Tag: Best Sellers

Seattle Food Writer- Molly Wizenberg

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Molly Wizenberg also deserves her own post, she is a local Seattle Restaurant owner, blogger, writer, and mother.  I highly reccomend reading both of her books, good fall reading, great for food lovers, seattle lovers, paris lovers, or anyone with a heart, soul, or palette.

My sweet friend Kim recently called this blog, my shop around the corner.  I consider that a high compliment, not only because it was Meg Ryan at her peak, but because it represents pursuing the stirrings of your soul.  Molly Wiezenberg’s books are her shop around the corner.  The restaurant Delancy is the shop around the corner their marriage built.  I have loved reading her journey of life through food, love, book writing, and restaurant building.

She captures the essence of following your dreams through the exciting and weary times.  She is honest, but never whiny, humorous, but never snarky.  I read Delancy in one day.  This avid reader has never finished a non-fiction book in that time frame.  These books are delicious slices of life.

A Homemade Life

A Homemade LifeTo finish this book I sat down on a Sunday night with a glass of wine, a plate lined with small rectangles of unusual cheese, and a hunk of bread ripped in half; half to eat with the cheese, half smeared with butter, a dessert of sorts.  A Homemade Life is rich and delightful.  The book reads like a story, but set in a land of delicious eats.  Molly tells the story of her life one recipe at a time.  It never lags, it never feel forced or contrived.  Her love story flows out of her shared love of food with her sweet and charming husband.  You will want to eat, cook, drink, love, and live boldly after you read this book.  I never buy books, I am a strict library patron, but I need this book on my shelf.  I am bringing her Apples Tarte Tatin to our book club this week.  I am thankful she suggests using pastry dough from Trader Joe’s, and I am anxious to try her fennel salad and Ratatouille.  When the author met her husband her friend cheered her on saying, “Don’t stop now.  This is the bread and butter! This is what it is all about.” I smiled as I finished the book and finished my bread and butter in my cozy home on a Sunday night.  This book is bread and butter.  Savor it to the end.

To Order this book on Amazon, click here:

A Homemade Life: Stories and Recipes from My Kitchen Table

Delancey

Delancey_coverGetting to experience Delancy was a practice in patience. I saw this book on the Seattle Public Library website and requested it.  I was number 184 in line. I waited from April to October to get my copy.   Then a friend asked me if I wanted to go to dinner at Delancy, she had heard it was good. It is a small pizza place in a tucked away Seattle Neighborhood.    We tried to go on a Saturday night, an hour wait.  We went to a neighborhood pub.  We went back on a Saturday night, prepared for a wait, and we waited 45 minutes.   The pizza was worth it, totally and completely worth it. I wanted a group of my great girlfriend’s to come and experience the pizza with me, we set a date.  I got there an hour early, put our name in, and then read in my car by flashlight for an hour.  We waited another hour for the diners before us to finish their pizza and chit-chat over coffee.  The wonderful hostess that handles the front playfully suggested we stare them down a bit.  I did.  They sipped their coffee.

Delancy, the book and the restaurant, were worth the wait.  I was enchanted by the story of their unrelenting determination to open their own little pizza place.  Many books I have read lately are about the pursuit of deep rooted dreams.  Delancy is the story of the dream to bring impeccably delectable wood fired pizza to Seattle.   I truly respect the people of Seattle with vision that make old things new and restore instead of destruct.  Molly and her husband do exactly that.   I felt a kinship with this book, at first I thought it is because I am Seattle resident; the story takes place in a ten mile radius from my home.  However, it is the story, not the setting that draws you in as a reader.  Regardless of where you live, the story is poignant, and reads like a novel.  It leaves you with a feeling of contentment and inspiration to pursue your relentless desires.   You will cheer for Molly and her husband.  Go to Delancy, you will dream of the White Pie long after it is finished.

To Order this book on Amazon, click here:

Delancey: A Man, a Woman, a Restaurant, a Marriage

Why Everyone Should Read Rainbow Rowell

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Rainbow Rowell deserves her very own post.  She rocks, her blog is cool, and I love that she writes all her stories taking place in or around Omaha.  I have secretly always wanted to go there since the counting crows sang about it.  If you have ever talked on a landline, made a mix tape for someone you love, or wondered if anyone would love you for who you really are, you will love Rainbow Rowell.  Honestly if you have any ounce of heart you will find one of her books moving, touching, and worth every minute.  If you don’t, I am sorry you are not my people.

I am so impressed with her because she writes powerful characters in every book, but they are all different, wonderful, and unique.  There are books that I have loved and then waited impatiently for their next novel, but when it finally came it was a dud, forced, or contrived or uninspired.  Now, to give grace to those authors, some writers have only one great book in them, and that is fine.  Some authors write inspired by an event in their lives and when they try to write outside of that realm, it just doesn’t work.   This is precisely why I find her so impressive.  Each novel has her stamp, is written from her heart and has a large piece of her, but each character is new, fresh, and like finding a kindred friend.

Here is a link to her blog:  http://rainbowrowell.com/blog/

Here are my thoughts on all her books.  I binge read for a couple weekends, it was time well spent.

Eleanor and Park by Rainbow Rowell 

Eleanor and ParkI breathed an audible sigh of contentment upon finishing Eleanor and Park.  Rainbow Rowell can write a teenage love story like no other.  The backdrop of the 80’s is captured with perfect clarity through every character.   My nostalgia for the 80’s runs deep, and this book made me swoon.  Eleanor is new to school and has to navigate high school being chubby, odd, poor, and with the weight of the world on her shoulders.  Park is different, intuitive, and battling through his own adolescence through music and comic books.  Eleanor ends up sitting in his seat on the school bus, the first of her many social landmines she has to tip toe through at her new school.  Eleanor and Park come from very different worlds, but find each other at the best moment in time.  Their bridge of friendship begins over mix tapes and comic books. Eleanor’s struggles are serious and hard to read at times, but Rowell never moves to gritty or disturbing, just gut wrenchingly honest.  If you ever got teased in gym class, dodged a bully in the halls, or just didn’t fit in, you will relate to these very well written characters.  The love story is sweet, written with the sharpest most engaging dialogue I have read in quite a while.  Few can capture the essence of someone through their words as clearly as Rainbow Rowell can.  This is a teenage love story for all ages.  If you are into that thing.

To Purchase this book on Amazon, click here:

Eleanor & Park

Fangirl by Rainbow Rowell 

fangirlFangirl was a slower starter, but did not disappoint.  I had never read fan fiction, and did not really know what it was.  After some internet education I can appreciate its place in the reading world.  The characters in Fangirl are once again fantastic, and written only as Rowell can.  The story begins with twins Cath and Wren leaving their single parent father behind and going to college.  They are both intense followers of a series of fiction books for children/pre-teens full of magic and spells.  (Think Harry Potter parallel)  They write fan ficiton online continuing the stories, which is interlaced into the novel.  This book brought up so many reminiscent feelings of college, exciting new beginnings, but holding onto old comforts.  I felt a kinship with Cath and her heartfelt loyalty to her family, her online fan fiction followers, and to her true self.  Cath is not willing to change for anyone, but at some point that begins to hinder her. She has to choose where to bend and open up for the sake of her heart.  I loved the setting of a part rural, part city college campus in Omaha.  The two men in Cath’s life, Nick and Levi open her up to new experiences, some turn painful, but some are the sweetest bits of nectar you get to taste in life.  By the end, I was attached to the characters and was sad to read the last page.  If I ever chose to write fan-fiction, I think I might start with Fangirl.

To Purchase this book on Amazon, click here:

Fangirl

Landline by Rainbow Rowell 

Landline-Rainbow-RowellThe protagonist of this story has the best name of anyone you will ever encounter, Georgie McCool.  Her marriage is shaky, her career is hopefully finally taking off, and then comes Christmas.  Georgie has to work and chooses not to go visit extended family with her husband and daughters.  She is left disconnected, alone, with only a landline to feebly attempt to contact her husband. I loved the way this book sort of traveled through time and space while Georgie tries to understand where her relationship has been and where it is going.  She relives their life together in her mind, analyzing, reliving, and knowing truly how much she has to lose.  Rainbow Rowell is a master at snappy dialogue, inner turmoil, and books that make you feel deeply with the characters.  You will miss the way the book made you feel when the last page comes to an end.

To purchase this book on Amazon click here:

Landline

Attachments by Rainbow Rowell 

This was one of the first reviews I wrote, so I didn’t change it at all even thought it is redundant.  It is sentimental to me.  

attachmentsIf you have not yet discovered the delightful Rainbow Rowell, you are in for a treat.  This is a  novel told primarily through company emails.  Rowell is a master at quick, smart dialogue.  The lives of a night internet security worker, and daytime employees connect through secret email reading without meeting face to face.  Lincoln, the main character is hired at night to ensure the employees are following standard procedures. He reads through emails and checks on employees computer activity.  Situations get  awkward when Lincoln starts to fall for a woman through her email prose.   The voices in the novel are witty, crass, and unbelievably awesome.  You will adore the banter between the characters and the odd love story that unfolds.  I wish there were more books like hers.  Wonderful, wonderful read.

To purchase this book on Amazon, click here:

Attachments: A Novel