findthatbook | Entries tagged with genre: non fiction

(Warning for self-harm and attempted suicide mention.)

I’m recalling an account (nonfiction; I can’t recall whether it was a memoir , a magazine article, or a cookbook) in which the author recounts visiting a genteel (Southern U.S., I seem to recall) older lady who used to fix them carrots and onions braised in orange juice; she ate only fruits and vegetables, believing such foods to be cleaner than grains and animal products. Her dietary choices also had to do with a paranoid-schizophrenic idea that people were trying to poison her; she’d never had children, owing to abdominal damage sustained during a suicide attempt.

This would’ve been in the 70’s or 80’s. Since similar recipes are commonplace, the recipe per se isn’t what I’m looking for; it’s the context that’s creating a nagging itch in the brain.

Current Mood: pensive

full_metal_ox

I encountered these quotes in Vegetarian Soups for All Seasons (Little, Brown and Company, 1996), by Nava Atlas; the problem is that I haven’t the book ready to hand, and it’s no longer in any of my local library systems.

The first quote came from a nineteenth-century (French? British? I want to say De Tocqueville or Brillat-Savarin) author who’d visited the U.S. and found an epiphany in gumbo: they proceeded to eulogize it as the perfect food, combining vibrant flavors and being soup and vegetable and entree in one.

The second was by a Victorian or Edwardian British author, extolling celery, in its cold clear no-nonsense crispness, as the gustatory expression of autumn. (These quotes embellished recipes for a gumbo and a celery soup, respectively; Atlas’ cookbook had something of a literary and reflective tone.)

ETA:

wolfinthewood has identified the celery quote, from the essay “A Word for Autumn” in Not that it matters (1919) by A.A. Milne;

kineticatrue has tracked the gumbo quote to Will H. Coleman’s Historical Sketch Book and Guide to New Orleans and Environs (1885), p 91.

Current Mood: nostalgic
Current Music: “A Little of This ‘n’ That”, by Pete Seeger

malkat_1987

These were all hardcovers.

One was about weather and natural disasters. I can't remember what the cover looked like. I think each topic spanned two pages. The main illustration for each section also spanned two pages. I remember sections about earthquakes, tornadoes, and tsunamis. The illustration for the tsunami section had a giant wave striking a Japanese town. The book also talked about Pangaea.

The second book had "natural world" somewhere in the title. It also talked about weather and natural disasters, but had sections about rocks, glaciers, and water too. Like the last one, I can't remember the cover.

The third book was about the history of life on Earth. I *want* to say there was a mammoth on the cover. Like the weather book, each section and accompanying illustration spanned two pages. It's possible they're both by the same publisher. I remember a section about animals from North and South America meeting for the first time, and a section on early humans.

I'm sorry if this is too little to go on. These books were important to me, and I've been racking my brain trying to come up with as many details as possible.

just_m3h

Hello! I was wondering if anyone could help me track down this book I had way back in the day? It was a hefty book that had a mini story (composed of a handful of short sentences) for each day of the year and showed the progression of the seasons through different events such as the first blue birds singing, the swallows flying off for winter, receiving the results of autumn's harvest, and so on. There were beautiful water colour paintings to go with them as well. This was a thick book, perhaps several decades old now.

Any help would be much appreciated! Thanks in advance ^.^

Current Mood: determined

esmeiolanthe

Last night I watched Marwencol with my father, which is a documentary about a man who has built a very elaborate tiny town in his yard out of assorted scraps and old toys. Watching the documentary reminded my father of a book he read probably 40 or 50 years ago that he has been looking for ever since. He has been unable to find it, and I can't find it either.

My father thinks it was called something like Small Worlds, and it was about people who built small worlds/elaborate models in their homes or basements. He remembers one man had a scale model of a large city (he thought perhaps Los Angeles) in his basement, and another person who built models of sites of religious significance to Catholics, like the Vatican and Lourdes.

When he got home, my father sent me this additional information: "I remember one of the Small Worlds in the book--there was on section about a black man who worked as a janitor. I believe his small world was discovered after he died as an old man. He had created something like the throne room for the archangel of the seventh heaven of the seventh heaven. Everything in the throne room was covered in silver and gold from gum and candy wrappers he had gathered over his years as a janitor. "

This morning, he sent me a little more information: "The janitor's throne room I wrote about--- It wasn't so small. I think the throne room filled the biggest room in his home. The throne and furniture where human sized, and all surfaces were covered with silver and gold foil from the trash."

EDIT: I asked for additional details about the physical book and got this response: "I believe it was hardback. It had photos, I think some were in color. Memory of size is fuzzy, but I think a little larger than a standard boo, so guess 10 X 7. and My Google searching skills have improved a lot since I last searched. I googled "throne of heaven gum wrappers and this came up:

https://americanart.si.edu/artwork/throne-third-heaven-nations-millennium-general-assembly-9897

This is certainly the same guy that was mentioned in the book I saw." This means that the book in question had to have been published after 1964, because the artist died in 1964, and his work was not discovered until after his death.

Searching "Small Worlds" as a title comes up with some weird fantasy stuff and with some modern theological stuff, but neither is correct. My father says it was a non-fiction book.

sapphic_devine6969

I think it had “miracle” in the title and it was sometime in the mid 80’s to early 90’s. A mother has a car accident, the car goes on fire, she can’t get the car seat out but a Good Samaritan does and I remember she originally wished the baby wasn’t rescued because he was so badly burned. Lots of surgeries and the baby lived but had burns all over.

rissabby

A few (or two) weeks ago I was watching the news on PBS (Public Broadcasting System in the US). Jeffrey Brown was interviewing ... someone. During the interview he mentioned that the guy had written a book about things getting better for humanity. That we've been getting less violent, from our early known history till now.

I wasn't paying enough attention to get more than that. But, I'd like to take a look at the book.

I went to the PBS news site today and couldn't find anything.

I'm hoping someone else saw the interview/news story and remembers more than I. Or that someone can recognize the book from my sketchy memory of it.

PS. It doesn't seem to be in the piece the called, "This artist is taking on America's history of violence" with Carrie Mae Weems.

FOUND by Rydra_Wong. It's "The Better Angels of Our Nature", by Steven Pinker.

littlestclouds

I've been trying to remember the title of this old book but I can't think of it, for the life of me. It had illustrations of clothing/accessories/etc. from ancient dress (the illustrations of Egyptian fashion were done to resemble hieroglyphics) up to the "current" time period of the latest edition I remember reading (I want to say at least the '50s, possibly '60s-'70s and it may have been updated since). I've looked on Amazon but none of the books I looked at quite ping my memory. It might have had "encyclopedia" somewhere in the title.

Current Mood: curious

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Find That Book

Find That Book

Entries tagged with genre: non fiction

Orange-juice-braised vegetable recipe prepared by a mentally ill Southern U.S. lady?

Gushing over gumbo and celebrating celery: two literary quotes.

3 Children's Science Books From the Mid 90s

Old water colour painted book with a story for each day of the year

Elaborate miniature (and not-so-miniature) worlds

Nonfiction Car crash, goes on fire, mom gets out but baby doesn’t, rescued by Good Samaritan, burned

Vague description of non-fiction book I haven't read

Looking for an old "world fashion/clothing" book...

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