Top Ten Tuesday: Lost books

Welcome to this week's edition of Top Ten Tuesday which is hosted by That Artsy Reader Girl. This 

week the theme is supposed to be Books I Loved So Much I Had to Get a Copy for My Personal Library. Now, I am sure that I have some of those books but I am going rogue today. 

I have had this idea for a TTT post for a while now so today is the day I am going to do "Lost" books.This idea originally came about when I noticed how many girls get lost in various places around the world but I haven't limited this post to the places girls get lost.

The Lost Girls of Paris by Pam Jenoff


The Lost Girls of Devon by Barbara O'Neal

The Lost Sister of Fifth Avenue and The Lost Girl of Berlin by Ella Carey

The Lost Village by Daniele Sacerdoti


The Lost Vintage by Ann Mah

The Lost Love Song by Minnie Darke

The Lost Lake by Sarah Addison Allen

The Book of Lost Threads by Tess Evans


The Lost Art of Mixing by Erica Bauermeister

Maybe next time I should do a list of found books!

Top Ten Tuesday: Back to school

 

Welcome to this week's edition of Top Ten Tuesday which is hosted by That Artsy Reader Girl. This 

week the theme is Back to School. Our school year runs from late January to mid December so it is an unusual time for this theme for us but I am going to stick with it.

So, here are ten books which feature schooling relating words.

Kalahari Typing School for Men by Alexander McCall Smith - the fourth book in the No. 1 Ladies Detective Agency series

The School for Heiresses - This was an anthology featuring Sabrina Jeffries, Julia London, Renee Barnard and Liz Carlyle. It's such a shame that Liz Carlyle doesn't write any more. Her books were fab. (review)

Kitchen Counter Cooking School by Kathleen Flinn - I did a joint review with Beth Fish Reads for this book which was so much fun.

The School of Essential Ingredients by Erica Bauermeister - This book made me want to take cooking lessons! (review)

Charm School by Nelson De Mille - I read this book back in the early 1990s, as well as several other books by this author. This was a Cold War spy novel. Not sure it would hold up too well now, but I did enjoy his books a lot at the time.

Poison Study by Maria V Snyder - I could have chosen any of the Study trilogy really. (review)

The Piano Teacher by Janice Y K Lee - love the cover of this book!

Teach Me by Olivia Dade - I read this book earlier this year. It won't be my last book by this author.

French Lessons by Ellen Sussman - I don't remember much about this book but to be fair I did read it 11 years ago.

The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People: Powerful Lessons in Personal Change by Stephen R Covey - I did this as part of a leadership program through work a few years ago now.

Christmas Quotes: Carl's Christmas memories

I really enjoyed reading Erica Bauermeister's books this year. This was the first, and I think still my favourite.

This quote comes from page 71 of School of Essential Ingredients.

He didn't even mind those early Christmas mornings when first one, then another toddler would climb into the bed that he and Helen had so recently fallen into themselves after a night of putting together wooden wagons, or bicycles, or dollhouses. He opened his arms and they piled in, trying to convince him that the streetlight outside really was the sun and that it was certainly time to open the stockings, if maybe not presents, when in fact it was usually only two in the morning. Helen would groan good-naturedly and roll over, telling Carl all she wanted for Christmas was a good night's sleep, and he would pull the children close and whisper the story of the Night Before Christmas until they would slowly, one by one, fall asleep, their bodies draped across each other like laundry in a basket. When the children got older, self-sufficient enough to go on their own midnight exploratory missions among the boxes under the tree (where, more often than not, Carl and Helen discovered them sleeping in the morning, Carl found himself missing their warm intrusions into his dreams.

The Lost Art of Mixing by Erica Bauermeister

Earlier this year I read and thoroughly enjoyed  my first book by Erica Bauermeister - The School of Essential Ingredients (you can see my review here). This book, which is due to be published early in 2013, sees the return of some of the same characters from School plus the introduction of a few new characters.

I should warn that there are a couple of the relationships that will be mentioned in this review will be spoilers for School. Sorry about that! Can't be helped if I a to talk about this book at all!

Where School focused on the individual recipes that the characters were being taught which helped to reveal their stories and teach a few life lessons as well. This time around, the cooking lessons aren't as present even though there are still plenty of foodie moments to savour.

The main parts of the story focus on Lilian, the chef who owns the restaurant where all our characters met, her employees Chloe and Finnegan, her accountant Al and his wife Louise, and Isabelle who is an older woman who appears to be losing her faculties and who shares her house with the much younger Chloe.

For me, the strongest aspects of this book were the stories relating to Chloe and Finnegan, Lilian, and Isabelle and her family. When I think about it now, with the exception of Finnegan, they are all the characters that we had already met. In the previous book, Chloe had come out of a bad relationship experience, and that has left her somewhat skittish about boys, or I guess I should say men. Finnegan is the kind of man that you would think it would be difficult to miss given that he is six foot seven tall, but he tends to blend into the background leaving him free to observe the behaviour of those around him. It is only after Finnegan gives her a blue exercise book to write whatever thoughts she wants to write down that Chloe really notices him but she is nowhere near ready to fully trust another man.

Isabelle is fighting a battle on a couple of fronts. She is losing her faculties and she knows it. With Chloe's help she is able to put strategies in place to help her cope on a daily basis but everyone is aware that it is only a matter of time before these coping mechanisms will be insufficient. Her children all live away from her, but her daughter in particular is determined that her mother needs to move out of her house and into care right away. I thought the way that Bauermeister addressed this issue was very touching. Yes, Isabelle's daughter has her mother's best interests at heart, or at least what she thinks the best interests are, but it is a fine line between doing the right thing and trampling on what little dignity Isabelle knows she has. There was a scene with Isabelle's grandson that was so lovely - a small moment in a few pages but so strong emotionally, especially when his mum realised the effect of her actions as a result of the interactions with her own son.

I haven't said a lot about Lilian yet. In School, we met Lilian and got her history, really she was the facilitating character. Not a lot happened for her personally but rather we got her observations of the lives of the other characters. The same cannot be said in this book. Here she is fully part of the story and she has her own section of the plot to navigate. Lilian has now been seeing Tom, the widower from the first book, for some time, but it is something of a surprise to her when their relationship takes an unexpected turn. The biggest issue for the two is whether Tom is over the death of his wife (which was the key factor in why he signed up for cooking lessons in the first place). To be honest, as a reader, I am not sure that I believed that he was totally ready to move on either, or maybe you are never really ready after an experience like that. Rather you just need to make the decision to get on with your life in whatever form that takes.

If I had to pick my favourite part of this book, it was Finnegan and his blue books. Whilst there was a misunderstanding with Chloe that could have been easily resolved with some basic communication, I loved the idea that Finnegan was collecting the stories of the people that he has met, the people who often don't have people left to share their stories with.

Given that I have touched on the things I did like, I guess I should mention what didn't work for me as well, namely the stories of Al and his wife Louise. I just didn't feel as though I connected with either their emotions and their actions, some of which were more than a little odd. I did get that Louise felt invisible in her relationship, and could relate to that feeling, I didn't get the reactions. And the way we were introduced to Al was just a little strange!

Bauermeister is one of those authors whose writing just draws you in so that you are smelling the same scents as the characters, you are savouring the taste of the food with them and when you connect, you are with them as they ride their own emotional roller coasters. 

If you read School of Essential Ingredients (which was also published under the title Monday Night Cooking School in some countries) then you will be glad to revisit these characters. I would suggest that it is best to read School before picking this book up, but then again I have never made any secret of the fact that I strongly believe in reading connected books in order!

Rating 4/5

Thanks to the publisher for providing a copy of the book via Netgalley

Tour Details

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Synopsis

National bestselling author Erica Bauermeister returns to the enchanting world of The School of Essential Ingredients in this luminous sequel.

Lillian and her restaurant have a way of drawing people together. There’s Al, the accountant who finds meaning in numbers and ritual; Chloe, a budding chef who hasn’t learned to trust after heartbreak; Finnegan, quiet and steady as a tree, who can disappear into the background despite his massive height; Louise, Al’s wife, whose anger simmers just below the boiling point; and Isabelle, whose memories are slowly slipping from her grasp. And there’s Lillian herself, whose life has taken a turn she didn’t expect. . . .

Their lives collide and mix with those around them, sometimes joining in effortless connections, at other times sifting together and separating again, creating a family that is chosen, not given. A beautifully imagined novel about the ties that bind—and links that break—The Lost Art of Mixing is a captivating meditation on the power of love, food, and companionship.

Weekend Cooking is open to anyone who has any kind of food-related post to share: Book (novel, nonfiction) reviews, cookbook reviews, movie reviews, recipes, random thoughts, gadgets, quotations, photographs. If your post is even vaguely foodie, feel free to grab the button and link up anytime over the weekend. You do not have to post on the weekend. For more information, see the welcome post.  

Weekend Cooking: The School of Essential Ingredients by Erica Bauermeister

This book opens with Lillian's story. Now, she runs a busy restaurant but she still finds time to run a cooking class in the restaurant kitchen each Monday. As for all chefs, it has taken Lillian many years of dedication and hard work. When she takes time to look back, she can see just how far she has comes. Her journey has taken her from a neglected little girl who found love and affection, and more importantly, learnt to cook in the heart of someone else's family.

As the first class is set to run, we meet each of the new students; a young mum who is struggling to find her identity: a young girl who is looking for her place in the world; a man who is gradually emerging from his cocoon of grief: an older couple who are happy now but who haven't always been as together as they seem, an Italian immigrant who is looking for a sense of home; a computer geek who doesn't feel as though he fits in with his family and more.

Each week, the group comes together to learn new techniques but also to learn to be honest with themselves and to communicate with each other.

If you are looking for an overall plot to the book, there really isn't one. Each individuals story moves forward as we learn about what bought them to the cooking class, what they are struggling with and how the food that they are cooking and eating brings them to a new understanding and in some cases new beginnings. Effectively, these are a series of vignettes of the characters that are connected to the restaurant. Sometimes though, you don't necessarily need a lot of plot. Sometimes good characterisation is enough, and I would say that it is generally the case here. Each character is given the time and space to develop right before your eyes.

This is an easy read. The writing skips across the pages and before you know it you are at the end. It is a perfect Saturday afternoon book - a couple of hours easy and pleasant reading.

In terms of the stories, I think that the most profound as that of Tom. He was dealing with the grief of losing an important person in his life, and the portrayal of their illness and subsequent passing as treated with compassion, dignity and respect. Whilst his is not the only story that moved me, it is the one that has stayed with me the longest.

One of the best things about books like this are the food descriptions, and this book does not disappoint. There were a number of times that I was left drooling at the feast for all the senses that were described. One of my favourite chapters was where the group cooked a ... I guess the word is deconstructed... Thanksgiving dinner. Now, we don't do Thanksgiving but I have seen enough descriptions and posts about the food that is normally on the table, and so I recognised how even though the meal looked completely different, all the traditional elements were there.

Erica Bauermeister has a number of recipes on her website and also includes some details such as where her inspiration came from.

Not only did I want to eat the food that was mentioned in the book, but I also was left wishing that I could go to Lillian's cooking classes, or at the very least some cooking classes here. I suspect that the experience would be very different from that portrayed in the book but it would still be fun. Maybe one day.

I should also mention that this book has also been published under the title Monday Night Cooking School in some places

Rating: 4/5

Synopsis

Once a month on Monday night, eight students gather in Lillian’s restaurant kitchen for a cooking class. Among them is Claire, a young woman coming to terms with her new identity as a mother; Tom, a lawyer whose life has been overturned by loss; Antonia, an Italian kitchen designer adapting to life in America; and Carl and Helen, a long-married couple whose union contains surprises the rest of the class would never suspect.

The students have come to learn the art behind Lillian’s soulful dishes, but it soon becomes clear that each one seeks a recipe for something beyond the kitchen. One by one, they are transformed by the aromas, flavors, and textures of what they create, including a white-on-white cake that prompts wistful reflections on the sweet fragility of love, and a garlic and red sauce that seems to spark one romance but end another. Over time, the paths of the students mingle and intertwine, and the essence of Lillian’s cooking expands beyond the restaurant and into the secret corners of their lives, with results that are often unexpected and always delicious.

Weekend Cooking is open to anyone who has any kind of food-related post to share: Book (novel, nonfiction) reviews, cookbook reviews, movie reviews, recipes, random thoughts, gadgets, quotations, photographs. If your post is even vaguely foodie, feel free to grab the button and link up anytime over the weekend. You do not have to post on the weekend. For more information, see the welcome post.