Book Review | Book Chatter

Taste: My Life Through Food
By Stanley Tucci
Gallery Books, 9781982168018, October 5, 2021, 304pp.

The Short of It:

This is a “treat” read. I curled up with it and loved every page.

The Rest of It:

I have always loved Stanley Tucci but I love him even more now. I’ve been catching his show, Searching for Italy here and there and it’s a gem, too. His love for food and really, home cooking, go way back to his childhood and that is what this book largely covers. The fond memories he has of meals, lovingly prepared by his mother when he lived in New York. Those meals, the basis of family time around the table, I ate it up. Pun intended.

Each chapter is peppered with foodie goodness and sometimes a simple recipe or cocktail to take note of. You may not have known this but Tucci suffered from a tumor at the base of his tongue which affected his taste for quite a long time. I believe that period in his life made it clear to him how much he valued a good meal. This feeling shines through every page. I really loved it and it would make a great gift for the foodie in your life.

Source: Review copy provided by the publisher.
Disclosure: This post contains Indiebound affiliate links.

The Stowaway
By James S. Murray & Darren Wearmouth
St. Martin’s Press, 9781250263650, September 2021, 320pp.

The Short of It:

Gruesome, but oddly entertaining.

The Rest of It:

Two years ago, Maria Fontana, the head of the Psychology Department at Columbia University, sat on a jury for one of the most depraved cases ever to pass through the hallowed halls of City Hall. ~ Indiebound

The set-up is very good. Maria’s role on that jury comes back to haunt her and her family as they are vacationing on a cruise ship in the middle of the ocean. Maria and her fiancé are trying to put the events of the past behind them while getting a little R&R with Maria’s young children in tow. But things suddenly take a dangerous turn on the ship when people turn up dead. People, mostly, young children. How can this be? Could the man on trial, Wyatt Butler have a copycat?

Maria spent a lot of time reviewing the evidence of that case. All the gruesome photos of Butler’s young victims. Plus, her background in Psychology gives her enough info to know how these serial killers work, but could there really be a copycat on board? Why? What is he after?

This book is a classic example of being trapped with no place to run. It’s a ship but there are only so many places to hide and Maria’s knowledge of the case and what this killer is capable of keeps the story flowing at a breakneck pace. I really enjoyed this one. I read it in one sitting and could not put it down for long.

But…

It’s gruesome. The crime scenes are very graphic. It seemed somewhat tolerable only because the killings are not in real time. As readers, we only hear of the aftermath but it’s children, which is a bit hard to swallow. Many of you warned me about how graphic it was but it was done well-enough that it didn’t keep me from frantically turning those pages.

If you need something a little different, something that is hard to put down and you don’t mind the graphic nature of these killings, then I highly recommend it.

Source: Borrowed
Disclosure: This post contains Indiebound affiliate links.

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