The Table Comes First

The Table Comes First: Family, France, and the Meaning of Food by Adam Gopnik

Here comes a mini review or what we'll call an appetizer:  New Yorker mainstay Adam Gopnik meditates on all things food and dining in the delightful, The Table Comes First.  Gopnik, writing in a conversational style, interlaces history into personal anecdotes while sharing recipe favorites.  The origins of the restaurant, the evolution of cooking methods and the role food plays with family, are expounded upon here with great skill and humor.  

Bon Appétit!

Sarah's Key

Sarah's Key by Tatiana de Rosnay
This emotionally laden story starts off with two alternating voices. Julia Jarmond is an American-born journalist, who has been living in Paris for 20 years, complete with a French family, and a marriage that is increasingly unstable. She is tasked with writing the story of the 1942 Vel d'Hiv Jewish roundup by the French police on the 60th anniversary of that difficult but little known episode in French history. We also see the roundup from the perspective of Sarah, a 10-year-old who is taken to the Vélodrome d'Hiver with her family, but without her younger brother. The stories of these two lives converge, with a key unlocking many long-buried secrets. This is a story that will stay with you.

Mark Twain's Autobiography, 1910-2010

Mark Twain's autobiography, 1910-2010 by Michael Kupperman

Writer/illustrator Michael Kupperman drums up a thrilling, hilarious tale of what happened after Mark Twain had staged his death in 1910.  Mark Twain is immortal.  Wait, you didn't know that?   

Illustrations and short accompanying text highlight a century of the famed author's mischief making.  Kupperman obviously takes several liberties and also writes Twain a little crankier and crass than we're used to reading, but he still manages to effectively live within the author's witty voice.   Twain's stint as a shock jock radio host, experiments with psychedelics, space travel, advice to Charles Shultz, a psychic altercation with a doughnut shop employee (see below) and general shenanigans with his buddy Albert Einstein are just some of the episodes of this adventure.

Amy and Isabelle

Amy and Isabelle by Elizabeth Strout
In the stifling hot summer of 1971, Amy has a summer job working in the same office as her mother, Isabelle, in the small town of Shirley Falls. We quickly learn that  something has come between them to drastically change their relationship, but what exactly that is takes longer to discover with story enfolding from the differing perspectives of both Amy and Isabelle. The troubles facing the people of this town are almost too realistically drawn; under almost every ideal roof something darker lurks. Great character development and lyrical writing. This is Strout's first novel; she later won the Pulitzer Prize for Olive Kitteridge.

Patternmaster

Patternmaster by Octavia E. Butler.

Folks have been recommending that I read Octavia E. Butler for some time. I've received recommendations from friends that know I like Ursula Le Guin and have told me that I would therefore like Butler's writing as well, and I've also received recommendations from friends who have said, "Oh, you like science fiction. I don't read much science fiction, but I just read this book by Octavia E. Butler...".

I picked up my first novel by Octavia E. Butler, Patternmaster, last Thursday, and I finished reading it over the weekend. Needless to say, I enjoyed it! In this short novel, Butler introduces us to a post-apocalyptic world in which humans are divided into a complex system of social castes and warring factions based upon the powerful mental powers of some, and the disease induced mutations of others. The story, of a student who leaves school to find himself in conflict with his own power hungry brother, is relatively simple, but the detailed world in which it takes place makes it feel like part of something much bigger.

Reader's of Ursula Le Guin's fiction will recognize themes of class, gender, and sexuality in Butler's writing, as well as a similar approach to speculative fiction that is based on rigorous world building and avoids the stereotypes of the genre. The struggles depicted in Patternmaster are, however, more violent, and the cast more power hungry, than in Le Guin's writings. If you like Ursula Le Guin and don't mind the a story with some loose ends and some violent passages, you should give Patternmaster a try.