Third-season winner of The Next Food Network Star heads to France to rebuild her life and marriage.
After emerging as the victor, Finley found herself quickly disenchanted by her resulting 15 minutes of fame. The author walked away from it all, regarded by many as a highly controversial move, because her marriage was falling apart and nothing felt “real” anymore. She retreated back to San Diego and her estranged husband and their two small children. But it wasn't long before the author suggested a move to her husband's native France in an attempt to repair her marriage and preserve her family—and her sanity. What emerged from this sojourn is a charming, bare-bones chronicle of a woman reclaiming her family and a couple reclaiming their relationship, all through the healing qualities of time, honesty and food. Wonderful, robust French cuisine (including Finley's own homemade cheese and wine), weathered neighbors and the shops, restaurants and bakeries that dot the French countryside—all contributed not only to the family’s transformation, but the richness of the narrative as well. There is no trace of culinary elitism here, just an unadulterated joy of food, a thrill at a change of scenery and the admirable resilience of a temporarily broken and displaced family. Credit Finley's wisdom to recognize the havoc wrought upon her life by the Food Network publicity machine, endangering the tenets she fiercely held dear. The author's account of her determination to rework her life into one worth living is bracing and uplifting. A five-star read.
Pub Date: April 1, 2011
ISBN: 978-0-307-59138-8
Page Count: 288
Publisher: Clarkson Potter
Review Posted Online: April 4, 2011
Kirkus Reviews Issue: March 1, 2011
Stricter than, say, Bergen Evans or W3 ("disinterested" means impartial — period), Strunk is in the last analysis...
Privately published by Strunk of Cornell in 1918 and revised by his student E. B. White in 1959, that "little book" is back again with more White updatings.
Stricter than, say, Bergen Evans or W3 ("disinterested" means impartial — period), Strunk is in the last analysis (whoops — "A bankrupt expression") a unique guide (which means "without like or equal").Pub Date: May 15, 1972
ISBN: 0205632645
Page Count: 105
Publisher: Macmillan
Review Posted Online: Oct. 28, 2011
Kirkus Reviews Issue: May 1, 1972
This is not the Nutcracker sweet, as passed on by Tchaikovsky and Marius Petipa. No, this is the original Hoffmann tale of 1816, in which the froth of Christmas revelry occasionally parts to let the dark underside of childhood fantasies and fears peek through. The boundaries between dream and reality fade, just as Godfather Drosselmeier, the Nutcracker's creator, is seen as alternately sinister and jolly. And Italian artist Roberto Innocenti gives an errily realistic air to Marie's dreams, in richly detailed illustrations touched by a mysterious light. A beautiful version of this classic tale, which will captivate adults and children alike. (Nutcracker; $35.00; Oct. 28, 1996; 136 pp.; 0-15-100227-4)
Pub Date: Oct. 28, 1996
ISBN: 0-15-100227-4
Page Count: 136
Publisher: Harcourt
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 15, 1996
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