The Seven Good years

Up in the air
Interview with Israeli author Etgar keret
Bulgakov
Converso
Goy
The Wire and Jimmy McNulty
requiem for a dream

I have never heard of Etgar Keret before. Its always refreshing to read books from other nations. 'The Seven Good Years' is a collection of flash stories with personal meandering about flight experience (where I began questioning if that fits in the memoir genre, where we want the writing to be about an experience more as a feeling than as a thought). Its a very quick read in the genre of 'I was told there'd be cake' by Sloane Crosley and work by Jane Borden. But there's another side to it, fostered by the author's uprooted past. He is a biblio nomad, who is doing book tours all around the world.
Every page of the book has some unexpected element in it. Right with the beginning interview by Miranda July (We think Alone project where some selected authors are to share an email on a selected topic), where his mom's independent childhood translated to non-over bearing upbringing, you never know whats going to happen next.
When by an error, he is double booked on a plane seat and ask to get off the plane by the flight crew. His reply is ".. If there arent enough seats on the plane, you can get off yourself. I'll serve the food to the passengers."
People either love or hate babies but the author for the purpose of the writing, sees his baby as 'a midget with a cable hanging from his belly button..' and as Chucky from Child's play.
Fictional Book signings for fiction.
War and peace. The local conditions are at unease to imagine peace and feel 'just like in the old days' if war starts.
Some stories have a pattern like the four fingered hand waving at Euro Disney which starts with a man losing his finger trying to reach for his watch that has fallen in a machine. The stories tie back to the beginning.
While looking up the author's works, I found that there is another side to his writing of thought experiments - "Kneller's Happy Campers" novel which inspired Wristcutter's story. In it, every dies by suicide. "Crazy Glue" where everything is glued.
Its hearty to know that finally he gets a house built in Poland, his real homeland.

Never in a Chef's jacket

Author: Alyssa Shelasky

The author of ‘Apron Anxiety’ is a writer. The way she lands writing assignments is interesting. She is one of those people who seem to be in the right place to find people and things to write about. Almost till half into the book, the author paints a stark picture of her self as an absolute food illiterate, happy making the same kind of sandwiches months together. Her boyfriends turn out to be ‘more imaginative eater’ than her. With one such love a ‘Pioneer Woman’ story where the author relocates for love not to the boondocks but a city nowhere vibrant like New York. She puts herself into the kingdom of food, which is what exactly her fiancé is tied to more than to her. Her foray into the cooking scene with her blog fame involves a brush with ‘foodie mafia’. She finds herself content as a homecook with an apron. In the day of foodie mania where the food world is wowed with foams she sticks to simple delicious food.

Her culinary journey starts with a desire to feed her loved one. As her kitchen confidence increases, so does her audience. Friends and neighbours and so do the emotional ties with them. She is no longer a kitchen-phobe when she cooks for the chefs who work at her fiance’s restaurant. She is open to positive criticism about her cooking. While sharing the stories of her life, she also shares the recipes that let her celebrate or tough out life - a down day with a pizza made from store bought dough (not a purist) to a Rainy Day Rigatoni. She’s an optimist always appreciating how good the place smells after she has cooked something, like that itself was the end result of the kitchen labor.

Once she realizes the power of food, she starts wielding it. The author finds joy in conceptualizing and creating menus. That’s a long way from a person with just a ‘like’ for food to a someone who executes meals with desired colors in mind.

Her realization that ‘everyone hurts and everyone is hungry’ is a credo that makes her want to cook for others to brighten up some lives.

The writing flows smoothly like a batter without any lumps. The author managed to meld the people, food and recipes without overdoing any of them.