Book Twelve

The most fun I've had reading all year . . . maybe the most fun I've had reading in years. Molly Wizenberg is pretty much my hero and I only wish I could have her pantry and know what to do with it. I'm extremely bummed that she is taking time off from her blog Orangette to open her husband's restaurant. I would love following her days on the internet. After reading A Homemade Life, I feel like she's a good friend. And now that I'm finished with the book, I'm miss her.

The book is so precious and revealing as she talks about her chance meeting with her now husband via her blog and the death of her beloved father. I made the first recipe, Burg's Potato Salad, and Matt Loved, Loved, Loved it. Molly's Dad and my mother had a similar passion for potato salad. The difference would be, of course, that my mom poured in dijon mustard and made it without a recipe. Burg used Ranch Dressing. I'm glad I can make potato salad now. I feel like a real adult.

I'm hoping to go back through the book this summer and try out all the recipes. And the book makes me yearn for Paris, baguettes, salad and soup. This book is oh so much more than meets the eye. I would recommend it to all my friends. If my friends don't like the book well then . . . serious problems.

Read a better review below:
Molly Wizenberg has written a beautiful tribute to her family, her father in particular, and to the soothing, comforting, exciting power of food. She starts by introducing us to her family, and before long you feel like one of them, in the kitchen late at night stirring, tasting, and baking Fresh Ginger Cake with Caramelized Pears. She takes us to Paris and Seattle and we meet all her friends along the way. Molly gently leads us through Christmas with Espresso-Walnut Toffee, her father's battle with cancer with Italian Grotto Eggs, and to the French Style Yogurt Cake with Lemon that changed everything. Her stories are simple, like her food, but comforting and filling too. Molly Wizenberg is absolutely one of the best food writers I have read. She has a way of drawing you in, making you feel a part of the story, and she makes me itch to get in the kitchen and try her recipes! This is a book I will use often, mostly when I have the urge to cook, but can't decide what. I'll give this book to friends and family and hope they get the same feelings of contentment and joy from this book as I did.

Book Eleven

There's a little something wonderful about Ann Patchett in the way that she writes. It feels honest and approachable and very non-Jodi Picoult ish. I feel like I might want to be her friend if I met her in real life. And yet, her writing doesn't quite grasp hold of me the same as Anna Quindlen or Julia Glass. Almost, but not quite.

Run was a difficult book for me to finish. The characters were developed but not enough that I cared about them in the morning when I woke and at night when I tried to read ten pages before bed. I wanted to know more about Sullivan, the young man who killed his girlfriend in a car crash and derailed his father's political ambitions. He was a minor bit character unfortunately and this was Tip's story. But all Tip wanted to talk about was the science of fish. Boring.

Patchett says the topic of the book is politics. To me, it is and always will be a book about family. Kirkus Reviews sums it up by saying "Compelling story but thematically heavy-handed." I concur. I might recommend this book to Patchett lovers but I won't sing its praises.

Book Twenty One

Saturday
By Ian McEwan

Oops. I forgot this one. Will blog later.