Food Lit

April 1, 2013

Check out this jam-packed readers' advisory gem for further-reading suggestions when you're feeling hungry for the written word. Stoeger ladles out generous portions in four sections: "Life Stories" (memoirs and biographies), "Nonfiction Genres" (food travel and adventure), "Nonfiction Subject Interests" (the history of food and food science), and "Stylistic Genres," including investigative food writing, narrative cookbooks, and essays. Appendixes like "Food in Fiction" and "Food Writing Awards" enhance ready-reference appeal. VERDICT A scrumptious buy for public libraries. [Stoeger is a readers' services librarian at the Deerfield Public Library, IL, and an LJ reviewer.--Ed.]--Christina Connolly, Reference Librarian, Worcester P.L., MA

Copyright 2013 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

July 1, 2013
Food as entertainmentfrom glossy magazines to reality-TV shows, movies (think Julie and Julia), and blogshas been growing rapidly in popularity over the last decade. Stoeger's Food Lit, part of the Real Stories series of reading guides for nonfiction genres, explores nine distinct areas of food writing and provides meaningful definitions as well as reader-appeal factors for each. Genres include food memoirs, autobiographies and biographies, investigative food writing, food essays, histories, travel and adventure, and science writing. Benchmark and current titles are annotated; subject headings and generous lists of suggested read-alike titles follow each section. The hundreds of annotations alone make any librarian's job much, much easier, but Stoeger's inclusion of appendix materials from famous cooks and their books, food blogs, feature films and documentaries, fiction featuring food, and food-writing awards makes this an outstanding reference tool for any public library collection.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2013, American Library Association.)