Do you still read?

Reed, Shannon.  Why We Read: On Our Lifelong Love Affair With Books.  Toronto: Hanover 

         Square Press, 2023.  ISBN: 978-1-355-00796-4

Are you a reader?  Do you prefer reading to going to parties?  Do you constantly have a book or two or three that you have with you to read while waiting in line or for your meal to arrive?  If you do, than you are a kindred soul with Shannon Reed and will enjoy the tales she tells in Why We Read.

 

Shannon Reed lays out the arc of her life, especially her life with books and libraries, in short chapters.  Chapters such as "to Get to Go to the Library" or "To Finish a Series" or "Because I Wanted Free Pizza."  A really fun chapter was "Because Someone is Paying You to Teach a Class about Vampires" when Shannon Reed was an adjunct professor really dislikes horror!

Shannon Reed provides interesting quizzes and vignettes between the chapters of her life.  Some of these include "How I Choose a Book: A Thirteen-Step Guide," Signs You Might be a Character in a Popular Children's Book," or "The Five People You Meet When You Work in a Bookstore."  These interesting asides sometimes feel out of step with topics in other chapters, but are fun reads.

So if you like to read or are interested in why others like to read (or both!), pick up a copy of Shannon Reed's Why We Read and settle in for some quality you time!

Food and Stories from an Island!

Wei, Clarissa, and Ivy Chen.  Made in Taiwan: Recipes and Stories from the Island Nation.  New 

         York: Simon Element, 2023.  ISBN: 9781982198978

 

Who does not like browsing cookbooks?  You can view all the possibilities and dream about what you can make and how things will taste.  The best cookbooks provide photos and clear instructions for the reader so that the reader can enjoy all the labor the writers imbued in the title.  And when you are reading a cookbook from a culture not your own, you need context for the recipes which  Clarissa Wei and Ivy Chen provide in Made in Taiwan!

 

Wei and Chen open the book with a history of Taiwan setting the stage for what makes Taiwan cuisine different from Chinese cuisine.  Then Wei and Chen start with the basics -  what is in the Taiwanese pantry so that the reader knows what they need to stock to make the recipes that follow while also providing substitutes.  There are recipes for breakfast, for lunch, for small suppers, and elaborate dinners, not to mention special events.  The authors also include deserts, and  recipes from the indigenous cooks of the islands.  The recipes are nicely illustrated and help provide direction for various complicated recipes.  Scattered through out the recipes are stories that reflect the culture of Taiwan and its food history.  One such story deals with hamburgers for breakfast (Little League baseball) while another talks about how turkey rice became a dish in Taiwan.  The authors do note that the recipes do reflect more Central and Southern Taiwan rather than what is found in Taipei.

If you enjoy browsing recipes or learning about cultures via their food, pick up Made in Taiwan and dig in!