Nonfiction Review – Page 5

Food; A Love Story

November 21, 2017 RaeAnna

Read Yes
Length 340
Quick Review A hilarious memoir through the lens of a man in love… with food. Gaffigan goes to great lengths to describe the depths of his feelings.

I have been a Jim Gaffigan fan for a while. I, however, had not committed to reading his book. Granted, I knew it couldn’t possibly take me terribly long to finish… He isn’t exactly setting himself up to be the next Chaucer.

I finished the book in a grand total of two sittings. It ended up being two because he made me hungry, so I had to go take a food break. This can’t be too shocking, but we both rather enjoy food immensely. After reading his book, I think we could be friends bonding over our love of food and our loving-hatred of our shared Midwestern roots. (We can make fun of the Midwest because we grew up there, you can’t; unless, you’re one of us.)

Gaffigan is relentlessly funny and opinionated. Through his book it is easy to tell the two great loves of his life: his food and his family – which is number one and two I am not sure, though. If you’re familiar with his comedy, you will hear his voice ringing loud and clear through the book. Not that I’m a stalker, but it feels like he is speaking to you. His humor transcends the written word.

I highly enjoyed his innovative map of the United States, or as it will come to be known as “The Jim Gaffigan Food Map.” I particularly identified with his chapter on Seabugland. Have I mentioned, we should be friends.

Nothing that I’m about to say will surprise his fans. He has an affinity for making up conversations, which are equally hilarious and probably better than the truth. From now on, I will be citing these conversations as answers to my friends’ questions as often as possible. I found his use of repetition a bit well… repetitive, but that is his style, and he writes the way he speaks. Though it works in stand up, it is a bit much for a book.

All in all, if you are a lover of food or comedy or both or you have a pulse, you should read his book.

Memorable Quotes
“Anyway, I’m overweight.”
“I for one can think of a thousand thing that taste better than thin.”
“I was from Indiana, which tho many is considered the trailer park of the Midwest”
“I like to think coffee comes from beans; therefore, it’s a vegetable.”
“My heart with all its clogged arteries belongs to bratwurst.”
“There is something profoundly sad about eating cake while you are alone.”

Title: Food; A Love Story
Author: Jim Gaffigan
Publisher: Three Rivers Press (Crown Publishing Group)
Copyright: 2014
ISBN: 9780804140430

Books

Bringing Up Bébé

September 8, 2017 RaeAnna

Read Yes
Length 266
Quick Review Druckerman describes her experiences living in France as an American and a new mother. She navigates the challenges and the positives of raising children in a foreign culture.

I read Bringing Up Bébé several years ago while I was in college. I don’t make a habit of reading parenting books, but I do enjoy reading cultural critiques of France as a francophone. I had lived in France for a time, and I had many of the same observations Druckerman makes throughout the book.

Druckerman moved to Paris to be with her, now, British husband, Simon. After the birth of their first daughter, she quickly realized the vast difference between American and French parents as well as American and French children. She set out to investigate the roots of these differences and how French parents managed to have such well behaved children and lives not over run by their prodigy. Druckerman does focus on motherhood, both French and American mothers, more than fatherhood because she is a mother herself.

Druckerman realized French families are not at the beck and call of every child in France. Instead parents are able to exist with their children in a familial “rhythm.” The French have an emphasis on the rhythms of children and paying attention to those; however, they believe children need to fit into the rhythm of the family as well. Druckerman was shocked at first to never see a screaming child in France. Instead, she saw a country full of children eating the same foods as adults, functioning independently, sleeping through the night by four months, reacting appropriately to being told no, and more. She strove to find and emulate this sense of calm French families possessed.

Druckerman quickly learned there is a more laid back attitude as parents. In the US, there is a never ending scrutiny parents live under, a sort of damned if you do, damned if you don’t. The French base their parenting off science and common sense; whereas to Druckerman, it seemed the US emphasized the latest fad book or parenting theory. Some revolutionary and new parenting ideas to Druckerman were seen as so common sense the French parents forgot to even mention them. The French system is designed to aid parents instead of tear them down or hinder them.

Druckerman gives background information on many French parenting mainstays such as the crèche, the cadre, and more. She starts the book off with a dictionary of terms necessary to every parent in France.

Druckerman presents the French way of parenting in such a positive light, I came back to the book several years later. I have never been on the I want children bandwagon, but her book makes parenting seem less horrific. She is able to capture the dichotomy that is american parenting and showcase the positives France has been able to carefully cultivate over the centuries.

Druckerman writes with a sense of humor poking fun at both herself and the cultures she inhabits. Reading through Bringing Up Bébé you get a sense of who she is as a person and as a parent. It is easy to identify with her struggles and desire to be a good mom to her children. I highly suggest this book to any already parent, soon-to-be parent, and those who just want an insight into parenting in a different country and culture.

Memorable Quotes
“Of course American parents want their kids to be patient. … But patience isn’t a skill that we hone quite as assiduously as French parents do.”
“Setting limits for kids isn’t a French invention, of course.”
“I seem to have a philosophical problem, too.”

Title: Bringing Up Bébé; One American Mother Discovers the Wisdom of French Parenting
Author: Pamela Druckerman
Publisher: The Penguin Press
Copyright: 2012
ISBN: 9781594203336

Books

The Glass Castle

July 31, 2017 RaeAnna

Read Yes
Length 288
Quick Review A memoir about the difficulties of growing up in a dysfunctionally transient family with a fascinating and intelligent alcoholic of a father leading their way.

I read this book a few years ago, and it has stayed with me not just for the story but because of Walls’ writing. With the movie coming out in a few days, I power read it over the weekend. It is just as resonating a second time.

Jeannette Walls is a journalist in New York City with a degree from Barnard College. These are wonderful achievements, which help define her character and intelligence even more so considering what she overcame as a child. The Glass Castle is a testament to her resilience.

Walls was born in 1960 to Rex and Rose Mary. She is one of four children. Growing up she lived a nomadic life. Her father was a brilliant man. His children adored him before growing up to resent his alcoholism and inability to conform even a little. He was able to capture his children’s imagination through storytelling and science. The children were home schooled a great deal with an emphasis on living life through the absence of fear. With one parent abhorring the conformity of society, the children needed a grounded parent. They did not find it in their mother, Rose Mary. She was an artistic free spirit looking at feminine domesticity as a prison she would not tolerate. She dismissed her role as parent and mother.

Walls writes about the difficulties of growing up in secluded environment. She describes the bond between her siblings; how they would lean on each other for support, nourishment, clothing, and protection in a world where their parents were barely present.

All four Walls children went on to live in society as fully functional and present participants ending up in New York City. Rex and Rose Mary followed their children to New York. Rex died in 1994 from a heart attack after he and his wife chose to remain homeless despite offers of help from their children.

Walls is a wonderful writer. She does not shy away from brutal honesty. She meets her childhood trauma head on with the maturity in the realization it formed her into the well-respected and successful journalist and writer she is today.

Memorable Quotes
“You’ve got to get right back in the saddle. You can’t live in fear of something as basic as fire.”
“You have to find the redeeming quality and love the person for that.”
“She had her addictions and one of them was reading.”
“Life’s too short to care about what other people think. Besides, they should accept us for who we are”

Title: The Glass Castle
Author: Jeannette Walls
Publisher: Scribner
Copyright: 2005
ISBN: 9780743247542

Books

Shame by Annie Ernaux

July 19, 2017 RaeAnna

Read Yes
Length 112
Quick Review A very short yet punchy memoir about a woman reminiscing on the events of her twelfth summer, and how her perception was forever altered by the trauma.

Annie Ernaux is finally able to commit to paper the life altering event which shaped her life’s perspective. Since the event, she has been marked by a feeling of never ending shame. This book is different from others she has written. She had been able to name her hometown previously, but found herself unable to after writing the first page.

Ernaux starts the book out with a stunning sentence: “My father tried to kill my mother one Sunday in June, in the early afternoon.” Normally a writer would leave something like this for further into the book; however, she starts with this and uses the rest of the book to explain her life leading up to the event.

As the daughter of store owners, a religious zealot of a mother, and a push-over of a father in a small, rural town in France, Ernaux felt oppressed, confined, controlled, and watched. Ernaux was “lucky” enough to go to private school meaning a school in a convent. Her parents had a shop in their home. Her town was small full of watching eyes. These aspects culminated in having to always maintain a facade of perfection in order to maintain a good standing at school, keep her parents happy, allow the family to look perfect, and never stray from the path.

Her father, who had been nothing but acquiescent to her mother, lost it and held a scythe to his wife’s neck in front of his daughter, Annie. By the afternoon, everything went back to normal in the house. For Ernaux, nothing was ever normal again. She viewed life as before and after. She was constantly waiting for the next time; nervous she would arrive home to a disaster.

Though it’s a short book, it is relatable. Everyone experiences shame in one way or another. Shame is felt by people for different reasons in different ways, but it is a burden we all bear silently because we feel alone in our own shame.

Memorable Quotes
“We have no true memory of ourselves.”
“Politeness was the supreme virtue, the basic principle underlying all social behavior.”
“Believing and having to believe were the same thing.”
“For me the word private will always suggest deprivation, fear and lack of openness. Including in the expression private life. Writing is something public.”
“The worst thing about shame is that we imagine we are the only ones to experience it.”
“…that the shame will never cease and that it will only be followed by more shame.”

Title: Shame
Author: Annie Ernaux
Translator: Tanya Leslie
Publisher: Seven Stories Press
Copyright: 1998
ISBN: 9781888363692

Books

Me Talk Pretty One Day

July 1, 2017 RaeAnna

Read Yes
Length 272
Quick Review As one of the most prominent contemporary authors, he has a unique voice filled with poignant moments and an outrageous sense of honest that will leave you laughing.

I have read several of David Sedaris’ articles in The New Yorker since I have a subscription and he is a regular contributor. Coincidence? I think not. Other than that, I just knew his name. I highly recommend him to anyone who likes to laugh and is not afraid of the perverse. My only complaint is his unfortunate habit of forsaking the oxford comma. I don’t know if it’s political, his publisher trying to save money on ink, or his rebellious nature, but it bothered me immensely.

This is not one of his recent books; it was published in 2000. So I am late to join the Me Talk Pretty One Day party. Oh well I’m here now. It is a memoir recollecting time from childhood as one of six children through his present (meaning 17 years ago present.) He has a wonderful sense of humor. I rarely laugh out loud when reading, but I did often causing my dog to jump and look at me funny.

Sedaris talks about his time as a child having a lisp. In order to teach his speech therapist a lesson he took to the thesaurus learning how to dodge the ever looming ‘s’ giving him a large vocabulary. I would surmise this adolescent subversion has aided his writing career and later helped him dodge the ever present difficulty of gendered nouns in the French language.

I would like to think Sedaris could see the future when he noted (predicted?) nachos at the movies was a gateway to hot dogs, hamburgers, and full blown meals with cutlery… Way back in 2000, he didn’t know then that the theater-restaurant would exist less than two decades later. What else does he know?

Me Talk Pretty One Day is one of my favorite reads this year. I’m looking forward to picking up more of his work. He also inspired me. He showed me at 26, I have not wasted my life because at my age he hadn’t even finished college, but he had started and stopped twice. So there’s still time for me to be a success! Although, I will skip the methamphetamine stage.

Memorable Quotes
“Although I had regularly petitioned for a brand-name vacuum cleaner, I’d never said anything about wanting a guitar.”
“To me, one of the greatest mystery of science continues to be that a man could father six children who shared absolutely none of his interests.”
“I don’t know who invented the template for the standard writing workshop, but whoever it was seems to have struck the perfect balance between sadism and masochism.”

Title: Me Talk Pretty One Day
Author: David Sedaris
Publisher: Little Brown and Co.
Copyright: 2000
ISBN: 9780316776967

Books

The Greater Journey

June 9, 2017 RaeAnna

Read Yes
Length 558
Quick Review A great look into how Paris affected America and how America affected Paris in regards to art, science, and intellect over the last almost two centuries.

I am a huge fan of David McCullough, who happens to be a two-time Pulitzer Prize winner. I think he is a fabulous scholar, author, and researcher. It is blatantly obvious he has a passion for history with an unparalleled ability to convey an immense amount of research without ever being dry.

The Greater Journey is about Americans who spent time living in Paris. Many of the Americans returned to the US after Paris, but a handful remained in France. The Americans flocked to Paris as the center of style, art, intellect, etc. Paris is commonly known to have been home to American writers like F. Scott Fitzgerald and Hemingway in the 1920’s, but Paris was home to many more American greats as much as a century before.

McCullough never lightly takes on the task of telling the history of a subject. He really goes all out. I always complain how a vast majority of scholars write incredibly dry books. They know so much about the subject that they try and cram in all the details but forget to make it interesting for the readers who do not eventually want to write a dissertation on the subject – so most. McCullough has never fallen into this category of academics. He is always engaging and interesting. I am always impressed by his thorough yet entertaining rhetoric.

I would highly suggest The Greater Journey. If you’re not interested in Americans in Paris, I do suggest his other books on topics ranging from the Brooklyn Bridge to John Adams to the Wright Brothers to American Pioneers and a bunch of other interesting stuff. He’s a great author and historian. I highly suggest him!

Memorable Quotes
“To Wendell Holmes she was a shining case in point of why women should not be excluded from a medical education.” about Madame La Chapelle

Title: The Greater Journey: Americans in Paris
Author: George McCullough
Publisher: Simon & Schuster
Copyright: 2011
ISBN: 9781416571766