A Delicious Zinger – Zingerman's Bakehouse by Amy Emberling, Frank Carollo, Antonis Achilleos

One of these days I am going to make it to the renowned Zingerman's Delicatessen in Ann Arbor, Michigan, but until that day arrives, I will have to content myself with their outstanding books (both business and cookbooks).

Zingerman's Bakehouse is fun and inspiring to read, and of course, includes great recipes. I can't wait to try their ginger cookies.

The commentary is interesting, fun to read, and mainly lighthearted, and the photography is mouth-watering. It's a beautifully designed book, and would be a great gift for any baker. 

I recommend this book to everyone who enjoys reading about food, tempting recipes and appreciates discovering them in an interesting and vibrant context.

Of Broadway Giants – Something Wonderful: Rodgers and Hammerstein's Broadway Revolution by Todd Purdom

This was an excellent (and very thorough) look into the lives of Richard Rodgers and Oscar Hammerstein II and their remarkable contributions to musical theater. The author, Todd Purdom, known for his political reporting at the New York Times, Politico and Vanity Fair, is obviously someone who loves Broadway and the musical theater. The book does feel like a labor of love, but because Purdom is such a fine journalist, it is also very balanced and we get deep insights into these men and their working relationship, warts and all. 

Purdom has organized and annotated the material well. He takes us through his subjects' individual histories and then brings us to their partnership, and completes the picture with an account of Rodgers's life and work after Hammerstein's early death.

The book is lively and full of anecdotes about the men themselves and others, including Agnes de Mille, Stephen Sondheim, Mary Martin, Julie Andrews, Irving Berlin, Joshua Logan, Gene Kelly and many more. It is a great read, but never descends into gossip.

If you are a devotee of the Broadway theater, you will love this book. Some of the territory has been covered in other biographical books about theater figures, but this is probably one of the best and most professionally written Broadway-oriented books you are likely to encounter.

Back in the Day – Mod New York: Fashion Takes a Trip by Phyllis Magidson and Donald Albrecht

I read every word, and closely examined every photo in this exhibition publication from the Museum of the City of New York. 

As a child and then teenager in the 60s and early 70s, I was very aware of the fashions of the times, and my first ambition was to become a clothing designer. While this did not come to be, I did become a fashion copywriter, and continue try to visit as many costume and fashion exhibitions as I can. I wasn't able to make it to this particular show, but this book provides a very in-depth look at the fashions of the Mod era, when New York took over from Paris as the center of fashion (with some challenges from London). 

All the trends and highlights of the period are covered, with scholarly yet accessible commentary, and photography that will command your attention. If fashion is your thing, and especially if you remember the fashions of the 60s and 70s (or want to learn more about them), be sure to take a look at this book, which should be available through your local library.

A Valentine to Another Time: At the Strangers' Gate: Arrivals in New York by Adam Gopnik

Just finished listening to Adam Gopnik read his tender and nostalgic memoir of his young adult years in New York with his wife, Martha. I was very taken with his story, as we are roughly the same age and arrived in the city at nearly the same time, Gopnik in fall, 1980 and me in early 1979. Gopnik is a native of Philadelphia, as am I, though his family relocated to Montreal sometime during his formative years. He has done a wonderful job of capturing 1980s New York life as it was for the young, ambitious, artistic and broke.

The couple first lived in the Yorkville section of Manhattan, about 50 blocks due north of where I lived in Murray Hill/Kip's Bay. I spent many hours in their neighborhood, which he lovingly describes as it was in those days, full of German and Middle European restaurants... the Ideal, the Kleine Konditorei, to mention just two of the best-known, small shops including second-hand and thrift stores, and many older people who were beginning to die off. Rents there and in my own far-East neighborhood were still low.

Gopnik and his wife had no money and first lived in a tiny room, but they made their ways and their marks. Gopnik ultimately became a writer for the New Yorker, an aspiration of many, achieved by very, very few and Martha worked as a film editor. Along the way, they moved to a not-very-glamorous Soho loft (before that neighborhood became the province of the very rich), and met a number of well-known artists, writers and others (I did not share this accomplishment with them, I'm sorry to say).

I love Gopnik's stories about the tenor of the city, the people he met, and the work he did before and during his time at the New Yorker. There is a deep, but sweet-flavored well of nostalgia here for a city that has ceased to exist as he and I knew it, and it was wonderful to drink it up and make a visit to those lost places.

I recommend this book for all New Yorkers past and present (and anyone who loves the city), especially those of a certain age, who knew the city as it was when we were young.

6 likes