Just Read

The Hour Of The Goddess – Chitrita Banerji

I recently read Chitrita Banerji’s Eating India: An Odyssey Into The Food And Culture Of The Land Of Spices, and loved it. I didn’t waste any time in picking up another foodie memoir by the author, The Hour Of The Goddess. This one, too, didn’t disappoint.

The Hour Of The Goddess is all about the author’s growing-up years in Calcutta and the foods she grew up with. It is more personal than Eating India, and a delight to read. Well-written and full of warmth, this slim book took me into the homes of Calcutta, and made me crave to visit the place and eat the foods that the author writes about.

Recommended? Definitely.

The Dirty Life – Kristin Kimball

Kristin Kimball’s The Dirty Life was a book that I picked up without reading many reviews, on a whim, because the premise sounded very interesting. I am happy to say I enjoyed the book a lot.

Kristin was a New York city journalist, stuck in her modern city ways. When her job took her to the countryside to meet an organic farmer named Mark for a story, little did she know that life, as she knew it, was about to end soon. Kristin fell in love with Mark, and with the concept of organic farming as well. Before she knew it, she found herself quitting her job and setting off with Mark on a search for a perfect piece of land to start their very own organic farm. They found a plot that Mark loves, called Essex, and decided to set up there. Was Kristin able to adjust to life on a farm, after having lived in a city for so long? Did the wild-willed Mark and Kristin really find love, and were they able to build a good life together? To know what happened next, you have to read the book.

I loved the way the author writes, with a sincere voice. Her story, with all its highs and lows, rings true and strikes a chord in your heart. The descriptions of food and farming are charming, but the book made it very clear to me that farming is definitely not for the faint-hearted. At least, not the kind of organic farming that the author writes about in the book.

The Dirty Life was an interesting read for me, though I wouldn’t really call it a light read. If you are a lover of food and farm memoirs, go for it!