Books, life the universe

Friday 21 March 2008

Cordon Bleu cookery and blogs

I have finished reading Michael Booth's 'Sacre Cordon Bleu' and found it very good. The writing is fluent and amusing both about the cookery and about the people. He is honest about his own failings and prejudices and totally over the moon when he does well overall in the course. He must either have been brave or foolhardy to uproot his whole family and move to Paris to learn to cook from the masters. Especially as he only spoke rudimentary French. This is a great read and useful for picking up odd tips about cooking - and it contains some recipes and a helpful list at the end of what the French know about food that the rest of us seem to overlook. I loved the trials and tribulations with lobsters.

I have just about finished 'Petite Anglaise' by Catherine Sanderson. It seems the reviewers on Amazon did not expect an autobiography to be about the author's life. Maybe they misunderstood what it was about. I found it painfully honest with no attempt made to justify her own actions. She was bored with her life and her relationship with 'Mr Frog', with it all taking on a same old, same old quality. We've all been there.

Her blog about her day to day life got her out of the rut and introduced her to more people including potential lovers. She became involved with one - James - and any outsider could see it was doomed. But Catherine was in the middle of it and couldn't read the outcome. I found it a very honest book - warts and all. Was she shallow and selfish? Easy to say that of anyone who breaks up a long term relationship. If that's the case shallow and selfish probably applies to a good half of the population. To me it's a book about a human being with the bad bits left in. I enjoyed it. I am interested in the current phenomenon of blogs turning into books and try and make a point of reading any that come to my notice. I have belatedly looked for her blog on the Internet.

Nice weather for Easter - windy and snow forecast - though it's sunny here at the moment. I am not intending to venture out unless I have to until Tuesday when I'm back at work. Oh the luxury of having Tesco deliver!

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