The Foreign Service Journal, November 2021

THE FOREIGN SERVICE JOURNAL | NOVEMBER 2021 71 Ambassador (ret.) Michael Gfoeller is an independent consultant on international politics and security matters. Beginning in 1984, his 26-year State Department Foreign Service career took him and his FSO spouse, Tatiana, a tandem (see p. 64 for her book), to Riyadh, Manama, Baghdad, Moscow, Yerevan, Chisinau, Warsaw and Brussels. Fittingly, in 2004 he concluded his diplomatic career where it had begun: in Riyadh. After spending four years there as deputy chief of mission and chargé d’affaires, he served two more years as senior political adviser to the U.S. Central Command, with the rank of ambassador, before retiring from the Foreign Service in 2010. Ambassador Gfoeller is also the author of The Eccentric Traveler (2020), as well as three books offering photographic surveys of Armenia, Myanmar and Constantinople. Big Know: What I Wish I Knew About Italian Food, Vol. I, The Green Volume Mikkela Thompson, Blurb, 2020, $20.20/paperback, 182 pages. In preparation for her 2020 Foreign Service assignment to Rome, OMS Mikkela Thompson made a decision. She would “write what I think I know about Italian food, and then I will look it up.” She had absolutely no firsthand information about Italy, so she collected the stories and infor- mation in this book from friends, both Italians and Italophiles, consulted Google and Wikipedia, and read such books as Sex in History and Food in History , both by Reay Tannahill. (She thoughtfully appends the sources her research tapped in the references section.) At the suggestion of a friend, Mikkela envisions this work as the first of three volumes named “Green,” “White” and “Red,” in honor of “il Tricolore,” the Italian flag. She explains that the official symbolism of that flag has several layers of meaning. Since green is the color of naivety and envy, it makes sense for that to kick off the series—both because this first book discusses what the author does not yet know and expresses the jealousy we all feel for those who already do know. See p. 67 for her latest books for children about food and fun activities in Peru. Tales, Tall and Short, About Food in Peru Mikkela Thompson, Blurb, 2020, $20.20/paperback, 158 pages. After spending three years in Peru, Mikkela Thompson found herself on what she euphemistically describes as “a creative retreat in the Common- wealth of Virginia” during the COVID- 19 pandemic in August 2020. After finishing several of the titles included in this compilation, she decided to write another book—“like the ones I like to read.” While each of these 35 short chapters discusses a particular Peruvian delicacy she recalls fondly, the author also manages to work in a lot of useful information about the country’s past and present along the way. But she gives fair warning in her introduction: “So here goes, my tales, some tall (as in, could that be true? I will not be adding references, so you will have to go look for yourself).” M’s Adventures in Peru Mikkela Thompson, Blurb, 2020, $51.93/hardcover, 28 pages. As MikkelaThompson concluded her OMS tour in Lima in 2020, she took time to reflect on the experiences and people who hadmade her three years there so pleasurable andmemorable. She had already documentedmany of those through her blog of the same name, so there is some over- lap between this book and the others previously discussed. But the sheer range of shoutouts—including some not found onmost tour- ists’ itineraries—and hundreds of her striking photographs, make this slim volume invaluable for anyone who wants Pre-1945 Baedeker Buyer- Seller Reference Lawrence Dolan, independently published, 2019, $9.95/paperback, e-book available, 198 pages. Verlag Karl Baedeker, founded by Karel Baedeker in 1827, was a German publisher and pioneer in the business of worldwide travel guides. These guidebooks, often referred to simply as Baedekers, contain, among other