I have to admit that a good bit of the reason I wanted to read this book is that I had read fellow (now former for her) food blogger, Ahern’s earlier memoir/self-help book, Gluten-Free Girl: How I Found the Food That Loves Me Back…And How You Can Too ten years ago and in it, she hints … Continue reading
Tag Archives: nonfiction
Text Me When You Get Home: The Evolution and Triumph of Modern Female Friendship by Kayleen Schaefer
Another mashup of memoir and some research, this time into female friendship, Text Me When You Get Home was a peek into a bit of a different world for me. I could not relate to the bulk of this book at all, the author was desperate for friends and acceptance in a way that I can’t … Continue reading
Flat Broke with Two Goats: A Memoir by Jennifer McGaha
I really wanted to like the book more than I did. Her endless making herself out to be a victim was so tiresome. She seems to still be perplexed why the people she defaulted on (hundreds of thousands of dollars!) and whose house they did not maintain or repair would not want to talk to … Continue reading
Eight Flavors: The Untold Story of American Cuisine by Sarah Lohman
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
Spinster : making a life of one’s own by Kate Bolick
Another book I had mixed feelings about. It was a mashup of a memoir of a woman who never married and the profiles of 5 (6?) “spinsters” throughout history that Kate Bolick found inspiring. Looking at GoodReads, it seems like a lot of people liked the historical woman part and didn’t love the memoir bits. … Continue reading
I’ll Have What She’s Having: My Adventures in Celebrity Dieting by Rebecca Harrington
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
Selfish, shallow, and self-absorbed : sixteen writers on the decision not to have kids edited by Meghan Daum
Some of the essays in Selfish were really good. Geoff Dryer’s essay was hilarious. Others were sort of sad. Lots of divorces and bad childhoods. I can’t say I related to a lot of them but it was interesting to read the reasons people had for making the same decision I made not to have … Continue reading
The Potlikker Papers: A Food History of the Modern South by John T. Edge
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
Agorafabulous!: Dispatches from My Bedroom by Sara Benincasa
I had mixed feelings about Agorafabulous!. On one hand, it was fascinating to read about agoraphobia, on the other I felt like she was trying too hard to be funny at times and occasionally was slightly offensive. For example, she’d refer to people’s race, sexuality or ethnicity all the time even when it didn’t matter. It … Continue reading
The Maximum Security Book Club: Reading Literature in a Men’s Prison by Mikita Brottman
I enjoyed this book quite a bit. Mikita Brottman lives in Baltimore too and the book club she starts is right in Jessup south of the city. I always like a local connection. Each chapter focuses on a different novel or play she has the prisoners read and their reactions to it. There is also a … Continue reading