Sometimes, the simplest idea can be the most affecting.

Case in point: last meal(Common Courage Press, $12.95), by Jacquelyn C. Black.

This tiny paperback book with a plain black cover contains only the slimmest of information. On one page, you'll find a picture of a criminal condemned to death and a snippet of that criminal's last statement; on the opposing page, a picture of that person's requested last meal.

The final statements are moving, to be sure. But there's something in the simple photographs of food that bypasses a viewer's stomach and goes straight to the heart.

On one page, there's a photo of three pickles on a plate. On another, a bowl of Frosted Flakes.

One picture features a slice of American cheese between two slabs of Wonder Bread, another a bag of Jolly Rancher candies.

Somehow, each image conjures up the vulnerability of childhood - when comfort, we imagine, was found in a plate of fried chicken or a bowl of tomato soup - and underscores a person's humanity at the same time.

Clearly the book has a political agenda. We never know the person's crime. We don't hear from the victims or their families.

Still, whatever side you occupy on the death penalty debate, thumbing through these pages, and the sorrowful-looking meals they feature, can't help but give you serious food for thought.

Patti Thorn, books editor