Staff Recommendations
Sheryn Morris
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On the noodle road : from Beijing to Rome, with love and pasta
by Lin-Liu, Jen.
September 3, 2013
Call Number: 641.6311 L7355
When humanity moved past being hunter-gatherers and began to cultivate and harvest crops, one of the basic products of these efforts was bread which became a primary food source. Noodles and dumplings are several steps up on the culinary register, but are based on a similar food product, dough, basically made of flour and water, and enriched with other ingredients if available. Add sauces, fillings made from grains, vegetables, bits of meat, poultry or fish, seasonings, and these foods have moved way beyond sustenance to pleasure and are often basic to fine cuisines... Read Full Review
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Creamy and crunchy : an informal history of peanut butter, the all-American food
by Krampner, Jon, 1952-
July 2, 2013
Call Number: 641.65659 K89
Is peanut butter an all-American food? That is one question John Krampner answers in this wonderful history of a food product Americans take for granted. Those peanut butter and jelly sandwiches have frequently been associated with, what was once, the less-than sophisticated American palate. Times and tastes have changed, but for most of us the love affair with this readily available comfort food has not. The plant and the spread have their origins elsewhere and came here on a boat just like other newcomers. Here is what Krampner says, "But for all the importance of peanuts to... Read Full Review
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Empress of fashion : a life of Diana Vreeland
by Stuart, Amanda Mackenzie.
December 18, 2012
Call Number: 746.52 V979St
She was not a pretty child, but it was stingingly cruel for Diana Dalziel’s mother to tell the young girl that she was ugly. The mother and sister were beauties, and the contrast with young Diana was even more obvious. After a miserable childhood, the teenaged Diana, or De-e-e-e-ahna as she said it was to be pronounced, took charge of her own life and created The Girl. After that there was no stopping this jolie laide who went on to become Diana Vreeland, a major power broker behind twentieth century fashion as fashion editor at Harper’s Bazaar, editor in chief at Vogue... Read Full Review
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How To Cook Everything: The Basics: All You Need To Make Great Food
by Bittman, Mark
December 7, 2012
Call Number: 641.5 B624-1 2012
It is one of the worst comments made about someone who is a rotten cook: “They don’t even know how to boil water!” Well, if you have never done it, or if you have never seen what it looks like--boiling water--then one of the most basic techniques in food preparation can produce a bad, if not inedible, meal. And, if the inexperienced cook mistakes simmering water for boiling, and puts in pasta or rice, the end product will be a globby mess of starch.For over twenty years Mark Bittman has been nudging, pushing and cajoling people to do their own cooking and has been... Read Full Review
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The man who changed the way we eat : Craig Claiborne and the American food renaissance
by McNamee, Thomas, 1947-
December 3, 2012
Call Number: 641.092 C585Mc
Craig Claiborne’s name is not readily, if at all, familiar to foodies or anyone else these days. But he is one of the great godparents of today’s food world. In the late 1950’s he changed and molded our modern ideas and attitudes about food, eating, entertaining and dining out. He found his passion in food and wrote about it, and broke major barriers to do so. Prior to Claiborne’s position as food editor at The New York Times, articles about food, homey little recipes, and maybe a nod or two to a well-known restaurant were part of the “women’s... Read Full Review
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Blue Sky Metropolis: The Aerospace Century in Southern California
November 5, 2012
Call Number: 338.4A17 B6585
The aerospace industry, more than the entertainment industry, created a monumental population growth within a short period of time and changed the Southern California region in unimagined and unthought of ways which still have repercussions today. This unique collection of essays examines various aspects of the growth of that industry. The contributors are from different disciplines and therefore provide a spirited discussion in several subject areas: the human element, the work, the culture, the communities and the geography. This is not intended to be a complete history of the aerospace... Read Full Review
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The keeper of lost causes
by Adler-Olsen, Jussi.
September 17, 2012
Call Number: F
The thrills of the tightly wrought suspense/mystery novels from Scandinavia continue with the first English translation of The Keeper of Lost Causes by Denmark’s top crime writer, Jussi Adler-Olsen. This is the first book in the Department Q series whose main protagonist is Detective Carl Mørck, selected to run the new department which investigates and dogs down cold cases. It is an outstanding thriller, and more than a match for the works of Stieg Larsson.These are some of the events and themes that are tightly woven into the plot of this captivating book that cannot be put... Read Full Review
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The house in France : a memoir
by Wells, Gully.
August 27, 2012
Call Number: 071.092 W453We
In this sparkling, joyful family memoir, Gully Wells has created an homage to her mother, the irrepressible Dee Wells, not exactly a rock of stability, but who did create a vacation house that would become a solid lodestone in the lives of her children, grandchildren, husband, lovers, and friends. She bought a ramshackle farmhouse that was clinging to a hillside in southern France and made it into a vacation home that became a summer retreat, and respite for some, from a busy life in England. Dee Wells was a femme fatale who at times unwittingly attracted men wherever she went. However, if... Read Full Review
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Dreaming in French : the Paris years of Jacqueline Bouvier Kennedy, Susan Sontag, and Angela Davi
by Kaplan, Alice Yaeger
July 30, 2012
Call Number: 920.073 K165
Jacqueline Bouvier Kennedy, Susan Sontag, and Angela Davis were three American women who, in their youth, spent time studying and living in Paris. Based on extensive research in archives in the United States and France, Alice Kaplan examines the lasting effects of the women's experiences which formed a lifelong French connection for all three. Living in France would sustain, nourish, and confirm a sense of independence and uniqueness in each of their lives. All three were outsiders within their social milieus in the United States. As a Catholic with divorced parents in the 1950s, Jacqueline... Read Full Review
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Hedy's folly : the life and breakthrough inventions of Hedy Lamarr, the most beautiful woman in the world
by Rhodes, Richard
May 14, 2012
Call Number: 812.092 L216Rh
Hedy Lamarr was a glamorous actress with a sultry demeanor which gave the impression of a self-igniting fire. She was also known for the line, “I am Tondelayo” from the 1942 version of the film White Cargo. The image of her speaking that line still makes some men more than a bit giddy. Not just another pretty actress, at one point she was called, “The most beautiful woman in the world.” Lamarr also had a brain and it was for the scientific and technical. During her Hollywood career it is possible to imagine people advising her not to worry her pretty head over... Read Full Review
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Teenie Harris, photographer : image, memory, history
by Finley, Cheryl.
February 13, 2012
Call Number: 770.914 H316Fi
Charles "Teenie" Harris photographed everyone who came into his sight and was of interest to him, from people in an average neighborhood to the very well-known who came to visit Pittsburgh when it was Steel City USA, and the Hill District which was the African American community. His life and experiences cover the twentieth century--1908-1998. A charming, handsome and congenial man with ethics and an enduringly optimistic view of life, his photographs reflect what he valued: people, families, communities. Mayor David L. Lawrence gave Harris the name One-Shot because that was all he... Read Full Review
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Confessions of a young novelist
by Eco, Umberto
January 23, 2012
Call Number: 853 E19E
At the age of forty-eight, Umberto Eco published his first novel, The Name of the Rose, the eponymous film followed, and a young novelist was born. There followed several other successful novels and the most recent, The Prague Cemetery. Long before this late-blooming career, Eco had a reputation as a medievalist, philosopher and scholar of semiology (“The science... Read Full Review