A friend came to me furious because, unlike her colleagues’ publishers, the company that produced her book wasn’t arranging a launch party or media interviews. I thought that her book had been beautifully edited and produced (very quickly because the subject was time-sensitive), and that she had paid a very modest fee to have this done.
Since I began working on the Encyclopedia of Chinese Cuisines, questions about wine pairing constantly come up. Can you, or should you, drink wine with Chinese food? Which wine should you drink? Which wine should you serve Chinese guests? When I use the word wine, I mean wines made in the European tradition from grapes, not
Back in 2014 I wrote an e-letter entitled “Amazon update: when will the Justice Department step in?” “Never,” most people, even lawyers, said. But things have changed, and maybe antitrust law will move into the 21st-century. I’m thrilled to say that the time has come: the Justice Department is investigating Big Tech – Amazon, Apple, Facebook, and Google. Lina Khan
“Let us pray.” On Wednesday I heard a prayer - “grace” - said before dinner for the first time in years. “Thank you, Lord, for this beautiful evening and for our fellowship.” “Help us to serve those in need.” I’d been invited to talk about the Train Campaign at the Episcopal church’s men’s dinner group. No
“Are there recipes?” is the first thing many people ask about The Way of Eating, first published in Chinese in 1792. Indeed there are, and at the launch of the bilingual edition in Toronto last October, Chef Nick Liu crafted an entire menu using recipes from the book. One of those dishes, the Crispy
It’s International Women’s Day and I am at the History Faculty in Oxford, at the Thanks for Typing Conference organized by Wolfson College. I'll be speaking tomorrow about Sophia Mumford and Valerie Eliot, who were married to Lewis Mumford and T. S. Eliot. Here's the conference background: "When a series of tweets with #ThanksForTyping hashtag appeared in 2017,
You can’t change the world, Karen.” I’ve lost track of who said that to me, because it’s happened more than once. I might be on my soapbox about something or other—eliminating plastics, or transforming the publishing industry, or having an efficient and economical passenger rail service in the United States—and my friend will nod and smile
What is the most important thing to understand about China? I decided to send that question to our network of China experts late one afternoon.
These responses to Karen Christensen's question "What's the most important thing to know about China?" come from all over the world. Many are from Berkshire authors. We have arranged them by author name, and you can click a name to read that person's comment. We plan to highlight some of our favorite comments in future
Today is World Press Freedom Day (#PressFreedom), which prompted me to look at Berkshire's coverage of mass media, a topic that gets covered in some detail in most of our publications. I was struck by an article by Professor Laurien Alexandre in our 2007 Global Perspectives on the United States, and am glad to share it here.
