Kim Severson

I enjoy a good memoir and I fancy myself a foody, so what would be better than reading a memoir by a New York Times food writer?

Well this is not great literature. The subtitle "How Eight Cooks Saved My Life" is a bit hyperbolic in most cases. Really these are eight cooks who Kim Severson, respects, learned a lot from, and useful literary devices employed by Severson to describe her personal development. And then she shares some of their recipes at the end of each chapter.

Some of the recipes look really good. The writing was not great but it wasn't bad. I won't be looking for Severson's next book but this was mildly entertaining.… (more)

Kim Severson's Spoon Fed was enjoyable. A breezy memoir in nine chapters, each centered on one or another well-known cook, all women, who helped the author with one or another insight in overcoming various personal hangups and getting on to maturity, it falls into the tell-all inspirational category. I've known four of these illustrious women well enough (Marion Cunningham, Alice Waters, Ruth Reichl, Edna Lewis) to recognize descriptions and dialogue as perfectly accurate: Severson's a good reporter. Bottom line: things are as they are; play the hand you're dealt as well as you can; stay the course; look out for others.… (more)