A decadently joyful exploration of the history of Alba and the precious white truffle, which has entrace and delighted palates for centuries.In the foothills of the Italian Alps, on the outskirts of Alba, grow the white truffles. It only thrives underground, in soil where certain oak, poplar, hazel, and linden trees take root. Ugly, cantankerous, and rare, its skin the same creamy brown color of Yukon Gold potatoes, the white truffle seems too primal to be the divine indulgence it has been for three millennia. But a few shavings on risotto explain why. The basic, creamy rice becomes infused with dark, musky aromas and other rare pleasures gastronomes crave. Its properties are magical, its joy infernal. Some say it conjures romantic trysts of raw passion, the odors of spent ecstasy. Others savor the razor thin slices and sense survivalist hormones taking hold, as if venturing into dank, forbidding forests.As with Bordeaux's first growths or Da Vinci's art, the price is folly. And, yet,
Nearly 300 Recipes that Feature the Healthiest Foods from around the World Chef and author Grace O has traveled the world in search of delicious, good-for-you foods. Her passion for discovering food treasures from the Blue Zones and elsewhere, where people live longer, healthier lives, is the driving force behind FoodTrients.com and her new cookbook, Age-Defying Dishes of the World. In her third cookbook, Grace O delivers all the hallmarks of her two previous award-winning cookbooks, and more. In addition to over 200 easy-to-make recipes using everyday favorites, exotic ingredients, and superfoods from around the world, Age-Defying Dishes of the World includes healthy resources, helpful guides, and tips for improving your lifespan and health-span. Grace O's global approach to her age-fighting recipes ramps up the flavor profiles of each dish to entice food lovers everywhere. She takes classic recipes and gives them international twists with a few simple steps, creating very interesting
A riveting and illuminating exploration of the transatlantic slave trade by an intrepid team of divers seeking to reclaim the stories of their ancestors. “For me, Enslaved is an attempt to give a voice to the millions whose voices were silenced.”―Samuel L. Jackson, human rights activist and Hollywood iconFrom the writers behind the acclaimed documentary series Enslaved (starring Samuel L. Jackson), comes a rich and revealing narrative of the true global and human scope of the transatlantic slave trade. The trade existed for 400 years, during which 12 million people were trafficked, and 2 million would die en route.In these pages we meet the remarkable group, Diving with a Purpose (DWP), as they dive sunken slave ships all around the world. They search for remains and artifacts testifying to the millions of kidnapped Africans that were transported to Europe, the Americas, and the Caribbean. From manilla bracelets to shackles, cargo, and other possessions, the finds from these wrecks bri
In exploring how Icelanders interact with nature―and their idea that elves live among us―Nancy Marie Brown shows us how altering our perceptions of the environment can be a crucial first step toward saving it.Icelanders believe in elves. Why does that make you laugh?, asks Nancy Marie Brown, in this wonderfully quirky exploration of our interaction with nature. Looking for answers in history, science, religion, and art―from ancient times to today―Brown finds that each discipline defines what is real and unreal, natural and supernatural, demonstrated and theoretical, alive and inert. Each has its own way of perceiving and valuing the world around us. And each discipline defines what an Icelander might call an elf.Illuminated by her own encounters with Iceland’s Otherworld―in ancient lava fields, on a holy mountain, beside a glacier or an erupting volcano, crossing the cold desert at the island’s heart on horseback―Looking for the Hidden Folk offers an intimate conversation about how we
In this heart-pounding tale of deception, a young P.I. must unravel the secrets behind a murders of a Los Angeles heiress's parents.Four years ago, a beautiful young heiress survived an attack that claimed the lives of both of her parents. The crime made headlines all over Los Angeles, both for the vicious nature of the killings and the seemingly random nature of the attack: nothing was stolen, and the van Aust family had no obvious enemies. Melia van Aust fled the city soon after the murders – which were never solved – but her brother Jasper has not been seen since.After a childhood spent in the shadow of her famous parents, Rainey Hall understands the dynamics of a dysfunctional family. She still hasn’t recovered from a tragedy that tore her own family apart six years before. It's part of the reason why she started her own private investigation agency―to aid victims of crimes that might otherwise go unsolved. When Melia returns to Los Angeles and moves back into her family home,
A darkly witty, deeply affecting, and finely crafted memoir by the Big Bang Theory and Speechless star and comedian, John Ross Bowie. From his earliest memories of watching Rhoda with his parents in their tiny Hell’s Kitchen apartment, John knew that he wanted to be an actor. The strange, alternate world of television―where people always cracked the perfect joke, lived in glamorous Upper East Side buildings, and made up immediately after fighting―seemed far better than his own home life, with a mother and father on the brink of divorce and a neighborhood full of crumbling pre-war architecture and not-so-occasional muggings. And yet that other world also seems unattainable. Besides crippling stage fright (which would take him years to overcome) John's father, ever aloof and cynical, has instilled within him the notion that acting is “no job for a man.”His father would impart that while theater, film, and television should be consumed and even debated, to create was no way to make a liv
