Two books I've really enjoyed....

I was talking to Curtis a while back and he mentioned a book I read while at NECI but to which (apparently) I failed to pay adequate attention. I decided to re-read it and am so glad I did. It's titled The Omnivore's Dilemma by Michael Pollan.

And with the Chateau being quite slow now, I've also finally had the time to read a book I picked up years ago and failed to read called Guns, Germs, and Steel by Jared Diamond. I only wish I'd read this one before I headed to New Zealand. My favorite food discovery while there was kumera (a sweet potato varietal) that I cannot find in the U.S. I've never much liked sweet potatoes and yet kumera now holds a position of honor on my passingly official "favorite foods to cook and eat" list.

I'm admittedly a little food-centric (okay... a lot) but I think many of you will find both books interesting if you've not already read them. The first is a discussion of corn and modern agricultural practices, politics, diet, food science, cultural proclivities, and much more. It's clearly also a book written by someone with a reverence for food - and so of course I liked it. It's a bit like Fast Food Nation with corn - but much less strident. It also threw me back to ag discussions had at A&M at almost every chapter. I am now old enough to reflect back two decades (instructive and jarring simultaneously) and find it fascinating how the issues have unfurled. As for the second book, since it won the Pulitzer, many of you might already have read it, but basically it's world history since the dawn of humans and attempts to answer how and why cultures came about when and how and to what "advancement" they did. What I found intriguing, having read them as I listed them, was the interconnectedness of many of the topics raised in Ominivore's Dilemma.

Anyone else have any books they've read and enjoyed and would like to share?