Is there a food more delightful, ubiquitous, or accessible than cheese? This book is a charming and engaging love letter to the food that Clifton Fadiman once called "milk’s leap toward immortality." Examining some cheeses we know as well as some we don’t; the processes, places, and people who make them; and the way cheeses taste us as much as we taste them, each chapter takes up a singular and exciting aspect of cheese: Why do we relish cheese? What facts does a cheese lover need to know? How did cheese lead to cheesiness? What’s the ideal way to eat cheese—in Paris, Italy, and Wisconsin? Why does cheese comfort us, even when it reeks? Finally, what foods pair well with which cheeses? Eric LeMay brings us cheese from as near as Formaggio Kitchen in Cambridge, Massachusetts, to as far as the Slow Food International Cheese Festival in Bra, Italy. In the witty, inventive, and wise company of his best girl, Chuck, he endures surly fromagers in Paris and dodges pissing goats in Vermont, a hurricane in Cambridge, and a dispiriting sense of hippie optimism in San Francisco; looks into curd and up at the cosmos; and even dons secondhand polyester to fathom America’s 1970s fondue fad. The result is a plucky and pithy tour through everything worth knowing about cheese. *** AN EXCERPT FROM THIS BOOK APPEARS IN BEST AMERICAN FOOD WRITING 2009 *** It’s a challenge to describe the flavor of an excellent French cheese. Chuck and I were in our tiny rental in the Marais, hovering over a Langres. We didn’t have the funds for Champagne, but we had managed to get tipsy on a serviceable vin de pays, which is also a pleasant way to eat a Langres. "It doesn’t play well with others," Chuck continued, the thick smack of pâte slowing her speech. "It doesn’t respect lesser cheese." "It’s like a road trip through Arizona in an old Buick," I offered. "It has a half-life inside your teeth." "It has ideas." "It gradually peels off the skin on the roof of your mouth." "It attains absolute crustiness and absolute creaminess." Anyone can read that a salt-washed Langres is "salty," then taste its saltiness, but not everyone will taste in it the brilliant and irascible character of Proust’s Palamède de Guermantes, Baron de Charlus. Yet these more personal descriptions capture the experience of a Langres. It sparks associative leaps, unforeseen flashbacks, inspired flights of poetry and desire. Its riches reveal your own. W. H. Auden once remarked that when you read a book, the book also reads you. The same holds true for cheese: it tastes you. —From Immortal Milk

Chen Xiaoyun wore the clothes of a woman of the same name from a cultivation subsidiary family, and found the Celestial Land of Lock Jade Immortal in an accident. He wanted to find a way to improve the living environment of his family. While his position was rising, his relatives came to look for him. Chen Xiaoyu, who was too lazy to bother with them, brought his three acres of immortal land and went to a sect to freely and unrestrainedly cultivate ...

A Heavenly God was transmigrated into a different world right after he died. After arriving in that world, he resides in the body of a handsome young man with a mechanical voice inside his head providing him with missions. It also kept on telling him to brew wine every single day. The system built a humble store within the territory of the Silver Wing Empire where peak experts roam on a daily basis. His first task was to sell... wine? The patrons thought that winemaster Jiu Shen was not as simple as he seemed to be. Even his identity and background were still a mystery to everyone. They also thought the adorable and chubby white cat named Ice was just a normal household cat, but Jiu Shen knew that it was actually a 10th-ranked God-Class Glacial Sovereign Tiger. Join Jiu Shen on his path on becoming the first ever Wine God!

In The Columbia Anthology of Chinese Folk and Popular Literature, two of the world's leading sinologists, Victor H. Mair and Mark Bender, capture the breadth of China's oral-based literary heritage. This collection presents works drawn from the large body of oral literature of many of China's recognized ethnic groups?including the Han, Yi, Miao, Tu, Daur, Tibetan, Uyghur, and Kazak?and the selections include a variety of genres. Chapters cover folk stories, songs, rituals, and drama, as well as epic traditions and professional storytelling, and feature both familiar and little-known texts, from the story of the woman warrior Hua Mulan to the love stories of urban storytellers in the Yangtze delta, the shaman rituals of the Manchu, and a trickster tale of the Daur people from the forests of the northeast. The Cannibal Grandmother of the Yi and other strange creatures and characters unsettle accepted notions of Chinese fable and literary form. Readers are introduced to antiphonal songs of the Zhuang and the Dong, who live among the fantastic limestone hills of the Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region; work and matchmaking songs of the mountain-dwelling She of Fujian province; and saltwater songs of the Cantonese-speaking boat people of Hong Kong. The editors feature the Mongolian epic poems of Geser Khan and Jangar; the sad tale of the Qeo family girl, from the Tu people of Gansu and Qinghai provinces; and local plays known as "rice sprouts" from Hebei province. These fascinating juxtapositions invite comparisons among cultures, styles, and genres, and expert translations preserve the individual character of each thrillingly imaginative work.

Creating a family is one thing, but leaving another one behind is a little more complicated... Cameron Strikes has settled into life as the consort of the mightiest of the Ancient Gods. As Zeus' lover, and the father of his child, his life (and his immortality) has changed forever. But something is missing, and with Christmas approaching Cameron can't help but think about the family he left behind. After begging Zeus to let him take their daughter to the mortal world to meet her family, Cameron's hope for a beautiful family reunion could be ruined by the arrival of an unexpected guest. The truth about his new life as with Zeus could spell disaster for Cameron's holiday plans, unless he can keep his secret long enough for the presents to be opened... the only problem? Cameron is a terrible liar. Immortal's Wish is a FREE sweet, contemporary holiday novella (approx. 12,000 wds) set in the world of New Olympians. ~MEET THE NEW OLYMPIANS~ Book 1 ~ Lightning Strikes (ZEUS) Book 2 ~ Rip Tide (POSEIDON) Book 3 ~ By the Book (HADES) Book 4 ~ Swift Wings (HERMES) Book 5 ~ Marble Heart (ARES) Book 6 ~ Eternal Fire (HEPHAESTUS) Book 7 ~ Phoebus (APOLLO) Book 8 ~ Spark of Romance (EROS) Book 9 ~ Spark of Chaos (Dionysus) Book 10 ~ Spark of Remembrance (BOREAS) Keywords: free book, free gay romance, free mm romance, free gay christmas novella, mpreg romance, gay mpreg romance, male pregnancy romance, holiday novella, free holiday novella

The ancient cultivators of great powers, once they thought of becoming demons, and once they thought of becoming buddhas, there were also experts of the martial way that broke through the void. They were the only ones who had the right to do so. In chaotic times, geniuses would rise to prominence. The imperial government, sects, aristocratic families, and foreign races would battle with each other for karmic luck. Who could emerge from the masses and become a true dragon, reaching the peak of perfection? Like this book... 