The Dream Lover by Elizabeth Berg

The Dream Lover by Elizabeth Berg
Published by Random House ISBN 978-0-8129-9315-8
Hardcover, $28, 361 pages

Author Elizabeth Berg became interested in the life of 19th century writer George Sand. She told her friend Nancy Horan, who has written historical novels such as Leaving Frank and Under a Starry Sky, based on real people, that she should write a book about George Sand. Horan said "Write it yourself!", so she did.

The Dream Lover tells the story of George Sand, born Aurore Dupin to a wealthy soldier from a respected French family and his wife, a former courtesan who followed the military during battle and left a general to marry Aurore's family.

Aurore narrates her own story, from her upbringing with her strict, controlling, wealthy grandmother through her marriage to a man who was a poor steward of her inheritance to her success as a novelist and her many love affairs along the way.

I knew little about Sand, other than she was a French novelist who dressed in man's clothes. Sand began wearing men's clothes when she was a theatre critic, and she could buy tickets to the cheaper seats if she were a man. She liked wearing stylish men's clothes so much, she continued it most of her life.

Aurore's great love of her life was Marie Dorval, a famous actress who loved life freely. Marie captivated Aurore, and Aurore fell madly in love with her. They remained friends most of their lives, until a falling out left Aurore bereft.

Aurore's marriage constrained her, though it did give her two children- a daughter, with whom she had a strained relationship throughout their lives (like many mothers and daughters), and a son, with whom she had a better relationship.

I found the sections on her feelings about motherhood fascinating, and it gave you a real feel for how Sand balanced her work with her family life. She had an agreement with her husband that she would spend three months at a time in Paris, where she would write, and then three months at home at her grandmother's estate that she now owned.

Her months in Paris gave her a freedom she relished. She cultivated a group of intellectual and artistic friends, including Gustave Flaubert, Franz Liszt, Eugene Delacroix and Frederic Chopin, with whom she had a long term affair.

Sand had many affairs, although some were with men who left her unfulfilled and unhappy. Reading how an intelligent, inquisitive, artistic woman like Sand had to deal with a society where women were discouraged from such behavior was fascinating.

Sometimes when a story is told in different time shifts, as Berg does here with three basic alternating timelines, it can be confusing, but Berg weaves the timelines together seamlessly. Switching back and forth gave the book a coherence.

I'm not a huge fan of historical fiction, but I enjoyed The Dream Lover a great deal. I felt dropped into Sand's story, like I was right there in France with her and she shared her story with me. Telling the story in her voice worked brilliantly here.

George Sand is an amazing woman, and after reading The Dream Lover, I am heading out to find some of her novels. Fans of historical fiction should put The Dream Lover at the top of their must-read list.

rating 5 of 5


Thanks to TLC Tours for putting me on this tour. The rest of Elizabeth Berg's tour stops are here:

Monday, April 13th: Reading Reality

Monday, April 13th: Books on the Table 

Tuesday, April 14th: Let Them Read Books

Wednesday, April 15th: History from a Woman’s Perspective

Monday, April 20th: Bibliophilia, Please

Monday, April 20th: Bookchickdi

Tuesday, April 21st: Unabridged Chick

Tuesday, April 21st: The Novel Life

Wednesday, April 22nd: Books on the Table – Bookstore Event post

Wednesday, April 22nd: Kritter’s Ramblings

Thursday, April 23rd: Unabridged Chick – author Q&A

Monday, April 27th: Peeking Between the Pages

Tuesday, April 28th: Books a la Mode – author guest post

Wednesday, April 29th: Bibliotica

Thursday, April 30th: Life is Story

Friday, May 1st: 100 Pages a Day… Stephanie’s Book Reviews

Monday, May 4th: Laura’s Reviews

Monday, May 4th: Book Babe

Wednesday, May 6th: Unshelfish

Monday, May 11th: Broken Teepee

Weekend Cooking- Root & Bone Restaurant

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.

There are so many wonderful restaurants in New York City, that it would be impossible to eat at all of them. For my birthday, I wanted to try Root & Bone, located all the way down on 3rd St. and Avenue B. They specialize in Southern comfort food, and I just can't resist a good fried chicken.

Root & Bone is a really small restaurant, but one that utilizes its space well. When you walk in, there is the small take-out area with delicious smelling baked treats piled on the counter just tempting you to try and walk away without one or two.

The hostess seated us in the small dining room (with four tables) that also had one counter lined up facing the windows and one counter facing the open kitchen for extra seating space. Another small dining room with a few tables and a tiny bar that had four stools completing the seating spaces. It is a terrific use of a limited space.

We began with a couple glasses of wine, but they do have a cute cocktail menu. As an appetizer we shared the Drunken Deviled Eggs, which are an adorable pink color,

Deviled Eggs

and Grandma Daisy's Angel Biscuits, served with a side of chicken au jus.


 I ordered the Free Range Bucket of Bird, which is brined in a sweet tea and does not have a traditional heavy breading. It is served with a Tabasco honey sauce on the side. I got the Buckwheat Waffles with Cheddar on top and a Maple Syrup Sauce on the side.

Half Bird Bucket of Chicken

Buckwheat Waflles

My husband ordered the Short Rib Meatloaf, which he enjoyed a great deal. I liked my fried chicken, but we both agreed that the waffles were out of this world and the highlight of the meal. Definitely get them if you go.

For dessert, we shared the Banana Pana Cotta that was very tasty and light, and served in a cute mason jar.

Banana Pana Cotta

The ambience is a funky, rustic casual feel, and with the small space the tables are close together, so you can make friends with your dining neighbors. The table next to us ordered the Shrimp and Grits, and it looked so good we decided we will get that next time.

It's a not a place where you can linger, they like to turn over their tables since they have so few, but for a quick, tasty meal, it's a place I can recommend.

Root & Bone's website is here. If you are lucky to live near there, they deliver.

Kate Mulgrew at Barnes and Noble

Kate Mulgrew at Barnes & Noble

When I was in middle school back in the 1970s, a new soap opera called Ryan's Hope was broadcast on ABC. A new young actress named Kate Mulgrew played fiesty Mary Ryan and I was hooked. The show was great and she was fantastic. Years later, Mulgrew played a feminist icon, Captain Janeway on Star Trek: Voyager, and recently, she plays tough prison inmate Red on Orange Is The New Black.

Mulgrew just wrote a memoir, Born With Teeth, and the release was celebrated at Barnes & Noble in Union Square in New York City this past week. A full house was there, with fans from all of her TV shows (it was easy to distinguish them from each other) showed up to hear Ms. Mulgrew in conversation with Augusten Burroughs.

After Mulgrew opened with a brief reading from chapter, dealing with her steely mother, an Irish Catholic woman who danced with President Kennedy at his inauguration, Burroughs made a comment stating how impressed he was with the "stylishness of her prose, it's stunning", and I wholeheartedly agree.

He asked her why she wrote her memoir, filled with "lots of love, and lots of darkness" now. She replied that her parents were now dead, and that at her age (she was 58 when she wrote it two years ago), she had a willingness to face difficult things.

Growing up in an Irish Catholic family, she quickly learned that stoicism is key. Important things and emotions were never spoken of in her family. "Austerity, spartan, simplicity- that is the Irish way" she said.

She decided if she was to write a memoir, it had to be honest. She learned that she had a "vast vulnerability" and her book "summed up everything that defined me". She believes that she "put out something that portrays a deeply flawed person", and after reading the book (I will link to my review at the end of this post), I find that to be very true. And aren't we all flawed people?

The process of writing her memoir was a process she "adored from the first moment." She rented a beach house on Long Island, and had a strict schedule. She loved her "solitary life" and "felt blissfully happy" during the process of writing.

Writing a memoir is different from acting in that she was putting herself out there, not becoming a character. The hardest chapter of the book to write was about going back to work right after she gave birth to a baby girl she gave up for adoption. That decision colored her entire life, and is an important theme in her book.

In the scene, Mary Ryan had just given birth and was talking to her baby about the life she would give her. Holding the stunt baby and giving that monologue was incredibly difficult, and reading that chapter was heartbreaking.

Mulgrew took several questions from the audience, about her favorite role (Capt. Janeway of course), what's on her bucket list (mostly travel) and how her memories came back so vividly as she was writing her memoir.

Ms. Mulgrew was very respectful of her fans, and took time to talk to everyone as she signed. I have been an admirer of hers for years, and was delighted to find that she is as intelligent, gracious, kind and interesting as I hoped she would be.

My review of her brilliant, honest and heartbreaking memoir is here.

Born With Teeth by Kate Mulgrew

Born With Teeth by Kate Mulgrew
Published by Little Brown, ISBN 978-0-316-33431-0
Hardcover, $28, 302 pages

I was very excited when I heard that actress Kate Mulgrew had written a memoir, Born With Teeth. I have been a big fan of her since her days as Mary Ryan on the ABC soap Ryan's Hope, through her groundbreaking role as Capt. Janeway on Star Trek: Voyager, and in her current role as tough and literate inmate Red on Orange Is The New Black. (Red always has a book with her.)

She begins her honest, brilliant, heartbreaking memoir by talking about her large Irish Catholic family. Jiki and Ace, as her parents were called, lived in Iowa, and had a typically large brood of children. They lost two of their daughters, one to SIDS, whom four year-old Kate mistakenly believed she had killed, and a teenage daughter who died a slow, painful death.

Kate's mother was a steely, artistic, not very affectionate woman who loved books. Books were important to the Mulgrew family, and when Kate decided she wanted to be a poet because she was chosen to read her poem at a school assembly, her mother convinced her to read The White Cliffs of Dover after she read her poems, and when the nuns sobbed during her Kate's rendition, she knew she had found her calling: acting.

Born With Teeth recounts the important events and people in Kate Mulgrew's life. She stated at an appearance to launch her book that it "summed up everything that defined me", and that may be the best way to describe this stunningly written book.

If you are looking for a run-of-the-mill celebrity biography, look elsewhere. Fans of Ryan's Hope may be disappointed that there is no juicy backstage gossip here. Only producer Claire Labine and Nancy Addison (Jillian Coleridge) are mentioned, and that is because they were good friends of Mulgrew.

When Mulgrew was working on Ryan's Hope and just in her early 20s, she became pregnant. She came to the agonizing decision to give her baby up for adoption, and that decision changed and colored her entire life.

Mulgrew worked hard at her craft, and the stage was her first love, even though she had huge success on TV. The chapters on working on Mrs. Columbo (and how she got that job after turning it down)  and Star Trek: Voyager give an insider's look at the incredibly long days and hard work it takes to be a major TV actress.

She wasn't as lucky in love though. After meeting a wealthy Italian man and giving up her career to be with him, she fell in love with a man in Seattle who worked on the play in which she was cast. The love of her life came later, in Ireland, where she met a man for whom she fell head-over-heels in love.

Mulgrew and her husband had two sons in two years, and trying to be a working mother and spend time with her children was a struggle, one that many women will be able to relate to. There is a chapter where she takes her sons to the Star Trek premiere,and their behavior embarrasses her, that will make any mother cringe.

Born With Teeth is so beautifully written, and so honest. Mulgrew doesn't shy away from her mistakes and her flaws. She comes from an Irish family, where stoicism was the watchword, so this makes it even more remarkable. She is not afraid to portray her warts, whether as a woman or a mother, and I find that refreshing.

It feels like each word is so carefully chosen, yet it also feels like it sprang full-blown from her head, ready to publish. The Irish are known for their eloquence, and Mulgrew clearly inherited that from her ancestors.

I know we will see her again as an actress (season three of Orange is The New Black will be available on Netflix on June 12 and season 4 will be filming soon), I hope that we will hear again soon from author Kate Mulgrew as well.

rating 5 of 5

I saw Kate Mulgrew at her book launch, and that post is here.

Read Bottom Up by Neel Shah and Skye Chatham

Read Bottom Up by Neel Shah & Skye Chatham
Published by Dey St. ISBN 978-0-06-226213-4
Hardcover, $16.99, 239 pages

Read Bottom Up is a modern day romance; boy and girl meet, and much of their relationship takes place in emails and text messages. The authors wrote in the Authors' Note that they wanted to see a more realistic modern dating experience in a novel. So they wrote it.

But they added a twist. Neel and Skye each wrote as their corresponding character- Elliot, a hip restaurant owner who just went through a bad breakup, and Madeline, who works for a publisher marketing cookbooks and searching for a real, fulfilling relationship. There are two other characters in the book- Elliot's best friend David, and Madeline's best friend Emily, an elementary school teacher.

Neel wrote his character's emails and text messages to Madeline and David and Skye wrote Madeline's emails and text messages to Elliot and Emily. The twist is that Neel never saw Madeline's correspondence to Emily and Skye never saw Elliot's correspondence to David until the novel was finished.

It's a clever concept and one that works beautifully, giving the novel a realistic feeling. Even though I am older than the target market for this book, I loved it. It's a Sex and the City for this generation, where every piece of their life could be played out on social media for all to parse and ponder.

Elliot is witty and charming, and maybe just a little bit flaky. When Madeline arrives at their second date, she finds an entire table filled with Elliot's friends, and she hardly speaks to Elliot all night. What does this mean? She turns to Emily for advice.

They have been dating for awhile, sleeping at each other's apartments, spending most of their time together, when Elliot informs her that he will be spending an entire week in Vermont at the wedding festivities of a college buddy. (I guess that's how it works today, weddings are a weeklong process.)

Elliot doesn't ask Madeline to accompany him, and while trolling on Elliot's friends' Instagram accounts, she sees that Elliot's ex-girlfriend is also at the wedding. What does this mean? Again, she turns to Emily.

Elliot spends much time sharing his thoughts about Madeline with David. There are times when he doesn't understand why Madeline is angry with him, and he wonders if they are truly compatible.

Read Bottom Up is a fun, quick, addictive read. You feel like you know these characters, and for a minute I expect to see them turn up somewhere on my Facebook news feed. There is a real twist at the end of the story, one I did not see coming, but enjoyed immensely.

rating 4 of 5

Thanks to TLC Tours for putting me on the tour. The rest of the tour stops are here:

Tuesday, April 7th: From the TBR Pile

Wednesday, April 8th: A Chick Who Reads

Thursday, April 9th: Sara's Organized Chaos

Friday, April 10th: A Bookish Way of Life

Tuesday, April 14th: BookNAround

Wednesday, April 15th: bookchickdi

Thursday, April 16th: Peeking Between the Pages

Friday, April 17th: 5 Minutes For Books

Monday, April 20th: Booksie's Blog

Wednesday, April 22nd: Bibliotica

Thursday, April 23rd: Thoughts On This 'n That

Monday, April 27th: Mom in Love With Fiction

Tuesday, April 28th: Walking With Nora

Wednesday, April 29th: The Book Binder's Daughter

Thursday, April 30th: Kritters Ramblings

Monday, May 4th: Svetlana's Reads and Views

Wednesday, May 6th: 100 Pages a Day ... Stephanie's Book Reviews

Friday, May 8th: The Discerning Reader

Muscle Cars by Stephen G. Eoannou

Muscle Cars by Stephen G. Eoannou
Published by sfwp ISBN 9781939650221
Trade paperback, 244 pages, $15

I have a husband and two adult sons, and so when I have an opportunity to read a book that gives the male perspective I like to take it. Stephen G. Eoannou's new short story collection, Muscle Cars features stories about men in all stages of life, from young boys to young adults, middle-aged men to older men in all their complicated situations and feelings.

Many of the eighteen stories in this collection were previously published elsewhere. In short stories, the author has to capture the reader's attention quickly and successfully establish characters in just a few sentences. Every word must count for something if a story is to work.

Eoannou does a terrific job creating memorable characters, especially in the stories that are more than a few pages. The title story Muscle Cars sets an emotional tone for the book. Tom's wife asks him to please go talk to the young neighbor who spends all night partying loudly with his friends and keeping her awake. The young neighbor lost his mom last year and soon we see what he and Tom have in common.

The way men bear responsibilities in silence, rarely sharing their feelings are highlighted in Welcome Home Xmas 1945. A man is going through his father's personal effects following his father's death. He finds a photo of his father as a young man with a beautiful woman, along with an engagement ring. As he tracks down the story of this photo, he discovers the biggest disappointment of his father's life and the unwitting role he played in it. It is heart-wrenching and enlightening.

The Wolf Boy of Forest Lane is one of my favorites as well A young male teacher is doing his best to reach his students, and when he discovers that one of the students is obsessed with the story of a young boy who was lost on a school field trip to a local cemetery, he decides that he can use that to engage the class. It is a story of good intentions gone awry, a theme that resonates through many of these stories.

Since it is opening week of baseball season, I must mention Stealing Ted William's Head. Two almost thirty-year-old men decide that is a good idea to drive all the way from the east coast to Arizona to steal the frozen head of deceased Boston Red Sox slugger and bury it in Fenway Park to bring good luck to the Red Sox. One is a new father with a colicky baby wreaking havoc on he and his wife's life, and the other guy is the one who won't grow up.

I grew up in Central New York, and many of these stories have references that I am familiar with, like  the name Genesee, Utica Club beer, Friday night fish fry, and fried balogna sandwiches. One rang strange to me, calling apartments "flats" (that is more of a British term).

If you want to learn what is going on in the male of the species' head, reading Muscle Cars will give you great insight and empathy. There are some of the usual suspects here- violence, men and their crazy plans, and Peter Pan Won't Grow Up Syndrome- but Eoannou has a refreshing and empathetic take on them that will engage any reader.

rating 4 of 5

Thanks to Poetic Book Tours for putting me on Stephen O. Eoannou's tour. The rest of the stops are here:
April 7: bookchickdi (review)
April 14: Everything Distils Into Reading (Author Guest Post)
April 20: Svetlana’s Reads and Views (review)
April: 21: Everything Distils Into Reading (review)
April 23:  Emma Eden Ramos (review)
April 25: Bell, Book & Candle (review)
April 28: Savvy Verse & Wit (interview)

The Whites by Richard Price

The Whites by Richard Price writing as Harry Brandt

Published by Henry Holt ISBN 9780805093995

Hardcover, $28, 352 pages

Reprinted from the Citizen

Last month I binge-watched “The Wire,” the HBO series that many people consider the greatest TV drama ever. After I finished the five fantastic seasons, I discovered that Richard Price, the novelist who wrote for the show, had a new crime novel publishing in March.

He wrote “The Whites” under the pseudonym Harry Brandt. Many famous writers write under pen names — Stephen King (Richard Bachman), Ruth Rendell (Barbara Vine) and Nora Roberts (J.D. Robb) among them. Price did it because he said he wanted to write a story different than what he usually writes.

The first thing you notice about “The Whites” is the striking cover. It is stark black and white, with four cops walking up steps, and under them is the skyline of New York City. The type is raised, giving it a rich feel, something not usually seen in crime novels.

“The Whites” is a literary reference to Moby-Dick, the great white whale that destroyed Captain Ahab’s ship and took off his leg. Ahab vows revenge, no matter what the price.

The whites in this story refer to criminals who got away with heinous crimes years ago. When Sgt. Billy Graves, who commands the Manhattan Night Watch detective unit that investigates overnight crimes then hands them off to the unit detectives in the morning, comes upon the murder of a man who was one of his old unit’s “whites,” it brings back bad memories.

Back in the 1990s, Graves was part of “The Wild Geese,” a tough anti-crime unit consisting of four cops: Billy; Yasmeen, the only woman in the unit, now head of security at a local college; Pavlicek, retired, who now owns apartment buildings; and Redman, who owns a funeral home.

Graves accidentally shot and killed a 10-year-old boy while trying to arrest a crazed drug addict, and the fallout from that created a media circus, complete with protests outside his home; that cost him his marriage and put his career in the dead zone, going from one lousy posting to another.

Graves is now married to a nurse, who has some sort of emotional/depression problems, and they have two rambunctious young sons. He does his best to be a good dad and husband, but he feels there is something behind his wife’s problems that he can’t get to.

When another of the Wild Geese’s four whales is killed, and then a third is seriously wounded, Graves becomes convinced something is going on with the members of his old unit.

But how does he get to the bottom of it without questioning his old partners? After all, they all stuck by him following the shooting, and when his wife was hospitalized with a nervous breakdown, they helped care for his sons.

A reporter from a local newspaper claimed she had information that Graves was high on cocaine when he shot the young boy, but she lost her job when her information was determined to be incorrect.

The reporter, who now writes a sex column for an online magazine and works as a private investigator, calls Graves to tell him she has some information he may might want about the shooting he is investigating.

While all this is happening, a man named Milton Ramos is plotting revenge against Graves’ family. He has something very personal against Graves and his family, and as the story progresses we find out what it is.

Ramos accosts Graves' son at school, leaving a red paint handprint on the boy’s coat. A stranger picks up Billy’s dad, who has dementia, and leaves the older man to wander the streets of Harlem. A bag of bloodied clothes and toys are thrown on his porch.

Graves must find out who is after his family and why, and if it has a connection to the whites or his old partners, who once again rally to help Graves when his family is in trouble.

“The Whites” is a crackling good crime novel, one that you will stay up all night to finish. Its themes of family, honesty and the price of loyalty are beautifully done, and give the reader much to contemplate. And the city of New York is a terrific character here as well.

I liked the relationships, especially between Billy and his father, and Billy and his wife, and the writing is superb, definitely a cut above most crime thrillers. Fans of “The Wire” should pick up “The Whites”; it’s a great follow-up.

rating 5 of 5

The Bookseller by Cynthia Swanson

The Bookseller by Cynthia Swanson
Published by Harper ISBN 978-0-06-233300-1
Hardcover, $25.99, 336 pages

Kitty wakes up and she's not in her bedroom. She is in an unfamiliar room, but the last thing she remembers is painting her bedroom with help from her best friend and co-owner of their bookstore. What has happened?

So begins Cynthia Swanson's compelling novel, The Bookseller. A handsome man comes into the unfamiliar room, claiming to be her husband, and reminding her that she has two young children who need her, one of whom is running a fever.

But Kitty is not married and does not have children, and why is this man calling her Katharyn, her given name, instead of Kitty, the name everyone calls her?

Kitty awakens from the realistic dream and it's still 1962 and she has to get to work at the bookstore, where Frieda will be waiting for her. Slowly we find out more about Kitty: she used to be a 5th grade teacher, she is very close to her loving parents, she was jilted by her long-time boyfriend and hasn't been dating much lately.

Things at the bookstore haven't been going so well since the bus line that ran right in front of the store changed routes, and Frieda wants to consider moving the shop to a better location in a shopping center.

But the dreams continue, where it appears that Kitty leads a completely different life. We find out more about her family, including the fact that her young son has autism. I found this fact very intriguing as I don't know how much was known about autism in 1962.

In her dream life, Kitty and Frieda no longer own the store together, and they don't see each other anymore. She has trouble dealing with her son, while her loving husband seems more capable in this area.

Some things are the same in her dream life and her real life. She has the same cat, and in her dream home, her photos are on the wall are the same ones in her real life.

As her dream life goes on, it appears that something traumatic has happened. Her husband is concerned about her and he references things that have happened that neither the reader nor Kitty seem to be aware of.

In her real life, Kitty begins to lose days. She doesn't know what has happened in the days prior, and things begin to confuse her. Fans of Liane Moriarty's What Alice Forgot will enjoy this page-turner of a novel, one that I finished in two sittings.

Swanson weaves a riveting story, one that will keep the reader guessing as to what exactly is going on in Kitty's life to cause these dreams. Her descriptions of Kitty's surroundings are particularly well done, and that is no surprise considering the author is also a mid-century designer.

I liked the characters, especially the relationships between Kitty and her parents and Kitty and Frieda. I found it interesting that the father knew how to better deal with the autistic son than the boy's mother, given that back in 1962 generally fathers were less involved with their children's daily lives than their mothers.

The resolution of the story surprised me a bit, and I'm not sure exactly how I feel about it, but the journey Swanson took us on to get there was a thought-provoking, emotional and compelling one.

rating 4.5 of 5

Weekend Cooking- The River Cafe in Brooklyn

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.

Last Thursday, my husband and I went to see Neil Diamond perform at the Barclays Center in Brooklyn, his first concert in his hometown. Before the show, we had dinner with two other couples at the River Cafe, located just under the Brooklyn Bridge.

We have walked the Brooklyn Bridge, but never wandered down to this beautiful area. We walked by the famous Brooklyn Ice Cream Factory, but didn't get a treat because we didn't want to spoil our dinner.

The River Cafe is a gorgeous place. It is right on the river, and the entry is surrounded by lush greenery. A huge display of lovely flowers greet you in the entry of the restaurant. The ambiance is relaxing and beautiful.

The menu is a three-course prefix, and at $120 per person, not inexpensive. But you get the whole package here. The waiter brought the ladies a small tufted stool that he placed next to us to put our purses on. I have been to many fancy restaurants, but this was a first for me, and so appreciated.

The service was impeccable and unobtrusive. I had a glass of Chardonnay with dinner, and it was very good, smooth and light. I started with the Pear Salad appetizer, which was my favorite part of the meal and one of my favorite appetizers ever.

They placed a perfectly caramelized pear on a plate with bacon, goat cheese and toasted walnuts on  the pear, topped with frisee and covered delicately with a delicious apple cider dressing. It was heavenly.

My husband enjoyed the Wild Shrimp, Pacific Blue shrimp served Oscar style, with King Crabmeat, white asparagus and a citrus Malaise sauce.

For my entree, I had the Coquelet, a chicken dish roasted and stuffed with chestnut, porcini and sage stuffing, with tiny turnips, a small glazed carrot and a Madeira sauce on top. The stuffing was very tasty.

I chose the Pistachio Semifreddo for dessert, and it was amazing. The pistachio dacquoise came with clementine sorbet and a clementine chip. I loved how the flavors blended together.

The dinner was expensive, but I highly recommend the River Cafe for a special occasion dinner. The view of Manhattan is wonderful, and the food is incredible.

I didn't take photos of the food, as we had dining companions with us.
The River Cafe website is here, and they have terrific photos.

Weekend Cooking- Julie & Julia, The Movie

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.

A few weeks ago, I posted a photo of a few food-related books that I picked up at the Book Cellar. One of them was Julie Powell's Julie & Julia, about a blogger who wrote about her year cooking every recipe (524!) in the hefty book Mastering the Art of French Cooking, Julia Child's 1961 classic cookbook.

Last night I was flipping through the TV channels and found the 2009 movie version, starring Amy Adams as Julie Powell and Meryl Streep as Julia Child. (Streep was rightfully nominated for an Academy Award for her performance.)

The movie, written by the brilliant Nora Ephron, was a mashup of Child's memoir My Life in France  and Julie & Julia, alternating the women's stories. Most of the reviews I had read stated that the Julia Child part of movie, set and filmed in France, was a stronger story than Powell's story, set mostly in a tiny Queens apartment kitchen.

I would agree with this assessment. Streep and Stanley Tucci, who played her loving husband Paul, have an amazing chemistry that shines through in this story.  (Anyone who saw them as boss and assistant in The Devil Wears Prada can attest to this as well.) Streep really has a ball playing the (literally) bigger-than-life Julia Child, who introduced Americans to the cuisine of French cooking.

Child lived life to the fullest, and her and Paul's love story was a joy to watch come to life on screen. The setting of France 1949 was so beautiful too, so bright and sunny, it should be a travel video for France.

One of my favorite scenes was the one with  Child's unbridled enthusiasm as she joins an all-male class at the Cordon Bleu, much to the consternation of the female administrator who wanted the large American woman in a beginner class.

The Valentine's dinner party scene at the Child's was sweet and charming as well, with Paul giving a beautiful toast to the love of his life.

Perhaps because the Julie Powell scenes were set mostly in her cramped kitchen, where she worked mostly alone, recreating Child's dishes, those contemporary scenes seemed closed in and less exciting. I did like Amy Adams and Chris Messina as her husband, and supporting actors like Jane Lynch as Child's just-as-outgoing and tall sister were well cast.

Overall I liked the movie a good deal, and would recommend it to everyone who grew up, like I did, wondering who the heck that big lady with the odd voice and contagious laugh was, who was cooking on TV and looking like she was have a blast doing it.

Weekend Cooking- Crazy Rich Asians by Kevin Kwan

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.

Crazy Rich Asians by Kevin Kwan

Published by Anchor ISBN 9780345803788

Trade paperback, $15, 544 pages

A friend of mine told me that Kevin Kwan's novel, Crazy Rich Asians, was a very funny book and pressed into my hands telling me to read it. So I did.

From the very beginning, a family tree page, I was laughing out loud. The main characters are Nick and Rachel. Nick comes from a very wealthy family in Singapore, and Rachel was born in China, but as a baby moved to America with her mother, a real estate agent. They both live in New York and work at a university.

Nick's childhood best friend is getting married back home, and Nick wants Rachel to accompany him and spend the summer in Singapore. That is where the fun begins.

The wedding is over-the-top Kardashian style, but I'm not sure even that clan could imagine how opulent and over-indulgent this wedding will be. We meet Nick's family, including his grandmother who lives in a Buckingham Castle-type home that is so secluded it isn't even on a map.

Nick's mother Eleanor is a controlling woman, who frightens everyone including her posse of friends and family who both fear her and want her approval. His father hides out in Australia to avoid the two women in his life. (And who can blame him?)

Eleanor fears Nick will marry Rachel, a woman whose family is not only not wealthy, but has skeletons in the closet, so she conspires with others to break them up. (That includes a mean girl gang whose vicious bridal shower "prank" is truly awful.)

There are many characters here, but Kwan does a wonderful job giving each of them fair time and creating interesting people you want to read more about. (And we will get more- Kwan's sequel China Rich Girlfriend publishes in July- hooray!)

The descriptions of the houses, clothes (one character regularly shops for couture in Paris) and even food is stunning and so vivid, I can easily see a movie or TV series of this. One of my favorite food passages takes place at a popular food stall:

"A few minutes later, the four of them were seated just outside the main hall under a huge tree strung with yellow lights, every inch of their table covered with colorful plastic plates piled high with the greatest hits of Singaporean street cuisine. There was the famous char kuay teow, a fried omelet with oysters called orb luak, Malay rojak salad bursting with chunks of pineapple and cucumber, Hokkien-style noodles in a thick garlicky gravy, a fish cake smoked in coconut leaves called otay otay, and a hundred sticks of chicken and beef satay."

Crazy Rich Asians drops the reader into a world unlike one most of us can even conceive of, and man is it a blast spending a few hours there.

rating 5 of 5

Leaving Everything Most Loved by Jacqueline Winspear

Leaving Everything Most Loved by Jacqueline Winspear
Published by Harper Collins, ISBN 978-0062049612
Trade paperback, $15.99, 368 pages

Any regular reader of my blog knows that I am a big fan of Jacqueline Winspear's Maisie Dobbs novel. I look forward each March to catching up with private investigator Dobbs, her staff, friends and family.

Leaving Everything Most Loved is the tenth Maisie book, and big changes are afoot for Maisie. She is still living with James, but their relationship hasn't moved any closer to marriage, although James would like that. He keeps asking, but Maisie fears that marriage means giving up her career and the business she has built. I do find it interesting that in 1930s England there seems to be little disapproval of their living arrangement.

Maisie's case involves the murder of an Indian woman, Usha, who worked as a governess for an English family. Usha was a beautiful woman, and highly thought of by most people who came in contact with her. The police don't seem very interested in finding her killer, so Usha's brother arrives from India seeking Maisie's assistance.

Once again, we get a real feel for the atmosphere in 1930's London, and again Winspear tackles a societal issue. This time we see the problems that Indian immigrants, particularly women, faced. People fear things that are different, and that fear can manifest itself in prejudice. I always enjoy how Winspear relates the issues of the past with problems that still exist today.

One of my favorite characters, Maisie's assistant Billy, is having problems. He was severely beaten on the last case, and he is having a difficult time dealing with the aftermath. This troubles Maisie greatly. Billy and his family have faced many tribulations, and she wants to help, but is uncertain as to how.

Maisie is also having her own crisis. She feels restless and would like to see some more of the world, to travel like her deceased mentor Dr. Maurice Blanche did. But leaving means leaving her father behind, and closing her business and leaving her employees without work. James is going to Canada for awhile and would like Maisie to come with him as his wife.

This tenth novel continues Maisie's introspective look at her life that has been building in the last few novels. You can feel it all coming to a resolution in this tenth book, which beautifully sets up the next novel.

One thing I always enjoy in the Maisie novels are the descriptions of Maisie's beautiful outfits. This time, though, we get wonderful vivid descriptions of Usha's saris and the way she decorated her boarding house room. You can see it all in your mind's eye.

They mystery of who killed Usha is resolved, and as usual Winspear throws in enough red herrings to keep the reader guessing. This is another solid entry in the Maisie Dobbs series, and I can't wait until A Dangerous Place publishes March 17th to find out what comes next for Maisie.

rating 4 of 5

Jacqueline Winspear's website is here.

On Broadway- The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time

It's great when I can combine my love of books with my love of Broadway in one post. A few years ago, I read Mark Haddon's remarkable novel The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time, told in the voice of a 15-year-old autistic boy.

The boy is found next to the body of a neighbor's dog who has been stabbed and killed with a garden fork, and Christopher is at first thought to have done the deed. He is cleared of the crime and then decides that he will find the culprit himself since no one else appears interested.

The Broadway show, a transplant from Britain where it won every award possible, is a brilliantly conceived and executed show. It manages to take us right inside the mind of an autistic teen, and even more successfully than the book, we can hear and see how overwhelming the stimuli of a train station can be as staged in this show.

The scene in the train station is a cacophony of flashing lights and extremely loud sounds. And when Christopher descends on a escalator that appears magically out of nowhere, you could hear gasps from the audience.(I would compare it to the magic carpet in Aladdin, but even more amazing.)

Because the novel tells the story in Christopher's voice, we generally only get his point of view. In the stage show, I think we feel more of the emotions of the other characters- his mother and father, the older neighbor and his teacher. There is great sympathy for how Christopher's autism affected his parents.

Christopher can't stand to be touched, and is a math genius. His primal screams when he is touched ring through the theater, and it brings insight into how it must feel.

The show really depends on the actor who plays Christopher to succeed, and Alex Sharp is absolutely amazing in the role. It is an incredibly physically and emotionally role, and there is another actor who plays the role on matinee days because it is so demanding. I can't imagine that Sharp won't be recognized come awards season.

Ian Barford and Enid Graham, as Christopher's parents, are also wonderful at portraying the anguish and difficulty of their situation.

The staging of the show is stunning and inventive, allowing us right into Christopher's world, through his eyes.

The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time is a powerful, emotional piece of theater that resonates long after the show ends. This is a show that is worth seeing even at full-price, though discount tickets are available.

The show's website is here.

Weekend Cooking- The Book Cellar

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.

Last June, I began volunteering at the Book Cellar, a wonderful used bookstore located in the Webster Library branch of the New York Public Library on the Upper East Side. It is a fantastic place, often called a 'hidden NYC gem' by people when they find it.

The Book Cellar has been open for eleven years, which is such an accomplishment, made even more impressive by the fact that it is operated by the Friends of the Webster Library and staffed completely by a terrific group of dedicated volunteers.

I enjoy spending four days a week at The Book Cellar, and one of the many reasons for that is that I am always finding great books to purchase, most for under $3. It does cause a problem in that, while I frequently donate my books to the Book Cellar after I have read them, I somehow end up bringing home just as many (OK, maybe more) than I donate.

Recently, I found some books that relate to Weekend Cooking. As I was looking through my cookbook collection to see which ones I could donate (not as many I as should have), I discovered that I did not have a copy of The Silver Palate Cookbook, a classic that should be in every kitchen.

I was able to rectify that error by picking up a copy at The Book Cellar for just $3. Does anyone have any favorite recipes from the book that I should try? Let me know in comments below.

Calvin Trillin's book about his lovely wife who passed away way too soon, About Alice, holds a special place on my Favorites Bookshelf, and so when I saw that his book Alice, Let's Eat was at the Book Cellar, I snapped that up too. Trillin is so funny, and I adore Alice, so I can't wait to dig into this one.

The last book I purchased is Julie Powell's Julie and Julia, about a young woman who begins a blog writing about her quest to cook every recipe in Julia Child's classic cookbook Mastering The Art of French Cooking in her tiny kitchen apartment. I can't believe I haven't read this one yet.

Now I'm off to work my shift at the book store where maybe I'll find even more treasures to bring home. (Just don't tell my husband.)

You can like The Book Cellar on Facebook here.

On Broadway- Beautiful- The Carole King Musical

Looking through the Musical Numbers list in the Playbill for Beautiful- The Carole King Musical, you're likely to start humming all of the songs that you grew up with and know so well. (Though I could have done without the man next to me humming every single song during the show- not cool dude.)

Jessie Mueller won a well deserved Tony as Best Actress in a Musical last year for her brilliant and uncanny portrayal of songwriter/singer/icon Carole King. She absolutely embodies the spirit of Brooklyn born and raised King, and when she sings, you'd swear Carole King is right there.

The story takes us from Carole's teenage years, when she met the dreamy Gerry Goffin, who wrote a play and needs music for it. Carole and Gerry fall in love, become a songwriting team and then marry and become young parents.

King and Goffin end up working for Don Kirshner, where they meet and compete with another couple- Barry Mann and Cynthia Weil. As played by Jarrod Spector (who many will recognize from his long-running role as Frankie Valli in Jersey Boys) and Anika Larsen, who is a dead ringer for a young Julianne Moore, Spector and Larsen are fabulous, and a show could have easily been written about their fascinating characters.

We see King struggle with her husband's infidelity and possible mental illness, all while trying to be a good mom and striving to be a successful songwriter and be fulfilled creatively. When you realize all of the great songs this foursome is responsible for- Will You Love Me Tomorrow, Up On The Roof, You've Lost That Loving Feeling, A Natural Woman- it is stunning.

Everything works in this show: the music, the story, the acting. It reminds me of Jersey Boys in that respect; it's a terrific musical with a interesting story behind it. For those who came of age in the 1960s, when music changed so much in just a decade, it is a wonderful trip back through the music of their life. Let's just say, you will be searching out the music for this one on ITunes.

Mueller has left the show, and I am curious to see how replacement Chilina Kennedy does; she certainly has big shoes to fill. Beautiful is a show to see even at full price.
The website for Beautiful is here.

Saving Grace by Jane Green

Saving Grace by Jane Green
Published by St. Martin's Press ISBN 9781250047335
Hardcover, $26.99, 352 pages

In Jane Green's Saving Grace,  Grace is married to Ted, a successful author described as a "thinking man's Grisham". They have been married for over 20 years and have a lovely adult daughter Clemmie, who works as a reporter at a small newspaper.

Grace began her career as an assistant cookbook editor, where she met the dashing and older Ted and fell immediately in love. Now she volunteers her time as a chef at a home for abused women and addicted women and children. She and Ted are well respected in their community, and envied by many in literary circles.

She loves her life, except for the rages that Ted flies into, screaming at her and throwing things. These rages are unpredictable and understandably cause Grace physical and emotional problems.

When their longtime assistant Ellen decides to move away to care for her sister, Grace has to find someone who can work for Ted and help run the household. Into their lives walks Beth, a thirty-something rather nondescript woman who is looking for a job.

Grace likes Beth right away. Beth is organized whereas Grace is not, and soon she becomes indispensable to both Ted and Grace. She even calls her a cross between Mary Poppins and Mrs. Doubtfire. But something is just not right.

After a big fundraiser that Grace has planned is a disaster, things go downhill for Grace. She becomes depressed and refuses to leave her room. Ted and Beth suggest she a psychiatrist, and he diagnoses Grace with bipolar disorder and puts her on a cocktail of several medications.

The overmedication destroys Grace and she completely withdraws. Yet through the fog of this, she begins to realize that something is not right with Beth. It seems like Beth is taking over her life- dressing in her clothes, taking her job at the home for abused women, and getting very close to Ted.

Grace runs away back to her home in England to sort things out and try to understand what is happening to her. Can she stop Beth before it is too late?

I had the chance to participate in a Facebook conversation with Jane Green through Reading With Robin's Book Club 411, and we got to hear the story that inspired the book. Green said that she had gone through a similar thing as Grace, being misdiagnosed by a doctor and given too many medications that didn't help, but instead, hurt her.

This kind of thing happens way too often, especially in the US who, as is stated in the novel, has 5% of the population but writes 95% of the prescriptions for psychotropic drugs. Clearly there is a problem here, and often menopausal women are erroneously prescribed these dangerous medications to ease their symptoms.

Green also had a situation where her family hired a bookkeeper who ended up stealing a great deal of money from them. Like Grace, she didn't thoroughly check references and paid a dear price.

It has been said that Saving Grace is very different from Green's other novels, which I can't attest to as this is the first novel of hers I have read. I like that Green's own personal experiences influenced this novel, it definitely comes through in the story. It feels very real and urgent, and many women will feel an affinity for what Grace is going through.

Since Grace is a chef, there are many recipes sprinkled throughout the book, and many of them look like ones I would like to try. I also liked the inside look at the publishing industry, what a successful author like Ted deals with in terms of how he writes, his relationship with his editor and publisher, and what happens when success begins to fade.

Saving Grace is a little heavier than most books in this genre, and the personal connection the author has with her protagonist gives it more depth and meaning. It is a cautionary tale for those who don't follow their own instincts when it comes to their medical care or the people in their life.

rating 4 of 5

LaRue: 'Miramont's Ghost,' 'A Matter of Mercy' spin truth into fascinating fiction : Diane Larue

This month's Book Report in the Citizen has three novels that start with a true story.



LaRue: 'Miramont's Ghost,' 'A Matter of Mercy' spin truth into fascinating fiction : Diane Larue