What We're Reading...

They're the subject of songs, jokes, babies' first food, and sandwiches with peanut butter, and it's hard to imagine our lives without the ubiquitous banana. Whether we slice, mash, puree, or simply bite into them, or even adorn hats with them, bananas have a special place in our hearts. Yet what do we really know about this sexy, yet sexless, fruit? One thing we should know is that we are in danger of losing it, and the song line 'yes, we have no bananas,' could take on a serious tone. Dan Koeppel offers an intense and admirable investigation of the banana's history (who knew there was a banana research center in Leuven, Belgium, for instance?), that not only helps us consider the fate of this particular fruit, but also challenges us to dig deeper in our thinking about how we grow, get, and enjoy our food.

Have you ever wondered about the history of the famous Allen Brothers beef of Chicago, or where Santa Barbara Olive Company olives are grown? Rebecca Gray asks and her friendly interviews turn up tidbits like, “If you want to make movies you go to Hollywood; if you want to make cheese you go to Wisconsin,” in the words of an Italian immigrant cheese maker. Food writer and author Gray finds handcrafted cheese in Vermont, sorbet in New Hampshire, coffee in the Berkshire Hills of New England, and Dancing Salmon in Alaska among other growers, producers, and purveyors around the country. She devotes a pithy chapter to each company and includes a history of that food item, as well as a good read that, once again, ties food to place and to people.

It is one of the shortest and most emphatic words in the English language, a staple cry of toddlers everywhere, and yet many women (and some men, too) wrestle with saying “No.” They may choose to talk around a “no,” say nothing at all, or say “yes” instead — compromising their own wishes in each case. Dr. Nanette Gartell, in her book MY ANSWER IS NO…IF THAT’S OK WITH YOU, encourages women to embrace their desire for harmonious relationships and their sensitivity to the needs and feelings of others while honoring their own limits and wishes. In countless examples, she illustrates why women hesitate to say “no,” the consequences, and suggests alternative responses to everyday and unusual circumstances. Women are entirely capable of respectful, creative, and effective ways to say “no” to friendly invitations, desperate parental pleas, and of protecting themselves from violence. Dr. Gartrell offers anecdotes from real women, suggestions for successful communication, and resources that empower. MY ANSWER IS NO…IF THAT’S OK WITH YOU will undoubtedly enrich any woman’s options.

Call me deprived (or perhaps lucky), but I am one American who has never tasted a Twinkie and after reading TWINKIE, DECONSTRUCTED, would only do so for strictly scientific purposes. With chapters like Bleach, Mono and Diglycerides, Sugar, and Eggs Ettlinger writes a surprisingly engrossing exposé of an industrial web-work churning behind the yellow cake snack. Publishers Weekly calls the book “a delightful romp” and I agree, the reading is a piece of cake (pun intended) but the content is not easy to swallow. Twinkie lovers be warned, ignorance just might be bliss. Once again, we are forced to question the origins of our food, and its impact on our environment and ourselves.

As noted French gastronome Jean Anthelme Brillat-Savarin once wrote, “Tell me what you eat, and I will tell you who you are," so Frederick Kaufman attempts to search the soul of the average American. The result, though a little scattered, is more entertaining than might be expected. Kaufman reveals that from the moment the first Pilgrims landed at Plymouth Rock, their complicated relationship with food would set precedent for centuries to come. Kaufman navigates through specific periods of our national gastronomic history with ease and puts into perspective our diet-crazed society with historic exemples — for instance, in the late eighteenth century, mixing different kinds of food was thought to diminish the meal’s nutritional value and was widely discouraged in diet books of the time. Whimsical, if sometimes cringe-inducing, topics (including chapters on the history of vomit and the sex lives of oysters) keep the reader guessing and engrossed.