Those Delicious Letters

SOON TO BE A MAJOR WEB SERIES From the bestselling author of Bong Mom's Cookbook, comes a novel about food, family and love Soon after her fortieth birthday, Shubha starts receiving letters with traditional Bengali recipes from a mysterious lady in Calcutta claiming to be her grandmother. Never one for cooking, but drawn by the nostalgia and lured into the delicious world of forgotten food, Shubha starts experimenting with the recipes. The dishes are an instant hit with everyone she knows -- everyone except Sameer, her very busy husband. As Shubha tries to find the mysterious writer and her own life begins to unravel, the notes from a bygone era give her courage to take a second chance at life. Torn between the taste of success that the letters bring her, and the need to save her marriage, Shubha must find the perfect recipe for love.

The elaborate Sunday morning breakfasts, the seasonal delicacies, the preserves that made available non-seasonal flavours - this is the stuff of childhood memories. Tragically, given the sheer pace of life today, it has become harder and harder to follow in our mothers' footsteps, to recreate moments of bonding in the kitchen, to maintain family traditions, especially when it comes to food. Sandeepa Mukherjee Datta - blogger, foodie and mother of two - strives to make this possible in her own life, and yours. This delicious book travels from Sandeepa's grandmother's kitchen in north Calcutta to her home in a New York suburb through heart-warming anecdotes and quick-easy recipes. Find out how to cook the classic kosha mangsho, throw in a few mushrooms to improvise on the traditional posto, make your own paanch-phoron. The new woman's spin on old traditions, Bong Mom's Cookbook is a must-have kitchen supplement for Bongs and non-Bongs alike. 'Authentic and enjoyable, clear and personal, studded with anecdotes that warm the heart and stir up your own memories of your favourite family recipes, Bong Mo's Cookbook is a delight to read. The only problem ; you'll have to interrupt your reading many times to try out these mouth-watering recipes!' - Chitra Banerjee Divakaruni, author of Sister of My Heart, One Amazing Thing and Oleander Girl

"NEW YORK TIMES "BESTSELLER Ruth Reichl is a born storyteller. Through her restaurant reviews, where she celebrated the pleasures of a well-made meal, and her bestselling memoirs that address our universal feelings of love and loss, Reichl has achieved a special place in the hearts of hundreds of thousands of readers. Now, with this magical debut novel, she has created a sumptuous, wholly realized world that will enchant you. Billie Breslin has traveled far from her home in California to take a job at "Delicious , "New York's most iconic food magazine. Away from her family, particularly her older sister, Genie, Billie feels like a fish out of water--until she is welcomed by the magazine's colorful staff. She is also seduced by the vibrant downtown food scene, especially by Fontanari's, the famous Italian food shop where she works on weekends. Then "Delicious " is abruptly shut down, but Billie agrees to stay on in the empty office, maintaining the hotline for reader complaints in order to pay her bills. To Billie's surprise, the lonely job becomes the portal to a miraculous discovery. In a hidden room in the magazine's library, Billie finds a cache of letters written during World War II by Lulu Swan, a plucky twelve-year-old, to the legendary chef James Beard. Lulu's letters provide Billie with a richer understanding of history, and a feeling of deep connection to the young writer whose courage in the face of hardship inspires Billie to comes to terms with her fears, her big sister and her ability to open her heart to love. Praise for "Delicious " " " "Its title strikes me as perfectly apt. . . . The novel presents a whole passel of surprises: a puzzle to solve; a secret room; hidden letters; the legacy of James Beard; and a parallel, equally plucky heroine from the past, who also happens to be a culinary prodigy."--"The New York Times Book Review" " " "Drawing amply on her years as editor of "Gourmet, "Ruth Reichl's fiction debut, "Delicious , " follows a perfect-palated aspiring young journalist to her new job at an iconic New York food magazine, where she uncovers a mysterious trove of James Beard's wartime correspondence--and learns how intimately food and legacy are intertwined."--"Vogue" " " "Reichl's compulsively readable novel is a treat for anyone who loves a warm, character-packed tale--a delectable mix of flavor, fantasy, and emotional comfort food."--"O: The Oprah Magazine" " " "This savory feast of a first novel blends the rich gifts that readers of Reichl's memoirs and food writing have come to expect. To a tantalizing coming-of-age story about a budding chef and journalist she adds a bittersweet tale of separated sisters."--"More" " " "Reichl's vivid descriptions of food will have readers salivating, and an insider's look at life at a food magazine is fascinating. Her satisfying coming-of-age novel of love and loss vividly demonstrates the power of food to connect people across cultures and generations."--"Library Journal "(starred review) "From the Hardcover edition."

NAMED ONE OF THE BEST BOOKS OF THE YEAR BY Newsweek/The Daily Beast • The Huffington Post • Kansas City Star • Time Out New York • Kirkus Reviews This extraordinary collection of personal correspondence has all the hallmarks of Kurt Vonnegut’s fiction. Written over a sixty-year period, these letters, the vast majority of them never before published, are funny, moving, and full of the same uncanny wisdom that has endeared his work to readers worldwide. Included in this comprehensive volume: the letter a twenty-two-year-old Vonnegut wrote home immediately upon being freed from a German POW camp, recounting the ghastly firebombing of Dresden that would be the subject of his masterpiece Slaughterhouse-Five; wry dispatches from Vonnegut’s years as a struggling writer slowly finding an audience and then dealing with sudden international fame in middle age; righteously angry letters of protest to local school boards that tried to ban his work; intimate remembrances penned to high school classmates, fellow veterans, friends, and family; and letters of commiseration and encouragement to such contemporaries as Gail Godwin, Günter Grass, and Bernard Malamud. Vonnegut’s unmediated observations on science, art, and commerce prove to be just as inventive as any found in his novels—from a crackpot scheme for manufacturing “atomic” bow ties to a tongue-in-cheek proposal that publishers be allowed to trade authors like baseball players. (“Knopf, for example, might give John Updike’s contract to Simon and Schuster, and receive Joan Didion’s contract in return.”) Taken together, these letters add considerable depth to our understanding of this one-of-a-kind literary icon, in both his public and private lives. Each letter brims with the mordant humor and openhearted humanism upon which he built his legend. And virtually every page contains a quotable nugget that will make its way into the permanent Vonnegut lexicon. • On a job he had as a young man: “Hell is running an elevator throughout eternity in a building with only six floors.” • To a relative who calls him a “great literary figure”: “I am an American fad—of a slightly higher order than the hula hoop.” • To his daughter Nanny: “Most letters from a parent contain a parent’s own lost dreams disguised as good advice.” • To Norman Mailer: “I am cuter than you are.” Sometimes biting and ironical, sometimes achingly sweet, and always alive with the unique point of view that made him the true cultural heir to Mark Twain, these letters comprise the autobiography Kurt Vonnegut never wrote. Praise for Kurt Vonnegut: Letters “Splendidly assembled . . . familiar, funny, cranky . . . chronicling [Vonnegut’s] life in real time.”—Kurt Andersen, The New York Times Book Review “[This collection is] by turns hilarious, heartbreaking and mundane. . . . Vonnegut himself is a near-perfect example of the same flawed, wonderful humanity that he loved and despaired over his entire life.”—NPR “Congenial, whimsical and often insightful missives . . . one of [Vonnegut’s] very best.”—Newsday “These letters display all the hallmarks of Vonnegut’s fiction—smart, hilarious and heartbreaking.”—The New York Times Book Review

With her outsize personality, Julia Child is known around the world by her first name alone. But despite that familiarity, how much do we really know of the inner Julia? Now more than 200 letters exchanged between Julia and Avis DeVoto, her friend and unofficial literary agent memorably introduced in the hit movie Julie & Julia, open the window on Julia’s deepest thoughts and feelings. This riveting correspondence, in print for the first time, chronicles the blossoming of a unique and lifelong friendship between the two women and the turbulent process of Julia’s creation of Mastering the Art of French Cooking, one of the most influential cookbooks ever written. Frank, bawdy, funny, exuberant, and occasionally agonized, these letters show Julia, first as a new bride in Paris, then becoming increasingly worldly and adventuresome as she follows her diplomat husband in his postings to Nice, Germany, and Norway. With commentary by the noted food historian Joan Reardon, and covering topics as diverse as the lack of good wine in the United States, McCarthyism, and sexual mores, these astonishing letters show America on the verge of political, social, and gastronomic transformation.

Test your cooking (and puzzle) skills with this entertaining, clever recipe book that puts your cooking knowledge to the test! Who doesn’t love a good puzzle? And what sounds more satisfying than being able to eat your results afterwards? If you’ve ever tried cooking, you will be all too familiar with how puzzling certain recipes can be—from figuring out proper techniques to deciphering improper instructions. So why not make a game out of it? In Hungry Games, former food editor Kate Heddings embarks on a journey to turn her recipe challenges into a game of recipe rehab, testing the skills of cooks who know it all by finding mistakes intentionally inserted into each recipe. Ranging from easy to difficult, these recipes contain both cooking mistakes (time, temp, quantities) editorial mistakes (out of order ingredients, spelling mistakes, etc.), and brings some fun back to cooking. Paired with traditional food-themed crossword puzzles and word search games, Hungry Games is perfect for every avid cook or puzzle fan—and gives the phrase “playing with your food” new meaning.

Daniel Boulud is a pioneer of our contemporary food culture-from the reinvention of French food to the fine dining revolution in America. A modern man with a classical foundation and a lifetime of experience, Boulud speaks with passion about the vocation of creating food. Part memoir, part advice book, part recipe book, this updated edition celebrating of the art of cooking will continue to delight and enlighten all chefs, from passionate amateurs to serious professionals.

Gaylen, the King's messenger, a skinny boy of twelve, is off to poll the kingdom, traveling from town to farmstead to town on his horse, Marrow. At first it is merely a question of disagreement at the royal castle over which food should stand for Delicious in the new dictionary. But soon it seems that the search for Delicious had better succeed if civil war is to be avoided. Gaylen's quest leads him to the woldweller, a wise, 900-year-old creature who lives alone at the precise center of the forest; to Canto, the minstrel who sings him an old song about a mermaid child and who gives him a peculiar good-luck charm; to the underground domain of the dwarfs; and finally to Ardis who might save the kingdom from havoc. The Search for Delicious is a 1969 New York Times Book Review Notable Children's Book of the Year.