American Gods

I have read Neil Gaiman books many times and even waited in line to meet him.  Gaiman is a wonderful person to meet.  He took a couple of minutes with each person whose books he was signing.  Not the normal two seconds.

I some how never read any of his early books.  So on my latest trip to the bookstore I picked up American Gods.

American Gods follows a recently released convict Shadow while he tries to become a member of society again.  He is almost immediately hired by a con man, who may be more than he appears.  Throughout the book there are short stories of Gods from all religions and cultures.   You come to find out that Shadow is torn between three worlds; his own, the Ancient Gods and the New Gods.

This story is great but may take some time to get through.  Whenever there seems to be movement in Shadow's story, all of a sudden there is a story of a God.  These stories are important to the main plot but they seem to interrupt the flow.  All of it comes together in the end.

I enjoyed this books so much that I am now reading his follow up book Anasi Boys.

Heat

A couple of years ago my best friend lent me this book.  Unfortunately, since I read multiple books at once I have not finished Heat, by Bill Buford, until just recently.

Heat is the memoir of a journalist who after interviewing Mario Batali decides to join the restaurant world.  The beginning of the book starts off with a bang.  Buford starts as a kitchen slave and works his way up to an apprentice.  Anyone who has ever wondered what it was like in a NYC kitchen will get a kick out of the beginning.

Buford, gets so obsessed with following in Batali's footsteps that he actual travels to Italy and to the exact places when Batali stayed and learned.  He learns how to make pasta and to butcher all kinds of meats.  The pasta making is interesting.  Buford, also does research into the history of pasta based on what he learns.  

The Dante quoting butcher is an interesting character, however this is where the book begins to fall flat.  I know of people who stopped reading the book at this point.  Buford has run out of steam when reaching the butcher.  

The book held my attention until the final third.  If you would like to know what it could be like to work in a high pressure kitchen read the first third.  If you would like to know the history of pasta and how it is made in Italian read the second third.  I probably would skip the final part of the book.