"... tangy reduction enlivened with a sprinkle of cinnamon and saffron."

"You may have heard that Italy was introduced to pasta by Marco Polo, who brought it from China. It's a great story, but it was probably cooked up by a 1920s Don Draper — it's just not true. Italians were eating pasta before Polo was born. How, then, did two nations half a world apart, with radically disparate cuisines, wind up making noodles that are strikingly similar? That's what food writer Jen Lin-Liu sets out to discover in On the Noodle Road, traveling overland from Beijing to Rome.
     Lin-Liu, a first-generation Chinese American, was raised in suburban Southern California; she went to Columbia University and afterward moved to China to explore its food and culture. She wrote about the country's rapid changes alongside her own story of attending cooking school and becoming a chef in her first book, Serve the People. This book, too, mixes personal narrative with a journalist's take on the world around her.
     Lin-Liu traveled the Silk Road, selecting her path from the trade routes along which recipes and ideas might have migrated. She took about six months, giving herself time to eat lots, explore kitchens and learn to make noodle dishes along the way."

— Carolyn Kellogg, Los Angeles Times
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It's time to read.

From: Russia Beyond The Headlines

"How many hours a week do you read?

     If it's 10 hours or more, you might try moving to India — you'll be among your people. According to this infographic, Indians spend more time reading books than the residents of any other nation. Each week, the average Indian reads for 10 hours, 42 minutes.
     Americans read books only about half that amount: 5 hours and 42 minutes. Interestingly, Americans and Germans spend exactly the same amount of time reading."
— Carolyn Kellogg, Los Angeles Times
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Hollowing out the middle class one book at a time…

From: etsy

"Publishers Weekly, the publishing industry trade magazine, quotes [U.S. President Barack] Obama deputy press secretary Amy Brundage on the appearance [at the Amazon warehouse]: 'The Amazon facility in Chattanooga is a perfect example of the company that is investing in American workers and creating good, high-wage jobs,' she said Friday. 'What the president wants to do is to highlight Amazon and the Chattanooga facility as an example of a company that is spurring job growth and keeping our country competitive.'

     American Booksellers Association's [Chief Executive Oren] Teicher protests that, writing, 'At a time when Main Street retailers, including indie bookstores, show promise of recovering from the recession, we are disheartened to see Amazon touted as a "jobs creator" and its warehouse facility used as a backdrop for an important jobs speech, when, frankly, the exact opposite is true.'
     Citing the Institute for Local Self-Reliance, Teicher writes, 'Every $10 million in spending that shifts from Main Street retailers to Amazon results in a net loss of 33 retail jobs. That would mean for 2012 alone — using Amazon’s own numbers about its increase in sales — Amazon cost the U.S. economy more than 42,000 jobs just last year!'"
— Carolyn Kellogg, Los Angeles Times
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The Man With the Golden Pen

From: Beattie's Book Blog

"[...] Amazon announced Tuesday that it has purchased the North American rights to Ian Fleming's James Bond books. James Bond, of course, is the debonair British superspy 007, whose bestselling books have become an iconic big-screen movie franchise. Under the agreement, Amazon will retain republication rights for 10 years, to both the print books, which have sold 100 million copies worldwide, and the e-books, which have not. Yet. [Not true: see article below]
     The 14 Bond books that fall under the agreement are, in chronological order (American publication dates): "Casino Royale" (1953), "Live and Let Die" (1954), "Moonraker" (1955), "Diamonds Are Forever" (1956), "From Russia with Love" (1957), "Dr. No" (1958), "Goldfinger" (1959), "For your Eyes Only" (1960), "Thunderball" (1961), "The Spy Who Loved Me" (1962), "On Her Majesty's Secret Service" (1963), "You Only Live Twice" (1964), "The Man With The Golden Gun" (1965), and "Octopussy and the Living Daylights" (1966)."
— Carolyn Kellogg, Los Angeles Times
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"Ian Fleming Publications attracted attention when, in 2010, it announced it would publish the James Bond e-books directly instead of selling the digital rights to Bond print publisher. Two years later, Ian Fleming has changed its mind and sold the entire bundle of print and digital rights to Penguin competitor Vintage (part of Random House) in the UK.
     Penguin held the print rights to the James Bond novels for years, but at the time the original deal was signed digital rights weren’t on anybody’s radar. Ian Fleming Publications held onto the digital rights and published the Bond e-books in the U.S. in 2008, then in the U.K in 2010, Sarah Weinman reported at the time. She also noted, 'The estate may have some leverage because of the Bond’s popularity across many different forms of media, and most fans don’t automatically think of Penguin when they think of 007.'”
— Laura Hazard Owen, paidContent
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Buy them all (in pre-digital form) here...