Deluged with dudes: platonic & erotic love poems to men, by Alta

 

I don't always "get" poetry, but I loved this collection of poems by Alta published in 1989 by Shameless Hussy Press. A co-worker had recommended it and I picked up a copy that I read back then and kept all this time. I thought it was funny and sweet, and after reading it again, I feel the same. They're mostly short, personal poems about the author's relationships with men, including her three husbands and too-many-to-count lovers. She also writes about some of her platonic friendships with men, many of them quite young. I re-read this because I'm trying to downsize my book collection, off-loading many of the books that I've already read. I'm glad that I read this again; there aren't too many books (especially poetry) that make me laugh out loud, but this is one of them.

Kitchen confidential: adventures in the culinary underbelly, by Anthony Bourdain

 

Anthony Bourdain's 2000 memoir about his more than (at that point) 20 years in the restaurant industry is fascinating but also a little off-putting. He writes about how his love for good food was awakened during a childhood summer in France visiting his extended family. His admirable later career started out with a not very admirable young adulthood with a few years at Vassar wasted with too many drug and alcohol fueled indulgences. A summer in Provincetown working in a seafood restaurant led to his decision to attend the Culinary Institute of America and commit to the culinary industry. While Bourdain is perhaps famous for his bad-boy image and irreverence, I found it to be unlikable in the book. I don't know if he's exaggerating or dramatizing for comedic effect, but if it's not then I think it's a little horrifying what goes on in even upscale restaurants' kitchens. As I read I was torn between going out for a bite right now and never eating out again. Bourdain also seems to have a high level of contempt for restaurant owners, his bosses, his coworkers, and the dining public. There are no moments when he seems to feel gratified or appreciated by the people eating his food. He acknowledges some of these criticisms in the preface to the 2000 Ecco edition, which is the one I have, but he writes that he wrote the book for other people in the industry, not the public, so he has no apologies for them or any of the (sometimes gross) practices that he reports on in his kitchens. (There have been subsequent editions with updated prefaces, so he may have changed his attitude over time.) He seems to mellow out near the end of the book when he is asked to go to Tokyo to help the chef with French cooking practices. He describes his first day trying to find breakfast in the city and being intimidated by the many choices. He finally settles on getting a latte in Starbucks before getting up the courage to go into the first noodle shop he saw and just asking for the same thing the guy next to him had. That humanized him a bit for me. As the trip went on he became more and more adventurous, walking and eating all over the city. His descriptions of those quests made it clear how suited he was to his later TV shows. Overall, this book is worth reading, although it's sad to read about his adventures knowing how he later died.

The legatus mystery, by Rosemary Rowe

Overall, I enjoyed this fifth book in this series about Libertus, a former enslaved British man who was freed and made a Roman citizen when his owner died. A mosaic artist by trade, he is regularly pulled into murder mysteries by his patron, Marcus Aurelius Septimus. I found this entry in the series to be entirely convoluted, with an unidentified body that disappears, strange and scary sounds emanating from who knows where, blood spots appearing out of nowhere, imperial rings showing up multiple times, and then more bodies appearing and disappearing. It seemed more like a farce than a murder mystery at times. I also found Libertus to be acting strangely out of character in this book, with him exhibiting paralyzing fear about the happenings in the temple. The plot was overly complicated, the characters were difficult to keep track of (too many temple officials and priests with unfamiliar titles), and the author took too long to get to the point. Then, in the end, Libertus explains everything to us, as if he had it figured out all along. It was a little more satisfying when he wrapped it up, but it didn't make up for the long slog ahead of that. So far, in five books, three have been pretty good, but the first and the fifth have been weaker. The best parts of the book are the characters Junio, his slave, and Gwellia, his former wife who was kidnapped into slavery and with whom he was reunited at the end of the last book. I'll keep reading in the hope that the plotting gets a little tighter and they improve. 
 

Dinners with Ruth: a memoir on the power of friendships, by Nina Totenberg

 

I really liked this touching and heartfelt memoir by NPR reporter Nina Totenberg about her decades long friendship with Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsberg. Long before Ruth became a Justice, she argued cases before the court beginning early in the 1970s, and Nina interviewed her regularly about those cases. What began as a professional relationship grew into a close personal friendship with both Nina and her first (and later second) husband dining regularly with Ruth and her husband. I find it amusing that in both cases, the husbands were the better cooks than the wives, so they did most of the cooking when hosting. When Nina lost her first husband in the late 90s, Ruth was very supportive, a favor that Nina returned when Ruth lost her husband Marty two decades later. I loved reading not just about their growing friendship but also how their careers began and flourished. Both women faced gender discrimination throughout their respective careers, and Totenberg shares those experiences through her many anecdotes scattered through the book but without dwelling overly long on those issues. Totenberg makes clear the historical importance of RBG's appointment as the second woman Supreme Court Justice, and she writes about Ruth's friendships and working relationships with Sandra Day O'Connor and Antonin Scalia. She discusses many of the cases that came before the court over the last 50-plus years without becoming dry or overly detailed. This is a fairly short book (304 pages) and she covers a lot of ground, all while keeping it highly interesting and entertaining. 

Kin, by Tayari Jones

 

I loved this novel about two motherless girls who grow up together in a small Louisiana town. Niecy was raised by her aunt, and Annie by her grandmother. However, their lives diverge when they get close to their high school graduation and Annie runs away with her boyfriend to move to Memphis and find her mother who abandoned her as an infant. After she graduates, Niecy moves to Atlanta where she attends Spelman College and falls in love first with her roommate and later a lawyer from a prominent Atlanta family. The writing is so good in this book that I just didn't want it to end. The chapters alternate between the two women's perspectives and chronicles not just the adventures and challenges they face over the years, but also how their friendship never wanes but does evolve. The focus of the plot is on the respective character and life choices of Niecy and Annie, but the backdrop includes both the struggle for civil rights and feminism. Those historical developments do not overpower the story, which is touching and empathetic. Ms. Jones' earlier book, An American Marriage was also wonderful, and I look forward to reading more of her works.

Slough House, by Mick Herron

 

In the 7th book in the Slow Horses series, the work records of all of the agents at Slough House have disappeared and several of their former agents have been killed. Jackson Lamb and his staff have to figure out if the two developments are related and who is behind them. The answer, as in previous books, is a combination of MI5 and state politics along with bad foreign actors. This is an exciting and compulsive entry in the series, and I found it impossible to put it down. The writing, dialog, and character development remains top notch; this is one of my favorite series of all time and I can't wait to read the next one.