Run: Book One by John Lewis, Andrew Aydin, L. Fury, and Nate Powell

 

"First you march, then you run." 

John Lewis' story doesn't end with the signing of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 and the Voting Rights Act of 1965. Run Book One is the story of tension within the membership of SNCC, the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee, that John Lewis was the leader of. What stands out most in reading this first book in the series are the comparisons the reader can make to what was happening in the 1960s to what is happening now -- how despite the progress that African Americans have made, white Americans always find a way to push back in an attempt to continue their oppressive behavior, both systemic and on an individual level. 

I've been thinking a lot lately about how difficult it is to live in these turbulent times, thinking that every time you turn around something horrible is happening in our country or the world, but reading Run was a good reminder that this era does not hold a monopoly on continuous terrible events. The difference is, we just have instantaneous access to those events, therefore flooding our brains with constant anxiety and existential dread. 

This book ends on a cliffhanger, which makes sense because it is intended to be a trilogy just like March. I'm really looking forward to reading the next book and if it were already available, I would be picking it up immediately. 

Run: Book One by John Lewis, Andrew Aydin, L. Fury, and Nate Powell
Published: August 3, 2021
Publisher: Abrams ComicArts
Pages: 152
Genre: Memoir/Graphic Novel
Audience: Young Adult/Adult
Disclosure: Free copy received at ALA conference 2022

Purchasing from the above Bookshop affiliate link supports independent bookstores and gives me a small percentage of the sale. 

Audiobook Review: The Storyteller by Dave Grohl

I've always loved the Foo Fighters and Dave Grohl ever since I learned he was the drummer for Nirvana and then became the guitarist and frontman for his own band after Kurt Cobain died. Foo Fighters is very much a band of my generation.  I listened to the audiobook of The Storyteller which Grohl narrates so it felt more like I was sitting with him at the kitchen table while he regaled me with stories from his life in rock n roll. I love how salt-of-the earth Grohl is, managing to stick pretty close to his humble roots despite having a life in an industry that can get you swept up in the fame, money, and vices pretty quickly. But Grohl is quick and frequent to credit his public schoolteacher mother who recognized that her son would never be fit for the academia track and let him go to pursue his dreams of being a musician before he even finished high school. What a gift that was to him to live his own life rather than trying to get him to fulfill her dreams that she had for him.

Despite my love for Grohl as a person, his writing, and hearing his rich yet gravelly baritone voice narrate his story, I did find  it frustrating that the book didn't follow a linear timeline and there were holes that I wanted to know more about (how did he meet his wife? Why are his oldest daughters talked about frequently but his third daughter only gets two passing mentions?) And yet, despite my frustration with this, I think the tone of the book was meant to be more about telling stories rather than a linear memoir, I am willing to overlook those criticisms because I loved listening to him tell his stories so much. By far the best audiobook I've listened to in 2021. 

The Storyteller: Tales of Life and Music by Dave Grohl*
Published: October 5, 2021
Publisher: Dey Street Books/Harper Audio
Pages: 376
Audiobook length: 10 hours, 35 minutes
Genre: Memoir
Audience: Adults/Rock music lovers
Disclosure: Audiobook purchased from Libro.fm, which supports independent bookstores

*Purchasing the book from the above Bookshop affiliate link supports independent bookstores and gives me a small percentage of the sale. 

In the Weeds: Around the World and Behind the Scenes with Anthony Bourdain by Tom Vitale

When Anthony Bourdain died by suicide in June of 2018, the devastation was immediate and lasting for so many, including me. It felt like a good friend died, even though I'd never met him.

Someone who did know Anthony Bourdain was author of In the Weeds, Tom Vitale. Having worked with Anthony Bourdain for over 15 years as a producer/director on No Reservations, The Layover, and Parts Unknown, Tom Vitale knew Tony better than almost anybody. In the Weeds is Vitale's story of working with such a complicated, mythical figure as Anthony Bourdain.

When I started reading In the Weeds, it was initially slow-going because it felt like Vitale was telling Tony's story from his backseat/behind-the-camera view. But as the story progressed and when the book started to feel the most engaging, was when Vitale became more confident in asserting his own story of traveling around the world rather than just describing Tony's reaction to everything. Some of my favorite moments in the narrative are when Tony isn't even present, like when Vitale went scouting locations for the Jamaica shoot of Parts Unknown and he and producer Josh Ferrell made all manner of absurd proposals just to spite the new line producer who was slashing costs left and right and forced their team to get pre-approval on any cost over $200 despite the fact that they were never extravagant with money. I also really appreciated his story of having dinner with Asia Argento in Rome after Tony's death because he did a something that I don't think Laurie Woolever's oral biography did, which was to take care not to come off as blaming Argento for Tony's death. One thing that has bothered me in the collateral damage of Bourdain's death is the misogynistic hot takes that have plagued Argento, essentially saying that she is the one responsible for his death by suicide. While Vitale does not absolve Argento, going so far as to say to her, "Everyone thinks he killed himself because of you," he also allows readers to come to their own conclusions and even manages to give her some grace. And finally, I found his telling of the behind-the-scenes chaos, drama, and choreography that was required to pull off that one short scene with President Obama in Vietnam in 2016.

Die-hard Bourdain fans will be initially be drawn to this book for untold Tony stories, but they will ultimately stay for Vitale's own gifted storytelling.

In the Weeds: Around the World and Behind the Scenes with Anthony Bourdain by Tom Vitale*
Published: October 5, 2021
Publisher: Hachette Books
Genre: Memoir
Audience: Adults/Travel lovers
Disclosure: Library copy

*Purchasing the book from the above Bookshop affiliate link supports independent bookstores and gives me a small percentage of the sale. 

Audiobook Review: Over the Top: A Raw Journey to Self-Love by Jonathan Van Ness

If you don't know who Jonathan Van Ness is, stop reading this review right now and go watch the first season of the new Queer Eye. He is the grooming expert who managed to be sweet, unassuming, and fierce all at the same time. He will quickly become your favorite of the Fab 5. 

So do yourself a favor if you're going to partake in this book: listen to the audiobook. Hearing Jonathan narrate his own story is essential for making it the most fulfilling reading experience possible.

This book will take you on an emotional roller coaster. Jonathan Van Ness has gone through so much trauma in his life that it's amazing what a positive, sunny outlook he has. He can come across so sunny and cheerful on Queer Eye that in the back of your mind, a viewer might wonder if he lacks substance.

Well dear reader, you need not worry. Johnathan Van Ness has substance in spades. Just be aware: there are trigger warnings all over the place in this book: drug use, sexual abuse, prostitution, and death. If you've dealt with any of these things that you might not be ready to tackle, it is probably best you set this book aside until you are ready.


Over the Top by Jonathan Van Ness 
Published: September 24, 2019
Publisher: HarperCollins
Physical book length: 288 pages
Audiobook Length: 5 hours and 50 minutes
Genre: Memoir
Audience: Adults/Queer Eye fans/LGBTQIA+ identifying and allies
Disclosure: Audiobook provided by publisher

If you buy this book or any book through Amazon, it is my hope that you also regularly patronize independent bookstores, which are important centerpieces of thriving communities. While I am an Amazon Affiliate, that by no means implies that I only buy my books through their website. Please make sure you are still helping small, independent bookstores thrive in your community. To locate an independent bookstore near you, visit IndieBound. 

Audiobook Review: Beautiful on the Outside by Adam Rippon

When Adam Rippon became the media darling of the 2018 Winter Olympics, it was because he made the decision to soak in the experience of the Olympics rather than pushing to win the gold medal. At 28, he knew that was likely not possible. But what he didn't expect was that despite not going home with a gold medal, Adam Rippon really was the winner of the 2018 Olympics. He was joyful and sassy and shared every exciting moment with his fans.

Adam's sass has become his trademark personality trait, but sass can quickly come off as bitchiness if you're not careful. The reason his sass never comes off as bitchy in this book or in his life is because Adam is not a catty gossip. If he is talking smack about anyone, it is only himself. The only time he speaks overwhelmingly negatively about people in this book are when he describes the actions of a possessive, borderline abusive ex-boyfriend, when he describes the horrible behavior of his former coach Nikolai Morozov, and also when he discusses the manipulative behavior of Mike Pence when he tried to have a meeting with Adam before the Olympics. But as you learn in comedy, always punch up, not down. He spoke truth to power in those moments and used the rest of the book to be both hard on himself and to give himself some grace.

Verdict: I wanted to be BFFs with Adam before reading this and I want to be even more so now that I've read what an amazing, hardworking, honorable man he is -- despite the Khardashian-like trashiness he tries to portray himself as in front of the cameras. That facade is all a fun ruse, a joke he even lets the public in on, but if you don't know a lot about him, doesn't always translate for those who see him on TV in small doses. Also, other than missing out on the included photographs in the physical book, I highly recommend listening to the audiobook instead of the physical book because, of course, Adam narrates it himself.

My only criticism of this book is more a commentary on our culture. All I could think about when I was listening to the audiobook is how much the public would not allow or excuse Adam's behavior in a female skater. She WOULD come off as bitchy and ungrateful and be expected to not show any sort of humor or emotion. So as much as I love Adam, I also recognize that loving this persona that he has created would only be granted to a man and not to a woman.


Beautiful on the Outside by Adam Rippon
Published: October 15, 2019
Publisher: Grand Central Publishing
Pages: 256
Audiobook length: 8 hours, 19 minutes
Genre: Memoir
Audience: Adults/Skating Fans/ LGBTQIA + identifying and allies
Disclosure: Audiobook purchased with my Libro.fm credits, which supports The Brain Lair Bookstore

If you buy this book or any book through Amazon, it is my hope that you also regularly patronize independent bookstores, which are important centerpieces of thriving communities. While I am an Amazon Affiliate, that by no means implies that I only buy my books through their website. Please make sure you are still helping small, independent bookstores thrive in your community. To locate an independent bookstore near you, visit IndieBound. 

Positive by Paige Rawl

If you're lucky enough to know what it's like not to be surrounded by darkness, I'm telling you, someone near you needs kindness.

Paige Rawl was born with HIV. It has always been a part of her "Normal." But one day in middle school, an offhand comment to a friend whom she was trying to comfort resulted in the entire school knowing she has HIV, something her mom wished for her daughter to keep private.

The sharing of that secret was the beginning of the end of Paige, not only because it resulted in bullying from her classmates, but also because the adults in her life, who were supposed to know better, seemed to be just a vicious.

This book is Paige's journey of trying to stay healthy while enduring endless torment at school.

Positive is a page-turning book that I couldn't put down. Paige Rawl's experience with bullying in middle school because of her HIV positive status is heart-wrenching. I couldn't help agonize of how the adults in her life wronged her so so profoundly. This would be a wonderful book to share with students about how our words and actions can leave long-lasting scars. 


Positive by Paige Rawl with Ali Benjamin
Published: August 26, 2014
Publisher: HarperCollins
Pages: 256
Genre: Memoir
Audience: Young Adult
Disclosure: Audiobook provided by publisher

If you buy this book or any book through Amazon, it is my hope that you also regularly patronize independent bookstores, which are important centerpieces of thriving communities. While I am an Amazon Affiliate, that by no means implies that I only buy my books through their website. Please make sure you are still helping small, independent bookstores thrive in your community. To locate an independent bookstore near you, visit IndieBound. 

Breakthrough: How One Teen Innovator is Changing the World by Jack Andraka with Matthew Lysiak

I have lots of ideas for changing the way school is set up. I want school to be less like sitting and memorizing facts from a textbook and more like working in my basement.

Jack Andraka loves science and he has the awards to prove it. Having won countless awards at regional, national and international science fairs, his most celebrated is award is for discovering a test for early detection of pancreatic cancer.

Jack Andraka's notoriety in the field of science and now popular culture I think is a testament to his passion and determination. As you read his story, he doesn't strike you as a kid with any particular genius. He's just a regular kid who just happens to be hard working and passionate about science, which is what makes him so relateable.

I love that the book ended in a way that helps readers see why Jack has had this platform thrust upon him and gained such notoriety in the public eye. He is a wonderful spokesperson for STEM education and also education in general -- reminding teachers to bring a sense of joy and curiosity in the classroom rather than simply coverage of curriculum. I found it more than just a bit ironic that despite the fact that Jack had just won an international science competition that his teacher still made him make up a science test he missed while he was gone. The kid just discovered a way to detect pancreatic cancer before it becomes terminal and you're going to make him take a biology test? That seems rather counterproductive and short-sighted to me.

Overall, I really enjoyed Jack's story and I could definitely see putting this book in my classroom library and handing it to a student with an interest in science.


Breakthrough: How One Teen Innovator is Changing the World by Jack Andraka with Matthew Lysiak
Published: March 10, 2015
Publisher: HarperCollins
Pages: 256
Genre: Nonfiction/Memoir
Audience: Young Adult
Disclosure: Audiobook download provided by publisher

If you buy this book or any book through Amazon, it is my hope that you also regularly patronize independent bookstores, which are important centerpieces of thriving communities. While I am an Amazon Affiliate, that by no means implies that I only buy my books through their website. Please make sure you are still helping small, independent bookstores thrive in your community. To locate an independent bookstore near you, visit IndieBound. 

Book event: Kathleen Flinn talks about Burnt Toast Makes You Sing Good at Nicola's Books

Kathleen Flinn is the bestselling author of The Sharper Your Knife the Less You Cry as well as The Kitchen Counter Cooking School. This week her newest memoir, Burnt Toast Makes You Sing Good: A Memoir of Food and Love from an American Midwest Family, hit shelves. Since Flinn is from Michigan, she did an event at Nicola's Books in Ann Arbor on Wednesday and regaled attendees with stories from her life as a graduate of Le Cordon Bleu in Paris as well as her family history and how her love of food and storytelling came about.

What I loved so deeply about Flinn's newest memoir, is that it really speaks to this idea of food being a catalyst for storytelling. I envision using this book as a mentor text with my students to get them thinking about telling their own family stories. They could bring in a family recipe and not just talk about the dish, but also the story behind it, because truly, all family recipes have a story. And each chapter of this book is Flinn doing just that: taking family recipe and sharing its story with great panache, love, and humor. If I can transfer that love and humor somehow to my students' writing, I envision a classroom full of students with open hearts and watering mouths. 

Author, chef, and maker of balloon animals, Kathleen Flinn shares a lovely, intimate evening at Nicola's Books

Burnt Toast Makes You Sing Good: A Memoir of Food and Love from an American Midwest Family by Kathleen Flinn
Published: August 18, 2014
Publisher: Viking
Pages: 267
Genre: Memoir
Audience: Adults
Disclosure: Review copy provided by publisher

Brunette Ambition by Lea Michele

Lea Michele is best known for her role as Rachel Berry on the wildly popular TV show Glee, but she was also an incredibly successful Broadway performer before she rose to TV stardom. In this memoir/how-to book, Lea tells her story of her rise to fame, as well as gives health, fitness, and beauty advice.

Brunette Ambition is beautifully laid out with many color photos and organized in such a way that makes it feel more like a magazine than a book. I know its unconventional and innovative approach to a memoir will appeal to teen girls, but as a thirtysomething teacher I wasn't impressed. The best parts of this book were when Lea forgot about the gimmicky layout with ridiculous diversions like recipes, beauty advice, and photographs of exercises she does to stay in shape, and just got real and told her story. She is not someone I would consider an authority on food or fitness, so adding those advice column-type diversions lessened the impact of her story. Instead, this book comes off as more novelty than substance.

What also didn't sit well with me about this book is that Lea talks a lot about staying true to who you are and not changing your appearance for the sake of Hollywood, yet the photos in this book are clearly heavily airbrushed. In addition, she comes of as a bit boastful when she talks about how to be red carpet ready, which she tries to downplay by attempting to approach her advice to the  "commoner"  by saying that her words hold true whether you're getting ready for the red carpet or your high school prom.

I'm not saying there aren't special moments in this book. I really do find Lea's story and her life fascinating -- I especially loved her story of when she met her hero, Barbara Streisand. But I wish she would have just focused on being real instead of distracting the reader with so much superficiality. I don't think this is a book I will be adding to my classroom library.


Brunette Ambition by Lea Michele
Published: May 20, 2014
Publisher: Crown Archetype
Pages: 208
Genre: Memoir/How-to
Audience: Young Adult
Disclosure: Finished copy provided by publisher


If you buy this book or any book through Amazon, it is my hope that you also regularly patronize independent bookstores, which are important centerpieces of thriving communities. While I am an Amazon Affiliate, that by no means implies that I only buy my books through their website. Please make sure you are still helping small, independent bookstores thrive in your community. To locate an independent bookstore near you, visit IndieBound.  

A Year in Japan by Kate T. Williamson

Rather than writing and illustrating a general summary of Japanese culture from her American perspective, Kate T. Williamson hones in on the lesser-known, smaller perplexities and observations of the place she called home for a year. Things like heated rugs and other creative devices used to warm homes with no central heating, the fleeting beauty of cherry blossoms, and sumo wrestlers dressed in kimono using the ATM, are but a few of the small but fascinating moments that Williamson chronicles in this travelogue of her year living in Japan.  

While there are illustrations on almost every page, this is more of a travel journal than the paneled, sequential art you think of when you think of a graphic novel. Whatever you call it though, it is certainly unique and intriguing. Illustrations and text are done in a minimalist style that complement the sacred, zen-like aura of the city of Kyoto where Williamson lived during her time in Japan. If she had lived in Tokyo, I have a feeling her art might be more frenetic and colorful. I get the sense, however, that Williamson uses the frequent white space in this book very strategically. The text is handwritten in a small but breezy style, and the watercolor illustrations are both bold and minimal at the same time. Anyone looking to soak up the culture of Japan will appreciate the small, detailed observations that Williamson chronicles in A Year in Japan. Better yet, her work might even inspire readers to go out and observe and chronicle the small nuances in their own culture. 


A Year in Japan by Kate T. Williamson
Published: Feburary 2, 2006
Publisher: Princeton Architectural Press
Pages: 192
Genre: Travelogue
Audience: Adults
Disclosure: Library Copy

Mastering the Art of Soviet Cooking: A Memoir of Food and Longing by Anya Von Bremzen

Goodreads summary:
Born in 1963 in a Kafkaesque communal apartment where eighteen families shared one kitchen, Anya grew up singing odes to Lenin, black-marketeering Juicy Fruit gum at her school, and, like most Soviet citizens, longing for a taste of the mythical West. It was a life by turns absurd, drab, naively joyous, melancholy-and, finally, intolerable to her anti-Soviet mother. When she was ten, the two of them fled the political repression of Brezhnev-era Russia, arriving in Philadelphia with no winter coats and no right of return.

These days Anya lives in two parallel food universes: one in which she writes about four-star restaurants, the other in which a simple banana-a once a year treat back in the USSR-still holds an almost talismanic sway over her psyche. To make sense of that past, she and her mother decided to eat and cook their way through seven decades of the Soviet experience. Through the meals she and her mother re-create, Anya tells the story of three generations-her grandparents', her mother's, and her own. Her family's stories are embedded in a larger historical epic: of Lenin's bloody grain requisitioning, World War II hunger and survival, Stalin's table manners, Khrushchev's kitchen debates, Gorbachev's anti-alcohol policies, and the ultimate collapse of the USSR. And all of it is bound together by Anya's sardonic wit, passionate nostalgia, and piercing observations.

I am absolutely fascinated with Russian culture and geography. While most people, when it comes to learning about history, seem to be fascinated with all things World War II, my preferred historical era of study is the Cold War. So pretty much anything with the word Soviet in the title perks up my ears. 

It was interesting to read about Von Bremzen's childhood in Moscow because, at the time, she didn't understand her mother's anti-Soviet sentiments and really had Romantic notions of the socialist lifestyle, even ruthless leaders such as Joseph Stalin. Von Bremzen  presents the reader with an interesting dichotomy of emotions because the longing she is talking about in the subtitle is a longing for the old Soviet way of life. The nostalgia is somehow both understandable and confusing at the same time. But it is one that I, as an American, was never fully able to wrap my brain around during my time with this book.

I enjoyed the parts of the book where Von Bremzen talks about her life, but I found the history parts to be a bit dry and difficult to trudge through, and I'm normally one that enjoys learning about Soviet history. Plus, I didn't entirely buy the whole food premise of the book. It seemed forced into the narrative - probably because she doesn't really talk much in this book about how food writing became her career - and also, I just really wanted to know about her life, not necessarily the history of Soviet cuisine. For that reason, what felt most natural and fascinating for me was when the author talks about her life in the Soviet Union and how she emigrated to America. Still, I would definitely consider this a worthwhile read, but it was one that took me many weeks to finish. This is by no means a book most people can breeze through in one sitting. 


Mastering the Art of Soviet Cooking: A Memoir of Food and Longing by Anya Von Bremzen
Published: September 17, 2013
Publisher: Crown
Pages: 352
Genre: Memoir
Audience: Adults
Disclosure: ARC received from publisher (I also listened to part of it on an audiobook I acquired at the library) 

Relish: My Life in the Kitchen by Lucy Knisley

Lucy Knisley grew up in the kitchen. As the daughter of a chef and a gourmand, she knew from a young age that good food is a celebration in and of itself. Whether she was a pre-teen running unsupervised through the streets of San Miguel, sitting on dusty curbs eating Mexican street food with her friend Drew, or a twenty-something backpacker, obsessively pursuing a way to replicate the magical apricot croissants she ate while sitting on the steps of her hostel in Venice watching gondolas bob in the canal, Knisley navigates her way through life "doing those things with excitement, curiosity, and relish."

When a book revolves around food and travel, I'm already sold. I don't need to know the specifics. Just send me a copy; I'll read it. But when a graphic memoir revolves around food and travel? Well, I think the only next best thing would be to go to those places and eat the food yourself. And when a sequential art book begins with a recipe for chai tea, well, you had me at the chai (which I am currently sipping on as I write this review). Other illustrated recipes in this book include: marinated lamb, pesto, chocolate chip cookies, spaghetti carbonara, huevos rancheros, sushi rolls, and more! And while I certainly wouldn't classify this as a cookbook, the recipes included in this lovely little volume are worth a try.

Speaking of classifying books, one might automatically assume that a graphic memoir with the subtitle "My Life in the Kitchen" would be categorized as adult nonfiction, but Macmillan published Relish under their children's division, so this book is really unique in that it can fit in almost any age section in a bookstore because it has something for everyone. However, it should be noted that there is a scene in the book where Knisley's friend Drew buys some racy magazines in Mexico, so for that reason I would recommend Relish for seventh grade and up. For kids who enjoyed Sara Varon's adorable graphic novel Bake Sale, I'd say that Relish is the next rung up their reading ladder. In addition, Knisley's lively, youthful art immediately put me in mind of Raina Telgemeier's Smile and Drama as I was reading it, so that suggestion alone is enough to convince kids it's worth a read. And as an added bonus, reading Relish might even get them to start making pesto, spaghetti carbonara, and heck, maybe even sushi rolls. If this book doesn't bring out the inner foodie in you, then I don't know what will.


Relish: My Life in the Kitchen by Lucy Knisley
Published: April 2, 2013
Publisher: First Second
Pages: 192
Genre: Graphic Memoir
Audience: Young Adult/Adult
Disclosure: Purchased Copy

The Wall: Growing Up Behind the Iron Curtain by Peter Sis

Peter Sis grew up in communist Czechoslovakia under the watchful eye of the secret police during the Cold War. Under communism, Peter grew up a typical, brainwashed child of the Soviet regime. But as he grew older and art and western culture began to seep into his belief system, he realized that life under communist rule was not the ideal that the Soviet puppet masters made it out to be.

As an artist, Sis was constantly under suspicion from the secret police and his life in Prague was a discontented one. This book is the story of an artist's life behind the Iron Curtain.

Let me start off by saying right away that this is not your typical children's picture book. In fact, The Wall is a perfect example of why you can't assume that all picture books are for young children. There is a great deal of complexity going on with the text and illustrations that I would be so bold as to say that this book is geared more for high school, but definitely no earlier than middle school.

As a teacher, when I read a book like this, I can't help but get excited at the idea of using it in my classroom to teach text complexity. So many people are under the mistaken presumption that classic novels are the only texts that can show students any sort of sophistication and complexity that I wish more people would look to picture books. I highly recommend The Wall if you teach English or social studies in a middle school or high school setting. You will be surprised at the wealth of lessons your can pull from this text. If  you're a teacher in desperate need to stop using boring textbooks and start finding real texts full of voice (which, let's face it, we should ALL be that teacher!) then get yourself a copy of The Wall today!

 The Wall: Growing Up Behind the Iron Curtain by Peter Sis
Published: August 21, 2007
Publisher: Ferrar, Straus, and Giroux
Pages: 56
Genre: Graphic Memoir
Audience: Middle School/High School
Disclosure: Purchased Copy

Audiobook review: The Pioneer Woman: Black Heels to Tractor Wheels by Ree Drummond

Before she was known as The Pioneer Woman, Ree Drummond was a city girl through and through.  When Ree decided to uproot her life in L.A. due to a dead-end relationship, her plan was to spend some time back home in Oklahoma before uprooting her life again and moving to Chicago. Chicago was the perfect place to start a new life: it had all the draws and conveniences of big-city but was just one plane ride away from her family back home.

But then one night while out with some friends at a bar in her hometown, she met a cowboy whom we only know as Marlboro Man. Ree found herself falling head over heels in love with Marlboro Man and her plans for a new life in the hustle and bustle of Chicago were soon replaced with preparations for life on a cattle ranch in the middle of nowhere. This was not the life she had planned for herself, but as Ree displays with great insistence throughout the course of the book: the heart wants what it wants.

If ever there was a feel-good love story, Ree Drummond has it. I love watching her show on Food Network every weekend and I equally love watching her family interact. Ree proves in this heartwarming memoir about the man who swept her off her feet that she's no slouch as a writer. As someone who tends to shy away from cheesy romance novels, Ree manages show me that cheesy romance memoirs are worth my time, most likely because she doesn't take herself too seriously. Her sassy, self-deprecating humor is a perfect antidote to all that is cliche in the world of romance writing.   

After listening to Ree narrate her own story in this audiobook, I have to say that my admiration for her continues to grow. As someone who was used to the conveniences of a suburban existence, Ree displayed virtually no resentment toward her new husband when she moved to his ranch in the middle of nowhere. She made the best of her situation and realized her happiness was with her husband, not in her surroundings. I wish I had been able to be so adaptable in my own love story.

I hope despite Ree's busy schedule with her new show that she doesn't stop pursing other book ideas. Listening to this memoir made me hope for more than just cookbooks to be authored by her in the future.


The Pioneer Woman: Black Heels to Tractor Wheels by Ree Drummond
Published: February 1, 2011
Publisher: William Morrow/Harper Audio
Pages: 341
Audiobook length: 11 hours, 3 minutes
Genre: Memoir
Audience: Adults

Audiobook Review: Yes, Chef by Marcus Samuelsson

Born in Ethiopia and adopted to Swedish parents, Marcus Samuelsson has probably the most interesting and intriguing human-interest stories of anyone in the food world. But his story is not what rocketed him to the top of the food world, it was his talent. When a devastating cut from the soccer team he loved caused him to question his purpose in life, fatefully and blessedly, Marcus thought back to the love of his grandmother's Sunday dinners and decided to consider a career in food.

Marcus was curious and passionate. He had the desire the learn about traditional mother cuisines, but what really helped him stake his claim in the world of his food was his desire to play with flavors and textures that defy tradition.

This book has everything I love about a food memoir: passion, heart, drama, and mouth-watering descriptions. Samuelsson holds nothing back about his life: he discusses his own issues with race, the child he abandoned, and even talks smack about other chefs, namely Gordon Ramsay who, according to Samuelsson, is just as mean (and also bigoted) as he appears to be on his TV shows.

I loved this memoir and I adored listening to Samuelsson narrate his own auidobook -- I could listen to him talk ALL DAY. But I'm not gonna lie, I'm dubious as to whether he wrote this book himself. Any time a celebrity writes a book, I have to suspect that it was written by a ghost writer. The same holds true for Yes, Chef. Does that make his story any less important to read or less entertaining? No, not at all. But the dirty little secret of celebrities hiring ghost writers to tell their stories always leaves me wondering what percentage of them actually write the books that bear their names. My guess is that percentage is not very high and my gut suspicion is that Samuelsson gave a rough outline of his story to the person he or his publisher hired to write his story and then went off to judge an episode of Chopped.

Still, after listening to this audiobook, I have a great respect for Samuelsson as a chef and am now determined to eat at one of his restaurants the next time I'm in New York or Chicago. His passion for food mimics my own: finding ways to honor traditional cuisine while amping up flavors and textures in new and unusual ways. Of course, Samuelsson's passion and talent is obviously much more legit and disciplined than my own: he's a professional chef and I'm just some schmo who likes to cook and eat.

If you like food memoirs or are a Food Network junkie like me, I highly recommend reading or listening to Yes, Chef. Though if you're also like me and love listening to Marcus Samuelsson talk, choose the audiobook over the hardcover.

Check out my review of Marcus's cookbook, The Soul of a New Cuisine.


Yes, Chef by Marcus Sameulsson
Published: June 26, 2012
Publisher: Random House
Pages: 319
Audiobook Length: 11 hours, 51 minutes
Genre: Memoir
Audience: Adults
Disclosure: Checked out from library

Audiobook review: Let's Pretend This Never Happened by Jenny Lawson

This book is the true story about me and my battle with leukemia and, (spoiler alert) in the end I die, so you could just read this sentence and then pretend that you read the whole book. Unfortunately, there's a secret word somewhere in this book, and if you don't read all of it you won't find out the secret word. And then the people in your book club will totally know you stopped reading after this paragraph and will realize that you're a big, fat, fake. 

Okay, fine. The secret word is "Snausages."

The end.

And with that crazy introduction, you know this book is not going to be your typical memoir.

If all you think of when you hear the word Beyonce is the breakout star of the girl group, Destiny's Child, or "married to rapper Jay-Z", then clearly you've never heard the name Jenny Lawson because she gave a whole new meaning to the name Beyonce. Does Giant Metal Chicken ring a bell to you? If it doesn't, clearly you've never read Jenny's hilariously irreverent blog, The Bloggess.

I am pretty sure Jenny Lawson would be in a nuthouse if she weren't so darned funny. Luckily for her, humor can sometimes mask insanity. So as long as she's entertaining people, who's she going to hurt, right? Then again, I probably shouldn't poke fun at her mental health given her long struggles with this very issue but, y'all, this is the craziest book I have ever listened to. It's 300 pages insane of babbling but at least it's funny, insane babbling. I mean seriously, the whole book is just one long, crazy stream-of-consciousness. And I'm pretty sure this book has something to offend everyone: expletives, highly mature themes, irreverence for topics that one does not normally joke about (case in point, the leukemia joke in the intro), and yet despite the fact that the reader is convinced that they should somehow be offended by at least some of the content of this book, they're too busy wiping the tears from their eyes from laughing so hard to worry about whether they actually find the material offensive. That's the mark of a great comic I guess: when you know you should be offended but you're too busy laughing to wonder what it is exactly you should be offended by.

No one is going to accuse this book of being a literary masterpiece any time soon -- frequent overuse of the word "totally" does not a literary author make -- but Lawson "totally" has the entertainment market licked. If you're in search of some brain candy, search no further.

Since I listened to this book on audio, Lawson's voice has been whirring through my mind as I've been writing this review, which means I've had to refrain from writing expletives a few times simply because she swears so often in this book and her voice was "totally" getting inside my head as I wrote this. Thankfully and unlike Ms. Lawson, my brain has a filter. ;)

The audiobook has the added benefit of bonus chapters and outtakes that prove even further the crazy snowball effect that manifests from her stream-of-consciousness way of thinking. I never knew stream-of-consciousness was something you could be talented at, but apparently Lawson is more talented than most. If you're a fan of audiobooks, I highly recommend listening to the audio as opposed to reading the book. Since it's read by Lawson herself, you have the added benefit of her tone and cadence to go along with her insane prose. If you are in need of a good laugh -- one that burns a lot of calories and induces tears -- and you don't offend easily, go out and listen to this book. 


Let's Pretend This Never Happened: A Mostly True Memoir by Jenny Lawson
Audiobook narrator: Jenny Lawson
Published: April 17, 2012
Publisher: Amy Eihorn Books/Penguin Audiobooks
Pages: 318
Audiobook length: 8 hours, 41 minutes
Genre: Nonfiction/Memoir
Audience: Adults
Disclosure: Audiobook checked out from library

Audiobook Review: Blood, Bones & Butter by Gabrielle Hamilton

As a child, Gabrielle Hamilton fondly remembers the grand parties her parents used to throw and the luscious dishes her mother would prepare in the family kitchen. It was the very foundation for her love of food. This of course, was all before her family fell apart and Gabrielle spent many years adrift, trying to figure out what she wanted to do with her life. Feeling like the kitchen was the place she most belonged, after getting her MFA in creative writing at the University of Michigan, Gabrielle moved back to New York City and stumbled upon the opportunity open her own restaurant. But having never been a chef, let alone the owner of her own business, she wondered if opening a restaurant in one of the most breakneck cities in the world was a fool's errand.

I don't often say this about writers because in general I find them to be wonderful people, but Gabrielle Hamilton comes off as such a self-important snob that it was difficult to stomach listening to her drone on in this audiobook. Since I am a teacher, I try to refrain from using expletives in my public online persona, but I am curbing an intense desire to swear while writing this review. I don't like to write negative reviews. I write critical reviews, but negative I try to steer clear of. I can't steer clear of being negative in this review because Gabrielle Hamilton made it personal. Here is someone who is so uppity that she had the audacity to describe people Ann Arbor as unsophisticated (if you live in Michigan, you know what a slap in the face this is since if people from Ann Arbor are accused of being anything it's pretentious and snobby) and then uses the euphemism "Harvard of the Midwest" to describe The University of Michigan in a painfully condescending tone. Her basis for her assessment of Ann Arborites? The fact that she wasn't able to cater events with Russian Imperial table service like she did in New York and also because everyone in the city wears maize and blue. IT'S A COLLEGE TOWN! Ever hear of a little thing called school spirit Ms. Hamilton? Basically anything Midwestern she appeared to find reviling and too "down home" for her tastes. So sorry we're not sophisticated enough for you here in the Midwest Gabrielle.

In addition, I thought her pompous and downcast attitude toward her colleagues in the MFA writing program at U of M was rather presumptuous and insolent given the fact that she frequently described herself as feeling like she didn't fit in with the group of writers because she didn't know the vernacular. Despite admitting to not knowing what the word trope meant (a word even my unsophisticated self from Michigan could figure out in college using CONTEXT CLUES), I'm a little confused by her brazen attitude that she is the superior one just because she's from New York.

I honestly considered abandoning this audiobook prior to the section on her move to Ann Arbor. I couldn't take her insipid attitude and monotone narrating, but once I realized she'd be writing about a place that is close to my heart, mere minutes from where I live, I decided I wanted to hear what she had to say. All I can say is that you just messed with the wrong reader Ms. Hamilton. I am a proud Michigander and I will let no review go unscathed that befouls the name of people who live in it.

But insults to Michigan aside, this book was just odd. When writing about food, Hamilton is a master. She manages to help us see her passion and talent when describing those dishes that allow her to reminisce about the past. When it comes to writing about her personal life however, it was awkward and uncomfortable. All of her personal relationships are bizarre at best, dysfunctional at worst. The basis for which she married her husband alone is strange enough, but then continuing to live apart despite having two children together? She honestly gave me nothing for which I could empathize with her. But maybe that's just because I'm an unsophisticated Michigander who doesn't understand the complicated lives of cosmopolitan New Yorkers.

The audiobook is narrated by Hamilton herself and this made it yet another reason to dislike the book. Her style of  narration was so deadpan and monotone that this only enhanced and emphasized her unlikeability - it was like she had no emotion whatsoever. There wasn't a shred of humor or lightheartedness in her voice; it may as well have been narrated by a robot.

If you're looking for a heartfelt, feel-good memoir, put this one back on the bookshelf. If you're someone who enjoys watching a trainwreck, perhaps this is the book for you.



Blood, Bones & Butter: The Inadvertent Education of a Reluctant Chef by Gabrielle Hamilton
Published: March 1, 2011
Publisher: Random House
Pages: 304
Audiobook Length:  10 hours, 8 minutes
Genre: Memoir
Audience: Adults
Disclosure: Library Download

The "Did Not Finish" Chronicles: Paris in Love by Eloisa James

From Goodreads:

In 2009, New York Times bestselling author Eloisa James took a leap that many people dream about: she sold her house, took a sabbatical from her job as a Shakespeare professor, and moved her family to Paris. Paris in Love: A Memoir chronicles her joyful year in one of the most beautiful cities in the world.

With no classes to teach, no committee meetings to attend, no lawn to mow or cars to park, Eloisa revels in the ordinary pleasures of life—discovering corner museums that tourists overlook, chronicling Frenchwomen’s sartorial triumphs, walking from one end of Paris to another. She copes with her Italian husband’s notions of quality time; her two hilarious children, ages eleven and fifteen, as they navigate schools—not to mention puberty—in a foreign language; and her mother-in-law Marina’s raised eyebrow in the kitchen (even as Marina overfeeds Milo, the family dog).

Paris in Love invites the reader into the life of a most enchanting family, framed by la ville de l’amour

I was so excited to get an offer to review Paris in Love because I love travel memoirs. I was certain this book would be right up my alley (I mean, my blog has the word "Wanderlust" in the title. How can I pass up a travel memoir?) And I'm sure it would have been, had this book been given a narrative structure rather than, well, I don't know how to describe the structure. It was told pretty much in Facebook-status-update-sized vignettes. And while I love telling my own little stories to my friends and family via Facebook, I'm not going to compile all of them and put them in a book. 

The book didn't feel crafted; it felt slapped together. I could assemble all the posts I've written about my teaching life on Facebook and make a book out of it, but to me that's not writing; that's just slapping something together. The difficulty of writing is honing your craft to create an engaging narrative or informational piece of text. As someone who hopes to be a published writer someday, I'm kind of irked by the way this book was put together. I mean, anyone can assemble Facebook status updates, paste them into a Word document and turn them into a book. To me, the purpose of a journal/writer's notebook or even social media is to inspire bigger writing projects, not BE the writing project.


Perhaps I just missed the point of the book, I don't know, but I like to sit down with a book and have it be a continuous narrative. I want to invest in the people and conflicts that are going on. Instead, all this book does is give you little scraps of scenes that do nothing to tide you over. They merely make you hungrier for something more sustaining. Even if the book were a series of essays, that would be more satisfying and sustaining than the little snippets of unrelated text you get on each page:

But maybe for someone else this is just the type of book that they need. Short, quick, and with little emotional investment. That's just not the type of book for me. 



Paris in Love by Eloisa James
Published: April 3, 2012
Publisher: Random House
Pages: 272
Genre: Nonfiction/Travel Memoir
Audience: Adults
Disclosure: Title received for review

Lunch in Paris: A Love Story, with Recipes by Elizabeth Bard

From Goodreads:  
In Paris for a weekend visit, Elizabeth Bard sat down to lunch with a handsome Frenchman--and never went home again.

Was it love at first sight? Or was it the way her knife slid effortlessly through her pavé au poivre, the steak'spink juices puddling into the buttery pepper sauce? LUNCH IN PARIS is a memoir about a young American woman caught up in two passionate love affairs--one with her new beau, Gwendal, the other with French cuisine. Packing her bags for a new life in the world's most romantic city, Elizabeth is plunged into a world of bustling open-air markets, hipster bistros, and size 2 femmes fatales. She learns to gut her first fish (with a little help from Jane Austen), soothe pangs of homesickness (with the rise of a chocolate soufflé) and develops a crush on her local butcher (who bears a striking resemblance to Matt Dillon). Elizabeth finds that the deeper she immerses herself in the world of French cuisine, the more Paris itself begins to translate. French culture, she discovers, is not unlike a well-ripened cheese-there may be a crusty exterior, until you cut through to the melting, piquant heart.

Lunch in Paris is the perfect book to review here in my blog: It has has recipes (Foodie), it's a book (Bibliophile), and it takes place in Paris (in Wanderlust).  

What I loved about this book was that it was a fast, lovely little read to savor while on vacation or just sitting on the couch at home on a lazy Sunday. What I appreciated about this book over other memoirs of people moving to a new culture was that Bard didn't completely slam the American way of life. She didn't write of Paris as a way to say, "Screw you America, you suck! I moved to Paris and I'm never coming back." Throughout the book, Bard wrestled with her American cultural sensibilities that seemed to completely headbutt French convention. 

While Bard writes extensively of her appreciation of the French way of life when it comes to food and pleasure, she also addresses the frustrations she has with how the French deal with people, be it in the service industry or in health care. We see this especially when her father-in-law is battling cancer and the doctors in charge of his treatment won't even allow him or the family to be a part of the conversation for how he should be treated. The culture over there is "doctor knows all" whereas in America, the paradigm has shifted and we are encouraged to be an advocate for our own health. While our system in America is in desperate need of reform, it was enlightening to see how American doctors are much more willing to not just allow the patient to be part of the conversation, but also accept their input.   

We also see her cultural struggle when her husband Gwendal is having career trouble and she encourages him to take the initiative and make a drastic change.  Gwendal himself wrestles with this idea because they are both met with people criticizing his self-made success, saying that he needed to wait his turn, and that he was too young to be successful at his own endeavors. 

In terms of being so overtly critical of the French culture, I'd have to say that's where the book surprised me. I was expecting a completely indulgent food and travel memoir filled with joie de vivre and decadent descriptions of French pastries. While there is certainly a great deal of that, there is also more than the typical "culture shock" experiences that most people have when they first move to another country and then eventually assimilate.  

That is not to say that this book completely disses the French culture. There are a lot of wonderful moments that make you appreciate their way of life, but the book goes beyond croissants and creme brulee. It shows the struggle one must endure when you leave your own way of life and adopt another. There are things you appreciate about your new home, but there are things that will always go against what you've been brought up and led to believe your whole life. With Bard you can see that it will always be an everlasting struggle, and for some people that might be disheartening to read a book that doesn't have that total and complete sense of closure, but for me I found it refreshing. It shows that Bard is still living her life and that despite the fact that the pages in the book end, she is still learning and growing. 

Lunch is Paris is touted as "A Love Story, with Recipes." At the end of each chapter there is a collection of three or four recipes that supposedly go with the theme of the chapter. Some theme chapter recipes are obvious because she mentions the food somewhere in the chapter, but other chapters are kind of awkward because you feel like they're just there because each chapter is supposed to end with some recipes and she was struggling to figure out how to incorporate them into the end of the chapter. Still, there were quite a few delectable sounding recipes in the book that I will be trying some time soon I am especially eager to try the Chicken Tagine with Two Kinds of Lemon and the Oven Roasted Pork Ribs with Honey.  

Overall this was a page-turning memoir, and a must-read for anyone who loves to read about food and travel.

Visit Elizabeth's blog 

Lunch in Paris: A Love Story, with Recipes by Elizabeth Bard
Published: February 2010 by Little, Brown and Company
Pages:  326
Genre: Memoir (travel/food)
Audience: Adults

You Had Me At Woof: How Dogs Taught Me the Secrets of Happiness by Julie Klam

From Goodreads:

Julie Klam was thirty, single, and working as a part-time clerk in an insurance company, wondering if she would ever meet the man she could spend the rest of her life with. And then it happened. She met the irresistible Otto, her first in a long line of Boston terriers, and fell instantly in love.

Over the years her brood has grown to one husband, one daughter, and several Boston terriers. And although she had much to learn about how to care for them-walks at 2 a.m., vet visits, behavior problems-she was surprised and delighted to find that her dogs had more wisdom to convey to her than she had ever dreamed. And caring for them has made her a better person-and completely and utterly opened her heart. Riotously funny and unexpectedly poignant, You Had Me at Woof recounts the hidden surprises, pleasures, and revelations of letting any mutt, beagle, terrier, or bulldog go charging through your world.

Anyone who knows me knows I can't get enough of dog books because even though we always know the outcome of just about every dog story ever written, they always make our human world just a little better with their loyalty and unconditional love. Julie Klam manages to put so perfectly into words what it is about dogs that makes us love them so much. 

I knew I would love this book when, in the first chapter, Julie Klam describes her Boston Terrier Otto as smelling like Fritos. I knew I found a kindred spirit at this declamation because I have always said to my husband that our pug Frank, on occasion, smells like corn chips. He always looked at me like I was crazy when I said this, so that was the moment when I knew this book was going to be nothing short of loveable.

There are moments of heartbreak, joy, and absolute hilarity in this book, but crux of Klam's thesis is, no matter how dysfunctional your house might seem, dogs will almost always fill it with love, laughter, good health, and happiness.

I was initially drawn to this book because the adorably awkward Boston Terrier on the cover reminds me so much of my pug Guenter. And even though I love dog memoirs, I wasn't initially sold on this book from the jacket blurb. I have read so many dog books and this one didn't jump out at me as unique or different from the ones I've already read. But every time I would go to the book store, I would see that face, the one with the bulgy eyes and the awkwardly angelic expression that reminded me of Guenter, and it wasn't long before the pull of the cover caused me to cave and finally buy it. 

I was not disappointed. So much of Julie Klam's reasons for loving dogs are my own reasons and they're not ones I can articulate without re-writing her entire book.  So my suggestion to you if you're a dog-lover (or if you're not a dog-lover and just want to know what makes us crazy dog-people tick) is just to just read this book. You won't be disappointed.
  
A note about the format: I did actually listen to the audiobook version of You Had Me at Woof. Usually if I listen to an audiobook, I'll do a review of the audio presentation if it was stellar or sub-par. This audiobook was right in the middle. There was nothing distinguishable about it, but it kept me engaged and the narrator, Karen White, had a pleasant and soothing voice. If you enjoy listening to audiobooks and are always on the lookout for good ones, I would recommend this one.


You Had Me At Woof: How Dogs Taught Me The Secrets of Happiness by Julie Klam, narrated by Karen White
Published: September 2010 by Riverhead and  October 2010 by Tantor Audio
Pages: 240
Audiobook Length: 5 hours, 44 minutes
Genre: Memoir
Audience: Adult dog-lovers