Death by Pad Thai (2006)

Personality-driven food writing has blossomed of late. As novelist Ann Packer puts it in one of the 20 sparkling autobiographical sketches in Death by Pad Thai (paperback): ''The story of how one eats is the story of how one lives....'' Eating (and living) during lean times is a favorite subject. As a single mom, Sue Miller wistfully recalls shoveling budget mac 'n' cheese into her famished teenage son, while Richard Russo relives a bank-breaking dinner to celebrate his first novel. Aimee Bender, crafter of wonderfully odd fiction, concocts a wonderfully odd essay about her fixation on other people's sack lunches.