Review: Hungry by Darlene Barnes

When we were in college, my now husband invited me over to his house for a homemade dinner. Bless his sweet soul, he thought he was going to crack open some Ragu and pour it over spaghetti noodles and call it good. I wasn't as particular about food then as I am now but I still knew that a jar of spaghetti sauce needed a boost, even if it was a very minor and limited boost, so I showed him how to brown ground beef to turn it into a meat sauce instead of marinara. I'm pretty certain he decided to marry me at that very moment.  I may also have insisted on a salad, which could explain why it took a couple more years to propose.  This is the man whose other nickname in his house that year was Chef Boy R Dave since the sum total of his cooking skills consisted of cracking open a can and nuking the contents. He was certainly accustomed to eating less than healthily and his fraternity did not have an on-site cook (if they didn't live off campus, they ate in the school dining halls). Even though the concept of a fraternity chef is completely foreign to my husband's and my college experience, I was still fascinated by the idea of Darlene Barnes' memoir of her six years cooking for between fifty and eighty Alpha Sig brothers on the University of Washington campus.

Barnes was facing an empty nest with both of her sons off at college and a move from Texas to Washington for her husband's job when she applied for the job with the Alpha Sigma Phi fraternity. She didn't have a fancy culinary degree and she knew that fraternity cook was not exactly a sought after job in the food industry but she had cooked for a wealthy Dallas family and worked in the kitchen in a small, uninspiring restaurant and the thought of cooking for a house full of guys used to mac and cheese from a box, pizza, and assorted frozen entrees intrigued and challenged her. For her interview, she showed up carrying her grandmother's pot roast not knowing exactly what to expect of the house or the guys in the house. She got the job.

Subtitled What Eighty Ravenous Guys Taught Me About Life, Love & the Power of Good Food, this memoir is not an expose into an Animal House like Greek system but a loving and thoughtful look at the varied guys who came through Barnes' kitchen in the six years she spent with the Alpha Sigs and how she changed their perceptions of what is worth putting into your body as sustinence. She weaves stories of her own childhood and previous culinary experiences, her grandparents' farm, the Dallas family who insisted on out of season produce and then complained that it was tasteless, and more throughout her over-arching chronicle of cooking fresh meals for the guys, arguing with her vendors about the need for locally sourced foods, and becoming emotionally attached to many of the wonderful young men who passed through her kitchen.

Barnes captures the frustrations of working in a fraternity house, from the completely inadequate kitchen and utensils to the sometimes filthy and disgusting aftermath of weekend parties (she only worked during the week). She doesn't gloss over the aggravations of finding crusted food on the wall and pledges too lazy to clean it off or the state of the "women's" bathroom she uses. But she also speaks of the joys she encountered, the reasons she inevitably came back year after year despite her annual plan to quit when summer rolled around. The guys looked to her for tough love, emotional support in the face of grief, occasional advice, snappy comebacks, and darned good meals. She was a vital part of the house, full of sass and verve and a heart big enough to encompass this crazy group of men on the verge of adulthood.

The memoir highlights what is best about the slow food movement and serves as a love letter to her guys. She teaches the members of the fraternity about the importance of good, local food prepared well and she learns a lot about herself, positive and negative, through her interactions with each pledge class. She chronicles some hilariously funny situations and some that are heartbreakingly tragic. She admits her failures and her vanities and doesn't try to sugar coat what can sometimes come off as abrasive. She just lays it full out honestly and without embellishment. A different, very quick, and engaging read and it has some delicious sounding recipes tucked at the end of several of the chapters.  And by the end of the book you'll probably wish, as I do, that Darlene Barnes, with her oversized personality and her definite opinions on food, would cook for you, or at least teach you to cook like her.

For more information about Darlene Barnes and the book, check out her website, read her previous site, find her on Facebook, or follow her on Twitter. Follow the rest of the blog tour or look at the amazon reviews for others' thoughts and opinions on the book.

Thanks to Lisa from TLC Book Tours and the publisher for sending me a copy of this book to review.

Waiting on Wednesday

This meme is hosted by Breaking the Spine and is meant to highlight some great pre-publication books we all can't wait to get our grubby little mitts on.

The Lowland by Jhumpa Lahiri. The book is being released by Knopf on September 24, 2013.

Amazon says this about the book: From Subhash's earliest memories, at every point, his brother was there. In the suburban streets of Calcutta where they wandered before dusk and in the hyacinth-strewn ponds where they played for hours on end, Udayan was always in his older brother's sight. So close in age, they were inseparable in childhood and yet, as the years pass - as U.S tanks roll into Vietnam and riots sweep across India - their brotherly bond can do nothing to forestall the tragedy that will upend their lives. Udayan - charismatic and impulsive - finds himself drawn to the Naxalite movement, a rebellion waged to eradicate inequity and poverty. He will give everything, risk all, for what he believes, and in doing so will transform the futures of those dearest to him: his newly married, pregnant wife, his brother and their parents. For all of them, the repercussions of his actions will reverberate across continents and seep through the generations that follow. Epic in its canvas and intimate in its portrayal of lives undone and forged anew, The Lowland is a deeply felt novel of family ties that entangle and fray in ways unforeseen and unrevealed, of ties that ineluctably define who we are. With all the hallmarks of Jhumpa Lahiri's achingly poignant, exquisitely empathetic story-telling, this is her most devastating work of fiction to date.

Review: The Arrangement by Mary Balogh

Mary Balogh is one of the giants of the romance world. She has written dozens of novels and short stories in the genre. In her latest Regency-set series, The Survivors' Club series of books, she has chosen to focus on men (and one woman) who were wounded in the war, who carry physical and mental scars but who are fighters and survivors, and who are finding their path in life and the partner who is happy to walk it with them. She is giving her damaged heroes the happy endings they deserve. In the second novel of the series, The Arrangement, the Survivor on whom the action centers is Vincent Hunt, Viscount Darleigh.

In his first battle of the war at all of seventeen years old, Vincent was not outwardly marked but he was blinded and deafened. He recovered his hearing over time but his sight remained permanently gone. When the novel opens, he has adjusted to this disability in many ways but he does still allow his family, grandmother, mother, and married sisters, to dictate his life to a large extent. During his convalescence from his injury, he inherited a viscountcy, its attending estate, and a fortune from his uncle, making him a good prospective husband for any woman willing to have a blind husband. And his female relations have decided that it is time for him to marry and have a wife to take care of him. But Vincent doesn't want to have a wife who settles for him and he doesn't want a wife that he hasn't chosen for himself so he takes his childhood best friend and valet, Martin, and flees his home and the matchmaking therein.

Eventually he and Martin end up in the small village where Vincent grew up as son of the local schoolmaster before ascending to the title of viscount. He's hoping for quiet in which to grow in his newly formed conviction that he needs, at the age of 23, to take his life into his own hands, having ceded control to his family so long ago. But even in Barton Coombs, he faces a wedding trap when a local baron and his wife scheme to force Vincent into marrying their beautiful but spoiled daughter, Henrietta. Henrietta's cousin Miss Sophia Fry lives with her maternal relations on sufferance. Her father was a rake and a gambler who was killed in a duel and his daughter has been passed from unloving family to unloving family ever since. She has cultivated a quiet, unassuming invisibility and a reputation as a homely mouse in an effort to be as innocuous in her relatives' homes as possible. But when she realizes her aunt and uncle's intentions, she foils their plan to have Vincent compromise Henrietta, saving him from their trap. She is promptly turned out of doors with only a meager bag of belongings and enough money to exactly pay for a coach ticket to London and nothing more.

When Vincent hears what Sophia's one instance of considered rebellion has caused, he goes to her and offers her marriage and an arrangement whereby they will live together for one year after which time, if there is no heir, they can each go their separate ways and live the solitary lives of which they've dreamed. She is reluctant to burden him but having no real other options, ultimately says yes. And so begins their marriage, one of thoughtfulness, caring, and contentedness. Sophie explores every safe option she can to give Vincent greater and greater freedoms and independence despite his blindness and he in turn introduces her to his friends and family whose acceptance and friendship help to give her a measure of self-esteem and confidence. Sophie knows that she is no beauty, often described as ugly or as looking like a boy, but Vincent finds her to be perfectly to his liking, assuring her that he sees the beauty she carries inside her even if he'll never see what she looks like physically.

The romance here is not an all-consuming passion but rather, as would be more believable given the "marriage of convenience" aspect of their union, a friendship and a growing, enduring love without the fireworks of conflict. Each of them is given a gift in the other and while they start their marriage thinking that they will coexist quietly for the agreed upon year, each of them comes to the conclusion that they no longer want to be held to the year. But they do not share this growing realization and both overhear conversations that convince them that the other one still wants to be able to part amicably and live apart once the time is up. And therein lies the sole friction in their placid and even keeled life.

Balogh knows her era and she draws it beautifully. And the novel itself is well-written. The characters are pleasant and appealing and their kindness and caring towards each other is lovely. But somehow this novel lacks a spark. It is a nice novel populated by nice people who have hurdles to overcome, certainly: Vincent's dependence because of his blindness and Sophie's feelings of insignificance and shyness. But they feel like an old married couple long before the blush should have been off the rose. They will likely forever be serene and contented. For those who want a different sort of romance, a tranquil and unruffled one where the characters' focus is on emotional growth and a deep understanding of their partner's hidden hurts, this is just the novel.

For more information about Mary Balogh and the book, check out her website or find her on Facebook. Follow the rest of the blog tour or look at the amazon reviews for others' thoughts and opinions on the book.

Thanks to Lisa from TLC Book Tours and the publisher for sending me a copy of this book to review.

Review: Freud's Mistress by Karen Mack and Jennifer Kaufman

As the father of modern day psychoanalysis, Freud is such a large part of our cultural knowledge that it is almost hard to think of him as a real person. He developed the theory of the Oedipus complex, the theory of psychosexual development (penis envy and castration anxiety), he touted the efficacy of the "talking cure," and gave us the entertaining phrase "Sometimes a cigar is just a cigar," among other things. And yet he was not just the revered, larger than life neurologist and psychoanalyst of history, but was a real person with a family, wife, children, and a possible adulterous relationship with his single sister-in-law, Minna Bernays. It is this relationship that Karen Mack and Jennifer Kaufman bring to life in their engaging historical novel, Freud's Mistress.

Minna is an intelligent, curious, and over-educated lady's companion. When she seeks medical assistance for a lowly young kitchen maid in her mistress' house without permission, she is let go. While she found the job stifling and demeaning, it gave her a modicum of independence outside of marriage. But with her dismissal, she finds herself unemployed, unmarried, and completely destitute, giving her no option but to impose on her married sister. Having just had her sixth baby, her older sister, Martha, is married to Sigmund Freud, a professor and neurologist who works with troubled patients. They accept Minna into their modest home and she settles in to help Martha with the difficult and mundane business of raising children.

It has been many years since Martha cared to listen to her husband's theories about the mind or to pay him much attention, focused more on running the household and the blissful oblivion of opium. Minna, on the other hand, is captivated by the chance to exercise her brain after many years of only exchanging letters with the brilliant Dr. Freud. She is fascinated by his emerging theories, including those that the establishment finds perverse or unspeakable. She is not put off by his assertion that all problems stem from unacknowledged psychosexual aberations, in fact she is enthralled by the idea, even if she doesn't agree in its entirety. Her attraction to his brain and the challenges he presents quickly becomes an attraction to him, a dangerous proposition given her knowledge of the unhappy inner workings of his life and marriage to her sister. For Freud, it is appealing to have his sister-in-law worshipping him and stimulating his mind. He introduces her to medicinal cocaine and slowly seduces her, first intellectually (although never as his equal) and then physically, without any remorse for his infidelity or for the potential damage to her relationship with her sister.

Minna tries to fight her obsessive love for her sister's husband, struggling with a terrible guilt for the way in which she is betraying Martha, but unable to escape Freud's magnetic pull. She has few life options available to her as a gentlewoman of little means in fin de siècle Vienna and at 29, she is getting to an age where marriage will no longer be an option even should she desire it. So it is no surprise that she finds it exhilarating, intoxicating even, to be appreciated for her agile intelligence. She can only do so much to resist Freud's advances despite the heartache it promises and the potential it carries to destroy so many people about whom she cares deeply.

Mack and Kaufman have drawn Minna as a caring and thoughtful character, trapped by her own circumstances and the limited times in which she lives. She agonizes over her growing feelings for Freud and determines to do the right thing for her sister and the children; yet she is unable to escape the pull of her heart or the flattering attentions of her brother-in-law. Freud as a character is far less appealing than Minna. He is self-absorbed and rigid, certain that a relationship with Minna is not wrong since he and Martha are living a life of celibacy and sex, is, of course, necessary for a fully functioning life. He twists his own theories and beliefs to excuse and approve of what he wants, dragging Minna with him. He is sometimes dismissive and hostile to her, choosing to ignore her deeper feelings towards him, and in the end treating her as if she doesn't deserve even the common courtesy of cancelling their assignations when he has something more important to do. Martha Freud is not a terribly interesting character, constructing her life as suits her, often using her sister as an unpaid nanny or servant, alternately languishing in bed or acting as a martinet. She rarely makes an effort (to be kind, amenable, or grateful, to be anything really) and as a result, it is hard to understand Minna's loyalty to Martha.

Based on probable historical truth, Mack and Kaufman have done a wonderful job capturing Vienna of the time and the professional difficulties Freud faced with his controversial and "lewd" theories that ran so counter to the establishment's ideas. They've portrayed the often stultifying life choices available to smart women through Minna's dismal experiences, showing that even her affair with Freud was not a freedom but another shackle. The lonely life and feeling of imposing on family that faced spinsters of the time was incredibly well done. Because the novel is narrated from Minna's perspective, her character is complete and realistic. Freud, on the other hand, remains a rather unpleasant enigma and there will be more than one occasion where the reader wonders how and why Minna fell in love with him and remained so for so long. Mack and Kaufman have taken into consideration the scant historical evidence, from Carl Jung's early and unsubstantiated assertion that the affair happened to a recently discovered hotel guest book entry that appears to confirm Jung's statement and have drawn a fictionalized story that carries the seeds of an explosive scandal. But, as is evident from the historical information, that scandal never leaked out, if in fact it happened, and so the novel, remaining true to what we do in fact know, was left with an anticlimactic feel over all. A slow novel of secrets, guilt, and repressed emotion, it winds down to a quiet and unassuming end, in many ways mirroring much of Minna Bernays' life. Fans of historical fiction and those interested in the man behind the lionized Freud we read about in psychology classes will find this an interesting and worthwhile read.

For more information about Karen Mack, Jennifer Kaufman, and the book, check out their website or find them on Facebook. Follow the rest of the blog tour or look at the amazon reviews for others' thoughts and opinions on the book.

Thanks to Trish from TLC Book Tours and the publisher for sending me a copy of this book to review.

It's Monday! What Are You Reading?

This meme is hosted by Sheila at Book Journey.

Books I completed this past week are:

Freud's Mistress by Karen Mack and Jennifer Kaufman
The Arrangement by Mary Balogh
A Summer Affair by Elin Hilderbrand
Boleto by Alyson Hagy

Bookmarks are still living in the middle of:

Better Than Fiction edited by Don George
Hungry by Darlene Barnes

Reviews posted this week:

Early Decision by Lacy Crawford

Books still needing to have reviews written (as opposed to the ones that are simply awaiting posting):

Dancing to the Flute by Manisha Jolie Amin
Americanah by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie
Happy Rock by Matthews Simmons
The Middlesteins by Jami Attenberg
The Purchase by Linda Spalding
Love Potion Number Ten by Betsy Woodman
Is This Tomorrow by Caroline Leavitt
Royal Bridesmaids by Stephanie Laurens, Gaelen Foley, and Loretta Chase
Letters From Skye by Jessica Brockmole
Thursday Next in First Among Sequels by Jasper Fforde
The House Girl by Tara Conklin
Topsy by Michael Daly
Autobiography of Us by Aria Beth Sloss
The Group by Mary McCarthy
The Innocents by Francesca Segal
Orphan Train by Christina Baker Kline
Among the Janeites by Deborah Yaffe
The President's Hat by Antoine Laurain
Funny in Farsi by Firoozeh Dumas
Billy Budd and Other Tales by Herman Melville
Let Him Go by Larry Watson
Freud's Mistress by Karen Mack and Jennifer Kaufman
The Arrangement by Mary Balogh
A Summer Affair by Elin Hilderbrand
Boleto by Alyson Hagy

Monday Mailbox

This past week's mailbox arrivals:

Leaving Haven by Kathleen McCleary came from William Morrow and TLC Book Tours for a blog tour.

I do enjoy stories of women's friendship, the bonds they forge, and the way they weather the good and the bad so this story of two friends, one of whom donates an egg to the other, should fill that niche nicely.

The Wedding Gift by Marlen Suyapa Bodden came from St. Martin's Press and Wunderkind PR.

A young slave, daughter of the master, is given to his white daughter as a wedding gift but neither of these young women are who appearances suggest. Intriguing, no?

The Partner Track by Helen Wan came from St. Martin's Press and Wunderkind PR.

Once upon a time, I read a lot of literature about first and second generation immigrants, especially immigrants from Asia, so this novel about a young Chinese-American lawyer who is striving for her version of the American dream in the face of behind the scenes racism and sexism is right up my alley.

The Storycatcher by Ann Hite came from Gallery Books.

Southern, gothic, haints. What's not to bring a shiver to your spine?

The Fountain of St. James Court by Sena Jeter Naslund came from William Morrow and TLC Book Tours for a blog tour.

Jeter Naslund's Ahab's Wife was a tour de force so I am looking forward to this novel about a writer and a painter and what drives/drove their creative lives.

If you'd like to see the marvelous goodies in other people's mailboxes, make sure to visit Notorious Spinks Talks Books as she is hosting this month's Mailbox Monday and have fun seeing how we are all doing our part to keep the USPS and delivery services viable.

Sunday Salon: The final summer reading list post

This is it. The last one. Summer ends (by tradition) tomorrow. So it's time to see how my reading stacked up against the challenge I issued for myself. I did pretty well during this Memorial Day to Labor Day span. I haven't been as good about accomplishing reviews on everything I've read, but I'm still plugging my way through those too. In any case, here it is. The final look at what I accomplished in the 3 sunny months of vacation:

Books I've read from the original list:

A Half Forgotten Song by Katherine Webb
A Far Piece to Canaan by Sam Halpern
Big Brother by Lionel Shriver
Out Love Could Light the World by Anne Leigh Parrish
The Execution of Noa P. Singleton by Elizabeth Silver
The Book of Someday by Dianne Dixon
David by Ray Robertson
Call Me Zelda by Erika Robuck
The Other Typist by Suzanne Rindell
Someone by Alice McDermott
Whistling Past the Graveyard by Susan Crandall
Sinners and the Sea by Rebecca Kanner
Ready Player One by Ernest Cline
Surprising Lord Jack by Sally MacKenzie
The Middlesteins by Jami Attenberg
The Illusion of Separateness by Simon Van Booy
The Exiles by Allison Lynn
This Is Paradise by Kristiana Kahakuawila
Race Across the Sky by Derek Sherman
The Purchase by Linda Spalding
Americanah by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie
Mary Coin by Marisa Silver
The Silver Star by Jeannette Walls
The House Girl by Tara Conklin
Dancing to the Flute by Manisha Jolie Amin
The Innocents by Francesca Segal
Happy Rock by Matthew Simmons
Then He Ate My Boy Entrancers by Louise Rennison
Topsy by Michael Daly
Thursday Next by Jasper Fforde
Billy Budd and Other Tales by Herman Melville
A Summer Affair by Elin Hilderbrand
Orphan Train by Christina Baker Kline

Books I've read not from the original list:

Love All by Callie Wright
Together Tea by Marjan Kamali
Stargazey Point by Shelley Noble
The Virgin Cure by Ami McKay
Love Potion Number 10 by Betsy Woodman
This Is Tomorrow by Caroline Leavitt
Royal Bridesmaids by Stephanie Laurens, Gaelen Foley, and Loretta Chase
Letters From Skye b Jessica Brockmole
Sea Creatures by Susanna Daniel
Autobiography of Us by Aria Beth Sloss
Equilibrium by Lorrie Thomson
The Group by Mary McCarthy
Visiting Tom by Michael Perry
Among the Janeites by Deborah Yaffe
The President's Hat by Antoine Laurain
Funny in Farsi by Firoozeh Dumas
Early Decision by Lacy Crawford
Let Him Go by Larry Watson
Freud's Mistress by Karen Mack and Jennifer Kaufman
The Arrangement by Mary Balogh

Original list books I never did get to:

Things My Girlfriend and I Have Argued About by Mil Millington
The Reluctant Matchmaker by Shobhan Bantwal

Conclusions to draw from how I did? I am incredibly distractible. ;-) I love to make lists and I follow them mostly but I also find myself off on side trips frequently, as is obvious from the fact that I didn't read two of the original books but I did read 20 books I hadn't planned on reading. And this explains why I take such a large number of books on varied subjects with me whenever I travel. I just never know what I'll be picking up next even when it seems planned out. How was your summer of reading? Are you pleased with it?