Tag: cooking

The Mambo Kings Play Songs of Love by Oscar Hijuelos

~ foodinbooks ~ 23 Comments

Reading this book and getting to know the main character of Cesar Castillo in The Mambo Kings Play Songs of Love was both a joy and a sadness. This is a man with a great lust for life, dancing and drinking and eating and womanizing.......and with a talent for making decisions based on instinct and … Continue reading The Mambo Kings Play Songs of Love by Oscar Hijuelos

Winter’s Tale by Mark Helprin

~ foodinbooks ~ 30 Comments

I was first given the book Winter's Tale by a woman who worked with me in a law firm,  several years ago. She was an odd woman, claiming to be psychic and in touch with - in her own words - "the universal forces." She was a practicing Wiccan, though it turns out she was … Continue reading Winter’s Tale by Mark Helprin

The Clockmaker’s Daughter by Kate Morton

~ foodinbooks

Kate Morton is, for me anyway, hit or miss. I loved The Lake House, and have plans to blog it sometime in the future. I disliked The Forgotten Garden because it was just so implausible. But I really enjoyed The Clockmaker's Daughter. It is precisely the type of book I love - fictional but set … Continue reading The Clockmaker’s Daughter by Kate Morton

Vaporetto 13 by Robert Girardi

~ foodinbooks ~ 14 Comments

Robert Girardi is one of my favorite "unknown" writers. He wrote Madeleine's Ghost, which I blogged about previously, and Vaporetto 13 is another novel that combines cynicism, hope, the supernatural, and a gorgeous city as the backdrop. In this case, Venice. You can read about what makes Venice so uniquely gorgeous and special by checking … Continue reading Vaporetto 13 by Robert Girardi

The Waiting Room by F.G. Cottam

~ foodinbooks ~ 16 Comments

F.G. Cottam is my new favorite author of horror, supernatural and paranormal fiction. He's published several works, and I'd previously blogged The House of Lost Souls, which was the first book I read by him and the one that hooked me into his elegant, spare and eerie style of writing. The Waiting Room is a … Continue reading The Waiting Room by F.G. Cottam

Like Water for Chocolate by Laura Esquivel

~ foodinbooks ~ 27 Comments

In honor of this month's Fandom Foodie recipe takeover, of which I am the host and the theme of which is food based on Mexican literature and/or inspired by Day of the Dead - el Dia de los Muertos - as well as my adoration for this marvelous book Like Water for Chocolate, I decided to … Continue reading Like Water for Chocolate by Laura Esquivel

The Haunting of Hill House by Shirley Jackson

~ foodinbooks ~ 26 Comments

Probably one of the creepiest books I've ever read, and that's saying something, because I love ghost stories. The Haunting of Hill House is effective because it doesn't actually show any ghosts, there are no murderers chasing anyone, no demons possessing souls, no vampires sucking blood, no monsters under the bed. There is just the … Continue reading The Haunting of Hill House by Shirley Jackson

Heroines of the Medieval World by Sharon Bennett Connolly

~ foodinbooks ~ 30 Comments

I think I've mentioned my lack of enthusiasm for most non-fiction books before. However, I discovered Sharon Bennett Connolly's amazing blog, History, The Interesting Bits, a few years ago, and her subsequent book, Heroines of the Medieval World, so hooked me into her writing that I immediately ordered the book and was sucked into the … Continue reading Heroines of the Medieval World by Sharon Bennett Connolly

The Angel’s Game by Carlos Ruíz Zafón

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My game plan is to blog all of Carlos Ruíz Zafón's quartet of books featuring The Cemetery of Forgotten Books in Barcelona, which is also one of my favorite cities in the world, before September, which is when the fourth and final installment of this amazing series ends. I previously blogged the first book in the … Continue reading The Angel’s Game by Carlos Ruíz Zafón

Neverwhere by Neil Gaiman

~ foodinbooks ~ 33 Comments

Very much a fairy tale for adults, Neverwhere tells the story of Richard Mayhew, a London commuter who stops to help a young woman lying bleeding on the sidewalk one night, and finds himself in the alternate universe of London Underground. The parallels with Alice in Wonderland are fairly obvious - falling into an underground … Continue reading Neverwhere by Neil Gaiman