It’s 4:55 a.m. and I’ve given up on sleeping for now, so I thought I’d blog about the books on my nightstand, to wit:
American Terroir by Rowan Jacobsen: We are so lucky to have locally grown fruit, vegetables and flowers, pretty much year round (yes, even in January: check out the winter farmer’s market in the old bus depot on S. School St. – Saturday mornings). This excellent book is whetting my appetite for more far-flung culinary pleasures: sourwood honey from the Carolinas, maple syrup from the Dragonfly Sugarworks in the Green Mountains of Vermont and slow-ripened avocadoes from Michoacan, Mexico. I look forward to reading about Mesoamerican chocolate from Chiapas, cheese whisperers in Vermont and “wines without makeup” being produced in California.
The Art of Happiness: A Handbook for Living by His Holiness the Dalai Lama and Howard C. Cutler, M.D.: It couldn’t be put more simply: the purpose of our existence is to seek happiness. But we’re not talking about personal happiness achieved at the expense of others; rather, a conscious training of the mind to want and appreciate what we have. Based on a series of interviews between psychiatrist Howard Cutler and the Dalai Lama, this book helped to establish the field of positive psychology when it was published in 1998 and continues to hold value for integrating Western science with Eastern thought. I’m reading it in preparation for the Dalai Lama’s visit to the University of Arkansas on May 11.
An Object of Beauty by Steve Martin: My friend Dixie loaned this to me; haven’t started it yet but look forward to doing so. I liked Shopgirl.
The Fortune Cookie Chronicles: Adventures in the World of Chinese Food by Jennifer 8. Lee: In 2005 110 Powerball winners across the U. S. learned that the number in their fortune cookie really was lucky – an unlikely event that sparked Jennifer Lee’s quest to discover the true origin of the fortune cookie (not Chinese), learn about the real history behind General Tso’s chicken (it’s bloody) and travel the globe to find the best Chinese restaurant in the world (in Vancouver, it turns out).
Also dipping into I Do Solemnly Swear by our own law prof (and Honors College faculty member) Steve Sheppard and Living Your Yoga by Judith Lasater .