My Berlin Kitchen: A Love Story (with Recipes) (2012) - Plot & Excerpts
I loved loved loved this book. Weiss was clear, humorous, and emotional. My heart ached when hers did, rejoiced in her triumphs, and it was truly such a lovely sadness to finish the last page. I loved how it was set up--you share her journey through the years, but it's all set up in the context of what she ate, or how she cooked it. Food infuses every aspect of her life, helped determined moods and defined experiences. Each chapter closes with the recipe for the food she wrote her chapter around, and almost every single one, I thought: I must make that! These days, it seems people write blogs to get book deals. Don’t get me wrong. Parts of this book, I absolutely loved. This book is incredibly relatable for anyone who, on the outside, is supposed to have it all, yet can’t push away that gut feeling that this isn’t what they actually want. Particularly for the first 3/4 of the story, I couldn’t stop reading. At one point, I forced myself to stop and save some for the next day just so the story wouldn’t end. Weiss’ tale of building a life in New York, achieving what she wanted both professionally and romantically, only to have it make her absolutely miserable is, I think, something we’ve all experienced on one level or another. In Weiss’ case, the only way to solve these problems was to essentially pull the plug, cut these things out of her life, and take a blind leap into something new, a decision that caused her misery and sorrow before she worked up the courage to do it. It brought me, as the reader, incredibly close to her, and her growth into being a person who was able to make this decision was an inspiration. “Be brave,” she recalls her father telling her at one point – and, yes, being brave was what she needed. The first half of this book will be something I turn to time and time again.Weiss is also excellent at narrating how food has an impact on her life. At the end of every chapter is a recipe that ties in to what was going on with her life, and this book certainly inspires you to cook – I was making her recipes before I’d finished reading, much to my stomach’s satisfaction. Some of her ingredients are quite unusual, however, especially as the story progresses, so it’s rare I could simply walk into my kitchen with no preparation and make something she recommends. It’s not a flaw, just something to take note of.The problem once, once Weiss got to Berlin, everything became so perfect and magical that I, as the reader, was left very bored. After a while, a narrative of blissful happiness and food gets tedious. I’m happy for Luisa and the things that have happened to her, but...you’re happy, so I’m going to move on to a book with plot now. The previous struggles that had made me feel close to Weiss and see bits of my life in her own disappeared. And, as previously noted in some other reviews, major things I was curious about were left out entirely. How, exactly, did she gain this huge, magical blog following practically overnight? (As a reader of her blog, it certainly didn’t seem to take her as long as she claimed in the book – how?) How exactly did she make friends in Berlin? She got her book contract halfway through the book, but at that point, hardly anything had happened to her besides having a food blog – how did that come about? Weiss spends most of her book focusing on large life events, but the story could have been fleshed out by greater development of side characters, more explanation on her later challenging situations, even more detail about the mundane details such as what it’s like to write a blog. The first half of this book I recommend for any 20-something, the food bits I recommend for any food lover, and the rest...eh, it’s nice fluff for a rainy afternoon with a cup of coffee.
What do You think about My Berlin Kitchen: A Love Story (with Recipes) (2012)?
Wonderful, quick read, but filled with delightful recipes and a sweet story to boot!
—glyssa1997
Enjoyable different read. Kind of like under the Tuscan sun!
—SKR3497
