Zora Neale Hurston short stories

[firecat]

(version of this x-posted to my LJ)

I listened to a collection of six short stories by Zora Neale Hurston, published by Audio Bookshelf and available on audible.com.

I had never read any Hurston before.

The stories are narrated by Renee Joshua-Porter and the work won the AudioFile Earphones Award for Exceptional Audio Performance. Hurston was a folklorist who wrote her characters' dialogue in African American dialect, that can be difficult to read for people not used to the sound of the dialect. So I think it's especially helpful to have a really well performed audio version of these stories.

The stories were awesome. She was writing about black people in the rural South and also in New York City. What she wrote about was so specific and so universal at the same time. She has a keen ear for dialogue that makes the stories come alive, and the stories are rich in details about how the characters lived. They are also observant and compassionate (in a detached way) about the ways people interact and how they affect each other emotionally.

It was interesting how the stories in the collection were arranged, sort of from "happy endings that make you go hmm" to "neutral endings that make you go hmm" to "sad endings where someone is happy anyway" to "ding dong the witch is dead" endings.

I'm looking forward to reading more Hurston.

( spoilers )

The World of the East Vegetarian Cooking by Madhur Jaffrey

[vom-marlowe.livejournal.com]

This is my first post to the community, so please edit or correct me if I screw up any formatting. 

I'd like to tell you about one of my top five favorite books ever, which is written by a POC. World of the East by Madhur Jaffrey is the best cookbook I own; I used to work in a cookbook store, so I got a chance to read many of the great food writers. I still think Madhur Jaffrey is the best. This book is vegetarian focused (it is easy to add or adapt for meat eaters), but what is particularly wonderful about it is that it's a guided tour through many different cultures way of cooking certain foods. There is an entire chapter on rice, for example, that explains how Indians cook rice and how Japanese cook rice, and what is different about the methods and why one might want to cook it this way or that way. The recipes are all fantastic, but unlike many of the 'eastern' (her word, but this is an older book, I would call it Asian) cookbooks that I have read, the food is food that is cooked at home. That is to say, it is not special occasion or restaurant food, but everyday food. (I like everyday food best, partly because it is achievable!) I did not know, for example, that Chinese cook stews. I have made her recipe for stewed vegetables many times; I usually serve it with rice and Oyce's mom's pork with onions. There is a fabulous recipe for winter tofu. A wonderful selection of Korean dipping sauces. Indian soups. Thai fried rice. If you have access to a farmer's market, you may be able to find some wonderful greens, like choy sum. Soooooo good.

There are recipes from friends and recipes from tiny hole in the walls that she visited and from all sorts of places. Often the ingredients will look similar on the page, but when cooked, will taste uniquely different. Recipes include Indian, Thai, Japanese, Chinese, Indonesian, et cetera. All of the food I have made from that book has come out tasting *good*. She has an amazing glossary in the back of the book that explains different ingredients and produce and how to find them. Highly, highly recommended.

edited to add: This is a reread for me, and technically my #2 POC book for the year, but I haven't finished reviewing the #1 book.