The Reader’s Nook - The N&G Book Thread

jamieanderson1968 said:
I could never re-read Kitchen Confidential. Bourdain was only shining a light on it, but there was and still is such an absolutely toxic kitchen culture in restaurants. Definitely worth reading though. Having had the pleasure of meeting him several times, his suicide is still very raw with me.

I actually picked up a new Kobo ereader a few weeks ago. I have been reading on my iPhone for several years, but noticed over the last couple of years that it was to easy to read just a couple of pages and then flip over to the news feed from the 9th circle of hell for 30 minutes or so.

Not sure if I am reading more now with the Kobo, but at least now when I do start to read I am doing it for longer stretches.
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I mean I worked in restaurants for 20 plus years (was a chef all certified and everything for ten or so of those). So far there is nothing there that wasn't what I experienced.

I miss Bourdain and really only knew him from his shows (I did have a couple of cookbooks and his comics - as well as this and Medium Raw collecting virtual dust in my digital library) ... it's nice to "hear" his voice again.
 
jamieanderson1968 said:
I could never re-read Kitchen Confidential. Bourdain was only shining a light on it, but there was and still is such an absolutely toxic kitchen culture in restaurants. Definitely worth reading though. Having had the pleasure of meeting him several times, his suicide is still very raw with me.

I actually picked up a new Kobo ereader a few weeks ago. I have been reading on my iPhone for several years, but noticed over the last couple of years that it was to easy to read just a couple of pages and then flip over to the news feed from the 9th circle of hell for 30 minutes or so.

Not sure if I am reading more now with the Kobo, but at least now when I do start to read I am doing it for longer stretches.
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I just got to the chapter where he tells you what to and not eat at restaurants and why and I’m in stitches.

To add to his concern about hollandaise, any cream/butter emulsion is gonna have the same bacteria issues at a chain restaurant. Or it will be a powder that is reconstituted, cooled, and then reheated. While making a lemon butter or beurre Blanc to order is completely doable and something that will happen in fine dining, it’s too variable and too complicated for the staff at your local Olive Garden. As such if it is actually cream and butter, it will also sit in the bacteria hot zone for hours at a time. Hell I’ve worked at restaurants where the left over emulsion is cooled down and used to start the new emulsion the next morning like it’s a fucking sourdough starter or something.
 
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Lee Newman said:
I just got to the chapter where he tells you what to and not eat at restaurants and why and I’m in stitches.

To add to his concern about hollandaise, any cream/butter emulsion is gonna have the same bacteria issues at a chain restaurant. Or it will be a powder that is reconstituted, cooled, and then reheated. While making a lemon butter or beurre Blanc to order is completely doable and something that will happen in fine dining, it’s too variable and too complicated for the staff at your local Olive Garden. As such if it is actually cream and butter, it will also sit in the bacteria hot zone for hours at a time. Hell I’ve worked at restaurants where the left over emulsion is cooled down and used to start the new emulsion the next morning like it’s a fucking sourdough starter or something.
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What makes this even more interesting is that the book came out at a time when many of these practices were not common knowledge to anyone outside of a kitchen. Bourdain basically drew back the curtain, unapologetically, and became wealthy off of it. Pretty badass really.

I have mentioned it before but I read this book once a year and it never gets old for me. He hit the balance of autobiography, guidance in cooking, behind-the-scenes of kitchen life, and humor really well.
 
Selaws said:
What makes this even more interesting is that the book came out at a time when many of these practices were not common knowledge to anyone outside of a kitchen. Bourdain basically drew back the curtain, unapologetically, and became wealthy off of it. Pretty badass really.

I have mentioned it before but I read this book once a year and it never gets old for me. He hit the balance of autobiography, guidance in cooking, behind-the-scenes of kitchen life, and humor really well.
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He was an a wonderful writer. I read his couple of fiction books back when KC came out and enjoyed them. Both were crime/mystery novels. Funny to think if they had taken off before KC he may have had an entirely different, but related, career trajectory.
 
Current reading Never A Dull Moment: 1971 The Year That Rock Exploded by British music writer David Hepworth.
FF53AF65-2840-4D6F-95DE-EF7950281BFC.jpeg
Pretty fun read. Each chapter attempts to cover a month from that year through releases, artist, and events that had a big part in shaping the year. It only touches lightly on certain things while delving deeper on others being as it’s less than 300 pages in length it would be hard to commit to any more in depth without things getting much more bloated. As someone who wasn’t born until 1981 it does a admirable job of connecting a lot of dots from the era.

I am currently to “August” chapter and one of the fun features of the book is each chapter includes a “playlist” of 9 or 10 tracks that represent some of the artist mentioned in the book. I looked on Spotlight and surprisingly didn’t find a playlist there that incorporated all the songs mentioned…

So… I made one last night.

It is missing a few tracks, a Neil Young song and a Joni Mitchell song (of course) and a Bob Marley Acoustic Medley but I think I was able to find everything else.

I figured I would make it available here for anyone who has read, is reading or might read the book in the future.
 
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In looking for a good, unique book for my wife for X-mas, I stumbled across this on a list of best-of-the-year.
Has anyone here read it?
www.penguinrandomhouse.com

An Immense World by Ed Yong: 9780593133255 | PenguinRandomHouse.com: Books

NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER • A “thrilling” (The New York Times), “dazzling” (The Wall Street Journal) tour of the radically different ways that animals perceive the world...
www.penguinrandomhouse.com www.penguinrandomhouse.com
 
ranbalam said:
In looking for a good, unique book for my wife for X-mas, I stumbled across this on a list of best-of-the-year.
Has anyone here read it?
www.penguinrandomhouse.com

An Immense World by Ed Yong: 9780593133255 | PenguinRandomHouse.com: Books

NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER • A “thrilling” (The New York Times), “dazzling” (The Wall Street Journal) tour of the radically different ways that animals perceive the world...
www.penguinrandomhouse.com www.penguinrandomhouse.com
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Haven't read it but also added it to my list since I saw it in the times. Reviews seem overwhelmingly rave.
 
nyti.ms

In the ‘Cozy Catastrophe’ Novel, the End of the World Is Not So Bad

Originally published in 1939, “The Hopkins Manuscript,” by the British writer R.C. Sherriff, inaugurated a genre of post-apocalyptic fiction in which a resourceful hero survives unthinkable cataclysm.
nyti.ms nyti.ms

Really interesting article. Anyone read this book, The Hopkins Manuscript? It's about to be reissued. Sounds right up my alley.
 
BjorgenFjorgen said:
nyti.ms

In the ‘Cozy Catastrophe’ Novel, the End of the World Is Not So Bad

Originally published in 1939, “The Hopkins Manuscript,” by the British writer R.C. Sherriff, inaugurated a genre of post-apocalyptic fiction in which a resourceful hero survives unthinkable cataclysm.
nyti.ms nyti.ms

Really interesting article. Anyone read this book, The Hopkins Manuscript? It's about to be reissued. Sounds right up my alley.
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Never heard of this but I'm very intrigued!
 
I’m probably gonna read this concurrently with at least one other book (kindle challenge is dictating some of my reading right now):
3D0A5BFA-83F7-44D5-9686-BC10643E7BD5.jpeg

So my oldest found out about a program from Penguin Books where you fill out some information about some one you want to gift a book and they send you a letter with recommendations based on what you entered. She did this for myself and my wife. We each got the letter and I got an Amazon gift card because she knows I like to read on my kindle and she got my wife the book that she thought my wife would like the best. I went ahead and bought all three books (well i preordered the book about Sister Rosetta Tharp as it is getting ready to be republished). The other is this:
A29213B3-0432-4552-9FC0-1D922E52A41A.jpeg
Which I got a hard copy of because comics are not as fun on a reader/app.
 
Lee Newman said:
I’m probably gonna read this concurrently with at least one other book (kindle challenge is dictating some of my reading right now):
View attachment 163274

So my oldest found out about a program from Penguin Books where you fill out some information about some one you want to gift a book and they send you a letter with recommendations based on what you entered. She did this for myself and my wife. We each got the letter and I got an Amazon gift card because she knows I like to read on my kindle and she got my wife the book that she thought my wife would like the best. I went ahead and bought all three books (well i preordered the book about Sister Rosetta Tharp as it is getting ready to be republished). The other is this:
View attachment 163276
Which I got a hard copy of because comics are not as fun on a reader/app.
Click to expand...
Well the first story in the LaRocca was fucked up. Kind of like if Stephen King and Chuck Palahniuk collaborated on something. Glad I was planning on reading something else while reading it cause I need a break.
 
Finished my first book of the year. Stella Rimmington / At Risk
Amazon product ASIN 0099461390Started at breakfast on Jan 1 and finished in the afternoon on Jan 4. Been a while since I read through a book so quickly. That was my normal pace years ago.

I love John Le Carre and have read his books several times over. But in the spy book world there is Le Carre and then there is everyone else. I find the biggest issue for too many spy books is that the fate of the world hanging is in the balance or the protagonist is a Bond/Bourne killing machine. What I enjoy about Le Carre is the often the stakes are quite small. I need to go back to read more 70s writers when the Cold War was raging.

Now on to a book about Stalingrad, that should be nice and light.
 
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