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
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
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
Sue Klebold’s book was the story of an ordinary woman who raised one of the shooters in the Columbine school shooting. Her son, Dylan, and his friend killed twelve students, a teacher and wounded twenty-four others. I remember the shooting quite vividly, I was just a couple years older than the shooters and had rather recently … Continue reading
I’ve always sort of liked Jennifer Weiner’s books. They are fluffy but generally well-written, normally set in the Mid-Atlantic, frequently feature dogs, characters are normal people and they are not too romance novel-y. I had read her blog back in 2002 (when even her publisher had to ask her what a blog was) and follow … Continue reading
Perhaps it was a mistake reading this right after Schadenfreude which I enjoyed so much. I had both out of the library and they seemed like a natural pair: both were written by American women writers who lived abroad in a country where English was not a first language. I was wrong. When in French is well … Continue reading
Schadenfreude almost made me want to go to Germany. Rebecca Shuman did a great job of weaving in her personal story (she basically became a German major–without knowing German!–because she had a crush on a boy in high school who introduced her to Kafka), the sites and sounds of Germany and Prague, and the struggles of … Continue reading
I’ve been a Lauren Graham fan since I saw her on Caroline in City. I am possibly the only person who watched Conrad Bloom for the two or so episodes that actually aired because she was on it (and Ever Carradine, another fave). I, of course, watched Gilmore Girls. I even didn’t get to take … 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
Rachel Reads Books 