"book" news and stories

It's Monday morning, and we're right there with you. While propping your eyes open waiting for the coffee to kick in, do sneak a look at Orangette. It's the literary equivalent of falling asleep curled around a novel or sipping hot milk to stave off insomnia. Strangely comforting and nostalgia-inducing at once, it leaves one poised between appetites, unsure whether to roast a rack of lamb for dinner or ride a two-seater bicycle through the French Quarter taking snapshots while drinking gin lemonade.

That's how disorienting Orangette's (aka Molly Wizenberg) prose is. If you find her beautiful polaroids, winding tales and dreamy recipes (like this adapted dish of asparagus with pecorino and pooled walnut crema) insufficient, you might pop out and buy her new book. Now back to work.

[Via Orangette]

We've seen you Slashfoodies pressing your noses up against the windows of new restaurants or talking for an unseemly amount of time about the pasta you made last night. And we love it, since that's what we go nuts for, too.

But we also know you have multiple obsessions, so if a meowing, drooling or swimming compadre is one of them, check out our brand-new sister site Paw Nation, featuring adorable photos, smart advice and even pet horoscopes!

For those canine-lovers devoted to both dogs and food, there's also a new book out there for ya: "One Nation Under Dog: Adventures in the New World of Prozac-Popping Puppies, Dog-Park Politics and Organic Pet Food." Say that six times fast. An exploration of America's puppy prediliction, the book features a whole chapter devoted to the grub we feed our four-legged friends. Journalist Michael Schaffer's tours Bogner Meats, where they manufacture human food and raw dog food alike. Though one manager declares his father would have "rolled over in his grave" at the notion of upscale dog food made from people food, Schaffer seems pretty taken with it, especially in the wake of the salmonella scandals.

But seriously, folks, Paw Nation? One Nation Under Dog? Who's in charge here, anyways??

I was in Napa a few weeks ago for the Symposium for Professional Wine Writers, and had the opportunity to visit Tres Sabores Winery on my way out of town. (I won a fellowship to the symposium, and Tres Sabores was the sponsor. One of the reasons the judges matched me with that particular winery is that I write a lot about green issues, and Tres Sabores is a sustainable winery.)

At the Tres Sabores ranch, I toured the property with owner Julie Johnson and one of her sweet dogs, who acted as if she owned the place. Turns out, she does. She and Julie's two other dogs have been featured in the U.S. Wine Dogs book, one in a series taken all over the world by Australian photojournalists Craig McGill and Sue Elliot.

To date, they've got two U.S. editions, Italy, New Zealand, Australia, and the Australian Deluxe edition. It seems they've tapped into something: wherever there's a winery, there's a dog (or two or three).

If you love dogs and wine, this book is a winning combination.

If you're a Vayniac, you already know that Gary Vaynerchuk came out with a book called 101 Wines Guaranteed to Inspire, Delight, and Bring Thunder to Your World. Marisa announced the book here at Slashfood about a month and a half ago, and I just got my hands on a copy a few weeks ago.

I didn't put it down until I had at least looked at every single wine on the list. It's Gary first list of favorite and recommended wines, and it's chock full of enthusiasm, energy, and genuinely great recommendations.

Here are some ways this book can be useful for you:

• Exploring wine if you've never really tried wine before and have no idea where to start.
• Choosing great wines for specific occasions from Gary's very cleverly organized and insightful lists for any event.
• Finding the best wine for that flavor profile you really like (best dry Reisling, best "fruit bomb" red, etc.).
• Learning how you can become better at recognizing what you like about wine and what wines you're passionate about (hint: drink more wine!).
• Understanding that wine can be fun, and that it doesn't have to be serious or snobby.

What I really love about this book is the genuine authenticity that just reverberates from everything that Gary has to say. Each individual wine write-up is like getting to read an episode of Wine Library TV, chock full of enthusiasm, honesty, and insightful wine wisdom. The only thing I would change about the book is that, for a truly ignorant wine novice like myself, it's hard to tell which wines are white or red, etc., which is important for me since I have a hard time really enjoying reds and wanted to go through and pick out all of the wines that I knew I would want to try right off of the bat. A quick cheat sheet or wine primer at the beginning of the book (Petite Sirah is red, Reislings are white, etc.) would have been really helpful for me.

Overall, the book is well written, very straightforward in Gary's typical style, and I think it has potential to really help the everyday wine enthusiast reach a level of immersion in the wine world that many of us don't think we can reach. It can be expensive to start out in wine and buy a bottle of everything, especially if you're back at square one when the wine isn't a quality example of the genre you're trying to explore. This book makes jumping into every corner of the wine world a real possibility for every wine drinker, and that is something really worth sharing. Keep a copy handy for your own trips to the liquor store, and give a copy to a wine-loving (or wine-curious) friend!

In a strategic move to boost sales, HarperCollins is putting the entire contents of a handful of its new books online for anyone to read. And one of these books just happens to be Robert Irvine's Mission: Cook!: My Life, My Recipes, and Making the Impossible Easy. Irvine is formerly a chef for the Royal Family,and star of the Food Network show Dinner: Impossible.

The book is pretty much what it sounds like: a collection of Irvine's recipes, anecdotes, and nostalgia. And while he is quite accomplished, this often comes across as arrogance. Here's a sample from the introduction: "I am a bit of an anomaly in the cooking trade...Not unlike the freelancers of medieval European chivalry or cowboys for hire on the open range in the American West, I have preferred to follow my own path, my own internal compass..."

And as soon as you think he has settled into one particular writing style, Irvine will describe a recipe and throw in a really astute, carefully thought-out phrase, such as "Fingerlicking good!!!" at its conclusion. (And yes, all three exclamation points were printed in the book).

Despite this particular book's drawbacks, and the tiny, pale-colored type on the screen (the site is still in its beta version, so its appearance will most likely improve), here's hoping that this project will expand and develop into a huge cookbook database for chefs everywhere.

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