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...
Dystopian Summer: Mini-Reviews
The title of this post might make you think I’m alluding to the dumpster fire that is current American politics, but you’d be wrong. Although the generalized anxiety so many of us are feeling is likely caused by the chaos, I’m only referring to two novels I recently read. Summer might not seem like the time for dystopian reading, but somehow it’s happened to me this summer. ... Read More...
5 Star Week: Before the Wind
There's no better way to wrap up a week of fabulous 5 star reading than with one of my favorite books of 2016. Jim Lynch is a Seattle author and this lovely book about a quirky family of sailors works even if you hate water. It just came out in paperback so I'm talking it up all over again. At the most basic level Jim Lynch’s new novel Before the Wind is the ... Read More...
The Mare: A Novel
The Mare by Mary Gaitskill begins when Velvet, a Dominican girl living in NYC, is eleven and ends when she thirteen, but her life experiences go far beyond her age. Through the Fresh Air Fund, she gets to go to upstate NY for a summer and stays with Ginger (“this blond lady…her face full of niceness with pain around the edges”) and her husband Paul. They live near a ... Read More...
Boo: A Novel
You are thirteen; standing in front of your locker at school one morning and the next thing you know you wake up in an austere white room and are informed you’ve been ‘rebirthed’ into Heaven, although it’s not called Heaven it’s called Town. For most 13-year-olds this would be fairly traumatic but for Oliver, the protagonist in Neil Smith’s Boo it’s not altogether unexpected. ... Read More...
Station Eleven by Emily St. John Mandel
On Tuesday Station Eleven came out in paperback. I reviewed it last fall when it debuted and it made my list of Favorite Books of 2014. Whether you're spending the summer at home, on a beach or by a pool this is perfect summer reading. I read a fair amount of dystopian fiction this summer- either set in the U.S. or global and I would have saved myself a lot of time ... Read More...
