LeseLust & LeseLiebe

Howdy. Jimmy here. I'm the narrator and protagonist of The Black Blade . As a rule, I don't cotton to using highfalutin words like protagonist, but the author says I have to so I'll do as he requests. I reckon it's like my grandma used to say, if you want your green beans to taste like beans, you got to use the proper sized canning jars. My grandma was mighty particular about her canning jars. And her canned green beans always tasted like green beans and not, well, something else. Well, enough literary criticism talk. What in tarnation is literary criticism anyway? Orville and I are a pair of hucksters. I like to think of us as showmen, giving folks some entertainment to leaven their dull days with good humor. Orville's the master huckster and I'm his apprentice. In The Black Blade, we get ourselves into a heap of terrifying trouble in the weird west. Orville thought we could make a quick and tidy profit helping this strange old man with a knocker haunting his h...

Princess Margaret has never been forced to be hungry in her life—she has never even been limited to a small selection of food—that is, until she selfishly decides to run away from the palace the night before her father is set to announce whom she would be marrying. After Princess Margaret leaves the palace, food begins to play an important part in building relationships. Around meals, the atmosphere is a time to connect, learn, and reflect. Princess Margaret’s first meal outside the palace is with Huntley, a commoner, in a local tavern run by Ackley, a good cook of local foods. Princess Margaret has only had meals served in the palace dining room or that had been brought to her room, so the atmosphere of a tavern, the smells of unfamiliar foods, and even the process of selecting what foods to order from a menu are all new to her. Princess Margaret wants to experience the food that her people eat so when Huntley orders shepherd’s pie, she is surprised and delighted by the smell and tast...

Hey everyone. This is Kali Michaels, the main character from Wormwood , a pretty intense post-apocalyptic story. Thanks for letting me pop into this blog so I can talk a bit about food and what we’ve been eating around here. Trust me, I have a very strong appreciation for this subject. Wormwood ‘s author, D.H. Nevins, really turned things upside down on us—you know, avenging half-angels destroyed the surface of the Earth—so for anyone who cares to survive, the acquisition of food is pretty darn important. Truth be told, when it comes to palatable food, I’m luckier than most of the survivors I’ve come across. The first person I saw since this mess began was a rather desperate man named Eric (and I say he was the first person, because the first being I ran into was Tiamat, one of them, so he doesn’t count). I found Eric within a small copse of trees, anxious to cook what little food he could find over a small bank of coals. He was using battered piece of corrugated metal as a frying pan ...

Page 261. That’s the pivotal point where the two main characters meet. Mikael Blomkvist: crusading journalist recently at the wrong end of a libel case , and Lisbeth Salander: 24-year-old pierced and tattooed genius hacker possessed of the hard-earned wisdom of someone twice her age – and a terrifying capacity for ruthlessness to go with it . Mikael has been hired to research the 40-year-old disappearance of a wealthy octogenarian’s 16-year-old niece, Harriet Vanger. When he realizes that he needs help with the convoluted archive work, Herr Vanger actually recommends the researcher he hired to look into Mikael . Now that’s a set-up for a good meet if I ever read one! Mikael arrives on Lisbeth’s doorstep unannounced, rousing her from a hung-over lie-in. She’s disheveled and bewildered; he’s curiously amused. And all I can think about is the bagels . Filled bagels , brought by Mikael: one with roast beef, one with turkey and Dijon mustard, and one vegetarian with avocado. Well, now I ha...