The Storied Life of A. J. Fikry

This book is a little quirky which is why I chose it.  A.J is an owner of a bookstore on Alice Island a fictional place located somewhere in New England.  The bookstore was opened by A.J and his wife Nic but unfortunately Nic was killed in a car accident.  Needless to say A.J. is in a deep funk walking through life in a coma. 

One day a child is left in his bookstore.  From the beginning there is a unique bond between them.  She literally changes his life in so many ways.  It is almost like she awakens a side of him that he did not know existed.  But the story is not as straight forward as one would think.  There are a few twists that I did not see.  I also liked the way the author developed the characters. 

E readers came up as a subject in the book when A.J's Mom made a rare visit at Christmas and brought identical gifts for A.J, Amy, his wife and Maya, his daughter.  A.J. was enraged and I am certainly sympathetic to his point.  The more popular e readers become the more likely book stores become obsolete. His business definitely is impacted by the device. 

Unfortunately this is so true.  Gone are the days that bookstores were everywhere.  Part of the fun of going to new places was to find local book stores.  One of my favorite local bookstores is in Duck, NC called Duck's cottage.  Although they are booksellers they also sell great coffee and mugs. I would stop by in the mornings the week I was there for some java and I don't mean the software. I picked up a mug and several books including one mystery written by a local author  I drink out of my Duck's Cottage mug every morning. Thankfully there are still lots of people like me who love to hold a book in my hand.  I have my e reader but I still by books. 

I can see why this was not a major bestseller but I enjoyed.

Cheese Glorious Cheese

I love cheese.  I have to say cheese is probably my favorite food on earth.  It is one of the few foods that I am more apt to try different varieties.  In other words I am more open to the possibilities.  That is why I found this article very interesting and wanted to share it with you.

Wegman's a grocery store that has now opened near my home has built a facility near Rochester New York that is for aging cheese.  The facility is 12,000 plus square feet and they have an affineur (cheese ager)  For me personally if this allows an American business to provide high quality cheeses than I say fantastic!  It is always great to keep something this wonderful on American soil.  Below is the link.  Check out the story for yourself.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/lifestyle/food/wegmans-opens-its-own-caves-to-age-cheese/2014/05/22/22c42e7e-dd2c-11e3-8009-71de85b9c527_story.html

Garlic and Sapphires

I use to think being a food critic was the best job in the world.  You get to eat at many different food establishments including ones you would never go to unless you were a) writing about them and b) not paying for the meal. But there is a downside to this as well. 

Food has never been my friend.  I have always had a love hate relationship with it.  Love because some foods just taste so good and hate because all those calories  seem to go and stay directly on every part of my body. So a job of being around food was a little scary to me.

Reading Ruth Reichl's book has opened my eyes to what it really means to be a food critic.  She writes about her time as the New York Times food critic.  In New York as in many other big cities what a food critic says is extremely important.  In fact it can make or break an establishment.  One of the challenges Ruth faced was anonymity . If the restaurant knows who you are the service and food is quite different than if you were say for example, me. It was interesting reading about her efforts to disguise herself especially when she spoke about transforming into her mother.  It made her look at her a little differently although the reader gets a hint that the relationship was a bit rocky.

I am sure all of you have walked into a restaurant and felt like you were being treated differently than other people.  One incident that stays firmly planted in my mind was when I was in high school.  My friends and I had taken the train into the city to wonder around. After hanging out for the day we decided to eat an early dinner before catching the train home .  My parents had taken me to this restaurant, Le Rivage when we were seeing a Broadway show and I had thought the food was good and for a French restaurant reasonable,  so we went there.  For reasons we could not immediately understand they were not happy to see us.  As they handed us a menu the waitress reminded us that there was an expected gratuity at the end of the meal to be added on to the tab.  This really pissed us off and we should have left right there but we decided to stay.  I can say this, the food and service was very different than it had been with my parents.  Had I been a food critic this would have been reflected in my write up of the restaurant.

Reichl has an amazing way of describing her experiences and she also includes her reviews.  Her writing is humorous making the book fun to read.  She also includes recipes including one for New York style cheese cake. Because of this, I have added this to my foodie quest series.

If you haven't read it already definitely put it on your list.

The Apartment

This is one of those books that starts off very slow.  The author develops the character as if he were peeling an onion.  Each layer is revealed slowly.  I have to say I have mixed feelings about this book.

We first meet the main character when he decides to board a plane for Paris. He is ex military who served in Afghanistan.  After he left the military he formed his own company and went back to the Mideast. He randomly chose Paris because he wanted to be near a city and figured why not this one. He likes anonymity .  The reader knows very little about what makes this character tick and the author takes his time revealing it.  In fact, it seems that he is a little slow to let the reader in to who this man is and for me it took some of the enjoyment out of the book.  It is not that I needed immediate gratification in knowing this information it is just that he gets caught up in a lot of other things. 

The main character is living in a hotel and wants to put down roots so with the help of a woman he has just recently met he sets out to find an apartment.  This is less than two hundred pages so you can get through it relatively quickly.  It is not what I would call an exciting read and may not be a good choice for a summer read but I did find the characters interesting and I did like the authors take on Paris in winter.

Summer Reads

Ok Summer is not officially here yet but it is just around the corner.  I can tell it is getting close to vacation time because people are starting to ask me for reading suggestions.  I am also getting the question what are you reading for book club.

So if you are planning a vacation or a staycation and have some reading planned, I thought I would compile a list of my favorite reads from this year.  I also plan to renew my summer reading quest this year.  Usually my summer reading tends to be on the lighter side but I think I will mix it up just a little. I also plan to go off the beaten track and find books that are not as well known as those on the bestseller list. I don't know I will keep you posted.

Right on the top of my list are two books, The Fault in Our Stars (post May 14) and Me Before You (Aug 7,2013).  I chose this two books to share with you first because even after I finished these books I still think about them. These are books that can't be taken lightly.  I had the tissue box out for a good portion of both. During the rest of the week I will be posting my suggestions by category. If you download books on a kindle Amazon is offering The Fault in our Stars for $4.99 a really great price so click on the book below.


 

Sunday Notes on Monday

So by now if you have been reading my blog  you know that every Sunday I play this little game with myself. On Sunday one of the first sections that I read of the Washington Post is the Outlook section. It contains the book section. I go to the last page and read the Washington Bestseller list. This week the bestseller list focused on paperbacks but it alternates between paperbacks and hardcover. You can check my scoring system on the May 6, 2013 post. Oh joy!  I have read half the books on the list with Inferno by Dan Brown and Gone Girl by Gillian Flynn sitting in the one and two position respectively.

This week in addition to looking at the Washington Post bestseller list, I glanced at the New York Times.  I was happy to see that on the bestseller paperback list I had read half of the listed books on that list as well.  Gone Girl was number one on this list and The Longest Ride was number two.  All of these were good books and ones that I have blogged about.

Last week I mentioned that I would be compiling a list of some of the favorite books I have read lately and post suggestions for summer reading.  I went back to look at my list and there are a lot of books that I have read that I have really enjoyed.  So in the next week I will be posting my favorites by category or at least I will try to post by category. I am a Gemini sometimes doing things in an orderly way drives me crazy so we will se how it goes.

I also have renewed my quest to find good books for summer reading.  As much as I like my little game and scoring big by reading what is on the bestseller list I plan to look for books that are not necessarily on the bestseller list.  Yes I will sacrifice my score to boldly go into the world of books that are good but less well known.  I will start this week with the book The Apartment.  I have just started it so I can't say to much about it.

So have a great week and happy reading



 

Foodie Friends Heads Up it is Shoofly pie!

I am so excited to share this article with you and here is why.  When I was young my parents, brother and I went on a road trip to the Pennsylvania Dutch country.  It was so beautiful and so peaceful.  Of course we went to the Amish farm to get a glimpse of what life is like but mostly we just drove around.  We were only there for the day.

But here my foodie friends is what  really qualifies this as part of my foodie quest. While driving around we found this restaurant called Plain and Fancy.  Many of you might know this place.  As a kid I thought this place was great.  Everyone sat at long communal tables and waitresses brought out platters of fried chicken, bowls of mashed potatoes, green beans and corn.  For someone from a small family where dinners were relatively sane, this world of insanity and noise was wonderful.  We sat at a table with people who had come from many different states. Everyone talked to each other. We ate fried chicken.  We never ate fried chicken at home.  Kentucky Fried chicken was off limits to us.  There was a strict no fast food policy at my house.  My Mom was one of the original pioneers of the healthy eating movement.  Most everything we ate was cooked from scratch.

And here is the best part.  At the end of the meal there were a variety of desserts served, that cherished ending to this delicious meal.  There were different cakes and pies but the pie that caught my eye was shoofly pie.  I am thinking the pie got its name because the person baking the pie would set it out on the back porch to let it cool.  Because the pie had such a high sugar content it would attract flies.  As the person carried the pie back in the house to serve it to the family they would be swatting the flies away and say "Shoo fly don't be botherin my pie"  Good story right?

So here is the link to this article about shoofly pie and Pennsylvania Dutch Cooking.  Included are recipes.  There is one for shoofly pie.  I made it and it came out pretty good.  Hope you enjoy the article and the pie.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/lifestyle/food/pennsylvania-dutch-cuisine-the-real-deal/2014/05/12/7f961844-c975-11e3-93eb-6c0037dde2ad_story.html

The Whole Enchilada

This book falls under my foodie friends quest.  Alas it does not have recipes in the book but it does center around food.  Goldy meets Holly at the hospital the day their sons are born.  Other than the fact that they have both given birth to sons, they have another thing in common they are both married to doctors who they will shortly divorce. Goldy and Holly create a support group called amore anonymous and they add Marla and several others.  They are good friends but Goldy hasn't seen Holly for a while.

Here is where the foodie factor comes in, Goldy is a pretty successful caterer. The story starts out with Goldy catering the 17th birthday party for her son and Holly's.  The boys have been friends forever. The food theme for the party is, you guessed it Mexican food and the dishes cover the whole enchilada.

Holly shows up and is acting weird and paranoid.  Turns out that she seems to have good reason because as she leaves the party she collapses and dies.  Was she poisoned and if so why and by who.

In addition this woman is going around town dressing like Goldy, driving a truck like Goldy and trying to steal Goldy's catering customers. She is just a wee bit crazy.  Who  will win this catering war.  All I can say is lots of people are turning up dead.  The story is humorous and it is fun guessing who is the one doing all the killing.  I am thinking good beach read here!

 

The Fault In Our Stars

I am just trying to get my thoughts together on this book. To me it was an amazing, touching book.  It had the same effect on me as the book Me Before You.  It is thought provoking and evokes emotions on so many levels. 

The book is about teens with cancer.  They live in a world where everyday may literally be their last and they handle it with such grace and dignity. The two main characters are Augustus and Hazel.  Hazel is 16 with terminal cancer. Gus  has cancer as well but he has a 75 % chance of beating it. She meets Augustus(Gus) at a support group meeting and they form a very special bond. 

People are scared of cancer, I know I am and I know how hard it is when a friend is diagnosed with cancer.  You certainly want to be their for them but it becomes hard because everything has changed. Things that you thought were fun don't seem to be that much fun anymore.  Things that you thought were important aren't so important. That is what makes Hazel and Gus so special.  The get it and they are committed to each other.

For the person with the diagnosis dealing with it is personally difficult.  You have trouble dealing with it yourself but you also worry about the people around you who you may leave behind, your Mom, your Dad, a spouse, a sibling.

This book deals with all these issues with a great mix of levity and seriousness.  All I can say is it is a must read.  One final note, I have seen the trailer for the movie based on this book and I will be going to see it,  even if it is just to see how they translated the book onto the screen.  Read it!!!

Sunday Notes on Monday

This was a good week.  I had time to read and I took the opportunity to finish up two books.  The first one is The Fault in Our Stars. You will have to read my blog post for info on it.  I will say this it was a great book. The second is The Whole Enchilada and yes this one counts as part of my foodie quest.  While the title has the requisite food item alas no recipes in the book.  It is however a good who done it mystery.

I can't decide what to read this week.  I have a ton on my reading list.  It is just so difficult to choose.  I think I will just keep you all guessing.

People are starting to think about vacations and with that comes the question, What book(s) should I take with me ?  People are asking me about my favorites. I decided I will compile some of them and you all can just pick from the list.

 I am not sure when I will be taking time off so I think I will compile my must read this summer list in the next couple of weeks.  It always seems there are so many more books on my list than I can possibly read.  But that's good right?  It means I will always have a book with me.

Happy reading and have a great week!

Faith Bass Darling's Last Garage Sale

While the name of this novel is humorous, the content is not.  So much for me relaxing and chuckling over a funny book.  Faith Bass Darling abruptly wakes from her sleep because god has told her she must sell her belongings.  These are not your everyday things.  These are rooms of antiques and furniture worth thousands.  So Faith has two teens help her move everything to her front yard where she proceeds to sell all her things for a ridiculously low price. 

Through this yard sale the reader is treated to glimpses of her life and losses.  Faith is not a well woman and it is sad to see her "disappear" mentally and then return to the present.  The sad thing is she knows she is having memory lapses and tries to bring herself back.  Going through this with my own Mom I can merely guess how incredibly frustrating and depressing to realize (if you do realize it) that you can not remember what you did an hour ago or this morning.

 

Sunday Notes on Monday

If you have been reading my blog by now you know that every Sunday I play this little game with myself. On Sunday one of the first sections that I read of the Washington Post is the Outlook section. It contains the book section. I go to the last page and read the Washington Bestseller list. This week the bestseller list focused on paperbacks but it alternates between paperbacks and hardcover. You can check my scoring system on the May 6, 2013 post.

I had a great week as far as my little game.  That is because it was paperback week and I tend to read paperbacks more frequently than hard backs.  So my total score was six out of ten of the fiction books and I give myself a bonus point because I read the number one non-fiction book as well.   Of note is the number one book on the paperback bestseller list Gone Girl which I enjoyed and blogged about on December 11, 2012.  The movie is coming out soon and if you are like me, you might want to read the book and then go see the movie.  Hollywood always makes "creative changes".  That is why they say the movie is based on a book rather than is the book.  Once I read the book I like to see what the creative changes are and whether it has added or subtracted from the original story line.

Sad to say as much as I tried to read, the hours I worked took a toll on me.  I got into bed with every intention of reading and woke up the next morning with the book on the floor.  So I have put The Fault in Our Stars back on my list and added Faith Bass Darling's Last Garage Sale.  I couldn't resist the title and I am hoping for a little humor. One book I want to mention again is The Prince of Risk which was a perfect combination of finance and terrorism. Check it out.  See my post from April 16th.  Have a great week and happy reading.

 Click on the titles below for more info on the books.