Books I Read July 21st 2024

This week I made a pretty solid semifreddo. I did some other things as well but that's the only one I feel comfortable telling internet strangers. Oh, I also read the following books.

Cooking for Kings: The Life of Antonin Carême, the First Celebrity Chef by Ian Kelly – The title pretty much sums it up. It was quick and reasonably engaging.

Red Plenty by Francis Spufford – An ensemble cast scientists, technicians, politicians, and fixers tell the story of the Soviet Union's high point, an idyll in the early 60's where it seemed as if Marx's hopes for a post-capitalist society bereft of want or cruelty might come to fruition. I admired Spufford's ability to turn a theoretically obtuse economic issue into an engaging work of fiction.

The Madman of Bergerac by Simenon – One of Maigret's more antisemitic adventures.

Every Tongue Got to Confess by Zora Neal Hurston – A collection of postbellum African American stories, jokes and folklore. Abstractly fascinating for what it details about the post-reconstruction South, if not actually that interesting line by line.

The Rouge of the North by Eileen Chang – A beautiful, lower class woman is turned into a dragon lady by the stultifying atmosphere of pre-revolution upper class Shanghai. Another of Chang's sharp, insightful works of fiction. A real talent.