Tag Archives: Non Fiction

In My Hands Today…

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Gulp: Adventures on the Alimentary Canal – Mary Roach

“America’s funniest science writer” (Washington Post) takes us down the hatch on an unforgettable tour.

The alimentary canal is classic Mary Roach terrain: the questions explored in Gulp are as taboo, in their way, as the cadavers in Stiff and every bit as surreal as the universe of zero gravity explored in Packing for Mars.

Why is crunchy food so appealing? Why is it so hard to find words for flavors and smells? Why doesn’t the stomach digest itself? How much can you eat before your stomach bursts? Can constipation kill you? Did it kill Elvis?

In Gulp we meet scientists who tackle the questions no one else thinks of—or has the courage to ask. We go on location to a pet-food taste-test lab, a fecal transplant, and into a live stomach to observe the fate of a meal.

With Roach at our side, we travel the world, meeting murderers and mad scientists, Eskimos and exorcists (who have occasionally administered holy water rectally), rabbis and terrorists—who, it turns out, for practical reasons do not conceal bombs in their digestive tracts.
Like all of Roach’s books, Gulp is as much about human beings as it is about human bodies.

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Gene Eating: The Science of Obesity and the Truth About Diets – Giles Yeo

In an age of misinformation and pseudo-science, the world is getting fatter and the diet makers are getting richer. So how do we break this cycle that’s killing us all?

Drawing on the very latest science and his own genetic research at Cambridge University, Dr Giles Yeo has written the seminal ‘anti-diet’ diet book. Exploring the history of our food, debunking marketing nonsense and toxic diet advice, and confronting the advocates of ‘clean eating’, Dr Giles translates his pioneering
research into an engaging, must-read study of the human appetite.

Inspiring and revelatory, Gene Eating is an urgent and essential book that will empower us all with the facts we need to establish healthy relationships with food – and change the way we eat.

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The Money Trap: Lost Illusions Inside the Tech Bubble – Alok Sama

A gripping and entertaining memoir that offers a rare C-suite window on the world of technology investing. Veteran Morgan Stanley banker Alok Sama thought he’d seen it all, until he found himself at the helm of the secretive investment giant that controls global tech— SoftBank, the backer of Yahoo, TikTok, Uber, T-Mobile, DoorDash, Alibaba and WeWork, and the sponsor of the largest technology investment fund in history.

The Money Trap is a thrilling, stranger-than-fiction personal odyssey of Sama’s experiences while working alongside SoftBank’s iconic founder, Masayoshi Son, an eccentric genius who relies on “the Force” to guide his investment decisions and wants to be remembered as “the crazy guy who bet on the future.”

As a high-stakes dealmaker, Sama consorted with A-list CEOs and hobnobbed with heads of state, conducting negotiations on Gulfstream jets, the terrace of a medieval castle in Germany, Son’s private sanctuary with its exquisite Japanese garden, and waterside restaurants in the Turkish Riviera — all while contending with a mysterious dark-acts smear campaign that takes a toll on his private life.

This fascinating and humorous saga provides a unique insider perspective on an industry that is disrupting our daily lives and straining our social fabric. Written with self-deprecating wit, unflinching honesty and searing introspection, The Money Trap is ultimately a morality in life, as in technology investing, more money isn’t always the answer.

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Readicide: How Schools Are Killing Reading and What You Can Do About It – Kelly Gallagher

The systematic killing of the love of reading often exacerbated by the inane, mind-numbing practices found in schools. Reading is dying in our schools. Educators are familiar with many of the factors that have contributed to the decline, poverty, second-language issues, and the ever-expanding choices of electronic entertainment.

In this provocative book How Schools are Killing Reading and What You Can Do About It, author and teacher Kelly Gallagher suggests it is time to recognize a new and significant contributor to the death of our schools.

Readicide, Gallagher argues that American schools are actively (though unwittingly) furthering the decline of reading. Specifically, he contends that the standard instructional practices used in most schools are killing reading standardized testing over the development of lifelong readers.

Mandating breadth over depth in instruction and requiring students to read difficult texts without proper instructional support and insisting students focus on academic texts Ignoring the importance of developing recreational reading losing sight of authentic instruction in the looming shadow of political pressures. Readicide provides teachers, literacy coaches, and administrators with specific steps to reverse the downward spiral in reading; steps that will help prevent the loss of another generation of readers.

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On Food and Cooking: The Science and Lore of the Kitchen – Harold McGee

Harold McGee’s On Food and Cooking is a kitchen classic. Hailed by Time magazine as “a minor masterpiece” when it first appeared in 1984, On Food and Cooking is the bible to which food lovers and professional chefs worldwide turn for an understanding of where our foods come from, what exactly they’re made of, and how cooking transforms them into something new and delicious. Now, for its twentieth anniversary, Harold McGee has prepared a new, fully revised and updated edition of On Food and Cooking. He has rewritten the text almost completely, expanded it by two-thirds, and commissioned more than 100 new illustrations. As compulsively readable and engaging as ever, the new On Food and Cooking provides countless eye-opening insights into food, its preparation, and its enjoyment.

On Food and Cooking pioneered the translation of technical food science into cook-friendly kitchen science and helped give birth to the inventive culinary movement known as “molecular gastronomy.” Though other books have now been written about kitchen science, On Food and Cooking remains unmatched in the accuracy, clarity, and thoroughness of its explanations, and the intriguing way in which it blends science with the historical evolution of foods and cooking techniques.

Among the major themes addressed throughout this new edition are:

  • Traditional and modern methods of food production and their influences on food quality
  • The great diversity of methods by which people in different places and times have prepared the same ingredients
  • Tips for selecting the best ingredients and preparing them successfully
  • The particular substances that give foods their flavors and that give us pleasure
  • Our evolving knowledge of the health benefits and risks of foods
  • On Food and Cooking is an invaluable and monumental compendium of basic information about ingredients, cooking methods, and the pleasures of eating. It will delight and fascinate anyone who has ever cooked, savored, or wondered about food.