It's funny how quickly these books get away from me. I have missed posting about a couple already.
This book is a romance! Not my cup of tea but here it is in my house so it gets read. It is hard for me to pass a book on to another without reading it. Perhaps I also get a perverse pleasure in describing the book in the reviews I make on bookcrossing (http://www.bookcrossing.com/mybookshelf/jlautner).
Gabrielle Hadley has recently moved to Florence, Arizona, and taken a job as a prison guard. She is supporting her one-year-old daughter while living in a single-wide trailer. Her ex-husband cares about her and wants to help more but Gabrielle refuses help beyond child support and the occasional visit. She wants to make it on her own.
Early on Gabrielle comes home from work, exhausted, and fixes dinner:
canned soup
frozen vegetables
I think we are meant to understand how poor she is and how determined.
She brings her lunch to work, and later the prisoner takes a look at it out in the desert (where he escaped and grabbed her purse):
turkey sandwich
potato chips
cookies
diet soda
Wednesday, February 25, 2009
Friday, February 20, 2009
Snapshot, by Linda Barnes
Barnes has created a character named Carlotta Carlyle, who is a 6'-2" redhead, early thirties (I think), private investigator with a mouth. Barnes reveals some food prejudices here:
One character, a large woman, asks Carlyle to pick her up some snacks. Junk food - twinkies, chips, chocolate, sodas. When Carlyle has lunch with this woman Carlyle hardly eats anything, a kind of reaction to the shoveling of food by her friend.
It is not uncommon in novels for fat people to be represented in this way, as addicted to junk food, never far from a candy bar, always eating. I would so love it if some of these writers would look at their own actual experiences with fat people. I think they'd realize very few of them are eating all the time, often they have no more of a fixation on junk food than their skinny friends (even less at times) and that in fact they may not eat as much total as their skinny friends. But then that might break the long-held beliefs of so many.
Later in the book Carlyle fixes herself dinner of spaghetti with a jar of marinara sauce laced with a bit of red wine. She figures she has to spend so much time eating why spend time cooking.
Lunch at home by herself, Carlotta fixes a soup with boiling water and a dried soup packet. We don't get to know what kind of soup.
Seder: Carlotta celebrates seder in her own way. The food includes potato kugel (made by the fatty mentioned above), gefilte fish with horseradish, chicken soup with matzo balls - this made by Carlotta, who lets us know she uses water, salt, dill, along with chicken, and that it includes a "debate" over the merits of parsnips over sweet potatoes. And wine. This bit, about the soup, is as far as Barnes takes us into Carlotta's skills as a chef, and of course she's a natural.
One character, a large woman, asks Carlyle to pick her up some snacks. Junk food - twinkies, chips, chocolate, sodas. When Carlyle has lunch with this woman Carlyle hardly eats anything, a kind of reaction to the shoveling of food by her friend.
It is not uncommon in novels for fat people to be represented in this way, as addicted to junk food, never far from a candy bar, always eating. I would so love it if some of these writers would look at their own actual experiences with fat people. I think they'd realize very few of them are eating all the time, often they have no more of a fixation on junk food than their skinny friends (even less at times) and that in fact they may not eat as much total as their skinny friends. But then that might break the long-held beliefs of so many.
Later in the book Carlyle fixes herself dinner of spaghetti with a jar of marinara sauce laced with a bit of red wine. She figures she has to spend so much time eating why spend time cooking.
Lunch at home by herself, Carlotta fixes a soup with boiling water and a dried soup packet. We don't get to know what kind of soup.
Seder: Carlotta celebrates seder in her own way. The food includes potato kugel (made by the fatty mentioned above), gefilte fish with horseradish, chicken soup with matzo balls - this made by Carlotta, who lets us know she uses water, salt, dill, along with chicken, and that it includes a "debate" over the merits of parsnips over sweet potatoes. And wine. This bit, about the soup, is as far as Barnes takes us into Carlotta's skills as a chef, and of course she's a natural.
Wednesday, February 18, 2009
The Last Coyote, by Michael Connelly
Harry Bosch meets with a reporter and has an egg salad sandwich while the reporter has a burger and fries.
Harry cooks from time to time but not in this novel.
Harry cooks from time to time but not in this novel.
Play Dirty, by Sandra Brown
Play Dirty is a "romantic suspense" novel by a veteran writer of this genre. The main character grabs and goes:
A breakfast of instant coffee, toast, and milk
Lunch at Sonic drive-in of a jalapeno cheeseburger, frito pie, two orders of tater tots, and a strawberry-lemon slush. I almost thought he ate there because Brown goes to Sonic often.
No romantic scenes with one or the other character making like a chef. We can be grateful for that.
A breakfast of instant coffee, toast, and milk
Lunch at Sonic drive-in of a jalapeno cheeseburger, frito pie, two orders of tater tots, and a strawberry-lemon slush. I almost thought he ate there because Brown goes to Sonic often.
No romantic scenes with one or the other character making like a chef. We can be grateful for that.
Tuesday, February 10, 2009
Why?
When I read mysteries, suspense, other escape novels, I tend to notice the food the characters eat. Sometimes a big deal is made of it: the characters are great chefs, they prepare their signature dishes, people eat it and make love and so on. Other times the food is secondary, a plot device, a setting.
It seems from my memories that food in these novels tends toward the unadventurous. Again and again I read of pasta, fish, steak on a grill. I have gotten tired of the fuss made over what is not all that special and decided to take a closer look by actually documenting what characters eat. So there you are, that's what I'm doing here.
It seems from my memories that food in these novels tends toward the unadventurous. Again and again I read of pasta, fish, steak on a grill. I have gotten tired of the fuss made over what is not all that special and decided to take a closer look by actually documenting what characters eat. So there you are, that's what I'm doing here.
Monday, February 9, 2009
The Woods by Harlen Coben
Coben is no gourmet writer, nor does he pretend, in this novel, that his characters are.
Burger and beer during a break in a courtroom proceeding. Purchased at a nearby bar & grill.
Deli sandwiches ordered in during the trial: chicken salad on whole wheat, meatball sub.
Burger and beer during a break in a courtroom proceeding. Purchased at a nearby bar & grill.
Deli sandwiches ordered in during the trial: chicken salad on whole wheat, meatball sub.
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