Friday, October 29, 2010

Friday Finds


Friday Finds is hosted




Here are the new books, just arrived, for review.  Check them out and then stop back soon to Feathered Quill to read the reviews.





In America the Edible, Travel Channel host Adam Richman tackles the ins and outs of American cuisine, demonstrating his own unique brand of culinary anthropology. Believing that regional cuisine reveals far more than just our taste for chicken fried steak or 3-way chili, Richman explores the ethnic, economic, and cultural factors that shape the way we eat—and how food, in turn, reflects who we are as a nation. Richman uses his signature wit and casual charm to take youon a tour around the country,explaining such curiosities as why bagels are shaped like circles, why fried chicken is so popular in the South, and how some of the most iconic American food—hot dogs, fries, and soda—are not really American at all. Writing with passion, curiosity, and a desire to share his knowledge, he includes recipes, secret addresses for fun and tasty finds, and tips on how to eat like a local from coast to coast.



v2036 brings entertainment and cohesion to an otherwise depressing and incomprehensible subject: Venezuelan politics. Through the lives of three resolute men that represent the country's warring factions, the story boldly illustrates that leading the people of a volatile South American nation is anything but an easy task. A military ruler, an opposition activist and an expatriated citizen will play the famous (and infamous) roles that will lead the once proud nation to a brighter future . . . or to its final demise. Taking historical events as a starting point, v2036 pushes the boundaries of fiction with delightful characters in pivotal roles that will alter not just the way that these events enfolded, but the influence they had in the current socio-political climate of the controversial Bolivarian Republic. As the timeline advances, the story flows through the Venezuela that was to the one that is, and to the one that it might become in the not so distant future, always highlighting the rivalry that divides the most influential sectors of today's Venezuelan society.


This is the thoroughly revised, second edition of The Setup. The first edition ranked in the Amazon Top 25 for Biographies and Memoirs and inspired a hot #1 ranked cable TV show. This book is a true and modern spy story that can be told only because Michael has never signed a Non Disclosure Agreement with NSA.Read how a single phone call led the NSA to run a security operation that resulted in an overseas setup to go to jail. Hear how Michael got burned, fired, blacklisted, destituted and possibly faced death itself, but legally turned the tables on them for a job that couldn't be refused. It's the true story of a test of his resourcefulness and courage. Offered a $200,000 per year job at an airport overseas, he just missed getting it and a fresh start in Tokyo with a diplomatic passport. Fearing another setup and the law, he passed on the offer of $200,000, and got double offered in Bangkok, $400,000. When he refused this, he got sent back to the USA by the American Embassy.



Smarter than a history teacher, funnier than the Founding Fathers, and more American than Alaska, an almost (but not entirely) comprehensive primer on American history (or at least, the good stuff). In trademark smart aleck style, this is history according to mental_floss, an insightfully accurate and incisively humorous exploration of little-known truths and widely believed falsehoods, which simultaneously exposes some of America's oddest moments, strangest citizens, most egregious frauds, and much, much more. Ten meaty chapters, peppered with fun trivia, entertainingly cover the essential timeline of the social, political, and cultural happenings of American history and mythbust all the lies teachers told us along the way. Was Abraham Lincoln really a heroic defender of liberty and freedom? Were the Sixties actually a groovy time of peace and love? Has the U.S. always been dependent on foreign oil? mental_floss sets the record straight and shares the fascinating stories behind politics, literature, fashion, televangelism, serial killers, genetic engineering, Yuppies, SPAM, the original Swine Flu, potato chips, rollerskating, mobsters, rum, communists, beaver wars, the rise and fall of irony, and everything else made in the U.S.A.



A primary-source collection of momentous changes in the political economy of a (fictional) West African nation.


1 comment: