Reading Wednesday
Aug. 20th, 2014 02:58 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
brigdhWhat did you just finish?
The Hundred-Foot Journey by Richard C. Morais. An Indian family moves to a small town in France to open a restaurant, which leads to a rivalry with the traditional French restaurant across the street. Eventually they reach an agreement, and the old French cook takes in one of the Indian children as an apprentice, he grows up to open his own restaurant in Paris, and in the end achieves three Michelin stars, thus fulfilling everyone's dreams.
This is... sort of a weird book. It's written very much in the style of a memoir, but it's not – it's a novel, and that distinction kept bothering me. I mean, it's fine for someone writing a memoir to go on and on about fulfilling their family's destiny and living up to their father's expectations, but it feels very tell-don't-show when it's all fictional. And long passages about "I got to meet Chef X!" or "a good review by famous Critic Y!" are much less impressive when none of them are real people, and thus the book somehow managed to make name-dropping even more boring than it usually is.
Most of the food description was nice enough (though much more focused on French food than Indian), but the book did one thing which I've seen before but which I always hate: referring to paneer as cottage cheese. I get that not everyone knows what paneer is, but I can't imagine that calling it cottage cheese helps the situation in any way. In fact, I think it makes it actively worse. For example:
Palak paneer: if you know what it is, yum! If you don't, eh, it's clearly some sort of food.
Cottage cheese in stewed spinach: ewwwwww why would you do that.
Tandoori paneer: again, yum! Or maybe just, *shrug*.
Roasted cottage cheese: what the fuckkkkkkkk how does that even work.
See? Picturing American-style cottage cheese instead of paneer makes things less clear, not more.
Seven for a Secret by Lyndsay Faye. The second in the series about Timothy Wilde, a policeman in 1840s NYC. I liked this one better than the first book in the series; I feel like the author had settled down a little and really gotten into the flow of writing the historical period and the rhythms of its speech (she makes a big deal out of using contemporary slang - even including a glossary with each book - that came off as try-hard in the first, but feels more natural here). This book is about runaway slaves - and free people captured and sold as runaway slaves - which puts Wilde in the odd position of having to work against the law in order to help those he wants to. I think the real fun of this series is the secondary characters: Val, Wilde's brother, a handsome muscular politician with a drug problem and a sort-of boyfriend, Gentle Jim; Jakob Piest, an eccentric old man and fellow policeman; Mrs. Boehm, a young widow and a baker, and Wilde's landlord; Mercy Underhill, a writer who Wilde is in love with. There were several minor characters I really enjoyed and am sad will not be returning, since all my favorites died or left town by the end of the book.
Crimson Angel by Barbara Hambly. I snagged a review copy AHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH. Will write a real review when I've put my thoughts together in a day or two.
(I did also finish Graveyard Dust, but we've delayed the FFA discussion for a week, so I haven't written my notes up yet. I'll add it to next week's post.)
What are you currently reading?
Unveiled by Courtney Milan. I'm finally getting around to reading Milan's other series! This is good, but is fairly obviously an earlier book - stuff that she'll do so much better later in only half-formed here. Still, I'm enjoying it. In 1830s England, a distant poor (well, poor in childhood and now 'new money') cousin manages to declare himself heir to a Duke by proving the Duke's own children were illegitimate. The Duke's daughter pretends to be a servant to spy on him. Of course, they fall in love. Also, this is the second romance novel I've read recently where the hero was dyslexic! Which is a weird coincidence.
Monsoon Diary: A Memoir with Recipes by Shoba Narayan. Since I didn't get enough Indian food gratification out of Hundred-Foot Journey.
The Hundred-Foot Journey by Richard C. Morais. An Indian family moves to a small town in France to open a restaurant, which leads to a rivalry with the traditional French restaurant across the street. Eventually they reach an agreement, and the old French cook takes in one of the Indian children as an apprentice, he grows up to open his own restaurant in Paris, and in the end achieves three Michelin stars, thus fulfilling everyone's dreams.
This is... sort of a weird book. It's written very much in the style of a memoir, but it's not – it's a novel, and that distinction kept bothering me. I mean, it's fine for someone writing a memoir to go on and on about fulfilling their family's destiny and living up to their father's expectations, but it feels very tell-don't-show when it's all fictional. And long passages about "I got to meet Chef X!" or "a good review by famous Critic Y!" are much less impressive when none of them are real people, and thus the book somehow managed to make name-dropping even more boring than it usually is.
Most of the food description was nice enough (though much more focused on French food than Indian), but the book did one thing which I've seen before but which I always hate: referring to paneer as cottage cheese. I get that not everyone knows what paneer is, but I can't imagine that calling it cottage cheese helps the situation in any way. In fact, I think it makes it actively worse. For example:
Palak paneer: if you know what it is, yum! If you don't, eh, it's clearly some sort of food.
Cottage cheese in stewed spinach: ewwwwww why would you do that.
Tandoori paneer: again, yum! Or maybe just, *shrug*.
Roasted cottage cheese: what the fuckkkkkkkk how does that even work.
See? Picturing American-style cottage cheese instead of paneer makes things less clear, not more.
Seven for a Secret by Lyndsay Faye. The second in the series about Timothy Wilde, a policeman in 1840s NYC. I liked this one better than the first book in the series; I feel like the author had settled down a little and really gotten into the flow of writing the historical period and the rhythms of its speech (she makes a big deal out of using contemporary slang - even including a glossary with each book - that came off as try-hard in the first, but feels more natural here). This book is about runaway slaves - and free people captured and sold as runaway slaves - which puts Wilde in the odd position of having to work against the law in order to help those he wants to. I think the real fun of this series is the secondary characters: Val, Wilde's brother, a handsome muscular politician with a drug problem and a sort-of boyfriend, Gentle Jim; Jakob Piest, an eccentric old man and fellow policeman; Mrs. Boehm, a young widow and a baker, and Wilde's landlord; Mercy Underhill, a writer who Wilde is in love with. There were several minor characters I really enjoyed and am sad will not be returning, since all my favorites died or left town by the end of the book.
Crimson Angel by Barbara Hambly. I snagged a review copy AHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH. Will write a real review when I've put my thoughts together in a day or two.
(I did also finish Graveyard Dust, but we've delayed the FFA discussion for a week, so I haven't written my notes up yet. I'll add it to next week's post.)
What are you currently reading?
Unveiled by Courtney Milan. I'm finally getting around to reading Milan's other series! This is good, but is fairly obviously an earlier book - stuff that she'll do so much better later in only half-formed here. Still, I'm enjoying it. In 1830s England, a distant poor (well, poor in childhood and now 'new money') cousin manages to declare himself heir to a Duke by proving the Duke's own children were illegitimate. The Duke's daughter pretends to be a servant to spy on him. Of course, they fall in love. Also, this is the second romance novel I've read recently where the hero was dyslexic! Which is a weird coincidence.
Monsoon Diary: A Memoir with Recipes by Shoba Narayan. Since I didn't get enough Indian food gratification out of Hundred-Foot Journey.
