Our November Author: Helene Cooper

Helene Cooper introduces herself and our November book, The House at Sugar Beach: In Search of a Lost African Childhood:




I listened to this book in audiobook format, read by Helene Cooper, which gave me the opportunity to hear her Liberian English. In this NPR interview, the author reads briefly from the book including a passage in Liberian English. Here's a little more on the subject: Dictionary for Liberian English. Another interview with Tavis Smiley is available here and the Q&A section of this ForaTV presentation contains some interesting responses to questions about the book including the response to the book from Liberians and Liberian-Americans.

You can read Helene Cooper nearly every day in the New York Times, but of course, little of that writing reflects on her biography. This piece from last summer about the new African-Americans elite is of a more personal nature. She shares a recipe for Liberian Peanut Soup with the NYT's food blog.

The NYT showcases a new collection of photographs from the civil war and its aftermath.

The Library of Congress has a collection of American Colonization Society documents. Highlights here. Handy timeline here. More multimedia history and background on the civil war available from PBS here and here.

For more on Liberia I'm looking forward to the release of Pray the Devil Back to Hell on PBS next year as part of a series on women and war. Bill Moyers interview about the film here.

White Earth Land Recovery Project

Given that food or the lack of it is one of the themes in Louise Erdrich's Tracks, I encourage a visit to the White Earth Land Recovery Project website where you can learn about various programs from alternative energy and traditional agriculture restoration that aim to create an environment-friendly sustainable community. I found the project to encourage diets of native foods as a part of diabetes prevention particularly interesting. For more on White Earth, here is an NPR report from their "Hidden Kitchens" series, Ricing Time, which includes a gallery of pictures and recipes.

(Yeah, that's me, gathering wild raspberries and blueberries in the rain as part of camp breakfast.)

Burma: Festivals and Food

I'm very late with this but I am planning a few posts related to last month's book, Finding George Orwell in Burma.  Let's start with the fun links:  Here are pictures of the Water Festival from a few weeks back. (I was intensely envious looking at these last week when it was sweltering here.)  For those curious about Burmese food here are some tempting pictures.  Here's where you can go if you can't resist.

Brazilian Food

Before we get to the serious stuff, here are a couple of links of a culinary nature: CookBrazil offers straightforward recipes for many of the dishes referenced in Robb's A Death in Brazil. For a sexier presentation (do not visit on empty stomach!) try this food blog and click on a post to find recipe, commentary and slobber worthy photo.