Loving Frank by Nancy Horan

This is the second book I have recently read about Frank Lloyd Wright. The other was The Women by T.C. Boyle which told the tales of three of Frank's love affairs subsequent to his first marriage to Catherine, the mother of six of his children.

Loving Frank is all about the second woman in his life, Mamah Borthwick, the wife of a client who had hired Frank to be the architect for a home in Oak Park, Illinois. Frank and Catherine also lived in Oak Park. Mamah's husband was Edgar, and they had two small children. She leaves Edgar for Frank and this is her story.

Obviously, some of the material in these two books cover the same characters and historical time, but both are compelling, well written, descriptive stories. Frank and Mamah were subjected to intense societal pressures but slowly were accepted by the farming community around Taliesin in Wisconsin. Still, their lives were very difficult at times, especially for Mamah. Although she was an early feminist, there are never simple solutions to the reality of abandoning a kind and considerate husband, along with two small children, of loving a difficult, highly creative, driven artist, of finding time to pursue her own literary efforts of writing and translating. Mamah was beautiful and educated and is portrayed in this book as a kind and deeply caring woman. Of course she will always be in the shadow of FLW, but she was also a strong character and this portrait of their lives together is a tribute to her.

Roasted and Marinated Green Beans with Onions and Garlic Cloves

This was delicious! Hot or cold. Green beans, several garlic cloves cut in half, and a red onion, roasted about 25 minutes with some olive oil and then sprinkled with balsamic vinegar immediately after removing from the oven. Really, this was very tasty.

Golden Pear Soup

This was more like a smoothie than a soup. It had a delightful, rather sweet taste and was made with sweet potatoes (cooked with a cinnamon stick) and pears sauteed in butter which were then blended together with a little white wine and a dollop of cream added just before serving. Easy to make. I just don't know exactly when I would serve this. Like, it doesn't seem like a soup course; it certainly isn't a main meal...Maybe just a light noon meal with a small green salad or home-made bread with butter...

(I am still not exactly a convert to blended, pureed food, though this WAS quite tasty...)

Alice Waters and Chez Panisse by Thomas McNamee

What a story! Alice Waters started her restaurant, Chez Panisse, on Shattuck Street in Berkeley, California in August of 1971. This is the story of both Alice herself and the restaurant. It is wonderfully written. I had a vague idea of who Alice Waters was, or who I thought she was, but I really didn't know much and what I thought I knew wasn't accurate. Like, I thought she was a California flower child who had a very successful vegetarian restaurant. Not exactly....

Her love of food prepared with the very freshest ingredients became a food philosophy that has earned her plaudits all over the world from all sorts of food critics and chefs. As the restaurant (finally) became profitable and her staff (the Chez Panisse famille) were able to carry on without her presence all the time, she began to travel and speak and devote her restless energies into projects like The Edible Schoolyard (gardens in schoolyards, starting with the Martin Luther King, Jr. Middle School in Berkeley), the Slow Food movement, or trying to convince Bill and Hillary Clinton to have gardens at the White House and to openly endorse her passion in trying to arrest the the processes, both of how food is chosen and consumed in the US and how it is produced. She is such a presence in the world of foodies, even though she does not like that term. A dinner at Chez Panisse in 2010 probably costs nearly $100 but most of the diners find the experience and taste memorable and worthy of that price.

The book is a treat in itself, as the author follows the staff, all the changes and Alice herself through the last 50 years. She is now 66 years old and continues to live life to the fullest, always intending to live with more grace and reflection and serenity but probably not succeeding very often.

There are a few haphazard recipes in the book, mostly just complementing a particular chef or staff member or illustrating Alice's way of explaining how she thinks of food..never precise measurements, always open to experiment, taking advantage of whatever is available and fresh. The author nicely balances the tales of Alice's personal life with her public life. He tells the tales without malice and without too much adulation, always acknowledging the amazing tenacity, creativity and vision of Alice Waters. She does have detractors and the author also includes some of the comments from those less enchanted with Ms. Waters, but mostly this chronology is a tribute to her.

Now, having said all that, I am left with how complicated it SEEMS to cook, eat and live this way...the foraging all over our "neighborhoods" for local, clean food, the time needed to do this and then to prepare (think peeling dozens of baby root vegetables) these meals, the education necessary to reach the millions who drive through the fast food franchises each day opting for a super-sized meal, the total commitment to slowing down as we eat with our families and friends. Not that I don't agree with and totally admire her efforts...I guess we do what we can, each of us, in whatever small or large ways that we are able.

Anyway, Thomas McNamee has written a book about which Jim Harrison says, "Over and above Waters's obvious leadership in the food revolution, McNamee's work is as compelling as a very good novel."

Cage of Stars by Jacquelyn Mitchard

This is a novel of a Mormon family, murder and mental illness. I learned about Mormonism while the events unfolded, Mormonism without apologies and without drama, but also as a powerful guiding force in this family and their community. Mitchard is a deft and compelling writer. The story is narrated through the voice of Veronica (Ronnie) Swan, the oldest daughter of Cressie and London Swan. An unimaginable tragedy befalls this family, and the book describes how they continue to go on with their lives. In a way, this is another book about faith and how the individual has choices, and how these choices effect very different outcomes.

Have a Little Faith by Mitch Albom

This is a lovely little book about faith, specifically about a Jewish rabbi who asks Mitch Albom to do the eulogy at his funeral. Mitch feels he must learn about the Reb before he can agree to do this and so he begins visiting and talking with him. Concomitantly, he tells the tale of an African American man who left the high life of money, drugs and crime in NYC to become the pastor of I Am My Brother's Keeper church in Detroit.

Mitch is like many of us, raised in a religious faith but no longer as much involved. So this is his story and our story too. It is journey of faith for Mr. Albom and, when read with an open mind, a challenge to all of us, gently probing and questioning what faith means.

Superbug - The Fatal Menace of MRSA by Maryn McKenna

MRSA is methicillin resistant Staphylococcus aureus. This book is a warning. The author is sure that MRSA will keep developing resistance to antibiotics and that it could "be the most frightening epidemic since AIDS." For awhile there was MRSA one usually acquired while a patient in a hospital. And then there was also a community-acquired MRSA that seemed to come out of the blue, but was devastating to those who were afflicted. The hospital staph was more resistant to antibiotics, but the community staph often had more dire consequences and worse infections. The author tells of several horrific cases; some patients died and others had long debilitating treatments, usually after their infection was fulminant.

Now, these various staphylococci strains are converging and thus the alarm raised by this author. The staph bacterium cleverly and quickly mutates so that antibiotics quickly become ineffective. Perhaps a vaccine can be developed in time to prevent an epidemic, but that has not yet happened. What is interesting is that many of us are colonized with MRSA and can be carriers and infect more compromised patients..newborns, the elderly, immunocompromised patients, those recovering from or having surgery, etc. There are cases where healthy surgeons or nurses have infected several hospitalized patients.

The overuse of antibiotics must be addressed in our healthcare systems since often these are prescribed for a viral illness and have no effect whatsoever on the causative virus, but any bacteria in our bodies are then exposed to the antibiotic and continue to develop resistance. This book gets moderately technical but is readable by the interested lay person. We should all at least be aware that this is happening and not expect or take antibiotics every time we have a viral illness. We should practice good hygiene like hand-washing. We should be proactive with our healthcare providers if we have a skin or soft tissue infection that seems not to respond to prescribed antibiotics. There are still drugs to treat MRSA, but this author feels in the not too distant future, none of our current antibiotics will cure MRSA.