Books I've Loved: Non-Fiction

The World According to Salt

I've been wanting to read Salt: A World History by Mark Kurlansky for ages. I finally got to it a couple weeks ago and I wasn't disappointed.

Aside from the interesting historical facts regarding salt, Mark pieces in snippets of cookbooks, newspaper articles, and journals from past centuries—which was my favorite part. And I learned where the phrase "a red herring" came from.

In short, Salt: A World History was utterly fascinating.

Nonfiction

I don't usually read nonfiction, unless I'm doing research, but I recently picked up The Man Who Ate Everything by Jeffrey Steingarten. My friend Diego, who loves to eat and cook as much as I do (maybe more, and that's saying something), recommended it. Holy cow, it was entertaining! I laughed my ass off. (Can I say "ass" on my website?) The chapter where he writes about his mission to bake the perfect loaf of bread—I chuckle just thinking about it.

More Food

One of my favorite things to do is to cook with my friend Diego. Now, I'm not domestic in any sense (Nate's nodding vehemently here) but I do take pleasure in cooking special meals. The last time we cooked together we made crab napoleons with tomato confit, caprese, and sundry other snackie things. Of course, wine figures heavily in our culinary sessions.

When I read Cooking for Mr. Latte by Amanda Hesser, the first thing I thought of was Diego, how much I missed him, and how much I wanted to spend a day cooking with him. Cooking for Mr. Latte is a series of vignettes about, yes, food. But it's also about how food brings people together not to mention highlights their personalities. It made me long to sit in Diego's kitchen with a glass of Vouvray in one hand, a knife in the other, chatting about everything under the sun.

A side note: I also miss his wife, Afra, who has been one of my best friends for 22 years. Yes, I'm stating this here because she gets a touch uppity when I mention Diego and not her too. But we love her anyway.

Il Duomo

If you've been to Italy, you know how the dome of Santa Maria del Fiore dominates the city. But do you know how fascinating the dome really is?

I know—you're thinking I've lost my mind. But, seriously, I haven't. I admit, I do like architecture, but anyone would find Brunelleschi's Dome by Ross King entertaining. It's more than just a dry recounting of engineering feats (which are cool too, by the way)—it's about an out of control feud between two artists, the construction of the impossible, and a city's pride. It's about a paranoid man who had a vision and wouldn't let anyone or anything stop him from achieving it.

He Talk Funny

I've been wanting to read Me Talk Pretty One Day by David Sedaris for a long time, so finally I ~~stole~~ borrowed my friend Suzie's copy. She was in the kitchen getting me a glass of wine when I slipped it into my purse, but that's beside the point.

I'm listing Me Talk Pretty One Day here, so you know I loved it. It was a combination of flat-out hilarity mixed with what I thought were surprisingly sad moments. My favorite chapters: the one about his sister and her fat suit, and the chapter where he's taking a French conversation class (in France) and they're trying to explain Easter to one of the African students. Very entertaining.