The New American Cooking By Joan Nathan

Why Buy A The New American Cooking By Joan Nathan?
Surveying Americas food scene, Joan Nathan, author of the much-praised Jewish Cooking in America, notes our increasing openness to exploring traditional ethnic fare as well as new dishes. In The New American Cooking she offers 280 recipes that reflect the growing influence of Asian, Indian, and Latin American cooking on our everyday tables, as well as providing formulas for the likes of Chicken with Barbecue Sauce and Jambalaya with Sausage and Shrimp–dishes to which we have returned, or never left behind. The menu-wide recipe range features such tantalizing fare as Turkish Cucumber Yogurt Soup, Tunisian Fish Couscous, and Grilled Thai Chicken with Lemongrass, and sweets including Wolfgang Pucks Kiwi Clafouti and Chocolate Bread Pudding with Dried Cherries and Brandied Cream Sauce. A chapter on vegetables and vegetarian dishes, with the likes of Ragout of Wild Mushrooms with Shallots and Thyme, and Sautéed Baby Artichokes with Fresh Herbs, is particularly strong. Nathan likes to tell stories, and in sidebars such as Nova Kim, the Wild Mushroom Lady of Vermont and Cooking Iraqi Food in Virginia, she places the dishes within their cultural context, often introducing readers to the recipe-makers themselves, all of whom she visited. Nathan also provides information on ingredients and techniques.

Though one might question the inclusion of very familiar formulas, like the one for chocolate chip cookies, albeit in improved versions, the majority of recipes will be new to most readers and all are easily accomplished. With 150 color photos, the book is a delightful addition to the Nathan canon, known for blending cultural-historical investigation with recipes of superior taste. –Arthur Boehm

Customer Reviews & Opinions

Great cookbook
I received this cookbook for Christmas and I love it. First of all, the concept is great. I enjoy the food of all different cultures and it is fun to have them in one cookbook. The recipes are easy and for the more unusual ingredients, there is often a substitute written which I find helpful. Finally and most importantly, everything I have made from this cookbook has been delicious and I have tried many recipes.

I own many cookbooks and this book has become one of the first ones I look in when trying to find a new recipe. I have found myself frequently telling people about this book because I have enjoyed it so much.

I would highly recommend this cookbook to anyone who enjoys food and cooking.

Excellent New Cookbook from Joan Nathan
Joan Nathan has delivered a soon-to-be classic with her new cookbook, _The New American Cooking_. The cookbook is beautifully designed, with easy to read step-by-step recipes, beautiful pictures, and fun anecdotes.

Nathan visited forty-six states in the preparation of this cookbook, and presents recipes from American cuisines old and new – from Appalachian Griddle Corn bread (which includes mayonnaise in the recipe for moistness) to fusion recipes such as Union Square Cafe’s Tuna Burger with Ginger-Wasabi Mayonnaise. Her recipes come from chefs, farmers, restaraunteers and locals.

I love Nathan’s approach. In researching this book she spent time with immigrant communities old and new – she includes recipes from the descendants of Croatian immigrants who came to Minnesota at the turn of the nineteenth century to work in the Iron Mines [The Potica - Iron Range Walnut Coffee Cake looks delicious, though I haven't had the chance to make it yet.] to Cambodian Chicken Soup from Hmong immigrants who came to the states in the 1970’s. These recipes make available the diverse cuisines of the U.S. today. She also includes recipes from White House chefs and celebrity chefs like Alice Waters of Chez Panisse and Jean-Georges Vongrichten (whose Molten Chocolate cake recipe, given in the desserts section, is DEE-LICIOUS.)

The cookbook givess eleven chapters of recipes, listed here:

Breakfast and Brunch [Try the Baked French Toast with Caramelized Fruit - I made it for a holiday brunch and it was amazing.]

Bread (Includes Pizzas, Foccacia, Dosas, Crepes, sandwiches and tacos as well, and some spreads and chutneys to serve with – 26 recipes total.)

Starters and Small Plates – Dips and Spreads and finger food. Some interesting Guacamole recipes – including one with broccoli and peas.

Soups – An amazingly diverse chapter; includes three very different (from each other) chicken soup recipes. Like most chapters in the book, the difficulty ranges from simple (Cambodian Chicken Soup from Massachusetts’ Pioneer Valley) to complex (Jean-Louis Palladin’s Corn Soup with Lobster).

Salads – In my mind, the most boring chapter in the book (though the Lobster Salad with Avocado adn Preserved LEmon looks amazing [and like it would take 8 hours to make]). If you’ve subscribed to Gourmet or Bon Appetit, or another Cooking magazine you probably have some vesion of all of the recipes in this chapter.

Pasta and Grains – Great Pasta chapter. Includes several Asian Noodle Recipes, and modern classics like Zingerman’s Macaroni and Cheese.

Vegetables and Vegetarian Dishes – Another Great chapter with 29 recipes with origins from West AFrica to Brazil. The Abobrinha – Brazilian Sauteed Zucchini with Tomato, Peppers, adn Lime looks delicious, as do the vegetarian stews from teh West Indies.

Fish and Shellfish – This is a short chapter, and suffers on two points: There are two recipes involving salmon and goats cheese, but only three salmon recipes total – in other words, the recipes lack the diversity of the other chapters. The second is that if you don’t live near a coast, the chances that you will be able to find fresh fish to make these recipes is slim. Another point I might add is that Nathan states in her introduction the importance of sustainable farming and fishing, and yet offers no recipes for fish that are bred sustainably – like tilapia. Other than that, there are some great looking recipes here – can’t wait to try the Tunisian-American Fish Couscous with Striped Bass and Flounder (though living in Michigan, I may have to substitute for the fish).

Poultry – Proves that there are about a million ways to roast a chicken. These are great recipes, and most of them require ingredients that you would probably have on hand. I can’t wiat to try the Sweet-and-Sour Pomegranate, Walnut and Chicken Stew.

Meat – The majority of this chapter is dedicated to stews and barbeque, and I can’t wait until the foot of snow melts off of my grill and I can try some of these recipes.

Desserts – An excellent dessert selection with everything from classics like Pineapple upside down cake to exotic cookies like Cocadas – a brazilian coconut cookie. The Molten Chocolate cake was outstanding.

I am going to use this cookbook VERY often, I can tell. A few notes of caution – the cookbook is beautifully desgned iwth bright colors and wonderful photographs, but if you are the type of person who likes pictures, there are no photographs of the completed dishes with any of the recipes. If there is a picture of the dish, it is in the introduction to the chapter. Nathan gives good instructions for plating dishes, though.

A few of the recipes are redundant, and versions of them appear in many recent cookbooks. Nathan’s challah recipe, though it is her own recipe that she makes every week for the Sabbath, differs very little than the recipes that are given in a few of my other cookbooks, including Art Smith’s _Back to the Table_ and Julia Child’s _Baking with Julia_. Smith’s Huevos Rancheros recipe was quite similar to Nathan’s, as well, and a few of the desserts can be found in other cookbooks too. And then there is Zingerman’s Macaroni recipe, which not only was in the Zingerman’s cookbook published a few years ago, but also appeared in Saveur magazine earlier this year. However, Nathan did set out to write a contemporary American cookbook, and including these recipes would only be proper.

This is a beautiful book. Of the handful of recipes that I have made, all have turned otu perfectly. It is easy to follow in the kitchen, and really fun to cook from. Highly recommended.

A Family Album for American Food
Nathan’s THE NEW AMERICAN COOKING, is the third of what I personally consider the ultimate in gastro-documentation. She has the uncanny knack of pulling history, cultural and personal narratives, and neo-traditional recipes into what can only be called family albums of food. What she did for Jewish cooking in America and Israel, she has done for American cooking’s newest food revolution. Her subjects are always living cookbooks themselves, whose palatable and lovingly familiar recipes and traditions draw you in and make you want to become part of the hundreds of edible worlds she introduces you to. The recipes have been well tested, well written and make for enthusiastic eating. No kitchen or cookbook library can afford to miss out on what I consider to be a historic and insightful snapshot of our contemporary global-yet-local tastebuds. Joan Nathan has set the table for a national banquet.

A delectable addition to anyone’s cookbook collection!
This book is a beautiful collection of the most heart-warming stories to accompany the most delicious recipes. Ms. Nathan has successfully captured the hodgepodge that is America today, with recipes from Moo Shu to Apple Pie. I can personally vouch for the deliciousness of the Apple Torte featured on the cover, as well as the incredible Stuffed Grape Leaves. This is a cookbook that you’ll find yourself coming back to again and again. For the novice as well as the expert, this book has fabulous recipes for entertaining as well as those ‘homey’ ones that you’ll find yourself making over and over again. My copy is less than one month old and already the pages are dog-earred and stained — the sign of a GREAT cookbook!

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The Last Days Of Haute Cuisine: The Coming Of Age Of American Restaurants By Patric Kuh

Why Buy A The Last Days Of Haute Cuisine: The Coming Of Age Of American Restaurants By Patric Kuh?
Snooty waiters, seating by social pedigree, and food copied from the classical French canon–these facts of restaurant life are mostly gone from our modern dining scene. But how did this status-based system, typical of the postwar period, mutate into todays uniquely American fine-dining experience–a populist stew of New Californian, ethnic, and domesticated French and Italian cooking? Patric Kuhs The Last Days of Haute Cuisine: Americas Culinary Revolution tells all, deftly and with wit. European gastronomy was about the few, says Kuh, the American market about the many. When they came together they created a whole new form: the modern American restaurant.

The story begins in 1939 with the arrival in New York of Henri Soulé, maître restaurateur of the citys very luxe Le Pavillon. It proceeds to explore such dining milestones as the counterculture-spawned Chez Panisse, Spago and other grilled-pizza lodestars, Sirio Macciones post-elitist Le Cirque, and Danny Meyers high-end yet democratized Union Square Cafe. It also tells of food deities like Julia Child, M.F.K. Fisher, James Beard, and Alice Waters–and the cookbook writers, celebrity chefs, and restaurateurs (roles sometimes embodied in a single person) who help craft our modern culinary world. A chef himself, Kuh also presents (sometimes gratuitously) personal anecdotes about the back-of-the-house restaurant cosmos. The Last Days of Haute Cuisine will delight readers with even a passing interest in the American food scene; they will learn much about the restaurant business, its life and lore, and, finally, the way we eat today.

Customer Reviews & Opinions

The Last Days of Haute Cuisine
Patric Kuh is a food critic for Los Angeles Magazine currently, although he has been a chef and has traveled widely. He grew up in Spain and Ireland, then headed to France to learn cooking. He spent some time working in the kitchen of “21″ in New York and then for a San Francisco couple before ending up in Los Angeles. This book describes and explains the evolution of fine cuisine in the United States from the introduction of French cooking in the 1939 Chicago World’s Fair to the foundation of Alice Water’s Chez Panisse (and beyond). The writing is lucid and interesting. Highly recommended.

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What Einstein Told His Cook 2: The Sequel: Further Adventures In Kitchen Science By Robert L. Wolke

From
Food-science columnist Wolke returns with a further compilation of his ever-popular and instructive essays on the whys and wherefores of the foods we cook and eat. With verve and elan, he addresses a host of questions and issues that befuddle not just chefs but anyone who cares about the foods we ingest. How old are 1,000-year eggs? How can one cut onions without crying? What makes some mashed potatoes gluey? Why does split-pea soup turn into green cement? Are nitrites really harmful? Is buckwheat a type of wheat? How can I avoid buying adulterated scallops? What is miso? Wolke addresses all such questions with sound scientific information in his punning, idiosyncratic way, which is sure to provoke many a laugh. In sidebars he generates amusing definitions of food terms. Marlene Parrish offers recipes that complement the subjects of Wolkes essays. His too-brief disquisition on the accurate use of language in food writing ought to be required reading for both menu designers and aspiring food journalists. Mark Knoblauch
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved

Review
Bob Wolke has a great talent…that makes this book equally useful for the chef or home cook. — José Andrés

Infectious, informative, and even surprisingly useful. — Mark Kurlansky, author of Salt and Cod

Teaches cooks about chemistry, and chemists about food. If you love cooking, chemistry, and puns, this is for you! — Charles P. Casey, 2004 president of the American Chemical Society and professor of chemistry, University of Wisconsin-Madison

Who else can explain the science of braising or the mechanics of heat transfer and still make you chuckle? — Jack Bishop, Executive Editor, Cooks Illustrated

Wolkes explanations are so well-written that they read like a witty novel, except it is all true. — Elinor Klivans author of Big Fat Cookies and Cupcakes!

Why Buy A What Einstein Told His Cook 2: The Sequel: Further Adventures In Kitchen Science By Robert L. Wolke?
The scientist in the kitchen tells us more about what makes our foods tick.

This sequel to the best-selling What Einstein Told His Cook continues Bob Wolkes investigations into the science behind our foods—from the farm or factory to the market, and through the kitchen to the table. In response to ongoing questions from the readers of his nationally syndicated Washington Post column, Food 101, Wolke continues to debunk misconceptions with reliable, commonsense answers. He has also added a new feature for curious cooks and budding scientists, Sidebar Science, which details the chemical processes that underlie food and cooking.

In the same plain language that made the first book a hit with both techies and foodies, Wolke combines the authority, clarity, and wit of a renowned research scientist, writer, and teacher. All those who cook, or for that matter go to the market and eat, will become wiser consumers, better cooks, and happier gastronomes for understanding their food. 20 illustrations.

Customer Reviews & Opinions

science at its best
For all of you that enjoy reading and enjoy science, this book is well suited for you. Even if you’re just dipping you’re feet in its amazing.

absolutely fascinating
This book is absolutely fascinating and well-written. It is a combination of insightful questions, comprehensive answers, recipes illustrating the points, and humorous food-related false “definitions” like a made-up food dictionary. If you have ever wondered what or why or how about anything food-related, like why does this happen when I mix these ingredients, or what is this stuff the recipe calls for, or how does marinade work, this is the book for you. It literally answers questions you never thought to ask. The author is a chemist with an interest in food, so at least in his spare time focuses on the chemistry of food. So he is knowledgeable and his love of the subject is obvious. He also knows who his audience is–food lovers and cooks who may not be scientists. This book is substantial with lots of short chapters so you get a lot for your money, with short attention span reading that covers a wide spectrum of subjects. I’m glad I stumbled upon it in the bargain section, I learned a great deal by reading it.

lWhat Einstein Told His Cook 2: The Sequel: Further Adventures in Kitchen Science
Actually, I never read the book. I bought this for my ex-wife. I’d purchased her “What Einstein Told His Cook”, & “What Einstein Told His Barber”. She just loved “Cook” & would give it 5 stars, but once she got “Cook 2: The Sequel”, she liked it even better than the original, so both books get 5 stars from her. This from a woman who rarely reads books.

Entertaining Foodie Read plus Superior Explanations.
`What Einstein Told His Cook 2, The Sequel’ by retired chemistry professor and columnist, Robert Wolke is in the same format as the first volume, of which I said:

“This book of what science can tell us about working with food. It is one answer to my wish that every TV chef who is attempting to teach cooking to us foodies take a two semester course in chemistry. The book is not a rigorous approach to the chemistry of sugars, salt, fats, chemical leavenings, heat, acids, bases, and the like. Rather, it is a collection of enhanced answers to questions posed to the author in a regular newspaper column. This makes the book more interesting to read, if a little less available as a resource to applying its teachings to new situations.”

This statement is equally true of the second volume. And, I must believe Professor Wolke has read this comment in my review or elsewhere. In his introduction he recognizes that his little columns are all answers to specific questions; however, science, by its nature, is `all tied together’ in theories which enable its predictive and explanatory powers. Thus, Wolke says that in order to explain the answer to two related questions, we may find him repeating himself now and then, as he does over and over when he invokes how proteins denature by unwinding themselves and wrapping themselves into tight knots, leading to, for example, cooked eggs or tough cooked meat. I have absolutely no problem with that within the context of his format of question and answer.

On the other hand, this format does not lend itself to be used as a source for looking up specific answers to questions that were not asked by the people writing into Dr. Wolke at the Washington Post. This is a small but real problem, made all the more frustrating because buried in the answers to some questions are some real gems of wisdom such as Table 5 on page 222 which gives the best kinds of sauces for various shapes of hard pasta. As good as the battalions of Italian cookbook writers are in covering their field, none of them has, to my recollection, put things quite so succinctly. This illustrates that genius in writing about cooking is not so much in what science you use, but in how well you present the answer. And, with a few small reservations, it is in this talent where Professor Wolke is a champion. While I may still vote for Alton Brown as my favorite TV foodie, Wolke has mastered the connection between Science, English, Food, and his audience.

One of my favorite examples of how Wolke successfully addresses an issue is on the matter of cutting onions and tears. For starters, he corrects Alton Brown’s error in attributing the tearing to sulfur trioxide dissolving in the moisture in your eyes, thus creating a weak sulfuric acid solution. In fact, if any sulfur oxide gas is involved, it is much more likely to be sulfur dioxide which, when dissolved in water, creates the much weaker sulfurous acid. Wolke goes on to say that the phenomena is due to a number of different causes, which makes absolute sense, because if there were a single cause, then the chances of finding relief would be much higher. Wolke goes on to show the problems with all the various remedies. He and Alton agree on the importance of a sharp knife, although I use an extremely sharp Japanese vegetable knife when dicing onions, and I tear like a two-year-old on a jag. Sticking with onions, Wolke gives an excellent explanation of the French vintner’s notion of `terroir’ and how it relates to the lower bite of Vidalia onions. And, he correctly points out that it is fewer nasty compounds rather than more sugars which make the Vidalia and its cousins milder.

There are three general areas where Wolke could stand some improvement. While I was a journeyman chemist, I was an expert on linguistics and linguistic philosophy so, first, I find Wolke is occasionally a bit inconsistent in his use of works such as alkali (the opposite of acid). Early in the book, he says that alkali should be reserved for the extremely strong bases such as sodium hydroxide and potassium hydroxide, yet I see him frequently using `alkali’ for things that are just a tad over pH 7. The second quibble is that while science and the arts have long ago come to a détente and science and religion seem to be at an armed truce, Wolke constantly takes potshots at aspects of legal and political practice. It in incredibly easy for someone schooled in the doctrines of science to take pleasure at the apparent foibles of political practice, yet the people in the political world have problems of entirely different nature than either science or art, so cheap shots at food regulations, for example, are just that, cheap. The last problem I see is with Wolke’s humor, especially in his little `Foodie’s Fictionary’ blurbs. I’m afraid I found not one of them very funny. Sorry. I think most of the humor in his main text is pretty basic and certainly welcome, but Alton Brown does not need to fear his position as the leading culinary class clown. The book would have been just a wee bit better with a good bibliography on food science references.

New in this sequel are sidebars on various scientific issues. Most of the really valuable reference stuff is in these sidebars. What you may wish to do is stick some of those cute little post it note tabs on the sidebarred pages and write a word describing the topic.

This is a really great book to take to your armchair and read from cover to cover. If you liked the first, you will definitely like this one as well or better. If you have read neither and you have an interest in food, buy both now!

appeals to the cook and the geek in me!
Very entertaining, well organized and actually informative. Since I have a pretty extensive bioscience background, I wasn’t confused by his explanations so I am not sure how a non-science person would react. But I think he does a pretty nice job of it, coats it in sugar, etc.

Basically if you like books like “The Turk”, Devil in the White City, Salt, Freakonomics, etc. then this should be up your alley!

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Spice: The History Of A Temptation By Jack Turner

Why Buy A Spice: The History Of A Temptation By Jack Turner?
There was a time, for a handful of peppercorns, you could have someone killed. Throw in a nutmeg or two, you could probably watch. There was a time when grown men sat around and thought of nothing but black pepper. How to get it. How to get more. How to control the entire trade in pepper from point of origin to purchase. In Spice: The History of a Temptation, classics scholar Jack Turner opens up the whole story of pepper and its kind like a ripe melon. He brings the exotic scents of the East deep into the history of Western culture.

Everyone knows a little bit of the story, how the desire to control the spice trade drove Western nations deep into the heart of the Age of Discovery, the Portuguese sponsoring Da Gamas push to India; the Spanish underwriting the many attempts of Columbus to get to India another way. The Western madness for spice was just about peaking in this time, and spice would all too soon become–gasp–common, much like the afterthought condiment it is for so many today. Who thinks twice about pepper any longer?

And yet, the history is long and glorious, and the window spice throws open on Western culture yields a glorious view. Jack Turner is a skilled tour guide and story teller. He starts his narrative with the 16th century quest for spice, then loops back into three mains sections of text: Palate, Body, and Spirit. Turner has mined classic and Medieval literature for any and every possible mention of spice and demonstrates how fixated the West became from the time of Augustus in Rome through to relatively modern times. He winds his narrative through the way spice was used in the foods of the wealthy (and puts to sleep the nostrum about rotting food), as a medicine, a sex aid, and as an aromatic channel to the gods of the time and place. He ably demonstrates the constant underlying tension surrounding spice–that it was both attractive and repellent, that it represented fabulous wealth and power for some and, for others, an abhorrence of the exotic East that exists to this day.

This is not an easy story to tell. But Turner makes it appear effortless. Pull a chair close to the fire, pour a draught of spiced wine, crack open Jack Turners Spice and youll read your way into the wee hours of the night. –Schuyler Ingle

Customer Reviews & Opinions

Wonderful research, interesting stories
The brilliance of this book is not just in the research, which is considerable, but in the fascinating stories told about spices and the spice-trade throughout history. From the mummification of Pharaoh Ramesses II who was found with peppercorns in his nose (a spice not grown in Egypt – so how did it get there?) to the descriptions of different spices valued in different places, this is an unusual book you will find yourself returning to until it’s done.

I especially liked learning the strange tidbits of history associated with spices, like the fact that they were considered to come from the East where the Garden of Eden was!

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Strokes Of Genius: Federer, Nadal, And The Greatest Match Ever Played By L. Jon Wertheim

Why Buy A Strokes Of Genius: Federer, Nadal, And The Greatest Match Ever Played By L. Jon Wertheim?
Amazon Exclusive: Blake Bailey Reviews Strokes of Genius Blake Bailey is the author of Cheever: A Life, which the New York Times called a definitive, Dickensian rendering of a complete and complicated life, addictively readable and long overdue. His last book, A Tragic Honesty: The Life and Work of Richard Yates, was a finalist for the National Book Critics Circle Award. Read his exclusive Amazon guest review of Strokes of Genius:

If, like me, you regard Roger Federer as one of the three or four most glorious athletes in human history, and an awfully nice guy to boot, then the years 2004 to 2007 were golden years for you. This was the Federer era in tennis, when he won 11 of 16 Grand Slam tournaments and amassed an astonishing match record of 315-24. Nor was there much of the nasty tension entailed by hard-fought five-set matches; as a fan of Federer, one had only to sit back and sigh at the artistry–the elegant angles, the impossible retrievals, the bazooka forehands–while Federer rose to the occasion (good-naturedly) again and again, usually in straight sets.

This belle époque might have continued, if not for the rise of the musclebound Spaniard, Rafael Nadal, indisputably the greatest clay-court player of all time. For a while it seemed, at worst, that neither Federer nor anyone else would win the French Open as long as Nadal was healthy; but then Nadal began to dominate on faster surfaces, too. Transcending himself in the fifth set, Federer managed to defeat Nadal in the 2007 Wimbledon final (perhaps the third or fourth greatest match ever played) and thus equal Borgs Open-era record of five straight Wimbledon titles. Borg himself, however, predicted that Nadal would not only win the next Wimbledon, but goad the demoralized Federer out of tennis entirely–reminiscent, that is, of McEnroes effect on Borg, who retired at age 26 after losing his edge in the rivalry.

As L. Jon Wertheim points out in Strokes of Genius–his riveting analysis of the 2008 Federer-Nadal Wimbledon final, and an instant classic of tennis literature–the clashing styles of the two greats have made theirs the gold standard of sports rivalries: Feline light versus bovine heavy. Middle European restraint and quiet meticulousness versus Iberian bravado and passion. Dignified power versus an unapologetic, whoomphing brutality. Zeus versus Hercules. A senior writer for Sports Illustrated, Wertheim describes the match itself with expertise and élan (an oil painting of a forehand volley), while widening and tightening his lens to examine almost every aspect of the modern game: the curious obsolescence of the serve-and-volley approach; the evolution of the racket (natural gut versus polyester, etc.); the vagaries of various players, most notably Nadal and Federer. (Fun fact: Nadal–whose awkward left-hand game has given Federer such fits–is actually right-handed.)

These digressions, so nicely deployed, helped distract this reader from a very unhappy ending: 6-4, 6-4, 6-7, 6-7, 9-7, which one fan aptly likened to watching an angel fall. This much we know (and never mind the woe that, Federer-wise, would follow), but did you know that in England, at 9:20 P.M., there was a 1400-megawatt power surge when millions rose as one from their couches to switch the lights on, released at last from the intolerable tension of the greatest match in history? For that detail, and many like it, you need Wertheims engrossing book.

Customer Reviews & Opinions

L. Jon’s STROKES OF GENIUS could do for the sport of tennis what L. Ron’s DIANETICS did for the religion of Scientology
I am a huge sports fan and I think that the 2008 Wimbledon Final between Rafael Nadal and Roger Federer was not just the greatest tennis match I have ever watched but the greatest sporting event I have ever watched – two of the best ever in their sport, in the midst of a growing rivalry, played a match that actually exceeded the hype. This book is the perfect way to relive and remember the Match of the Century.

At a length of about 200 pages, I could have finished reading STROKES OF GENIUS in a single sitting because it is equally informative and interesting. Wertheim gives equal time to both great players as he provides a play-by-play of the epic match interspersed with a generous amount of side-stories including biographical backgrounds of Federer and Nadal, a history of Hawkeye (the instant replay technology used in tennis), a description of modern racket strings, Federer’s relationship with other players and with the media, the influence on Nadal of his coach – his uncle Toni, and even how Andy Roddick and Venus Williams followed the match. This book is a great reminder of a match that took place about a year ago and that will be remembered forever.

Perfect Gift for Any Tennis Fan
I couldn’t put this book down and read it in one day. Wertheim’s prose is as beautiful as a Federer inside-out forehand. It’s clear he had a Nadal-like determination to do exhaustive research before he even wrote a word. I loved all the behind-the-scene anecdotes about what went on in the locker room, the player’s upbringing, personal quirks, and all the things that were going on while this incredible match was being played. I read Levels of the Game by John McPhee and liked it. I read this book and LOVED it!

Steve Harrison

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