Markets of Paris, at the Reading Terminal

Marjorie R. Williams, co-author of a new book, Markets of Paris, will talk about them tomorrow (Thursday, Sept. 6) at the Reading Terminal Market. The free program (and book signing) begins at 12 noon in the Rick Nichols Room.

Since I'm in the midst of reading Émile Zola's The Belly of Paris (Le Ventre de Paris) I'm disappointed other commitments will keep me from attending Williams' slide show.

If, like me, you can't make the talk, you can order the book from publisher The Little Bookroom's website.

Zola's book is half-polemic and half food porn, and it's the latter that most interests me. The action takes place in and around Les Halles soon after the cast iron and glass structure became the city's central food market, as well as in the protagonist's brother and sister-in-law's nearby charcuterie. There's a free version available for Kindle and other e-readers, since the book is out of copyright, but there's a new Modern Library edition translated by Mark Kurlansky (author of Cod and Salt) if you want to spend $11.98.