Shall We Blame Martha Stewart?

 

As booksellers we applaud the irrepressible Martha for giving impetus to an innovative and profitable publishing genre. Sometimes dubbed “lifestyle books,” they are big, glossy, photo-filled, inspiring volumes about architecture, food, entertaining and geography (splendid sites, for example). Often they focus on a well-known or distinctive personality.  These books catch our eyes and are wonderful for poring over or for simply browsing.

 

In Solvang the Spotlight Shines on Scandinavian Lifestyle

 

Tina Nordstrom, the young host of Swedish television’s “New Scandinavian Cooking” invites us to take A Culinary Tour of Sweden (tellus works, $45).

While Americans might be drawn to Tina’s recipe for corn-fed chicken stuffed with garlic and sage served with a salad of spring cabbage and apples, local Danes are apt to salivate while reading the recipe for smoked eel with scrambled eggs. Smoked eel, says Tina, “is a luxury that should be treated with some respect.”

She begins her essay on eels, “Did you know that all the eels in the world are born in the Sargasso Sea? Did you know that the eel has a particular liking for green peas, and in the weird world of the eel—that is not even mystical?” 

All sorts of trivia along with useful information, tempting recipes and lovely photographs make this a lifestyle book to savor.

From the homeland of Solvang pastor Jarmo Taarki

One glance at the cover of Living in Finland makes one want to go there.  The celebration of simplicity and the affinity for the natural environment are at the heart of Finnish culture. But also the Finns possess a pronounced taste for innovation and technology.  When I visited Helsinki in about 1993, it seemed everyone on the streets was talking on a cell phone, a situation that developed in the USA some years later. 

No recipes but plenty of art, decoration and architecture—traditional and ultra modern—give wide appeal to Living in Finland (Flammarion, $45). 

And on this continent...

Until the supply runs out, we can warm up with a publisher’s close-out, Mexican Lifestyle (Atrium, $15.98). This colorful book includes chapters on the people, crafts, markets, textiles, interior décor, geography and gastronomy.

Chili, but still warm...

A little closer to home is Cowgirl Cuisine: Rustic Recipes and Cowgirl Adventures from a Texas Ranch (Wm. Morrow, $29.95). The recipes look and sound mouth-wateringly good and how about these intriguing vignettes—Love Among the Ruminants; Wild Pigs That Grunt in the Night; Do I Have My Pants On? Be assured that author Paula Disbrowe’s “mail-order chicks” refer to the cheeping kind.

Local lifestyle?

By now are you wondering: Why not a lifestyle book set in the Santa Ynez Valley?  There is one on the way. We’ve read recent newspaper accounts of Sandy Hill and Tom Ditmer’s fabulous Fourth of July party and enjoyed the buzz of subsequent conversations. Obviously, Sandy knows how to entertain. She will be sharing some of her secrets in a new book, Fandango: Spectacular Parties from California Wine Country, to be published in November by Artisan ($45).