Home Sweet Own Book 34

For Food I read Spiced by Dalia Jurgensen. I enjoy food memoirs for the same reason people enjoy watching The Food Network: something you’re not gonna do at home. I’m never going to work in a starred restaurant so it was interesting to read about someone who worked there and what went on behind the scenes.

Jurgensen watched rather than participated in the various kitchen dramas. It gave most stories a more journalistic feel. She only included her personal dramas as they pertained to cooking which did well for this book. It wasn’t a memoir about her; it was a memoir about her career in the kitchen. It occasionally felt a little distant but overall this style worked.

Most chefs don’t stay in one place for too long before moving on to the next successful venture. The book devoted just the right amount of pages to each location Jurgensen worked. It also talks about a rare and underappreciated side of cooking. Dessert gets less respect than the dinner cooks working the hot line. I liked hearing about life from the sweet side.

All of my major thoughts on the book are best summed up with qualifiers. It was good not great. I liked it, not loved it. If you like food memoirs, you’ll enjoy it but I wouldn’t recommend this as your first.

1) Fiction – A Once Crowded Sky by Tom King

2) Nonfiction – The Man Who Loved Books Too Much by Allison Hoover Bartlett

3) Sci-Fi – Redshirts by John Scalzi

4) Fantasy – The Last Dragonslayer by Jasper Fforde

5) Mystery – Book of Lies by Brad Meltzer

6) Horror – Call of the Jersey Devil by Aurelio Voltaire

7) Memoir/Biography – Data, A Love Story by Amy Webb

8) Chick Lit – Me and Mr. Darcy by Alexandra Potter

9) Feminist – Commencement by J. Courtney Sullivan

10) Teen – What Happened to Goodbye by Sarah Dessen

11) Holiday

12) Essays – What Was I Thinking? ed. by Barbara Davilman & Liz Dubelman

13) Short Stories – Smoke and Mirrors by Neil Gaiman

14) Library

15) Animal

16) Book about Books – Judging a Book By Its Lover by Lauren Leto

17) New – Pitch Perfect by Mickey Rapkin

18) Old – Dark and Stormy Knights edited by P. N. Elrod

19) Pop Science – Why Men Fake It by Abraham Morgentaler, MD

20) Near – Lust, Lies, and Love Over Lunch by Krista White

21) Far – Fuzzy Nation by John Scalzi

22) Graphic Novel – Love and Capes: Do You Want to Know a Secret? by Thomas F. Zahler

23) Reread – Ready Player One by Ernest Cline

24) Wild Card – Altared edited by Colleen Curran

25) Otherworldly Creature – Those Who Fight Monsters edited by Justin Gustianis

26) Free – Point Your Face at This by Demetri Martin

27) Noteworthy

28) Bestseller – How to Be a Woman by Caitlin Moran

29) Themed Anthology – Red edited by Kris Goldsmith

30) Steampunk – The Immersion Book of Steampunk edited by Gareth Jones and Carmelo Rafala

31) Movie-Book – One for the Money by Janet Evanovich

32) Media – Doctor Who: Touched By an Angel by Jonathan Morris

33) Travel – Love with a Chance of Drowning by Torre DeRoche

34) Food – Spiced by Dalia Jurgensen

35) Classic – Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy by Douglas Adams

36) Humor – Sleep Talkin’ Man by Karen Slavick-Lennar

37) Poetry

38) Past – Stasiland by Anna Funde

39) Future

40) Dystopia/Post-Apocalyptic

41) Zombie

42) Sports – Red Rising by Ted Starkey

Music: Be Our Guest from  Beauty and the Beast