Anthony Bourdain. Kitchen Confidential. 2000.

This memoir of Bourdain’s rise through the restaurant world reads like a Hunter S. Thompson gonzo trip to the desert. The subtitle of the book is “adventures in the culinary underbelly” and it is certainly that. Bourdain has a wry unsentimental tone as he discusses his experiences, the characters he met, and the NY restaurants in which he learned his craft. His irreverence as he describes the laundry list of drugs, the lack of sleep and kitchen high jinx kept me laughing. I would never have made it in the industry, but if the reader is contemplating a career in the kitchen, there is plenty of advice on what it takes to make it, cooking techniques, and good knives. Bourdain’s style is highly readable and enjoyable for anyone who likes food writing, can take the arrogance of a good chef, doesn’t mind crudity (not crudités) and has a strong stomach.

Bill Bryson. In a Sunburned Country. 2001.

Australia, a country and a continent, with friendly people, hot dry weather, and more things that can kill you in extremely nasty ways than anywhere else. Bill Bryson loves this place and this funny, fact-filled, travelogue will make you want to visit Australia as soon as possible. This book reads like an adventure story and is suitable for most ages.

David Carr. The Night of the Gun. 2008.

Memories may be based on what happened to begin with, but they are reconstituted each time they are recalled - with the most-remembered events frequently the least accurate." When you compare your memories of an event with someone else's, are they comparable, radically different? Now imagine making the journey back through your life, your life as a drug addicted, award winning journalist, father, husband, and sometime friend is a memoir where the investigative reporter turns his skills on himself and his past to discover lines blurring and memories challenged. "The question of whether chemical induced behavior or revealed character seemed to hang a little too close for comfort when I was sitting on that patio with Barb." Was this really the life of a middle-class, mid-western young man speeding literally (with the aid of drug cocktails) into an adulthood where he becomes an award winning journalist/editor? Non-fiction reading like fiction?!

Sloane Crosley. I Was Told There'd Be Cake. 2008.

Put this memoir-like essay collection on your list of titles to recommend to young-at-heart women who want something funny. Readers of chick lit will feel especially at home with Crosley, a 20-something New York City single with a nonsentimental approach to boyfriends. For years she pursues her childhood fantasy of having a one-night stand and a career. She attempts to win over a dominatrix boss with a gift in the boss’s own image, an “Ursula cookie.” Crosley isn’t just laugh-out-loud funny, though. From skewering her own hang-ups--her need to receive toy ponies from men she dates, for example, or the repercussions of her unusual name. Her razor-sharp wit moves easily to analyzing the even weirder mores of modern America, where girls who refuse bacon are assumed to be anorexic and women getting married are allowed to “treat their friends like heel-skin shaving employees.” Like comedian David Sedaris, Crosley’s vision is essentially moralistic, though in such a frank and unself-righteous way that her morals feel like common sense.

Joan Didion. The Year of Magical Thinking. 2005.

Joan Didion’s husband, John Gregory Dunne, died of a heart attack as she watched from her place at the dinner table. Although a social worker at the hospital called Didion “a pretty cool customer,” the truth is that her husband’s death brought on ideas and behaviors that no rational person would consider. For example, Didion couldn’t bring herself to give away John’s shoes: he’d need them when he came back. Didion’s stress and grief were exacerbated by the fact that Didion’s daughter was in a coma, her body struggling to survive septic shock. In this unflinching account, Joan Didion recalls her husband’s death and her reaction to it with a journalist’s attention to detail, a counselor’s
insight into grief, and an author’s appreciation of the power of words to comfort and sustain us.

Edward Dolnick. The Forger's Spell. 2008.

During the 1940s a series of spectacular art forgeries was successfully perpetrated, only discovered by a series of coincidences at the end of the War. Regarded as a mediocre painter in his own right, the forger, Hans van Meegeren managed to pull the wool over the eyes of the art establishment and pass off several paintings of his own as those of famous Dutch masters, including Vermeer. At van Meegeren’s trial there were eleven paintings in evidence, all of which had received international acclaim and each of which he had sold for what would today be millions of dollars. Edward Dolnick goes into great detail describing the process by which van Meegeren first of all created his forgeries, researching processes to make his paintings appear old. He also delves into the psychology of the forger and then describes the conspiracies van Meegeren fabricated to snare his wealthy marks. Van Meegeren succeeded in his deceptions not by producing outstanding works of art but his true genius "lay in psychological manipulation." Van Meegeren took advantage of the greed of Hitler and Goering. Equally successful in manipulating the weaknesses and vanities of the art establishment, he said he, "wanted to strike at the art world for always belittling me." The author argues that anyone would have been taken in, given the times and the way van Meegeren perpetuated his fraud.

Elizabeth Gilbert. Eat, Pray, Love: One Woman's Search for Everything Across Italy, India and Indonesia. 2006.

Gilbert, an award-winning writer, describes her journey both literally and figuratively to discover who she is, apart from her broken marriage. Her travels take her to Italy in the pursuit of pleasure, India in the pursuit of spirituality and Indonesia in the pursuit of balance. Her insights make for an extremely entertaining and inspiring read.

Dana Kollmann. Never Suck a Dead Man's Hand: Curious Adventures of a CSI. 2007.

Dana Kollmann used to be a Crime Scene Investigator in Baltimore County (she now teaches at Towson University) and this book tells what that job is like. Anything but glamorous, this job kept Kollmann up late night shifts driving to different parts of the county to document and collect evidence from accidents, crimes, suicides, and some assorted human activities that are frankly just weird. Kollman describes some of the strange and interesting things and people she had to deal with. (The title refers to a time when, trying to take fingerprints off a frozen body’s corpse, she accidentally got the hand stuck in her mouth). This is a light and interesting read, often funny but sometimes disgusting - I would not recommend reading it while eating.

Ruth Reichl. Garlic and Sapphires: the Secret Life of a Critic in Disguise. 2005.

When Ruth Reichl accepts the position of food critic for the New York Times, she has no idea she just earned herself a place on the most wanted list of New York’s restaurateurs. In the kitchens of restaurants across the city, Reichl’s picture has been posted along with details about her life and family so she is easily recognizable to restaurant staff. Days of anonymity behind her, Ruth assumes a series of disguises and personas in order to visit New York restaurants without receiving special treatment, so she can provide readers with accurate critiques and reviews. She assumes personas from humdrum to quirky. She becomes ‘kooky’, redheaded “Brenda”, a lover of bold, vintage clothing. In contrast, Reichl also steps out as demure yet sophisticated, blonde “Chloe” to size up one of her most important dining locations yet. In portraying “Betty,” Reichl learns what it feels like to be ‘invisible,’ and the experience of “Molly” yields an important lesson on being pushed aside. The tales that ensue are entertaining, some evoking laughter, but all providing insight into one woman’s journey of self-awareness and discovery. Check out selected recipes and the stories behind her reviews to see what the life of a food critic is really like when an undercover Reichl takes a bite (or two) out of the Big Apple.

Kate Summerscale. The Suspicions of Mr. Whicher. 2008.

A classical murder mystery set in an English country house, set in the Victorian era, when in upper and middle class homes complex and rigid social conventions only too often bred secrets and perversions behind closed doors. The Suspicions of Mr. Whicher, a true story of a child murder that took place in England in an upper class country home in 1860. Summerscale, a journalist and former literary editor, has written an enthralling true crime story that encompasses all the details that fans of true crime find essential: the crime, the suspects' actions, the police investigations, blunders, and breakthroughs, and also the detailed proceedings of the various court hearings. At the same time, she has managed to pen a story that draws you in with its narrative style. Well crafted, she leads the reader through the details of the case and through her argument that this case was the real case that gave rise to the conventions of country house murder fiction we know today. The author writes perceptively of the details of mid-Victorian English culture and of the people involved in the case. Was the person convicted in this case really the culprit? You will have to read the book to find out!

J. Maarten Troost. The Sex Lives of Cannibals: Adrift in the Equatorial Pacific. 2004.

The Sex Lives of Cannibals tells the hilarious story of what happens when the author, discovers that Tarawa is not the island paradise he dreamed of. Falling into one amusing misadventure after another, Troost struggles through relentless, stifling heat, a variety of deadly bacteria, polluted seas, and toxic fish. All in a country where the only music to be heard for miles around is “La Macarena.” He and girlfriend Sylvia spend the next two years battling incompetent government officials, alarmingly large critters, erratic electricity, and a paucity of food options (including the Great Beer Crisis); and contend with a bizarre cast of local characters, like “Half-Dead Fred” and the self-proclaimed Poet Laureate of Tarawa (a British drunkard who’s never written a poem in his life).

Jeannette Walls. The Glass Castle: A Memoir. 2005.

Even if you thought your childhood was crazy, chances are it can't begin to compete with growing up in the Walls family. If you thought this would make for a book too depressing to read, you'd be wrong! Walls humor, lack of self-pity and love for her dysfunctional family make for an astonishing and riveting story.