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Good reads

It was a couple weeks of parallel processing.  As in consuming some new literary finds at the local libraries.  Here are the titles and synopses in no particular order -


  • Eight Flavors - untold story of American Cuisine - by Sarah Lohman - a fun read if you like it spicy and hot.  Well not literally.  But Sarah does a good job of narrating the history of some of the most common spices on the American dining table and also explains through use of experiments the human ability to distinguish what the palate likes and does not.   Black Pepper is the most popular of spices in American cuisine today and held its own for couple hundred years.  Sriracha is gaining popularity in the last couple decades made right here in sunny California.  Another sauce Korean Gochujang is a 'hot' contender.
  • Calculating the Cosmos - by Ian Stewart - a British math professor who explains a bunch of complex physics and math using language that is enjoyably easy.  For example most things fall when dropped from a height so how come the moon stays up there?  Well in fact it is falling toward the earth except the earth is falling away from it at a faster rate such that the distance between the two almost stays constant.
  • How the Post Office created America - by Winifred Gallagher - another history lesson, this time show casing the under appreciated (debatable today with its now dismal service that attempts to take a piece of stationary anywhere in the 50 United States for 43 cents) organization as old as these United States.  Imagine that.  From being a pioneer to recruit women and African Americans to work they once also had Charles Lindbergh on their payroll.  Post delivered not just mail but news and served as a pathway for the rail lines across the continent.  Today men and women in woolen pants run around in custom built trucks delivering people's Amazon orders and a whole lot of advertiser junk.   It is also called Junk Mail.
  • Finally to tickle the funny bone were gems from some older works - I'll mature when I'm Dead by Dave Barry - where he dedicates the book to the folk that buy the said book without which he would have had to get a real job.
  • Another immutable wit - Common Non Sense by Andy Rooney - Where he expounds on profound ideas like - You meet a lot of dumb people who went to college.
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