Paper Palate

‘Tis the season, right?

Hump Day Horizons is contemplating entertaining this week. Why? Hello! Look at the statement above! With the American Thanksgiving right around the corner, and Christmas, Hanukah, Kwanza and New Years shortly following, this is a popular time of year for entertaining. Holiday party invites will be hitting your inbox and crashing into your mailbox in no time.

These books aren’t so much about being a good hostess so much as it’s a deep look at hospitality. They sound like some interesting reads that look beyond napkin folds and tapas. Check them out.

Hostess: Hospitality, Femininity, and the Expropriation of Identity
by Tracy McNulty - University of Minnesota Press/$24.00

There isn’t a whole lot of information out there on this yet. However the table of contents at the Library of Congress peaked my interest. It seems to take a very philosophical look at hostessing.

This book is due out in December.

Hospitality: A Social Lens
edited by Conrad Lashley - Elsevier Science Publishing Company/$99.95

Okay, so this book is more about the sociology of hospitality. But it could be a very interesting read, nonetheless. Check it out:

Hospitality: A Social Lens follows on from the unique contribution made by In Search of Hospitality: Theoretical Perspectives and Debates. It progresses debate, challenges the boundaries of ways of knowing hospitality, and offers intellectual insights stimulated by the study of hospitality. The contributing authors provide tangible evidence of continuing advancement and development of knowledge pertaining to the phenomenon of hospitality. They draw on the richness of the social sciences, taking host and guest relations as a means of studying in-group and out-group relations with and between societies. The chapter contributors represent a multi-disciplinary, international grouping of leading academics with expertise in hospitality management and education, human resource management, linguistics, modern languages, gastronomy, history, human geography, art, architecture, anthropology, and sociology. Each lends their expertise to apply as a social lens through which to view, analyse, and explore hospitality within a range of contexts. Through this process novel ways of interpreting, knowing and sense-making emerge that are captured in the final chapter of the book, and have informed future research themes which are explored.

This book is due out later this month.