Book roundup: Food and travel

The Road to Burgundy: The Unlikely Story of an American Making Wine and a New Life in France
By Ray Walker
Gotham, 292 pp.
* * * out of four

There’s something charming about dreamers — and winemaker Ray Walker, all of 32, has charm (and dreams) by the bottle-full. Walker’s appeal, both as a person and as a writer, lies in his complete lack of pretension: He didn’t even like wine until a trip to Italy opened his senses. But once hooked, the Californian became obsessed, quitting his day job (with the support of his wife), apprenticing in a local winery, and finally making his way to nirvana — the storied fields of Burgundy, where he was determined to stay true to purist traditions and produce his own fine French wine. Wine lovers, Francophiles and anyone who roots for dreamers will want to raise a glass to Ray Walker. — Jocelyn McClurg

On the Noodle Road: From Beijing to Rome, With Love and Pasta
By Jen Lin-Liu
Riverhead, 375 pp.
* * *

Who knew that the history of the noodle could be so interesting? During her honeymoon in Italy, Chinese-American food writer Jen Lin-Liu found the similarities between Italian pasta and Chinese noodles fascinating enough to later take a six-month pilgrimage from Beijing to Rome along the Silk Road, eating her way through seven countries. She meets all manner of female cooks, from tiny kitchens in homes to bustling restaurants. Their stories are a wonderful peek into a largely unknown world. And the dozen-plus recipes featured are a bonus. What’s not interesting is Lin-Liu’s self-reflection as she begins life as a married woman and struggles to find her place as a person of mixed race. Just pass the noodles, please.— Korina Lopez

Italian Ways: On and Off the Rails From Milan to Palermo
By Tim Parks
Norton, 288 pp.
* * *

Tim Parks, a student of Italian idiosyncrasies, writes, by way of warning: “Italy is not for beginners.” Parks is no beginner. An English novelist and professor, he’s lived in Italy for more than 30 years, writing three previous books about his experiences there.Italian Ways, an uneven and fragmented collection of essays, lives up to its title’s double meaning. Parks’ dual focus is on the railroads he travels and a national psyche he attempts to explain. He has both a sense of humor and of history. In 1840, he notes, Pope Gregory XVI issued an encyclical against the railroad, worrying that it would create too much social mobility. More than 170 years later, Parks writes, “To see the country by train is to consider the crux of the essential Italian dilemma: Is Italy part of the modern world, or not?” He concludes that Italians have no desire to change, but seek a compromise: “Italy will be made tolook fast and modern.”— Bob Minzesheimer

The Greek House: The Story of a Painter’s Love Affair With the Island of Sifnos
By Christian Brechneff with Tim Lovejoy
Farrar , Straus Giroux, 304 pp.
* * *

At the end of a dreary workweek, few places could seem more enchanted than the Greek islands, and at moments in his understated memoir about 30 years of part-time residence on the island of Sifnos, artist Christian Brechneff captures that magic. The book has its flaws: Brechneff seems to imagine that every unremarkable event in his life is of the most pressing and immediate interest to the reader, a problem compounded by the book’s episodic nature and lack of other major characters; at moments,The Greek House has all the wearying narcissism of a vanity-press memoir. But its shadow tale of the emergence of homosexuality into the mainstream is affecting, its drawings of the island are lovely, and there is enough wistful charm in its story to beguile readers who are longing for an escape.— Charles Finch