An American Bite

Freedom: A Novel.  By Jonathan Franzen.
Another bestseller I've been avoiding, largely because of the vague description on the book cover and acerbic cover itself (I do judge books by their covers).   In truth, this book is hard to describe, but revolves around a family and their branching, beautifully odd relationships.  Normally, the theme of suburban discontent makes me want to yawn and NOT contemplate the lame tragedy of SUV driving, resource abusing white people, but Franzen's crispy fresh writing style managed to suck me in.  He has an inventive way with words and uncannily captures the roving, self-deprecating female stream of consciousness.  I wondered if 'Jonathan' was a nom de plume disguising a woman, but the picture on the book jacket is convincingly male.  Undercurrents of this book explore ecological conservation, rockstarism, politically incorrect political activism, alcoholism, and exploitative relationships.  Caution: this is a thick book, and the middle third felt like a marathon, mostly because I was under the gun to get it back to the library, and the book remained engaging throughout.  Bottom Line:  Read it if you have some extra time.

Spring Snacks

Kitchen Confidential and Medium Raw by Anthony Bourdain

I've been watching Anthony Bourdain's TV show "No Reservations" on the Travel Channel for a long time and have been amused that a once-semi-famous, previously heroin abusing, now-washed-up chef created a show that intertwines travel, local food and some pretty crafty cultural observations.  His literary snippets throughout the show hinted to me that he might be a good writer.  When "Medium Raw" was published this winter, I went for it.  It is definitely entertaining, with quite a few shock value stories, but it lacks a central thread.  Besides food.  It meanders from anecdote to anecdote, though his sarcasm and hilariously self-aggrandizing sentences will keep you turning the pages.  When I finished it, I was sufficiently impressed to get his first book, "Kitchen Confidential" from the library.  It came out 10 years ago and was a sensation at the time.  I thought Bourdain has a more authentic voice in "Kitchen Confidential" and liked it better. (My fiance prefers "Medium Raw").  They're not for the faint of heart; both have gritty and profane prose and some gruesome details of life in the innards of famous NYC kitchens.  Both are enjoyable, but read them in order and not backwards like I did.


The Emperor of All Maladies: A Biography of Cancer by Siddhartha Mukherjee

This thick and ambitiously titled Biography of Cancer was more readable than I anticipated.  Mukherjee's brilliance is in his layering of interesting historical tidbits, patient stories, and observations on how cancer has shaped culture.  Otherwise, this massive topic, with it's biochemical intricacies would be overwhelming and boring.  As someone who suffered through medical school biochemistry with zero idea why we were learning tedious genetic mutations like bcr/abl and the drug subsequently invented to fix the cancer it creates, this book gave me some lightbulb moments.  All of those befuddling DNA/RNA/protein product pathways we had to learn were very recently discovered and have advanced medicine light years since then.  I would recommend this book to people who have an interest in cancer's insidious ways, or medical people who hated biochemistry as much as I did.


Late for Tea at the Deer Palace by Tamara Chalabi

This is the story of a prominent Iraqi family, beginning in the late 1800's and continuing to current day Iraq.  The family was an influential Shi'a (the religious minority in Iraq) family that weathered the fall of the Ottoman Empire, British occupation post WWI, and the unstable governments following.  The family was forced into exile in London and Lebanon in the 1970's, and the author was born in Beirut.  Her family's longing for their home country informed the author's cultural identity, and just before the Americans took over Baghdad, she went 'home' to the country she never knew.  An interesting look at the beautiful history of a dynamic population; the kind of peoples' history that textbooks tend to forget in favor of white-washed atrocities and American heroism.


The Spice Necklace: My Adventures in Caribbean Cooking, Eating and Island Life by Ann Vanderhoof

These are the kind of books I gravitate towards- well written mind vacations that take me away from the persistent rain of Seattle.  In her first book, "An Embarrassment of Mangoes," Vanderhoof tells the story of how she and her husband become disillusioned with their publishing jobs in cold Toronto (am I torturing myself with these stories?), and sell everything, buy a sailboat, and sail down the intercoastal waterway to the Caribbean, where they voyage in a mostly-happily-ever-after manner.  In this follow-up, the couple, after a second Canadian epiphany, return to the Caribbean and delight in island life once more.  I appreciate her descriptions of the differences between the islands and the lingering flavors of French, Spanish and Portuguese spices on their sandy shores.  I also appreciate that their boat is named Receta (recipe), and their dinghy is called Snack.  Throughout the book are many recipes, quite a few of which feature rum and/or coconut.  Cue trip to the refrigerator.

Winter 2011 Good Feasting

Cutting for Stone by Abraham Verghese

A beautiful, sweeping novel beginning in India and voyaging by sea to Africa to the "Missing" (a mispronunciation of "Mission" by the locals, an apt eponym) hospital.  It is the story of twin boys born to an Indian nun and a British surgeon.  The twins grow and learn in the protected enclave of the mission hospital, until one twin's transgression destroys the boys' bond forever.  Thrust into war torn Africa, the 'good' twin follows his father's ghost and becomes a surgeon, completing residency in the Bronx.  I hesitate to tell you that the incandescent prose was penned by an MD who is currently the program director of the internal medicine residency program at Stanford, in fear that his writing will be discounted. By my well traveled classmates' accounts, Verghese is a nice guy.  By my account, he is an incredible author. 


Stones Into Schools by Greg Mortenson

This is the follow up story to 'Three Cups of Tea,' Mortenson's best-seller about his establishment of the Central Asia Institute which builds schools for girls in rural Pakistan.  In 'Stones Into Schools,' Mortenson chronicles the incredible success of his institute's expanding efforts into war-torn Afghanistan.  His pervasive understanding of the complex cultural, religious, and tribal intricacies governing the Himalayan countries has earned him consulting positions to the US military.  One thing that I loved about this book is that Mortenson's agenda of promoting education for girls is enthusiastically championed by the very rural communities that most Americans view as hotbeds of Islamic radicalism.  The communities, with conservative elders, find creative ways to get the schools built and pin their hopes for a more stable future on their little emissaries of learning.  I found this second book to be more engaging than the first, partly because of the stories of the charismatic fixers in Afghanistan and Pakistan, and partly because of the rocketing success that the Institute has had in building schools in geographically and politically challenging places.


The Wave by Susan Casey

I was delighted to receive this book as a gift from a residency program director while I was on the interview trail.  This director had been involved with the New York literary scene prior to becoming an MD, and I enjoyed talking with someone in the usually stale and relentlessly statistics-based academic world who likes reading as much as I do.  I don't read a lot of non-fiction, but this book is a great blend of history, oceanic mysticism, big-wave surfing, and science.  The premise is that rogue waves are increasing around the globe and are regularly snatching large freighters and drowning all cargo and crew without generating media attention.  Much of the book focuses on the escapades of big-wave surfers who seek out these rogue waves with the help of advanced weather technology, high tech boards, and the convenient lack of their frontal lobes.  Anyone with nautical inclinations or a surfing background will love this book.


The Woman Who Fell From the Sky by Jennifer Steil

A glamorous New Yorker in publishing, Jennifer decides to don an abaya over her formerly Gucci clad body and move to Yemen to teach a journalism class to the staff at the Yemen Observer.  Yemen is one of the poorest countries in the Middle East and has been host to a number of Al Qaeda training sites.  The Observer is ostensibly an independent publication, although Jennifer quickly realizes the pervasiveness of the government's influence into all aspects of Yemeni life, including appropriate article topics for the newspaper.  Even so, Jennifer falls in love with the history, culture and architecture of her adopted new home.  She finds herself viewed as a novel third sex, a Western white woman who is able to sit in with audiences of males, chew Qat (a mildly narcotic plant that Yemeni men spend much of their work day enjoying), and teach journalism to her co-ed staff.  This is a particularly relevant story now, with the winds of change buffeting the Middle East, including Yemen.


 The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society by Mary Ann Shaffer and Annie Barrows

I avoided reading this book for a long time because I hated the title and it's best-seller status.  Thankfully, my younger sister rescued me from my cloud of ignorance and made me read it.  It's fantastic.  Set during WWII in the rural Guernsey islands off the Southern Coast of England, it is a story told in letters between the progressive and charismatic Juliet and her new found friends on the quaint island who don't manage to escape the tentacles of German occupation.  I have not encountered a story told in correspondence form before, but it is done adeptly and movingly.