Archive | December, 2023

Visiting With Some Old Foodie Friends: Brooklyn in Love, Picnic in Provence, Home is Where the Eggs Are, and This Might Be Too Personal

27 Dec

This year marked my 20th year here at the library, which of course got me feeling nostalgic about back when I first started working here in 2003, a newly graduated MLIS student, single and excited about living just across the river from that legendary city, NYC, though Hoboken is not shabby on its own legends either. Although the blog hasn’t been around quite that long it got me to thinking about some of the memoirs, I had reviewed early on and what their authors might have been up to now. Here are a few. Like me they found love and started families, but of course their adventures in their delicious “next chapter,” as Amy Thomas describes her own part two, only continued.

Brooklyn in Love: A Delicious Memoir of Food, Family and Finding Yourself
by Amy Thomas
In 2012, Amy Thomas published Paris My Sweet, a memoir about the years she spent in her dream job getting to write ad copy for Louis Vuitton in the city of lights. When I blogged about it back then, it was clear that as much as Thomas enjoyed and celebrated Paris, it wasn’t where she was going to put down roots. In 2018’s Brooklyn in Love, on the other hand, it definitely has more a feeling of figuring out where her long term home is. As with Paris My Sweet where she includes recommendations for bakeries and Cafes in Paris, In Brooklyn in Love she focuses on the unique and delicious places she encounters in Brooklyn. I think it is notable that I felt of the previous work that, “wonderful descriptions of the sweets is what truly caries this work,” but in this memoir I was more interested in what she had to say about her life, her relationship, and her first experiences of motherhood.

Picnic in Provence: A Memoir with Recipes
by Elizabeth Bard
I had also blogged back in 2012 about another French Memoir along with Thomas’s, Elizabeth Bard’s Lunch in Paris. Unlike Thomas, Bard married a Parisian and became of French citizen. That book as does her more recent memoir (2015) Picnic in Provence include recipes at the ends of chapters. This memoir follows her pregnancy and adventures in motherhood. At first Bard is a bit disconnected from motherhood and feels like she hasn’t fully bonded with her son, but then she uses a shared love of cooking to form a stronger connection with him. The later half of the memoir also focuses on her and her husband starting an artisanal ice cream shop that serves scoops inspired by the local Provencal flavors that they have fallen in love with and her efforts to become officially a French citizen. Francophiles, foodies, and other moms and entrepreneurs will find this book a treat! Bard followed up Picnic in Provence in 2017 with Dinner Chez Moi: 50 French Secrets to Joyful Eating and Entertaining, a book of advice and easy to follow recipes.

Home is Where the Eggs Are: Farmhouse Food for the People You Love
by Molly Yeh
Molly Yeh rose to culinary fame with her award winning food blog, My Name is Yeh. Her memoir Molly on the Range published in 2016, follows her time studying classical music at Julliard and her childhood in a Chicago suburb in addition to her moving to sugar beet farm that her in-laws had been running for generations. Since her first book came out Molly has gone on to being a host of the Food Network show Girl Meets Farm as well as hosting some of their food competition shows. Her cookbook Home is Where the Eggs Are: Farmhouse Food for the People You Love published in 2022, is in a way a reverse of Picnic in Provence which is a memoir with some recipes, in that it is a cookbook with bits of memoir included in each section and recipes including pictures of Molly, her husband, and oldest daughter throughout. Her recipes take inspiration from her own Jewish and Chinese heritage as well as her husband’s family Scandinavian/Midwest background, but I find there is also sort of playfulness often that is uniquely her own. Several recipes in the book caught my eye including goat cheese and dill baked eggs, cheesy kimchi fried rice, and watermelon basil bug juice. We made her marzipan chocolate chunk cookie recipe this year as one of our Christmas bakes and they were DELICIOUS!

This Might Be Too Personal
by Alyssa Shelasky
Alyssa Shelasky chronicled her nervousness about cooking while dating a celebrity chef (Spike Mendelhsohn) in Apron Anxiety which I had found to be a fun read. It was interesting to hear about Shelasky overcoming her cooking fear even if her relationship with “chef” doesn’t last. This Might Be Too Personal contains essays, mainly about Shelasky’s life chronicling her time working for New York Magazine’s Sex Diaries and eventually adapting them to a TV series as well as her choice to become a single mom before finding the love of her life. There is a brief mention of catching up with “chef” who is now happily married. Those looking for a foodie memoir will enjoy her previous work, but for fans of gossipy party girl fun similar to Candace Bushnell’s Sex and the City memoirs balanced with sweet mom moments with Shelasky’s daughter Hazel, this will be an enjoyable read. The audiobook made me feel like I was hearing about the adventures from one of my bffs.

Written by:
Aimee Harris
Information and Digital Services Manager

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A “Romantacy” with Dragons: Fourth Wing by Rebecca Yarros

20 Dec

BookTok has become almost infamous for its hit list and recommendations. Some suggestions are questionable and frighteningly disturbing while others are hidden gems that deserve to have the spotlight on them. The latest in this trend of BookTok hits is Fourth Wing by Rebecca Yarros. One of the interesting things about Yarros is that this isn’t her debut in terms of writing, as her back catalog reveals she has quite a few romances under her belt. Fourth Wing is her first venture into the fantasy genre, in particular the fantasy romance genre (or “romantacy” as BookTok has begun to call it).

We are introduced to Violet Sorrengail, a twenty year old who had spent all of her life preparing to become a Scribe, only for her mother to force her to enter the Dragon Riders and follow in her footsteps, despite a medical condition that makes her more prone to injury. As she continues to face the trials laid out before her, she starts to suspect that the powers that be are hiding a terrible secret and that trusting the wrong person could mean the difference between life and death.

The world building is unique enough to pique the reader’s interest, especially if they are new to the fantasy genre. It’s tangible enough of a world that both experienced fantasy readers and those new to the genre will find it unique.

In terms of plot, the overall plot of the novel is fine and a decent first read for anyone who’s new to reading fantasy while it’s obvious that the subplot is what is being used to advertise the book and is the source of hype all over TikTok. Character work is also another thing that may be a hit or miss to some readers. You can see what Yarros was going for in terms of certain characters and providing obstacles for Violet, but many of these fall into their tropes almost too well and if you are a well seasoned reader, you may be okay with them because this is the author’s first attempt at a fantasy, or you may roll your eyes at them. 

Things start off relatively slow at first, mainly consisting of things that introduce us to the main character and establish the world to the reader. While there are plenty of action and suspenseful moments, much of the character interaction seems to drag on for longer than usual. 

Until the dragons show up. 

That’s when things pick up and become a whole lot more interesting and the pacing improves by leaps and bounds. Tairn and Andarna are the best characters throughout this whole book and their interactions with Violet are an absolute joy to read. Even if you’re not big on romantacy, these two dragons alone make reading this book all the more enjoyable. These two characters help provide very much needed moments of humor and light hearted moments that adds so much to the tone of the series. While things still remain grim and serious, the addition of these characters help to provide much needed charm that makes reading it all the more enjoyable. Tairn and Andarna aren’t just there to be convenient side characters, they each contribute to the plot of the story and  

One writing flaw that many experienced readers will notice is Yarros’ take on characterization in fantasy, primarily with the main protagonist, Violet. When we are introduced to her, we are told of how she has been preparing to become a Scribe all of her life, only for her mother to take that away from her because of  her pride. We are told that becoming a scribe is something that Violet wanted not just for her safety, but for herself as well. However, we don’t see any anger, bitterness, resentment, or any other indication of her being upset with her mother for essentially stealing the future she wanted and prepared for. Later on, when another character offers to help her slip past the guards and get into Scribe’s Quadrant, she doesn’t react the way someone would when given the chance to get back to the role she’s wanted. There’s no internal conflict about getting the chance to escape to the Scribes, no sign of gratitude that her friend would even offer to help her out at the possible cost of his position, no longing to go back to the Scribes at all. She takes his trying to help her as a sign he thinks she’s weak. One could argue that this is a character flaw, but it seems strange that something she wanted so much that was taken from her is being offered to her and she doesn’t even argue with herself about the opportunity presented to her. She just says she can’t because of her mother and just accepts it yet again. There’s no fight to reclaim the thing she’s prepared and trained for all of her life.

There are also things all of the characters do throughout the book that are questionable even for a fantasy story. Early on in the story, one of the main characters, Xaden has Violet and her small crew moved over to his division just for the sole purpose of having direct access to her so he can supposedly take revenge for his father out on her. While suspension of disbelief is important for a story, allowing someone with military ranking to just have a direct line to someone they have a grudge or vendetta with is a huge conflict of interest and would make those familiar with this rule raise their eyebrows. As previously mentioned, this can be dismissed as something to suspend your disbelief on, one can’t help but wonder if Yarros did this simply so she could cite that her book as the much beloved trope of enemies-to-lovers. While there is nothing wrong with being proud of the tropes in your book, this particular one feels like it could have been executed much differently and in a way that would make it much more believable.

Then there’s the chemistry between Violet and Xaden. With fans of the enemies-to-lovers trope there’s supposed to be some kind of teasing or banter or subtext for them falling for each other, but with Fourth Wing, the chemistry between the two characters is sort of lacking and they don’t speak to each other as much as Violet speaks with Dain. Yes, we know that she’s attracted to Xaden, which itself is fine, but it isn’t until after the dragons show up that we see any more interaction between Xaden and Violet. The build up to their romance feels rushed, but is also fun to read once it actually gets going. 

Overall, while Fourth Wing does have its share of flaws, it is an enjoyable, escapist read and a good beginner book for those looking to dip their toes into the romantasy genre or for those looking to get into fantasy with grumpy and sweet dragons.

Written by:
Lauren Lapinski
Information and Digital Services Assistant

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