Roseville Library staff favorites of 2006

Kitchen Confidential: Adventures in the Culinary Underbelly
Anthony Bourdain

This is Bourdain’s memoir of his years in the restaurant business. Bourdain is as unsparingly acerbic with himself as he is with others, and he exhibits a sincere and profound love of good food. He has attended culinary school, fallen prey to a drug habit and even established a restaurant in Tokyo, discovering along the way that the crazy, dirty, sometimes frightening world of the restaurant kitchen sustains him. He disdains vegetarians, warns against ordering food well done and cautions that restaurant brunches are a crapshoot. --Rachel


Newhart, Bob. I Shouldn't Even Be Doing This.

Part memoir, part anecdotal, part comic sketches, part television episodes, and all a good-humored look at this wonderful comedien's life and times since he forsake accounting for a career in the limelight. --Dianne

Kidd, Sue Monk. Secret Life of Bees

This is a coming of age story about a girl searching for answers about her dead mother. The story takes place in the South during the 1960’s. It’s an excellent read with great characters. -- Carol

Pearl, Matthew. The Poe Shadow

I liked The Poe Shadow, a historical mystery, based on the circumstances of Edgar A. Poe’s death. Quentin Clark, a young lawyer becomes obsessed with the incongruities surrounding his favorite author’s death and lonely burial. He abandons his practice, his fiancée, and life as he knows it to pursue the case from America to France and back. In my opinion, the most interesting and unique aspect of the book is how the setting, Boston in 1849, becomes a character, as intriguing as any live character. This is the author, Matthew Pearl’s second book. If you enjoy a rich plot, you’ll like this one. -- Chris

Bradbury, Ray. Farewell, Summer
In some ways it is a sequel to the classic Dandelion Wine. The book is a quick read and beautifully written, if you are a Bradbury fan you won’t want to miss it, and will recognize sections that have been used in some of Bradbury’s short stories. If you haven’t read any Bradbury, you will want to start with something else.
--Lisa

I will post more of these favorites later this month--I need to consult my reading notebook before I can decide my choice for 2006. Have a great week!