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Feb. 9th, 2012 06:34 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
bobcatmoranHi, I've just spent the last two hours on H&R Block online.
*does the dance of tax completion*
*for an encore, does the dance of book reviews*
Man Eating Bugs: The Art and Science of Eating Insects, by Peter Menzel and Faith D'Aluisio, 191 p.
In a nutshell, this book is a photographic journey, with commentary, across the world of entomophagy — the eating of insects. Similar to the married authors' Material World book (which is still a fascinating read more than fifteen years later — a look at average families across the globe, photographed in front of their house with all their material possessions), the book is broken up into countries, from Australia to Japan to Botswana to Peru and several countries in between.
The authors actually tried all the bug dishes mentioned in the book, and they have enlightening comments about not only what it was like eating and catching/raising the different grubs, beetles, spiders, and termites, but about cultural taboos. For example, when they were catching termites with a group of South Africans, they brought up that they'd eaten scorpions in China. As Faith put it, "They kept staring at me, wondering if I was deliberately trying to horrify them."
It's a very interesting read on a culinary branch that's almost entirely verboten in the U.S., and Peter Menzel's photographs (he's worked with National Geographic in the past) perfectly complement the text of the couple's journey.
In His Majesty's Service, by Naomi Novik (includes the novels His Majesty's Dragon, Throne of Jade, and Black Powder War, plus an original short story), 818 p. ****
It's the year of the dragon, and what better way to kick it off than reading a book about dragons? This volume, which I got at the Borders' closing sale, includes the first three books of Novik's Temeraire series, which was promoted to me as "The Napoleonic wars with dragons." I have to say, that's a really accurate summary. The series takes place in an AU of our own, identical except for the presence of dragons, who have been harnessed as an offensive weapon in Europe. The books center around the titular Temeraire, a dragon, and his human companion, former British naval captain William Laurence.
The universe of the books is fascinating, both for its similarities to our universe (Nelson still wins at Trafalgar), and its differences (the third book especially has some very different battle outcomes due to strategic use of dragons). The books range widely in location, with His Majesty's Dragon taking place mostly in England, Throne of Jade mostly in China, and Black Powder War across Asia into Prussia, and the cultural differences in how they treat dragons between East and West are marked (I haven't read the fourth book yet, but I'm pretty sure Temeraire's "Jacobian" tendencies that he picked up in China aren't going to play well when/if he gets back).
As a side note, the short story, featuring Lien, a different dragon of the same variety as Temeraire, is kind of interesting, as her POV regarding anything and everything foreign is completely different from Termeraire's.
I've applied for an interlibrary loan for the fourth book already, as this is a 'verse I'd love to linger in.
*audience boos, throws root vegetables*
*gathers up root vegetables, makes tasty turnip gratin*
*does the dance of tax completion*
*for an encore, does the dance of book reviews*
Man Eating Bugs: The Art and Science of Eating Insects, by Peter Menzel and Faith D'Aluisio, 191 p.
In a nutshell, this book is a photographic journey, with commentary, across the world of entomophagy — the eating of insects. Similar to the married authors' Material World book (which is still a fascinating read more than fifteen years later — a look at average families across the globe, photographed in front of their house with all their material possessions), the book is broken up into countries, from Australia to Japan to Botswana to Peru and several countries in between.
The authors actually tried all the bug dishes mentioned in the book, and they have enlightening comments about not only what it was like eating and catching/raising the different grubs, beetles, spiders, and termites, but about cultural taboos. For example, when they were catching termites with a group of South Africans, they brought up that they'd eaten scorpions in China. As Faith put it, "They kept staring at me, wondering if I was deliberately trying to horrify them."
It's a very interesting read on a culinary branch that's almost entirely verboten in the U.S., and Peter Menzel's photographs (he's worked with National Geographic in the past) perfectly complement the text of the couple's journey.
In His Majesty's Service, by Naomi Novik (includes the novels His Majesty's Dragon, Throne of Jade, and Black Powder War, plus an original short story), 818 p. ****
It's the year of the dragon, and what better way to kick it off than reading a book about dragons? This volume, which I got at the Borders' closing sale, includes the first three books of Novik's Temeraire series, which was promoted to me as "The Napoleonic wars with dragons." I have to say, that's a really accurate summary. The series takes place in an AU of our own, identical except for the presence of dragons, who have been harnessed as an offensive weapon in Europe. The books center around the titular Temeraire, a dragon, and his human companion, former British naval captain William Laurence.
The universe of the books is fascinating, both for its similarities to our universe (Nelson still wins at Trafalgar), and its differences (the third book especially has some very different battle outcomes due to strategic use of dragons). The books range widely in location, with His Majesty's Dragon taking place mostly in England, Throne of Jade mostly in China, and Black Powder War across Asia into Prussia, and the cultural differences in how they treat dragons between East and West are marked (I haven't read the fourth book yet, but I'm pretty sure Temeraire's "Jacobian" tendencies that he picked up in China aren't going to play well when/if he gets back).
As a side note, the short story, featuring Lien, a different dragon of the same variety as Temeraire, is kind of interesting, as her POV regarding anything and everything foreign is completely different from Termeraire's.
I've applied for an interlibrary loan for the fourth book already, as this is a 'verse I'd love to linger in.
*audience boos, throws root vegetables*
*gathers up root vegetables, makes tasty turnip gratin*
