 |
© Vincent
Guadazno |
Going with the Grain:
A
Wandering Bread-lover Takes a Bite Out of Life
A book by
Sussan Seligson, published by Simon & Schuster
and translated into four languages.
A Review from Amazon.com:
In Going with the Grain, Susan
Seligson, “wandering
bread lover” and well-published journalist, takes
us on a trip around the world. The one thing that these
far-flung locations and cultures share — from the
Jordanian desert to Saratoga Springs, New York to Shanagarry,
Ireland — is
bread. Each chapter is a short story in itself. Most of
them tell the tale of a well-traveled soul, filled with
wanderlust and obsessed with bread. The staple of every
culture she visits, the breads come in every size, color,
shape, texture, and flavor imaginable, but the real stories
lie in the making and baking. Some of her destinations
have absolutely no other attraction except the bread and
its baker, but the richest among them offer much more than
that. Seligson is curious and energetic, open-minded and
funny — a combination that makes for interesting reading.
Explore the magical Brijendra’s kitchen in New Delhi; learn
the almost confidential recipe for the United States Army’s
bread (patent 5059432, with a three-year shelf life); and
meet Huntsville, Alabama native Aunt Eunice, famous for
her Country Biscuits (recipe included). If you love to
eat (and not just bread) and love to travel, Seligson is
an entertaining companion.
— Leora Y. Bloom
From Publishers Weekly:
Seligson’s no loafer; her quest for bread from French
baguettes to lab-crafted field rations courtesy of the
U.S. military takes her around the world and across America,
five countries and six U.S. cities in all as she explores
cultural difference and identity through a common creation.
As Seligson explains, “My lifelong love affair with
bread has less to do with crust, crumb, and the vagaries
of sourdough cultures and more to do with bread as a reflection
of people’s varied beliefs, daily lives, and blood memories.” Serious stuff, but Seligson best known as a journalist
and children’s book author (Amos:
The Story of an Old Dog and His Couch) leavens this offering
with keen observations and a wicked sense of humor. She
starts off in Morocco, where Fesi women rise at dawn to
prepare the dough that will be baked as it has for centuries
in huge communal hearths. Stops in the U.S. include Eunice's
Country Kitchen in Huntsville, Ala., where the spitfire
proprietress helps maintain the down-home feel of the former
cotton-farming town turned NASA hub by serving up biscuits,
ham and red-eye gravy, and the Wonder Bread plant in Biddeford,
Maine, which emits no discernible smell. Seligson ends
her tour in Paris, where, after a decade-long denigration
of traditional technique, legislation was passed to protect
and maintain the art of the boulanger. Seligson’s
debut essay collection is as smart and evocative as it
often is laugh-out-loud funny.
Copyright 2002 Reed Business Information, Inc.
Praise for
Going with the Grain: A Wandering Bread Lover Takes a Bite Out of Life
“Seligson is a deliciously
entertaining guide. Her palpable enthusiasm translates
into stories spiced with rich detail and witty commentary.” — Christian
Science Monitor
“Fascinating…funny…[Seligson]
keeps her attention focused outward, driven by a curiosity
about places and people, what makes them work and what
matters to them. She seems to be interested in everything…Just
as others become Seligson’s invaluable guides into
the world of bread, she becomes ours.” — Boston
Globe
“Serious stuff, but Seligson leavens
this offering with keen observations and a wicked sense
of humor…As smart and evocative as it often is laugh-out-loud
funny.” — Publishers
Weekly (starred review)
Stacked, A Wise and Humorous
Book to be Surrounded by Sensual Art
Stacked, A 32DDD Reports from the Front
Written by Susan Seligson,
Stacked, an intimate cultural exploration
of breast obsession, has
attracted wide media coverage including Glamour,
Playboy, The Atlantic Monthly, The Times of London,
The New York
Observer, BBC Radio, The Boston Globe and a starred
review in Publisher's Weekly.
Susan Seligson’s reporting and essays have appeared
in The New York Times Magazine, Salon.com, The
Atlantic Monthly, Redbook, Eating Well, Yankee, New
England Monthly,
The Boston Globe Magazine, Outside, Allure, on
public radio, and in numerous other publications. Her
award-winning humor column “The Walking Fool” appears
biweekly in the Provincetown Banner. Seligson’s
travel memoir
Going with the Grain: A Wandering Bread-lover Takes
a Bite Out of Life, was published in the fall
of 2002 by Simon & Schuster
and has been translated into four languages. Stacked was
released in February 2007 by Bloomsbury USA. Publishers
Weekly included Stacked in the 100 best books of 2007.
From Publishers Weekly: 
Starred Review. Like an artful comedienne,
journalist Seligson (Going with the Grain),
a self-avowedly well-endowed woman,
wittily recounts her experiences as she anecdotally
examines "what
breasts mean to their bearers as well as their beholders." Assessing
an abundant lexicon of breast slang, Seligson ponders the
role of breasts as the marker of femininity, conversing
with women of all ages about how their breast size affects
their daily life and self-image. Quizzing experts on the
evolutionary role of breasts for human sexual attraction,
she surveys the history of the brassiere before purchasing "the
perfect bra" at a renowned Manhattan retailer.
Seligson's candid observations are hilarious as she
visits a workaholic
editor for Busty Beauties magazine and searches
for the Guinness-record-holder for breast size, one
Maxi Mounds,
at an exotic dancing event. Questioning the global
phenomenon of breast augmentation, Seligson reveals
industry scams
and discusses the psychology, ethics and cultural
implications of implant consumerism with leading
plastic surgeons and
media scholars. Concluding with cross-dressers and
their removable breasts, the author proclaims herself
at peace
with herself as "a person who happens to be stacked." Seligson's
earthy merriment and compassionate humor triumph as she
surefootedly tours a subject bound to elicit strong feelings
ranging from adulation to derision. (Feb.) Copyright © Reed
Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier
Inc. All rights reserved.
Book Description
What is it about breasts—or if, you prefer, bazoombas, melons, Dolly Partons,
or breastasauri—that inspires such fascination? No one is even sure why
women have breasts when not pregnant or nursing, but start a conversation about
them, Susan Seligson discovered, and every woman, man, child, and drag queen
has something to say. In Stacked, this intrepid 32DDD writer takes us
on a journey through a culture where breasts have come to stand for all that
is woman. Seligson introduces us to the proud owners of the world’s largest
augmented breasts; crusaders for the right to parade bare-chested in public;
and women pining for larger breasts or smaller ones, who may resort to surgery
or stranger fixes (breast-enhancing gum? giant suction cups?) to get the breasts
of their dreams. She relates the history of the bra and takes us on a quest for
the perfect one. She explores the thinking of surgeons who do hundreds of breast
implants a year, academics suspicious of our changing standards of femininity,
and the editor of Busty Beauties magazine. And she writes throughout with the
wisdom and humor of a woman who knows what it is to wield body parts so powerful
they can make men crash cars. |