Marcus Samuelsson-Yes, Chef

For those that know me I love cooking and over the last couple of years I have become more and more enamored with the Food Network.  More specifically, I have a few shows that I really enjoy: Chopped, The Next Iron Chef, and The Next Food Network Star.  There are a few other ones that I'll watch if I'm just looking for something on television.

Because Marcus Samuelsson was most recently on the The Next Iron Chef and because he is a frequent judge on Chopped, I was very excited to read his memoir.  I knew that he had an interesting upbringing but I didn't know much about it.


Well I definitely learned A LOT about him and his life and while I still think he's a brilliant chef-in fact I'm going to his restaurant, Red Rooster, in Harlem with some friends next week, I don't necessarily think he's the nicest guy in the world.  Samuelsson was born in Ethiopia and was adopted as a very young child to Sweden.  His birth mother, quite a heroic lady, walked him and his sister miles upon miles to a hospital nowhere near their small village in Ethiopia.  She passed away at the hospital and there wasn't a lot of information about his family so they were adopted by a Swedish family.

Samuelsson definitely speaks very highly of his family in Sweden and clearly views them as his family.  Initially as a child he wanted to be a soccer player and played throughout high school but ultimately was deemed too small and short to be an effective player.  He was extremely disappointed but ended up turning this passion and drive into cooking.

The book chronicles his growth as a chef as well as his personal life.  There were definitely some decisions in his personal life that he made that I really disagreed with but he thought that he was doing the right thing in pursuing his passion.

He's definitely become a success here in New York and at this point, internationally.  I do thing that he's advanced the profession of chefs that are not the norm.  He's written a cookbook specializing in Ethiopian food and I am really looking forward to trying his restaurant out.

Jodi Picoult-Lone Wolf

Jodi Picoult is another one of my go to authors.  She consistently writes good, long books.  Long books are important for me because I get through them so stinking fast!  I don't think I've met a Picoult book I didn't like.  She also writes about timely issues, such as school shootings, teen pregnancy and family lawsuits.

Lone Wolf is about a divorced family.  It's told in four different voices, which is another literary technique that Picoult uses in nearly all, if not all of her novels.  The four main characters are Luke and Georgie, divorced parents and their children, Edward and Cara.  Luke is a caretaker for wolves.  Georgie left for a variety of reasons, one being that she knew Luke would never love her as much or as fiercely as he loved his wolves.

The story starts with a car accident.  Luke and Cara, who is living with him and a teenager, are in a crash and Luke suffers from severe brain trauma and is in a coma.  Cara comes out relatively unscathed physically, except for a broken arm.  Georgie is called to the hospital and makes the decision to call Edward, her eldest son who ran away years before and has been living in Thailand.  We get the sense that something happened, primarily between Edward and Luke but it's unclear what exactly.

Edward comes home, for the first time in five or so years and he and Cara are faced with the decision, as the only living relatives of Luke over whether to take Luke off life support.  They are deeply divided on this issue.  Edward would like to take Luke off as he can't stand the suffering and Cara wants to do anything she can to keep her father alive.  Each claim that they know best.

The book waffles between the points of view of all the characters.  In the scenes narrated by Luke, we learn about his fascination with wolves and how he has put his life and the lives of his family aside in order to learn more about them.  He spent a year living in the Canadian wilderness right before the time that he and Edward had the fight that would separate their family.  When he made the decision to go into the wilderness and try to become part of a wolf pack, he did not think he would make it out of there alive.

The other three perspectives are from Georgie, Edward and Cara and the present time.  Additionally, Georgie's new husband, a lawyer, plays a role in the narrative as well as he represents Edward against Cara. I would imagine that this kind of family struggle is very personal and would be very different for each family and for each individual within a family.  Could I make the decision to take another person off life support?  I honestly don't know.  I know that I can make that choice for myself and that if there were truly no way for me to make a meaningful recovery then I would want to be taken off life support so that my family and loved ones can work through the grief without constantly being reminded of my inabilities.

On the same token, I hope that everyone has the conversation with their loved ones prior to anything drastic happening, as we can see in numerous cases around the country that this is an issue that really does divide families and create greater pain and torment.

Jamie Ford-Hotel on the Corner of Bitter and Sweet

This was a phenomenal story about a topic that we don't hear very often.  I often get into a mode where I can't read anymore WWII novels because it's often a similar tale with a different plot line.  It's not because I'm not interested in the topic or that I don't find the novels engrossing, I am interested in the topic and each novel is, for the most part, very engrossing.  I have Holocaust fatigue.  I've been raised learning about WWII and the Holocaust since as long as I could remember because Hebrew Schools and other Jewish programs have decided that this is the narrative that guides our Jewish story.  This is frustrating to me because this is not what defines us as a people nor should it.  The Holocaust is definitely something that happened and affected the entire world and especially affected the Jewish people but we've had 2,000 years of history prior to that, with other horrific events and we've had nearly seventy years of history occur after that with notable events.

So I was interested to read a WWII novel from another perspective.  Hotel on the Corner of Bitter and Sweet is written through the eyes of a Chinese man, he was raised in Seattle to immigrant parents.  His father especially suffered in China and very much wanted to classify himself and his son as Americans.  In the early 1940's this became increasingly difficult to do because of the war going on and when Japan bombed Pearl Harbor in 1941, this was near impossible.  Many people didn't take the time to necessarily differentiate between Chinese Americans or Japanese Americans and just saw someone with Asiatic features.

Henry, the Chinese man, as a young boy is sent to a private school in Seattle where he is the only Asian kid. As part of the financial arrangement, he works in the kitchen during lunch.  Relatively soon after he starts, he is joined by another Asian girl, a Japanese girl named Keiko.  Henry and Keiko strike up a friendship and they become very very close.  This is a friendship that Henry doesn't bring home.  His father very much wants Henry to be an American and makes Henry wear an American flag patch so that people know that he truly is an American.

The novel follows the story of the Japanese in Seattle at the time and at a certain point, Keiko and her family are moved to an internment camp in eastern Washington.  Henry doesn't understand this when it seems that Keiko's family is more American than even his own family.  He writes letters constantly to Keiko and they have a correspondence.

The book is told through flashbacks.  At the beginning of the novel we learn that Henry's wife has just died and he has a somewhat difficult relationship with his son.  He learns that they are going to knock down a hotel in what had been the Japanese section of Seattle prior to the war.  In the basement of this hotel, that has been boarded up for decades, the owner finds trunks of belongings from those that were interned.  Henry gains access and seems to be looking for one certain thing.

The story is a beautiful story and one that I would absolutely recommend.  It is a tale of enduring friendship and true love set against an America that most of us wouldn't recognize today.  Nor, really, would we want to.

Yona Zeldin McDonough-A Wedding in Great Neck

This was overall a good read.  It was the story of a family getting together to celebrate the youngest child's wedding.  My initial interest in the book was that it was set in Great Neck, on Long Island.  I teach in the next town over and thought it would be fun to read a book set in a town I'd spent time in.

The book centers around the bride's family and the drama that ensues.  The entire family gathers at the home of the mother of the bride and her very rich second husband who is paying for the entire wedding and in fact pays for many things in these children's lives.  The mother is a woman who went from being married to an alcoholic no-gooder (the father of her four children) to marrying the man of her dreams who is rich beyond belief and treats her like a king.  Her life often centers around her very nervous tiny dog that to some extent causes grief to all the children.  Her ex husband, father of all the children, has moved to Calif

  The oldest daughter is separated with twin pre-teen daughters.  She is in the midst of marital angst because her husband cheated on her with a student (university level) and the drama that comes around that.  Her daughters are very much dealing with both the issue of being a pre-teen in general and the fact that their father is no longer living with them.  They are being shielded from the worst as they don't know that their father has cheated and will be potentially starting a new family with his girlfriend.  He's a fun character with an Irish accent.  The eldest daughter is definitely a character with a lot of flaws, some real and some perceived but is an interesting character.  Their two daughters are also interesting characters.  One is especially going through a hard time, both with her parent's separation and general teen girl drama.  She is also somewhat in love and somewhat in hate with her aunt's fiance, soon to be husband, an Israeli who served in the military.  On the one hand, she thinks he's super nice and sweet but on the other hand, she's learned about the conflict in Israel and is afraid that he's killed innocent Palestinian children.  She also has some sort of issues with her aunt.

The next eldest, a son, is there with his girlfriend and honestly is a somewhat blah character.  He and his girlfriend had some drama but really not enough to merit much in the book.

The third child, another son, is there with his newish boyfriend.  This is the first time that his family is meeting his boyfriend but there is no conflict between the family and the fact that he's gay.  There is however conflict between him and his boyfriend.

The bride herself is a bit of a pain in the butt.  She's seems very entitled but also very talented.  She's the baby and especially to her father, that is a big deal.

Overall, this was a good novel but not one that I would rave about.  Definitely an entertaining read worth a look if you don't have other amazing books on your list.

Barbara Taylor Bradford-Letter from a Stranger

Barbara Taylor Bradford has been described to me as the Danielle Steel of the UK and I am inclined to agree with that statement.  Barbara Taylor Bradford has released probably over 20 novels since the sixties or seventies, perhaps even more than that.  Over the years I've read many of those.  I think I've read all of her older novels and most of of her newer stuff.  Like Danielle Steel, she's formulaic-she writes about upper-crust families who have a tie of some sort to England but have connections to New York as well as other places in Europe.  Often they have had difficult childhoods and difficult relationships with their children or parents.

So basically this was the overall concept of Letter from a Stranger.  The novel is written mainly from the point of view of Justine, a young woman with a twin brother.  She is a cinematographer who has been working on documentaries.  Her brother is an architect.  Their father passed away while they were in high school and their mother is bat-shit crazy.  They don't have that much contact with her anymore, other than the rare phone call or strained visit.  Really the only thing the two have in the world is each other and Richard's 5-year old daughter, Daisy.  His wife had died as well.

They believe that their beloved grandmother was killed in a plane crash just prior to them graduating college and this is also something devastating to them as there was no body so they were unable to have a funeral. Imagine their surprise when they get a letter addressed to their mother at their Connecticut home.  Justine decides to open the letter since their mother has asked them to take care of the property and business to do with the property as she lives in California.

The letter says that their grandmother is very much alive and is so missing her daughter but mostly her grandchildren.  It is written by a friend named Anita.  Unfortunately there is no return address on the letter and only a postmark from Turkey.  Holy Batman, a mystery!  Since Justine is between projects she decides that she must go immediately to Turkey and figure out who Anita is and how she's connected to her grandmother, oh and figuring out where her grandmother is if she isn't dead!

This was actually a very good book but for some reason the snark has come out in the review.  I guess I get a little mystified as a I grow older as to how these people are able to survive with such flexible jobs and disposable income.

I especially loved reading about Turkey, a culture that fascinates and that I would love to visit one day.  A good read if you're looking for that formulaic, feel good read with a quick cry involved.

Kristin Hannah-home front

I've read a few books by Kristin Hannah and I think, without fail, I've liked every single one.  Of course, she tends to fall into the sort of books I love, some romance, a major conflict of some sort, and family connections.

This one was no exception.  Jolene Zarkades grew up in an alcoholic home with parents who were neglectful.  When they died in a car crash when she was seventeen, she swore that her family would never be like that and that she would never depend on a man the way her mother had.

And she succeeds.  Knowing the choices she has to move up in the world, she picks the best one for her situation, joining the military and becoming a female pilot.  There she meets her best friend, another female pilot who grew up in the exact opposite setting.


They both get married and move into houses next door and both have children.  They both realize that being in the military full time is not conducive to raising a family and so they do what many families do and join the National Guard.  Among the several differences between Jolene and her best friend, Tami, one of the major ones is that Tami's husband is completely supportive of Tami's desire to be in the service and makes a point to pick up the slack on the weekends when Tami and Jolene are at guard duty.

Beyond the fact that Michael, Jolene's husband isn't supportive of Jolene's military service, the two of them are becoming more and more distant.  They have a twelve year old and nearly four year old and Jolene is quickly becoming the primary caretaker for her kids while Michael becomes more and more immersed in his work as a defense attorney.

Towards the end of spring 2005, two major events happen.  The first is that Jolene and Tami are called up to active duty and Michael declares that he no longer loves Jolene.  This happens within two weeks of Jolene and Tami leaving for Fort Hood and then in-country to Iraq.

Jolene is forced to both deal with her daughters as the family prepares for deployment and the unraveling of her marriage.  At the same time Michael has taken on defending a young man who has been accused of shooting his wife.  It comes out very quickly that this young man served in Iraq and had some horrible duties over there.

It's hard to decide who has the more powerful experience while Jolene is in Iraq-her, clearly with the experience of being a soldier in the middle of a war zone, or Michael, who prior to the war had never really bought into the life of being a military family.  He had never been patriotic and never understood what exactly went into a true military family and being a true supportive spouse of a serving military person.

I am always fascinated by the portrayal of Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder in fiction and think that this novel did a very good job of portraying the difficulties of both the person suffering from PTSD and those who are living with that person.

Kody, Meri, Janelle, Christine and Robyn Brown-Becoming Sister Wives

I am totally not going to lie, I am completely addicted to the television series, Sister Wives and now there is another show, based on another polygamist family, The Dargers, called My Three Wives.  I've also read that book and enjoyed it as well.

I've written before about my interest in polygamy in a previous post and even more so in the current, non-fundamentalist version of polygamy.  While the show tends to deal with the more current parts of the Brown life-starting with when they outed themselves to the country on national television and the ensuing chaos that started in their lives-including the investigation that the state of Utah started (then dropped) which forced the family to leave Utah and move to Las Vegas.  I could go into a whole thing about the irony that they moved from Utah, land of Mormon, to Las Vegas, AKA Sin City.

The book, on the other hand, talks more about what brought the family together.  I think reading the book has given me more insight on the family dynamics.  For those who don't know anything about the Brown family, Kody Brown was raised in a non-Fundamentalist Mormon family but embraced the more fundamentalist (but still his own version of it) after his mission and when his parents also embraced it.  He married Meri followed by Janelle and Christine.  More recently he married Robyn (in the last two and half years or so).  Robyn was married previously and came with three kids.  They've since had a child together.

Each woman has such a different story and such a different thing that brought them into this marriage.  Meri, the first wife, is someone I feel a connection to, although I'm really not sure why.  She has one daughter and has struggled with infertility since the beginning of the marriage.  She is also very much a nesting, mothering type.  This was especially a struggle at the beginning when Janelle first became a part of the family and Meri had clearly set her ways in the kitchen and in the relationship with Kody.  It felt that they were further stratified when Janelle got pregnant before Meri did.

Each of the women bring their own strength into the marriage.  Meri is very much the nurturer, Janelle the business savvy woman, Christine the go-getter mom and Robyn has brought a new sense of family to the entire group.

I definitely think reading the book has brought to me a much deeper understanding of this family and what being in a polygamist family.  I still don't think this is a lifestyle choice that I will make in my life but I can definitely see why people may choose this lifestyle for themselves.  I also think that families choosing to "out" themselves to the world is positive as I hope that people will realize that there are a range of these families and a good majority of them are just trying to raise their families in a way that they feel is a healthy, supportive and safe way to do it.

Thea Goodman-The Sunshine When She's Gone

This was an advance Reader's Edition from Librarything.com.  The concept of this book is interesting.  It's about a couple, John and Veronica, who have a six month old girl, Clara.  They were a happy couple before Clara was born and, to unknowing eyes, are a happy couple now.  But beyond the happiness is the reality that comes with having a child.

Veronica is struggling with postpartum depression and overall the lack of sleep that comes with having a baby and working a full-time job.  John is trying to understand but struggling to do so.  He also has an overwhelming urge to care for Clara but isn't sure exactly how.

One Friday morning he decides to check on Clara and, seeing that Veronica is finally deeply sleeping, takes Clara out for breakfast.  Unsure of where to go for breakfast, John opens pieces of mail that he grabbed.  Sitting in the pile was their new passports.  For some unexplainable reason, John decides to go to the airport and catches a flight to the Caribbean.  Veronica wakes up hours after she normally does and is mildly frustrated that she doesn't know where John is but ultimately isn't that concerned.  She is surprised to hear that John cancelled the nanny for the day.  Veronica gets on with her morning and goes to work, thrilled that she had a full night of sleep.

At some point after John arrives in the Caribbean, he leaves a message for Veronica that he'd gone upstate to his mother's and that they would be sleeping there that night.  Even though Veronica is annoyed that he's disappeared to his mother's she isn't as upset as she feels she must be.

At the same time, we learn about Veronica's best friend, Ingrid and her husband Art, and their struggle with infertility.  Art and Ingrid actually introduced John and Veronica and while in the Caribbean, John runs into a friend of Art's and emails Art what's going on.  Interestingly, Art doesn't seem to share this information with Veronica, though they spend most of Saturday together.

The novel explores two very different points of views-John's as he spends more time alone with Clara than he'd ever spent, and Veronica, who is having more time to herself than she'd had in six months.  Each of them have vastly different thoughts running through their heads-John thinking at first that this really isn't as hard as Veronica keeps making it out to be and Veronica that she should feel guilty about the time she's spending away from her daughter but in reality is really loving it.

The novel was a good and enjoyable read.  This is Goodman's first novel and it was fun to read about all the different sites in New York as well as all the sites in the Caribbean that John visited.  The resolution of the novel is interesting and one I'm sure that married couples that are new parents will understand.

Charlotte Hubbard-Autumn Winds

I received this book from early reviewers.  When I realized it was actually the second book in the series, I purchased the first one and read it.  I really enjoyed the novel.  It reminded me somewhat of Barbara Lewis's novels, who often writes about the Amish community but I did enjoy reading about such strong women within the community and really the interaction that happens between stronger minded women and bishops with whom they may not agree.

Both novels center around an Amish mother and her twin girls.  The twist that comes very early in the first novel is that these were actually triplets and when the girls were toddlers and the mother was pregnant, there was a storm and one of the girls was swept away by the rushing waters.  The mother also lost her pregnancy.  As a result she always felt that there was something missing.  It was also interesting because the couple decided to keep this from the two remaining girls.  They never knew what had happened and because this was an Amish community that didn't want to open up their lives to the English world, they chose never to report the missing child.  Now, eighteen years later, after the father passes away and the mother and her daughters run a restaurant to support themselves, the third daughter returns home.  The first book really sets out the conflict between the mother and the bishop as well as the daughter returning to her family.  The second book delves deeper into the conflict with the bishop and the mother and also speaks about the adjustment the third daughter has when realizing she is originally from an Amish family even though she's been raised as an Englisher.  Of course there is romance and the chance of several members of the community being placed under a ban.

Overall, the novel was a quick read but kept me entertained and definitely interested enough to read any future novels.

Charles Sheehan-Miles-Just Remember to Breathe

This is another book I got through librarything.com.  It was put on by the author and I checked that I would be interested in reading it.  It was an e-book and I read it on my iPhone  on the subway of course.  I read the book from start to finish in one day and spent much of that time in tears.  Although it was not necessarily the tightest writing-I'm not sure if I read a pre-edited version or the story behind the publication, this is a book that really touched a nerve with me and I'm glad I read it.

The story is about a couple who is no longer together when we first meet them.  Alex is a student at Columbia University, originally from San Francisco.  Dylan is an army vet who was just released, after an injury from a road bomb, originally from the south.  They met during high school when they were both chosen to participate in a tour of Israel.  It's not a huge part of the story, but it was fun to read about their experiences as high schoolers touring in Israel.  It was also interesting because it wasn't a religious group which is usually what is talked about with groups in Israel.

The story is somewhat cliche in that they run into each other when they're both assigned work-study with the same professor at the last minute.  They hadn't seen or spoken to each other in several months, after Dylan thinks he sees something while they are Skyping.  He reacts by cutting off all online communication.  She is devastated and makes some bad decisions, as we are apt to do in college.  Alex is unaware that Dylan has been injured, both physically and mentally.

There were some inconsistencies that I know were for literary reasons but I kept thinking, if Dylan is so upset about his relationship with Alex, why would he choose to attend Columbia, knowing that she was a student there.  Clearly, this had to happen for the story to occur the way it did.

The story alternates from Dylan's view to Alex's view which helps us to see both perspectives differently.  Being that much of the book was set around the Columbia University campus on the Upper West Side, and I lived there for my first year in New York, it was fun to read about sites and places I've been.

This book overwhelmed me from start to finish.  As someone who has been injured in a terrorist attack, I completely identified with Dylan, a war vet.  On the other hand, having cared for someone who also has had struggles, I also identify with Alex.

Priscille Sibley-The Promise of Stardust

I received this book from Librarything.com's early reviewers.  Over the years, I've actually received some very good books through this.  The only thing you have to do after receiving the book is to post a review on their site and anywhere else you may write reviews.  They require that the reviews be a certain length but don't look at content necessarily.

The Promise of Stardust by Priscille Sibley is a phenomenal novel, and echoing many of the other reviewers, amazing that this is Ms. Sibley's first novel.  The novel tells the story of a couple who has known each other their entire lives--families are completely intertwined--who are desperate to have a child. Sadly, Elle, the wife, has an accident and is declared brain dead.  Her husband, a surgeon, then discovers that she is pregnant.  The novel then tells the struggle Matt goes through, against his own mother, Elle's former boyfriend, and society to keep Elle alive long enough to deliver the baby.

One of things that was interesting to me in this novel was the choice of professions that characters in the novel had and how that played in the choices that they made.  Elle was an astronaut and had created a living will when she went into space (which is where the interplay of her ex-boyfriend comes in-he was the one she had given her living will to), Matt is a neurosurgeon who is unable to save his wife from her brain injury.  Matt's mother is a neo-natal nurse who is pushing for Elle to be taken off machines because of Elle's own mother's struggle with, and ultimate death, from cancer.  His mother was also given a copy of a living will from when Elle's mother died.

This book was extremely well written, full of twists and multiple times I had to put the book down as I was on the subway and didn't want to cry!

Leon Uris-Exodus

This is an oldie but a goodie.  I have to give the back story on this book before I go into my review of the book.  I was given this book the summer I turned thirteen, right before my Bat Mitzvah.  My family had made the decision to make Aliyah (move to Israel and obtain citizenship) and this was to be our last summer in the States.  I arrived at camp that summer and my parents gave me the book to read while I was there.  Having been an avid reader from childhood, it was not shocking that my parents would hand me a 600 page book to read at camp.  But because of my anger at being 13 and being forced to move to the other side of the world, I threw the book into the bottom of my trunk and there it stayed until I got home from camp.

It must have gotten packed with my books going to Israel because there it was when I unpacked three months later in Jerusalem.  I threw it on the shelf and ignored it as I settled into life in a new country.  At some point that year or the next year, I picked up the book and rifled through it.  I immediately was drawn into the exciting story.  I think what made it more real for me was that I was travelling to the same sites that were being discussed in the book.  Massada?  I've been there!  Huleh Valley? Check!  The King David Hotel?  We sat in their lobby yesterday!  YMCA?  I went swimming there!  And thus began my love affair with the book Exodus.  Now I must put it out there, I will NEVER watch that movie again.  In fact I forced my parents to turn it off when we watched it when I was fourteen.  Quite simply, Hollywood cannot do justice to such an amazing piece of historical literature and I used to dream of recreating the film using all the real places in Israel and actors that had been unheard of before but were TRUE Israelis and Brits and Americans (none of that crappy accent stuff!)

So since I read that book over fifteen years ago now, I have read and reread it and every single time I have gleaned something new.  The story is a magnificent story beginning with a boatload of Holocaust surviving children trying against all odds to get into Israel.  These children have seen the worst that humanity can do and all they want is to live in Israel, the Promised Land, where they can control their own destinies.  But, as historically happened, the British, who ruled the region at the time, did not want to piss off the Arabs living in the community.  This isn't the first boatload of Jews trying to illegally enter Palestine and it most certainly wasn't the last.  But it is a powerful image to have 300 children who grew up in concentration camps stage hunger strikes and take a stand that they ARE in control of their destiny.

Exodus starts on the island of Cyprus but spans Europe, America, England, and of course, Palestine-soon to be known as Israel.  It is a true tale of love, heroism, life, death and longing.

It had been several years since I'd read Exodus and I was feeling somewhat nostalgic so I picked up my nice, new hardback version of the book.  But something wasn't right, the book was bulky and the pages shiny and slippery.  So I found my original copy:


At this point, dog-eared and duct-taped, covered with stains and a slight musty smell.  I've been rereading it for about a week now and I really should know better than to read in public places, especially this book but I have cried more times in the subway this week than probably in the entire two and a half years I've lived here.

If you've been to Israel, if you may ever go to Israel, if you are a history buff, read this book!!!!