This post was first published on the Times Union Books Blog
When I say sandwich, which one do you think of first?
On May 20, 2018, my family and I embarked on a journey of epic proportions inspired by the Alison Deering book illustrated by Bob Lentz called Sandwiches!: More Than You’ve Ever Wanted to Know About Making and Eating America’s Favorite Food. The book landed in our high school library and over my own lunch I began reading, giggling, and nerding-out over the hundreds of factoids about famous sandwiches and the hypnotizing illustrations that accompanied them.
Soon after drooling over the entire book, I started to talk about the useful (and humorously useless) information shared but also in how neatly the information was presented. On the left, a graphic of the complete sandwich with a brief introduction surrounded by dates, biographies, and scientific notes related to the sandwich. And on the right, a manual for putting together the sandwich with additional information if you wanted to make certain items from scratch or if you wanted to level it up with additional items.
I brought it home to share with my elementary-aged sons who also began pouring over the spreads and thus was born the quest to make EVERY sandwich in the book- all 52 of them. It’s November 26, 2018 and last night we noshed on the last one which couldn’t have been eaten any time before as it’s The Gobbler- the quintessential post-Thanksgiving sandwich where all of the dishes end up in one pile between two slices of bread. We actually also kicked it off in style too as I was hosting a longtime friend who appreciates a good meal so we started the journey with the hummus sandwich, chips, and a beer for the adults.
On my personal blog, I have shared three posts, Sandwiches! Part I, Sandwiches! Part II, and Sandwiches! Part III about the food adventures along the way. Let it be known that this is the final installment: Sandwiches! Part IV where I highlight the final few not because we did them in order per se and they were at the end or that they were the “hardest” to make, but simply that’s how we crossed them off our list of breakfast, lunch, dinner, and dessert sandwiches. The last few included the Banh Mi, the Po’ Boy, and the Italian Beef among others but not before trying out one that is the author’s own non-traditional favorite without a real name.
Few books have had an impact like this one has on trial and error, experimentation, and conversation. I have friends and family who have kept tabs as I’ve posted pictures on Instagram using the hashtag #makingallthesandwiches or made one for them. But the most fun was in what my kids thought and what ended up being their favorite even as we tried things like the spaghetti sandwich and the mac and cheese sandwich. Again, not that these are new sandwiches (as my husband lamented plenty of times), they just remind you of regional items, cultural elements, and history. He’s had a long history with sandwiches, but who hasn’t? Our small, old kitchen was put to the test along with our stomachs, but it’s been one heck of a seven-month journey.
What are your favorite classics or do you have one that’s all your own that you want to share? Maybe if Alison Deering hears about it, she’ll put it in her next book.
#drippinggravy
So when I began reading Arcos’ book and the first flashback chapter told from Zara’s mom, Nadja’s point of view in 1992 in Visegrad I knew there was something special. It took a little bit to build as there was an uncertainty between the dysfunction of Zara and Nadja’s mother-daughter relationship, but it ballooned once readers began to connect Nadja’s war-torn young adulthood and Zara’s discovery of Nadja’s hardships as Nadja lays comatose after a bomb detonates at the farmers market they were visiting. Zara is wounded and suffering from post-traumatic stress while again, her mother is hospitalized unable to communicate. It becomes less about the present day and more about Nadja’s survival against the atrocities of war while trying to hold on while the trauma of murder and rape burns through their family, neighborhood, and country.
What was I thinking? Plenty of us avid readers have felt sadness in the last book of a beloved series and this one was no different. Reynolds is the GOAT, period. Whoever designed the covers needs a raise. Reynolds’ ability to create deep characters with authentic middle grade voices has been spotlighted in this series and shines again with Lu, another track star under Coach’s tutelage who is helping his father right his wrongs while hopefully looking toward a future with a baby sister when his mother should have never even been able to have him. Rich with inspiration and motivation, it’s the power of our human experience through Lu whose Albinism hasn’t changed his perspective much, in fact his newest job as big brother has allowed him to grow as he passes through the awkwardness of youth.
Readers Be Advised 