Massimo Marcone’s Acquired Tastes Key Porter, 2010 The subtitle of Massimo Marcone’s book gives it all away: “on the trail of the world’s most sought-after delicacies”. After briefly considering what constitutes a delicacy, and how the concept shifts across time and varies between cultures, the author focuses on a handful
E. Lockhart’s The Disreputable History of Frankie Landau-Banks Hyperion, 2008 The Disreputable History of Frankie Landau-Banks made my TBR list thanks to Erin Blakemore’s The Heroine’s Bookshelf, wherein Frankie is included as a literary sister to Jo March. (That’s for her ambition, largely.) And it was nudged up the list
Maya Angelou’s I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings (1969) Bantam, 1971 It’s ironic that what most stands out in the first volume of Maya Angelou’s autobiography is her voice; when she was a girl, she stopped speaking for a time, but, in looking back on the experiences of her
Robert Kroetsch’s What the Crow Said General, 1978. Some students are introduced to Robert Kroetsch in university; his novel Badlands was on my introductory English course, but apparently the professor opted for another work. So I discovered What the Crow Said thanks to a list compiled by Aritha van Herk.
Jhumpa Lahiri's The Namesake (2003) Boston: Mariner-Houghton Mifflin, 2004 In Anne of Green Gables, Anne muses: "How do you know but that it hurts a geranium's feelings just to be called a geranium and nothing else?” The act of naming is one of primary importance -- from PEI to India
