After confessing to being a lifelong chocoholic, the aptly named Almond (creative writing, Boston College) traces the history and bittersweet business practices of the companies producing those addictive candy bars. He includes relevant Web sites. Annotation ©2004 Book News, Inc., Portland, OR (booknews.com) Distributed by Syndetic Solutions, Inc.

The appropriately named Almond goes beyond candy obsession to enter the realm of "freakdom." Right up front, he divulges that he has eaten a piece of candy "every single day of his entire life," "thinks about candy at least once an hour" and "has between three and seven pounds of candy in his house at all times." Indeed, Almond's fascination is no mere hobby-it's taken over his life. And what's a Boston College creative writing teacher to do when he can't get M&Ms, Clark Bars and Bottle Caps off his mind? Write a book on candy, of course. Almond's tribute falls somewhere between Hilary Liftin's decidedly personal Candy and Me and Tim Richardson's almost scholarly Sweets: A History of Candy. There are enough anecdotes from Almond's lifelong fixation that readers will feel as if they know him (about halfway through the book, when Almond is visiting a factory and a marketing director offers him a taste of a coconut treat, readers will know why he tells her, "I'm really kind of full"-he hates coconut). But there are also enough facts to draw readers' attention away from the unnaturally fanatical Almond and onto the subject at hand. Almond isn't interested in "The Big Three" (Nestle, Hershey's and Mars). Instead, he checks out "the little guys," visiting the roasters at Goldenberg's Peanut Chews headquarters and hanging out with a "chocolate engineer" at a gourmet chocolate lab in Vermont. Almond's awareness of how strange he is-the man actually buys "seconds" of certain candies and refers to the popular chocolate mint parfait as "the Andes oeuvre"-is strangely endearing. (Apr. 9) Copyright 2004 Reed Business Information. From: Reed Elsevier Inc. Copyright Reed Business Information

A former journalist, Almond (creative writing, Boston Coll.; My Life in Heavy Metal) is obsessed with candy; it shaped his childhood and continues to define his life in ways large and small. Fascinated by the emotional bonds that people develop with their childhood favorites, Almond began a journey into the history of candy in America and discovered a lot about himself in the process. Once hundreds of American confectioners delivered regional favorites to consumers, but now the big three of candy-Hershey, Mars, and Nestl?-control the market. To find out what happened to those candies of yesteryear, Almond talks to candy collectors and historians and visits a few of the remaining independent candy companies, where he learns exactly what goes into creating lesser-known treats such as the Idaho Spud. Flavored with the author's amusingly tart sense of humor, Candyfreak is an intriguing chronicle of the passions that candy inspires and the pleasures it offers. Recommended for most public libraries as a nice counterpart to Tim Richardson's more internationally focused Sweets: A History of Candy.-John Charles, Scottsdale P.L., AZ Copyright 2004 Reed Business Information. From: Reed Elsevier Inc. Copyright Reed Business Information

Steve Almond is the author of the acclaimed story collection My Life in Heavy Metal. His work has been anthologized in Zoetrope: All-Story 2, The Pushcart Prize, The Best American Erotica, Lost Tribe: Jewish Fiction from the Edge, New Stories from the South, and others. Almond is a regular commentator on the NPR affiliate WBUR in Boston. He teaches creative writing at Boston College and has twelve cases of Kit Kat Darks stored in an undisclosed location Distributed by Syndetic Solutions, Inc.

Prologue: Some Things You Should Know about the Author	p. 1
Chapter 1
The Author Will Now Rationalize	p. 9
Chocolate = Enabler	p. 17
In Which an Unhealthy Pattern of Dependence Is Established	p. 18
An Ill-Advised Discussion of Freak Economics	p. 24
Night of the Living Freak	p. 30
Mistakes Were Made	p. 33
Chapter 2
Caravelle: An Elegy	p. 38
I Love Manny	p. 48
Feeding the Beast	p. 54
Chapter 3
A Top-Secret Chocolate Situation	p. 61
The Politics of the Rack	p. 66
The Last Man in America with Black Jack Gum	p. 72
Chapter 4
The Capo Di Tutti Freak	p. 81
The Love Song of Ray Luthar Broekel	p. 86
Welcome to the Boom	p. 92
Chapter 5
There Are Men upon This Earth Who Tread Like Gods	p. 100
Feuilletine, Revealed	p. 107
Freak Fetish	p. 115
Chapter 6
The Official Dark Horse Freak of Philadelphia	p. 118
Wee Willie and the Pop-a-Licks Rage	p. 125
Chapter 7
Southern-Fried Freak	p. 133
Chocolate Haiku	p. 140
Freak Retentive	p. 149
Chapter 8
In the Belly of the Freak	p. 152
The Unstoppable Freak Energy of Mr. Marty Palmer	p. 155
Southbound with the Hammers Down	p. 173
Chapter 9
The Candy Bar on Your Chin	p. 178
The Marshmallow Parallax	p. 188
A Depressing but Necessary Digression	p. 199
Chapter 10
Boise: Gateway to ... Boise	p. 201
Ladies and Gentlemen, the Idaho Spud	p. 205
Huckleberry, Hounded	p. 216
American Lunch	p. 224
How Will the Spud Survive?	p. 228
Chapter 11
The Past Is Just Ahead	p. 234
Remember This Name: Banana-Zaba	p. 241
Chapter 12
A Second Depressing but Necessary Digression	p. 248
A Little Hidden Bomb in My Idaho Spud	p. 250
A Few Final Relevant Facts	p. 254
Acknowledgments	p. 263
Freak Appendix	p. 265

Distributed by Syndetic Solutions, Inc.