Two Winners!

I love reading cookbooks and books about how our bodies work, so I couldn't resist either of these when I saw them at the library, and may well end up buying copies to keep.

Phil and I both enjoy Indian food, but most of the recipes I've seen have been more complicated than I was willing to try. Made in India (Flatiron Books, 2014) is very appealing visually, and almost all of the recipes are on one page--a real plus. I haven't made any yet, but as you can see, I have several recipes bookmarked. I'll let you know how they turn out!  

In the meantime, you can visit Meera Sodha's website and see a number of the recipes there. The Coconut Fish Curry is on my list to try!

Gut: The Inside Story of Our Body's Most Underrated Organ (Greystone Books, 2015) by Giulia Enders, with charming line drawings by her sister Jill is a very engaging read! 

From a 2015 YouTube interview on "The Agenda" with Steve Paikin (well worth watching): "Guilia Enders had been working on her Ph.D. in Gastroenterology when a presentation on the gut won her the Science Slam prize in her native Germany. Her cheeky treatise on the gut went viral and resulted in her best-selling book..."

I'm definitely buying a copy of this book, as there's so much I want to underline, including "Our gut's microbiome can weight up to 4-1/2 pounds (2 kilos) and contains about 100 trillion bacteria. One-thirty-second of an ounce (1 gram) of feces contains more bacteria than there are people on Earth. We also know that this community of microbes cracks open indigestible foodstuffs for us, supplies the gut with energy, manufactures vitamins, breaks down toxins and medications, and trains our immune system." (p. 148)

I'm a retired medical writer and editor, and I deeply admire anyone who can write so clearly, appealingly, and often humorously about complex medical subjects. Do give this book a try!

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