Nonfiction Showdown: Fork Vs. Spoon!
I read two non-fiction books in the last week that coincidentally had the names of common utensils in the title. Who wins, fork or spoon?
Representing the forks, we've got Consider the Fork: A History of How We Cook and Eat by Bee Wilson. I got this book from the library after reading about a review in Smithsonian magazine. Each chapter is helpfully divided into a separate aspect of the kitchen and the things you find in it, e.g, fire (Stoves and other heat sources), ice (fridges), etc. It goes through the early history of cookware right up to the present day, concluding with a chapter on the modern kitchen as a room in the house. Ever wonder why we use measuring cups in the U.S. instead weighing ingredients? This book explains it, and many other minor little kitchen mysteries. The book has many amusing anecdotes, but it is a little lightweight despite the extensive citations. If you enjoy cooking, you'll likely find this to be an entertaining read.
On the other side of the plate we've got The Disappearing Spoon: And Other True Tales of Madness, Love, and the History of the World from the Periodic Table of the Elements by Sam Kean. This book basically takes the framing device of the Periodic Table and uses it to tell a bunch of loosely connected anecdotes about famous and not so famous scientists and their travails discovering various elements and information about them. The stories are pretty good even though the writing is pretty average. If you have a basic interest in science you'll probably enjoy this.
Advantage: fork.
Representing the forks, we've got Consider the Fork: A History of How We Cook and Eat by Bee Wilson. I got this book from the library after reading about a review in Smithsonian magazine. Each chapter is helpfully divided into a separate aspect of the kitchen and the things you find in it, e.g, fire (Stoves and other heat sources), ice (fridges), etc. It goes through the early history of cookware right up to the present day, concluding with a chapter on the modern kitchen as a room in the house. Ever wonder why we use measuring cups in the U.S. instead weighing ingredients? This book explains it, and many other minor little kitchen mysteries. The book has many amusing anecdotes, but it is a little lightweight despite the extensive citations. If you enjoy cooking, you'll likely find this to be an entertaining read.
On the other side of the plate we've got The Disappearing Spoon: And Other True Tales of Madness, Love, and the History of the World from the Periodic Table of the Elements by Sam Kean. This book basically takes the framing device of the Periodic Table and uses it to tell a bunch of loosely connected anecdotes about famous and not so famous scientists and their travails discovering various elements and information about them. The stories are pretty good even though the writing is pretty average. If you have a basic interest in science you'll probably enjoy this.
Advantage: fork.