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monsoon diary
shoba narayan
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At the end of each chapter of this charming and luscious memoir are recipes that the author mentioned in the chapter while recounting her childhood in India. Rich dishes like potato masala, okra curry and yogurt rice made up the many feasts her family cooked on a daily basis. Narayan eventually makes it to the U.S. for college and her food experiences here are no less entertaining. A very interesting look at Indian culture, "arranged" marriages and the nourishment of food for both the body and soul.
Get this book used from amazon.com and you'll read it over and over as well as head to your local Indian grocery for the ingredients to some yummy Indian treats. |
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reviewed by: lisa may |
June 2005 [link] |
recommend
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stealing buddha's dinner
bich minh nguyen
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| This tasty memoir tells the tale of Nguyen and her family's escape from Vietnam in 1975 and their subsequent relocation to Michigan where they couldn't have stood out more. In particular, food was a huge divider between Nguyen and her American friends and classmates. While her grandmother was home cooking what sounds like delicious Asian delicacies, Nguyen longed for cupboards full of Pringles, M&Ms and fast food. As she gets older, she is taunted by classmates who call her "bitch", not knowing how to pronounce her first name (it's pronounced "bit"). The book is also a great reminiscing of 80's culture as well as a tender look at how families support, divide and define us. |
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reviewed by: lisa may |
July 2007 [link] |
recommend
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the four-chambered heart
anais nin
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I have a to admit to a strange fascination with Anais Nin. She is responsible for inciting me to loads of wild behavior and ideas, but I shan't blame her. I enjoy her having existed.
The four-chambered heart is a lush and gorgeous book. It entails a relationship - an affair. I would hazard a guess that it would be with henry miller, but who knows... The prose is a bit over-ripe, but just so in me humble. An example: "they had reached a perfect moment of human love. They had created a moment of perfect understanding and accord. This highest moment would now remain as point of comparison to torment them later on when all natural imperfections would disintegrate it."
Having finished this book finally, now I'm struggling to read my first ernest hemingway since schooldays: "the garden of eden". Apparently, this was the last book he wrote before he off-ed himself. Ah death, so interesting. |
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reviewed by: kristen |
February 2005 [link] |
recommend 1 thumbs up
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ada blackjack: a true story of survival in the arctic
jennifer niven
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| Before you begin this incredible story, get out your atlas and look up Wrangel Island. It's practically at the tippy top of the world, above Siberia. Now, imagine it being 1923 and an expedition of four men and one Eskimo woman traveling there to live and scout out the territory. No Patagonia jackets, no L.L. Bean boots, no contact with the real world for a whole year. Actually, make that two years, as the relief ship that is supposed to reach them one summer never makes it. And, as it turns, out, the four men don't make it after one year either. Just Ada Blackjack, who survived on her wits and good sense until finally a relief ship showed up two years after the expedition started. This is an amazing story, especially if you keep reminding yourself that it was in the 1920s! It was probably hard enough traveling from town to town let alone to another continent! The expedition was woefully under provisioned and under prepped for such a trip. There was supposed to be an entire Eskimo community helping to hunt and cook food and the only person they were able to get to come along was Ada, and she was only supposed to sew fur clothing for the men. She ended up learning to hunt, trap and cook and it saved her life. Forget "Into the Wild" - this story is the real deal! |
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reviewed by: lisa may |
October 2007 [link] |
recommend
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rituals
cees nootesbaum
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| This is another of the Bristol Books era. This book is about a jaded man in Amsterdam. It is very tongue in cheek. I love the voice of this book. This book definitely belongs on my top six books. My favorite idea that it brings up is the contrast between the Buddhist monks in a 1200A.D. monastery and the modern city of Amsterdam – also how there is so much stuff for people to choose from that people have to pick/select one thing they love (a hobby, a passion) and then make the rest of it hubris so that the world won’t drive them mad. I.e. computers, films, cameras, books, etc. One of the characters in this book chose ming dynasty pottery to be his passion. |
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reviewed by: kristen |
September 2000 [link] |
recommend
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autobiography of a fat bride : true tales of a pretend adulthood
laurie notaro
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| If you missed Notaro's first book "The Idiot Girls' Action Adventure Club" then shame on you and you better get this one too. Notaro wrote columns for an Arizona paper and these books are mostly the compilations of those essays. In this book Notaro writes about finally meeting the man of her dreams and wooing him with her one talent: breading and frying chicken cutlets. She shares her madcap adventures of planning a wedding, buying an old home and trying to pretend she's a grown-up. Funny stuff. |
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reviewed by: lisa may |
July 2004 [link] |
recommend 1 thumbs up
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an idiot girl's christmas: true tales from the top of the naughty list
laurie notaro
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Another great book of essays from Laurie Notaro, this time Christmas-themed and still side-splittingly funny. Notaro is sooooo that koo-koo friend who calls you up to say "I had to go to freakin' Kmart on Christmas Eve to buy tampons and this gang was making fun of me in line" (as written in this book) and when you get off the phone you have to go re-apply your mascara. Also in this book are stories about the time she almost killed her mother by turning up dead (also on Christmas Eve) and a story about her craptastic neighbor Frank's garish holiday decorations.
The only thing ever bad about a Notaro book is that they're too short! |
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reviewed by: lisa may |
January 2006 [link] |
recommend
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