Slow Noodles: a Cambodian memoir of love, loss, and family recipes by Chantha Nguon
Chantha Nguon grew up in Cambodia in what would probably be considered middle class. She and her siblings were educated, she had money for treats, and their family ate well. After her father's death her mother is able to keep things going for the family but then Pol Pot and the Khmer Rouge come in and their family flees to Vietnam. In Vietnam their circumstances are much reduced but she still has her mother and older sister and the three of them are doing OK. Then when her sister and mother die in quick succession, Chantha understands what real deprivation and poverty is. She cobbles together whatever means she can to make enough money to eat for the day. Eventually she meets her husband, Chan, who is also half-Khmer and also came from an educated, middle class family who also lost everything during the wars in Cambodia and Vietnam. Together they try to escape Vietnam, spending 10 years in a refugee camp in Thailand, before realizing they won't be able to emigrate to Europe or America. They go back to Cambodia and try to rebuild their lives. But back in Cambodia, Chan and Chantha not only survive but they begin to thrive. They also not only rebuild their own family, but help their community begin to rebuild. Throughout all of these trials food is what continues to connect Chantha to her family and Cambodia. She has nothing material from her childhood or family so the recipes and memories are what she cherishes and also passes on to her own children. An inspiring story of one woman's path from war-torn refugee to successful businesswoman. She also includes 22 Khmer recipes that sustained her through it all.
Secrets of Adulthood by Gretchen Rubin
This is a little book of aphorisms that Gretchen Rubin has put together to share her Secrets of Adulthood. In case you're not familiar, an aphorism is "a concise statement that contains an expansive truth." (p. 12) She initially started writing down these "secrets" to share with her daughters, but also realized they could be good reminders for her (or anyone) as well. The aphorisms are divided into 4 larger categories (Cultivating Ourselves, Facing the Perplexities of Relationships, Making Things Happen, and Confronting Life's Dilemmas), then each category has several subcategories/topics like Work, Creativity, Tough Decisions, Adventure, Friendship, etc. This is a really quick read - like you could probably sit down and read it all in an hour or so. This would also make a great high school or college graduation gift. A cute, quick read with lots of memorable quotes and aphorisms.
Cellar Rat: my life in the restaurant underbelly by Hannah Selinger
After Hannah Selinger finished college at Columbia University, she came home to Massachusetts and decided to work at a local restaurant for the summer. The dysfunctional connection she found as a restaurant worker led her on a 10 year detour from journalism (her college major) into the underbelly of the restaurant world. She worked her way from a local pub into fine dining working as a sommelier at restaurants like Bar Americain, BLT Prime, Jean-George, and Momofuku. Throughout all the restaurants Selinger worked, the common thread was dysfunction. Restaurant workers, whether front of back of the house, have brutal schedules - long, hard hours, working holidays, weekends, it's very hard to get time off, and it's rare that your days off align with anyone working a more "normal" job. Restaurants also tend to draw partiers and addicts and staff often go out after work to blow off steam leading to more unhealthy aspects of this career/lifestyle. Selinger found herself in a love/hate relationship with working in restaurants. It was like an abusive relationship - when it was good, it was really good, but when it was bad, it was brutal. After her father's death, Selinger realizes that is the wake up call she needs to get out of restaurants and go back to writing.
In 2020 Selinger saw a series of tweets about a powerful man in the restaurant industry that she had crossed paths with back in her restaurant days. That triggered her memory of all the dysfunction she witnessed and participated in during her restaurant working days. I was surprised at the mixed reviews of this book. Several people said that they thought the book would be more about wine and how to pair it with food (that is NOWHERE in the description of the book) or that Selinger was a narcissist who just wanted to whine about all the bad stuff that happened to her. She doesn't come across as narcissistic AT ALL to me. Nowhere in the book does she say that every minute of every day in the restaurant industry was awful and toxic. That's the whole point of the book the love/hate aspect of restaurants - when it's good it's intoxicating but when it's not, it's really bad. It's also frustrating and sad to keep reading about abusive people in power who are never held accountable. Certain industries are known for this but it's anywhere where there is enough money to shield people from their consequences. I really liked the book even though it was not a happy or light read. Selinger is a good writer and this book shines a light on things that are likely still going on in restaurants today despite the #metoo movement and everything else.
Some quotes I liked:
"But to be a woman who loved food was very different than to be a man who loved food. You were still supposed to care about restraint. You were supposed to love it, want it, understand it, obsess over it, talk about it constantly - but never really indulge in it. To indulge was to give up the last vestiges of control. To indulge was to slip from a size 0 to a size 2 to a size 4 to a size 6 and so on and so on." (p. 168)
"To fit in at Momofuku, after all, you couldn't be nice. You could pretend to be nice, but you couldn't actually mean it. It was hard to know where I fit in when it came to this jigsaw puzzle of personalities. I wasn't mean, but I was a misfit. After work, I was happy to commiserate with the servers and creative personalities at the late-night bars. Even though I was upper management, I wasn't treated like a manager, and I wasn't included in the camaraderie extended to Dave's so-called Momo family. From the outside, it was a happy place to work, a communal place, where everyone pushed everyone else to be better. But inside, it felt competitive and exclusive, and, for me, unwelcoming. It was a workplace led by people who wanted you to believe that they had your best interests in mind, when really they wanted you to fail." (p. 198-199)
In 2020 Selinger saw a series of tweets about a powerful man in the restaurant industry that she had crossed paths with back in her restaurant days. That triggered her memory of all the dysfunction she witnessed and participated in during her restaurant working days. I was surprised at the mixed reviews of this book. Several people said that they thought the book would be more about wine and how to pair it with food (that is NOWHERE in the description of the book) or that Selinger was a narcissist who just wanted to whine about all the bad stuff that happened to her. She doesn't come across as narcissistic AT ALL to me. Nowhere in the book does she say that every minute of every day in the restaurant industry was awful and toxic. That's the whole point of the book the love/hate aspect of restaurants - when it's good it's intoxicating but when it's not, it's really bad. It's also frustrating and sad to keep reading about abusive people in power who are never held accountable. Certain industries are known for this but it's anywhere where there is enough money to shield people from their consequences. I really liked the book even though it was not a happy or light read. Selinger is a good writer and this book shines a light on things that are likely still going on in restaurants today despite the #metoo movement and everything else.
Some quotes I liked:
"But to be a woman who loved food was very different than to be a man who loved food. You were still supposed to care about restraint. You were supposed to love it, want it, understand it, obsess over it, talk about it constantly - but never really indulge in it. To indulge was to give up the last vestiges of control. To indulge was to slip from a size 0 to a size 2 to a size 4 to a size 6 and so on and so on." (p. 168)
"To fit in at Momofuku, after all, you couldn't be nice. You could pretend to be nice, but you couldn't actually mean it. It was hard to know where I fit in when it came to this jigsaw puzzle of personalities. I wasn't mean, but I was a misfit. After work, I was happy to commiserate with the servers and creative personalities at the late-night bars. Even though I was upper management, I wasn't treated like a manager, and I wasn't included in the camaraderie extended to Dave's so-called Momo family. From the outside, it was a happy place to work, a communal place, where everyone pushed everyone else to be better. But inside, it felt competitive and exclusive, and, for me, unwelcoming. It was a workplace led by people who wanted you to believe that they had your best interests in mind, when really they wanted you to fail." (p. 198-199)
The Small and the Mighty by Sharon McMahon
I was all set to really love this book even though I wasn't familiar with Sharon McMahon or her podcast and "Governerds" fans. Reading about 12 "unsung Americans who changed the course of history" sounded like a fantastic book. I barely got through the first person she highlights and honestly only because I wanted to find out if Clara Brown ever reunited with her daughter. Not being familiar with her podcast style, I found her writing very off putting. As one review put it her constant "cringeworthy attempts at humor" fell flat for me. There was also a LOT of rabbit trailing and asides that took away from the person who was supposed to be the focus. I also agree with other reviews I read that said it was hard to tell who the 12 people were because there was WAY too much information (and in my opinion too many chapters) for each person. Why not have one chapter per person to be sure it's obvious who they are? There is a way to give historical background about a subject/person without getting too bogged down and there is a way to have humor shine though even when writing about difficult topics but none of that was present in this book. This was rambling and awkward in my opinion.
Night Magic: adventures among glowworms, moon gardens, and other marvels of the dark by Leigh Ann Henion
In Night Magic Leigh Ann Henion invites us to turn off our porch lights and explore some of the creatures of the dark. Covering everything from fireflies and glowworms to foxfire fungus and moon gardens, she explores things that are becoming more and more hidden or lost to our constantly "on" and lit up world. I was pleasantly surprised to find out that she is from the NC mountains and lives in Boone so a lot of what she talked about was familiar to me. She explored some interesting things like Mothapalooza, a moth-focused festival and helping researchers trap and tag/record bats. While a lot of what she talked about was very interesting, a lot of it was overly-flowery or came across like she was trying too hard to make EVERYTHING extra special. I personally found the first half (which was focused more on things in NC) more interesting than the second half. I did like it and I do think she is bringing attention to important parts of our environment.
Some quotes I liked:
"...naturalist Lynn Faust, who used to spend summers in the now-defunct Elkmont community, grew up admiring the fireflies we're watching. As an adult, she came across and article about sychronous-flashing fireflies in Asia, and she recognized similarities in what the scientists were reporting and what she'd seen as a child. When she reached out to researchers in the 1990s, they were skeptical that an unknown-to-science species existed in the most-visited national park in the country [The Great Smoky Mountains National Park], so she sent a musical composition mimicking the sequences of flashes in Elkmont. It's what convinced firefly scientists that they should make a trip to Great Smoky Mountains National Park, where they confirmed a never-before-recorded synchronous species: Photinus carolinus. (p. 6-7)
"We might think of songbirds as daytime companions as opposed to night owls, but 80 percent of North America's migratory birds travel at night, using stars as navigational devices while avoiding the turbulence of daytime thermals. In U.S. cities alone, 365 to 988 million birds are killed every year during these nocturnal migrations in part due to artificial lighting issues, which disorient and cause them to collide with buildings, often fatally. And without access to navigational stars in cities awash with LEDs, some birds simply lose their way, with city lights drawing them away from their ancestral migratory flyways." (p. 70)
Some quotes I liked:
"...naturalist Lynn Faust, who used to spend summers in the now-defunct Elkmont community, grew up admiring the fireflies we're watching. As an adult, she came across and article about sychronous-flashing fireflies in Asia, and she recognized similarities in what the scientists were reporting and what she'd seen as a child. When she reached out to researchers in the 1990s, they were skeptical that an unknown-to-science species existed in the most-visited national park in the country [The Great Smoky Mountains National Park], so she sent a musical composition mimicking the sequences of flashes in Elkmont. It's what convinced firefly scientists that they should make a trip to Great Smoky Mountains National Park, where they confirmed a never-before-recorded synchronous species: Photinus carolinus. (p. 6-7)
"We might think of songbirds as daytime companions as opposed to night owls, but 80 percent of North America's migratory birds travel at night, using stars as navigational devices while avoiding the turbulence of daytime thermals. In U.S. cities alone, 365 to 988 million birds are killed every year during these nocturnal migrations in part due to artificial lighting issues, which disorient and cause them to collide with buildings, often fatally. And without access to navigational stars in cities awash with LEDs, some birds simply lose their way, with city lights drawing them away from their ancestral migratory flyways." (p. 70)
News of the World by Paulette Jiles - History & Historical Fiction book club, re-reading
After the Civil War Captain Jefferson Kidd rides from small town to small town reading the News of the World from various newspapers. He's lived through three wars, is widowed, and enjoys the freedom of not being tied down in his old age. While at one of his stops he is offered a fifty-dollar gold piece to bring a rescued white child back to her family. Johanna Leonberger's parents and younger sister were killed by Kiowa raiders and she was kidnapped and lived with them for 4 years. She is now 10 years old, does not speak English, and doesn't want to leave her Kiowa family. The Captain agrees to take her against his better judgement, but while traveling across the wild Texas territory the two form a unique bond. Once they reach her extended family outside San Antonio the Captain has to make a terrible choice that will ultimately change both he and Johanna's lives forever. This is a short, but fantastic book with two very memorable characters and would make a great movie! Definitely worth reading!
Updated review after 2nd reading:
Re-reading this book was even more enjoyable the second time. There were scenes I didn't remember, but overall I was able to read it a little more slowly because I knew the ending so I wasn't rushing to find out what happens. I still got choked up at the very end. I just LOVE Captain Kidd and Johanna and now to find out there will be a movie later this year is even better!
Update after 3rd reading:
It's been 5 years since I last read News of the World and I still love it. This time the poetic language really stood out to me and just how well she tells the story. She is able to pack so much description in so few words. Such a great book. Update to my second reading - I saw the movie and was not impressed. This is a hard book to turn into a movie because it's not super dramatic and more about the developing relationship between Captain Kidd and Johanna. Also just found out that Jiles passed away this month.
Updated review after 2nd reading:
Re-reading this book was even more enjoyable the second time. There were scenes I didn't remember, but overall I was able to read it a little more slowly because I knew the ending so I wasn't rushing to find out what happens. I still got choked up at the very end. I just LOVE Captain Kidd and Johanna and now to find out there will be a movie later this year is even better!
Update after 3rd reading:
It's been 5 years since I last read News of the World and I still love it. This time the poetic language really stood out to me and just how well she tells the story. She is able to pack so much description in so few words. Such a great book. Update to my second reading - I saw the movie and was not impressed. This is a hard book to turn into a movie because it's not super dramatic and more about the developing relationship between Captain Kidd and Johanna. Also just found out that Jiles passed away this month.
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