Food for Thought

Brown, Alton. Food for Thought: Essays and Ruminations. New York: Gallery Books 2025. Print.

First Sentences:

 

I am sitting in front of a bowl, a spoon a box,and a bottle, and I'mbeginning to break out in just a wee bit of a cold sweat 

Description:

I been a long-time fan of Alton Brown and his goofy, informative cooking shows such as Good Eats (16 seasons) and Iron Chef America (13 seasons). These television entertainments provided even non-cooks like me an entertaining introduction to the wonders and science behind preparing delicious food.

Now Brown had created a book, Food for Thought: Essays and Ruminations, chock full of his memories and wide-ranging thougts about his career with food. These short essays cover such diverse topics as "Biscuiteering," "Bad Day at the Bakeshop," "Luau from Hell,""The Turkey Man Cometh," "The Sip of the Civilized" and "Cooking: The final (Marriage) Frontier." In other words, Brown shares everything running through his mind, from making the perfect martini to cooking hacks, and his disasterous introductions to Cap'n Crunch cereal and s'mores.

It is not a book of recipe, although he does share his Horcrux meal (something that contains a part of him), the perfect martini (stirred, not shaken), and a few other tips on meal preparation and tools. And believe me, he has strong opinions. It is not a How-To book, but more of a collection of his rambling thoughts

Here's a sample from inside his brain:

• The Son of Blob story about the discarded bread dough Brown had put into the restaurant dumptster that expanded to gigantic size and oozed out of the metal container;

• The first bite of a Cortona, Italy pizza which was so delicious that he used it to define his life "before the bite and life after the bite....To say it was just six simple ingredients would be like saying Pollock's Autumn Rhythym is just four colors of paint";

• He self-taught himself to cook in college to "lure" a woman first with a simple, cheap meal (spaghetti and meatballs), then, if all went well, a second invitation to a slightly more costly one (coq au van), and finally the third meal to close the deal with an expensive serving (sole florentine au gratin. His date cancelled at the last minute and he thoroughly enjoyed the meal by himself;

• [Note: About that seduction-through-meals-plan] - Brown states, "I harbored no illusions of actually beeing anyone; a bit of hand-holding on the sofa or a good-night kiss would have ranked as a major victory." He only cooked one more meal to win a woman's affection and burned the spaghetti, but won her heart and they eventually were married]; 

• "The word chef when preceded by the adverb yes becomes a subtle yet effective form of "f**k you." 

• He conceived of a new type of cooking show to be "a juxtaposition of unrelated forms" based on the style of Julia Child (practical), Mr. Wizard (science), and Monty Python ("laughing brains are more absorbant');

• The theme song for Good Eats was, at Brown's insistance, was catchy and only 10 notes in order to be used in the new 1997 cell phones and their customizable ring tones;

• Eating with chopsticks helped him lose weight;

• To get youngsters to eat food they refuse, just tell them they can't have any of it anyways because it is adult food;

• Once after sampling a soup on Iron Chef America" that contained oysters (which he is allergic to) he threw up repeatedly on the set and ended up in the ER.

I could go on and on with engaging tidbits from Brown, but I'll leave the rest of the discovery to those who read his book in full. Haven't laughed out loud at a book in a long time, so as you can tell I really enjoyed his behind-the-scenes stories, quips about life, and of course, cooking advice/failures/triumphs. Read it even if you don't know anything about food or its preparation, but love delightful writing about stories that will definite make you at least smile alot.

 

[If this book interests you, be sure to check out:] 

  

Pepim Jacques. The Apprentice.   

The autobiography of the chef who popularized French cooking in the United States, Includes his French training, apprenticeships, and first restaurants, alltold in clear, personal writing style. Highly enjoyable, even for non-foodies. (Previously reviewed here.)

 

Happy reading.

Fred

 

Click here to browse over 435 more book recommendations by subject or title

(and read the introduction to The First Sentence Reader).

 

Going Solo

Dahl, Roald. Going Solo. New York: Penguin 1986. Print.

First Sentences:

 

The ship that was carrying me away from England to Africa in the autumn of 1938 was called the SS Mantola. She was an old paint-peeling tub of 9,000 tons with a single tall funnel and a vibrating engine that rattled the tea=cups in their saucers on the dining-room table.

Description:

Roald Dahl's autobiography, Going Solo, proves again that a reader does not have to know anything about a topic or situation to become totally immersed in the action. Dahl, the well-known author (Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, The BFG, Matilda, James and the Giant Peach, etc.) had another much different life prior to his literary career: that of an World War II RAF fighter pilot. Going Solo recounts his memories starting with his 1938 voyage from London to Tanganyika as an 20-year-old inexperienced agent for Shell Oil through his three-year enlistment and training as a pilot in Egypt, including his aerial battles in Greece, and finally his return to his home in England.

 

Dahl puts the reader right inside his mind: a confident, curious, sometimes reckless youth driving all over Africa to meet with Shell clients and take orders. We sit with him on these desert trips as he marvels at the fearless animals he sees which completely ignore him. His favorite activity is to walk among a herd of giraffes, wandering among their legs and calling to them as they indifferently continue with their grazing of trees.

 

He never lost his fear of African snakes, however, and recounted several encounters with both deadly black and green mambas. (He carefully notes learning the difference between "poisonous" and "deadly" snakes), but continually avoids both.

 

After volunteering for the RAF, Dahl joyfully takes readers up into the air during his training flights in the two-seater Tiger Moth bi-plane. 

We could loop the loop and fly upside down. We could get ourselves out of a spin. We could do forced landings with the engine cut. We could side-slip and land decently in a strong cross-wind...and we were full of confidence.

But he had no actual air-to-air combat training before being sent to Greece to engage German planes. He had to learn to fly modern Hurricane (which he had to cram his 6'6" body into a cockpit with his knees against his chin). Readers again are inside his mind during each dangerous mission: thinking his thoughts, sensing his emotions, and feeling his pain both physical and emotional for the loss of fellow pilots, civilians, and even German enemies. 

 

Flight after flight in Greece, his 15-airplane squadron is hopeless outnumbered by the hundreds of German bombers and fighter planes on missions nearby. Dahl flies 3-5 missions a day trying to protect Allied boats unloading cargo, ammunition, and supplies. He is forced to fly his plane directly at the enemy since his machine guns are fixed in his wings and could only shoot straight ahead. albeit through the rotating propellor, a phenomenon Dahl could never understand.. 

Each flight is perilous. Once completed, he and his meager squadron wait by their runway to see which of their fellow pilots return and which did not make it back. He maintains his fearlessness in flying into incredible situations and, with the exception of one horrific crash, emerges in one piece each time.

As you might surmise, I was totally engrossed in this book chock full of Dahl's adventures and thoughts presented in his clear, straightforward, yet somehow gripping writing style. Highly recommended for lovers of personal memoirs of flying. 

(Note: This is the second book in Dahl's autobiography series. The first book, Boy recounts his early childhood, while Going Solo picks up where Boy ends.)

 

[If this book interests you, be sure to check out:] 

  Markham, Beryl. West with the Night: A Memoir.   

Autobiography of the woman pilot raised in Kenya who became the first female commercial pilot and air mail-carrier in Africa, as well as the first woman to fly non-stop from Europe to America. She was a friend to Karen Blixen and Denis Fitch Hatton (depicted in the film Out of Africa). Most importantly this memoir is beautifully written, full of life, adventure, and challenges. It was highly-praised by Ernest Hemingway who said Markham "could write rings around all of us who consider ourselves writers". (Previously reviewed here.)

Happy reading.

Fred

 

Click here to browse over 435 more book recommendations by subject or title

(and read the introduction to The First Sentence Reader).

 

Voices and Silences

Jones, James Earl and Penelope Niven. Voices and Silences. New York: Scribner 1993 Print.

First Sentences:

Early in my awakening memory, two grown men lean on a rail fence talking about livestock. It is spring of 1935. Since I am only four, they seem very tall to me.


Description:

Seems I've been in the auto-biography reading mood lately, so with he recent death of the actor James Earl Jones, naturally I hunted up his personal memoir, Voices and Silences, and was tremendously impressed. Not only is his recalling of his life story honest, intriguing, and thorough, Jones is a wonderful writer (along with co-author Penelope Niven) who tells his history with a confident, clear voice. (I only wish there was an audiobook with him as the reader. What a narrative voice that would be).

Since I knew nothing about Jones beyond his acting roles, it was fascinating to learn of his upbringing. Abandoned by both his father (to pursued an acting career) and mother (a mentally unstable person prone to wandering away from home for days), he was relocated from Mississippi to a farm in Michigan and raised by his grandparents.

 

Soon after joining this new home, he began to stutter, an affliction so great that he simply did not speak for eight years, from age six to fourteen. Teachers accepted his silence and tested him through his written answers. Eventually, a teacher discovered Jones had composed some poetry and asked Jones to read something of his in front of the class. Surprisingly, Jones found he could read lines of writing perfectly without a stutter, thereby opening a door to script-reading and acting.

Because of my muteness, I approached language in a different way from most actors. I came at language standing on my head, turning words inside out in search of meaning, making a mess of it sometimes but seeing truth from a very different viewpoint,

After high school and a short army career (where he read Shakespeare plays in his off-hours), he decided to try to pursue acting, using the GI Bill to attend The American Theatre Wing in New York City.

 

To get enough money for living, he reconnected with his father and together they refinished floors, worked as janitors, and made sandwiches at a local diner. For summers, he joined a summer theater to perform for tourists and lived in the theater's "haunted" bell tower to save money.

I was twenty-four years old. I had given up all the certainty I had ever known -- farming, the university, the Army. I knew acting was risky business. I did not let myself dwell on the difficulties all actors face. I simply set to work, as hard as I knew how to work, at the acting classes, and the menial jobs that kept me fed while I studied. I did not know what else to do but to work, and trust that with work and time any talent I had would come out.

Jones performances with the American Theatre Wing were noticed by Joseph Papp and Lee Strasberg. Strasberg had taught the Method Acting technique to Marlon Brando, Montgomery Clift, Paul Newman, Marilyn Monroe, James Dean and many others. Jones unsuccessfully auditioned to take Strasberg's acting classes for seven years. Later, in talking with Strasberg, the teacher explained that he and Elia Kazan felt:

There were actors such as George C. Scott and me who, by following their own particular drumbeat, had already found an effective technique....Rather than pull them back and teach them the Method, they said, "We'd better let them go on their own paths."

In 1966, Jones bumped into Papp on the sidewalk and was offered a small part in Henry V for Papp's brand new Shakespeare Festival, "Shakespeare in Central Park," a series of free outdoor plays for the public.

Roles started to flood in as more and more directors saw Jones perform. Meanwhile, he and his father, while had never really reconciled, found common ground discussing the character and motivations of Shakespeare's Othello, the Moor of Venice. It was a role Jones' father had studied for years and readily gave his opinions to his son prior to James Earl playing that great role for the first time.

Othello, like me,, like my mother and like my father, was a stranger in a strange land....My father had never played Othello in a major production, but as I studied the role with him, I was apprenticing to a master, although an unfulfilled master.

It was fascinating to read Jones' thoughts about taking on new roles, some of which were unsuccessful (Paul Robeson and Nat Turner) as well as the ones in which he triumphed (Jack Johnson in The Great White Hope, Lenny in Of Mice and Men, Othello). He praises actors like Jane Alexander (she called him "Jimmy Jones") who played opposite him in his breakout Broadway role in The Great White Hope, and his other leading ladies, two of whom he married, who had played Desdemona to his Othello. 

 

Jones is analytical over every aspect of acting, from directors to scripts to messages that he felt the plays should project. For example, he discusses why, in his mind, the theatrical version of The Great White Hope was so powerful and successful while the movie, a popular film that earned him an Academy Award, had changed the original script so much to make his Jack Johnson character and therefore the film a failure.

 

As he aged, the long runs of plays became too much for Jones. He then turned more to television and voice acting. 

In the early days of my television career, I seemed to be typecast as a doctor, a detective, or a tribal chief....In one of my more memorable scenes [on Tarzan], the Supremes appeared clad demurely in habits, playing African nuns. I appeared more flagrantly attired in the stereotypical loincloth and feathers assigned to the African tribal chief. For reasons now obliterated from my memory, the script called for the nun-Supremes and the tribal chief to sing "Michael, Row the Boat Ashore." And we did, habits, feathers, loincloth, and all.

By now you can certainly understand that I loved this book, learning about James Earl Jones' background and his rise to fame; about the acting profession; the challenges he faced; his relationships with fellow actors and the public; and his role as a Black man with a powerful voice. I am all in for this book and hope that others who enjoy this wonderful man's acting will pick it up for a look. You certainly will not be disappointed.

Acting can never really be taught. It must be learned in a thousand ways, over and over again. Learning to act is ongoing, a lifelong process, and the responsibility rests with the actors....The challenge is not intellectual, but emotional: how deeply in tune you are with the emotional, imaginative planes of being.

[If this book interests you, be sure to check out]:

Wilson, Victoria. A Life of Barbara Stanwyck: Steel-True: 1907-1940.   

A towering biography about one of film's most versatile actresses. Highly-detailed, but so full of interesting people, conversations, films, and behind-the-scenes dealings that the book flies by. Highest rating.  (previously reviewed here)

Happy reading. 

 

Fred

 

Click here to browse over 435 more book recommendations by subject or title

(and read the introduction to The First Sentence Reader).

 

At Ease

Eisenhower, Dwight D. At Ease: Stories I Tell to Friends. New York: Doubleday 1967. Print.

First Sentences:

Talking to oneself in Abilene, in the days of my youth, was common enough. Generally speaking, it was a sure sign of senility or of preoccupation with one's worries. Now, it is nationally advertised as the hallmark of the efficient executive.


Description:

I enjoy biographies and autobiographies as much as the next person. However, some can be a bit pedantic in their attention to major occurrences in the subject's life, details that paint the person as a highly important figure. Maybe not as honest a picture as I sometimes hope for.

But President (and author) Dwight D. Eisenhower took a new approach. Assuming that every event in his life as a military, political, and academic figure had already been covered by multiple biographers, Eisenhower decided to honestly and humbly tell a behind-the-scenes series of episodes in his life that truly reveal his character. 

His collection of these reminiscences, At Ease: Stories I Tell to Friends, reveal his thoughts, dreams, conversations, decisions, ambitions, and failures in such an casual, often humorous manner that you feel he is talking just to you as a intimate friend, revealing himself and how occurrences that shaped his life and even the world really happened.

The book spans Eisenhower's years from birth in Kansas and childhood in Texas, training at West Point, military career, family life, and being nominated to run for president just as he was just settling in as president of Columbia University. Each episode in between is matter-of-factly unfolded as Eisenhower "talks" about situations and people that affected his life.

Early years

• As a five-year-old he finally overcame the torment dished out by a huge gander by taking a stick to defend himself, and thus admitted he learned "Never to negotiate with an adversary except from a position of strength."
• A great reader of history, he so neglected his chores that his mother locked his books in a closet ... an effective punishment until Eisenhower found the key one day and continued to read whenever his mother was not present.

West Point

• Admitted, "Where else could you get a college education without cost?" 
• Assigned to the "Awkward Squad" for his inability to march with coordination. 
• In his first weeks, just after learning how to salute every officer, he tried three times to salute a highly-decorated man he passed in uniform, only to discover he was saluting the local drum major.
• As punishment from an upperclassman, he and a friend had to report in "full dress coats," which they did, but did not put on any other clothes. 
• His disciplinary file, partially reprinted in the book, reveals him to rank 125th in discipline out of 162 cadets.

Family

• The first time he met his future wife, Mamie, she accompanied him on his Fort Sam Houston guard duty patrol.
• At Camp Colt in Gettysburg, PA, the base suffered an outbreak of Spanish Influenza that killed many men. Ike, his family, and staff were spared due to an experimental nasal spray and throat medicine given by the camp's doctor.
• He and Mamie lost their two-year-old first born son, Ikky, to Scarlet Fever, “the greatest disappointment and disaster in my life, the one I have never been able to forget completely."

Military

• He had a long-time friendship with George Patton, and constantly tried to stop his friend from making controversial statements in public.
• Learned to fly at age 46, 30 years after the Wright Brothers at Kitty Hawk, where he communicated with the ground by dropping paper messages tied to rocks, then flying low to buzz buildings until someone came out to see what was up and retrieve his notes.
• His WWII orders were "Land in Europe and, proceeding to Germany, destroy Hitler and all his forces." There was nothing about invading Berlin, something Eisenhower was widely criticized for not pursuing.

Columbia University

• Took over for the previous University president who had served in that office for more than 50 years. Eisenhower was not recognized as the new president and denied access by a watchman to the president's office on his first Saturday when the university offices were closed
• Eisenhower felt his greatest contribution to Columbia was that he persuaded their beloved football coach stay at Columbia rather than taking the coaching job at rival Yale.

Anecdote after story is gracefully rolled out by a master storyteller. Each insight, carefully woven into a chronological timeline of his life's events, is captivating and insightful. While there is little about the specifics of WWII battles, there is plenty about his discussions with his officers, advisors, and other military leaders as well as the results of his decisions.

The book ends as Eisenhower reluctantly gives up his position as Columbia's president to accept the nomination (which he did not desire) to run for President of the United States. 

Please give this book a try if you have interest in great storytelling, interesting people, and the life of one important figure in American history. I loved it and now feel a new respect for President Dwight Eisenhower the man as well as the military figure and academic leader. Now, I just need to look for a follow-up book by him detailing his later years.

The making of history, the shaping of human lives, is more a matter of brief incidents, quiet talks, chance encounters, sudden flashes of leadership or inspiration, and sometimes simple routine than it is of heroes, headlines, grand pronouncements, or widely heralded decisions.

 

[If this book interests you, be sure to check out]:

Sassoon, Sigfried. The Memoirs of an Infantry Officer: (Book Two in the The Memoirs of George Sherston trilogy) .   

A fictionalized but very realistic depiction of World War I in France as seen through the eyes and mind of an French officer./ Based on Sigfried Sassoon's real heroic life and later disillusioned memories of his military experiences during that War, including his eventual pacifism and protest to end the conflict. 

 

Happy reading. 

 

Fred

 

Click here to browse over 435 more book recommendations by subject or title

(and read the introduction to The First Sentence Reader).

 

A Life Impossible

Gleason, Steve. A Life Impossible: Living With ALS: Finding Peace and Wisdom Within a Fragile Existence. New York: Knoff 2024. Print.

First Sentences:

I sat naked in the shower while a twenty-four-year-old man washed my armpits.  Across the bathroom, my three-year-old daughter, Gray, sat in the middle of the floor, cross-legged like the Buddha, with one difference. She was wailing hysterically and incessantly. Inconsolable. And I was incapable of helping her.


Description:

It is almost impossible to comprehend living day to day, hour to hour, a life where every voluntary muscle in your body is unable to function. You are robbed of the ability to walk, raise your arms, close your hands, speak, even breathe. Smiling and blinking are denied. 

Yet such is the ongoing existence of author Steve Gleason for the past thirteen years (and counting) since his diagnosis of Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis (ALS, i.e., Lou Gehrig's Disease).

He thoughtfully, emotionally, and openly discusses his journey from his boyhood through years as a professional football player, to young married trying to understand his fatal ALS diagnosis, and on then his continuing struggles with his restricted life today in his memoir, A Life Impossible. 

To call him a survivor is too passive a label. He is a battler. Throughout his life he has deeply contemplated his life, his personal situation, his emotions, and his future. His brilliant writing in this book are transporting. Gleason allows readers into the deepest parts of his mind, from denial of the diagnosis as a 33-year-old man to a firm confidence he can beat the disease; from despair as his relationships crack under the strain of his needs for constant, intimate care, to occasional peace of mind as revelations occur to him that give him even temporary triumphs in communication or action.

I'd spent most of my life seeking the sacred and extraordinary, but [meditation] was showing me that the sacred is within us....I'm not sure how much it was improving my "real life," but for a guy who was living with ALS, to have an hour a day of peace and even bliss, it was a welcome change.

During Gleason's New Orleans Saints' football career, he played on special teams. In 2006, he blocked an opposing Atlanta Falcons' punt on their first series of downs which was quickly recovered for a Saints' touchdown. This was an incredibly gutsy play by Gleason which surprised everyone on the field, the stadium, and in the Monday Night Football audience, and led to a Saints victory. 

It was an historic play as this was the first game held in the New Orleans Superdome, a beloved landmark for the citizens, which had finally opened after the devastation caused by Hurricane Katrina. Gleason's block and eventual Saints' victory signaled the beginning of the city's recovery. There is now even a statue of Gleason blocking that punt residing in front of the stadium, so important was the symbolism of New Orleans' triumph.

But ALS soon robbed him of his dream to live off the grid with his new wife, Michel, in an isolated spot somewhere in the Pacific Northwest. Slowly and unceasingly, he awoke each day to another loss of strength and function. "Most people awake each day from a nightmare. I awake to a nightmare," he stated. 

He also lost all his savings due to an investment with friends in an alternative real estate company which went bankrupt. He repeatedly tried for a different diagnosis, experimented with every type of possible cure from faith healers to diets to meditation. His eventual failures to walk even a few steps, swim, have sex, or swallow forced him to realize that ALS was progressing relentlessly.

But although he writes of his discouragement with his situation, he also created "Team Gleason" with friends and families to explore treatments, medical devices, and opportunities to expand horizons for other ALS patients. 

He wanted to prove to himself and others that life can still be lived, and began to travel, give speeches, fish for salmon in Alaska, and even reach the top of Machu Picchu in Peru sitting in an electronic wheelchair that had to be carried over foot-wide pathways.

Gleason proved to ALS sufferers and others that the world could still be expanded . While he still could speak, he recorded 1,500 English phrases for a company called CereProc which then created a customized voice similar to his own for oral expression of his typed words.

Team Gleason grew and donors contributed to ALS research. The highly popular ALS fund-raising Ice Bucket Challenge was started by a Team Gleason member. Other ALS patients formed discussion groups to share stories, coping techniques, and understanding hearts with each other and the world. Through Gleason, others learned they were not alone, had options, and could lead expanded lives.

Gleason received the Congressional Gold Medal, the highest United State Civilian honor, in 2019. Then in 2024 he was presented with the Arthur Ashe Award for Courage given for "strength, courage and willingness to stand up for their beliefs in the face of adversity.” Upon receiving this award, Gleason delivered a brilliant speech (created before the ceremony using only his eye/laser letter-by-letter composition program) verbalized through his synthetic voice to the ESPY audience. A documentary film, Gleason, was recently finished (available on Amazon Prime). His social media site has over half a million followers today.

 

A wonderfully powerful book that spares readers no emotion, thought, or dream that enters author Gleason's mind and world throughout his journey. Highly recommended.

Now I realize this: Life gets ugly at times, so when we have the chance to do something amazing in the midst of ugly, go for it.

Happy reading. 

 

Fred

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          (and an Intro to The First Sentence Reader) 

________________________

If this book interests you, be sure to check out:

Bauby, Jean-Dominique. The Diving Bell and the Butterflyh: A Memoir of Life in Death.   

One man's memoirs, painfully written using only the blinking of his one working eyelid, revealing how he experiences the "Locked-In Syndrome" where nothing on hiss body can be moved, no words can be spoken, yet his mind and awareness are still present in his seemingly lifeless body. Absolutely astonishing and powerful. (previously reviewed here)