My wife needs some new books!
October 17, 2011 10:04 AM Subscribe
Book recommendations sought for my wife. Details inside.
My wife and I have extremely divergent taste when it comes to books, so I'm at a loss here. Books she's liked: "La Cucina" (all the cooking stuff), "Chocolat," "Like Water for Chocolat", "Under the Tuscan Sun" by Frances Mayes and some Pablo Neruda. She read a couple other travelogue-y things but lost interest. Didn't like "A Year in Provence." Thought "Eat, Pray, Love" and "Julie and Julia" were okay. Liked Nick Hornby's "About a Boy" and David Sedaris' stuff. She obviously likes foodie books but I think she'd like to broaden her scope there too. Any tips will be passed on. THANKS!!
My wife and I have extremely divergent taste when it comes to books, so I'm at a loss here. Books she's liked: "La Cucina" (all the cooking stuff), "Chocolat," "Like Water for Chocolat", "Under the Tuscan Sun" by Frances Mayes and some Pablo Neruda. She read a couple other travelogue-y things but lost interest. Didn't like "A Year in Provence." Thought "Eat, Pray, Love" and "Julie and Julia" were okay. Liked Nick Hornby's "About a Boy" and David Sedaris' stuff. She obviously likes foodie books but I think she'd like to broaden her scope there too. Any tips will be passed on. THANKS!!
I think she'd like Ruth Reichl's books. They're about food but they're not, if that makes any sense.
posted by hazyjane at 10:14 AM on October 17, 2011 [3 favorites]
posted by hazyjane at 10:14 AM on October 17, 2011 [3 favorites]
Has she read My Life in France by Julia Child?
Others she might find appealing: Anything by Sarah Vowell, The Kitchen Daughter by Jael McHenry.
posted by mynameisluka at 10:16 AM on October 17, 2011 [1 favorite]
Others she might find appealing: Anything by Sarah Vowell, The Kitchen Daughter by Jael McHenry.
posted by mynameisluka at 10:16 AM on October 17, 2011 [1 favorite]
Response by poster: I actually got her a couple Sarah Vowell books, thinking they'd be perfect, and she wasn't into them.
posted by Atom12 at 10:19 AM on October 17, 2011
posted by Atom12 at 10:19 AM on October 17, 2011
Some food ones:
any of the Modern Library Food series; my favorite (so far) is Clementine in the Kitchen by Samuel Chamberlain.
Life is Meals by James and Kay Salter
The Debt to Pleasure by John Lanchester
Between Meals by AJ Liebling
A Meal Observed by Andrew Todhunter
The Last Chinese Chef by Nicole Mones
The Raw and the Cooked by Jim Harrison
My Father's Glory and My Mother's Castle by Maurice Pagnol (these are less about food and more memoirs about a Provencal childhood, but there is an Alice Waters angle)
posted by villanelles at dawn at 10:30 AM on October 17, 2011
any of the Modern Library Food series; my favorite (so far) is Clementine in the Kitchen by Samuel Chamberlain.
Life is Meals by James and Kay Salter
The Debt to Pleasure by John Lanchester
Between Meals by AJ Liebling
A Meal Observed by Andrew Todhunter
The Last Chinese Chef by Nicole Mones
The Raw and the Cooked by Jim Harrison
My Father's Glory and My Mother's Castle by Maurice Pagnol (these are less about food and more memoirs about a Provencal childhood, but there is an Alice Waters angle)
posted by villanelles at dawn at 10:30 AM on October 17, 2011
I like similar books to your wife. (But maybe less mystical/poetic). So here are my pics:
Pico Iyer is a travel writer (not food related), John Irving, hmm... I just read Bedroom Secrets of a Master Chef by Irvine Welsh (trainspotting) which was insane. Amy Tan writes great books (not her bio/fate book, or drowning fish though). Jeanette Walls, Stephen King's "Under the dome", Michael Rulhman's chef (soul of a chef etc) books...Kathleen Flynn's "the sharper the knife the less you cry" about running off to cooking school...there's a few of those! Anyway, those are things I've read recently that I liked and that your wife might like. Don't judge us!:)
And more Sedaris..if she hasn't read all of them then don't stop!
Nigel Slater's Toast? There are so many food-related books...go to amazon and they will give you the whole 'if you like this, then you will like this' because so many of them go together! Bourdain, even though he's annoying(ly successful)? Calvin Trillium?
Roald Dahl's stories for adults? Somerset Maugham? There are so many books to chose from.
posted by bquarters at 10:34 AM on October 17, 2011
Pico Iyer is a travel writer (not food related), John Irving, hmm... I just read Bedroom Secrets of a Master Chef by Irvine Welsh (trainspotting) which was insane. Amy Tan writes great books (not her bio/fate book, or drowning fish though). Jeanette Walls, Stephen King's "Under the dome", Michael Rulhman's chef (soul of a chef etc) books...Kathleen Flynn's "the sharper the knife the less you cry" about running off to cooking school...there's a few of those! Anyway, those are things I've read recently that I liked and that your wife might like. Don't judge us!:)
And more Sedaris..if she hasn't read all of them then don't stop!
Nigel Slater's Toast? There are so many food-related books...go to amazon and they will give you the whole 'if you like this, then you will like this' because so many of them go together! Bourdain, even though he's annoying(ly successful)? Calvin Trillium?
Roald Dahl's stories for adults? Somerset Maugham? There are so many books to chose from.
posted by bquarters at 10:34 AM on October 17, 2011
Would she be interested in books about working in restaurants? I'm thinking of stuff like Heat, Blood, Bones and Butter, and Kitchen Confidential.
A fan of David Sedaris might like David Rackoff.
posted by amarynth at 10:38 AM on October 17, 2011
A fan of David Sedaris might like David Rackoff.
posted by amarynth at 10:38 AM on October 17, 2011
Response by poster: She can't stand Bourdain; Ruhlman (I like him a lot but she couldn't get into the chef series) wasn't a good fit either. Pico Iyer looks interesting and I'll check out "One Day" as that seems like something she'd like.
The last food book she really got into was Secrets from the Red Lantern, probably because of the drama and scope.
posted by Atom12 at 10:41 AM on October 17, 2011 [1 favorite]
The last food book she really got into was Secrets from the Red Lantern, probably because of the drama and scope.
posted by Atom12 at 10:41 AM on October 17, 2011 [1 favorite]
Nthing Ruth Reichl, although Tender at the Bone is the only one that is necessary. Jeffrey Steingarten's The Man Who Ate Everything is well worth a read as is Michael Ruhlman's The Making of a Chef: Mastering Heat at the Culinary Institute.
posted by GenjiandProust at 10:41 AM on October 17, 2011
posted by GenjiandProust at 10:41 AM on October 17, 2011
Response by poster: As for working in restaurants, we owned a bakery and she's personal cheffed (sp?), catered, etc, so that doesn't hold much appeal.
posted by Atom12 at 10:44 AM on October 17, 2011
posted by Atom12 at 10:44 AM on October 17, 2011
If she likes Pablo Neruda, she might enjoy Isabelle Allende. The House of the Spirits is her most well-known and is absolutely incredible.
M.F.K. Fisher is pretty much the gold standard in food writing. The only one of hers I've personally read is her journals - Stay Me, Oh Comfort Me which is less food-specific.
posted by sonika at 11:03 AM on October 17, 2011 [2 favorites]
M.F.K. Fisher is pretty much the gold standard in food writing. The only one of hers I've personally read is her journals - Stay Me, Oh Comfort Me which is less food-specific.
posted by sonika at 11:03 AM on October 17, 2011 [2 favorites]
Based on the examples you've given, I think your wife would like
Extra Virgin by Annie Hawes, and its sequel, Ripe for the Picking--these are funny and well-written memoirs by a British woman who moves to a village in Italy where she and her sister buy a very rustic house and try to fit in with the locals. It looks like she's written a couple of others in the same vein that I haven't read yet.
anything by Laurie Colwin--Colwin was a food writer (Home Cooking and More Home Cooking are her food memoirs) and a fiction writer (I particularly like her novels A Big Storm Knocked It Over and Goodbye Without Leaving; she has some good short story collections too)
posted by hurdy gurdy girl at 11:09 AM on October 17, 2011 [1 favorite]
Extra Virgin by Annie Hawes, and its sequel, Ripe for the Picking--these are funny and well-written memoirs by a British woman who moves to a village in Italy where she and her sister buy a very rustic house and try to fit in with the locals. It looks like she's written a couple of others in the same vein that I haven't read yet.
anything by Laurie Colwin--Colwin was a food writer (Home Cooking and More Home Cooking are her food memoirs) and a fiction writer (I particularly like her novels A Big Storm Knocked It Over and Goodbye Without Leaving; she has some good short story collections too)
posted by hurdy gurdy girl at 11:09 AM on October 17, 2011 [1 favorite]
Apart from Under The Tuscan Sun (which I've not read yet, will get immediately!) I'd think my OH had suddenly discovered Metafilter and written this post so I'll suggest:
Alice Hoffman
Paul Auster
Nigel Slater's autobiography, Toast (English food writer)
Brian Moore
Carol Shields
posted by humph at 12:09 PM on October 17, 2011
Alice Hoffman
Paul Auster
Nigel Slater's autobiography, Toast (English food writer)
Brian Moore
Carol Shields
posted by humph at 12:09 PM on October 17, 2011
Nora Ephron's Heartburn.
Laurie Colwin's Home Cooking, and More Home Cooking.
posted by theora55 at 3:58 PM on October 17, 2011
Laurie Colwin's Home Cooking, and More Home Cooking.
posted by theora55 at 3:58 PM on October 17, 2011
I've been enjoying Lunch in Paris by Elizabeth Bard.
I will second Laurie Colwin, but recommend Happy All the Time as the one to read, to branch out from the food books. Has she tried Tom Perrotta? Also, Rosy Thornton is a possibility.
posted by gudrun at 5:16 PM on October 17, 2011
I will second Laurie Colwin, but recommend Happy All the Time as the one to read, to branch out from the food books. Has she tried Tom Perrotta? Also, Rosy Thornton is a possibility.
posted by gudrun at 5:16 PM on October 17, 2011
Ann Patchett! I'd start with The Patron Saint of Liars and then go to Bel Canto and then all the rest.
Barbara Kingsolver - start with The Bean Trees.
posted by dawkins_7 at 8:33 PM on October 17, 2011
Barbara Kingsolver - start with The Bean Trees.
posted by dawkins_7 at 8:33 PM on October 17, 2011
Response by poster: Thanks for all the recommendations. I picked up "One Day" for her on the way home last night and she's already a third of the way through it. These other recommendations will be incorporated into her Xmas and bday (12/26) presents. Thanks again everyone!
posted by Atom12 at 6:47 AM on October 18, 2011
posted by Atom12 at 6:47 AM on October 18, 2011
This thread is closed to new comments.
posted by mochapickle at 10:07 AM on October 17, 2011