Current Book List

On Food and Cooking: The Science and Lore of the Kitchen by Harold McGee. Insanely detailed. Includes in the chapter on milk a description of aurochs - the ancient predecessor to the modern cow.

I'm Just Here for the Food by Alton Brown. Sense a trend? Detailed, but about stuff that's interesting. And it has lots of pictures and recipes. I'm trying Chicksicles for dinner tonight.

Sew Subversive. It's about sewing for the painfully hip craftster. Some of its explanations are very helpful even to advanced beginners like me. The vast majority of the projects are not my taste. The writing style is quite enjoyable. I plan to follow its instructions to mend a split seam, hem pants, and add ears to a hoodie sweat shirt. So just the practical projects. :)

Home Comforts: The Art and Science of Keeping House by Cheryl Mendelson. This was a housewarming gift from my mother-in-law when I moved in with my future husband about eight years ago. I used it briefly as a reference at that time. Now I'm trying to read it from front to back. I've actually implemented, to some degree, her suggested daily and weekly housekeeping routine. I'm a big fan of marketing day, clothes laundry day, and the concept of washing non-clothes laundry on the same day you do your major housecleaning. Unfortunately, I can't get through her major housecleaning action item list and it still takes me six hours to do my abridged version. Also, the second section of the book is all about making coffee and tea. So she gets you all riled up to do this cleaning routine and then bores you to tears with how hot your water should be for the perfect coffee. If I drank coffee, I might care, but I doubt it.

Cesar's Way: The Natural, Everyday Guide to Understanding and Correcting Common Dog Problems by Cesar Millan. This is the book by the host of the National Geographic television show The Dog Whisperer. Fun book. Most of it is his autobiography, which is a great story. Some of it is really sad stories about rescue dogs. The advice is great, but some of it is clearly something you have to see done before you can really do it right. The first DVD of The Dog Whisperer just arrived from Netflix.