What's a Picture Worth?

Just read Annie Leibovitz At Work by Annie Leibovitz. In this book she describes the history and technique behind some of her most famous works, starting with the pictures she took for Rolling Stone through today's images for Vanity Fair.

Leibovitz is certainly one of the more recognizable photographers out there today. I wouldn't go so far as to say all her pictures look the same, but they do share many elements. Reading about the research she does and how she sets up each shoot helps explain this.

One of the more interesting things about this book was learning how photography has changed so much in the past forty years. Even little things like a change in page size or paper quality at Rolling Stone made a huge difference in how a picture looked. I was really fascinated by how Leibovitz makes all those composite pictures for Vanity Fair, and how difficult those were to create before digital came into being. Someone who understands a bit more about the technical process than I do would appreciate this book. I enjoyed it very much.

The buzzard picture is mine. It has nothing at all to do with the book. I just enjoy them!

Food for Thought

I don't read much fiction, but The School of Essential Ingredients by Erica Bauermeister was recommended on a blog I follow so I though I'd give it a try. This turned out to be a lovely story. Set in a restaurant cooking class, each chapter focuses on one of the students and how the food they prepare is a reminder of something important in their lives. The book has an easy pace. Bauermeister has a beautiful way with descriptions (the sort of writing often described as "lush") and there were many paragraphs I went back and read again just for the sound they made. The theory that food has magical qualities and is a reflection of the soul isn't new, but when handled correctly can be a great reminder of the many levels of nourishment we receive at the table. If you liked Chocolat (the book, not that pathetic excuse for a movie) or Dinner at the Homesick Restaurant (note to self: read more Anne Tyler) you will like this book.

Eat, Memory is a collection of essays from the Sunday New York Times. The authors of these stories were given a simple task: write about an important event in your life that involved food. The results include the heartbreaking (cooking for a dying mother), the hilarious (a summer job spent in the B&M baked bean factory) and the historical (Julia Child's failing her Cordon Bleu final exam). Fun to read, but if you always read the Times Magazine you've seen them all before. Edited by Amanda Hesser with lots of recipes.

The subtitle of this book is "A Global Adventure in Search of Culinary Extremes." Sigh. In The Year of Eating Dangerously, British food critic Tom Parker Bowles travels the world looking for extreme things to eat. It's been done before, and done better. At least Parker Bowles comes straight out and admits that he's no Bourdain. Tom seems like a nice enough man, and he writes very well, but I just didn't need another story about durian and dog. For me, the most interesting part was the introduction when he talks about the food his mother cooked (Camilla, as in wife of Charles, as in Prince) and the crap he was fed at boarding school. If you haven't OD'd on food/travel literature the way I have give this one a try.

The Name Says it All

Can we just say I'm really not feeling the love right now?

"Not another fucking elf!"

Quote from Inklings member Hugh Dyson when faced with the latest installment of Tolkien's work.

I'm reading all about C S Lewis (and his Oxford friends) in The Magician's Book, a literary critique of the Chronicles of Narnia by Laura Miller. Really a must if you're a big fan, which I of course am.

I want Dyson's comment on a t-shirt.

I love...Julia Child

It's that holiday time of year, when much of our energy goes into cooking. And you just don't cook around our house without Julia's help.

Ever since it was published in 1989, our default cookbook has been The Way to Cook by Julia Child. It was a huge investment for us at the time ($50!) and a bit controversial, because the Silver Palate ladies came out with The New Basics that same year. Lukins and Russo were considered to be much more modern and their book more inclusive. But Child wrote a wonderful, easy to use book with great pictures and a good set of recipes and skills that every cook should have at hand.

This is a book for the beginner as well as the more experienced cook. The Way to Cook is written in typical Julia style...she takes a basic recipe, teaches you how to make it step by detailed step, and then expands on it. So once you know how to make a pizza dough, you go on to make calzones. Start with a roast chicken, move on to boneless stuffed turkey and designer duck. Mike uses this book for pies (see above), soups, and meat, and I've never used another pizza recipe. There's even a simplified version of the famous french bread from Mastering v. 2

So thank you Julia, for making life in the kitchen a little easier these past twenty years.

Pouvez-vous lire en français?

Today I read French Milk by Lucy Knesley. It's a journal covering a month she spent in Paris with her mother. I originally picked it up because Knesley wrote it as a senior at SAIC and the book itself is a combination of photographs and cartoons. Knesley has a real knack for capturing the essence of a person or place with her drawings, and I espcially enjoyed her snarky comments about the art she saw in France. Made me miss Beth!