false http://photo.goodreads.com/books/1246500715m/210364.jpg 210364 5 There was a time, for a handful of peppercorns, you could have someone killed. Throw in a nutmeg or two, you could probably watch. There was a time when grown men sat around and thought of nothing but black pepper. How to get it. How to get more. How to control the entire trade in pepper from point of origin to purchase. In <I>Spice: The History of a Temptation</I>, classics scholar Jack Turner opens up the whole story of pepper and its kind like a ripe melon. He brings the exotic scents of the East deep into the history of Western culture.<p> Everyone knows a little bit of the story, how the desire to control the spice trade drove Western nations deep into the heart of the Age of Discovery, the Portuguese sponsoring Da Gama's push to India; the Spanish underwriting the many attempts of Columbus to get to India another way. The Western madness for spice was just about peaking in this time, and spice would all too soon become--gasp--common, much like the afterthought condiment it is for so many today. Who thinks twice about pepper any longer? <p> And yet, the history is long and glorious, and the window spice throws open on Western culture yields a glorious view. Jack Turner is a skilled tour guide and story teller. He starts his narrative with the 16th century quest for spice, then loops back into three mains sections of text: Palate, Body, and Spirit. Turner has mined classic and Medieval literature for any and every possible mention of spice and demonstrates how fixated the West became from the time of Augustus in Rome through to relatively modern times. He winds his narrative through the way spice was used in the foods of the wealthy (and puts to sleep the nostrum about rotting food), as a medicine, a sex aid, and as an aromatic channel to the gods of the time and place. He ably demonstrates the constant underlying tension surrounding spice--that it was both attractive and repellent, that it represented fabulous wealth and power for some and, for others, an abhorrence of the exotic East that exists to this day.<p> This is not an easy story to tell. But Turner makes it appear effortless. Pull a chair close to the fire, pour a draught of spiced wine, crack open Jack Turner's <I>Spice</I> and you'll read your way into the wee hours of the night. <I>--Schuyler Ingle</I> 1936445 2004 Spice: The History of a Temptation total:157|5:17|4:46|3:67|2:21|1:6| 157 518 448 29 0 0 false false Thu Feb 05 09:27:55 -0800 2009 Thu Feb 05 09:27:55 -0800 2009 Critics agree that Turner knows his spices. In this first book, he proves himself a skillful researcher, as comfortable with medieval resources as he is with electronic ones. For many, Turner's wide knowledge and his flair for the anecdote—one section describes the use of spices to preserve Sir Th...

more...]]> 2 0 false false Thu Oct 09 13:25:53 -0700 2008 Thu Oct 09 13:26:05 -0700 2008 more...]]> 3 0 false false Tue Jul 15 00:00:00 -0700 2008 Sun May 27 11:56:28 -0700 2007 Wed Jul 16 08:56:00 -0700 2008 more...]]> 4 0 false false Mon Dec 15 20:47:59 -0800 2008 Mon Dec 15 20:49:54 -0800 2008 2 0 false false Sat Aug 01 00:00:00 -0700 2009 Sat Sep 12 08:24:15 -0700 2009 Sat Sep 12 08:26:03 -0700 2009 more...]]> 4 0 false false Fri Jan 23 00:00:00 -0800 2009 Mon Jan 19 20:52:48 -0800 2009 Fri Jan 23 06:17:38 -0800 2009 5 0 false false Sat Dec 01 00:00:00 -0800 2007 Tue Dec 18 16:22:42 -0800 2007 Tue Dec 18 16:26:42 -0800 2007 more...]]> 3 0 false false Thu Oct 22 18:11:54 -0700 2009 Thu Oct 22 18:12:46 -0700 2009 3 0 false false Fri Jan 09 00:00:00 -0800 2009 Sat Mar 07 12:24:02 -0800 2009 Sat Mar 07 12:25:26 -0800 2009 3 0 false false Wed Aug 01 00:00:00 -0700 2007 Sat Jul 21 10:26:32 -0700 2007 Tue Aug 14 10:58:29 -0700 2007 It took me ages to read this book, even skipping some sections on Christianity and spices and skimming the epilogue. Not that it wasn't interesting; it just takes me a long time to read some books, non-fiction especially, and this was one of them. Turner divided the book into f...more...]]> 4 0 false false Sat Jan 01 00:00:00 -0800 2005 Tue Sep 15 16:03:23 -0700 2009 Tue Sep 15 16:03:57 -0700 2009 0 0 false false Wed Dec 31 06:58:18 -0800 2008 Wed Dec 31 06:58:25 -0800 2008 3 0 false false Sun Aug 09 11:45:02 -0700 2009 Thu Aug 27 21:15:38 -0700 2009 3 0 false false Mon Oct 06 00:00:00 -0700 2008 Fri Aug 22 14:38:45 -0700 2008 Mon Oct 06 14:49:37 -0700 2008 more...]]> 0 0 false false Tue Jan 01 00:00:00 -0800 2008 Fri Jan 25 14:39:43 -0800 2008 Thu Feb 07 09:50:18 -0800 2008 more...]]> 3 0 false false Wed Dec 26 08:02:05 -0800 2007 Wed Dec 26 08:06:41 -0800 2007 I loved the first half of the book, which was focused on exploration and the spice trade. The second half seemed to drag on and on with tales and details that were less compelling to me. I often find this to be the case in this type of nonfiction, so there's a good chance that my attention s...more...]]> 2 0 true false Tue Jan 01 00:00:00 -0800 2008 Wed Jan 02 13:40:36 -0800 2008 Wed Jan 02 13:44:48 -0800 2008 4 0 false false Sat Jan 24 00:00:00 -0800 2009 Tue Jun 17 15:14:38 -0700 2008 Sat Jan 24 12:14:02 -0800 2009 4 0 false false Mon Jan 01 00:00:00 -0800 2007 Thu Dec 27 15:39:25 -0800 2007 Thu Dec 27 15:41:26 -0800 2007 4 0 false false Mon Jul 28 15:11:46 -0700 2008 Mon Jul 28 15:14:46 -0700 2008 Like a fact-filled, spicy word-orgy. Fascinating look at the role that spices and the desire for the exotic/unattainable played in the West's expansion and its colonization of the globe.]]> http://www.goodreads.com/book_link/follow/8?book_id=210364