Prairie Feast: A Writer's Journey Home for Dinner by Amy Jo Ehman

Donna's Review: I received this book in the Fall as a gift and subsequently bought copies to give as Christmas gifts to friends. Amy Jo Ehman is a Saskatchewan journalist/writer familiar to many who have heard her on CBC radio or read her column in the Star Phoenix. In 2006 she committed to a year of eating locally produced food at a time before the one-hundred mile diet or term locavore had been coined. Ehman herself is a product of Saskatchewan, having grown up on a farm near Craik. The pursuit of local food lead her on a journey to farmer’s markets, food festivals and farms around the province and ultimately culminated in this charming and humourous book. It also lead to some surprising discoveries such as the fact that Saskatchewan is the largest producer of lentils as well as herbs such as coriander, cumin, fenugreek and mustard seed in North America. Ironically, these are produced for export and not easily found as ‘made in Saskatchewan’ products in the grocery store.

The book is a fun read on many levels. It is a cultural travelogue through Saskatchewan towns and the many food traditions of its people. It is full of hilarious stories of her food experiments and some subsequent disasters and includes a generous offering of recipes. Oh yes, it also garnered Ehman a Saskatchewan Book award for Best First Book. Here’s hoping it won’t be her last.

Women, Food and God: An Unexpected Path to Almost Everything by Geneen Roth is now a Pop Pick at Regina Public Library.

Book Description: If you suffer about your relationship with food -- you eat too much or too little, think about what you will eat constantly or try not to think about it at all -- you can be free. Just look down at your plate. The answers are there. Don't run. Look. Because when we welcome what we most want to avoid, we contact the part of ourselves that is fresh and alive. We touch the life we truly want and evoke divinity itself.

Since adolescence, Geneen Roth has gained and lost more than a thousand pounds. She has been dangerously overweight and dangerously underweight. She has been plagued by feelings of shame and self-hatred and she has felt euphoric after losing a quick few pounds on a fad diet. Then one day, on the verge of suicide, she did something radical: She dropped the struggle, ended the war, stopped trying to fix, deprive and shame herself. She began trusting her body and questioning her beliefs.

It worked. And losing weight was only the beginning.

Eat My Globe: one year to go everywhere and eat everything, by Simon Majumdar

Simon Majumdar and his brother Robin are well known in the blog world as the contributors to Dos Hermanos - a restaurant review site primarily focused on Great Britain, with occasional forays into other parts of Europe.

Simon, the younger of the two brothers, decided to quit his lucrative job, liquidate his assets, and travel around the world to taste the cuisines of many different cultures. He traveled to thirty-one countries, eating foodstuffs that ranged from the exotic to the everyday.

His descriptions of the people and places he encounters are vivid, and his humour is under-stated and self-deprecating. These alone are worth the read, but anyone who is even remotely a "foodie" will want to read this book to shudder with horror at the descriptions of eating roasted rat, cod sperm sushi, and stewed dog, as well as to revel in his rhapsodic descriptions of the delicious foods he encountered in upscale restaurants, roadside food stands, and in the homes of the people he met along the way.

Simon's eighteen-month journey took him from England, Germany, Finland and Spain to the United States and Mexico, Australia, Africa, China, and many other locations.

He wraps up the book with the top ten best foods eaten on his trip, as well as the ten worst things he tried to choke down.

Eat My Globe ends with the author's request to contact him for other ideas with places and foods that he should sample for his next project.

Eating animals by Jonathan Safran Foer
This latest book from the author of Everything is illuminated centers on the factory farm phenomenon. Foer became a vegetarian when his son was born, feeling that he needed to contribute responsibly to the world his son would inherit. He examines development and current practices in factory farming, focusing on its impact on consumer health and purchasing patterns, and on environmental and agricultural issues. He provides an analysis based on statistics from many sources, including the United States Department of Agriculture and the Food and Drug Administration. He interviewed a number of individuals involved in animal welfare, and toured some small-scale farming operations and slaughter facilities in order to understand the processes involved in bringing an animal to our plates. The book is an indictment against corporate farming in America. He presents a picture of modern day agricultural practice which routinely produces tainted meat, degrades our environment, and is responsible for the obscenely cruel treatment of farmed animals. His broad treatment of the subject includes modern fish farming and large scale fishing practices around the world, and how small family farming operations continue to struggle in the face of enormous pressures from these corporations. He urges us all to be aware of our contribution to the continued suffering of the animals we eat.

Cook This Not That!: Kitchen Survival Guide

Product Summary: Did you know the average dinner from a chain restaurant costs nearly $35 (USD) a person and contains more than 1,200 calories? That’s hard on your wallet and your waistline, and few people understand this better than the authors of Eat This, Not That! After years of helping consumers navigate America’s daunting culinary landscape – and literally thousands of weight-loss success stories – Dave and Matt have finally turned their nutritional savvy to the place with the greatest impact – your kitchen. The hundreds of recipes contained inside this book will help you and your loved ones eliminate body fat, get in shape, and lead fitter, happier lives.

But make no mistake – this is no rice-and-tofu cookbook. The genius of Cook This, Not That! is that it teaches you how to save hundreds – sometimes thousands – of calories by recreating America’s most popular restaurant dishes...

If you're like millions of other Canadians, one of your New Year's resolutions was likely to drop those extra pounds in 2010, get back in shape, or simply to start eating better.

Here are some of the new and popular health, fitness, and diet books coming your way!

The Full Plate Diet: Slim Down, Look Great, Be Healthy!

Product Summary: based on eating foods our Moms said we should eat - fruits, vegetables, whole grains, beans and peas, and nuts and seeds. You can eat meat - just follow Mom's advice. No yo-yo - you can stay on this diet because you won't feel deprived - won't have to eat tiny portions. You get started by making small changes, not big ones. No hassle - you don't have to count calories, you can shop at your regular grocery store, and spend less on food. Big health payoffs include heart health, cancer fighting, diabetes friendly, more energy, and long life.

Prime-Time Health: A Scientifically Proven Plan for Feeling Young and Living Longer

Willliam Sears (Author), Martha Sears (Contributor)

"Prime-Time Health is a classic. It is not just a health book; it is a compelling and captivating portal to success, happiness, and the hope that life is wondrous and limitless when you are healthy and fit." (Vincent Fortanasce, MD, author of The Anti-Alzheimer Prescription)

Product Summary: Twelve years ago, renowned physician and author Dr. William Sears was diagnosed with cancer. He, like so many people, wanted - and needed - to take control of his health. Dr. Sears created a comprehensive, science based, head-to-toe program for living a long, fit life - and it worked. Now at the peak of health, Dr. Sears shares his program in Prime-Time Health. This engaging and deeply informative book will motivate readers to make crucial behavior and lifestyle changes. Dr. Sears explores how to keep each body system healthy and delay those usual age-related changes. Written in Dr. Sears's wise, accessible, and entertaining voice, Prime-Time Health is a practical program to help you live your best life possible-pain-free, disease-free, stress-free, and medication-free.

The Female Body Breakthrough: The Revolutionary Strength-Training Plan for Losing Fat and Getting the Body You Want

Rachel Cosgrove

Product Summary:

The ultimate guide to strength training for sustainable fat-loss, increased energy, and healthy body image for women who want to be in great shape, look amazing, and feel sexy and empowered.

The key to losing fat and getting a strong, sexy body can’t be found in the pages of some fancy diet book. It can’t be found in a magic pill. According to strength coach, Rachel Cosgrove, the key to shedding fat and keeping it off can only be found on the strength-training floor. After trying—and failing—diet after diet, hundreds of women have turned to Cosgrove and her revolutionary Fit Female strength training program to finally get the fit, strong, and healthy bodies they’ve always wanted. Her clients have lost up to 70 pounds, dropped up to six dress sizes, and drastically changed their body shapes and muscle-to-fat ratios.

Written in an accessible, girlfriend-to-girlfriend tone, The Female Body Breakthrough delivers doses of motivational advice, testimonials from real Fit Females, and all the know-how any woman needs to get a strong, healthy body.

About the Author: Rachel Cosgrove is co-founder and co-owner of Results Fitness in Southern California. She is a Certified Strength and Conditioning Specialist, U.S. Olympic Weightlifting Coach, and a U.S Triathlon Coach. She has written for Women’s Health, Shape, Muscle and Fitness Hers, and many other fitness publications.

Live Young Forever: 12 Steps to Optimum Health, Fitness and Longevity

Jack LaLanne

Product Summary: Not only has Jack LaLanne been the figurehead of fitness forever, at an active, strong and healthy 95 years old he has definitively proven that his methods work. In his book Live Young Forever, Jack will teach you: - How he reached 95 years old, still going strong - and how you can too! The most important foods to help you keep trim and healthy. Exercises that will keep you strong, supple and limber. How his philosophies helped him become a huge success. How to live a vibrant, motivated, stress-free, sexually active life that will make waking up a joy for decades to come.

Posted by Trudi

Extremely Pale Rosé: a very French adventure, by Jamie Ivey

Jamie Ivey, his wife Tanya and their friend Peter are drinking a bottle of pale rosé during a sunny and languorous luncheon in Provence, when a chance encounter with Madame Etienne, the wife of a renowned vintner, leads to a challenge to find the palest rosé in France.

Jamie and Tanya resign from their jobs in England, and return to France, with retired friend Peter in tow, to spend a delightful few months exploring and learning about their beloved rosé wine. They visit well-known wineries, small vineyards, off-the-beaten- track chateaux, and local bistros in their efforts to best the formidable Madame.

In the process they meet many delightful characters and personalities, and learn that the rosé they love so much is rising in popularity around the world, with even French wine experts beginning to take rosé wines more seriously.

Publisher St. Martin's Press describes the book as "the perfect book to read on a summer day while sipping a glass of icy Bandol, nibbling on a bit of baguette, and dreaming of the south of France."

If you enjoy this book, you will be pleased to know that there is a sequel - La vie en rosé: a very French adventure continues" - also available at the Regina Public Library.

A Vineyard in Tuscany by Ferenc Máté

Hungarian-Canadian author and sailor Máté (The Hills of Tuscany) recounts in wry, candid detail how he rebuilt a Tuscan ruin into a world-class winery. Living in Tuscany with his artist wife and son while savoring the landscape, food and pleasant neighbors wasn't enough for Máté, who admits he thrives on adversity. He wanted his own castle and finagles the purchase of a 13th-century friary in Montalcino, with a proper forno (oven), a forest crammed with porcini and 60 acres of land — 15 of which he fashions over three hard years of work into a vineyard sprouting robust harvests of Sangiovese, merlot, cabernet sauvignon and Syrah grapes. His diary of sorts regales the reader on the process of restoring the ancient ruin, called La Colombaio: first by detailing how an Etruscan house was constructed, then by observing how the various workmen were hired (and what they ate for lunch). While hacking in the forest, he finds the remains of a 3,000-year-old city, inviting the interest of archeologists. Máté breaks from the construction and excavation for treks through the Dolomites before returning to prepare for the toilsome but ultimately satisfying vendemmia (harvest).
From Publishers Weekly

This was a very enjoyable read; Máté and his family had the daring to actually follow their dream of living on an ancient Italian estate, and to develop their own wines, following the traditional methods of wine-making. Their audacity pays off, and they find themselves the proud proprieters of an award-winning winery, with kudos from wine experts such as Jancis Robinson.

The memoir is full of the joys of life - hard work, good friends, fabulous food, and the sense of truly accomplishing your life's goals. An added leavening of humor and humility add to a delightful tale of an appealing couple and their precocious son.

The Ultimate Cookie Book

by Better Homes
& Gardens

More than 500 tempting treats plus secrets for baking better cookies

Almost any cookie recipe you could ever want at your fingertips. Easy to follow recipes accompanied by more than 300 full-color photographs. Comes with the Better Homes & Gardens Test Kitchen seal.

1500 Best Bars, Cookies,
Muffins, Cakes & More

by Esther Brody

A comprehensive collection of 1500 superb dessert recipes in one volume

Product Description:
This collection of luscious family desserts has an almost endless variety of both classic recipes and new versions of traditional favorites -- all sure to please. It also features a wealth of baking tips and techniques, along with detailed and easy-to-follow baking instructions. It is sure to become an essential in every home baker's kitchen.

New Casseroles compiled by The Australian Women's Weekly

Product Description
Chicken, seafood, and vegetarian casseroles are becoming almost as popular as those made with beef and lamb. Casseroles are lighter these days, still warming of course, but never stodgy. New Casseroles doesn't ignore your old favorites but includes some delicious new recipes, along with useful information on preparation techniques and casserole dishes.

My Thoughts
This is a lovely book. Not too thick so it will lay flat on the counter for easy recipe following, bright, colorful pictures and easy to follow recipes. I know now that winter is almost over, our minds are turning from the delightfully tasty casseroles and bakes to barbecues and beer but there's still enough time to sneak in one or two more...especially if today is any indication!

Dessert Express: 100 sweet treats you can make in 30 minutes or less by Lauren Chattman

Product Description
No time to make dessert? With Dessert Express, if you've got a half hour, you've got the time. No need to compromise in taste and indulgence with fabulous from-scratch recipes!

My Thoughts
I will NEVER EVER tire of dessert cookbooks! This one has to be one of my favorites (although it has only been in my hot little hands for 10 minutes)!! As a person who is often pressed for time but is also pressed to make tasty treats for her colleagues and family, this is perfect. I'm especially delighted at the prospect of making oatmeal chocolate chip cookies with my beloved waffle iron, making chocolate, hazelnute & raspberry panini type desserts and using my muffin tins for things other than muffins!!

I'll have to let you know how it all goes! ;)

--The Library Technician