Category Archives: Books

Book Review: The Scavenger’s Guide to Haute Cuisine by Steven Rinella

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51npxrbdnhl-_sx321_bo1204203200_What happens when you want to cook a meal from a 1903 cookbook, only to find that your local supermarket does not carry the bladder of a wild boar?

 

 

If you are author and avid outdoorsman Steve Rinella, you embark on a yearlong quest to hunt or scavenge the ingredients you need to complete your feast.

 

In 2003, Rinella discovered one of the greatest cookbooks ever written, “Le Guide Culinaire” by renowned French chef August Escoffier. Known in his day as the “King of Chefs and Chef of Kings,” Escoffier’s cooking methods revolutionized French high or haute cuisine and used many ingredients that are not readily available to us today, such as sparrow, black bear, eel, pigeon and stingray. Rinella’s quest would take him to the far-flung corners of the country, hunting, fishing and scavenging the ingredients he would need to create a forty-five course feast from Escoffier’s tome that would be served over a three-day period to his family and friends.

 

 

“The Scavenger’s Guide” chronicles this adventure in enjoyable, easy-to-read (and sometimes hard to stomach) format. As someone who has never gone hunting, killed an animal, and to be honest, doesn’t even put the worm on the fishing hook, I found this book to be a reminder that we are never far removed from our food source. Although graphic in spots, the book will appeal to outdoorsmen and foodies alike. Rinella only kills what he intends to eat and the book is seasoned with respect for nature, the camaraderie of family and friends (including a vegetarian girlfriend) and the love of good food. A book that will at the same time leave you sated and curious to know what pigeonneaux crapaudine really tastes like.

 

Bon appetite!

 

 

Book Review: William G. Milliken: Michigan’s Passionate Moderate by David Dempsey

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millikenWhen I was a kid, I read a lot of biographies – explorers, sports heroes, presidents. Somehow, reading about those outstanding individuals of the past gave me pride and hope for the future. Dave Dempsey’s new biography of William G. Milliken evoked that same kind of feeling.

 

 

Milliken became Governor of Michigan in 1969, when then Governor George Romney left for Washington to take a post in President Nixon’s Cabinet. Milliken was subsequently elected to three consecutive four-year terms when he retired in 1982, he had served longer than any previous individual as the state’s chief executive. These were not easy years. Riots had scarred Detroit, the automobile industry was battered by foreign competition disrupting the state’s economy, and the battle to protect the environment was just beginning.

 

 

Through it all, Milliken acted with confidence, optimism and a spirit of conciliation. He stood, and still stands, as an example of the decency and civility that raises politics from the level of mud-slinging to the high plain of public service. Like all good writers, Dempsey uses many specific examples to paint a clear picture of Milliken’s general character. He describes the time when the Governor and his wife were taken on a hiking tour to film the television program “Michigan Outdoors” and 60-year-old Gene Little was lugging a huge TV camera on his shoulder. Dempsey lets one of the hikers, David Smethurst, tell the story:

 

“. . . we walked on and on. Pretty soon Gene is huffing and puffing. We stop more often for him. I walk ahead with Ned and Mrs. Milliken and look behind. Gene is still slogging along, but the Governor is now carrying his TV camera . . .I made up my mind about the Millikens that day. Good people make good leaders.”

 

 

 

The book is filled with these firsthand observations from friends of the Governor and his political adversaries, from newspaper editorials, journalists and reporters. Dempsey has done an excellent job of weaving this material into his text which provides a broader historical perspective. It’s like being there and then stepping back to reflect on the impact of major events form the time period. Often he lets Milliken speak for himself as in these words from his first speech as the acting Governor:

 

 

“[I hope my administration] is known for its compassion, its idealism, its candor and its toughness in pursuit of public ends.”

 

 

This high standard is the Milliken legacy something we citizens can hold up with hope and pride for our future political leaders.

 

Book Review: Listen to the Landscape by Linda Nemec Foster and Dianne Carroll Burdick

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listenListen to the Landscape is a magical book. The collaboration between artist and poet dance in a visual-verbal blending of words and color.

 

The color comes in the form of hand-colored photographs by Dianne Carroll Burdick, which have a luminous quality. Starting with a black-and-white photograph, the artist has transformed the reality if the image into a soft reflection of a dream world.

 

 

Photographed in her travels throughout the country, Carroll Burdick features scenes from California, Massachusetts, Michigan and other places where the landscape caught the artist’s eye. She is a freelance photographer well known in local artistic circles.

 

 

These photographs inspired Linda Nemec Foster to create haiku that capture the spirit of the landscape scenes. Written in the traditional Asian-style, Nemec Foster’s haiku resonate with the movement of a wave, the breath of a cloud, the green of trees.

 

 

She has written six other volumes of poetry and in 2003, she was selected to be the first poet laureate of Grand Rapids. This slim volume offers a tactile, yet spiritual experience. A meditative book for yourself or a perfect gift to share with friends, it even inspired this writer to try a haiku book review:

 

Scenes wet with color

Haiku captures the moment

Pages turn like waves

 

 

Book Review: A Stronger Kinship: One Town’s Extraordinary Story of Hope and Faith by Anna-Lisa Cox

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kinshipEvery so often I feel compelled to suggest a book not only for the skill of the author’s writing ability, but also for its social importance. The book, A Stronger Kinship, by Anna-Lisa Cox is such a book.

 

A true story describing the town of Covert, Michigan during the late 1800s, it tells the tale of the town’s unique population. People settled in the area because the “land was abundant, fertile and cheap, supporting themselves first through lumbering and then through fruit farming. Families developed churches, schools and” formed businesses, creating a small community. What set this town apart was that the population of Covert was integrated at a time when the rest of America was not.

 

The reader encounters a community who felt that all people were equal regardless of color and meets the runaway slaves, freed blacks and abolitionist New Englanders who were the backbone of this community. While elsewhere the country was experiencing racism, families here, black and white, lived side by side on farms and in the town.

 

 

Readers meet the first elected African American official, the town’s business leaders who came from both sides of the color line, and families that were integrated through marriage and accepted by the entire populace. What is remarkable is that this community has stayed true to the original conviction of the pioneer generation. Now a small town outside of South Haven, Covert is a typical rural community in Southwest Michigan – typical except for the easy blending of color that makes it a model for others. It conveys the sense that intentional community is not always impossible, and that the highest morals can be lived out in ordinary life.

Book Review — ‘Every Book Its Reader: The Power of the Printed Word to Stir the World’

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everybookWho among us, having read The Diary of Anne Frank, has not shared in the image of the personal impact of the Holocaust? Or understood the Depression as seen through the eyes of the Joads in The Grapes of Wrath?
 Books have shaped much of who and what we are. The impact on our world and our thoughts has been influenced throughout the ages by the printed word.
This subject is carefully explored and presented in the latest book by Nicholas A. Basbanes, also the author of A Gentle Madness: Bibliophiles, Bibliomanes, and the Eternal Passion of Books.
This book will delight those who are intrigued by books — collectors, readers or researchers. Basbanes describes books that have shaped our history, those that have made history, the writers who have drawn from one another and their influence on our own perceptions. The author not only provides a glimpse into the books that have influenced many of our current authors but also challenges us to consider how these works have impacted others.

Highly recommended for all who love books, the history of books and publishing, and those who want to begin their journey towards greater understanding of the printed word.

Book Review: Columbine by David Cullen

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columbineTen years after two high school students killed thirteen and critically injured 27 others, journalist Cullen creates a comprehensive look at the tragedy in Columbine. Cullen draws on hundreds of interviews, police reports and the killer’s journals and video tapes to piece together what occurred before, during and after the attack on April 20, 1999.
Right after the attack, and for years afterwards, many rumors and misinformation have been widely reported as fact. In an attempt to correct these, Cullen details the lives of Dylan Klebold and Eric Harris — they are not loners, not a part of the Trench Coat Mafia, not targeting jocks or Christians. Cullen purports that Klebold and Harris were on the surface pretty normal high school kids. They had a group of friends, went to prom, held part-time jobs, played sports, applied to college. But underneath the surface, Harris was a
psychopath, demonstrating nine of the ten trademarks of one. Klebold was depressive and suicidal. Over the two years that they planned and practiced for the attack, their goal was to be bigger than Oklahoma City. And if they had been better bomb makers, they might have succeeded.
Cullen looks at errors made by law enforcement, public reaction, and the healing that took place for the survivors, the injured, the community and the world. He examines Harris’ and Klebold’s parents, who have never spoken publicly about the attack before this book was released, but who are largely blamed for what their children did.
In the vein of Capote’s “In Cold Blood,” “Columbine” is a chilling look inside the minds of those who kill, a reminder to be watchful of those around us in a world that is often not what it seems.

Free books now available to travelers at the Gerald R. Ford International Airport

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bookprogramFree books are now available at the Gerald R. Ford International Airport (GFIA) thanks to a partnership with the Kent District Library (KDL).

 

KDL’s program “Little Free Library – Take a Book, Leave a Book” was installed today, and offers travelers a chance to pick up a book for their trip at no charge, or leave books they have finished. Shelves are located on both airport concourses, and include adult, teen, and children’s books.  Additionally, multi-language books will be available.

 

“This is a tremendous partnership for us with the Kent District Library, offering one more amenity for travelers at our airport,” said Gerald R. Ford International Airport Authority Acting President & CEO Phil Johnson. “We are happy to support an educational opportunity in our airport, and our hope is that travelers utilize these books to pass the time when they are traveling.”

 

Each item will feature a “Little Free Library” sticker. Users are welcome to take a book to keep, or return it to the airport or their closest Kent District Library. Volunteers will oversee the airport shelves to ensure they are stocked, and monitor the content.

 

“We are excited to partner with the Gerald R Ford International Airport,” said Kent District Library Director of Innovation & User Experience Michelle Boisvenue-Fox.  “The idea of adding value to the traveler’s experience while coming and going from Grand Rapids by offering a free exchange library using gently used donations and second-run library materials will help anyone beat boredom while waiting.  I realize that I am a librarian but I can’t imagine getting on an airplane without reading material.”

 

The Airport is one of several locations for KDL’s Little Free Libraries. More information on the program is available here: http://www.kdl.org/little-free-libraries