Last Wednesday Food group chews the fat in Sonoma

Our Last Wednesday Food Group has resumed meeting at Readers’ Books. Every gathering begins at 7 p.m. Readers’ Books gives all attendees a 15 percent discount on all of the books featured by the group.

We have two great events in October. On Wednesday, Oct. 7 Nancy Singleton Hachisu, author of “Preserving the Japanese Way,” is a very interesting and charming American who lives with her farmer husband in Japan and hosts some of Japan’s most popular public television cooking shows while running a preschool. Just listening to her is worth the trip.

Her first book, “Japanese Farm Food,” was launched at Chez Panisse in Berkeley with great reviews. It’s the story of her life in a 65-year-old house with her husband, a Japanese farmer.

H H H

Acclaimed author Frances Dinkelspiel is the great, great granddaughter of Isaias Hellman, who made bottles of Port and Angelica wines in 1875. The family’s stored bottles were destroyed by the Wines Central fire on Mare Island on Oct. 12, 2005 that was started by Sausalito “conman” Mark Anderson.

Dinkelspiel brings her new book, “Tangled Vines: Greed, Murder, Obsession, and an Arsonist in the Vineyards of California,” to Readers’ Books on Monday, Oct. 19. With fine investigative reporting she tells the truth and mystery of what happened to that storage building. She is also the co-founder of Berkeleyside, a daily news service that features the news of Berkeley, California. Do not miss.

Her previous book, “Towers of Gold: How One Jewish Immigrant Named Isaias Hellman Created California” tells the story of her great, great grandfather, Isaias Hellman, transforming Wells Fargo into one of the West’s biggest financial institutions. He invested money with Henry Huntington to build trolley lines, lent Edward Doheney the funds that led him to discover California’s huge oil reserves, and assisted Harrison Gary Otis in acquiring full ownership of the Los Angeles Times. Hellman led the building of Los Angeles’s first synagogue, the Wilshire Boulevard Temple, helped start the University of Southern California and served as Regent of the University of California. His influence, however, was not limited to Los Angeles. Apparently he controlled the California wine industry for almost 20 years (according the amazon.com’s write-up of the book).

H H H

Wednesday, Oct. 28 brings Dana Velden, author of ”Finding Yourself in the Kitchen: Kitchen Meditations and Inspired Recipes from a Mindful Cook,” which apparently will help us cook in the kitchen mindfully and enjoy it. Velden was just featured in a whole page story in last Sunday’s San Francisco Chronicle food section. Might be really interesting. Free. 7 p.m. 120 E. Napa St., Sonoma. 939-1779.