NON-FICTION
1.) Kitchen Confidential by Anthony Bourdain (2019) / Insider Edition with Handwritten Footnotes and Afterthoughts (2012) - I start with a book I read in 2024 but have not yet published the review. Bourdain was a remarkable writer, probably more skilled at the written word than cooking or being a television travel personality.
An excerpt from my draft review illustrates my thoughts on his skill as an author:
Kitchen Confidential sets out his prodigious writing talent.
Bourdain, in the original preface, said the tone of the book was “blustery” with the “occasional sweeping generalization” as he sought to speak in “Kitchenese, the secret language of cooks”. He was writing “for professional cooks”. I was struck that he did not write for the masses who just eat at restaurants. I expect part of its success is that he was not writing for everyone but his skill as a storyteller made it accessible to all.
I cannot recall reading another book with handwritten notes from the author interspersed throughout the book. Not being typed they have a freshness and expressiveness that is unique. They were written by Bourdain 12 years after the original publication and are in his printing.
2.) A Gentleman and a Thief by Dean Jobb - Arthur Barry was handsome, debonair, even suave in Manhattan society. He was also a great jewel thief.
He stole from the richest in America. Among his favourite targets were lavish estates on Long Island.
Barry had nerves of steel for he often entered homes while the residents were having meals and was out before they were done eating.
Jobb tells a story that would be improbable as fiction.
As interesting as the thefts is the story of what happened when Barry was caught.
As a lawyer I was fascinated by his involvement in the American judicial system.
MOST INTERESTING
1.) The Department of Rare Books and Special Collections by Eva Jurczyk - I love libraries. When I travel I will drop into almost every library I encounter. It is not often I get to read of skulduggery at a library.
The Plantin Polygot Bible, purchased for $500,000, has gone missing from the Rare Books and Special Collections of the university (a barely disguised University of Toronto).
Liesl Weiss is tasked with finding the missing Bible. The university president, desperate for discretion advises her:
“Don’t get too creative, and don’t be more honest than you have to be.”
I summed up my review:
The Department of Rare Books and Special Collections book is a thoughtful mystery with an admirable clever sleuth. No guns, knives, bombs or other means of mayhem were wielded in the library.
2.) Bronco Buster by A.J. Devlin - Jed “Hammerhead” Ounstead is back in the wrestling ring performing at the Colossal Cloverdale Rodeo and Country Fair in a suburb of Vancouver.
When Jasper Adams, a loggersports contestant, is murdered Hammerhead and his Irish cousin, Declan, feel compelled to investigate as they had bonded over beers with Adams the previous night.
In less than a day Hammerhead works the investigation with drama and humour a plenty:
The action scenes are amazing including wrestling in a terrarium filled with snakes, a rodeo girl who can rope and hogtie in an instant and a breathtaking ride on an ostrich.
What made it a Most Interesting Book is that Hammerhead is a poetry aficionado and has chosen “DO NOT GO GENTLE” for his new wrestling marketing catchphrase.
Finding a professional wrestler who enjoys and values the famed Welsh poet, Dylan Thomas, was a wonderful surprise.
I also had an excellent exchange of emails with A.J. on the writing of the Hammerhead quartet.
3.) The Wealth of Shadows by Graham Moore - Ansel Luxford is an unlikely warrior. He is a quiet tax attorney in Minneapolis with a loving wife, Angela, and a 2 year old daughter. He is a clever man. He understands statistics, especially economic data.
He joins the Research Department of the U.S. Government as the U.S. gets involved in WW II. The Department is created to fight the Nazis on the economic front.
The Wealth of Shadows is Most Interesting for featuring paper warriors fighting important economic battles during the war.
An example from before the U.S. is a combatant:
White then tasks the Department with developing a strategy which will allow FDR to transfer American weapons to Britain and France without breaching The Neutrality Act. To give or sell the weapons would breach the Act unless the same offers were made to Germany.
They manage by saying the weapons must be paid for in gold and the buyer must pick them up in the U.S. With the British navy controlling the seas Germany has no means of transporting weapons from America.
The book delves into the creation of the new world economic order at the end of WW II. The decisions from those meetings still guide the world of the 21st Century.
3.) Lies and Weddings by Kevin Kwan - The newest book by the author of the Crazy Rich Asians trilogy is another story involving fabulously rich Chinese.
In Lies and Weddings a prominent member of the Hong Kong elite has married an English aristocrat and is now Countess Arabella Leung Gresham. While micromanaging her daughter Augusta’s fabulous Hawaiian wedding she plots to find a suitable spouse for her surfing son, Rufus. Unfortunately for her schemes, he is more interested in Dr. Eden Tong, who grew up with him in England.
What put the book on this list was actually the dress Eden wore to Augusta’s wedding. It turned out to be a real dress by the Hawaiian designer Manaolo. I ended up writing to my blogging friend, Moira Redmond, at the Clothes in Books blog about the dress. A pair of posts on the dress followed the review post.
I hope your 2025 reading is off to a good start.
I love libraries, too, Bill, so that one interests me a lot. And I can see how you might choose a book as one of the most interesting without considering it one of your best reads. I've read books like that, too. I admit I've not read the Anthony Bourdain, but I can imagine his insights were interesting, and if the writing style is appealing, too, I can see why that one would stay with you.
ReplyDeleteMargot: Thanks for the comment. Every year I am surprised with books that I simply find interesting. I had watched Bourdain's shows but not appreciated his talent as a writer. I think it would have been better for him to have remained a writer rather than become a T.V. food personality.
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