I started The Man Who Ate Too Much: The Life of James Beard by John Birdsall as an ARC and couldn’t get through it then tried again when it was published. This time I was able to put my finger on what bothered me. I understand the impulse to make the subject of a biography … Continue reading
I had to hurry on this one because it couldn’t be renewed and I’m headed to the beach for a few days and need to return it ASAP. I had some mixed feelings. I liked the eight flavors she chose because they were quite varied and reflected a lot of different cultures and regions. She … Continue reading
I’ve read a few books the last couple of days but Sweet Bean Paste by Durian Sukegawa was my favorite. Translated from Japanese, it is the story of a reluctant dorayaki (a type of pancake filled with sweet bean paste) chef who against his initial impulse hires a woman in her mid-70s to help out at the dorayaki … Continue reading
Apparently, I’ll Have What She’s Having is based on a series of articles Rebbeca Harrington wrote in New York Magazine. That explains the choppiness and length of the chapters; they must have just compiled them and bound them. The premise of the book is cute, she tries various celebrity diets and reports back. Unfortunately, the … Continue reading
The Potlikker Papers one of, if not the, best food history books I’ve ever read. It goes from the segregated South to the Black Panthers (did you know Bobby Seale* has a cookbook?) to Nation of Islam to hippies relocating from cities to the deep South to start communes to Paul Prudhomme to Southern Living to … Continue reading
The Tannie Maria mysteries are one of my all-time favorite mystery series. That’s really saying something because I have read literally thousands of mysteries over the years. The Satanic Mechanic was a lot of fun and a little less gruesome than the first book in the series which involved some unfortunate wildlife poaching scenes. The … Continue reading
Give a Girl a Knife was another case of a reading a book that I wanted to love but ended up only sort of liking. I swear I am not that picky! I loved the topics she covered–her weird rural no-electricity-no-water-homesteader-to-the-extreme life and her NYC fancy restaurant life (obvi, I’m a food blogger) but timeline … Continue reading
I wish I liked this book. The concept was certainly compelling–a book celebrating cakes rather than simply being about making them–but ultimately it fell flat. I think what put me off was how the author kept switching back and forth between personal memories (occasionally not cake related, she writes at length about her mother and … Continue reading
