|
|
 |
 |
[Click To Enlarge]
Email A Friend - Gift Reminder |
Lunch in Paris: A Love Story, with Recipes
Availability:
In Stock
Price:
$23.99
$14.06*
|
| Part No: | 031604279X |
| Manufacturer: | Little, Brown and Company |
| MFG Part: | |
| Customer Rating: | 4.0 / 5.0 |
|
|
- ISBN13: 9780316042796
- Condition: New
- Notes: BUY WITH CONFIDENCE, Over one million books sold! 98% Positive feedback. Compare our books, prices and service to the competition. 100% Satisfaction Guaranteed
In Paris for a weekend visit, Elizabeth Bard sat down to lunch with a handsome Frenchman--and never went home again. Was it love at first sight? Or was it the way her knife slid effortlessly through her pavé au poivre, the steak's pink juices puddling into the buttery pepper sauce? LUNCH IN PARIS is a memoir about a young American woman caught up in two passionate love affairs--one with her new beau, Gwendal, the other with French cuisine. Packing her bags for a new life in the world's most romantic city, Elizabeth is plunged into a world of bustling open-air markets, hipster bistros, and size 2 femmes fatales. She learns to gut her first fish (with a little help from Jane Austen), soothe pangs of homesickness (with the rise of a chocolate soufflé) and develops a crush on her local butcher (who bears a striking resemblance to Matt Dillon). Elizabeth finds that the deeper she immerses herself in the world of French cuisine, the more Paris itself begins to translate. French culture, she discovers, is not unlike a well-ripened cheese-there may be a crusty exterior, until you cut through to the melting, piquant heart. Peppered with mouth-watering recipes for summer ratatouille, swordfish tartare and molten chocolate cakes, Lunch in Paris is a story of falling in love, redefining success and discovering what it truly means to be at home. In the delicious tradition of memoirs like A Year in Provence and Under the Tuscan Sun, this book is the perfect treat for anyone who has dreamed that lunch in Paris could change their life.
| Pleasant diversion | 2010-07-26 | 3 / 5 |
| Having been to Paris some years ago, reading this book makes me want to return. Elizabeth captures the essence of Paris and the differences between the French and American cultures. Elizabeth's voice is lyrical and descriptive. The book is simply a pleasant diversion, nothing stellar or radically new. At times it's heartwarming, at other times it's a bit whiny.
Some readers will want to know that the book includes mild, unnecessary profanity and non-graphic pre-marital sex. It opens with the line, "I slept with my husband halfway through our first date" and that nearly turned me off of reading it. But, while similar in tone to Under the Tuscan Sun and other such memoirs, this was a book that I ultimately enjoyed. I really loved the inclusion of so many recipes.
|
| Frivolous and fun | 2010-07-01 | 3 / 5 |
| "Lunch in Paris" is a light, fun little memoir about an American woman who moves to Paris in the name of true love. This book chronicles her struggles to adapt to the French way of life, and also focuses on some of the finer points of French culture: namely, the delicious food.
I like the way that each chapter concludes with recipes that are almost always mentioned in the previous pages. I happen to be someone who cannot even boil water successfully most of the time, so all you culinary whizzes out there will probably appreciate the recipe portion of the book more than I do. (Be warned, though, that most of the recipes look pretty complicated, and I am not just saying that because I am useless in the kitchen...this is French food, after all.) Overall, this is a breezy and quick read, perfect to take along for a summer day at the beach. |
| Food and France - the recipe for a good story | 2010-06-28 | 4 / 5 |
| Food and Paris - what better combination of topics for a book! Although the content was a little light, and I had jet lag from the confusing number of trips between Paris and New York that Elizabeth took (and her mother took in the other direction), the recipes that are woven into the story more than compensate. This is a story of how food (and cooking) helped Elizabeth settle into life in France and build a relationship with her new French family.
If only she had made the recipes available electronically - I will have to copy down the ones I want to try before I lend my book to anyone - or maybe that was her clever idea to boost booksales!
|
| | A nice read, great for the beach. Don't read on an empty stomach, the food sounds great and the recipes look yummy. The love story is very sweet also. |
| Some Good Points | 2010-06-17 | 2 / 5 |
| I read this book as I love to take a free trip to France, and that the author did for me. I like to dine in France, and that she did---allowing my to vicariously experience restaurants and dining experiences, her images are detailed and wonderful. The recipes thrown in were a joy, and I even made some. The ones I made reproduced very nicely. I may try one or two more.
But, there was a major turn-off. It was cheapened by some chapters being a Sex-in-the-City romp. The first paragraph she tells how she slept with her husband on the first date. While this is ordinarily fine and can make for fun reading, it is not okay in a memoir. She insists she is not the type, but then the reader is repeatedly informed of the size of the authors breasts on way too many occasions for me to take her seriously as a grown up.
In one chapter,you are charmed by her sincere husband and her sincere emotions of falling in love with him, some lovely childhood memories, and I start to think what a lovely intelligent, sensitive person this is. Then, in the next minute, she is off for a wild Sex-in-the-City romp with her college friend, throws in some cleavage comments, has a wild party with fashionistas.
I love many parts of the book, but I am equally turned off by many other parts of the book. I was VERY ambivalent. This inconsistenty of a delicate, well meaning sensitive protagonist being young and going through some growth pains while living abroad was all good. The lovely images of France are all good. But, then the wow-girl-check-me-out-sex-in-the-city turns she takes,too-much-intimate-gratuitous personal exposure, makes this for me a very inconsistent bumpy experience. Quality, then Cheap Goods, Quality, then Cheap Goods. Finally, for me, it was not worth putting on my shelf, but belongs for me in the summer beach read category---on a day where the ocean is calm.
Her relationship with her husband seem to be used gratuitously. And since this memoir is mostly about them, this really is disappointing.
|
* Current Price/Avail/Qty displayed on website may be delayed by up to 24 hours. Items added to cart and into the checkout process will reflect current price and status of product. |
|
 |
|
)
