Suzan Colón and Food Memoirs

Listening to Garlic and Sapphires: The Secret Life of a Critic in Disguise by Ruth Reichl read by Bernadette Dunne is truly a treat. I fell in love with Ruth and wish she was cooking for me. She always makes everything sound like so much fun just to be around her. This is her third memoir, the first being Tender at the Bones and then the second Comfort Me with Apples. All are real treats. This latest is about her job at the New York Times as their new food editor. She comes from New York City originally, but has been in the Los Angeles area since college days. She decides to disguise herself from the restaurant staff as she previews the restaurants she will be writing on in her food column. She likes to compare the service she gets as an unknown with all the attention she gets as "The Food Critic". Her husband is so ready to move to New York, after the L.A. riots and all the bad news in California, wanting to change his news job with CBS into the Big Apple news team. And he gets his wish, encouraging Ruth along. I love to read about those amazing husbands who want their wives to work, thrive and succeed. At least that is the way Ms. Reichl tells her story. Like Julia Child in My Life in France and Julie Powell in Julie and Julia. The husbands are the heroes. It must be the romance in me. I loved this book, absolutely loved this book.

Then I followed it with another great food memoir, Cherries in Winter: My Family's Recipes for Hope in Hard Times by Suzan Colón, also on audio, this time read by the author. Another New Yorker, Suzan has lost her great job in magazine publishing, and her 401K has hit rock bottom and it is hard to live on one salary. Luckily she is married and she has a Cobra medical insurance account. She looks back to her family for the inspiration for the book, and gets it perfect. All New Yorkers, all struggling, it's her Nana that is the hero in this book. She has saved her recipes from the depression and Suzan reads over the recipes and her diary entries and her essays and discovers the resolve of Nana to survive and to thrive. I think the opening line is about making soup for the family when times are hard. I think she likes cooking for her husband Nathan, and creating a warm home for him to come home to. Normally her schedule would have her getting home at eight, and who wants to cook then. It's a tender love story, of family, faith, and love, of course I want to share this with other people. Now, to get a copy for our library here. On the back of the book in the review, the writer said it is reminiscent of How to Cook a Wolf  by Mary Frances Kennedy Fisher. Now to get my hands on that.

Taylor Steven's debut novel

Taylor Steven’s first novel, thriller, The Informationist is being compared to Stieg Larsson’s Millennium trilogy. Steven’s protagonist, Vanessa Michael Monroe, has similar qualities that remind readers of Larsson’s Lisbeth Salander. Both are good at collecting information for their employers and also show signs of fearlessness as they have a “take no prisoners’ attitude when it comes to the enemy who threatens and carries out physical violence against them. Michael’s territory in this first novel is the western coast of Africa, when she had once lived with missionary parents. Her unusual upbringing brought her into contact with unsavory people, and her past surprises and haunts her in this thrilling adventure hunt for a millionarire’s daughter who disappeared four years ago. Locals don’t want Michael snooping around, and she doesn’t know who her real friends are. We are drawn into the thriller as she is equipped with another friend of the missing woman, only to lose him in the attack on her life. She ventures back into the deep Africa of her youth and finds an old friend who had lost touch with her, only he is deeply in love with her and remains frustrated my her own disappearance from many years ago. Deeper into the mystery we find ourselves, like Michael Vanessa, unsure of who means her harm.  Even after I was done reading I wasn't clear of the whole mystery, oil millionaire, missing daughter connection. I hope her next novel is able to offer more clarity. A face-paced novel that is getting a lot of attention right now, and I just wanted to see what all the fuss was about.

Key West by Stella Cameron

Romance with a suspense thriller, Stella Cameron has written a fast paced novel that draws the reader into the sweltering atmosphere of Key West Florida as a hurricane approaches. The sense of drama is highlighted by the description of Key West as a city with two sides, the playground of the rich and famous, and the local color of a smaller town where people take care of their own. Sonnie Giacano returns months after the night a terrible accident has claimed her unborn child and her tennis-star husband is kidnapped. Trying to make sense of that night, she returns to her home and takes a local job as a barmaid, hoping to find the missing link to her memory loss. Unfortunately for her, she has unwelcome guests that arrive in town, her sister and the brother to her husband, and they don’t want her to find out. She is shy and beautiful in wounded body, and makes friends easily with the owners of the bar. They connect her with Chris Talon, a retired NYCP detective and he unwilling falls for her and wants to protect her from anyone who would want to harm her. Both hurt in the past, they are not willing to trust each other too easily and the drama is created when the reader is unsure who Sonnie will eventually trust and let into her life again. This is a good first book to introduce readers to Stella Cameron’s contemporary thrillers.



The Color of Water: a Black Man's Tribute to His White Mother

Check out James McBride's biography of his mother, a white Jewish woman from Maryland who ran away from an abusive family to start an all black church in her own living room in Harlem. Because she didn't talk much of her own beginning, after her death, Mcbride goes in search of her truth and what made her the wonderful mother she was to twelve children. Teaching her children to be strong and educated, her legacy is remarkable. I am remined of a saying, be remembered not by what you have, but what you gave away. This is the next book for the Booklover's Book Discussion group at the Tipp City Library. Copies are available at the front desk if you want to participate in this discussion on April 25th at 7 p.m.. "James McBride is an award-winning writer and composer. His critically acclaimed memoir, The Color of Water, won the 1997 Anisfield-Wolf Book Award for Literary Excellence, was an ALA Notable Book of the Year, and spent more than two years on The New York Times bestseller list. Chosen by the New York Public Library as one of the 25 books of 1996 to remember, The Color of Water has sold more than 1.3 million copies in the United States alone and is now required reading at numerous colleges and high schools across the country. It has also been published in 16 languages and more than 20 countries. McBride's new book, Miracle at St. Anna, was one of 2002's most anticipated releases and marks the author's debut as a novelist." http://www.rockbottomremainders.com/pages/bios/james.html

James McBride is a talented man, as composer and musician and writer, he shares his talents with the world. I was also interested to find that he studied composition at The Oberlin Conservatory of Music in Ohio and then received his Master's degree in Journalism at Columbia in New York at the age of 22.