Tenth of December

It was shortlisted for the National Book Award in the fiction category. It made the final cut for the 2013 Goodreads Choice Awards. It’s basically on like…every Best Of list out right now. And even before all that? There was the nonstop buzz around the book when it was published. And I bit. I borrowed

Quickies: The Unlikely Pilgrimage of Harold Fry & The Brides of Rollrock Island

The Unlikely Pilgrimage of Harold Fry by Rachel Joyce Publisher/Year: Random House, 2012 Format: Audiobook Narrator: Jim Broadbent Length: 9 hrs, 57 minutes Source: Library What it is: Harold Fry has recently resigned himself spending the rest of his days in quiet retirement with his wife, even though their relationship has been strained for some time. One day, he receives a letter

Salt Sugar Fat: How the Food Giants Hooked Us

I love food. I love books about food. And most of all, I love learning about the politics of food: how it’s produced, who it gets eaten by, the impact it has on culture and the environment, etc. It’s always been fascinating to me that almost every basic food item you have in your kitchen

Grace

Like many people, I fell in love with Vogue‘s creative director, Grace Coddington, after watching The September Issue. She was often portrayed as the fiery counterpoint to Anna Wintour’s stoicism, a woman not afraid to challenge her notoriously difficult boss. So of course, when I discovered that Coddington was writing a memoir, I simply had

Joseph Anton

On Valentine’s Day in 1989, Salman Rushdie was handed a death sentence: the Ayatollah Khomeini issued a fatwa, claiming that Rushdie’s then-recent release, The Satanic Verses, was blasphemy against Islam. As such, Khomeini demanded that Rushdie — and anyone else involved in the publication of the book — be killed. He was advised by authorities to lie