Nourishing the brain

Oranges! What a lovely book! I know, no one can quite believe that McPhee wrote a book about nothin' but oranges. Lots of lore, and anecdotes, facts too about liquid sunshine. Changed my attitude a bit about 'artificial' handling or the fruit (wax, coloring, gassing). Of course, I know that there is another side. Books like these become dated- it was finished in mid-60s, and it makes me wonder how much things have changed since then. It is really an interesting profile of a fruit industry that on one hand is so... managed- a science with its mechanization, chemistry etc. and on the other hand is so vulnerable to weather and nature itself - pooh- the trees are all hybrids, one type of stock grafted onto another. And the seeds will produce who knows what???

Now I am on to a charming portrait of China, Shanghai in particular, The Breach in the Wall. The author is a Westerner who grew up as the daughter of a tea merchant in China. So far I am particularly intrigued with her brief non-scholarly, non-political description of China and its relationship with the rest of the world. She waxes a bit rapturous at times, but hey, it is her story so she should be able to tell it the way she wants. I am sorry it has taken me so long to dust it off. OK, so the jacket is ugly, she has managed to draw me in at last.