{"product_id":"the-book-of-difficult-fruit-arguments-for-the-tart-tender-and-unruly-with-recipes","title":"The Book of Difficult Fruit: Arguments for the Tart, Tender, and Unruly (with Recipes)","description":"\u003ctable align=\"center\" border=\"0\" cellpadding=\"2\" cellspacing=\"0\" width=\"100%\"\u003e\n\u003ctr\u003e\n\u003ctd class=\"productDetailSmallElements\"\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\n\u003cstrong\u003eBiographical Note\u003c\/strong\u003e:\u003cbr\u003e\n\u003cb\u003eKate Lebo\u003c\/b\u003e is the author of the cookbook \n\u003ci\u003ePie School\u003c\/i\u003e and the poetry chapbook \n\u003ci\u003eSeven Prayers to Cathy McMorris Rodgers\u003c\/i\u003e, and is the coeditor, with Samuel Ligon, of \n\u003ci\u003ePie \u0026amp; Whiskey: Writers Under the Influence of Butter \u0026amp; Booze\u003c\/i\u003e. Her essay about listening through hearing loss, \"The Loudproof Room,\" originally appeared in \n\u003ci\u003eNew England Review\u003c\/i\u003e and was anthologized in \n\u003ci\u003eThe Best American Essays 2015\u003c\/i\u003e. She lives in Spokane, Washington, where she is an apprentice cheesemaker to Lora Lea Misterly of Quillisascut Farm.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\n\u003cstrong\u003eReview Quotes\u003c\/strong\u003e:\u003cbr\u003e\n\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cb\u003eA Best Book of the Year: \u003ci\u003eThe Atlantic\u003c\/i\u003e, NPR, \u003ci\u003eThe Globe and Mail\u003c\/i\u003e, \u003ci\u003eElectric Lit\u003c\/i\u003e, \u003ci\u003eNew York\u003c\/i\u003e magazine\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eWinner of the Washington State Book Award for Creative Nonfiction\u003cbr\u003eShortlisted for the Pacific Northwest Book Award\u003cbr\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\"[A] glorious mash-up of memoir, love note, and cookbook . . . Every sentence is as sensuous as the first bite into a cold, juicy plum.\"\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003e--Hillary Kelly, \u003ci\u003eNew York\u003c\/i\u003e magazine\u003c\/b\u003e \u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\"Darkly funny . . . often fascinating, sometimes juicy, rarely dry . . . \n\u003ci\u003eThe Book of Difficult Fruit\u003c\/i\u003e is brimming with obscure knowledge that's going to loom over every gin martini I drink for the next decade, and there are fantastic recipes too . . . Delicious and meaningful.\" \n\u003cbr\u003e\n\u003cb\u003e--Alex Beggs, \u003ci\u003eThe New York Times Book Review\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\"A collection of personal essays about family, illness and nature, each linked to a different fruit that--over the years, warranted or otherwise--has developed something of a bad reputation. It is a beautiful read.\" \n\u003cbr\u003e\n\u003cb\u003e--Stuart Heritage, \u003ci\u003eThe Guardian\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\"A brilliant, richly layered and absolutely delicious book. [Lebo's] writing--breathtakingly beautiful, brave and complex--sparkles and lingers . . . Sharp, poetic, enchanting and chockfull of precise language, insight and wit, [ \n\u003ci\u003eThe Book of Difficult Fruit\u003c\/i\u003e] is as well-researched and recipe-tested as it is intimate--contemporary food writing at its finest.\" \n\u003cbr\u003e\n\u003cb\u003e--Adriana Janovich, \u003ci\u003eWashington State Magazine\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\"[A] freewheeling, recipe-filled journey through the interconnected natural and social worlds of fruit.\" \n\u003cbr\u003e\n\u003cb\u003e--Emma Sarappo, \u003ci\u003eThe Atlantic\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\"Weaving botanical and medicinal histories, relationships between people and land, and the idea of nourishment, this book (which includes recipes) is inventive and charming, but it's also profound and deeply felt. The connection between food and land is never forgotten, and the writing is superb.\" \n\u003cbr\u003e\n\u003cb\u003e--Sarah Neilson, \u003ci\u003eBuzzfeed\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\"[A] richly researched food history, gentle memoir and left-field recipe book . . . It would be a shame if this book didn't attract readers without an existing curiosity in the subject, because Lebo brings as generous an eye to its broader topics--relationships, reproductive health, illness and death--as she does her fruits and their histories and uses, their beauty and their terror.\" \n\u003cbr\u003e\n\u003cb\u003e--Sophie Morris, \u003ci\u003ei newspaper\u003c\/i\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\n\u003cbr\u003e\"A zingy blend of natural, culinary and personal history . . . A prickly, piquant delight.\" \n\u003cbr\u003e\n\u003cb\u003e--Hephzibah Anderson, \u003ci\u003eThe Observer\u003c\/i\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\n\u003cbr\u003e\"Delightfully unexpected . . . Eloquent, well-researched, and thoughtfully conceived and organized, this genre-defying book will appeal to foodies as well as those who appreciate both fine writing and the pleasures of domestic arts and crafts. A one-of-a-kind reading experience.\" \n\u003cbr\u003e\n\u003cb\u003e--\u003ci\u003eKirkus Reviews\u003c\/i\u003e, starred\u003c\/b\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\"Witty . . . Unusual and piquant, this . . . will hit the spot with readers hungry for something a little different.\" \n\u003cbr\u003e\n\u003cb\u003e--\u003ci\u003ePublishers Weekly\u003c\/i\u003e, starred\u003c\/b\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\"A remarkable combination of food writing, memoir, medical and natural history, and cultural anthropology that's unlike anything you've read before . . . Taking a 'food book' into all those areas in a compelling way is a high-wire act that Lebo performs with seeming ease and an inviting style. There are hilarious lines, and poignant reflections as well.\" \n\u003cbr\u003e\n\u003cb\u003e--Dan Nailen, \u003ci\u003e The Pacific Northwest Inlander\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\"Imaginative and darkly funny . . . A treat for those who love language and arcane trivia.\" \n\u003cbr\u003e\n\u003cb\u003e--\u003ci\u003eThe Globe and Mail\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\"Intriguing [and] wonder-filled. Lovers of food and nature writing will appreciate Lebo's rangy, researched ode to wildness.\" \n\u003cbr\u003e\n\u003cb\u003e--\u003ci\u003eBooklist\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\"Lebo effectively uses fruit as a starting point for exploring raw feelings and offering wry observations about her life, friends, and family. Perhaps the most moving chapters are where Lebo turns inward, focusing on her hopes and dreams and how reflecting on the tastes and textures of various fruits has inspired her to write . . . A genre-blending work that will intrigue readers of literary nonfiction, personal essays, or food history.\" \n\u003cbr\u003e\n\u003cb\u003e--\u003ci\u003eLibrary Journal\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\"A glorious blend of cookbook, memoir, and love notes.\" \n\u003cbr\u003e\n\u003cb\u003e--\u003ci\u003eThe Helm\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\"On the arrival of \n\u003ci\u003e The Book of Difficult Fruit\u003c\/i\u003e, I started reading it straightaway. And kept going. And kept going. This is a very special, smart, fun, weird, and charming book.\" \n\u003cbr\u003e\n\u003cb\u003e--Rosie Schaap, author of \u003ci\u003eDrinking with Men\u003c\/i\u003e and \u003ci\u003eBecoming a Sommelier\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\"Kate Lebo has written a thorny and twisty memoir disguised as a compendium of problematic fruits (and grains, and stems, and seeds). She doesn't so much describe as confront her subjects: their poisonous pits, treacherous thorns, offensive odors, and invasive roots. But her buckets of foraged berries, her tart jams, and her bright and potent cordials live in the real world alongside troubled families, rampant wildfires, and the prickly terror of a newfound tumor. Kate Lebo is the best kind of poet-naturalist: her writing is savage and lyrical and scientific all at once. The \n\u003ci\u003e Book of Difficult Fruit \u003c\/i\u003eis feral and fierce--and I never thought I'd say that about a book on fruit.\" \n\u003cbr\u003e\n\u003cb\u003e--Amy Stewart, author of \u003ci\u003eThe Drunken Botanist: The Plants That Create the World's Great Drinks\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\"I loved this sage and sensuous book, and was enraptured by its curious tour through a \n\u003ci\u003eWunderkammer \u003c\/i\u003eof plants, history, and personal narrative. Kate Lebo's introspection and intelligence gleam on every page as she looks inward and outward through these colorful lenses. Her essays are ripe with illumination, enchantment, and a dash of the haunted.\" \n\u003cbr\u003e\n\u003cb\u003e--Melissa Febos, author of \u003ci\u003eGirlhood\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\"With rich, puckery prose, Kate Lebo takes us on an engaging journey into her culinary world and offers surprisingly complex stories of neglected fruits that need a little more coaxing than your average blueberry. Here, too, are uncommon recipes for treats like faceclock coffee, gooseberry cheese, juniper bitters, and thimbleberry kvass. And Lebo even generously includes the Osage orange. Its best use? Ha! Read this book and find out.\" \n\u003cbr\u003e\n\u003cb\u003e--Erik Larson, author of \u003c\/b\u003e\n\u003ci\u003e\u003cb\u003eThe Splendid and the Vile\u003c\/b\u003e \u003c\/i\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\" \n\u003ci\u003eThe Book of Difficult Fruit\u003c\/i\u003e is a field guide for cooks and poets, a digestive aid for the pleasures and pains of life in a human body. Kate Lebo's graceful prose is as searching as it is assured, whether the story leads to medlar jelly or family secrets, a mother's illness or ume plums. This book is equal parts curiosity, comfort, and quiet brilliance--in short, a work of art.\" \n\u003cbr\u003e\n\u003cb\u003e--Molly Wizenberg, author of \u003c\/b\u003e\n\u003ci\u003e\u003cb\u003eThe Fixed Stars and A Homemade Life\u003c\/b\u003e\u003c\/i\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\n\u003cstrong\u003ePublisher Marketing\u003c\/strong\u003e:\u003cbr\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cb\u003e\"[A]\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cb\u003e glorious mash-up of memoir, love note, and cookbook . . . Every sentence is as sensuous as the first bite into a cold, juicy plum.\" \u003c\/b\u003e\u003cb\u003e--Hillary Kelly, \u003ci\u003eVulture\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e \u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cb\u003e\"[A] dazzling, thorny new essay collection.\" --Samin Nosrat, \u003ci\u003eThe New York Times\u003c\/i\u003e \u003c\/b\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cb\u003eInspired by twenty-six fruits, the essayist, poet, and pie lady Kate Lebo expertly blends natural, culinary, medical, and personal history. \u003c\/b\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003ci\u003eA\u003c\/i\u003e is for aronia, berry member of the apple family, clothes-stainer, superfruit with reputed healing power. \n\u003ci\u003eD\u003c\/i\u003e is for durian, endowed with a dramatic rind and a shifting odor--peaches, old garlic. \n\u003ci\u003eM\u003c\/i\u003e is for medlar, name-checked by Shakespeare for its crude shape, beloved by gardeners for its flowers. \n\u003ci\u003eQ\u003c\/i\u003e is for quince, which, when fresh, gives off the scent of \"roses and citrus and rich women's perfume,\" but if eaten raw is so astringent it wicks the juice from one's mouth. \n\u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003eIn a work of unique invention, these and other difficult fruits serve as the central ingredients of twenty-six lyrical essays (with recipes). What makes a fruit difficult? Its cultivation, its harvest, its preparation, the brevity of its moment for ripeness, its tendency toward rot or poison, the way it might overrun your garden. Here, these fruits will take you on unexpected turns and give sideways insights into relationships, self-care, land stewardship, medical and botanical history, and so much more. What if the primary way you show love is through baking, but your partner suffers from celiac disease? Why leave in the pits for Willa Cather's plum jam? How can we rely on bodies as fragile as the fruits that nourish them? \n\u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003eKate Lebo's unquenchable curiosity promises adventure: intimate, sensuous, ranging, bitter, challenging, rotten, ripe. After reading \n\u003ci\u003eThe Book of Difficult Fruit\u003c\/i\u003e, you will never think of sweetness the same way again. \n\u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\n\n\u003cbr\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\n\u003cstrong\u003eContributor Bio:\u003c\/strong\u003eLebo, Kate\u003cbr\u003e\n\u003cb\u003eKate Lebo \u003c\/b\u003eis the author of the cookbook \n\u003ci\u003ePie School\u003c\/i\u003e and the poetry chapbook \n\u003ci\u003eSeven Prayers to Cathy McMorris Rodgers\u003c\/i\u003e, and is the coeditor, with Samuel Ligon, of \n\u003ci\u003ePie \u0026amp; Whiskey: Writers Under the Influence of Butter \u0026amp; Booze\u003c\/i\u003e. Her essay about listening through hearing loss, \"The Loudproof Room,\" originally appeared in \n\u003ci\u003eNew England Review\u003c\/i\u003e and was anthologized in \n\u003ci\u003eThe Best American Essays 2015\u003c\/i\u003e. She lives in Spokane, Washington, where she is an apprentice cheesemaker to Lora Lea Misterly of Quillisascut Farm.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\n\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cbr\u003e\n\u003c\/td\u003e\n\u003c\/tr\u003e\n\u003c\/table\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003cb\u003eAuthor:\u003c\/b\u003e Lebo, Kate\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003ePublisher:\u003c\/b\u003e Picador USA\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eBinding:\u003c\/b\u003e Paperback\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003ePub Date:\u003c\/b\u003e 2022-04-12\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eBISAC:\u003c\/b\u003e Cooking|Specific Ingredients|Fruit|Literary Collections|Essays|Cooking|Essays \u0026amp; Narratives|Biography \u0026amp; Autobiography|Culinary\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eWeight:\u003c\/b\u003e 0.7 lbs\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eISBN:\u003c\/b\u003e 9781250829474\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eASIN:\u003c\/b\u003e -\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eSKU:\u003c\/b\u003e SP-9781250829474\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Picador USA","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":51154410144022,"sku":"SP-9781250829474","price":28.0,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0857\/9910\/8886\/files\/9781250829474_spiral.png?v=1774944030","url":"https:\/\/lusper.myshopify.com\/products\/the-book-of-difficult-fruit-arguments-for-the-tart-tender-and-unruly-with-recipes","provider":"Lusperbooks","version":"1.0","type":"link"}