I adored this book, but it was so suited to my interests that I fear I may have dreamed it. I love to cook, I love social histories, and I love pop science, particularly deep digs into the everyday things we take for granted. Bob Holmes takes us on a scientific tour of flavor, doing his best to separate it from the physical perception of tasting, the senses of smell and touch, while acknowledging how indebted flavor is to each. This is somewhat limited by […]
I feel guilty I didn’t like this more
I really wanted to like this book. It seemed up my alley, and I was in the mood for essays; something sassy and brisk. The back cover blurbs were encouraging, and I had finished Lindy West’s Shrill just prior to the start of this cannonball read, so her endorsement left me hopeful that this book would have the same effervescent tone while having something larger to say about culture or gender or race. Instead, it just felt to me like reading someone’s blog – which […]
Been thinkin a lot today; thought about the army.
Mary Roach’s absent-minded professor tangents have never been more welcome than in this book about the science of military development. I picked this up due to my long established weakness for remaindered books and a desire for a light, unchallenging read; Roach is an expert at crafting pop science reads at their most accessible, sometimes to a fault. That said, I was nervous about the military theme as I generally don’t gravitate to media on this topic and immediately feared I was going to get […]
Breezy as the title implies
This isn’t my copy of this book, nor is it the edition I linked to, but can we just take a moment to praise the Folio company for producing a physical book so very suited to its subject matter? It’s not simply the jaunty cover art – stylish down to the font – but the book itself has an eggshell textured cover that feels elegant, expensive, classy. The pages are thick, deceptively so; the memoir only reaches 300 pages by virtue of its index but the […]
I’ll read a Sacks book about the psychology of marshmallows.
I ran into a college professor at a bar a few years after graduation (and a few beers after sobriety) who made reference to something I said having been brilliant. I demurred “I bet you say that to all the girls,” but she insisted “no, no, you had a reputation for being brilliant. Reckless, but brilliant.” I’ve never been prouder of a compliment, precisely because I know it wasn’t entirely intended as such. I want that line on my tombstone. I bring it up because […]
Feed me, Seymour; feed me.
So, like any new parent, I will take any opportunity to insert a story about my kid into a conversation. At three months old he’s abnormally interested in food, which is fairly remarkable when his first-hand experience of it is limited to milk. The kid watches people eat like it’s the most fascinating thing anyone has ever done. It will sometimes calm him down when he’s fussy. He’s transfixed by the experience of eating, even when he isn’t able to enjoy it directly. The kid […]
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