Susan Herrmann Loomis

I'm done - read half of the book and just can't finish it. I thought it would be entertaining to read about someone else's French experience since we had to cancel our June 2020 trip to France due to COVID-19. I've known about the author for years, and read her articles in various publications. But reading an entire book written by her was disappointing. Her writing style is bland (don't believe the rave blurbs from her friends). She recounts the details of moving, living with friends, buying a house, putting her two-year-old in preschool, etc. all in the same pedestrian tone. No amusing anecdotes, nothing to keep me reading. I was expecting something as entertaining as Peter Mayles' "A Year in Provence" - save yourself some time and read that one if you're looking for a visit to France this year. Giving it two stars because it includes recipes, with an index to the recipes.… (mer)

Enjoyable look about French traditions in the kitchen and about food I had waited forever for this book to come through my library queue, and I was happy to see it was mostly worth the wait.. Author Loomis takes the reader though various aspects of food in France: breakfast, cheese, dessert, as well as the kitchen itself: where food comes from, how many French people learn to love food/how to cook, etc.
 
It's a romantic view where we read a bit about how meals go, how they are cooked, where the French get their food, etc. There are plenty of recipes, plus suggestions on how to make dishes, ingredients, etc. It's not really a cookbook and there are no pictures (I am surprised by the number of people complaining about this--nothing on the cover says it's a cookbook). It's really part memoir, part cookbook, part "how to", etc.
 
There really isn't much more to say. It's a bit formulaic (she shares various anecdotes about friends and people she knows) then provides several recipes at the end of each chapter. There's an index at the end for where to find ingredients as well recipes for each month.
 
This would probably make a good gift for a foodie or Francophile, but it is NOT a cookbook, so if someone thinks that it is, well...it's not. I enjoyed it after a series of really not very good books. Library if you're not sure or are just curious, but it's probably not a bad purchase for those who are really interested in either the topic or to complete their set of books by Loomin.… (mer)