I was not the kid who licked the knife

I was not the kid who licked the knife.

That’s not polite, my mother said.

When I lined up peas on the knife and

tilted it into my mouth, she did not laugh.

When I felt mushy-crisp pellets plop onto my tongue,

I laughed though. But then I obeyed.

And obeyed and obeyed and obeyed until

I got old. One day a dinner guest (gasp!)

licked her knife clean of chicken bits

and mashed potatoes.

Then she smacked her lips!

No embarrassment whatsoever.

I was embarrassed for her though.

Didn’t she know that’s not polite?

She came for dinner more often. Every time,

she licked her knife. I got to wishing I could

lick last buttery bits from

my knife, too. Why not? Not polite?

What isn’t polite is to

waste a chance for childlike play …

and peanut butter

just because it’s on your knife.

                                       ~ ju

My review of Ina Garten's memoir, Be Ready When the Luck Happens

Ina Garten titled her memoir Be Ready When the Luck Happens. In my view, a better title would be her husband Jeffrey’s advice: “Do what you love. If you love it, you’ll be really good at it.” To become the Food Network star and cookbook diva she is, plucky Ina overcame many obstacles. Yes, she had a few lucky breaks. But passion for her vision drives her drive, an off-the-charts work ethic. She truly loves bringing people together around good food. Fans respond to that love.

 

Highlights of Ina’s story take the reader from her 1950s childhood to present day. Readers who also passed their youth in the 1950s, ’60s, and ’70s will resonate with events and views from those decades. One aspect of those times faced by Jeffrey and Ina was the changing roles of men and women in the home. Their marriage challenges as they each pursue their own passions play key roles in this memoir. Their mutual proactive support is inspiring. And interesting! And creative!

 

Creativity abounds in this memoir—in cooking, in building a business, in trail blazing nontraditional ways, in negotiating real estate deals, in designing and decorating to meet needs, in creating a legacy of bringing people together around good food. I thoroughly enjoyed reading Be Ready When the Luck Happens. Just when Ina’s celebrity name dropping would lull me into thinking she was leading a charmed life, another professional or personal mountain would loom. She’d climb it, only to reach a cliff. As she leapt off, she’d creatively stitch her own parachute!

 

Ina includes a few recipes in the book, and I found them inspiring as well. Also inspiring is how despite emotional pain inflicted by her parents, she repeatedly follows her father’s negotiating advice to her great benefit. One head-scratcher for me was how someone with a family background of harsh criticism emerged into adulthood with such bold self-confidence. This memoir doesn’t adequately answer that question, unless it’s Ina’s last line: “We all need only one person to believe in us, and for me, that person is Jeffrey. With his love and support, I learned to believe in myself and found happiness and peace.” 

 

Since Ina Garten’s success seemed, to me anyway, to be a product of her passion and hard work, perhaps the “luck” she refers to was meeting Jeffrey.

 

My review of The Shadow of the Wind by Carlos Ruiz Zafon

On one level, the plot of The Shadow of the Wind is simple: Young Daniel Sempere falls in love with a novel and decides to find out where its author has disappeared to. But as Daniel’s search unfolds, the story develops complex layers. The twists and turns in the plot of Carlos Ruiz Zafon’s novel The Shadow of the Wind took me on a corkscrew roller coaster ride. 

 

Set in Barcelona from 1945 to 1966, The Shadow of the Wind, which is also the name of the elusive author’s novel that so fascinated Daniel, contains murder, madness, incendiary hatred, passionate love, cruelty, curiosity, bravery, cowardice, and one silver-tongued, quick-thinking master of repartée, Daniel’s unlikely accomplice.

 

One frustration I had reading this novel was that despite the emotionally charged happenings, the fast pace of Daniel’s quest prevented me from experiencing emotion. I just wanted to pursue the mystery. Another frustration was that the length of various witnesses’ testimonies slowed my pursuit of the mystery. Then of course, the reader has to wait while Daniel and his accomplice figure out which parts of whose stories are false. In short, the pacing jerked me around a bit. That said, The Shadow of the Wind is a wild and engrossing mystery novel.