Growing up the daughter of one of America’s most influential chefs and advocates for food justice meant that Fanny Singer was immersed in the culinary arts from a tender age. In this elegantly written memoir, she shares stories of the foods, wines, people, and places that populated her family’s life in Berkeley, California, where her mother, Alice Waters, founded and still runs the iconic Chez Panisse restaurant. A Yale grad with a PhD from Cambridge in art history, and now a writer, designer, and cultural critic, Singer combines literary skill with aesthetic sensibility in a book as sumptuous and evocative of the senses as a Chez Panisse meal. Dozens of wonderful recipes are included too.
Harvard Law School professor Richard Lazarus examines a single case in the Supreme Court and its consequential impact on environmental law, politics, and advocacy—and the future of our planet. Lazarus is a leading scholar of environmental law and an expert on the nation’s highest court. He also is a master storyteller, whose narrative relies on extensive interviews with justices, lawyers, and advocates and explains the unlikely chain of events that led to the seminal case known as Massachussetts v United States Environmental Protection Agency. The case was decided in 2007, but the story behind it remains as relevant as ever today.
This crime story set in Tokyo and translated from the original Japanese is a clever twist on the usual whodunit murder mystery. Rather than the reader guessing who is responsible for the murder—you know that in the early pages—the author introduces a mind game between two geniuses, one a mathematician trying to protect the culprit and the other a physicist assisting the police in solving the crime. Mathematical puzzling is key to this battle of wits, but one doesn’t have to be a mathematician to appreciate the elegance of this device as the drama unfolds. A great crime story for those who prefer intellectual teases to violence or fast-paced thrills.
