So I haven't really gone in for reviews much (try at all) on this blog. But I think I am going to start giving you my readers some reviews of the books I have been reading lately. I have been reading all sorts of stuff lately, dabbling in newly published books for a change.
Food blogging seems to be all the rage at the moment, with the fate of new cafes and restaurants no longer only in the hands of the mainstream food critics, but also in the hands of influential bloggers with thousands of readers each week. As you know I am rather domestically disinclined (or disabled as Luke likes to call it), and I don't do meals per se. But I do like to read about food and places where I can eat it!!
Not Quite Nigella is a food blogger from Sydney who I discovered a couple of years ago when I was looking for cafe and restaurant reviews for places to eat out in for an anniversary dinner. She not only reviews cafes and restaurants but also posts favourite recipes (some original, some adapted and some given by others). I have found her reviews of Sydney cafes in particular to be very accurate and engaging, and have tried a couple of the easier baking recipes and found them to be both easy to follow and reliable in producing yummies fit for a banquet.
Not Quite Nigella has recently released a book of the same name which is the first cross-over foray I have seen from the blogging world to the world of books. This book is a welcome addition to my bookshelves which groan with fantastical-historico-fictional tomes by the score. It is long since I read an autobiography that involved food rather than nursing (my reviews of the "Call the Midwife" series are coming soon), and it is a breath of yummy baking-scented airy goodness!
So this is an autobiography with a difference. It is the only autobiography I have ever read that includes special family recipes pried from the shakingly reluctant clutches of the author's mother. I'm looking forward to getting Luke to test some of them out for me!!
But in all seriousness, "Not Quite Nigella" is a cracking read. I knocked it off in an evening, so it isn't exactly taxing, but it isn't supposed to be. It is a great story of how a young woman discovers her passion for food and blogging about that food. I am a great believer in doing what you are passionate about whether it is bean counting or cooking or taking photographs of cats for a living. It is hard for me to imagine being a food blogger full time, but them that isn't my passion. It certainly seems to be a fulfilling choice and all the dice lined up for her to make it work.
I would totally recommend it to anyone who is interested in good human interest stories, to people who like food and to people who are interested in taking their blogging to the next level.
