A WRITER'S WIT |
My Book World
Each weekend I try to view selected portions of C-SPAN’s Book-TV, forty-eight straight hours of recorded author readings of nonfiction now hitting the shelves, and sometimes six- or eight-hour segments covering book festivals around the US. C-SPAN, by the way, is supported by most cable and satellite TV providers, so check your listings. You can also view at any time any reading at Book-TV’s Web site. And if you do wish to tune in, you can view, download, and print a copy of the weekend’s schedule off the Web site. Please find below a presentation that recently piqued my interest.
I found Mr. Miller’s reading, held at New York’s Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture, not only entertaining but quite edifying. His book scours history to locate the African-American men and women who cook for the nation’s first families and tells of their struggles. He includes anecdotes about presidents without much of a palate to tantalizing recipes that have survived. He describes one concoction, which sounds fascinating, in which one empties out a jar of pickles, mixes a packet of Kool-Aid with the remaining juice, repacks the jar with pickles, and lets the concoction cool in the fridge for two weeks. Mm, yum! The sweet-tart nature of that description creates a curiosity I can’t pass up (this book is on my Wish List). Perhaps you’ll find it tempting, as well, and tune in to Adrian Miller's presentation. I hope you'll be moved to buy a copy of his book.
NEXT TIME: New Yorker Fiction 2017