“If you happen to have talent and are a good craftsman, you could really [make] extraordinary food with a bit of love.” - Jacques Pépin
As a child, I grew up with inspiring classic TV programs featuring chefs like Julia Child, Martin Yan, and of course, Jacques Pépin, the award-winning French chef. With great fascination, I would watch him on his hit show, Jacques Pépin: Fast Food My Way, as he prepared cuisines like sautéed rabbit with morels and pearl onions, and tartelettes aux fruits. His beautifully presented dishes were the epitome of classic French homestyle cooking with just the right amount of panache.
Pépin came to Google recently to discuss his latest book, Essential Pépin, which encompasses all the recipes from his expansive career as a French chef. Not only does the thick cookbook contain a trove of recipes, but a DVD containing techniques Pépin recommends for cooking, such as perfecting your knife technique and the best way to flip an omelette — all signature styles that are best viewed rather than read.
During his talk here, Pépin advised that rather than leave a good recipe the way it is, he wanted to keep going deeper with exploring more ways in which a recipe could improve. But although his recipes are constantly evolving, and are now quite different than they were 25 years ago due to constant improvements over the years, Pépin's cooking techniques are the same.
From a man who turned down cooking for the Kennedys in order to cook at Howard Johnson’s, Essential Pépin is cooking through the master chef's eyes, and preparing food with an appreciation for and a sense of aesthetics.
The Wolf Gift is a richly imagined story of a man turned wolf trying to figure out what his new reality means--all while trying to stay one step ahead of the people desperate to hunt him down. With this novel, Anne Rice makes an intriguing return to the gothic world her fans know and love, set this time not in her native New Orleans but along California's haunting mist-shrouded coast. Both searching and suspenseful, it’s a gripping exploration of a man both delighted and tormented by a life he could never have anticipated.
The talk will be live streamed on the Authors@Google YouTube channel, and there will be some time for fan questions. If you’d like to submit a question for consideration please visit our Google Moderator page for the event. We look forward to you joining us as we discuss the depths of this supernatural tale.
Read The Wolf Gift: Pre-order the ebook for The Wolf Gift today from Google eBooks (available February 14) for easy reading on tablets, smartphones, e-readers and the web. The Wolf Gift is available in all of our online stores: Buy in the United States, United Kingdom, Australia or Canada!
Submit your questions for Anne Rice: Click on this Google Moderator page to submit your questions and vote on other fans’ questions. We will select some of the most popular questions to ask Anne Rice during the talk. The Google Moderator page is open from now until February 23rd, 12PM PT.
Watch the live YouTube broadcast: On Friday, February 24th, at 10AM PT, Anne Rice’s interview will be broadcast live from the Authors@Google YouTube channel, youtube.com/atgoogletalks. The talk will last 30-45 minutes. We'll also post the recorded interview on this page afterwards.
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We were pleased to host Pulitzer Prize-winner Jennifer Egan, author of A Visit from the Goon Squad, for an Authors@Google event in our New York office this August. I had the pleasure of moderating the talk with Egan in front of a group of Googlers.
Although the cast of characters spanning Goon Squad is vast and raucous, Egan is most interested in the sometimes self-destructive, sometimes tender-hearted protagonists, a music producer and former punk-rocker, Bennie Salazar, and his klepto assistant, Sasha.
Recently, Google had the pleasure of hosting Patricia Curtan to chat about her new book, Menus for Chez Panisse, as part of the Authors@Google speaker series. Patricia is an artist, designer and printmaker with a long association with Chez Panisse Restaurant in Berkeley, California. She has designed and printed letterpress and linoleum block special-occasion menus for the restaurant for several decades. Her gorgeous new book gathers these menus in one place and provides an intimate look into the history and life of this important establishment. Chez Panisse and its founder, Alice Waters, have been credited as key influencers in the organic food movement, famous for its emphasis on sustainable, organic, locally grown and seasonal ingredients.
By way of background, Liberia in the early 2000s was a country ravaged by a civil war that had claimed the lives of more than 100,000 people. But the country's president refused to hold peace talks. Meanwhile the fighting continued, and warlords trained child soldiers. In the midst of this chaos, Gbowee had a dream. Read the full post
Last week, Google had the pleasure of having Robert Reich come to speak about his latest book, Aftershock: The Next Economy and America's Future, as part of the Authors@Google speaker series. Reich is currently the Chancellor's Professor of Public Policy at the University of California at Berkeley, and has served under three US administrations. He has written 13 books, including The Work of Nations, The Future of Success, and Supercapitalism. In the short session, included below, Reich discusses where our economy is today, how it got there, and where it's headed. He argues that America's economic problems can be attributed to how its wealth is currently being distributed and makes several recommendations, focusing on how Silicon Valley and technology have formed and influenced the economy, in particular.
Former Secretary of Labor Robert Reich speaking as part of the Authors@Google series
With grace and humor, Reich spoke for a half-hour about the many reasons we slid into the "great recession of 2008," and then took several questions. Reich stressed that one cannot separate the economy from the rest of national experience. "Economics," he stated, "is an offshoot of a field called Political Economy. [It was] not until Alfred Marshall wrote his Principles [of Economics] that it became a separate science. People [used to understand] that you can't talk about politics separate from economics."
Reich stated that his argument -- that redistribution is a prerequisite for growth -- is not grounded in morality. That said, Adam Smith, widely considered the father of modern economics and capitalism, called himself a "Moral philosopher." Smith even considered his most important work to be The Theory of Moral Sentiment, despite having written what is now considered the most influential work on economics, The Wealth of Nations. Though Reich says the question used to be, "What is a good society, and how do we recognize it and achieve it?" it seems that his talk and book ask an adjacent question, "What is a sustainable society?"
Reich reiterated that workers are consumers, and although they once were able to manage stagnant wages and continue spending, they are now exhausted. After World War II, "the means have not kept up with what a growing economy should have provided them with," and while before they were willing to adjust, sending women into the workforce, taking longer shifts, and taking on debt, the collapse of 2008 forced the middle class to pay their balances, and to "face a necessity they have managed to avoid for decades: they have to make do with less" (138).
This means that there is belt-tightening going on across the country and money is not moving fluidly into the market. Companies won't hire until they see consumer demand, and consumers won't spend until they have jobs and steady sources of income. "Businesses are sitting on almost two trillion dollars of cash." This is a negative cycle in which no one wins.
Most worrisome to Reich is that while Americans continue to be unable to find jobs, the financial sector is operating as normal, large bonuses have returned, and inequality is the status quo. He says this is fertile ground for political confrontation, and is worried that individuals will rally around demagogues, who "will channel anger at easy targets like foreigners, the poor, the rich, [etc.]" He calls for reforms that would change the income tax, create wage insurance, and invest in infrastructure, health, and education. He says we must pay attention to how widening inequality and economic insecurity affect our social and political landscape, and the inevitable consequences.
Recently, John Dau spoke as part of the Authors@Google speaker’s series about his latest book, God Grew Tired of Us, and the similarly named award-winning documentary based on his life. He recounted his journey as a lost boy of Sudan from the age of 13, when his village was first attacked by Northern armies, through his journey to the United States. Dau calls his remarkable life story a living testimony because "the story goes from me to you and then from you to someone else..."
The video above shows Dau being interviewed on-stage as part of the Authors@Google series
At the beginning of his talk, Dau proudly announced that with the recent creation of the Republic of South Sudan, he is now a South Sudanese citizen. He then began to tell his story:
Dau grew up in a small village with no school. But he remembers being very happy. Then in 1987, his village was attacked. The whistling of bullets, thunder of bombs, and fearful screams woke him and his brother from their sleep. Dau recounted how he and his brother hid, and then fled the village, walking for three days without food or water.
As they fled, many other lost boys joined their group until it grew to 27. To survive, the boys were forced to eat mud and drink their urine. Many perished.
Once in Ethiopia the four remaining boys met other groups of lost children. They all banded together to organize a makeshift refugee camp. In total, there were 200 boys ranging from ages 5 to 18. But disease and malaria ran rampant, and without a clinic nearby, two to eight boys would die each day.
They stayed there for four years until in 1991, the Ethiopian government was overthrown and the new ruling party forced them to leave, along with thirty-seven thousand other refugees. They were given only three days' notice before armed troops forced the people to cross a crocodile-infested river.
Dau and other survivors then traveled through South Sudan. They faced bombings by Northern rebels, starvation, thirst and poor hygiene. Soon they found Kakooma, a United Nations refugee camp. Dau was now 17 years old and went to school for the first time. Due to the school's limited supplies, children would draw their responses in the dirt when taking exams.
Reflecting on his first time in school, Dau stated, "Education is so important and you can get anything you want [through learning]". He recounted how he would line up to enter the refugee camp's library at three in the morning every day, and how hard everyone worked to get into the fourth grade, since it was only then that they were allowed to sit in a classroom with shared pencils and notebooks.
Dau was 26 when the Americans came to take the refugee youth to Nairobi. He was selected to go to the US, where he could rebuild his life. However, he was surprised by many things in America such as the vast amounts of food and the pet aisle in a grocery store. Eventually he adjusted. Dau earned his Associate’s degree in 2004 and then his bachelor’s degree at Syracuse University in 2006.
In 2006 Dau founded the Lost Boys Rebuilding Southern Sudan nonprofit group so that the lost boys could learn to help themselves. He also founded American Care for Sudan, which raised enough money to build a clinic and has treated over 60,000 people. This clinic in South Sudan has the only ambulance in the country and is one of only six places in the entire country to have wireless internet.
Dau's message in an inspiring one: to never give up, no matter what has happened in the past.
It was an epic geekfest that could only be matched by the likes of a Comic-Con or a Star Trek convention: Googlers flocked to hear master fantasy writer George R. R. Martin talk at our Mountain View headquarters last month, in the first-ever live-streamed event for the Authors@Google series. Though you may have missed Martin live -- in which the Game of Thrones author took a variety of questions from Googlers as well as the general public -- you can now watch the recorded talk on YouTube:
Martin answers questions about the Game of Thrones books and HBO® series at Google. (Warning: slight spoilers during the talk, but nothing major revealed.)
The catalyst for Martin's visit to Google was a happy accident -- or as some might say, the work of the old gods. Last May, Nicholas Farmer was at Professor Thoms', a New York City bar, where a viewing party for the HBO® series Game of Thrones was being held. The bartender nudged him: "Hey Nick, there's the author of Game of Thrones." Farmer went and struck up a conversation with Martin, eventually asking if he'd heard of the Authors@Google series, which his mother Ann Farmer was an organizer for. Martin, friendly guy that he is, was open to the idea of visiting Google, saying "Have your mother contact my publicist, it's up to him." The rest is history.
At the event in July, Googler moderator Dan Anthony kicked things off by noting, "The only thing that would be cooler than this was if Joss Whedon came rushing in the door, and said he suddenly had to cast a Googler to star opposite Scarlett Johansson." Anthony praised Martin for creating the "world's favorite dwarf Lannister," quickly adding, "that doesn't mean you can kill him now."
Martin -- on tour promoting his latest book A Dance with Dragons -- was himself an engaging and humorous speaker. He answered fan questions and topics from "How did you get the TV show creators to stay so true to the novels?" (Martin: "Candy and chocolates"), to why he doesn't read internet fan forums ("What if they come up with better ideas than the ones I had?"), to his being something of a post-modern Tolkien ("There's an unspoken assumption in [Tolkien's] Return of the King that Aragorn is the king now and everything will be hunky dory. You never actually get into the nitty gritty of Aragorn ruling. And what is his tax policy?").
He also answered other questions often asked by fans, like why he kills off major characters so often ("There's a reason") and whether he plans to do any prequel books to the fantasy series (Maybe).
After the talk, I was able to chat with Martin a little about ebooks. The author says he carries his e-reader with him now whenever he travels, whereas in the past, he would incur overweight baggage charges because of the 10 or more physical books he would inevitably bring along. But he was also concerned that digital piracy might do to the book industry what it did to the music industry.
Martin, holding a Google eBook version of A Dance with Dragons on the Story HD from iriver
If you haven't already, make sure to get a digital copy of Martin's just released book from the Google eBookstore, A Dance with Dragons, for your smartphone, tablet, PC, netbook, laptop or e-reader device (see a full list of supported devices).
If you're new to the series, catch up on the previous books:
Finally, during the talk, Martin was presented with a dragon-ized Android t-shirt, designed by Googler Michelle Nguyen and made specially for this event. You can now get your own Android Dragon T-shirt at the Google Online Store:
George R. R. Martin, the acclaimed author of the Game of Thrones novels -- also a recent hit HBO series -- is coming to Google for a live-streamed interview where he'll be taking your questions submitted online. The interview, part of the Authors@Google series as well as Martin's book tour promoting his latest novel A Dance with Dragons, will take place on July 28th at 12pm PDT.
Martin is a bestselling author most famous for his A Song of Ice and Fire fantasy series of novels that has been adapted to the popular HBO drama Game of Thrones. Time magazine has dubbed him an "American Tolkien". In his series, Martin creates a rich world populated by a large cast of intriguing characters and interwoven storylines.
This is the first-ever live-streamed event for the Authors@Google series, where authors of all stripes visit the company for informal talks about their recently published books. It should come as no surprise that in addition to technology, Googlers love things like dragons and fantasy worlds, and we also love meeting talented writers like Martin.
This is your chance to get to know the author a little better too. In the live-streamed interview, Martin will be answering some online user-submitted questions.
Submit your questions for Martin on this page: Open from now until July 27, 12pm PDT.
Watch the live YouTube broadcast of Martin's interview: On July 28th, 12pm PDT, at the Authors@Google page, youtube.com/atgoogletalks. We'll also post the recorded interview on this page afterwards.
Meanwhile, make sure to get a digital copy of Martin's just released book from the Google eBookstore, A Dance with Dragons, for your smartphone, tablet or e-reader device (see a full list of supported devices).
If you're new to the series, catch up on the previous books:
Davis was interviewed by Google director Stacy Brown-Philpot, who asked her questions about her career, being black in America, technology's impact on the media, and her hopes for the future.
During her career Davis anchored at three major network affiliates, CBS, NBC and PBS, and currently hosts a highly respected political affairs program on KQED-TV in San Francisco. She has interviewed icons such as Malcolm X, Frank Sinatra, James Brown, Alex Haley, Dianne Feinstein, Fidel Castro and Condoleezza Rice. During her interview at Google, Davis said that she would like to add President Barack Obama to this list.
In the video above, Davis is interviewed on-stage as part of the Authors@Google series
When asked how she started her career, Davis pointed to the Republican National Convention of 1964. She explained that it was during that convention where she saw how the mainstream media shaped public opinion and perpetuated racism.
Seeing the media's power to tell a story of hatred to America inspired her to try to tell a different story, "I thought to myself... I want to do something like that... I want to be able to tell people what happens to us. No one is truly interested in what happens to us if we don't tell our own story."
Something that surfaced during the conversation was how important it is to continue telling your story, even after you think you've broken down a wall. Asked if she thought being black in America has changed since the 1960s, Davis said it had, but this did not mean that people should stop working toward change:
It's like two different worlds for black Americans today. There is the group we dreamed of, that people fought for, march for... And then there is the other world, where unemployment is higher than it's ever been, where poverty is at an unmeasurable amount, where walls are so high that some don't see that they can climb over them.
So as a country we need to do more, but as a people there is no denying that the world is totally different: When I was starting in this business, I was often asked to leave news conferences because no one could believe I was a real legitimate reporter. Today the president of the country is black.
In her book Davis recounts where she was the night that Barack Obama won the 2008 Presidential election, and her initial hesitation to celebrate. Once she realized his success was real and being acknowledged, she was unable to control herself and had to share her experiences. She spoke about her experience of America in the 1960s, and the miracle she felt Obama's election was. And yet, always the journalist, Davis admits:
Deep down, I suspect that this glorious glow will fade into a more complex reality. Every progressive step in America seems to evoke its own backlash. In the same way that Brown v. Board of Education and passage of the Civil Rights Act helped spawn the reactionary rhetoric of the Goldwaterites, so too will Obama's election trigger angry Tea Party movement protesters brandishing him "un-American" and clamoring to take their country "back."
Yes I choose to remain hopeful. Over the years I've followed my mantra--a note I wrote to myself years ago. Its message applies to the fate of Belvagene Metlon Davis Moore from hardscrabble Louisiana, and to the Obamas and Oprahs and Christophers of the world, and to all who follow the arch of history as it blends toward justice. It begins like this: "Don't be afraid of the space between your dreams and reality" (16).
Ultimately, Never in My Wildest Dreams, is about not giving up. Davis points out that we are living in a time when young people are throwing up their hands and abandoning their dreams. Davis wanted to let anyone who has thought of giving up that there "are rewards for hanging in there, for having wild dreams, for envisioning yourself as whatever it is that you think will make you happy."
She writes, "If you can somehow along the way convince yourself to do the work that it takes to get where you want to go, then there you are."
