4/3/2013
I co-wrote a cookbook! Hence the lack of other new pieces to post here. It’s Italian and will teach you how to make everything you ever wanted to eat from that part of the world. It’s also quite funny, thanks to Fabio Viviani, a Top Chef alum, who is entertaining without even trying–so much so that his family forgave him for setting his grandmother on fire when he was a little kid (she was okay, which probably helped, too). Fabio’s Italian Kitchen will be out April 23–you can read the full story there in between learning how to make gelato and fresh pasta.
2/1/2013
Do you like bao? Or Emerson? Or basketball? Or hip hop? Or lions? Find them all, and even more I can’t possibly begin to describe in my new Bookforum column on chef Eddie Huang and his memoir, Fresh Off the Boat. If nothing else you’re going to find yourself very, very hungry. But he’s pretty hilarious company, too.
12/1/2012
Okay, yes, it’s about fruitcake. But really it’s about sending people food as a holiday gift and why you should (in my opinion) do it. Also, I threw in some Greek mythology to distract you from the fruitcake. Click here.
11/6/2012
Go out and get Margaret Talbot’s truly wonderful new book about her actor father Lyle and his journey through the byways and bright lights of American entertainment from carnival sideshows to Hollywood, Ed Wood, and Ozzie and Harriet. If you need more convincing than that, read my review in the hot-off-the-internet-presses new Slate Book Review.
6/28/2012
Read here about a beautiful, ethereal project called Stone River in the July issue of Landscape Architecture Magazine, where I wrote about it and its creator, Jon Piasecki. I’m amazed by the photos that accompany the piece, taken by John Dolan.
6/6/2012
Who can resist food trucks? Not me. Fortunately, several books about them, including John T. Edge’s great Truck Food Cookbook, have just come out and I got to write about them for my latest Bookforum column. Click here and prepare to be very hungry.
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WHO I AM
(for more, visit “About”)
I’ve written two books: Girl Sleuth: Nancy Drew and the Women Who Created Her and Eating for Beginners: An Education in the Pleasures of Food from Chefs, Farmers, and One Picky Kid. For more on those, look in in the “Books” section of this site or click the covers to the right. I’ve also written for many magazines and newspapers, ranging from the New York Times Magazine and Book Review to Vogue, Slate, The LA Times, and Bookforum, where I currently write a column about food books. Check out “Publications” for some of that work. I’ve published poetry in The New Yorker, the Paris Review and other places; a few poems are available on the “Publications” page as well.
At the moment, I’m deep into Ralph Waldo Emerson, about whose essay “Self-Reliance” I’m writing my next book. See “Emerson Project” for more on that.
I edit and write many other things as well, including book manuscripts, newsletters, and communications and development materials for schools, universities, and non-profit foundations. For more information on what I’ve done and do, please see “Hire.”
