I fell so in love with this photo from Vietnam & the tiny detail of the non la (a traditional palm-leaf conical hat) on the bicyclist that I had to show it in full. (This was taken by the talented Nguyễn Đăng Quang who offered this particular photo for public use. I urge you to visit his site for more exquisite photography of Vietnam.)
Now before we get to the results of the book vote, below is a fantastic Vietnamese cookbook I just found. In addition to the flavors, what also excited me was that she used ingredients commonly found in regular supermarkets streamlining recipes to make them easier without losing their essence. As Bon Appetit notes, “Nguyen cleverly incorporates techniques & ingredients to make it possible for someone almost anywhere to shop & cook delicious, fresh Vietnamese food on any old weeknight.”
IACP Award Finalist & named 1 of the best cookbooks of the year by Food52, Epicurious, NPR, & Eater among others
Drawing on decades of experience, as well as the cooking hacks her family adopted after fleeing to the US when Saigon fell, Andrea Nguyen shows you how to use easy-to-find ingredients to create true Vietnamese flavors at home—fast. With her as your guide, there’s no need to take a trip to a restaurant or specialty grocer for Vietnamese favorites liberating home cooks and making everyday cooking easier.
“Nguyen’s recipes are a cook’s dream…Cooking from any of her books is like listening to an incredibly patient friend explain a recipe over the telephone.” —Lucky Peach
“Andrea Nguyen is a masterful and irrepressible guide to Vietnam’s cuisine and culture. Vietnamese Food Any Day delivers big, bold flavors translated for the American kitchen. It’s exotic simplicity at its best.” —Christopher Kimball, founder of Milk Street
“From beginners to more experienced cooks, everyone will benefit from Vietnamese Food Any Day, which demystifies ingredients and techniques so anyone can make extraordinary, authentic Vietnamese food at home. I’ve been using Andrea’s recipes for years and each one has been a sure-fire hit. I’m thrilled to have this collection of favorites that are easy to master, from snacks and soups, to shaking beef and spicy sweet tofu!” —David Lebovitz, professional chef and author
But what book are we reading in july?
It’s the book originally suggested by Sritama Arijit Bhattacharjee! It wasn’t chosen in our random spin of what books to include from members in the vote, but it looked so interesting that Julie Jacobs (our book club moderator) included it as her suggestion.
A Winner of the 2020 Lannan Literary Awards Fellowship, a NY Times Editors’ Choice Selection, & a finalist of the Audie 2021 Best Audiobook of the Year
With the epic sweep of Min Jin Lee’s Pachinko or Yaa Gyasi’s Homegoing and the lyrical beauty of Vaddey Ratner’s In the Shadow of the Banyan, The Mountains Sing tells an enveloping, multigenerational tale of the Trần family, set against the backdrop of the Việt Nam War.
Trần Diệu Lan, who was born in 1920, was forced to flee her family farm with her six children during the Land Reform as the Communist government rose in the North. Years later in Hà Nội, her young granddaughter, Hương, comes of age as her parents and uncles head off down the Hồ Chí Minh Trail to fight in a conflict that tore apart not just her beloved country, but also her family.
Vivid, gripping, and steeped in the language and traditions of Việt Nam, The Mountains Sing brings to life the human costs of this conflict from the point of view of the Vietnamese people themselves, while showing us the true power of kindness.
“Balances the unrelenting devastation of war with redemptive moments of surprising humanity.” —Booklist
“Lyrical and at once heart-wrenching and hopeful.” —NPR
“Epic in scope, and a celebration of the human spirit, The Mountains Sing is a story you won't soon forget.” —PopSugar
“A poignant and vivid portrayal of a brutal slice of Vietnamese history from a perspective that is so rarely heard abroad: that of the Vietnamese themselves. We are starkly reminded of how those wars—and wars everywhere—wash over and drown both the guilty and innocent alike.” —Baingana
View on Amazon | Bookshop.org | SecondSale used book
FIND THE BOOK INTERESTING?
Join our online book club in Facebook if you haven’t already. You can post on any bookish topic including, but not limited to, global reads. Beginning July 31, we’ll be discussing the book above in an online event for 5 days which you can pop in & out of at any time.