I didn’t expect to love Kitchen Confidential
as much as I did. A friend handed it to me and said, “Read this; you will
laugh.” I didn’t know much about Bourdain previously, aside from the fact that
he was a celebrity chef and had sadly taken his own life.
His witty, dark expose
of chef life and the restaurant business drew me in immediately, and I found
myself marveling at the underbelly of the business and its characters. Talented
drug addicts and drunks running some of the top kitchens in NYC. Bourdain
dedicates his life to working as a chef, and he doesn’t hold back with what he
witnesses in food preparation.
A rough character himself, he fits in with those
who are willing to burn their own flesh over and over for the perfect meal.
While I am a vegetarian, his descriptions of meat and fish, as well as the
trade all around chefs – servers, distributors, managers – are so intoxicating that the book is like eating a fine meal in itself.
Except now, when I go out to eat,
I can’t help but wonder what the hell is actually going on back in the kitchen.
THE CLASSIC BESTSELLER: 'The greatest book about food ever written'
'A compelling book with its intriguing mix of clever writing and kitchen patois ... more horrifically gripping than a Stephen King novel' Sunday Times
'Extraordinary ... written with a clarity and a clear-eyed wit to put the professional food-writing fraternity to shame' Observer
_____________________________
After twenty-five years of 'sex, drugs, bad behaviour and haute cuisine', chef and novelist Anthony Bourdain decided to tell all - and he meant all.
From his first oyster in the Gironde to his lowly position as a dishwasher in a honky-tonk fish restaurant in Provincetown;…
My boyfriend turned me on to Mandel’s books
when I was whining about not having a good fiction book to read. The Glass
Hotel was right up my alley, with multiple characters intersecting in different
times and spaces. Having been a big fan of A Visit From The Goon Squad by
Jennifer Egan, this book satiated my desire to follow the paths of intersecting
storylines.
A mysterious hotel, relationships designed for their transactional
nature, mysterious pasts, and the art world gravitated me night after night to
the main characters, particularly the stormy and tormented Vincent.
I was in
Paris when I was reading the book and felt completely absorbed in a café
reading all afternoon. It’s one of those books that you can settle in anywhere
and get lost.
INTERNATIONAL BESTSELLER • From the bestselling author of Station Eleven and Sea of Tranquility, an exhilarating novel set at the glittering intersection of two seemingly disparate events—the exposure of a massive criminal enterprise and the mysterious disappearance of a woman from a ship at sea.
“The perfect novel ... Freshly mysterious.” —The Washington Post
Vincent is a bartender at the Hotel Caiette, a five-star lodging on the northernmost tip of Vancouver Island. On the night she meets Jonathan Alkaitis, a hooded figure scrawls a message on the lobby's glass wall: Why don’t you swallow broken glass. High above Manhattan, a…
How does one even begin to describe Samantha
Irby as a writer? She sets you off breathless from page one with her raunchy, articulate banter about her life and the complications of being a black, gay
essayist.
While one may think they are nothing like her in personality or even
life circumstances, the familiarity of the way she recounts her drinking,
dating, and clubbing days is so spot on you can’t help but feel like you just
pulled an all-nighter with her.
The best part is she is, at heart, an introverted
writer and always contemplating the perplexities of living in Michigan,
raising kids, and being married.
What is most bountiful about the book is the
essay format, where one minute you are reading the cheeky Guide to Simple Home
Repairs, and then next an essay called Lesbian Bed Death, which is a series of
prompts that start off “Sure, sex is fun, but…” If you want a relatable
laugh or even to step into the mind of someone radically different than you,
Irby is the author to spend your time with.
Winner of 2021 Lambda Literary Award for Bisexual Nonfiction • #1 NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER • From Samantha Irby, beloved author of We Are Never Meeting in Real Life, a rip-roaring, edgy and unabashedly raunchy new collection of hilarious essays.
“Stay-up-all-night, miss-your-subway-stop, spit-out-your-beverage funny.... irresistible as a snack tray, as intimately pleasurable as an Irish goodbye.” —Jia Tolentino
Irby is forty, and increasingly uncomfortable in her own skin despite what Inspirational Instagram Infographics have promised her. She has left her job as a receptionist at a veterinary clinic, has published successful books and has been friendzoned by Hollywood, left Chicago,…
No Longer Denying Sexual Abuse follows the eleven-year healing journey of Author O’Hara as she came out of abuse denial. With teachings designed for anyone suffering from any form of abuse, O’Hara unfolds the truth that abuse affects all areas of one’s life, from finance to romance, as well as physical and emotional issues.
