Reading Notes @lucyburdette

LUCY BURDETTE: I think I've come to terms this week with the fact that I suffer from a book addiction. I've probably got enough books in my stack(s) to keep me busy for a lifetime, and yet, I want more... Here a few I've finished and enjoyed, and a few more I'm looking forward to, in addition to those by Zac and Leslie, whom you met this week. I know I can count on all of you to help me feed the beast:).

THE DROWNING SEA by Sarah Stewart Taylor. Sarah's such a gifted writer and I love the characters in this series--and it's all set in Ireland. What's not to like?

MISS CECILY'S RECIPES FOR EXCEPTIONAL LADIES by Vicky Zimmerman. This starts out a bit like many English women's fiction novels--with a perfectly nice protagonist dumped by the guy she thought was "the one." She's encouraged to try volunteering to get her mind off her misery, and meets a 97 year old woman in a nursing home who'd had a fascinating life, including writing a remarkable cookbook. Their growing friendship is wonderful, the old woman's a pip, and they share the love of food. I'm sorry it's over.

WHERE THE SKY BEGINS by Rhys Bowen. Okay, I will not gloat, but Rhys shared a few advance copies of her new standalone with the Reds, set during World War II in England. You are going to love it!

OUT OF THE CLEAR BLUE SKY by Kristan Higgins. I think I've read everything she's written from romance to women's fiction, but this may be her best. An enticing Cape Cod setting, a spunky character with an interesting career as a nurse midwife, a bum husband that she gathers the courage to leave behind...

And a few on my TBR pile...

RAZORBLADE TEARS SA Cosby

THE WEDDING PLOT Paula Munier

MUDDLED THROUGH Barbara Ross

CLARK AND DIVISION Naomi Hirahara

THIS PLACE OF WONDER Barbara O'Neal

THE BODYGUARD Katherine Center

And finally, one I hope you'll put on your list if you haven't already: UNSAFE HAVEN, which is out in paperback on Tuesday, and also now has a reasonable ebook price:). Here's an excerpt should you want to take a look...

Okay Red readers, pile on! What are you reading? What must I add to my pile?

The Long and Winding Road to UNSAFE HAVEN @LucyBurdette

RHYS BOWEN: Since it's my week to host I am honored to have the chance to introduce Lucy's new venture. It's breathtaking--absolutely true. It takes your breath away as you read it.

It's a tense, taught thriller, so different from the cozy lives of the characters in the Key West books that you might wonder how one writer can create such diverse books. 

Needless to say we are all very proud of her and hope she sells a gazillion copies!

 LUCY BURDETTE: Thank you so much Rhys! All of you Reds have been amazingly supportive and for that I am very, very grateful.

Today’s the day that my one and only thriller, UNSAFE HAVEN, is available to the world in hardcover, audio, and ebook versions. Hooray! I’m so pleased because my gosh it’s been a long haul figuring out how to make this book work. What was the nugget of the story? Who were the important characters? How do I get the right pacing? Today I’ll share a little bit of the (lengthy, interminable, agonizing) process…

As early as 2008, I was thinking about the question of why public figures take enormous personal, career-threatening risks:

The type of people we tend to elect to public office also are the type to take risks — big risks, says Frank Farley, professor of educational psychology at Temple University in Philadelphia. "They believe they control their fate," he says. "It's the thrill of it." If Spitzer had simply wanted to have an affair, "he could have done it in a less risky way."

Hmmm, somehow I had to work that into the story. I found notes from my earliest (very rough and sometimes ridiculous) brainstorming in 2009:

A woman finds a baby in the subway and no one claims the child. The police aren’t taking the case as seriously as they should.

(Homeless women are kidnapped or offered shelter while they carry a baby for wealthy couples who can’t conceive-a doctor is involved who is implanting pre-fertilized eggs (only in young homeless women who have no STDs), so no DNA from the women will ever be discovered.)

One of the homeless women escaped and left her baby in the subway where the protagonist found her. She goes undercover and interviews homeless women, gang members and others to find out the truth of how the baby came to be abandoned.

But the wealthy wanna-be parents aren’t about to let her uncover their secrets without trying to murder her to hide the truth, and they have some corrupt cops on their side.

Since these girls are runaways, no one reports them missing, and once they’ve delivered the child, they can easily be murdered with a drug overdose and no one questions one more homeless OD.

No, no, no! This was a mess of unruly ideas! No one in her right mind would read this...At that point, I took a few classes. Here were some questions from Bob Mayer’s class in 2010, focused on essential blurbs:

ME: What if a teenage runaway gives birth to her baby alone in a New York subway station. She presses the infant into the arms of a newly jilted bride who soon learns that the child could be the offspring of a well-known public figure and that the girl’s life—and her own—are now in danger. 

BOB: Big problem is your plot runs on coincidence. Jilted bride just happens to be there? It can work, but has to be well done. In danger how? The Pelican Brief Syndrome is when the bad guy does something worse than the original bad thing to cover it up. It’s an incident. I’m not seeing the whole story. Why does the bride care? Why doesn’t she turn the kid over to child services? 

ME: Oh brother, how will I ever write this??

There was a significant lull while I was writing the first seven Key West mysteries. Then, when the series was dropped by Penguin, I turned back to the “homeless baby thriller,” as the poor thing was called for the longest time. Here’s part of an editorial letter with suggestions from my agent:

PAIGE: My last string of comments brings me to another issue that readers may have, which is the timing or pacing of the novel. Pacing was both your greatest strength and your greatest weakness in the story. While the opening chapters achieved an excellent momentum that kept readers frantically turning pages, the middle lagged. This is because too much of the plot has readers watching Elizabeth unravel mysteries that we already know the answers to.

And then some very smart feedback from my pal Susan Hubbard in 2017:

SUSAN: I would start with Addy on the subway. All we should know is that she’s running away from someone called Georgia, whom she fears, and running toward someone named Rafe, who is supposedly going to help her. The reader should be concerned that Addy might not know who’s really got her best interests at heart.

Now I had plenty of good suggestions, but Crooked Lane had bought the continuation of the Key West series, so I had a lot of writing to do. The next thing I knew, last February, my clever agent had sold the book to an editor at Severn House. Here's what the editor said:

I’ve now had a chance to read UNSAFE HAVEN, which I found a darkly compelling and original read, involving a sympathetic and engaging young heroine, a well-paced plot and an emotionally powerful denouement. 

 The upshot is that we would be delighted to make you an offer!

Phew! Except I’d made so many false starts I wasn’t confident I had the story just right. Luckily, the editor at Severn House was fantastic and helped me figure out ways to tie up loose ends and tighten plot and character. 

Now it's flown the nest where it fledged for YEARS and I hope you'll give it a try! 

Have you ever worked on a project that took forever? How did you stick with it? I have one hardcover copy to give away to one commenter...

You can read chapter one here.

Ways to order your copy of UNSAFE HAVEN:

Book depository 

Indiebound 

Barnes and Noble 

Amazon 

Plus signed copies at Key West Island Bookstore and Books and Books

"In a major departure from her lighthearted Key West mysteries, Burdette invites readers into the world of a chilling thriller. (Unsafe Haven is) a page- turner highlighting the problem of exploited runaways."

—Kirkus Reviews

“Lucy Burdette shows us that she can write dark as well as light. Brilliantly plotted with characters we come to care about."

—Rhys Bowen, NYT bestselling author of the Venice Sketchbook and the Royal Spyness and Molly Murphy mysteries

"Lucy Burdette's Unsafe Haven is a gripping rollercoaster of suspense—you will root for her characters through every twist and turn of this beautifully plotted novel."

—Deborah Crombie, NYT bestselling author of A Bitter Feast

"Devastating, heartbreaking and completely immersive. This riveting story of fear and redemption, motherhood and second chances, and our responsibility to strangers is a powerful thriller proving one split-second decision can change our lives forever. Unsafe Haven has Hollywood written all over it!" 

—Hank Phillippi Ryan, USA Today bestselling author of Her Perfect Life

RHYS: so lets all give a mighty round of applause and do tell your friends and helpful librarians about Lucy's new book!

What We're Writing @LucyBurdette

LUCY BURDETTE: We've just finished making the transition from Connecticut to Key West--it doesn't seem like it should be that hard, but boy am I discombobulated. And in the middle of the trip, the ebook edition of UNSAFE HAVEN was released, so I've tried to let the world know about that. (Hardcover and audio to come December 7.) 

Meanwhile, I also finished the the first round of edits for A DISH TO DIE FOR, number 12 in the Key West food critic mystery series that will be out next August. Here's the cover--so pretty! Now the second round of edits is in my inbox--I am very happy about how this turned out. I’ve told you a little bit about that book here, and it's available for pre-order now!

But what am I actually writing? The opening for book number 13, which basically at this point has no name, no cover, and don’t tell my editor, but no distinct plot. Writer Edwin Hill proposed an interesting approach to National Novel Writing Month on Facebook a couple of weeks ago. He planned to try to write 1500 words a day for a prescribed number of days and then go back and outline the book based on what he'd produced. Kind of an interesting idea. And it does match my sense over the last few books that I don’t know what a book is about until I’ve written some of it. So we’ll see what Actually Happens, but I will offer you a snippet of Key West #13 and hope you find it intriguing! I'm enjoying bringing Violet and Bettina, the scone sisters from A SCONE OF CONTENTION, to visit Key West...

Chapter Two

Violet and Bettina were the last passengers to disembark. Swathed in plaid wool, they entered the arrivals area blinking like badgers emerging from a den into the light and the crowd. Miss Gloria shrieked with excitement and flapped her glittery sign.

“Welcome! We are so thrilled to have you here in our country.” She hugged them each in turn and they hugged her back. “Give me your coats,” she said, “you’re going to roast if you stay all wrapped up as if you’ve arrived in the Highlands.” I moved forward to take their carry-on bags and pecked them each on the cheek.

“Welcome to Key West!” I said. “Miss Gloria has been dying to show you around our town.”

As I remembered, the two sisters looked very much alike, though Bettina was a little taller and stockier than her older sister and had distinctive pale blue eyes. They had similar haircuts, short gray bobs, and wore skirts that fell to their knees and sensible lace up shoes. 

Once we collected their two enormous suitcases, we loaded up the Buick and headed home. The two sisters oohed and ahhed all the way across town, even though the jaunt from the airport to Houseboat Row was not the most scenic that the island had to offer. 

“Wait till we show you the town,” send Miss Gloria. “You are going to love our bakeries too. Have you ever had key lime pie?” 

We piled out of the car and Miss Gloria herded them up the wooden finger of the dock that led to our boats. Behind them, I dragged the two heavy suitcases. I wondered if they’d brought baking equipment with them to take on their tour. I knew that serious chefs carried their knives with them, but for bakers? A special rolling pin? Pastry cutter? Or an implement I hadn’t even thought of? I hoisted the bags onto the deck of my friend’s home.

“Thank you,” Miss Gloria said. “We can take it from here.” She turned to the ladies. “Hayley offered to cook tonight so you don’t have to go out and face the restaurant scene when you’re so jetlagged. But first we’ll get you settled. I hope you’ll be comfortable in what used to be Hayley and Nathan’s bed. Though if she could cram a six-footer into that space along with a territorial cat, two little ladies should do just fine.”

“Cocktails in half an hour,” I said and headed back to my own houseboat to peel the shrimp and make a salad. I’d gone through a million recipes preparing for their visit. Key West pink shrimp was a no-brainer, but in what form? 

Miss Gloria nixed a few ideas as too spicy and possibly foreign sounding. “I don’t remember eating anything spicy in Scotland,” she’d said. In the end, we’d agreed on garlicky, buttery, Worcestershire-laced baked shrimp with lots of good bread from Old Town bakery to sop up the sauce.

With my prep work completed, I went out to the deck to look for signs of my dinner guests. I was expecting Miss Gloria and the ladies half an hour after I dropped them off. Maybe they'd all passed out and weren't in the mood for dinner at all. But her deck was empty except for T-bone and Sparky, so I popped over and tapped on the screen door. Inside, the three ladies were clustered around Miss Gloria’s police scanner. My friend looked up, a guilty expression on her face.

“Sorry luv,” said Bettina, looking from my friend to me. “Are we running late?"

PS Hallie persuaded me to watch my first-ever episode of the Great British Baking Show and having that in the back of my mind is helping me write my Scottish ladies. I still haven't quite decided why they are touring the US as guest bakers. Suggestions welcome!

Pivoting to the Dark Side: Unsafe Haven @LucyBurdette

LUCY BURDETTE: As you, my Jungle Red family, are well aware, I’m mostly known in the mystery world for my series featuring a food critic living in quirky Key West. Over the years, darker ideas have come to me that would not have fit in that genre. I filed away snippets of characters and plots that seemed too gritty or dark for a cozy mystery even though I recognized them as elements of a good story. For example, what if a terrified young girl handed you a newborn—and then vanished?

That's the question that lies behind the new book, Unsafe Haven which is out in ebook form today. I do not exaggerate when I say that writing this book has taken FOREVER. I think this was the first time I mentioned it on our blog.

But I have notes and emails and photos going back to 2009, including opinions from classes I took and my trusted writing pals. The one thing I knew all along was that the driving force behind the story would be teenager Addy Carl, who gives birth alone in a New York subway, and hands off the baby to an unknown woman. I'd begun to save headlines from the news that might explain Addy's actions. These were stories about young women who abandoned hours-old infants in astonishing places. (I'm not even counting Julia's character from IN THE BLEAK MIDWINTER.) One newborn was left in a restroom in the Hilton Hotel in Key West. Another headline told the story about a teenager attending a dance who went to the ladies’ room because of cramps. Not realizing that she was pregnant, she delivered her baby right there, left it in the trash, and returned to the dance. Another baby was stashed in a nativity scene outside a church. What kind of girl or woman would abandon a newborn this way? These stories haunted me—I wanted to understand how a new mother might make this seemingly impossible choice. 

As I thought about writing Addy’s story, I did not picture her as a young woman who didn't care about her child. I imagined this book to be about a girl who was desperate and scared about something; so desperate that giving birth alone and pushing the new baby into a stranger’s arms felt like the best decision—the only decision—she could make in that moment. I hoped that readers would come to understand and share the agony of her choice and the fear that was driving it. 

I had also begun thinking about this second woman, Elizabeth, whose life had hit a major turning point. She’d planned a fancy New Year’s Eve wedding to her college boyfriend, but he’d shocked her by calling it off three days before the event. Everything she thought she knew about her future was suddenly turned upside down. 

As Addison, the new mother, emerges from the bathroom in a New York City subway station with her newborn, her eyes meet those of Elizabeth, the jilted bride. Addy thrusts the baby into Elizabeth’s arms and bolts. One minute later, another train, those women’s paths would never would have crossed. 

Exactly as my characters had, my writing reached a turning point. My writer brain understood that these characters and this story would not fit into the framework of a cozy culinary mystery. The challenge became whether I could tell Addison’s story in a different voice—dark, compelling, emotional, relatable—with a gritty city as the backdrop. The result is Unsafe Haven. 

I hope you’ll give it a try. You can read chapter one here.

If you read primarily in one genre or subgenre, what does it take for you to decide to veer off course and try something new?

Ways to order your copy of UNSAFE HAVEN:

Book depository 

Indiebound 

NOOK book at Barnes and Noble 

Kindle ebook at Amazon 

"In a major departure from her lighthearted Key West mysteries, Burdette invites readers into the world of a chilling thriller. (Unsafe Haven is) a page- turner highlighting the problem of exploited runaways."

—Kirkus Reviews

“Lucy Burdette shows us that she can write dark as well as light. Brilliantly plotted with characters we come to care about."

—Rhys Bowen, NYT bestselling author of the Venice Sketchbook and the Royal Spyness and Molly Murphy mysteries

"Lucy Burdette's Unsafe Haven is a gripping rollercoaster of suspense—you will root for her characters through every twist and turn of this beautifully plotted novel."

—Deborah Crombie, NYT bestselling author of A Bitter Feast

"Devastating, heartbreaking and completely immersive. This riveting story of fear and redemption, motherhood and second chances, and our responsibility to strangers is a powerful thriller proving one split-second decision can change our lives forever. Unsafe Haven has Hollywood written all over it!" 

—Hank Phillippi Ryan, USA Today bestselling author of Her Perfect Life

There’s something about an island @LucyBurdette

LUCY BURDETTE: This summer we had planned to take a trip to Iceland that was cancelled when the country was moved to the “Do Not Travel” list. We were disappointed, but there's been a lot of disappointment over the last couple years and we know by now to count our blessings and make the best of a situation. So instead of Iceland, I made reservations for a few days at Mohegan Island off the coast of Maine. It's a tiny place, with a winter population in the 60s, as none of the tourist places are open. Visitors take a ferry about 12 miles out into the Atlantic to get there. We did a lot of hiking, and one day came to a cliff above the sea. The map told us that we should stay back from the edge as tidal currents and undertow would make rescue impossible. Can you hear the wheels turning in my mind? 

I can't really turn off my mystery writer brain when we are away from home, so as we sat out on the porch of our inn, I couldn't help noticing which people looked like locals who might make good characters in a new series. It seems to me that people who live on islands are different, a tougher breed than the visitors. In lots of cases, the climate is not necessarily appealing to outsiders during the off-season, so the residents are reduced to a small set during the winter, or the summer, depending on the latitude. Islands are obviously harder to get to, which might make them more alluring to visitors. Hard to reach = got to have it. Locals depend on tourist dollars, but probably resent the intrusion as well--at least some of the time.

You can drive to Key West of course, where my series is set, but it’s a long haul down a string of smaller keys. This is not so good for a criminal, because unless you own a boat or a sea plane, there’s only one road out. You can have a getaway car poised, but then you have to drive three hours to reach the landmass of Florida where you can disappear into Miami. The sheriff’s department is almost sure to pick you off before you arrive.

We visited Lord Howe Island about five years ago when we went to Australia, and it was probably the hardest place to reach that we’ve visited. (Most beautiful as well.) It took two flights, one from Melbourne to Newcastle and another from Newcastle to Lord Howe. The runway on that island is short enough that if the wind is blowing, either the flight from Newcastle doesn’t go, or a lot of luggage must be offloaded. This happened to us. In fact it happens often enough that they are prepared and distribute packages of gray sweats/pajamas and toothbrushes to all the folks missing their bags. (All of those gray pajamas came in large or extra large so you can imagine I was the height of fashion.)

Here's the sign that we spotted at the beginning of a hiking trail on Lord Howe. 

I always meant to write a short story about this experience, and even tracked down the one-person police station. Imagine someone getting pushed off the cliff... What if the killer had nothing to wear but those silly gray pajamas—like half the unlucky visitors without luggage? One day I'll get back to that.

But meanwhile, are you drawn to islands? Is there one you think would make a great mystery setting? Island book recommendations?

(Unsafe Haven, my upcoming thriller, opens on the island of Manhattan. You can read the first chapter here.)

Lucy is Ready for her Close-up @LucyBurdette

LUCY BURDETTE: I can't say that I'm writing much of anything other than press releases, to-do lists, and emails. Though I did turn in the first draft of A DISH TO DIE FOR on September 1st, and I've been catching up on life since then. I have another book to write in the Key West series, but I have no title and no plot. I do have some idea fragments about what will be going on in Miss Gloria's life (involving the scone sisters from A SCONE OF CONTENTION.) And those ideas make me rub my hands in anticipation.

Other than that, I am super excited about the upcoming launch of UNSAFE HAVEN. Severn House is a new-to-me publisher that mainly targets the library market in both the UK and the US. (Though I am hoping many fans of the Key West mysteries will consider giving it a try.) This was a bonus book that I had about given up on when my agent sold it. The publisher designed a wonderful cover, and the book tells a great story (she said modestly.) Here’s what our Hank had to say about it: 

Devastating, heartbreaking and completely immersive. This riveting story of fear and redemption, motherhood and second chances, and our responsibility to strangers is a powerful thriller proving one split-second decision can change our lives forever.  UNSAFE HAVEN has Hollywood written all over it!   Hank Phillippi Ryan, USA Today bestselling author of HER PERFECT LIFE 

And that started me thinking: What if it really was made into a TV show or a movie? Of all the books I've written, Unsafe Haven is probably the story most suited for that. I thought I might post a bit of what Kirkus said about Unsafe Haven and then see if you’d help me brainstorm. 

Kirkus said: In a major departure from her lighthearted Key West mysteries, Burdette invites readers into the world of a chilling thriller. A page-turner highlighting the problem of exploited runaways.

New York City medical student Elizabeth Brown was jilted by her fiancé a few days before their wedding, and she's taking the subway to visit a friend who'll commiserate when a frantic-looking girl hands her a bundle that turns out to be a newborn baby. After phoning the police, she makes the mistake of calling a number she finds in the coat wrapping the baby. This call immerses her in a dangerous cat-and-mouse game with people she naïvely believes want to help. The baby’s mother, 16-year-old Addison, is running for her life from a woman who took her in as a young runaway and turned her into a prostitute. Unable to forget the baby after turning her over to the police, Elizabeth, herself adopted, gives an interview to a reporter that only exposes her to more danger….Only quick thinking and grit will save their lives.

Here's how I picture the logline: After a teenage runaway gives birth in a subway and thrusts the baby into the arms of a newly jilted bride, all three must run to escape danger. (Hmmm, or should I end that sentence with Kirkus's last line above?)

In addition to a little word-smithing above, these are the questions I’d love to get opinions on…Is there an actress who comes to mind to play Addy and/or Elizabeth? Addy is a teenager, small and fragile-looking and dark-haired. Elizabeth is more stocky, in her twenties, with blonde curls and blue eyes. Another character who might be fun to cast is Detective Jack Meigs (originally from the advice column mysteries.) He’s in his fifties, with reddish curls tinged with gray. He’s gruff and intimidating on the outside, but tender underneath, reeling from his own kind of pain. (My husband suggested Michael Kitchen from Foyle's War--who might be a bit too old, but is otherwise perfect.)

And while you’re thinking of characters, can you identify a TV show or movie that sounds somewhat similar? Even if none of this goes anywhere, it’s fun to think about.

Ways to pre-order your copy of UNSAFE HAVEN:

Book depository 

Indiebound 

Barnes and Noble 

Amazon 

Severn House 

And if this is not in your budget (which I totally get,) you can invite your local library to order a copy!

What We're #Writing @LucyBurdette

 LUCY BURDETTE: I think the better question might be what I am not writing... Which would be practically nothing because everything is coming together at once! Two weeks ago I finished major edits on the thriller UNSAFE HAVEN, which is coming September in the UK and December in the US. It needed a lot of work and fortunately I had a terrific editor. Then the edits on the edits came back and had to be returned within the week. So that all got emailed to England on Friday the 16th. And I've gotten a few more queries this week. (You can pre-order it through your independent bookstore, or Barnes and Noble, or Amazon.)

Meanwhile, A Scone of Contention is coming out August 10 and that means blog tours! So I’ve been busy with those and hope you will enjoy visiting the various hosts with me--I'll keep you posted about when and where. Regular readers of Jungle Red should mark your calendars for August 18, when you can hear Jenn McKinlay and me talking about our new books with the wonderful reviewer Oline Cogdill, all sponsored by Murder on the Beach. You know that's going to be fun!

But this past week I've been working like a demon on food critic number 12, now known as A DISH TO DIE FOR thanks to my friend Ruth McCarty. Lots going on in this book--Nathan's dog Ziggy has found a body on the beach, Hayley's discovered an old Woman's Club cookbook in the bin of library donations with mysterious historical connections, and Nathan's father is visiting on the island. (Uninvited, as all of Nathan's relatives seem to do, LOL.) I thought you might enjoy a little snippet about the cookbook, since it's been so interesting to read and work into the plot: 

Back home on our boat, I spent the next hour studying the recipes and notes in the Key West Woman’s Club cookbook, searching for the angle I’d use in my article. Rather than being typeset, everything in the book had been written out in longhand and illustrated with drawings that ranged from stick figures to folk art. Then the pages had been copied and spiral bound. I noticed that a good half of the women who had contributed recipes identified themselves only by their husbands’ names: Mrs. Carl Johnson, Mrs. William R. Warren, Mrs. Cyril Marshall, Mrs. Frank E Bowser. 

I could imagine the women, each at her kitchen table, laboriously copying the ingredients for her best recipe and then instructions for preparing it. They’d have their hair pinned up in knots and be wearing dresses with cinched waists covered by frilly aprons. Had there been infighting about which recipes would be chosen, and who the artists might be? The recipes were a funny mixture of old and new, not shy about using canned goods or frozen vegetables, and yet not squeamish about pounding conch until the cartilage released, or cleaning feathers from a duck, or removing the bloodline from a piece of fresh tuna fish. 

One more thing, John came downstairs this morning and said "I just had the worst dream. I was trying to defend you, as lots of people were saying you didn't do anything. I had to scream at them, 'Sure and while she was doing nothing, she wrote 19 books!'"

Isn't he the sweetest guy in the world?? 

Do you own old cookbooks that tell as much about the history of the times as they do about food?