Tag Archives: Melissa Fox

On the shelf: ‘Bootstrapper’ by Mardi Jo Link

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By Melissa Fox, Grand Rapids Public Library

 

Part Annie Oakley, part hippy farmer, with a bit of Little House on the Prairie stirred in, Bootstrapper: From Broke to Badass on a Northern Michigan Farm is the kind of book that grabs you from the first sentence, if that super cover and awesome title haven’t already. This is a fierce memoir, the sort of story that is common enough to be shared by many, but triumphant enough to be Mardi Jo Link’s alone.

 

The parts you will love are the boys, Link’s sons who are each unique and full of individual adventure, yet clearly on this particular journey with their mother. You will also love Link’s genuine approach to telling this story, how she admits her own weaknesses and struggles, as well as her achievements. You will love that she refers to her ex-husband as Mr. Wonderful.

 

If you read Blood, Bones, and Butter by Gabrielle Hamilton or Animal, Vegetable, Miracle by Barbara Kingsolver, you will love this book. If you read Wild by Cheryl Strayed you will love this book. There is much to hold onto in Bootstrapper — food, farms, family, but there is also the grit and the determination.

 

 

On the shelf: ‘Barolo’ by Matthew Gavin Frank

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By Melissa Fox, Grand Rapids Public Library, Main Branch

 

In Barolo, Matthew Gavin Frank takes readers on a trip to explore the food and wine of the Barolo Region of Italy. Frank stays in a tent in a friend’s garden and works at a vineyard, picking grapes for vintner Luciano Sandrone.

 

This book is rich with details of the history and process of wine making, the Piemontese region of Italy, and of the many people the author meets, restaurants he eats at, and friends he makes along the way.

 

Barolo is both travelogue and memoir, unique to its time and place in Frank’s life, so that only he could share these stories in this way.

 

 

 

 

On the shelf: Eating words

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By Melissa Fox, Grand Rapids Public Library

 

With soup season in full swing and family and friends snug in their beds, it seems the perfect time to cozy up with some delicious reading. Here are the books and authors that I return to when I want to be satiated with words.

 

Gastronomical Me by M. F. K. Fisher follows newly married Fisher and husband Al as they make a life for themselves in prewar France. We learn how Fisher came to taste and savor food and the immediate impact France and French cooking had on her life. This book is filled with Fisher’s signature prose that is as luscious and poignant as it is deftly humorous.

 

My life in France by Julia Child and Alex Prud’Homme is the story of how Julia Child became Julia Child. It tells how she fell in love with France, learned how to cook, and wrote Mastering the Art of French Cooking. Not only is this book filled with lovely images of France and food, it is also an intimate, romantic portrait of Julia and Paul Child’s early years of marriage.

 

Tender at the Bone, Comfort Me with Apples, and Garlic and Sapphires by Ruth Reichl are a series of memoirs from the last editor of Gourmet magazine. This series covers much of Reichl’s life, from her childhood with her mother’s fantastic parties complete with spoiled food, to her job as New York Times food critic. Reichl’s descriptions of food and life are as unique and hilarious as are they are tender and revealing.

 

 

On the shelf: ‘Roadie: The Misunderstood World of a Bike Racer’ by Jamie Smith

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By Melissa Fox, Grand Rapids Public Library, Main

 

Part manual part memoir, Roadie serves as a personal introduction to the world of bike racing. Because the author is a self-proclaimed roadie, the information and advice he provides not only feels sound, but includes enough of a mix of personal anecdote and humor to come across as honest and genuine.

 

Readers will learn everything there is to know about bike racing, from the reasons why roadies shave their legs to the physics of drafting properly. The chapters on bicycles, training rides, and road racing are enough to motivate anyone to get out, purchase a road bike, and start pedaling. This book is an obvious fit for several different types of readers including those who are interested in getting started in the sport of bike racing, those who are already roadies, or those who live with a roadie and want to better understand their lifestyle and idiosyncrasies.

 

But, because of its lighthearted tone and the author’s individual voice and narrative, this book has wide appeal and is a great read for anyone who enjoys peeking into the secret world of others.

On the shelf: ‘The Last American Man’ by Elizabeth Gilbert

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By Melissa Fox, Grand Rapids Public Library-Main 

For those who have dreamed of true adventure, of exploring and of attempting perilous journeys and of living as a pioneer, The Last American Man by Elizabeth Gilbert is a book you will not want to miss. Comparable to admired adventure books such as Into the Wild by Jon Krakauer and Wild by Cheryl Strayed, The Last American Man follows the life of Eustace Conway, who at the age of seventeen left his family’s home to live in a teepee in the woods and wear skins from animals he trapped. He hiked the Appalachian Trail and set the world record for crossing the United States on horseback. Conway eventually purchased land in North Carolina and started the Turtle Island Preserve, which he built with his own two hands in the traditional way, and where he continues to hold camps and classes in survival and living off the land.

The Last American Man takes readers on Conway’s lifelong adventure in pursuit of his ultimate goal — to convince Americans to give up their materialistic lifestyles and return with him back to nature. Because Elizabeth Gilbert does an excellent job of writing his story, The Last American Man was a finalist for the National Book Award, and because Eustace Conway is a compelling character, it’s easy get lost in the adventure and feel oneself called toward the woods, to living a simpler life.

 

On the shelf: ‘Where’d You Go, Bernadette’ by Maria Semple

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Mature Lifestyles Book Review

 

By Melissa Fox, Grand Rapids Public Library

 

Extremely funny and smart, Where’d You Go, Bernadette is the kind of book you recommend to everyone you know. Told through letters, emails, other correspondence, and official documents collected by Bee, the daughter of the quirky and unusual Bernadette, this is a fast read, yet the story is slowly revealed, with each letter and email adding up to a larger picture that comes together in the end like a jigsaw puzzle.

 

The main character, Bernadette, is the kind of person you want to know and, in some instances, be more like. She hates Seattle and the culture of her daughter’s private school, she’s the weird neighbor, the not-like-everyone-else’s-mom mom. The kind of details and dialog the author adds to this book—they keep an Airstream parked in their backyard!—will keep any literary fiction reader happy, while the pacing and humor will appeal to those who are craving a good beach read, and the mother-daughter relationship in this book will draw every reader in.