Community Corner

Librarians' Picks: 'The Man Who Changed the Way We Eat'

Montgomery County librarians pick their favorites and popular selections from the public library system.

 

That title sounds dramatic, right? The book is about a New York Times food critic.

What's on your reading list? Montgomery County librarians share their recommendations. Tell us in the comments what you're reading this week.

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Children’s Fiction

The Secret of the Fortune Wookiee by Tom Angleberger

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Origami Yoda series, Juvenile Fiction

Amulet Books, 2012

Ages 8 to 12

When Dwight leaves for Tippett Academy, the McQuarrie Middle School students miss the guidance dispensing paper puppet Origami Yoda, but Dwight sends Sara a paper Fortune Wookiee that seems to give advice just as good as Yoda's--even if, in the hands of girls, it seems preoccupied with romance. In the meantime, Dwight is fitting in a little too well at Tippett. Has the unimaginable happened? Has Dwight become normal? It's up to his old friends at McQuarrie to remind their friend that it's in his weirdness that his greatness lies. A worthy follow-up to The Strange Case of Origami Yoda and Darth Paper Strikes Back.

 

Children’s Nonfiction

POP! : THE INVENTION OF BUBBLE GUM by Meghan McCarthy

J 609 MCC

Grades 1 – 3

A collection of amusing historical facts on the invention of bubble gum. Gum has been around for centuries but bubble gum was not invented until 1928. As one reviewer said, this is fun stuff, sweetly told.

 

Young Adult Ficton

The Name of the Star by Maureen Johnson

Age 12 and up

Arriving in London for the school year, Rory is told that someone "pulled a Jack the Ripper." Soon after, Rory starts seeing people her classmates don't and falls in with a group investigating the murders. Smart, breezy, self-deprecating narration and textured boarding school atmosphere provide easy entrance to this increasingly eerie murder mystery.  [from Horn Book Guide]

 

Adult Fiction

Blood of Flowers by Anita Amirrezvani 

After her father dies without leaving her with a dowry, a seventeenth-century Persian teen becomes a servant to her wealthy rug designer uncle in the court of Shah Abbas the Great, where her weaving talents prove both a blessing and curse.  [from Baker & Taylor]

 

Adult Nonfiction

The man who changed the way we eat: Craig Claiborne and the American food renaissance by Thomas McNamee 

B CLAIBORN

"From the bestselling author of Alice Waters and Chez Panisse comes the first biography of the father of the American food revolution, who introduced the world to the likes of Julia Child, Wolfgang Puck, and Alice Waters. From his first day on the job as the New York Times food critic, Craig Claiborne excited readers by introducing them to food worlds unknown, from initiating them in the standards of the finest French cuisine and the tantalizing joys of the then mostly unknown foods of India, China, Mexico, Spain, to extolling the pleasures of "exotic" ingredients like arugula, and praising "newfangled" tools like the Cuisinart, which once he'd given his stamp of approval became wildly popular. A good review of a restaurant guaranteed a full house for weeks, while a bad review might close a kitchen down. Based on unprecedented access to Claiborne's personal papers and interviews with a host of food world royalty, including Jacques Pepin, Gael Greene, and Alice Waters, Tom McNamee offers a lively and vivid account of Claiborne's extraordinary adventure in food, from his own awakening in the bistros of Paris, to his legendary wine-soaked dinner parties, to his travels to colorful locals from Morocco to Saigon, and the infamous $4,000 dinner he shared in Paris with French chef Pierre Franey that made front-page news. More than an engrossing biography, this is the story of the country's transition from enchantment with frozen TV dinners to a new consciousness of truly good cooking"—Baker & Taylor.


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