TBR List Update: September

      

I'm working my way through #VirtualMountTBR. Here's my current To-Be-Read List, and here's the list of titles I have read this year.

In September 2023

Books read: 4

Books I decided NOT to finish: 11

Life Undercover: Coming of Age in the CIA:  It was the least interesting one left on the list.

In an ironic twist, American Appetite was removed from the contenders because the only copy in my library system was discovered to have had coffee spilled across it by a previous borrower or browser. 

Into the Vietnamese Kitchen has lovely coffee-table qualities, but it was enough to flip through it and take note of a few anecdotes from the author and some flavor combinations (and information about how to choose a quality fish sauce).

From the culling of food culture/history/memoir titles: 

• African American Foodways
• Getting What We Need Ourselves
• Every Nation Has Its Dish
• Food on the Page
• From Scratch: Inside the Food Network
• Southern Food and Civil Rights

Four Hundred Souls is a worthy tome, but I've tried several times now to go back to it without success. I'm going to resign myself to not having read it, and take it off the list; I at least know that it exists and can recommend it to readers who want to tackle it.

I also tried (for 3 months!) to get around to reading The Woman in the Mirror, and have accepted that I won't.

Life Undercover

Books left on the TBR List: 50

Best book of the month: The American Way of Eating

The narrative style (from an investigative reporter) drew me in and I could relate to her experiences in retail grocery, food service, and agriculture (I haven't worked in that last industry, but a couple years ago I read Chasing the Harvest: Migrant Workers in California Agriculture, which was pretty fresh in my mind).

Worst book of the month: The Mystery of Mrs. Christie

I didn't really grasp the plot-within-a-plot. This could be because I read the ebook -- would a print format have made the POV clearer from chapter to chapter? Anyway, meh.

I was hoping to catch up this month, by reading the backlog of books I physically have in my possession, but I am still behind. Next come all the horrific treats I requested specifically for spooky season... will I gorge on those sweets or finish my veggies first?