A Basket of Books: Something Different to Chew on

If you're looking for ideas for books for gifting, these have recently landed here thanks to their publishers or publicists. Yup, free.

None of 'em are cookbooks, although some are food related.

The Devil's Dinner by Stuart Walton

This one is all about peppers, from mild to mind-numbing. It starts with the biology of the pepper plant and the fruit, then moves into the history of peppers.

There's a handy list of peppers would be useful for anyone who wants to use a wider variety of peppers, but who isn't sure what the varieties are. That was actually one of my favorite parts of the book, and I have to say that even though I cook a lot, I wasn't familiar with many of the peppers on the list.

Finally, we get treated to the cultural and symbolic aspects. There's a reason so many hot sauces reference the devil, right? While this wasn't as compelling a read as a novel, it did tell its story, and while it was the result of a whole lot of research, it wasn't a difficult read.

If you've got a friend or relative who's a chili head and likes to read, this could be a lovely stocking stuffer.


Grits by Erin Byers Murray

Although I was raised in the midwest and didn't event taste grits until I was an adult, I totally adore them, so it was fun to dive into the history of them.

While this does travel the history trail, the author is right in the midst of it, talking about the research and the people she met along the way so it's kind of a personal journey as well as a whole lot of information about corn and grits.

The grain itself doesn't get a whole lot of story time, with the book focusing more on the more modern history of the milling and the cooking. Although ... the different mills themselves include history of their own.

This book also has some recipes. It's not a cookbook by any means, but there are recipes using cornmeal and grits, so when you get hungry, you can stop reading and start cooking and eating. This was an interesting read, and I loved that a few recipes were included. I don't know if I'll ever make the sweet grits, but I'm always willing to try a new recipe for cheesy grits.

Always.


Wild Wine Making by Richard W. Bender

While this is essentially a recipe book, it's also kind of a hobby book, since you won't be making wine after work and serving it for dinner. The book assumes that you're fairly new at wine making (good assumption) and starts off with lots of information about the equipment you'll need. Fortunately, it doesn't assume that you're starting a winery, so the requirements are reasonable.

If you're worried about the "wild" part of the title, you won't need to go foraging in a scary forest for suspicious fruits, leaves, and roots. Instead, you should be able to by your ingredients at a grocery store. However, some of the ideas are a little off-the-beaten-path when compared to the more usual grapes. There are recipes that include everything from apples to bananas to cayenne ... and most of the rest of the alphabet, too. And if you're really ready to be wild, there are wines that include cannabis, as well.

While these wines aren't going to be as easy as the ones you can make with a wine kit, they look like a really good next step for someone who wants to take off the training wheels and have a bit more fun.

The Art of Doodle Words by Sarah Alberto

I'll admit it. I doodle a lot when I'm writing. But I'll also admit that my doodles aren't quite like art. So I was amused by the idea of a book that could turn my crummy doodles into something a little better.

None of the letter doodles in this book are particularly difficult, but when the doodling added things that were supposed to look like something else, I decided that I really didn't need to embarrass a burger that way.

These ideas and techniques would be great for people who want to try their hand at crafty things, like making greeting cards, doing fancy lettering in scrapbooks, or even just to add something fun to store-bought cards.

While I don't know if I'll ever really get that crafty, doodling with letters is kind of fun, just for amusement.


Kawaii Doodle Cuties by Zainab Khan

When it comes to doodling, I'm not that great at drawing things that are recognizable as whatever they're supposed to represent, but this book might change my tune. A little bit. Maybe.

It starts out super-simple, like drawing a very basic kiwi fruit or macaron, then adding a cute little face that's pretty much just eyes and a smile. Yup, I can do that.

Each chapter starts with simple stuff, then the complexity increases. I can do a shamrock, but a cute Great Barrier Reef might be just slightly beyond my current capabilities. Although I agree it would be fun to try.

And that's kind of the point, right? It's fun. It's not art class, and there is no grade.

This would be a fun book for adults who want to do a little more than color in adult coloring books, but would also be fun for kids who want to learn how to draw more than stick figures and lolliop trees.

Although I make fun of my own drawing skills, I might actually spend some quality time with this book, just to see if I can draw the panda. Because it's freaking cute.

Why yes, I do get a lot of books for free from publishers. Yup.

Jane Austen's Pride and Prejudice (with recipes)

Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen might be a classic, but as I was reading the copy that just arrived here, I had no memory of ever reading it before. Maybe I read it in school. Or maybe my education was lacking.

*shrug*

Anyway, THIS particular version of Pride and Prejudice has recipes from Martha Stewart in it. Yup. You heard me. Recipes.

I previously reviewed A Christmas Carol, that was done in much the same way. It's an interesting concept.

So anyway, back to Pride and Prejudice. I must have read this in school, right? Eh, maybe not. In any case, I enjoyed reading it this time. It's old-fashioned enough to seem like a completely different world, which I guess it was. It was, as they used to say, charming.

And I didn't have to write an essay about it.

Like the previous book, this has artwork that on close inspection (or sometimes from afar) is actually food. The flowers would look right at home on a cake, and the cookies look quite tasty.

The included recipes are classics, and they fit well with the theme of the book. There are linzer hearts, macarons, petits fours, and my personal favorite, chocolate shortbread fingers. I haven't made that recipe yet, but it's on my must-do list for sure. Or maybe I'll do the fruit turnovers first. Those look pretty darned good too. Or the ginger icebox cake.

This would be a nice gift for any book lover you know. Even if they have a previous edition, this one has recipes. And that's never a bad thing.

I got this book at no cost to me.

The Devil in the White City

Okay, so this one might not be current (the copyright on it is 2003) but I just read it, so ....

Maybe there are some other folks who missed out on reading this book. Which was apparently made into a movie that I also didn't see.

The Devil in the White City by Erik Larson has two different plot lines. One is the story of how the Columbian Exposition was planned, built and run in Chicago in the late 1800s. It was supposed to be better than the World's Fair that had been hosted in Paris (which was when the Eiffel Tower was built, by the way).

The second plot involves a handsome, charming fellow using the alias H. H. Holmes. He also happens to be a serial killer.

This is all set in the backdrop of Chicago in a time when city stunk from the stockyards and the horse droppings in the street. The air was sooty from burning coal. Blech.

The Columbian Exposition brought us a lot of innovations, like the first paint sprayers that were used to paint all the buildings white. The fair also had water filters, so fair-goers would have clean water to drink. And they wired the whole thing with electric lights, which were still pretty new.

Meanwhile, Holmes came to town, bought a pharmacy and proceeded to build a building that was well suited to his particular needs. To keep costs down, he would hire tradesman and the fire them after a short time, refusing to pay them because their work wasn't up to par - even though there was nothing wrong with their work. This strategy also meant that no one really had a good overview of the building, so his peculiar additions went unnoticed.

Much of what's in this book came from historical documents, along with the interesting phrasings and spelling of the day.

All of this happened just a little over 100 years ago, yet it seems so foreign. A time when electric lights were rare, when pollution was the norm, and when people could go missing so easily. But there are parallels to today, along with people cutting corners to get work done, political cronyism, and also the good guys.

If you like history, thrillers, or murder mysteries, this one's for you. With the added bonus that it's a true story.

Going Gypsy

Going Gypsy by David and Veronica James is sort of a prequel to their blog, Gypsy Nester. If you've followed their blog, or even glanced at it, you know they're a couple living in an RV. How they got there is ... curious.

The book starts right about the point when the met, and follows through marriage, birth of children, raising of children, and booting children out of the nest.

And then they face the big decision: what to do after the kids are gone.

They knew couples who had no plans and no life after the kids were grown, so they made the decision to embark on something just for themselves. They wanted to bring back the life they had when they were single and their life wasn't wrapped around the kids.

So they sold their house, disposed of and dispensed with most of their possessions, and bought an RV. At first, they thought it might be a short adventure, but it turned into a lifestyle.

The couple takes turns writing, so you get different points of view, which works particularly well when they're talking about meeting each others' parents. In later years, they saw things more from a couples' perspective, so there were times when it didn't really matter who was writing.

And other times it did matter.

The book is at times hysterical and at other times poignant. There were times when I totally agreed with their decisions, and other times when I wanted to stamp my foot or talk them out of it. But it's their life, and they're living it and they're honest about it.

I think the folks who love this best will be those who follow the blog, but it will also be a hit with parents and those folks who like peeking into other people's lives.

I received this book from the publisher at no cost to me.