Bread, Books, and Everything
Oct. 1st, 2014 04:28 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
vamysteryfanIn Search of the Perfect Loaf by Samuel Fromartz. Breadmaking requires all the senses: the way the dough feels in your hands while kneading, the way it looks when it's ready, the way bread smells when it's done, even the hollow sound a well-baked loaf makes. The book could have used scratch and sniff paper for the smell of bread. It does have some recipes but that's not the point, as even the author acknowledges. The point of baking is hands-on practice. Along the way, he discusses biodiversity, cultural differences, journeys around several countries, and more. I even liked the technical details about fermentation and yeast. He did explode one of my cherished myths about the air in San Francisco being special to sourdough bread. Even if you aren't a baker (I'm not), I think you'll find this an enjoyable read.
The Cambridge Companion to the Literature of New York edited by Cyrus Patell and Bryan Waterman. I enjoyed this quite a bit. It's well-researched and the essay selection is well done. It's arranged chronologically through various genres, moving from the authors of the early days to the Age of Innocence to the bohemians to the modern days of poetry slams and musicians. Immigrant and ethnic literature are not ignored. Overall, a very solid review of New York-centric books.
The Universe edited by John Brockman. The back cover blurb is a little misleading. The essays are not tied to the discoveries of March 2014, but that doesn't diminish the collection of essays at all. They cover various scientists' views of cosmology over the last 15 years. But this is an elite group indeed. Leonard Susskind talks about meeting Murray Gell-Mann; there's an essay by Benoit Mandelbrot (fractals); Andrei Linde explains string theory. Some theorists believe they need to go back to philosophy. My favorite essay covered the concept that the universe computes. Not for everyone, but if you are interested in the topic, then you will enjoy the collection.
The Cambridge Companion to the Literature of New York edited by Cyrus Patell and Bryan Waterman. I enjoyed this quite a bit. It's well-researched and the essay selection is well done. It's arranged chronologically through various genres, moving from the authors of the early days to the Age of Innocence to the bohemians to the modern days of poetry slams and musicians. Immigrant and ethnic literature are not ignored. Overall, a very solid review of New York-centric books.
The Universe edited by John Brockman. The back cover blurb is a little misleading. The essays are not tied to the discoveries of March 2014, but that doesn't diminish the collection of essays at all. They cover various scientists' views of cosmology over the last 15 years. But this is an elite group indeed. Leonard Susskind talks about meeting Murray Gell-Mann; there's an essay by Benoit Mandelbrot (fractals); Andrei Linde explains string theory. Some theorists believe they need to go back to philosophy. My favorite essay covered the concept that the universe computes. Not for everyone, but if you are interested in the topic, then you will enjoy the collection.
