Susan Seligson

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.