Summer Reading List

For the past eight years, I have been in the habit of making a reading list for myself each season (and keeping track of it in the same Clairefontaine pocket notebook that I have had since my freshman year of college). These lists are sometimes overly ambitious, and I rarely manage to check off every item, but I have been doing pretty well this summer (thanks to my current state of unemployment). With more than a month to go before fall arrives--and with it, a new reading list--I have made it through six of the nine books on my list, and I am currently working on #7. This summer, interspersed amongst the usual classic and contemporary novels, I have read a few books on my favorite subject--food:



David Kamp is a self-described humoriste, and it shows in his entertaining account of America's culinary revolution. From James Beard to Julia Child, Alice Waters to Wolfgang Puck, Kamp covers all of the major contributors to the American food landscape over the past seven decades without ever coming across as dull and encyclopedic. A very enjoyable and informative summer read! (Thanks for lending it to me, Chabes...you will get it back soon!)





Unlike David Kamp, Barbara Kingsolver is less interested in how Americans prepare their food than she is in where their raw ingredients come from. Increasingly concerned about the low quality and high overhead costs of industrially-produced food, Kingsolver and her family set out to live for an entire year off of what they can produce or procure in their immediate vicinity in Virginia. For anyone with even a slight interest in growing their own food, this book will definitely inspire.






Named a "must-read" by just about everyone since it was published in 2006, The Omnivore's Dilemma hardly needs my recommendation. All I can say is that if you haven't read it yet, please please do. You will never look at food the same way again. It is simply no longer ethical or wise to eat without thinking about where our food comes from, because as Pollan says, you are not only what you eat, but also "what what you eat eats".