Links and memery

telophase has created a Cool Bits story generator. She explains the concept and shares some of the best.

I decided that there should be a Cracktastic Bits generator as well, and rachelmanija is soliciting suggestions. (Although I honestly have no idea when I will code it, if ever. But it is too fun to read! And the best thing is, all of the examples have actually been published in some way, shape or form!)

And now, that three-interests-three-icons meme, from jonquil:

( In which I am long-winded )

Feel free to jump in and ask me to pick three of your icons and interests!

Yuki Kaori - Godchild, vol. 05 (Eng. trans.)

Oof. It is very confusing reading the new Godchild and the new Cain Saga at the same time, as I tend to mix up elements and forget what happens when.

When I was first thinking about writing this, I was actually not as excited as I usually am. I think this is because of the high pitch of excitement that I have been at all day, partly because of personal stuff going well and partly because of the awesome Cool Bits Generator and the growing list of cracktastic things.

And then I opened the volume to flip to a page, remembered the main plot point, and nearly fell over cackling with glee. I swear, this is more cracktastic than most of the things I have read today, and I say this while emphasizing that I have been reading a LOT of cracktastic things today.

( Spoilers! )

Oh Godchild. You make me so happy.

Reichl, Ruth - Tender at the Bone: Growing Up at the Table

Ruth Reichl grew up with a mother who routinely poisoned most of the people she fed, with the exception of her family, who developed iron stomachs as a defense. Possibly because of the need to survive, Reichl eventually learned to cook, and later went on to become a famous New York Times restaurant reviewer and the current editor of Gourmet magazine.

I've actually read her follow-up to this, Comfort Me With Apples, so it was interesting reading this one, knowing all the while where she would end up when the book stopped.

Possibly I read this while not in the best of moods, because I got rather bored during the talks of her own life, which don't quite link up as well with the food writing as I would like. Part of this may also be because I have already read her other book, which had a very similar format. To be honest, while I like Reichl as a food writer, watching her stumble into Berkeley hippiedom or in and out of an interesting relationship with her black roommate in the seventies, I wanted to go back to the food more.

It was particularly odd having a fairly constant look at race in America in the 60s through several chapters; Reichl never quite goes in depth, but it's so very present. And she addresses it as well, but then it ends up simply dropping out of the narrative.

On the other hand, the food totally made the read worth it. I love any time Reichl talks about food, from her bipolar mother's disastrous attempts at cooking to her first taste of fried oysters, salty and silky. I love when she goes home with a schoolmate while studying French in Montreal, only to find that her schoolmate's father is a foodie extraordinaire. He introduces her to foie gras and good cheese and caviar and all the pleasures of the fancy table, and I nearly drooled every time they had dinner.

I did wish that I had a slightly better sense of how exactly Reichl cooked; she goes into how she started cooking and how she eventually just started feeding everyone in her life, but I wanted even more minutiae of the world of the kitchen. I wanted to know how she deciphered recipes, how she made modifications, random kitchen mishaps and the like.

All in all, it was a fun, mouth-watering read, though I'd prefer a little more of the food and a little less of the personal details.