Books

The Core of an Onion

Mark Kurlansky looks at the cultural and culinary history of the onion. 

If you haven’t read Kurlansky before, it’s hard to believe that a book about a commodity could be so interesting. 

It’s surprisingly dynamic. He moves quickly from one well researched topic to another, but you never get the feeling that he’s wedging something in just to fill space or just because he went to the trouble of researching it. It’s everything you would want to know about onions and no more. 

I love alliums, especially onions, and I got a kick out of the recipes. I’ve made and enjoyed some, but I haven’t worked up the courage to try Hemingway’s peanut butter and onion sandwich. 

Agreeable nonfiction, four stars by  Kurlansky standards. If you’re new to him, read Salt and Cod first. But if you like those, read this.

The Name of the Rose

Umberto Eco puts Holmes and Watson into Monks’ robes and sets them up against a whodunit in a Medieval monastery. 

I got sick of mining “best books of <some criterion>” lists, because they all have some agenda to push. So I decided to look at the list of best selling books of all time and this stood out to me. The market can’t be that wrong, can it?

NO, IT CANNOT. THE MARKET IS NEVER WRONG. 

At least it wasn’t in this case. This was a delight. The plot is fun, the characters are human and balanced,  and the setting is a hoot. I don’t normally read mysteries, so this felt especially exotic to me. 

If you liked The DaVinci Code, you will probably like this. But even if you disliked The DaVinci Code, you might like this, because it’s a much better book.

have you read Foucault's Pendulum? good follow up if you like this one

I'm eth newbie..just learning
(working on @farcaster)

terminally.online

I haven’t, thank you for the recommendation. I’ll read it soon :)

Prague Cemetery, Baudolino, Mysterious Flame of Queen Loana and Numero Zero by the same author are all great reads as well! Eco is my favorite.

His critical theory/semiotics essays are also good, but can be pretty heavy unless you are familiar with the territory he’s describing (information theory and so forth.