Book Talk

May 2007

Walter Isaacson (Benjamin Franklin: an American Life) is receiving rave reviews for his new biography Einstein: his Life and Universe. He describes how Einstein’s approach to life and science sprang from his unconventional personality.

Another unconventional personality is Charles Rangel the Democratic congressman from Harlem. In And I Haven’t had a Bad Day Since: from the Streets of Harlem to the Halls of Congress, he reminisces about his childhood on Lenox Avenue, and a bloody battle in the Korean War for which he received a Bronze Star and a Purple Heart. Particularly interesting is his analysis of the positive effect the GI Bill had on the African-American community.

Ending Poverty in America: how to Restore the American Dream, edited by Senator John Edwards, Marion Crain and Arne L. Kalleberg, question why the richest country on the planet still has thirty-seven million people living in near poverty.  Contributors from both the liberal and conservative sides of the problem discuss causes and concrete solutions to reverse the widening divide between rich and poor.

Global poverty is the issue for William T. Vollmann in Poor People. He interviewed the poor around the world and asked them the simple question, “Why are you poor?” Destiny, God’s will, pain, bad luck, and hopelessness are just some of the reasons.

Two people who have made our life richer by allowing us to laugh at them and ourselves have written biographies.

In My First Five Husbands: and the Ones who Got Away,  Rue McClanahan, she describes her two great passions as the theater and men! In 1957 she arrived in New York City from Oklahoma, with two weeks worth of money. The rest is history.

The two-thousand year old man, Mel Brooks, has written It’s Good to be the King: the Seriously Funny Life of Mel Brooks. Born in poverty to a Jewish family in Brooklyn, Melvin Kaminsky always had a need to entertain. From the street corner to the Borscht Belt and then to Hollywood, Brooks worked with many of the comedy greats.

Something we can all enjoy is a good meal and lots of new cookbooks have arrived.
Strapped for time in the evening? Try Almost from Scratch: 600 Recipes for the New Convience Cuisine, by Andrew Schloss. By combining easy to find prepared food with other ingredients, you can turn out an impressive meal quickly. Beginning with packaged and jarred items you can produce feta artichoke pizza, shrimp in clam sauce or chicken cacciatore. This would be a great gift for a beginning or experienced cook.

From Better Homes and Gardens comes America’s Ethnic Cuisines with recipes for Thai noodle salad, Mexican shortbread cookies, vegetable curry, grilled Caribbean skewers and more, all easy to make in an American kitchen.

Food Network Favorites: Recipes from our All-Star Chefs features eleven contributors with recipes that range from corn dogs to root beer glazed pork chops with bourbon!

For those trying to cut back on meat is Vegetable Harvest: Vegetables at the Center of the Plate by Patricia Wells.  Her inventive recipes like spicy butternut squash soup and Provencal roast tomatoes with light basil puree, are a far cry from the mound of shriveled peas on the dinner plate.

Bon appetite!
Virginia Cooper
Adult Services Librarian