Snack Time, Read Up!

 

Gulp, the latest book by popular science author Mary Roach, tackles the mysteries of the digestive system. If you enjoy learning while you laugh, you should definitely check out Mary Roach's writing. She has an ability to bring humor and insight to topics that would normally make the average person squirm (sex, death, etc.). If you're already on the waiting list for Gulp, or you're not quite sure you want to read about what happens in the small intestine, we've pulled together a list of some other recent titles that explore our relationship with food.

Mark Kurlansky is another popular author of non-fiction known for his engaging style and incredible detail, though his tone is far more serious, and his focus tends toward the historical. If you're looking to learn more about our relationship to food prior to consumption, you should ddefinitely check out Salt: a world history (333.85632 KUR), Cod: a biography of the fish that changed the world (333.956633 KUR), and Birdseye: the adventures of a curious man (LP Biography Birdseye). For other in depth explorations of a single consumable's impact on humanity's history, try:

• Water: The Epic Struggle for Wealth, Power, and Civilization by Steven Solomon (553.7 SOL) 
• Sugar: A Bittersweet History by Elizabeth Abbott (633.6 ABB)
• A History of the World in 6 Glasses by Tom Standage (394.12 STA)

Salt, Sugar, Fat: How the Food Giants Hooked Us by Michael Moss (613.2 MOS)
This recent title has also spent some time on the best seller lists. A through-provoking and passionate look at our relationship with junk food by an award-winning journalist. If you're already on the hold list for this one, check out:

• American Wasteland by Jonathan Bloom (363.7288 BLO)
• In Defense of Food by Michael Pollan (613 POL)
• Super Size Me by Morgan Spurlock (DVD 647.95 SUP)

Blood, Bones, and Butter by Gabrielle Hamilton (641.5092 HAM)
The stories of the people who devote their lives and careers to food and the restaurant business can provide a different perspective on our relationships with food. Blood, Bones, and Butter is a moving and straightforward autobiography by Gabrielle Hamilton. The book chronicles Hamilton's difficult path from rural New Jersey to the head chef of her own New York restaurant. For more chef, foodie, and restaurant memoirs, try:

• Relish: my life in the kitchen by Lucy Knisley (Graphic Knisley)
• Heat: An Amateur's Adventures as Kitchen Slave, Line Cook, Pasta Maker, and Apprentice to a Dante-quoting Butcher in Tuscany by Bill Buford (641.59455 BUF)
• Kitchen Confidential: adventures in the culinary underbelly by Anthony Bourdain (641.5092 BOU)

Flour, Water, Salt, Yeast: The Fundamentals of Artisan Bread and Pizza by Ken Forkish (641.815 FOR)
Perhaps you're more interested in creating the delicious foods you eat yourself? Carnegie-Stout does have an excellent collection of cookbooks, but for today we'll stick to a few on baking bread. Flour, Water, Salt, Yeast is a recent guide to home baking from ken Forkish, a Portland baker. The recipes in this cookbook range from the beginner to rather more advanced. If you're looking for more, check out:

• Flour: Spectacular Recipes from Boston's Flour Bakery by Joanne Chang (641.815 CHA)Flour 
• My Bread: the revolutionary no-work, no-knead method by Jim Lahey (641.815 LAH)
• Bread Baker's Apprentice: mastering the art of extraordinary bread by Peter Reinhart (641.815 REI)

Please stop by the Recommendations Desk on the first floor, check out NoveList Plus on the library's website, or visit W. 11th & Bluff next week for more reading suggestions. Or submit a Personal Recommendations request, and we'll create a reading list just for you! 

The Master of Disguise and Argo by Antonio Mendez

The Master of Disguise: My Secret Life in the CIA by Antonio J. Mendez with Malcolm McConnell.
Nov, 1999

Argo: How the CIA and Hollywood Pulled Off the Most Audacious Rescue in History by Antonio J. Mendez and Matt Baglio. Sep, 2012

Tony Mendez has won my ongoing debate as to who is the best James Bond ever.  Yes, of course, I know Bond, James Bond, is a fictional character and Antonio Mendez is not.  That’s why I’m giving the edge to Mendez, a retired CIA agent, artist and author.

The Cubby Broccoli Bond movies have it all; an unbelievable opening sequence, the Bond girl, a musical superstar singing the title song.  I grew up with Sean Connery as Bond.  None of the others—Moore, Lazenby, Dalton, Brosnan even comes close till Daniel Craig.  Just when I pretty much have decided Skyfall is the best Bond movie ever, along comes Argo, which isn’t part of the Bond franchise; it’s even better because it is a spy movie based on actual historical events and real people.

I wanted to know how much of the movie Argo is true and how much is Hollywood. That’s when I discover that the actual Tony Mendez, the character played by Ben Affleck in the movie, wrote a pre-Argo book called The Master of Disguise.  That’s the one I want to read, but I have to request it through Interlibrary Loan, which means I have to wait a few days for the book to arrive.  In the meantime I read Argo: How the CIA and Hollywood Pulled Off the Most Audacious Rescue in History, the post-movie book which is in our collection.

While I like both of Mendez’ books, I give the edge to his first because it preceded the Hollywood hype.  So much for the movie Argo winning an Academy Award; do you know that the Center Intelligence Agency personnel, similar to the military services, are eligible for medals?  Tony Mendez received an Intelligence Star for the Canadian caper, and his wife and children could not even attend the ceremony because the mission he got the medal for was still classified.  Mendez also was honored as one of fifty CIA Trailblazers, an award given in 1997 to celebrate 50 years of CIA operations.

Both of Mendez’ books went through the CIA approval process for former operatives required prior to publication.  I speculated that all the “good stuff” had been edited out, but I didn’t find that to be true.  Although some details were sketchy, I found enough content to read both books and to put in an ILL request for a third book Mendez co-wrote with his second wife, also a retired CIA master of disguise:  Spy Dust: Two Masters of Disguise Reveal the Tools and Operations That Helped Win the Cold War by Antonio and Jonna Mendez with Bruce Henderson published in September 2002.

I found both The Master of Disguise and Argo fast-paced and suspenseful enough that I kept reading. The first person narration allows Mendez’s character and voice to shine through and balances some of the drier details of the spy trade.  Mendez’s portrayal of his years as an agent matches John le Carré’s George Smiley more than Ian Fleming’s Bond.  Will I quit watching Bond movies now that I’ve read an insider’s view of the espionage business?  No, but I will be a more critical viewer thanks to Tony Mendez.

 - Michelle, Adult Services

Essays and short non-fiction

A selection of essay and other short non-fiction collections available at Carnegie-Stout Public Library. We've included a variety of topics and styles, but you'll notice a slight preference to the literary because it is, after all, National Library Week. If you're a fan of short non-fiction, you might also enjoy checking out this list of 102 articles from 2012.

The Lifespan of a Fact by John D'Agata (808.02 DAG)

In Other Worlds: SF and the human imagination by Margaret Atwood (813.54 ATW)

The Thing About Life is That One Day you'll be Dead by David Shields (813.54 SHI)

I Feel Bad About My Neck by Nora Ephron (814.54 EPH)

Farther Away: essays by Jonathan Franzen (814.54 FRA)

Distrust that Particular Flavor by William Gibson (814.54 GIB)

When I was a Child, I Read Books by Marilynne Robinson (814.54 ROB)

Me Talk Pretty One Day by David Sedaris (813.54 SED)

What the Dog Saw by Malcolm Gladwell (814.6 GLA)

Pulphead by John Jeremiah Sullivan (814.6 SUL)

The Possessed: adventures with Russian books and the people who read them by Elif Batuman (891.709 BAT)

Please stop by the Recommendations Desk on the first floor, check out NoveList Plus on the library's website, or visit W. 11th & Bluff next week for more reading suggestions. Or submit a Personal Recommendations request, and we'll create a reading list just for you!