Relish: My Life In The Kitchen by Lucy Knisley

Relish: My Life In The Kitchen by Lucy Knisley
Published April 2013 by Turtleback Books
Source: my local library

Publisher's Summary:
A graphically illustrated, recipe-complemented memoir by the indie cartoonist author of French Milk describes her food-enriched youth as the daughter of a chef and a gourmet, key memories that were marked by special meals and the ways in which cooking has imparted valuable life lessons.


My Thoughts:
Honestly, doesn't that summary make this book sounds kind of boring? It's the summary I found for the hardcover book. At the very least, it sounds so serious. Knisley may be serious about food but her storytelling is definitely not boring. First of all, it's a graphic novel - can they even be boring? For some reason, the paperback has an entirely different summary:

"Lucy Knisley loves food. The daughter of a chef and a gourmet, this talented young cartoonist comes by her obsession honestly. In her forthright, thoughtful, and funny memoir, Lucy traces key episodes in her life thus far, framed by what she was eating at the time and lessons learned about food, cooking, and life. Each chapter is bookended with an illustrated recipe—many of them treasured family dishes, and a few of them Lucy's original inventions. 

A welcome read for anyone who ever felt more passion for a sandwich than is strictly speaking proper, Relish is a graphic novel for our time: it invites the reader to celebrate food as a connection to our bodies and a connection to the earth, rather than an enemy, a compulsion, or a consumer product."

Now doesn't that sound more like a book you'd want to pick up? Knisley's writing and drawings are lighthearted and fun. What's more, although she's clearly a woman who appreciates fine food, she's not a food snob, confessing to a fondness for fast food and baking cookies.

The recipes Knisley shares at the end of each recipe are fully illustrated and, for the most part, not complex. She even makes rolling sushi look do-able. This book will not be going back to the library until I make copies of all of them. Sure, I could just write them down; but they wouldn't be nearly as much fun to make without the drawings!

Persepolis and the Omaha Bookworms

Persepolis: The Story Of A Childhood by Marjane Satrapi
160 pages
Published June 2004 by Knopf Doubleday Publishing Group
Source: I bought this to read with the Omaha Bookworms

Satrapi was ten years old when, in 1979, Iran began to experience a period of revolution against the then-Shah. Persepolis chronicles the revolution through the eyes of a young girl in graphic novel form. Satrapi, whose parents initially demonstrated in favor of the overthrow of the Shah, chronicles life as her parents go from hopeful to fearful, as she herself experiences ever changing feelings about her country, and as the country becomes a more and more dangerous place to live.

Linda recommended this one to the Bookworms and I thought it would make a perfect summer read since it would be a quick read being a graphic novel. It was indeed a quick read but only partially because it was a graphic novel. The truth is that I would have read this book in one night even if it had been twice as long. Satrapi does a marvelous job of, literally, illustrating the full range of emotions Satrapi and her family went through from the start of the revolution until the day her parents put her on an airplane bound for Austria. Her family didn't shy away from telling her the truth of what was happening and Satrapi doesn't shy away from showing her readers the full horror of living through that time in Iran. She skillfully balances that with a moving portrait of what it was like to be a citizen of Iran during the revolution and war with Iraq.

All of the Bookworms really liked Persepolis and several of us are planning on reading Satrapi's followup. Well, done, Linda! Not only did you pick a book that I really enjoyed but you found that book that has changed my mind about graphic novels.

Jane Bites Back by Michael Thomas Ford & Pride & Prejudice by Marvel Comics

When I waved the white flag on challenges a couple of weeks ago, I had completely lost track of the fact that the Everything Austen Challenge also ended on December 31.  I may be willing to give up on some challenges but not on this one!  So I've immersed myself this week in racing to complete five more things for the challenge, having already read and reviewed Northanger Abbey.

Jane Bites Back by Michael Thomas Ford
Published December 2009 by Random House Publishing Group
Source: I won this book as part of the prize pack for last years' "Everything Austen Challenge"

What if Jane Austen really was dead?  Or, more precisely, what if she were undead?  In Jane Bites Back, 41-year-old Jane Austen traveled for a tryst with Lord Byron only to have him seduce her...and the turn her into a vampire.  She returned home only to fake her own illness and death.  Over 200 years later, she's living in a small town, operating a bookstore, fending off a possible suitor and just about to give up on having her last manuscript published.  Things are complicated enough but they get even more complicated when a publisher buys her book, Lord Byron returns to try to woo her away (and by "woo" I mean threaten to harm those she cares about if she doesn't come with him), and a particularly vocal Charlotte Bronte fan, who is also a well-known blogger, starts causing trouble. 

This book did pose some interesting ideas as Jane contemplated her modern day life as opposed to her known life and what it might be like to actually outlive everyone and everything you ever knew.  But seriously, this book is almost three hundred pages long and in the end almost nothing is tied up.  Byron seems to have become a changed vampire, Jane has decided to take a chance on love but there is still the matter of another vampire, Jane still hasn't told her lover the truth about herself and Byron is prepping to train her more secrets of the vampire world.  Ford appears to have written this book solely to set himself up with the means to write a sequel.

Pride and Prejudice (set of 5 comic books)
Published April 2009 by Marvel Comics
Source: more loot from the Everything Austen prize pack

Exactly what it says it is--the graphic version of my all-time favorite book.  Kudos to Marvel comics for a job well done chopping the book down to the amount of dialogue and narrative that can be squeezed into this format without losing the essence of the book.  This book took me right back to the comic versions of other classic books I read growing up and I have to admit that enjoyed them.  Except for the faces.  Really, I often found them to be more than a little creepy, hard to distinguish the different young female characters and the faces were a bit too modern. Oh, and the ads for other comics and video games were distracting and seemed entirely out of place.  If I'm reading any kind of a version of Pride & Prejudice, am I really likely to be the kind of person who will be interested in picking up the game "Red Faction: Guerilla," rated M for mature audiences?

Sex and the Austen Girl
An internet series written by Laura Viera Rigler (Rude Awakenings of a Jane Austen Addict and Confessions of a Jane Austen Addict) seen on Babelgum.com

It has been my intention since I first heard of this series to keep up with it as the new episodes came out.  And then I completely forgot about it.  So I watched all 23 (as of now) episodes in one evening.  Which means that I watched the beginning 23 times.  Boy, was I sick of that by the end.  The series consists of two characters, "Jane Mansfield" and "Courtney Stone" having a conversation about different aspects of life.  "Jane" has been dropped from Regency England into modern day Los Angeles and "Courtney" has been dropped from L.A. into Jane Austen's England.  These ladies find a lot they agree on (indoor plumbing is vastly superior to chamber pots) and some things they don't (Jane is appalled that women shave and wax off all of their body hair).  Twenty-three episodes in a row got to be a little much.  But taken individually, these are a lot of fun and make you think about the things we take for granted and things that might be better done the good old-fashioned way.

The Imposter's Daughter by Laurie Sandell

The Imposter's Daughter by Laurie Sandell
256 pages
Published July 2009 by Little, Brown & Company
Source: Publisher review copy

When Laurie Sandell was a growing up, she was in awe of her father, who told incredible stories of a life of privilege, heroism, academic achievements and more than mere brushes with famous people. In attempt to also live a life fit for great stories, Laurie puts herself out into the world experiencing life as a Tokyo stripper, seducer of women, yogi and even Ambien addict. Then she stumbles into a job as a celebrity interviewer which she loves. It's during this time that she decides to write about her dad and when she starts doing research, she discovers that he's not the man that he says he is. When she confronts her parents, her mom essentially tsk-tsks her. But Laurie needs to know "if this man, who I based my life on, is a fake, then what does that make me?"

This was my first graphic novel. I read it as part of Dewey's Read-a-thon and I read it almost toward the end of the 24 hours. I discovered two things: a) a graphic novel was the perfect choice for that time of the night since it was bright and quick to read, and b) I remembered very few details when I started writing this review. I don't know, in retrospect, if that was entirely because I was so tired when I read it, if it was because I was not that taken by a story told in graphic novel form or a bit of both. Sandell tells an interesting story but, for me, the graphic novel format made it feel lighter than the story truly is. Because Sandell really has a powerful story to tell, although she does seem to gloss over some parts, such as her stint in rehab.

If you're looking for something different, this is a unique and fun book. Do bear in mind that just because this is a "cartoon" book, it is not for children. There is a fair amount of sex, drug use and alcoholism portrayed in the novel.

Mailbox Monday - August 31

Only two books in the mail this week: Julie and Julia by Julie Powell and The Imposter's Daughter by Laurie Randell. I'm looking forward to reading Julie and Julia immediately followed by Julia Childs' My Life In France.