Take 5 to Read - today at noon!

Did you know that one in five adults in Indianapolis cannot read at a sixth-grade level? It's a surprising number, but our community can significantly reduce illiteracy by working together.

Making Indianapolis 100% Literate is working on it, and they'd like your help. You can begin to do your part by observing International Literacy Day and taking 5 minutes to read something today at noon. But you can do more by visiting their website and learning about their plans to defeat illiteracy and empower our community with knowledge! (Thanks to Renee at Feed Me/Drink Me for the reminder about this day.)

My recommendations of food-related reading, in addition to the big vegetarian cookbooks highlighted by me and you darling readers recently:

• The Moor's Last Sigh by Salman Rushdie - a sweeping multi-generational story, set partially within a spice factory. Nobody talks about the smells of cooking like Rushdie (see also, Midnight's Children).
• Garlic and Sapphires by Ruth Reichl - fun, well-written reflections on Reichl's experience as a New York Times food reviewer. I've mentioned it before, but have no shame about recommending it again!
• Nora Ephron's Heartburn (the basis for the Mike Nichols film) - this book, like no other, sparked unavoidable food cravings for me. If you read it, get ready to devour rice pudding and pasta carbonara (or seek out a way to make it vegetarian, like I had to --- a tip: caramelizing onions and/or searing zucchini goes part of the way toward replacing guanciale - but just part of the way).

What about you, what's your favorite food read? Magazines, blogs, novels, memoirs - all media are welcome.