Giveaway: The Lost Art of Mixing

It just so happens that I have an extra ARC copy of The Lost Art of Mixing that I am excited to share with you! (My review)

You know what to do... by 2/27/13! Good Luck!

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Jenn's Review: The Lost Art of Mixing

 Blurb:  Lillian and her restaurant have a way of drawing people together. There’s Al, the accountant who finds meaning in numbers and ritual; Chloe, a budding chef who hasn’t learned to trust after heartbreak; Finnegan, quiet and steady as a tree, who can disappear into the background despite his massive height; Louise, Al’s wife, whose anger simmers just below the boiling point; and Isabelle, whose memories are slowly slipping from her grasp. And there’s Lillian herself, whose life has taken a turn she didn’t expect. . . .

Their lives collide and mix with those around them, sometimes joining in effortless connections, at other times sifting together and separating again, creating a family that is chosen, not given.

 Review:  In my quest for food-lit, I came across Erica Bauermeister's first novel, The School of Essential Ingredients, which I adored (my review).  My only complaint with it, was it felt a little too open ended, so I was beyond thrilled to learn that there was a sequel, The Lost Art of Mixing.

Not all the threads from the previous novel are present in this continuance, but new threads have been picked up that are just as interesting.  It took me a few chapters to get back into Ms. Bauermeister's writing style, each chapter from the viewpoint of a different character, but mostly I think it was because after the excitement of a huge reveal in the first chapter with Lillian, we are moved on to to steady, reliable Al and I was resistant.  Not that Al's story wasn't interesting, it provides impetus for the rest of the novel, I just didn't want to leave that particular story thread.  My heart broke for Isabelle who is at the cusp of loosing her independence.  I loved the introduction of Finnegan into the group.  The only character I had a difficult time with was Louise, even though I could see things from her perspective, but I did start to warm up to her a little  by the end.  I would have liked at least a mention of some of the characters that are left behind in this book, but Ms. Bauermeister is very true to life, in that people wander in and out of your life and you don't always get to know their full story.  This is true here too, as Ms. Bauermeister leaves things slightly open ended again, but with more of a sense of closure for me than with The School of Essential Ingredients.

One of my favorite lines from The School of Essential Ingredients is “We’re all just ingredients. What matters is the grace with which you cook the meal.” I think The Lost Art of Mixing follows this tenet, but is with less emphasis on the food.  For me, the novel is a combination of The School of Essential Ingredients and Joy for Beginners.  Food was important to the novel, but it is the celebrations of the little things in life and double sided truths that is central.  I think that was my only disappointment, that Ms. Bauermeister taken a step away from the sensuality of the food which I adored in her first novel.

If you've never read Erica Bauermeister, I highly recommend her.  Her writing is elegant and inviting and her stories are illuminating.  She always gives every side of the coin, and there is something refreshingly honest in that.

Final Take:  4/5


Thank you to Penguin Books for my ARC.

Group Review: Joy For Beginners

Summary: Having survived a life-threatening illness, Kate celebrates by gathering with six close friends.  At an intimate, outdoor dinner on a warm September evening, the women challenge Kate to start her new lease on life by going white-water rafting down the Grand Canyon with her daughter.  Kate, however, is reluctant to take the risk.  That is, until her friend Marion proposes a pact: if Kate will face the rapids, each woman will do one thing in the next year that scares her.  Kate agrees, with one provision — she didn’t get to choose her challenge, so she gets to choose theirs. ~product description

Alice's Review:  This was a lovely little novel, each story linked by friendship, compassion, and hope.

Kate, a breast cancer survivor, challenges her closest friends to do something that scares them.  With each challenge, we learn more about the women, about the past that shapes them.  The two stories that touched me most were Caroline and Hadley.  While the other stories focused on redemption of sorts, I felt that these two focused on acceptance. 

This is the kind of novel that is passed along from friend to friend, mother to daughter.  It highlights the bonds that women form, the way we band together to help one in need.  It reminds us to challenge each other, to seek our happiness, to remember that we are more than just a disease, a fear, or an unhappiness.  We let those things make our worlds small when we have the power to reach beyond and find our joy.  Sometimes it helps to have someone point us in the right direction. 

I  recommend this Joy For Beginners.  Especially if you need a little hope or a little help rediscovering your joy. 

Final Take: 3/5

Jenn's Review: After becoming addicted to Sarah Addison Allen's novels, I was searching for more food lit; Erica Bauermeister's The of Essential Ingredients (recommended by Ms. Allen) was one of the first books I read on my food-lit quest ~and I loved it. So I was excited when I learned Ms. Bauermeister had a new novel. Though it is contemporary fiction, not food-lit, and a little out of my normal genre comfort zone, I felt confident that Ms. Bauermeister's ability to weave a story would keep me engaged. I was not disappointed.

As with The of Essential Ingredients, there are several characters whose lives intersect because of one more central character. In Joy for Beginners, it is Kate who is having a victory dinner to celebrate the remission of her cancer. She assigns each friend a goal, something that must be accomplished in a years time. They aren't scary or impossible things, but, having spent so much time with them as they helped her through her illness, they are things she has gleaned will help them move on with their lives. Each woman gets their own chapter and we learn a little about their past and their present. Everyone makes progress, and sometimes in surprising ways.

My only regret is that Erica Bauermeister never delves into the character's futures. This is also very similar to The of Essential Ingredients.  As the novel drew to a close, I found myself wishing for one more summative chapter including all the women. Though her final chapter is about Kate, which is probably as it should be, as she is the ribbon that binds this group together. I guess you could say, her novels are a bit like life, open ended for continuous adventures. Still, I longed for a tad more closure.

However, I know I will return to Erica Bauermeister again with each new novel, for her insight is so keen. She takes defining moments in life, and gives you a snapshot and I love that about her writing.

Final Take: 4/5

Julie's Review: I love that we all have such different tastes in books and yet  Joy For Beginners is one that is right up my alley but I probably wouldn't have known about it except for Jenn. What starts off as a celebratory dinner with friends to celebrate Kate beating cancer, quickly turns into a challenge of fears. Kate's friends encourage her to go white water rafting with her daughter. Kate agrees but then tells her friends that each of them need to conquer a fear of theirs. The catch, Kate gets to pick what they need to conquer.

What we get in the novel is a chapter dedicated to each of the women at the dinner. What we get is 9 unique stories about these women's lives. These women are your friends, your mom and your sister. Some stories were more interesting and intriguing than others, but that's life. Some people have more to overcome than others. While some fears might not seem big to us, they are big to that person.

Each of the women's story doesn't have nice bows to wrap them up but you do feel that you aren't hanging without an ending. You know their lives will go on after these challenges and that each will be ok facing a fear, perhaps they will be even stronger because of it.

As always you have the stories you connect with as a reader and that will be different than everyone. I connected with Caroline's story. Not because of getting a divorce but because of having to purge books. I mean it's not their fault her husband was a jerk?! I also liked Sara's story. As a mother, who adores her children, I can only dream of taking a trip on her own to some place like Italy. Now, I'm not sure I'd go there, I'd want to share that one with my family but I'd be on a beach somewhere. (Traveling for work doesn't count here).

I think there is something for everyone in this novel. It makes you think about what your fear would be to conquer. I'm still thinking about mine. :) As we are either on or coming up on Spring Break and then summer, this would be a great read for either of those or a nice long weekend.

A couple side notes:  This book was on my Christmas wish list to my husband so he went out of his way to get me a copy but the only one he could fine was a large print version. So I read a huge hardcover with huge words in it. It could have been worse, a small print version.

Also, I seem to be reading a lot of authors that are from Seattle lately. I feel like I need a trip there to scope out everything in their books.

Final Take: 3.75/5


 

Jenn's Review: The School of Essential Ingredients

Summary: The School of Essential Ingredients follows the lives of eight students who gather in Lillian’s Restaurant every Monday night for cooking class. It soon becomes clear, however, that each one seeks a recipe for something beyond the kitchen. Students include Claire, a young mother struggling with the demands of her family; Antonia, an Italian kitchen designer learning to adapt to life in America; and Tom, a widower mourning the loss of his wife to breast cancer. Chef Lillian, a woman whose connection with food is both soulful and exacting, helps them to create dishes whose flavor and techniques expand beyond the restaurant and into the secret corners of her students’ lives. One by one the students are transformed by the aromas, flavors, and textures of Lillian’s food, including a white-on-white cake that prompts wistful reflections on the sweet fragility of love and a peppery heirloom tomato sauce that seems to spark one romance but end another. Brought together by the power of food and companionship, the lives of the characters mingle and intertwine, united by the revealing nature of what can be created in the kitchen.

Review: In search of more food-lit, I chose this book because it was recommended by Sarah Addison Allen and it did not disappoint. Although it's not as warm and enveloping as Allen's books, it is lush and rich in food and detail. This is not a fast read in that if read too quickly the subtle nuances will be missed and the prose bludgeoned. And her prose are scrumptious and poetic in details and description.

Erica Bauermeister has selected a daring format for her novel that could have been a huge disaster if not well executed. Each chapter deals with a separate individual in the cooking class and how food and the class changes their life (the danger being a disconnected story). However Bauermeister weaves the thread of commonality through Lillian, the class, and the food. She doesn't go back and tell the story from each person's point of view (which could have been terribly tedious and drab), but she continues the story's forward momentum, advancing the story chronologically with each character. We start with Lillian, the teacher of the class, and how she came to food, and how food came to her. Then she moves on to Claire, a mother who has forgotten to take time for herself, then Carl, for whom food is a reminder of the woman he fell in love with... each one gleans something from the monthly cooking lesson whether it be introspection, self-confidence, or a direction for their life. Food doesn't solve all problems, but it serves as the inspiration.

My only regret is that I felt that the end came a little abruptly, and was left a little too open ended. Lillian is the common thread in each chapter that unifies the story, and I wish that Bauermeister had ended with a chapter on Lillian's life and food as an adult, in balance with the way she started with Lillian's life and food as a child with the first chapter, giving the book pillars so to speak. The epilogue dealt with it to some extent, but for me it was a little too subtle. It left me wanting more.

Although Bauermeister has taught literature for years and written several books of book lists, this is her first novel and I think it was a highly successful venture. The writing is lyrical and poignant. I look forward to reading her next novel.

Final Take:  4.75/5

Food-Lit???

I noticed that I seem to have a new passion. I love books and I love to cook so I don't know why it surprises me that I love them together. No, I'm not talking about cook books, or even non-fiction books by chefs. Food has always played a central role in fiction, but this is something new. According to Answers.com, there is an emerging trend in American literature of 'Food and Social Healing.' I'm talking about books like those by Sarah Addison Allen, Nancy Spiller, Erica Bauermeister, etc. Books that take food to a whole new level. Not food playing a central role in the novel, but food as the novel. Food that transforms relationships and lives.

Did it all stem from Frances Mayes's Under the Tuscan Sun? Was that the inspiration for this sudden flood of delicious goodness? I don't know. (Although that wasn't quite fiction... well, the movie was but I'm digressing. )

I don't know whether there's a name for this genre or not, but I'm going to call it Food-Lit. ~And I'm loving it!

"Since people first put ink to parchment, food has proven an inspiration, a plot device, a method of revealing character in poetry and literature. "
~Marina Gordon

If anyone has any thoughts on this, be sure to chime in.