If you’re reading this newsletter, it’s a decent bet that you’re very good at reading. You probably even enjoy it.
But other than superior intelligence, professional success, and improved mental health, what have you ever really gotten out of reading? Have you received the accolades that go to athletes, or the glory heaped on viral video stars?
Now you can.
The Food Section has teamed up with Bear’s Books, Macon, Georgia’s leading independent book shop, to host an adult Battle of the Books themed around Southern food and drink. TFS picked the books; Bear’s is selling them, and it’s up to talented folks like you to read them very, very closely.
Book Battling appears to have emerged as a scholastic strategy in the late 1970s Midwest, which explains why I was a member of the Bubbles team at Ann Arbor, Michigan’s Eberwhite Elementary School in 1985. But if you’ve never stepped onto the book battlefield—or coached a child or grandchild headed into literary combat—The Grand Rapids Press in 1979 outlined the format:
Each contestant was given a list of 39 books about which questions would be asked. Would you know Willy Wonka’s secret way of mixing his chocolate? Or what was Uncle Analdas’ excuse for not being able to read? Team members had 20 seconds to discuss the question after it had been read twice…the contest featured plenty of nail-biting and heated discussions.
That’s exactly what we have in mind for our Stir the Pot competition in June, except that our required reading list only runs six titles long. Also, we’re hoping our participants don’t cry as much as the fifth graders.
Another minor difference is grade-school book battles are solely for the kids’ benefit. “If you didn’t learn how to read, you couldn’t sign your bills,” one enlisted student informed a reporter for The Decatur (Illinois) Daily News in 1979. By contrast, Stir the Pot is a fundraiser for The Food Section: Each $10 entry fee directly supports our independent food journalism from and about the American South. Readers are welcome to sign up as foursomes or register individually for a random team assignment.
Of course, if you don’t live in or near Macon, it’s probably not convenient for you to attend the multiple rounds of Quiz Bowl-style competition we’ve scheduled at bars and breweries around town. But you can still participate in the book-bound fun.
First, you can purchase the books from Bear’s Books and read along with local patrons. Choosing titles wasn’t easy—we’ll have plenty of extra credit selections at the store—but we intentionally picked one history, one essay collection, one memoir, one cookbook, one novel, and one true crime paperback, so it’s likely your favorite genre is represented. (If you love them all equally, you can buy the whole bundle for $150, a whopping $27 savings.)
All prices include tax and shipping. Book descriptions lifted from publishers’ sites.
AND A BOTTLE OF RUM by Wayne Curtis ($26)
“A history of rum and the Americas alike, revealing that the homely spirit once distilled from the industrial waste of the booming sugar trade has managed to infiltrate every stratum of New World society. This is history at its most intoxicating.”
BARBECUE by John Shelton Reed ($26)
“In a lively and amusing style, Reed traces the history of southern barbecue from its roots in the sixteenth-century Caribbean.”
THE ELEPHANT IN THE ROOM: ONE FAT MAN’S QUEST TO GET SMALLER IN A GROWING AMERICA by Tommy Tomlinson ($25)
“A ‘warm, funny, and honest…genuinely unputdownable’ memoir (Curtis Sittenfeld) chronicling what it’s like to live in today’s world as a fat man. Tomlinson, approaching fifty and weighing 460 pounds, decided to confront the risks and realities of living in a body at war with itself.”
AMERICAN SOUL: THE BLACK HISTORY OF FOOD IN THE UNITED STATES by Anela Malik ($48)
“Equal parts historical exploration and cookbook, this narrative reveals the rich and indelible contributions of the Black diaspora in shaping the footprint of American cuisine.”
BITTER IN THE MOUTH by Monica Truong ($29)
“Monique Truong’s acclaimed novel questions our assumptions about what it means to be a family and to be a friend, to be foreign and to be familiar, to be connected to and disconnected from our bodies, our histories, ourselves.”
WHISPER TO THE BLACK CANDLE: VOODOO, MURDER, AND THE CASE OF ANNETTE LYLES by Jaclyn Weldon White ($23)
“In the 1950s, Macon, Georgia…Anjette Lyle’s restaurant was a popular gathering place. While the food was average, the atmosphere was delightful. Then, one day, Anjette Lyles was charged with the murders of two husbands, her mother-in-law, and her nine-year-old daughter.”
Second, prior to the first Battle, you can join us via Zoom for a cram session with several of the featured books’ authors. Imagine getting to ask Roald Dahl to further describe Willy Wonka’s chocolate waterfall before getting grilled on it! Stay tuned to TFS for more information on that don’t-miss event.
Finally, only the winning team will go home with an enormous commemorative pencil. But if you believe in good writing, intelligent play, and two woman-owned small businesses joining forces to promote books, you can proudly sport a TFS pencil on your ballcap, hoodie, or apron, which fortuitously reads, “Stirring the pot to serve the South.”
Literacy or Death!
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