Dictators' Dinners


Book Description

What did dictators eat? Sometimes simply obscene amounts of the best their nations could offer, but more often their humble origins, or embarrassing medical conditions, or simple lack of interest in food meant their tastes were unpretentious--ranging from human flesh, to raw garlic salad, to Quality Street. Here we learn of their foibles, their eccentricities and their frequent terror of poisoning--something no number of food tasters was ever able to assuage. For a selection of 25 former national figureheads across the world, each section comprises an outline of the dictator's history, a short essay on their particular eating habits, table manners, digestive systems etc. and one or two of their favorite recipes.




How to Feed a Dictator


Book Description

“Amazing stories . . . Intimate portraits of how [these five ruthless leaders] were at home and at the table.” —Lulu Garcia-Navarro, NPR’s Weekend Edition Sunday Anthony Bourdain meets Kapuściński in this chilling look from within the kitchen at the appetites of five of the twentieth century's most infamous dictators, by the acclaimed author of Dancing Bears and What’s Cooking in the Kremlin What was Pol Pot eating while two million Cambodians were dying of hunger? Did Idi Amin really eat human flesh? And why was Fidel Castro obsessed with one particular cow? Traveling across four continents, from the ruins of Iraq to the savannahs of Kenya, Witold Szabłowski tracked down the personal chefs of five dictators known for the oppression and massacre of their own citizens—Iraq’s Saddam Hussein, Uganda’s Idi Amin, Albania’s Enver Hoxha, Cuba’s Fidel Castro, and Cambodia’s Pol Pot—and listened to their stories over sweet-and-sour soup, goat-meat pilaf, bottles of rum, and games of gin rummy. Dishy, deliciously readable, and dead serious, How to Feed a Dictator provides a knife’s-edge view of life under tyranny.




Dictator Lunches


Book Description

Pack lunch with this fun and creative cookbook of lunchbox ideas and healthy recipes to please even your pickiest eater—from Jenny Mollen, the Instagram personality behind @dictatorlunches! “Jenny makes all of us moms wanna be more creative! Her humor and inventiveness are such a winning combination. I love this amazing method of edible food art she has brought to life. It makes us all smile and cheer.” — Drew Barrymore Lighthearted cooking with a heavy dose of love Any parent will tell you that raising dictators… errr, children … can be challenging. Thankfully Jenny Mollen of @dictatorlunches takes the power struggle out of mealtime with this inspired collection of 40 recipes, from filling breakfasts to healthy snacks, dinners, and desserts—with a special emphasis on solving the age-old problem of school lunch. Dictator Lunches will soon become your secret weapon in the kitchen. Mollen shares her foolproof method for packing winning lunches along with easy-to-master techniques that will transform ordinary ingredients into adorable edible art, like Strawberry Actresses, Cucumber Penguins, and Rice Pandas. With her trademark playfulness and whimsy, Mollen turns meals into feasts fit for any autocrat, no matter how demanding, featuring: Insta-ready Avocado Toast Better Than Alphabet Cookies Logs. They Aren’t Just for Ants Anymore Fruit-juiced Gummy Worms in Granola soil Healthy Chocolate-Peanut Butter Cups on a Stick Complete with international dishes for your jet-setting tyrant like Amateur Hour Japchae, Curry Chicken, and Coconut Rice and Beans, and holiday-themed boxes with Reindeer Celery Sticks, Baruch Atah Adon-Applesauce, and Spinach Frankenstein Quesadillas, Dictator Lunches has you covered for every meal, every holiday, and any dictator’s whim.




Talking Back


Book Description

No TV reporter today is more respected than NBC’s Andrea Mitchell. She’s covered stories from Jonestown to the fall of the Berlin Wall, gotten unexpected answers from such interviewees as Fidel Castro and Hillary Clinton, and balanced her high-wire career with a very public marriage to former Federal Reserve Board Chairman Dr. Alan Greenspan. Mitchell’s candid, funny, and riveting memoir is filled with unprecedented behind-the-scenes views of the television news industry and official Washington. A classic of contemporary journalism by a woman who has taken on her profession’s entire old-boy network, Talking Back deserves a place on the shelf alongside the memoirs of Hillary Clinton and Katherine Graham.




Dinner With Mugabe


Book Description

Acknowledgements; Preface; Timeline: A chronology of key events in Robert Mugabe’s life; Introduction; 1 Brother in the background; 2 Mummy and Uncle Bob; 3 The prisoner’s friend; 4 Comrades in arms; 5 A surprise agreement; 6 Tea with Lady Soames; 7 I told you so; 8 Britain’s diplomatic blunder; 9 A reluctant politician; 10 The faithful priest; 11 In the eyes of God’s deputies; 12 The man in the elegant suit; 13 Two of a kind; 14 Yesterday’s heroes; 15 As it was in the beginning; 16 The good, the bad, and the reality; Postscript; Selected bibliography; Index




Food on the Page


Book Description

In Food on the Page, the first comprehensive history of American cookbooks, Megan J. Elias chronicles cookbook publishing from the early 1800s to the present day. Examining a wealth of fascinating archival material, Elias explores the role words play in the creation of taste on both a personal and a national level.




The Dictator's Handbook


Book Description

Explains the theory of political survival, particularly in cases of dictators and despotic governments, arguing that political leaders seek to stay in power using any means necessary, most commonly by attending to the interests of certain coalitions.




How to Feed a Dictator


Book Description

“Amazing stories . . . Intimate portraits of how [these five ruthless leaders] were at home and at the table.” —Lulu Garcia-Navarro, NPR’s Weekend Edition Sunday Anthony Bourdain meets Kapuściński in this chilling look from within the kitchen at the appetites of five of the twentieth century's most infamous dictators, by the acclaimed author of Dancing Bears. What was Pol Pot eating while two million Cambodians were dying of hunger? Did Idi Amin really eat human flesh? And why was Fidel Castro obsessed with one particular cow? Traveling across four continents, from the ruins of Iraq to the savannahs of Kenya, Witold Szabłowski tracked down the personal chefs of five dictators known for the oppression and massacre of their own citizens—Iraq’s Saddam Hussein, Uganda’s Idi Amin, Albania’s Enver Hoxha, Cuba’s Fidel Castro, and Cambodia’s Pol Pot—and listened to their stories over sweet-and-sour soup, goat-meat pilaf, bottles of rum, and games of gin rummy. Dishy, deliciously readable, and dead serious, How to Feed a Dictator provides a knife’s-edge view of life under tyranny.




Wild Chickens and Petty Tyrants


Book Description

Not since Mindfulness in Plain English has there been a more accessible and user friendly book on mindfulness meditation. Mindfulness is a process of self-inquiry directed at what is happening in the moment, a focus on experience as it occurs without inner commentary or judgment. Metaphors are indispensable to mindfulness practice. They motivate us, help us bring mindfulness into daily life, and show us how to use mindfulness as a tool for self-improvement. Their imagery helps anchor understanding and provides a bridge from concept to experience. This book presents 108 metaphors for mindfulness, meditation practice, self-change, acceptance, and other related concepts. Compiled by the author over a 25-year period, they employ imagery as diverse as the inner mute button and Earl Gray tea. Many are original; others are selected from the classic literature on Buddhism and mindfulness. Each is a node in a network of interweaving concepts that enliven the experience of mindfulness while alleviating stress, anxiety, and depression.




The Feast of the Goat


Book Description

Haunted all her life by feelings of terror and emptiness, forty-nine-year-old Urania Cabral returns to her native Dominican Republic - and finds herself reliving the events of l961, when the capital was still called Trujillo City and one old man terrorized a nation of three million. Rafael Trujillo, the depraved ailing dictator whom Dominicans call the Goat, controls his inner circle with a combination of violence and blackmail. In Trujillo's gaudy palace, treachery and cowardice have become a way of life. But Trujillo's grasp is slipping. There is a conspiracy against him, and a Machiavellian revolution already underway that will have bloody consequences of its own. In this 'masterpiece of Latin American and world literature, and one of the finest political novels ever written' (Bookforum), Mario Vargas Llosa recounts the end of a regime and the birth of a terrible democracy, giving voice to the historical Trujillo and the victims, both innocent and complicit, drawn into his deadly orbit.