End of year

I can not believe that another year is nearly ended.  I hope everyone had a great holiday season and that the new year is a good one.  I know it will be a good one for reading. 
But first, let's have a few of the final books for the year. 
Like to eat?  Like to cook?  Like to watch cooking shows?  I collect cook book and have watched cooking shows for years.    Remember the Galloping Gourmet?  The Frugal Gourmet? Fort Wayne's own Marcia Adams with her series on PBS?     Probably some of the favorite shows I watched were hosted by the redoubtable Julia Childs.  She fascinated me.  With her cooking style.  With her personality.  And she definitely had lived a fascinating life.  I have her cookbooks as well as a books of her life.  But this latest book I read featured the correspondence she had with Avis DeVoto, wife of the writer Bernard DeVoto.  It kept me enthralled. 
AS ALWAYS, JULIA, THE LETTERS OF JULIA CHILD & AVIS DEVOTO,edited by Joan Reardon  (Houghton Miflin Harcourt, 978-0-547-417 begins in 1952 71-4), begins in 19352 when Child read an essay by Bernard DeVoto  on American knives and writes him a letter.  Avis is in charge of her  husband's mail, answers her.  And so begins a friendship and letter writing  exchange that provides an intriguing look into the lives of these two couples as well as an accidental  but open look at the cultural and political climate of the times.  The letters chronicle the life Julia is leading in France with her husband and government employee Paul.  She is involved in learning the intricacies of French cuisine and cooking as well as teaching and writing a cook book.  Avis is raising a family, working with her husband and being a busy American women.  I found the book compelling because I recall that era well.  DeVoto and Childs were, if you will, at the end of the era in that they were married and years older than I.  I was at the beginning of the era.  Just out of university with my first job.  Single.  And I was entering the political climate they were discussing.  I did not know Childs or DeVoto, but I was a reader of Harper's Magazine and I  had read some  of Bernard DeVoto's columns and books.  I also was concerned with the era of McCarthy.  When I read this book, it gave me a bittersweet feeling of deja vu.  It was a time of innocence and yet palpable distrust.  At that time we were more interested in TV dinners, I fear, that haute cuisine for all.  But Joan Reardon in her editing of these letters,has brought these two women out of the past and into our present.  We may have read or heard these tales in general before,  But here, the minutiae of the day to day living is fun to read.  It seems like only yesterday that this was occurring,  But it was 5o years ago.. Food availability now is amazing when we look back and see how difficult it was then to acquire foodstuffs that we see at our regular supermarkets as standard now.  They discussed family life,  foods available to purchase,  work.  They also discussed politics,  elections,   writing,  and publishing.  Nothing escaped their discussions.  Even what they read and ate were worthy topics.    These letters are a cultural as well as a culinary look at other times and other lives.    Think about it.  This entire correspondence was done by mail.  Granted, a lot of airmail, but real mail.  Today it would be email, text messages, cell, or a live feed of some sort.  Fifty years makes a difference.  This book will delight fans of Julia Child and be of interest to anyone who remembers that era of time.  It is witty and worldly and filled with allusions to events that may well induce you to find out more by delving into books or checking the Internet,  I highly recommend this to foodies, fans of Child, and people who recall this era as a part of their lives.  Or anyone who likes to read a well done book.  Bon appetit...as Julia always said....and Good reading!..as I say.

February Doldrums

The season has caught up with me and I have gotten behind in my posting.  I have a ton of more current materials to give you, but I have always been guilty of reading ahead.  And this book is too much fun to hold on til later.  So a couple of months early you get this...When February, 2011 rolls around and you are fed up with winter and your SAD index has gone off the mark, there is hope.  Tim Dorsey   has a new book out.  Dorsey was a reporter and editor in Tampa. Florida (where he lives) and has written several other novels.  There must be something about Florida that turns people in to writers-and often humorous ones at that. THE ELECTRIC BARRACUDA (Morrow, 978-0-06-187689-9) is a drink, maybe a car, and possible a few other things.This is is saga of Serge Storms and his trek across Florida.  It is not just a tour of the resorts.  It is the real time creation of a fugitives tour of Florida as presented on Serge's  website.  Of course it helps that Serge actually is a fugitive and is fleeing the feds, a bounty hunter, (The Doberman and his groupies )and a probably mad detective, (Mahoney), and local police.  You see, Serge is a serial killer.  Of the good kind .If that is possible.  He has a penchant for killing pedophiles, recession causing greedy Wall Street types and other miscellaneous criminal types.  He is also a lady's man, a Florida booster and over caffeinated.  His best friend and cohort, Coleman, is a druggie who may be one bubble short of plumb.  The plot?  Well, Serge is being pursued by the aforementioned motley crew and leads them a merry chase across Florida.  The chase is interspersed with bodies and history lessons that actually are fun, funny, and spot on.  (The author hooked me in when he mentioned Bee Ridge Road and Myaka Park.  Been there.  Seen that.  My parents went to a church on Bee Ridge Road.  And I have seen the alligators and the over size spiders at Myaka.) The group  racket around the state with Serge dispensing justice, wreaking mayhem, blogging the getaway plans,and checking on museums.  He even checks out the ghost orchids.   Talk about the compleat traveler...One surprise is an ex wife showing up and dropping off an alleged son who is a terror and a budding criminal genius. The fugitive tour includes Cedar  Key (another place I love) before it heads off in to the Everglades.  This book is a potpourri of wonderful characters.  Serge, Coleman and Mikey, the dropped off kid.  But the stereotypical gumshoes, bounty hunters, feds, and local constabulary are a hoot.  And I have not even mentioned Serge's friends and associates who he meets on this picaresque journey.  That in itself would make a book.  Do these  characters catch Serge?  Is he brought to justice as seen by the state, not Serge?  But wait, there is more.  The is a back story from the 1920s when Al Capone was in Miami and had a speakeasy in the Everglades  and supposedly left a treasure there somewhere.  (Remember the one Geraldo did NOT find in the vault?)   Well, the map to this treasure is supposed to be in existence and shows where in the Everglades it is hidden..  The tie in is that Serge's father was part of the old gang that was with Capone.  So there are some cool flashbacks to the Capone era.    How does it end?  Well, not with a whimper.  Will Mahoney finally succeed at his long running attempt  to corral Serge?  Will Serge escape to kill again?  Is Serge really the guileless guilt one?  What about Molly?  And the treasure?  And Mikey? Coleman?  You have to read it.  This is a book that starts you out with a smile, then offers a snicker, and graduates to a real for sure  laugh out loud.  It is political..It is bawdy.  It is satirical.  It sometime is almost a parody.  Even a back handed compliment to other writers (Randy Wayne White shows up in it )as well and there are nods to other historical and fictional characters as well..   I can see shades of Elmore, .Hiaasen, and Berry here. But Dorsey has a touch all his own.  I  do have a burning question for the author, however. Has the Captain's Table at Cedar Key really changed its name to Coconuts?  Shades of  the Marx Brothers. I have fond memories of eating there and watching dolphins at play from the deck area. This book is a treasure trove of popular culture history of Florida - I think.  You know, I believe I will re-read this just to check some of things in it and see how real they really are.  In the meantime, readers, mark this book for your February reading pleasure.  Next best thing to visiting Florida?