5 comments about ERIC LIDDELL: PURE GOLD.

1. 
   Outstanding book on the life of a young dedicated christian.
   Should be of great encouragement to young people who desperately need someone as an role model in this day of confusion.
   Book is well written and brings out his courage to do that which is right in the face of adversity.
   Book is written in a foremat that can be enjoyed by those of any age group.



2. Are you sure it can't be done??? well, think twice and then read this man's biography. Eric Liddell immortilized worldwide in the 1981 Hugh Hudson's motion picture Chariots of Fire in its purest form is presented in this book. A story on courage, capacity and determination. You should not miss it. You shall want to go out jogging and be a better person to say the least!
   
   From his birth on January 16, 1902 in Tientsin, China, to his unexpected death due to a brain tumor on February 21, 1945 in a japanese concentration camp in that same country, passing through his experiences at boarding school in the UK, his olympic victory, his religious commitments, his unbelievable determination, his beloved Florence ("Flo") and the beautiful love story that surrounded their relationship, the people who marked his life (his mother Mary, father James, brothers Rob and Ernest, sister Jenny, etc.). A book that brought out emotions from the beginning when I read about Florence (Eric's widow) watching Chariots of Fire and imagining her reactions, her feelings of pride... This book is a thoroughly rewarding experience!



3. I fell in love with the movie "Chariots of Fire" when I was in college over 20 years ago. I also enjoyed the paperback of the same name. Recently I became interested in this true story again and found "Pure Gold" on Amazon.
   This biography is slow-moving and tedious. I have never been to China nor do I have any interest in the Orient, so the setting of most of the book was not compelling. I was hoping that Eric's personality and dedication to Christian principles would pull me through when I was tempted to stop reading and give the book away.
   I was inspired enough to finish it but "ho hum" is my response to the writing.
   Maybe "Chariots of Fire" was a too "Hollywood-ized" version of the 1924 Olympics,(as Back Flash was to firefighting) but even if it was, I prefer it to this book.



4. Eric Liddell is an interesting & worthy subject for a biography but this one isn't it. The author did extensive research in primary documents, interviewed people who knew Liddell personally, & created an excellent bibliography. Unfortunately, the writing style is corny & some of the passages are fictionalized, particularly ones regarding Liddell's relationship with his wife Flo. The author puts thoughts in their minds that he couldn't possibly know. He so over-romanticizes his subject that he becomes almost unreal. Liddell was a great athlete & a great servant of the Lord, but the author so idolizes him that he becomes a kind of plaster saint. The main problem with this book is that it is explicitly written to be "inspirational," & so the reader is reminded over & over again what a great Christian role model Liddell was. This gets tiresome. Don't misunderstand me -- I am not knocking Liddell here at all, only the author's mode of presenting him. A less didactic book would serve Liddell better. His own words & actions speak for themselves.



5. Because of the surprise hit Chariots of Fire, the world knows the name Eric Liddell. Most people also know about the stand he made for his beliefs as he refused to run an Olympic race he was favored to win simply because the race was scheduled for Sunday. Those who have seen the movie know that it ends shortly after he wins an Olympic gold medal in an event in which he had barely trained. But in Pure Gold, a biography of Liddell weighing in at 333 pages, the race is complete by the ninety-eighth page. There is much more to Liddell than the movie portrays.
   
   Eric Liddell is a man who was sold out to God. He regarded his own desires and his own comforts as secondary to God's. Raised as the son of a missionary, he grew up away from his parents, for in those days children were left in their native country to receive their training, often seeing their parents only once every six or seven years. There was a period of over a decade in Liddell's life where he was with his parents for only 100 days. Despite the seperation, he received strong training, primarily in the Bible.
   
   While he grew both academically and spiritually, people also came to realize that Liddell had a gift for speed. He was fast. He was also uncouth, with a running style all his own. He would start like any other runner, but as he approached the finish line, he would throw his head back and his arms would begin to flail. Yet somehow, rather than slow him down, this gave him a burst of speed that often led him to victory.
   
   Some of his exploits from his early days are famous, such as the time he fell in a 400-meter race, but managed to climb to his feet and work his way back into first place, making up a deficit of over ten meters. And as we know from the movie, he earned a position on the British Olympic squad at the 1924 Olympic Games where he came away with two medals, a gold and a bronze. He returned to his native Scotland a hero - far and away the best-known athlete in the nation. It was this fame that provided the springboard for his mission work. Despite being a shy and quiet man, he criss-crossed the country, speaking before hundreds of thousands of people, telling them about the Lord and encouraging them to give their lives to Him.
   
   At the very pinnacle of his athletic success, Liddell laid it all aside to become a missionary to China, the country his father had served when Eric was a boy and the country he continued to serve to that day. Liddell counted his prestige as nothing and moved to the mission field. He served the rest of his life in China before his eventual death in a Japanese internment camp during the Second World War. It is this period of his life that so few know about, yet this is where we see Liddell at his finest. It is here that we see the power and effectiveness of a life that is sold out to God.
   
   This biography is well-written, inspiring and highly-recommended. It presents Liddell as he really was and helps the reader understand the foundation for his life. It portrays Liddell in his strength and in his weakness, through joy and sadness. It portrays the consistency of a man who lived in the same way when the eyes of the nation were upon him, or when he stood only before the eyes of the Lord.
   
   While Chariots of Fire has done much to bring Liddell to the public eye, and while it presented the man accurately, it tells less than half the story. However, the race which forms the climax to the movie can well be seen as a metaphor for Liddell's life. He finished the race of life the same way he had finished so many races long before - with his arms flailing and his head turned to the sky, enraptured purely with the joy of running.

5 comments about Hypocrite in a Pouffy White Dress.

1. I found the chapters scattered and storyline pretty uneventful. The book was not a quick read. Pretty forgetable overall. Funny moments, some chapters were more entertaining than others, but def was not a page turner.



2. I absolutely loved this book, I laughed out loud which is something I never do. Loved everything about her, her musings and her attitude towards all things pro-woman. You wont be disappointed !



3. It took me three attempts to get past the first twenty pages. Once I was into the heart of the first section it was laugh-out-loud funny. Well, that was until the second part of the book which was a bit dull and mind numbing. However, the optimism from the first section carried me through to the final section of the book. It was definately worth making it through the middle of the book.
   This was an enjoyable read; the type of book to take to the beach for the day. There is about 100 unneccessary pages however, the remaining pages are witty, entertaining and enjoyable.



4. Really, everyone who has given this "author" one star has hit the nail on the head; she wants to be fascinating. I suppose there's nothing wrong with that................until you decide that you're such an ironic paradox and so profound that you should probably publish. There are so many wonderful books and amazing authors out there; don't waste your time.



5. This book is a laugh every page. It will remind you of times in your life you thought you forgot. No matter how old you are, or where you grew up this book will speak to you.

1 comments about Nemesis.

1. What a gripping story! Right from the prologue I was hooked. I was a little scared of getting into the book as it had to do with missing children. Being a mother of three children it was frightening to me. I went to the first chapter and I was hooked!
   
   The chapters move quickly. Vincent Cobb is a mastermind at writing. If you enjoy fiction-thrillers this book is for you. I have not read a thriller in years. Even if you are not into thrillers this book is for you!
   
   This truly is a very interesting story that keeps you wanting more. You feel like you know who the characters are. You hope for them. You want the mystery to be solved. You want the nightmares to end for Connie, the psychic young character.
   
   Do not miss this first book in the Angela Crossley series. I am still in awe of the story I just finished reading unfold before my very eyes. I cannot wait for the next book to be published!

5 comments about Send in the Idiots: Stories from the Other Side of Autism.

1. I really loved this book. It starts out good, and just gets better. Nazeer is a talented writer, and this is a polished work on a wide variety of fascinating topics. These topics include not only autism itself, but range from the nature of political discourse and its impact on the functioning of a healthy democracy all the way to the extent to which our tend to categorize many abilities as innate and in doing so deny the hard work that is always required to develop those abilities.
   
   It's rare to find a book that is this easy and absorbing to read, and yet where you so often find your thinking shifting subtly over and over as you absorb the ideas presented. I highly recommend it.



2. Nazeer says, "Autistic individuals find it difficult to develop intuition or empathy," and convincingly demonstrates that his experience of social interactions and certain kinds of frustration is very different from, well, my own anyway.
   
   But, his writing is brilliant, his metaphors are fresh and apt, he's engaging...this is one of those books that's worth reading just for the writing. But in this case that gives my prejudices a puzzle: If that's not intuition and empathy, what is it? A hard-won kind, perhaps, and in many ways better than the kind I take for granted. But that upsets my ideas of what good writing comes from.
   
   And in fact one of his chapters is about the common assumption that geniuses have it easy. The unthinking dismissal implied by saying that, he's gifted, he's smart, he's obsessed with the subject. Nazeer points out that there's still a hell of a lot of work in preparing for and executing any kind of great work. Still, looking back at Nazeer's own book, I wonder, can you create that kind of style, color, coherence and personality by... work?
   
   In one chapter he rants against a kind of falseness common in conversations. Although I'm tempted to correct his calling it falseness, the point isn't easy to make. Often conversations float above factualness and their substance is about themes, patterns, meta concerns and a kind of shared tacit evolving conspiracy, but I'm left with the uneasy feeling that that sense of substance is "just an intuition," as if I understand it even less than Nazeer does.
   
   Which is to say, I loved these bonus insights and paradoxes, especially when the ride to them was so comfortable and entertaining. I appreciated being allowed into the lives of these people, especially the author.



3. My son has a diagnosis on the autism spectrum and my bookshelf is overflowing with books about autism. Unlike another reviewer I did not find this book discouraging.
   This book gave me a wonderful insight into how it is for my son to learn the mechanics of communication that come intuatively to neurotypical people. And many times the mechanics are much more interesting to the author than the content of the conversation. For example he was told that his teacher had been assaulted by a parent. I was waiting for him to ask and share why this assault took place and what had happend to the parent and child but instead he went on about the conversation itself. I had to laugh because clearly very different aspects of that story were interesting to us and I appreciated that as an insight.
   This book reminded me of books I have read by people traveling back to their home to find their roots to explain who they are. What does it mean for him and his old classmates to have autism? What has it ment to their lives? Autism has put odds in their way but has also forced them to become deliberate and resourceful.
   
   So I guess if you are looking for a book that makes you see people with autism as overcoming all obstacles or being doomed or savants then this might not be your book. It is not a book offering knowledge on how to raise your autistic child. It is a book about a few people with autism who struggle and succed and fail much in the same and jet a different way as all of humanity.



4. Autism is a world like no other. My child was diagnosed at the age of 19 months and we have been living in that world for 3 1/2 years. I felt this book was a very interesting and insightful view to the 'inside' of Autism. I have spent these years trying (and succeeding) at understanding my own child's mind. When I could not find materials to help educate her, I made them myself. I proactively worked at educating my child. I have a website [...] where I have made available items that have successfully helped my child and other children with Autism.
   
   Understanding your child's mind is a wonderful tool for helping them. This was a good book to read and fast-reading book. I also gave me hope for my own child's quirky ways.



5. This book held a lot of promise for me. As the mother of a 7 year old son with autism, I was hoping to read about how these children started on the path of intervention and therapy at a young age, and had terrific outcomes. What I got was instead rather depressing. First, it is not an easy book to read. The author seems to get mired in side information, such as the use of the word "genius" for far too long, distracting from the stories of the lives of the characters.
   While I know my son will live with autism for his whole life, we always hold out hope that some of the behaviors that manifest in his place on the spectrum will be outgrown. That did not seem to be the case for some of the people in this book. I was very disturbed at Andre and his use of puppets as an adult. I fully understand that as an autisic person, he needs to use whatever strategies he can to cope, and I have no judgement on him. I can only keep working with my own child to try to lead him out of these behaviors.
   I would not recommend this book to parents of young autistic children. I think it has the ability to dash some of the hope we need to have.

2 comments about Walter Benjamin's Archive.

1. Amazon's star rating system goes askew on this book.
   
   If you are a devoted fan of Walter Benjamin, then it is essential. On the other hand, if you are like me---who has never read Mr. Benjamin's works ---then it won't be such a useful purchase.
   
   Without a flowing textual narrative, this book provides detailed examples of the scraps and notes kept by Mr. Benjamin, who was a compulsive hoarder of all mundane things tied to his highly intellectual pursuits during most of the first half of the last century



2. It's always wonderful to look into a book or magazine that consists largely of photographs of pages from other books, partly because nothing photographs better,and partly because you are seeing the page in something both like and unlike its native habitat, like an animal in the better kind of zoo.
   
   Because the texts are presented this way, as photographs of autographs (notebooks, postcards, trial drafts of essays, collected photographs with notations), the distance between reader and author is inescapable. Often, when we see a famous text (sometimes,e.g when it's newly translated into contemporary language), we will remark on how contemporary the story feels, how the writer, long dead, feels like someone you know or could know. But with pages like these, the patina of time is present, and so is all of the strangeness of the writer, as much as is left. There's nothing like a trip to the archives to get your bearings relative to a writer; to locate him/her in time, and to feel the presence of time, both as the writer felt it in gathering these scraps together, and as you feel it now.
   
   My favorite image from Benjamin's writing is the Angel of History, who is pinned in the air, blown back and upright by a wind from Paradise (from the Beginning), while all the garbage of every passing moment piles up at her feet. Something like a librarian. Being the angel of history makes movement difficult if not impossible, even when you have to leave Germany to save your life. You can read about that, but it's wonderful to have a chance to see pages from those books. If you're a Benjamin completionist, you will need to buy this book, but even if all you've read are the essays in Arendt's little collection, you will enjoy the added sense of the presence and loss of their author, just the same.

5 comments about Letters to a Young Chef (Art of Mentoring).

1. This book is fairly short, but not neccessarily a quick read. When he discusses how to make the perfect omelette, I poured over every detail and went back and re-read two more times. I was turned onto this book after eating at a couple of Daniel Boulud's NYC restaurants. He definitely knows how to produce amazing cuisine. While I'm not a chef, I love reading books related to the profession and thoroughly enjoy it as a hobby. So this book, while not really directed toward someone like me, was a great, enjoyable read with plenty of practical knowledge. My only critique is that it could have had so many more instances like the perfect omelette. I suppose that wasn't the focus of his writing here, but given the brevity of the book, there certainly was room for it.



2. After years of being miserable in another feild I recently decided to follow my dreams and passion and go to culinary school. I completed the program and Im now working in at a very well known restaurant. I bought this book to gain some insight about what Im getting myself into, its always nice to get other points of view. While I understand what Chef Daniel is trying to get at, and he describes foods so we can mentally see and taste them, he goes overboard to the point where its like "enough already." Every few sentences are something like "I once made a dish with pheasants freshly killed with my grandfathers shotgun on the hillsides of France. I had truffles flown in from deep within the valley of Tuscany and berries picked by the ancient tribes of the Amazon jungle." Alright, shut up. Ive gotten about half way through it and got tired of his pretentious way of speaking. Anyway, thats just my opinion, I dont think Ill be finishing this book anytime soon. I also picked up "The Soul of a Chef" and "The Reach of a Chef," they seem better.



3. Daniel is Captivating!!!!
   
   He said 30 is not a young chef, I hope that means 26 is still is!



4. Although written for those YOUNG chefs-to-be, Chef Boulud's book is redolent in culinary techniques, as well as a stable mind-set for any cook, chef or not! Do not overlook the last chapter and the "10 commandments"!



5. I came late to food (32 years of age), but I had already learned a vast amount of knowledge about food and food service, via working in my Aunt and Uncle's Restaurant in Spain. I then chose to acquire formal "Chef" qualifications, which doesn't really mean anything; at the end of the day, it's all about experience, your passion for food, and your ability to 'teach' yourself everything about food.
   My other point in regards to age is the British Chef, Nico Ladenis. Here's a man, who took a year off to travel France, came back home to London, started cooking from French Cook Books, worked in his friends Greek Restaurant before opening up his own, and then 20 years later, is the first English Chef to have more than 1 Restaurant awarded with Michelin Star ratings, not to mention that he has had amazing apprentices come out of his kitchens: Marco Pierre White, Gordon Ramsay, etc.
   I think I would follow passion, drive, professionalism, and love for food and kitchens any day, rather than saying it's all based on what age you come into the kitchen. When you consider that no Chef will ever learn everything about food, everyday is like the first day you walked into a Kitchen. With that attitude and conviction, you can become great! Good luck with your careers.

5 comments about Chicken with Plums.

1. Marjane Satrapi, Chicken with Plums (Pantheon, 2006)
   
   Satrapi's fourth book gives us biography instead of memoir this time-- the story of her great-uncle Nasser Ali Khan, a musician who decides to die after his wife breaks his favorite instrument. We are taken through the final eight days of Khan's life, as friends, relatives, and his own consciousness try to change his mind.
   
   I admit that my somewhat cool reaction to the book is almost certainly a product of the complete overload of memoirs and memoir-like biographies with which the market is currently glutted; I'm relatively sure this will be my last one for a long, long while, save one series-memoir I'm in the middle of. I say this because it's certainly not a bad book; Marjane Satrapi is a witty writer, and no less here than in her other books; Chicken with Plums is as enjoyable as anything else she's done. I just couldn't get my head round it as much as it deserved. ***



2. This is a story of a man who lives for music and a tragic love. It is a very simple yet wonderful tale of a man who doesn't seem to know how to live. He becomes a great musician but can't work and loses the love of his life due to his devotion to music. Without music and his memory of great love, he dies. The man's family, friends and relatives don't seem to count in his estimation of life. I found this book very moving and very touching. I think some reviewers took offense since it differs from her most famous book but this one holds its own and is very special. I highly recommend this book. It is very touching and the ending is just as tragic as the main character's life.



3. I just finished Chicken with Plums, and I loved it. It has about a human condition. In this case a man, who is living a life that he felt he did not own, except his musical instrument, and the secret it held for him.
   It is deceptively simple, but it is deep in what it conveys to the reader.
   I noticed some readers felt that the book was not finished, or they were confused about it. However, I found it very clear, honest, and funny at times. It made me sad too. I wonder how many of us live a life like Nasser Ali Khan, the musician? The life that is not truly an expression of our hearts.



4. Having read Persepolis I and II, as well as Embroideries, I was excited to snatch up Chicken With Plums as well. And despite some of the negative reviews here (which almost dissauded me), I found this book one of Satrapi's most magical, perfect creations. It's quite different than the autobiographical, child-like Persepolis I, though readers of Persepolis II and Embroideries will recognize the general tone and style. That said, it's a work that takes you by surprise with its directness, honesty, and sheer invention.
   
   The book follows the last eight days of Nasser Ali Khan's life, as he decides to resign himself to death after his wife, in an argument, destroys his precious "tar"--an Iranian sitar-like instrument. He is a master musician, renowned throughout the country, and the great love affair of his life (despite one thwarted human one) was with this reciprocating instrument. Unable to find another tar to requite his passion, he loses all taste for life and its joys, and decides to stay in bed until Azrael, the Angel of Death, comes for his soul. While waiting, we get a series of flashbacks and flashforwards as he--and others--recount the stories and anecdotes that frame his life. Reading this book is like listening in on family stories around the dinner table, which by their very nature are fragmentary, interrputed, and from multiple points of view.
   
   Though a simple story, the manner of telling it is amazingly complex and mesmerizing. Satrapi's storytelling is at its most concise here, but so much is revealed about the very human passions that shape a life, and how blind we are even to the people we live with. This is a magical book, filled with Satrapi's beautiful characterizations of the people she knew and loved. I cannot recommend this book highly enough.



5. Drawn in bold black and white, Marjane Satrapi's graphic novel illustrates the moving and disturbing life and last days of her uncle, Nasser Ali Kahn. He was a famous Iranian musician, loved for his virtuosity, and the sensitivity with which he played his beloved tar.
   
   It's a tale of how a man's happiness was gradually eroded by his culture, loss, suppressed feelings, and unrealizable expectations.
   
   The story starts with an older man in black walking down a city street. He encounters a slender woman with her grandchild. He hesitates. Asks if her name is Irane. She doesn't recognize him. Wonders how he knows her name. He, Nasser, apologizes and walks on to a friends business where he hopes to buy a replacement for his recently broken tar.
   
   We later learn that the broken tar had special meaning for Nasser. When he was a young man, the parents of the woman he'd fallen in love with forbade her to marry him because he was only a musician. Losing her plunged him into deep depression. He had difficulty playing. Nasser's tar master tried to console him by telling him, "To the common man, whether you're a musician or a clown, it's one and the same. The love you feel for this woman will translate into your music. She will be in every note you play." He then gave Nasser his own tar and instructed him to go on playing.
   
   From then on, Nasser's joy was his music. His playing thrilled his audiences
   
   Since childhood he'd been unable to meet the conventional expectations of others. His mother's, his brother's, his teachers', the parents of the woman he loved, his wife, his children.
   
   His mother urged him to marry a woman he didn't love so that he would forget his loss. Although the woman he married did love him, she resented his music. His children, influenced by their mother's attitude, became estranged from him. This drove him further and further into his music.
   
   After he failed to find another tar equal to his broken one, feeling that without that tar and his music there was nothing else he wanted, Nasser came to the conclusion, "To live, it's not enough to be alive." He decided to die.
   
   This where the novel really begins. Through Satrapi's masterful construction, we are able to piece together what we need to understand who Nassar was, and why he would make this tragic choice.
   
   Satrapi reveals Nasser's life and character by skillfully rearranging temporal events - picking up a incident, then dropping it, and then weaving it in later on in the story with new threads. She loops the past into the present, the future into the past. Sometimes, from frame to frame, she switches back and forth between the past and the present, showing how a character's unhappy memories and lingering hurt become emotional IEDs on the path to true understanding.
   
   There are many lenses through which to "see" another person, many ways in which to know them. At Nassaer's mother's funeral, a mystic tells him the story of five men in the dark trying to describe a whole elephant from the part each has touched. "We give meaning to life based upon our point of view," he tells Nasser. In Chicken With Plums, through characters and events, Satrapi gives us the whole elephant.
   
   As the novel progresses, Satrapi's drawings become more expressive and surreal, adding more decorative touches. Her work resembles animation, almost cartoonish, but her story has the depth of a great novel. She has the timing of a film maker, knowing just what to show when, and how to keep the mystery and tension to the end.
   
   Chicken With Plums has touched me deeply. It's a heart breaking story of love on many levels, fulfilled and unfulfilled. I believe Nasser died of a broken heart. Without Irane and without his music, he could not find a way to be in this world.

5 comments about The Second Nine Months: One Woman Tells the REAL Truth About Becoming a Mom. Finally..

1. Wow... I am completely appalled at this book and those like it... Becoming a mother is a complete life change. Motherhood is about putting your child's needs before your own and making sacrifices to insure that your child grows up happy and healthy and able to face the world on his or her own. I wanted to cry for the author's poor child. Leaving a child in a store or throwing a child out of a window is nothing to joke about in a world where these things are actually being done to children by parents. The author is a very selfish person and shouldn't have had a baby or should have given her child up for adoption so that this child could be loved by someone who would want nothing more than to be dealing with the things this author complains about throughout the book.



2. Well observed, well remembered, I empathised, laughed and cried along with Vicki. This is a great book for a first time Mother, place it on the table next to you while nursing and this book becomes your friend who understands everything!



3. Ok, so I am some mixed feelings about this book. I really wanted to like it. I was very excited to see a book that claimed to speak truthfully about what is to become a mom. And to it's credit, I think it was brave of the author to put it out there and not sugar coat what she experienced. Kudos to that. And yes, I can identify with the hardships that go along with becoming a mother.
   
   But, on the other hand, there are a few things that bother me. And I am seeing more motherhood writings go in this direction, which I am not sure is a good one. It seems to be a pendulum swing too far in the opposite direction of the "Super Mommy" era when everyone felt like they had to do it all and suck it up. Now, in reaction to that, moms are saying "hey, I am not perfect, I can't do it all, and it's hard." And that's all well and good. But, as this book did, when we go to "hey, this is really hard, so I am going to let myself off the hook of doing what I really should because it's too hard, and I don't want to", then I think it has gone too far.
   
   There is a part in the book where she has been gone from home over a weeknd and comes home to find that "there isn't any milk" and therefore stops breastfeeding. A little glossed over in the book. Like, oh by the way, darn, no milk, guess that's it. No apologies for the fact that if she really wanted to keep breastfeeding, she would have continued to pump. No apologies for the fact that she and the baby were doing fine breastfeeding, and the only reason she stopped, ultimately was because she didn't feel like keeping up with it anymore. Not that it didn't benefit baby, or that the baby wanted to stop. Just because she didn't want to. No focus about the reasons why this was, but plenty of focus on why all outside forces made her feel like she should do this or that, or lying to keep up and appear to be a "good mom."
   
   I'd like to see less moms give themselves permission to be a self-serving mom, and more moms doing the best they can in their decision making. Even if you can't be perfect, try, at least, to not provide excuses for yourself just to eliminate guilt.
   
   So, an interesting read, but to any future moms, know that this is only one mother's experience and certainly not representative of the average experience.



4. When the author's daughter Blair was born she experienced maternal bliss with her new baby, until she began to doubt her skills. THE SECOND NINE MONTHS outlines the truth about her first months with her new baby, covering the common fears new mothers have about motherhood. Any new mother needs THE SECOND NINE MONTHS: it covers all the basics and teaches common areas of confusion and concern.



5. The usual nonsense from a narcissist who suffers attachment difficulties with her child and rationalizes her ineptitude by blaming the child.

5 comments about A Day in Tuscany: More Confessions of a Chianti Tour Guide.

1. If you read Dario Castagno's first book, Too Much Tuscan Sun, this one may come as a surprise. It's a fanciful but thoughtful "day in the life" as compared to his previous tour guide stories, which were funny but occasionally very unflattering regarding some of his clients. This time we see another side of life in the Chianti countryside, with endearing tales both old and new, of the inhabitants. A lovely bit of writing and remembrances by this proud member of the Bruco contrada.



2. Dario has once again weaved a great story about his village and his deep passion and affection for his village, tradition and for Italy. This is a great read to complement his other books.



3. A very enjoyable read that informs and entertains. It feels as if our upcoming trip to Tuscany has already begun.



4. This is a great read. Short, funny and I loved the way he wrote the book. Passed it on to friends and they loved it also.



5. I dearly loved this book. I vacationed in Vagliagli, the tiny Italian hamlet and recognized the sites and people the author talks about. When he describes the sights and sounds (the rooster, hunting dogs barking) upon waking, I find myself back at our villa down the way from Cignano. Everyone who appreciates the solitude and the true Italy needs to read this book. Thank you for sharing, Dario. I am a fan of your books.

5 comments about The Saucier's Apprentice: One Long Strange Trip through the Great Cooking Schools of Europe.

1. After just going on a 2 month tour through Europe at the age of 51, I thought this book would extend the pleasure of my trip. NOT! His whiney, self-important, self-centered view of every aspect of his trip really bugged me. Even his writing style: labored similes, over indulgent use of foreign words, expectation that everyone shares his world view just made it harder to get through. I kept waiting for the moment when he would learn some kind of life lesson and curb his infantile behavior. A little humility would have gone a long way.



2. I am on my way to Paris this week for a culinary experience not unlike Mr Spitz. I am not going to the classes he did, but am looking forward to tasting foods one can only dream about in the United States. Mr. Spitz traveled to France and Italy in 2004 following demise of a relationship (actually two relationships) and went to a number of cooking schools over a period of several months. He honed his techniques, met some interesting people and shared those experiences after a period of allowing his memories to rest.
   
   There are a number of recipes (all really good, too) and heartfelt writing that I truly enjoyed. There are some dull moments, describing times when he clearly was not enjoying himself, but I envy him the experience, and am looking forward to creating my own.



3. I really enjoyed this book as it took me on a journey of a man at a crossroads in his life and dealing with it through a love of food and friends. As a trained culinarian, you can't learn how to become a chef in three months but, if you love food, you can learn and enjoy something that really feeds the soul. Spitz took something he loved and crafted a great diary of sorts on travel, relationships, group encounters and how food, in spite of disparate languages, can help make a person whole. I read it in a few days and tightly bound me to him, his cooking school encounters and his experiences through a difficult time in his life. Highly recommended.



4. I disagree with the reviews of this book that are negative. I think it is an excellent account of a 50 year old mans search for self. The writing is exceptional, the recipes are written for the novice cook (like myself),and I enjoyed it so much I did not want it to end. I guess the negative reviewers have never suffered a "mid life crisis", otherwise they would see the value in this book. My only complaint is my own, I don't speak any French, so I needed to keep looking words up; and I have never been overseas.So as far as I am concerned his accounts are true for me.
   Give this book a chance. You won't regret it.



5. Bob Spitz rambling account left me thinking that his time would have been better spent on an analyst's couch rather than at cooking schools. The author's narcissism is left unchecked and, therefore, he rarely accepts responsibility for his situation or poor attitude. I would gladly return the book and send the money directly to him for his therapy fund.