All posts filed under: What I’m Reading

Open Books, Open Minds, Open Hearts

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As we prepare for a heatwave here in Healdsburg (you would think it was the end of the world the way people start talking about it days beforehand), I’m actually quite enjoying the unusually warm evenings, spent reading on my porch. “Porch sitting” is a hobby that I cultivated during my year in Bra. Well, I say porch, but really I had some surface area blocked in by planter boxes where I would keep my bicycle and sit, attracting the gaze and curiosity of my Italian neighbors as I plowed through book after book from the amazing UNISG library. No surprise, my coffee table pile is filled with plenty of food-related books, including: Salad for President Anyone who knows me well knows that I love everything and anything about this whole concept. I love the button I got at Food Book Fair, I love the chapter titles (such as “Salad in Sweatpants: Casual Meals for People Who Already Love You), you name it. Do I have plans to actually make any of the salads inside? …

January 2016

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It’s been a while (like, last summer) since I had read enough (besides the daily swoops through sites like McSweeney’s Internet Tendency) to be able to put together one of these posts. Luckily, hibernation mode is quite conducive to book reading, so I’ve been doing some catching up lately. This issue is just a win-win. Lucky Peach is my favorite magazine and breakfast is my favorite meal. Throw in some kooky illustrations, a story about Mickey Mouse pancakes, and how people from across all the time zones chow down in the A.M, and you’ll be craving a breakfast burrito (or maybe that’s just me). This title piqued my interest because it combined my nerdy, Middlebury-induced interest in Political Science with the food side of things. Unfortunately, this book got really old after a while–I much would have preferred to just read a long newspaper or magazine article. The premise is that for several reasons, Americans waste a lot of food and use too much gasoline. Basically, we think we’re too cool for school. I also …

August 2015

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This is my “to read” pile. Seriously. I love to read. I really do. Books, magazines, blogs, you name it. But sadly, since moving to NYC three weeks (where has this time gone?!) ago and taking on quite a few projects that I always feel slightly behind on, reading has been the thing that has dropped off my radar. It’s almost hilarious that the apartment I’m staying in has one of the most beautifully curated bookshelves I’ve ever seen. And now I have this monster stack of titles sitting on this coffee table thing at my feet while I write this post. Sigh. Anyways, in a throwback to my days in Bra when I read four books during my weeklong staycation, I wanted to tantalize you with the titles that I have waiting for me. I admit, I’m a booktease. 1. The Almost Nearly Perfect People. Recommended to me by a friend who spent a few weeks in Copenhagen. After being in Denmark and seeing lots of blond, smiling, long legged people on bicycles not weaving through traffic …

June 2015: Part Two

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A few weeks ago, I bought some fava beans at the market and didn’t quite know what to do with them. Enter the Saveur Summer Produce Guide. Happy Saturday and welcome to this week’s edition of “What I’ve Been Reading,” I’m Katherine Harris. Oh wait, this isn’t a podcast. So let’s proceed. After a few weeks of skimming this book for a few minutes at a time, I finally made it through “A Bone to Pick,” a compilation of NYT Op-Ed Contributor and recent Berkeley transplant Mark Bittman’s columns from the last 4 years. The short-ish pieces are organized thematically, grouping together issues like meat consumption and “well, what do we do now?” This book is not going to knock your socks off, but if you’re looking for digestible, mini lessons on things like why factory farms are bad or why farmers’ markets are good, this is the book for you. It’s sort of like Food Issues 101–something that will form the foundation for future research rather than an end-all-be-all kind of work. McSweeney’s Internet Tendency …

June 2015: Part One

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Ok obviously I did not take this photo, so don’t hurt me. Here is the caption that accompanied the piece (hold your horses, I will discuss below): “Centuries after the first wheel of Emmentaler rolled into the Alps, scientists are still learning about how Swiss cheese is made.” My caption would be: “Where is the missing fourth?!!” My staycation has come and gone and I made it through quite a long week with some new thoughts on the horizon regarding potential thesis topics. I’m thinking something regarding the millions and zillions of $$$ being dumped into funding food/drink startups (which I initially thought was oh-so-wonderful, but now I’m not so sure) and if we can really “hack” our way to a sustainable food system. Stay tuned. I’ve also been reading quite a bit (as usual). I am telling myself now, at noon on this well-caffeinated Saturday, that every Saturday I will do a roundup of what I’ve been swiping through on my iPad that week, just so you, out there in the internet void, can potentially bookmark …

June 2015: Part One

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Well, maybe this isn’t your idea of summer beach reads, but this selection very much reflects some of my current interests: writing, responsible meat consumption and the curious country that is Italy. Four years at a liberal arts college trained me to be a (very) speedy reader. While I no longer settle down with a big mug of coffee (fat chance finding one in Italy) to accompany 150 PDF pages about American foreign policy during the Cold War, I can cruise through a Kindle book (however many pages that actually is in the real world) in a few hours. My staycation so far has given me the opportunity to polish off four (yes, seriously) books. Here are some thoughts on what I’ve been reading as of late, in no particular order other than how I managed to sandwich the screenshot images together. Bird by Bird, Anne Lamott A stream-of-consciousness, hilarious, but also very sincere book about writing and life that has been sitting on my nightstand for a few months in the hope that I would pick it up rather than reading …

What I’ve Been Listening To

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So I’ve realized that I’ve given lots of info lately on what I’ve been reading and watching, but not necessarily on what I’ve been listening to. Back home in sunny CA, I always had something playing in the car to keep me company while cruising on 101 North. Here in Bra, I live by myself, so a stream of musical notes or a podcast keeps me company in this little IKEA-decked-out place I’ve called home for 6 months (wow, how time flies). I also bike to school and tend to take long, meandering walks where I encounter unexpected things like old men on horses and dogs who want to chase me. Confession: I have been on a bit of a podcast bender lately. I know, there are worse things. These are a few I would recommend: Burnt Toast by Food52. This is a new one in the game, but the topics so far have been spot-on. The last episode covered the eternal question of whether it is advisable to go out to eat on a first date and some memorable food stories from …

March 2015

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An illustration from one of my new favorite columns, Food & Consequences by Aaron Thier on Lucky Peach’s website. While this image accompanies a piece on super silly spicy chilies, it also kind of reflects the fire-y frenzy with which I have been attempting to soak in so many forms of written work lately. Read on.  Lists are something that I don’t do quite often on this blog. So today, this semi-spring-y Thursday where I should be paying attention to the temporal dominance of aromas in Wine Sensory Evaluation class but rather am writing this blog post nd researching trendy London locations, is the day! Attention all: I have recently revamped my Chrome bookmarks bar. I also have finally gotten into using Pocket, so now I can keep track of the thingamabobs that I want to read later. But anyways, enough about my organizational tendencies. I want to share some of the things I’ve been reading lately. Mark Bittman put out a column yesterday called “Stop Making Us Guinea Pigs” about how an arm of the WHO identified an active ingredient in …