Heat

by Bill Buford

This wasn't on my list of books to read, but it was available at my last visit to the library, so I picked it up. And I am so glad I did!

I consider myself like Bill Buford in his pre-Babbo days--an amateur in the kitchen. Maybe I've had more success than he has--but then again, my standards for success are pretty low, considering I cook mainly for a husband who doesn't complain too much about what I feed him (except when they involve cruciferous vegetables).

This book had me laughing out loud at so many things--Buford's inviting Mario Batali to his home, for a meal, and the results of that encounter; his adventures in the Babbo kitchen, his apprenticeships in Italy to a pasta maker and butcher.

The book is also full of well-considered musings on food and our relationship to it.

Buford paints wonderful pictures of the people he works with, like Mario and his kitchen staff, and the people he meets in Italy. I never got the sense that any of them were caricatured.

I cannot wait for the sequel (if he does write one, about his continuing culinary education in France)!

I must admit feeling sooo envious of the author--that his life and his work allowed him to pursue the activities he describes in this book--working in a restaurant for more than a year, taking many trips to Italy to learn how to cut up a pig and cow...

Special Topics in Calamity Physics

It took me about 6 weeks to finish this book--partly because I made the mistake of starting other books at the same time and getting engrossed in them (Lisey's Story, 13th Tale), and partly because I'd forget I had this on the bedside table and I've pretty much stopped reading in bed at night since Teo's back in the bed!

At first the constant cross-referencing and source-citing by Blue Van Meer, the 15-year old heroine, was a charming tic. Later on, since she did it relentlessly throughout the book (I'm pretty sure a lot of the stuff she cited, aside from those her father, Gareth, had written were fictional) it lost its appeal and entertainment value.

But irritating as all the parenthetical attributions might be to me, I still found this a worthwhile read.

Blue and her father move to a small North Carolina town for her senior year of high school while her dad teaches political science at the local college. She falls in with the Blue Bloods--a group of five seniors united by their affection for Hannah Schneider, the beautiful film teacher whose idea it is to reach out to the newcomer.

Soon Blue is drinking, staying out late, though that's the extent of her rebellion from the previously very closeted life she had with her dad as they traveled across the US, never laying roots down for more than a year.

The Blue Bloods are shaken by a death at Hannah's house, and by the increasingly troubled behavior of their mentor. In March, during a Blue Blood camping trip with Hannah, Blue finds her swinging from a tree in the woods. The gang turns on Blue and she takes on the task of figuring out the truth behind Hannah's death.

Blue finds more answers than she means to, with the result of more betrayal and abandonment. But you don't finish the novel feeling too sorry for her--from her exploits and intelligence one feels Blue will be just fine.

The Thirteenth Tale

This book defied all my expectations. I was engrossed by Ms. Vida Winter's autobiography, as told to the solitary Margaret Lea.

I was so focused on the characters that I didn't get to an "aha" moment at all, but was blindsided by the twists in the tale.

Ms. Vida Winter is Britain's most celebrated writer, now in her winter years. She is ready and eager at last to "tell the truth" about her life--whereas in previous healthy years she spun yarn after yarn to would-be biographers. And the truth of her life is as exciting as the tales she is renowned for, involving a strange family, twins, ghosts, and tragedy. With the task of setting the truth of Ms. Winter's life, Margaret comes to resolution about her own family and tragedy.

Now if only I could be motivated to read Calamity Physics as quickly as I read this!