By: Corson, Trevor
The story starts in medieval Japan with the development of proto sushi which is whole fish pressed on top of rice in a specially designed weighted box through the development of sushi rice and finally to how sushi developed in Japan after World War II. Once you have this background the story moves to the United States. The author delves into how sushi became an American food item now sold in grocery stores across the country. Corson shows that it was the development of sushi schools in California that made it possible for sushi chiefs to be trained more quickly than in Japan. These schools also lead to sushi innovations that would eventually travel back to Japan—the inside out roll being a classic example. Truly an American tale of taking something very foreign and making it American.
Reviewer:
Susan Ardis
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By: Barber, E. J. W.
The best parts of this book are the chapters on the development of string. Barber’s hypothesis is the ability to make string is an important precursor to the development of civilization. Her point is that once people can make string, then they can tie things together. This means you can make rope and rope can be used to tether an animal or child, it can be used to make fishing lines, fishnets, bags and just as importantly you can use string to carry items on your back. Once you can carry loads then you can begin to move goods. And once you can do these things you are on track to make coiled pottery and weave.
What interested me the most was the description of how easy it is to make string. The easiest way is to use already existing vines, the second step according to Ms Barber is to take plant fibers and roll them on your leg to make an every expanding string. Rope is merely a number of strings put together. The evidence cited in this book is pottery and wall paintings, since most fabric doesn’t survive. Barber examined thousands of early pots and paintings looking for evidence of early cloth making.
Reviewer:
Susan Ardis
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By: Gately, Iain
I’m not one for conspiracy theories but this was a fascinating book. I never would have thought that tobacco growing and selling played such an important part of our history. One factoid tells the tale: when Benjamin Franklin was sent to London to negotiate a peace treaty between Great Britain and the future United States he was also given the task of negotiating the loans George Washington and Thomas Jefferson owned to merchants in England on their tobacco holdings.
This book is essentially about how drawing smoke from a plant grew from a ceremonial activity in the new world to a social activity that spread around the world. It is now hard to find a culture where tobacco smoking is not evident. The subtitle tells it all – “a cultural history of how an exotic plant seduced civilization.” The story is fascinating and the book is very well written.
Reviewer:
Susan Ardis
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By: Kempe, Margery
Who would have thought that the first known biography in English would be written by a woman, brewery owner, Christian mystic, and mother of 14 named Margery Kempe. Margery was illiterate so she dictated her biography to a scribe between 1436 and 1438. Her biography begins with her conversion experience which was heralded by a vision of Christ in her bedroom one night. The story then follows Margery through pilgrimages across Europe and the Holy Land. She also tells about her heresy trial in England and her burgeoning mystical life. After the trial the judge gave her a piece of paper saying that she was not a heretic. Margery used this piece of paper many many times when people complained to their local religious leaders about her loud crying, laughing and preaching. His opinion, like most of her contemporaries seemed to be that she was she was religiously insane. He was also surprised that she followed Catholic dogma exactly. She never deviated from the church’s teaching even when she was ranting and raving.
The book is amazingly lively. You get insight into the personality
of a woman who thought Jesus told her to wear white, live apart
from her husband and give voice to her religious opinions loudly and continually. Her neighbors, her child and her husband complained regularly about her religious activities. The book gives dramatic accounts of every day experiences, in Margery’s
home town, in many English regions, and as far away as Brandenburg, Rome and Jerusalem. Just reading about how she traveled in Europe and how she got to Jerusalem is illuminating.
Reviewer:
Susan Ardis
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By: Thomas, Ross
Lines in the first paragraph pull you into a story that never follows a straight line: “The pretender to the Emperor’s throne was a fat thirty-seven year old Chinaman called Artie Wu who always jogged along Malibu beach right after dawn even in the summer. It was while jogging along the beach just east of the Paradise Cove Pier that Artie Wu tripped over a dead pelican, fell and met the man with six greyhounds.” This book is about the ultimate con. You’re never sure until the very end who is actually being conned and why.
This is a character driven story and there are is an amazing list of characters from Otherguy Overby, to the folk singing trio of Ivory, Lace and Silk, though a former CIA agent who’s gone out on his own, to big time record producer and the head of a criminal syndicate.
Reviewer:
Susan Ardis
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