Rebecca recommends...

If you've read a Colette novel, you've met women like the three profiled in this biography.  Mercedes de Acosta, Madge Garland and Esther Murphy moved in their respective, largely queer intellectual circles during the first half of the 20th century but also crossed paths in this simultaneously influential and insular world.  Brilliant in their own ways - one edited British Vogue, one was a "failed" writer and one famously tried to romance Greta Garbo - they all undermined themselves to various degrees.

The author's love of words makes these stories exceptionally powerful - read Pink (page 39) and you'll understand. Despite the difficult subject, this collection is a delight!

Eliza Griswold spent seven years traveling throughout Africa and Asia at ten degrees north - a region that is home to more than half of the world's population of both Christians and Muslims. This culmination of her work and travels serves as a captivating, detailed primer on the complicated relationship between these two faiths and their adherents. I went into this book with little background knowledge and found it very approachable.

This is a witty, useful guide for anyone who wants to try her or his hand at writing poetry for personal enjoyment (or really any of the reasons you might learn to paint, play the piano, etc.). Informative and entertaining!

The Sterns are my favorite writers on food. Funny and willing to try the weirdest regional specialties (chitlins steamed in vinegar?!), the remind me that, far from being dismissible, American food can be as worthy of adulation as any of the national cuisines that receive more attention – from various deep-fried things to stick-to-your-ribs breakfasts eaten in small Midwestern farming towns. Recipes follow each chapter.

This novel is a pleasure to read, can be read on many levels, and will linger in your thoughts for a long time. Lea de Lonval is an older courtesan and Fred Peloux (Cheri) is her beautiful and haughty young lover. Their liason of six years ends as the scales begin to fall from Cheri's eyes. When they meet again in the second novel, the france of the first book has been radically changed by WWII and Lea and Cheri themselves have been altered by time. Maybe not the most consoling of novels, but a wonderful and satisfying one.

This is the first in a trilogy of crime novels anchored by Maureen O'Donnell, the young woman at the center of the chaos. She's tough and fascinating, one of the few fictional characters I wish I could meet. She has survived a hellish family life, a breakdown and a subsequent stay in a hospital and wakes up a year or so after being released to find her married therapist boyfriend murdered in her living room. Maureen isn't what anyone could call "well" or "stable" but the damaged and vulnerable bits of her are just that - aspects of a complex personality. She's not a female super-sleuth; instead she's fueled by vengeance, a desire to clear her name and an increasing fear that she may have had something to do with the murder after all. Furthermore, she's not entirely trustworthy, but neither is any other character, subjectivity (particularly as is concerns experiences of abuse, mental illness and relationships between family members) being one of the big themes of this book. The trilogy is set in Glasgow - Garnethill is one of its neighborhoods - and the city is as fully drawn and authentic as Denise Mina's characters. Despite the frequently grim themes, this is not another miserablist novel; its ironic humor makes it pretty darn exhilarating to read. Amazing book, the best I've read in months. (Be aware, though, that there are some passages dealing with sexual abuse that are as disturbing as they should be. It's an unsettling book, but worth your being unsettled.)

The cover to this drew me in. Inside is a surprise - tons of recipes for old-fashioned savory pies, full of meats and veggies (and a few sweet pies at the end). Beautifully photographed with a bit of history included. Recipes are uncomplicated and easy to follow.