September 25th, 2009 § Dustin

Does your geography of interest include quipus, glaciers and menstruation? Then you need to come hear Cecilia Vicuna read for us tonight. #
"If you liked it then you shoulda put a rein on it…." &c. &c. &c. #
Working on a Beyonce-Cormac McCarthy mash-up behind the register: "All the pretty horses, all the pretty horses"–a new genre I call litpop #
Planning our Halloween party. Psyched. #
Dear young man who bought all of the dozen or so books of contemporary poetry I handed him: thanks, you made my evening. Enjoy 'Spit Stain' #
RT @SPIEGELandGRAU: New adjective: Vonnegutian. Definition: awesome. Ex: Big Machine by LaValle is Vonnegutian. http://tinyurl.com/yddj747 #
"Julia Child: Why She Ruined Everything" is not the title of tonight's event. Hard to sow discord about that woman. Anyhow, our cafe, 7PM. #
Julia Child's jubilant meat-juicy fingers have touched your life in many ways. Help us (and Julie Powell) enumerate them, tonight at 7. #
Well hell, the NYTBR actually got me excited about a book for once. I may read the new William Trevor. #
Nancy Mauro: fantastic novelist, sewer of fake boars, queen of gold sequins. Yeah, it was a cool event tonight. #
Nancy Mauro's debut novel is about the ad business and suburban tribalism. And feral pigs. And corpses? Drink with/fear her, here, at 7. #
Spending my afternoon ordering stacks upon stacks of books for the New Yorker Festival signings October 17th-18th. My tedium is your gain! #
On that note: is there anything worse than charity spam? Guilt and annoyance in one convenient package. #
Whoops, I tried to help people help other people and my screwup cascaded down. Vote to help a good cause here instead: http://bit.ly/13cK8z #
Vote to send a cousin of a bookseller to a conference for deserving charities. Deserving I say! http://tinyurl.com/nmkgw #
Awww, We love your curatorial sense too Ryan! RT @chapmanchapman: My love letter to the great @mcnallyjackson bookshop: http://is.gd/3xIp1 #

Tweet This Post!

§ 0 Comments

What We’ve Been Mumbling About This Week

September 18th, 2009 § Dustin

Tonight we have the story of the little online graphic novel that could: Josh Neufeld and his editors (and his slideshow) are here at 7. #
I get this question five times a day. People are excited! RT @arrbecca: @oblongirl @greenlightbklyn is opening as soon as it possibly can. #
Flipping through Julia Glass' latest this afternoon. People call it touching, but it's also pretty damn funny. She reads for us tonight at 7 #
RT @notfortourists: Nice @nycgo photo tour of 10 indie bookstores like @mcnallyjackson @bookculture @BookCourt http://bit.ly/3BpmP3 #
I'm settling in for a long night guarding the new Dan Brown. I just noetically willed a cot and sandwich into being, so I should be set. #
We do too. RT @vol1brooklyn Gigantic Magazine gets a new website, and we get excited http://bit.ly/M2T6o (@giganticmag) #
No need to embellish this with tweetjokes. Anita Diamant reads in our store tonight at 7. Come early for a seat. #
My own DFW reaction from a year ago: http://tinyurl.com/p2ej2p . Similar to RT @chapmanchapman: Remembering DFW http://is.gd/3cy1j #
Feast of San Gennaro in our nayb right now. Starting today, he's the patron saint of buying an awesome book or two to go with your cannoli. #
RT @RonHogan: Mainstream book review sections aspiring to be literary standard bearers quite often don't grok popular fiction. #
RT @nplusonemag Literary discovery: Where the "Michael Pemulis" of Infinite Jest came from. http://j.mp/RVhhN #