A treat for literate, adventure-loving foodies, best accompanied by a bespoke chocolate bar.
A spirited quest for the perfect cacao bean.
Food journalist Jacobsen opens his comprehensive account in Oaxaca, Mexico, not far from a source of cacao and its resulting chocolate, so prized by the Aztecs that they expanded their empire far from its heartland to gain control of the Pacific coastal region where it grew. All cacao is, he writes, “ridiculously rich,” with a fat content of at least 55 percent, but some of the world’s most prized cacao, found in remote tropical forests from Mexico south to its homeland in the Bolivian jungle east of the Andes, is far richer still. These hard-to-find “wild cacao” plants fuel the gourmet chocolatiers of the world, such as the Swiss producer Felchlin, supplied by a German agronomist in Bolivia who built and lost a fortune in the chocolate trade but, for all his travails, can’t stop searching for the cacao grail. Jacobsen goes far afield himself, meeting some wonderfully weird characters and tracing their finds to chocolate makers in the U.S. and Europe. A skilled food historian with a sharp eye for the economics of the delicious, he also peppers his prose with interesting tidbits, including the boom-and-bust ways of lumpen chocolatiers like Hershey, which once commandeered the entire cacao output of Belize but then, when market conditions changed, left growers holding the proverbial bag. Of particular interest to budding entrepreneurs is the fact that several of Jacobsen’s subjects are young women who have carved a place for themselves as brokers for the organically grown, sustainable cacao whose growers are paid a premium. There’s plenty of adventure left in the game, Jacobsen writes: “In all likelihood, the Amazon and other remote corners of Latin America harbor other unique families of cacao waiting for their big moment. The search continues.”
A treat for literate, adventure-loving foodies, best accompanied by a bespoke chocolate bar.Pub Date: Oct. 8, 2024
ISBN: 9781639733576
Page Count: 288
Publisher: Bloomsbury
Review Posted Online: July 10, 2024
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 15, 2024
An engrossing and ominous chronicle, told by a master of the form.
Documenting perilous times.
In his most recent behind-the-scenes account of political power and how it is wielded, Woodward synthesizes several narrative strands, from the Jan. 6, 2021, insurrection and Hamas’ Oct. 7, 2023, attack on Israel to the 2024 presidential campaign. Woodward’s clear, gripping storytelling benefits from his legendary access to prominent figures and a structure of propulsive chapters. The run-up to Russia’s invasion of Ukraine is tense (if occasionally repetitive), as a cast of geopolitical insiders try to divine Vladimir Putin’s intent: “Doubt among allies, the public and among Ukrainians meant valuable time and space for Putin to maneuver.” Against this backdrop, U.S. Sen. Lindsey Graham implores Donald Trump to run again, notwithstanding the former president’s denial of his 2020 defeat. This provides unwelcome distraction for President Biden, portrayed as a thoughtful, compassionate lifetime politico who could not outrace time, as demonstrated in the June 2024 debate. Throughout, Trump’s prevarications and his supporters’ cynicism provide an unsettling counterpoint to warnings provided by everyone from former Joint Chief of Staff Mark Milley to Vice President Kamala Harris, who calls a second Trump term a likely “death knell for American democracy.” The author’s ambitious scope shows him at the top of his capabilities. He concludes with these unsettling words: “Based on my reporting, Trump’s language and conduct has at times presented risks to national security—both during his presidency and afterward.”
An engrossing and ominous chronicle, told by a master of the form.Pub Date: Oct. 15, 2024
ISBN: 9781668052273
Page Count: 448
Publisher: Simon & Schuster
Review Posted Online: Oct. 15, 2024
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Dec. 15, 2024
IN THE NEWS
PERSPECTIVES
An incisive, urgently relevant analysis of—and call to action on—America’s foundational ideal.
An examination of how the U.S. can revitalize its commitment to freedom.
In this ambitious study, Snyder, author of On Tyranny, The Road to Unfreedom, and other books, explores how American freedom might be reconceived not simply in negative terms—as freedom from coercion, especially by the state—but positive ones: the freedom to develop our human potential within sustaining communal structures. The author blends extensive personal reflections on his own evolving understanding of liberty with definitions of the concept by a range of philosophers, historians, politicians, and social activists. Americans, he explains, often wrongly assume that freedom simply means the removal of some barrier: “An individual is free, we think, when the government is out of the way. Negative freedom is our common sense.” In his careful and impassioned description of the profound implications of this conceptual limitation, Snyder provides a compelling account of the circumstances necessary for the realization of positive freedom, along with a set of detailed recommendations for specific sociopolitical reforms and policy initiatives. “We have to see freedom as positive, as beginning from virtues, as shared among people, and as built into institutions,” he writes. The author argues that it’s absurd to think of government as the enemy of freedom; instead, we ought to reimagine how a strong government might focus on creating the appropriate conditions for human flourishing and genuine liberty. Another essential and overlooked element of freedom is the fostering of a culture of solidarity, in which an awareness of and concern for the disadvantaged becomes a guiding virtue. Particularly striking and persuasive are the sections devoted to eviscerating the false promises of libertarianism, exposing the brutal injustices of the nation’s penitentiaries, and documenting the wide-ranging pathologies that flow from a tax system favoring the ultrawealthy.
An incisive, urgently relevant analysis of—and call to action on—America’s foundational ideal.Pub Date: Sept. 17, 2024
ISBN: 9780593728727
Page Count: 368
Publisher: Crown
Review Posted Online: June 25, 2024
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 1, 2024
© Copyright 2024 Kirkus Media LLC. All Rights Reserved.
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