From the PEN/Faulkner Award-winning author James Salter and his wife, Kay—amateur chefs and perfect hosts—here is a charming, beautifully illustrated tour de table: a food lover's companion that, with an entry for each day of the year, takes us from a Twelfth Night cake in January to a champagne dinner on New Year's Eve. Life Is Meals is rich with culinary wisdom, history, recipes, literary pleasures, and the authors' own memories of successes and catastrophes.
For instance:
• The menu on the Titanic on the fatal night
• Reflections on dining from Queen Victoria, JFK, Winnie-the-Pooh, Garrison Keillor, and many others
• The seductiveness of a velvety Brie or the perfect martini
• How to decide whom to invite to a dinner party—and whom not to
• John Irving's family recipe for meatballs; Balzac's love of coffee
• The greatest dinner ever given at the White House
• Where in Paris Samuel Beckett and Harold Pinter had French onion soup at 4:00 a.m.
• How to cope with acts of God and man-made disasters in the kitchen
Sophisticated as well as practical, opinionated, and indispensable, Life Is Meals is a tribute to the glory of food and drink, and the joy of sharing them with others. "The meal is the emblem of civilization," the Salters observe. "What would one know of life as it should be lived, or nights as they should be spent, apart from meals?"
BONUS: This edition includes an excerpt from James Salter's All That Is.
From the PEN/Faulkner Award-winning author James Salter and his wife, Kay—amateur chefs and perfect hosts—here is a charming, beautifully illustrated tour de table: a food lover's companion that, with an entry for each day of the year, takes us from a Twelfth Night cake in January to a champagne dinner on New Year's Eve. Life Is Meals is rich with culinary wisdom, history, recipes, literary pleasures, and the authors' own memories of successes and catastrophes.
For instance:
• The menu on the Titanic on the fatal night
• Reflections on dining from Queen Victoria, JFK, Winnie-the-Pooh, Garrison Keillor, and many others
• The seductiveness of a velvety Brie or the perfect martini
• How to decide whom to invite to a dinner party—and whom not to
• John Irving's family recipe for meatballs; Balzac's love of coffee
• The greatest dinner ever given at the White House
• Where in Paris Samuel Beckett and Harold Pinter had French onion soup at 4:00 a.m.
• How to cope with acts of God and man-made disasters in the kitchen
Sophisticated as well as practical, opinionated, and indispensable, Life Is Meals is a tribute to the glory of food and drink, and the joy of sharing them with others. "The meal is the emblem of civilization," the Salters observe. "What would one know of life as it should be lived, or nights as they should be spent, apart from meals?"
BONUS: This edition includes an excerpt from James Salter's All That Is.
For National Poetry Month in April, we are sharing poetry collections and books about poetry by authors who have their own stories to tell. These poets delve into history, reimagine the present, examine poetry itself, provide insight on grief and reflection—from traditional poems many know and love to poems and voices that are new and
In honor of Arab American Heritage Month in April, we are sharing books by Arab and Arab American authors that share their culture, history, and personal lives.
