I read this book when I was a freshman in high school. It flowed with truth and beauty. It described a small town in the South… a place I’d never been. It also had the precious dynamics of an older brother and his sassy, but also sensitive little sister. A…
Treasure Books
The books below are the books I treasure. Some are the ones that stand the ‘test of time’ in some cases or they are the books that entered my hands at the perfect time for where I was with life at that juncture. Perhaps from time to time one will be here that might be a book that would not have the same ability to impact me at this age as they did at the age I read them. I don’t think I’ll comment on them in that way for who knows how they might affect anyone who is inspired to read, (or re-read) them after glancing over my words here about them. My book club is not about the most recent books published. I trust that the New York Times or Kirkus Reviews will bring you plenty in that regard. They are, like I said, the books that I treasure. And some are relatively new to me but they have caused me to treasure already. The first here are long time treasures but as we mosey along look for recent novels, historical books, poetry books and yes … cookbooks.
Category: Treasure Books
“Culture and Cuisine” and The Origins of ‘Fusion’
“Culture and Cuisine”, Jean-François Revel I purchased this book at a shop on Fleming Street in Key West in mid February of 1988. I was part owner of my first restaurant. It was called “MIRA”. I was also in the middle of a huge amount of culinary self analysis as…
Pilgrim at Tinker Creek
by Annie Dillard “Then one day, walking along Tinker Creek, thinking of nothing at all, I saw it —- the tree with the lights in it. It was the same backyard cedar where the mourning doves roost, only charged and transfigured, etc cell buzzing with flame … It was less…
Look Homeward Angel
by Thomas Wolfe I was saved from what fate I shall never know when a woman came to live with us when I was ten years old. She was my maternal grandmother. “Nana” was what we knew her name to be. It was ordained by others in the family long…
Ninety Two in the Shade
by Thomas Mc Guane I returned to live in Key West in the very year another resident of Key West released this book. I originally arrived to the last island out of America in ’71 and fell under it’s spell. It was like falling in love with a woman. But…
Victuals: An Appalachian Journey
Excerpted from “Victuals. Say it the way my people have for centuries: vidls. Maybe you’ve seen it spelled “vittles” in a cartoon balloon coming from the mouth of Mammy Yokum. Or heard it as the punch line delivered before Granny Clampett clogs off to “roast up a mess of possum.”…