Holly

Holly has worked full time as a bookseller since 1980. She has served on the board of Northwest Bookfest and the Pacific Northwest Booksellers Association. Her favorite books are children's books (the kind with pictures) and cookbooks (the kind with pictures) and she is a devoted fan of Ray Bradbury and Kate DiCamillo.

My Life in France
by Julia Child
I realize my interest in Julia Child dances close to obsession, but I want to live in her world! My Life in France chronicles, (in her own delightful, personable style) the years she and husband Paul lived in France. She talks with frankness about Paul's frustration working for the U.S. government, and with ernestness about her developing palate and interest in food. Without a doubt this is the best escape I have had in years.

The Scavenger's Guide to Haute Cuisine
by Steven Rinella
The Scavenger's Guide to Haute Cuisine is laugh aloud great. Rinella is a hunter (so stuff dies) but he is intellegent and thoughtful (as well as crudely amusing) and deeply appreciative of family, friends, and food. A great antidote for us "serious" foodies.
Also see Jane's recommendation.

Appetite for Life
by Noel Fitch
After I finished Julie and Julia, Julie Powell's funny and daring account of her yearlong quest to cook everything for Mastering the Art of French Cooking I really wanted to know more about Julia Child. Appetite for Life introduced me to the fascinating life of this beloved figure. She worked in Asia for the OSS where she met the love of her life, husband Paul Child. It was Paul who introduced Julia to the world of food. At nearly forty, she entered Le Cordon Bleu and began the career path that would lead to the publication of her masterpiece cookbooks and the PBS series The French Chef. Her comfortable manner and passion for her topic made her a national treasure, and my personal hero.

Cooking with Fernet Branca
by James Hamilton-Paterson
This comedy of errors is wicked and delicious fun that will have you laughing aloud! And the fun doesn't have to end, the sequel, Amazing Disgrace is also available!

Heat
by Bill Buford
Heat is such a terrific read whether you are a culinary professional or a dedicated home cook. Buford is wise (and wisecracking) and genuinely taken in by food. How else could he dedicate so many pages to making perfect polenta?

The Miraculous Journey of Edward Tulane
by Kate DiCamillo
In 25 or 30 years, when our children are reading aloud to their children about pirates, princes, and little women, they will also be reading from battered and cherished copies of "The Miraculous Journey of Edward Tulane". This is a timeless, amazing book with all the beauty and heartache of the human condition stuffed into a rabbit named Edward Tulane.

Holdfast
by Kathleen Dean Moore
Several weeks back I found myself in the Nature Loft with old friends Chance & Happenstance when I noticed Holdfast. Being familiar with Kathleen Dean Moore's work I had a look and the first essay left me tearful. In the weeks that followed, I parsimoniously doled out one essay at a time. Much like the human condition they explore, these essays are as powerful as a cresting wave or as delicate as a dew covered spiderweb. As with love, you will find THE book you need when you aren't LOOKING for it.

Starvation Heights
by Gregg Olsen
Sisters Dora and Claire Williamson, wealthy British heiresses, took a detour of their 1911 world tour to undergo treatment from Dr. Linda Hazzard—a "fasting speacialist". It was a catastophic starvation diet, which lead to Claire's death—not the first victim of this quack or her sinister legal manipulations. What Erik Larson did for Chicago in Devil in the White City, Gregg Olsen does for the tiny Pacific Northwest town of Olalla in this gruesome and fascinating true crime expose!

A Thousand Days in Tuscany
by Marlena DeBlasi
This book was the best escape I had all year. I simply HATED to close the book at night, and couldn't wait to "Return" to San Casciano. The author and her husband moved there into a converted barn after living in Venice. DeBlasi's descriptions of the landscape and the people brought the village to life. But what really transported me was the food - how they gathered and chose it, how they cooked it and savored it, and how they used it to forge friendships.

Candyfreak
by Steve Almond
I'm not sure I'm a freak (the possibility exists) but I know Candyfreak made me laugh my candy*ss off! Read on page 33 "Mistakes Were Made" (and I happen to LOVE Peeps) for a tiny taste of the author's extraordinary humor--very highly recommended!!!

The Dante Club
by Michael Pearl
This is an impressively ambitious first novel. A murderer is terrorizing post-Civil War Boston and Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, Oliver Wendell Holmes and James Russell Lowell realize the murders mirror the vivid sense of torment in their current collaborative work of translation, Dante's Inferno. This is a finely crafted literary mystery and an Elliott Bay Maiden Voyage Selection in hardcover.

Schott's Original Miscellany
by Ben Schott
The way I see it everybody needs three copies of this book. One stays on your person so you always have the perfect little book to dip into while waiting at the bank or the dentist. #2 is prominently displayed in your home for guests to peruse and strike up a conversation. Then you magnanimously offer said guest YOUR copy (because you know you have a third

Marakele
by Louise Agnew
So, I'm not even going to talk about the exciting, innovative, economic model adapted to conserve Marakele. I'm just going to tell you about spending HOURS browsing these exquisite photographs of magnificent animals doing what they do in their habitats: moving, eating, assembling, casting shadows, pooping. It is an expensive book (the cost comes from the enclosed DVD) and it is worth it.

Bold Spirit
by Linda Hunt
The year is 1896, and Helga Estby, mother of eight, has decided to accept a $10,000 wager to walk from Spokane, Washington to New York City. To her, the prize will allow her and her family to keep her homestead in Eastern Washington. This is an absolutely engrossing account of a grand escape and a wonderful glimpse of history from a determined woman's eyes--excellent reading.

Sixpence House
by Paul Collins
Paul Collins is my hero--not because he writes with genuine emotion about his wife and young baby; not because his wry humor leaks all over his narration; not because he is a keen observer of the charming and the quirky, but because he loves, reveres, and reads books. Very highly recommended.

Last Breath
by Peter Stark Last Breath is just great reading. (If you've got teen sons who sort of shrug at books, try this on 'em.) Entertaining and fascinating.

The Lovely Bones
by Alice Sebold
I won't even attempt in this small space to try to convey the poignancy, gentle wit, and luscious prose of this amazing first novel, but after finishing a book this good I always feel like I have been waiting for it all my life. Highly recommended!

The DaVinci Code
by Dan Brown
Positively engrossing! I could not wait to finish it and read it all in one day! (I lent it to my dad and friend Peg as well and they both loved it.) Unlike my smarter co-workers, I didn't "figure it out" but it was still fantastic!