Some Books I Loved

 **A series of essays about the wonder and majesty of marine life, paired with stories of the author's experiences as a female, queer, mixed-race person in the largely white and male field of scientific journalism.  An absolute winner** Yup.  This one is a winner This will be I believe only the second nonfiction book I've written about for this thing (the first being the truly fantastic "The Cooking Gene" by Michael W. Twitty).  I read very little nonfiction for fun, simply because I have to read so many articles and reports and white papers for work.  When I relax, I generally prefer fiction, and generally prefer speculative fiction at that (that said, I do love graphic novel memoirs, will probably get around to writing about one or two of them as well).  But man, this book is special So, in short, this is a collection of essays about marine life.  I think anyone who's studied even a little bit of ocean life learns pretty quickly that there is some a...

 **An exhaustive look at how slavery influenced Black American cooking, and how Black American cooking influenced American cooking in general.  Spoiler:  Black culture is nearly as significant in American cooking as it is in American music, which is to say that it's absolutely foundational** The first great American chef was a man named James Hemmings.  I doubt many people know that name, it's certainly not featured very prominently in most American history textbooks.  But in 1784, James Hemmings went to France, where he studied in the great kitchens of the continent and brought this cuisine back to America.  He's credited with the introduction of dishes like crème brûlée and meringue to North America.  And notably, we have very clear documentation of him being the first in America to serve a version of "macaroni pie", a French dish of pasta in a cheese sauce--which obviously evolved into the iconic American dish of macaroni and cheese So why don't lea...