Wednesday, February 22

A Passion Of Mine

This morning I got TWO packages from one of the loves in my life: Amazon.com. Oh, how I love Amazon. I tend to be a frugal person, but books are my Achilles heel. As much money as I have dropped on that website over the years, well, Amazon should love me too.
This morning when first the mail lady and then the UPS man arrived, both bearing packages, I knew it was a good day. The contents of the one must remain nameless since it is the heart of birthday season at our house and I can't give away any secrets. But the other-- well, I guess it was a present to myself.
The authors of this book photographed 30 families in 24 countries, surrounded by the amount of food that they usually buy in a week. There's a good article here NPR : 'Hungry Planet: What the World Eats' complete with some of the pictures in the book, so you can get a better idea of what it is like.
There are recipes, pictures in the family's homes, and essays on the issues surrounding food. The pictures are captivating. The narrative is lively. And there are sidebars with tons of facts on each family's home country: lifespan, education level, average income, obesity rates, etc. When I opened this book, I was immediately surrounded by most of my kids, all wanting to see it along with me. An intriguing book for anyone interested in knowing how the rest of the world lives!
I'm hoping to talk more about food here soon.

8 Comments:

At 8:21 AM, Blogger noelle said...

that would be great to pull out and show my one picky child when she thinks she doesn't like the food on the dinner table...how spoiled we are here compared to Chad! humbling...

 
At 8:36 AM, Blogger owlhaven said...

One thing that surprised me about it, though, was that it is not really a guilt-provoking book. Yes, it was partly a commentary on rich vs poor. It also makes ya think about processed food vs unprocessed, convenience vs slow-cooked, etc..But the thing I loved the best was just the peek into the lives of people around the globe. I am a globetrotter at heart, I guess!!
Mary

 
At 8:40 AM, Blogger shell said...

Funny you mention this author-I have another of his books "Material World" from college, that myself (and my kids!) love looking through. I had just pulled it out the other week to look at some stats and realized Ethiopia was in there (we are in the process of adopting from there). It is amazing how much we have been given in America!
I enjoy reading your blog.

 
At 12:16 PM, Anonymous Anonymous said...

Ditto to that last comment -- I love, love, love Material World and loved it when I was younger, too.
If you're interested in slice of life photoessay type books in general, can I recommend a great one? Postcards from Bangladesh is an amazing glance into life in this country (where I lived as a college student). It's worth interlibrary loan-ing if nothing else and is great even if you have no previous interest in Bengali life.

 
At 12:57 PM, Blogger shell said...

Who is it by??

 
At 2:07 PM, Blogger emlouisa said...

Totally interesting! I might have to get that!

 
At 2:38 PM, Blogger B.E.C.K. said...

That looks like a very cool book. (Were you hungry after looking at it?) I know what you mean about wanting to peek in on others' lives around the globe. I must confess...I surf Craigslist and look at the housing ads (the ones with pics) in various areas of the U.S. and beyond, so I get it. I'd say I'm a bit of a voyeur, but I like your word, globetrotter, much better. ;^)

 
At 4:31 PM, Anonymous Anonymous said...

Keith.....and co, Postcards is written by Kelley Lynch and Tanvir Sudeep Sen....although looking on amazon.com and half.com, it's apparently hard to find and expensive. But worth it! I promise.

 

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