After a decade of having this book on my shelf and TBR, I finally finished it. Sadly, this book was just okay to me. I honestly don't have strong feelings about it now that I finished.
Pros: Jenny Nelson is quite the atmospheric writer. You can tell that she did a wealth of research on Italy and the NYC restaurant scene, the inner workings of the restaurant business, and how she user her knowledge of fashion. This all shows in how detailed her book is when it comes to the outer trappings of the characters' wardrobe, likes/dislikes, and interests. These books allowed the reader to have a lot to latch onto as we visualize the happenings of the book. There are moments where Nelson gets too in the weeds on designers and upper crust references, but it was a fun scavenger hunt for me, so I didn't mind. The one place where this did come as a hindrance is that Nelson would misuse ten-dollar words she'd randomly thrown in, and this would drive me up a wall.
Cons: Because Nelson's book is so detailed the choice to not break the book into sections made this book's scenes all run together. For example, Georgia goes from being employed in NYC at a top restaurant and waiting to hear the happenings of a review to being fired and dumped and then she jets off to Italy to work in her mentor's kitchen within a span of a few pages. She then pops up in Tuscany exploring, and it took me a moment to realize that Georgia had been there awhile and the author had time jumped from the last chapter. If Nelson and the editor had broken this book into sections (ex: NYC, Tuscany, Back to NYC, etc.),scenes like this would have flowed better.
In this same vein, there were so many moments that Georgia spends pages worrying over, only for them to fizzle out when they occurred. This continuous cycle of big moments becoming anti-climatic made the second half of the book tedious. And without the breaking up of the book into sections, the moments that were built up only for them to let me down as a reader had rolling my eyes.
Now for a super picky critique, this book feels so obviously pre-WNDB Movement with the way Georgia utters prejudices about NYC cabbies and diversity and the random reference to the God, Ganesh, out the blue. These quirks to Georgia's character gave her the vibe of one of those alleged trendy whites one sees on social media today who steal pieces of BIPOC culture and remix it to fit their lifestyles not knowing what they're saying or doing. While these moments are few in the book, they are clunky and could've easily been cut since they add nothing to the story.
TLDR: If you need a good fictional women's lit pick after you've read Eat, Pray, Love by Elizabeth Gilbert or Under the Tuscan Sun by Frances Mayes, you may enjoy this book....more
I still love the technology aspect of this series. However, there was too much going on with Towanda's as a character before we ever got to the Met chI still love the technology aspect of this series. However, there was too much going on with Towanda's as a character before we ever got to the Met choices.
Seeing how Ruth Reichl connects specific dishes to moments in her life and cultural developments was interesting. I also canI love a good food memoir!
Seeing how Ruth Reichl connects specific dishes to moments in her life and cultural developments was interesting. I also can see the inspiration behind certain moments and characters in Reichl’s fiction novel, Delicious!, peppered throughout this memoir....more
Reading this short story was fun because I was slightly familiar with this Waterstones location from my stuA haunted bookstore sounds cool and creepy.
Reading this short story was fun because I was slightly familiar with this Waterstones location from my study abroad semester and it being around the corner from where our university’s dorms were.
This short story isn’t as good as the Abigail novellas, but it was cute for what it was. ...more
“Chloe, Dani, and Eve Brown are all representative of individuals who are neurodiverse or who have mental health issues they are living with. The sisters’ love interest also share these diagnosis, allowing readers who are seeking diverse representation for differently-abled characters to find themselves in between Hibbert’s pages.
However, where Hibbert’s books fell short for me is that they felt devoid of any cultural indicators for all of the characters…”...more
I really enjoyed this book! There are a lot of gems within it's pages for anyone who's trying to decide where they want to take their lives career wisI really enjoyed this book! There are a lot of gems within it's pages for anyone who's trying to decide where they want to take their lives career wise. Unlike a lot of other self-help books, Roman Krznaric's book offers concrete, tangible methods to help readers figure out their next career move. The book itself is short and will take you maybe an hour or two to get through (3 hours and 48 minutes is the actual audiobook duration). I highly recommend everyone read this book if you get the chance!...more
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