Amy Julia Becker asked me to write a little introduction to what my blog is about (it appeared on hers yesterday) but it occurred to me that it is a good introduction to those of you who may be new to the blog. Plus, here’s a new picture of me that I haven’t yet uploaded to my “About Me” page: When I started my blog (almost exactly!) two years ago, it was called Eat With Joy, which became the title... Read more
I’m going to be a little less consistent about blogging in the next week or so, except when I have the urge to pop in and share a cartoon about one of my more amusing neuroses (coming soon: fear of jack-in-the-boxes–or are they “jacks-in-the-box, like “attorneys general?”) or a link to something I’ve written that’s gone up elsewhere. Meanwhile, here is my recommendation for a great summer read. (I read it back in December, but whatever.) It’s beach reading material,... Read more
“Give me your tired, your poor, Your huddled masses yearning for collagen-enhanced lips The wretched refuse of your plastic-surgery-free shores Send these, the not-yet-sexualized to me, I lift my lamp beside the Botox door!” On Fridays I’ve been posting some of my dad’s cartoon parodies, which of late have focused on the regrettably ubiquitous duckface that some young women and girls seem to think lends a sexy aspect to their profile pictures on Facebook. Here, the unimpeachably classy Lady... Read more
I’m really grateful to share another great review of my book over at Sustainable Traditions! They also made a pretty picture you can share if you pin things (which I don’t): Here’s a taste: “Maybe I am biased because I fall into the “christian foodie” camp but I genuinely recommend ‘Eat With Joy‘ for anyone struggling with how food relates to an embodied, holistic Christian faith. It is a wealth of insight for those of us trapped in the... Read more
I’m delighted to point you to another good review of my book, this time in The Christian Century, by Valerie Weaver-Zercher. Early in the review she talks about the general readiness we all have to be screamed at about our many and varied food woes, but how my book, even though it gets into some sordid details, doesn’t deal in fire ‘n’ brimstone. I come by that honest: my Daddy may be a Baptist preacher, but he ain’t never been... Read more
Don’t read me wrong: I’m not saying that if you have said some of the things that appear in the right-hand column, you clearly meant what is made explicit in the left-hand column. Not at all. But as my friend Karen Swallow Prior wrote a few years ago: “The trouble with prefabricated words is that they don’t require or encourage much thinking. Yes, clichés contain truth; that’s why they are used so much. But familiarity can turn even truthful words... Read more
I have a long history of becoming pretty obsessed with a particular story or book. I am only slightly embarrassed to confess that I collapsed dramatically on the carpet of the bedroom of my high school years weeping when Fantine died in my first reading of Les Miserables. It is slightly more embarrassing to confess that I really enjoyed the drama of collapsing and weeping over a book. Months later, when my mother and I went to see the musical... Read more
Katherine Willis Pershey, the (very talented) author of Any Day a Beautiful Change, has written a lovely review of my book in the Englewood Review of Books. I loved that she began by saying that she’s read most of the locavore/foodie books, and dreaded that my book might be a sort of “Pollan-lite” for Christians, but found herself saying “I have not read this book before.” And one of her favorite parts of the book was one of my favorite... Read more
Which is why, 26 years later: {inspired by this disgusting post from Slate: “A Brief History of Toilet-Based Animal Attacks.”} Read more
Rachel Marie Stone
Ad-Free & Subscriber Log-In