On June 30, 1936, the epic novel Gone With the Wind by Margaret Mitchell, was published.
Can you imagine what life would have been like without this work or the movie?
The year I started our book group, I knew that my book choice would be Gone With the Wind. I'd never read it before and knew it was quite a bit different and better than the movie (isn't that always the case?). I wasn't sure if my fellow groupies would be willing to imbibe a 1000+ page tome, but they reluctantly agreed (we took an additional month to read it). I loved the book. I can't remember per se, whether it was a clear winner for everyone, but it met and exceeded all my expectations. My only disappointment was having obvious preconceived notions of Rhett and Scarlet, considering the number of times I had seen the movie. Oh how I wish I could have gone into the book and imagined both of those characters in my own little brain. I wonder what they would have looked like?
Have you ever read Gone With the Wind? Did you have any "ode to joy" feelings after reading it?
Let’s get this out up front: The F bomb is ABUNDANT in Anthony Bourdain’s Medium Raw. It’s how he has made a living – first as a foul mouth chef, now as a foul mouth TV travel host. The F bomb is so copious that if it were buck-shot loaded into a shot gun and fired at the book, all you would have left hanging from the spine was a few tattered pages that looked a lot like Swiss cheese. But if you have read his first book, Kitchen Confidential, or followed his TV show, you would know this – so I was prepared for battle when I cracked the cover on his most recent rant, restaurant subculture tell-all, memoir.
In essay style – Mr. Bourdain takes on every known enemy from Food Network, to Alice Waters (the Mother Theresa of the organic, sustainability food movement) to Ronald McDonald himself. He gives us background into the secrets of Top Chef (but not as much as I would have liked!). He talks bluntly about protecting his daughter from the chicken nugget, his suicidal moments following the end of his first marriage and tasting menus at 4 star restaurants (oh, and a superstar chef, named David Chang, who I had to Google to figure out who he was).
But his most brilliant chapter/essay is My Aim is True – about Justo Thomas, who is in charge of preparing all the fish for Le Bernardin – Chef extraordinaire Eric Ripert’s celebrated restaurant. In exquisite form, Mr. Bourdain takes us through a “day in the life” of Justo, as crates of every known type of fish must be filleted, scaled, deboned, and precisely portioned out for the various chef’s preparations. It is like a seafood symphony what this man is able to accomplish. And at the end, Mr. Bourdain does something that proves he isn’t as hard-hearted as he appears to be.
I sheepishly admit I like Mr. Bourdain’s snarky, snide, comic, vitriolic, commentary. I love his show and loved KC. This book, however, seemed like much of the same – and even I – who was prepared for the language, grew weary of reading yet another expletive -- which is why this is a 2 star book and not a 3.
So, if you are interested at all in reading Medium Raw – I would recommend (much against the publisher’s wishes) finding yourself a big comfy chair at Barnes & Noble (or your book store du jour) pulling a copy from the shelves and reading the chapters entitled Lower Education, I’m Dancing, and My Aim is True. You’ll be spared many of the F bombs, but left with some of the most emotional and best writing of the book.
It’s Monday! What Are You Reading? is hosted by Sheila at One Persons Journey Through a World of Books. It's is a weekly event to celebrate what we are reading for the week as well as books completed the previous week.
For nearly two weeks, I have had a series of disappointing reads. Last week it was Shanghai Girls by Lisa See. This week I finished two that were less than stellar:
And I didn't finish one, which in hindsight, I probably should have finished over the other two: Lunch in Paris by Elizabeth Bard
It's been a while since I've absolutely fallen in love with a book. I'm due an "I can't put this down -- why don't you kids stay in front of the TV a little while longer" novel.
Currently, I've hijacked my husband's Father's Day present. Do you ever do that -- buy him something you secretly want for yourself? I bought TWO things for him with that M.O. -- James Taylor and Carole King's CD, Live at the Troubadour and Anthony Bourdain's Medium Raw.
So far, it's everything you'd expect from Anthony Bourdain -- language, drugs, alcohol and food. I adored Kitchen Confidential and DVR regularly, No Reservations -- but I haven't found the groove yet with this book. It's a series of essays -- so it is a bit disjointed. I just finished a splendid chapter called LUST, on various meals he has eaten both domestic and exotic. I think when he is writing about food he is brilliant.
Deftly mixing fact and fiction, Kelly O'Connor McNees imagines a love affair that would threaten Louisa's writing career-and inspire the story of Jo and Laurie in Little Women. Stuck in small-town New Hampshire in 1855, Louisa finds herself torn between a love that takes her by surprise and her dream of independence as a writer in Boston. The choice she must make comes with a steep price that she will pay-for the rest of her life.
This is a relatively new novel, so I was completely surprised to find it marked down 50% at Barnes & Noble over the weekend! As a B&N member I received an additional 10%, so this hardback novel was only $12. Cheaper than a paperback! I'm not sure why - is it not selling?
And
A Long Long Time Ago but Essentially True by Brigid Pasulka Whimsical, wise, beautiful, magical, and at times heartbreaking, A Long, Long Time Ago and Essentially True weaves together two remarkable stories, reimagining half a century of Polish history through the legacy of one unforgettable love affair.
I've been enchanted by this cover since this book was released. And, as the winner of the Pen/Hemingway award, I'm hoping it merits its accolades.
My previous TBRs are still lurking in the stack....but my attention as been drawn elsewhere. I'm sure by next week, something else will have lured me away from the above!
I will never be Dooce or CJane or Nie Nie (nor do I want to be) -- but it is wonderful to be recognized by your community as a blog worth reading.
Thank you to Little Rock Family magazine -- an "award-winning parenting publication serving parents in central Arkansas. The magazine is the area's premier family resource publication produced for busy parents who are in need of timely, local information for their families" -- for recognizing my blog as one of value.
Please check out the link and the other awesome Little Rock bloggers!
In a castle at the foot of the Carpathian Mountains, an old aristocrat waits to greet the friend he has not seen for forty-one years. In the course of this one night, from dinner until dawn, the two men will fight a duel of words and silences, of stories, of accusations and evasions, that will encompass their entire lives and that of a third person, missing from the candlelit dining hall—the now dead chatelaine of the castle. The last time the three of them sat together was in this room, after a stag hunt in the forest. The year was 1900. No game was shot that day, but the reverberations were cataclysmic. And the time of reckoning has finally arrived.
YAWN. This was a snoozer. I almost initiated the 50 page rule, but after abandoning my last literary work (which I should have swapped with this one), I decided I needed to persevere.
The last 100 pages are the main character’s dialogue. Seriously. 100 pages of one man talking. I found myself skipping vast passages -- I thought it would never end.
The only redeeming value in this book – it is exquisitely written – and there is an interesting love triangle that evolves over the last half of the book.
Ultimately, this was a highly intellectual and symbolic book, and I am neither.
I started this yesterday and was about 80+ pages into it when I stopped for no other reason than it felt like I had read it before in some version or another: Under the Tuscan Sun, Eat Pray Love, or any other travel/romance/memoir. Elizabeth Bard's story was charming and romantic and her descriptions of Paris completely indulgent. But, I've decided that unless it's MY story of living in Paris or some other exotic destination, I'm done with reading other people's travel stories. My dream is to take my daughter to Paris when she is 12 -- just the two of us -- and spend a week in the City of Lights -- then I promise I will right a book about our adventures!
If travel memoirs are your thing -- I think this would be a worthy choice.
But Ansley Waller finds herself dumped, discarded and almost immediately replaced by her fiancée with her sorority sister. What is a girl to do other than pack up for New York City to reconnect with a grandmother she’s never met, start a “cupcakery” on the Upper East Side and try to mend her broken heart.
I’m not a prolific “chick lit” reader – but Jennifer Ross’s The Icing on the Cupcake was a reasonable representation of the genre.
Ansley shows great determination when she arrives in New York by honing her baking skills and putting them to use as the proprietor of her own shop. While living with her grandmother, Ansley helps her navigate the red tape of a potential audit with the IRS, all the while trying to determine if her grandmother’s financial advisor, Thad, is at all interested in her or not.
There is an additional layer to this novel that includes Ansley’s family cook book – a collection of multigenerational recipes from Ansley’s ancestral maternal grandmothers. It is a priceless heirloom, and recipes submitted to this tome are considered sacred. What the reader learns is that it is more than a cookbook – but a history book as well.
And the cupcake recipes included in the book look delicious! I was going to attempt to bake one of the more “simple” recipes but A) Even I couldn’t find potato starch and B) when it’s 101 degrees outside, the last thing I wanted to do was turn on the oven. No way!
However, what was a pleasant enough story ends in a very bizarre, “Fatal Attraction” scenario that comes completely out of left field. It was just plain silly and odd. And that soured the whole book.
Sum it up: If you like chick lit and cupcake recipes, but don’t care about a wacky ending, this is the book for you.
Book source: Thank you to Jennifer Ross for a copy of this book. I was not compensated in any way for my review.
It’s Monday! What Are You Reading? is hosted by Sheila at One Persons Journey Through a World of Books. It's is a weekly event to celebrate what we are reading for the week as well as books completed the previous week.
It is still Monday isn't it? I can still post this as long as I get it in before midnight, right?!
Life has has prohibited me from blogging in the past few days -- I love being busy and doing things with my kids -- but miss talking about my books.
Also, I'm not sure if you are as demented as I am -- but I'm a tad obsessed about all things ROYAL -- so I did watch footage of this (and, no, I don't speak Swedish!):
I'm a sucker for Royal weddings -- and am old enough to remember getting up at 2am to watch Lady Diana wed Prince Charles. How romantic (OK, not the outcome of said wedding, but the event itself)!!
My reading accomplishments this past week were minimal:
Finished:
Shanghai Girls by Lisa See -- this book was a huge disappointment. I think I'm done with this author. But a great book group night.
Almost done:
The Icing on the Cupcake by Jennifer Ross -- for a "chick lit" contribution, this has been quite pleasant. I've enjoyed Dallas sorority girl, Ansley, and her obsession with baking. I'm determined to try one of the MANY cupcake recipes included in the book -- but most of them are way over my baking head!
To read this week:
I'm a bit ADD when it comes to my TBR list -- last week I had listed Embers and Evangeline as the next in line -- but since then, I've picked up at the library:
As Callie explores the natural world around her, she develops a close relationship with her grandfather, navigates the dangers of living with six brothers, and comes up against just what it means to be a girl at the turn of the century.
I'm not sure where to start! Any suggestions on what I should pick next?
We honored our deceased book club member, Peggy, in fine form tonight. We remembered her quirks, her defiant opinions, her love of music and books, her spirit – and topped it off with some wonderful food! She would have been proud! We missed her!
I’ve mentioned that we chose Lisa See’s Shanghai Girls because she was one of Peggy’s favorite authors – she adored Snow Flower and the Secret Fan and Peony in Love. I was never fond of either of these works, so I was hoping for “the third time is a charm” cliché to take affect with this book, it was not to be.
Pearl and her sister, May, are “beautiful girls” of Shanghai, living a privileged lifestyle and taking advantage of the cultural diversity. Things soon change has their father gambles away the family fortune, only to be left with his daughters as collateral. In order to satisfy his debts, the girls are sold to husbands in America. In an effort to avoid this arrangement, they delay and avoid their current circumstance, only to get caught in the Japanese invasion. Their only hope for survival now is to make the exodus to American in hopes of finding their “husbands.” Once there, life as “beautiful girls” is lost, and dreams are shattered.
Lisa See tapped into a fabulous cultural story lost to most Americans – the vast number of Chinese who came to this country during both the Japanese invasion and after the Communist revolution. I was unaware of the history of “paper-sons” or of Angel Island. What was disappointing was the writing and story didn’t match the intrigue of history. Much like the story of Chinatown in Los Angeles, the characters often seemed like studio fronts—detailed on the outside, but nothing else inside. Pearl and May have such a dramatic and complex history, but the dialogue between the two is very one dimensional.
Additionally, this sweeping family narrative was hastily butchered in the last ¼ of the book – as if the author decided, “oh, I need to try to finish this in 300 pages, how can I wrap up all my lose ends.” It was nearly a unanimous decision tonight at book group that the ending was AWFUL. Bad. Really Bad. Cliché bad. Freshman English 101 bad. And what was a tolerable book up until that point, completely crashed and burned upon closure.
Which almost seemed appropriate – Peggy would have loved to dissect the ending and would have been voicing her opinion of it (one way or the other) until the final word. And most likely, would have had all of us persuaded into sharing her view of the book in the end.
Book source: Library copy
An interview with author Lisa See about Shanghai Girls
Next month: Our group voted on Nine Parts of Desire by Geraldine Brooks for our July book club choice. It is one of my Women Unbound reading challenge books – so I’m happy!
Library Loot is a weekly event co-hosted by Marg and Eva that encourages bloggers to share the books they’ve checked out from the library. If you’d like to participate, just write up your post-feel free to steal the button-and link it using the Mr. Linky any time during the week. And of course check out what other participants are getting from their libraries!
My work hours have been reduced this summer because I need to be home with my kids. Luckily, my library branch has been more than generous to allow me to work a much more flexible schedule so I can get my job done, but be home when my kids get home from their morning summer camp (have I mentioned that I LOVE my job??). Today was the second day of Summer Reading Club so before the mass of children entered my stacks, I grabbed a few of the new picture books (and some old) before they disappeared off the shelves. Normally I have time to straighten my area after the whirlwind of children depart, but not today. I'm sure it will be waiting for me in the morning!
In this profoundly affecting memoir from the internationally renowned author of The Caged Virgin, Ayaan Hirsi Ali tells her astonishing life story, from her traditional Muslim childhood in Somalia, Saudi Arabia, and Kenya, to her intellectual awakening and activism in the Netherlands, and her current life under armed guard in the West.
In this captivating book, award-winning journalist Geraldine Brooks offers an intimate, often shocking portrait of the lives of modern Muslim women, and shows how male pride and power have warped the original message of a once-liberating faith. "A valid, entertaining account of women in the Muslim world."--The New York Times Book Review.
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