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Welcome goonlings to the Awful Book of the Month! In this thread, we choose one work of Resources: Project Gutenberg - http://www.gutenberg.org - A database of over 17000 books available online. If you can suggest books from here, that'd be the best. SparkNotes - http://www.sparknotes.com/ - A very helpful Cliffnotes-esque site, but much better, in my opinion. If you happen to come in late and need to catch-up, you can get great character/chapter/plot summaries here.  For recommendations on future material, suggestions on how to improve the club, or just a general rant, feel free to PM me. Past Books of the Month [for BOTM before 2014, refer to archives] 2014: January: Ursula K. LeGuin - The Left Hand of Darkness February: Mikhail Bulgalov - Master & Margarita March: Richard P. Feynman -- Surely You're Joking, Mr. Feynman! April: James Joyce -- Dubliners May: Gabriel Garcia Marquez -- 100 Years of Solitude June: Howard Zinn -- A People's History of the United States July: Mary Renault -- The Last of the Wine August: Barbara Tuchtman -- The Guns of August September: Jane Austen -- Pride and Prejudice October: Roger Zelazny -- A Night in the Lonesome October November: John Gardner -- Grendel December: Christopher Moore -- The Stupidest Angel 2015: January: Italo Calvino -- Invisible Cities February: Karl Ove Knausgaard -- My Struggle: Book 1. March: Knut Hamsun -- Hunger April: Liu Cixin -- 三体 ( The Three-Body Problem) May: John Steinbeck -- Cannery Row June: Truman Capote -- In Cold Blood (Hiatus) August: Ta-Nehisi Coates -- Between the World and Me September: Wilkie Collins -- The Moonstone October:Seth Dickinson -- The Traitor Baru Cormorant November:Svetlana Alexievich -- Voices from Chernobyl December: Michael Chabon -- Gentlemen of the Road 2016: January: Three Men in a Boat (To say nothing of the Dog!) by Jerome K. Jerome February:The March Up Country (The Anabasis) of Xenophon March: The Name of the Rose by Umberto Eco April: Plain Tales from the Hills by Rudyard Kipling May: Temple of the Golden Pavilion by Yukio Mishima June:The Vegetarian by Han Kang July:Lud-in-the-Mist by Hope Mirrlees August: Pale Fire by Vladimir Nabokov September:Siddhartha by Herman Hesse October:Right Ho, Jeeves by P.G. Wodehouse Current: Kitchen Confidential by Anthony Bourdain Available from amazon here (including ebook): https://www.amazon.com/Kitchen-Confidential-Updated-Adventures-Underbelly/dp/0060899220 About the book: Kitchen Confidential: Adventures in the Culinary Underbelly is a New York Times bestselling non-fiction book written by American chef Anthony Bourdain. The book, released in 2000, is both Bourdain's professional story and a behind-the-scenes look at restaurant kitchens. The book is known for its treatment of the professional culinary industry. The commercial kitchen is described as an intense, unpleasant and sometimes hazardous place of work staffed by what he describes as misfits. Bourdain believes it's no place for hobbyists and all those entering this industry will run away screaming if they lack a masochistic, irrational dedication to cooking. The book alternates between a confessional narrative and an industry commentary, providing insightful and humorous anecdotes on the cooking trade. Bourdain details some of his personal misdeeds and weaknesses, including drug use. He explains how restaurants function economically and the various restaurateur's tricks of which consumers should be aware. For example, he advises customers to avoid ordering fish on a Monday as the fish for Monday would be likely a remnant from the weekend or earlier. He also suggests avoiding beef well done: the meat is more likely to be from less-than-best grade as the substandard flavor would be masked in overcooking. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kitchen_Confidential_(book) Themes and Background I haven't read this yet, but you can find the original New Yorker article here: quote:Good food, good eating, is all about blood and organs, cruelty and decay. It’s about sodium-loaded pork fat, stinky triple-cream cheeses, the tender thymus glands and distended livers of young animals. It’s about danger—risking the dark, bacterial forces of beef, chicken, cheese, and shellfish. Your first two hundred and seven Wellfleet oysters may transport you to a state of rapture, but your two hundred and eighth may send you to bed with the sweats, chills, and vomits. http://www.newyorker.com/magazine/1999/04/19/dont-eat-before-reading-this Pacing Just read, then post. References and Further Reading This spawned multiple television series and several other books, by Bourdain and other chefs as well. Feel free to cross-pollinate with any relevant discussion of other works. Final Note: Thanks, and I hope everyone enjoys the book!
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Nov 2, 2016 04:31
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Great book. Will re-read for this. The tv show with Bradley Cooper was awful.
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Nov 2, 2016 17:55
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Well that sounds interesting and also like a book I'd probably never have thought to read otherwise, so all right!
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Nov 2, 2016 18:55
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Awesome. I'll start reading this weekend!
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Nov 2, 2016 23:22
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is this a joke
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Nov 3, 2016 00:29
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if you're going to assign a celebrity autobiography, assign one of the only salient ones: Based on a True Story by Norm Macdonald.
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Nov 3, 2016 14:55
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hog fat posted:if you're going to assign a celebrity autobiography, assign one of the only salient ones: Based on a True Story by Norm Macdonald. I don't see this as "celebrity autobiography" because writing this is what made him a celebrity. It wasnt written to capitalize on preexisting fame. By all accounts it's an actual good book.
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Nov 3, 2016 15:50
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I'm a little more than a hundred pages in. Thoughts so far: If you don't care about the youthful drug-induced misadventures of an entitled prep-school criminal, skip the first fifty pages. Start with the section "Second Course." That's where he really gets into what a restaurant is, and what life in this world is like. Bourdain, I was mildly surprised to learn, wrote two novels before this book, but this was his first nonfiction. And it shows. The first few chapters are decidedly journeyman. And I don't care about his childhood, at all. It's not until he gets into his mid twenties, and his increasing heroin addiction, that his life starts becoming interesting. And as the book progresses into his life working at chaotic restaurants in New York, the book really starts to take off. Enjoyable. This is really a look into the world behind the scenes of everyday life. If you live in a big city, then you've gone to all of the places he's describing in his book. There are the well run, almost sociopathic efficient, places that cut costs and do a basic job well, night after night. Then there are the failing vanity ventures; places for rich people to lose money. And then the tourist hotspots, which sound like hell. He describes it all very well, in a way that really brings them alive. If you liked the parts in Down and Out in Paris and London where Orwell was slaving away in the kitchens, you'll really like the descriptions here of a night over the stove. There is a tension in this book between the artist and the craftsman. He keeps coming down in favor of the craftsman, the guy who just does the job, shows up on time, takes the criticism, and doesn't care about making something for the ages. The artist, he keeps telling us, wants to experiment and grow, which leads to failure. He would much rather be the guy who comes in, does his job, and goes home; than the guy who works magic but is unreliable. Bourdain wasn't a celebrity when he wrote this. This book made him famous, so the guy on CNN eating chicken with Obama in Indonesia didn't exist yet. In this book he's still honest in a way that I don't think you'd ever get now. Here, he's a guy from a privileged background works in a restaurant because of the easy drugs, women, and cash. There's nothing more to it, at least initially. But there is an almost American "sublime" approach to it, when he starts really getting into food. This is a guy who can find something transcendent in a good steak, and as he starts developing as a writer, it starts coming through.
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Nov 6, 2016 09:35
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Hieronymous Alloy posted:I don't see this as "celebrity autobiography" because writing this is what made him a celebrity. It wasnt written to capitalize on preexisting fame. By all accounts it's an actual good book. Actually I'm pretty sure the guy who was famous for being on SNL didn't get his fame from his book.
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Nov 7, 2016 00:39
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A human heart posted:Actually I'm pretty sure the guy who was famous for being on SNL didn't get his fame from his book. think he's talking about Bourdain but the part about Norm's book being good is also true
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Nov 8, 2016 04:59
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Started yesterday and am almost a quarter of the way through, it's a pretty fun read, good writing voice. Catching myself wondering how much of his advice about what to order in restaurants is specific to his time and location and how much can be generalized.
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Nov 8, 2016 09:57
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Groke posted:Started yesterday and am almost a quarter of the way through, it's a pretty fun read, good writing voice. Are you talking about the fish? Apparently, after googling it, Bourdain has changed his mind on the subject. Alot of articles out there debunking it as well. Flaggy fucked around with this message at 16:46 on Nov 8, 2016 |
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Nov 8, 2016 16:38
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The fish especially, that advice seems to be based on the particularities of how the fish market works in a major US city. Not going to be directly applicable to, say, restaurants in smaller towns in Norway (where I personally am much more likely to find myself ordering food).
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Nov 10, 2016 06:31
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http://lifehacker.com/anthony-bourdain-explains-why-its-okay-to-order-fish-on-1788716322 From the man himself.
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Nov 14, 2016 03:58
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Makes sense. Finished the book yesterday, was a good and cool thing to read. I personally enjoy cooking and will gladly take a few hints and tricks along with all the funny anecdotes.
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Nov 15, 2016 12:51
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Yeah, this was a good escapist book. Still working through it. Nothing much to say other than I like his anecdotes and how he tells them. He gets better at writing as the book goes.
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Nov 16, 2016 03:04
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Read this before, but popping in to say that it's great, and if you like it, you should check out his TV shows like Parts Unknown. They explore foreign cities (many that are well out of the way of typical tourist traps) and handle it with humble grace. The cinematography is awesome as well.
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Nov 21, 2016 05:08
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Need nominations for next month. Right now I'm considering _It Can't Happen Here_, _All the King's Men_, _The Man in the High Castle_, maybe _Watership Down_, maybe _On the Beach_.
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Nov 21, 2016 15:56
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Hieronymous Alloy posted:Need nominations for next month. Right now I'm considering _It Can't Happen Here_, _All the King's Men_, _The Man in the High Castle_, maybe _Watership Down_, maybe _On the Beach_. As On the Beach is the most depressing thing I've ever read and next month is already known for it's high suicide rates I would definitely recommend going with that. Thread humor is bound to happen.
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Nov 21, 2016 19:34
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Hrm maybe "Rhinoceros" by Ionesco
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Nov 21, 2016 20:34
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Perhaps How to Survive a Plague by David France
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Nov 21, 2016 22:02
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It is December, why not "The Stupidest Angel" by Christopher Moore. Unless that's played out/been done before.
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Nov 21, 2016 23:09
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Flaggy posted:It is December, why not "The Stupidest Angel" by Christopher Moore. Unless that's played out/been done before. Did it last year or the year before, I forget which.
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Nov 21, 2016 23:10
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Hieronymous Alloy posted:Need nominations for next month. Right now I'm considering _It Can't Happen Here_, _All the King's Men_, _The Man in the High Castle_, maybe _Watership Down_, maybe _On the Beach_. Out of those I've previously (long ago) read _The Man in the High Castle_ and _Watership Down_ and would technically prefer another choice (although both were excellent).
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Nov 22, 2016 14:38
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Hieronymous Alloy posted:Hrm maybe "Rhinoceros" by Ionesco Something cyberpunk Finished the book. Bourdain is embarrassed about being born rich. He is incredibly class-conscious. It almost feels like he became a cook to vicariously enjoy the dirtiest, least glamorous job he could think of. Fun read, he's got a great voice, like a noir author describing vichyssoise.
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Nov 24, 2016 06:38
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I started to read this a year or two ago, but kind of stalled out around 2/3 of the way through. Does much change in the final bit of the book? I found it pretty entertaining at first but then repetitive as he went to this restaurant or that and worked for this guy or the other guy again. I do want to finish it eventually, but might have to start at the beginning to reacquaint myself with what's going on.
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Nov 27, 2016 02:14
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Naw, just start where you left off. The last third starts to be "random essays by A. Bourdain." He contrasts his own chaos with another (better) chef who maintains continuous order; his trip to Japan; etc.
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Nov 27, 2016 06:50
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Finished this today. I liked the book! Not much to add, but I'll echo the others in this thread: When he writes about the grind of cooking and managing kitchens the book is fun and informative, when he writes about his macho/criminal antics it's sorta boring. I did go and get myself a decent chef's knife and made an attempt at baking my own bread after reading, so that's pretty good!
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Nov 28, 2016 03:54
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I already have a rack of Global knives and have been baking my own bread for years so am ready for some next level poo poo. Have made a few attempts at making my own stock but so far the results have been a bit disappointing.
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Nov 28, 2016 09:53
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This was cool and good and I never would have checked it out if it wasn't for this thread. Thanks again thread! (You also got me addicted to Knausgard)
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Nov 28, 2016 11:47
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