Simon Majumdar's exploration of America through food is a lot of fun. His vivid descriptions of the food he ate along the way also made me hungry. ( )

This could have been a really fun and interesting look at American culture and American food culture from an outsider's perspective, but all Majumdar gives us are trite stories about people welcoming him to their tables and their celebrations. He doesn't even write about food all that well - just piles on adjectives to such a degree that they become meaningless and tired. I didn't get anything out of this book except a determination to not read anything else by him. Also, here's a pet peeve - Majumdar is Anglo-Indian and throughout the book he makes mention of that, or of his accent, or of customs he's more familiar with. But the audio is read by an American, so it strikes the listener as distinctly odd. Why would they not have gotten a British reader for this?!? Or at least someone who could fake the accent? Anyway, I was going to give this 3 stars because I'm still filled with the holiday spirit, but writing this has reminded me of how annoying I found the whole thing, so no. ( )