I just finished Into Thin Air, by Jon Krakauer. He writes extremely well about the emotional and devastating events that happened on Mt. Everest in 1996.

I’m currently reading Kitchen Confidential: Adventures in the Culinary Underbelly, by Anthony Bourdain. While very crude and sometimes cringey with the amount of sexual comparisons and vivid descriptions, the book is captivating and keeps a hold of your attention. Fantastic writing from a man who went through it all.

Last week I finished:

Kitchen Confidential by Anthony Bourdain (I really liked this book! It was interesting reading the different stories and memories from Bourdain.)

Call Me By Your Name by Andre Aciman (Oh man, this was a really beautiful book. I wasn't sure if I'd like it because I typically don't read a lot of coming-of-age stories, or romances. I'm glad that I own a copy so I can reread certain parts again.)

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Currently reading:

Angels and Demons by Dan Brown (I'm a little surprised about how much I'm enjoying this.)

Heart Berries by Terese Marie Mailhot (So far I think this is beautifully written.)

Bear Town by Fredrik Backman (I'm having a hard time getting into this one honestly. Going to try to stick it out for a little bit longer and see what happens.)

In the last two weeks:

Kitchen Confidential by Anthony Bourdain

Wow, Anthony Bourdain was kind of a dick. He had lots of good tips, and I learned a ton about both cooking and the restaurant business (including why owning a restaurant is really not a great idea), but he was a dick. I guess you need to be when you’re managing a kitchen, but damn.

Big Little Lies by Liane Moriarty

Quick read, satisfying conclusion, saw the big twist coming a mile away but enjoyed the other surprises and loved being right.

Collected Stories by William Faulkner

I’ve been picking away at this beast since May 2017. Some were good, some kind of sucked. He’s got a thing for trickster tales, which surprised me, because they were different than the work of his I’d read so far.

For We Are Many by Dennis E. Taylor

Imagine you’re an engineer with unlimited time and resources and copies of yourself to work on the projects you’re interested in, and also you have a significant but limited amount of power so you can fix societal problems like “intelligent stone age society slowly going extinct because of predation” and “what is the best way to evacuate the entire earth”. If you liked The Martian, this should probably be on your list. This is the second book.

All These Worlds by Dennis E. Taylor

I sped through the third book and I’m not sure where I’m going to get my “engineer solves problems and has slightly obnoxious sense of humor” fix now.

The Darker the Night, the Brighter the Stars by Paul Broks

About consciousness from the perspective of a psychologist. No conclusions, lots of philosophy. I liked it, but probably not for everyone.

Working on:

• The Brothers Karamazov by Fyodor Dostoyevsky
• 2666 by Roberto Bolaño
• Ulysses by James Joyce
• Edgedancer by Brandon Sanderson
• The Sound and the Fury by William Faulkner

Last week I finished Kitchen Confidential, by Anthony Bourdain, and Children Playing Before a Statue of Hercules, compilation edited by David Sedaris

Currently reading The Bazaar of Bad Dreams, by Stephen King

Started: Beyond Good and Evil, by Friedrich Nietzsche but I don't know really what to expect. Finished:Kitchen Confidential, by Anthony Bourdain . Discovered this book only after his suicide. It is not only about restaurant business, cooking but also about human weakness and strengths. Funny, interesting, quick to read and full of love.

Finished reading Kitchen Confidential, by Anthony Bourdain. Interesting insight into the world of the cooking in professional kitchens.

Now reading The Sympathizer, by Viet Thanh Nguyen. So far interesting read. Really enjoyed the beginning sections about the fall of Saigon.

Kitchen Confidential, by Anthony Bourdain

because I've never read any of this giant man's works and now the guy went and died so I think it's time. I'm like 3/4 done now. The book is hilarious. There are so many things interesting about the chef business that laypeople do not think about. I thought the "Day in the Life" chapter was the most interesting. I have No Reservations and Medium Raw queued up at the library for once I finish this one.

Finished reading Kitchen Confidential, by Anthony Bourdain. Started reading The Story of Earth: The First 4.5 Billion Years, from Stardust to Living Planet, by Robert Hazen.

I started reading Kitchen Confidential, by Anthony Bourdain this week.

Finished The Martian, by Andy Weir.

Finished Kitchen Confidential, by Anthony Bourdain and I re-read Dracula, by Brahm Stoker this week.

I am reading Turning Pages: My Life Story, by Sonia Sotomayor. It's a new children's book by the Supreme Court Justice.

Last week I started Most Intimate: A Zen Approach to Life's Challenges, by Enkyo Pat O'Hara and will finish it this week. On deck after that is Kitchen Confidential, by Anthony Bourdain.

I started Kitchen Confidential, by Anthony Bourdain last week and will finish it within the next couple of days. I'll return to Deal: My Three Decades of Drumming, Dreams, and Drugs with the Grateful Dead, by Benjy Eisen and Bill Kreutzmann after that.

Started: Kitchen Confidential: Adventures in the Culinary Underbelly by Anthony Bourdain

Finished Bonehunters (Malazan) finally. Onto a palette cleanser of Kitchen Confidential, by Anthony Bourdain. Love it. I was a latecomer to the party and had watched a few episodes of his old travel show before realising that I wanted the man to be my best friend, before the sad news. Will be reading everything he has ever written. I really enjoy the slightly snide, knowing tone with undercurrents of justified arrogance yet a strange blend of humility at the same time somehow. Brilliant.

Finished The Hidden and the Maiden by Eben Mishkin which is a reasonably fun, decently written piece of fantasy. I enjoyed it, though I thought it left some character threads dangling.

Started Kitchen Confidential by Anthony Bourdain. I don't normally care about celebrity deaths but his hit close to home for some reason. I loved his TV shows and am reading his book for the first time now.

Kitchen Confidential, by Anthony Bourdain An old roommate left this in my apartment when he moved out a few years back, and I've been meaning to read it ever since. I'm working in hospitality now and it feels like a more appropriate time than ever.

Last week I finished The Eyes of the Dragon, by Stephen King and Reasons to Stay Alive, by Matt Haig

Currently reading Kitchen Confidential, by Anthony Bourdain

I just finished A Darkling Plain, by Philip Reeve

Whoo boy, what an ending, lots of emotions, overall a really fun series, it got a bit too YA-ish at some parts, but the world is really fascinating. I started reading the Mortal Engines series after the teaser trailer first came out and I read some of the comments on the Reddit thread about it.

Now I'm on to book 1 of the Hell Divers, by Nicholas Sansbury Smith series as well as starting Dune, by Frank Herbert for the first time. I will probably also be buying a copy of Kitchen Confidential, by Anthony Bourdain to replace the copy I lost years ago (RIP Anthony), it seems like it's the right time to revisit his books as well.

Kitchen Confidential, by Anthony Bourdain

I've heard such wonderful things about this book for a couple of years and I'm excited to finally read it for myself!

Mrs. Caliban, by Rachel Ingalls

This book. This book! This book deserves a separate thread (and I will probably make one once I collect all my thoughts). This book is the only book I've given 5 stars to in the past 2 years. This book hits it all on so many different levels. On one level it's an honest and witty satire of modern life in American. It hits the pathology so well that it honestly could apply to the 50s, 60s, 70s, and the 00s and 10s as well, I feel like less the 80s and 90s. Think Franzen's The Corrections: the characters are a bit traumatized, a bit flawed, and treat each other poorly. OK fine, there are plenty of good novels with a satirical look at American life. The next level introduces Larry, which involves a frank look at bigotry in America, how media deals with and perpetuates bigotry, how individuals rationalize bigotry, etc.. This case in the form of xenophobia, but the idea applies fairly universally. At the same time, this discussion is clever in drawing on tropes from horror and sci-fi genres from 50s and 60s cinema, as well as surrealism literature. OK, so what? All of this is done in the length of a novella; the writing is extremely tight and precise, and clear, oh so clear! The romance aspect is good too, it's nuanced and brief, but balanced perfectly against the backdrop of the narrator's relationship. And last but not least, there is a frantic page-turner of a finale followed by an American Psycho-esque plot-twist at the end. I will say no more in order not to spoil it, but let me say this: THIS BOOK is the book that Catcher in the Rye wishes it were. This book should be read in high school lit classes, because it exemplifies almost perfectly 3 separate aspects of writing, and mixes them beautifully with an engaging story and a beautiful clarity of writing that is rare to find. Anyways, I highly recommend this novel to everybody -- I cannot think of a group of people who would not enjoy this, other than probably people who only read hyper-modernist cowboy/hero-worshiping adventure-porn, the literary equivalent of "male rampage movie" (think Louis L'Amour).

Anyways, I took a day off after I finished that, which I almost never do. Then I started Kitchen Confidential, by Anthony Bourdain because I've never read any of this giant man's works and now the guy went and died so I think it's time. If the first 3 chapters are any indication, it will at least be very entertaining. I have No Reservations and Medium Raw queued up at the library for once I finish this one.