Host Tom Fudge and I discussed “Banana” for fifteen minutes. He was a little skeptical that this humble fruit really did “change the world!” (He also said the subject matter seemed “powerfully mundane.” I think – I hope – I convinced him. Listen here to find out.
Posts Tagged ‘ Book Reviews/News ’
An hour of live radio is tough!
..especially when the producers are so well prepared that they’ve taken all your favorite talking points. WBUR’s On-Point radio show put together a really nice show with some really challenging questions, as well as some great audio clips, including a fantastic version of “Yes, We Have No Bananas” sung by Louis Prima. Also interviewed was Adolfo Martinez, director of the Honduran Foundation for Agricultural Investigation, the largest banana research facility in Central America. You can listen to the show, which aired on January 11, here. You can buy the Louis Prima version of the banana song at iTunes (and it is so worth the 99 cents!)
(The show also put together a nice web presentation of banana-related images.)
Vroman's Bookstore blog report on my reading there
On lovely Colorado Boulevard in Pasadena
Thanks, Vroman’s, for hosting my reading on January 10 in Pasadena. Here’s what the bookstore’s blog had to say about the event.
“Last night I stuck around to hear Dan Koeppel read from his new book Bananas: The Fate of the Fruit that Changed the World. Food writing like this — deeply focused and researched writing on a single subject, moving from the micro to the macro — has really taken over the publishing world in the past few years. Mark Kurlanksy (Salt, Cod) has made a cottage industry of it, and Michael Pollan’s fabulous The Omnivore’s Dilemma (a book with a slightly broader scope) continues to appear on Vroman’s bestseller list on a weekly basis.”
Read more at Vroman’s blog.
Ten Questions about the book, answered at Borders online
From an interview I did back in December. Learn about slipping on banana peels, extinction, and fruity folklore here.
Boston Globe says Banana is "compelling," "fascinating," "disturbing."
A really good review by Ralph Ranalli in the Boston Globe, January 3:
“Thanks to Dan Koeppel, I’ll never walk through the produce aisle the same way again.
Until I read his new book, “Banana: The Fate of the Fruit That Changed the World,” I had never really wondered why there were myriad varieties of apple – Royal Gala, Granny Smith, Red Delicious, Macoun, McIntosh, etc. – yet just one monolithic, curved sweet yellow fruit labeled simply “bananas.” (Plantains don’t count; they’re green and you have to cook them before you eat them.)The reason, it turns out, is that the banana as we know it is a worldwide poster child for bio-nondiversity. Known as the Cavendish, the bananas sold in my local supermarket in Watertown are virtual genetic duplicates of the ones sold at my sister’s greengrocer in Los Angeles and at food markets in Tokyo, Paris, and Rio de Janeiro. The Cavendish is grown everywhere from Central America to New Guinea to India to the Caribbean to Southeast Asia.
In “Banana,” Koeppel, a longtime outdoors and adventure writer, weaves a multifaceted story about how the fruit’s unique nature has allowed it to become a worldwide food staple and a geopolitical force that has both shaped and toppled nations.”
(complete review after the jump, or read it directly at the Globe here.)
Read and Buy Some Books
Nobel Prize winner Paul Krugman recommends it.
Listen to my interview on NPR's Fresh Air.
My own op-ed in the New York Times.
Other Books:
