Entry tags:
Book/Movie/Manga Recs, 5/24/12
In Books:
Paris My Sweet: A Year in the City of Light (and Dark Chocolate), by Amy Thomas: This book made me SO HUNGRY, hungry for pastry, and more specifically, hungry to go to all the places that Thomas ably and happily describes.
But before I wax eloquent on the food porn, I want to start by saying that I'm really impressed how honest Thomas was about her time in Paris. (She spent two years there writing as a copywriter for Louis Vuitton.) It would have been easy for her to write a breezy, shallow memoir only about the food she ate, never touching on what it's like to move to a different country/continent all by yourself. But Thomas doesn't choose this easy route and instead writes frankly about the hard times, too. Paris isn't an easy culture to get a handle on, and it's not always a place that's welcoming to foreigners. Thomas doesn't whine at great length about her difficulties, but she does describe events and feelings that should very familiar to anyone who's spent a long time abroad: weekends spent entirely by oneself; coping mechanisms that suddenly fail or turn self-destructive; and the enormous significance that simple or nostalgic experiences suddenly take on. Thomas had expectations about Paris, for good and bad, and she writes about all of them in a conversational, informal way that didn't make me feel like I was sitting in on her therapy session, but more like we had met for tea and she was making small talk while we waited for the sweets to arrive.
And those sweets: OMG OMG OMG. I don't often get so worked up about food writing, but with each passing cake/pastry/crumble/amazing culinary experience Thomas described, the more I wanted to throw everything away, bundle up R. and Yebisu, and head to Paris for a year. Macarons! Why the hell isn't there a place in San Diego that makes them the way she describes them: "I bit into the shell that, poof, crunched ever so delicately before collapsing in a delightfully chewy and moist mouthful. And then the storm of flavors hit me. Bright raspberry, exotic lychee, and a whiff of rose. There was so much power in that pretty little thing. It was a delicacy packed with skill, imagination, poetry, and God, give me another one!" I read that and, in internet parlance, *dies and is ded*. This book made me realize that I've been eating a "translated" (for lack of a better word) version of some desserts here in the U.S. for far too long. Thomas does write about bakeries in New York City, but I can tell that her heart lies in Paris (except for cupcakes, which America has squarely cornered the market on.) She writes about more than macarons, too, of course, and the descriptions of all the food are loving, complicated, and reverential.
I really cannot recommend this lovely volume enough. It's a fast, fun read, but there's a serious backbone to it that I really admire. Hand this to your favorite pastry enthusiast, or to that student you know about to do Junior Year Abroad.
In Manga:
Kami-sama Kiss!, Volumes 1/2: Ever since Beauty Pop finished, I've been trying to find a shoujo manga to take its slightly-guilty-but-ultimately-very-satisfying-pleasure on my reading shelf. This manga isn't going to be it, and that's very disappointing. I *love* the concept: ordinary girl with money and family problems finds herself given powers of a minor neighborhood guardian/god, and has to negotiate those and her feelings for her assistant, a grouchy kitsune who initially roots for her to fail but gradually falls for her as well. Unfortunately, the execution is not good. The artwork is pretty standard shoujo and all the characters, even the supernatural ones, look generic and interchangeable. More annoyingly, the meta-plot moves along at a snail's pace while the heroine ditzily insists that she has to keep going to high school (despite her new-found supernatural powers) and deals with minor problems there. I should love the tengu-turned-J-Pop-idol, but even he falls flat. So disappointing!
Why can't I find a shoujo manga with 1) decent artwork and realistic dialogue, 2) a slight supernatural twist, but mostly real world setting, 3) a heroine who isn't defined by her clumsiness but overall loyalty to everyone who doesn't appear to give a damn about her, and 4) that doesn't end abruptly at 10 volumes?? *sigh*
At the Movies:
Salmon Fishing in the Yemen: I had been waiting to see this thing for such a long time, and I was not disappointed at all. (Yebisu and I managed to sneak it in a few weeks ago.) This isn't a big, contrived romantic comedy, where the two love interests "meet cute" and then have to overcome paper tiger obstacles to be together; instead, it's a story firmly based on honest feelings and real life problems. There's also the most light of sci-fi touches--this is a genre that I'd call something like, "almost real world, wishful thinking sci-fi". In this case, in the near future, wouldn't it be great if we could reclaim some barren desert land to construct a salmon run? And against this palest of sci-fi backdrops, a love story unfolds--tentatively, sweetly, and sensitively. I loved this movie. It was really great to see people being nice to each other for a change, and not have mind-numbing violence every other frame or so. (There is one bit of action involving a fish hook that I was not anticipating, and I don't want to give away--but it's very well done, a nice little Indiana Jones touch.) I'm looking forward to reading the book this was based on.
Paris My Sweet: A Year in the City of Light (and Dark Chocolate), by Amy Thomas: This book made me SO HUNGRY, hungry for pastry, and more specifically, hungry to go to all the places that Thomas ably and happily describes.
But before I wax eloquent on the food porn, I want to start by saying that I'm really impressed how honest Thomas was about her time in Paris. (She spent two years there writing as a copywriter for Louis Vuitton.) It would have been easy for her to write a breezy, shallow memoir only about the food she ate, never touching on what it's like to move to a different country/continent all by yourself. But Thomas doesn't choose this easy route and instead writes frankly about the hard times, too. Paris isn't an easy culture to get a handle on, and it's not always a place that's welcoming to foreigners. Thomas doesn't whine at great length about her difficulties, but she does describe events and feelings that should very familiar to anyone who's spent a long time abroad: weekends spent entirely by oneself; coping mechanisms that suddenly fail or turn self-destructive; and the enormous significance that simple or nostalgic experiences suddenly take on. Thomas had expectations about Paris, for good and bad, and she writes about all of them in a conversational, informal way that didn't make me feel like I was sitting in on her therapy session, but more like we had met for tea and she was making small talk while we waited for the sweets to arrive.
And those sweets: OMG OMG OMG. I don't often get so worked up about food writing, but with each passing cake/pastry/crumble/amazing culinary experience Thomas described, the more I wanted to throw everything away, bundle up R. and Yebisu, and head to Paris for a year. Macarons! Why the hell isn't there a place in San Diego that makes them the way she describes them: "I bit into the shell that, poof, crunched ever so delicately before collapsing in a delightfully chewy and moist mouthful. And then the storm of flavors hit me. Bright raspberry, exotic lychee, and a whiff of rose. There was so much power in that pretty little thing. It was a delicacy packed with skill, imagination, poetry, and God, give me another one!" I read that and, in internet parlance, *dies and is ded*. This book made me realize that I've been eating a "translated" (for lack of a better word) version of some desserts here in the U.S. for far too long. Thomas does write about bakeries in New York City, but I can tell that her heart lies in Paris (except for cupcakes, which America has squarely cornered the market on.) She writes about more than macarons, too, of course, and the descriptions of all the food are loving, complicated, and reverential.
I really cannot recommend this lovely volume enough. It's a fast, fun read, but there's a serious backbone to it that I really admire. Hand this to your favorite pastry enthusiast, or to that student you know about to do Junior Year Abroad.
In Manga:
Kami-sama Kiss!, Volumes 1/2: Ever since Beauty Pop finished, I've been trying to find a shoujo manga to take its slightly-guilty-but-ultimately-very-satisfying-pleasure on my reading shelf. This manga isn't going to be it, and that's very disappointing. I *love* the concept: ordinary girl with money and family problems finds herself given powers of a minor neighborhood guardian/god, and has to negotiate those and her feelings for her assistant, a grouchy kitsune who initially roots for her to fail but gradually falls for her as well. Unfortunately, the execution is not good. The artwork is pretty standard shoujo and all the characters, even the supernatural ones, look generic and interchangeable. More annoyingly, the meta-plot moves along at a snail's pace while the heroine ditzily insists that she has to keep going to high school (despite her new-found supernatural powers) and deals with minor problems there. I should love the tengu-turned-J-Pop-idol, but even he falls flat. So disappointing!
Why can't I find a shoujo manga with 1) decent artwork and realistic dialogue, 2) a slight supernatural twist, but mostly real world setting, 3) a heroine who isn't defined by her clumsiness but overall loyalty to everyone who doesn't appear to give a damn about her, and 4) that doesn't end abruptly at 10 volumes?? *sigh*
At the Movies:
Salmon Fishing in the Yemen: I had been waiting to see this thing for such a long time, and I was not disappointed at all. (Yebisu and I managed to sneak it in a few weeks ago.) This isn't a big, contrived romantic comedy, where the two love interests "meet cute" and then have to overcome paper tiger obstacles to be together; instead, it's a story firmly based on honest feelings and real life problems. There's also the most light of sci-fi touches--this is a genre that I'd call something like, "almost real world, wishful thinking sci-fi". In this case, in the near future, wouldn't it be great if we could reclaim some barren desert land to construct a salmon run? And against this palest of sci-fi backdrops, a love story unfolds--tentatively, sweetly, and sensitively. I loved this movie. It was really great to see people being nice to each other for a change, and not have mind-numbing violence every other frame or so. (There is one bit of action involving a fish hook that I was not anticipating, and I don't want to give away--but it's very well done, a nice little Indiana Jones touch.) I'm looking forward to reading the book this was based on.