Sweet Land of Liberty: A History of America in 11 Pies by Rossi Anastopoulo #Pie Baking #Abrams Press Publisher #Rossi Anastopoulo

 MY THOUGHTS AND BOOK REVIEW

With a humorous touch author Rossi Anastopoulo has done her research well on writing of this book. I find this book very deeply rooted with insights into history of USA through different pies. American cuisine is vast, deeply and multicultural. Pie was a deeply and traditionally American - direct product of the United States. It was the symbol of American innovation and identity that if a Black American could eat pie at a lunch counter in North Carolina or anywhere else in the south, he or she might be considered just equal an American citizen as anyone else. From the Black Muslim on the streets of  Brooklyn to the Midwest housewife struggling through the Great Depression in San Francisco every person in the US has memory or association with pie. The author points out why pie is such a unique vehicle for this type of social study. Firstly, pie as we know is ate in the United States doesn't exist anywhere else. Secondly, pie is such a barometer for American society - it is endlessly adaptable. Finally, pie is so powerful. 

Pumpkin Pie is eaten every year during Thanksgiving as it popped up by the mid 1800s. Mean while in Molasses pie, the country's history of slavery is captured of the worst crimes of the United States and the legacies of racial trauma and oppression being passed down. Mock apple pie pops up during two of the most severe economic crises US has faced. Apple pie originated on foreign shores, the dish arrived in the New World with British colonists before evolving with the early Unites States, arriving at nearly the same time as the US Constitution. Jell-O Coconut pie is a beauty besides it is quicker and easier as well as economical. 

The author describes how Apple pie's are wholesome and hearty how it emerged from a pie culture in the ancient Mediterranean. In America today versions of Dutch apple pie have endured, served as a distinct style covered typically with a crumb topping and cream added to the filling. Well, I enjoyed reading the published recipes that are delicious and yummy. It was interesting and informative study from the author Rossi to know how different pies evolved and were made during different times and eras of US history. 

I just reviewed Sweet Land of Liberty by Rossi Anastopoulo. Thanks to Abrams press publisher and NetGalley for an advance copy for my honest review.

Book Description 

From the pumpkin pie gracing the Thanksgiving table to the apple pie at the Fourth of July picnic, nearly every American shares a certain nostalgia for a simple circle of crust and filling. But America’s history with pie has not always been so sweet. After all, it was a slice of cherry pie at the Woolworth’s lunch counter on a cool February afternoon that helped to spark the Greensboro sit-ins and ignited a wave of anti-segregation protests across the South during the civil rights movement. Molasses pie, meanwhile, captures the legacies of racial trauma and oppression passed down from America's history of slavery, and Jell-O pie exemplifies the pressures and contradictions of gender roles in an evolving modern society. We all know the warm comfort of the so-called “All-American” apple pie . . . but just how did pie become the symbol of a nation?

     

In Sweet Land of Liberty: A History of America in 11 Pies, food writer Rossi Anastopoulo cracks open our relationship to pie with wit and good humor. For centuries, pie has been a malleable icon, co-opted for new social and political purposes. Here, Anastopoulo traces the pies woven into our history, following the evolution of our country across centuries of innovation and change. With corresponding recipes for each chapter and sidebars of quirky facts throughout, Sweet Land of Liberty is an entertaining, informative, and utterly charming food history for bakers, dessert lovers, and history aficionados alike. Ultimately, the story of pie is the story of America itself, and it’s time to dig in.   

• Publisher ‏ : ‎ Abrams Press (October 25, 2022)
• Language ‏ : ‎ English
• Hardcover ‏ : ‎ 336 pages
• ISBN-10 ‏ : ‎ 1419754874
• ISBN-13 ‏ : ‎ 978-1419754876

Treachery on Tenth Street (A Gilded Gotham Mystery) by Kate Belli #Historical Mystery #Crooked Lane Books

                                             

                                                     MY THOUGHTS AND BOOK REVIEW

I love mystery crime novels. This novel Treachery on the Tenth street was full of twists and turns and suspense until the end. It was surely a page turner which kept me guessing for the murderer from the beginning to last chapter. One would never guess the killer until the reader reach reading the last few chapters. A killer who is mad and called, Jack the Ripper is loose in the city, which left Genevieve doubting Bea's death was caused by - the murderer who crossed the Atlantic, the killer may be in New York. Genevieve's role at the society pages paper as a journalist had taken years to build reputation. She worked with Daniel McCaffrey and Arthur Horace was her boss editor of one of the largest newspaper in the whole city. Some one has killed three women, all artist's models, including Ida. They were found dead, their throat cut. An arrest has been made, but Daniel McCaffrey and Genevieve didn't believe the authorities have the right person. The real murderer is still out there. The suspects included Architects, Edward Paxton, Walter Wilson and Mathew Shipman. David and Genevieve's brother Gavin gets invited for one of Shipman's party, Eugene's Good Year birthday party. Shipman claimed that he had known Bea and Violet. He admitted that he loved Violet. Both women were involved with Shipman. But, Who is the actual killer? 

Callie, Genevieve's best friend joins her investigation to find the killer of the victims. Police believed the women who were murdered were mistresses of wealthy men, are expendable and they kept the murder away from public knowledge. Detective Longstreet did his best to keep the murders quiet. From upper class society woman of New York, Genevieve turns to become an investigative journalist. Very interesting and shocking to know the killer and motives of the characters. A must read for mystery book lovers.

I just reviewed the book, Treachery on Tenth Street, Thanks to the publisher Crooked Lane Books, Kate Belli and Netgalley for an advance copy for my honest review.

Book Description

Somebody’s killing the most glamorous models in Gilded-Age New York, but intrepid Genevieve Stewart is up to the task in Kate Belli’s third Gilded Gotham mystery, for fans of Victoria Thompson and Andrea Penrose.

As a heat wave engulfs New York in the summer of 1889, the city’s top models begin turning up dead, one by one, suggesting the work of a single killer. Society girl turned investigative journalist Genevieve Stewart is drawn into the case when Beatrice Holler, one of her friend Callie’s fellow models, is found with her throat cut.
 
Genevieve and her compatriot, wealthy Daniel McCaffrey, are joined by Callie to seek out the suspects, which leads them to search for answers from the members of the elite, notorious gangsters, and the city's most prominent painters.
 
In an era when London’s Jack the Ripper murders have everyone on edge, the police want to keep the killings quiet. But the bodies are piling up as fast as the suspects—and unless the killer is found, the simmering New York summer could boil over into madness.

• Publisher ‏ : ‎ Crooked Lane Books (October 11, 2022)
• Language ‏ : ‎ English
• Hardcover ‏ : ‎ 336 pages