Ep. 153 "Land of Milk and Honey" by C Pam Zhang; "Anima Rising" by Christopher Moore

Transcript: JESSICA:  Hi, this is Jessica Russell. I'm the assistant director of collection services at Sno-Isle Libraries. And welcome to Book Buzz.  Today's two reading recommendations are "Land of Milk and Honey" by C Pam Zhang  and "Anima Rising" by Christopher Moore.  First, we're going to hear from Madeline, librarian at the Marysville Library, for a tasty tale of a high-stakes epicurean journey. Take it away, Madeline.   MADELINE:  "Land of Milk and Honey" is a sensuous and haunting novel about who gets to experience pleasure at the end of the world.  In the near future, an agricultural experiment goes wrong. Smog covers the world in a permanent overcast, extinguishing 98% of crops and with them, a world of flavor and culinary traditions.  Our unnamed protagonist is, of all things, a chef. She specializes in haute cuisine, alienated in a reality where the primary food source is processed mung protein. But when she receives an invitation to cook for a research community on a mountain high above the toxic smog, she accepts.  The colony is a culinary Eden, where scientists work to revive rare, extinct ingredients. Our chef has flavor, and meat, and vegetables. And a demand from her employer to cater meals for investors, who bargain to join the elite community closed off to the hungry people outside its gates.  "Land of Milk and Honey" hits the perfect balance of poetic and plot driven. I loved the lush descriptions of food that reawaken the narrator's appetite, set against a jarring climate landscape that erodes her moral clarity. C Pam Zhang's "Land of Milk and Honey" is a wild delight set in a dying world, and it will thrill you and leave you totally reverent of parsley.    JESSICA:   Thanks, Madeline! This sounds like a deliciously chilling read.  Next, let's travel back in time to the early 1900s, to hear about a humorously deranged story set in high-society Vienna, from Abby, librarian at the Arlington Library. Go ahead, Abby.    ABBY:  In "Anima Rising" by Christopher Moore, the year is 1911 and famed Austrian painter Gustav Klimt is taking an early morning stroll along the canals when he stumbles across the body of a young woman on the side of the Danube River. Startled to find her still clinging to life, Klimt brings the woman back to his painting studio and instructs his household of young models to nurse her back to health. As she regains her strength and ability to speak multiple languages, Klimt becomes increasingly invested in solving the mystery of who she is and how she arrived in the Danube. The investigation leads him on a wild adventure that involves Sigmund Freud, Karl Jung, and Dr. Frankenstein.  Christopher Moore's trademark wry, cheeky wit is on full display in this book that weaves together the café society culture of pre-war Europe and the mythology of Frankenstein to create a uniquely complex, darkly bawdy work of fiction. Steeped in the historical accuracy of Austrian social attitudes in the early 1900s, potential readers should know that this book features depictions of Klimt's notorious penchant for housing and bedding his young models. But, if you enjoy a dark sense of humor that occasionally jumps from the horrors of grave robbing to the life experiences of a dog named Geoff, to Sigmund Freud being taunted by a young woman about his phallic worldview, "Anima Rising" makes for some uniquely hilarious escapism.     JESSICA:  Thanks, Abby! That sounds like the perfect blend of historical elegance and complete, utter chaos.  Our recommendations this week are: "Land of Milk and Honey" by C Pam Zhang and "Anima Rising" by Christopher Moore.  Join us next time, when we'll explore more great reading recommendations — interesting books you can find at your favorite local bookstore or at your local library.    Until then, I'm Jessica Russell from Sno-Isle Libraries.   Thanks for joining us for Book Buzz on KSER.  [END]