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1 review
Bill Buford

Penguin Books, 1993

Good Description and the Problem of Journalism
This is both a good book because it is very well-written book and a worrisome book for exactly the same reason. I wouldn't bring this up but for the fact that it has already been brought up by several of the pieces contained in this anthology. The concern of several (perhaps all) of these pieces is about the control of information, and especially about the potential of what is called ...

The Best American Travel Writing 2000

13 reviews
Jason Wilson

Houghton Mifflin, 2000

An Outsanding Collection of Stories
"Best American Travel Writing 2000" is the first edition in yet another outstanding entry in the "Best American" series. It is structured like other "Best American" books, with a series editor and a yearly guest editor putting their heads together and selecting two dozen or so of the best articles to be published in the field during the previous year. Bill Bryson was a very canny choice to be ...

Granta 37: The Family (Granta (Viking))

2 reviews

Penguin Books, 1991

Family Viewing, M rated
A set of seminal short pieces by a literary who's who of contemporary literature. The stories range far & wide, with all the pain & joy imaginable. I've re-read this over the years, everything in it, completely gob-smacked each time by Mikal Gilmore's revelations about growing up in his Mormon family & enduring the pain of brother & murderer, Gary. His 'Shot in the Heart' is the full account, but ...

Physiology of Taste

9 reviews
Jean Antheleme Brillat-Savarin

Everyman's Library, 2009

The standard English edition of a landmark eccentric classic
The standard edition of this work in the US, and a lively one. Jean-Anthelme de Brillat-Savarin (1755-1826) is known for this book and for pithy maxims like "Adam and Eve sold themselves for an apple. What would they have done for a truffled fowl?" (That of course in the days when the truffles that most people heard of were real ones, not chocolate candies that look like them; and also when the ...

Granta 17: While Waiting for a War (Granta (Viking))

1 review
Graham Greene

Viking Penguin, 1986

A bit weak
I bought this back issue expecting a bit more Graham Greene content than I found. The remainder of the volume was a bit less coherent than the first Granta that I read. I especially enjoyed the pieces by Alice Munro and Marianne Wiggins. The "name" pieces were uniformly weak.

Granta 46: Crime (Granta, No 46)

1 review
Bill Buford

Penguin Books, 1994

A Crime Collection with an Agenda
This edition of Granta focusing on 'Crime' takes a unique approach, incorporating contemporary examples of short "crime fiction" with two real-life accounts of murders committed in Glasgow, as told by the murderers themselves. It seems this structure encourages reflexion on our personal reactions to the nature of crime and the extent to which our perception of what is real and what is fiction ...

Heat

161 reviews
Bill Buford

Random House Uk Ltd, 2007

Great read - even for non-cooksI
I really don't cook but this is one of the top "passion for food vs. inside the food business" books out there, e.g Kitchen Confidential style. This, like the others, is fantastically interesting and fun to read. Mario Batalli features prominently in this book - and it's biographical in that regard - but it's also so much more. The subtitle is spot on as it reads as a true adventure story ...

Granta 23: Home (Granta 23)

1 review

Penguin Books, 1988

Magnificent, Please Reprint
This is one of the finest issues of Granta ever. It affected me profoundly when I read it while traveling ten years ago. It contains a long except from Bill Bryson's "Lost Continent" (unabridged and thus far superior to the book version), an inspiring memoir of the 1930's by Martha Gellhorn, testimonials on the deteriorating Middle Eastern situation, and so much more. Reading it brings you ...

Death (Granta: The Magazine of New Writing)

2 reviews

Penguin Books / Granta, 1990

Exploring the Dark side of Death
Even old issues of Granta are on the edge of what's hot and new! This issue deals with death, both future and past. The series of short stories by some of the most hot authors around, all seem to flow easily from one story to the next. Includes Jeremy Harking, John Gregory Dunne, Eugene Richards, Edmund White, Teresa Pamies, Mary McCarthy, Adam Mars-Jones, Roger GTarfitt, Michael Ignatieff, John ...

Among the Thugs

67 reviews
Bill Buford

ARROW (RAND), 2001

Don't Believe Pretentious Twits
This is a fantastic book, and what's more, it has served as a model and inspiration for the many (many, many) football hooligan books that followed. I won't really comment on the absolute cliched tripe served up by one reviewer who gave this book one star, but I would point out that he might want to take some time out from an all-knowing banality spouting, error decrying, schedule, and consult ...

Granta 45: Gazza Agonistes (Granta (Viking))

2 reviews

Penguin Books, 1993

Aptly Titled, Well Worth Reading
The title piece, "Gazza Agonistes" is 112 page mini-biography of English soccer superstar Paul Gascoigne. What makes it more than an expanded sports or style section profile is the author. Ian Hamilton is a well-known biographer, poet, and essayist, and reading someone of his caliber write about soccer as a fan is always a nice departure from the norm. Gascoigne's story--the sort of rise and ...

Africa (Granta: The Magazine of New Writing)

Penguin Books / Granta, 1995

What is happening on the continent of Africa? What are its images? This book addresses these questions in a range of essays that span the continent. The contributors include William Boyd, Paul Theroux, Sousa Jamba, Nelson Mandela, Ahdaf Soueif, Mark Doyle and Gilles Peress.

Granta 48 Africa (Granta (Viking))

1 review

Penguin Books, 1994

Great Writing, Shocking Stories
Granta is a quarterly British magazine that offers the best of new British writing, as well as reportage and photographs. Each edition is dedicated to a particular theme, in this case, Africa. Almost all Granta's are good but some are better than others and this one is particularly successful. It includes a shocking account of the civil war in Liberia entitled "The last days of Dr Doe", as well ...

The Granta Book of the Family

1 review

Penguin Books / Granta, 1995

Shorts on blood
The Granta Book of the Family is an anthology from the magazine (Granta) released in 1995, with short works (fiction and non-fiction) spanning the years 1982 through 1994. The best works, in my opinion, are Raymond Carver's 'Where He Was: Memories of My Father,' Peter Carey's 'A Letter to Our Son,' and William Wharton's 'Field-Burning.' Carver's non-fiction is a bittersweet reminscence about ...

Granta 31: The General

1 review

Penguin (Non-Classics), 1990

Looking for help
To whom it may concern, I am writing to you, and I am looking for help, I am currently doing a story about Dalai Lama and Panchen Lama, I know there is a book named The Search For The Panchen Lama, the author is Isbel Hilton, is there anyone who can help me to get the email address and the contact with her? I heard that she is travelling in India, one of my colleague is going to travel in ...

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