We continue our gentle meander through our library, sampling from the
Dewey Decimal System, under which all our 63,000 books are classified. We’re up
to the 600s—Technology, Applied Science, we are sternly told. Fortunately, for
technophobes like this writer, this includes books on cooking—a subject in
which we’re all interested. As usual, our library is copiously equipped,
whether you need cookbooks for diabetics, Kosher cookbooks or just something
mouth-watering.
Among the latter, to name just one, is THE FOOD CHRONOLOGY by James
Trager (641.09 Tra) “A Food Lover’s Compendium of Events and Anecdotes from
Prehistory to the present.” The reader will be agog to learn—for instance—that
foods mentioned in the Sumerian legend of Gilgamesh include caper buds, wild
cucumbers, figs, grapes, honey, meat seasoned with herbs, and a pancake of
barley flour mixed with sesame flour and onions. Equally entrancing is the news
that carrots, cabbage, cauliflower, par-
snips and turnips were introduced into
England by Flemish weavers fleeing Spanish persecution—or that potatoes and
tomatoes were among the gifts of the so-called New World to the Old—not to
mention tobacco.
Very useful for today’s busy person is BEST EVER RECIPES FOR YOUR SLOW
COOKER by Catherine Atkinson (641.58Bes) Many of us call it a crockpot;
whatever the name it is a godsend: throw the stuff in, turn it on low and
either go to sleep or work; eight or so hours later, it’s ready!
There are recipes not only for main dishes, but also desserts,
sauces, even cakes and preserves.
Profusely illustrated, of course.
This is just a sampling of what you’ll find in the 600s of your Taos
Public Library. Check it out!
LIKE A DEER CAUGHT IN THE HEADLIGHTS
Alan Furst is a novelist who does only one thing, but he does it
supremely: he is the absolute master of the noir-but-romantic spy novel. Richly
atmospheric, he has done his homework—though American, he lived for years in
Europe, especially Paris, and he evokes it with unparalleled skill. The only
one to, perhaps, match him is the late—but more sedate—English novelist, Eric
Ambler.
Furst’s focus is Europe in the 1930s, as World War II is approaching.
People in all walks of life, whether émigré Russians, or Dutch sea captains,
are like deer caught in the headlights: they can see what’s coming, but they
can’t avoid it.
As in all genre literature, Our Hero is recognizably the same man,
whatever his occupation, wherever he is from. He’s not especially handsome, but
the ladies like him, and he fervently likes them. He’s usually in his forties,
definitely world-weary and most definitely anti-fascist. Usually he’s in love
with a woman who has also been around the block; sometimes married or otherwise
encumbered, and the course of love, true or not, does not run smooth.
Furst evokes brilliantly the sounds, the sights, the smells; whether
Istanbul, the reaches of the Danube, Poland as the Nazis crush it, Spain as the
fascists rumble to a horrible victory, the African area made immortal by movies
like Casablanca, Berlin in the clutch
of Hitler, or—above all—achingly beautiful and beloved Paris in all its famed
boulevards and unknown corners.
There’s more than a foot-wide collection in our library. This writer’s
own favorites are The World At Night
and Red Gold, both featuring Parisian
film producer Jean Casson, who has to hide from the Gestapo, and----
But read for yourself; you won’t be sorry.
Written by Joanne Forman
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