Cooking for Mr. Latte - Amanda Hesser

HATE HATE HATE HATE this book. She is the most pretentious know it all I have ever encounterd. I love food books and she just makes me want to throw up. I couldn't even finish it she's so completely annoying. And then when she finally reveals that Mr. Latte's real name is Tad I wanted to throw the book against the wall. Ever since that loser Tad Martin was on All My Children I have despised that name.

The secret history of the pink carnation - Lauren Willig

This will be a great paperback and I think there is going to be a sequel. It's really just a glorified romance with a little bit of old fashioned espionage thrown in but it's quite enjoyable if you like a good regency novel.

Prep : a novel - Curtis Sittenfeld

Snooze-o-rama. The best thing about it is the cover.

Garlic and sapphires : the secret life of a critic in disguise - Ruth Reichl

Loved it! You know I love cooking shows and books about food. This is great because she does interesting reviews and also tells you about how she came up with her clever disguises. A lot of this book is about service and how bad service is when you, as a customer, don't demand proper service. She points out that you don't have to be a horrifying creep to get what you want and that you should always ask for what you want in a restaurant. Do not let the waiter bully you into anything and do not allow yourself to be ignored.

Suburban safari : a year on the lawn

A lady in Maine observes the creatures in her backyard for one year. It's pretty good -- I learned about crows and chipmunks and about the concept of the "freedom lawn" where you just let the weeds run amuck!

A change of heart : how the Framingham heart study helped unravel the mysteries of cardiovascular disease

This book was good but way too much a history/science book and less a book to read for fun. I didn't make it to the end but I did learn a lot about FDR's massive heart disease that was kept under wraps. It's really quite shocking how little the world knew about heart disease in those days.

There is no Toilet Paper on the Road Less Traveled - Editor Doug Lansky

This is a collection of short travel essays by all kinds of people from Bill Bryson to Dave Barry. They're funny and quick but nothing spectacular. I don't think you'd be missing much if you skipped this one.

Freakonomics : a rogue economist explores the hidden side of everything - Steven Levitt

This is a bizarre book but excellent. I have no idea if his economic theories have any merit but they seem to in this book. He explains how (and perhaps why) teachers cheat for their students on standardized tests. Are sumo wrestlers cheaters too? Read the book and see!

Who pays for honor system bagels? Does your first name dictate your future fate? Did the legalization of abortion cause a huge drop in crime? The answer to these and more in Freakonomics!

I'm going to a book reading with this author on June 28. Stay tuned for more info.

Brimstone - Preston / Child

I'm reading this one right now. It's easy to read and a good summertime book. There have been a few murders in New York City and it looks like they might not be murders at all but rather the devil coming to take the souls of people who have made deals with him. Hmmm...

Final verdict: OK but not at all great. Not one of their better stories.

The Codex - Douglas Preston

This is an awesome beach book! I think I read it in a weekend. It's about a rich eccentric antiquities collector who decides to bury himself in a secret location with a lifetime of his acquired treasures. He has three sons that hate each other who must band together to find his secret burial spot (deep in the jungles of Honduras in a lost Mayan city) and fight of baddies of all kinds in order to collect their inheritance.

Oh -- and there is a romance thrown in as well. Good mindless fun.

Soul of a Chef

I loved the Making of a Chef so much I had to run right out and get Ruhlman's other book called Soul of a Chef.

It's great, really great. The master chef exam is fascinating and impossible to pass it seems and I learned all about the best restaurant in the USA if not the world: the French Laundry in California. Surprisingly dinner there only (ha!) costs $175 a plate! I also learned that if you are a regular person who wants the best of the best there plan to dine alone since all solo diners get the VIP treatment. Be aware, however, that the VIP treatment may involve eating something along the lines of cow brains. Ruhlman says that he had a dish of brains that was so good he nearly fell out of his chair. He maintains that this was the very best dish he's ever eaten -- EVER!

I think if I ever eat at French Laundry I'm going to have to go with a blindfold and no menu because while I'm sure the food tastes incredible, I'd be afraid to eat it if I knew what it was.

Remember I mentioned terrines in my other post? Making a terrine was a challenge on Cooking Under Fire! Pretty funny!

The Making of a Chef - Michael Ruhlman

This book totally rocks!

If you love cooking or the Food Network you will love this book. Michael Ruhlman goes to the Culinary Institute of America (CIA) and poses as a student to learn what it's really like to be a student at CIA. I haven't eaten much snooty food but I love reading about how to make a killer seafood terrine or a classic veal stock. I guess I'm a food nerd.

I found it completely fascinating to see how difficult it really is to become a good chef and how this type of education changes a person. I loved this so much I went out immediately to get his next book "The Soul of a Chef".

Michael Ruhlman is one of the judges on the PBS reality show Cooking Under Fire.