6 Books with Jules Sherred

 

Based in Duncan, BC, Jules Sherred is an award-winning photographer in the fields of commercial food and lifestyle photography, author and recipe developer, journalist, and outspoken advocate for disability and trans rights. His website Disabled Kitchen and Garden and his cookbook Crip Up the Kitchen were born out of the need to include disabled people in the conversation around food. Visit him at julessherred.com

1. What book are you currently reading?

Will by Will Smith. Lately, I’ve been rotating between really good memoirs, reading in the genres of my current WIPs, and reading whatever sci-fi catches my eye. Smith’s memoir strikes a nice balance of difficult situations and humor.

2. What upcoming book are you really excited about?

Starter Villain by John Scalzi. I have a feeling it is going to live in the same spot as another book that I’m about to mention. The sales copy is eight quick sentences. It just screams as another homage to old Bond movies but with the Scalzi humor we love.

3. Is there a book you’re currently itching to re-read?

Redshirts by John Scalzi. This is the other book I alluded to in the previous question. It is my favorite book of my adulthood. I laugh until I cry reading that book. It is the perfect love letter to my favorite TV franchise to ever exist, Star Trek.

4. A book that you love and wish that you yourself had written.

Once again, the answer is Redshirts by John Scalzi. Star Trek is the thing I love. It is the only media franchise that, if it were to disappear tomorrow, I’d be gutted. Redshirts not only pays the perfect homage to all the things we love about Star Trek, but it also pokes funs at all the things that are goofy about the franchise. It is everything I’ve said about Star Trek but written in a hilarious and intelligent manner.

5. What’s one book, which you read as a child or a young adult, that holds a special place in your heart?

Winnie-the-Pooh by A. A. Milne. I still pick up The Complete Tales when I’m feeling really down and need a safe, loving space in which to escape. So much of my childhood revolved around the book, including Heffalump hunting in the back woods of my childhood acreage and playing Pooh Sticks on the bridge over a creek on the property of a different childhood home. It has always been the place I go when things get rough.

6. And speaking of that, what’s your latest book, and why is it awesome?

Crip Up the Kitchen: Tools, Tips and Recipes for the Disabled Cook. It’s awesome because it not only makes cooking accessible again for millions of people but there is a lot of heart in the book. It validates people’s realities. It meets them where they are at. It teaches people where the food they love comes from. There are a lot of features in it for neurodivergent people who get overwhelmed in the kitchen. Flat-lay binding. There are some cool departures from how cookbooks have been written for the last 60-80 years. It is also beautifully designed. I am very proud of it.

Thanks, Jules!

POSTED BY: Paul Weimer. Ubiquitous in Shadow, but I’m just this guy, you know? @princejvstin.