elBulli 2005-2011

It is hard to describe to someone who doesn’t know, just how amazing elBulli 2005-2011 is. For years, elBulli was changing not just the way we prepare food, but the way we think of it. Its chef, Ferran Adria, showed us that we could use food as creatively and intelligently as artists use paint and writers use words. Both of the previous books to come out of Adria’s mind, A Day at elBulli and A Family Meal were wonderful, beautiful food books; the former an examination of the entire creative process and a book I recommend to artists and the latter an actual applicable cookbook that allows you to bring a taste of the greatest chef in the world into your own home. (Quick sample: 1. grate chocolate on to a piece of toast while it’s still warm. 2. drizzle with a little extra virgin olive oil 3. recover from your mind being blown)

Those of us who follow elBulli, whether in those books or The Sorcerer’s Apprentices, an excellent book about working there, or in the various TV shows and specials Adria appeared in, know there is another book. For six years, like a scientist in a lab or an obsessive writer at her journal, Adria recorded every single recipe they ever made.

2,720 pages spread over seven volumes with 1,400 images. The first six volumes record the recipes of each of the six years organized into six sections: Cocktails, Snacks, Tapas, Pre desserts, Desserts, and Morphings. Volume Seven is titled “Evolutionary Analysis,” and charts the philosophy, experiments, styles, and ingredients chronicled in the preceding volumes. It hasn’t even come out yet and I think it’s safe to say that it is the most important “cookbook” of the 21st century to date. You could probably read it as you would an art catalog or even an epic poem told in food you imagine.

At $625, in seven volumes, in hardcover, with a slipcase and so many pictures, weighing in at 40 lbs this book will have limited availability. It’s not for everybody, but if it’s for you, I highly, highly recommend pre-ordering a copy. Stores, in general, will be reluctant to carry more than one or two on the shelves and once those sell out, printing more will be very difficult. If you have any questions, feel free to give us a call at 617-491-2220 or send an email to info@portersquarebooks.com.

If you’re interested, but not ready to commit, along with the other books mentioned, I recommend taking this free online course offered by edX of Harvard that was designed by Adria. It features some of the greatest chefs in the world guiding you through their various techniques. You don’t have to do the homework or even watch the lessons in order to get a lot out of it, and exploring will give you a good sense of just how much you personally can get out of elBulli 2005-2011.

Our Most Anticipated of 2014

Every year The Millions does two Most Anticipated Books of the Year posts and it is one of the best bookish posts anybody does about anything. They touch on the big names, they find the hidden gems, and they organize it by month of publication. There is something so invigorating about knowing that all of these great books are still ahead of us. If you are a reader, it is not to be missed. But it also can be a bit daunting. They list dozens of books, all of which sound amazing. (And they’ve only done half the year so far!) So instead of sharing everything, I’ve picked one book a month through June as my most anticipated, all of which are available for pre-order so you can get them the day they are released.

JANUARY
Silence Once Begun by Jesse Ball. This one is scheduled for release in late January so I made it my February staff pick and nominated it for the IndieNext list. Jesse Ball is one of my favorite living writers and continues to baffle and amaze. In Silence Once Begun, an innocent man gambles his way into confessing to a mysterious crime. He is arrested and convicted, and yet remains almost completely silent through his whole trial and incarceration. The narrator is a journalist who interviews the man’s family and friends in an effort to understand his own deteriorating marriage. And in the end...well...what I love about Ball’s work is how slippery it is, how hard to hold it is, how mysterious it can be, even after (or especially after) you’ve finished it. Silence Once Begun is his first hardcover release and I hope it will be his break out novel.


FEBRUARY
Bark by Lorri Moore. I know. This is an obvious choice, but it is an obvious choice for a reason. If you look back through the history of the American short story, there are a few defining writers whose stories fundamentally changed how we write and read short stories and Moore is one of them. And this is her first short story collection since Birds of America, which, if you can believe it, came out fifteen years ago!

 




MARCH
Every Day Is for the Thief by Teju Cole. Open City, his first novel, was thoughtful and cerebral; both interior and exterior; and, challenging yet accessible. I really like to recommend it to teenagers reading at a more sophisticated level; younger minds in the early stages of developing an intellectual sensibility. Every Day is for the Thief seems like it’s going to take a similar meditative approach to a different setting and set of experiences. Now that we know what to expect from Cole, I’m excited to see where he takes his unique literary voice.




 

APRIL
Can’t and Won’t by Lydia Davis. Speaking of “a few defining writers whose stories fundamentally changed how we write and read short stories” Lydia Davis’s new collection is my most anticipated book coming out in April. Honestly, she has been writing innovative, experimental, philosophical, and beautiful stories and poems for decades... and she’s translated Flaubert... and Proust. She should really have streets named after her in cities across the country. This is her first collection since the release of her Collected Stories in 2010 (which is on your bookshelf next to the complete Flannery O’Connor, Elizabeth Bishop, and Emily Dickinson, right?). I can’t wait to find out where she has gone and what she has found since then.

MAY

Faces in the Crowd by Valeria Luiselli. Get used to hearing me talk about this book. I’ve nominated it for the IndieNext list and will make it a staff pick when it comes out. Faces in the Crowd is a subtle, sophisticated examination of identity, authenticity, and poetry. The narrator, a young married writer and mother of two, shares the struggle of writing a novel about an obscure Mexican poet and the time in her life when she became obsessed with said obscure Mexican poet. Luiselli braids these narrative currents into a brilliant meditation on the nature of creation. Translation hoax. Ghosts on the subway. The demonstrative vocabulary of a clever toddler. The mix of fact and fiction on the page and in the mind. With her first novel, Luiselli has established herself as a brilliant explorer of voice, self, and art. I read this for the Indies Introduce Debut Authors panel I was on last summer and have been dying to put it in readers' hands ever since.

JUNE 

My New Friend is So Fun by Mo Willems. OK, this one probably seems a little out of character, but honestly, I read every single Elephant and Piggie as soon as it comes in. They’re charming and funny without being saccharine. They’re simple and accessible without talking down to children and they deal with the real world joys and anxieties children (and booksellers) face. And, Willems even wrote a fantastic metafiction Elephant & Piggie. And now, it looks like Willems will be turning something of a corner in this installment. So, yes, though there are a ton of fantastic books coming out in June, every new Elephant & Piggie is a little dollop of joy so it’s the book I’m most anticipating for June.

Look for the second half of the year later in the Spring. Feel free to share what you’re looking forward to in the comments. (And seriously, check out The Millions list.)

Daring Gifts

Alright, we are really getting down to it now. Maybe it’s time to get a little daring with your book gift. Here are some high-risk, high-reward book gifts.

Tudor Roses: A knitter who receives this book as a gift will have one of two reactions; “You have got to be kidding me!” (at which point make sure you have that receipt) or “Oh, it is ON NOW!” (at which point indulge in an internal self-high-five). Fashion, history, and beautifully complex and challenging patterns from one of the top names in the craft world. And yes, there is a pattern for a Mary Tudor sweater to hang on your wall in your living room as indisputable proof to all who may enter, that you totally rule.

Satantango & Seiobo There Below: To some readers, Laszlo Krasznahorkai is the most important novelist nobody is reading. The way he marries beautifully lyrical and complex ballet-like sentences with a crushingly bleak and profoundly cynical outlook on life resonates powerfully with some readers. Laszlo might very well be the greatest living writer in the world, but his work is difficult. Satantango is a rain-drenched novel of Hungarian peasant squalor spiced with whom may or may not be spies in service to a totalitarian government, whose two “protagonists” are a bombastic gadabout, who may or may not be in control of the whole situation, and a morbidly alcoholic and paranoid doctor who almost never leaves his estate. Oh, and one of the most brutal scenes (though with a fairly low level of actual violence) I’ve read. (And I’ve read Sade and Palahnuik.) Seiobo is a precise-to-the-point-of-obsession meditation on art and perfection. At times, the writing is as beautiful as anything you've read, but the conclusions Krasznahorkai leads you to aren’t the usual ones beautiful sentences lead you to. Odds are, whoever you give these books to has never read anything like them before (I hadn’t) and sometimes, that makes the perfect gift.

Tampa & The Virgins: It is always risky to give books that explore sex and sexuality as a gift, so already the level of daring is high for both of these books. Oh, and the narrator of Tampa is a pedophile. For pretty obvious reasons, Tampa was one of the most talked about books of the summer, but it was also critically acclaimed. As many readers finished the book with nothing but praise as readers who closed the book in disgust. The Virgins, though less of a trigger risk, focuses on the challenging, awkward, and often painful relationship between sex and adolescence. Even when sex doesn’t happen, it can still be a major, even deciding, force in our relationships. Erhens is able to capture all of that and more, while writing one of the most interesting narrative voices I’ve read this year. It is a beautifully written novel.

More Than This: This YA novel is about as emotionally intense as you can get, without being a Holocaust story, and still be appropriate for teens. (Though, now that I think about it, there’s a chance it is a Holocaust story.) More Than This starts with the suicide by drowning of the novel’s hero. What follows is a Matrix-like dystopian fiction that plays with the idea of storytelling, while touching on human trafficking, child abuse, and bullying. Smart, compelling, well-written, but intense and full of triggers. This is perfect for an intelligent, intense, brooding teenager, but at this level, it’s a risk.

An Afghanistan Picture Show & Book of Dolores: William Vollman is a daring dude. If he wants to know what riding the rails is like, he doesn’t do a few interviews, he rides the rails. If he wants to learn about poverty, he goes to places where poor people live. When he writes about prostitutes or smoking crack...well, you get the picture. An Afghanistan Picture Show is about the year he spent after college...trying to fight for Mujahideen against the Soviets in Afghanistan. Book of Dolores is pictures of and writing about Vollmann’s female alter-ego. (Whom he created when working on a book about femininity, of course.)

The Columbian Mule & He Died with His Eyes Open: Who doesn’t love a couple of dark cynical mysteries where you don’t like any of the characters, the good guys (if there are any) don’t win, and ultimately life is nasty, brutish, and then over in a nasty, brutish, meaningless flash of insignificance? Well, a few people actually do, and if you know one, either one of these Send You to the Internet for a Cat Video mysteries will be a welcome relief from all the books where “justice prevails" that end up cluttering the night stand after every holiday.

Damned by Chuck Palahnuik: You know that line, the one you’re not supposed to cross? Chuck Palahnuik has made a career and built a rabid fan base, triple-jumping over that line. Damned and Doomed are the first two books in Palahnuik’s retelling of Dante’s Divine Comedy. Instead of Dante being guided by Virgil in search of Beatrice, it is Madison, a teenager who suffered an embarrassing death. Now she must navigate the endless telemarketing center of Palahnuik’s Hell AND figure out how she got there in the first place and how she’s going to get out. For the right person, Palahnuik is the author for whom he or she has been unknowingly pining. For the wrong person...well, that’s what gift receipts are for. If they love Damned make sure to pick up the sequel, Doomed.

Foodie Holiday Gift Guide 2013

Another holiday season approaches so it is time again to stare desperately at your list (physical or mental) of friends and loved ones to get gifts for. If anyone on that list is a foodie, we’ve got you covered. Here are the best books for foodies for 2013.

Cook It Raw: The annual Cook It Raw event is a fixture on foodie bucket lists. The best chefs from around the world get together and explore taste, technique, art and culture. It is unlike any other food experience you can have and, unfortunately, very few of us will ever have it. This book reveals for the very first time the ‘Raw’ collective’s philosophy and creative endeavors. With contributions from leading food writers and ‘Raw’ supporters such as Anthony Bourdain, Jeffrey Steingarten and Andrea Petrini; plus, over 400 behind-the-scenes images of the events and an inspiring collection of the chefs’ own ‘Raw’ recipes, notes and anecdotes. It brings us as close as possible to one of the world’s foodie heavens.

Complete Nose to Tail: I ate, one time, at Fergus Henderson’s restaurant, St. John’s Bread and Wine, and what proved to me that this master of offal was truly a great chef was…the salad dressing. In a restaurant famous for the nasty bits, the fact that they took the time to develop, make, and serve a fantastic salad dressing shows how committed they are to a complete meal. The Complete Nose to Tail collects Henderson's previous two books in a beautiful, hardcover, full-color edition. The recipes range from the basic (the delightful parsley salad) to the exotic but approachable (the half pig head recipe is really quite simple) to, of course, whole suckling pig. 

Kinfolk Table: How many magazines can you think of that are so good people are willing to fork over $18 an issue? Kinfolk is definitely a member of that small list. Now they’ve released their first book length collection featuring profiles of 45 tastemakers who are cooking and entertaining in a way that is beautiful, uncomplicated, and inexpensive. Each of these home cooks, artisans, bloggers, chefs, writers, bakers, and crafters has provided one to three of the recipes they most love to share. Simple breakfasts for two, one-pot dinners for six, a perfectly composed sandwich for a solo picnic. As slow food, eating local, and turning cell phones off for the evening grow in cultural stature, the dining, decorating, and entertaining of Kinfolk becomes more and more relevant. 

Grand Forks: Journalists are supposed to cover what happens, not what they wish to happen. Even food journalists are bound by this. So, if you’re a food writer who happens to cover a small suburban/rural town filled with simple mom and pop cafes and chain restaurants, you don’t pine for the glamorous food landscapes of some distant metropolis, you write honest, informative, useful reviews for the readers of your newspaper, and if you’re Marilyn Hagerty, you do it for twenty-five years and produce a body of work that tells the story of American cultural homogenization. Hagerty’s writing gets at something so fundamental it is published by the imprint run by the edgy, contrarian, and vastly influential food writer Anthony Bourdain. Read this before writing your next Yelp review.

Provence 1970: Here’s what Nathan has to say about Provence 1970. "Take Julia Child add Paul Child, M. F. K. Fisher, and Richard Olnay, mix in Simone Beck and James Beard and you have a recipe for a fascinating book on how these authors/cooks/chefs came together in Provence, 1970 and changed the American gastronomical world. A perfect gift for the Foodie in the family."

Marie's Holiday Picks in Fiction

OK, this is definitely my favorite part of book shopping- the novels. Novels can be tricky to pick out for someone else but a lot of times I think people over-think this particular segment of gift-buying. Most books are perfectly reasonable to read and most people don't get upset at the giver if the book doesn't work out- so don't worry so much, OK? Just pick something that looks like it makes sense even if it might not be the perfect fit. It'll be fine, honestly!

That said, here are my suggestions.

Joanna Trollope's updated Sense and Sensibility is an easy choice for the Jane Austen fan, the chicklit reader or the light-romance reader. And there's a lot of cross-over there!

The special boxed edition of Junot Diaz's How to Lose Her would be great for that hipster you bought that Nick Hornby book for.

Foodies and Francophiles will savor Jonathan Grimwood's solid and entertaining The Last Banquet.

For crime readers, I recommend Stav Sherez's A Dark Redemption, a gritty London noir and first in a new series. It's also one of the best 2013 books I read hands-down.

Italophiles have lots to choose from among 2013 releases. Sarah Dunant's Blood and Beauty recounts the Borgias with a racy and enthralling story of politics and love. Goliarda Sapienza's The Art of Joy is a historical-fiction feast from the 20th century, following the adventures of one woman through the century.  And Elena Ferrante's The Story of a New Name brings up to speed on the lives of two Neapolitan women at the beginning of the century and should be given and read with its prequel, My Brilliant Friend.

Some recent heavy-hitter releases perfect for the literary reader include Donna Tartt's The Goldfinch, Philipp Meyer's essential classic The Son (a western but so much more), and Eleanor Catton's Booker Prize winner, The Luminaries.

Other books I like for the literary reader that might not be on the bestseller table are:

A True Novel, by Minae Mizumura, an updated version of Wuthering Heights which reviews tell me is much more than a mere retelling.

 James Purdy's The Complete Short Stories, and

Thomas Keneally's excellent The Daughters of Mars, about two sisters who become nurses during World War 1 (give it alongside Joe Sacco's The Great War) are going to be great choices for the literary reader. I
particularly enjoyed Keneally's book.

There's so much more! We have Staff Picks shelves loaded with recommendations and if you run out, just ask one of us for help!

More Holiday Picks from Marie

Here are some more picks from the nonfiction aisles. There is just so much to choose from!

For foodie lit, there are two I think are great. Provence, 1970: M.F.K. Fisher, Julia Child, James Beard, and the Reinvention of American Taste, by Luke Barr does what it says on the label, talk about some of the pre-eminent cooks and food writers of their day and their collision in 1970s France.

Also a big hit at the bookstore this year is Michael Pollan's latest, Cooked.

You might know Pollan from The Omnivore's Dilemma and other milestones of modern food thinking.

As far as cookbooks, the holiday season always brings out the heavyweights- Alice Waters has a new one, along with pretty much every celebrity chef. Yottam Ottolenghi's books have been selling like hotcakes too. But the only one I want is one that came out early this year, Beatrice Peltre's La Tartine Gourmande. This book is delectable to look at and to cook from. Her lime spaghetti is a staple on my table and lots of these will become favorites of yours or your favorite cook's too.

Over in the essay section, get Ten Years in the Tub, Nick Hornby's collection of his Stuff I've Been Reading column, for the hipster in your life. I promise an appreciative smirk in return.

The music fan's cup runneth over this holiday season. Morrissey's hotly anticipated Autobiography hit the shelves this week, joining a biography of Johnny Cash, and letters from John Lennon and Leonard Bernstein. Tony Fletcher's A Light That Never Goes Out would be a great companion to Morrissey's book!

Bio fans will also enjoy books from Edna O'Brien and Anjelica Huston and books about J.D. Salinger, Jim Henson and Ian Fleming.

In the history section, I love the looks of The Smithsonian's History of America in 100 Objects- a great gift for your inlaws maybe?- and The Discovery of Middle Earth by Graham Robb, about the achievements of the Celts. I think either would make great gifts for that "I didn't know that" reader who likes to discover new things and ideas.

My Promised Land by Ari Shavit is required reading for current-events buffs and folks interested in the Middle East. This selection is not a sop to Hanukkah- I think readers of any background should read this essential book about Israel and its relationship to itself.

Finally I hope every one of you runs out for Joe Sacco's incredible and moving The Great War, a single huge, continuous illustration of Europe on the first day of the Battle of the Somme. This book works for graphica fans, history buffs, your dad, and everyone in between. Seriously, this will blow your mind.


I'll have some fiction picks soon!

Gifts for Writers

Have a writer or two on your gift list this year? (If you live near us, you probably do.) Sick of buying them fancy notebooks and pens? Do they already own (or don’t want) every book on writing all the way to William Zinsser? Here are some book ideas NOT in our writing section that would make great gifts for writers. (And also, not anthologies of their preferred genre or Writer’s Markets.)

Home Ground: They don’t have to be a nature writer to love this unique book of words from the American landscape. Not only is it a useful reference guide, the quotations and definitions put the words in a literary and historic context, giving them even more depth. One possible unique use for this book; place names in fictional universes. Who wouldn’t be intrigued by a story set in Despoblado or Tseghiizi?

The Works: Anatomy of a City: Nothing helps a writer in any project quite like a robust reference section within arms reach. Ascher’s book on the logistics of New York City is a must have in any robust reference section. Sewage. Electricity. Mail. All the little details that give stories, novels, and essays a depth of facts.

The Where, The Why, and the How: Whether you have a specific question or are looking for general inspiration this illustrated collection of information is a wonderful book and the perfect cure for both a basic question and the relentless blinking of the cursor on the blank page. Questions like “Why Do We Blush?” and “Do Immortal Creatures Exist?” can be writing prompts as well as reference material.

Novelty: A History of the New: Writers are concerned about originality, freshness, newness, that which hasn't been done. But “novelty” is just an unusual idea. Maybe it’s a good one, maybe it’s a bad one, and maybe it’s a vastly more complicated idea than we assume. For those struggling to write a “new” book, it might be useful to wrap their heads around what we actually say when we characterize something as “new.”

Far from the Tree: How the heck do people work? Seriously. In a way, all writers struggle with this question and all books offer up their own answers. Solomon’s massive, thoroughly researched, award-winning book explores the relationship between family and identity. Whether the writer in question is working on a hyper-realist family drama or not, Far from the Tree will provide useful information and perspective on the human animal we are all writing about.

The Use and Abuse of Literature: Majorie Garber has read at the store a couple of times and is one of those people who exudes brilliance even when she’s just standing there. With this book, she asks some of the most difficult and important questions about literature. What do we mean when we say “literature?” Why have people been predicting the death of literature since Plato? Is reading literature “good” for us? Whether or not your writer thinks of what they write as “literature” Garber’s insights will be enlightening to all who work with language.

The Novel: An Alternative History: According to critic Steven Moore's exhaustive study, the course of our most popular form of written expression has been a lot wilder than usually reported. Moore writes from the perspective that novelists have been experimenting with the novel long before the 20th century. One way to break out of a writing rut, no matter what you're trying to write, is to read something different and this two volume work (Volume 2 here) is filled with reading suggestions.

Any Big Old Baby Name Book: Character names are hard.