Suicide is always shocking to those left behind, but when it’s someone famous, someone with what looks to be a “dream” life, it feels even more inexplicable. This was the case June 2018 when Anthony Bourdain killed himself. Bourdain was a chef turned television personality who created the iconic No Reservations and Parts Unknown series. He traveled globally in search of great ... Read More...
Eat a Peach: A Memoir by David Chang
My enjoyment of reading about food is almost as great as eating it and I’ve been really fortunate to read some incredibly interesting chefs’ memoirs. Thankfully, David Chang continues that trend with Eat a Peach. Chang is the chef/owner of Momofuku Noodle Bar, a restaurant that opened in NYC in 2004. His concept of small, pared down, inexpensive restaurants with open kitchens ... Read More...
Heat by Bill Buford
I’m not sure how seriously I can take a man who is foolish enough to invite a world class chef into his home for dinner, but I decided to give Bill Buford a chance. His invitation to Mario Batali leads him to ask if he can work as an intern in the kitchen of Mario’s restaurant, Babbo. When Mario says yes it results in his Italian food lover’s dream memoir, Heat. I realize, ... Read More...
Top 10 Books That Made Me Say Yum!
As fall settles in, my need for all things sugar-y, creamy, warm, salty, and comforting goes through the roof, keeping me focused on food—even in my reading. So, it’s perfect timing to join The Broke and the Bookish for their Top Ten this week: Books with yummy food in them. Even better is that while each of these books has many occurrences of yummy food throughout, it is only ... Read More...
May Reading Recap
To call this month’s reading recap a mashup is an understatement. It could also be the library checkout recap or even the non-fiction recap—which is huge because I’m virtually certain I’ve never read more than one non-fiction book a month, much less four. And on all kinds of subjects! But there you have it. May also turned out to be another monster month for how much I ... Read More...
Feast of Sorrow: A Novel of Ancient Rome
One of the grandest things that can happen to a reader is coming across a book with a new perspective on a subject they’ve read about extensively. Recently, I read Crystal King’s Feast of Sorrow, a novel about Italy in the time of Caesar Tiberius, because, hello, I read all of the Colleen McCullough Masters of Rome books and just finished reading a novel about Nero. I ... Read More...
