Sweetness and Power: The Place of Sugar in Modern History by Sidney W. Mintz

This book presents a history of sugar. While in some ways I found it to be somewhat Anglo-centric, it was a really fascinating account of the rise of sugar as a form of food. It's Mintz's contention that sugar and the patterns of consumption that surround it are not accidental or arbitrary, but instead the result of larger economic patterns. I found the production and eating and being chapters particularly helpful--Mintz talks about the way that sugar's chemical properties (especially in preserving food) and its historical circumstances have changed the way we eat--and thus the way that we relate to each other. This book is really remarkable.

People of Paper by Salvador Plascencia

This book tells the story of a group of characters, led by Fernando de la Fe whose wife's desertion leads him to decide to go to war against the author, known to the characters as Saturn, who is himself in the throes of grief after being deserted by a woman. The book uses post-modern and post-colonial methods to question everything from religion to immigration to the authority of authors. With all sorts of techniques and innovations that put me in mind of Tristram Shandy (black spaces, words excised from the text, multiple columns), the book tells its story by words and by form. I will certainly return to this playful and beautiful text.

Roses by Leila Meacham

Although this book has received a lot of good press, I found it incredibly disappointing. The writing was poor (full of clichés and plodding) and the characters were off-putting (they seemed to be poorly developed, and the only one I found myself liking was killed off by the influenza). More to the point the book struck me as misogynist (heaven forbid that women want a career when she could have a perfectly good husband and children) and racist. Don't waste your time.

Guns, Germs, and Steel by Jared Diamond

This book uses a broad approach to explain why some human societies are able to conquer others. For Diamond, it all comes back to environment. He contends that some environments are more conducive (both in their climate and in the naturally occurring potential crops and domestic animals) for food-production and farming than others. Human societies in these environments, then, are more likely to become farmers and sedentary than mobile hunter-gathers. Farmers, in turn, develop diseases (from close living with animals), systems of writing (because food can be stockpiled allowing for people to do other things than worry about their next meal all the time), complex systems of government, and metallurgy and other technologies. I applaud this book for its ambition and its style (very easy to read and entertaining). I could see it skipping and over-simplifying in places, though, and I think its broad scope is thus both a strength and a weakness.

John Hartwell Cocke and Bremo: A Study of Plantation Life by Catherine Helliar-Symon

This monograph gives a basic account of the life of John Hartwell Cocke in conjunction with his plantation Bremo, south of Charlottesville. To begin, it's very short and only really covers plantation experiences (for example, I know from other sources that this man was a general--but I'm not sure which war! My guess is 1812). It also took a while to get to the information I wanted (he started a school for his slaves on his plantation). Finally, this book couched Cocke as the very best of paternalism, and that attitude always makes me leery. But, it was a quick introduction to a figure I wanted to know more about.