Monday, August 11, 2008

Current Reading: Submersion Journalism, Shark's Fin and Sichuan Pepper, and I Feel Earthquakes More Often Than They Happen, plus Dinner

A smart, psychic publicist at The New Press sent me a review copy of Submersion Journalism: Reporting in the Radical First Person from Harper's Magazine edited by Bill Wasik as she thought I might want to blog about it. She was right; investigative reporters are my heroes. I can't wait to read it.

But first I need to finish
Shark's Fin and Sichuan Pepper: A Sweet-Sour Memoir of Eating in China by Fuchsia Dunlop and I Feel Earthquakes More Often Than They Happen: Coming to California in the Age of Schwarzenegger by Amy Wilentz.

And before that, I need to make dinner. There were squash blossoms at the farmers' market, so I'm thinking squash blossom quesadillas (minus the
epazote and made with cheddar rather than queso blanco, but still: yum).

3 comments:

Lisa said...

Oh, that looks really good. The book, that is, although the squash blossoms do too...

Jessica E. Pilot said...

I love this book! If you are in NYC, you should attend the book launch 9/27 McNally Robinson Bookstore--many of the contributors will be speaking...

-JP

Gina Hyams said...

Hey, Jessica. Thanks for saying hello. I'm not sure if I'll make it to the book launch party or not. There's also this related panel that sounds interesting:

Wednesday, September 17th, 6:30 PM
Panel Discussion: "Submersion Journalism: Undercover Reporting in an Age of P.R."
Hosted at the NYU Department of Journalism; co-sponsored by NYU and Harper's Magazine
20 Cooper Square (Bowery across from E 5th St.)
Sixth Floor

Panelists:
* Ted Conover, author of New Jack (winner of National Book Critics Circle Award), among other books, and writer in residence at NYU
* Jeff Sharlet, author of The Family: The Secret Fundamentalism at the Heart of American Power and a contributing editor at Harper's Magazine and Rolling Stone
* Ken Silverstein, Washington editor of Harper's Magazine and author of Turkmeniscam: How Washington Lobbyists Fought to Flack for a Stalinist Dictatorship
* Bill Wasik, senior editor of Harper's Magazine and editor of Submersion Journalism: Reporting in the Radical First Person from Harper's Magazine

Moderator: Brooke Kroeger, chair of the NYU Department of Journalism