Books for foodies, men and the young'uns
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For generations X, Y and iPod…
Calgarian Chris Turner, author of Planet Simpson, is now a young father with nothing less than the future of planet earth on his mind. The Geography of Hope: A Tour of the World We Need (Random House Canada, $35) is a super-smart expedition of the best responses worldwide to global warming — a carbon-neutral island in Denmark, solar-powered ingenuity in India, sci-fi housing in Germany and Colorado. Turner writes with passion and fluency, and his excitement is viral: “On one island in Denmark, virtually overnight, sustainability has become commonplace…it was all there.”
Daniel J. Levitin is the hip music guru and professor who wrote the huge bestseller This Is Your Brain on Music. In this sequel, The World in Six Songs (Viking Canada, $32), Levitin challenges readers with the theory that since the beginning of time there have been only six kinds of songs. He goes on to argue the significance of music to the survival of humans. It’s a whole new way to shuffle your playlists.
For foodies: pulao, pasta and pudding
Beyond the Great Wall: Recipes and Travels in the Other China (Random House Canada, $70) is the sixth collaboration by Toronto-based Jeffrey Alford and Naomi Duguid. Post-earthquake and -Olympics comes this magnificent, thoughtful book honouring the culinary traditions of rural China, and culturally distinct people like Tibetans, Mongolians and the Uighurs. Intimate portraits in words and pictures of farmers and pilgrims, kitchens and markets pay tribute to ancient societies under threat of urbanization and modernity. Supporting notes transform recipes and techniques from exotic to easy.
David Rocco’s Dolce Vita (HarperCollins Canada, $40) is an unpretentious celebration of the Italian way of life and cooking with simple but perfect ingredients — only fresh herbs, always extra-virgin olive oil and lots of red wine — such as his mother’s leftover fried pasta. Born in Toronto, Rocco now divides his time between there and Italy. Instead of glossy photography, the book is illustrated with casual snapshots and no nouvelle spin: “The soul of [Tuscan bread salad] is in the transformation of old bread…to do it any other way is nuts.”
A pretty book about the most popular little pudding in the world, Crème Brûlée (Whitecap Books, $20) has more than 50 irresistible recipes (plus a section on wine pairings) and is a superb primer on how to make this temperamental dessert. As with all books by Dominique and Cindy Duby, there is great calorie-free trivia: “Chickens with white earlobes lay white eggs, chickens with red earlobes lay brown eggs….” Put the book in a stocking and tuck a box of the shallowest ramekins under the tree.
For your reading men
At age 69, Patrick Lane is a venerated poet and author of the prize-winning memoir There Is a Season. Red Dog, Red Dog (McClelland & Stewart, $33), his first novel, is a heart-rending tale of an Okanagan farming family torn apart by brutality and broken spirits. The story pours out in slow motion over one week in the ’50s; good brother Tom Stark follows weak brother Eddy in and out of bars, down dark alleys, through drug deals and incidental killings. The tragedy of a family is tenderly wrapped in eloquent prose.
Lee Henderson’s first novel, The Man Game (Viking Canada, $32), is about naked lumberjacks wrestling against the backdrop of muddy, frontier-town Vancouver after the killer fire of 1886. Molly is a 17-year-old ex-vaudevillian goddess married to a twentysomething paraplegic accountant; when she sees two men wrestling she makes them a “gainful business proposition” and changes the course of Vancouver history. Brainy young men will love this boisterous, insane book.
Looking for more great reads? Check out Canadian non-fiction picks, the best books for summer reading, 5 books to inspire you and take our What's the best book for you? quiz
This article originally appeared in the December 2008/January 2009 issue of More
