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Loading... Candyfreak: A Journey through the Chocolate Underbelly of Americapor Steve Almond
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adorará Adira ao LibraryThing para descobrir se gostará deste livro. This book was ok. I'm not much into non-fiction but it was recommended to me by a friend so I thought I'd give it a try. I enjoyed the memories that this book brought up in mentioning some of the candies that I grew up with. But honestly, I couldn't have made it through the whole book if Steve Almond didn't have such a funny sense of humor in his writing. (  ) Ginerbia | Dec 24, 2009 |  Of course, since I like candy and all sorts of sweet things, I thought that this would be a good book to read. And, it does start out interesting as the author details various interesting facts about candy--and mostly chocolate--in the United States. He travels around the country, talking with various people who are candy freaks like himself and have actually done something with their love of chocolate besides just enjoy the taste silently--whether it's collecting candy bar wrappers from a variety of different sources or open up candy websites. And he tours small candy factories around the country. However, as he visits more and more places, it seems as if he has nothing new to say about some of these things, and it shows in the writing that he has to really stretch his thoughts and adventures out in order to make the subject into a book. You can easily find all the candy mentioned in the book, if you're willing to look for it, and look for it in places other than the big box stores such as grocery stores or department stores. ( ) kingoftheicedragons | Jun 15, 2009 | This book was a lot of fun, mostly for the interesting history and nostalgia of various candies. The author's self-depreciating (and sophmoric) humor was kind of funny at first, but near the end it got to me. I felt like saying, c'mon, get to the part about the candy. Ultimately, he always did. His love for candy burns brightly and it's a joy to read about a subject wherein someone has so much passion. The author's junket to four "little guy" candy producers is great and the pride in their creations was awesome. I also thought the information on marketing was very interesting, and really quite sad. I sure felt like an American consumer lemming. You won't look at candy shelving, marketing, production etc. ever quite the same way again. When I put the book down, I immediately spread the word on some of the smaller candy/chocolate makers who use quality ingredients and really care about both the producers of the ingredients, their workers and the ultimate candy consumer. I recommend this highly if you have any interest in candy (and its production) and don't mind a bit of crude humor. ( ) CarolynSchroeder | May 1, 2009 | Do you like candy? Steve Almond does--a lot. He turned his obsession into this book, where he travels the country looking at how small candy companies survive and how they make their candy--sampling their products the whole way. This book will make you laugh, make you think, and make you hungry for that perfect candy bar that you haven't seen in stores since you were a kid. (  ) becker | Feb 2, 2009 | One of my favorites! I actually went online and ordered a Cherry Bing, GooGoo Clusters, and Valomilks. I'm recommending this one to my nonfiction book group because it's such a fun read! ( ) Naberius | Nov 24, 2008 |  sem resenhas | adicionar uma resenha
Amazon.com (ISBN 0156032937, Paperback)Picture a magical, sugar-fueled road trip with Willy Wonka behind the wheel and David Sedaris riding shotgun, complete with chocolate-stained roadmaps and the colorful confetti of spent candy wrappers flying in your cocoa powder dust. If you can imagine such a manic journey--better yet, if you can imagine being a hungry hitchhiker who's swept through America's forgotten candy meccas: Philadelphia (Peanut Chews), Sioux City (Twin Bing), Nashville (Goo Goo Cluster), Boise (Idaho Spud) and beyond--then Candyfreak: A Journey through the Chocolate Underbelly of America, Steve Almond's impossible-to-put down portrait of regional candy makers and the author's own obsession with all-things sweet, would be your Fodor's guide to this gonzo tour.With the aptly named Almond (don't even think of bringing up the Almond Joy bit--coconut is Almond's kryptonite), obsession is putting it mildly. Almond loves candy like no other man in America. To wit: the author has "three to seven pounds" of candy in his house at all times. And then there's the Kit Kat Darks incident; Almond has a case of the short-lived confection squirreled away in an undisclosed warehouse. "I had decided to write about candy because I assumed it would be fun and frivolous and distracting," confesses Almond. "It would allow me to reconnect to the single, untarnished pleasure of my childhood. But, of course, there are no untarnished pleasures. That is only something the admen of our time would like us to believe." Almond's bittersweet nostalgia is balanced by a fiercely independent spirit--the same underdog quality on display by the small candy makers whose entire existence (and livelihood) is forever shadowed by the Big Three: Hershey's, Mars, and Nestle. Almond possesses an original, heartfelt, passionate voice; a writer brave enough to express sheer joy. Early on his tour he becomes entranced with that candy factory staple, the "enrober"--imagine an industrial-size version of the glaze waterfall on the production line at your local Krispy Kreme, but oozing chocolate--dubbing it "the money shot of candy production." And while he writes about candy with the sensibilities of a serious food critic (complimenting his beloved Kit Kat Dark for its "dignified sheen," "puddinglike creaminess," "coffee overtones," and "slightly cloying wafer") words like "nutmeats" and "rack fees" send him into an adolescent twitter.
...the Marathon Bar, which stormed the racks in 1974, enjoyed a meteoric rise, died young, and left a beautiful corpse. The Marathon: a rope of caramel covered in chocolate, not even a solid piece that is, half air holes, an obvious rip-off to anyone who has mastered the basic Piagetian stages, but we couldn't resist the gimmick. And then, as if we weren't bamboozled enough, there was the sleek red package, which included a ruler on the back and thereby affirmed the First Rule of Male Adolescence: If you give a teenage boy a candy bar with a ruler on the back of the package, he will measure his dick Candyfreak is one of those endearing, quirky titles that defy swift categorization. One of those rare books that you'll want to tear right through, one you won't soon stop talking about. And eager readers beware: It's impossible to flip through ten pages of this sweet little book without reaching for a piece of chocolate. --Brad Thomas Parsons (retirado da Amazon Fri, 24 Apr 2009 07:58:17 -0400) A primeira ronda de testes foi já encerrada. Visite o grupo Open Shelves Classification para mais informação. |
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