Memoir Monday: Kitchen Confidential and Wild Game

Happy Monday Readers! We are officially halfway through Nonfiction November (how did that happen?!) So far things have not exactly been going as planned - I've completed two memoirs, and two novels this month. But, hey, I'm calling the memoirs a win - especially since both left me in a puddle of tears on my couch.

Kitchen Confidential: Anthony Bourdain

As soon as I read the opening paragraph of Kitchen Confidential, I knew this was going to be a book I sped through, only to wish it wasn't over so fast.

My husband and I used to spend hours curled up on the couch watching Anthony Bourdain tour the world - tasting, talking, seeing things that we dream of one day seeing. If you're a fan of any of his tv shows, you know that part of what makes them so great is that Bourdain is an enigma - his voiceover descriptions of his experiences are so evocative that you feel you are there beside him, halfway around the world. I read this entire book with Bourdain's voice in my head, and it felt like an extended episode of one of his shows.

Knowing how Bourdain's story progressed, and how it ends, only made the memoir that much more emotional for me. As Bourdain described his first trip to Japan - the sights, the sounds, the food - I felt like I was in on a secret even he didn't know. That soon he would be more comfortable in these foreign lands than he was in his own skin. If you love to cook, if you love to eat, or if you just love to read, this is exactly the book for you.

Well-Read Rating: 5/5

I'll be right here. Until they drag me off the line. I'm not going anywhere. I hope. It's been an adventure. We took some casualties over the years. Things got broken. Things got lost. But I wouldn't have missed it for the world.

Wild Game: Adrienne Brodeur

When I started Wild Game, I wasn't sure what to think. I live in Boston, so it's always fun to read a story set against the familiar backdrop of your own life. But, that was about the limit of what I could relate to as Rennie told the tale of her effusive mother, the summers on the cape, and the decision that changed the course of Rennie's life for good. I have to admit that I almost stopped reading halfway through. I felt like the woe-is-me motive ("why does my mother have to ruin everything?") was overplayed. The story wasn't moving. I wasn't connecting.

I'm glad I stuck it out. The last third of the book was utterly engrossing, as Rennie seemed to come into her own, her story actually became something I wanted to read. By the end, I was captivated by Rennie's transformation and her ability to craft her own story out of her mother's narrative. I shed tears alongside Rennie as she described the birth of her child and the moment that she decided things had to be different. Was is the best memoir I've ever read? Maybe not. Would I find more depth in it if I was a mother myself? Perhaps. But am I glad I read it? Of course.

Well-Read Rating: 3/5

We all know the adage that one lie begets the next. Deception takes commitment, vigilance, and a very good memory. To keep the truth buried, you must tend to it.

Keep reading,

L.S.