Last week I asked for some suggestions for foodie fiction that could be options for the next edition of BookClubSandwich, the online foodie book club I co-host with Andi (Estella’s Revenge). We got a lot of great suggestions — both fiction and nonfiction — that I trimmed down to five choices. Below is the list, plus some info about each book, and a poll at the bottom to vote.
We don’t have a specific discussion date yet, but it’ll be sometime at the end of July. Anyone is welcome to vote, but we’d love for people to picks books they’d like to read and participate in the book club. And now, the books! (All descriptions are from Indiebound).
The Kitchen Daughter by Jael McHenry (fiction)
“After the unexpected death of her parents, painfully shy and sheltered 26-year-old Ginny Selvaggio seeks comfort in cooking from family recipes. But the rich, peppery scent of her Nonna’s soup draws an unexpected visitor into the kitchen: the ghost of Nonna herself, dead for twenty years, who appears with a cryptic warning (“do no let her…”) before vanishing like steam from a cooling dish. … The more [Ginny] learns, the more she realizes the keys to these riddles lie with the dead, and there’s only one way to get answers: cook from dead people’s recipes, raise their ghosts, and ask them.”
The Last Chinese Chef by Nicole Mones (fiction)
“In her satisfying, sensual third novel, Nicole Mones takes readers inside the hidden world of elite cuisine in modern China through the story of an American food writer in Beijing. When recently widowed Maggie McElroy is called to China to settle a claim against her late husband’s estate, she is blindsided by the discovery that he may have led a double life. Since work is all that will keep her sane, her magazine editor assigns her to profile Sam, a half-Chinese American who is the last in a line of gifted chefs tracing back to the imperial palace. As she watches Sam gear up for China’s Olympic culinary competition by planning the banquet of a lifetime, she begins to see past the cuisine’s artistry to glimpse its coherent expression of Chinese civilization. It is here, amid lessons of tradition, obligation, and human connection that she finds the secret ingredient that may yet heal her heart.”
Garlic and Sapphires by Ruth Reichl (memoir)
“Ruth Reichl, world-renowned food critic and editor in chief of Gourmet magazine, knows a thing or two about food. She also knows that as the most important food critic in the country, you need to be anonymous when reviewing some of the most high-profile establishments in the biggest restaurant town in the world–a charge she took very seriously, taking on the guise of a series of eccentric personalities. In Garlic and Sapphires, Reichl reveals the comic absurdity, artifice, and excellence to be found in the sumptuously appointed stages of the epicurean world…”
The Sharper Your Knife, the Less You Cry by Kathleen Flinn (memoir)
“In 2003, Kathleen Flinn, a thirty-six-year-old American living and working in London, returned from vacation to find that her corporate job had been eliminated. Ignoring her mother’s advice that she get another job immediately or “never get hired anywhere ever again,” Flinn instead cleared out her savings and moved to Paris to pursue a dream–a diploma from the famed Le Cordon Bleu cooking school. The Sharper Your Knife, the Less You Cry is the touching and remarkably funny account of Flinn’s transformation as she moves through the school’s intense program and falls deeply in love along the way.”
My Life in France by Julia Child (memoir)
“Julia Child singlehandedly created a new approach to American cuisine with her cookbook Mastering the Art of French Cooking and her television show The French Chef, but as she reveals in this bestselling memoir, she was not always a master chef. … Julia’s unforgettable story – struggles with the head of the Cordon Bleu, rejections from publishers to whom she sent her now-famous cookbook, a wonderful, nearly fifty-year long marriage that took them across the globe – unfolds with the spirit so key to her success as a chef and a writer, brilliantly capturing one of the most endearing American personalities of the last fifty years.”
Personally, I’m going to vote for Garlic and Sapphires, but I’m excited about all of these books. Thanks for taking the time to vote in the poll below or offer your pitch for any of the books on the list in the comments!
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I’ve heard great things about The Kitchen Daughter and love the premise, and also have a copy of My Life In France languishing in my bookcase. I hope to read both soon!
Meg: I’ve read almost entirely good reviews of The Kitchen Daughter, so I’d definitely be happy with that one too!
I’m not technically part of this book club, but I just wanted to put in a good word that The Sharper Your Knife, the Less You Cry is a great read! And I have a copy if you want to borrow it, Kim. 🙂
Kristin: Excellent! I’ll probably borrow it from you sometime 🙂
I read Garlic and Sapphires a few years ago, very early in my blog’s lifetime. But I have both The Sharper the Knife… and My Life in France somewhere on the TBR shelves, so if either of those is the selection, I may try to join in.
Florinda: Awesome! We’ll have to see how the voting works out 🙂
I am with you! Garlic and Sapphire sounds awesome (though I admit that there doesn’t seem to be a bad choice in the bunch). I am going to have to add that one to my reading pile for sure!
Garlic and Sapphires sounds awesome! There isn’t really a bad choice in the lot, it seems, but I am definitely going to add G&S to my reading pile.
Do you watch Top Chef? This season of Top Chef Masters has Ruth Reichl as one of the regular judges!
Steph: Agreed — there’s not a bad book on the list, which makes me so happy.
I don’t have cable so I don’t usually watch Top Chef, but that’s cool news! I’ll have to see if it’s online.
The Kitchen Daughter!
softdrink: Thanks for voting!
I read My Life in France earlier this year, it is better than US of Arugula. I saw Garlic and Sapphires on a list of books to tickle your funny bone, so am voting for it but am open to any of them.
Savvy Working Gal: Good to know! I wasn’t as impressed with US of Arugula that I hoped to be, so I hope this pick is better. I’ll probably read Garlic and Sapphires whether it gets picked or not 🙂
You must read The Kitchen Daughter! You must! I read it a couple of weeks ago and loved it – there are so many elements to it, and although it’s a book with a lot of recipes, food, etc., there is just So. Much. More. To it. 🙂
Coffee and a Book Chick: Good to know 🙂 I’ve read lots and lots of great reviews of it, so I’d love for that to be the pick!
I voted for The Kitchen Daughter. I keep reading great reviews about it everywhere.
Vasilly: Excellent, thanks for voting!
I cast my vote! Yay!
Andi: Awesome!
PS Just wanted to throw out that Garlic and Sapphires was excellent, as well as another memoir from Ruth Reichl, Comfort Me with Apples!
I think we’re going to do Garlic and Sapphires for our next read!