Sunday Salon: The Sharper the Knife the Less You Cry, Tithe, How to Become a Famous Writer Before You're Dead

The Sharper the Knife the Less You Cry: love, laughter and tears at the world’s most famous cooking school
Kathleen Flinn

I wasn’t sure how I was going to go with this memoir of a journalist who spends a year at the “world’s most famous cooking school” Le Cordon Bleu in Paris, but I was surprised at what a quick read it was. Kat’s adventures both in cooking and life through basic, intermediate and superior cuisine and the smattering of French life was compelling enough that I ran through the book in only a couple of sittings. Flinn is a good writer, but I found some of the metaphors between the food she was cooking and her life a bit contrived and trite (love is like a quiche, it has to be cooked at the right temperature and savoured with consideration – these are not Flinn’s words, but she offered up similar cringe worthy metaphors) and I really did get sick of how hearing about how wonderful her husband is. Flinn includes a lot of recipes in the book, but I have to say that French haute cuisine is not for me and I wasn’t tempted to try any of them. However, I did enjoy the book and I loved how Kat took a bad situation where she was retrenched from her job and turned it into the experience of a lifetime, the fulfilment of a long held dream and a completely new pathway in life. Leap and the net will appear!

Ironside
Holly Black

Ironside is the sequal to “Tithe” and unlike Black’s well known “Spiderwick Chronicles” (which I haven’t read) series, Tithe and Ironside are very much for young adult readers and contain adult themes and fairly strong language. I re-read Tithe last week to prepare myself for Ironside and I’m very glad I did. Kaye and Roiben’s world is detailed and involved and I needed the refresher.

After the events of Tithe, Kaye, who is coming to terms with being a pixie and not the ordinary 16 year old girl she thought she was and Roiben, who is (do not read on if you haven’t read Tithe as it is a SPOILER!) now King of the Unseelie Court, are trying to work out their relationship. Kaye makes a rash declaration and must undertake what appears to be a hopeless quest in order to be seen by the court as fit to be Roiben’s consort. Interwoven with this quest is Kaye forming a new identity and coming to terms with how the new Kaye fits into an old life that was never really hers to begin with.

In between Tithe and Ironside Holly Black wrote “Valiant” which is set in the same universe but shares the same characters in only the briefest of ways. Some of the characters from Valiant (one in particular) play a big role in Ironside and I enjoyed the overlap.

The biggest bummer for me with Ironside was that Roiben and Kaye were kept apart for almost the entire book, so there was no real progression with their relationship. I think Black is finished with the “modern faerie” books for now, so I guess that’s one story that just isn’t meant to be told.

How To Become A Famous Writer Before You’re Dead
Ariel Gore

I got this book in my Amazon haul last Christmas. I selected it because it seemed like it would be different from the usual books on writing, but it has taken me a few months to get to reading it. Ariel Gore is a bit famous for her first book “Hip Mama” which discussed her teen pregnancy and her journey into single parenthood. Gore is a breath of fresh air as far as I’m concerned. She has a no bullshit attitude that I relate to and she gets to the bones of things quickly, as opposed to waxing poetic about the writer’s life. Don’t get me wrong, I appreciate the poetry of people like Gail Sher and Natalie Goldberg when it comes to writing guidebooks, but I like the direct approach as well. Gore comes up with some gems in this “how to” book and while I don’t necessarily want to sell myself as hard as she says you have to, it was a good read. I was a bit bored with the section on how to start your own zine (never heard of this word before this book, and I certainly don’t know of any zines, have never read one and don’t know where to get one) but that’s a minor complaint in an otherwise enjoyable book.

Lots of reading this week, and next week is looking good with a re-visit to the first Aurora Teagarden mystery Real Murders (Charlaine Harris), the finish of BITE (a collection of short stories by authors in the vampire genre including Laurell K Hamilton and Charlaine Harris) and who knows what else.

Happy Sunday reading!