Review: The Man Who Changed The Way We Eat

Title: The Man Who Changed The Way We Eat: Craig Claiborne And The American Food Renaissance
Author: Thomas McNamee
Length: 320 pages
Publisher: Free Press
Genre: Non-fiction, Biography
Source: Publisher
My Rating:
Synopsis (from Goodreads): From his first day on the job as the New York Times food critic, Craig Claiborne excited readers by introducing them to food worlds unknown, from initiating them in the standards of the finest French cuisine and the tantalizing joys of the then mostly unknown foods of India, China, Mexico, Spain, to extolling the pleasures of “exotic” ingredients like arugula, and praising “newfangled” tools like the Cuisinart, which once he’d given his stamp of approval became wildly popular. A good review of a restaurant guaranteed a full house for weeks, while a bad review might close a kitchen down.      Based on unprecedented access to Claiborne’s personal papers and interviews with a host of food world royalty, including Jacques Pepin, Gael Greene, and Alice Waters, Tom McNamee offers a lively and vivid account of Claiborne’s extraordinary adventure in food, from his own awakening in the bistros of Paris, to his legendary wine-soaked dinner parties, to his travels to colorful locals from Morocco to Saigon, and the infamous $4,000 dinner he shared in Paris with French chef Pierre Franey that made front-page news. More than an engrossing biography, this is the story of the country’s transition from enchantment with frozen TV dinners to a new consciousness of truly good cooking.

My Thoughts: This was a fascinating book. My friends consider me a "foodie", though I don't agree. I love to eat at nice restaurants, try new dishes, and experiment with my cooking club. None of those things however make me a true "foodie". I am just not that knowledgeable. Craig Claiborne was a "foodie", perhaps the first in our country, and he brought a desire for that knowledge to a large percentage of people just like me. I never read one of Claiborne's columns but had I, I would have been one of his devoted followers. Learning about the life and career of such a man was a wonderful discovery for me.


McNamee makes Claiborne come alive. As I was reading the book I found myself making the journey with Claiborne and wishing that I was more than just a voyeur. I wanted to be a part of the lavish dinner parties, on the trips to Europe to explore the newest restaurants, and to have written some of the amazing cookbooks which carry the Claiborn byline.

However, as is true with anyone, Claiborne was not just his public persona. He had an unseen, and for that time period, scandalous personal life. He lived with the same demons a lot of us do and had the same character flaws too. This does not distract from the persona of Claiborne but serves to make him someone that more of us can relate to.

If you are interested in food at all I think that this biography is definitely worth the time to read. I not only learned a lot about the food revolution in America but I was left with a respect for what it took to make it come about, not to mention a compelling need to go out and buy The New York Times Cookbook.

Review: A Night to Remember

Title: A Night to Remember
Author: Walter Lord
Length: 208 pages
Publisher: Open Road Media
Genre: Non-fiction, History
Source: Purchased
My Rating:
Synopsis (from Goodreads): James Cameron's 1997 Titanic movie is a smash hit, but Walter Lord's 1955 classic remains in some ways unsurpassed. Lord interviewed scores of Titanic passengers, fashioning a gripping you-are-there account of the ship's sinking that you can read in half the time it takes to see the film. The book boasts many perfect movie moments not found in Cameron's film. When the ship hits the berg, passengers see "tiny splinters of ice in the air, fine as dust, that give off myriads of bright colors whenever caught in the glow of the deck lights." Survivors saw dawn reflected off other icebergs in a rainbow of shades, depending on their angle toward the sun: pink, mauve, white, deep blue--a landscape so eerie, a little boy tells his mom, "Oh, Muddie, look at the beautiful North Pole with no Santa Claus on it." A Titanic funnel falls, almost hitting a lifeboat--and consequently washing it 30 yards away from the wreck, saving all lives aboard. One man calmly rides the vertical boat down as it sinks, steps into the sea, and doesn't even get his head wet while waiting to be successfully rescued. On one side of the boat, almost no males are permitted in the lifeboats; on the other, even a male Pekingese dog gets a seat. Lord includes a crucial, tragically ironic drama Cameron couldn't fit into the film: the failure of the nearby ship Californian to save all those aboard the sinking vessel because distress lights were misread as random flickering and the telegraph was an early wind-up model that no one wound.

Lord's account is also smarter about the horrifying class structure of the disaster, which Cameron reduces to hollow Hollywood formula. No children died in the First and Second Class decks; 53 out of 76 children in steerage died. According to the press, which regarded the lower-class passengers as a small loss to society, "The night was a magnificent confirmation of women and children first, yet somehow the loss rate was higher for Third Class children than First Class men." As the ship sank, writes Lord, "the poop deck, normally Third Class space ... was suddenly becoming attractive to all kinds of people." Lord's logic is as cold as the Atlantic, and his bitter wit is quite dry.

My Review: I picked this book up for the Kindle on 4/13/12 during the Kindle Daily Deal. I had never read a book about the Titanic before and as this had gotten great reviews and it was the 100th anniversary of the Titanic sinking I thought that it was a good time to change that.

I found this book engaging, engrossing, gripping and simply fascinating! It was a well written and, from what I could tell, thorough account of that night. I felt connected to the passengers and crew that were on the Titanic during this horrific time. One of the things I liked best about this book is that there weren't liberties taken, drama wasn't added to make the book more exciting. This was simply the story of the Titanic's last night. I felt that Lord also did a good job of discussing the social expectations at play when the Titanic sunk and how they were changed as a result of that tragedy.

I would not hesitate to recommend this book to anyone interested in the story of the Titanic.

Review: Radioactive: Marie and Pierre Curie, A Tale of Love and Fallout

Title: Radioactive: Marie and Pierre Curie, A Tale of Love and Fallout
Author: Lauren Redniss
Length: 208 pages
Publisher: !T Books
Genre: Historical non-fiction, Biography
Source: Purchased
My Rating:
Synopsis (from Goodreads):
In 1891, 24 year old Marie, nEe Marya Sklodowska, moved from Warsaw to Paris, where she found work in the laboratory of Pierre Curie, a scientist engaged in research on heat and magnetism. They fell in love. They took their honeymoon on bicycles. They expanded the periodic table, discovering two new elements with startling properties, radium and polonium. They recognized radioactivity as an atomic property, heralding the dawn of a new scientific era. They won the Nobel Prize. Newspapers mythologized the couple's romance, beginning articles on the Curies with "Once upon a time . . . " Then, in 1906, Pierre was killed in a freak accident. Marie continued their work alone. She won a second Nobel Prize in 1911, and fell in love again, this time with the married physicist Paul Langevin. Scandal ensued. Duels were fought.
In the century since the Curies began their work, we've struggled with nuclear weapons proliferation, debated the role of radiation in medical treatment, and pondered nuclear energy as a solution to climate change. In "Radioactive," Lauren Redniss links these contentious questions to a love story in 19th Century Paris.
"Radioactive" draws on Redniss's original reporting in Asia, Europe and the United States, her interviews with scientists, engineers, weapons specialists, atomic bomb survivors, and Marie and Pierre Curie's own granddaughter.
Whether young or old, scientific novice or expert, no one will fail to be moved by Lauren Redniss's eerie and wondrous evocation of one of history's most intriguing figures.

My Review: I really enjoyed this book.  It is a true feast for the eyes, a work of art. Every page has a different layout, different font, different colors.  You have two choices with this book, you can read the story by either the words or the illustrations.

Besides the obvious visual interest the book provides it also gives you an introduction to Madame and Pierre Curie and the history of the discovery of radioactivity. I found this just an introduction which left me with a curiosity to learn more. I would be really interested in reading a longer biography on the Curies and a more in-depth history of radioactivity. In this aspect I found the book a little bit lacking. I was not satisfied at the end. However the fact that it sparked my interest enough for me to want to seek out further information is to it's credit.

I believe that this book is worth a look if only for the visual feast it is. If you are interested in Marie and Pierre Curie or the discovery of radioactivity you will definitely find this book to be something special!

Review: Lady Almina and the Real Downton Abbey: The Lost Legacy of Highclere Castle

Title: Lady Almina and the Real Downton Abbey: The Lost Legacy of Highclere Castle
Author: The Countess of Carnarvon
Length: 320 pages
Publisher: Crown Publishing Group
Genre: Historical non-fiction, Biography
Source: Goodreads Giveaway
My Rating:
Synopsis (from Goodreads): Lady Almina and the Real Downton Abbey tells the story behind Highclere Castle, the real-life inspiration for the hit PBS show Downton Abbey, and the life of one of its most famous inhabitants, Lady Almina, the 5th Countess of Carnarvon and the basis of the fictional character Lady Cora Crawley.  Drawing on a rich store of materials from the archives of Highclere Castle, including diaries, letters, and photographs, the current Lady Carnarvon has written a transporting story of this fabled home on the brink of war.

Much like her Masterpiece Classic counterpart, Lady Almina was the daughter of a wealthy industrialist, Alfred de Rothschild, who married his daughter off at a young age, her dowry serving as the crucial link in the effort to preserve the Earl of Carnarvon's ancestral home.  Throwing open the doors of Highclere Castle to tend to the wounded of World War I, Lady Almina distinguished herself as a brave and remarkable woman.

This rich tale contrasts the splendor of Edwardian life in a great house against the backdrop of the First World War and offers an inspiring and revealing picture of the woman at the center of the history of Highclere Castle.

My Review: If you are looking for Downton Abbey in book form than this is not the book for you. I had a hard time with that at first. I was looking for the same feel of the Downton Abbey television series.  I wanted the stories of both those living in the castle and those whose job it is to keep it running smoothly.  There is obviously some of that in this book but as it is not a fictional story written for drama, it can not be the same.

It's well written and a good history. There are lots of interesting pieces of information and connections. I found both Lady Almina and her husband, the 5th Count of Carnarvon, very compelling subjects. The Count in particular played a large part in a wonderful, historical find of that time period.  This story is not solely about Lady Almina and Highclere castle which I felt actually added something to the book. 
  
However, I think I frequently got side tracked by the many names thrown out there not pertinent to the story. Names that were obviously important names in that time in English history, but since they were often not more than a mention it did as much, if not more, to distract from the book than it did to add to it. If you are interested in this time in English history I am sure you will enjoy this book.