Fun summer reads have been shelved. It's time for the seriously good stuff. Hardback material, hot off the press and reverberating from the critic's quickened pen.
August's gathering of a decade-long book group called for a late summer supper of Chileno Valley pear, walnut and gorgonzola salad, grilled asparagus, goat cheese and farmer's market arugula flatbread and a fabulous, fresh (chocolate lined) Anjou Pear Tart.
Salad, flatbread and tart paired to perfection with a bottle of crisp organic Mendocino white wine. Look out for Santa Rosa based Horse and Plow Winery's cool climate, handcrafted and whole cluster pressed 2009 McFadden Farm Chardonnay available locally at Whole Foods.
Fancy what promises to be an extraordinary read this September? Ten years in the making by award winning science writer Rebecca Skloot, The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks is said to be one of the most graceful and moving nonfiction books in a very long time.
The Washington Post describes it as 'a deftly crafted investigation of a social wrong committed by the medical establishment'. Known by scientists as HeLa, Henrietta Lacks was a poor, southern tobacco farmer who worked the same land as her slave ancestors. Dead some 60 years, her cells, taken without her knowledge - were to become the most important tools in medicine and as the first 'immortal' cells grown in culture, they are still alive today. Lacks lays buried in an unmarked grave. This is the story of how her body unwittingly launched a multi-million dollar industry selling human biological materials and what happened when her family finally found out.
Stop by your local independent bookstore to pick up a copy and read along with Southern Sonoma Country Life's book group this fall.
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