Steve Almond

For a guy who so clearly enjoys a tasty snack, Steve Almond looks awfully thin in his author’s photo. In Candyfreak: A Journey Through the Chocolate Underbelly of America, the Boston-based food writer waxes rhapsodic on Tangy Taffy, Goo Goo Clusters, Peanut Bing, and a hundred others we’d never even heard of—small wonder, considering that there used to be as many as six thousand candy companies in America. Almond travels across the country in search of rare and obscure sweets, giving new meaning to the term “oral history.” If this gets your mouth watering, you should know that his appearance at Ruminator—which used to be called Hungry Mind, appropriately enough—is both a reading and a chance to sample a variety of candy bars made by small, independent American companies. To heck with the diet! (651) 699-0587; ruminator.com