Alice Waters and Chez Panisse by Thomas McNamee

Alice Waters and Chez Panisse by Thomas McNamee

I don’t remember what exactly drew me to this book, other than the cover and the title, but I was drawn to it one day when we were in the bookstore looking for the Bouchon and French Laundry cookbooks. I didn’t get it then, but when I saw it at the ALA Annual Expo in Anaheim for $5 (2 for $10, actually), I had no other option. I had to get it.

Truth be told, I never heard of Alice Waters or Chez Panisse before reading this book. Before this summer, I was pretty ignorant of the foodie scene. I always enjoyed eating, and I sometimes enjoyed cooking, but I was pretty uninformed. Then I was given a copy of Phoebe Damrosch’s Service Included less than a week before our reservations at the famous Per Se in New York City in May. I hadn’t even known much about that restaurant or its proprietor, Chef Thomas Keller, before reading Damrosch’s book. I finished that book in a couple of days, just in time for it to intensify my dining experience at Per Se. And it really did!

I had an image of what to expect at the restaurant thanks to Damrosch. What may have otherwise been completely overwhelming and intimidating became an immensely pleasurable journey through food. I hadn’t known much before, but my eyes were now opened. I wanted more.

Luckily, shortly after that experience, I spent four weeks in California. (Food tastes very different in California.)

Be Good by Stacey May Fowles

Be Good by Stacey May Fowles

Be Good is a tale told in turn by several characters: Morgan, Hannah, Estella, Finn, Jacob, and Mr. Templeton. A web of lies is spun and the reader has a hard time deciphering the truth. At the end, it is plain to see that the truth doesn’t really matter anymore.

This book is the size of The Perks of Being a Wallflower by Stephen Chbosky and similar in the way it seems to speak to young adults with a depressing tone throughout and self-effacing denouement. There was no happy ending in either story. Both also reminded me of J.D. Salinger’s The Catcher in the Rye. As someone who didn’t enjoy The Catcher in the Rye (when I read it in high school nor when I read it in college just to solidify my opinion), I somehow found myself enjoying Perks when I read it, and I enjoyed Be Good, as well. I think I would have loved both had I read them in high school instead of Catcher.

That kind of story has lost its luster for me now, as someone in her mid-twenties, and I think people my age would come to the same conclusion. This book would be ideal for mature high school students and young college-aged students. I think they would have an easier time relating to this book than I had.

The writing style is not challenging, but it is good at hooking the reader in. The unpretentiousness of the conversational tone the author takes in every chapter is comforting and makes for a very easy, relaxing summer read. (3/5)

Thanks to MiniBookExpo for Bloggers and Tightrope Books for sending me this free signed copy of Be Good!

The Elements of Cooking by Michael Ruhlman

The Elements of Cooking by Michael Ruhlman

Michael Ruhlman’s The Elements of Cooking: Translating the Chef’s Craft for Every Kitchen is a reference book for cooks, professional and otherwise, who want to learn more about cooking. The book consists of eight short essays in the first fifty pages called “Notes on Cooking: From Stock to Finesse,” followed by a dictionary of cooking terms called “The Elements of Cooking: A to Z.”

Ruhlman’s “Notes on Cooking” includes such essays as “Stock,” “Sauce,” “Salt,” “The Egg,” “Heat,” “Tools,” “Sources and Acknowledgments: (Fifteen Good Books About Food and Cooking),” “Finesse: The Cook’s Finest Challenge and Path to the Ultimate Rewards.” These essays were the heart of the book for me. The author’s explanations of the important elements of cooking are illustrated with sincerity (where he, very easily, could have come across as pretentious).

As a recent foodie convert, I found The Elements of Cooking to be just what I was looking for: a useful and well-written book about food and cooking. I’m sure I will refer to it in the future, not least of all because of the veal stock recipe. (4/5)

Quiet, Please by Scott Douglas

Quiet, Please by Scott Douglas

Quiet, Please by Scott Douglas is a memoir of a twenty-something male librarian in Anaheim, California. It aims to be humorous and anecdotal, but fails to do either well.

As a recent graduate of library school, I took offense to most of what Douglas has to say. His stories about working with the mentally disabled, physically disabled, elderly, and teenagers are, for the most part, loathsome. They are loathsome because of his attitude towards, and ignorance of, those groups of people.

If a tag cloud was created using all the words in this book, I’m sure that “hate” and “hatred” would be two of his most used words. How can someone work in a public library that hates so many different kinds of people? How can someone who publishes a book about hating so much still keep a job working with so many different kinds of people?

There were parts of the book where Douglas says something like: “[Being a librarian] is my life, my passion. I look ahead and see the road is long, but the road is bright” (p. 318). He makes these statements after pages upon pages of either complaining about his career choice and making it sound like a job for people beneath him, or telling a story filled with ignorance and arrogance about a patron he did not understand or bother to learn from.

Additionally, Douglas employs footnotes and “pointless interludes to fill your mind with nonsense” (p. 4). This format is gimmicky and a waste of time. The writing is not at all challenging, and the author’s use of the gimmicky format adds to his condescending and pedantic tone of voice. Overall, I found this book infuriating. It gives a very bad representation of librarians in America. (.5/5)

New and Improved

Welcome to the new and improved Librarychan blog, formerly known as Library_chan on Blogspot!

I finally converted to WordPress because:

1. it is easier to customize than Blogspot, and
2. I like the interface more.

Who knew I would pick something over Google?

In other news, life after graduation has been interesting so far. It’s mid-July already and I’m still job-hunting (career-hunting?), but my future doesn’t look too bleak. I’ve been staying busy by cooking from the various cookbooks I’ve recently acquired (such as French Laundry, Bouchon, and the Zuni Café Cookbook) and reluctantly reading Quiet, Please by Scott Douglas. I’m also redesigning my website, slowly but surely.

Expect book (and cookbook?) reviews, software and game reviews, thoughts on administration, and other library-related posts in the future. I promise I’ll deliver.