Cat's Staff Reviews

As I'm about to fall asleep, I often have these semi-conscious, quasi-dreams that walk the line between waking and dreaming, future and past, reality and fiction. It seems as though Millhauser has burrowed his way into my prolific subconscious to write these stories of surpassing eloquence and certitude. This is literary fiction at its absolute best, with an eye towards socially-conscious topics such as the environment and simply being nice to someone you pass on the street. Read it slowly and savor every moment of your first read through these wonderful stories.

What does it mean to be free? How has American history shaped the meaning of what we consider “freedom”? The answers to these questions depend on contingencies of time, place and personality. In a book that unparalleled in concision and thoughtfulness, Purdy invites us to engage our history to better understand our past. What seem to be irreconcilable contradictions in American ideals, as Purdy shows, are actually the stuff the dreams are made of; it is exactly those seemingly conflicting dualities in our culture, such as individualism and citizenship, that keep us moving forward and making progress. I couldn’t help but be engaged by the passion in the author’s writing and his extremely informed analyses. A Tolerable Anarchy belongs on any short list of readings on American politics & culture, past and present.

I always grimace when asked what my favorite book is in a specific genre, but I’ll say it here: of all of the cookbooks on these shelves, Culinary Institute of America Cookbook is it. With over 375 recipes for breakfast, dinner, drinks & sides from all corners of the culinary map, as well as periodic tips that can apply to all food preparation, it’s easy to be intimidated before even opening this book. Yet upon reading through a few recipes (thumb through the sections of photographs for inspiration) you’ll find, as I did, a plethora of recipes that will help you produce uniformly mouthwatering dishes for yourself and guests. A few notes that struck me: Prep times are reasonable, ingredients are easy to find, and the “charts & tables” section of the back of the book provides suggestions that can help expand your culinary repertoire.

“The South” summons a plethora of dualities: sweet tea and segregation; warm weather and weary hands; pleasant people and abject, unapologetic poverty. Contained in the pages of Bastard Out of Carolina are these distinctly though not uniquely southern conflicts and more, rendered strikingly brilliant through the author’s keen yet soft prose. Bone, the narrator of this tale, is a little girl grown up too fast. It is through her intuitive eyes that we watch her mom and step-fathers, aunts, uncles and cousins fight for their lives day in and day out in a world where, to everyone else in their town, they are “trash.” Bone emerges as brave, resourceful, and willing to battle demons both concrete and intangible to establish her integrity.