2013 Challenge: Foodies Read

COMPLETED!

Margot from Joyfully Retired started the Foodies Read Challenge a couple of years ago. For 2013, Margot has passed the torch to Vicki from I'd Rather Be Reading at the Beach, who is hosting the challenge on its own site, Foodies Read 2013.

This is always one of my favorite challenges.  I'm signing up again this year for the Pastry Chef level to read four to eight food books in 2013.

BOOKS READ

With seven books, I cam close to maxing out my level of the challenge, although I slacked off on reviews as the year progressed.

None of the books I read were from my list of possibilities. 

• Just Enough Liebling: Classic Work by the Legendary New Yorker Writer by A. J. Liebling (reviewed here) 
• The Perfect Martini Book by Bob Herzbrun (not reviewed)
• The Hour: A Cocktail Manifesto by Bernard DeVoto (reviewed here) 
• Alice Waters and Chez Panisse: The Romantic, Impractical, Often Eccentric, Ultimately Brilliant Making of a Food Revolution by Thomas McNamee (reviewed here) 
• The Founding Fish by John McPhee (not reviewed)
• Medium Raw: A Bloody Valentine to the World of Food and the People Who Cook by Anthony Bourdain (not reviewed)
• The Christmas Pearl by Dorothea Benton Frank (not reviewed)

BOOK POSSIBILITIES

There are several possibilities on my TBR shelves, including:

The Raw Milk Revolution: Behind America's Emerging Battle Over Food Rights by David E. Gumpert

Stuffed: Adventures of a Restaurant Family by Patricia Volk

The Tuscan Year: Life and Food in an Italian Valley by Elizabeth Romer


Epicurean Delight: The Life and Times of James Beard by Evan Jones

A Cordiall Water by M. F. K. Fisher

The Feasting Season by Nancy Coons

Dumas on Food: Selections from Le Grand Dictionnaire de Cuisine by Alexandre Dumas

French Women Don't Get Fat: The Secret of Eating For Pleasure by Mireille Guiliano

NOTE

Last updated December 26, 2013.

18 Days to Christmas!

Book Beginnings: A Personal Odyssey

Please join me every Friday to share the first sentence (or so) of the book you are reading, along with your initial thoughts about the sentence, impressions of the book, or anything else the opener inspires. Please remember to include the title of the book and the author's name.

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MY BOOK BEGINNING

Henry was about to become a father again – if he lived that long.

-- A Personal Odyssey by Thomas Sowell.

I've read Sowell's columns and am impressed by him as a commentator, but I've never read his books.I decided to start with his memoirs to learn a little more of his backstory before reading his substantive books.

I am about halfway through and am engrossed.  His story is interesting and he is an incredibly smart, completely self-made man. He doesn't show much of a soft side, but the way he refuses to suffer fools is inspirational.