M F K Fisher

The Winner of Sorrow A Novel Brian Lynch Dalkey Archive Press: 364 pp., $14.95 paper William Cowper, born in England in 1731, wrote hymns and poems inspired by his love of nature and his devotion to evangelical Christianity. Cowper suffered from depression all his life; he tried several times to commit suicide. Brian Lynch's novel cleaves closely to the life of the forgotten poet, unlucky in love and convinced that eternal damnation awaited him.

Some people will do anything to impress a date. Consider: He who boils asparagus, and then fries them in fat, and then pours upon them the yolks of eggs with pounded condiments, and eats every day of this dish, will . . . find in it a stimulant for his amorous desires." --Sheik Nefzawi, "The Perfumed Garden for the Soul's Delectation" Dry, steep and stew in sauce the kidneys of an eagle. Then mix them with drink or meat.

Marian L. Gore has always had an insatiable appetite for books about food and drink. But make no mistake. For this antiquarian bookseller, who has nearly 5,000 titles in her collection, a good read is as important as a good recipe. "There are lots of people who go to bed at night and read cookbooks," Gore said. "But they are not reading about white sauce. Cookbooks are not just about food. "They are like a bouillabaisse, filled with lots of interesting things."

Paul Vangelisti has been a poet, journalist, teacher and, more recently, the editor of "L.A. Exile: A Guide to Los Angeles Writing 1932 to 1998" (Marsilio, $14.95). He will discuss his book when he speaks to the Ventura County Writers Club on Tuesday at Borders in Thousand Oaks. In a recent telephone interview, he explained his criteria in selecting the book's 38 authors, arranged alphabetically from Theodor W. Adorno to Tennessee Williams.

Most people like it with a lot of raisins in it, if they can face it to begin with. It is perhaps meant for the nursery . . . but that is where we should all return now and then, to simplify ourselves. --M.F.K. Fisher on rice pudding It's hard to believe our lives would be simpler if we only ate more rice pudding, but if it tastes good, what's the harm? Rice pudding may not be man's greatest gastronomic accomplishment, but it is the ultimate comfort food.

I tend to bristle when a place is reduced to caricature--when a manifold metropolis such as L.A. is seen only through the prism of Hollywood, for instance, or when the Central Valley is made out to be home to nothing but hayseeds. Every once in a while, though, I'm guilty of doing the same dumb thing: making unfair assumptions and assertions about an area. That's just what happened when I read Rebecca K.

Books come in all shapes and sizes these days, and some will fit handily into the standard athletic sock slung on the mantle or the heirloom needlepoint and velvet deluxe model. Archeologically speaking, it is our opinion that books should be the first to be opened, followed by the small blue box from Tiffany & Co., followed by a few cigars, followed by the ever-present orange, exotic as any jewel on a chilly winter 1920s New Hampshire morning.

William D. Turnbull, who announced the demise of his small but distinguished North Point Press only last December when he failed to find a buyer, has died of cancer. He was 64. Turnbull, who owned the prestigious Berkeley-based book publishing house he co-founded in 1980, died Thursday at his home in Stinson Beach, his office announced Friday. "My death could trigger a fire sale . . .

TRAVELERS' TALES: France edited by James O'Reilly, Larry Habegger and Sean O'Reilly; TRAVELERS' TALES: India edited by James O'Reilly and Larry Habegger; TRAVELERS' TALES: A Woman's World edited by Marybeth Bond (all by Travelers' Tales, Inc., $17.95, paper). Another set in a growing collection--six published, eight more scheduled for release in the next 18 months. Each book contains more than 50 contemporary stories, mostly reprints from magazines, books or newspapers.

Frances Kroll Ring was only 20 when a Hollywood employment agency sent her to Encino, where F. Scott Fitzgerald was living and working in the guest house of actor Edward Everett Horton's estate. The year was 1939, a time when the greatest literary meteor of the Jazz Age a decade earlier was attempting to rekindle the old flame. For the last 20 months of Fitzgerald's life--as he struggled to complete his Hollywood novel, "The Last Tycoon"--Ring served as his secretary and personal assistant.