by Giulia Melucci ‧ RELEASE DATE: April 8, 2009
Frustrations whisked into a tasty treat of a story.
Giada De Laurentiis meets Candace Bushnell in this debut memoir from romantically challenged yet resilient Melucci.
The author grew up Catholic, Italian and squeaky-clean in Bay Ridge, Brooklyn. Melucci’s mother played a consequential role in shaping her personality and taste buds, but the most touching early sections revolve around her father, an Italian immigrant. He was a serious man more concerned with facilitating his children’s education than fostering a sense of intimacy, but they grew closer when Melucci studied Italian and art history in college. He was pleased to share his native culture and food with her, and took her to Salerno to meet her Italian relatives. He died three days before she graduated from college; she still cherishes the envelope on which he wrote an impromptu note expressing his love when she was studying in Florence. Melucci warily moved to Manhattan, where she quickly—much to her surprise—landed both a man and a job. Her career as a book publicist, then VP for public relations at Harper’s magazine, proved to be a lot steadier than her love life. First there was Kit, who preferred alcohol to angel hair; Ethan, who loved halibut but hated cohabitation; and Mitch, the friend-with-benefits for whom Melucci made bowls of peppery farfalle. Her memoir is strewn with numerous other relatable scenarios and stereotypical lovers, none as satisfying as the homemade and borrowed recipes that accompany each escapade. Using cooking as catharsis after crumbled relationships, Melucci sprinkles sweet and savory homespun meals, ranging from traditional to eclectic, among anecdotes describing the angst of dating in your 30s. The urban backdrop includes Brooklyn’s budding neighborhoods, Greenwich Village’s underground music scene and SoHo’s sleek eateries. In the absence of a reliable male companion, strolling the aisles of Dean & DeLuca gets Melucci’s heart pumping.
Frustrations whisked into a tasty treat of a story.Pub Date: April 8, 2009
ISBN: 978-0-446-53442-0
Page Count: 274
Publisher: Grand Central Publishing
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: April 1, 2009
Share your opinion of this book
by Chris Gardner with Quincy Troupe ‧ RELEASE DATE: June 1, 2006
Well-told and admonitory.
Young-rags-to-mature-riches memoir by broker and motivational speaker Gardner.
Born and raised in the Milwaukee ghetto, the author pulled himself up from considerable disadvantage. He was fatherless, and his adored mother wasn’t always around; once, as a child, he spied her at a family funeral accompanied by a prison guard. When beautiful, evanescent Moms was there, Chris also had to deal with Freddie “I ain’t your goddamn daddy!” Triplett, one of the meanest stepfathers in recent literature. Chris did “the dozens” with the homies, boosted a bit and in the course of youthful adventure was raped. His heroes were Miles Davis, James Brown and Muhammad Ali. Meanwhile, at the behest of Moms, he developed a fondness for reading. He joined the Navy and became a medic (preparing badass Marines for proctology), and a proficient lab technician. Moving up in San Francisco, married and then divorced, he sold medical supplies. He was recruited as a trainee at Dean Witter just around the time he became a homeless single father. All his belongings in a shopping cart, Gardner sometimes slept with his young son at the office (apparently undiscovered by the night cleaning crew). The two also frequently bedded down in a public restroom. After Gardner’s talents were finally appreciated by the firm of Bear Stearns, his American Dream became real. He got the cool duds, hot car and fine ladies so coveted from afar back in the day. He even had a meeting with Nelson Mandela. Through it all, he remained a prideful parent. His own no-daddy blues are gone now.
Well-told and admonitory.Pub Date: June 1, 2006
ISBN: 0-06-074486-3
Page Count: 320
Publisher: Amistad/HarperCollins
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: March 15, 2006
Share your opinion of this book
by Jon Krakauer ‧ RELEASE DATE: Jan. 1, 1996
A wonderful page-turner written with humility, immediacy, and great style. Nothing came cheap and easy to McCandless, nor...
The excruciating story of a young man on a quest for knowledge and experience, a search that eventually cooked his goose, told with the flair of a seasoned investigative reporter by Outside magazine contributing editor Krakauer (Eiger Dreams, 1990).
Chris McCandless loved the road, the unadorned life, the Tolstoyan call to asceticism. After graduating college, he took off on another of his long destinationless journeys, this time cutting all contact with his family and changing his name to Alex Supertramp. He was a gent of strong opinions, and he shared them with those he met: "You must lose your inclination for monotonous security and adopt a helter-skelter style of life''; "be nomadic.'' Ultimately, in 1992, his terms got him into mortal trouble when he ran up against something—the Alaskan wild—that didn't give a hoot about Supertramp's worldview; his decomposed corpse was found 16 weeks after he entered the bush. Many people felt McCandless was just a hubris-laden jerk with a death wish (he had discarded his map before going into the wild and brought no food but a bag of rice). Krakauer thought not. Admitting an interest that bordered on obsession, he dug deep into McCandless's life. He found a willful, reckless, moody boyhood; an ugly little secret that sundered the relationship between father and son; a moral absolutism that agitated the young man's soul and drove him to extremes; but he was no more a nutcase than other pilgrims. Writing in supple, electric prose, Krakauer tries to make sense of McCandless (while scrupulously avoiding off-the-rack psychoanalysis): his risky behavior and the rites associated with it, his asceticism, his love of wide open spaces, the flights of his soul.
Pub Date: Jan. 1, 1996
ISBN: 0-679-42850-X
Page Count: 320
Publisher: Villard
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Oct. 15, 1995
Share your opinion of this book
More by Jon Krakauer
BOOK REVIEW
by Jon Krakauer
BOOK REVIEW
by Jon Krakauer
BOOK REVIEW
by Jon Krakauer
More About This Book
SEEN & HEARD
© Copyright 2024 Kirkus Media LLC. All Rights Reserved.
Hey there, book lover.
We’re glad you found a book that interests you!
We can’t wait for you to join Kirkus!
It’s free and takes less than 10 seconds!
Already have an account? Log in.
OR
Sign in with GoogleTrouble signing in? Retrieve credentials.
Welcome Back!
OR
Sign in with GoogleTrouble signing in? Retrieve credentials.
Don’t fret. We’ll find you.