Top Ten Tuesday: With A Twist

November 20, 2012 Humor, Personal, Top Ten Tuesday 26

Hi there, Bookworms! It’s time for another Top Ten Tuesday with The Broke and the Bookish. This week’s topic is books that we’re thankful for. However… That’s a little “done.” I mean, my facebook feed has been blowing up with thankful posts this month. So. I’ve decided to talk about books that make me think of FOOD. Thanksgiving is not ONLY about about being thankful for what you have. It’s also about eating a lot. Wahoo gluttony! In that spirit, I’m going to list out the top ten books that make me want to eat too much. Ready? Excellent.

1. Fried Green Tomatoes at the Whistle Stop Cafe by Fannie Flagg. I want to eat at the Whistle Stop Cafe really, really badly. Even if it requires the bending of the time-space continuum and, um fiction to become reality. I want all of that delicious southern fried goodness to get in my belly!

2. Bridget Jones’s Diary by Helen Fielding. I don’t mean to say that I crave whatever Bridget eats (although copious amounts of wine and Cadbury are never a BAD idea.) Since I’m cooking Thanksgiving dinner this year, I absolutely and completely relate to Bridget’s disastrous birthday dinner. I swear if I had blue twine in my kitchen, I too would be a purveyor of blue soup.

3. The Kitchen God’s Wife by Amy Tan. I’m not going to pretend to be an expert, but I will claim that my college professor WAS. He told us that food was an integral part of Chinese culture and that it was difficult to understand their religious traditions if he didn’t take his students out for the most awesome meal in the history of ever. I totally credit Dr. Goetz with helping me discover my taste for Chinese food. Anyway, The Kitchen God’s Wife goes into glorious detail about the dishes our heroine prepares out of the money from her dowry. Things that wouldn’t ordinarily sound delicious to me were described in such a beautiful manner that by the end of the book I felt not only that I had traveled China, but that I’d tasted all the delicacies along the way.

4. Sookie Stackhouse books by Charlaine Harris. Why? Because everything they serve at Merlotte’s sounds like a heart attack in a basket… And dagnabit, I want me some of those fried pickles. Is there anything in this world as delicious as a fried pickle?!

5. The Poisonwood Bible by Barbara Kingsolver. Why on earth would this make me think of food? Perhaps it’s because the first half of the book, our major characters spend on the brink of starvation. Perhaps it’s because I too would have mourned the loss of my Betty Crocker cake mixes had the humidity destroyed what I had so painstakingly brought to the Congo from Georgia. I totally get it. A lack of cake is a devastating situation.

6. Scarlet Feather by Maeve Binchy. This is the first entry that’s appropriate, because it’s about caterers. Tom and Cathy do some magical things with mini gherkins, and I want to be a part of it. Plus, they’re Irish. So even if the mini gherkins are ghastly, the accents would be positively delightful.

7. The Road by Cormac McCarthy. Yes, this is possibly the most frightening and bleakest picture of humanity’s demise I can think of. Sure, there are some seriously gruesome scenes with cannibals. But you know something? When I finished reading this book, I remembered that the world as we know it HASN’T ended. Pizza delivery is still a thing. For this I am truly grateful.

8. Anne of Green Gables by Lucy Maude Montgomery. This is in honor of holiday libations. Diana accidentally getting drunk on the supposed “raspberry cordial” just kills me. Imbibe in moderation people! If you simply cannot be moderate, at least have the decency to sleep it off at the dining room table of your gracious hosts. Drinking and driving sucks, y’all.

9. Little House in the Big Woods by Laura Ingalls Wilder. My second grade teacher read this aloud to the class, and the scene where they make candy with new fallen snow has always stuck with me. I wanted to try it as a kid, but my mom insisted that our suburban snow would be too dirty. She was probably right, but sometimes I’d eat our snow regardless. Perhaps that’s why my immune system is so awesome. Exposure to dirty snow.

10. Charlie and the Chocolate Factory by Roald Dahl. How could anyone NOT get hungry imagining all the magical sweets in Willy Wonka’s factory? The snozberries taste like snozberries! And how. (I just bought this in a set of Roald Dahl books for my “nephew” at his mom’s suggestion and I’m so stoked! I hope he always loves books, and continues not to mind when Aunt Katie sends them instead of toys. I’ve come full circle.)

The worst part is that I made this meme. Self-deprecating humor: It’s what I’m THANKFUL for.

26 Responses to “Top Ten Tuesday: With A Twist”

  3. Reagan

    You should check out the Ian Fleming Bond Novels. (have Jim read them too – they’re like spoilers for the movies!) Lot’s of descriptions of the 1950’s and 1960’s era meals.

    Reply

  4. It's A Dome Life

    I have read eight of these books…yay me. The road scared the crap out of me. I read it while traveling through S. Africa. I stayed up all night and read the whole book because I could not put it down. Then I was sure we were all going to die…scary!

    Thanksgiving is mostly about the food. At least in this house!

    I hope you eat too much. Enjoy!

    Reply

    • Words for Worms

      You read The Road while travelling? That sounds like a recipe for paranoia! 🙂 I will be sure to eat too much, I wish you the same. Full bellies all around!

      Reply

    • Words for Worms

      Thanks Liesel! You’ve been in my mind. I was reading The Book Thief and the main character is named Liesel. And I was all “what a great name. I don’t know anyone named Liesel. WAIT! YES I DO!”

      Reply

  6. Meg

    Anne of Green Gables and Little House in the Big Woods made me so hungry as a kid (okay, and as an adult when I give them their yearly re-reading 🙂 )!

    Reply

  7. Leah

    I was also very excited by the part in Little House in the Big Woods where they make maple candy on the snow! My parents let me try this, and it did not work. I’m pretty sure they just microwaved the syrup until it was warm and then let me poor it on the snow, and it just made syrupy snow. It was super disappointing.

    And if you are interested in reading more books that will make your mouth water, try A Year in Provence by Peter Mayle. It’s a memoir by this British man who retires with his wife to Provence, France, where they mostly try to fix their old, drafty house and eat the most amazing meals. It made me want to drop my life, become wealthy, move to the French countryside, and just gorge myself every day.

    Reply

    • Words for Worms

      When I was googling to make sure I hadn’t remembered the Little House thing incorrectly, I found a recipe for the candy. It’s got some molasses going on and you have to get it CRAZY hot (candy thermometer hard crack hot) to get it to work. Perhaps if you have kids you can avoid the syrup snowcone debacle? 🙂 The book you mentioned sounds good! I was trying to come up with this list and kept thinking of famous books about food- NONE of which I’d read. Annoying. Got some catching up to do!

      Reply

  11. didibooksenglish

    Nice list!! When do we eat? I thought of a few others Sassafrass, Cypress, and Indigo by Ntozake Shange and of course Chocolate and Five Quarters of the Orange by Joanne Harris. With those three books you can get your meal on good! Happy Thanksgiving and baste baby baste!!! 🙂

    Reply

  12. annabelsmith

    Good to read a different twist on this week’s topic. Your list was so hilariously varied. The Road made you think about food? Sick! I was so traumatised after reading that book, I kept having to say to myself, ‘go to the good cellar, go to the good cellar….mmm, peaches’ but then my mind would wander back to the bad cellar. Eek! But, I still think it is one of the best books I’ve ever read.

    One writer who always describes food a lot is Haruki Murakami. I get so hungry when I’m reading his books. He describes amazing Japanese food, and also a lot of spaghetti. In fact, there’s a whole twitter stream devoted to quotes about spaghetti from his books!

    Anyway, here’s my list: http://bit.ly/Y1jrZS

    Reply

    • Words for Worms

      I failed at Murakami. I tried to read 1Q84 on a two week library lend and it just didn’t happen for me. I DO recall there was a bit about pasta though, and that’s kind of hilarious. Maybe I’ll get my bravery up and try out one of his shorter novels… I may be too dumb to get it, but you know. I can try :). And I can’t help myself! The Road was so scarring that I was like rocking in a corner telling myself it wasn’t real as I dialed Domino’s. I have issues. 🙂

      Reply

      • annabelsmith

        I haven’t had a go at IQ84 but I’m sure you’re not too dumb for it – you only need an IQ of 84 right? #dadjoke. Anyway, i don’t know how accessible that particluar one is, but my personal fave is The Wind-Up Bird Chronicle if you want a good place to start.

        Reply

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