Review: Good Company (by Cynthia D’Aprix Sweeney)

My Rating:  3 stars

I'm not really sure what to make of this one.  I can't say I didn't enjoy it because I did, especially the parts that described the inner workings of the theater, which I thought was quite fascinating. The title of the book, Good Company, is actually the name of the theater company that is owned by Julian Fletcher, the husband of the main character Flora Mancini.   At first, I thought this theater company would be the main focus of the story, however it turned out to be more of a backdrop, an element of the characters' pasts back when they lived in New York City prior to moving to Los Angeles.  Rather, the story focuses on the aftermath of one very simple action — while looking for a photo to give to her daughter for her graduation, Flora stumbles across an envelope that she opens to find her husband's wedding ring, which he claimed to have lost in a pond many years ago.  This triggers a reckoning for Flora that threatens to upend not just her marriage and her family, but also her relationship with her best friend Margot.

To me, this story actually had a lot of potential, but the execution didn't work too well.  The main problem is that the story meandered and jumped around way too much.  While I understand the necessity of incorporating the various characters' backstories, it was done in a way that was distracting, as the details were often inserted in the middle of a scene or thought, basically going off on a different tangent and interrupting what was happening at the moment — by the time it got back to the current scene, I had already forgotten what had happened earlier.  The plot felt like it was all over the place, which made the story overall difficult to follow.  Also, I thought some of the plot points felt a bit forced and unnecessary — such as the  encounter between Flora and her therapist Maude, for example — and didn't do much for the story except drag it out more than necessary. 

In terms of the characters, I actually didn't care for any of them, for some reason.  I'm not sure if perhaps the structure of the story affected my ability to connect with the characters or maybe I just didn't find any aspects of their thoughts or actions relatable to my own — all I know is that I had a hard time rooting for any of the characters.

I haven't read this author's debut novel The Nestyet so I don't have a comparison point, but I have heard good things about that one, so I still intend to read it at some point.  As for Good Company, I feel it's worth a read, especially if you liked this author's previous work — it just wasn't really for me.

Received ARC from Ecco (HarperCollins) via NetGalley.

Review: Writers and Lovers (by Lily King)

My Rating:  5 stars

Lily King's newest novel Writers and Lovers came out last year and even though I'd never read her works before, so many of my reader friends recommended this one to me that I ended up buying a copy with the hopes of getting to it soon (but of course, didn't get a chance to unfortunately). Therefore, when one of my book clubs chose this for our read of the month, I knew this was the best opportunity to finally pick this one up, so I made sure to schedule it in for this month, no matter what.  I'm so happy I did, as I ended up loving this one so much!   

I enjoy reading stories about characters who go on some type of personal journey of self-discovery and eventually they come into their own, where they either realize their full potential or recognize something about themselves that they were previously unaware of (or had been suppressing to the point that they don't remember its existence).  This was certainly the case for this story's main character Casey Peabody, a thirty-one year old aspiring writer struggling through the many challenges of her life, including (but not limited to):  a writing career that might be over before it ever officially takes off, a waitressing job that enables her to pay the rent on the moldy little shed that she lives in but sucks the life and joy out of her, mountains of debt from student loans that have rendered her poor and broke, potential health issues from not being able to afford to see a doctor in years, etc (yes, that's not even all of it). Emotionally, she is a wreck, as she's not only reeling from a recent failed relationship and breakup, she is also grieving for her mother, who died suddenly and unexpectedly while on a trip.  Aside from her brother Caleb, who lives thousands of miles away, Casey only has 2 friends left: Muriel, a fellow writer who stuck with the profession and actually became successful, and Harry, her eccentric co-worker at the restaurant she waitresses for — having these two friends to confide in seems to be the only "positive" thing that Casey has got going for her at the moment.  Lost and trying to find herself, Casey meets two fellow writers — Silas, a young, poor, struggling writer just like herself, and Oscar, an older, much more accomplished writer who was recently widowed, left to raise 2 charming little boys on his own — and finds herself torn between the two men, which only adds more stress to her life.  

Casey is a character whom I connected with on so many levels, even though our lives and backgrounds couldn't be more different.  For me, the part I was able to relate to the most was Casey's determination in continuing to pursue her writing despite the odds, and even with everything seemingly working against her.  As a once-aspiring writer myself who got sidelined by the realities of life (not to mention also buried under mountains of debt) and has since given up all hope of pursuing a writing career, I admire Casey's persistence as well as her ability to stay true to herself despite everything she is up against.  I wish I'd had the fortitude and the drive she did when faced with so many challenges all at the same time. One of the scenes from the book that resonated most with me was when Casey is sitting at her desk staring at what she's written so far and reflecting on the encounter she just had with her jerk of a landlord Adam, who had insulted her with "I just find it extraordinary that you think you have something to say"...though she doesn't respond to his face, she tells us (the readers) this:  "I don't write because I think I have something to say.  I write because if I don't, everything feels even worse."  Reading this line brought tears to my eyes because it summed up so perfectly my own personal writing journey — for me, writing is therapy of sorts, it's a way for me to cope with difficult situations and an outlet that helps me "deal with" some of the real-life issues bogging me down physically, mentally, and emotionally. So many of the struggles that Casey experiences on her writing journey, I've also experienced at some point in my own life.  The connection I felt to Casey definitely made her an easy character to root for, even during the moments when I disagreed with some of the decisions she made.

One of the other things I loved about this book was the writing, which I found to be exquisite and beautiful in the way it brought forth Casey's voice and personality.  The book's jacket summary states that Lily King wrote this story with her "trademark humor, heart, and intelligence" which perfectly describes how I feel about what King was able to accomplish here.  Having Casey narrate the story from her own first person perspective was very fitting and worked so well here.  I loved Casey's "voice" in this story, specifically the way she would never be afraid to admit her own vulnerabilities, but most of all, how she was still able to maintain her sense of humor even when so many things were going wrong in her life. 

It's not often that I read a book where I had too many favorite scenes to count — this book was definitely one of them!  In addition to all the scenes where Casey interacts with Oscar's two boys (both of whom were super-cute!), I also loved all the scenes that showed Casey's thought process while writing, but my most favorite of all was about a third of the way into the book when Casey interviews for a writing job at a charity organization and they have her write a thank you letter to one of the donors — it was a brief scene, only a few short paragraphs, but it made me laugh so hard because Casey's thought process as she was composing and typing that letter mirrors my own process whenever I sit down to a writing project (it can literally take me hours to write one paragraph because I keep deleting and re-writing in order to get the wording perfect).

In reading through the reviews, it looks like the reactions to this book have been a mixed bag — some readers loved it, some hated it, and a few fell somewhere in between.  I obviously fall into the "love it" category, but of course, that's based on my personal experiences and resonance to the story as well as the characters.  If you're interested in this one, I would suggest checking out both the positive and negative reviews to get a better sense of whether this one would work for you.  (As for me, I definitely just added another "favorite author" to my list!  Now to go back and read King's previous works, especially the much acclaimed Euphoria, which I already have a copy of on my bookshelf). 

Review: Mother May I (by Joshilyn Jackson)

My Rating: 4 stars

My exposure to Joshilyn Jackson's works so far has been limited to her 2019 release Never Have I Ever, which I remember was a well-written, brilliantly plotted thriller that kept me guessing throughout.  I also remember, when I wrote my review for that book, how impressed I was that an accomplished author who is used to writing books in a particular genre, could venture into a whole different genre (one that isn't easy to succeed in, to boot) and do such a good job with it.  With her newest novel Mother May I, Jackson once again takes on the thriller / suspense genre, this time centering the story around another flawed female protagonist, Bree Cabbat, and her wealthy, privileged family.   Just like with Never Have I Ever, Jackson  incorporated elements into the story that reflected societal issues from the last couple years — for example, drug addiction and the opioid crisis, disparity between rich and poor, racism, wealth and privilege, the metoo movement, etc.  

As with all thriller / suspense novels, I recommend going in knowing as little as possible, so my review will be deliberately short and vague.  One thing I will say though is that I actually liked Jackson's previous thriller (Never Have I Ever) a tad better.  While this newest one (Mother May I) was just as well-written, I feel it wasn't as tightly plotted and enthralling — I was able to figure out most of the plot points relatively easily and guessed the ending early on too.  I also thought that parts of the plot came across a bit melodramatic, though not to the point that it affected my reading experience.  I also wasn't particularly fond of the characters either — Bree annoyed me quite a bit, especially with some of her actions in the last part of the story — but again, not to the point that it detracted from the story.

Jackson definitely knows how to tell a compelling story!  Even though I figured out most of the plot early on, the story was still engaging enough to keep me continuously turning the pages, only putting the book down once (and reluctantly at that) to tend to some urgent matters.  I ended up finishing this one in two sittings.  If you're looking for a well-written, suspenseful story that goes beyond being a "run-of-the-mill" thriller, then definitely pick this one up.  Do be warned though that triggers abound, especially as it relates to sex and some of the characters' actions / behaviors.  

Of course I can't wait for Jackson's next book (whether it will be a thriller or not) — while I wait, I need to find time to read her other works as well (though easier said than done given my schedule).

Received ARC from publisher (William Morrow) via NetGalley.

Review: Of Women and Salt (by Gabriela Garcia)

My Rating: 4 stars

In trying to rate this book, I feel a bit conflicted.  On the one hand, I loved the beautiful, lyrical writing and the way that the author, Gabriela Garcia, was able to capture the emotional nuances of her characters so perfectly (and seemingly effortlessly).  I love family stories that span generations and I felt this one was particularly well done in terms of showing the generational connections between the various women as well as how the decisions each one makes impact each other in a profound way.  I also found it admirable how Garcia was able to cover so much ground in such a short novel (this one clocked in at a little over 200 pages), seamlessly weaving into the narrative timely and important topics such as illegal immigration, deportation, the border crisis, drug addiction, domestic and sexual abuse, etc., alongside political and historical events related  to Cuba and the revolution that occurred there, plus aspects of the Cuban culture and community.  The way that Garcia presented the struggles that her characters (women some from the same family but different generations, others not from the family but connected somehow) go through, I felt like I was getting a first-hand account more powerful than what usually gets presented in the news.  I definitely learned a lot!

 

With all that said, one of the things that didn't work too well for me was the non-linear structure of the story.  I didn't have a problem with each chapter being told from the perspective of different characters, but what made this a frustrating read for me was the jumping back and forth between multiple timelines and settings in a non-chronological way (for example – jumping from 2018 to 1866, then to 2014, then to 1959 then to 2016 then back to 2006, etc.).  I found it really difficult to keep track of the story arcs and ended up having to flip back and forth a lot.  I think if I had been able to finish this book in one sitting, it would've been fine, but the reality is that I'm rarely able to do so with how busy my life often gets.

 

Overall, I feel that this is a strong, assured debut that's also a necessary read, especially for readers who like well-written contemporary fiction that not just reflects current times and issues, but also incorporates historical aspects as well.  Definitely highly recommended, though with the caveat that it's best to read this one all in one sitting if you are able to.  It's also not an easy read by any means due to the heavy (and oftentimes controversial) topics it covers — though triggers abound, it's still very much a worthwhile read.

Received print ARC from publisher (Flatiron Books) via BookBrowse.

Review: Sunflower Sisters (by Martha Hall Kelly)

My Rating: 4 stars  

My family and I moved to a new place recently and with so much there has been to do, both before and after the move, my reading life has unfortunately suffered these past few weeks.  Hopefully, as we get settled in over the next week or so, I am able to get back into my reading groove and catch up on the books that I had planned to read last month but didn’t get a chance to.

With that said, during this chaotic time, I did manage to finish one book, though it took way longer than it usually would have, both due to the lack of time to read as well as the difficulty on my part with focusing on what I was reading.  It also probably didn’t help that the book I chose to read – Martha Hall Kelly’s newest release Sunflower Sisters -- turned out to be 500+ pages.   This is technically the third book in the Lilac Girls series and while I still haven’t gotten around to reading the first book, I did read the second one, Lost Roses, when it came out back in 2019 and it ended up being a 5 star read for me.  So despite the bad timing, I still went into this one with a high amount of anticipation, especially knowing the story would continue to be about the same extended family from the first two books.  This time around, the story is set several generations earlier, during the Civil War period, with the indomitable Woolsey women (Caroline Ferriday’s ancestors) and the beginnings of the family’s long history of philanthropy.  Similar to Kelly’s previous 2 books, the story is narrated from the perspectives of multiple characters:  Georgeanna “Georgy” Woolsey (one of Caroline Ferriday’s great-aunts), whose strong determination and passion for nursing leads to a calling to join the war effort as a Union nurse; Jemma, enslaved with her family on the Peeler Plantation in Maryland, yearns to free herself and her kin from the constant abuse and fear they suffer at the hands of the plantation’s mistress Anne-May as well as its cruel overseer Lebaron;  Anne-May inherits a plantation that she doesn’t know how to run and after both her husband as well as beloved brother enlist in the army, she falls in with the wrong crowd and becomes ensnared in a secret network of spies. 

While I did enjoy this book quite a bit, I felt that the story was a tad slow in places and at times, was bogged down by details that didn’t seem all that necessary.  At 500+ pages, this is already a long book and when you add a slow-moving plot too, it can seem like a chore to read. Fortunately, the characters were well-developed and easy to connect with, which did make up a bit for the slowness of the story overall.  I also found the story arcs told from the points-of-view of Jemma and Anne-May a lot more interesting and engaging than the one narrated from Georgy’s perspective.  I actually felt the same way when I read Lost Roses too — the story arcs from the perspectives of the other characters were much more engaging than the one from the Ferriday/Woolsey characters.  Of course, that’s not to say I didn’t like the characters because that’s not the case at all — in fact, I liked all the Woolsey sisters and especially loved Georgy’s personality.  It’s just that plot-wise, the other characters’ chapters seemed to move the story along more.  

Overall, I did enjoy this one, but so far, I like Lost Roses more.  It seems that for most readers who’ve read the entire series, Lilac Girls is still the favorite.  As mentioned earlier, I haven’t gotten around to reading Lilac Girls yet, but I hope to rectify that soon if I can!

Received ARC from Ballantine Books via NetGalley.

Review: The Rose Code (by Kate Quinn)

My Rating: 5 stars

A few years ago, I had read author Kate Quinn's The Alice Network and absolutely loved it – to the point that both the story and its characters continued to stay with me for quite some time afterwards.  Unfortunately, I didn't get the chance to read Quinn's follow up novel The Huntress (which I plan to rectify at some point) – which is why, when I was given the opportunity to read her latest release, The Rose Code, I jumped at the chance to do so, prioritizing it ahead of most of my March reads, despite the fact that, at 656 pages, I knew it would take me some time to get through.  Of course, given how much I enjoyed Quinn's previous work, I went into this one with high expectations and now, after having finished, I can say with certainty that it definitely didn't disappoint.   One of the things I loved about The Alice Network were the strong female protagonists at the center of the story  – indomitable women from different walks of life (with distinctly different personalities and flaws), who are brought together in unique ways to support the war effort.  This time around, the story involves 3 women who are recruited to work at Bletchley Park, a mysterious estate in the British countryside that was later revealed to be one of the main Allied code-breaking centers during WWII. 

 

Osla Kendall is a vibrant young debutante who seems to have everything her heart desires – wealth, beauty, a good education, a handsome boyfriend, etc. – yet she longs for one thing that had been elusive thus far:  the desire to prove herself as a woman with talent who should be taken seriously rather than constantly written off as a "silly" society girl.  It is this desire that motivates Osla to join Bletchley Park, where she hopes to use her fluency in languages, particularly in German, to help translate intercepted messages and contribute to the war effort on behalf of her country.   Mab Churt is a girl born into poverty whose impervious and determined nature helped her survive multiple hardships early on in her life.  Hoping to bury her past unpleasant experiences and create a better life for herself as well as her little sister Lucy, Mab joins BP hoping to find a socially advantageous husband while at the same time, putting her self-taught skills to good use.   After joining BP, both Osla and Mab end up billeting at the home of Beth Finch, a shy 24 year old who, up to that point, had been living under her strict, domineering mother's iron fist – after a lifetime of being told that she is "slow and useless" and therefore destined to forever remain under her mother's thumb, doing her bidding, Beth does not dare believe herself to be anything but incapable of survival outside of her home's four walls.  When Osla and Mab help Beth discover that she actually has a brilliant knack for solving the most difficult puzzles in a short amount of time, she also ends up joining BP, becoming one of the facility's very few female cryptanalysts. As these three women become close friends and colleagues, they encounter numerous challenges in their work, with the biggest one being the requirement to abide by an unbreakable oath of secrecy – an oath that tests the limits of their friendship and ultimately tears them apart..

 

In a bit of a unique narrative format, the story alternates between the perspectives of each of the 3 main characters as well as 2 different timelines spanning within the same decade.  The story kicks off in 1947, with the war over and a feverish joy in the air over the imminent royal wedding between Princess Elizabeth and Prince Philip.  But not everyone has a reason to celebrate, as is hinted at when we are introduced to the 3 former BP colleagues whose fates took dramatically different turns after the war.  We are then taken back to 8 years ago, in December 1939, and from there, the story unfolds between two alternating timelines that ultimately converge into a final act that is both compelling and explosive.  Unlike both of Kate Quinn's previous novels, which were more straightforward in terms of the role of her female protagonists in espionage, this one takes a slightly different approach by focusing on the breakdown of encoded messages intercepted from enemy forces during the war – a subject not often covered in stories about this time period.  I'm not much of a math or science person and I will admit that a lot of the technical jargon in the book went way over my head, but because of the way the story was written – the way Quinn was able to seamlessly weave both the technical and historical elements into a compelling story that felt both atmospheric and approachable – made this such a refreshing read for me, one that opened my eyes to a different and intriguing aspect of the WWII time period that I'm curious to learn more about.  This is actually one of the things I love about well-written historical fiction – its ability to take historical events / people / topics, etc. and make them both approachable and accessible to people like me who probably would not engage otherwise due to difficulty in approaching the content. 

 

One of the things that had really stood out to me with The Alice Network was the way Quinn wrote her characters, which I found easy to connect and resonate with, even though the world that the characters inhabited were so vastly different from my own.  The same can be said of the characters in The Rose Code, except this time around, I felt like I was able to connect with these characters (Osla, Mab, and Beth) on a much deeper level, despite the fact that the time period and the world I live in right now is so different.  I love books with well-developed characters that you can't help but resonate with on some level – this book absolutely fit that bill.

 

This is a novel I definitely recommend, especially for historical fiction fans.  Also, I didn't intentionally plan it this way, as I don't typically read based on theme, but this one turned out to be a perfect read for March, with it being Women's History Month.  What a wonderful way to celebrate the importance of women's contributions throughout history, both here and around the world! 

 

Received ARC from William Morrow via NetGalley.

 

Review: A Million Reasons Why (by Jessica Strawser)

My Rating:  3.5 stars

In her fourth novel, author Jessica Strawser takes on the recently trend of mail-in DNA tests, which, in this story, becomes the catalyst that brings together two half-sisters who previously didn't know each other existed.   Caroline lives a happy but busy life with her husband and three kids as well as an extended family of parents and in-laws who dote on her.   One year for Christmas, her husband Walt jokingly buys the entire family DNA test kits as gifts — not thinking anything of it, Caroline submits her test and is shocked to find out that she actually has a half-sister, born of the same father.  Sela is an artist who lives a less-than-happy existence — in the face of a devastating health diagnosis a few years ago that caused her son to be born premature and her marriage to crumble under the constant stress of their situation, Sela also must grieve the death of her mother (who was also her best friend and fiercest supporter).  In an act of desperation when her illness progresses to the point that it requires her to get a kidney transplant in order to live, Sela is driven to reach out to her long-lost half-sister Caroline for help.  Suddenly, Caroline's perfect life is upended as one secret after another comes to light, leading her to question what she thought she knew about her family. 

Having read Jessica Strawser's three previous works in addition to this one, I have to say that I still like her debut (Almost Missed You) the most. While all her novels so far have been enjoyable and engaging to the point that, at the moment I pick them up, they keep me wanting to continue reading — however, for some reason, her novels lack the memorability factor in that neither the stories nor the characters stay with me for long. With that said, I did end up liking this book — her fourth novel and newest release — more than her previous two, mostly because I felt there was a depth to her characters this time around that I didn't really see with her other works.  I like the way Strawser presented the relationship between Caroline and Sela — half-sisters who can't help being drawn to each other, yet at the same time, understanding the precarious nature of what they have.  I feel like the portrayal of their relationship — the various nuances that existed and the challenges that needed to be overcome — was the strongest aspect of the entire story.  I mention this because the story overall was the "slow burn" type where I felt like some parts of the plot dragged a bit.  Also, some sections of dialogue — specifically some of the scenes where the characters "reminisce" about the past — seemed unnecessary to me and bogged down the story rather than moved it along.  In addition, I did feel that some parts of the plot were a bit melodramatic, especially as it pertained to Sela and her situation, but that might just be me.

I also continue to have the same issue with this book that I had with Strawser's previous two books — namely that they are being categorized as "suspense" or "thriller" when in reality, they should go more appropriately into the contemporary fiction category.  The main reason is that I feel like the story as written lacks the suspenseful atmosphere that I expect from works in the genre.  With this book in particular— while there were indeed a few "surprise" elements in the story, none of them were "jaw-dropping twists" that brought me to the edge of my seat or elicited a strong reaction from me in the vein of what I would feel reading an actual suspense / thriller novel.

A few issues notwithstanding, this was still a good story overall and I continue to look forward to Strawser's next novel.  

Received ARC from St. Martin's Press via NetGalley.

Review: The Kitchen Front (by Jennifer Ryan)

My Rating: 4 stars

This is author Jennifer Ryan's third novel and while it's only the second one of hers that I've read, I enjoyed it just as much.  One of the things that had really appealed to me back when I read Ryan's debut The Chilbury Ladies' Club a few years back was the way she was able to paint a vivid picture of the home front in England during WWII.  This was a time period where all able-bodied men were expected to enlist and help with the war effort at the front lines, leaving behind mostly women and children (and men who had gotten out of being drafted) to take care of things at home.   With her newest novel, Ryan once again captures the sentiment of the time, through the story of 4 women who join a wartime cooking contest in the hopes of landing a prime spot as co-host of a popular BBC radio program.  Each woman has her own reasons and motivations for joining the contest.  Audrey, a widow whose beloved husband was killed serving his country and now, laden with debt and 3 young sons to take care of, decides that the only way to save the dilapidated house she lives in and therefore keep a roof over her family's head is to win the contest so that she can get a steady, well-paying job.  Gwendoline – Audrey's estranged sister and also the wife of the wealthiest man in the village – enters the contest expecting a sure-fire win that will further cement her status in society, though deep down, she is motivated by a profound lack of self-worth spurred by her violent husband Sir Strickland's disdain and loathing.  Nell is an orphan turned kitchen maid who yearns for freedom from life-long servitude in the Strickland household and sees the contest as an opportunity to finally realize her dreams for a better life.  And finally, Zelda Dupont is a trained chef displaced from London after the hotel she worked at is bombed – having experienced a lifetime of hardship and lost opportunities due to being a woman, she is determined to win the contest so she can return to London at the top of her game and give the men dominating the profession a run for their money.

 

Through a narrative that alternates between each of the four women's perspectives, we are given keen insight into not just how the war impacts each of their lives, but more importantly, how they persevere and overcome the challenges they're faced with in order to make the best of what they have.  In reading the Author's Note at the end, it was fascinating to learn that parts of the story were actually inspired by real-life events – from the idea of contests (which were popular during that time period due the entertainment it provided and the ability to divert people's minds away from the horrors of the war), to food rationing and the need to pay close attention to ingredients being used, to the actual BBC radio program entitled The Kitchen Front that had been established to share recipes as well as cooking tips and techniques during the war.  I was impressed by the amount of research that went into the story as well as the transportive nature of the writing. Most of all though, I love the food-themed elements incorporated throughout the story, especially the recipes and the resourcefulness of the women who had to find ways to adapt the meals they cooked out of necessity during the war.   Ryan writes in her author's note that many of the recipes she incorporated into the story were from the National Archives as well as from people she interviewed who had lived through those times.  It humbled me to think about how much we take for granted nowadays on food-related matters when back then, it was such a battle just to get food onto the table.  This is one of the aspects I've always loved about historical fiction — its ability to make history more relatable to those of us who never experienced it.

Having read two of Ryan's books, both of which have been inspiring as well as uplifting, I look forward to reading more of her works, including her sophomore novel, published in 2019, that I was not able to get to at the time. If you get the chance to pick up this newest one up, I definitely highly recommend it! 

Received ARC from Ballantine Books via NetGalley

Review: Finding Freedom: A Cook’s Story Remaking a Life from Scratch (by Erin French)

My Rating: 4.5 stars

I'm no food connoisseur, but I love to eat and I also enjoy reading about food, so chef Erin French's new memoir Finding Freedom is technically right up my alley.  French fell in love with food while working the line at her dad's diner as a teenager and later on, as a young adult, maintained a close connection with food through her subsequent gigs as a waitress, bartender,  caterer, and sales clerk at a kitchen supply shop.  Unlike most chefs, French never received any type of formal training – she never went to culinary school and much of what she knows about cooking was self-taught through trial and error in the kitchen (and she has the scars on her arms to prove it) – yet through hard work and perseverance, she was able to turn her passion for food and natural ingredients (from growing up on her parent's farm) into a successful career.  French is the owner of The Lost Kitchen -- a small restaurant tucked into a repurposed 19^th century mill  in the little town of Freedom, Maine (population less than 1000).  In the open kitchen of her award-winning restaurant (which is also world-renown), French cooks to a constantly packed crowd, with bookings for the 40-seat dining room usually sold out months in advance.   French's restaurant specializes in  "farm-to-table" cooking where she plans her menus daily around the freshest ingredients she is able to obtain each day – majority of her nearly all-female staff are farmers who tend to their own farms by day and work at the restaurant by night, oftentimes bringing with them to their shifts the ingredients that would be used in the day's dishes (i.e. ripe tomatoes newly picked that morning, eggs laid that day by farm-raised chickens, etc.).

 

Behind French's success though, is a harrowing personal story of survival – a journey fraught with pain and turmoil, and enough emotional ups-and-downs to last her several lifetimes.  In her memoir, French writes candidly, honestly, and succinctly about her various struggles -- from growing up in a dysfunctional household with an emotionally absent father, an obedient-to-a-fault mother, and an estranged younger sister who loathed her, to getting pregnant at 21, dropping out of college, and subsequently becoming a jobless single mother who eventually moves back in with her parents, then later marrying a man 20 years her senior who turned out to be a scumbag, manipulative monster.  She also lays bare her struggles with depression, suicide, self-loathing, an addiction to prescription drugs that spiraled out of control, and the moment she hit rock bottom after being committed to a psychiatric ward and subsequently forced into rehab, losing everything – her home, her restaurant, her marriage, and most painful of all, her beloved child – in the process.  Broken, beaten, penniless, with all sense of dignity and self-worth shattered beyond repair, it takes all of French's strength – physically, mentally, emotionally – to claw her way back from the precipice and rebuild her life from scratch. 

 

French's story is poignant and heartbreaking, yet also hopeful and inspiring.  There were moments that made me cry, moments that made me smile, and of course, moments that made me seethe with anger.  French writes with raw honesty and sincerity about her life that is rare and absolutely admirable.  She does not shy away from recounting her own flaws, nor does she deny her own role in making a mess of her life (for example – deliberately ignoring all the red flags and warning signs about her ex-husband Tom and the kind of person he was), which I definitely appreciated.  Prior to reading this book, I actually had never heard of The Lost Kitchen, but afterward, I found myself wanting to learn more about this little restaurant "in the middle of nowhere" and the tenacious woman who overcame the odds and poured her heart and soul into creating it. 

 

This is a memoir that I'm glad I read and that I absolutely recommend.  Unlike some other food memoirs I've read, I like the fact that this one achieves a good balance between recounting the details of the author's story and describing the various food-related elements such as the dishes that the author cooked and how she sourced her ingredients, etc.  There have been times when I would read a food memoir and the descriptions of the food would consist of various fancy words that usually went way over my head -- French's memoir is different in that it's very down-to-earth and the food descriptions are ones I am able to relate to.  This book actually doesn't come out until April, but if you love food memoirs like I do, I would recommend picking this one up sooner rather than later! 

 

Received paper ARC from Celadon as part of Early Reader program.

 

 

Review: We Run the Tides (by Vendela Vida)

My Rating: 4 stars

Vendela Vida's We Run the Tides is a coming-of-age tale set in the 1980s, about two teenagers and their experiences growing up in the privileged, wealthy enclave of Sea Cliff in San Francisco.  Eulabee and Maria Fabiola are best friends who've known each other since Kindergarten – more than that though, they also know every nook and cranny of the oceanside neighborhood they grew up in, even down to the history of each house and its current as well as former occupants.   Now in eighth grade, the two of them attend the elite all-girls school Spragg, where their circle of friends includes two other girls from their neighborhood, Faith and Julia.   One day, as the 4 of them walk to school together, they encounter an "incident" involving a man in a white car that becomes a huge source of contention between Eulabee and Maria, to the point that it ruptures their friendship.  Then later, their relationship suffers further setback when Maria suddenly disappears for a period of time, claiming upon her return to have been kidnapped, which Eulabee finds hard to believe. With their friendship becoming increasingly fraught, can Eulabee and Maria Fabiola overcome the rift that separates them to salvage a once close relationship?

I found this to be an interesting read that captivated me from the first page.  I was invested in the story early on and even though I didn't particularly like the characters (more on this later), I still felt compelled to keep reading because I wanted to find out what happens to the characters and how things pan out for them.  Vendela Vida's portrayal of the mercurial and sometimes confusing relationships between teenagers in the midst of navigating their adolescence was spot on.  The teenage angst, that overwhelming desire to belong, to be accepted and liked, petty grievances that change from one day to another, the self-discovery and gradual realization that all actions have consequences, etc. — so much of this is explored through the lens of Eulabee's coming of age.  

A unique aspect of this story is that it provides a fascinating glimpse into the lives of the rich and privileged, but through the perspective of an adolescent who has known no other way of life.  As a reader, I felt like an outsider looking in, observing a way of life that I can't even begin to relate to. For me, stories revolving around the trials and tribulations of the wealthy elite are a slippery slope, as the attitudes and behaviors of the characters are ones that I usually find difficult to reconcile, which more often than not turns me off to the story.  In this instance though, the story worked, for the most part — despite Eulabee's sporadic bouts of naïveté and ignorance (which, if I'm being honest, did annoy me quite a bit), I still couldn't help feeling a certain amount of sympathy for her at various parts of the story.  

One thing that surprised me was how well-developed the characters came across, especially given the limited insight we get into the characters due to the story being narrated entirely from Eulabee's first person point of view. We see all of the characters — Maria Fabiola, Julia, Faith, all the parents, etc. — through Eulabee's eyes and yet, we still learn quite a bit about the characters, enough to determine how I feel about them.  I thought this was an interesting way to tell the story and appreciate how Vida was able to pull this off given that almost all the characters were largely unlikable (at least to me).

Vida is a "new-to-me" author whose work I wasn't familiar with before but I'm glad to have discovered. I'm definitely interested in exploring her backlist and hopefully get a chance to read another novel of hers at some point.

Received ARC from Ecco via NetGalley.