Favorite Reads

Read anything good lately?   One of my favorites from this summer's stock was Nicole Mones' The Last Chinese Chef, found on the New Books shelf.  A San Francisco food critic, still mourning for her husband and finding herself even more unsettled by a letter from China which implicates him in a strange lawsuit, and an American chef, going back to his roots in China to open a new restaurant against all sorts of political and social obstructions, become entangled in the intrigue of the suit and in each other's losses and aspirations.  It's a small book, but so charming and so patient with its characters' growths. The Chinese cuisine in its historical perspective gave the whole book an ingenious (and appetizing) framework.  How about you?  We'd like to hear about the pages you're turning, too.