What are you reading?

[Ishbel]

I'm just finishing Alexander McCall Smith's 'The World According to Bertie'. This is the fourth in his '44 Scotland Street' series. He happened to be speaking to the editor of The Scotsman newspaper a few years back and said how he had often wanted to try a daily chapter article, like Charles Dickens did.... The editor said 'OK' and the first daily chapters appeared!

This one seems weaker than the previous three in the series - but his 'Edinburgh' books are great - wish I could 'get' his No1 Lady Detective books, though.... I haven't been able to finish one of them!

[Mezzaluna]

Shroom, I can see that in Bourdain. He gave a book talk in Milwaukee once and I went to hear him. He was very encouraging to the culinary students who came in good numbers. He never forgot that his audience was mostly people who'd never worked in restaurant kitchens and kept his language appropriate to the crowd. I was charmed, to be honest, the more so because I expected a rough-edged guy.

[shel]

Originally Posted by Chef Ladybug

I'm reading "The Unbearable Lightness of Being." Haven't gotten to the supposedly erotic part yet... but I assume good things come to those who wait

What have you guys been reading lately? Recommend it?

Betty Smith's "A Tree Grows in Brooklyn." I've been reading it every five years or so since 1965. I guess that means I'd recommend it.

Also reading "Rouge Regime: Kim Jong Il and the Looming Threat of North Korea." Just started it. The first three chapters are real eye-openers,

Finally, "Cookbook of the Jews of Greece" by Nicholas Stavroulakis. I love the history lessons he includes, and many of the recipes are interesting, especially when comparing them to similar recipes in Copeland Mark's book on Jewish Indian cuisine, and some old recipes found in "The Cooking of the Jews of Italy."

Shel

[Free Rider]

Originally Posted by shel

What did the reviews say?

I read Kitchen Confidential a couple of months ago. While it was an interesting biography of Anthony Bourdain, it was also rather eneven in its editing and the way it was written. Much of the book seemed to drone on about Bourdain's personal problems and demons (which, while not very well written gave good insight into the guy). However, there were a few chapters that really gave a good feel to the action in the kitchen. I could feel the tension and pressure and excitement in those chapters and passages - it was as if someone else was writing those parts of the book.

KC is a worthwhile read, that's for sure.

The reviews said that KC was a book about the horrors of what goes on in restaurant kitchens and that one would never want to enter a restaurant after reading it. I found what you did, that it was nothing of the sort. It was an autobiography focusing on Bourdain's career as a chef.

The editing was awful, but Bourdain has a natural style to his writing. I imagine he speaks in about the same way he writes except nobody would notice the spelling mistakes.

[Free Rider]

I started a collection of essays by Salman Rushdie last night, "Imaginary Homelands". The first essay started out nicely, but I have a feeling the rest are going to be a little more like critiques of other's work rather than an essay on the life of an immigrant.

[shel]

Originally Posted by Free Rider

I started a collection of essays by Salman Rushdie last night ...

Just recently I learned that Salman Rushdie was married to Padma Lakshmi, who's on the Top Chef program. She was his fourth wife.

Shel

[Free Rider]

Originally Posted by shel

Just recently I learned that Salman Rushdie was married to Padma Lakshmi, who's on the Top Chef program. She was his fourth wife.

Shel

Was?! oh my oh my

[shel]

Originally Posted by Free Rider

Was?! oh my oh my

I understand that they are now divirced, or in the process of getting a divorce.

Shel

[Free Rider]

Originally Posted by shel

I understand that they are now divirced, or in the process of getting a divorce.

Shel

4th wife!!!! and now onto the 5th???? Yikes. Either he's horrid to live with or he keeps picking badly. Can't imagine that the underground life was easy, but I thought that was over by now.

[Chef Ladybug]

I just finished "Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl" by Harriet Jacobs. Now I'm on to Nancy Woloch's "Women And the American Experience" and John Keep's "A History of the Soviet Union, 1945-1991."

[chrose]

Currently Barbara Shers "Refuse to choose" (Second time around)
Refuse to Choose!: A Revolutionary ... - Google Book Search
And "The Complete Idiots Guide to Music Theory".
The Idiots guide apparently wasn't enough I need the "Complete Idiots" guide!

[PastryManJosh]

Currently reading "The Making Of A Pastry Chef" by Andrew MacLauchlan (who apparently is a famous American chef but as I don't live in USA I haven't heard of him. I also am reading "Escape From Alcatraz" by J. Campbell Bruce which is mostly about the Alcatraz escape of Frank Morris & the Anglin brothers who escaped in 1962.

[RouxTheDay]

Um... food-related message boards?

[remie]

I am reading a book of dan brown called Angels and Demons. This novel is so good it is a guaranteed page turner.

[allie]

I read Angels and Demons a while back. I enjoyed it but then I've enjoyed all of Dan Brown's novels I've read to this point.

Right now, I'm reading On Call in **** by Cdr. Richard Jadick. He was a battalion surgeon during the Battle of Fallujah and this book tells about his experiences in Iraq. Not being familiar with the military, this one is a bit rough for me to follow but I'm persevering out of curiosity for what it is like for our men fighting over there.