Books and Food: 01/20/16

While reading Relish by Lucy Knisley (review coming), I realized that a bunch of my favorite books, both fiction and nonfiction have been themed around food. I'm not talking cook books, rather books where food is a central theme.

My food themed reading falls into a couple categories: memoirs, histories, genre fiction.

The memoirs are often written around a single type of food: candy, cheese, etc. The memoir starts in early childhood with the discovery of the food, the teenage obsession with it, young adulthood learning to live with it away from family, and finally a modern day reflection on where they are with their relationship with that food.

The histories also often focus on a single food: rum, olive oil, brisket. These are ones that take something commonplace and expand our knowledge of them through careful examination. How did this food become part of our lives? Where is it produced now? What regionalism are associated with it?

Most of my genre fiction that is food themed is part of a series. The largest one is the Goldy Bear Catering series by Diane Mott Davidson as I've read and reviewed every book in the series. The others are mostly stand-alones where food plays a big role: soup in A Tale of Despereaux, the ability to taste emotions and history in food (The Particular Sadness of Lemon Cake by Aimee Bender).

Anyway, since I've read so many and have a number more to review soon, I figured it was a sign that I should break out my food books into their own list.

View the list

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