Blood, Bones, & Butter : : the Inadvertent Education of a Reluctant Chef

Locations
Call Number: 641.509 Ha, Adult Book / Nonfiction / Cooking / Essays & Narratives / Hamilton, Gabrielle
On Shelf At: Downtown Library, Malletts Creek Branch

Location & Checkout Length	Call Number	Checkout Length	Item Status
Downtown 2nd Floor 4-week checkout	641.509 Ha	4-week checkout	On Shelf
Downtown 2nd Floor 4-week checkout	641.509 Ha	4-week checkout	On Shelf
Downtown 2nd Floor 4-week checkout	641.509 Ha	4-week checkout	Due 05-10-2024
Malletts Adult Books 4-week checkout	Adult Book / Nonfiction / Cooking / Essays & Narratives / Hamilton, Gabrielle	4-week checkout	On Shelf

REVIEWS & SUMMARIES

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COMMUNITY REVIEWS

Good Story, Okay Writing submitted by Enzy on August 7, 2011, 1:54pm Blood, Bones, and Butter is a fairly interesting read so far. However, the first half of the book was not as enjoyable as the last half has been. I am not sure if the content changed enough in the second half where I just became more interested in what she has to say, or if the story has finally progressed enough were my interest is piqued. The chapters are each written as their own little story (which I typically enjoy), but they sometimes feel a little disconnected. Her writing style also was confusing to me at times. In the first half especially I found myself rereading several sentences just to understand what Hamilton was trying to say. I was a little surprised when she revealed that she had a Master's Degree in Creative Writing from U of M. I would have expected the writing to be a little better.

However, despite the issues that I have with Hamilton's writing, her story is refreshing. She did not study culinary arts or intern at restaurants. She just loves food and feels passionately enough about it to dedicate a large portion of her life preparing and serving it. With the current popularity regarding food, cooking, and memoirs she is the perfect person to represent all of us who daydream about devoting our lives to mouthwatering edibles. I also want to avoid discouraging anyone from reading this book. Enough people seem to like it, and since it is free at the library, why not give it a try?

delightful submitted by unknown on July 21, 2012, 6:48am Being a world class chef and a good writer is a rare mix. Gabrielle Hamilton is indeed both. Her passion for life and food is delightful.

First essay is the best submitted by klickitat on August 31, 2012, 10:46pm I adored the first chapter/essay but wasn't as fond of the rest of the book. The constant -- and I mean constant, sometimes twice in one sentence -- ellipses made Hamilton's prose hard to read.

Meh submitted by Susan4Pax -prev. sueij- on August 14, 2013, 8:47pm Meh. I read this one for book club, and in the group it had very mixed reviews.

Certainly the author can tell a story, and so the book is very readable, which is a plus. As a character, she's a character, all right! What a wild and unpredictable woman. I don't think she's someone I would care to be friends with. While I admire her work ethic, I find her incredibly egotistical and highly contradictory (why is she bearing children in a marriage of convenience after a broken childhood?).

I expected a book about food and restaurants, and the first two-thirds of the book are mostly about that. The last third, however, is mostly about how she, as a lesbian, ended up married and resenting family visits to Italy. I suppose it's her book to write whatever she wants about, but I could care less about her expected impending divorce, and am overall sad that I wasted my time. There are other, more interesting foodie books out there (Ruth Reichel's did more for me, for one, though Anthony Bourdain's -- whose blurb was on the cover of this -- was just as egotistically annoying as this).

Interesting memoir, very focused on food of course submitted by Jinxyluis on July 23, 2018, 11:17am I loved that this memoir goes deep in the descriptions of food, spending some chapters just listing and describing dishes, ingredients, flavors. The later chapters more focused on Hamilton starting her own family were interesting in a different way as well, although I was surprised at the harder stories that she was telling.

Not my cuppa submitted by Bird on August 31, 2019, 6:01pm Never could get into it enough to finish it.