September Reads - Stats and Sweetbitter

I read some pretty hefty tomes in September, and I want to talk about all of them.  I guess that is a good sign.  They were:

Five books by Female Authors

Three by Male Authors

3 Non Fiction  (Including: Grit: The Power of Passion and Perseverance / Breaking Night)  

5 Fiction

4 Historical

1 Come of Age in NY  Sweetbitter

1 spends some time in Texas / West  El Paso

2 about the South Underground Railroad / Thomas Jefferson Dreams of Sally Hemings

2 about Slavery - Underground Railroad / Thomas Jefferson Dreams of Sally Hemings

1 set in Africa - Circling the Sun

2 about pilots and horses El Paso / Circling the Sun

2 about Grit in life and education

1 about writing - A Year of Writing Dangerously 

1 about War - El Paso

All good!

I wrote about Grit and Breaking Night in Paris Life, and there is also a book coming on the Texas Book Blog Tour this week that is about grit and survival, routed in Texas and including horses, so please look for that. 

Now, lets talk about food.  

Sweetbitter by Stephanie Danler

This was a very "cool" book. I loved all the food/ restaurant bits. By the time I picked this up, I was tired of all the NYC settings this year, but this one was different enough to be set apart. Ultimately I was disappointed with the ending and the "story," but I'll still read Stephanie Danler again because she definitely has something. This is just another one of those books with great potential, until it develops the modern problem of imbalance: its a perfect beginning and an imperfect ending. 

Still, I really liked it, all in all.  

Smart girl learning the ropes in NY.  

And pithy restaurant talk. 

Sweet and bitter indeed, 

and if you know your food speak, 

that's not at all a bad thing.