Start Without Me by Joshua Max Feldman

Start Without Me by Joshua Max Feldman
Published by William Morrow ISBN 9780062668738
Trade paperback, $16.99, 276 pages

If you're dreading your Thankgiving visit home, just be glad that you are not Adam and Marissa, the two main characters in Joshua Max Feldman's novel Start Without Me. 

Adam awakens in the basement of his parents' home, his first visit back home in many years. After years of alcohol abuse, rehab stints and disappointing his family, musician Adam wants to surprise his parents and siblings by making the morning coffee. When he knocks the coffee pot off the counter and it shatters, he takes off, not wanting to disappoint his family once again.

He ends up in a restaurant where he meets Marissa, a flight attendant who is on her way to her husband Robbie's family's home in Massachusetts. Robbie is from a wealthy family, and his father is planning a run for governor of the state.

Marissa and Adam bond over breakfast, and she ends up taking him to her husband's family Thanksgiving. Robbie is unsuccessfully trying to make a living as an independent filmmaker, and he resents Marissa being away so much.

His father is often absent, and when he is there is distant. His mother is overbearing and domineering. Sister Laila is home, and Robbie and Laila instantly revert to their childhood roles once back in each other's sight.

Marissa's family life was nothing like Robbie's. She grew up poor, her mother an addict who frequently left Marissa and her younger sister alone, like the time she left them at a McDonald's alone for five hours on Thanksgiving Day when they were just young children.

When Marissa's sister calls and asks her to come spend Thanksgiving with her family at their mother's home, Marissa resists. She'd love to see her sister and niece, but seeing her mother is not something she is ready for.

After Adam tells Marissa about his former girlfriend, the love of his life, she gives him money for a bus ticket to go see her and make amends. But Adam hasn't told her the whole story.

Start Without Me is a sad tale of two people who try to resolve issues in their past that threaten their future. They both are looking to escape the bad knocks life has dealt them, as well as deal with their own bad choices.

Feldman's writing conjures up some vivid imagery, as when Adam dreams of "the texture and resistance of the keys under his fingertips, the beer residue in the metal mesh of the mic on his lips, the bass rumble from the stage through his torso." You can actually feel that as you read it.

Two important things I learned from reading this book: don't ever ask a band to play "Freebird" and do not hit the call button on an airplane to complain that the tarmac delay (or anything else) is "unacceptable". Both are good to know.

Thanks to TLC Tours for putting me on Joshua Max Feldman's tour. The rest of his stops are here:

Tour Stops

Tuesday, November 13th: Hopelessly Devoted Bibliophile

Thursday, November 15th: Write – Read – Life

Monday, November 19th: bookchickdi

Tuesday, November 20th: Wining Wife

Monday, November 26th: Instagram: @kate.olson.reads

Tuesday, November 27th: Staircase Wit

Wednesday, November 28th: Instagram: @the_need_to_read

Thursday, November 29th: Instagram: @notthepathtonarnia

Tuesday, December 4th: Comfy Reading

Wednesday, December 5th: Jackie Reads Books

Monday, December 10th: As I turn the pages

Weekend Cooking- Thanksgiving Dinner for 36

This post is part of Beth Fish Reads' Weekend Cooking.  If you have anything related to food, cookbook reviews, novel or non-fiction book reviews, recipes, movie reviews, etc., head over to Beth Fish Reads and add your post. Or, if you want to read food related posts, head over to read what some interesting people have to say about food.

This year my husband's entire family, plus a few extras, made it home for Thanksgiving. My sister-in-law and her husband hosted all 36 of us for Thanksgiving dinner and that is no small feat. But my sister-in-law was well organized and with everyone pitching in, bringing side dishes, desserts and helping with set-up and cleanup, it was a fantastic day.

We started with appetizers- bruschetta with a fig jam, blue cheese and walnut topping, along with a spinach dip and a vegetable tray and two antipasto trays, one of which had prosciutto-wrapped asparagus spears that disappeared quickly.

Appetizer table

A few hours later, we brought out the stuffed mushrooms and Rachael Ray's Pumpkin Soup with Cran-Apple relish that was served in little shooter glasses. The mushrooms and soup were voted among the best dishes of the day.

At 4pm, dinner was served. The cold food table was set just outside the dining room and it held the breads (pumpkin, cranberry orange and apple cinnamon) and jello salads (cranberry and fan favorite lemon).

The kitchen island held all the hot foods- three turkeys, fifteen pounds of mashed potatoes, three stuffing (two with sausage, one without), two broccoli casseroles, two green beans wrapped in bacon, roasted squash and fennel, sweet potato casserole, sausage rolls and Plainville Turkey gravy.

The turkeys looked beautiful

The ovens worked overtime

The feast

The feeding frenzy

Red Velvet, Brooklyn Blackout and Pumpkin Harvest cakes from Two Little Red Hens

Krause's Candy- yum!

We all retired to the dining room to eat and reflect upon our many blessings. Everything was so delicious, it became very quiet as 36 people thoroughly enjoyed their meal and each other's company.

The dining room for 36

Such beautiful place settings

We began the following day meeting for lunch at Dallas Hot Wieners, a family tradition, and then we headed for the bowling alley to celebrate one of the cousins' 13th birthday. I haven't bowled in over 25 years (and my previous record high score was 63), but I won my grouping with a 96 much to the dismay of others in my group. I had great accuracy, right down the middle but if I had more speed on the ball I would have broken 100.

It was back to the sister-in-law's for leftovers (which we completely polished off) and then we celebrated all the November and December birthdays-8 of them!- with a cake my mother-in-law brought.

The November/December  birthday cake

We headed home to go to the Syracuse University basketball game on Saturday at the Barclay's Center in Brooklyn (don't ask how that went- we lost big-time) and then it was home to our apartment in NYC to recuperate.

All in all, it was a terrific weekend, and many thanks to my sister-in-law and her husband for hosting the entire family.

This is what our Thanksgiving looked like

Weekend Cooking- Preparing for Thanksgiving

This post is part of Beth Fish Reads' Weekend Cooking.  If you have anything related to food, cookbook reviews, novel or non-fiction book reviews, recipes, movie reviews, etc., head over to Beth Fish Reads and add your post. Or, if you want to read food related posts, head over to read what some interesting people have to say about food.

The biggest foodie holiday of the year for most of us is quickly coming up- Thanksgiving. This year we  will be upstate at my sister-in-law's where we always have a fabulous meal. There will be a lot of us there- maybe 25 people, and that takes a lot of preparation and mobilization of resources. Luckily, our captain Brigette is in charge.

This year I volunteered to make the stuffing and bring desserts. My mother makes the best stuffing ever, and she doesn't use a recipe, but it always turns out fantastic. After watching her make this year after year, I have inherited her ability through osmosis to make a pretty mean stuffing myself.

Mom starts with loaves of white bread torn up and put in bowls to set out overnight. (I always remember how much fun it was as kids to tear up the bread.) The next morning, when the bread is hard, she adds milk, eggs, lots of poultry seasoning, salt, pepper, and diced onions and celery that have been sauteed until soft. And then she mixes it up with her hands until it is just the right consistency and has just the right amount of seasonings. Somehow she just knows when it is perfect.

You can put it in the turkey or in a separate pan to go in the oven. (We do both.) The only change I have made is to add browned sausage because my husband loves sausage in stuffing. I have to admit, it is better with sausage.

We are also bringing desserts, and I have so many choices living in New York as to what to bring it can make you dizzy. Of course I will order Pumpkin Pie and Chocolate Pecan Pie from Two Little Red Hens. And I can't leave there without getting two of their best known desserts- Red Velvet Cake and Brooklyn Blackout Cake.  Everyone there is so friendly and they have quite the sophisticated system for pickups on the day before Thanksgiving. Their website is here.

They also make an amazing cheesecake, but if I were bringing cheesecake (and I am not because Brigette is making her scrumptious Pumpkin Chocolate Cheesecake), I would bring Junior's Cheesecake, a NYC tradition for good reason. I like that I can order a cheesecake to send anywhere in the US, and if you are ever looking to send someone a food gift, I highly recommend them. Their website is here.

Junior's Cheesecake- from their website

Momofuku Milk Bar also has an interesting Pumpkin Cake, and that can be sent anywhere in the US as well. I haven't tried it yet, but I love their Compost Cookies, with pretzels, oats, butterscotch chips, chocolate chips and potato chips. The website is here.

Momofuku Pumpkin Cake-from their website

If I were bringing little treats, I would get some mini black and white cookies from William Greenberg. You can get any color combination you like, making them perfect for graduation parties and their Red Velvet black and whites are always a big hit. (We had some this week- I couldn't help myself, they were on the way home from my doctor's appointment.) William Greenberg's website is here.

William Greenberg Mini Black & Whites- from their website

I could also pick up some "schmall" cookies from Schmackary's near Times Square. They do an assortment of 20, 40 or 60 cookies and when I brought these last year upstate they didn't last long. Schmackary's website is here.

Schmackary's "schmall" cookies- from their website

Are you cooking for Thanksgiving this year? What is your best Thanksgiving recipe? Let me know in comments below.