Garlic and Sapphires

Loved this - I really want to read her earlier memoirs now! The book has some recipes interspersed throughout. If you think you may want to use them, buy the Kindle or print version. It's hard to cook from an audio recipe. Otherwise, the unabridged audio is excellent and well worth listening to. Loved all the different characters she became and how they informed the restaurant reviews.

(Bookriot Read Harder 2016 Challenge: #22 Read a food memoir)

Reread October 2022, trade paperback I picked up from a library used book sale. Still extremely fun and readable.

I tried to stretch this book out as long as possible. I would only read it in the perfect context, which for me was the 4 o'clock sunshine of our living room with my feet propped on the coffee table and a mug of something tasty at my side. Cloudy day? No clean mugs? Wait for tomorrow, and maybe it would deserve a little bit of this book.

This arrangement couldn't be sustained. This morning I woke up depressed and unhappy, and instantly I knew that this book was what the day needed if it was to be salvaged. The talk of food, of change, the memories of New York - all of it felt like the author was a very close friend taking me out for lunch in order to lift my spirits. And it worked.