REVIEW: Relish: My Life in the Kitchen by Lucy Knisley

Relish is a food-themed memoir that reveals a young woman's love of good food through fond memories. Lucy Knisley grew up in both New York City and rural Hudson Valley, New York with a chef mother and gourmet-loving father who both exposed her to a wide variety of luxurious foods from babyhood through young adulthood. In this graphic novel, Lucy explores her relationship with and love of food through a series of vignettes and anecdotes from various stages of her life and several international trips as well, all of which instilled in her strong connections between food, places, and people. Her stories are honest and open, often laced with humor and sentimentality to which readers can relate well such as a grandmother's famous pickle and a mother's perfect chocolate chip cookie. Although Lucy clearly developed a gourmet palate like that of her parents, she still has a fondness for processed junk food every now and then, something that I think helps dilute the level of privilege that runs through this novel.

A few months ago I read Knisley's earlier work, French Milk, another food-themed graphic memoir that chronicled the author's month long visit to Paris with her mother, which I found to be a boring and pretentious recount of what should have been a trip of a lifetime for a college-aged girl yet instead was a whiny recollection of a trip of complaining and examples of how to be an ungrateful brat and treat your mother poorly. Anyway, I'm pleased to report that Lucy has matured a bit since she wrote French Milk and it shows in Relish. Each chapter of Relish visits a different place, phase and food experience of Lucy's life and each ends with a delightfully illustrated recipe (probably my favorite part of the book). As Knisley reflects on some striking food memories, she shares them with a fond affection for her family and friends connected to those experiences. I would have liked to see Knisley share more about other people's connections to foods, especially relating to her international travels. I was disappointed that Knisley never attempted to learn about or connect with any local people and their culture during her trips. Or if she did do those things on her travels, she doesn't share them in her book, which is a shame because I think those experiences would be a huge asset to her books.

In the future, I'd like to see Knisley develop a more heightened awareness of the world around her and write with a little less self absorption. I realize Relish is a memoir and therefore focused on the individual, but I still think a well written memoir includes some attention to the rest of the world and Kinsley's writing could be stellar if she wrote with a bit more substance and depth overall.

In the meantime, Relish is a quick, fun graphic memoir to read. The drawings are well done and I found the human expressions are accurately expressed as well as charming. Again, the recipes at the end of each chapter are great and a special touch to this food-based book. I also have to admit I particularly enjoyed reading the chapters in which Lucy was living in the Hudson Valley since I'm familiar with that area and have visited it regularly over the years.. both downtown Rhinebeck and Grieg Farm as a very close friend of mine lives in that same area.

GRADE: 3.5+ out of 5 stars. Maybe 4 stars. I really did enjoy it. :)

. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

Weekend Cooking, a weekly blog event hosted by Beth Fish Reads. Weekend Cooking is open to anyone who has any kind of food related post to share--a food related book review (fiction or nonfiction), cookbook review, movie review, a recipe, random thoughts, gadgets, food quotations, photographs, etc. Please visit Beth's blog for more information and join the fun!

REVIEW: Three Wishes by Carey Goldberg, Beth Jones and Pamela Ferdinand

A True Story of Good Friends, Crushing Heartbreak, and Astonishing Luck on Our Way to Love and Motherhood

This is the G selection for the Authors by the Alphabet Book Club for the month of June 2011. This book was selected by Marce who blogs at Tea Time with Marce where you can find her review and links to the Q&A book discussion posted by other book club members. Anyone interested in joining the monthly book club is welcome and invited to join on the Authors by the Alphabet Book Club sign up post on Paula's blog.

The title and subtitle of this book explains largely what this book is about, but to elaborate just a bit, it is a memoir co written by three friends who have found themselves at the same cross road of life and how they proceed to make at least one of their wishes come true---to be a mother and everything else that happens to them during their journey to motherhood. Carey, Beth and Pam are all successful journalists, each with a string of failed relationships behind them and now in their late thirties, feel very strongly about pursuing motherhood as a single parent. Carey is the first to start on the road to motherhood by purchasing eight vials of sperm from an anonymous sperm donor. But just as Carey prepares for insemination, she meets someone and is soon pregnant. The vials then get passed to Beth who has finally put a difficult divorce behind her, but she, too, meets a man who might just be the one and also gets pregnant. Finally the vials get passed to Pam, the romantic of the three women who is always on the lookout for true love, but is not willing to let the chance at motherhood pass her by before she's too old to conceive. Happily, she, too, finds love in the nick of time. This is a very simplistic overview of what these three women go through in their unconventional pursuit of motherhood. They experience uncertainties in their relationships, challenges with balancing their jobs with their pursuit of motherhood, as well as heart wrenching losses and deep felt sorrow that will be a part of them forever, but in the end this memoir tells the story of how three women found true love and motherhood perhaps later than most women, and maybe in a different order, but not at all too late to live "happily ever after."

The chapters rotate between narrations from Carey, Beth and Pam pretty much in chronological order as they each pursue their ultimate goal of becoming a mother. They share pertinent anecdotes about their careers, living arrangements, their extended families and of course their mutual friendships. They also share their past relationship failures, the experiences and challenges of their current relationships, terrible losses and tremendous joys that make the journey to love and parenthood worth every emotional scar we ever bear.

The writing in this memoir flows very easily, and Carey, Beth and Pam include a lot of conversations they've had with friends, family, lovers and other significant people in their lives, and that dialogue helps the book read like a story and not just a string of events, the latter of which could easily lead to boredom with a memoir. While reading the first few chapters, I admit that I felt quite removed from the women's situations, largely because my life path was so different and I couldn't quite relate to being 40-ish years old, a wealthy career woman, single with no love interests on the horizon and no child of my own in my heart. However, the more chapters I read in this memoir, the more absorbed I became in these woman's lives, the more I empathized with their situations and the more I grasped onto the hope that they would not only become mothers, but also find permanent love in a healthy marriage.

One of "issues" that I have with this book --and it's not even really an issue, but more of an observation-- is that Carey, Beth and Pam were all financially well off and could easily afford to pursue the medical avenues of getting pregnant on their own as well as the child care expenses after the baby's arrival. It just doesn't seem realistic that there is a large demographic of 40-ish women out there who can afford such lifestyles and the freedom to pursue single motherhood like these women did.

Also, Carey, Beth and Pam's stories were so similar and their narration voices so similar that at times I had a difficult time keeping track of whose story I was reading and I found myself flipping around a few pages to jog my memory.

Ultimately, I found Three Wishes to be a thought provoking and very personal look into the lives of these three modern women who were so determined to have children of their own. They survived many difficult situations, made life altering decisions and learned to live with those decisions, and above all they were very lucky to have had their three wishes come true.

In closing, I'd like to end my review with my favorite quote from the memoir. It is a quote from Pam, the final recipient of the donor vials around the time she decides with certainty to pursue having a child on her own. I think this passage captures the essence of what each of these three women feel and why they were so incredibly determined to become mothers. I think I would have felt the same if I were in their place.

"Finally, at thirty-seven years old, I confronted myself. I considered what I could not live without and immediately knew it was a child. That for me, life would have a far lesser purpose if I could not be a mother. I once read that the ancient Egyptians described childless women as 'mothers of the missing ones,' and that imagery wrenched me to the core. I could almost feel an ache in my bones for the child who would be missing to me." --Pam [p. 108]

GRADE: B

X FACTOR Live Auditions* and Library Loot XXXVIII

*sitting in the audience ONLY. ;) 

My husband got a hold of four tickets for the live taping of the X FACTOR Auditions for the New York Metro. So last night I took my sixteen year old daughter and two of her friends to the show. It was a lot of fun, but such a loooooong evening. We left home at 4 pm, picked up the two friends and were parked by 5 pm or so... but then waited in line outside the arena in 95 F (35 C) temps for the doors to open, barely tolerating obnoxious people. I mean really. Why can't adults behave like adults and not cut the line? We've been out of elementary school for at least a decade by now--more like two or three decades. Plenty of time to learn that cutting the line is rude, disrespectful and just plain wrong! I was getting a bit testy, I have to admit. Anyway, the doors finally opened and we got to sit in the air conditioning and wait some more for the auditions to start. Finally, the show got underway near 7 pm.

Out of the 20 or so contestants that auditioned last night, there were maybe four who stood out as potential final contestants, although a handful more than that got call backs. When one particular contestant came out, my daughter says, "I think I know that guy!" Turns out a boy from her high school made it to this level of audition cuts. He apparently kept it pretty quiet at school. His performance was pretty good, but not quite good enough to make it past the judges. My daughter and her friends were so proud of him. Not just for making it that far, but he had some positive and inspiring things to say in his little "interview" with the judges about working hard, not giving up and discovering your strengths. That was nice.

The judges last night were Simon Cowell, Paula Abdul, Nicole Scherzinger (She's got that new sexy single out, "Right There" featuring 50 Cent. It's blatantly sexually suggestive, so consider yourself warned if you've got little kids within earshot ;) and music producer L.A. Reid. It was a lot of fun listening to the four of them talk amongst themselves, to the contestants and the audience. There's significantly more dialogue exchange that goes on at the tapings that never make it to the final cut that gets played when the show is actually broad casted. The final contestant walked off the stage at 11 pm or so and the girls and I chatted about the night the whole ride home. I think we had a pretty fun night! :)

Now for my library loot! I stopped by a neighboring library specifically to pick up this month's book selection for the Author's by the Alphabet book club and got majorly sucked into browsing the cookbook section. I couldn't believe how many cookbooks this library shelves! I had to fight myself not to grab a dozen more and came home with only five. I can just borrow more when I return these, right?

Three Wishes: A True Story of Good Friends, Crushing Heartbreak, and Astonishing Luck on Our Way to Love and Motherhood
by Carey Goldberg, Beth Jones and Pamela Ferdinand

This is memoir type book that accounts three single friends and career women who journey to motherhood.







Chocolate & Vanilla by Gale Gand
The Ultimate Ice Cream Book by Bruce Weinstein

No explanation necessary for these two books, right? Thought so. ;)

The Farm Chicks in the Kitchen by Teri Edwards and Serena Thompson

I couldn't resist this book's simple country farm kitchen appeal. Simple, classic country recipes and adorable craft ideas. If you like country life and antiques, the Serena Thompson has a sweet blog at Farm Chicks.

I also got Hungry Girl Happy Hour and Great Food Fast , both not pictured.

I'm not crazy about the drink recipes in the Happy Hour book because they call for a lot of very artificial ingredients like powdered jello, juice mix and artificially sweetened and flavored syrups. Not really my thing. Great Food Fast is a compilation of recipes straight from the Every Day Food magazine, which I have been subscribing to for many years and I was just looking for recipes that were published in issues prior to starting my subscription. It's a great cookbook, though. I encourage you to look for it at your library. Love the magazine, too.

That's it!

It's literally 100 degrees F outside today and due to the extreme heat, schools were actually dismissed early today! That's only happened one other time in the eleven years I've had a child in school. While it is expected to cool off a bit by tomorrow, temperatures are expected to be in the mid 90s F for the next several days. I'm thinking making some homemade ice cream from The Ultimate Ice Cream Book is in order. Perhaps homemade strawberry ice cream...

What's your favorite flavor of ice cream? 

:)

Library Loot XXI

Library Loot is a weekly blog event that encourages bloggers to share what books they borrowed from the library that week. To participate, simply make your Library Loot post on your blog and link it using the Mr. Linky link at Marg's blog Reading Adventures or Eva's blog A Striped Armchair. This week's link up is at Marg's.


In non fiction:

Getting The Pretty Back

Friendship, Family and Finding the Perfect Lipstick by Molly Ringwald

I don't generally read memoirs, but when I saw this one come into the library, I thought it might be a fun one to read. I was a teenager myself during the time actress Molly Ringwald was at the height of her teenage stardom on the big screen, so I'm familiar with her teenage image as well as familiar with her stage in life now-- wife, mother, friend and simply a woman of her 40s.

Getting The Pretty Back is more like a fun spirited woman's guide to being over 40 and all the great things being this age brings. There are anecdotes from Molly's life and experiences layered within the book, but mostly she writes about insights and tips to both the fun things in life and some of the challenges as well. Topics include friendships, dating, marriage, family issues, parenting, travel, cooking, diet, exercise, makeup and fashion. Most importantly that pretty is a state of mind. So true!!!

In music:


To The Sea by Jack Johnson

To The Sea is singer songwriter Jack Johnson's most recent release and his fifth studio album. The album is produced by Jack Johnson's record label, Brushfire Records for Universal Studios and is a shining example of environmental responsibility. The album was recorded in solar powered studios in Hawaii and LA, printed on 100% post-consumer waste recycled paper, and carrying the 1% For The Planet promise and logo. He and his crew don't stop there. They promote green living while on tour, too, taking all kinds of awesome steps toward reducing their carbon footprint from eliminating their use of single use plastic bottles on tour and backstage, drinking filtered tap water, aiming toward zero waste through recycling, composting whenever possible, and working with local farms and markets while on tour to source locally grown food all whenever possible.

Want to learn more? Visit JackJohnsonMusic.com and or AllAtOnce.com, Jack Johnson's social action network established to educate and engage individuals to take action in creating a positive global change for our communities and environment. I joined All At Once to learn more about local events and opportunities to volunteer to make a difference. Why not join and find out what you can do in your area too? :)

As for the music on To The Sea --don't think I forgot about that part!!! --all songs are of Jack Johnson's signature style of soft acoustic rock with a mellow, soulful sound and simple but thoughtful lyrics. To learn more about To The Sea go HERE to read more and sample the songs. :)


Do you have any library loot this week?

What are you currently reading?