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Taste Makers

Authors Eat Their Words

By Christina Waters

Everybody complains about our underfunded libraries, but few come up with such creative solutions as Rex Beckham and Cathy Borka, two colorful retired UCSC reference librarians with time on their hands and a gleam in their eye.

Since the printed page holds no terrors for these two, it was perhaps inevitable that their fundraising concept should issue in the highly likable cookbook Lit à la Carte: Favorite Recipes of Famous Authors. It's rife with witty little recipes compiled by Beckham and charmingly illustrated by Borka.

A friendly, spiral-bound affair, Lit contains recipes submitted by 159 authors, including such local lights as Adrienne Rich (Sicilian stuffed artichokes), Sharan Cadwallader (lentil barley soup with cumin) and even expatriate Peter Beagle (zucchini soup). From Joyce Carol Oates comes a blueprint for baked salmon. Germaine Greer provides the secret of cauliflower pasta and Lawrence Ferlinghetti demystifies his house special fettuccine.

To compile the cookbook, Beckham and Borka actually wrote to hundreds of well-known authors throughout the English-speaking world, and the replies are positively mouthwatering.

Created by librarians, the book is designed for easy access. Recipes are arranged in alphabetical order according to author and there is a useful subject index.

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Lit is on sale now for $12.50 at the Friends of the Library gift shop at the SC Public Library, or can be ordered from any branch library.


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