Dear Great Book Guru,  We are headed into New York City to the East 59^th Street Playhouse to see SMALL WORLD by renowned playwright and local resident Frederick Stroppel.  Friends who have seen it, tell us it is wonderful and not to be missed.  We will be taking the train so I would like to have something to read for the trip back and forth. Any ideas?

Fans of Fred

Dear Fans of Fred, We loved SMALL WORLD and plan on seeing it again – and I do have an interesting book for your trip: WHAT SHE ATE by Laura Shapiro.  Shapiro writes about six women and the role food played in their lives.  Starting with Dorothy Wordsworth and her culinary devotion to her poet brother William and ending with Helen Gurley Brown and her obsession with thinness, Shapiro shows us the often overlooked cultural impact of food.  Eva Braun, Hitler’s lover, found comfort in sweets and champagne as millions suffered. The colorful Rosa Lewis rose from kitchen waif to the Duchess of Duke Street and became the prototype for Eliza Dolittle in “My Fair Lady,”  all based on her culinary acumen. Eleanor Roosevelt is purported to have hired the worst chef in White House history as a punishment for Franklin’s  infidelities. Her most charming piece is on Barbara Pym, one of Shapiro’s favorite authors. Pym filled her novels with recipes and culinary asides underscoring how life’s seemingly trivial gestures offer the greatest opportunities for happiness.  A lovely, informative book and highly recommended!