Someone's in the Kitchen Review

Average Reviews:

(More customer reviews)WOW!! what a breezy, awesome and gripping book to read. Eric Pete has done it again and you won't be disappointed. If you haven't read this one, you're in for a delightful and edgy treat. Eric chose a colorful mix of characters for this book, that you won't soon forget. The book is centered around Houston and New Orleans and tells the story of two bestfriends, Reggie Collins and Neal Wallace and all the drama that comes with being an adult, single, married, being a man, etc.. Other characters you won't soon forget include, Shenita, Me-Me, Trina, Mr. Wallace(Neal's dad),Kelly,Lila and Loretta. I won't give the book away for those still looking and eager to read it. Once you start it though, you won't be able to put it down. The Sistah Circle Book Club(Dallas, Houston, New York and Denver) choose, Someone's in The Kitchen as it's chapter-wide selection and it won rave reviews across the board with all of us. I can't wait to share my copy and buy more for my family/friends back home(Detroit)Continued blessings and success ...

Click Here to see more reviews about: Someone's in the Kitchen

Steamy Page-turner Shocks and Surprises From Beginning to EndHe's baaaack! Following on the heels of his best-selling debut novel Real for Me, Eric E. Pete takes you to the hot and sizzling city of Houston, Texas, where we find that Someone's In the Kitchen (in more ways than one). View the world through the eyes of best friends and former college roommates: Reggie, a single playboy who is best described as cocky and conceited...but also caring, and Neal, a sensitive hulk of a man who is experiencing the downside of matrimony.Reggie, a successful supervisor with a major insurance company, is a smooth manipulator who has no plans of settling down or slowing down anytime soon. On the other hand, Neal, the head chef at a popular Houston eatery, is a dedicated husband who is trying to balance the troubles of a difficult marriage with the pursuit of his dreams. Both friends are impacted by what has happened in their pasts. Find out how each of them reacts as their story unfolds!Contemporary African-American fiction has a bold new chapter with this witty, stylish novel, which deals with the tests life gives and how the darkness of the past can shape the future. You won't want to put it down!

Click here for more information about Someone's in the Kitchen

Read More...

Kitchen Privileges: Memoirs of a Bronx Girlhood Review

Average Reviews:

(More customer reviews)Does any reader have to be told who Mary Higgins Clark is? I think not. But, now with this remarkably candid and affecting memoir the author of 27 bestselling novels tells her personal story. Not only that, this recollection is related in her own voice, making it all the more meaningful. Rather than through a fictional protagonist she speaks directly to us with words of encouragement and hope.
Beginning with a childhood in the Bronx during the Depression Ms. Clark had dreams - she dreamed of becoming a writer, and her mother encouraged her even though the older woman struggled to make ends meet by renting out rooms. A sign was placed by the front door reading, "Furnished Rooms. Kitchen Privileges."
Ms. Clark's days as a student at an exclusive girl's school came to an end; she lost an older brother whom she deeply loved during World War II. She tells with affection and sensitivity of her marriage to Warren Clark, and the birth of their children. A devastating blow occurred when he died unexpectedly leaving her widowed with five young children.
Nonetheless, she soldiered on, writing at a kitchen table. For her labors? Forty rejections. Determined to reach her goal and support her family she wrote radio scripts and began work on a novel.
The rest is literary history. Ms. Clark generously shares her life experiences, reminding us that dreams can come true when someone is willing to persist and fight mightily for them.
- Gail Cooke

Click Here to see more reviews about: Kitchen Privileges: Memoirs of a Bronx Girlhood

Even as a young girl, growing up in the Bronx, Mary Higgins Clark knew she wanted to be a writer, The gift of storytelling was a part of her Irish ancestry, so it followed naturally that she would later use her sharp eye, keen intelligence, and inquisitive nature to create stories. Along with all Americans, citizens of the Bronx suffered during the Depression. So when Mary's father died, her mother opened the family home to boarders and placed a discreet sign next to the front door that read, "Furnished Rooms. Kitchen Privileges." The family's struggle to make ends meet; her days as a scholarship student in an exclusive girls academy; the death of her beloved older brother in World War II; her marriage to Warren Clark; writing stories at the kitchen table; finally selling the first one for one hundred dollars, after six years and forty rejections -- all these experiences figure into Kitchen Privileges. Her husband's untimely death left her a widowed mother of five young children. Determined to care for her family an& to make a career for herself, she wrote scripts for a radio show. In her spare time she began writing novels. Where Are The Children? became an international bestseller and launched her career. When asked if she might consider giving up writing for a life of leisure, Marv has replied, "Never. To be happy for a year, win the lottery. To be happy for life, do what you love."

Click here for more information about Kitchen Privileges: Memoirs of a Bronx Girlhood

Read More...

Kitchen Privileges: A Memoir Review

Average Reviews:

(More customer reviews)Mary Higgins Clark has been a best selling author of suspense for what seems forever though her first book was a bio of George and Martha Washington. Ms. Clark returns to the world of non-fiction with an autobiography that may be her best work to date. Ms. Clark warmly discusses her life growing up in the Bronx, a very harsh one due the Depression. Even more heartwarming is her "courtship" and first marriage that should have turned Ms. Clark into a romance writer instead of the queen of suspense. She follows this up with the tragedy of suddenly raising children, as a widow with income problems until her first sale brings in needed cash. Finally, she discusses her second chance at love with her second marriage.
Throughout the book, Ms. Clark displays her love for writing without padding fluff or an outrageous scandal. Instead the author's myriad of fans and readers who enjoy a well written insightful biography will take delight with this encouraging story that does not apologize for Ms. Clark following her dreams and encourages others to do likewise. For attaining one's dreams is how to attain happiness.
Harriet Klausner

Click Here to see more reviews about: Kitchen Privileges: A Memoir

Click here for more information about Kitchen Privileges: A Memoir

Read More...

Kitchen (A Black cat book) Review

Average Reviews:

(More customer reviews)When my friend Mini sent me this gift, I wanted to immediately loose myself in the pages. I kept thinking it was truly a book I would want to read all in one sitting. I wanted to curl up on a couch and have my two cats sleeping at my feet and how right I was!
Once I started reading, (my husband sound asleep, cats sleeping at my feet, and the house deathly quiet except for the quiet humming of the refrigerator), I was immediately drawn into Mikage Sakurai's world.
Banana Yoshimoto uses luscious descriptions of food and kitchens. She describes people and places with such poignancy, you truly feel connected to them. Her thoughts burst onto each page with such honesty, you cannot help but fall in love with her innocent, charming writing style.
There are life and death issues in "Kitchen," we can all relate to. Her evocative writing will fill you with nostalgia for some of the cooking spaces you have perhaps left behind. Mostly I love my grandmother's kitchen best. The familiar creak of the oven door, the scooting sound of the chairs as we sit for a cup of tea, and the racks of cookbooks patiently waiting on the shelves. To imagine this kitchen without my grandmother was to imagine the entire house without a soul, without love, and without peace.
This is the emotion Mikage feels as she sleeps on the floor in her grandmother's kitchen. After loosing her grandmother, Mikage is lost, lonely and depressed. Her soul longs for the comfort of another soul who can understand her torment. She feels as though death surrounds her and she cannot escape.
For a time she finds happiness with Yuichi, who knew her grandmother well. He is living with his mother Eriko. Mikage goes to live with them until she can learn to handle her emotions.
Yuichi's girlfriend is not impressed, even though the relationship is purely platonic on the surface. Deep within their souls they are soon to become twins, bearing the scars of a common life experience.
Banana Yoshimoto's writing is fresh, real and casts a spell on the reader. I would have preferred the book to end on page 105. She does truly seize hold of your heart and I wanted the book to either end or I wanted one more chapter in place of Moonlight Shadow.
I found the second book did not belong with the beautiful yet somewhat unfinished story of Yuichi and Mikage. I think you will agree. In fact, I suggest that when you get to page 105, you close the book and come back later to read the second story.
I find her writing to be most inspirational when she has fully developed her characters. To truly appreciate this book, you must love food and kitchens, that is the magic.
~The Rebecca Review

Click Here to see more reviews about: Kitchen (A Black cat book)

With the publication of Kitchen, the dazzling English-language debut that is still her best-loved book, the literary world realized that Yoshimoto was a young writer of enduring talent whose work has quickly earned a place among the best of contemporary Japanese literature. Kitchen is an enchantingly original book that juxtaposes two tales about mothers, love, tragedy, and the power of the kitchen and home in the lives of a pair of free-spirited young women in contemporary Japan. Mikage, the heroine, is an orphan raised by her grandmother, who has passed away. Grieving, Mikage is taken in by her friend Yoichi and his mother (who is really his cross-dressing father) Eriko. As the three of them form an improvised family that soon weathers its own tragic losses, Yoshimoto spins a lovely, evocative tale with the kitchen and the comforts of home at its heart.In a whimsical style that recalls the early Marguerite Duras, "Kitchen" and its companion story, "Moonlight Shadow," are elegant tales whose seeming simplicity is the ruse of a very special writer whose voice echoes in the mind and the soul.

Click here for more information about Kitchen (A Black cat book)

Read More...

Hell's Kitchen Review

Average Reviews:

(More customer reviews)"Hell's Kitchen" is Jeffery Deaver's last novel in the John Pellam series. "Shallow Graves" and "Bloody River Blues" were the first two in the series. "Hell's Kitchen" is not a re-published novel like the other two, it is brand new novel, published in 2001! It was my second favorite novel out of the three. John Pellam is in Hell's Kitchen, New York, making a documentary about the people there. He meets many interesting people including Ettie Washington. Ettie agrees to meet with John again for another interview, but when John gets to her apartment building, a fire erupts out of the basement. John, Ettie, and the other tenants barely escape in time. The police and fire marshal believe that Ettie hired someone to burn down the apartment building because of Ettie's new insurance policy. Ettie goes to jail. The arsonist is on the run burning subway trains, hotels, hospitals, stores, lawyer firms, killing many people in his way. John Pellam must capture this crazy arsonist and prove Ettie's innocense with the help of gang members, punks, and powerful construction builders, before Hell's Kitchen burns into hell. If you read the first two Pellam novels, then you cannot miss this one!

Click Here to see more reviews about: Hell's Kitchen

Click here for more information about Hell's Kitchen

Read More...