{"id":6366,"date":"2024-02-15T05:47:18","date_gmt":"2024-02-15T05:47:18","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.sometimesraw.com\/?p=6366"},"modified":"2024-02-15T05:47:24","modified_gmt":"2024-02-15T05:47:24","slug":"book-thursday-3","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.sometimesraw.com\/?p=6366","title":{"rendered":".Book Thursday."},"content":{"rendered":"
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And now, one of my favorite topics: books. What are you reading these days? There is no shortage of amazing books right now and I am here for it. Both fiction and nonfiction, from hilarious to poignant, here\u2019s what I have been reading\u2026<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Save Me the Plums<\/a>\u00a0by Ruth Reichl<\/strong>
Confession: I don\u2019t care about food. Don\u2019t get me wrong \u2014 I eat food, I make food. Sometimes, I\u2019ll get unnaturally excited about a bucatini cacio e pepe. But I am not one of those people for whom reading about flavors and textures and ingredients holds any weight. That\u2019s how good Ruth Reichl is: she\u2019s a\u00a0writer<\/em>, who just so happens to focus on food. And anything she writes, I will read. Reichl\u2019s latest memoir chronicles her time as the editor-in-chief of\u00a0Gourmet<\/em>, and covers everything from wavering over accepting the job to not knowing how a magazine works to worrying how to be a boss to the very real guilt of balancing career and parenthood. She approaches every subject in her frank, friend-who-tells-the-best-stories-and-keeps-no-secrets way. The result is compulsively readable, much like \u2014 sorry, can\u2019t help myself \u2014 a dish you want to gobble up. If you like books by Stanley Tucci, go read Ruth Reichl. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Southern Lady Code<\/a>\u00a0by Helen Ellis<\/strong>
At first, I did not want to read Southern Lady Code. The cover was cute. It came recommended by people I trust. But I am not a Southern lady, and I feared the humor would be lost on me. I could not have been more wrong. Southern Lady code is \u201cthe technique by which, if you don\u2019t have something nice to say, you say something not-so-nice in a nice way.\u201d This essay collection had me howling \u2014 truly howling \u2014 with laughter. One evening while reading, my boyfriend put his book down to say, \u201cWHAT are you laughing at?\u201d which prompted me to read an entire chapter aloud. Ellis describes everything, from puzzles to airplane etiquette to riding the subway with a panty liner stuck to her back, in a way that is very, very funny. Run, don\u2019t walk.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Farm<\/a> by Joanne Ramos<\/strong>
Full disclosure: I just started The Farm last night, but you know those books that immediately draw you in and suddenly you can\u2019t think of anything else? Joanne Ramos, formerly a staffer at the Economist, wrote this debut novel \u2014 a cracking, chilling but also human page-turner about Jane, a Filipino immigrant, who goes to \u201cThe Farm,\u201d a retreat where for nine months, you get organic meals, daily massages and<\/em> big money. The catch? You can\u2019t leave the grounds, you\u2019re constantly monitored and you\u2019re cut off from your regular life, while you focus on producing the perfect baby \u2014 for someone else. If you liked The Handmaid\u2019s Tale<\/a>, I think you\u2019ll love this book. Can\u2019t wait to read it in bed tonight.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Unaccustomed Earth<\/a>\u00a0by Jhumpa Lahiri<\/strong>
A few weeks ago, when I wrote about my newly discovered love of\u00a0short stories, I was thrilled when people chimed in with favorite collections. The author that got the most shout-outs was Jhumpa Lahiri. Lahiri won a Pulitzer for her first book,\u00a0Interpreter of Maladies<\/a>, and a movie was made from her novel,\u00a0The Namesake<\/a>\u2014 but I decided to start with her 2009 collection\u00a0Unaccustomed Earth<\/a>. Like most of her writing, Lahiri focuses on the Bengali immigrant experience in America, zeroing in on themes of belonging, family and home. What is most impressive to me is there\u2019s often nothing exceptional about the setting or person. But man\u2026 she gets it. A big thank you to those who recommended this beautiful book. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Normal People<\/a>\u00a0by Sally Rooney\u00a0<\/strong>
This is one of those novels that a) you don\u2019t want to ever end b) when it ends, you can\u2019t bring yourself to read anything new because you want to live in the story for as long as possible. Rooney, who is 28, broke onto the scene two years ago with her critically acclaimed (and wildly popular)\u00a0Conversations with Friends<\/a>. Her second book follows two Irish high school kids who hail from different worlds: Connell is working class and popular, Marianne is wealthy and weird. Once they head to Trinity College in Dublin, the ever-present tension of these basic truths informs their love story as it evolves from secret and sexual to deep and beautiful to intense and life-saving. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

What are you reading right now? Have you read anything great lately? I\u2019d love to hear\u2026<\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

And now, one of my favorite topics: books. What are you reading these days? There is no shortage of amazing books right now and I am here for it. Both fiction and nonfiction, from hilarious to poignant, here\u2019s what I have been reading\u2026 Save Me the Plums\u00a0by Ruth ReichlConfession: I don\u2019t care about food. Don\u2019t … <\/p>\n

Continue reading “.Book Thursday.”<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_ml_titleColor":"#000000","_ml_titleFont":"Roboto","_ml_titleFontSize":1.136,"_ml_titleFontWeight":"400","_ml_titleLineHeight":1.3,"_ml_metaColor":"#708090","_ml_metaFont":"Montserrat","_ml_metaFontSize":0.6785,"_ml_metaFontWeight":"400","_ml_metaLineHeight":0.92,"_ml_bodyColor":"#a9a9a9","_ml_bodyFont":"Open Sans","_ml_bodyFontSize":0.85,"_ml_bodyFontWeight":"400","_ml_bodyLineHeight":1.2,"_ml_wooPriceColor":"#666","_ml_wooPriceFont":"Open Sans","_ml_wooPriceFontSize":0.9,"_ml_wooPriceFontWeight":"400","_ml_wooPriceLineHeight":1.27,"_ml_headingColor":"#000","_ml_headingFont":"Merriweather","_ml_headingFontSize":2.02,"_ml_headingFontWeight":"700","_ml_headingLineHeight":1.47,"_mlglobal_userfontcolors":{"headingColorUser":[],"titleColorUser":[],"metaColorUser":[],"bodyColorUser":[],"wooPriceColorUser":[]},"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[4,2],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-6366","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-book-reviews","category-minimalism-lifestyle"],"aioseo_notices":[],"aioseo_head":"\n\t\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t