Read
It and Reap
BY
SUSAN WICKSTROM
THINK I'LL EAT SOME WORMS
If your favorite foodie is as full of himself as he
is gastronomical delights, this gift will shut his mouth.
Strange Foods: Bush Meat, Bats and Butterflies--An
Epicurean Adventure Around the World by Jerry Hopkins
(
Powell's Books
for Cooks and Gardeners, 3747 SE Hawthorne Blvd., 235-3802)
is a fascinating collection of the weird things some cultures
eat. This incredible book lists foods that are considered
delicacies in some places but would make most Twinkie-gobbling
Ameri-cans gag: calf embryo, dragonflies, monkey meat, placenta,
maggots and blood. This beautiful volume is complete with
color photographs and plenty of recipes (Double-Boiled Penis
Soup, anyone?). Warning: NOT for the squeamish.
WORD TO YOUR MOTHER
There seems to be a plethora of wrap-up books this
season, what with the century and millennium ending. The
folks at Oxford University Press, who bill themselves
as the world leaders in authenticating new words and describing
language, have come up with 20th Century Words:
The Story of the New Words in English Over the Last Hundred
Years ($25, Borders
Books and Music, 708 SW 3rd Ave., 220-5911). The volume
has an obvious British accent, which is only fair since
they invented the language, but many Americanisms are
included as well. Learn the origins of such words and
phrases as dysfunctional, sexploitation, popper, pub grub,
squat and dadrock. This is a must-have for any lexicon
lover and serves as an astonishing reflection of 20th-century
culture.
ROLL ON, COLUMBIA
Before the white man turned the
mighty Columbia into robo-river, Chinook-speakers thrived
in this area for thousands of years. Their highly evolved
and wealthy society is one of the most fascinating and
neglected chapters in Northwest history. Local author
Rick Rubin took on the challenge of telling their story
and documented his research results in Naked Against
the Rain: The People of the Lower Columbia River 1770-1830
($29.95, Annie Bloom's Books, 7834 SW Capitol Highway,
246-0053). Rubin's interpretive history of the Chinook-speakers
from 1770 until the end of their centuries-old empire
is a stirring gift for local-history addicts.
CLIMB EVERY MOUNTAIN
Your favorite female armchair traveler may grow weary
of always reading about macho men and their crazy adventures.
But women have just as many wild tales as the guys, as
proven in A Woman's Passion for Travel: More True
Stories from A Woman's World ($17.95, Powell's
Travel Store, 701 SW 6th Ave., 228-1108). This anthology
of true travel stories includes pieces written by Frances
Mayes, Anne Lamott, Pam Houston and other women who have
ventured to Iceland, Tunisia, Alaska and beyond. And if
your vicarious thrillmonger is more into men than women,
check out Testosterone Planet: True Stories from
a Man's World ($17.95).
C-U-IN-HEVN
That tortured teen on your list can
commiserate with another when you give him or her The
Rose That Grew from Concrete by Tupac Shakur ($20,
Tower Books, 1307 NE 102nd Ave., 253-3116). Tupac wrote
this collection of 72 poems when he was just 19, at the
very beginning of the rap career that ended with his murder
at age 25. The themes he writes about are universal: love,
isolation, spirituality, racism. This is a sample from
"Sometimes I Cry": "Sometimes when I'm alone/I cry because
I'm on my own/The tears I cry R bitter and warm/They flow
with life but take no form...." He may not be Langston
Hughes, but Tupac is a contemporary hero, if not a martyr.
CHECK IT OUT
Portland's Central Library means more things to more
people than any other building in town. Now the Library
Foundation has published Portland's Crown Jewel
($24.95, Friends
of the Library Store, Central Library, 801 SW 10th
Ave., 306-5911), a tribute to that revered and well-used
landmark. Author Richard Ritz, an architectural historian,
is a descendent of the people who founded the library
in 1864. The book guides the reader through the building
and through the years in a remarkable tribute to Portland's
greatest public treasure.
A NOVEL IDEA
Some people look forward to receiving
at least one juicy novel for a holiday gift, a book that
will engage and comfort them during that January ice storm.
Plainsong by Kent Haruf ($24, Looking Glass
Bookstore, 318 SW Taylor St., 227-4760) is set on the
Colorado prairie where time seems to have stood still.
The story revolves around the denizens of a small town
where everybody knows everyone else's business, but life
still goes on. This is a novel you can fall into, and
it's been nominated for a National Book Award. Heads up:
The mothers in this story are either evil or insane--or
both--in case you're thinking about giving it to your
mom or mom-in-law and she falls in one of those categories.
WRITE ON
Some fiction lovers blame the Iowa Writers' Workshop
for making every contemporary short story sound exactly
the same as the next. But others praise the venerable
institution for cranking out this country's best writers:
Wallace Stegner, Flannery O'Connor and Raymond Carver,
to name a very few. The Workshop: Seven Decades
of the Iowa Writers' Workshop ($30, Borders
Books and Music-Tigard, 16920 SW 72nd Ave., 968-7576)
is a 766-page collection of 43 stories, recollections
and essays on Iowa's place in 20th-century American literature.
Mainstream-fiction lovers and aspiring writers will eat
this volume up.
SOLDIER OF FORTUNE
There's nothing more fun than
dabbling in the unknown. Wouldn't it be great to have
a hotline to the future so you know you're making the
correct decisions? The Book of Divination ($24.95,
Presents of Mind, 3633 SE Hawthorne Blvd., 230-7740) presents
several disciplines that may allow you to find the answers
you seek. From palmistry to tasseomancy (tea-leaf reading),
runes to phrenology, this book delves into the occult
with a clear head and beautiful illustrations. Teenage
girls and New Age moms are likely candidates for this
compelling gift, but you may have already known that.
